********************

Disclaimer: Characters not mine, they're Marvel's,

and I get no money for them.

Do You Remember?

It was a long time ago.  So long I think we've both

shoved it behind us, tamped it down, locked it away.

Perhaps we both take the adage "Never look back" too

seriously.   Perhaps we've both learned that the past

is full of "lost happiness and lasting pain", eh, old

friend?

You would laugh at my melodrama, even if you didn't

recognize the verse as being Milton.  Do you

remember?  You could always jolly me out of

my...stone-set seriousness with your silly teasing.

"Stormy", indeed.

Two thieves in the Big Easy, doing what we had to in

order to get by.  Eating Tante Angele's gumbo in the

Vieux Carre, walking along Lake Ponchatrain in the

warm clinging heat of the Louisiana midday, stopping

at the little clubs and restaurants all along the

French Quarter.  So long ago, ma cher...and you were

the only one in my world then.  I had nobody and you

took me in, under that foolish trench coat you still

insist upon wearing, never knowing who or what I was

and what kind of life I would lead you to.  

....You are a good man.  Believe that, if you believe

in nothing else.

I know it's hard now, with all the incriminations and

accusations and the cold way you were condemned for

your mistakes.  I'm not absolving myself; I was as

guilty as any of the others when it came to turning

my back on you.

Do you remember that concert Lila Cheney gave in

Central Park?  At which the Professor was nearly

assassinated?  I'm certain that you do--you have a

rogue's memor-

Perhaps that was an unfortunate choice of words.  I

am sorry.

We waltzed under the trees as they sent dry red

leaves spinning down around us, an autumn festival

all our own.  Waltzing to rock music because...what

was it you said, in that insufferably charming manner

that you perfected before you were ten years old?

"It's the only dance step this Cajun knows."

And now look at us.  So distant that it is as if we

never met, never shared those blissfully simple

sweltering days in New Orleans or the constant

ups-and-downs of being X-Men.

I miss you, my friend.  I thought that you had found

a better life here, among us, instead of ducking and

running and looking constantly over your shoulder for

the next surreptitious attack from one Guild or the

other.  I thought that you had found love with

Rogue.

"Yeah, I t'ought I found love too, chere," you'd say,

no doubt.  I know you, Remy.  You could say that in a

roundabout, technical sort of way, that I've known

you since I was a child.  

I've loved you since I was a child.

Despite the fact that I am a grown woman and

completely self-sufficient, I will grudgingly

admit--to you--that I have never had many close

friends.  I suppose that there is a solitary, closed

streak in my nature which precludes my having such.

There are a few--I'm not a recluse, after all...Jean,

Logan, Yuiko...and you.

Let's try to find our way back to what we had then,

Remy.  It was such a warm, comforting feeling to know

that you were watching my back no matter what, that

you accepted me and understood me and loved me all

the same.  Do you remember?

I do.

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