Part Seventeen

Remy met the man and girl at the back door with two towels, as the rain had begun to pour in buckets when they had been halfway across the lawns. Ignoring the close transparency of the shirt Jubilee wore, Remy draped a green towel around her shoulders and handed one to Logan without a word.

"Thank you." she whispered, wiping the wet streaks of hair from her face. Logan dried himself off as Remy used a third, rattier towel to dry the wheels of the wheelchair so she could go back inside.

"It be not'in. You look a lot better chere." Remy squatted down on her left side and began to dry off the metal bars of the chair.

"I feel a bit better. Still get the nightmares and I don't feel all great and happy yet, but it'll come. I'm not thanking life right now for saving me, but I don't feel the urge to break more windows with my body any time soon." she smiled and Remy kissed her cheek as Kitty entered the room.

"Hi Logan, Remy, Jubilee..." she paused a moment and then looked at Logan to see if he was ready to have coffee yet. He read the expression in her face and glanced at Jubilee pointedly as she dried her face.

"Let me take Jubilee back upstairs and get her comfortable so she can rest..." he stopped as Remy held a hand up and stood to take the handles of the chair, pulling Jubilee toward the living room. Shaking his head, he waved a hand and smiled at Jubilee, wiping some hair out of her eyes.

"Non, I will take Jubilee upstairs to my room to spend some time wit' me for a little bit an' you two can have coffee and talk." Remy explained, throwing the towels over the handles as he headed down the halls toward the rec room. The squeaking faded out to a gradual whisper then was gone as they got into the service elevator. Logan shrugged at Kitty and headed to the coffee pot as a smile graced her saddened face.

* * * *

Remy propped the wheelchair up near the black chair she had sat in two nights before and helped to lift Jubilee out. Supporting herself on his arm, Jubilee muttered that she wanted to stand for a bit and then leaned on the proffered arm gratefully, nausea engulfing her small 5'6 frame. Water dripped off her shirt to the floor and Remy bent down to her level and looked at her face as she shivered from the cold trickles of rain droplets.

"How's about Remy go get Jean t' help ya dry up a bit an' change an' den we style your hair in my bat'room?" he asked in a half-whisper, hope rising in his voice as she looked at the floor sickly.

"Okay. My bandaging has to be changed to 'cause it's wet anyway..." she nodded and sat back in the wheelchair. Remy wondered about how to get to Jean if Jubilee wasn't supposed to be left alone in a room. He saw many hurtful and dangerous items within her reach and a large window only two feet away that could be used to her advantage, and, while she'd said she was trying to get better, Remy knew firsthand it could get worse in less than a second.

Jubilee stared blankly as a range of emotions crossed his face and then he smiled. She felt herself lifting away from the floor, a carefree, swift movement that left her in his arm, holding his neck in a death grip as she looked around. "What're ya doing?"

"I can' leave you alone in here chere so we goin' t' get Jean. She be in Hank's room I t'ink." and with that, Remy and Jubilee headed down the hallway towards Logan's room again, but they stopped a few doors short of it, knocking on the heavy brown oak. "Hank? Jean in dere wit' you?"

"Yes Remy." Jean stepped out of the opening door and muttered something to Henry, turning to the pair in front of her. Jubilee looked small and frail in the lean young man's arms, her wet head resting against his shoulder wearily. She had begun to shiver a little bit, the cold rivulets of water dripping down onto the carpet and her lips, pale and cracked as they had been, now looked slightly swollen and a shade of light white-blue. She asked the next question though she already knew the answer. "What is it you need?"

"I need you t' change an' dry off Jubilee. An' her bandagin' need changin' since it got wet, but Remy here figure you can do dat." he carefully readjusted the girl and she closed her eyes for a moment as pain spread through her frame, gripping his neck strongly.

"Sure." Jean went back into Hank's room to get the bandaging and tape while Remy returned to his own room to sit Jubilee down. Jean came out of the room as Remy closed the door to his and headed to Jubilee's room to get a pair of fresh pyjamas.

Returning to Remy's room a few minutes later, she heard them talking quietly and then a small tinkle of laughter, almost reminiscent of silver bells, sounded behind the wooden door and she knocked, glad to hear Jubilee laughing again. The pair grinned bashfully as she walked in and Jean smiled at the sight before her.

Jubilee sat in her wheelchair comfortably, her hands holding the silver 'X' necklace Jean had seen earlier in the day and Remy squatted at her feet in a new black sleeveless undershirt, his other being wet, arms resting on her knees, head resting on an upraised palm as he told jokes to her and they chatted. Jean had never seen him as happy as he looked at the moment with the child, smiling and laughing, in all the time she'd known him. Ororo had told stories of him and her and their adventures as thieves, but to see first-hand how he genuinely was with children was special.

Helping the young girl to the bathroom to change, she shut the door with a quiet click and Remy sat on the bed, a pack of cards flicking wildly between his hands as he waited for them to finish and come back out. He raked his hair into a ponytail, tying it with a black elastic, and then lay back, absentmindedly charging and un-charging cards, hearing the light, almost silent whispers of pain coming from behind the door.

(Written by Nova Zion)