Tears of a Forsaken Past
By Nitemare Queen
Co-Written by RhiannonAmaris

Part 7

"ANNIE!!!" Les shouted.

I grabbed my gun before Jenny could stop me and shot the space that would
have been Les if he would not have expected that and ducked, trying to hide
his laughter.  "For the hundredth time, Les, I am NOT MY MOTHER!!!  OK?"

"Ok, ok, whatever, you just look so much like..." he said, before I dropped
my drink and ran at him, knife bared.  I leapt over the bar and pulled him
down to the floor, ripping his shirt with the knife and exposing a bullet
proof vest.

"Les, honey Anastasia was my mother, I am Delilah.  I hate being called by
my mother's name.  You never found out how she died, did you?  Well, sweety,
let me tell you.  My father, my mother and I were spending time together one
day in late November.  Well, someone, possibly an assassin found out where
we were and came and shot my parents in front of me.  My mother died,
bleeding and in pain, in my arms.  Never call me Annie again, or I swear on
my parent's graves, I'll put so many holes in your head you'll look like
Swiss cheese, ok?" I said through gritted teeth, holding the knife up to his
throat.

His eyes grew large and he opened his mouth to speak, "I never knew she died
like that, miss, I'm sorry."  I stood up and removed the knife from his
throat, putting it back into the sheath strapped to my thigh. Walking
without a backward glance to Les, I headed towards Pete and Jenny.  I
thought we'd done a great job of trying to get Pete sober, considering how
drunk he'd been for the past year, and also considering the amount of drugs
I gave him.  He was slowly moving away from me as I sat down, looking at
Jenny's growing glare.

"Why did you do that?  Hell, for that matter, what in 'ell did you bloody
give 'im?  I know you.." she started before looking at Pete, and his attempt
to interrupt,  and saying, "Shut up Pete!"  She sighed and looked at me,
still glaring, "Just forget it.  Won't do any good.  But if you screwed this
up, you're DEAD.  Ya understand me, DELILAH?"

I looked up at the last with nothing short of murder in my eyes.  Jenny
ignored it, with her casual English air, and continued to sip her scotch.
Pete looked at the drink wistfully.  "Don't think so mate.  We just got you
off a world record bender, and I don't want to repeat the process." Jenny
said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Sides, we're out of time.
They're 'ere... dear Lord, LeBeau's keepin' odd company these days."  I
glanced at the door, not expecting to see Magneto, a set of twins, or a very
handsome red-haired man either.  A brown haired woman, looking very worried
and nervous, had just made a bomb dive for the ladies room.  "'Scuse me,
Des, be back in a bit," Jenny called as she headed for the ladies bathroom.
I rose from the table also, and walked over to the gorgeous red-haired man
in the tan trench.   Putting on my sexiest smile, and giving him a sultry
look, I leaned against him, pressing myself against his broad athletic
chest.

I raised a hand to play with his hair as I smiled seductively, saying, "You
OWE me.  I was a good girl.  I didn't screw him, and I didn't shoot him
either.  You SO owe me."

He blinked and leaned away from me.  "You must be dat weird friend of
Jenny's dat was on de phone," he said, a cute Cajun accent blending the
words into a beautiful sound.  He had quite a lovely voice, very sexy,
seducing, and almost, well, innocent at the same time, a strange
combination.

"I have a name you know," I said, still playing with his hair.  I moved my
other hand from his shoulder to his chest.

"Well what is it then?" he asked, still moving away from me.  The more he
moved away the more I pressed against him, this guy was cute after all.

"I'm not telling you!  Not now anyway," I purred into his ear as he backed
himself into the wall, giving me more force to push.  He looked down at my
shirt, the black one that says, (in BIG letters), "Remember my name.....
'cause you'll be SCREAMING it later....."  He swallowed and began to shake,
as I kept thrusting myself against the cute Cajun.

"Ann-Uhhhhhh... I mean Delilah!!" I heard Les call from the bar.  I turned
around to look at him, still against the Cajun, and still playing with his
hair.

"What?" I yelled, I was kinda in the middle of something here.

"Phone for you.  Some guy that thinks he's a viper?" Les answered back,
holding the phone with a confused look on his face.

"He can stay in the f*cking alley." I screamed at him, watching him say
something into the phone and put it back on the hook.

I wheeled around to the Cajun again, starting to move my hand down his nice
chest.  "As I was saying, you OWE me.  So, how're you going to pay me back?"
I murmured into his ear.  With a smile I looked him in the face and winked.

  *                                     *                                *

I ran into the ladies room and began to splash my face with cold water.  
"I don't believe you're doing this girl.  Stop wimping out and go make up 
with him.  Oh God, what if he doesn't care anymore.  What if there's someone
else?  He was sitting with two women, what if-don't be stupid Pryde, one of
them was Jenny.  You KNOW they're just friends.  But what about the other
one?  Stop thinking like this Pryde and go and make up with him," I thought.
I forget how many times I lost and found my resolve in those few seconds
before the door opened.

"Kit?  You ok, kid?" Jenny Gardner's oddly accent voice, a mix of upper
class clipped tones and lower class attitude, cut into my inner struggle.

"I'm not sure, Jen, I'm really not sure...  How's Pete doing?" I forced
myself to ask.

"Well, me and Des managed to get him the nearest he's been to sober in about
a year." She paused and thought for a moment, "Not that that's sayin' much."

I felt my forehead crease up in puzzlement.  "Des?  And why did you, why
were you sobering up Pete?"

She looked confused for a moment, "Didn't LeBeau tell you he called here?"

"No... You know Gambit??? Pete KNOWS Gambit???" I said, barely short of
screaming it out in surprise.

Amusement showed in Jenny's blue eyes.  "Kid, in this business everyone
knows everyone else.  And you usually don't volunteer that info unless
something comes up."

I raised a brow, "I see..."

"So, gonna come out and let Pete grovel and beg you to take him back?" Jenny
said as she lit up a cigarette.

I blinked in surprise, "Ummmm, I'm probably the one that should be doing the
groveling, but..."

"Don't." Jenny cut in. "That's what THEY'RE supposed to do.  And, trust me,
he will."

"I couldn't help but disbelieve her.  "If you say so.  Might as well get
this over with."  I turned to the mirror and redid my minimal make-up and
went out to face Pete.

  *                                     *                               *

I looked as my double, I mean, my sister, glared at the blonde woman hitting
on Remy, my sorta, kinda ex-husband, and her fiancee.  Just when I thought
my life couldn't get and more confusing, it went and got that much weirder.
Remy got a bit, well, embarrassed, scared, frightened and obviously
terrified, at her rather public come on.  Remy cleared his throat as the
woman continued to move her hand down his chest, getting closer and closer
to his jeans.   I must have been glaring at the blonde woman too, for she
glanced at Rogue and me and raised an eyebrow.  Remy swallowed very hard and
began in saying, "I, errr, ummmm, why don we all get a seat?"  He then
moved, with the style I knew he had, away from the wall and towards an empty
table.  The blonde followed, still remaining too close to my husband, I mean
EX-husband.   Erik's grasp around me seemed to strengthen as I balled up my
fist and began to raise it to hit the blonde.

"Star, dearest, this is a pub, you want to fight, you go outside.  And, 
I would advise you not fight, given your condition." He whispered into my
hair, trying to look as casual as ever.

"What condition, sugah?" I whispered back, harshly.

"Your pregnant condition, dearest." He said into my ear this time, still
holding me back from killing the blonde.  How dare he assume that just
because I was pregnant that I couldn't hurt this woman.

Remy sat down, trying to get away from the blonde that was still touching
him.  He took a free arm and reached out to touch Rogue's gloved hand.
"This is Rogue, my fiancee. " he said, still trying to break contact with
the woman.

She shrugged and sat next to him, not touching him now.  "Well, ya still owe
me, I was a good girl after all, and it's not everyday I'm good," she said,
taking a gun out of its holster on her waist.  She placed it on the table and 
shook her hair, as if to say, 'I'm-not-gonna-hurt-ya-I-just-want-a-payback.'

Rogue sat next to Remy, trying to keep his skin from touching hers.  Erik
sat down in a chair with armrests and proceeded to act as if it were his
throne.  I looked from the blonde to Remy to Rogue to Erik, trying to decide
whether or not a truce had been called.

Remy cleared his throat and continued with the introductions, "De woman on
my right be Rogue, her sister, my ex-wife, Star, is sitting next to Mag..."

"We all know who THAT is." The blonde broke in, looking at Erik.

My husband glared and I bent over to purr into his ear, "I told ya so."

The woman Erik had introduced as Kitty Pryde emerged from the bathroom with
a black haired woman I didn't know.  The jet haired lady had an arm around
Kitty, and was sitting her at the table as I noticed a familiar black haired
man approaching our table.  Remy had introduced me to this man years ago, on
my first visit to this pub.  I almost smiled as he came up to Kitty nervously 
and took her hand from the raven-haired woman.  "Pete... I..." Kitty began. 

"Kitty, I'm so sorry.  It was all my fault.  I love you.  Please take me
back." Pete begged in front of everyone.  Kitty smiled and the pair went to
find their own table to sit at.

"Des," the black haired woman began, "I don't know what you gave 'im, and 
I 'ate to admit this, but it was a good idea."

The blonde, Des, smiled and said, "Thanks.  See Jenny, I did it for a
reason.  I'm not completely insane after all."

Jenny looked at Des in disbelief, "Funny, could have fooled me."

Des smiled and said, "And, it's the same stuff we gave to the one..." she
paused, looking at everyone listening attentively, "uhhh.. I'll tell you
which one later.  He's gonna talk.  A lot.  For the next hour or so."

Jenny looked amused. "Considering how stubborn the toerag is..."

Des glanced up at Jenny, "I really wouldn't know."  Returning her focus back
to her gun, she barked out a drink order to Les, vodka and scotch mixed.

"Hell, Des, you're known Pete for years.  Tell ya," Jenny turned to us,
"this girl makes the Lone Gunmen look trusting."

Jenny looked for a place to sit and I offered her my seat, instead sitting
on Erik's lap.  She raised an eyebrow and finally sat down.  Les called out,
"Destiny, luv, here's your drink, I can't bring it to ya miss, too busy."

Destiny rolled her eyes and went and got her drink, taking her gun with her.
She sat back down, again placing her gun on the table, I think it was a 9mm,
but I wouldn't know.

"So, Remy, we all know who THAT is, " Jenny started, glancing at my husband
at the end, "but aren't you gonna introduce me to the twins?  I know one of
them is Rogue, but I can't tell which and I haven't got a clue who the other
one is."

I shook my hair and said, "Ah'm Star, Rogue's sittin' by Remy."  How weird
that this woman should know my husband.

Jenny placed a hand out, "Jenny Gardner, Red Arrow Branch, nice ta meet
you."

I shook her hand with mine, saying, "Star.  Glad to meet you too."

Rogue took her hand from Remy's and said, "So ya'll were the one on the
phone with Remy.  He never did tell me what that was about."

Jenny shook Rogue's hand and smiled, declaring proudly, "Somebody had to get
Wiz over there practically sober."

Remy raised a brow and smirked, "Wiz?"  An evil grin crossed his face, and
my own as Pete and Kitty came back from their table, just catching the last
few statements.

Pete looked at Jenny, "I'll kill ya Gardner, KILL!"

"Whatever." Jenny answered, downing her scotch.

Pete blinked and looked at me, noticing for the first time, and then at
Rogue.  And back at me, then at Rogue.  He finally looked at Remy and could
visibly been seen to be trying to form a question.  "What... How...?"

"Pete, dis is Rogue and dat is Star, you met her, when we were married, but
now we're... not..." Remy said, trying to make it easy for Pete to
understand.

Pete looked back at Erik and I, "They aren't... you aren't you the same
person?"  The look on his face of complete, utterly helpless confusion made
me break down laughing.  The last time I had seen him I had still been so
intimidated and now... Oh God, it was too funny, the whole situation was
just so absurd.   Kitty began to try to explain it to him but was stopped,
"Don't luv.  Not now.  I'm sure it ain't as bad as the Summers, but I ain't
my best right now.  Anything at all complicated will make my brain hurt.
Bloody 'ell, it already does actually.  I'm comin' down from a year long
bender.  It hurt too much to be sober with you gone, Kit."

Kitty looked at his pitiful expression and nearly cried, hugging Pete, "Oh,
Pete, I'm so sorry.  I'll never do anything like that again."  Pete
carefully brought Kitty's face to his own and they started to kiss, rather
passionately.  It was a while before they came up for breath, they were so
much like Remy and I had been, I hoped they would not suffer the same fate.

"Ehhhhkkkk! Wisdom!" someone shouted from across the pub, breaking the
romantic moment, "Get a hotel room!"  A brown haired man called out, causing
Destiny to suddenly wrap her arms around herself protectively.  The
expression that now owned her face was one that had many a time possessed my
own.  It was the mask of fear, pain, and complete submission.  It had held
my reflection after the rapes I had encountered, and it was surely trying to
buy my face again now as I watched her.

Everyone in the pub glared at the man and what seemed like half the
occupants yelled with one voice, "Sod off Pratchett!"  The barkeeper marched
up to the brown haired man angrily. "Who the 'ell let 'im in 'ere?  Out.
NOW, ya wanker."  The man looked up at him from his martini and laughed.
Destiny seemed to morph into a ball, trying to look as small as possible.  
I looked as Les grabbed the man by his ear and threw that guy out into the
alley.  Destiny was still forming into a dot on the wall, but seemed to ease
up when the man left.  It seems I have more in common with humanity than I
thought I did.  Odd how humanity seems to be centered on improving itself,
and yet it still allows such things as rape, murder, and abuse thrive off
its back.... odd indeed...

  *                                     *                                  *