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Title: Love in Unexpected Places
Author: Black Queen (blqueenkat@aol.com)
URL: http://members.aol.com/~blqueenkat/mainpage.htm
     http://members.aol.com/songsofx/romance/gambit.htm
    

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Remy LeBeau needed a day off. The rangy thief lay
on his stomach next to the pool at the Xavier
Institute and reviewed his life. Two weeks ago, he
had gambled everything for love and it had fallen
flat. Rogue, the southern belle who's insecure soul
had stolen Gambit's heart, had crushed his hopes
for a future in Seattle.

The good news was that his secret was still safe.
Although Rogue had absorbed his memories, they
were evidently fragmented enough that she could
not piece them together. Remy tried to tell himself
that it was all to the good. That his connection to
the X-men's enemy would do nothing but harm if
revealed. That it was a connection long ago
severed. But lingering doubts remained.

Why, after so long, had Sinister found him again?
How had Sinister known where they were? Was he
simply keeping tabs on all the X-men - or was
Remy singled out for special attention?

Remy sighed. Stretching his body, he rolled over. A
day beside the pool would have to do, he decided.
There was no sense in letting such a beautiful day
going to waste. Lying on his back, he gazed idly
down the length of his body.

Two weeks in a coma, and I need to work out.
Can't let my gorgeous self go to hell... he thought
wryly. Getting up he jumped in the pool and started
doing laps.

The cool water washed over him and after three
laps he realized he was more in need of exercise
than he realized. The water was getting colder and
it was harder to breathe and... ... and Robert Drake
was sitting on the edge of the pool...

Remy swam to the side of the pool and glared at
Iceman. Bobby just grinned in return and shrugged.
"You were ignoring me. I hate being ignored."

"I didn't even see you," Remy protested, grinning
back in spite of himself. The pool was mercifully
warming up again. "No reason to go freeze a body."

Bobby's grin faded a little. "Yeah, well, you were
moping..." Remy opened his mouth to protest, but
Bobby cut him off. "Don't deny it. When was the last
time someone walked up to you and you didn't
even see them'? You're like Logan, mon ami.
You're always on edge."

Remy didn't comment. He inwardly resigned
himself to the conversation ahead. Bobby had been
there when Rogue had run away from him. He felt
he knew something about it. Bobby surprised him
though. "Look, Gambit, I don't pretend to
understand half of what was going on with Rogue
and you in that theater. But I do know that you were
sincere. And ... well, I'm sorry it didn't work out is
all."

Remy felt his conscience start nagging him. The X-
men had taken him in, asking nothing about his
past. Even when that past had shown up on their
doorstep, they still accepted him without question.
And now, Bobby was even trying to be a friend,
without even knowing why a friend was needed.

Bobby mistook his silence for a dismissal and got
up without another word. Remy called out to him.
"Bobby! You feel up to a workout in the Danger
Room?"

Bobby grinned. Bless his soul, he was a friend.
"Are you sure you feel up to it? I mean, you were
comatose not too long ago."

Remy vaulted out of the water. "Don't I know it. I've
gotten flabby."

Bobby was unsympathetic. "Oh yeah... You
gained... ounces... C'mon flab boy' - sweat time..."

*****

Three hours later, Remy was once more laying on
his stomach. This time he was in the med lab.
Henry McCoy was chortling over him while Bobby
related the tale with humiliating detail. Throughout it
all Hank's tremendous but surprisingly gentle hands
probed Remy's back.

"So you nailed the computer with an ice blast..."
Hank prompted Bobby.

Bobby nodded, sipping a beer, enjoying Gambit's
discomfort. Remy refused to give them the
satisfaction of comment. Bobby continued, "So it
switched holograms on us..."

"To what?" asked the Beast, as he leaned over to
speak to Remy. "That shoulder's dislocated, I'm
afraid."

Remy winced and gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I thought
so. We got Mojoverse."

The world began swimming in front of Remy's eyes.
His vision cleared to focus on Beast. The Beast
monstrous face did a series of contortions. "The X-
Babies did this?"

Bobby's face was red as he managed to relate the
last of it. "Gambit fell when the sentinel that was
holding him suddenly disappeared. He landed on
Baby Jean ... So he gave her a kiss to make up...
so Baby Me belted him with snowballs..."

Bobby hooted with laughter, finally unable to speak.
Remy finished, "And that's what dislocated my
arm... The snowball."

Hank reached out to pat Remy's shoulder in
sympathy. At the last moment the grasp changed
and he yanked sharply on the dislocated arm.
Remy's shoulder joint suddenly returned to place
with and audible snap.

When the red haze cleared from Gambit's vision,
he could hear himself cursing fluently. Beast and
Bobby were on either side of him and he was sitting
up. Beast was murmuring apologetically. "If I had
warned you, you would have tensed and it's only
worse when you know it's coming..."

Remy was trying to think of a fitting answer to this
treachery when the world started to fade to grey...

*****

He woke up on his back in his room. With a groan,
he tried to sit up to see what time it was. A soft
woman's hand restrained him. "Stay down," was
the soft order. The room was too dark to identify
Storm, but Gambit recognized his closest friend by
voice. "What happened?"

"The events of the past month have finally caught
up to you. You haven't eaten a thing but spent 3
hours in the Danger Room. The dislocated shoulder
was the final straw."

She sounded amused, so Remy deduced that
nothing serious was wrong with him. "I take it
Bobby shared our grand adventure, chere?"

He could sense her smile. Even in the dark, the
atmosphere of the room brightened in response to
her good humor. She brushed his hair from his
face. "Poor Gambit," she intoned with overdone
sympathy. "Felled by a child's snowball..."

Remy's reflexes had been done a world of good by
the rest. With one motion, he reached behind him,
grabbed the pillow and slugged Storm upside the
head. Following through with the momentum, he
flung them both from the bed. Landing on top of
Storm, he began tickling her mercilessly.

"Never laugh at a man till your certain he's down,
Stormy..."

A sudden blast of wind threw him off of her. She
pounced on him back on the bed, returning the
tickling in kind. "Not the ribs!" He protested. The
little imp was the only one who could find...

The play was interrupted by a throat clearing at the
door. Remy, flat on his back and clutching Storm's
wrists, tilted his head back to the door. Beast and
Wolverine were in the doorway with bemused
expressions.

"Boy usually more than willing, Boss Lady," drawled
Wolverine, "no need to force a sick man..."

Storm and Gambit froze. Gambit noticed that Storm
was blushing. Poor child, he thought, not used to
lettin people see anything but the goddess. With a
rakish grin, he said to the two onlookers, "Usually
willing, mais oui, Logan... but the things she was
suggesting! Surpriste! She must learned such
things from you..."

Any other comments he may have made were
smothered by the pillow Storm buried his head in.
As he struggled to dislodge her, he could hear the
other two beat a laughing retreat. Grinning, he
tossed off the pillow. Storm was frowning down at
him. He tried to make her feel better. "Don't let their
teasing get to you, Stormy. They don't mean a thing
by it. It is ridiculous to think of us in a rendezvous."

Storm's eyes widened. "Ridiculous?"

Remy blinked. What on earth was her problem?
"Well, chere..."

He was cut off by Storm stretching alongside of
him. He noticed from the light pouring in from the
still open hall door that she wore a silk shift dress.
A short dress, made shorter by her bending her leg
up his body. Remy gulped. His mind was oddly
frozen. Stormy?

With a sultry purr he hadn't ever heard her use
before, Storm asked, "And just why is it so
`ridiculous' that you would be interested in me?"

Remy couldn't reply. His mouth was unaccountable
dry. Stormy? His mind kept repeating the
nickname. This was the impudent little girl he had
found on the run in Illinois? The partner he had
spent months raiding racketeers with? His outraged
mind summoned up a picture of the twelve year-old
girl even as his body tightened against the woman.

Storm lifted her head. Her long hair against his
chest caused sensations throughout his body.
Remy closed his eyes. He was a cad, a rogue. But
he was not having these thoughts about Stormy ...
was he?

"In case you hadn't been paying attention, my
friend. I am a woman. And just because you are a
coward, doesn't make the thought of me being a
woman - ridiculous'."

Coward?! Did she just call him a coward? No
woman made that kind of dare to Gambit without
being taken up on it. Storm was halfway to the door
as Remy caught up to her. Her eyes widened but
her lips were soft and inviting as he pressed them
in a kiss.

Stormy. The best friend he had ever had. The one
with the most right to question his past but never
had. The one who had never been the twelve year
old girl. The one who had always been the woman
trapped in the girl's body. The one who nursed him
to health when Rogue had run. The one who was
always there. The one who was always willing to go
with him.

Storm.

The hallway door swung shut as he pulled her back
to the bed.



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