Chapter 3: the phone call

Anna had left about twenty minutes ago. Remy got in trouble with Mercy and Henri. Emil was still passed out on the floor. Tante, Jean-Luc and Theoren didn't know she had left yet. Remy hadn't thought she would leave. He didn't know about her famous attitude. Nobody told him. He only thought that he could make her shut up and just ignore him like most people did. 'But she can't be like most people, she likes my eyes' he kept saying to himself.

Jean-Luc's voice cut through everyone's thoughts. "Henri, Remy will you come up to my office please?" Jean-Luc called. The boys looked at each other and shrugged and began up the stairs.

Once they were there Henri was the first to break the silence. "Yes père?" he asked

"Mon fils I need your advice" he started looking at the boys to gage their reaction. When they nodded he continued. "I got a call from Ororo today; she asked if we could find an old student of hers. She also wants as much background information we can get.

"Well why are you asking us about this? It doesn't seem like that big of a deal." Henri said. Remy was still thinking about what Anna had said about his eyes.

"The person she wants us to find is Anna" both Henri and Remy snapped to attention.

"What did you tell her?" Remy asked. He just couldn't get his head around this girl.

"I told her there was important guild stuff going on right now and that we would get back to her. Should I call Anna up here and ask what she wants to be done?" Henri looked at Remy at Jean-Luc's words. 'Shit' Remy thought 'I was hoping to have at least until dinner to come up with an excuse'

"Remy you want to answer this one?" Henri asked mockingly. Jean-Luc turned towards Remy and raised his eyebrows in a way that said start talking now.

"See the thing is I kind of pissed the fille off and she left" Remy said with a sheepish look on his face.

"How the hell did you manage to piss her off? She was not even here that long." He asked as a serious question.

"Well she said something about joining the guild and I told her she had to prove herself a good thief. So she pulled out all of our wallets except Tante Mattie's. So I asked how she got yours because I'm the best and I can't even get yours. Then we fought about who was better." Remy explained. Jean-Luc started checking his pockets for his wallet when he got out of the shock of little Anna wanting to join the guild. Yeah she use to talk about it all the time when she was little but that was fifteen years ago.

"Damn I didn't even know it was gone." Jean-Luc said

"None of us did, not even Remy." At Henri's words Remy grumbled. "So Remy was being an ass like normal and she got pissed off and then stormed off." Henri summarized, while handing Jean-Luc his wallet.

"Remy guess what you get to do." Jean-Luc said. After Remy shrugged Jean-Luc continued. "You get to bring her back home, and buy her dinner since she's going to miss dinner here."

"She's not going to come with me, plus she has her own bike. If she wants back she knows the way and has the way of getting here without needing me."

"I don't give a damn if she has her own bike, she could be in danger and if anything happens to her it's on your head."

"Fine I'll go get her, but how the hell am I supposed to find her?"

"When we were younger, every time she got pissed or depressed she went to Joey's café" Henri offered. Remy always wondered why they went to Joey's every two weeks. It was to honor the little girl they thought had died fifteen years ago. None of his family really liked the food or the coffee but they always went there. Whenever he would ask why they went there nobody would answer him.

"Is that why we go there every two weeks?" Remy asked for conformation. And Jean-Luc and Henri could only nod their heads while it looked as though they were holding back tears. 'What's with this girl and how does she get them to respond like that?' he wondered

"I'm going to bring her back." With that he went speeding off on his own bike.

"So Anna has her own bike now? Is it like an actual motorcycle? Or is it a bike?" Henri laughed at his dad for a minute before answering.

"Pere, would you expect our Anna to be riding anything less than a motorcycle?" Jean-Luc laughed along with Henri.

It didn't take Remy that long to get there and sure enough she was sitting there at the table his family always sat at.

"Anna" he called getting her attention.

"What are you doing here Swamp rat?" She called back.

"I came to apologize, I'm sorry for what I said, I shouldn't have said it." Remy was sorry he really was but this was the first time he had ever had to say it out loud.

"That all?" she asked

"Yes we all want you to come back, and back as soon as possible if you have already ate. Jean-Luc wants us back soon." God please let this be easy he thought

"Fine I'll teleport us and our bikes back, you ready. This will feel really weird, but if Emil is up we can freak him out and make him pass out again."

The next thing Remy knew he was in his drive way. Anna was already walking up the drive way. "Oh I'm good thanks for asking" Remy said sarcastically.

"Just because I came back with you doesn't mean I'll be nice" she said as she walked in the house. He was just standing there. Rogues guess was that she shocked him. She did forgive him; she did after all bait him. It was just so much fun to piss him off.

She went on up to Jean-Luc's office knocked once and then went in. "I just thought I should apologize for my behavior today. It was unacceptable and I hope you still allow for me to stay here."

"Anna it's not a big deal, Remy usually is an ass and I hope you still want to stay here once you get to know him better. If you have a moment though I would like to talk to you." she nodded and he continued. "I got a call today from an old friend, asking about you and your past."

Anna's face went white as a ghost and all she could say was "who?"

"Ororo" he said simply.

Rogue started laughing her ass off. "Wait didn't Ororo stay here when I was younger. So we had met each other but didn't remember. Jean-Luc I've been living with Ororo for the past couple of years and we never even realized we knew each other." Jean-Luc laughed with her.

"Well Anna what do you want me to do?" he said after he managed to stop laughing.

"Why don't you call her and tell her that little Annie is alright and safe. Tell her I'm a family friend and I'm staying with you guys for a while."

Jean-Luc picked up the phone and dialed the number. It rang a few times and Ororo picked up.

"Hello this is Ororo speaking" she said in the beautiful accent that only she could pull off.

"Ororo, this is Jean-Luc"

"Are you going to find her for me?"

"I already have. Don't tell me you don't remember little Annie. Well she safe and staying with us for now, where she belongs."

"My goddess you finally found little Annie, where has she been? What happened to her?" Jean-Luc interrupted her.

"My dear Ororo this girl you're asking me to find is little Annie. She has been living with you for the past couple of years."

"My dear goddess Rogue is little Annie, I can't believe I never realized it. I feel so stupid. Did she realize it was me?"

"No she didn't, not tell just a few minutes ago. She is safe Ororo, you can tell your friends that. You can stop searching. She is with family."

"Well thank you so much Jean-Luc. I'm glad you found your little Annie."

"I am too. Well it's time for me to get going, I'll talk to you soon Ororo."

"Good bye Jean-Luc." With that the line went dead and Jean-Luc hung up the phone.

"Thank you Jean-Luc for everything." Anna said "But I hope you weren't planning on calling me little Annie anymore."

"Of course not Little Annie" he laughed. Henri and Remy walked into the office.

"Funny Jean-Luc" she said sarcastically "Oh look who finally decided to show up." She said to Remy. "So Henri I guess you told Jean-Luc everything I've told you so far?" she said ignoring Remy's eyes on her.

"Yeah sorry but père was worried, but the good news is that you get a chance to be in the guild. We think you would be an excellent thief." Anna was excited but it was quickly ruined when Remy's jaw dropped and him staring.

"Now I know I'm pretty but I don't appreciate you staring now Remy." Remy could not come up with a comeback so he was silent.

"Wow little Annie that's two for two. This is the second time today you have made Remy speechless" Henri said and everyone laughed except for Remy who was now pouting.

"There is one thing though. We want you to join the guild but only if you tell us everything that happened." Jean-Luc said.

"I think I can do that, you guys are family after all. But are you sure you want to know. It's kind of a long not so happy story." After they all nodded she continued. "Well that day I was walking back home and I was hit in the back of the head and kidnapped, that you all know but my kidnapper was none other than my mother Raven Darkholme aka Mystique. Who was a shape shifter and her partner was a precog and told Raven that if she had a child with my dad I would be one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. So she did that. She left me with my dad and took me the day my powers manifested. She trained me. Eventually I realized everything she was making me do was wrong so I left. I found Wolverine and faked my age and just about everything else. I was kidnapped again by my mother's boss who used my powers to try and turn all the humans into mutants and it just about killed me. It gave me the white stripe in my hair. So then I stayed with the X-Men and was almost killed a few more times. And here I am now. That's the short version."

"Wow" they all said together.

Meanwhile at the X-mansion

"Did those people get back to you Storm?" Logan asked. He was getting impatient, if he didn't find her soon he was going to hunt her down.

"Logan do you remember that little missing girl I told you I was still upset about, even though it happened fifteen years ago?" She asked Logan.

"Yeah, you said she was very close to you and your friends down south. She was really sweet and everyone loved her. You couldn't understand why anything like this could happen to such a sweet girl. Why?"

"They found her." Was all she could say.

"Really? Did you want to go down and she how she turned out and find out what happened to her?"

"I already know how she turned out, and so do you. She was living here for two years."

"Rogue?"

"Yeah. I just don't understand Logan, I didn't recognize her. We all treated her like crap except for you. We all flinched from her touch and many of the students called her names behind her back. I just wish I could take back all the pain we caused her."

"I know, I know" he told her while she came in and hugged him while she cried.