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She hears the explosion before she feels it throw her whole body back.
No. Rogue thinks as she looks up and realizes what caused it, watches pink smoke curl in the air. Not again.
She thinks she hears Lorna call after her, definitely sees Ororo following in the path she's bulldozing through the air. No one dares to stop her, not after what she –– what they –– have been through.
The sight she finds this time is a prettier one, but gruesome all the same. Rogue knows what she should do: call the Blackbird, check for civilians, clear the area…yet right now all she can focus on is the figure wearing a leather duster in the center of the impact zone.
"C'mon Remy," she whispers to herself as she takes his body in her arms, just like she had years ago under different circumstances, "you don't get to die on me yet."
She checks for a pulse first. Strong, steady. She feels tears well in her eyes as relief courses through her veins. His chest is rising and falling with shallow breaths. Behind her, Ororo calls for Beast over her comm link. Suddenly there are people all around her, Scott telling her to let go of Remy, Jean telling Scott to stop talking, Logan watching on in somber silence.
Just as Rogue is about to give in and let Beast and the medic team that'd been called onto the scene take him, she feels a weak squeeze around her wrist. She looks down and gasps at the sight of Remy, bloodied and battered to high hell, and his right hand shakily searching to find hers on his pulsepoint.
He's alive. She wants to scream, thousands of images she wishes would be long buried suddenly disappearing from the fog of her mind. My man is alive.
Much to the annoyance of all the non-mutant medical professionals, Rogue doesn't leave Gambit's side until physically forced to –– and considering her strength, that took a lot of effort.
Even when she couldn't be next to him, she was always around him, sitting outside of the medbay door during surgery, and eventually being upgraded to a chair at his bedside once he was all stitched up. It was similar to when he'd been brought back from Apocalypse's grasp, though this time Rogue didn't have to worry about the sting of having him wake up and hate her. He loves her, always has and always will, that much she can always be sure of.
She's there at his bedside when he wakes up, a low groan echoing throughout the tiny patient room they'd put him in.
"Merde," she hears him mutter before his dark eyes flutter open, a familiar gleaming smile spreading across his bruised face at the sight of his companion. "Hey, cherie,"
The casual tone of his voice makes her want to strangle him.
She won't, but she wants to.
Instead, she wraps him in a hug that probably borders on too tight for healing ribs, but neither of them seem to care because he's alive goddamnit, and isn't that something to celebrate?
"You scared the hell outta me, Cajun." Rogue says as she finally releases him from the hug, hand creeping to grasp his bandaged one.
"C'mon Anna," Remy shrugs, "you know I love you too much to die twice."
This man, this goddamn man. She wants to cry, but instead just climbs right into that hospital bed beside him and buries her face in his shoulder, smells the steril stench of his skin cleaned with antibactiral wipes. She had only gained control of her powers a few months ago, things had finally been looking up for them as a couple, and if he had been standing an inch closer to his own explosion yesterday it all would've been gone.
"I love you," her lips graze against his skin, plant a soft kiss to his pulsepoint.
"I know, Anna Marie," he replies as he wraps his good arm around her shoulders, pulling her even closer than she thought physically possible. "I know."
Hank and Ororo find them hours later, fast asleep in each other's arms.
"That position really cannot be good for his recovery." Hank purses his lips, reaching out to wake them up. Ororo is quick to stop him.
"Let them rest, my friend," she gazes down at the man she considers a brother and the woman who has stolen his heart for good, a soft smile forming at the sight of them so content, "they deserve it."