Subject: Family Matters, Chapter 8 (spankings
threatened, no sex)
From: dswdiane@aol.com
Date: 6 Apr 1997 06:01:14 GMT
This is an ongoing story within a family setting of sorts. I continue to thank Vashti and Idgy for help in editing previous chapters. The story continues in this chapter which will be a bridge to future chapters which will have more punishment. The Marvel characters belong to Marvel. I am using them without their consent or knowledge. So shoot me.
* * *
Remy knawed at his knuckle and glared at the computer console in front of him. Nothing, nothing and more nothing.
The X-men had successfully penetrated Sinister's lab beneath what used to be the Public Health Hospital in Boston. They logged onto the computers in the lab and downloaded all the files via modem to the systems at the mansion. They were still in radio contact with him while they explored the rest of the labs.
"There's some tanks back here that seem to have something in them," Bishop reported to everyone.
"Clones?" Remy asked, half holding his breath.
"Maybe," Bishop's voice sounded uncomfortable. "There's some kind of small mass floating in what seems to be a greenish fluid in this one. And maybe more in the others."
"Nutrient fluids," Remy suggested. He felt faintly ill.
"What are we going to do with them?" Jean's voice was full of fascinated horror.
"Pull the plug," Logan suggested roughly. "There's no one here and we don't seem to have activated any alarms, but Sinister might show up any second. We ain't got time to take the things out of here and I am willin' to bet none of these subjects asked to be cloned. We'd be doin' them a favor to just pull the plugs."
"Those are potentially viable and probably human or mutant clones, Logan," Jean protested.
"I say we see if there is any data to be collected and then we get the hell out of here for now and watch the place," Scott ordered. "Logan's right. Sinister might show up here. We might have set off some kind of signal. We've got the files. We can come back later and do whatever we decide is the right thing to do with these clones. Storm, Rogue, report. Find anything?"
They each reported briefly and negatively.
"Fine," Scott acknowledged. "Let's clear out of here. Gambit, I want you to get into those files we downloaded and see if there is any data on these clones. Bishop, Jean, and I will be sending you any identifying info from these tanks."
Several minutes were occupied with reports of various data. Then the X-men withdrew.
"Gambit, we're going to leave two of us on watch here. Two on watch at the hotel. Two of us getting some sleep. Rotation every four hours. I want the folks on watch to check in with you every half hour. If you don't hear from the folks outside the lab, you notify the on watch team at the hotel. You don't hear from the team at the hotel, you wake up the sleepers and notify the team outside the lab. I don't want any slack from any of you. Sinister is dangerous."
"Yes sir, boss, sir, I never would've thought of that if you hadn't told me." Logan's growl was deeper and more sardonic than usual. Gambit heard a smothered giggle that sounded as if it had come from Rogue.
"Logan, since you so obviously understand the danger, why don't you take first watch here? With Rogue since she seems so appreciative of your humor."
"No problem," Wolverine acknowledged.
"I'll take first watch at the hotel with Bishop. Jean and Storm both look in need of sleep. Gambit, assume this as first check in from the lab team. I'll report back from the hotel and you can make that first check in from the hotel team. Then every half hour from each of us."
"Acknowledged. Every half hour starting now from lab team. First report from you back at the hotel. I'll be working on the data."
Remy signed off. He transferred all the data downloaded from Sinister's computers onto discs and carefully opened the files on disc while scanning for viruses. He sighed as he contemplated the numbers and sizes of the files. It was going to take days to examine all the data and there was little hope of finding anything useful. For a moment, his attention strayed to the window and the moonlight shining on the yard below. He was desperate to leave the house for only a few minutes, but he knew better than to let himself think of escape. At his point in his life, he did not need to get himself into any more trouble.
* * *
"When is Remy gonna sleep, boss?" Rogue asked Cyclops as he and the rest of the team started to move away. He shook his head. Before he could respond, Logan interrupted.
"Why don't you let him handle that himself, girl? You ever known Scotty to wear anyone out while he was boss? Let's find us a good hidey hole to watch this joint from or maybe even a couple of 'em from different angles."
"I want you two to keep each other in sight," Scott said firmly.
"Well, now there's another precaution that never would have occurred to me," Wolverine said in a bemused voice of wonder.
Scott closed his eyes briefly and counted silently to ten. He heard what sounded like smothered laugh from his own wife and decided to let the matter drop. Count on Logan to uphold his authority with Rogue and undermine it in the next sentence he uttered. Of course, Logan had been in about the worst mood Scott had seen him since the death of the Lady Mariko. And Scott was definitely worried it had something to do with the relationship between him and Ororo. That was all he did not need: a potentially explosive problem between two of his team mates. He motioned to the others and they all left to return to the hotel where they had checked into a large suite that morning waiting for night to explore Sinister's hidden lab.
Wolverine climbed to the top of the hospital building across the street from the where the lab was located. Rogue flew up to follow him and they positioned themselves to watch. It was a long and tedious process and not much happened.
Wolverine was even more quiet than usual and Rogue amused herself for some while by remembering and treasuring the moments of her lovemaking with Remy. In time she began to remember the unexpected visit from Ororo and her confidences about the problems with her relationship with Logan. She wondered if she could help without betraying her friend and tried to think of a plan for doing so.
"Umm, Logan," she began.
"Yep?"
"The other morning you and Ro seemed to be pretty, uh, copacetic with each other," she offered.
"Yep." Logan's reply did not seem to invite any further conversation.
Rogue persevered. "Well, what's wrong now?" she asked innocently.
"Not interested in talkin' 'bout it."
"C'mon, Logan, you're both my friends and ah care. Ah want to know what's going on with y'all."
"It ain't none of your business, darlin'."
"Ah care about you. That makes it my business."
"Don't think so." Wolverine looked down at the entrance to the old hospital below.
"You might feel bettah if ya talked about it." Rogue was beginning to feel very frustrated.
"Not your business, Rogue."
Rogue felt a flash of deep irritation. "Isn't that part of the problem, Wolvie? That ya don't think anything is anyone's business?"
Logan raised his head slowly and looked at her carefully. She swallowed hard, realizing that she had just allowed her temper to override her cautiousness and reveal that she knew more than she should.
"She told you, too," he said with a hint of incredulity to his voice. She shook her head frantically.
"Ah don't know what ya mean," she said quickly. "Ah just meant that part of the problem is that ya don't talk to anyone about what's really going on with ya."
"Don't lie to me, Rogue," Wolverine growled. "I don't give a damn what you know or don't know, but don't lie to me, girl. Storm doesn't lie. Whatever she mighta done that pissed me off, she sure as hell didn't lie about it. What is she gonna say if I ask her what she told you?"
Rogue flinched. She was quiet for several minutes and then told Logan the truth that Storm had walked in on her while Remy was preparing to spank her and had shared with her the problems she was having.
"She was trying to help me understand what ah was going through mahself, Wolvie. She was just heartsick about what was goin' on with y'all. Ah don't know how ya can treat her like this," she finished.
Logan was silent for several minutes when Rogue stopped speaking. He shook his head slowly and looked back down at the silent streets below.
"I don't understand it myself, Rogue," he said slowly. "I have been angry as Mama bear whose cub's under attack since she told Forge. I don't like it. I don't like her looking so lost and miserable. But I gotta work through this on my own. And I sure as hell don't like her telling you about it, but it don't get under my skin like her telling Forge, so you mighta helped me some to think about it, girl."
Rogue started to speak and Logan raised his hand to stop her.
"Don't push your luck, girl. I've said as much about this as I'm gonna. You bring it up again and I might find it in my heart to spank your bottom again like I did that summer in Frisco when you and Dazzler were driving me nuts fighting over Longshot's attention. And there would be nothin' sexy about it, darlin'. No more than when I blister your boyfriend's butt."
Rogue shivered and jumped at the chance to change the subject.
"Do ya think Remy is gonna be okay?" she asked.
Wolverine looked at her askance. "Yep. Why wouldn't he be okay?"
"Ah'm just worried about him, Logan." She took another deep breath and told Logan some of what Remy had told her about his fear, hatred, and need for punishment and the upset he felt about it.
Logan sighed and shook his head. He was concerned and deeply so, but grateful for the opportunity to stop worrying about the situation with Ro.
"I don't know what to tell you, Roguey," he said gently. "Remy will do what he has to do. And if he needs to be punished and punished, I'll accommodate him. I don't want to and I don't like it, but he's got a lot of demons to wrestle. I think it's real likely we'll all survive the experience though Remy might not like it much."
"Ah don't understand it, Logan," Rogue said desperately.
"What don't you understand, sweetie?"
"Why does Remy need to put himself through all this? Why does he so need to be punished and punished and hurt?"
"Jesus, girl, do you think I'm some kind of therapist?" Logan sighed and looked down again. "Rogue, you know Remy lost everything and everyone that mattered to him when he was about five. And his life after that wasn't any picnic in the park."
Rogue nodded.
"He seems to need to find some way to blame himself. And then he kinda grew up and found ways to misbehave in some sorta spectacular ways. Now, he keeps hating himself and he keeps finding new ways to keep on hating himself. It don't matter how much any of us love him. He has some need to find a way to be punished enough to find his way back to caring about himself. That's about as much as I understand. . . Except, I think that maybe he's also trying to find a way to lose everyone again and this time make it real clear that it really is all his own fault. So he might just find ways to screw up and screw up just to see if he could force all of us to stop loving him and throw him out."
"Would we?" Rogue asked desperately. Wolverine looked at her with a glint of amusement in his eyes.
"Do you think the Remy we know could manage to fuck up so badly that we would throw him out?" he asked. She shook her head. "Naw, but I betcha that he will find some ways to get his bottom spanked again until he feels some serious pain. Wanna put money on that one, darlin'?"
Rogue shook her head again.
There were several moments of quiet and then suddenly the night air was rent by a huge explosion. The building below burst into flames right at the area where the lab had been.
Logan looked down at the fire and confusion. "Well, so much for those clones," he said with a grin in his voice. Rogue glared at him.
"Is that all you can say?" she demanded.
"I don't like Sinister's clones made without permission of their donors. C'mon, we gotta inform Remy and our fearless leader and decide what to do next. And we need to get outta here."
* * *
"We let Ro and Jean continue to sleep," Scott decided at the hotel as he met Wolverine and Rogue in the sitting room of the suite. "And as a matter of fact, I can't see any reason why most of us can't go ahead and sleep. We'll post one two person team on watch, but my guess is that Sinister blew that facility up by remote. He isn't going to come around."
"I'll stand watch," Logan offered.
"And I with him," Bishop said.
"Logan, you've been up all night already," Scott protested.
"And I been up a lot of nights. Don't worry. I ain't sleepy."
Scott acquiesced and nodded toward the remote.
"Gambit," he said quietly.
"I got it. Sinister's lab blew itself up. Golly gee willikers. And he isn't in sight. So you guys gonna post watch and sleep." Remy's voice was tired and depressed.
"What next, Gambit? Where else do we go to find Sinister?"
"He had labs where ever dere were Public Health Service Hospitals, Cyke. Dere was one in N'Orlans. And one in Seattle. And dere was a. . . "
"What in hell was his connection with the United States Public Health Service?" Scott interrupted him.
"I don' know, Scott." Remy sounded very tired.
"Never mind. Sorry, Remy. Okay, we'll go to New Orleans tomorrow and check out his lab there.
Remy, get some sleep. You sound used up."
"Check in with me about N'ORLANS," Remy advised. "That's my home town. I can't much go back dere, but I know it well. And I'll catch some shut eye, Cyke."
Remy signed off. Scott went to join his wife in bed and Rogue went to join Storm who was supposedly sleeping in the bedroom they were assigned to share. Actually she was tossing and turning and trying to sleep past her misery about the situation with her and Logan.
After several minutes, she got up and went into the sitting room.
"I can't sleep," she announced. "And there is no point in either one of you losing sleep when I am awake. I will stand watch. Both of you can rest."
Bishop blinked and protested, "Cyclops wanted two of us on watch."
"So he did," Storm acknowledged. "Which of you wants to stay up with me?" She looked at neither.
Logan shook his head and directed his next comment at Bishop, "Go on to bed," he said. "I'll stay up with Storm."
Bishop looked back and forth between the two of them who were both avoiding looking at the other. He sighed deeply. They were senior among the X-men. He conceded to their wishes and went to his bed.
Storm sat down on the couch across from where Wolverine sat in an arm chair and avoided his glance. He shook his head again.
"Ororo," he said gently.
She avoided his eyes and nodded her silver/white haired head.
"When is the last time you slept?" he asked.
"What does it matter?"
Logan stood and went to the window. He looked out at the silent streets below.
"Well," he said, "I haven't slept in about two days. I imagine you're in about the same boat. What good will it do the team if both of us are on watch and exhausted? And I'm better able to cope than you with my healing factor."
"I can't sleep, Logan," she said. "What is the point of anyone else losing sleep while I toss and turn and get no rest?"
There were many moments of silence. Storm sat on the couch. She was determined not to initiate conversation unless Logan invited it. And he was brooding in front of the window.
"Ro," he said finally. She nodded an acknowledgment. "I will eventually work this out in my head. But I don't have a clue in hell about what to do about it till then."
She nodded again unsure about what to say to him.
Logan grinned briefly, "And I can promise you, woman, that when I do get it worked out, you are going to get a spanking that will be memorable forever."
Storm looked up and met his eyes briefly. Her heart soared with hope and tinges of fear.
"You promise?" she asked softly flirting with him with her eyes.
"You have my word," he said quietly. "Just give a little more time, darlin'."
He looked back down at the quiet streets below and thought carefully about his rage.
Ro felt more at peace than she had experienced in since the conflict had arisen. She leaned back on the couch and without realizing it slid gently into a deep and healing sleep. Logan moved away from the window and covered her with a blanket. He thought for a moment about waking someone else to stand watch with him, but he really didn't think it necessary and so he stayed awake alone, thinking about his relationships with Ro. . .and Silverfox. . .and Mariko. . . and Jean. . .
* * *
The next day, they took the Black Bird to New Orleans and checked into a large suite with three bedrooms in the French Quarter. Cyclops was deeply grateful for the seemingly bottomless resources of Professor Xavier's financial accounts that funded them all.
The USPHS Hospital in New Orleans had been abandoned as long as the one in Boston which only made sense since all the hospitals had been defunded at the same time. Nevertheless. Scott thought it only logical to wait for night to investigate whatever remained of Sinister's labs.
He ordered the entire team to get as much sleep as possible. He was actually pleased that he had found Storm asleep on watch when he had awakened that morning. He had been worried about her sleeplessness.
He was not so worried about Logan. As far as he knew Logan didn't really need sleep. His healing factor made such ordinary human needs largely irrelevant.
They found Sinister's lab in New Orleans. There was nothing there. There was still data on the computers which they sent to Gambit, but nothing happened. The lab was not even blown up while they waited.
They went on to Seattle. More nothing.
San Francisco. Nothing in the lab, except the usual data on the computers and a video tape in the lab addressed to them. It was labeled clearly "For Professor Xavier's Noble and Honorable X-Men." None of them needed a code book to detect the sarcasm intended.
They took it back to their hotel and rented a VCR to watch it. It was a graphic exposition of Remy's involvement with Sinister. There was nothing on it except what Remy had already told them but all of them were distressed at Remy's obvious enslavement. And Remy was upset beyond reason when it was sent to him.
"Calm down, boy," Logan said roughly as Remy reacted over the radio to the images recorded by Sinister.
"Calm down!!!!" Remy was aghast.
"Yep, child, calm yourself down. We understand. You told us."
Remy sputtered and tried to contain himself. He made himself quiet down and terminated contact.
Scott looked at the team in the hotel.
"I don't know what we are doing, but this has been a bust so far. I think we need to post watch and get some sleep and then go home and figure out what to do next," he said. "Who wants to stand first watch?"
Logan volunteered and Storm followed. They had been standing watch together since Boston with little conversation but with hope on each part that they would eventually talk and achieve reconciliation.
The others went to bed.
After a couple of hours of silence, Logan looked over at Storm.
"I'm about ready to talk, darlin'," he said. She sat up and looked at him expectantly.
"This ain't easy for me, Ro," he said. "I've not been very lucky with my women and you know all about that, don't you?"
She nodded, eager to hear what he said.
"And I don't know a hell of a lot about myself. I was manipulated by the weapon X project and had fake memories planted in my head." She nodded again. He sighed deeply.
"I have a hard time holdin' on to a sense of who and what I am and you should know that." She nodded yet again. "And when you told Forge what you and me were doin', well, darlin', I didn't know how to take it. I felt as if you mighta been trying to get him back by tellin' him what you really wanted." He raised his hand as she opened her mouth as if to protest. "But that wasn't the real problem, love. The real problem was that I don't know who I am and I was angry as hell that you mighta told Forge more about who I am than I know my own self."
"Y'see, Ro, I don't want to surrender to the feral beast inside. I've worked damn hard to find and hold on to my humanity," Logan looked down at the rug. "I ain't so sure that I can without a lot of struggle and work. And. . ."
This was very difficult for him and very hard to express. "I enjoyed spanking your bottom more than I can say. It made me wonder about my needs and how I compare to a normal man. Like I might be more of a dominating beast than I want to be. Like, maybe, Forge is more of mensch than I could ever hope to be since he never wanted hurt you and I was aroused by hurting you."
Storm shook her head frantically and opened her mouth to speak. Logan held his hand up yet again.
"No, darlin', don't butt in yet,"
And then all hell broke loose. Sinister and the Marauders were suddenly there in the hotel room.
Wolverine issued a wake up call quickly to the others and launched himself at Sinister who smashed him to the ground. It only took him a few minutes to recover and attack Sinister again with much the same results.
Cyclops, Jean, Bishop, and Rogue emerged quickly and joined the fray. Cyclops was prepared to use his optic blasts on Sinister who was vulnerable to them, but Logan was in the way. Scrambler put his hands on Bishop as quickly as he could and had his usual affect. Bishop's power exploded out directionless into the room and as an unexpected bonus to the Marauder, the blast knocked Storm unconscious. As Sinister smashed Wolverine to floor again he picked up Storm to use as a shield.
In the meantime, Vertigo was on Jean and Cyclops making both of them dizzy and disoriented. Jean was totally unable to use her powers while feeling so confused and before Cyclops could recover, Scrambler had grabbed him and his optic blasts fired wildly and erratically before he lost the use of them.
Harpooner sent one of his energy bolts directly into Rogue knocking her to the ground where Scalphunter blasted her with one of his projectile weapons. She was invulnerable enough that it was almost impossible to kill her, but this double assault left her stunned and unable to move.
Wolverine was up again and trying to get Storm out of Sinister's control when he was hit by repeated shots from Scalphunter that left him bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. Bishop was up and even though he was momentarily deprived of his power of absorbing and releasing energy, he managed to knock that gun out of Scalphunter's hands and engage him in hand to hand combat. An energy blast from Harpooner knocked him down seconds before Cyclops managed to kick Harpooner in the stomach hard enough to double him over. Vertigo continued to keep Jean to confused to use any of her psychic powers.
Sinister grabbed Bishop by the collar and still holding Storm in his arms, he suddenly waved an arm and he and all of the Marauders disappeared, teleported to somewhere else.
Jean recovered as rapidly as she could and looked around the room. Scott was still standing. Rogue was stirring and trying to lift her head. She ran to Logan who was bleeding on the floor and was so still that he seemed to be dead. She knelt beside him and put her hand on his face.
"Logan," she said with horror. His eyes opened and he managed to look up at her with a faint grin. She threw her arms around him with immense relief.
"You know I'll get better," he coughed up a lot of blood and looked around. "Where in hell in Storm?"
"And where in hell in Bishop?" Scott asked grimly ignoring the fact that his wife had her arms around Logan. He had been used to their close relationship for a long time and was well aware that it was he that she had chosen to marry.
Storm and Bishop who had both been taken prisoners by Sinister and his crew.
Logan was healing from multiple wounds, Rogue was still in shock from the double blows to her body, but she was sitting up and obviously okay. Jean was recovering from the vertigo induced by the woman who used the name of Vertigo. Scott was frantically trying to get Gambit on the radio
Gambit was not there.
"Do you think that this was a two pronged attack and they got Gambit, too?" Jean asked with concern as she watched Logan's wounds stop bleeding and start their astonishing healing.
"It's possible." Scott said grimly as he tried to relay a message to either Archangel's group or the professor. He was getting nowhere. "Jean, can you locate either Storm or Bishop by telepathy?"
She concentrated and shook her head. Logan sat up and made a premature effort to stand which resulted in him falling back to his knees.
"We will find Ororo," he said grimly. "And Bishop."
"Sure we will. We have to," Scott said, "But you know I think this entire attack was a diversion just to get one or both of them. And I have a feeling that it was Bishop that he really wanted."
"Makes sense," Logan agreed making another attempt to stand and succeeding. "He's the newest of us all and from an alternate future. Sinister would be in hog heaven picking his brain and gettin' a tissue sample from him for damn cloning."
"Not to mention, trying to figure out his ancestry," Scott added blackly. "And it was obviously a very well planned assault. Each on of those bastards was obviously assigned to those of us to whom they could do the most harm."
Rogue shook herself and tried to think clearly, "But where is Remy?" she almost wailed.
Jean concentrated again and then relaxed. "I reached the professor and told him the news. He's still needed on Muir Island, but he wants us to meet Hank at the mansion ASAP. And he says Remy is okay as far as he can tell from his link with him."
"Then he'd better have a damn good reason for being away from his room and the communications console," Logan said with certainty, "or his butt is gonna pay dearly."
Scott nodded with as much conviction as had been expressed by Wolverine. Rogue shivered with concern for her lover. She had an uneasy feeling that Remy had managed to get himself into deep trouble again.