Remy & Laurie log

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Saturday 19th May 2007 at 5:30pm

Who: Remy, Laurie, Amanda

What Happens Laurie is unusually late getting back to the Brownstone for the trip back to the mansion and Amanda sends Remy to find her.



Laurie watched in wonder as the butterflies settled on her hair and clothes, grinning as she tucked her air scrubber into a pocket. Animals had always loved her, but she hadn't been sure whether it would work with insects. She'd been wandering through the museum for most of the day, having seen it before but wanting to revisit. She'd spent most of the morning in the Cosmic Collisions and Roving Mars exhibits, and then stopped in to the 'Sonic Vision' exhibit. Moby had always been one of her favourite artists so the chance to see a multimedia exhibition based around his music had been a must do.

She gasped as an Emperor butterfly landed on her shirt, amazed at how comfortable they seemed around her. She looked closer, noticing the change in colour as it moved its wings.

The hand landing heavily on her shoulder caused the butterflies to explode into flight. Before she could even gasp, she'd been pulled off of the stone path and stood between the cement wall and the bole of a tree, with a trench coated man standing directly in front of her. He gave another look around before turning to face her with a red on black glare.

"Something happen, chere?"

It was instinct really, when confronted by someone grabbing her from behind she'd been taught in self defence to kick first and ask questions later. Having said that, it was a pretty lame kick to the ankle, no one had said she was good at self-defence, after all.

"Stop kicking me." Remy said, hauling her off her feet one handed and looking around still. "Dere's someone dat has delayed you on purpose, petite? Dere some threat?"

"Nooo." Laurie replied, blushing when she recognised who had her finally. She looked at the arm that seemed to be easily holding her off her feet and gulped. She must have lost track of the time, and Oh God, where was her phone? Still in her bag, she thought. Maybe they'd been trying to call her? "I, um...I got distracted?" she finished lamely.

Remy sighed and dropped her back on to her feet. He'd just done two kilometres at a flat run, and quartered every approach to the museum in case someone had tried to take Laurie, only to find she'd just forgotten the time.

"You have got to be kiddin' me."

"If it'll make you feel better, I could be." Laurie replied, smiling rather tentatively.

Okay, smart ass remarks were probably not the way to go here, but she was still recovering from the fright of being grabbed and wittiness was always easier then a panic attack and possible riot of those around her. She fumbled in her pocket for her air scrubber and slipped it over her head again, no need for accidents when they could be prevented, after all.

"Alright, petite, you follow me. Get you back to de others before de X-Men shows up." He pulled a phone from his pocket and clicked it on. He quickly composed a text for Amanda and started for the door.

Laurie followed along behind him, shooing away some butterflies that landed on her shoulders as they went. "They were really that worried about me?"

"Less den two weeks ago, three you school mates were kidnapped and turned into monsters. Dis is exactly de worst time for you to be running off on you own wit'out telling anyone." Remy said, trying to bleed off the stress and anticipation of action.

"I, um...I'm sorry. I had to turn off my phone for the multimedia show and then I guess I just got distracted." Laurie replied, feeling horrible.

She'd never had this problem with her mother, who had usually trusted her enough to know that if something was wrong, she'd call. She couldn't get used to this whole 'living in a world where people might snatch you off the street at the moments notice because you happen to know people' thing. It just didn't compute. She was Laurie, normal boring Laurie who just happened to have a power that was somewhat lacking in control right now. She wasn't important, not enough to kidnap. It wasn't fair.

"I didn't mean to worry anyone." she finished, somewhat lamely, attempting to control the growing panic.

Remy didn't say anything as they pushed through the door and out through the museum itself. He was still keeping an eye open for trouble, just in case, but it looked like it was just the girl being a teenager. "De teachers take you safety pretty seriously, petite. When you disappear like dis, dey all going to worry 'bout it. Send people like me to find you."

"You always scare the living hell out of the people you rescue?" Laurie asked, glaring up at him through strands of hair before pushing them back behind her ears.

"What Remy should do is tuss you up and deliver you back to de mansion like a rug." Remy growled back, not even in the slightest bit interested in putting up with any attitude. "You lucky dat you not getting dat treatment."

Well, that was straight to the point, wasn't it? Laurie tried to push down on her anger, recognising that it wasn't going to do her any good here. "You'd get in trouble if you did that." she replied, giving him a defiant look.

Where the hell had that come from? Okay, this man obviously brought out the worst in her. It was that whole air of 'You're just a kid, and you've made my day a pain in the ass' that she felt was almost surely what he must be thinking right now. She hated it when people considered her a chore. Him and his...his, weird accent.

"From who, petite? Case you missed it, Remy not exactly a teacher at your school." He pushed open the door to outside and waited for her to come through it before falling in step behind her. He wasn't all that angry, but he was impatient and irritated. There were enough things to worry about without babysitting Xavier's lost kids.

"Amanda wouldn't like it." Laurie replied triumphantly. "She'd totally kick your ass."

Although, considering she'd just probably scared the life out of Amanda, that argument might not hold up to much poking. She wasn't entirely sure Remy would care about whether Amanda could kick his ass or not. Laurie was sure she could though, Amanda had magic, and there wasn't a lot in the world that could beat magic.

"'manda works for me." LeBeau stepped out into the crowd and did a quick look before motioning her forward. He wasn't about to make himself look stupid by not delivering the girl. "Dat means any ass kicking have to wait until she's off de clock."

"But she would, even if it had to wait till off the clock." Laurie replied, babbling slightly. "She'd never let anything happen to me."

She could feel her world settling into place again, the panic of before fading as the words settled somewhere deep inside. She was feeling calmer now, more able to address the situation at hand. This appeared to be that she was trying to make a good attempt at irritating the crap out of one of Amanda's employers. Oh dear...

"Which is exactly why you are currently in de charge of a miserable bastard like me. Because she thought something had happened to you, and I was sent to get you no matter what de situation." Remy said, not about to try and hide what was going on. The kids did have some rules for a reason, and it was time to point out why they existed.

"I know." Laurie replied, blushing and feeling about the size of a small bug. "I didn't mean to leave my phone off...It was stupid of me. I just, I'm not used to this. I'm just me, I'm not important. I hate being so scared all the time. I guess that must sound pretty immature to someone like you. Bet you're never scared of anything. You'd just kick it till it stopped or something like that."

"Don't be silly, petite. De only people dat are never scared are fools or too ignorant to understand danger." Remy said tightly, weaving through the crowd and diverting them from Laurie. "Fear keeps you safe; makes you think through things before you say or do anything. Keeps you from making mistakes for no reason."

"But how do you cope with it?" Laurie asked, keeping close to Remy as they moved. No need to make his job any harder. "I keep freezing up, least till someone else needs me."

"You stop being afraid of being afraid. You accept it, make it your own." A man brushed to close to her and Remy shoved him back. "When you can take dat being scared is an honest reaction, you stop freezing up and can start thinking past it."

"I guess I never thought of it that way." Laurie replied, blinking as the man made a rude gesture and walked off muttering to himself. She shrugged and kept walking; it wasn't like there wasn't more then enough sidewalk for everyone. New York could be weird sometimes. "I just see people like Mr Garrison, or Ms Munroe and I can't imagine them ever having been afraid of anything."

"I think dat 'Ro is afraid in some way or another in every mission, Laurie. Dere's different kinds of fear, and if you let it dominate you, den you can't function. De important thing to remember when you scared is what's de more important to you; de fear or what you need to do." Remy paused at the sidewalk crossing for a second, and then abruptly turned right, leading her off down a side street. "Once you have dat part figured out, training takes care of de rest."

"Do I have to train?" Laurie asked, sighing as the question came out sounding more like a whine then she'd meant it to. "I mean, not like train so I can control my powers and not hurt someone accidentally but train like actually going and beating up bad guys."

She looked around the side street as they walked, it seemed a lot cleaner then she might have expected it to. But then again, she supposed they weren't exactly in a 'bad' neighbourhood and it was bright daylight. Having taken in her immediately surroundings, she turned her head and took a moment to look at the man walking beside her. It felt like he was waiting for something, even though it was more a sense she got then any outward sign. Here was a man that expected to get attacked when going for a carton of milk, it was a sobering thought.

"Every type of learning is training, Laurie. If you want to learn how to control your fear, training is part of it. That's doesn't necessarily mean dat you need to learn how to hurt people." Remy cut left again, down into a trash strewn alley. "Look at people who put out fires? Run into a burning building to rescue people. You think dey scared when dey doing it?"

"I guess so?" Laurie replied, moving closer as she glanced around nervously. "I mean, I've helped out with RedX stuff and I was kinda scared but it was different, I guess. People needed our help and if I'd frozen up, someone might have been hurt. "

"It's 'bout trusting in something. Whether it's training, or de people wit' you, or you powers, trusting something more is what keeps de fear from controlling you." Remy stopped and turned, spreading his arms wide. "We in de middle of an alley in de bad part of Manhattan. Yet you not shaking like a leaf and trying to hide 'cause you dat scared. Why?"

"Because I trust you to keep me safe." Laurie responded, looking around at the alley and realising it was true. "And I trust Amanda to not have sent someone after me that couldn't keep me safe." she finished, realising that was true as well.

She may not have interacted with Remy much before now, but Amanda trusted him and that was good enough for her.

"And dere you have de answer to your question." Remy stuffed his hands back in his pockets and headed for the mouth of the alley that led to the street. "Dis, not surprising, does not lead into de lesson 'bout not taking unnecessary risks." He said wryly as they stepped out on the sidewalk.

***

Laurie took another lick of her ice-cream as she paused at the steps of the Brownstone, giving Amanda a guilty look. "Um, he found me!"

Amanda, less frazzled since Remy's text but still not thankful for the loss of five years off her life when she'd realised Laurie was missing, gave the girl a measured - and somewhat displeased - look. "Who?" she asked, looking pointedly at the empty space behind Laurie.

"Re...Where'd he go?" Laurie replied, looking behind her and then giving Amanda a puzzled look. "He was just here, um...Does Remy do the 'Ninja disappearing thing' often?"

"All the bloody time," Amanda said wryly, getting up off the steps and brushing off the back of her jeans. "And I'm guessing he already read you the riot act, so I won't add to it, but if you ever do that again, you'll be making your own arrangements to get into town, yeah?" The witch's normally cheerful demeanour had changed, becoming a lot more like a certain scruffy Englishman's. "I can't protect you if you don't stick by the rules. And I don't know what I'd do if any of you lot got hurt on my watch."

"I know, I'm really sorry about that. It won't happen again." Laurie replied, and if her bottom lip wobbled slightly at the end, it was totally not because disappointing someone she respected made her want to cry, not at all. Nope, no crying here.

She hid the distress by finishing off the last of her ice cream, and then wiping her face with the little napkin they'd provided.

"Good. 'Cause I like your taste in music much better than Mondo's." Amanda waved towards where the minivan was parked, various bored-looking students inside, waiting. "Go on, get in. You lot'll be late for dinner if we don't get going soon."

Relieved to be released from the 'gaze of disapproval', Laurie took off toward the mini-van, noting only at the last minute not to run. She didn't want to trip and end up having to get some kind of bandaid on top of all the other trouble she'd caused.