Jake and Remy | Backdated last Tuesday

[x-courier.livejournal.com]

Jake finally shows up at Remy's office and is dragged back to XF kicking and screaming. Figuratively. But just barely.


Jake managed to make his way through the hallways with a minimum of encounters. Part skill, part luck, part just wanting to get this meeting over with as soon as possible. He paused briefly outside Remy's office, then pushed opened the door, walking in with barely a half-knock to announce his presence. "Heard you wanted to see me."

"You don't call, you don't write. Makes a person think dat you wanted to disappear, Gavin." Remy said, not even looking up from his paperwork. Deftly, he refilled his coffee mug and filled up a second, pushing it across the surface of the desk. Finally, the odd red-on-black eyes left the reports and regarded the younger man. "In fact, it almost sounds like you got youself into some kind of trouble, neh?"

"If you needed me, I have absolutely no doubt you could have found me," Jake said, reaching for the mug and sliding into a seat across from Remy. "Seems just about anyone can these days. Must be losing my touch. Or it's just time to get some new passports. If you have any lying around, I can be on my way."

"If you need me to get fake passports, you must be in a lot more trouble den I thought." Remy took a sip from the mug and regarded Jake over the top. "What's going on?"

"Or just as lazy as you'd expect me to be," Jake replied as he held the mug without drinking. He was silent for a good minute, studying the other, before he continued. "Short of it, the bastards that cut off my arm seem to want a bit more. I've managed to stay one step ahead of them so far. Think I gave them the slip by coming back to New York, but no idea for how long." He trailed off thoughtfully. "Now if I could just get them to swallow a clock, that would make my life so much easier."

"Unfortunately, Remy don't think dere's a likely chance at that." He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think. Jake's abduction had revealed very little about his opponents, and the specific possession of his arm indicated that someone had a direct application planned for it. The other negative was that Jake had a head full of information about the school and X-Force, which he didn't entirely bet wasn't a factor. "Tell me 'bout dem coming after you. What have you seen?"

"Well, whatever they were doing to keep it alive stopped working," Jake began after a moment. "Sometime around January, I guess it was. They kept experimenting after I left, sometimes painful, sometimes just prodding. Then it was just gone. I was in Geneva. Call me masochistic, but something about being there for the holidays had this strange appeal. So yeah, soon after the feelings stopped, I had skiing plans with some old friends, and that's when I noticed them. Fairly remote resort with only so many people, but just a few too many coincidences of being on the next lift, that sort of thing. So I started to test them out. Hopped around Europe a bit. Some of the time I left a trail, sometimes they just found me. They don't have all my personae tagged, but a lot of them, so they've more got connections than I'd thought. So I'm back. And if they know it, they haven't made any moves yet." That said, he finally leaned back in the chair, sipping the coffee as he watched the other man for a response.

"Leading dem right to our doorstep. Least we know dat you haven't changed." Remy sighed and put down his mug. "Dere's too much of a chance dat whoever is trailing you has dere suspicions 'bout us. If dat's de case, Remy rather show dem you getting nice, fat and lazy in New York, comfortably sure dat you were clever 'nough to give dem de slip and start living openly 'gain."

"Hey, you're the one that threatened me with...whatever and whatnot if I didn't show up on your doorstop," Jake countered, eyes narrowing. "I wasn't trying to drag everyone back into my problems. I know how to take care of myself, even if no one else seems to think I can. Maybe things been getting dull around here, and everyone's looking for some new excitement."

"Jake," Remy said patiently, as if to a slow child. He know that Gavin was nothing of the sort, but their relationship was a complicated one. "You already reconnected when you showed up back in New York. And if dey were watching, dey also caught you coming into de Brownstone for you 'catching up' wit' Wanda. Non, now I want dem to think you back tied up wit' Xavier's and us again. Which means dat I need to find something to do wit' you while you here."
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Jake stared at Remy a long moment. Finally he stated, "That is absolutely the lamest excuse for 'I need to you do something' you've ever tried to hand me." Still, he didn't argue further, instead just sat there, one finger slowly ringing the rim of his mug. "Did you have something in mind?"

"Dat's where you accusations falls down. After all, Jake, if Remy needed you to do something, Remy say 'Jake, here's what you going to do', and den you try to negotiate and lie 'bout how you busy and at de end of de day, Remy uses threats and you do it complaining de whole damn time. However, dis time, de only way to protect our interests is to protect you, and since Remy know dat if you not occupied wit' something, you going to get youself into more trouble. More trouble dat we don't need. Same terms as before, and you lucky dat you pay isn't docked considering dat you didn't give us two weeks notice when you left last time." Remy said. It wasn't necessarily that the return of Jake Gavin was something he particularly wanted, but honestly, there wasn't another way to keep an eye on the situation without bringing him back in or knocking him senseless and putting him in a chemical coma on Muir during their investigation. Not that Muir wasn't tempting, but the reality was that Jake was a trained intelligence operative, the team was short Marie-Ange, and Jake could be trusted to only be untrustworthy in ways they were aware of. You could trust him with your life, but you'd be insane to trust him with your wife. Or a slice of cake. Or especially both.

At least when one left him with said wife and cake, one knew exactly what to predict when one returned. For every one of his...unreliabilities, Jake was nothing if not predictable. He leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling and rubbing his forehead with his free hand. The other balanced the coffee mug around its rim. "See, this is why I hate this office. Every single time I come here, I leave with a headache." He fell silent for a moment, then finally let out an terribly exaggerated sigh. "Fine, but I get my old room back."

"Only if Wanda agrees. I think dat she's got de key." Remy said. Jake had folded about when he'd expected, which was a good thing. That way he didn't need to point out that Jake's return plugged a huge operational hole that Remy had been wondering what he could find to patch it over. Remy preferred to keep Jake on his terms, and not the other way around. It was less expensive.

Oh, he knows how to manage Jake. Shame. Jake set the mug on the desk, not bothering to look for a coaster or anything. His hands gripped the chair's arms, poised to leave. "Anything else? Or are we done? I need an Advil."

"We done. Welcome back, Gavin."

"Thanks." Jake's tone fell into a conscious spot somewhere between sarcasm and appreciation, and he stood, pausing only briefly before leaving the room. "You know where to reach me. Later, LeBeau."

"Dat I do. Tant pis, homme."