Rogue sat in the car with Piotr and stared at the tall man standing next to an all too familiar stone cross. She glanced at him and sighed, “And why isn’t Logan here?”
“Angel sent him to talk to one of the enforcers. Something about his skill in dealing with someone who forgets their place.” Piotr replied seriously.
Rogue sighed, she knew what that meant. One of Angel’s people, one her trusted team had broken the code they all lived by and she had needed someone to straighten the man out, something she knew she couldn’t do.
“Well no point in sitting here watching him.” Rogue raked a hand through her hair impatiently. “Lets go rattle his cage.”
Piotr chuckled and opened his door. A few seconds later, they were walking through the silent graveyard to the hunched figure who stood in the early afternoon sun, his head bent, his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of reality.
“Not pretty is it?” Rogue purred next to his ear, relishing the way Scott jumped before glancing at her.
“What happened to her?” Scott pointed at the grave before him.
“What do you think happened?” Rogue hissed. “A monster. And no one willing to pay attention to the signs.”
“Surely you don’t think that I’d go for this sort of thing?” Scott gasped. “You think I approve of this…this debauchery.”
“Why not? You’re the reason Logan and I got kicked out. Because of you, we left the only home either of us had ever known.” Rogue smirked at him. “From what I hear, you’re not all that happy at Xavier’s right now, yourself.”
Scott shuddered but held his tongue. There was no point in digging within his secrets, his shame. “What are you doing here?”
“Keeping out the trash.” Piotr drawled. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to figure it out.” Scott admitted softly. “Trying to face just how badly I screwed up.”
Rogue snorted in derision and turned to walk away.
“He said you cry,” Scott spoke softly. “That you cry a lot before you fight with him. Why? Why do you risk your sanity for strangers?”
“Because,” Rogue paused and met his gaze steadily, “I could have been one of them. If it hadn’t been for the actions of a stranger, the actions of a man you’ve written off so many times I’d have been in that casket. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to make sure that he never feels guilty for saving me, for saving us.”
Scott nodded and glanced at Piotr. “And what about you? What do you get out of this? Hmm? A turn with Rogue…”
Piotr’s face twisted with banked rage and he stepped forward, only the look on Rogue’s face stopped him. Instead of ripping Scott’s throat out, he leaned forward and stared at him for a few seconds. “At the end of the day I go home, I crawl into bed next to my fiancé and I listen to her cry softly into her pillow. I watch another inch of pale skin darkened by the guilt of failure, and I pray that I can stop her from falling to the shadows.”
Scott shook his head. “Does it matter any more? Do any of us ever really understand what’s going on? Xavier isn’t going to change his plans to save a couple of teen age hookers.”
Rogue swore profusely and turned to stomp back to the car, leaving Piotr glaring at Scott.
“Age doesn’t matter.” Piotr whispered staring at the stone beneath his feet. “But in this case, this stone isn’t for a teen age junkie, selling her body for her next hit. This little girl was just that, a little girl. Her junkie mother sold her to her dealer for a few grams of crack and he put her out on the street for any sick bastard to fuck. She died of AIDS,” Piotr knelt and rubbed a few stray blades of grass from the marker. Rising to his feet he stared at Scott in silence for a heartbeat before stepping away. “She was nine years old.”
Piotr walked back to the car, aware of the strangled moan from Scott but not caring.
“Logan said there’s a function coming up.” Scott’s words stopped him.
“Yeah.”
“Put me down for two seats. I wanna hear what you have to say.”
Piotr turned to the man he’d once worshipped. “No, you don’t. See I’m not speaking, neither is Rogue, or any other ‘respectable’ person. The guest speakers that night are going to be the victims. The ones you and your ‘team’ forgot.”
Scott watched in silence as Piotr walked back to the battered vehicle and sighed. Something told him he didn’t want to be there for that function, but at the same time he needed to be there, needed to understand the horrors of an underground network that sold the souls of the innocent.
Long after the car had gone, Scott stood there his mind a tangled mess. He wondered how he would get Jean to accompany him, how he would get the woman who lived the safe, polished life she did to sink to the level that the kids who were victims did. With a sad shake of his head he started for his bike.
Angel glanced up at the knock on her office door and sighed. “Come in.”
“Um, Miss Angel?” Tall, skinny, with a face that wore the marks of her rebellion, the girl that stood in the doorway shifted uneasily. “Have you got a spare minute?”
“Certainly, come in and sit down. What’s on your mind?”
“Some of the girls were talking. Saying you wanted to uh put together an educational bundle for the dinner coming up.”
“Yes.”
“Do you need help with it? I’m real good with computers and…”
“Renee right?” Angel sighed at the girl’s nod. “Don’t sell your skills to me. I want input from everyone within the walls of this shelter. I’ve got every administrator from every safe house that’s out there collecting information from the kids within their care. If you want to help, then by all means, I gratefully accept your help.”
“Thank you.” Renee rose and shuffled to the door. She paused at it, holding the knob as though for courage. “How do you let go?”
“Let go?”
“Of the rage, the pain. For so long all I knew was the horror of living the life I had, now I’m lost. I don’t know what to do, how to fill my time. The more I think about it the angrier I get…”
“Anger is normal. You’ve a right to be angry; you’ve a right to feel betrayed, to feel as though you’re a victim. The only thing I want you to remember, Renee, is this.” Angel roses and walked over to the young woman. “You are a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive. You were a victim, not anymore.”
Renee smiled and nodded, before slipping out of the room and closing the door with a soft click.
Angel inhaled and walked over to stare out her office window. Below her children of all ages ran and played, acted like kids. Still she caught the odd shadow, the movement that only those who’d survived sexual exploitation and abuse could recognize and sighed.
“The oldest bunch of kids I’ve ever met.” She muttered and turned as her door opened and Piotr stepped inside. Smiling easily at him she turned back to her vigil. “Well?”
“He’ll be here. I have a feeling have of the team will be here as well.”
“And Bethany?”
Piotr shifted and walked over to stand next to his girl. “Says there’s no money being exchanged, no set price, no definitive act being performed. Says that she’s not dating him, she’s fucking him.”
Angel shook her head, “I thought I was clear about…”
“I think she considers him a friend. Oh I’m not saying she expects him to fall in love with her, or to suddenly become her best buddy, but I think she needs to feel like a woman not a child. He needs to understand what she’s survived and the only way both of them can get what they need is to use each other.” Piotr explained. “She isn’t turning tricks.”
“I just worry. They’re so young, so innocent looking and yet inside, where it counts there’s so much emotion, so much pain. I don’t know how they manage to survive so long. I’d have died before now if I’d have had to endure…”
“You did.” Piotr pulled her closer to him. “The girl you were died the night you ran away. You’re just as strong as they are, just as much a survivor as them. The only difference is you’ve had a few more years to figure it out.”
Glancing up at him Angel stared into his eyes for a moment. “How I wish I had your faith in me.”
“Faith and love can heal.” Piotr whispered kissing her cheek softly. “And I’ve got enough for both of us.”
Angel nodded and listened as he slipped out of her office. What she’d ever done to deserve such a good man, she didn’t know but she’d keep doing it.
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