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“Let’s you an’ me take a walk, homme,” Remy muttered quietly then.

Laying a hand on Callum’s shoulder and trying to lead him away. Jubie had to hand it to her man, he was smooth. “How’s about Ah walk you to your room while de ladies talk shop-”

But the douche-bag wasn’t listening. He even shot her honey a look shoulda gotten him paffinated on general principles. Marie winced, clearly uncomfortable, but she didn’t put the asshole back in his box- Which just pissed Jubilee off more. “Look, Pepe Le Peu,” Callum was snapping, “I’m going nowhere, not without Marie. Besides-” He straightened his jacket with a snap, making a grab for Rogue’s elbow. “She has no secrets from me.”

I seriously doubt that, Jubilee thought. And what’s with the grabby hands, asshole? Don’t you know who your girlfriend is? But Marie said nothing, just looked more embarrassed. Jubes felt a twitch of unease: The Rogue she knew woulda been making with the property damage by now. “Well this is family business,” she drawled, “so you’re gonna have to take a walk. Capisce?” And she let a couple of hers paffs dance around her fingertips, just to show she wasn’t kidding.

“Jubie…” Marie began. She tried to shoot her a smile. “Let’s not do this.”

Jubes narrowed her eyes. “No,” she snapped, “Lets. You really feel like explaining this to a non-com, Roguey?” And she looked pointedly at the boyfriend.

“I don’t like your tone, missy,” Callum muttered, making to take a step closer. Remy immediately tensed up, getting in his way. Jubie had always dug the protective vibe.

“You no talk t’mah wife dat way, homme,” Gambit muttered. “Even if Marie lets you talk dat way t’her.” And he pulled out a card, making it float a couple of inches above his fingers, eyes glowing just red enough to make the asshole pause. Jubes grinned, Marie winced- But Callum backed the fuck away. Let Marie go.

Rogue pulled him aside then, whispering something in his ear, her manner appeasing. One hand on his chest, the other on his arm. There was nothing of the spitfire Rogue Jubilee remembered in those gestures, and again she felt a twinge of unease, for the first time noticing her friend’s thinner build, the dark circles under her eyes. Chica didn’t look great- No, chica didn’t look happy. But then if Jubie had been going out with that dick she wouldn’t have been happy either. A moment passed and then Marie came back to her, Callum stomping off in the general direction of the kitchen, still muttering under his breath. She shot Remy an apologetic look. “Sorry ‘bout that, shuggs,” she said. “He’s cranky from the journey-”

“And the being an asshole,” Jubes griped. Marie looked pained but she didn’t correct her none. “Kitty here yet?” she asked instead.

“Yup. In Storm’s office. So you wanna..?” And she gestured towards the large oak door at the end of the hall. Gambit shot her his best rakish grin, giving Rogue a small wave goodbye. Mouthing Be nice at his wife before wandering off. The two women trudged in silence to Storm’s office, Marie’s eyes floor-wards, her posture more slumped than Jubilee had ever seen her. Again, she thought how little there was in the woman before her of the girl she’d known.

Again she felt a twinge of worry at the thought.

They found Kitty reading a book when they entered. She blinked up at Rogue through her bangs, her eyes lighting up at the sight of their friend and hugging her. Her arms went around Jubes too after a second and despite herself Jubilee’s bad mood melted a little.

“How ya doing, Marie?” Kitty asked warmly.

Rogue shrugged, looked awkward. “Okay,” she mumbled. Just ok. “But that’s not why Ah’m here.” And she reached under her shirt, pulling out something from around her neck. She wouldn’t meet Jubilee’s eyes as she did it, just placed the object quietly on the table. “Ah got this yesterday in the mail,” she explained quietly, her lilting accent restrained. Worried. “There was no message with it, but we all know what it means.”

“He sent them to you?” Pryde breathed, touching the tags gingerly. In the early days when he’d been training them, Logan had set up a system in case he was ever compromised: He’d send his tags to Rogue, along with a clue as to his whereabouts and the girls would come get him. He’d said he’d only trust them to bring his ass home. At the time Jubes had figured it was a trust-building exercise, that he’d been trying to build team moral; after all Logan was an excellent commanding officer in the field, despite what he liked to pretend around the Mansion. She’d never really thought the system would be put to use. But then in those days she’d never thought that anything could hurt Logan either. He’d been like a force of nature, the unstoppable Wolverine. That’d been before she watched him lose Rogue and saw what it did to him. Before the fights and the disappearing for days and the weird-shit, broken hearted behaviour-

A beat.

Jubes sighed then. The team (such as it was) had been given a mission and she for one was going to make sure they pulled it off. Marie might have run out on them after the Cure, but she wouldn’t abandon Logan- And she knew Kitty felt the same. “You got any idea where to start looking for him, chica?” she asked, leaning over the table, already planning.

Marie shook her head. “No. There was no message with the tags, no clue. Ah was gonna ask Storm what he was working on, see if Ah could get access to his place-”

“I’ll do that, Rogue,” Kitty muttered hurriedly, speaking over her. Shooting Jubes a warning look. They both knew there was a lot of stuff in Logan’s room he wouldn’t want Marie knowing about: photos, mementoes. Jubes even knew that he still had a pair of her gloves somewhere in his closet, left over from before their last fight in the Mansion. He kept things of hers, of theirs. And he wouldn’t want Marie to see. If the Southern belle noticed anything was amiss she didn’t say it though, just nodded numbly.

“Ah suppose you should do it,” she was saying, “You’re closer to him anyway.”

I wouldn’t necessarily say that, Jubes thought then.

But she didn’t say anything, just nodded. Smiling briskly and standing. “Kitty can check out the Wolverine Cave,” she was saying. “We’ll ask Hank what’s the low-down on any side projects Wolvie was working, of all the guys in the Mansion the Hankster’s the most likely to know. Besides, he’s dying to see ya.” And she shot Marie her most innocent, least believable smile, gesturing towards the door. “Ladies first, right?” she muttered, “Before all Beast’s Twinkies are gone.” Rogue nodded numbly, not even looking up. Tucking the tags back under her shirt like they were a magic charm. Her eyes were distant, tired. Worried. Not the eyes of the spitfire Rogue at all. Once again Jubilee wondered what had happened to the woman she knew- Because Wolvie wouldn’t recognise the girl before her now.

But then maybe he wasn’t the only one suffering from a broken heart.

Rogue didn’t look up as they left.