| Extra special thanks to: BarbaraB, who should be writing the next chapter to her own fan fic instead of reviewing mine � I�m waaaaaaaiting!!!! ;), Candice, who reminded me that in order to have lovers you must have haters, Link, for being sooooo damned honest at all times (love you), ebonbird for putting my first story on your kick-ass Storm web site (I�m so honored!) and :o), who realized that Rogue being a bitch is just a new spin on someone�s personality and didn�t take it so hard!!!! Also the very first person who reviewed�I can�t see it cuz I�m past fifty, but thanks! And thanks everyone who reviewed� good, bad, indifferent, or just plain psycho! Patience, by stormfreak Chapter One: Angel Ajita N�Dare LeBeau couldn�t sleep. She fixed her sky-blue eyes on the bed next to hers. Her three-year-old sister, Leila Jean, was sound asleep, her head underneath her covers to block out any light. Quietly, she got out of her bed and left the bedroom. Walking silently down the hallway on bare feet, she slipped into the second room and peered down into the crib. A pair of brown eyes stared back at her. "Deejay?" David Jaffe LeBeau began to giggle, and reached upward toward his five-year-old sister. Ajita picked him up and began to walk back and forth. "What are you doing awake, Deej?" she questioned, and rumpled the eight-month-old�s curly auburn locks. "You should be asleep by now." Walking past her twin brother James� bed, she opened the window and sat upon the ledge. And that�s when she came face-to-face with a pair of bright brown eyes, framed by dark brown hair. Startled, she nearly dropped Deejay. "Shh!" the voice whispered. "Don�t be afraid. Hello." "Hi." Ajita replied, no fear in her voice. She took Deejay�s hand and waved it. "Say hi, Deej." Deejay babbled a hello, then sank his head into his sister�s chest and closed his eyes. "Who are you?" "I am a friend. Who is that?" she questioned, waving a gloved hand toward the smallest child. "This is my brother, David Jaffe." Ajita fixed her gaze on the woman at the window. "You�re pretty. You�re as pretty as my mommy. Only she has white hair. Like the stripe in your hair." "Why, thank you, sugar. You�re sweet." The woman reached toward Deejay. "May I hold him?" "I�d better not. He cries if anyone tries to hold him, and then my mommy will hear him and come in." The woman nodded. "Where�s your daddy?" "He�s at Paw-Paw Adam�s." "Ajita?" James murmured from his bed. "Who are you talking to?" "Oh, James! Come meet the pretty lady! She says she�s our friend!" James Logan LeBeau walked toward the window and raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" he questioned in his mother�s disbelieving tone. "I am a friend. I used to know your mommy and daddy, a long, long time ago." James raised both eyebrows now. "You should probably go. If my mommy comes in here, we�ll get in trouble." "No!" Ajita said. "Don�t go!" "Ajita, we�re not supposed to talk to strangers! And you�re not supposed to have the window open at night! Mommy will spank you!" "Oh, Mommy always spanks me!" Ajita scoffed. "Your mommy hits you?" the lady asked. "That�s not nice at all." "She only spanks Ajita when she�s bad," James interjected. He took his youngest brother in his arms and added, "You should leave." "I probably should go. Jamie, dear, would you be a sweetheart and not tell your mommy or daddy that we were here?" "My name is James," the serious young man frowned. "We won�t tell!" Ajita interrupted quickly. "James, don�t be such a baby. Please, please don�t tell." "Fine," James muttered, and placed a now sleeping Deejay in his crib. "I won�t say anything. Just go." He crawled back into his bed and shut his eyes. "I don�t want to get into trouble." "Will you come back?" Ajita asked. "Yes, I�ll come back, I promise. Hey, watch this." Ajita watched in awe as the woman lifted her body off the ground, higher and higher, and began to fly around. "You can fly!" Ajita squealed. "James, look! She can fly!" "Fly, shmy. I don�t care. Go to bed, Ajita!" "Are you a goddess? My mommy is a goddess." "Oh, is she?" "Yes. I hear Daddy call Mommy a goddess all the time." For some reason, the woman looked sad for a minute. "No, I�m not a goddess. I�am an angel. I visit you all the time, but only at night. And only you and your brother can see me." "Ajita?" a voice called from down the hall. "Oops!" the angel whispered. She kissed her gloved fingers and pressed them to Ajita�s cheek. "Goodbye!" And she flew off just as the door opened. "Ajita, why are you at that window?" her mother asked. "And why are you in this room?" "I�I couldn�t sleep. I came in here to talk to Jamie � er, James." Ajita replied, not quite lying. Her mother knelt in front of her, and locked her blue eyes with Ajita. "Worried about your first day of school, huh?" Ajita found a way out. "Mommy, you won�t be there!" "I know, sweetheart, but I cannot teach kindergarten at your school if you and your brother are going to be in the class. it isn�t fair to the other students." She kissed her daughter�s forehead, then stroked her hair. "I will be at the big kids� school just a few buildings down, and I will pick you up every day. Now come on," she added as she took Ajita�s hand. "Your brother is sleeping." Ororo closed the window, then looked down at her son. James� eyes were shut so tightly, they were squinted together. His breathing was slow and deep � and very, very theatrical. A smile tugged at Ororo�s lips. She walked to the doorway, then stopped and called, "Good night, James." "Good night, Mommy," her son replied, not missing a beat. And he is supposed to be the intelligent one! Ororo thought as she walked her daughter to her bedroom. * "So�what are you thinking?" Remy drained the last of his beer and sighed. "Another, sil vous plait." "Remy," Adam stated laughing. "Drowning your sorrows in liquor is hardly going to make you feel better. May I remind you that you do work tomorrow, and losing you to a huge block of ice landing on your head because you were too drunk to se it is hardly an image I want to see anytime soon. What would I tell your wife and kids?" "Another," Remy repeated stubbornly, almost childishly. Adam sighed. "Fine. As long as you�re only walking home." He tossed Remy another bottle, which he barely caught. "What�s on your mind?" "My kids start school tomorrow," Remy muttered. "Kindergarten." "You�re not happy? That�s two children out of daycare, you know." "Dere too young." "They�re five. That�s standard kindergarten age." "An� why should they go to Harare Academy? Why can� dey go to public school like any other kid? I don� want dem aroun� dem high brow rich kids. I don� wan� dem getting� any bright ideas. I�m not rich, and neither is Ro, an� I don� want dem aroun� dose damned kids!" He had been fighting with Ororo about it for a week, and the two barely spoke nowadays. "Remy, Harare Academy has a fantastic reputation of being an outstanding school. And with Ororo teaching there, your children go for free. It would be ridiculous for them not to go." Adam pulled another beer from his cooler. "Be honest, Remy. Is this about your oldest kids starting school, or about your wife having another child?" The words hit Remy like a bucket of ice water. For a minute, he had been too tipsy to remember. Now he recalled why he was sucking down beers. Ororo was pregnant yet again. Another baby. Another child. "Y�know, ever since you decided to practice medicine again, my wife has been pregnan� more times than I can count." "Probably because you�re drunk, son," Adam laughed. "This will only be her fourth pregnancy." "Only! I liked you better when you ran a photography school an� some�" his mind whirled � "�other shit. You sure you ain� puttin� somet�in in my wife�s water?" "Ororo is quite�well�fertile. And with her blood work and her mutant powers, it would be quite impossible to place her on a birth control that actually worked. I can keep trying, if you�d like." "I�d like! I�d like!" "At this rate, though, your best bet is to just stop having sex with her." Remy sat up, completely sobered by the thought. "Ha! I�d rather her have ten more kids!" "At this rate, she just might." Adam laughed heartily. "Mr. Sex Machine! This was the man whose wife wouldn�t touch him in the beginning! Soooo�exactly what position did you have her in four weeks ago, Mr. Sex Machine?" "Pick one," Remy muttered. He rubbed his head, which was pounding. So was his heart. Another child. Another child. It wasn�t that Remy didn�t love his four children � he did. He remembered his feelings of unprecedented joy when his oldest children, James and Ajita were born. Next came Leila Jean, a black-haired, toffee colored little girl with dazzling gray eyes. And just when Remy thought all of his children would look more like Ororo�s ancestors than his, along came David Jaffe, who was two shades darker than chalk. What seemed like eons ago, he thought that being a husband and father would bore him to tears. He had been a swinging bachelor, an X-Man, free to come and go as he chose. Blasting enemies by day; getting drunk by night, and having all the loving he wanted in-between seemed like the ideal life. But that was, in fact, eons ago. He had fallen deeply in love with a woman he had known for what seemed like forever, moved to the other side of the world, gotten a job that required more strength than anything, and fathered four children. It was far from unfulfilling, or even boring. He had watched when James scored his first football goal, kicking the black-and-white checkered ball from what seemed like halfway down the field. He was there during Ajita�s first violin recital. And he had fetched water and cold towels for what seemed like endless nights when Leila Jean had strep throat and her temperature ran up to 102 degrees. And then there was Ororo. Remy had never thought he would be satisfied with only one woman, but Ororo had taught him what true love was all about. Throughout their six-year marriage, they had gone though a million tough times, but had overcome and evolved. Remy had learned; for every night he slept on the couch in the early years, or every quiet family dinner over disagreements, he had learned. Now he had to go home to her. To hold her. To feel her hair against his cheek. To touch her ebony skin and tell her she could have twenty more of his children and he would be happy, that his children could go to Harare Academy and he wouldn�t care. "I�m out, homme." Remy stood up, and the room began to spin. "You sure you can make it home?" Adam questioned. "Yeah. T�anks fo� the beer. I�ll bring you some money fo� it tomorrow." "No, no." "Adam, I always drink up all yo� beer." "What, you think I can�t afford it?" "Lemme guess. You own a beer factory, too." "I never drink alone; you know that, Remy." Adam patted Remy on the back. "Actually, if you�d agree to an office position in my factory, I�d consider the debt repaid." "Office position?" "Yes�how does assistant vice-president sound to you?" Assistant vice-president! "I-it sound great. What do I do?" "Honestly? Honestly, Remy? You sit on your ass and let money enter your pocket. Just show up tomorrow. I�ll tell you everything you need to know." Remy smiled as he left. The crisp night air filled his lungs and sobered his mind. Not that he would�ve not made it home anyway. He was being watched, after all. TBC |