Snap Shot - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Alexis and Karen Bruce
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 1

With a grimace, Gambit looked at the photograph that stood on his sister-in- law's dressing table. It showed Rogue, Mercy, Bobby and himself standing in a park on bright, sunny day. In the backdrop, a clear stream rippled and murmured, fringed on either side by long grass and reeds. Trees, white and heavy with flowers, formed a canopy above them. It would have been a beautiful picture for a beautiful, summer day, if it had not been for one tiny but significant detail. Mercy - he swallowed, feeling suddenly nauseous - Mercy had her hand on Bobby's butt and a smirk on her face that suggested it was one of the nicest butts of her acquaintance.

A low groan escaped his lips. When Tante Mattie had suggested a united Guild family picnic, he had been pleased. Both of them had been determined to get the Guilds and the people in them to behave more like the family they had to be now. With the Guilds being as small as they were now, it was a perfect opportunity to try and forge the ties that would prevent another civil war. They had known it would not be easy. Ants were the least of their problems, to put it mildly. He had fully expected the plastic knives to be used in ways that their inventor had not intended. And, having witnessed first hand the murderous potential of a boisenberry pie, he shuddered to think of what the assassins and thieves might do with icecream. Still, he had not expected Bobby and Mercy to spend the whole day groping each other in public - and private! - places.

Remy sighed shaking his head. Once Mercy set her mind (or hands) to something (or someone), there was no point in trying to dissuade her. He had known there would be trouble when Mercy paid him a call at the X-Men's Westchester mansion. She said that she had news of the Guild that could not wait until he returned. It turned out that it could have waited or she could have called, but her curiosity was piqued. She wanted to see his "other life". He suspected that that had a great deal to do with the spandex costumes she knew the X-Men wore. As his sister-in-law was fond of saying, she liked to know what she was getting before she brought it home with her. She had seen her lawyer about suing the inventor of baggies for a) false advertising and b) emotional distress. Fortunately, he had advised her against the case.

Clearly, however, Mercy was a woman who stuck by her principles, such as they were. She could not be accused of hiding her flame under a bushel. Her arrival caused a stir at the Xavier Mansion, mostly due to her . . . attire. Remy was not sure whether he could call what she was wearing clothes. It seemed more like paint or possibly a tattoo. She had teamed a loud, scarlet shirt with the barest suggestion of a leather skirt. Even the top's vee-neck was decidedly a capital letter. If she had been an assassin, he might have thought the dress was a secret weapon, because she was certainly dressed to kill.

As it was, Bobby was her first victim . . . .