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Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
 
 
 

The Companion Picture - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Dandelion
Last updated: 12/03/2009 06:26:08 PM

Chapter 6

Rogue was wondering how on earth she let Forge talk her into this one. She walked down the halls of X-Factor headquarters and thought about making a break for it while the going was good.

<What're you afraid of, girl?> She asked herself. <You're just gonna talk to th' woman.>

She played with a stray strand of hair and wondered how Kurt was faring. He and Mystique had gone off together and hadn't been heard from since.

<Kurt can take care'a himself.> She told herself. <Stop tryin' t'avoid the issue. And the issue is you don't want this shrink to get inside your head. It's crowded enough as it is.> She paused to look at a painting on the wall, hugging herself as she did so. The glass over the painting faintly reflected her face.

She stared at herself. <Who is in there?>

She called silently. <Ah know Ah am. Who else?>

The run-down theater in Seattle flashed across her vision and she felt fear grip her very soul. She closed her eyes. <Remy, why are you so afraid? Why couldn't you tell me? Was it really that bad?>

She looked at her reflection again. <Yes. It was.> She could hear his voice as clear as if he were standing right behind her. <Worse than you could imagine, chere. Far worse.> She knew her running was as much a part of him within her as it was herself.

She lost herself in the reflection of her eyes. <How far can Ah go? Ah can't keep runnin' from Remy. He was just startin' to stand up to what he was. Ah should know better than anyone what it feels like to get your mistakes, your very darkest worst mistakes, thrown in your face 'fore you're ready. How many people did Ah shut out simply 'cause Ah was so afraid of my past?>

She hugged herself tighter. <Ah can't be with him, though. Ah can't look at his face and know that Ah can never touch him again. Ah have to do this. Ah have to do this so that Ah can get some peace.>

She squared her shoulders. Forge had recommended the discussion with the therapist as a preliminary test, to see if she was a good risk for the plan he had in mind. Another implantation process, but to suppress her absorption power while still allowing her to use her siphoned powers of flight, strength, and partial invulnerability. The implant worked with the brain waves and Forge had designed it very specifically. So he wanted Rogue to be as certain of her own powers as she was about controlling them.

Rogue had sort of lost Forge when he delved into the technical aspects of the device, so she had agreed to talk to the therapist before he could continue.

She wondered now if that wasn't what Forge had been planning all along. She wouldn't have been surprised.

She reached the door marked 12A and read the nameplate. 'Dr. Roberta Laibern'

Rogue opened the door and entered. The woman behind the desk was a very petite woman, with dark brown hair with a gray streak at her left temple. She was flipping through some files casually when she looked up and greeted Rogue with a soft smile. "Good afternoon, Rogue." She stood up and offered her hand. Rogue shook it cautiously wondering at this point more than ever why she ever let Forge talk her into this.

"Please, have a seat." She gestured to a chair.

"What about the couch?" Rogue eyed the soft-looking ivory couch.

"You can sit there if you're more inclined. Whatever makes you comfortable." Dr. Laibern sat down and opened the file to the beginning. "Let me see here, I must say that Forge's records of you are rather extensive. I understand you worked together a while back."

"Well, Ah guess you could say that. Ah don't know him very well." Rogue sat down on the couch, secretly delighting in the softness of the cushions.

Dr. Laibern smiled again. "You're from the South?"

Rogue nodded, feeling as though her accent had revealed far too much about herself.

"My mother is from Georgia, where are you from?"

"Mississippi."

Dr. Laibern nodded, "A beautiful state."

Rogue nodded in a rather non-committal fashion.

"Forge said you were a mutant."

Dr. Laibern nodded again. "Yes, I am. I'm an empath."

Rogue frowned deeply at that. "Ah don't know if Ah much care for that. How do Ah know ya aren't manipulating my feelings?"

Dr. Laibern looked thoughtful. "It's a valid question, Rogue. I don't know if my saying that I don't will ease your doubts. But I'll tell you how I use my powers if you will feel better for the knowing." She leaned back. "I can read feelings, I can read tension and calm. For example, right now, I can tell that you are nervous and apprehensive - I can only assume those feelings are drawn from this session. However, I can also sense an underlying anxiety that is completely separate from the aforementioned feelings. From the information Forge has given me, I gather that is concerning your mutant power.

"I *can* manipulate emotions, Rogue, but as a psychiatrist, I find that completely unethical. I have been driven to do so, but only in the cases of a patient being a danger to himself or others. Since, you are certainly not in that state, it is not necessary to manipulate your emotions."

Rogue was caught between feeling very suspicious about Dr. Laibern's mutant power and being rather impressed that she was able to discern so much, so quickly, so accurately. "My mutant power is absorption. Skin on skin contact causes me to draw out mem'ries and powers from whoever Ah touch. Some people get better. Some don't. It all kinda depends."

Dr. Laibern made a note in her file. "You can't control this power."

"No. That's why Ah'm here."

Dr. Laibern sat back in her chair. "You've had this mutation since thirteen?"

Rogue nodded.

"And you're how old now?"

"Twenty-one."

"That's a long time to live with this power and not have sought help elsewhere."

"Ah did, but it didn't work."

"What prompted you to seek Forge's help?"

"Ah guess that eight years is long enough." Rogue leaned back and looked at the ceiling.

Dr. Laibern could feel that Rogue was hiding a great deal of pain. And even deeper was.. well, she couldn't feel that far just yet.

Rogue would reveal what she would as time went on. "Could I ask, Rogue, why no one seems to know your real name?"

Rogue smiled to herself. Still, after all this time, no one knew who she was before she was Rogue. At times, she wondered if that was a good thing or just more running. "You gonna tell me that the government hasn't come up with anything in that regard?"

Dr. Laibern smiled. "I'm not saying that at all. I imagine that their resources could come up with a few names." She didn't mention the fact that she held a list Forge had devised of possible identities for Rogue.

"Ah guess Ah've always been afraid of people knowin' me too well." Rogue swung her feet up onto the couch and put her hands behind her head. "Ah've done a lot of things Ah regret and Ah guess Ah always figured that if people knew me too well, they wouldn't much care for me or what Ah've done."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Well, Ah don't much care for what Ah've done. An awful lot has happened to me in my life. Ah suppose it's made me grow up a little too fast. At times Ah act just like a kid again. Ah tend to overreact to things, and then at other times, Ah don't react at all. Ah don't know. It's hard to live like that. You never know how you're going to react to somethin'."

"What would you consider stable?"

"Knowin' that the people you care about won't judge you for what you done. Knowin' you can trust people and knowin' that nothin' will change that."

"That's a very normal desire. I can't say that I know of many people who don't want that."

"Normal." Rogue smiled to herself. "S'funny, but Ah pretty much gave up long ago on havin' anything normal in my life."

"Why?"

"Cause Ah'm a mutant. A mutant who can't touch people."

"Tell me Rogue, what kind of support from friends would you gain from being able to touch that you don't already have?"

"Ah can't go through life havin' people shy away from me. Ah can't hug people without worryin' whether my cheek may touch theirs."

Rogue's mind flashed that glorious moment when the world was coming to an end and she pulled Remy to her. She could feel, for that one brief moment, every ounce of love he had for her. Even though the darkness within him had found its way inside her, she could still feel the love. She felt lost simply because she knew she couldn't feel that love again. "Ah'll never be able to touch Remy again." Her voice cracked. Rogue went very silent then, she clapped her hands over her eyes and Dr. Laibern could see he was fighting down her emotions.

Dr. Laibern could see very clearly at this moment. She could see Rogue's anger and fear, she could see it centered around whoever Remy was. Most of all, Rogue's loss of love was the most vibrant feeling. The loss and the desire to get it back.

"Do you know who Remy is?"

Forge looked up and figured he'd never finish the brief he had been working on. Dr. Laibern was making herself comfortable in one of the chairs. "Remy? I guess I know who that is. One of the X-men. 'Ro's light-fingered buddy."

Roberta smiled. Forge obviously didn't like the man.

"If I recall, he and Rogue had a thing going."

"Don't like him, do you Forge?"

"It's not that I don't *like* him." Forge seemed uncertain. "I mean, he's very likable. Just a little too. Storm adores him." The dark look returned.

"I would never have figured you for the jealous type, Forge."

"I'm not jealous!" Forge frowned. "All right, I am. This guy is smooth. He's good too, we went toe to toe for a time." Forge shook his head. "I had a gun, he had a bo-stick. He deflected all of my shots and managed to deflect them right back at me, so they ended up damaging my parts."

"Impressive."

"Yeah. I didn't figure him sticking around the X-men, but he did and he's suffered right along with them."

"You still don't like him."

"Oh, he's all right." Forge admitted. "It just makes me nervous, a guy looking the way he does, bein' that tight with 'Ro."

Roberta smirked playfully. "Forge, you're a Neanderthal when it comes to Ororo. You just want to drag her back to your cave and butt heads with any other male who gets too close."

Forge looked flattered.

"Anyway," Roberta continued. "Let me update you on my session with Rogue. She holds most people at arms length because she doesn't want them to be disappointed in her or her past. She has very normal desires in most cases, but the deepest desire is to have the ability to have love and be able to love 'normally'. It's a very interesting situation. This is a young woman who has friends, has something to fight for. She has done a great deal with her life, some good, some bad. But the fact that she cannot physically touch another human being has done a great deal of damage to her."

"Damage?" Forge didn't like the sound of that.

"Imagine, Forge, that you have loved Ororo all this time."

"Easy enough."

"Now, imagine that in all that time of being with her and loving her, you couldn't touch her."

Forge frowned. "Unthinkable."

"That's how this poor girl lives. And not only can she not touch the man she loves, she can't touch her friends. She can't touch anyone. Ever."

"I have to admit, I never really thought of her situation before."

Roberta looked at her notes. "She's surprisingly well adjusted despite the situation. However, she tends to cover up the pain, and that's dangerous because she will get to a point where the emotions burst out on their own. That won't help her any."

"What about helping her? How does she look for the implantation process?"

"I think that she has the desire to fix her control problem. She is a very strong-willed young woman. I would like to talk with her more and help her through the uncertainties she has about her relationships, but she appears to be a good risk, so far."

Forge stood up. "Wonderful, I'll go talk to her now. I'll walk you out."

 

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