First Saturday in May - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Keri Wilson
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 1

"Remy! Ah can't believe yah got us up on Millionaire's Row on Derby Day." Rogue's eyes danced with amusement. She was just teasing. She knew he had connections all over the place.

"Do anyt'ing f' you, cherie." He smiled charmingly. Remy was glad to see Rogue happy again.

Recent months hadn't been easy on either of them, leaving both of them with a lingering depression, despite the renewal of their relationship. It had drawn them out of the depths of despair and touches of bitterness, however. This trip had lightened both of their moods considerably. Remy would have to thank Sam for bringing it to mind.

Sam had mentioned wishing he had been able to go to the Kentucky Derby, just once when he was a teenager, and partied in the Infield. Even as far out in country as he grew up, going to the Kentucky Derby Infield was a sort of rite of passage.

That had sparked off Rogue's talking about how she had always wanted to go and see the horses run. She didn't care anything about the debauchery in the Infield. She wanted to be in a pretty dress and hat and see everything. Remy knew she meant the celebrities, the horses, and winning horse with the blanket of roses. They'd already been back to the paddock and seen all the horses today.

Remy had extended the invitation to anyone that wanted to go. Ororo, Kitty, Bobby, and Jubilee, Sam and Paige accepted the invitation.

Sam wasn't as interested in the wild infield anymore, plus his mom would kill him if he went there, and twice over if he let Paige go there. Sam didn't want to risk an off chance of running into Lila in Millionaires Row, so they bought Grandstand seats.

Paige, like Rogue, was dressed in a summer dress and a hat. The Grandstand was really the place for the non-wealthy people who wanted to dress up and come to the Derby. Kentuckians mostly occupied it. Sam sighed; it was nice to hear voices that sounded much more like home. How long had it been now since he had been back to Kentucky?

Mama and most of the family were in Lexington now. Only 70 miles from Louisville. He and Paige were going to Lexington to be with the family a bit before they had to go back. Back to their other families. Dysfunctional families Sam half smirked, half sighed.

Sam didn't know if he would ever feel the same way about Tabitha again, maybe Berto was better for her anyway, it was too confusing to sort out yet. And his sister Paige had relationship troubles as well. From what he had been able to piece together it had something to do with that British kid Jono. It wasn't a serious a breach as his own relationship problem, it was more the kid was afraid of hurting Paige with his powers, he did fully smirk then, it was like Rogue kept telling Gambit.

Sam didn't know if he could be as patient as Remy was with Rogue. Paige didn't know how to react to her boyfriend's pushing her way. She thought it was a real rejection- Jono didn't exactly know what he was doing either. Sam shook his head, funny how you can see what the difficulties were in everybody else's relationships but not your own.

Kitty accepted the invitation for Millionaires Row but refused to wear a hat. She watched Gambit and Rogue look at each other in that way that people soppy in love do, and felt envious. Then felt guilty about it. They had so much more to overcome than other X-couples, and still have a lot to overcome. Compared to what Gambit and Rogue had to go through, I had it easy with Pete Wisdom. Maybe that was the problem, everything was too easy. She regretted breaking up with Pete now. She still cared for him. It had been a moment of idiocy. Maybe she should call him...

Ororo looked like an African queen, regal and elegant. Many people on Millionaire's Row took her for something like that. Her cultured sounding African dialect only added to this. Ororo was enjoying herself on one level, but other things occupied her mind as well. She wondered about Jean and Scott. They hadn't been in touch in months. Bishop, missing for months, no one knew what had happened to him. Forge, he hadn't contacted the X-men in months, as well. The professor, his behavior was not as it should be. Could there still be a bit of Onslaught in him?

Bobby and Jubilee had decided to head straight for the den of debauchery. Bobby's job was to supposedly keep Jubilee away from the worst of it, being that she was only 16 and still a minor. But Jubilee had slipped away from him within in seconds. There would be hell to pay from Emma, Sean, and Logan... Oh well. No sense in spoiling the day completely yet. He did come here to take a break from taking care of his dad. In fact his dad had insisted he go, that he wouldn't break while his son took a well-deserved weekend off.

Jubilee laughed at how easy it was to give Drake the slip. She took a slip of an illegally obtained mint julep and nearly spat it out. It was godawful. Oh well, now she knew. Jubilee watched all the drunken craziness going on around her more bemused than she would have been last year. None of these kids had been tortured at the hands of Operation Zero Tolerance. While there was no real physical torture she had nearly let herself bust into fragments from the emotional horrors they inflicted on her every day. Holograms of the X-men tortured and killed... She cut off the terrible images and refocused on the revelry around her.

She took a gulp of the mint julep and swallowed fast. It wasn't as bad that way.

Rogue shrieked with joy, she had the Win, Place and Show horses. She bet on the horse she wanted for the winner- Vagabond, Remy's favorite for place- Spirited Gal, and Kitty's favorite for show- Rude. She hugged Remy and Kitty, her eyes sparkling with delight. Then Rogue ran off to get her winnings.

Kitty and Remy smirked at each other. They were out two dollars. No wins for them. Remy had been lucky in some of the earlier races but struck out on the Derby itself. Kitty had prudently not bet on any race but the Derby.

Kitty shook her head at her own silliness, why did she think a horse that reminded her of Pete would win. Of course he came in third, she laughed.

All day kept thinking she saw Pete in passing crowds, but of course it wasn't.

Remy had noticed Kitty's preoccupation and had turned on the charm for both Rogue and her. He told them Cajun stories that had them laughing till their stomachs hurt. Rogue begged him to stop then so they wouldn't get sick from eating and laughing at the same time.

Rogue thought it was awful sweet of Remy to notice Kitty's loneliness and include her in this trip and then to entertain her with funny stories. She hadn't really known Kitty's boyfriend, but she could tell that Kitty still loved Pete Wisdom.

Another X-woman foolishly breaking up with her boyfriend for a dumb reason. Rogue smirked, was this normal stupidity in relationships or were the X-men worse than average. She hoped one time was enough to learn her lesson. Remy had the world in patience with her problems; she should give him the same benefit.

She started to drift into the "if only" territory, but gave her head a sharp shake and told herself to stop. No need to wallow in your problems, that's not the way tah solve them. That was a lesson both Remy and she were still learning. Him with his past and blaming himself for every thing that ever went wrong in his life. And me, ah don't try hard enough, run away or wallow in mah problems. The professor's always been too busy tah help us, so Remy and ah decided we'd do our best tah help each other. So far it had helped a lot and had the additional benefit of drawing them closer. Their relationship was stronger than ever before.

Ororo wouldn't admit it to anyone but secretly she had enjoyed being treated as if she was a foreign dignitary. People were polite and even the press seem to think she must be the wife of some African leader. One reporter asked her what country was she from and how did she like her visit to America. She restrained her laughter and honestly told him she had grown up in Egypt and Kenya and that she liked the United States. She didn't mention her name or that she had lived in the US for several years, much less that she was actually a mutant who could control the weather. She told him nothing exciting so she sincerely doubted he would even mention her in his report.

"Darn it. I thought sure Spirited Gal would win. Fillies generally have good luck, I think, in the Derby." Paige said dejectedly.

"Hey, mah horse came in dead last Paige, don't feel bad." Sam smiled lopsidedly.

Paige grinned, "Yah never did have any luck on the Kentucky Derby. I remember when we were kids back in Cumberland, yah never got the winner either."

"Yeah, rub it in, why don't yah." Sam said ruefully.

"Hey we still had a good time though, that's what's important."

The siblings grinned at each other, and both said: "Winnin' woulda made it even better."

Jubilee had considered betting on a horse, but then got too drunk to care. Getting drunk turned out not to be as much fun as she thought it would be. Instead of blotting out the bad stuff, it became all she could think about. She eventually sat near the fence and just kind of felt nothing but a numbing sorrow.

Bobby was not surprised that his horse came in fourth. He had bet on it to come in Win, Place, or Show. He was sure it would do one of the three. He sighed, but of course not. He let himself get loose but not drunk. Just enough to really have fun but not be out of control. Enjoyed the sights, flirted with some college girls, who actually seemed kind of interested in him. Too bad he was a mutant not a normal guy, he might have been able to have some fun dates with them.

Bobby decided he better go looking for Jubilee. When he found her, his heart sank. She was obviously drunk. Everyone would kill him. Then he felt even worse. Jubilee was just staring out at nothing but tears were running down her face. He could tell she had been crying for quite a while. She looked terrible: eyes bloodshot from drink and crying, red runny nose, and that dull look on her face.

"Hey Jubes, time to go home." He helped her stand up. Then she vomited right on his shoes. Bobby cursed, then shut up. It was his fault she was drunk. He helped her walk out to the car, having to stop and let her throw up twice. Once they got to the car he asked her: "Hey, you want to talk about it? I'll listen and I promise I won't tell anyone what you told me."

Jubilee looked at him blearily and said, "Naw Drake. Don't want to talk about it." The effort of getting a coherent sentence spoken wore her out and she fumbled to open the door.

Bobby said: "Hey I'll do that for you." Once Jubilee was sitting down in the car, her glazed stare returned. Bobby made sure the window was open all the way on her side and waited for the others to join them in the parking lot.

Maybe coming here wasn't the best idea for either of them, Bobby thought. If he came again and Jubilee did he'd let someone else be her babysitter. She was almost grown anyway. If she messed up it should be her responsibility. Yeah that speech will go over like a lead balloon. He was in deep trouble because he acted like an irresponsible idiot.

Well, may as well start apologizing now. "Jubilee, I'm sorry I was such an idiot. I should have kept you from getting drunk."

"S'alright Drake. Wanted to get drunk. See what it's like." Tired again, Jubilee lapsed into silence.

Bobby could sort of understand that, but because of the crying he knew there was more to it. But she doesn't want to talk about it.

He said, "Not as much fun as they play it up to be. I know, did the same thing, got drunk to see what it was like. I ended up throwing up too. And had a big hangover the next morning. Decided getting drunk wasn't my idea of fun."

"Not mine either." Jubilee sighed loudly.

Bobby grinned. "We've got something in common now Jubilee."

"Just great." Jubilee said, but there was a hint of a smile on her face.

"Feeling a bit more together now?"

"Yeah." Hey Drake, we can go ahead and leave now. We don't have to stay and wait. I know you don't want them to find out and neither do I. Let's drive around or something. Till I'm sober."

"Fine with me." Bobby was relieved. He was off the hook for this one, but he'd take the responsibility of taking care of Jubilee more seriously the rest of today.

He sighed, responsibility, something he needed to learn. He grimaced, growing up was a pain. But he wasn't a kid anymore, he was in his later 20's. He didn't like to think about how close 30 was now. Jubilee was lucky, she still had time to screw up and all.

Bobby snorted, come on, you're kidding yourself. Jubilee took a lot more responsibility for her actions than you did at her age. Do I even take responsibility now? He thought for a few minutes and realized that actually he had. Not as much as he should have, but better than he used to. he smiled faintly, maybe he was growing up after all.

This is a work of fanfiction Characters belong to Marvel. Churchill Downs belongs to Louisville, Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby belongs to Churchill Downs, as do Millionaire's Row, the Grandstand, Paddock and infamous Infield. No profit was made from this. The original idea for this story has been in my head for a couple of years; finally while watching the KY Derby coverage this year I finally got a full story.