Woohoo! We're back with more of the 714 Marvel Universe! If you missed Volume 15, you should definitely check it out. It's "Face Your Demons. No, Really" on Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile. This time, with Sinister dead, you'd think that everyone could get a breath but YOU WOULD BE WRONG. ;)

Chapter 1: "Waspberries and 'Neversaries"

It was a hot August evening, so all the windows were open, and Kate and Annie had two fans blowing on them as they were doing the hot-summer-day approximation of snuggling together. Annie was due any day now, and Kate was only a few weeks behind, so both of them had reached the point of pure misery and not wanting to move, especially in the summer heat.

To make matters worse, Annie was a few days late — and it was her anniversary. She'd been hoping not to be pregnant through the big day, so she was feeling particularly miserable as she and Kate watched Steel Magnolias together, more or less hiding from people, the heat, and everything else.

They should have known something was up when Elin peeked around the corner for just a moment — then disappeared back the way she came.

A few minutes later, the twins very carefully made their ways over to Kate and their mother, walking slowly and carrying a bowl for each of them with what was very obviously fresh peach cobbler, complete with homemade whipped cream.

Annie's eyes lit up when she saw the two little ones and their treats, and after she took the bowl from Chance, she kissed his forehead. "Thank you, sweetheart," she told him as he beamed proudly — and Kate was snuggling Charlie on the other side of her. Chance watched Annie carefully until she took a bite, and when she grinned around the spoon, he giggled delightedly.

"Happy neversary!" he told her as he planted a little kiss on her cheek and Charlie carefully crawled over Kate to do the same.

"This is so thoughtful," Annie said, still beaming at both of them. "Thank you so much!"

"Who helped you make it?" Kate asked with a little smirk that said she already knew exactly who it was — which was only widening when both of the twins started to giggle madly with little fingers pressed to their lips.

"Shhhhush." Charlie put a hand over Chance's mouth when he looked like he might say something. "It's a supwise! Secwet for your neversary."

"We got to help!" Chance said when he pushed her hand away from his mouth. "And we got to have wasberries and cream because we did a good job too!"

"You always do a good job," Kate said, grinning as Annie rubbed noses with her little boy.

"You are so thoughtful," Annie said again.

Kate was giggling with Charlie as she pretended to be having a hard time getting the peaches and cream in her mouth, dropping the food back in her bowl as soon as she got close until Charlie was giggling uncontrollably and half trying to feed Kate herself as Kate finally took a bite normally and grinned at the little girl. "This is a little different than you do it," she told Annie over Charlie's head.

Annie shook her head. "That's what happens when I'm not around to keep order," she said with a teasing sigh.

"And we're all suffering for the loss of our master chef," Kate teased right back.

"What did y'all do without me?" Annie laughed, and Kate shrugged.

"Dunno. I wasn't an X-Man very long before you came and rescued us from Bobby," she teased, and Annie laughed outright at that.

The twins were beaming at seeing their mom in a much better mood and looking very proud that they'd had a hand in it as they watched the two very pregnant women teasing each other. Chance tapped on his mom's shoulder for a moment with wide eyes. "Mommy, what is your order?" he asked.

"My order?"

He nodded, and Charlie started to giggle. "You gotta order food, Mommy," Charlie tried to explain.

Chance nodded. "We can help with dinner!"

Kate and Annie glanced at each other with barely restrained giggles on seeing the two very earnest twins waiting for their mom's 'order,' so Annie put on her most dramatic thoughtul face before she nodded slowly. "You know… this peach cobbler's got me cravin' pulled pork."

"Pull pork, okay," Chance nodded.

"And wemonade!" Charlie said before Annie could say anything as she climbed over Kate so she could get back down. "With wasberries!"

Both of the twins gave their mom one more hug and rushed off to go find K so they could give her Annie's 'order.'

"This should be interesting," Annie said with a little smirk.

"Which part — the little waiter and waitress or the food?" Kate giggled.

"The Northerner making Southern food… I don't think that's normal."

"Well, this isn't a normal household," Kate teased her as she popped another spoonful of cobbler into her mouth, both of them now in considerably better moods than they were before.

Downstairs in the kitchen, there was plenty of hustle and bustle as not only the twins but all of the tiniest mansion residents were trying to help as best they could — and get rewarded with raspberries. Even some of the Avengers' kids, like Zoe and Gerry, were in on it.

K was managing to keep them all busy too, and after hearing what Annie had requested, K let Gerry squeeze the lemons, while Chance was excited to mash up raspberries with Elin as K scribbled down a few things on a list and handed it to Scott.

"You know what she likes to go with it, so just pick up whatever and I'll make it happen," she said calmly, gently directing Sying and Krissy to get them to pour sugar in the big pitcher for the lemonade. "Probably more lemons too; these kids are going to drink this batch before we hit afternoon."

Scott's little runaway, Jana, was nervously trying to help out too — if nothing else, helping to clean up whatever little messes the kids made before they got too far out of hand. "And more paper towels," she said quickly as she was trying to get some berry juice off of Sying's face. "Please," she added just as fast.

Scott nodded her way with a little smirk. "Got it," he called out before he headed out the door to do his part in making Annie more comfortable — and to leave K and Jana to the small zoo of kids.

"Don't worry," K said in an easy tone. "Noh and Jubes are coming back in a little bit, and they'll grab a few more grown-ups and take the ones that want to go out to the pool."

"I don't mind working," Jana said quickly.

"Good," K replied. "You're going to help me here once the kids are out of the way. Has Annie started teaching you how to cook yet?"

Jana blushed a little. "We, um, we did a few things when she was still up to it," she admitted. "She's been real nice to me."

"Good," K said with a nod. "I think she likes you."

"She likes everyone," Jana shrugged.

"Right, keep that attitude up and you'll have to hang out with Kurt just so he can give you an adjustment," K replied without looking up at her. "I'm sure Annie will want to correct you on the 'right' way to cook when she is back on her feet, but … no self respecting Michigan girl can go on in life without knowing a few of our local things. Just wait until it's cold out. I'll get you when the snow flies."

Jana studied K for a moment before she nodded. "I'll have a pretty full schedule," she said. "Scott wants me in tactics, and I want to take more self-defense stuff."

"Good," she replied. "You have your schedule figured out, then?"

"More or less."

"So, aside from the 'normal' classes, tactics, and self defense — is that all you have lined up?"

"I want to take Rachel's class on telepathic self-defense too," she said. "Get everything covered. Anything I might run into later."

"Sound like you're jockeying for a spot on the team," K observed, finally peeking up at her.

"I could do it," Jana said with her chin thrust out. "I can prove it."

"Yeah? We'll see," K said with a little smirk.

"You will see," Jana said with a decisive nod. "I'm going to practice every day — as much as I can."

"Good," K replied. "If you think you need any extra coaching, come find me."

"Really?" She brightened up substantially. "That — that would be really good."

"I was considering offering a crash course on women's self defense if there was an interest," K admitted.

"You should," Jana said with a gleam in her eye. "Half these kids around here don't know the first thing about anything — you should."

"It'd be a little different focus than Logan's class," K said. "And totally different methods."

"I can handle it," Jana insisted.

"I hope so; the guys I have in mind to help won't be easy to fight through," K told her. "And I might make some of the women on staff take it too."

"Is there an age limit?" Jana asked. "I mean ... I'm almost fourteen now…"

"No, you should learn it and get it ingrained enough to be something you don't have to think about. Repetition until it's a matter of muscle memory. Easier if you're younger," K pointed out.

"Great. Can I bring Leslie Ann?" Jana asked, starting to get excited now.

"As long as her mom and dad okay it, and Scott okays the class — which, he probably will once I tell him it's going to be all about women's self defense and rape prevention." K shrugged a little bit. "Gotta do something when it's too cold to ride."

"Oh yeah." Jana nodded. "She's lucky. Dad like that — uncle like that. They're all about keeping her safe."

K let out a little breath as she nodded. The kids had found their way out of the kitchen and into the living room, playing cars quietly as they wound down from the excitement of the morning's baking. "What's your story, anyhow?" K asked.

Jana fell into a frown and shrugged up both shoulders. "Typical street rat. Not much to tell," she said.

"Yeah, kinda figured," she said. "Guessing orphaned?"

"Yeah, I went through the system for a while, but I ditched when I was a kid," she said. "Foster dad sucked."

"I hear you there," she said with a little shake of her head. "Lucky you to end up here instead of somewhere else."

She shrugged again. "Probably should have been locked up when I was a kid."

"Don't talk to me about that kind of nonsense," she said seriously. "I'll sic Noh on you with the 'should have beens'."

Jana looked surprised "It's the truth. You heard about what happened with Dr. Essex. It's not like he's the first scumbag I made deals with."

"And you heard about what happened with the Kree, right?" K challenged as she finished cleaning up the counter. "And likely half the other crap that's been publicized. Just don't."

"Yeah, I guess," she said. She shrugged up both shoulders quickly. "It's a good place to be." She glanced at K for a moment and then whispered like a secret, "I'm sorta hoping to stay."

K smirked at her for a moment. "I don't see any reason that you can't," she said before Noh and Jubilee came bursting in, ready to take all the little ones out on their swimming adventure. They had swimsuits, inflatable water wings, pool toys, goggles — the works.

It wasn't long at all before Jana and K could hear through the open kitchen window the loud laughter and screaming from the pool, including little Zoe's high-pitched half-giggled "Da!" — her one and only word she knew — which she kept repeating over and over again as her dad threw her up in the air.

After a full day of being totally pampered, Annie was in much better spirits and was happily enjoying snuggling with Scott. K seemed to have taken the whole day into her own hands, sending Scott off as soon as dinner was over with promises that she and Logan would babysit for the night so they could have some peace and quiet.

She had her head resting on his chest and was perfectly tucked in when she felt it — the intense wrenching in her lower back that she recognized from when she'd had the twins.

"Scott," she said through her teeth, which had him sitting up a bit. "Scott, get Hank."

That had him on high alert very quickly, sitting up to gently prop her up and hold her hand, rubbing her back as it took just a second for her request to kick in. "Right," he said, though instead of going to get Hank, he seemed to have decided to expedite the process as he scooped her up and brought her down to the lab.

Scott laid Annie down gently as she tried to breathe while he knocked on Hank and Daisy's door, wide-eyed. It only took Hank a moment to see what was going on, and of course, he and Daisy both set to work helping as Daisy went right to Annie to gently talk her through.

For Annie, it was far different from having the twins. There was still that strange sensation after the epidural of things moving around that she could sort of feel without feeling. But there wasn't that second push, that strange pressure, that sinking feeling of "everything happening all over again" just when she'd gotten her breath back.

And then — the unmistakable sound of a baby crying.

Annie sat up a bit straighter, straining to see as Hank gently wrapped up the new little bundle and set him in her arms as Scott looked over her shoulder with unrestrained wonder. She glanced up at him for a moment and saw that his eyes were actually glistening and wondered if he'd looked like that when the twins were born and she just hadn't been able to see because of the glasses.

"What's his name?" Daisy asked with a little smile as she watched the two of them simply melting over their newest little one.

"Cody," Scott said in what was more a breath than actually speaking. "His name's Cody."

The little one seemed to recognize the sound of his dad's voice as, with wide, brown eyes, he looked up at Scott and stared, and Annie had to smile when that had her husband melting all over again.

"Hold him," Annie said as she gently tipped the tiny little boy into Scott's arms and watched as he just seemed to sink into the chair, completely wrapped up in nothing but Cody. The body language and the slightly open mouth was the same as the first time, with the twins, but it really was something else entirely to watch the full effect.

It didn't take long for Cody to curl up and fall asleep with Scott, and Annie wasn't too far behind. They had decided to wait until the morning to tell everyone, since it was about two in the morning when Cody finally made his debut, and they didn't want the twins to be grumpy while they were meeting their little brother for the first time.

So when morning came around, they were both sharing little smirks with each other as they made their way upstairs to Logan and K's room early. They were expected to come drop by and get the twins, but they brought Cody along with them.

K was the one to answer the door, as the kids had already gotten up and were trying to stop Logan from stepping outside the room; he had a twin on each arm and Elin hanging off of his neck. "How are you feeling?" K asked as she stepped back and out of their way.

"Just wonderful," Annie said with a smile as she brought little Cody in to meet everyone. When the twins realized what was going on, they completely abandoned Logan and ran over to their mom with wide eyes, both clamoring to be able to see better as Annie sat down so they could get a good look.

"He so little!" Charlie proclaimed, her eyes wide with wonder.

"I wuv him," Chance proclaimed already, giving his baby brother a hug and a kiss, which prompted Charlie to do the same.

"Alright, give Cody a little space," Annie said gently, which only prompted the twins to climb into Scott's arms so they could still be part of the family snuggling but technically be giving Annie and Cody space.

"Hi, Cody!" Charlie waved, giggling almost uncontrollably when her newest little brother stared at her through already long eyelashes.

"Logan, would you like to hold him?" Annie offered with a little smile, though she was already tipping Cody into his arms.

"I guess so," he replied, giving her a little look before he had to smile at the little guy and shake his head. "I think this one favors Annie."

"I won't argue that. He's perfect," Scott agreed, still very much beaming over the whole thing.

"You guys are in the pretty baby business," K said, peeking over Logan's shoulder with Elin sneaking a peek from her arms.

Chance giggled. "Ewin. That's my little brother! Just like you have one!" he called out to her.

"He is sweet," Elin said softly as she smiled at the little guy and leaned heavily into her mother.

"That's because he's ours," Annie said with a little grin. "All of my little ones are sweet."

"Inna help him," Chance told K, remembering what she'd said before.

"I know you will, big guy," K said to him before she reached over and ruffled his hair.

"He just missed our anniversary by a couple hours," Annie told them as she gently took Cody back from Logan and kissed his forehead. "He wanted to take his sweet time getting here."

"Fashionably late," Logan told her.

"If you say so," Annie laughed. She readjusted Cody in her arms before she pressed a little kiss to Logan's temple. "Thanks for looking after the kids. Your timing was perfect."

"Yeah. Lucky us," Scott said with a smirk without looking at either feral.

"Anytime," Logan replied with a little smirk of his own.

Annie beamed at both of them before she nodded toward the door. "We're going to go find Rachel. But we'll see you at breakfast, I'm sure."

With that, the little group of ferals all headed out behind the giggling Summers clan as they went toward Rachel's room. Annie let the twins knock on her door, as they were both clearly excited and wanted to be part of the announcement, and as soon as the door had opened, the twins seized a hand apiece. "Wachel! You gotta meet Cody!" Charlie told her, already pulling on her.

"He so little!" Chance added excitedly. "You gotta be gentle."

Annie grinned at both of the little excited twins and didn't wait to be invited in as she gently tipped Cody into Rachel's arms.

"He's so little," Rachel said with wide eyes as she looked at her little brother.

"Which you wouldn't think he would be, seeing as he was so late," Annie joked lightly.

"He's just … they just all look so tiny when they're new."

Scott grinned at her as he leaned over her shoulder to take one of Cody's hands and show off the little bitty fingers. "Try holding his hand," he suggested with an unrestrained grin. "The fingers and toes are just… so small."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Rachel said, shaking her head a little bit.

"He's your little brother," Scott said in a tone that brokered no argument.

"I know," she said. "I just ... I don't hold the tiny ones. I don't do anything with them until they're big enough to walk."

"Well, you do now," Annie told her, smiling as Cody seemed to snuggle right up to Rachel. "He likes you."

"You gotta say hi," Charlie instructed her patiently. "Say hi to little brudder."

"Hey, little guy," Rachel said, taking up on Charlie's cue. "I'll bet you want to go back to Dad, right?"

But Cody just snuggled right in, and Scott was chuckling and had a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "I'll take you out for a burger later. Just humor me," he promised, still chuckling.

"I don't need the bribe," she said. "I'll humor you anyhow."

Scott grinned wider at that as Chance tugged on Rachel's pajama pants leg. "Now you have two little brothers," he told her.

"Yes, I do," she told him. "And are they ever trouble."

"Yes." Charlie agreed very seriously, nodding hard. "Silly brudders."

"They're just like their dad," Rachel teased as she gave Scott a little smirk.

"They're not the only ones," he said with a smirk to match.

"I don't know; everyone says I take after mom," Rachel said with a little shrug. "I don't see it."

"You do," Scott agreed. "You look a lot like her."

"The mannerisms, though," Annie cut in, gesturing between the two shrugging Summerses. "Those are all Scott." She smiled and shook her head as she held out her arms for Cody. "We'll let you get dressed. We just wanted to make sure the whole family got to meet him first."

When she handed Cody back, Rachel leaned forward to give Annie a little kiss on the cheek before projecting out to her: Thanks for taking care of my dad.

Annie beamed at her and focused her thoughts like Rachel had taught her to give her an answer: Thanks for sharing him with me.

"I'll see you guys at breakfast," Rachel said as if the exchange hadn't happened at all. "I heard that there was going to be something good."

"Pancakes!" Charlie declared happily. "With choc'lit chips!"

"Meet you down there," Scott chuckled as both of the twins now had hold of either of his hands and were happily trying to drag him down the stairs toward said pancakes — and Rachel couldn't help but laugh as she followed behind them.