Hey, guys, I'm back with more! Glad to see you're both enjoying it.

This chapter is going out just for CC today. Because she needs a little cheer *mwuah*


Chapter 2: You Bring Them Home in Pairs!


When the girls had finally settled down a little bit — enough for her to let Hank check over Katie — Logan tried and failed again to slip off to get out of the battered and bloodied uniform. Which was how he found himself heading out of the lab a bit later with the clean flannel shirt that he kept in his locker draped over Katie, who swore she was cold and not at all scared of the other kids that were making noise as they got into their Valentine's party. Susie was pretty well tucked into Hank and was clearly upset and didn't want to go anywhere, but Katie wanted to go with Logan, so… here he was.

He ran into Barney first out of all the members of his little family. The kid was red all the way down to his toes — but it wasn't hard to figure out why when he was grinning as hard as he was and Kitty had a box of Valentine's chocolates in hand just a few feet away.

"She kiss you?" Logan asked, one eyebrow raised when Barney turned toward him.

Barney looked startled for a second and turned even redder as he nodded. "Just… just on the cheek…" he stammered.

Logan thought about it for a moment as he kept heading toward the stairs. "Alright. For now. Still don't know who I'd have to scare for that one."

"She's got a crush on the big Russian guy," Barney said in a sigh.

"Yeah, I know," Logan said, letting a little growl go with it. "Izzat the only girl you were chasin' today, ladykiller?"

Barney shrugged. "Only one I'm interested in here. I mean, there's a cute girl at the circus, but… she's not here, so…"

Logan chuckled at that. "Don't let your mom hear you talk like that. She'll start callin' you the wanderer."

Barney made a face. "Well, I'm not," he said before he seemed to realize that Logan's flannel shirt was moving. "Um, what…"

Logan turned toward him but didn't answer him. "Is there a problem?"

"Your shirt…"

"Which one?"

Barney blinked at him and then peered closer to see Katie's little hand scrunched up in Logan's shirt. "You got a little girl? What… even happened?"

"She likes me," Logan deadpanned as they turned down the hall. "No idea why."

"Huh." Barney shook his head. "So… what's the story?"

"Bad guys ticked me off, girls got out with me," Logan said with a shrug. "Now we're here."

"Huh," Barney said again, though he didn't push — like Logan knew Clint was going to.

When they finally got into the room, the lights inside were out, a movie was going, and Clint looked a little irritated at the late arrival on Valentine's Day. "Hey sweetheart," Logan said as he stepped in — still in the torn up, bloodied uniform. "Things ran a lil' late."

"Did you deal with the problem?" K asked, tipping her head back with a little smirk — though that fell when she saw that he wasn't alone.

"More or less," Logan said. "Someone here wants to meet you, I think. Kid's had a hard night."

K untangled herself from where Clint and Arrow both were curled up with her, then crossed the room to where Logan was outright smirking by that point. "What … in the hell …" K reached up to very gently lift up the edge of the flannel — just enough to see Katie peeking out.

"Why do you have a little girl in your shirt?" Clint blurted out.

"That's where she wanted to be," Logan said, as if that was the only reasonable explanation.

"Hi," K said, almost resting her head on Logan's shoulder so she was at a good level to speak to the little one. "Are you okay?"

Katie hid her face in Logan's shoulder, though her eyes were peeking out. "Mmmhmm," she said softly.

"Want to watch the movie with Clint and me?" K asked. "We have chocolate and popcorn."

Katie picked up her head a little more and narrowed her eyes, studying K — since she didn't recognize her as an Avenger or anything. But then she saw K's ring and tipped her head to the side. "You ... you got a mawwiage ring."

K smiled a little at that and nodded. "Yeah, I do. We're married. He's pretty good, right?"

Katie nodded. "He's a 'Nevenger."

"And a great teddy bear."

"Think you can let me clean up now?" Logan asked Katie in a rumble. "I promise I'm not goin' anywhere. Not without my girl."

Katie looked between Logan and K and finally, slowly, nodded. "But … but come back fast," she whispered.

"I'll be real fast," Logan swore, then took just a second to steal a quick kiss from K on his way to get washed up.

"Do you want to hold the remote?" K asked Katie. "We dumped M&M's and Milk Duds into the popcorn already."

"I had a Twinkie," Katie said quietly.

"Okay. well …. Wanna throw Milk Duds at the people on screen when they kiss? That's always fun."

Katie smiled and nodded and climbed up by Clint… and then grinned outright when she saw Arrow. "I like dogs!"

Clint grinned. "Me too," he said. "This is my dog. His name is Arrow."

"Hi, Arrow," Kate said, waving before she covered her mouth with one hand and giggled.

On hearing his name, Arrow scooted toward her with his tongue hanging out in a rush to rest his head on her knee — almost whimpering as he did so. "He'll do that until you pet him," K said. "And then he'll lick you. You can give him popcorn, but no chocolate, okay?"

"Okay," Katie said, giggling as she reached out and very, very carefully pet Arrow. "I love him."

"He's the best dog ever," Clint agreed. "My dad gave him to me!"

"That's a real nice dad."

"Yeah, and I have the best mom too," Clint said, grinning up at K.

Katie blinked. "You got a dog from Logan-Wolver-neen?"

Clint grinned. "He married my mom!"

"Wow." Katie grinned over at Clint. "That's so cool."

"Uh-huh." Clint smiled at Katie. "How'd you find my dad?"

"He ressued me an' Susie from a mountain man!" Katie declared dramatically.

"Who's Susie?" Barney asked.

"My sissy," Katie said. "She's wit Beast 'cause she scared." She leaned forward. "I not scared."

"You seemed to be very brave to me," K agreed, pulling her feet up onto the couch to get comfortable. "Were you having a nice Valentine's before all the rescuing? Because I'm sure Clint can get you more heart-shaped stuff if you need it. They have a ton of it downstairs."

Clint made a face. "Barney does Valentines."

"I didn't say you wanted to kiss her," K defended. "Just that you'd be a gentleman and give her some stuff if she needed it."

"I don't need it," Katie said, hiding a bit in Arrow. "My mommy's gone, and she always does choc-lit."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry," K said in a much more genuine tone that the little one was used to hearing.

Katie nodded for a second, but her lip started to quiver — and then Clint got there faster than K did and wrapped Katie up in a hug.

"My real mom died too," he said. "It's real sad, and it hurts a lot, and sometimes you just gotta hug."

K watched the two of them for a moment before she got up to grab a little more chocolate for the kids — even if Katie said she was okay. She was only finished with loading up the Milk Dud ammunition when Logan came out — fresh and clean. He didn't give her any warning before he pulled her into a long kiss that didn't stop until Clint cleared his throat.

"Um…" Katie frowned at Logan. "You look … not like you…"

"I did take a shower," Logan pointed out. "And I don't wear the yellow uniform everywhere." He looked down at his jeans and t-shirt. "But it's me."

"That's what he looks like usually," Clint said helpfully.

Katie pursed her lips and let out a drawn out "Okaaaay," before she climbed over to Logan and practically crawled up onto his chest to make herself comfortable again.

The little group settled in for the night — and it wasn't until both Katie and Clint were soundly asleep that K picked her head up from Logan's other shoulder. "You brought home a pair of little girls."

"Wasn't what I went out for."

"Doesn't matter. You brought home little girls. That is not going to be a recurring major holiday standard, is it?"

"No." Logan shook his head at that. "Probably not. Can't keep it just for holidays anyhow. Happens when it happens."

"So what's the plan?" K had to ask. "She clearly is staking her claim. What about the other one?"

Logan shrugged lightly. "She didn't really care for me much. I guess … we just wait an' see if they want to stick around or if there's family out there for 'em."

Katie stirred slightly, blinked, and reached up and covered Logan's mouth with one hand, snuggling in with a quiet "shhh."

Logan chuckled and took a hold of her hand so he could kiss her palm — which got a soft giggle. "Go back to sleep, troublemaker," he told her. "I'm not done with my sweetheart yet."

"Shhh," Katie giggled, snuggling right in.

Logan smirked a little harder at that and very softly let out a little growl that she felt much more than heard — and then he tickled her.

Of course, with all the excitement, it didn't take long before Katie fell back asleep on Logan's chest — and it was only about ten minutes later that Hank arrived, carrying Susan, who was also asleep and clutched tightly onto him.

"How's she doin, Hank?" Logan asked quietly.

"Exhausted — emotionally, physically…" Hank shook his head.

"Yeah, been a rough day," Logan agreed, tipping his head to Katie. "Exhibit A."

Hank smirked at that. "I thought I should bring her up to be with the rest of the group."

"If she'll go, you mean," K said in a smoky tone — showing exactly how tired most of them were.

"She did seem to be concerned for her little sister," Hank said.

"Well, bring her over. I don't want you to try and drop her off here, though," K said. "Let her pick. She's had a hard enough time today without thinking she's been handed off. Let her decide where to stay."

Clint had fallen asleep curled up with Arrow, and Barney had come in and was still watching a movie — and quietly observing the group at large as the conversation wore on.

Hank looked around the group before he nodded. "Then… perhaps I could borrow a sleeping bag from you…"

"Couch is yours if you'd like it," K offered, getting to her feet. "I'll get a few pillows for you. A blanket — though I doubt you need that."

Hank chuckled. "It's surprising how much of a heater this little one is."

"I was looking more at the fur," K teased as she got him settled in with Susie, though Barney was sure to help out too. When Hank was getting comfortable, Susie woke partway up. "Katie's sleeping," K whispered to her. "She's right here. We're not separating you, okay?"

Susie glanced up at Hank and bit her lip. "Really?"

"Ain't nobody splitting families," Barney said suddenly, and very fervently. "I promise."

K couldn't help but smile at him before she leaned over to kiss his cheek. "That's right."

Susie bit her lip as she watched Barney and then looked past him until she could see Katie and finally relaxed. "She's real little," Susie said tiredly as she put her head back down on Hank's shoulder. "She's not six like me."

"That doesn't matter," K promised as she brushed Susie's bangs out of her face, then started to tuck her in right where she was curled up. "We'll keep you two together just like we're keeping Clint and Barney together."

Barney nodded. "Yeah. Even though I'm eleven and a half, they still want me. You got nothing to be scared of, okay?"

Susie nodded slowly and then snuggled back in, asleep almost as soon as she had closed her eyes.

"You are the sweetest boy," K said after she'd stepped back from Susie, only to wrap Barney up in a bear hug and kiss his cheek again.

Barney blushed. "I'm just saying stuff that's true."

"And I'm just saying you need more kisses."

"Okay, Mom," Barney said, shaking his head — though he gave her a hug all the same.