A/N - First of all - sorry for the slow update. I should have had this up yesterday but after I hit the theatre to watch Endgame, I more or less came home and crashed with a head cold. Ugh.

Thanks for the review though, JD! Makes me smirk whenever we get a new review from you. You always pick out our favorite bits. As far as Starlord, he and Kitty had an amazing run in Guardians of the Galaxy where they made an AMAZING couple. Keep in mind, he's not a whippersnapper anymore and I'm telling you, even in the comics, Quill would have done anything Kitty asked him to. He was adorably head over heels. (and we love Peter Quill.)

Chapter 10: Return of the Guardbody

Senator Cleary stared at the tag on her desk, her eyebrows high on her head as she examined it. The embedded part was long and jagged, and the tag was overly obvious. Everything about it was designed to hurt and humiliate, and she was entirely sure that she hated it.

"That," she said with a distinct tone of distaste, "does not belong inside anyone."

"No kidding," Scott said with one eyebrow raised from where he was sitting across from her. "You did want to see it," he added, gesturing to the tag. "Well, there it is."

"I did ask," Cleary said, starting to wonder if those words were going to be etched into her tombstone at this point for how often she had been saying them lately. She picked up the tag to examine it and frowned deeper. "And this was inside someone?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, a woman who came by one of our schools looking to get it out," he explained. He smirked for just a moment. "We didn't steal it."

"That's not what I—" She shook her head. "Thank you," she corrected herself, still examining the tag in front of her. "I'm not sure if this will help or hurt the registration debate, to be honest," she added as she finally set it down again. "I can already hear Robbins tellin' me that these kind of measures wouldn't be necessary if the revamped registration law goes through."

"It wouldn't be necessary if people stopped trying to justify being hateful based on a trick of nature."

"Trick of nature," Cleary repeated with a little smirk. "And here I thought all those experts were sayin' it was the natural course of life on earth."

"It is, but it's not like any of us asked for it," Scott pointed out.

"True," Cleary agreed before she got to her feet. "Thanks for comin' down again. I'm sure your plate is full with — well — all of this. I saw the announcement about the school in Chicago. Congratulations on the early opening," she added with a warm smile.

"Thanks," he replied. "We're hoping everything goes smoothly for them. They've been working hard to make a safe haven."

"I wish you the best of luck with that, really," she said as the two of them headed out of her office. "The more I learn about this issue, the more I'm sure you need somethin' like that."

Cleary was the first out of the door, though as soon as she had opened it — and before either of them could react or see the danger — a single shot rang out, and Cleary collapsed right in front of Scott while Secret Service agents responded in a rush a split second later, coming out of seemingly nowhere to pin down the shooter while one agent stayed with Cleary to assess the damage alongside Scott.

The damage was obvious — and bad. She'd been shot in the chest and was bleeding badly, already unconscious by that time. It was severe enough that it felt like far too long before the ambulance arrived, and even without having seen the whole thing go down, it was obvious that the EMTs didn't like her chances by the looks they shared as they loaded her up.

The whole thing happened fast — and, of course, since Scott had been right there, he spent a great deal of time after that answering questions for the authorities. But when the agents finally moved on, he wasn't surprised to find that he'd missed several calls from Annie — who had probably seen that there was trouble in Washington and assumed the worst.

He called her back quickly and again wasn't surprised at how relieved she sounded. "What happened?" she asked once she'd finished saying how glad she was to hear his voice. "They're not giving any details on the news."

"Someone shot Cleary," Scott said heavily. "I'm not sure if she's alright or not; it didn't look good."

Annie sucked in a gasp of surprise. "She… that's awful!" she said, clearly mad and upset and worried all in one breath. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, just peachy." He let out a sigh. "I'll be back before you know it."

"Just watch out for yourself," Annie said in a clearly worried tone.

"I always do," Scott answered, trying to force a smile.

Annie laughed lightly, then paused. "Are you sure you're alright? She's a good friend at this point — at least I think so…"

He paused, clearly a little shaken by the negative twist the day had taken. "Yeah, you get used to it eventually," he replied. "They won't tell me anything. Just have to wait and see what happens."

"Well, I'm going to send her flowers," Annie said primly, already deciding that this was how it was going to be. "She should have some when she pulls through. Those hospital rooms are dreary."

It was three days before Cleary was entirely out of the woods, with the news reporting that she was in 'critical condition' throughout every update for a maddeningly long amount of time. Three days of everyone in Washington — including the likes of Robbins and the president, even — putting out statements left and right of support and well-wishes, though it was painfully obvious that not one of them had expected her to pull through.

So when the news broke that she was stable, it was a surprise to just about everyone involved.

It took her another few days after that before she was allowed to be discharged, but by the time the last day of her hospital stay rolled around, it was clear to her staff as well as the hospital workers that she wanted to get back to work.

She was already making calls from her bed — and directing her chief of staff on the rest of the calls that she wanted done. Debate had ground to a near halt on the revived registration bill, replaced by a lot of well-wishing and then eventually finger-pointing, but she was already asking to get back to business, honestly pissed off that someone had shot her — so she was going to make sure to make everyone's life hell by doing even more.

Her chief of staff, Linda, was by her side most of the day at this point, so when Cleary mentioned that she wanted to go back to the Congress floor, Linda raised an eyebrow.

"You're not supposed to be on your feet, ma'am," she pointed out.

"Then tell someone to find me a chair — I'm goin'," Cleary said.

"Tell me that again when you're clear of drugs," Linda replied.

Cleary waved her hand. "Please. I'm not gonna sit here and let these people think they scared me off. I need to get back out there as soon as I can."

"Little bit vindictive," Linda said, though in a tone that said she approved.

"That's how you win in this business," Cleary replied.

"You're going to need more protection then," Linda told her.

Cleary let out a sigh. "Fine," she said. She sorted a few of the get-well cards before she smiled slightly. "I might know someone who could have some professional suggestions."

There was a heavy concentration of security already on Capitol Hill because Cleary had wanted to pop in for a quick appearance, so Scott had already been through several checkpoints by the time he got to Cleary's office.

"Well," Cleary said as she wheeled herself into the room with a broad smile. "Long time no see."

"Surprised to see you back to work already," Scott replied.

She smirked at him for a moment. "I'm not about to let these—" She waved her hand. "—people stop me from doin' my job."

"So what can I do for you today?" Scott asked with a little smirk. "To help you do your job."

Her smirk widened into a grin. "Well, you seem to have a little experience with the people I've got after me. I was hoping to get a little professional advice on how best to prevent a repeat performance." She tapped her chest lightly. "Next time might not go so well for me."

"Well," Scott said, tipping his head to the side slightly. "I'd say there's a few steps you can take that I'm sure the Secret Service has already suggested…"

She waved her hand. "Yeah, I know about the vests and all that. I'm asking what I can do to avoid getting shot in the first place, not to make sure the bullets don't kill me."

"Yeah," Scott said. He leaned back for a moment. "The other thing you could do is a show of force. Bring someone from the team — that's what I do when I do public addresses."

Cleary raised an eyebrow at him before she leaned forward. "You wouldn't mind? I don't know how long this will last, and I know your team has plenty to worry about otherwise."

"We can switch out. I doubt any one of them would be good to keep around on a long-term basis."

"That would be lovely — thank you," Cleary said, smiling widely. "And it would give Robbins a heart attack, and that's always a plus."

"Oh. Absolutely," Scott smirked.

"Well." Cleary leaned back in her chair. "I'm goin' back tomorrow to hold their feet to the fire."

"Just let me know what time you want your new bodyguard to show."

Cleary grinned and reached out to shake Scott's hand. "Thanks for this. Really. We're gonna give 'em hell."

From day one upon her return, Cleary wasn't holding anything back. And it was hard to argue with her when, for the first few days, there was such an obvious visual reminder of the fact that someone had tried to kill her over this bill. Nobody wanted to align themselves with the assassin, and so nobody was willing to debate her, pushing back the bill to focus on "other matters," which Cleary wasn't having.

For the first few days, Storm had watched her call every senator she knew a coward and worse than that as she insisted that anyone who supported this bill had better put their money where their mouth was and show their vote so the country could see just who the idiots were so that come November, the people could get rid of them.

She was getting plenty of support, too, with people outraged over the whole situation and people who were trying to avoid the negative press that Cleary was bringing down on anyone who wavered.

Which was, of course, just making her a bigger and bigger target as the Senate finally relented and scheduled a vote and the news was already praising Cleary as presidential potential.

So Cleary was surprised on the day of the vote to find that Logan had drawn the straw for playing the part of her bodyguard, since she knew that, of all the X-Men, he was one that least liked being in Washington — let alone spending all his time with a politician.

"Scott send you?" she asked as she sat down at her desk to gather her notes for the day.

"Yep," he replied from the doorway, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. "Figured you needed a little more experienced back up."

"Well, hopefully this will die down once that ridiculous bill dies," Cleary assured him. "Last count, the Majority Whip said it was going down in a landslide, so this is all just…" She gestured around herself. "Window dressing."

"We'll see how it goes," he said quietly.

She smiled at him as she finished gathering her notes. "I appreciate this, you know," she said, putting her things in her briefcase. "I know there are other things you could be doin'."

"Don't worry 'bout it," Logan replied with a tip of his head. "I don't mind scarin' off little piss ants from time to time."

"I just hope to see a few of them turn tail," she laughed. "You know Robbins and his friends have been furious the X-Men are in the Capitol all the time now."

"Then they'll be tickled and real quiet about that part today," Logan told her.

She smiled at him and then gestured with one hand. "Well. Shall we?" she asked.

He led the way, as if he'd done it himself a hundred times before - perfectly confident on the path as he kept watch, and as promised, even the press that had been swarming her when she stepped out into the public areas were holding back more than they had been all the way out to the floor.

It was, in political terms, a total failure for the supporters of the bill. No one wanted their name on that thing when the spotlight was on them so heavily, and Cleary was sure that having Logan nearby glaring at several of them wasn't inspiring them to vote against her either. So by the time it was all said and done, she could count on one hand the people who had still voted for the registration — even if there were several abstaining votes that had her rolling her eyes at the total lack of spines around the Hill.

"What did I tell you?" she said to Logan as she primly got to her feet, headed for the press conference — where she was more interested in his protection, honestly, since it was more open.

As Cleary addressed the press, Logan kept his eyes on the crowd. He hated dealing with politicians, and the whole security detail was annoying when there were so many Secret Service around trying to do the same thing — only they were carrying guns. The one thing he could always rely on was a gun where it shouldn't be, unless of course, there was that much Secret Service.

So it was just a matter of watching for someone doing or saying something particularly stupid, and he saw the flash of a gun barrel under a coat about two minutes into Cleary's recount of how things had gone down. Logan tapped the Secret Service guy nearest to him in the arm with a quick 'cover her' before he darted off into the crowd, his gaze locked on the guy who very obviously had no business carrying a banned weapon in DC.

Of course, as soon as the would be shooter saw Logan headed his way, he turned tail, but it was a quick chase that ended in a tackle — and, moments later, a pile up of Secret Service members. When the crowd around them cleared, the gun was still in the guy's hand, though he was out cold, and Logan was sure to just put his hands up as he backed away from the mess. It was clean. No one but the gunman was even scraped up — and considering that Logan was in his yellow and black uniform with no pouches or hidden pockets, it was pretty clear that there was no way he could have planted it.

The Secret Service were quick to take the guy into custody as the press once more swarmed Cleary as the scene was cleared to ask about this most recent threat on her life — but she looked shaken and not as confident as before. She quickly finished up with the reporters and made a beeline for the car waiting for her, letting the smile drop as soon as she and Logan were inside.

"Thank you," she said in a hoarse voice as she tried to come down from the panic.

"Forget it," he replied easily. "I didn't do much."

"Don't sell yourself short — that could'a been bad, and we both know it," Cleary said, shaking her head before she put a hand to her forehead and leaned over.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "If he'd have gotten the gun out any further, I would have stepped in front of it. You were always gonna be fine."

She looked surprised, and her mouth parted in a little 'o' of understanding. "That's why they sent you today, isn't it?"

"I know what to look for better than the others," he said. "I'm the one that covers Scott when we go to things like this."

"I've seen you both give speeches — well, him speaking and you there," she corrected herself as she rubbed her temple and then took in a bracing breath. "Still. Thank you — and thank the team for me, please."

"Sure."

From there, the Secret Service took over once Cleary was home, and it was only a few hours after that before the news broke that the shooter had been a longtime friend of the Vice President's — which had caused such an uproar in Washington that the focus was off of Cleary on onto the VP.

Still, Cleary made it a point after the adrenaline crash and after she had her legs underneath her a little better to call Westchester herself to tell Scott everything that had happened — and thank him, again, for the help.

"I'd be dead now if it weren't for your team," Cleary told him when she'd finished. "I can't thank you enough."

"We're all just relieved it went as well as it did," Scott told her. "Are you alright?"

"Shaken, but alright," she promised. "The bloodhounds are on Bradley's VP now; I think the spotlight — and the target — is a lot smaller now. At least, I hope it is."

"Yeah, well, we'll just wait and see," Scott said.