Notes: Ladies, I totally hear you. I'm SO of the opinion that Jean and Scott deserve so much happiness. They've always made it clear that they wanted a family together, so... I believe them when they say that's what will make them happy.

Chapter 10: Fierce Defenders

Clint was more than the usual amount of relieved when Logan and the rest of the X-Men got back from dealing with Magneto.

He hadn't said anything at the time, because Scott had asked him to look out for Jean, and he knew that was actually really important, especially because Jean got sick a lot, and when that happened, she needed someone to make sure the the littler kids didn't get into any trouble while she was in the bathroom puking her guts out.

But the truth of the matter was that he really, really didn't like the idea of his dad being on any team that went up against Magneto. He knew that the guy could move metal, and the last time Clint had seen him in person, the jerk had thrown his mom against the wall! Clint knew that he could just as easily throw Logan if he wanted to, and it had him downright nervous.

There were so many changes going on in his life, with his new little sisters and another baby and with Jean and Scott having two more.… He didn't want one more "surprise" to be that his dad had gotten totally screwed by Magneto while he was out with the team.

So when the team got back in with just the usual amount of bumps and bruises and it looked like Logan was okay, aside from having lost half his shirt in the battle somehow, Clint couldn't hide his honest relief.

It was Jubilee that saw it, actually, and she pulled him aside with a raised eyebrow. "Okay," she said. "I totally know that look. And I gotta tell you right now that you're going to explode if you keep it all in like that."

Clint frowned at that, bouncing from one foot to the other and chewing on his bottom lip. "I'm okay," he lied.

"Uh-huh." Jubilee accentuated just how much she didn't believe him by blowing a huge bubble that popped not far from Clint's face. "It's okay to be worried about him, you know. He's your dad."

"He's yours too," Clint said. "Even if you don't got papers like I do."

Jubilee smiled at that and ruffled his hair. "And don't you forget it."

Clint stuck his tongue out at her as he flattened his hair. "Only my mom can do that."

"Oh yeah? You gonna stop me?"

"I can! I'm taller than you now!"

"Um, dream on."

"I am!" Clint jutted his chin out. "Take your shoes off and stand next to me. I'll prove it."

Jubilee grinned widely as she kicked off her shoes … and then immediately let out a sound of pure betrayal when she realized that Clint had, in fact, hit another growth spurt and was now slightly taller than her. But only slightly.

"We're practically the same height!" she insisted, pointing a finger in his face.

"Close only counts in horseshoes!" Clint sang out to her, then ducked out of the way when she reached out to playfully shove him in the shoulder. "Not my fault you're not a Hawkeye. I can tell the difference, but you're just a firecracker!"

"Just a firecracker?" Jubilee repeated, one hand on her hip, the pointing finger now shooting sparks his way just to accentuate how insulted she was.

Clint couldn't stop giggling. "Yep! You're just a bag of tricks, Jubilee!"

"Oh, that's it," she said, leaping forward to outright tackle him and try to wrestle him into a pin, but Clint had been practicing with Barney, and he was a lot more flexible than Jubilee had accounted for.

That was the scene when Logan found the two of them, having changed out of his uniform and kissed his wife. He and K both had been able to hear the two of them from the other side of the hall, and judging by the amused smirks they were both wearing as they watched Jubilee try to pin Clint unsuccessfully — and Clint try to one-up her with just as much success — they weren't going to step in at all.

Finally, Jubilee managed to pin Clint down with a triumphant, "ha!" but almost as soon as she'd managed it, K started to laugh.

"Congratulations, Jubes — you pinned the nine-year-old."

Clint snorted laughing at that, and Jubilee flushed red before she finally let him up. "Hey, he's way trickier than he should be. Not a normal nine-year-old."

"That's true. Mom taught me lots of stuff when I was Susie's age," Clint said. He wasn't too sore about losing to Jubilee when he knew that she had a lot more training because she was on the team … though he was sore that he wasn't allowed to be on the team just yet. He really wanted to be, and he figured if he could actually sort of kind of keep up in a fight with a real X-Man, he should be allowed to fight people that the X-Men totally trounced, right?

"What's got you two playing alpha anyway?" K teased — especially because she knew it would get an epic eye-roll out of Clint and a snerk from Logan.

"I'm taller," Clint said, drawing himself up to his full height to accentuate the difference.

"Barely," Jubilee said.

"Yeah, and you're never gonna catch up," Clint said, sticking his tongue out at her. "My first dad was six feet tall!"

"Some of us only grow until we're perfect," Jubilee said with a sniff.

"Oh, so now you don't care that you're shorter than your teeny tiny baby brother," Clint sang out to her.

"I thought you weren't so teeny tiny!" Jubilee shot back.

"Girls, you're both pretty," K said, though she was laughing and not even bothering to hide it.

Besides entertaining K, the two of them had also managed to pull in an audience, and Katie was peeking her head around the corner to see what all the fuss was about, her blanket clutched up nearly to her chin and her little shadow, Rachel, right behind her, holding her blanket almost exactly the same way — though Rachel was watching Katie, not the argument in the hallway.

"Whatcha doing?" Katie asked, making her way over to Logan and holding her hands up in a clear sign that she wanted to be picked up. And when Logan smirked and scooped her up, Rachel quickly babbled at Logan and even started to jump up and down until he finally picked her up in his other arm.

"They're being silly," K told the girls with a smirk, knowing that it was one of Rachel's new favorite words — and sure enough, Rachel started to parrot it almost immediately: "Silly, silly, silly!"

Clint shrugged. "Well, we didn't start silly. It just kinda happened."

"Yeah, that happens with big sisters," K said with a smirk. "Totally normal."

"Big sisters — yuck!" Katie stuck her tongue out and then buried her face in Logan's shoulder, as if the very thought of big sisters was too much for her.

Logan chuckled at that. "What'd Susie do now?"

"She says she wantsta be blue when she's big," Katie said, making a face.

"Why not? Seems like a good color to me," Logan said, knowing it would rile her.

Sure enough, Katie rolled her eyes and put her hands on both sides of Logan's face so that he had no choice but to look her in the face and recognize just how serious she was. "She just wantsta be Dr. Blue! She likes pink best!"

"Maybe she likes blue better now," Logan said, smirking at her insistence.

"Well, maybe she'll get to be blue," Clint pointed out reasonably. "If she's got a mutant gene thing, then maybe she'll be blue later, when she's bigger."

"And if she doesn't, she can always dye her hair blue," Logan agreed.

Katie let out a noise of pure displeasure. "You makin' it worse!"

"I dunno," Jubilee said, smirking as she rested a hand on her hip. "I bet Susie could kill the blue-hair look. I'll help her cut it…"

"No!" Katie shook her head, her eyes wide. "No doin' that!"

"Nah, 'Ro'll help her cut it," Logan said, straight-faced. "Nice lil' mohawk …"

"No, I'mma Hawk!" Katie insisted, looking even more distressed than before. "Like my Clint!"

"You sure are, Katie," K agreed. "Hey, I've got a friend of mine that says your new purple bow should be ready any day now." She smirked at Clint. "If you want to learn, that is."

Katie immediately switched from being upset about her sister's hair to being totally thrilled. "A bow?" she repeated. "For me?"

"And it's purple," Clint said, drawing himself up a little because he was so pleased his mom had gotten things arranged so he could help Katie be a Hawkeye.

"Because I thought that was your favorite color, but if you'd rather it was … oh… maybe yellow, you should tell me now so I can make them change it," K said.

Katie shook her head, squirming to be let down until Logan set her down - only for her to run right to K and grin up at her. "I like purple," she said, the grin turning a bit more crooked once she'd said it.

"I thought so," K said, nodding a little.

"And Susie likes pink, not blue," Katie insisted, nodding her head slowly and very seriously. "That's important."

"Well, if Susie-Q ever decides she wants a bow, I'll make sure it's pink," K agreed.

"I dunno," Katie admitted, shrugging one shoulder up to her ear. "She likes readin' with her Dr. Blue."

K crouched down to be on Katie's level. "This is very true," she said, nodding her head. "Can you tell me which pink she likes best? Light pink or Barbie-pink?"

Katie giggled. "Really light stuff," she said. "Like … like a fairy princess kinda pink!"

"Gotcha," K said. "Fairy princess pink it is. I'll remember that."

"Good, 'cause it's important," Katie said — and Clint had to hide his giggle when he caught Rachel watching Katie and giving Logan a very 'important'-looking sort of nod, totally copying everything she saw the older girl doing and clearly entertaining Logan.

K put her finger to her chin as she looked as if she was thinking it over hard. "Maaaay-be she'll need fairy princess pink on the pony she's been riding. Like her blankets and halter."

Katie's eyes went wide, and she started to bounce in place. "Uh-huh! Yes! Yes, that!"

"And what about you? Do you want purples for the little pony I found for little old you?"

Katie gasped, clasping both hands to her mouth. "For me?"

"Well … not forever. Just until you outgrow little Chocolate Chip Cookie. We'll call him Cookie for short."

"Oooh!" Katie danced and wiggled and then attached to K in a hug. "I love it lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!" she promised.

K snuggled her right back. "And when you're too tall for Cookie, Rachel can learn to ride him."

Clint grinned and leaned over to Jubilee while Katie was melting all over his mom. "Mom really likes spoiling us kids," he stage whispered.

"She sure does," Jubilee said, smiling to herself. "You guys are so spoiled."

"Don't start," Logan said, giving her a look. "You get plenty of spoilin', ya rotten little mall rat."

"Yeah, you get to be an X-Man, and Dad's making me wait 'til I'm a whole thirteen years old," Clint said, rolling his eyes to show how unfair he thought it was.

"Well … that's because he's more like a brother to me than a dad," Jubilee said, rolling her eyes. "That's the way I see it anyhow."

"Okay, but you were totally doin' the 'what do you want with my dad' thing to Mom when they were dating," Clint said with a wicked smirk Jubilee's way.

Jubilee waved a hand. "Whatever, man. Gotta protect my Wolvie."

"Thought you said it was a waste of time to worry about 'im," Clint said. He honestly liked having Jubilee and Kitty around when Barney was gone, because it was like still having older siblings around to annoy, and he really liked busting them out.

"Izzat so, Jubes?" Logan asked, looking entertained.

Clint grinned. "Yeah, I was worried 'cause you were fighting the guy who can literally throw you around with your skeleton, and Jubes said it was a bad idea to get all worked up."

"Oh, that." Logan shrugged. "Nothin' to worry about."

Jubilee was clearly giving Clint an "I told you so" kind of look, but Clint found that he couldn't quite leave it alone. "But he could really hurt you!" he insisted. "He tossed Mom," he added, his tone making it clear that he considered this to be the very worst thing that a supervillain could possibly do.

Logan smirked and shook his head. "Gonna take more than that to stop me, kiddo."

"It better," Clint said seriously. "Because I actually like you as my dad, and I've never liked a dad before, so you can't die."

Logan smirked at him and reached over to screw up his hair as much as possible. "Relax. I'll be fine. I'm not gonna leave your mom hangin' like that. She'd bring me back from the dead just to kill me if I did."

Clint nodded. "That's right she would," he said before he darted over to hug Logan tight.

"You sure you're alright, kiddo?" Logan asked, one arm around Clint's back.

Clint nodded, though he kept his voice to a bare whisper. "There's just… a lot of changes happening," he muttered. "And new stuff and… I just want 'em to be good changes and not bad ones…"

"Pretty sure that's where all of us are leanin', kiddo." Logan barely said it, but when he did, he was sure that Clint could read his lips. "It's gonna be fine."

"Yeah, I know. But still."

Logan nodded at that. "Got any name suggestions to give your mom yet?"

"Not Frances. Or Francis."

"Yeah, got that memo," Logan chuckled.

"I dunno…"

"Cause the ones the Avengers are throwin' out there are just ... " Logan shook his head.

"Well, just… don't go with Harry and you're okay," Clint said.

Logan stopped and frowned deeply. "That would just … sound stupid."

"Yeah, well, you did ask."

"Yeah, but if I remember right, I was askin' what you liked, not what to avoid."

Clint shrugged. "Well, you ain't gonna name a kid 'Indiana'," he teased.

"Won't work with 'Howlett'," Logan said with a smirk.

"Well, I guess… if it's a brother? I guess I think… I think it should be, like, an action hero name."

"Oh yeah?" Logan was smirking a little wider as he listened to Clint work his way through it.

"Uh-huh. 'Cause I'm gonna help 'em be a hero no matter if it's a brother or sister, but I think if it's a brother, it should be something cool."

"And if it's a girl?"

"Oh. Well." Clint paused. "Well. I… I like 'Eve.'"

Logan tipped his head at that. "Pretty old-fashioned."

"Well, it's… almost Mom's," Clint said. "When I was little and couldn't hear so good, that's what her name sounded like, and it was kinda pretty even when Dad said it." He scuffed his feet against the ground. "So… so I like it."

Logan smirked at that and watched Clint for a long moment. "I like it too," Logan said. "We'll have to give it to your mom and see what she says."

"Well, if it's a boy, you should pick something good, but yeah, Mom can pick good ones too." Clint smiled up at Logan. "Maybe she'll let you help."

"She can pick whatever name she wants," Logan said. "I'm not gonna argue with her one bit."

"Because Mom's always right," Clint said with a smirk.

"Because she's gotta do all the work; I'm not dumb enough to think I should push her on it."

"Plus, you like her," Clint pointed out.

"No, I love her," Logan corrected, screwing up Clint's hair again. "Get it straight."

"Ooh, right." Clint shook his head as he flattened his hair. "So can we go riding or something? Since you're not all screwed up by Bucket-Face?"

"Sure," Logan said. "Let me get into some decent boots first at least."

"Okay. And you can kiss Mom too," Clint said, already grinning as he headed to go get himself a jacket. "Thanks, Dad!"