Notes: Omg griezz, your review made me grin so hard. I agree; Clint standing up to Hank was SO fun to write because we know how terrifying that was or him and we as readers know that he had to be on the verge of total meltdown-scared. That's what makes him one of my favorite heroes, honestly: he is never one to back down, no matter the odds.

CC, I agree with you: Logan flirting with K is hilarious and makes me laugh and he's such a goon (but in a good way!).

And Arly: Seriously! Jan and Jean are WAY too much fun to write when they get together. That must be why they aren't friends in the comics: the world can't handle them together!

Chapter 11: The Tower Doesn't Quite Feel Safe Anymore

With a little time, Clint was just starting to calm down properly. It was obvious that seeing Hank hit Jan had triggered some real anxiety, but he was finally breathing easier... when the alarms started going off.

"The hell is that?" Logan said.

Tony got to his feet quickly, looking deadly serious. "Alright. K, Clint, I need you to get to Logan's room. That's my early warning system." He looked annoyed. "Our unwanted guest is trying to get out."

"Wait … what?" K said, "Creed's breaking out and you want me to go hide in a room … with no defenses?"

"Hey, give me credit," Tony said. "I've updated the hallway leading to the room with what I saw from your little runthrough of my systems. Not to mention, he hasn't actually broken out yet — that's just the early warning that he beat one of my systems." He gestured to Jan. "Wasp, get them out of here. No one wants to deal with another idiot blonde this morning."

Logan was on his feet at that. "I'll go see if he's just rattlin' his cage," he said.

"I'll stick with Clint and K," Jan promised, already unconsciously reaching for Clint's hand as they got to their feet.

K had a hold of Clint's other hand as they headed down to Logan's room. They were barely in there long enough for Jan to start to take stock of everything when a second alarm went off, too. "Okay. I'm not waiting for the third time around," K said, climbing up on the headboard to move the grate covering the duct. "Come on, Clint …"

Clint grinned and nodded, pulling on Jan's hand. "Come on — this is our secret escape plan."

"You… you're hiding in the walls?" Jan looked like she couldn't decide if it was a brilliant plan or a crazy one.

"You don't think that I was going to just … totally leave it to everyone else, did you?" K said. "Come on … you're our official Avenger. Let's go. Clint will explain the marks as we go."

Jan shook her head, though the disbelieving smile just kept growing the more she saw of their system — and she laughed outright when she saw some of the names written out on the walls. "Oh, you two had way too much fun in here."

"And now you can, too," K said. "It's a great place to hide. And the bigger types can't get in."

"Which means someone can't get his big ugly butt in," Clint said with a proud little sneer.

"Makes perfect sense," Jan agreed.

They were deeply into the system when they started to hear sounds of the fight. "It carries through the ductwork," K said quietly.

Jan nodded, a bit more subdued this time now that they could hear both Logan and Creed snarling at each other — as well as the telltale clang of a few strikes of Steve's shield and the whine of repulsors. "Bad time for Thor to be on a breakfast date."

"It won't last long," K whispered back. "Logan could take him down on his own.… With those two kicking in … done deal."

Clint nodded. "Logan can handle that guy," he said quietly. "But I don't like getting in the middle, so we stay here."

Jan nodded. "Yeah… you really shouldn't get in the middle of anything, Clint."

Clint shook his head. "Not sorry."

"Just means he cares about you," K said.

"Yeah, I got that much," Jan said. In the small space, she could only put a hand on Clint's arm but not hug him. "You're lucky you saw him first, K, or I'd totally claim him."

"That's okay; I like the mom I got," Clint said with a small smile.

"And I'd fight you for him," K said with a teasing sort of smirk.

"Oh no; I'd so lose that fight," Jan said. "Especially since I wouldn't be able to understand you to do the battle snark properly."

K couldn't help but chuckle quietly at that. "Only if you pissed me off first."

"Well, I'm stealing your boy…"

"You wouldn't have a chance," she laughed softly, though the sounds of the fight had turned into a lot of snarls and swearing and threats from Creed. "Sounds like it's not going his way. Oh darn."

Clint nodded. "He'll just haveta get used to being wrong."

"All the same," K said, "let's go down to that interchange I found for you to park it, huh? Wait for the all-clear."

Clint nodded. "Yeah, then we can hear everything and we got more space to move around."

"You have this whole thing memorized, don't you?" Jan asked K.

"Well … mostly. But there are signs on the walls if you look," K said. "Symbols."

"Yeah, I saw the glitter beard for Tony," Jan giggled. "That's my favorite."

"There are general signs too," K said. "Marks that say which paths aren't safe."

"The ones that go to Sabretooth's area of the tower have big skulls and crossbones and 'danger Will Robinson' on them," Clint said. "Mom let me watch that show, and it was funny."

"The robot's the best part," Jan agreed.

When they got to the junction, the three of them settled in cross-legged and listened in to the fight continue — with Cap swearing this time. Only it quickly became clear that he wasn't swearing at Creed — the snarls had faded off — but was looking for the three of them.

"I thought you said he couldn't find them!" Cap shouted at Tony.

"He can't get to them. As soon as that door closed, I had it rigged with the same system that stopped her in the lab!" Tony shouted back.

"They're not there, Stark!"

"Sounds like something went wrong," K said quietly before she tipped her chin toward Clint. "You two stay here in case that creep is loose. I'll be right back." She started down toward the bedrooms and slipped out back into Logan's room and then cautiously made her way into the living room, where Steve was still livid with Tony. "We're fine … where's Victor?"

Steve spun to face her, then let his shoulders drop. "Logan's dragging him back to the cell. He's down, and I doubt he'll be up before the door's locked. Where have you been?"

"Somewhere safe," she said. "I'll tell you about it after I know that creep's under lock and key."

"I went to tell you he was down," Steve said. "There was a short time he wasn't on our radar… I thought he got to you." He shook his head. "There's a reason we wanted you to stay put."

"And that short time that he was gone was why I had my own safeguards in effect."

"I get that, but none of us knew where you were," Steve insisted. "If he'd told us he had you, how would we have known not to back off?"

"I said I'll tell you about it, Dad," K said. "And I was listening — if he'd said that, I'd have intervened just like I did now to keep you from freaking out worse than you were."

Steve let out a breath, though Tony was smirking. "I'm curious too — to see how you slipped past us again."

"I'll show you," K swore, and a moment later, Logan checked in to tell them Creed was taken care of — and hogtied into a nasty position that would stop him from doing more than just breathing, though that was restricted too, he swore. K looked between Steve and Tony and simply raised her voice. "Okay, Clint … Jan … come on back."

The Avengers glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, but after only a few minutes, they could hear movement and then giggles as Clint slid out of the ductwork — and motioned for Jan to follow him out.

"Surprise," Clint said, wearing a crooked sort of smile.

K shrugged her shoulders up to her ears as she turned toward Tony with a little smile, and he simply started to laugh. "Oh, I see. You took the bug and the duckling into the smallest space you could find!"

"It's very cozy in there," K said, smirking crookedly. "I knew that even if he got out, he wouldn't be able to get to Clint if he was in there."

"I don't think I could get in there," Steve said, starting to smile as well.

K looked him over and tipped her head. "It would be a really tight fit, but you'd have to scrunch your shoulders up a lot."

"They don't do that," Steve teased.

"That's weird," K said, scrunching up her nose. "Logan's more stacked ...and apparently more flexible. How odd."

"Hey now," Steve laughed. "You're biased."

"He likes to dance with me."

"I told you I'd dance with you too — you're just still biased," Steve laughed outright.

"You only said you'd dance after I guilt-tripped you into it," K said. "I'll bet Tony wouldn't need the guilt trip, though."

"You're so right," Tony said, grinning hard.

"Might even try to shimmy into the ductwork," K laughed.

"Depends on the reward at the end of the effort," Tony teased.

"Well, if you need to know the end result to explore …"

"I like to be motivated," Tony said with a smirk.

K couldn't help but chuckle at that. "And I thought you liked to experiment."

Tony's grin only widened. "With the right partner…"

"Mom, can you stop flirting with Iron Man?" Clint said, rolling his eyes. "It's weird."

"Sorry honey; it's fun," K said.

"Is not. It's weird," Clint insisted.

"Fun for me," she argued.

"And for me," Tony put in.

"Yeah, I know it's fun for you," Clint said, once more rolling his eyes and sticking his tongue out at Tony.

"Tony, do you need Clint and I to tell you about the hiding spots — or do you want Jan to give you a ductwork tour?" K asked sweetly.

Tony looked between them for a moment before he smiled and put a hand on Jan's shoulder. "Think you know it well enough?"

"Oh, even if I didn't, there are street signs," Jan giggled.

"How convenient," K said, doing her best to look surprised by it. "I wonder if there's a picnic spot … Clint? Is there still that Yogi-bear marker?"

Clint nodded. "Uh-huh. I left it there."

"Get to know your building, Tony," K said.

"From the inside out," Jan agreed, smiling even wider.

Tony just chuckled at that, though he did gesture for Jan to lead the way. "Go ahead, little Wasp," he teased. "Steve and Logan have our respective blonde problems in hand — you and I have earned some down time."

"I told Tony I'd handle revoking Hank's access, ID card, the works," Steve explained to K quietly.

"What … does that mean?" K asked, frowning at him.

"It means he won't be an Avenger, and he won't be allowed into the tower or any of the perks — and as I understand it, the same is true of his SI access."

"Oh," she said, looking surprised at that. "I guess that makes sense."

"We're not in the habit of letting abusers stay on a team of heroes, K," Steve said, giving her a look.

"Glad to hear it," she said. "I honestly hadn't thought it through that far …"

"Didn't look like it," Steve said with a small smirk. "Looked more like pure reaction."

"It really was," she admitted.

"I don't blame you," Steve said. "Tony filled me in on what happened."

"Oh, I'm sure it was an entirely accurate and not at all exaggerated account," she said, rolling her eyes.

Steve chuckled. "Well, some of it might have been exaggerated. But I saw the footage — I saw that Clint was there too. And that's just making an already bad situation worse."

"We'll be out of here for him to go to school anyhow," she said. "And that should... I don't know… simplify things."

Steve let out a breath. "I wish I could say I was surprised, but…." He sighed again. "Things have been bad between her and Hank for a while. None of us knew it was physical, but…"

"I don't feel bad about it either way," K said. "One time or ongoing … that's not … that's not alright."

"I know, and I agree. I just meant that I'm sorry it happened in front of Clint and that we didn't know to stop it earlier," Steve said. "I know the history there. And this is supposed to be a place he can feel safe."

K looked over to where Clint was on the other side of the room before she turned back to Steve. "He will feel a lot safer if you tell him exactly what you told me. It'd build trust in all of you here, too."

Steve nodded. "I will, then," he said. "I don't want the Avengers to ever be a team that scares kids. Any kid."

"I think you've got it covered," K said, then turned to catch Logan as he came in.

"Need a hand, Cap?" Logan asked.

Steve shook his head with a small smile. "We've got things covered here. I was just going to talk to Clint — I'll let you two work out when you want to move back to Westchester." He smirked Logan's way. "I know when I'm in the way."

"You really think you're slowin' things down?" Logan asked with a little scoff.

Steve laughed outright and held up his hands. "Far be it from me to be that wrong."

Logan took K by the shoulders and headed off toward the kitchen to give Steve a chance to have a quiet word with Clint — while nearby, Jan and Tony were snickering as he tried to wedge himself into the ductwork.

Clint couldn't help but grin when he, Logan, K, and Sicem got to the institute — especially since Sicem took off running as soon as they arrived to take advantage of the huge grounds… and the chance to play with the students that always spoiled him.

Clint giggled. "I think Sicem missed it here," he told Logan and K.

"He likes to be outside, in the grass," K pointed out. "That was hard to come by in the city."

"Even though he got to play with Thor all the time," Clint giggled. He glanced up at the adults before he grinned and then rushed off at full speed to join Sicem — and it was no time at all before they could hear Clint laughing as Kitty and Jubilee both played with him.

"I think you missed it too," K said.

"Maybe!" he called back, which had Kitty chuckling too.

"I guess it's time you came up with your wish list for Scott for that class of yours," Logan said, catching K's attention. "Barn's waitin'."

She gave him a troublemaking sort of look before they headed down to take stock of things ... and honestly hide out for a while... though Clint was having too much fun to take too much notice.

"You guys shoulda seen Thor!" Clint said, his eyes wide as he grinned at Kitty and Jubilee. "He can take down Sabretooth easy — and he likes my cereals!"

"Sounds like someone has a favorite Avenger," Kitty said with a smile.

Clint grinned. "Yeah, I like him. And I like the Wasp — she's pretty cool too."

"I like Thor best too," Kitty said, smirking. "I tried to get Logan to introduce me, but he said no."

"I bet he'd like you," Clint said. "He likes anybody who stands up to bullies, and that's, like, the whole point of the X-Men, right?"

"It really is," Kitty agreed. "And we're really good at it."

Clint nodded. "I wanna be an Avenger when I get bigger, but maybe I could be an X-Man too like Logan does."

"And Beast. Don't forget he's both, too," Kitty said. She leaned forward, and it was obvious that she and Jubilee were just dying for stories. "So … how cool was it to live in the tower?"

Clint grinned widely. "It was so cool! I liked going up on the roof because you can see the whole city forever away!"

"So jealous!" Jubilee said. "All we did was swim by the pool … and go on a few pick-up runs to help teenagers …"

"Oooh, new kids?" Clint said. "Are they cool?"

She shrugged. "Some of them are cool, but … they're also a little weird. Even by our standards."

Clint raised both eyebrows. "Really? That's pretty cool, though. I mean… if you find someone you never seen."

"Oh yeah, and we do that a lot, too," Kitty said.

"Did you find anyone my age?"

"No, we didn't," Kitty said. "Younger people are a lot harder to come across, but you never know when it'll happen."

Clint nodded. "Well… what about Barney's age? He's eleven, you know, and Mom says he can come here for school when the circus season is over."

"Yeah, we get a lot of kids his age," Kitty said, nodding. "That's when a lot of people start getting powers? So … you know... a lot of them end up getting like … kicked out."

Clint nodded. "Yeah, people kick kids out for stupid reasons, especially if they already don't got families."

"Well, we get a lot of kids that do have families … and they get mad because they're mutants," Kitty said quietly.

"I can go kick 'em in the balls," Clint offered. "It won't fix stupid, but it's nice to know they got… they got karma."

"They'll get it sooner or later if they haven't already," Kitty said. "But … hey. The pool is still warm. Do you want to go swimming?"

Clint grinned and nodded. "Yeah! I want to go to the lake too — before everyone gets here for the school year and it's even more crowded."

"You have a little bit of time," Kitty said. "People won't start trickling in to stay for another week anyhow."

"Then we got lots to do in a week," Clint said.