Notes: Thanks to anyone who's still sticking with us. We're slowly but surely building up the army (do you hear the people sing? :P) So without further ado, it's time to check on a whole lot of redheads...

Chapter 13: "Seeing Red"

September 27

Essex Laboratories

Clint waited with Charles while the security doors on the other side of the facility unlocked. A frown creased his brow when he saw all the armed guards — and it only deepened when they got further in and he saw that, unlike where he and the others were, it appeared the kids in this area were kept in cells, complete with bars on the doors.

He tried to look in on some of the others, but he only saw a glimpse of blue through one of the windows before their escort firmly reminded Clint this was a need-to-know department. Natasha was here, and that was all he needed to know.

"She's not a criminal," Clint said, his tone biting as he walked a little closer to Charles. "Never has been. That was me. If you wanna throw someone in jail, it's me, not her."

"I don't want her in jail," Charles said calmly. "I want to get the Red Room out of her head. No controls. No coercion. I want her to think for herself and answer to whom she chooses. She can't work with us otherwise, and I think it's a waste of an incredible young mind to leave her here with Red Room programming controlling her thoughts."

"You bet your hair shaving kit it is," Clint said and Charles had to smile at that.

"Those a little over my head tried to keep her off the list because Red Room girls are so highly conditioned, so… difficult. But I believe she can be helped… because of the connection she showed with you. It shows that she can trust outside of the Red Room. We just need to have her see that those outside the Red Room are the better option."

"She's always been difficult," Clint admitted, though he sounded almost fond. "It's not just the Red Room, that's just… Nat."

Charles had to smile at the tone in Clint's voice. "Be that as it may, I still want to see her free from their control. Even if she doesn't choose to work with us."

"Me too," Clint agreed as they arrived at Natasha's cell. When the door opened with a little beep, she was standing against the far wall, though he recognized the brief look of surprise when she saw him with Charles, even if she tried to cover it up. "Hey, Tasha. Your new digs suck."

She glared at him for a moment and shook her head. "He told me you were alive," she said, gesturing to Charles. "I'm glad he wasn't lying about that."

Clint held his arms out and spun in a quick circle before he shot her a jaunty smile. "Yep. I'm here."

"And marching to Xavier's fife?" She lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Nat, since when have you known me to march to anyone else's music?" he shot back, and she almost couldn't help the smirk.

She regarded him for a long moment. "Pawn, then," she said at last. "You shouldn't let him use you like that. He wants to break unity and loyalty and replace it with his own plans."

"Nat, that's crap."

"You're an idiot, Clint Barton."

"And I always thought you were the smart one," he shot back.

She rolled her eyes at him and tossed Charles a look. "This isn't going to work, you know," she told him. "I'll figure out what you have on Clint and get him back on track and out of your influence."

Clint let out a breath. "Nat, I was never part of the Red Room."

"But you were our allies," Natasha said with a bit of heat as she turned toward him. "At least in Two, you understood where the power was."

"Yeah. And it was screwing people left and right," Clint shot back.

Natasha's glare only intensified as she took a step forward, her index finger leveled at him. "If you weren't so naive, you'd know—"

"What, that you're sticking up for the same people who tossed you into the Games and screwed with your head so bad you couldn't keep up in the arena?" Clint thrust his chin out. "That was them, Nat, not you. They said they were prepping you for the Games, but all they did was teach you how to smile and die."

"I've seen the tapes — I know what I did wrong. I can improve," Natasha barked back at him harshly.

"And go right back to them?" Clint shook his head. "C'mon, really? Same people who used you up to try and get themselves more power and prestige? You say I'm an idiot, but at least I knew enough to get outta SAFE. You're still blindly following 'em."

"SAFE was a shadow of the Red Room. A bunch of boys wrestling and calling it fighting," she sneered.

"Oh yeah, and it was real elegant what you did instead. Guys in charge teach you how to dress up and look pretty while you kill kids? C'mon, Nat. You're not in the Games anymore. You're not in the Capitol. What do you think you're doing? They ditched you and didn't care enough to prepare you for it when you got to the Games. Why the heck're you still following them when they abandoned you?"

"They haven't," Natasha insisted stubbornly. "And I haven't abandoned them. If you're smart, you'll make sure you're on the right side when it hits the fan and the new leadership shakes out."

"The right side? Really? The one that hasn't yet had a single victor in the Games?" Clint pointed out. "Real impressive record. I'm shaking in my boots."

"You should be," she said, with a bit of fire in her gaze. "You should be, especially if you won't come willingly."

He stopped for a breath and then spoke more quietly. "You gonna make me, Nat?"

"If I don't, they will."

"Don't do me any favors," he replied, his brow furrowed.

"I shouldn't," she said. "I shouldn't give you a chance at all, but I will, Clint."

"That's what I'm trying to do for you," he said. "Because what they're offering you? It's not a chance."

"No, it's a certainty," she agreed.

"Certainty of continued slavery."

"Where some see a cage, it's only guard rails to keep the path."

Clint couldn't stop the snort at what he recognized was a practiced phrase. "Yeah, yeah. Nothing fishy about that at all. You ever think about how stupid that sounds?"

"It's an allegory of perspective."

"Wow. That sounds so much like something you would say. Like something you would think of all on your own." He shook his head bitterly. "And it's a stupid allegory."

"You're an idiot," she said, shaking her own head in response.

"But somehow not the dumbest one in the room with an attitude like that."

"Please, Clint," she said as she softened her tone for a moment and seemed almost to reach out for him. "You don't want to do this the hard way."

He stared at her, surprised that she would even try to work around him this way. Then he shook his head, a wry grin on his face. "That's kinda the story of my life," he said calmly. "Isn't it?"

Her eyes flashed for a moment before she made a frustrated noise and waved her hand at him. "Fine. Fine. Then go with Xavier."

"I want you to come with me," he said earnestly. "Trust me for a change."

She frowned at him for a long moment as she weighed him out, not only his words but the earnest expression and tone. "Not him," she said quietly, her words measured.

"No," he agreed. "Trust me. Worst case scenario — you can say 'I was right'."

"I'm always right," she said, poorly containing a little smirk.

"Not this time," he replied, matching her look, and feeling an incredible relief.

She considered him, long and hard. "Trust you on what — letting him into my head?"

"Trust me on getting out of the Red Room for once in your life. You're better than that. Better than them."

For another long moment, Natasha watched Clint, her arms crossed with one arm resting so that her hand was almost at the center of her chest. "I can't," she said softly, honestly.

"Sure you can. Come with me and pretend for them," he leaned against the wall with his hand resting behind his head, looking exceedingly calm and collected. Nat didn't miss his pose; there was something so annoyingly attractive about the boy. She pursed her lips and squinted at him.

"Pretend to be annoyed by this whole charade?" she asked, her smirk returning a bit against her will.

He saw her shifting slightly to his way of thinking and nodded. "Sure. Shouldn't be too hard."

She paused and seemed to think it over for a good long time. "I'll consider it — just one chance."

He grinned and closed the gap between them before he scooped her up in a hug and all but crushed her to him. "Missed you, Nat," he whispered to her.

"Believe it or not, I missed you too," she said, trying hard to ignore the swell of warmth she felt as he held her.

October 2

Tahiti Wing

It had taken a lot of careful watching and some strained Hawk-eyes, but Kate, with Clint's help, had figured out where the blind spots were on the cameras in the rec room. There weren't many blind spots at all, but it helped that Clint 'accidentally' threw his pool cue across the room after a post-mission argument with his mission partner, and Wade 'ducked' — and Kate wasn't saying that was how they adjusted camera angles around here, but it was definitely part of the game.

She had pointed out these blind spots to Kurt, and they marked a few of them with things like rearranging the couches and readjusting the pool table just the slightest bit, that sort of thing.

So right now, all the cameras could see was that Kate and Kurt were sitting on the couch. But they could not see the fact that Kate had her fingers laced through Kurt's as they were both halfway wrapped up in their books, the ones Charles had suggested anyone in the Tahiti program make their own. The place had a decent library, and Kate was really only pretending to read hers as she kept glancing over at Kurt's and half reading Treasure Island over his shoulder. He was grinning like a loon through the whole thing, so it had to be more interesting than A Separate Peace, which so far was boring.

"Clearly, you have picked better than me," Kate said at last as she abandoned pretending to read hers and just started actively batting his hand away from turning the page before she'd caught up to him.

"It's a pirate story," Kurt said as if this should have been supremely obvious to her. "Of course I picked better."

"Well, I stand corrected," she said with a little grin as she finally picked up her hand from the page and let him turn it.

"Actually, my mother used to tell me this story, but I've never read it," he admitted. "She didn't have the book, but she knew the storylines."

"And you totally pretended to be Jim Hawkins. I know you did," Kate said with a little sparkle in her eyes.

"Well," he said, matching her grin with his own. "Sometimes I was Long John Silver, and my little brother and sister were Jim and Ben."

She giggled and wrinkled her nose at that. "I just can't imagine you being the bad guy. At all. Ever."

"But he's the pirate," Kurt pointed out with the beginnings of an impish grin, and Kate had to laugh at that and very quickly leaned over to give him a little peck on the cheek.

"And you're such a pirate," she teased, blushing right down to the roots of her hair as Kurt turned a bit pink as well. The little stolen kisses were still very new and exciting, especially because they were forbidden.

"Well…" The still-pink tinge at the edges of Kurt's ears turned a bit deeper. "If that's the case, maybe I should steal something," he said before he leaned over and kissed her back, slightly more than a peck this time as he pulled her closer to him with one hand at her chin.

"Both of you, my office — now."

The kiss broke in an instant, and both of them turned to see a severe-looking Essex in the doorway of the rec room as they both turned bright red for a whole different reason. There really wasn't any excuse or explanation they could give like when they usually tried to talk their way out of trouble, so this was just… bad. They suddenly couldn't look at each other for fear of making it worse as they clumsily got up off the couch and walked past the still glowering Essex.

He glared at the rest of the occupants of the rec room, knowing full well that they were all aiding and abetting, before he followed the two little lovebirds down the hall. Once they were sitting in the office, he took a seat across from them, obviously trying to control his temper, but not entirely succeeding.

"What do you two not understand about no fraternization?" Essex all but hissed out. "Do you not realize why this policy is in place? Do I need to explain it to you?"

When both of them looked properly guilty for a moment, he continued. "Clearly, neither of you are mature enough to delve into anything even resembling a relationship — and you need to keep your focus on your training and your missions."

"We're mature enough to kill people for you guys," Kate grumbled, her eyes flashing.

"But not mature enough to be on the same team. Ever." Essex replied. "Which is more than just inconvenient for you — it's a setback for us. You were scheduled to have a mission in the coming weeks, but I'm glad that this came up, since it would have been two weeks off base together. At least now we know you can't be trusted together — for any period of time."

There was no mistaking the disappointed look on either of their faces as Kate tried to argue, "But we work together just fine!"

"But you can't be left alone," he countered.

"It's a stupid policy," Kate said, now clearly just mad at the loss of a potential two weeks with Kurt.

"If you're wrapped up in each other, then you're too busy to pay attention to your duty," he said with a tone of finality. "You'll have your new partner assignment tomorrow."

"What do you think is gonna happen when you stick a whole bunch of teenagers in the same place, huh? This is just stupid," Kate said.

"Kate," Kurt said, trying to calm her, but she gave him a look, and he didn't press. Besides, he didn't exactly want to argue Essex's side, either — he was just as disappointed.

"You may go now — unless I need to escort you back," Essex said with a glare.

"We can get back on our own," Kurt said with his chin thrust out as he steered Kate away from Essex to keep her from getting in even more trouble, although Kate was grumbling all the way down the hall once they were out.

"I had it," she said.

"No, you didn't," Kurt said, his hand on her shoulder as he let out a sigh. "But this was bound to happen, I think. Entirely my fault."

"Um, no. No it was not. I take full credit for kissing you first," she said with a little smile despite the situation they found themselves in.

"Half credit at best," Kurt argued, starting to smile as well.

"A 50-50 split would be fair," she said, her head tipped to the side as she pretended to consider it.

"It could be, but it's not," he replied with a smirk. "60-40, my advantage."

"Lies," Kate said. "Just filthy lies. I kissed you first."

"Nothing about me is filthy," he said, tipping his chin up a bit. "And not today you didn't. I stole the first kiss today."

She let out a breath and looked dramatically put out. "Fine. Your fault today." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and sighed. "Seriously, when can we just ... just go kill Thanos and be done with this? They're teaching us to kill people, right? So let's just be done, and then we can go get Logan and not have to deal with stupid doctors."

"I'm questioning this one's credentials," Kurt said, smirking a bit wider. "Clearly, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Yeah, we're even better together, you and me," she agreed, bumping his shoulder with hers as they headed back to the rec room to a group of kids armed with smirks and knowing looks.

October 3

Tahiti Wing

"Thank you for reassigning me," Clint said to Charles. "Really." He looked supremely relieved. "I don't even care what it is, or what we're doing ... just … thank you."

"You don't know who your reassignment is," Charles said as the two of them headed to his office.

"Yeah, but whoever it is, it isn't Wade," Clint pointed out. He and Wade had already run a few missions together, and while Clint had to admit that Wade was an excellent shot with a rifle, and good backup for the kind of assignments they got, he was getting tired of the exhausting job he'd been handed just putting up with Wade's antics in the field. "We're not brothers or twins, no matter what he says, and I'm not cut out to be a babysitter, so… thank you."

Charles just had to smile to himself. "Wait and see who your new partner is and then decide if you want to thank me," he said, though he was sure that both of the kids involved in this new team-up with be more than happy with the assignment.

When they got to the office, Kate was there waiting for them and Charles wasted no time in letting them in on the new arrangement. "Your new partner," he said to both of them.

"Hey, Katie!" Clint said with a grin, though he was a bit surprised when Kate didn't look nearly so enthusiastic.

"Ok, so it's not horrible," Kate said with a sigh, and Clint put a hand over his heart and looked insulted.

"Hey, that's not nice to say to your new partner."

"Yes, you should be more gentle with your trainee," Charles said before he looked up at Clint. "She is the senior member of your team, I'm afraid."

"She what?" Clint looked abashed as Kate broke into a wide grin, clearly enjoying the change much more now.

"You heard him," she said, an impish light dawning in her eyes.

"Kate has been running missions far longer than you have — at least for us. She knows all of our protocols and will teach them to you when you go on your first mission together," Charles explained. "It's an extended mission, so we needed to be sure that it would be with a pair that would get along — but not too well. Seeing as Kate was a bit indiscreet yesterday," he added, glancing her way with one eyebrow raised.

"It would've been a two-week mission with Kurt," Kate said sulkily, and Clint nodded his understanding with a little 'oooh'.

"And it was very nearly a two-week mission with Peter, but Essex, it seems … thinks that any of your old alliance could be problematic," Charles said, looking irritated at the insinuation as Kate just stared at him.

"That… is just wrong," Kate said, shaking her head.

"Well, you're aware of how they are presenting it," Charles said. He wasn't thrilled with the subject; that much was clear to tell. But it didn't do much to soften the frustration Kate was clearly building, either.

"Yeah, Kurt told me about the stupid interviews," Kate said with a glare. "So, what, he thinks I wanted to… with all of them…?"

Charles shook his head. "I don't think he honestly believes it. I believe it's an excuse to keep you from your strongest allies."

"But Clint's okay?" Kate raised an eyebrow.

"Clint has strong ties to his old district partner," Charles explained. "And Essex wants Natasha to pull Mr. Barton into his line of thinking. He seems to think Natasha has more sway over Clint's actions than you do, Kate," he added, this time with just the slightest hint of a smirk at the very idea.

"Yeah, I get the regular recruitment pitch," Clint said with a grimace that had some amusement behind it. "It's nice to know she still cares."

Charles nodded at that and then cleared his throat. "Well, at least this mission promises fresh air, something I think you both sorely need."

"Good, 'cause so far I've only gone on a few missions between sessions with you and Nat, and cramped spaces with Wade are not fun." Clint made a face at that.

"There is nothing about this assignment that is cramped," Charles promised.

"Except my style," Kate said, causing Clint to snort and give her a high five.

"Possibly. You'll be watching out for a few nasty characters," Charles said, though he was unable to stop to smile at their antics with each other. "Agent Coulson will give you the full break down. But the mission will run at least ten days — closer to two weeks before it's considered a bust. And you'll be in the mountains. So you'll both need to brush up on long range sniper skills in the next few weeks before the assignment."

"Which mountains?" both Hawkeyes asked at once.

"The Rockies — the northern end of them," Charles said. "It's a very remote area."

Clint and Kate both glanced at each other, a little disappointed. Clint had grown up in the desert mountains, and Kate in the Appalachians, so they had been hoping for something familiar, but… They both shrugged.

"Sounds like we should hit the shooting range, oh sidekick mine," Kate said with a smug grin.

"Not your sidekick," Clint grumbled.

"Mmhmm." She draped an arm over his shoulders. "C'mon. We'll get you a cute catchphrase and an outfit to match mine on the way down."

October 7

Tahiti Wing

For the past few days, there had been a lot of excitement in the labs, though of course, none of the Tahiti kids were allowed to know why, and all Cassie could get out of Hank or Jan was that this had been the toughest reanimation case yet — and they were hopeful they could pull off two miracles. But they were tight-lipped about it otherwise.

Though… Tony had some idea. That much was clear from the fact that he was sort of pale and kept nervously fiddling with pieces of his projects when he wasn't in the labs or down in the workshop that he'd more or less turned into his own personal playground. But when anyone asked him, he would just say that he didn't want to guess, in case he was wrong.

But finally, the kids saw the medics doing their usual push into the Tahiti med bay to transport whoever it was so they'd wake up in the same area as the rest of them, and their interests were even more piqued when Charles asked for Sin and Tony, of all people, to accompany him when he went to do the introductions.

"Really? Us?" Tony asked with a frown. "Why …. Why us? Isn't Little Miss Cassie the welcoming committee?"

"Cassie volunteers if there is no one in the program more suited to do the welcome," Charles said patiently. "But you two fit the part nicely."

"He's just scared to be stuck alone with me while you're in there with the new kid," Sin said with a little smirk.

"Yeah, no … seeing as you don't have handcuffs — and if you did I might take you up on it just to see what shade of red you'd turn — I'm not worried."

She stuck her chin up at him and scrunched her nose before she pointedly shoved past him to follow Charles. "Whatever."

"That's what I thought … run away."

She spun to face him and stick a finger in her face. "Don't make me embarrass you in front of everyone when we're supposed to be laying out the welcome mat."

"You can try, sweetie," he replied. "But if we're the welcome wagon — I can only guess who it is we're going to see."

She rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue at him as they headed down to the med bay — where there was, in fact, a new occupant in the usual spot. The little freckled redhead was sleeping soundly, and there was no sign of the fact that she'd had both of her arms reattached as she shifted, shrugging a bit in her sleep as she started to regain consciousness.

Tony stared at her, suddenly torn as to what to do. "I don't know that I should be here," Tony said softly. "She wanted me dead. How would that be a good welcome?"

"I wouldn't call you in unless I thought both of you were able to handle it," Charles assured him. "But we do need to assess how well she'll work with you — or if we need to take measures to keep you separated until she can adjust properly."

"I don't know if there is an 'adjust' for this," Tony all but whispered out, still without removing his gaze from Pepper in the other room as he took a slight step back. "She hates me — and she's got good reason to."

"It's my hope that you two can come to an understanding," Charles said, matching Tony's soft tone as they watched Pepper coming out of it, slow and sluggish. "It will probably help for her to hear that you know, and that you acknowledge why she has such strong feelings. But we'll get to that later."

"Yeah, psycho-babble after we get Pepper back," Sin agreed, looking not nearly as nervous as Tony and actually a bit excited to have someone that she hadn't tried to kill during the Games around.

Tony, however, leaned tensely against the wall with his arms crossed, his dark eyes focused on the girl in the bed, his brows furrowed.

But they weren't able to discuss the point further as Pepper started to wake up in earnest, and the second she was even partway conscious, it was obvious she was panicking. The monitors for her heart rate and other vital signs started to scream mechanical anguish, and the adrenaline obviously helped Pepper get her motor functions back faster as she started to thrash.

Charles made his way to her quickly, trying to talk her down from the violent reaction, hoping the sound of his voice would help her to latch on to something that would draw her through it.

For Pepper, it was reassuring to have a soothing voice promising her safety, since the last thing she remembered was Cletus Kasady… No, the last thing she remembered was her parents. It was all hazy, but there was definitely a crazed, cackling psychopath in there, and her parents, and... Tony.

"Tony!" she shouted as soon as her eyes flew open. She was breathing hard, clearly still panicked, trying desperately to tell him something.

"Miss Potts," Charles said, still urging her calm, her voice measured and even — though there was a way to call for help from the medics if he needed it. "Please, try to relax, you're safe. And whole. And no one is going to harm you."

Pepper took a deep, shuddering breath as she tried to do just that, the brightness of the room and the unfamiliarity of it throwing her off balance as she gasped, "Where … where am I? Where's Tony?"

"He's here. He's safe," Charles told her. "And I need you to calm down."

"I have to find him," she said, still gasping shallow breaths, her hands gripping the edge of the blankets. "He doesn't know — I have to tell him what I did."

Xavier was slightly startled. "What did you do?" he asked, softly.

At that, Pepper just covered her face with her hands and began to sob. "I tried to kill him," she choked out through the palms covering her mouth.

Charles spoke firmly. "Nothing you did led to his death."

"Yes, it did," she insisted, her chest still heaving. "I put his name in for the Games. I took out tesserae for him. It's my fault he was in the Games in the first place!"

Charles let out a sigh. He knew, of course, that it hadn't been her actions that had propelled Tony into the Games, but that was not common knowledge, nor was it something that would help her in the moment. But before he could decide the best course of action, Tony stepped into the room. "Yeah. I … wasn't going to wait for permission," he said as he stopped and stood there, looking down at her. "Hey, Pep. I couldn't wait another five minutes without you."

Pepper stared at him, momentarily shocked out of her tears, before she let out a little gasp and started to laugh through the sobbing, the sound of it almost disbelieving. "You're here," she said.

"He did say that. Like… two minutes ago. You weren't listening. Apparently."

For a moment, her eyes widened. "You heard?" she asked, and her every muscle stilled as she watched him.

He hedged and shrugged one shoulder up to his ear for an instant. "Well, I was waiting for my cue." He took a deep breath, and it seemed he had to force himself to meet her gaze. "But ... I know why you did it. And I deserved it. All of it."

"No, no you didn't," she insisted, shaking her head. "It was an accident. You didn't mean to… And I meant to kill you, Tony. That wasn't an accident, and—"

"Doesn't matter. Still my fault."

At that, Pepper let out another gasp and started to cry again in earnest, mumbling apologies the whole time.

Tony pulled his hands from his pockets and swept over to her, sitting down on the bed and pulling her into a tight hug. Her face was buried in his neck as he shushed her, telling her it was fine. That it was over. It took some time, but when she finally started to settle down a bit and relax, Tony let out a deep breath. "You … you ah, you have another visitor."

"I do?" She looked up at Tony and hastily tried to wipe at her face. "Why didn't you tell — they've been watching this whole…"

"It was kinda hard to get a word in … and I wouldn't … well. Probably not?" he said with a little wince. "Short attention span … you know."

"Yeah, I do," she said with a little muted smirk as Sin pushed her way through the door to say hello.

"Good to see you up," Sin said with a smirk as she waved.

Pepper stared at Sin for a moment in disbelief. "I thought you were going to win!" she blurted out.

"Yeah, so did I," Sin said with a dry chuckle before she just shook her head and slipped over to sit on the edge of Pepper's bed, half pushing Tony to get him to make the space for her there. "So," she said. "Stark here probably can't give you a tour worth anything. Spends all his time in the labs."

Pepper had to laugh at that. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

Sin smirked. "Yeah, well, it means I'm picking up his slack," she said. "So — you coming for the tour, or am I going to have to carry you?"

Pepper couldn't help but laugh as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed — and Tony very gingerly helped her to her feet. "I'll follow you," she told Sin.

October 10

Tahiti Training Room

"No way," Kate insisted, both hands on her hips as Clint just grinned crookedly at her.

"Way," he told her. He didn't sound concerned in the least as he casually twirled an arrow between the fingers of one hand before he nocked it and aimed for the target further down the range.

"No," Kate said again. She was leaned against the wall, their training long over. They both knew that they worked well together as partners, so most of their "training" together consisted of goofing off and making trick shots. But this was the most unbelievable one Clint had ever proposed. "You can't make the Robin Hood shot. It's impossible."

"Says you," Clint said, still with that crooked smile. He fired off the arrow, and of course, it hit the dead center of the target. He nodded once and then reached for another one.

"Says physics," she returned.

He raised a single eyebrow her way and spared her a short glance before he fired off his arrow anyway — and it went straight through the first one, splitting it right down the middle.

Kate stared at the target openly, her lips slightly parted as Clint continued on with pretending he wasn't smug about the whole thing, sauntering down the range to go retrieve both arrows, as if Kate needed further proof to know that the shot was good.

"You miss every single one of the shots you don't take, Katie Kate," he told her as he tapped the top of her head with the end of the split arrow.

She waved the arrow away and tried to fix him with a glare, but he was grinning too wide for it to stick. "That include the ones you don't take with arrows?" she had to tease him — beating him to the punch, because he looked like he was going to say something corny like that.

"Ex-actly," he said, pointing her way with the arrows still in hand, and she just smirked at him that much wider.

"In case you haven't noticed, that's what got you stuck being my sidekick, mister," she pointed out.

"Not your sidekick."

"Uh-huh." She twirled an arrow in her own hand the way he'd done before. "What did Charles say, trainee of mine?"

"You," Clint said, pointing at her with his index finger, "are abusing your power."

"Can't help it — you make it too easy," she shot back as she lined up her next shot, took in her breath… and let it fly.

Perfect shot. Right in the center.

She grinned to herself as Clint took up the spot she had taken earlier leaned against the wall. "You weren't wrong to take the shot with Kurt — you two're good together, Katie," Clint said seriously, and Kate paused in stringing her next arrow to look his way with one eyebrow raised.

"... thanks?"

He shrugged lightly. "Not your fault the creepy doc is a joykill," he said. "And hey — I call 'em like I see 'em."

"Yeah?" She shook her head at him for a moment as she lined up her shot. If he could do the Robin Hood shot, then so could she. Right?

"Why do you think I showed you the vents, oh sidekick of mine?"

She glared but didn't turn his way. "Not your sidekick."

"You were singing a different tune a few minutes ago."

She rolled her eyes. "I hate you sometimes, you know that?"

He just chuckled. "You really, really don't," he replied.

She let out a breath of frustration at the same moment she let her arrow fly — and while it was certainly on the right trajectory, somehow, she didn't get the Robin Hood shot. She narrowed her eyes at the target and strung another arrow.

"C'mon, Katie—"

"Clint," she cut in, her eyes narrowed. "Just… shut up for a second, alright?"

He shrugged openly, but he didn't say anything else as he waited for her.

She turned her attention back to the target. Let the tension out of her shoulders. Breathe… then release.

Clint grinned along with Kate as the arrow split down the middle. "Nice shot, Katie Kate."

October 17

Tahiti Wing

Jan was humming to herself that morning, in a fine mood as she brushed out her hair and checked her reflection a few times before she headed down to breakfast. Hank had already gone down to the lab that morning without waking her — he was an early riser — but he'd promised he would be done by noon today, and then the rest of the day was theirs.

And Jan had the backing of the other doctors. Claire and Cecilia had both promised that they would bodily remove Hank if they had to if he got too wrapped up in his work and tried to weasel out of the day. After all, a wedding anniversary only came around once a year, and they all agreed — it was more important than anything he could be doing in the lab.

Most of his work was already done anyway, with only one Tahiti operative left to wake up - and that was down to the medical doctors.

So he really didn't have any excuse not to spend the whole day with Jan, and they both knew it.

That was what had her in such a good mood as she practically skipped down the hall from the residential area to the cafeteria, and the other Tahiti kids noticed, of course. Especially the ones who hadn't been in the program long enough to know what today was.

"You're in a good mood," Carol observed when Jan sat down with her coffee and buttermilk pancakes.

"Wedding anniversary," Jan said brightly, only grinning more when she saw that she had the attention of more of the kids with that particular revelation.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that," Kate said, suddenly sounding much more awake than she had been moments before — staring blankly into her coffee as she very slowly woke up — the usual morning routine for both Hawkeyes, actually. "I mean — you and Hank… doesn't that totally break, like, a whole bunch of rules?"

Jan waved her hand at that. "Those stupid rules didn't exist four years ago when we got married," she explained.

"And then, suddenly, they did," Cassie supplied. She'd heard the story before and was grinning widely at the chance to hear it again.

"Apparently, some people thought it was too distracting to have a wedding and a married couple and all the logistics of moving the paperwork through and making the living arrangements…" Jan shrugged up one shoulder to her ear. "I didn't think it was that horrible."

"Well, of course you wouldn't. You were the one getting married," Kate pointed out, watching Jan for a moment with slightly narrowed eyes before she leveled her index finger at her. "And now — you're the reason for all the stupid rules around here!"

"Guilty as charged," Jan said, not sounding the least bit sorry.

"So rude," Kate said, shaking her head.

"Hey, I'm not going to apologize for doing what makes me happy," Jan said with a little grin as she leaned forward to tell her tale. "It was all very romantic — a lot of post-resurrection relief at seeing each other again, a lot of kissing." She looked Kate's way with a significant sort of raised-eyebrow look. "Not that anyone here has done anything like that."

"Oh, not at all," Kate agreed with a little smirk. "That would be against the rules."

Jan just laughed at that as some of the other kids made their way over to join the conversation — even the kids who weren't pining over the fact that they couldn't date who they wanted to were interested in the story of how the rules got started, though it was Kurt who said, with a small smile, "What was the wedding like?"

Jan turned to him with a barely restrained smile. "Actually, it was pretty … not exciting. It's not like we could invite that many people to it — and Hank still owes me a honeymoon. We couldn't exactly just run off somewhere when we're still technically dead," she said, her eyes twinkling. "I told him when this whole thing gets settled, when the revolution's over and the Tahiti secret is out, he is going to take me out somewhere nice. We'll probably do a vow renewal ceremony, just so we can have something a little bigger than just signing paperwork and making the argument to SHIELD to let it go through."

"Well, the marriage is more important than the wedding," Kurt said with a little smile.

"True that," Jan agreed, though she didn't quite mean it, and that much was obvious as she immediately let out a long sigh. "Would have been nice, though."

"Then that's first up when we overthrow the Capitol," Cassie said, her tone decisive as she nodded to herself. "We'll make sure you get the big party you deserve."

"We'll all come," Kate agreed.

"We'll make Coulson give you away," Peter suggested with a grin that kept growing the more he thought about it. "He'll probably cry."

"Any preferences on colors?" Carol asked interestedly.

"I've always been a fan of yellow," Jan said with a crooked grin. "It's so bright and warm…"

"Then it'll have to be in the springtime," Cassie decided.

"Oh, I don't know," Jan said thoughtfully. "Autumn back home was always spectacular with all the trees turning colors…."

"But warm yellows are totally a spring thing," Cassie argued.

"If you do something a little deeper, though…. Yellows and browns — that would be good for autumn," Kate broke in and then, seeming to feel the need to justify herself, added, "My sister loved that kind of thing. She probably would have been a stylist if she'd been born in the Capitol."

"Then maybe I'll ask her to do my dress," Jan said with a little smile.

"She would die of happiness," Kate told her.

"Then that will have to happen," Jan decided. "The first anniversary we have after this whole revolution gets going."

"Then we have a date to shoot for," Kurt said with a decisive nod.

"Oh, I doubt it'll happen next year," Jan told him honestly. "It's already been four years…"

"We'll just see about that," Kurt said in a tone that brokered no argument, and at his stubborn insistence, Jan couldn't help but smile, reach over, and give him a one-armed hug.

"Whatever you say, Kurt," she said.