A/N - These kids ... I mean ... they NEED the Avengers to keep an eye on them. MOST of them are teens/barely 20's. It's so much better when they have the Avengers as a group of ROLE MODELS instead of a group to fight. And you can say how much you love Clint ... I mean ... you've been guiding him SO MUCH? And without your input, I would be like in Hawkeye hell trying to figure out what to do with him half the time. I think I'm getting better, but you have his snark down so stone cold. (*muah*)

Chapter 25: Trust In Me

"Alight, Clint," Steve said as soon as he got back from dropping off the little group of X-Men back in Westchester. "You and me - no one else has to be in on this."

Clint was back in his room and looked like he was expecting that reaction. In fact, he looked almost resigned to it. "Good. That's good."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Steve asked.

"It honestly didn't come up," Clint said with a shrug, obviously trying to play it up and visibly uncomfortable with the attention. "I didn't know lifetime medical records were a requirement for this outfit, but if you're worried, I swear, it's only partial - and I can lip read and manage just fine, really."

"No, that's not it," Steve said, shaking his head. "What if I told you we could have used that to our advantage in some situations?"

Clint gave Steve a dry look. "Yeah, sure."

"No, really. If I'm in your sight line and know you can read my lips, I don't have to speak out loud to get the message to you, right?"

"Hey, if you know sign, even better," Clint said. "My brother and I learned it growing up. Probably rougher than anything you've seen, but hey." Clint shrugged. "It works."

"Hawkeye, I want to know these things because I trust you, and that would be a real sign of trust to share that kind of thing with your team. I'll stand by what I said before - you don't have to tell the others. But if you did, I'm sure Stark would come up with something better than what you had. And either way, that was a great thing that you did for Scott. I'm sure he'll remember it for a long time."

"I told you - I don't use 'em anymore," Clint said. "I haven't for years. I just keep 'em for emergencies."

Steve raised his eyebrows at that. "How long have you had them?"

"Elementary school," Clint said. "In between Kindergarten and first grade. Had the summer to get used to 'em…"

"So … I'm guessing it wasn't a fluke thing."

"Yeah, no, unless you count a table and my ear and a beer bottle a fluke thing, no, you'd be right," Clint said dryly.

Steve looked more grim at that. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Clint shrugged. "Like I said. I don't need the aids, and no one even noticed all this time. So it's not going to affect my work on the team."

"Never thought it would," Steve said.

"Sure you did."

Steve smirked. "If Logan was here, he could vouch for me on that. You're an asset to the team since you joined on. That doesn't change over something like this."

"Yeah, Logan and his nose," Clint said. "You know there's easier ways to spot a lie, right?"

"Oh yeah, but it's more fun to play good cop bad cop with him doing the stoic routine."

"I can't imagine you being bad cop, Cap," Clint smirked.

"Oh, I'm not," Steve said.

"That's what I thought." Clint shrugged. "Anyway. Don't tell Stark. If I wanted better tech, I mean, if I needed it, I'd ask Pym. But not Stark."

"Alright, but like I told you, I'm not telling anyone," Steve promised. "It's not my story to tell."

"Alright then." Clint leaned back against the wall. "I wasn't trying to lie to you. For the record."

"I know," Steve said, flashing him a smile. "No one likes to talk about stuff like that from when they were kids."

"Yeah, not all of us came out of an experiment or got superpowers to walk it off."

Steve's smile became more crooked. "No. I guess they don't." He waved for Clint to join him. "I got some new intel that came in on our redheaded friend. Thought you might want to go over it with me."

Clint broke into a huge grin at that. "Hey, if that's what happens every time I spring something from the past, I got circus stories to tell you - and we'll find Nat in twenty-four hours."

"Well, if that's what does it, by all means, tell me about the bearded lady."

It had taken some time - and left Charles with quite the headache - but he was able to get at the command in K's head. It helped that Jean knew the specific words Essex had used, and from there, Charles was able to trace the man's footsteps in her mind.

There was still plenty of damage from the department. But at the very least, Charles was able to restore K to the way she was before Essex had a hold of her.

And K had come out of it positively worn out - though that slipped away quickly when she heard what the trigger was - to be sure it was gone - and what the effects of it were. And then she was simply … quiet and livid, glaring ahead of her as she made her way down the hall to start digging for more intel.

"I'm fine, Scott," K said when she smelled him creeping up to check on her. "But next time, if this crap happens again, I'm going to tell you right now I want the tracker handed to me once it's out."

"If you tell Hank Pym, I'm pretty sure he'll give it to you," Scott said.

"Call him for me, then," K said. "I'm working on something."

"Mom." Scott shook his head. "You just got your head back."

"And if I understand it right, he's under the impression that everyone wants to sit back and heal before dropping a freakin' bomb on him."

"Mom, I leveled him and the house. I'm pretty sure that counts as dropping a bomb," Scott said. "I know you were out of it, but he'll have to set up a new lab and everything."

"Yeah, well, I want more of his aliases - because Charles said that was an OLD trigger."

"Yeah, it sounded more like poetry than mine," Scott said, making a face. "But hey, let me help with the research, okay? Not because I don't think you can, but I'm going crazy being on desk duty for the team, and I could use a project that isn't learning sign language with Hank - though that is a great asset for the team to communicate in the field if Jean can't hook us all up. Clint had the right idea."

K thought about it for a moment, then pulled a chair out for him. "Alright. I guess I can teach you how to find the right spots to dig."

"See?" Scott grinned. "And then when my baby sister is here, I swear, I'll watch her and you can destroy this guy. I won't complain."

"You mean if your Dad doesn't panic at the very thought of me going after him."

"You can go together. Like I said, I'm babysitting."

"Yeah, because that worked out so well last time," she deadpanned.

Scott let out a breath. "Mom, I'm trying to be optimistic."

"And you're doing such a good job, sweet Caramel Mocha."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah, I'm just ... mad. What do you want? Come on - this is how it's done, okay? If you're looking for anything around the department, it's all in code to hide it in random patterns. You need to know what the keys are that they hide stuff in."

Scott nodded. "Alright. That would explain why even some of the stuff I could read in Dad's files made no sense."

"Well, that's a different series of codes," K said. "I'm just talking about classifications. And if it's anywhere near as old of a trigger as Charles said, then it was definitely them that put it in there."

"He seemed annoyed by the department, though," Scott said with a frown.

"Doesn't mean he wasn't involved in one way or another." She shook her head as she wrote out a little list of words that seemed to have no real connection to each other - and when put in a list like she had them, it looked entirely insane. "Most of the people working for Weapon X disagreed with something they did sooner or later."

"Well, we can look at the powers he has too," Scott said slowly. "Jean said he teleported, but it wasn't like Kurt. I know where he got his beams and healing, but if we can track that back…"

"Kurt's not the only teleporter in the world," K replied quietly. "But … you should tell your dad that part, if you haven't already."

Scott nodded. "Yeah, I'll ask him," he agreed.

"Keep in mind: if he doesn't remember right away, it may still come to him later. And that hurts when it comes back. So. Patience."

"Yeah, I know," Scott said. "And hey, I still have five and a half more weeks to go, so … I have time. Clearly."

"Then you start with these, and I'll work on a different set of words," K said.

"Thanks, Mom," Scott said, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "I'm glad you're back. Jean was trying to pick on everyone while you were too quiet for her tastes. She's funny, but your sense of humor is different."

"Well ... she tried. That counts for something, right?"

"She likes you, Mom," Scott said with a smile.

"She's trying. And a lot harder than your professor; I can say that for sure," K said as she started digging in again.

"Probably helps that Jean really wants my family to like her," Scott pointed out with a small smile. "It's different."

"Yeah, we've had a few chats," K agreed. "I can't imagine how lost that girl would have been for all that time until Ororo showed up if we hadn't been here too."

Scott smirked. "Yeah, Ororo and Jean have both been looking out for you, by the way. And I'm glad Jean's got her, too. She's trying to act like Sinister didn't affect her as much as he did."

"Everyone would," K reasoned. "He's a nasty, pervy little creep. That's the kind of person you want to forget."

"No kidding." Scott rubbed the back of his neck. "I still don't know what to do about… well… I'm not going to stop seeing Jean, but how do you wrap your mind around him… approving?"

"Honestly?" K said, stopping her work and pushing back from the screen. "I'm looking at it like he had no freakin' clue until after you already picked - and he's the drooling idiot that's screaming out how he just knew you were going to pick that way. He's an annoying, after-the-fact pain in the ass. Ignore him." She shook her head as she turned back to the screen. "The fact of the matter is that he'd probably approve of damn near anyone 'his boys' picked out just because it would be someone else for him to torture and compare genes to."

"Not if it was… well, not if neither of you had powers," Scott pointed out.

"You don't know that either. What if they started out without the X-gene and then they walked out altered? I'm sure he'd do that just to say he was a genius." She waved a hand. "He just wants in your heads."

"Yeah, well, he's in," Scott muttered.

"Well, kick his freeloading ass out," K said, turning his way. "He doesn't get to live in your head rent-free."

"Yeah. I've been working on that for a few years now," Scott said.

"So be more stubborn about it," K said. "I know you can be more stubborn." She shifted how she was sitting, leaning back for a moment with a little grimace.

"Yeah, love you too, Mom," Scott said.

"Take it as a compliment. I like stubborn. Clearly."

"Hey, for the record? You'd adopted me well before you fell for Dad. So yeah. I know."

"That's true enough," K agreed, though she had to frown a little deeper. "But … I think I have to back off a little bit here. Your sister doesn't like how I'm sitting. Apparently."

Scott smirked at that and then leaned over to look at K's stomach. "Hey. Calm down in there. You don't get a shot at Sinister until you at least get your healing, got it?"

"Oh, there's an image," K said, smirking finally. "Creep goes down by toddler …"

"And down he goes," Scott finished for her. "See? Best family in the world."

"You're adorable when you get all … squishy."

"Yeah, well, don't make a thing of it. I told Dad there's a moratorium on jokes about me being a family man until, you know, I actually marry J- someone."

"Thirty. Ish. Yeah, he warned me," K said. "Still nothing wrong with having a soft spot. You know … that's how you were unofficially adopted so fast anyhow. Your squish and your genuine … you."

"My 'me'. Sounds about right."

"Both a fair description and an accurate one," she said before she got up and kissed his forehead. "I'm sorry your hearing is jacked up for a little while. That's pretty miserable."

"I'm alright," Scott said. "It took me a while to stop going sideways, but the aids Clint gave me helped."

"He's another giant squish."

"And I still can't believe he had you, Dad, and Captain Rogers in the dark about that," Scott said with a smirk.

"I have always only dug as far as I needed to. I'm not a psychologist," K replied. "And there was no mention of it in his medical record, so he must be getting them under a different name."

"He had a criminal record, right? Makes sense." Scott shrugged. "I know Captain Rogers was itching to talk to him."

"I'm sure he did," K said. "He seems to like to get to know everyone up close and personal. I thought he was going to break his face smiling when he felt the baby kick." She shook her head at that. "Like he's never been around a pregnant woman before. Lunatic."

"Hey, at the risk of subjecting myself to more jokes about my squishiness? It's so cool to feel that. And it's a miracle every time, so… yeah. Tiny person growing in there is going to get a smile every time."

K tipped her head with a fond sort of smile before she kissed his temple again. "So squishy. You get it from your Uncle Steve. Clearly."

"That's not how genetics work, Mom."

"No. But you spent so much time watching the old reels, I think it still applies."

"Sure, Mom." Scott kissed her cheek. "I'll go talk to Dad. And you… think about a name I can call my sister, because just saying, 'hi baby sister' isn't cutting it for me, okay?" he teased.

"I'm working on it," she said, letting her shoulders drop. "I was hoping to be able to have it down to a boy and a girl - just in case - and make you go with 'little one' for as long as possible. But I'll narrow it down."

"I'm sorry he did what he did to you," Scott said.

"Yeah, not your fault," she said. "It was his fault. And I won't listen to anyone saying otherwise."

"No, but I am still… upset for you. Is that better?" Scott said. "I just mean - you know. It's no fun."

K gave him a weary sort of smile. "He's not the first, and I'm sure it's not a stretch to say he won't be the last."

"Mom, if he's not the first evil scientist to kidnap you and more or less get you pregnant, we need to have a talk," Scott said.

"Not that part, you little shit," she said with a laugh. "I meant all the other stuff."

Scott grinned. "Yeah, but it made you laugh."

"You're a lunatic. Also. Genetic."

"You did meet my father…"

"I did," she agreed, nodding slowly. "And … we took a little while to get an understanding."

"You never did tell me how that went," Scott said. "I just know you went in to talk to him and went out inviting him to poker."

"We … had a little rough start. Misunderstanding … nothing too big. Or scary."

"Well, I'm glad you get along," Scott said. "You guys are my parents, but he's still family, you know?"

"That's what I was aiming for," she said.

"Love you too."