Chapter 37: Family Reunions

March 31

Tahiti Wing

Peter was bouncing in place in the room that Coulson had cleared out so that he and Aunt May could have some privacy. It was crazy, waiting for a reunion that came way too fast for him to even process it, even if he'd been waiting for it for a year and a half now. So he wasn't sure what to do, exactly which had his leg bouncing as he sat on the couch waiting for Aunt May to show up.

When she did — with Coulson escorting her — Peter jumped almost immediately to his feet on seeing her and quickly ran to her. He was going to say something, but instead, he had a false start before he simply wrapped her up in a warm hug and tried not to cry - unsuccessfully.

"You've gotten so tall, Peter," Aunt May said into his shoulder.

"Yeah, where are you going to hide the cookies now?" he teased before he'd even really thought about it.

She grinned and took his shoulders in both hands to shake her head at him and then wrapped him up in another long hug. He buried his face in her shoulder for a good long time too, clutching his Aunt May to him as he mumbled out a little, "I really missed you, Aunt May."

"Oh, I missed you too, Peter," she said at just over a whisper before she cleared her throat and gained a bit of composure, fixing him with as serious a look as she was able. "Don't you ever do that to me again, young man." She was shaking one finger in her face, but there was no fire to it at all.

He couldn't help the wide grin as he held up both of his hands. "Okay, right. Yes ma'am. No more dying, cross my heart and hope to … not die," he said, crossing an 'x' over his heart before he stepped back to lead her to a seat on the couch — before once again wrapping her up in a big hug.

"Who else are you hiding down here?" May asked after Peter had started and stopped several times in an attempt to tell her everything at once but was unable to simply pick a starting point.

"Right!" His eyes lit up as he started to nod. "Right, yeah ... right. You wouldn't know ... Gwen's here!" He gestured toward a door nearby. "She wants to come say hi, but we thought ... maybe ... well. I wanted to go first."

"You thought what? That I couldn't take it?" She shook her head and narrowed her eyes a bit. "Peter Benjamin Parker — go get that sweet girl."

Peter grinned sheepishly and practically jumped to his feet to do just that, returning minutes later with a widely grinning Gwen — and it didn't escape May's notice that he brought her in with her hand in his.

"Hello, Aunt May," Gwen said brightly.

"Your father will be so tickled …" May said before she got to her feet and wrapped up Gwen in a tight hug. "You poor, sweet girl."

"How is Dad?" Gwen asked as she hugged May back. "Is he alright?"

"I haven't any idea. I haven't been able to hear a thing about home since we got here."

"Well, I thought I'd ask," Gwen said with a little sigh.

"He was doing his best when I left," she told her. "And missing you terribly, of course."

"Well, the feeling is totally mutual," Gwen said. She hugged May again for a moment and then sat down with her and Peter on the couch. "So ... what has Peter told you so far?"

"Not a thing," Aunt May said, sounding almost betrayed. "You'll have to do it for him, I think. The poor boy's starved for attention."

"Yeah, he was here a whole year without me," she teased Peter as she bumped his shoulder.

"Not a whole year," Peter argued. "There was a while there where I was… you know. That doesn't count."

"Peter, it's not polite to speak of such things," May said with a tone that had Peter sitting back — but grinning, clearly having missed May scolding him.

"Yes, Aunt May," he said with a little smile that kept growing as he and Gwen started to finally tell May what they had been up to the past year and a half.

"Alright, Mr. Parker," Aunt May said. "I'd like to meet the rest of your team."

Peter looked surprised for a moment and glanced at Gwen. "Oh. Oh, sure," he said, nodding quickly. "Yeah, just ... ah … give me a second. They weren't expecting… but we should have known, of course … I'll just … um. I'll be right back." With that, he got quickly to his feet to rush off and find Kate and Kurt.

As soon as he was out of the room, May leaned toward Gwen. "I just want to say hello, really. Meet all of them."

"You'll like them. We all do," Gwen promised.

May nodded, still smiling, and leaned back—- though they didn't have long to wait as Peter reentered with Kate and Kurt in tow. "Kate, Kurt — this is Aunt May. Aunt May — Kurt and Kate."

"It's lovely to finally meet you," Aunt May said with a warm smile before she made her way over to hug both of them in turn. "Thank you — both of you — for taking such good care of my Peter."

"He really takes care of us," Kate said through the hug.

"And he wouldn't have been able to if you wouldn't have done the same for him first," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, we love him," Kate said with a smile.

"We're just sorry that we've had him all to ourselves for so long. He talks about you often," Kurt added honestly.

She gave Kurt a smile and rested her hand on his shoulder. "Such a good boy. Both of you. I'm glad you've had each other."

The two of them grinned at each other and nodded. "We're hoping to get the full set back together," Kate told her in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Well I should hope so," May said, shaking her head. "When is that supposed to happen anyhow? That boy …"

"No idea," Kate said honestly.

"Soon, we hope."

Peter watched his two friends with Aunt May for a while with a beaming smile before he threw his arms around May and Kate's shoulders to start steering them. "Come on, sit down — we're telling stories and catching Aunt May up. Kate, why don't you tell her about when Kurt walked off a roof."

"No — he pushed Sin off a roof. He got captured," Kate said with a smile, knowing she'd been baited into the story and not even caring — it was her favorite to tell because it got more and more ridiculous every time she did. And once she got started, everyone just settled in.

April 1st

Tahiti Wing

Kate watched from the couch as Kurt paced a small circle in the room, waiting for Margali and the twins to arrive. He had been like that for the past several minutes, not nervous but simply anxious, unable to wait — though he faltered and then stopped in his pacing when the door opened, swinging wide to reveal Margali.

She was slightly older than he remembered her, more worn-looking, and neither of them spoke for a few long seconds, drinking in the sight of each other before Margali stepped forward and pulled him into a tight embrace, burying her face in his shoulder as Kurt did the same.

When they finally broke apart, they both had tears in their eyes, but they were smiling broadly as well.

Almost immediately, though, the twins came peeking around the corner as well, waiting only long enough for Kurt and Margali to share their moment before they sprang forward with expressions of pure joy as they positively tackled Kurt to the ground in a double hug.

"I like them," Kurt heard Kate say, which only had him grinning wider as he tried to hug both Amanda and Stefan back as tightly as he could.

Eventually, the three siblings managed to untangle themselves and pick themselves up, all of them grinning as Amanda declared, "Best. Birthday. Present. Ever."

Once the twins had let Kurt up for air, though, Margali stepped forward again — clearly trying not to cry as she reached up to touch Kurt's face. "Oh, my darling, I've missed you so much." She let her hand drop to his shoulder, holding him at arm's length. "You're so tall, sweetheart. You've gone and grown up without me."

Kurt smiled at her and then glanced over at the twins, who were making themselves comfortable on either side of Kate and simply beaming. "I'm not the only one," he said. "They're both taller than you now." He shook his head before he just had to wrap her up in another long hug. "I can't believe you're here."

"I can't believe that you've gone and helped start a revolution … and with such a pretty girl." Margali gave him a little look. "Did you think that I would miss that part of the national broadcast?"

Kurt smiled sheepishly. "If I could have introduced you sooner, I would have," he said as he gently took his mother's arm to lead her to where the others were. "Mama, this is Kate."

Until that point, Kate and the twins had been whispering back and forth so as not to interrupt Kurt and Margali — already clearly friendly, at least, judging by the hushed laughter — but Kate looked up when Kurt and Margali arrived and all but jumped to her feet. "It's nice to meet you," she said honestly. "Kurt talks about you all the time."

Margali shot the twins a little warning look as she closed the gap between herself and Kate to wrap her up in a hug too. Kurt saw something in Kate's expression shift a little as she wrapped her arms around Margali. She seemed...sad, somehow…

Oh.

Kate made a lot of light-hearted jokes about her family back home, but seeing her hug Margali made Kurt realize that Kate probably hadn't had a hug from a parent in a long time, especially with her mother gone. Perhaps it was Margali's maternal instincts, but she seemed to realize something wasn't quite right with Kate, and Kurt saw her tighten her hug a bit.

"Thank you for taking care of him."

For a moment, Kate looked totally blindsided by the hug, though she tried to cover for it by clearing her throat and acting like her eyes weren't shining. "You did a good job with him ... I should really be thanking you."

"Come on," she said. "Tell me all about yourself."

Kate glanced at Kurt and then at the twins — who were both leaning forward with trouble in their gazes. She cleared her throat and nodded. "There's not much to tell that you don't know, really," she admitted. "Former spoiled rich kid, best friends are all troublemakers, best archer in all of Marvel…" She trailed off and smiled. "No matter what my mission partner says."

Kurt had to shake his head at Kate as he made himself at home on Amanda's other side, unable to stop the grin as he watched his family together once more.

April 2nd

Tahiti Wing

After Peter and Kurt's family reunions had gone so well, Kate was honestly nervous about hers.

Susan and Jack were scheduled to come by that morning, and Kate was following nearly the same path that Kurt had been pacing just a day before, though for an entirely different reason. What if Susan believed all that Capitol drama? What if they don't like being in SHIELD? What if… what if…

She was, of course, more than excited to see Susan again. Of course she was. Her big sister was her hero. She just… didn't know what to expect. Susan could be a ditz sometimes. And she loved the Capitol… at least the glamor of it….

Her head came up fast when the door opened, but when it was Coulson standing in the doorway with an expression she didn't have reference for, she froze, confused. "Where's Susan?" she asked. "Did ... did she cancel?" That's probably what happened, she thought, already biting her lower lip.

"No," Coulson replied as evenly as he could. "She had to reschedule. It was completely unavoidable. Two days."

Kate gaped at Coulson for a moment. "Two days? What — what is she even up to?"

He just nodded. "You'll see in two days."

"Is she okay, at least?" Kate asked.

"She will be," Coulson replied. "I'm sure of it. Just be patient. I know it's hard to hear."

"Coulson, if something happened to my big sister…"

"Kate, this is me telling you it's unavoidable. Not anyone else. If she was in trouble, I'd tell you."

She had to pause at that and raise an eyebrow Coulson's way before she let all of the breath out of her body in one long sigh. "Fine." She dropped into the couch by Kurt and tipped her head back, her eyes closed. "Fine."