Notes: Well, it's been a years-long journey, starting way back when we were first invited to be part of the multi-writer universe and went off on our own little tangent, but here we are. It's kind of bittersweet to say goodbye, and yet at the same time, there's something so satisfying about seeing all the good fiction we wrote together out for the world to see.
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
In the Capitol
The sign outside the door said "Director Skye Howlett," but even down the hall, anyone at the new SHIELD offices in the Capitol knew that there was nothing official happening in the office, not when the squeals and screams of delight were echoing as loudly as they were.
This always happened, of course, when Hunter brought the kids to come see their mom at work, and somehow, Bobbi always managed to find her way to the director's office (or assistant director's, since Scott could always be relied upon to have something for the kids to play with when he was in the office too).
"I swear, SHIELD turned into a daycare while my back was turned," Hunter chuckled as he watched the youngest kids — his and Bobbi's little June and Skye and Logan's James — running around in circles while Daisy exasperatedly tried to tell her mom that she didn't want to be stuck with the little kids and couldn't she please go see Grampa Phil instead since her sister was playing with Grandma May?
"Why don't you go find your father," Skye suggested. "He's in the training room. Just make sure to knock first. You know the rules."
"Yes!" Daisy exclaimed, punching her fist in the air. "He was supposed to get some new wannabe special ops guys, right?"
Bobbi grinned at that. "Okay, now I want to come," she said, offering Daisy her hand. "Come on. Let's teach the boys a thing or two."
"Dad loves it when I help," Daisy said, grinning at her.
"He loves it when big tough guys get their butts kicked by little girls," Bobbi agreed, grinning as the two of them headed down the hall together.
"Have fun! Keep a tally of how many you make cry!" Hunter called after them. "I have money riding on that!"
"Of course you do!" Bobbi laughed over her shoulder, shaking her head at his antics before they disappeared around the corner, down a floor, and into the training area, where Logan was already looking like he was ready to hand out a few life lessons
"You girls come to watch or teach?" Logan asked with a muted smirk. "Got a few remedial students already."
Daisy's sharp gaze traveled over the group before it landed on a blond in the corner, and she nodded to herself. "Just thought we'd drop by," she said with a wicked smile her father's way.
"What about you, Bob?" Logan asked. "Wanna show 'em what the science division can do?"
"Oh, I'm always up to help," Bobbi said. "But I don't know… I've been stuck behind a desk…" Her eyes were twinkling with laughter. "...in a lab."
Logan met her gaze and nodded. "No pressure," Logan said in a gentle tone. "Just don't hurt your hands."
"There is no way that I'm fighting a kid," the blonde guy in the corner said as Daisy came to a stop in front of him, already cracking her knuckles.
"Your funeral," Logan said, turning away from them as Bobbi found her mark, too.
"I'm sure he'll go easy on her," Bobbi said carelessly as she tapped the redhead on the shoulder, and he turned her way. "What do you think? Show me how rusty I am?" she asked.
The guy paused and then smirked hard. "Might even learn something, sweetheart," he said — which really just sealed his fate, even if he didn't know it.
"Everyone else, pair off," Logan called out, waiting to see how everyone got going. The blonde again looked as if this was a supreme insult — though his tune changed fast when Daisy jumped the gun and took the guy out at the knees. A second later, as Logan and Bobbi mildly watched, the little girl had already twisted his arm behind his back and disarmed him. "Start when you're ready." Logan tipped his chin up at the blond Daisy was twisting up. "You weren't ready."
"I was going easy," the guy spit out.
"Sure you were," Logan said, then shifted his focus to Daisy. "You heard him. Quit with the kid gloves."
"But he isn't ready," Daisy said sweetly.
"He thinks he's a tough guy. So … see how tough he is."
"Okay," Daisy said as if this was an imposition, letting the blond back up — only to immediately take him down the second he made a move for her, dodging his first strike and using his momentum against him to trip him up. Once he was off-balance, she hit him in the stomach, then climbed his back and pinned him to the floor with both hands behind him and her foot at the base of his skull.
Bobbi turned and smirked at the redhead she'd picked out, but he quickly held up his hands. "Nope. I'm outclassed. I'm here to learn," he said.
"Come on, Bob, everyone's fighting. I know you didn't stretch yet, but come on," Logan called out.
Bobbi smirked at her partner. "I'll go easy. Promise," she said, though when even with kid gloves on, he ended up flipped over her shoulder; the guy really didn't feel like she'd kept that promise when all was said and done.
Which was how the class continued, too … Bobbi and Daisy would back off when they needed a breather, switching from attacking to simply stopping their partners, even after they switched several times. And even by the end of that first session, it was clear that at least half a dozen of these so-called elite fighters were rethinking continuing their attempt to go after the more specialized training. Even if they could have consoled themselves with the fact that Logan had been teaching Daisy how to fight since she was old enough to know how… the fact that she was ten outweighed that consideration.
But those that were paired up with Logan ended up the worst off, of course. He would purposely help the ones that seemed to be decent, genuine people — only to annihilate anyone that he had a bad feeling about. Which looked to the recruits as if there was simply no rhyme or reason to it.
By the end of it, the recruits were sore — but the girls were both grinning — and as the recruits filed out, Daisy bounded over to jump up and throw her arms around Logan's neck in a hug. "I love when you let me do that!" she gushed.
"It's probably my favorite thing to watch," Bobbi laughed as she went to get a towel and water bottle.
Logan had picked Daisy up as much as he could; she was already nearly as tall as he was. "It's good for you," he said before he kissed the side of her head. "You too, Bob."
Bobbi smiled outright. "Hey, Hunter doesn't appreciate being a training dummy as much as he used to. Something about being a stay-at-home-dad doesn't seem to agree with rigorous training?" She waved her hand. "I told him he's nuts."
"You oughta send 'im to Charlie," Logan said. "That don't track."
She laughed and nodded before she came over to give Logan a brief hug too. "Well, we'll see him at the big Christmas party in a little bit anyway. I'm sure Charles will have something to say. He always does."
"He's really been working up to something," Logan told her.
"We'd all be fending him off with sticks if Scott hadn't asked him to head up that little project of his," Bobbi said with a smile. "That man needs to be surrounded by kids, apparently."
Logan shrugged at that. "It was too damn much room just for us anyhow. The staff woulda been miserable without things the way they turned out."
"Well, I think it's great," Bobbi said. "Victors have to look out for each other, and as much as Charles thinks he's the one doing the most looking out, I'm glad we found a way to take care of him too, get him doing something he loves." With that, she broke into a smile Daisy's way. "What do you say: last one to your mom's office has to listen to Erik's stories this year?"
"No way," Daisy said before she darted ahead of Bobbi. "That's all for you!"
District Seven
Most of the people that Scott had roped into his project turning the Howlett Estate into a home for orphans and a school of sorts had opted to keep living on the estate. Ororo, Remy, Betsy, Kitty… most of them were comfortable there. But Kate and Kurt liked the little place Logan had given them when they got married, so they stayed out there — and simply made the commute to the estate during the week so Kurt could instill a love of books and the arts in the kids and Kate could teach archery.
Of course, by that point, their oldest, CJ, was old enough to take classes, so he had stopped looking at the trips as ways to get Mrs. Hopkins to spoil him (which she did anyway) and more as chores to go to school… unless Daisy was there. Then it was the best idea ever.
Daisy was the one who had started calling him CJ, too. Kate had wanted to call their little boy 'Clint' just because of all the work she'd put into getting Clint to talk … and then when it got too confusing, they'd tossed around how to work up a Clint Junior nickname of sorts. And when little Daisy had heard "CJ" tossed in there, she positively latched onto it, so that was what it had to be, apparently.
And they'd been best friends ever since.
So once the holiday season came around, CJ was counting down the days to Christmas, when Skye and Logan would come back from the Capitol and stick around for a few months. (Scott and Skye had a great system worked out, really: they traded off who was in the "office" in the Capitol and who was in District Seven so that neither of them got so absorbed in the job they couldn't spend time with family.)
Kurt had their youngest, Anna, on his shoulders, and Kate was laughing as she rushed to keep up with CJ in the snow. "They're going to be there whether you run or not," Kate called after him. "You're going to be too tired to build a snowman with her!" When that didn't work, she shook her head and turned to face Kurt. "I blame you for this. He's head over heels for her, and I know it's your fault somehow."
Kurt laughed outright as he held up both hands. "Oh yes. Because I'm the only one of his parents to fall so hard in love so fast."
Kate pointed at him with narrowed eyes. "It's a good thing you're cute or I'd have to hit you with a snowball."
"Das not nice, Mama," Anna giggled. "No hitting!"
Kate let out a breath, but it was hard to argue, especially since 'no hitting' was her own rule that she repeated often with two rowdy kids. So, she huffed and turned on her heel, leaving Kurt chuckling to himself as he headed up to the estate with his little family.
The first people they saw weren't actually the Howletts, though, but the Parkers, who had just gotten in from District Eight with Kamala and Miles, all four of them chatting easily as they kicked the snow off their boots.
"Hey, look — it's my favorite spider!" Kate called out as she and Kurt came over with wide smiles and hugs all around — though they had to be careful of Gwen and her very obvious baby bump. "And a half-grown spider too," she teased.
"Great to see you too, Kate," Gwen said with a smile as Peter and Kurt shared an embrace. "We almost decided not to come this year, but then we thought, well, I'm not due for three more weeks, so it's probably safe. Either that or Hank gets to double-check and make sure he remembers where all the medical stuff is stashed here."
"You still won't tell me if it's a boy or girl?" Kate asked with a pout.
"We still don't know," Gwen laughed. "I think it's a girl; he thinks it's a girl… but my dad thinks it's a boy for all the trouble he's giving us getting his picture taken!"
"Shame you don't have the help of stylist genes," Kate teased. "To hear Noh tell it, all three of theirs posed for their pictures."
"Sounds about right," Gwen laughed. "But you should really talk to Kamala. She and Miles are making serious life plans—"
"I already know about the wedding," Kate laughed.
"No, after the wedding!" Gwen said, shaking her head.
Kate raised both eyebrows, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as she made her way over to Kamala and bumped shoulders with her friend. "Hey, what's this about big plans? Do I have to get all the good gossip secondhand from Gwen?"
Kamala glanced over to where Gwen was doing her best impression of innocence and then laughed. "Well, I was going to tell everyone at the party, but I got a little too excited and let it slip on the flight out," she said, looking embarrassed by the slip but encouraged when Kate nodded along enthusiastically. "But, well, Maria Hill isn't running again, and I thought maybe someone from outside the Capitol like me might have a shot?"
Kate blinked at Kamala and then broke into a delighted laugh and spun her around in a hug. "Okay, not only do I think that is the best idea ever? But I will actually actively campaign for you, and you know I hate that."
"What would you hate now?" Logan asked just before James went zipping past to try and tackle CJ, who hadn't quite gotten away from his sister yet. "Doesn't sound like you."
Kate beamed at Logan — and then laughed when Kurt told James that he had the right idea and rushed over to tackle Logan in a hug too. And once the men were on the ground, she grinned down at them. "I told Kamala I'd campaign for her. And you know that's just… I just don't do that."
"You lookin' for backing?" Logan asked with one eyebrow raised Kamala's way.
Kamala blushed high on her cheeks. "I… haven't even announced yet," she said. "I was going to tell everyone at the party before I do anything official…"
"Well, let me know when you do; I'll be there."
At that, both Kamala and Miles looked like their eyes would bulge right out. "Really?" Kamala breathed out.
"Sure," Logan said just before he and Kurt ended up going into an impromptu wrestling match — just because they were being obnoxious.
Kate shook her head but couldn't help but laugh at them as she put her arm around Kamala's shoulders. "You're going to be amazing," she promised. "Seriously. Marvel will be lucky to have you running things."
"Like there was ever any doubt," Scott said with a smirk as he and Clara came to join the group in the entryway. "I'm impressed you guys made it inside this time. Usually, the wrestling starts in the driveway," he teased, tipping his head toward Logan and Kurt.
"I was runnin' late," Logan said before he got a hold of Kurt's arm.
"He was letting me and Daisy play with some new recruits," Bobbi said with a warm smile. "Daisy wiped the floor with them, didn't you, Daisy?"
"They were totally asking for it," Daisy agreed.
"They usually are," said a new voice as the last of the visitors showed up, with Natasha smirking at Daisy before she snatched her up in a hug… and Clint dragged in a pair of redheaded twins who had been engaged in quite the whitewashing fight until that moment.
"Ooh, you would have loved it," Daisy said, snuggling in. "The first guy I beat up was over six feet tall!" She tipped her chin down and pulled back just enough so that she was nose to nose with Natasha. "And he was one of those guys, too."
"He won't make it a month," Logan said.
"It's a good thing SHIELD has such a vigorous vetting process now," Clint said with a smirk. "That's why me and Nat are freelancers. We'd never make it."
"And you don't want me to twist you into a pretzel," Logan said.
Clint shrugged. "Hey, we get enough exercise chasing Fisk's goons, keeping wannabe Hydra off people's backs… I'm fine not testing my pretzel abilities for the rest of my life, thanks."
"Coward," Logan muttered before he let Kurt go — and the two of them pulled each other upright.
"Well, the dinner's already set when you guys are," Scott said, gesturing over his shoulder. "The staff went all-out, as usual."
"Oh good," Gwen said, resting her hand on her stomach significantly, which had Skye laughing and pulled her toward the dining room with promises to 'help'.
As the group started to move toward the dining room, Logan reached out to take a hold of Kamala's arm. "Hey. I mean it. If you want me to back you, you've got it. If you don't … well, I get that too," Logan told her.
Kamala blinked at him and then threw her arms around his shoulders in a hug. "You're the best. That would be amazing. Yes, please. I don't even know what to say!" she gushed.
Logan hugged her back until she lightened up her grip. "Just gotta say when and where, you know that. You're gonna win, too."
"I hope so," she said, smiling at him as she took a step back. "After all the work we put into Marvel? I just want to make sure it stays this good. I like the peace and quiet."
