Chapter 7: "Hug Magnet Junior"
It felt like it had been much longer than the day or so since Scott left before Elin and Chance's meetup could take place, though by that point, they were wondering exactly how blown out of proportion Logan could make a simple meet up.
Kurt had agreed with Logan and taken it a step further to not only run the mission and keep eyes on them but to bring half a dozen bamfs too — in case of major problems or needing to evac the coffee shop.
Both of them had earwigs in so that they were in touch with Kurt, and Elin was looking at Chance with an expression that was so clearly 'I told you so' that she didn't even need to approach saying the words.
She made her order, then waited for him to put his in before she headed over to the one booth she knew her father would have approved of — keeping the lines of sight open to all exits while still being partly obscured from the front window. "Everything for a while will probably feel like a military operation. Just … fyi."
"I'm not complaining too much, considering who's in the crosshairs," Chance said softly.
"Alright, but … just had to point out that you were the one who wanted this."
"And let me point out that I still do, and I haven't complained, so — and I can't believe I, as a Summers, am saying this to a Howlett, but — relax."
She gave him a little smirk. "What the hell made you ever think that a Howlett can't keep up and exceed all expectations on paranoia and stress levels, Mr. Summers?"
"The bigger version of me with several heart attacks and a stroke, Mrs. Summers. I see my mistake now."
She had to laugh at him before she leaned across the table and stole a kiss. "Well. Surprise. Your dad is wrong more often than you know."
"Lies," he said, still resting his forehead against her. "You're just terribly biased."
"I can ask for an unbiased professional opinion from our team leader for the day," Elin chuckled.
"Oh yeah, there's an example of an unbiased opinion," Chance couldn't help but laugh.
"Insulting the Elf isn't going to win you points," Elin replied, smiling much more easily now that she was at least picking on him a little.
"And insulting the dad isn't winning you any points. We're both in the negatives, sweetheart," Chance teased.
"I'm not … I'm just pointing out facts," she defended.
"You are not," Chance said in a perfectly insulted tone.
"It's okay," she said, almost wide-eyed. "I didn't marry you for your ability to be right."
Chance smirked and stole a kiss across the table. "Good, because neither did I."
She offered him her hand, and when he took it, she leaned back. "So how long do you think this'll take?"
"Wait, wait… no, crap, I left my crystal ball in my other pants," Chance said, perfectly straightfaced.
"You know, you could probably just wait alone. I could go down the street and order some much-needed sushi and we could cover two spots instead of one," she replied just as seriously.
At that, Chance let out a little laugh and shook his head, leaning over to start gently kissing her jaw. "No, no, please, don't be so cruel," he said, the laughter obvious in his voice.
"But I'm just pointing out that, tactically, it might be better, tiny tactician."
"Tactically, we're more likely to get attention together — and tactically, if you wanted two spots, you should have said so at the start so we could get the rest of the team covering the other one and setting up at the exits."
She couldn't help but smile at him, looking a little more wicked than he was used to. "Well … if you want attention, I could slap you silly, call you a few names, and storm out."
He blinked at her for a second before he laughed, shook his head, and pulled her into a kiss. "C'mon, El, I just got my reputation back," he said softly. "Give a guy a break, huh?"
She let out a sigh and then moved to sit next to him rather than across. "Okay, but just this once."
"You're so magnanimous, Mrs. Summers."
"You sound surprised," she deadpanned as the waitress arrived with their drinks, and she took it a step further, playing full paranoid like she'd been told when she took a sniff of his coffee before letting him have it.
Chance couldn't help but grin at her. "You take such good care of me."
"Yeah, I like you pretty well," she agreed, leaning on him so he could put his arm around her.
The two of them were perfectly comfortable together and enjoying themselves when, finally, Alyssa did come to the cafe with her laptop to get some coffee and some work done — though when she saw Elin and Chance, she had zero poker face as she rushed over, her computer clutched to her chest and her eyes wide.
"Are you guys okay? What's going on? Is everyone alright? James won't answer me…"
"Are you asking as a friend or a webcaster?" Elin asked. "Because if you want to talk off the record, pull up a seat."
"I don't — if it's bad, I don't want the cameras running," Alyssa said breathlessly as she sat down. "And I really am worried. I've been watching the news this whole time, and no one will answer me…"
"James lost his phone a while ago," Elin told her. "And he's not talking to anyone."
"Okay, yeah, I understand that," Alyssa said, nodding to herself. "But can you tell me if he's okay? A lot of the stuff on the UN trial sounds horrible."
Elin frowned and shook her head lightly. "I'm not sure that I can tell you that, and yeah, the trial is horrible. But Cyclops and Beast haven't said anything that wasn't true."
"Then I'm really sorry," Alyssa said honestly. "And please - let everyone there know we're all pulling for them. Really."
Elin gave her a little smile. "You know, you can text me until James gets himself a new phone, if you need clarification."
Alyssa beamed at her. "That would be great," she said.
Elin took out her phone and had Alyssa give her the number, then sent her a quick little 'hi' text to complete the circle. "We won't be able to do anything like an interview until we have a better idea of what's happening overseas," Elin told her. "We don't want to get them screwed worse."
"That makes total sense," Alyssa said, then bit her lip as she thought about it. "What about — maybe just a message? Just something to say … well… just something. Everyone's worried. I light four candles … just about every time I go to church."
Elin nodded in response and let Alyssa take a moment to get her phone ready. "We're not giving up on them," Elin said, with all the same fire her father had lately when the subject was breached.
"We know the truth and we're standing by it — and standing by family," Chance agreed. "No one is going to come after innocent people while the X-Men are around to stand up for them."
Alyssa grinned at them both as she put her phone away. "Thanks. Really. And good luck."
"When it gets a little closer to knowing," Elin said, "we'll figure out how to do something more. Thanks for caring about my brother."
Alyssa smiled at both of them and clutched her phone and laptop to her chest as she got to her feet. "I just wish you knew how many people are pulling for you right now," she said.
"I wish he knew," Elin said.
"Will you tell him I said hi? And that I'm praying for him — please?" Alyssa asked. "He's a good friend."
"I'll let him know," Chance promised. "He can use some good vibes anyway."
Elin stopped her before she could go and pulled out her phone again, pulling up the camera app. "You have anything you want to tell him?" she asked with a smirk.
Alyssa broke into a huge smile and nodded, taking a moment to adjust her hair before Elin nodded to tell her she was recording. "Hey, James. I just — I just wanted to tell you to get up out of the dirt and that there's literally a few million people all pulling for you and — and I'm one of them. So, I hope you know you've got all our support and our love." She bit her lip and then waved goodbye before she simply stepped over and wrapped Elin up in a hug.
Elin returned it easily and gave her a little squeeze. "I'll make him watch it."
It had been a couple weeks since Hank and Scott had left for the Hague, and both of them were worn and ready to be done with the whole affair by the time it was finally over — and the UN rather grudgingly agreed that the four former Horsemen would not be held internationally responsible for what Apocalypse had made them do.
Of course, that wasn't the end of things in the least, since the decision had sparked outcry in several places, from people who still wanted to see the kids punished, so the two X-Men had left in a flurry of protests and were fairly done with the whole thing, tired of seeing the people they loved dragged through the mud.
So it was an incredibly nice change of pace when they got home to find that the mansion was ringing with laughter almost as soon as they walked in the door.
K was sitting on the floor with Tony Stark and Lily — who was absolutely entranced with him, which did wonders for Tony's ego, if the amount of laughter was anything to go by.
Billy and Teddy were snuggled up with a soundly sleeping John, though Billy was having trouble keeping the laughter quiet with the back and forth that was going on between K and Tony. As usual.
"Annie made your favorite for tonight, most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen," K sang out to Scott before he could step fully into the room, and already, Tony was scoffing. "She's missed you terribly."
Scott couldn't help but grin at that. "The feeling was entirely mutual," he said, grinning even wider as he watched the little ones playing around. Even Chelsea was in on the fun, too, her red pigtails bouncing as she played at K's feet while Lily was distracted and playing with Tony.
Tony had Lily half pulled into a hug, simply grinning at her. "There has to have been some kind of mistake. There is no way this little cutie pie is half Sabretooth."
"That's what Billy said. You gonna call him a liar?" K challenged.
"He better not or I'll turn him into a frog," Billy teased, just to get Lily giggling madly.
"No, no," Tony said, grinning widely. "No … I just … I didn't think that … this was even something that could happen … in any reality. Seems questionable."
"It… actually isn't," Billy admitted quietly. "They had some nasty things cooked up in a few realities, and K's imagination with Creed's proclivities?" He shuddered.
K pointed a finger Tony's way. "I see what you're getting at, Mr. Stark, and I don't appreciate that particular innuendo about my sweet, innocent self with el Tigre."
"No, no, I'm just saying that there's gotta be a few anyhow where there are some genius dark-haired types," Tony said with a massive grin K's way.
"You mean like this one? I have a genius dark-haired type already in this one and he looks just like his father," K said, giving Tony a significant look. "So handsome."
"Not … the … not what I was getting at," Tony said, still grinning. "Admit it — we'd be one hell of a team."
"No, no … not in any reality. Sorry," K said, shaking her head evenly as Billy couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing. "That could result in a perma-Stark. There is no scenario where that is okay," K defended, smiling Billy's way. "Right? Come on. Back me up."
Of course, that just had Billy laughing even harder, enough that Teddy playfully got up and moved away with John so that Billy could fall apart laughing. "You named her Aina," he barely breathed out between gasps. "One of them, anyway."
"Oh, come on," K said, leaning back.
"Would it help or hurt if I told you the one you have that's a Barton is named Evie?"
"Tell me that I was at least cheating on Tony," K said. "It'd be poetic justice. But I can see tiny blonde Barton girl. That's okay."
Billy couldn't even answer her question because he was laughing so hard at the look on Tony's face - and at the fact that Lily was so totally entertained that her daddy was so happy that she was having a giggle fit of her own — totally falling apart every time Billy would get a breath so that he would start laughing even harder all over again.
"Ooh, I got it! I was sleeping with Steve while I was with Tony!" K said, looking delighted. "That would be perfect! Are you sure Aina was really a Stark? I mean … that's an old-fashioned name after all. She had to be a Rogers."
Billy was positively beside himself and unable to string two words together the longer K talked, and Chelsea finally reached up to put her hand over K's mouth. "Shhhhhush. Billy, no."
"He likes it, though, and just look at Tony," K said, snatching her up and turning to smile at him and give him a wink. "Hey sweetheart."
Tony burst out laughing at that, and Chelsea just couldn't help but fall apart herself with so many people laughing. And Hank and Scott couldn't help but grin at the whole thing.
"Quite the welcome home," Hank said, still smiling widely.
"I was just introducing Tony to our little Creed," K said as she got to her feet. "Kind of went south somewhere."
"I wouldn't say that," Scott said with a smirk.
"I brought a new phone for James, like you asked," Tony said from the floor still as Lily wiped tears from her eyes and then snuggled into Billy, both of them still giggling.
"Great," Scott said. "It's high time we got him out of that lab."
K offered Tony a hand up, still laughing to herself over all of it. "I still think Billy's making things up to be ridiculous. Clearly, he's out of his mind." When Tony got to his feet, though, he pulled her tight, just to get her laughing again.
"I am out of my mind," Billy said with a small smile her way. "But, no - Aina was leading the resistance against Apocalypse. I do remember that much."
"Stop making up stories," K said, looking scandalized. "You'll give him a bigger ego. And clearly … that's just proof of Steve's influence. Come on."
Billy grinned a little wider. "Well, she was leading it alongside little Angela Rogers…"
She threw her hands up at that. "Logan must have been dead in that reality then. Because … come on."
Billy's grin fell before he let out a slow breath. "Not dead. Death," he said softly, all of the wind out of his sails in an instant as he focused on the reality he'd seen there.
"Okay, you're taking the fun out again, and no one was thinking tactically. I probably could have stopped him," she said with a flash of a smile to Billy. "Still wouldn't be with this one. He's too …" She looked Tony up and down once before she rested her hand on his chest. "Dainty."
"You're killing me, K," Tony said, shaking his head at her.
She gave him a grin and then popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Fine. I guess if all my other options were totally preoccupied with being idiots … I can think of worse ways to go."
He smirked at her. "This feels like a hollow victory, but you know what? I'm going to take it."
"Enjoy it," she said, though she took his arm to go down to see James with him. "I probably killed you."
"I definitely enjoyed that."
"You died happy," K decided, agreeing with a more troublemaking smile.
"Well, as long as you two have that sorted out between you," Scott muttered, shaking his head but smirking hard as he was the first to hit the elevators.
"Welcome home, Scott," K called out as they stepped up behind him.
The little group made their way down to the lab, where Logan had been taking his turn with James, the two of them talking in quiet tones until the others arrived.
"Do you feel ready to stretch your limbs, my young friend?" Hank asked with a smile.
"What's the catch?" James asked, looking overly uncomfortable.
"The catch is that you still need someone with you at all times, and you need to keep your phone on you," Scott told him.
"My phone is gone," James pointed out. "Has been since the … has been since Apocalypse." He frowned to himself at that, trying to remember when it was that he realized he didn't have it anymore.
Tony smirked and produced the new phone with a flourish. "Ta da! Brand new, hot off the presses. Specially designed and built by yours truly — so exclusive that, so far, only you and I have one. You try and ditch it and it'll know, because it's keyed to pick up on your DNA, voice print, and a few other things."
James looked up at Tony and almost immediately dropped his gaze. "You didn't have to do that."
Tony frowned a bit before he shook his head. "Hey, yeah, of course I did, kiddo."
James let out a breath. "After what I pulled? No. You didn't."
"Hey, I lived, didn't I?" Tony pointed out. "You're not the first person I've worked with that tried to do me in."
"I've stabbed him," Logan said, arms crossed. "Just a way to make sure your claws work, far as I'm concerned."
"Well, that's a bit of an overstatement," Tony said, frowning at Logan, though he had a hand on James' shoulder.
"Oh. Hey, wait. I haven't stabbed him yet," K said, sounding betrayed as she looked up at Tony.
"You said I'd die happy. Happy. Remember that," Tony said, holding up both of his hands.
"You bet you would," she said with a nod before she went over to James and kissed his temple. "Think you can live with a few restrictions? I don't want you wandering around while people are still looking to start a fight."
James looked around the room at the gathered adults and shrugged. "Do I have a choice?"
"I'd like to think that you do," K said. "I just hope you make the right one."
"You'll also need to wear some other new tech I asked Tony to work on," Hank said, prompting Tony to take out a pair of thin, silver metal objects that looked suspiciously like bracelets.
"Same kind of thought process as the metal gloves," Tony said. "Only … these will stop you from using the claws without needing to do the whole very questionable-looking full glove routine." He held them up for James to see. "And … you'll need to be able to touch the screen on the phone." He looked over to Hank. "Brought an extra pair for you to keep in the lab. You know. For Trouble One and Two."
Hank nodded at that with a small, almost-grateful smile before he simply set to work fixing the bracelets on James's wrists — and then undoing the restraints, starting with his ankles and going one at a time, sure to watch James carefully as he did so.
But as soon as James was sitting up better away from the bed, K had to wrap him up in a tight hug. "Go take a shower, sweetheart," K told him. James let out a hollow laugh, leaned into the hug, and buried his face in her shoulder, clearly relieved to be able to use his arms again and glad to hold on to his mother.
"Wait, wait, no, me next," Tony said as soon as K had let James go, shoving in to almost knock James back in a hug. "Glad you're here, kid. Had me worried."
It shocked James, but he recovered fast enough to at least return it for a moment. "I ah … found another loophole in your coding. Sorry."
"Yeah, we'll talk about that later when you hand me the fix," Tony said with a smirk that had the light dancing in his eyes. "I've got it all online now, but clearly, we gotta take a third look at that."
"I don't have the fix for it," James admitted.
"Yet," Tony shot back, pointing his way.
"Sure," James said. "If you say so."
"I do," Tony said, giving James's shoulder another squeeze before he finally stepped back — though again, James wasn't without a hug very long when Hank got there next for a solid bear hug that did knock James back and off balance.
And when Hank was through hugging the stuffing out of James, Scott made it a point to carefully get to his feet and take a few still shaky steps over to sit down on James' bed and pull him into the tightest hug he could manage.
"You've been through it," James said. "You don't … have to do that."
"Yes, I have," Scott said quietly. "And that's why I do, in fact, need to hug my godson."
James put his head on Scott's shoulder and simply quit arguing with him and returned the hug.
And when Scott was finally done, and K had pulled both Tony and Hank out of the room to get the finer details on the tech, James shakily got up and made it over to where his father was to initiate. But as soon as Logan got a hold of him, James simply couldn't hold it back and had to take a minute to just melt down, apologizing to him over and over. And Logan let him get it all out before he promised him that, though it wasn't alright yet, it would be.
When the three of them finally stepped out of the room, Tony took a moment to show James how the phone worked, since it was a little different than what he was used to, and he wanted to be sure that James knew what features he could access.
James was more or less silent, though, as he and Logan headed down to the locker room so he could, in fact, take a shower and put on something that belonged to him, though he nixed the shoes in favor of bare feet for the time being. And once he was cleaned up, Hank joined them for the elevator ride upstairs.
"You're still not healing anywhere near capacity, and because of that, you need to keep up on a few medications to counteract the adamantium poisoning," Hank told him. "I'll find you for blood tests if I have to, or you can make it easier on yourself and simply show up every other day."
"Alright," James said, taking the bottle of pills from him and glaring at it before the doors opened on the main floor.
Of course, James wasn't surprised to see his sisters once they got out of the elevator — and he also wasn't surprised when he was mobbed by the girls. Though he wasn't expecting it when, beside Chance and John, there was a tiny blonde who decided to run in with the group of girls to hug him around his legs.
"Hi!" She beamed up at him when she noticed him looking at her. "You wook just wike my Wolvie!"
James automatically put his hand on the top of her head and didn't hide the look of shock. "Yeah, I do. He's my dad," he said before he tipped his head to the side, obviously confused at the scent. "Who are you?"
"I'm Lily,' she said carefully, her smile turning a bit shy as she waved at him. "Mama says you my brover."
"Mama?" James asked, glancing up at his sisters. "What's the story, really?"
"Blame Billy," Elin said with a smirk. "He found her in another dimension; she's our half sister."
Lily started bouncing in place, pulling on his hand, and James let out a breath and picked her up so he could look her in the face a little better, though that didn't work well when she instead melted into his shoulder and started to pat his neck. "So, another little sister then, huh?"
"You'll never keep up with us," Malin told him with a troublemaking smile.
"Never was dumb enough to believe I could," James shot back.
"More fun that way anyhow. Hi," Chance said with a smile before he made his way over to get in a one-armed hug — and let John lean way over to give James a slobbery kiss.
"What's the deal?" James asked when Chance got himself upright away from him again, though John clearly wanted to stick with his brother. "Is this a coordinated attack or what?"
"It's more of a 'no one has been able to hug their brother for a really long time and they're all going through withdrawals' kind of thing," Chance said with a smirk. When John wriggled some more, he shook his head and stepped in. "Here, trade ya. I'll take Lily."
"I don't … okay," James said when John threw himself at him, and for just a second, Lily didn't want to do as Chance had planned. "Feels like an attack."
Chance smirked as he finally managed to finagle Lily into coming with him by setting her on his shoulders so that she was taller than everyone else — and could remind them all of this fact. "Probably."
But John only really wanted to snuggle for a minute or so before he wanted down, and James started to try and sidestep around the chatting group.
Of course, that didn't exactly work out as he'd planned when Kurt arrived in a poof on hearing the news that James was up and broke into a delighted grin as he hugged James tightly around the shoulders. "It's so good to see you up!"
"Yeah, not sure how long I can handle it," James admitted before he ran his hand over his hair.
"Yes, well, you'll have to forgive us for the time being," Kurt said with a smile. "I'm sure it will die down soon."
James stared at him for just a moment. "I … don't believe you."
"No?" Kurt smiled a little wider. "Well, I may be off on my estimate of 'soon'..."
"You have plans, don't you," James asked quietly, looking like he was half dreading the answer.
"Well, if I want to steal my best friend's son away in an inducer for some time on the lake, then that's my business, isn't it?" Kurt said with a dramatic little huff.
James pulled out his phone and handed it to Kurt. "Pretty sure that's got a tether on it."
Kurt smiled at that. "Then I'll certainly see you shortly."
"Why can't you see me now?" James asked. "Get it over with."
"I can, and I am, but I would be murdered in my sleep if I deprived Annie of seeing you herself before I steal you away."
James frowned and shook his head. "I'm … you're not stealing me away. I'm just relocating my house arrest from one room to the next."
Kurt chuckled at that, though he didn't get to say much else when there was a clearly excited noise from nearby — and Kurt barely got out of the way before Annie nearly tackled James in a hug, knocking him back several steps.
"Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" she gushed.
"Hi Annie," James said softly as he wrapped his arms around her, feeling so guilty from all he felt that he'd cost her that he could hardly breathe.
"We're having Scott's favorite tonight, but if you give me a few minutes, I'm sure I can whip up something for you — you look so pale!"
"No, no," James said, trying and failing to put a little distance between them. "Please don't worry about anything like that for me. Everyone's already gone to too much trouble."
"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Annie assured him.
"No, really," James replied before he changed his tactics and gave her a kiss on the cheek and a little squeeze, sounding desperate. "Please don't." He didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he honestly couldn't stand seeing her trying to help him when he felt like she was the last person that should be kind to him.
Annie let out a sigh before she returned the gesture with a kiss on the cheek before she finally let him out of the hug, though she still held him out at arms length to look him over a little better, tutting to herself about how skinny he looked, though that had him frowning. Yes, he'd lost mass, and yes, Hank had him on a feeding tube, but …. That couldn't possibly be the most important thing on her mind. By a stretch.
He just hadn't been around to see the way Annie had been throwing herself into taking care of everyone to make herself busy or the fact that she was all but tripping over herself trying to take care of the teenagers in the house particularly. But she could see that he was uncomfortable, and to her mind, he was simply overwhelmed, so instead, she told Lily where the chocolate chip cookies were cooling off in the kitchen and stood back to watch the fireworks.