Author's note: Thank you to NotMarge, KEZZ 1, partygirl98, NicoleR85, ABewilderedBear, and Rasha007 for your reviews! Hope you like this one. We're going to the Danger Room!

The Danger Room

The Fourth of July happened to fall on a Thursday that year. Since it was a national holiday Zoey came to spend the entire day at the Institute, to my (and Olivia's) delight. She arrived bright and early to eat breakfast with me, once more placing herself where she could see her niece.

"Hey, Zoey," Sean said as we dug into our pancakes. "Want to try out the Danger Room today?"

Oh no.

I stiffened immediately- the thought of watching the woman I loved getting shot at by angry robots didn't exactly appeal to me. Just the idea sent my blood pressure sky-high and the Beast stirring uncomfortably in the corner of my mind where I kept him locked away from my consciousness. Letting a female put herself in danger went against instinct for a feral mutant such as myself.

Call me an over-protective chauvinist, I guess.

"The 'Danger Room?'" Zoey asked curiously. "Isn't that the training program you designed and built, Hank?"

"Yes," I reluctantly replied. I knew what was coming next.

"Can I try it?"

No. You see, my love, even though I believe you are a fully capable person in your own right, my feral half and I are in agreement that watching you be in peril would cause us to keel over and die.

"Um-" I stammered. "I'd rather-"

Sean and Alex were watching my struggle with no small amount of amusement, like I was some sort of engrossing football game. I scowled at Sean for bringing up the Danger Room in the first place while I tried to think of some sort of valid excuse.

"Please?" Zoey asked, batting her eyelashes at me and giving me a winsome smile, all sparkling eyes and flashing white teeth. "I love seeing your inventions."

My brain immediately shifted out of gear.

Damnation. That's just not fair.

"Ok," I mumbled.

"Yay!" Zoey cheered.

She clapped her hands and kissed me on the cheek while I stared morosely at my breakfast, cursing myself for being a complete pushover.

It's called "willpower," McCoy. Find some.

Meanwhile, Sean and Alex were fighting to stay upright, their bodies wracked with unrestrained guffaws of laughter.

I hate you both right now.

"Dude," Alex gasped, trying to recover. "You are so whipped."

I opened my mouth to retort, but Zoey leaned in at that moment and nuzzled her head against my arm. Her eyes were dancing with laughter as she looked up at me, and suddenly I didn't care what Alex thought. I loved Zoey too much to heed his opinion. She's the one that truly mattered.

"Whipped and happy," I agreed, kissing her on the forehead.

Within an hour Sean, Alex, and I were waiting in the control room of the Danger Room dressed in our flight suits and waiting for Zoey to emerge from the locker room. I'd managed to scrounge up a spare uniform for her, since her pale blue dress and wedge sandals weren't exactly training-ready.

"What's taking so long?" Alex asked impatiently, with a heavy sigh. He fiddled with a zipper on his sleeve.

I shrugged unhelpfully as I tinkered with the parameters of the exercise we were about to do. The Danger Room wouldn't let the participants die, but injury couldn't be ruled out. And Zoey getting hurt was unacceptable. I debated on whether I should put the simulation on the easiest setting, but I knew Sean and Alex would complain about it and Zoey would be angry with me if she found out I was patronizing her.

"She's a woman," Sean supplied sagely. "Enough sa- there she is!"

Sure enough, Zoey now stood in the doorway to the control room.

Her hair was up in a messy bun, revealing her graceful neck, and the flight suit- well, let's just say I hadn't designed it with a woman's curves in mind. She was petite enough that the uniform merely hugged the contours of her lower body (very nicely, I might add), but the chest area was a different story.

My stars and garters. Don't stare. Don't stare. Look at her eyes instead-

Oh no, I looked. Sorry, Zoey.

Zoey had her forearms held up in front of her chest with her fists tucked under her chin to preserve her modesty. Her cheeks flushed a bright cherry red when she caught me looking, and of course my face warmed in reply.

Sorry sorry sorry.

It wasn't obscene or anything, but she was certainly exposing more cleavage than I'd ever seen her show. Clearly, she was uncomfortable with this whole situation.

"You still want to do this?" I asked gently, trying to keep the hope that she was going to change her mind out of my voice.

Say no! Say no!

Zoey didn't hesitate. She nodded and took a deep breath. Her arms came down to her sides as she squared her shoulders, and she balled up her fists like she was ready for a fight.

She looked so fierce I could actually ignore the uninterrupted view of Zoey's cleavage her change in stance afforded me. It reminded me of the expression on her face right before she faced off against her sister and brother-in-law over Olivia coming to the Institute a month ago. Brave, resolute, determined...

I never knew tenacity could be so sexy. Ok, now I'm just being weird.

I tried to shake my head free of such thoughts while I finished setting up the simulation, but I don't think I succeeded. Then I led Zoey into the Danger Room with the other X-Men.

"We're going to be fighting three waves of robots. They get more numerous and dangerous with each wave," I explained, taking off my glasses and tucking them into a pocket as we waited for the machine to warm up. "The simulation can't kill you, but it can hurt you. So- please stay close to me?"

I half-expected Zoey to make some sort of snappy retort, but she didn't. Instead she nodded solemnly and scooted closer to me.

She's nervous but trying not to show it. And my reluctant attitude isn't helping.

I immediately felt guilty for not being more supportive. Zoey might have something to prove to herself, and who was I to stand in her way?

At that moment the lights went out in the training room.

I could hear Zoey's sharp intake of breath from the loss of her sight- she wouldn't be able to see anything, I knew. Though she wasn't as visible as she would be were I in my Beast form, my night vision was still good enough that she wasn't completely concealed from my eyes.

Zoey was frozen in the darkness, straining with her ears to compensate for her lack of vision in this completely unfamiliar situation.

I could sense her anxiety radiating off of her in waves. Wordlessly, I reached out and touched her hand gently with mine, giving a light squeeze of reassurance. She clutched my fingers tightly in response.

Ow. You're cutting off my circulation. But I guess I don't need those fingers anyway.

The darkness lasted perhaps only thirty seconds.

And then, piece by piece, the scene took shape. Within moments we were standing on a street lined with nice little suburban homes, the details complete down to the white picket fences and flowerbeds lining the walkways. Cars sat parked in driveways, and a warm noonday sun shone down on us. All was peaceful and quiet.

For now.

Zoey let out a small gasp. Her death-grip on my hand loosened, and she drifted towards one of the cars. Her free hand was already stretching out to touch it as I followed closely.

I knew what she would feel- metal and glass, slightly warmed by the sun above, just like a real car. I'd worked very hard on making the simulations as life-like as possible.

She let out a joyful giggle as she ran her hand across the top of an old Mercury Breezeway.

Her obvious delight gave me an idea for a surprise for her sometime. I tucked the thought away for further examination later.

"You made this?" Zoey asked, wonder evident in her voice.

"Yeah," I replied. I felt an inexplicable surge of pride at her apparent awe.

"Oh, Hank," she laughed.

She turned around and threw her arms around my neck, pressing her whole body against mine. Certain parts of her anatomy that were usually concealed were suddenly quite prominent, leaving me in quite a situation.

Don't look down, look in her eyes, don't look down.

Then she gave me a very thorough kiss that left me feeling a little dazed.

"You are so amazing," Zoey whispered, while my ears grew warm.

We had an audience, after all, and I was getting a little flustered from the kissing and the compliments and the glorious view of her cleavage that I was trying desperately not to stare at.

As if on cue, Alex chose that moment to interrupt us. For once I was grateful for the interference.

He snorted and elbowed Sean. "So that's what nerd love looks like, huh? Getting all hot and bothered over science?"

Sean couldn't hold back a chuckle as he gave a playful shrug.

Zoey glared at them both, still in my arms. "Can it, Hula-Hoop Boy," she snapped.

"Hula-Hoop Boy?" My stars and garters, I love you.

Now it was Alex's turn to get laughed at. He opened his mouth to make some witty comeback-

And that's when the first wave of robots hit us.