A/N - Seriously, I think the very idea of Scott HAVING a mom to play with is my favorite part of this. He's just ... he needs it so much. And yeaaaahhhhh, the Phoenix clearly isn't done yet.

Chapter 6 - Intergalactic Privateer

Alex had been with K when the X-Men and Starjammers were captured, hiding out in a smuggler's hole with Sam asleep on K's shoulder… which was lucky for them, since the Shi'ar had swept the whole ship before they left with their prisoners.

The problem was… with space travel between worlds taking so long, that had been three weeks ago, and it was getting more and more obvious that the separation was grating on K's last nerve, especially when the Starjammer's ship was damaged enough it couldn't really go much of anywhere even if Alex had known how to fly it.

K was barely talking to Alex or Hepzibah, the catlike Starjammer that had also been left behind, and instead, K spent almost all of her time in as small of a ball as she could make out of herself and Sam.

Alex really didn't know what to do with that, though he did try to help. The Starjammers had food and supplies and more or less anything they needed, and Hepzibah was working on repairs to try and get them back to earth at the very least, but he'd never seen Scott's mom do… whatever this was. He didn't have a frame of reference for it other than when she'd been miserable and pregnant. But that was pregnant lady stuff.

So, yeah, he was kind of at a loss and it went against his DNA to not do anything to try and help a woman and a baby - and that was before he factored in that this was his brother's new mom..

K had commandeered a blanket and sliced it up so that she could more or less tie Sam to her chest, unwilling to set her down while they were stuck there, which was probably good for Sam, anyhow. A lot of the stuff on the Starjammers' ship really wasn't okay for an infant to be around, Alex was pretty sure.

K had just gotten done feeding Sam and had settled her in to sleep as she stared out at the stars when the radio crackled to life - and Hepzibah started … hissing? Whatever it was that she was doing, to Alex, it sounded a lot like a ticked off cat and he wondered if it was her language's way of swearing.

K didn't say anything as she tied Sam to her chest again, instead looking almost bored as she watched Hepzibah scrambling - her tail twitching behind her.

"So… um… what?" Alex leaned over the console. "I don't speak… hiss?"

"Is Ravagers," Hepzibah explained in her odd accent. "They no better than scavengers."

"So your friends then?" K asked in a dry almost snooty tone. "Or the more successful competition?"

"Neither," Hepzibah said shortly. "But they are going to try to scuttle ship."

K growled at that and waved Alex over. "I need you to hold onto her for me," she said quietly as she gently settled Sam with Alex and tied the straps to her creation around him so that Sam was comfortable and secure. "I'm going to fix this before Pepe LePew over there screws it up."

Alex's eyebrows shot up as he resettled Sam. "Yeah. Don't worry; I've got her," he promised quickly.

K reached up to rest her hand gently on Alex's cheek before she gave both of them a little kiss and made her way over to where Hepzibah was fiddling around at the controls. "Have you responded to them yet?"

"Told them where they can stick it? Yes."

"And they're coming anyhow," K surmised.

"Of course," Hepzibah said, a bit more of a hiss coming out in the words.

"How does this usually work with them?" K asked as she ran her fingers through her hair then started to braid it.

"Depends on which group we face. They have loose allies. Each captain runs ship different," Hepzibah admitted.

"So who is it?" K asked. "I'm assuming you know who you've got here."

"Kraglin," Hepzibah said. "Is one of more war-like captains."

K hummed to herself and narrowed her eyes. "Show me where they'll try to come in so I can put a stop to this nonsense."

"I am weapons officer for Starjammers."

"Just show me where to wait for them," K said. "You might be a weapons officer, but I'm a weapon."

"Fine. The hull weakest here," Hepzibah said, already walking with K, with Alex sort of hanging back watching the two of them and wondering if he was supposed to … do… something.

They were almost to the spot Hepzibah had pointed out when K turned her way. "Whatever gear you have that will protect them in case of something going wrong with your fake atmosphere? Get them in it now."

"What about you?" Alex asked, even as Hepzibah went down the hall to get the gear.

"Yours is in case it all goes wrong. It won't," K said.

"Okay, but again, if it goes wrong…"

K gave him a more hard look. "It won't."

Alex quickly put up both hands. "I'm just saying-"

"They are cocky, idiotic aliens with a superiority complex. All aliens are, apparently," K said. "So I'm going to do what I always do and let them underestimate me for the full three seconds I'm going to let them live."

"Okay. I'm going to get in that gear now and stand way far back from you," Alex said, his eyes wide.

K closed her eyes and waited, taking the minutes before the hull breach to regain a calm, wide-eyed facade before the group of well-armed Ravagers came through - all of them clearly expecting a bigger fight than one little terran could threaten.

And as K had said, one of them scoffed at finding a terran and lowered his weapon about two seconds before she launched herself at them with a snarl and started tearing into them. Of course, she didn't just attack those that had come through. She followed the trail back into their ship, killing them as she went with no regard for what kinds of aliens they were - or whatever kind of means they tried to stop her with.

Though they were bounty hunters and scavengers … they weren't as nasty as they thought once she was past the guns. Those that did land shots were intimidated almost immediately since like Logan, K simply didn't stop for something like a flesh wound, and in K's mind, they were trying to get to Sam and Alex. Which only had one outcome when she let her instincts go wild.

She was halfway into their ship when Hepzibah finally caught up to her. Though she'd been in a few little battles with the ferals on deck, she hadn't been quite this close to the action before. So she couldn't know that this was far worse than when they'd fought Shi'ar the last time they'd allied.

"How do you think about taking ship?" Hepzibah asked when she saw just how much damage was being dealt.

"Already planning on it," K snarled out. "Seeing as the one you have is irreparable with the skills available."

Hepzibah smirked at that. "Then we go," she said, redirecting toward the bridge.

K glared at her and followed the flow of ravagers all the way to the bridge. When they got got there, it was clear that some of the most senior of their members were there with the captain - a monstrous looking half-fly, half-furry blue creep.

Hepzibah glanced over at K. "I take controls if you take captain."

"You will stabilize the ship," K said. "And if you forget for one second about Sam and Alex I'll turn you into a rug."

Hepzibah held up both hands. "Am not leaving them behind."

But it was pretty clear K was only wound up tighter for as far as they'd gotten and she'd completely abandoned her usual methods of staying oddly pristine through the fight. She was splattered in several colors of blood and when the Captain and his crew on the bridge turned their way, she couldn't help but growl lower. "Which one of you is running this thing?"

The fly-eyed alien stepped forward, both hands out as he spoke in an odd tritone. "We thought this was a scrapped ship."

"With people in it?" K challenged. "Do yourself a favor and don't lie to me again."

"Look, you want to keep your ship so badly, fine. Keep it. We go."

"This is my ship now," K told him. "I just want to know where you were headed and if you have friends coming after you."

"You can't take my ship!"

"You were going to take ours," K said before she let the growl roll more freely. "Besides. I thought it was empty."

"Why you-" Kraglin rushed forward - but that was exactly what K was waiting for.

She let him take a swing, and slipped under his arm with her claws extended, neatly taking his arm off at the joint at the same time that she sunk her other hand of claws into his side as he passed.

Hepzibah let out an appreciative chirrup as she settled in at the controls. "Good way to take ship. Get your young; I'll have us in flight fast."

"If you even think of leaving us, I will hunt you down and make it hurt."

"I said I wouldn't," Hepzibah said. "Besides, Alex belongs to my C'ris."

K's growl kept rolling low as she turned. "Not sure that matters to him, or why it'd matter to you," she said as she turned and started toward the old Starjammers' ship. She didn't even bother looking at who was standing - simply killing them if they were stupid enough to get too close - those that were left, that is.

When she got to the Starjammers' ship, she called out for Alex. "Come on, Havok, we don't have time for this. We've got a new ride."

It took a minute, but Alex peered out from around the corner - with Sam snuggled into his neck and making cooing noises at him. "So we're pirating the pirate ship?" he asked, a crooked smirk tugging at his expression at the thought.

"Just the one," K said. "Come on. I want to keep my hands free in case I need to skin a cat."

"She's alright," Alex said. "I think Dad likes her." He made a face. "She's nothing like Mom was, but… she's alright."

"You've got your dad's judgement. Hmm."

"Yeah, no." Alex shook his head quickly. "No… fur for me. No thanks."

"Not what I meant, but sure," K said as they headed through the ship toward the bridge.

Alex let out a low whistle, holding Sam a little closer when he saw all the Ravager bodies - though it was hard to feel too serious when Sam was discovering how to giggle and kept doing it at inopportune times whenever Alex would try to bring up the death count.

"You're so much like your parents, you weirdo," Alex teased at last, getting another little giggle before he hugged her.

Sam gurgled out a coo and then leaned forward to chew on Alex's face, making little noises the whole while as if this was how everyone should talk.

"Oh good, you here," Hepzibah said when they got to the bridge. "Yes. I have course plotted for Chandilar."

"Which is… where?" Alex scrunched up his nose. "Exactly?"

"Home of Shi'ar. You want find your friends, yes?" Hepzibah said.

"She's just trying to get me to Logan faster so she doesn't get hurt," K said.

"Pro-o-o-obably smart, given the body count," Alex said, both eyebrows still high on his head. "Seriously."

"What?" K said.

"I mean… I definitely would be intimidated by all this if I didn't know you liked me," Alex pointed out, gesturing to his brother's blood-soaked mother.

K glanced down at herself, one eyebrow raised before she met his gaze again. "Then I guess that makes you lucky."

"Pretty much," Alex agreed with a crooked smirk. "But, alright, let's go to this… chandelier place."

"Chandi-lar," Hepzibah said.

Alex nodded. "Whatever. The place that has my brother, my dad, and my team."

K let out a breath when she saw that they were all relatively settled. "I'm going to clean out the ship of any more riffraff."

"Okay. I'll watch out for Sam while she tries to eat my face. Should I be worried? Am I under attack?" Alex teased.

"She's kissing you, Alex," K called out over her shoulder. "She thinks you're pretty."

"Well, then she's got good taste," Alex decided, then kissed her head and got Sam to fall apart laughing all over herself.

It was almost a week before Scott's group met up with K's - though neither had been expecting to meet halfway like they did, with K's group headed to rescue them and Scott's group headed to save the others.

The only reason they even knew not to attack each other was that Corsair and Hepzibah had both been transmitting a low-frequency Starjammer code - otherwise, they would have gotten into a dogfight, given the ships they were traveling in.

But once they met up, they trashed the Ravager ship in favor of the Shi'ar one, since it would be easier for the Starjammers to cause havoc with the Shi'ar in their own ship - and then plotted a course back to Earth at last.

Which also meant that Alex had time to show Scott the new game that Sam liked to play - which was to chew on Alex's face until he kissed her head and got her to giggle. And when Scott tried it and got the same results, the looks on both Summers boys' faces were nothing short of priceless.

"Hey, Sammy," Scott said, tossing her in the air when she stopped giggling. "Miss me?"

Sam tipped her little head back, one eyebrow arched up as she started cooing low - and clearly trying to copy the movements he was making with his mouth.

"I think that's a yes," Jean said, smiling over Scott's shoulder. "In fact, I know it is. She's thinking about how familiar you are and how glad she is you're not gone."

"Yeah, me too," Scott said, snuggling his sister tightly while K headed off to go find her sweetheart.

Logan was still sleepy when Kurt got him moving into the new ship, and Logan didn't make it far before he spotted K and pulled her over for a tight embrace. He was still hurting, even long after being healed … he just wasn't in the mood to tell anyone as much. Not that K needed it explained. The two of them took a few moments then K slowly led him back to where Scott and Jean were trying not to break their faces smiling at Sam's squeaky noises as she tried to get louder in her attempts to speak with them.

Jean was almost nose to nose with Sam when she looked up to see Logan and K come in and then smiled. "Oh, good. I'm glad you're awake," she said, honestly relieved - since she had been worried she'd done something terrible to him.

"Just tired," Logan said. When Sam saw Logan though, she started leaning his way, the low coos and gurgles gone when she really just wanted her dad. And when Jean handed her over to him, Sam didn't do the kisses like she'd done for Scott, instead just wriggling to get as close as possible, patting his cheek with one hand for a long while.

"She missed you too," Jean said with a smile.

"Yah, I see that," Logan said, his hand resting on Sam's back. "So you two can relax a little now, right?"

"That's the plan," Scott agreed, one hand on Jean's waist.

"See you when we get the hell out of space, then," Logan said as K took up his free arm and the three of them headed off to find somewhere quiet.

"Don't bother me unless you need someone to keep you from losing another ship," K said as she passed Corsair.

"Not getting in the middle of … whatever you're doing," he said, holding up both hands. "I'm ready for a vacation myself."

"Right," she said, though she did not look amused at all.

Corsair shrugged and waved them off. "Have fun. I'll just be your pilot for the trip."

But that left Logan and K to get reacquainted like they'd intended, and Jean was already pulling on Scott's hand to find some privacy too. "They have the right idea," she said with a smile.

"You know they're probably just going to curl up with Sam in the middle, right?" Scott said with a smirk.

Well, that is a good idea, too, but not my idea, Jean projected to him, getting a laugh out of him when she picked him up a little off the ground telekinetically.

Are you sure you want to fool around in space? Scott projected back.

Why not? Jean projected. The Phoenix has quieted down the further we get from the Shi'ar; I think we're perfectly fine. And besides … this qualifies as more than just the mile high club.

Scott paused, a breathless laugh almost in disbelief echoing the hall as they headed away from the bridge. It's just … still a little close to know the Phoenix won't be an issue. Isn't it?

All that rage is gone, Jean promised. With the Shi'ar, the Phoenix was overpowering and angry. Now that it's gone, I feel alive. Like I can breathe again.

Well, that's good, Scott admitted.

Besides, you promised me a vacation, Jean pointed out. You, me, and a 'Do Not Disturb' sign, remember?

Scott couldn't help but grin. I did, didn't I? He projected back before they disappeared into the room they were staying in.