Chapter 20 - Home Sweet Brooklyn

"You've been running yourself ragged lately," Rabbi Cohen said as he took a seat at Scott's breakfast table. "More so than usual. What's the new drama?" The little family had been living in the neighborhood for a little over a year - and over the course of time, their neighbors had proven to be both friendly and patient with giving them a chance to warm up. When the little Summers family hadn't joined in on any of the block parties in the first half-year of living there, the rabbi next door had taken notice. Especially since he'd yet to meet a kid that didn't join in an open party sooner or later. But these three? They seemed to be perfectly obedient and quiet - another little thing that had gotten him motivated to make friends with the family … to check in.

Even at that, it had taken Scott a while to warm up to him - though he was much more willing to trust the rabbi once he realized that not only did Rabbi Cohen know they were mutants but he knew exactly who they were. And there hadn't been a problem with it. After they'd been living there for a year and there wasn't even a hint of trouble, Scott had warmed up enough to be social - and he could at this point even say he was friends with Toby Cohen.

So when he asked about the latest family drama, Scott just poured him some of the orange juice from breakfast because that was what he had on hand while the coffee percolated and sat down with him. "Nate's started soccer, and he wants to do baseball again in the summer," he explained. "He was pushing for hockey and football this fall, too, but I told him he's gotta slow down and do one at a time."

"That's good for him, isn't it? The soccer?" Toby asked as he reached for the juice.

Scott shrugged lightly. "It's great for him. It's a lot for me when the other two are still doing private studies. And I have to look into the coaches."

"I thought your pretty red-headed friend was the one that liked to do all the digging," Toby said with a smirk.

Scott smirked right back. "She's busy right now. Her husband got into some trouble with some Russians again, and it's more time-consuming than anything else right now."

"So business as usual with those two, hmm?" Toby teased.

"You'd think they would figure out how to deal with small problems like that, but…"

"They're just too busy looking at the bigger picture," he agreed.

"Likely," Scott nodded.

"So, what's the big plan then, hmm? Are you going to keep running yourself ragged with all the sports now? Or can you get both of the boys to be in one place for more than ten minutes?"

Scott started to laugh at the suggestion. "James lasted one practice."

"He doesn't look like the kind to give up that quick," Toby said.

"It wasn't that he gave up," Scott clarified. "But he disagreed with the coach's style and didn't like being bossed around with no explanation. If I'd let him keep going, he would have organized a revolution by the third practice."

"Did he want to keep going?" Toby laughed.

Scott shook his head. "I think he went to support Nate, but even people who don't know him well could tell that thirty minutes in, he was practically shouting 'this is stupid' without saying it out loud. The fact that he went rogue partway through practice and took it on himself to try and run the field on his own was just the cherry on the cake."

"That's too bad," Toby said, shaking his head. "He could use something outside of just schoolwork."

"Believe it or not, he gets to play racquetball at the tower, and he likes to surf," Scott said with a smile. "Last time we met up with my brother, he took the kids surfing, and James is a natural."

"So what you're saying is that he likes solo sports." Toby did a fine job of keeping his amusement controlled - but the expression on his face and the dancing light in his eyes gave away exactly how funny he thought it was.

"If you'd met his parents…" Scott shook his head. "I'm not even surprised."

"You're doing good by him," Toby said - always quick to hop onto that train of thought when the opportunity presented itself. "You've got good kids. That's your work showing through." He tipped his head slightly. "But … I have to wonder how they might act up in a few years as they get older."

Scott shook his head. "We'll see. Nate is already a handful; I don't want to think about the teenage years with him just yet. I'll go gray even faster."

"I'd imagine you'd be more concerned with how Rachel will handle things, seeing as she's almost there now."

"Rachel is at a school run by one of my oldest and dearest friends. She'd have to work hard to get away with anything I'd disapprove of," Scott said with a quiet smirk.

Toby laughed at that. "I haven't seen her in a while now. Does she still come home on the weekends? Or is she getting more independent - so far from home."

"No, she still comes home on the weekends. She's actually been bringing back stories for the boys in case they decide to go to school there too. I doubt James will, since he's pretty well past most of the curriculum, but Nate might."

"Might do them both good," Toby said. "Spend more time around kids dealing with the same things they are." He paused and drew in a deep breath. "Of course … it wouldn't hurt if they wanted to go to one of our youth nights. We're not recruiting, mind you, but … it's a safe place for the neighborhood kids to spend a few hours. It's not in the open like the block parties that I know you're all allergic to."

"You know why I don't like those parties, Toby," Scott said in a sigh.

"I know," he agreed, nodding. "I hate to see them so isolated. Though your youngest clearly has a good handle on things if he's pushing for sports."

"He was too young to understand what happened," Scott admitted. "He was old enough that he can remember his mom, sometimes, but…"

"The other two were old enough though," Toby said when Scott's sentiment faded. "And it shows."

"I know," Scott said. "I see it every day."

"You know, if your pretty lady friend is too busy to research, all of you are welcome to talk with me. It would be good to know where the kids stand, don't you think?" He shrugged, holding both hands out. "I'm sure she's already looked into my records or whatever, but she can look again if it makes you feel better."

"No, we already know about the college arrest when you were protesting," Scott teased.

"Then you know I can't keep my nose too far out of it forever when I know something's wrong." He leaned forward slightly. "Let me try to help."

Scott rested his chin on his hands clasped in front of him. "You know the kids flat-out refused to talk to any therapists, right?" Scott said slowly.

"After what you said happened with that nurse, I'm not surprised," Toby replied. "But I'm not saying to go down to the office. We can do this here. Just like this. It's not like I don't come by anyhow. It can just be us. No one outside of your house needs to know either way."

Scott was quiet for a long time as he considered the idea before finally, slowly, he nodded. "I can't promise anything, but I personally don't have a problem with you talking to them."

"That warms my heart," Toby said with a teasing smile.

Scott chuckled. "Hey, the fact that you know any of our story at all should tell you how much trust you've earned with me and mine."

"I can tell you - the stories the neighborhood has cooked up on how you got those scars is quite the adventure," Toby said. "Especially when your James gets dropped off by the little rotation he's got for rideshares."

"They try to be discreet," Scott sighed. It was the one thing he hadn't been able to do himself - managing to get all three of his kids to where they needed to be at the same time. And while Steve was alright at blending in, Clint was not. And while Natasha was good at spywork, she ended up only making fuel for gossip when she came by.

"In any other area? They'd probably be perfectly fine. But you've got a whole neighborhood that's gonna be watching the single dad of three anyhow. Add to it that all three of the kids are good-looking, too … you're going to have trouble when they get a little older, that's all I'm saying. People are paying attention and interested in getting to know them better."

"Rabbi, are you looking to find my daughter a match already?" Scott teased.

"Not this week," Toby laughed - a constant tease between them. "Ask me again next week."

Scott smiled and shook his head. "The rumors don't bother me, to tell you the truth. It's actually helpful to have them flying around."

"Of course they wouldn't bother you. Most of them think you singlehandedly saved Captain America's life somehow," Toby laughed. "I'm not going to argue with them. Neither is he, apparently."

"To hear him tell it, he still thinks he owes the old team, so of course he won't argue it."

"Are you arguing it?" Toby shot back. "Because it doesn't sound like it to me!"

"I learned a long time ago not to argue with Steve," Scott said, thinking of some of the fights he'd had with the Avengers when he'd been trying to get them to see how bad things were for mutants when all the Avengers cared about was the way mutants stood up for themselves.

"When you were right and Steve finally admitted it, you mean," Toby said just before there was a knock on the door.

Scott smirked but didn't confirm Toby's assessment either way as he went to the door, somehow not surprised to find one of his neighbors there - one of the women his age, and a widow herself, so she was always sympathetic. "Hello, Sara," he said.

"I just thought I'd check in and see how you were doing," Sara said. "I know the new semester started up, and I didn't know if you'd gotten the boys gathered up or not yet."

"They're doing great, thanks for asking. Nate's going out for soccer, and James has a new science project that's consuming his attention already."

"Oh, good," Sara said, smiling widely. "I hope they can get the time to spend an afternoon with the kids this weekend. Rebecca would love to see them, I know."

Scott smirked, knowing Sara's daughter had a crush on Nate and that Nate was completely oblivious. "We'll see. You know Rachel comes home on the weekends, so we try to dedicate that time to being all together."

"Yes, and it's wonderful that you're all so close," she said - absolutely genuine with every word. "Of course, you're all welcome to join us, if you haven't got anything set in stone."

"Thanks. I'll talk to the boys and Rachel and see what they had in mind and let you know," Scott promised.

Sara smiled wider. "Alright, well, you take care of yourself until then," she said. "Tell the boys I said hello."

"I will," Scott promised - and didn't wait longer than it took for Sara to be out of earshot from the door before he turned toward the kitchen. "Not a word, Toby."

"What would I say?" Toby asked, doing his best to look innocent. "I'm just here, temporarily deaf … enjoying my morning."

Scott shook his head, though he couldn't help but smirk. "Sure."

"It's not like she's available or interested," Toby said, shaking his head.

"Toby…"

"I said 'it's not' …" He shook his head more insistently.

Scott chuckled and then picked up Toby's empty cup. "I think I need to go research coaches. You can play matchmaker somewhere else."

"You just tell me when I should come by to talk to those kids," Toby said. "One at a time, if you think we can't gather them up."

"I'll let you know," Scott promised.

"Then I wish you luck in your searches," Toby said as he got to his feet. "Incidentally - if you tell me who you're looking into, I can maybe give you what the word is from the neighborhood too."

"You know what? I'd really appreciate that."

Rabbi Cohen didn't have too long to wait for his opportunity. A few weeks passed, sure, but it was easy enough for him to see that Scott wasn't blowing him off when the day-to-day schedule was organized chaos - even with just the boys home. Early in the morning, Scott had to get Nate off to school - and since his school was in an entirely different area of Brooklyn, Scott took him there himself - at just about the time that James' ride came by to pick him up and take him to Manhattan, where he'd study and work on …. Lord only knew what. That was something that Scott had never been overly specific about.

From there, the house was mostly vacant until after school when, once again, Scott would get Nate … and a few hours later, someone would roll up to drop James off. At least, that was the normal schedule.

Toby was over for a lovely mid-morning coffee with Scott, as usual, when the lock in the front door rattled and James let himself in.

"What happened?" Scott asked, on his feet in a heartbeat and already on his way toward him - ready to check him over for injury, which James didn't fight him on at all.

"Ah ... " James glanced over at the rabbi and censored the details out entirely. "Power's out in the building and half the block - and the back ups aren't working very well, so … I got sent home until they fix it." He set his bag down and slipped his shoes off at the door as he let Scott look him over. As soon as Scott was momentarily satisfied, the two of them started back toward the kitchen, though Scott was wearing a frown as he walked behind James, steering him to the kitchen with one hand on his shoulder. "Hi, Rabbi Cohen," James said with a little wave, then quietly took the seat Scott pointed at.

"What happened with the power?" Toby asked - mostly to see if James would share. "And am I going to read about it in the Daily Bugle tomorrow?"

"Maybe." James replied slowly, though he seemed to almost shrink in on himself in the chair. "They told me it was a bad experiment."

"Was it yours?" Toby asked, trying to tease him, but James was perfectly serious as he shook his head.

"No, my stuff is on an independent power source," James said, tipping his head down. "Less chance of it causing trouble if I screw up. I think it was something with my afternoon tutor." He looked toward Scott with a significant expression. "He tried to call, but communications are down too. They were scrambling to fix it when they sent me home." He slid his cell phone to Scott. "So I need to fix mine, too. I heard something about reversed polarities, so it shouldn't be a big deal, unless i damaged circuits."

"Then maybe you can take a few minutes to tell me about what you're doing up in that big tower?" Toby said warmly.

"O-kay." James nodded as soon as he saw the look on Scott's face - they'd discussed this as a possibility, and James knew that Scott wouldn't have brought it up unless he wanted them to do it, so … he drew in a breath and started to try and explain what he did. "It's really just tutors," James said uncertainly. "There isn't much to tell."

As soon as James was trying to halfway answer Toby's questions, Scott got up to leave them to chat while he dug into what happened at Avengers Tower to shut the place down.

He didn't have to search too hard for answers either, as there was a text from Stark explaining that they were still investigating matters, but it looked like it had been an attempt on his life. Nothing that they'd found so far, including going through the creep's communications and correspondence or any of the taps Tony used to dig into the guy's connections, showed that they had any idea that James was there … which at least meant that the image inducer he was using to go in and out of the building was doing its job.

But it also meant that for James' studies to continue - as a matter of paranoid security - they would have to happen either from the Baxter building or Clint's apartment building for the next week or so until Tony had given Natasha a chance to chase down every possible concern. It would screw up the usual flow for Scott and his boys, but … it also showed Scott exactly how paranoid Tony was being on James' behalf. Not that he was surprised. James had a standing open invitation from Tony to simply stay there if he wanted or needed to, and it was clear the more time James spent with his tutors and with Tony that he was getting more and more attached. And lamenting not having simply kept him instead of letting Scott take him back after he'd spent months with the kid.

And with a few hours to kill before Scott had to be at the field to pick up Nate from soccer practice and while James was tied up talking to Toby, Scott decided his time was best spent helping dig in to what was known and what wasn't about the attack on the tower.

He already knew that Tony was going to shift the tutor to the Baxter building - if nothing else than to keep the trouble out of Brooklyn and in close reach of a large contingency of superheroes that could dive in to help. And … it didn't hurt that James and Franklin Richards got along well enough. Though, Scott had to wonder what would happen if the two boys got competitive.