Chapter 27 - Sentencing

Scott was at the apartment in Bed Stuy when the parade found its way there, looking stressed already because the apartment was supposed to be a secure backup - and even more stressed when he saw that there was a police escort. "What happened?" Scott asked.

"From what I saw, it was a public beat down," Officer Wright said. "But then I heard the story."

Scott's entire expression tightened as he thought of the many times James' parents had lost their tempers, and he motioned the officer - and James - inside. "James?" He had both eyebrows raised, not only at the story but at the fact that James' inducer wasn't on - and they had only been blocks from the tower.

"I lost my temper," James said carefully, trying not to think of what he'd heard from the creep while also trying to remember exactly what he'd done to the guy. "This idiot was harassing the girls."

"James, you damn well better have a better reason than street harassment," Scott said, his mouth tight as he almost breathed the words out.

"He put his hands on Cassie, Dad," James replied through his teeth, doing his best to keep from growling - successfully.

For a long time, Scott stood where he was in the entryway, a muscle working in his jaw, since that was, in fact, a good reason to lose his temper. He'd probably have done the same. The problem, of course, was that James was standing there with a police officer, and that meant records. But he couldn't bring himself to scold James when he'd done the right thing protecting Cassie, either.

Officer Wright cleared his throat. "Officially, no one saw anything," he said. "But I wasn't so sure my partner wouldn't go for bein' a pain since the boy didn't have any identification on him to speak of. Figured it would cause more trouble than help anyone if he went down to the station." The cop still hadn't shown his cards on what he thought of all of it, though he started to as he watched Scott try not to react. "The guy your boy beat half through a brick wall was a registered offender, by the way."

Scott nodded slowly, doing his best to not look like he was already running through the myriad of ways this could go wrong and the dozens of backup places he'd need to vet so they could start over. "My son doesn't lose his temper like that, Officer," Scott said at last. "Not without very good reason."

"I can believe it," Officer Wright said. "If nothing else, than because he didn't try to fight me when I pulled him off the guy, though I still didn't hear the full story - I think that aside from doin' our fine city a service … this young man needs to try and keep from doin' my job for me until he can carry identification at the very least."

Scott nodded, though he was still watching James carefully. "Our family tends to keep to themselves. This particular asshole managed to go out of his way to step into James' path with his stupidity. I promise it's not a regular occurrence."

"The perpetrator was stalking an eleven year old girl." Officer Wright nodded his head then watched James for a moment himself. "I'm sure that if takin' up hero work was a regular thing for your boy, I'd know about it. Now … we did search him. Standard procedure, I did it myself, so this," he said as he handed Scott James' things - including the inducer. "Can stay between us, though I think that if he'd been hit while he was using it, it would have caused more of a stir when it broke and I guarantee my partner would have hauled him in with backup."

Scott stared at the inducer for a long time, knowing they were caught and knowing there was no way around it. "Damn," was all he managed to say.

"I'm not gonna say a word," Officer Wright said. "Not to anyone. Not ever. I got no room to talk, anyhow."

Scott finally looked up at Officer Wright again, the lines etched in his face even more apparent than usual. "You don't understand," he said in a breath. "If anyone knows-"

"No, I think I do," Officer Wright said as he gestured at Scott. "Pretty distinctive callin' card there. But I'm not sayin' anything, and my partner was too excited to arrest the guy that got the beat down that I don't think he realized the kid's strength." He turned back to James. "Lay low for a while, get a hair cut or somethin', too, because you do not look like your Dad here."

"I'll handle it," Scott said.

Officer Wright offered Scott his hand to shake, and made sure to give him his card, too. "You come up on any trouble, let me know. I'm just gonna make sure any traffic cams near there go blank before I call it a day."

Scott blinked his surprise at the officer. "You don't have to put your career on the line."

"I'm not lettin' anyone look too hard at the kid," he said. "Definitely not over some scumbag that was askin' for it." He shrugged. "Chances are good one of the higher ups already did it anyhow. Don't want the guy's lawyers sayin' we missed out on doin' our job." He leaned toward Scott slightly. "And between you and me? If he'd had ID on, they'd probably want to throw him a parade."

"Which wouldn't help us, really," Scott muttered.

"No, it would not," he agreed. "I'll leave you to deal with this between you, but … you know where I stand with it. Really just wanted to see the kid get home myself. No offense, but the Avengers don't have the best track record with our kind. I wasn't gonna blindly trust 'em."

"I appreciate it, really," Scott said as he put a hand on James' shoulder, waiting until Officer Wright was gone before he tipped his head toward the living room so he and James could sit down for a more private chat.

James didn't say a word as he followed Scott's nonverbal cues and took a seat, waiting for the reaming out he knew was coming. But unlike when Nate knew he was in for it, James felt no desire to defend himself ahead of Scott or whatever he had to say. He understood it - and he understood why the cop had handled it like he had, but the truth was that James was pretty ticked off at himself for not keeping a handle on it and for not using the damn inducer more, though the cop was right. One solid hit and the inducer would have made a much bigger mess.

Scott was silent for a long time before he finally put his other hand on James' other shoulder to look him in the face. "First thing's first," he said evenly, "you didn't do a damn thing wrong when it came to the guy who came after Cassie. I don't know that I would have been any more elegant about it myself, considering her age, not to mention the fact that I know she hasn't had the same training you kids have had about watching her surroundings."

"That was on me," James said. "I should have stuck closer to her."

Scott shook his head. "No, don't start on that," he said. "Any one of you kids would have been enough to stop this guy. Frankly, from what I've heard, I'm surprised you beat May or America to the punch."

"They couldn't hear him."

"Ah." Scott nodded. He seemed to think over what to say next before he asked, "How's Cassie?"

"I don't know," James admitted. "I didn't get to talk to her without the cops around. I honestly don't know how any of them are. America took out the guy's buddy that was just as nasty. I don't know how anyone is though. I saw America take the other girls to the tower. I think Jan was waiting for them at the corner."

"We'll head over to the Bartons later, then. I'm sure Clint and Natasha are waiting to hear if they need to help us move." Scott took a deep breath and let it out. "James, you were incredibly, incredibly lucky that Officer Wright is a mutant too. You get that, right?"

James nodded, his gaze on the ground.

"You know the security we put in place is there for a reason, James. I'm glad you have a group of friends, and I don't want you to lose that, but I need you to be responsible. The Avengers don't always remember how different it is for us - and their kids have no reason to know either, outside of Katie and Lexi."

"I know," James agreed quietly.

Scott nodded and let his breath out in a rush. "I'll talk to Stark. Officer Wright was right; you do need to lay low for a while. Let's you and I go fishing." He smiled lightly. "It would do us both some good, and besides, it would let Natasha watch for any activity at either of our houses while we, ah, don't celebrate your heroic rescue. Or something."

James looked up at Scott with a concerned expression. "No. Really. Is this a lay low thing or are we scouting somewhere to go?"

Scott shook his head. "I've had the next place scouted since Luke crashed the soccer match. This really is just you and me laying low." He paused, then added, "And I meant what I said: I'm not mad about you standing up for Cassie. It's the security breach that I'm worried about. But with that guy? You protected your friend from someone who meant to do her harm."

"Just sorry I didn't put him through the stupid wall," James grumbled.

Scott smirked. "Hey," he said, "once we get out where no one's around to interrupt or overhear us, I'm going to have to tell you about the guys I did put through walls," he said, tapping the side of his temple. "It's a hazard of living in this family: we can't stand aside when the people we love are in trouble."

James was pensive as he weighed out how to say what he really thought. "I can't even say it was that, Dad." James looked up at him with a perfectly open expression. "I thought the guy was talking about someone else that wasn't even in our group at first, but if he would have touched her … I don't think it would have gone any different. Not with what I was getting off the guy."

Scott looked thoughtful for a long time and then reached out to affectionately ruffle James' hair and rest his hand at the side of James' neck. "That… you get from Logan and K," he said. "If they saw a kid in trouble or a man trying to take advantage of a woman, nothing I said could have stopped either of them. Not that I would have tried hard knowing what they were stopping, mind you… but it was like a switch flipped with them." He smiled tightly, the same way he always did when he talked about the teammates he'd lost. "It was honestly one of their best qualities. Made me want to be better about standing up for everyone around me, too."

James honestly didn't know what to say - or how to react to that, so instead, he simply didn't. Not when he knew that it was rare for Scott to talk about them like that, and he wasn't sure how he felt about either of them. Especially if it was anything that might have been tied in to the mutation.

Finally, Scott let his shoulders drop and got to his feet, offering James a hand up. "Let's go down the hall and let the Bartons know we're heading out and asking them to watch the places for a while. I'm sure they're worried - and we should check on Cassie, too. Her dad will probably have a fit when he hears the story."

"Clint was having trouble getting the cops to listen to him," James said.

"Clint is a former criminal with very little facial recognition from the public in spite of his position on the team. He also still hasn't learned how to speak to the cops like an Avenger and not a kid trying not to get caught stealing. This does not surprise me," Scott said dryly.

"That kind of explains everything," James agreed quietly as they crossed the hall. "Can we tell him I'm going to super-max?"

Scott smirked. "Nah, we'll tell him you're running away to the circus. He'll have a stroke right in the kitchen."

"Awesome. As long as I'm not the archer."

"Don't you love how we didn't do anything wrong, but we still end up being grounded somehow?" Nate asked as he dropped into the seat next to his sister. They'd gotten the message from their Dad, who assured them that it was only a precaution to keep all three of them more or less grounded for their own safety, and how as an extra step in paranoia, he and James weren't coming by the school on the way out of town so as not to draw attention to the school in case they were seen or followed.

"We're not grounded."

"He's taking James fishing, you know that's what's going on, right?"

"And?"

"And … when I get busted it's actual grounding."

"And the last time I got in any trouble, Ororo took me out for ice cream," Rachel pointed out. It's all just a matter of how it happened. You fight with Dad. This? Come on. Mia told us what the story was. This trip to the woods is just as much for Dad to relax a little as it is to get James away from anyone that might see him. And we're only on restriction because they might look this way to find him. It's a precaution, baby brother.

Yeah, I know, it's just … of course he ends up taking a vacation as soon as the angel-child steps out of line a little.

It's not a vacation.

It's not a punishment either. And blowing up Natasha's security isn't good for any of us.

True. But …

Cassie didn't deserve what happened, I know.

And you wish you'd gone on the fishing trip, Rachel surmised. Dad will take you if you want him to. Might do you good.

I don't want to go fishing, Rach. And they're probably going to end up being gone for James' birthday the way this is rolling. Which … okay, that's fine. We did your sweet sixteen in Oregon and we had my last three with Alex in Hawaii - and James has never asked to be anywhere special for his, I just … I guess maybe I wanted to do something with all of us for that this year?

Rachel sighed heavily, but wasn't sure how best to reassure her little brother. Not when nothing she said seemed to make a dent in how miserable he was. "You have to tell Dad if you want to do something with just him," Rachel said finally.

"Yeah, I know," Nate agreed with a heavy tone. "It's James too, though. I'm so tired of watching him act like he doesn't want anything ever. And it's hard to try and change that when we're here and supposed to be working on control."

"So," Rachel said turning his way fully and holding his gaze. "Let's get to work. We have no where to go, neither one of us has any distractions … and I can help you get a handle on it if you let me." And that would mean getting back to your teams and your friends.

Nate finally cracked a smile and nodded to himself. "Thanks, Rachel."

"Any time, little brother."

The trip to the cabin Scott had picked out was a long one, and once they got there, James and Scott had a whole lot to get done just to use the place. It was one of the Howletts' old places, though it had been mostly untouched since their death. Natasha had been there shortly after everything had gone south for the X-Men and packaged up most of the personal effects decorating the place. Not because she was getting rid of it, more because at the time, she didn't know which place Scott wanted to use to hide the kids - so she prepped several by going through them and putting away most of the photos and momentos that might have triggered a very young and freshly traumatized James.

But she'd also put away most of the soft items - blankets and pillows were packaged up in heavy plastic and secured in trunks that mice couldn't get in to destroy. So while Scott was clearing out the dust, James pulled in the firewood from the shed. And while Scott started the fire in the old wood burner, James was put to work setting up the beds for the two of them to use for their stay, only … as he was making the bed in the master bedroom, he went still slowly.

There was a scent clinging to the blankets that was deeply familiar, but mostly forgotten and James was honestly confused as to what the scent meant … or why he felt so calm on breathing it in. It was an odd combination on its own … spruce that didn't match the scents of the wood walls around him mingled with cigar smoke, motor oil, fresh hay, ozone, and leather.

He closed his eyes and stood there with the blanket halfway to his nose, overwhelmed with the desire to just … curl up and wrap himself in it and sleep. It didn't take him very long to convince himself to do exactly that, either, and before Scott had the fire going well, James kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed with the blanket clutched around himself tightly. He rubbed his face into the pillow, trying to make the scent last longer, trying to surround himself in it more completely - and as his chest began to feel a crushing weight and his eyes prickled at the edges from a scent he couldn't even fathom letting go, James fell asleep.

It took Scott a little while to catch up to him, and in all honesty, he didn't even think to look for him until the fire was crackling away cheerfully and putting out a fair bit of heat, and then, his only thought was to get dinner going, but when he found James curled up in a ball like he used to do all the time as a three year old, Scott was hit by a similar pang in his chest that James had felt. Even to his nose, Scott could smell the scents on the blanket, though no where near as acutely as James had to have. The way his nose was buried in the fabric was like watching him as a three year old again when they had first gone to Logan's cabin … but this was K's place near Lake Superior. It was the spot she had preferred to hide out at when she needed a break.

He backed out of the room slowly, deciding on the spot not to mention it at all to James unless he asked. He had no idea if James would make the connection on his own, or if he knew already where they were. All Scott knew for sure was that James wouldn't have crashed that hard that fast unless he needed it. And one thing Scott refused to do was take that away from him if he needed it.

Dinner could wait. Fishing could wait. This? This was obviously long overdue.