A/N - Practically An Avenger - HI THERE! I KNOW. We need more Billy and more America and more of all of our amazingly fantastic LGBTQ characters. But not just in June. All. The time. Forever. Though I can't promise a boatload of more of them this MONTH ... because lets be real, the month got away from me ... I can promise I'm WORKING on more of them. Does that count? In the meantime, here - Have a gut punch.

Chapter 47 - The Whole Truth

It was the day the Summers clan was set to leave the island when Scott slipped into James' room and dropped the bug into his lap.

"How?" Scott said, only not raising his voice because they were in Erik's home, "How did you get this past his scanners?"

"No metal," James said, matching his volume and meter before he held his gaze for a moment and then turned to go back to packing.

"You bugged me."

"You've been shutting everyone out. We're all worried."

"You bugged me." Scott narrowed his eyes. "How long?"

"Just since the dinner with all the shouting. I turned it off remotely after that. That's all it was for. I didn't want to hear anything else."

Scott frowned at that and then ran both hands over his face. "James…" He let out a breath. "I told you I came here to see how bad it was. Whatever you heard…"

"Don't worry, Dad. I won't do it again."

"James, I wouldn't betray the professor's dream," Scott said.

"Okay."

"I just want you to know - whatever you heard-" Scott let out a breath when he realized James was giving him the same sort of flat expression Logan had given him countless times when they disagreed or when Logan didn't think Scott was listening to him. "I love you. I'm just trying to make sure this doesn't explode on you now that you're all X-Men."

"Maybe this isn't the right place to talk about all this," James said, keeping the quiet, flat tone.

"James, I've done this before. The cameras and mics think you're still asleep."

"Still. You're right. There was a lot that I really shouldn't have heard that we'll probably need to discuss at some point. But I don't trust the moody tech around here."

Scott let out a sigh. "James…"

James got to his feet and reached into his pocket to hand Scott a few panic buttons. "I thought you might want to give them to Bobby, Kitty, and Alex. All things considered. Billy's mom can handle herself just fine, and I don't think Lorna is in any danger."

Scott opened his mouth to say something and then closed his eyes and nodded. "Right."

James watched him for a moment before he took the last few steps to give him a hug, since it was clear he needed it. "This is all a lot harder for everyone when you don't talk to us. Especially when I can see and smell how stressed out you are."

"I'm sorry."

"No," James said. "I'm sorry for making you this stressed out. I've been dragging down a lot more trouble than I normally do for you and for Tony."

"James, no," Scott said. "This … I'm stressed because I've been a mess for years. This is not your fault. You and Rachel and Nate are old enough to make your own decisions, and I've always told you there's nothing you could do that would make me love you any less. That's still true. You know that."

"Maybe, but it doesn't help when you hate everything else more."

"It's just that-" Scott took a deep breath and let it out. "You kids are my whole world. I'm struggling to adjust to adult children, clearly. That's my fault, not yours. You can't not age."

James frowned at that. "I'm pretty sure that's not your fault."

"It's not yours," Scott said firmly.

"Are those the only choices?" James asked.

Scott almost couldn't help but smirk. "No. I think we can safely lay the blame at the feet of Graydon Creed."

James nodded at that and sighed heavily as the tension in the air really hadn't lessened at all. He clenched his teeth hard, then worked his jaw, grinding his teeth in frustration before he looked up at Scott. "Dad … I think it's time for the rest of that story."

Scott blinked at James as the realization hit and the memory of all that was thrown back and forth between himself and Magneto came rushing to the front of his mind. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that I don't know what I should."

Scott let out a long breath, and when he spoke, his voice didn't hold even half of the volume or timber it usually did. "What do you want to know?"

James swallowed and frowned deeply. "I think … I think I need you to walk me through it. All of it."

Scott met James' gaze and then dropped it. "Alright," he said softly. "You're old enough now…" He took a deep breath to steady himself, though the shake as he did so was a giveaway on how unsteady Scott was to talk about it. Even after all this time. "It all came down to Graydon Creed. He hit the school while the team was gone. We weren't there to protect our families, and he killed Jubilee when she tried to shield you kids," he said, his gaze never leaving the ground. "You have to understand… that was the beginning of the end for Logan. Jubilee was like a little sister or a daughter to him. When she was new to the team, he used to call her his lifeline. And he meant it. Seeing her like that…" He closed his eyes as James frowned deeper on hearing the wording.

"Graydon Creed showed up with Mia in his arms. She was only a year old," Scott said, the anger still clear to hear in his tone at the memory. "If we didn't surrender, he'd kill you. All of you. What choice did we have?"

"None," James breathed out, wide-eyed at how quickly the story was spiraling downward.

Scott nodded, looking perfectly miserable. "Once he had us captive, he did everything he could to torture us. You know how Ororo is with small spaces… and your mother… she was just as seasoned as your father in being tortured, but we could hear her screaming and swearing in Swedish. They didn't stop long enough to let her think, which is why when Graydon sent her and Kurt to kill Magneto's Brotherhood, the best plan she could come up with to call Magneto for help was to kill Pietro. She knew it would get him running and that he'd tear everything apart to find us."

"I didn't know that," James said quietly.

"She didn't want Graydon to get his hands on Pietro," Scott said softly. "Graydon ordered her to leave one alive, presumably so he could use them down the road, and she didn't want the only one of that group with a shred of decency to get destroyed and tortured like we were. And he would have been. You have to understand - your mother had a knack for finding loopholes even when she and Kurt couldn't disobey orders."

"Or he'd hurt us kids," James finished.

Scott nodded. "He had a kill switch on Rachel," he said. "She was in Kindergarten." He let the statement hang in the air between them for a while as he tried to control his emotions before he cleared his throat to continue on. "Graydon was testing the rest of us to see our limits. He threatened to dry Bobby out and beat him to death if- if Logan didn't beat him down instead. It was the only way to save Bobby's life, you have to understand. If he hadn't done it, Bobby -" Scott broke himself off.

"You don't know that," James said, barely shaking his head no. "It was a threat from a lunatic."

"No, James," Scott said, his voice catching more than before, and then he leaned over, his head in his hands as he tried to get a hold of himself. "God, he ran the same racket with me," he breathed out. "He - James, he told me - I had to - but I couldn't bring myself to hurt the professor," he said, his voice sounding smaller with every word as his shoulders started to shake, and he was talking into his hands. "I couldn't."

Dawning comprehension lit up James' face as he held his breath listening to Scott. "Dad, no."

"They killed him. I couldn't - I couldn't save him and they-"

"That wasn't …. You couldn't have changed that," James said in a whisper.

"I could have done what Logan did," Scott said miserably. "Bobby looked worse than he was. It was all well-placed… Bobby walked out of that place, James. He lived because your father knew well enough on how to make it look bad. But I couldn't hurt the professor. I couldn't do it, and they killed him and -" He took a breath that hitched horribly. "And I barely had time to breathe before they brought Logan in. I couldn't even think until Graydon explained … He had you in the other room and Logan…" He shook his head.

"Wait. You lost your sight because of …" James stopped himself, unable to say out loud what he knew was the case, even as he rested one hand over his heart.

"I lost my sight because I couldn't hurt the professor," Scott said. "Graydon was clear on that much. I wouldn't use my powers for him, so he wouldn't let me keep them."

"But he didn't threaten to kill you for it."

"No," Scott said. "I never understood that. I don't know if he was trying to torture Jean when he was rightly afraid of approaching her directly or if he was building the misery on Logan making him do it so soon after he beat Bobby or if he thought it would be too kind to kill me…"

"Probably all of it," James said.

Scott nodded, almost numb by that point. "After that… I can only tell you what happened that I heard or that the others told me," he said. "He sent K and Kurt to capture his father - and that… that was the beginning of the end. Victor Creed … Sabretooth was a sadist, and he hated your father for being better than he was. He had been threatening to kill everyone Logan loved for longer than Logan could remember."

"Why hadn't Logan killed him?" James asked, frowning.

"They… were fairly evenly matched," Scott admitted. "There were times Logan would barely escape a fight. And the times he won…" He paused. "Logan lived and breathed the dream too, James. I know what the reports say, but he wanted to be better. And he was a samurai at heart. He tried to be merciful."

"No, I believe you," James said, deciding to try and give Scott a little peace of mind. "A while ago - right around my birthday, actually- Billy ran a spell for me. I was really struggling with … everything. It was kind of a gift. It - he helped me to remember whatever memories were just too … " James took a moment to try to control the shake in his voice that came when he'd think about those memories. "It was from when I was too little to remember it myself. And I saw how they were with me. You undersold it, Dad."

Scott let out a sound and then grabbed James to pull him tightly into a hug. "You've been so loved your whole life, James. I just wish you had them."

"Me too," he admitted for the first time since he was very small. "But I have you. And I don't know where I'd be without you."

Scott held on a little tighter, and the two of them stayed that way until Scott had a better hold of himself. "Right," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry. I was… where?"

"Everything was awful."

"That's the whole story," Scott said, then nodded to himself. "But… Victor Creed was what tipped the scales. I've told you about carbonadium, right?"

James nodded. "Avoid."

"Creed had a carbonadium knife," Scott said.

"What?" James said, blinking at him for a long moment.

"He came to where we were being held with a plan in place. Graydon Creed might have captured us, but his father was the one to destroy us," Scott said.

"He …he had to wait until they were locked up before he even …"

Scott nodded. "Exactly. He came knowing none of us could stop him, and he let himself into your mother's cell first." He paused. "I don't know exactly what happened. I couldn't see it. But I could hear it and… James, she fought him so hard. And he … he did everything he could to make sure your father saw her suffer."

James was very still as he listened to the story, though his hands were in fists at his sides.

"Eventually, he killed her, and then your father reached through the bars when Sabretooth got close enough to him while he was gloating. Logan took his head off," Scott said almost dully.

"Good."

Scott nodded. "And if that had been all, that probably would have been the end of it," he said, slowly, carefully. "We would have mourned. Your father would have been a wreck. But he'd lost women he loved before … we'd lost people but-" He took a deep breath. "We'd never lost a child before. Victor Creed only managed to get a hold of your mother by telling Logan that his son was begging for him when he died." He looked up at James. "It wasn't a lie. They would have picked that up too fast. It was just a different son."

James was holding his breath by that point and very gently shaking his head.

"His name was Akihiro. From Logan's marriage before your mother. They didn't have a good relationship… Logan thought he was dead, but years later Akihiro came back brainwashed into hating him. We didn't even know he'd been caught, but Graydon had been using him to learn how to kill a healer. We think it was so he could learn how to kill his father." Scott shook his head. "It wasn't a lie. So… there we were, half of us still in our cells. Logan had just lost K and he thought he'd lost you and…James, the two of you were his whole world. In all the years I knew him, he was never as happy as when he had you two." He couldn't hold James' gaze and was trying to keep going, but it was obvious he was on the brink of breaking down. "I'm so sorry, James. If I could have seen him, I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him, and I'm so sorry."

"No," James said, shaking his head.

"That's what made Jean lose control," Scott said in a breath of a whisper. "Losing the professor… seeing me hurt and blinded… losing you, losing K, losing Logan … You were three years old. It was so senseless."

James didn't bother to wipe the tears off as he listened to Scott. He wanted to reply. He knew he should, he just … didn't know how.

"I couldn't get her back, James. I couldn't talk her down. She was so wrapped up in grief, even when she saw you were alive… it just made losing Logan so much more pointless and I couldn't … I tried everything. I tried to remind her of our kids, of you, of Mia… I tried everything and Kurt had to kill her when I couldn't and-"

James moved over to pull Scott into another tight hug. "If the tables had been turned, and it was you that had lost all of that and been lied to about Rachel and Nate… it's not your fault," James said in a hushed whisper.

Scott buried his face in James' shoulder. "I'm so sorry," he breathed out.

"Why are you sorry?" James asked, though he hadn't stopped crying either. "After all that - after everything, you took care of us. Alone."

"I had to keep you safe," Scott said.

"Yeah, but you didn't have to do it alone," James said, shaking his head. "I'm glad you did. I am. But you took on all of us - and you didn't have to deal with me. I know you didn't. One of the others would have taken me, and it could have been so much easier for you."

"You're my godson," Scott said. "There was no way I'd let you go without. I knew who would come for you kids. You couldn't go to someone who wasn't prepared."

"That's why you had Natasha around sometimes," James said. "Your security expert."

Scott nodded. "That's why I kept you away from the teams," he said. "I … I'm sorry. It was the only thing I could think of that would take you out of my protection…"

"I get it," James said. "Please don't apologize for that or anything close to it. You have always done everything you could to take care of us and keep us safe. We know that. I know that. But there's a lot that no one knows."

"I didn't want anyone to try to tear their memories down because they lost hope."

"And I did that myself," James said.

"I would have told you when you first started looking if it was anything easier to tell you," Scott said.

"No, when you didn't want to tell me, I knew it had to be bad," James said. "There's no good way to tell someone that their parents died in a murder and suicide. Especially when I was how they got there." He looked down at his hands as he finished his statement. "He had to have tried it before. To have gotten it done."

"I thought the same thing," Scott said. "And he had. I … looked into a few things while you were still young. I hadn't realized how much Logan had struggled with those thoughts. I didn't know ..."

"So that's something I need to know and be aware of," James said, then quickly held up one hand. "Just that he did it. Not … the details on how."

Scott nodded and scrubbed both hands over his face as he tried to get himself back together. "Yeah."

The two of them were quiet for a long moment as they tried to get control of themselves. "We heard what you said about what we meant to you," James said. "You have to know the reverse is true, too. Not one of us can stand the thought of anything happening to you, either."

"I'm sorry you had to listen to me talking to Magneto, then. That was-"

"That wasn't just talk," James said, shoring up his voice a little. "I love you, and you're great at a lot of things, but you're not that good of an actor."

"All lies are based on truth," Scott said. "That was the route Kitty and I knew would work. I'm a tired, worried father."

"At the very end of your rope, too," James said before he leaned forward to catch Scott's gaze. "Dad, if my working on this team is going to send you anywhere near where Logan was, I will quit right now and never look back."

Scott blinked at James and then grabbed him around the shoulders to yank him into a hug. "I love you too."

Once James and Scott had slightly better holds on their emotions, it was, in fact, time to head out, so they rounded up Rachel and the twins to leave. Scott made sure to hug Kitty and Bobby both on the way out - and leave them with panic buttons and bugs. But what they weren't expecting was for Erik to actually come to see them off himself.

"I hope you know that you're welcome back here at any time," Erik said, much more amenable than he had been before - though that in itself was suspicious and suggested he either thought he had the upper hand or had some kind of plan to gain it. "I enjoyed our short time together. Our chess games were incredibly insightful. I'd love to find a way to make it a more regular occurrence."

"That might be nice." Scott nodded, one hand on James' back as they boarded the jet. "You know, Alex has invited me back a few times too," he said.

"Perhaps you'll consider coming for the summer," Erik said mildly. "I would be interested to see all three of your children outside of the teams they're on."

Everyone paused at that, and even Wanda, who was giving Tommy one last, lingering hug stopped to watch Erik for a moment.

Finally, it was Scott who said, "We'll think about it," while pushing James slightly behind him in an entirely unconscious move. "It'll depend on Nate's football training schedule."

"And ... I have my Stark contracts," James said.

"I'm sure you'll find your arrangement with Tony Stark to be more flexible than you believe it to be, my boy," Erik said before he smiled warmly at Billy, who did a fine job of keeping Erik's mood even in spite of the threat hidden in Erik's words.

Scott nodded. "We'll consider it. If nothing else, I might come back for Alex's birthday." He smiled tightly. "Thanks again for your hospitality," he said, turning to leave with James, though it wasn't until they were in the jet that he said under his breath just for James, "You kids are not coming back. That was an invitation to stay permanently."

"Not surprised," James said softly. "Especially after his little lab tour. You shouldn't be coming back either then."

"I told you I'm working with Kitty. If I come back here, it'll be to put a stop to him. I'm not planning to stay that long."

"Just needed to clarify," James said.

"Love you too," Scott said quietly before he let out a breath and then went to where Rachel was to nudge shoulders with her and then pull his arm around her in a hug, showing a lot more life than he had on the way to Genosha.

James had managed to slip into the single jumpseat near the emergency exit and was already half drawn up on himself, which left Billy wondering what he'd missed as he gave James a little room to process whatever it was that had him looking like that. Even if he wanted to try and help somehow. But instead of upsetting him further, Billy turned his sights to the rest of the Summers clan for answers.

"You're waaay more fun on a mission," Billy said to Scott from across the way as he and Tommy found their seats - somewhat close to James for when he did finally look like he was willing to talk.

"I am?" Scott replied, one eyebrow raised his way.

"Seriously," Billy said, nodding with a grin. "This family is the best for ticking off Gramp-neto."

"Do you really call him that?" Scott asked, amused despite himself.

"He hates it," Billy said. "So yes. Sometimes."

"I thought you two were close. You seriously don't get along with him, do you?" Rachel asked, frowning, since she couldn't imagine not getting along with her family.

"We are close," Billy said, then shrugged. "It really is hard to defend him when he's being like that, though. He doesn't really get along with anyone most of the time, honestly," Billy said. "He can be amazing, sometimes, but most of the time it's just reminding you of what kind of a disappointment you are if you're not following his orders to the letter."

"Or - how much you look or act like someone else," Tommy said, waving the tips of his fingers. "He's called me 'Pietro' almost as much as he does 'Thomas'."

"Ah, well, that part is at least normal," Scott said. "I've almost called a few people by the wrong name myself."

"Anyone you want to fess up to?" Billy asked with an amused glint in his eyes.

"Not particularly," Scott said with a smirk before he turned Billy's way. "But for the record, you're not a disappointment. If he thinks so, he doesn't see what I see. Why do you think I'm glad you're dating James?"

"That … is an interesting question," Billy said.

Scott smiled and then took a few steps over to put a hand on Billy's shoulder. "Wanda, can I borrow your kid?" he teased.

"Oh, that … isn't as funny as you think it is," Billy laughed.

"Sure it is," Scott said. "Besides, we all know she could destroy me in a blink if she wanted, so she's not worried."

"She's pretty relieved, if you want to know the truth," Billy admitted.

"Really?"

"Sure. Good influences - get us away from the whole insistence that we're treated like royalty wherever we go?"

Scott smiled and ducked his head so their conversation was more private. "You're a good influence too," he said quietly. "James told me what you did for him."

"He did?" Billy said, whisper quiet, glancing over to where James was curled in on himself and looking out his window.

"Mmhmm. That spell let him see his parents for who they were … that's something I've tried to do for him his whole life. I can't tell you how important that was for him."

Billy blushed. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

Scott nodded, and instead of saying anything else, he simply pulled Billy into a tight hug.