A/N - as always, thanks for the reviews! PAV - hope you enjoy this one! XoA - I think you might need to slow down and re-read a LOT more Wolverine comics ... or start reading Wolverine comics. Skip the movies, bro.

Chapter 66: New Business

It had been a few weeks, and Scott's session that morning had been a good one. He was a little anxious, as always, after having talked about himself so much; he was looking forward to just being with his kids for a little while. Seeing Logan and K - even for a short time - had been therapeutic in its own right, but being back with his kids was far more centering.

And he'd mostly forgotten that he was supposed to be with someone adult at all times too. Until he came home to find that the kids were with Tony Stark.

There was no way this was entirely for his mental health.

"So … what's the story?" Scott asked as he and Bobby came into the living room.

"Why don't you have a seat," Tony suggested, though the look of apprehension on James' face was all the tip off Scott needed to know that things were off.

"You look way too serious," Bobby said as he and Scott both found a place to sit down.

"Yeah, well … serious business. And it's not something I can do without talking to Scott first," Tony replied, then waited for Scott to urge him to spill. "I have a proposal."

"Dude, I hate to break it to you, but you are so not his type," Bobby said before Scott could react.

"No kidding," Tony replied, scrunching his nose up as he half glared at Bobby. "This is about the kid."

"You're not his type either," Bobby said. "Way too old."

'Oh my God, Icicle," James said, shaking his head. "Not helping. At all."

"Says you," Bobby said, tipping his nose up with a grin. "I've been slowly dying, and now I can tease. Life is good."

"Anyway," Tony said, turning toward Scott. "I've got a plan to protect the kids, but I need you to sign off on it."

"Why?" Scott asked, returning the frown. "If it's to protect the kids, why would you need me to sign off?"

"Because," Tony said, resting his hand on James' shoulder. "It involves making my intentions for the company known well ahead of schedule in a very public way."

"I thought you said he had to be twenty-one?" Scott shot back after a moment, looking more stressed by the second. "Eighteen at least."

"To actually give him a title and a spot on the board, yes. But I'm not talking about that." Tony held up one hand, the other still resting on James's shoulder possessively. "Hear me out before you panic. We have to face a few facts. Even if Wanda isn't allowing any kind of prosecution against anyone that was there with Magneto when he died suddenly, Magneto's old Acolytes and Brotherhood members are still out for blood. Natasha's tracking them, of course, and if they push too hard, I know she'll be taking out a few frustrations on them. Now ... I know that there are a lot of people that don't want to cross me for one reason or another. Public opinion tends to fall in my favor, and … I want to make it clear that the kid is off limits for everyone."

Scott didn't look entirely convinced. "Public opinion means nothing when it comes to weapons programs."

"True. But I'm prepared to pull contracts on anyone that even attempts to cross that line. Including the United States military."

Scott stared at Tony, but James was the one to speak for both of them. "You would literally sink your company if you did that," James said, not sounding at all like he liked any part of this plan.

"Look at you, already worrying about making sure the company is in good shape," Tony said with a smirk as he jostled James with his arm around him still. "No, that's not what's going to happen at all. See ... I'm going to make them prioritize. Do they want you badly enough to risk losing access to the top weapons on the planet? Do they want to be second place in the arms race? Is it a reasonable trade off? Anyone with a brain will say 'no' and leave you alone. Honestly, if they have any brains, they'll leave all of you alone. Knowing you're not only being covered by the Avengers but you're under my protection officially, publicly, etcetera - they wouldn't be able to get away with it. And though I know you don't put much weight in it, public opinion is very much against using anyone as a slave of any sort. As much as it pains me to say it, that's exactly how they treated your folks and others." His tone shifted. "If we can show the world how good this kid is …all of the kids… we can give them the full public backing they deserve… no one will think it's acceptable to touch them."

"That's quite the leap," Bobby said, looking serious.

"That would blow the reasoning behind the masks, too," James said. "For everyone. And that will wreck things for you whether you know it or not. Especially when everyone figures out who we all are."

"Kid, everyone knows who you are. Especially after your multiple unmaskings - though they had an idea of who you were before that," Tony pointed out dryly. "What they don't know is that you're mine."

"Creepy possessive is not attractive," James said in a flat tone.

"And you know what I mean," Tony replied looking entirely unamused.

"Do it," Scott said suddenly, surprising James into turning his way fully.

"Wait, what?"

"He's not wrong," Scott said, then had to keep from smiling when Rachel projected to her father 'but is he right?' "Keeping you on lockdown at this point isn't really much of an option anymore, and honestly, anything that helps keep you three safe, I'm up for."

"And … it should shift the narrative on how mutants are viewed, too," Tony put in. "It's been commonplace for people hiring across the country to discriminate … maybe it'll help set an example."

James turned toward Tony with a dry expression. "Is this you admitting that I'm your affirmative action hire?"

"Shut up," Tony said, scrunching his nose. "You know that's not the … no." He shook his head hard and held up one hand. "You're missing the point, kid."

"Don't think I am," James said, though he was still trying to process the idea that his dad was on board to let him go public with all of it.

"It'll be for everyone's benefit."

"It'll be exposing me," James said.

"Yes, but you'll be exposed with full protection. There is a difference between what I'm saying and what you're halfway into anyhow." Tony paused. "Besides … public outlook on both of your teams is incredibly high. This will only reinforce it. Especially since we'll be controlling the narrative." He looked toward Scott. "That's something your dad here never was allowed to do. Until now. Nothing will go to press without you looking it over, Scott. We are talking about a minor, after all."

"Pull it together. If that's the angle you want to use, you'll have to move on it before the Brotherhood or anyone else puts out something nasty enough for the public to believe," Scott said.

"I'll let Pepper and Jan know we're going forward, then," Tony said with a nod before he turned to James and smirked crookedly. "Here we go."

"Right," James replied quietly as Tony jostled him one last time.

"I'll let you know what the next steps are," Tony said to Scott, then got up to leave them to discuss things as a family.

The front door closed echoing through the house and James looked a little self conscious as he shrunk in on himself where he was still seated on the couch. Not that he got any time to process what had happened with his siblings there to dive in.

"We're going to need to hire bodyguards for you," Nate teased. "Wonder if I qualify."

"Sure don't," James shot back without thinking about it.

"Yeah, I'll bet Tony's got that covered anyhow," Rachel said, though she was smiling at her little brothers all the same.

Scott let them go back and forth for a moment before he turned to Bobby. "Why don't you order out for everyone while I talk to them, huh?"

"Sure thing. Bobby's choice," Bobby replied as he sprang to his feet and headed for the kitchen to dig through delivery menus, glad to have the excuse to not be caught up in the Summers family drama. He loved everyone there like family, but he did not envy how much Scott had been dealing with on the mainland.

"As entertaining as all of that is, we have other things we need to discuss," Scott said to his kids, and instantly, all three stopped teasing, sat down, and turned his way, giving him their full attention - just like they always had.

"Something wrong, Dad?" Nate asked as all three of them watched, half holding their breath.

"No, not wrong… I need to talk to you all about this … arrangement."

"Oh, are you going to tell James he can't have sleepovers with his sweetheart now?" Nate teased, though that only had James rolling his eyes and shoving his brother sideways.

"No one's going to get pregnant if we're just having popcorn on the couch, Nate," James shot back.

"Says you. Magic."

"That is not how it works," James said dryly, though Scott was shaking his head at how easily they were getting off track.

"Are you sure?" Nate shot back with a grin.

"Guys," Scott said. "Actual conversation going on. Focus."

"Sorry," Nate said, losing some of his smile.

Scott took a deep breath to reorganize his thoughts. "It's not exactly fair to have everyone come here all the time for their rotation with me," he said. "And … it's probably already drawing attention from more than just our neighbors."

The kids shared a look, though none of them looked surprised at all, and it was clear they were just waiting for Scott's word to grab their things and move on - as they had done so many times before.

"We're not selling the house," Scott clarified, reading their expressions. "This will only be temporary. With a little luck, maybe just a few months."

"Wait … this isn't just a pack up and run thing?" Nate asked. "Then … what about football?"

"And Kate," Rachel said with a fond smile, not teasing him too hard because she knew there was no way their father would consider any kind of move at this point if it meant that his kids had to suffer for it.

"James will still be going in to work - obviously - and I've still got appointments to make," Scott said. "There's no reason the two of you can't coordinate schedules so you can keep going to practices on the days it doesn't line up for me."

James and Nate shared a look, then nodded without any further conversation. "And you want to come back?" Nate asked.

"Believe it or not, I enjoy our space," Scott admitted. "The four of us … or six, if I count Kate and Billy... I don't want to lose that part of our lives. Not permanently, anyhow."

"So what are you saying we're going to do?" Rachel asked. "New house? Move into the tower?" She purposely avoided saying anything about the school, since she knew that was really where he was thinking of going and didn't want to throw him off the idea.

"Not the tower," Scott said. "I thought it might be good for everyone if we went to the school. It would give you three a chance to learn some solid tricks from the old team, since you've already got down just about everything the Avengers can teach you."

"So … I have to move away from my girlfriend for the summer … and James gets to move closer to his boyfriend," Nate said with a frown. "Why can't I just move into the apartment?"

"Because magic is a much less likely way for me to become a grandfather," Scott said dryly. "You two can share a room - like you used to. You can keep each other in check." When both of the boys looked less than amused, Scott couldn't help but smile. "School can't manage private rooms unless you're teaching, too. Short on space."

"Can … I … teach football?" Nate asked slowly with a growing grin.

"You know … it might not hurt to have a flag game or two with the kids there," Scott said, though that had Nate grinning.

"Silver lining," Nate replied.

"When do we leave?" James asked, cutting across Nate's joking.

"As soon as you guys are ready. But probably not until after Tony does his announcement and school for Nate ends for the year," Scott said before he turned to James. "It won't be a bad thing to get you out of the city when that news hits."

"Any reason we aren't doing it sooner?"

"I would prefer that it wasn't an exodus," Scott said. "Especially since I want to keep the door open for coming back. It's just for the summer. Really."

"We'll start packing, then," Nate said, and his siblings nodded in solidarity, leaving Scott breathing a little easier at how quickly they'd agreed to going with the simple plan.

Tony had lied. It hadn't taken him more than a few days to make the arrangements for the press conference, and what was more, James knew for a fact that no one at Stark Industries or the Avengers had breathed a word about it until that morning - but still, he couldn't avoid the fact that every major news agency was running complete coverage even well before the conference was set to start.

It was no surprise, then, that James was a ball of nerves. A well-controlled ball of nerves, but definitely anxious all the same the closer they got to Tony's press conference. The buzz was in the air, and the gaggle of reporters from around the globe were pulled in and ready to soak up whatever it was that Tony was announcing - and so far, by some miracle, it had stayed under wraps.

There had been speculation, of course, but nothing from a reputable source, and the consensus among those in the press was that this was an Avengers announcement … which was partially true. But it didn't exactly cover all of it. It didn't help much that James could hear them through the doors much easier than everyone else in the staging area. He was focused on the buzz as Jan checked him over one more time - even taking on a vain attempt to tame his cowlicks. Even if they weren't as pronounced as his father's were … it was hard to mistake him for anyone else's kid.

Except of course, the fact that Jan had him in a dark blue suit with a yellow silk tie. He found himself looking down at the yellow and half holding his breath. It was one of those things that he'd tried to avoid to make sure that no one was reminded too often of Logan, since it had been so hard on them.

"You look amazing," Jan promised. "The yellow is great on you."

"Thanks," James said softly as she popped up on her toes, kissed his cheek, then reached up to wipe off the non-existent lipstick mark.

"Seriously. So proud."

James took a hold of her wrist and pulled her over to wrap her up in a tight hug that Jan melted into. "And you're sure he's not like … going senile early or something?"

"You know, if I thought he was acting crazy, or wrong about this, then I'd be forced to look into it, but …" Jan shrugged easily. "I think he's right. So. Keep calm. Stay on script as much as you can. Stick to the facts and follow his lead, okay?"

"So … like always."

"Exactly." Jan tapped the end of his nose. "You got this."

Tony came over as Jan bopped off, going to peek out at the crowd. "I'm going to take a few minutes before you come out. Try not to look like the world is ending, alright?"

"If only they made anti-anxiety meds strong enough to do anything for me," James said, and Tony smirked crookedly.

"Just think of them like a few of those one-star generals that follow the four-stars around. You outrank them."

"I … don't think that's how it works," James pointed out.

Tony chuckled and headed for the doors, leaving James a few minutes with his family and Billy, all of whom looked absurdly proud while Pepper handled being the warmup for Tony, talking up the progress that the company had been making finding the very best possible people to continue the level of excellence that Stark Industries had been enjoying with Tony at the helm.

This is not helping, James thought to himself.

No, but most of that's on you, Rachel projected to him. He'd been sure to keep his mind open for her, convinced that something bad was going to happen. Of course, that only meant that Rachel and Nate could hear every one of his fatalist-leaning thoughts. You know Tony's got you covered. You know Dad is on board, and you know we're all watching out for you. Tony's right - you're perfect for the job, whenever he gets done teaching you and steps back. At least as far as the brains and the ingenuity.

This is a trial by fire, James replied.

Leave those to Rachel, Nate teased. All you have to do is go out there and look good. And you know … even if you're no Summers by blood … you're probably not entirely repulsive.

Lies, James shot back.

If you could hear what your sweetheart was thinking, you wouldn't think that, Rachel told him as Nate nodded along with her.

He's biased. No idea why, James grumbled goodnaturedly. The pattern was still holding true … if Billy was around, James was more likely to relax. He turned toward Billy, who looked somewhere between perfectly pleased and a little inconvenienced. Which was exactly the kind of thing that could draw James' attention before he had to go make a spectacle of himself. He reached over to take Billy's hand. "Okay. What's wrong? I'm pretty sure if I switched to a red tie now, I'll be accused of trying to lean Steve's way with the whole … red, white, and blue spiel."

"No, don't change the tie," Billy said, smiling a little more now that he was getting a moment. "Jan's right. It looks good on you."

"Okay, then … what?"

"It's nothing, really," Billy said, though his smile went crooked as he reached up to adjust James' lapels. "I was not consulted on Tony marking his territory, and I feel like there might be a dispute."

"Oh, there's no dispute," James replied, looking serious. Billy held his gaze for a moment, then had to smile when James leaned forward to steal a chaste kiss. "He knows he'd lose that fight."

It was clear Billy had something to say on the tip of his tongue, but Scott cleared his throat, and instead, Billy grinned. "I'll be the dark-haired prince waiting for you backstage - in case you get lost out there."

"Not likely to happen," James said, though it was clear he was still tense as Scott came over and rested his hand on James' shoulder.

"You okay?" Scott asked - and the tension was easy enough for James to see and smell, rolling off of his father in waves. "I know Tony went through a lot to get here, but you can still tell him 'no' if you want."

"Do you want me to?"

"I want you to be safe," Scott said. "And the closer we get to this -"

"The more you don't know if it's the good move Tony thinks it is or if it's a giant misstep," James finished. "Yeah. Believe me, I know." He looked at his hands and compulsively rubbed his hands on his slacks. "There's not any news out there about it - so there's no opinion either way - no reactions to preemptively prepare for …"

"We'll know right away if it was a good move or a bad one," Scott said. He paused, then cheated only a little as he switched modes in his cybernetic eyes to see exactly how stressed out James was - and he wasn't surprised at all to see that the kid's blood pressure and pulse were right up there. He was scared, but he was covering better than Scott had ever seen him do. Maybe a little of Logan and K had managed to rub off in a good way.

Scott took a calming breath as James watched him, waiting for some kind of cue. "You know, James," Scott said. "There are a lot of things I can't explain properly, but I'm going to try and have some faith that in this - in dealing with the press and the public opinion of you - this is something Tony has to be right over."

"Dad."

"He has to be right about it - not because it's what he wants - but because he was groomed to read the room from a young age. And I'm trying to trust that he wouldn't bring it up like this unless he knew what the end result would be."

James bit his lip and again turned toward the doors as the crowd got worked up. "Yeah, I know, but you know he has faith in the wrong things sometimes too." He turned back to Scott. "The generals and military contacts I've been around … I've seen the way they look at me when I meet them, Dad. They know. They've known for a while, but it's like confirmation at first."

Scott frowned on hearing it and dropped his voice low enough that James almost had to concentrate to hear him. "And after that?"

"It usually takes a visit or two, but most of them don't look at me quite like I'm what they've been looking for on sight. After they see what I do with Tony, it usually shifts to more like 'what has the kid come up with now'."

Scott frowned. "I'm not sure which side of the argument you're taking, son."

"Neither am I," James admitted, then let out a shaky breath. "I just know it can fall either way."

Scott turned to glance at where Tony and Jan were taking one last moment - with Jan triple-checking that Tony looked good - in a dark gray suit and red tie. Scott's scanners on Tony showed him nearly the exact opposite of what his scan of James had shown - moments before stepping out in front of the world, and Tony was perfectly calm. "You damn well better not be wrong, Stark," Scott breathed out - just because this would be the worst possible thing for Tony to be entirely wrong about.

But it also fit the bill for the kind of thing that Tony would blow. Especially when he wasn't the one whose neck was on the chopping block of public opinion.

Pepper announced Tony, and then Tony stepped out to a nearly deafening, rapid-fire clicking as the cameras took pictures at high speed and reporters started shouting questions at Tony, who held them off with a cocky smile and a barely raised hand as he shushed them.

Jan zipped over to Scott and James and took a moment to check James over one more time and squeeze them both at the elbow. "It'll be fine. They're going to love you."

"Dad, help, Jan's on drugs," James said just loud enough for Scott to hear and loud enough for Jan to catch and get all kerfuffled over.

"Oooh, if I wasn't so happy to hear you teasing, you would be in so much trouble," Jan whispered as harshly as she could manage. She winked at Scott, then took James' arm and led him closer to the doors. "We'll be right here watching on the monitors. Show them confidence. Knock their socks off." Again, she popped up on her toes to give him a little peck on the cheek and one last once-over before she stepped back to let him wait in peace as Tony continued his speech about the direction the company had been taking - laying the groundwork out for them to understand before he even got to introducing James that this had been his plan for years already.

By the time Tony got around to saying James' name, the cameras were flashing quickly, and James wasn't listening to his loved ones at all anymore - too focused on keeping his focus and looking relaxed as he stepped out to join Tony.

The mood backstage was tense, too, and Jan broke it by nudging Scott's shoulder with an affectionate smile. "I know he didn't get that poker face from you."

Scott let out a disbelieving scoff. "Really, Jan?"

"What?" Jan blinked at him innocently. "Like you can hide anything, blue eyes."

"Oh yes," Scott said dryly, "of the two of us, I am the open book."

Jan smiled more brightly and shushed him with one hand, looking toward the feed on one of the televisions backstage with them as Tony finished answering questions about his big announcement with James at his side. And Scott couldn't help but smile when he saw how proud she looked - not just of James but of Tony. She'd found someone she adored, and Scott was always happy to see that look on her face.

Of course, then, it was James' turn, and Scott nearly held his breath as James stepped forward, looking like every movement was controlled. As he fielded questions, James was polite and careful, as all of his kids were, but then… then, one reporter asked him where he'd been hiding for so long, and Scott could actually see the shift in James as he turned his full body toward that reporter.

"I was in school," James said slowly in a tone that clearly wasn't as polite or professional as he had been - highlighting exactly how stupid the question was. Particularly after Tony had already made a point of informing the press corps about what James had accomplished. "What were you doing by my age?"

For a second, everyone backstage was surprised by the shift in James' tone - but then, Scott started to chuckle, absolutely recognizing James' mother in everything that came out of his mouth after that point. It was like watching K dealing with J. Jonah Jameson all over again - or mouthy teenagers. Or anyone else who needed to be knocked down a peg.

And that, more than anything else, was enough to convince Scott that James was going to be okay. If he could weather something this big, with this many eyes on him, with his mother's sense of humor, he'd be just fine every other time.

And while Scott was relieved, he could hear both of his other kids snickering through their mental connection with him as Rachel informed him, It's just … he's not even thinking of witty things to say. They just come out like that!

We should do this more often. Free show, Nate agreed.

Who can we turn him on next? Rachel teased, just to get Nate to laugh - but mostly to get Scott to laugh, since she knew he needed it.

Scott laughed under his breath and sat down, watching the rest of the show with his chin resting on his hand and a smirk trapped at the corner of his mouth. "Well, damn," he said softly. "Stark might just have been onto something."

You gonna be okay? Nate asked. Big admission and all?

You're hilarious, Scott replied dryly.

Hey, he's doing alright, and neither Rachel nor I can sense any immediate or realistic danger, so… cautious optimism, right?

Scott couldn't help but smile at the familiar phrase, since it was one he'd drilled into the kids often. "Hope for the best but plan for the worst" was their motto of cautious optimism, and he was proud of the way they'd learned how to be better than he was at sticking to that idea.

The show went on for a little while longer, until Tony decided enough was enough and that the reporters that were being willfully stupid were veering dangerously close to a real correction on how idiotic some of those questions were - especially when the bulk of the reporters out there were honestly making up for that stupidity with solid questions that just made the dumb reporters look worse. And Tony wanted to be sure that the narrative didn't end up slipping into how his hand picked successor was browbeating idiots with common sense.

So Tony stepped up with James and the two shared a silent conversation before Tony held up a hand, announced that the Q and A was over. As the reporters protested, Tony and James stepped back from the microphone to allow a few pictures of the two of them to be taken before they headed backstage again while Pepper once again stepped forward to handle clean up. It was seamless, and in typical Stark fashion, they left them starving for more.

James' composure held until they got backstage entirely, where Tony had quit trying to hide his cackle at being proven so right. And while Tony was gleefully enjoying himself, James couldn't stop the epic eye roll as he tried to shake it off. He never lost his poker face, but he had obviously reached his limit, and he hadn't built up the tolerance to hide it yet once he got half a chance to breathe. And Nate knew that even with the free-flowing sass, James had somehow held back - and he wanted to see him let it out.

"You gonna be okay dealing with them for the rest of forever?" Nate teased.

"If not, I'll make you go with me and play Pepper," James shot back.

"Can't. Not pretty enough."

"You can make them think you are," James pointed out.

"True, but if I'm doing that, why not just erase all stupid questions from their minds so I don't have to play Pepper in the first place?"

James stared at him with his best incredulous look. "You mean to tell me you could have done that this whole time and you've been holding out?"

Nate was grinning widely. "I'm a terrible, horrible excuse for a brother, I know."

"As long as you're not feeding them stupid questions," James said, then pointed a finger his way. "Don't you dare."

"But I wanna now," Nate said, purely to rile his big brother.

Scott rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Boys."

"I challenge you to come up with something stupider than that guy did on his own," James said.

"Boys," Scott said, louder this time. "It's not a competition." He shook his head and then, just to get them off their conversational back-and-forth, made his way over to James and pulled him into a hug. "You did even better than I expected. Well done," he said warmly.

"Thanks, Dad," James replied quietly, more than happy to shift away from the teasing for the time being.

Scott smiled more genuinely with a whispered "I'm proud of you" that would have had him more emotional if Billy hadn't rushed over the second they stepped back from each other to kiss the sense out of James.

"Marking your territory?" James asked with a smile when the kiss broke.

"Yes," Billy replied, riding high after the performance he'd just watched. "You'll need to keep up the same level of sass for your debut in Genosha, too."

James' smile went more crooked and he chuckled low before he pulled Billy into a tight hug now that the pressure was off.

It really was the best possible way to get James laughing again and set the mood for Tony to redirect them to the tower to celebrate - and watch the news happen live as analysts broke down what they knew, what they had for information now, and what this meant for everyone involved.