A/N - PracticallyAnAvenger & X-MenOverAvengers Thanks for the reviews! We love reading them and we're thrilled that you're enjoying this story as much as we are!

Chapter 83 - Hale Invasion

By the time James came into the tower with Bobby in the early afternoon, the Hales had more or less gotten over their initial panic over all Craig had gone through, to Craig's relief. But James and Bobby didn't know anything had happened, so when they came in, James didn't even look up as he made his way into the kitchen, reading a few emails on his phone and being entirely distracted. He didn't pay any attention to the new scents in the air since, from time to time, new people came through - usually employees of Tony's or press members that managed to score an interview. The truth was that he was relieved to be 'home' and he just wanted to grab a bottle of water and go to his room.

He knew Tony wouldn't push for anything right away and he was pretty sure he'd given Bobby a small aneurysm when he finally broke down and explained what one of his theses was about purely to get him to stop asking. Which meant Bobby had tapped out from shadowing him now that they were out of the car and at the tower.

He could hear the voices carrying over from the living room, but didn't put it together as someone new to the group since they weren't a threat if they were on the Avenger's levels. And besides, Tony would tell him if he needed to be somewhere, even if it was as he was walking through. So, James grabbed a snack and a couple bottles of water - he never could understand how just studying could be so dehydrating - and headed for his room, still focused on his phone.

Or he was headed to his room until someone stopped him.

"Oh! Hello, yes, hi there," Annie said, on her feet in a moment and waving enthusiastically. "We haven't had the chance to meet yet." She was grinning widely. "Hi. I'm Annie and I am thrilled to finally get to meet you in person - your father thinks the world of you."

"Hi," James said as he stowed his phone in his back pocket then offered her his hand. "I'm sure Dad would have introduced us sooner if not for my schedule. It's been a little crazy lately." He wasn't entirely sure that was the truth as he looked more carefully at those gathered in the living room and frowned when he realized that his dad was nowhere around and Annie was there with both Doc Hale and Officer Wright. "Did … is everything ok here?"

"That's a whole story in itself," Annie said as she gently took a hold of his arm and pulled him toward the group. "Come on - you've already met my brother in law, Anton - Officer Wright." Annie was grinning brightly. "He's told that story of you workin' over that pervert on the street so many times, it's practically a legend."

James looked clearly taken off guard as he raised his free hand. "Hey." Then he looked toward Craig. "Doc. You okay?"

As Craig nodded, Annie barely slipped in her enthusiasm. "Oh! I didn't realize you knew my brother too."

"He's been trying to help me out," James said, perfectly open to admitting as much, which seemed to almost set Craig back. He'd expected as much to those the kid knew, but not to a near-stranger. "Don't know how much good he's doing me, but he's giving it a solid try."

"Well if you tell me you've met my sister and my niece already, I'm gonna have to get upset," Annie said, since that was news.

"No," James said as he turned his focus to the rest of Annie's family. "Hi. I'm James. Nice to meet you."

"It's absolutely wonderful to meet you too," Annie said, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet and biting her lip. "I'm really sorry to ambush you like this. We weren't expecting to get called to Avengers Tower, of all places, but apparently, that's what happens when you have a brother who doesn't have any sense of self-preservation." She shot a teasing look over her shoulder at Craig, who shrugged openly.

"Like you can talk," Craig said simply, and Annie rolled her eyes at him.

It was plainly apparent the two of them were siblings.

"Ignore him," Annie said, turning back to James, smiling brightly for him. "How are your college classes? Scott told me about the crap you've been puttin' up with, and I'll bet you're just waitin' for this to be over. Sorry to intrude on your time off. I know that's gotta be precious to you when you're knee-deep in nonsense as it is."

"You're fine. Classes are borderline boring," James admitted. "Material is okay but the pace is glacial." He looked between Annie and Craig. "I'm managing to get my work done during class in most cases, so it's not overly taxing right now. But yeah. I think I'm done with school after this."

"Were you considering more schooling after this?" Annie asked, her expression already clear that she didn't want to hear he was backing off because of bigots.

James opened his mouth, and held his breath, definitely not wanting to crack open that can of worms when he could see that it'd throw fuel on the fire for more than just Annie. "I plead the fifth."

"We're not in a court of law," Annie pointed out as Anton smiled crookedly behind her. "Besides, it's a fair question. You're a certified genius - and that's not just your dad bragging, you know. Not when it's common knowledge that you're taking over Stark Industries. You should have your pick of schools to go to if it weren't for ignorant fools who don't know which way is up."

"But that's still a heavily weighted factor," James replied. "And there's only so much I can do."

"If it were me," Annie said, her eyes alight, "I'd show 'em up with a drawer full of degrees. But I've been told by my siblings I'm petty."

"Pretty sure I've already pushed my luck as much as anyone will let me, Ms. Hale. I'm doing three Masters at once - that'll probably get me by just fine. Besides, none of the other schools of note have an interest at this point in time, so … that's that. A doctorate wouldn't have as much weight from any of the places that might accept me at this point, and I'd never hear the end of it." James glanced over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure Tony's going to be cutting them off as soon as this is over anyhow, so … they'll hurt eventually."

"Good." Annie lifted her chin and sniffed. "Buncha damn Yankees gatekeepin' intelligence," she muttered under her breath.

James raised an eyebrow. "So the South would be more welcoming?" His tone was perfectly dry and he knew the answer.

"Oh, honey, no," Annie said, her eyes wide and shaking her head. "But they'd be honest and tell you no flat out instead of actin' like they got morals they don't actually have."

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, don't get her wound up," Evie laughed, coming over to stand beside her little sister and kiss her cheek. "Hi, by the way. You've met my husband, Officer Wright, but I don't think we've been introduced."

James offered his hand to her with a nearly polished smile - he really hadn't been expecting to get hit by his dad's girlfriend's entire family. "It's been a while since I met your husband, but I'm glad you're all doing well. I heard about the little scuff up with your daughter." He turned toward Leslie Ann. "Do you go by Leslie or the full Leslie Ann?"

"Leslie Ann," she replied, looking like she couldn't decide whether to be shy or not. But in the end, curiosity won out, and she bounced over, her short buns on either side of her head bouncing as well. "I'm going to be an X-Man one day, you know," she announced - and it looked like this was news to her parents, considering their raised eyebrows and looks of surprise.

"We don't have any real structure on new recruits yet," James said, largely for her parent's benefit. "But I'm sure you'll hear about it when we do. Probably have to go through the Avenger's first like we did. Which means you'll have to get Cap to sign off on it."

"That's what Mia said," Leslie Ann said, nodding seriously, her eyes wide and excited. "I asked her about the team after Iceman said my powers were impressive." She leaned forward, grinning crookedly. "He's my favorite."

"He's not mine right now," James replied honestly, gesturing toward the kitchen where Bobby was still digging up snacks. "Horrible taste in music and he sings like a cat with it's tail in a wringer."

"Well, he's my favorite because he doesn't hold back like the other teachers do," Leslie Ann said. "And he doesn't want me to either."

James shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I didn't go to Westchester."

"And besides," Officer Wright put in as he put his hand on Leslie Ann's shoulder to rein her in, "you're too young to be an X-Man, baby girl. And you just got your powers. Let's take things one step at a time, alright?"

"Yeah, parental consent is a sticky spot," James said, managing to keep a straight face, even if his eyes were sparkling with trouble.

Craig nearly snorted though. "Yeah. I'll bet."

"I got there eventually," James defended with a crooked smirk.

"And the world is better for it," Annie insisted, shooting Craig a look over her shoulder for interrupting the good mood. She beamed at James. "Really, y'all are doing great work. And I wish you could hear Scott talking about you when he's with me. The pride in his voice… you're obviously the light of his life. All of you."

James hedged at that, though. "Yeah, teams aren't really his thing anymore," he said. "But he puts up with us pretty well anyhow." He tried to change the subject, but honestly didn't think it would work, anyhow. "Hey, if I can ask, what is it that got all of you up here to begin with? I'm glad to meet all of you, but …"

"Oh, well, Craig is exclusively working with heroes now, apparently," Annie teased, and Craig rolled his eyes at her.

"I was already headed that way anyway. Last client who wasn't on a team had his last session today," Craig defended himself.

"If you need your weekends, I'm fine," James said, sure that it would rile Craig at least a little.

"No, no," Craig insisted. "That's not what the problem is."

"Sounds like it might be... "

"No, the problem was the damn telepath who took over my brother-in-law's partner and tried to get me shot, if you must know," Craig said. He didn't usually lose his composure, but it was obvious he was still shaken, and he threw his hands up as he said it.

That had James frowning, though. "Did you have your inhibitor field up? I had it tuned just for telepaths."

"I did," Craig said. "That's why she took over someone outside the field to try to take me out from a distance." He pulled a face. "Vindictive woman."

James drew in a breath as he took half a step back, the gears already turning. "You have it on you now?" He was already holding his hand out. "I got an idea."

Craig raised his eyebrows but handed it over all the same. "I'm both curious and nervous."

"Won't hurt you," James said, already headed over to sit down at the couch and crack it open on the coffee table. "Just gonna make the radius bigger and crank up a few settings that will discourage idiocy."

"I'm already a fan," Officer Wright said with a dry chuckle. "Whatcha got?"

"Well…" James was already working on readjusting things on the circuit board. "If I turn up the sensitivity enough, it'll act like feedback with a microphone - just psychic. Ought to drop her in her tracks if she tries to mess with anyone inside the bubble. Interrupt anyone she's scrambling, too."

"Oh good," Annie said. "I don't like the idea of anyone messing with my big brother just for doing his job."

"I want to give her a bigger headache anyhow," James said, then double checked his work, snapped it shut and tossed it back to Craig. "She irks me."

"That's putting it mildly," Craig said as he caught the device.

"That should help more," James said. "I can give you something more offensive if you'd like, too."

"Yes," Evie broke in. "Whatever it is, yes. Nobody gets to hurt my little brother."

James looked between Evie and Craig, then gave Craig a look. "Got it. That explains so much."

"Explains what?" Mary Beth asked, peeking around her older sister to look between her mom, uncle, and aunt.

"Overprotective siblings," James said, which lended well to Craig anyhow. "I think you're safe though, kiddo."

"Right, well." Craig shook his head. "Thanks for the device, by the way. I'm pretty sure you saved my life with it, so if you don't mind, I'll be carrying it around when I'm not in the tower." He sighed and waved around at the living room. "Can't stay here all the time."

"That's what I intended for it," James said. "If you want someone to go with you to gather up anything - or to make sure she didn't screw with your apartment, she can't get in my head on a good day with no device. And she's not too happy with me, so … nothing that'd upset things."

"Actually, that would be great," Craig agreed. "I've been wondering about that very thing."

"Wouldn't be a problem," James swore. "Just tell me when. I'm here, as you know, all weekend."

"Maybe once things calm down," Craig said. "My nieces are still thrilled with meeting the Avengers, you know. It's kind of fun to be the cool uncle every now and again," he added, breaking into a crooked smile.

James nodded, but saw the way Craig's siblings were watching the whole scene, so he turned to Leslie Ann and Mary Beth. "So, there's really not much to do for people your age way up here in the tower. You gotta get creative if you hang out here at all … so … you wanna play a prank on Iron Man with me?"

"Um. Yes. Absolutely," Leslie Ann said - not at all realizing that the decorative houseplants nearest her were instantly greener and bigger when she was that excited. Not that they hadn't been getting steadily bigger and bigger with how over the moon she was to meet Captain America, Wasp, and the handful of other Avengers that had come through to check on Craig.

James focused on Mary Beth to make sure she was on board too, and when she nodded with a wide grin, he turned toward Anton and Evie. "That okay? It'll just be web shooters. Mostly."

"Just keep in mind that Mary Beth is nine," Anton said, his arms crossed, though Evie swatted him with the back of her hand and then shooed them off.

"Go have fun," she said, her eyes sparkling.

James waved the girls over, hoping that the adults would take the hint and grab their chance to discuss things without the kids in the room, though it was almost distracting when he led by bending down to their level with a not at all quiet "let's see how your aim is first, huh? Then you can pick who goes high and who goes low … and who hits him with the water balloons."

With that, Craig's nieces followed James out- cackling with glee the whole way.

The distraction gave the adults in the Hale clan a chance to discuss matters a little more openly, even if they were very quiet about it.

"So if James is your client," Annie started to say slowly, obviously piecing things together, but Craig shook his head quickly before Annie could press.

"Annie, I'm not giving you any information on any client. You know that."

Annie blew out her breath. "Well what am I supposed to think? You have an X-Man for a client and you have Emma Frost on your case…"

Craig shook his head at her. "Let it alone," he told her. "If it's someone you know - and I'm not saying it is - then they get to decide when to share that with you."

Annie sighed, but Evie stepped in to be the reasonable older sister of the group. "And anyway, we need to talk about how to defend against a telepath," she pointed out.

"Right." Craig nodded. "I'll talk to James. If Miss Frost tracks down my family - and she might - y'all need what I've got." He pulled out the device James had given him. "Saved my life."

"Oh, I'm gonna need that story," Evie laughed, pulling Craig over to sit between his sisters so he could more properly fill them in without little ears around.

Meanwhile, Scott and Billy were on their way to the tower - and the car was exceedingly quiet at first. Scott knew Billy wasn't happy with him in the least, and he understood. He remembered being young and head over heels in love and feeling like any obstacle between him and Jean was the end of the world.

But since it looked like Billy was set to simply ignore him, Scott let out a breath, turned down the radio, and turned toward Billy at a stoplight. "Believe it or not," he said slowly, "I am glad you and James are together. You both seem happier for it."

"We were, yeah," Billy said without looking at him.

"Billy, this is just temporary," Scott started to say, but Billy cut him off.

"That's the point, though," Billy grumbled. "James has this temporary situation where he has to live out there and jump through nine hundred hoops and I can't even be there for him unless we steal moments." He finally turned to face Scott. "We're just trying to make this work even though the stupid dean has eaten his life, and you're just making it harder."

Despite the topic, Scott almost found himself smiling. "I'm not surprised to hear it, but I'm glad that's where your head is." He raised one eyebrow. "Makes me feel more inclined to support this being a very temporary issue."

"Sure."

Scott sighed. It was abundantly clear Billy wasn't ready to forgive him just yet. And that was fine. He'd dealt with students giving him attitude before. He just hoped he and Billy could sort this out sooner than later, especially since it was obvious he and James were wild about each other.

In the meantime, he was the bad guy again. Which was fine. He'd been the bad guy with young X-Men before. More times than he could count with Kitty and Jubilee, actually, considering how often both of them had wanted to get into fights that were too big for them. He knew how to be the guy who told teenagers "no."

Wasn't fun, but he knew how to do it.

Still, it made for a long, long, silent ride.

The giggles from down the hall were getting louder and more persistent until the girls sounded like little demons, which meant that they were absolutely up to something. Annie looked over in time to see one of the girls dart for cover behind the island in the kitchen, then fall into a fit of giggles that was emphasized by a shush by the others. But that only made the conversation easier to hear when Bobby was also in the kitchen and felt compelled to find out what was happening.

"What are you doing?" Bobby asked, and Annie watched the look of pure amusement on Bobby's face at whatever he was seeing.

"Are you with us or against us?" James asked - loud enough for Annie to barely hear, but not quite to his usual volume.

"What kind of question is that?" Bobby countered. "What rules are you playing with?"

"Magneto rules," James replied with a straight face, and Bobby started giggling too.

"Oh, then I'd be stupid to be against you," he said - which set off the girls giggling as Bobby looked both ways then dramatically dropped down below the level of the counter with them.

The giggles crescendoed as did the shooshes, and the next thing that Annie saw was that both of the heroes had one of the girls with them and the girls each had some sort of device in their hands and broad smiles on their faces while the guys were both manning the water balloons - though Bobby was already icing his over.

She could hardly concentrate on the conversation at hand when it was so obvious that James and Bobby were doing their best to keep the girls from being too scared, or too worried by giving them what she hoped would be harmless trouble to cause.

The pairs of troublemakers were staged - waiting for Tony to come down the hall when several things happened at once. The elevator opened up admitting Scott and Billy at the same time that Tony stepped out of his lab and called out to them.

Scott saw the positions James and Bobby were in and stopped, holding out one hand to keep Billy from stepping into the crossfire, even if he didn't know what the crossfire was yet. Billy stopped, then broke into a broad grin when he saw James was coaching a little girl who had one hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles and the other arm aimed to web someone up.

Tony had his coffee in hand and was reading his phone, much like James had been doing- Annie noticed - when he stepped out of the hall and directly onto a very slick looking puddle of ice that had just barely appeared before his foot hit the floor. His eyes went wide and he drew in a sharp breath as he started to fall, almost in slow motion. The coffee went flying and he threw his arms out trying to catch himself - which was when the girls struck with the webbing. Bobby was already laughing by that time, but on Mary Beth's second 'thwip', James reached out to catch the end of the web so he could catch Tony before he hit the ground.

As he secured the end of the webbing so Tony didn't finish falling, both little girls and Bobby hit him with the water balloons. "James! What the f-"

Thwip!

The webbing landed neatly across Tony's mouth and James shifted to cover Mary Beth's ears, half blocking her from Tony even looking at her. "There are children around, Tony. She's only nine!" James told him - which had Anton and Craig laughing outright.

The girls were in a fit of giggles, though they quickly took off the web shooters and handed them to their respective 'responsible parties' before they went running - giggling still to their parents when that was a lot more intense of a prank than either had been involved in or witnessed. And they absolutely didn't want Tony mad at them.

James was still smirking crookedly as he put the devices on rather than set them aside as he headed over to help Tony, since … their pranks weren't meant to be long-lived. Just … a little shock to wake the other up.

And when James got there, Tony was glaring hard, though once the webbing on his face had been dissolved, he was at least careful not to say anything that would upset the little girls in the room. "You know, this means war," Tony said as James was dissolving the webbing.

"You know this is just payback for last time," James countered. "And it's been war since I started coming here."

"As long as you know I'm hitting back."

"Give it your best shot, old man," James replied, though he still took a hold of Tony's hand to keep him from tipping sideways as the webbing around his legs hadn't quite dissolved yet.

Tony tried to keep his glare in place, he really did, but he couldn't help but smile quietly when he saw how relaxed and happy the girls were now that they'd blown off some steam, and as soon as he was able, he pulled James into a quick hug. "Welcome home, kiddo."

"Hi, Tony," James said, easily returning the hug, and by the time they'd stepped back from each other, Scott had made his way over to help Bobby to his feet from how hard he was laughing.

"I guess you and Bobby are getting along now?" Scott asked as Bobby wiped tears from the corners of his eyes.

James shrugged. "If he keeps screaming out Boston songs on the way back from Cambridge, no, but this … I can work with this."

Scott laughed as he pulled James over for a quick hug - it had been too long after the week he'd had dealing with teenagers that only wanted to work on their powers, not their studies and listening to more of them that couldn't stop talking about joining the X-Men immediately. It had been all too familiar to back in their heyday when every kid at Xavier's wanted to be part of the dream. "You going to take off the web shooters?"

"I have to fiddle with the trigger system," James said as Annie approached them both. "I shouldn't take them off until I know they work right."

"And that requires testing," Scott said, shaking his head as James smiled. Something like this happened every time that James adjusted Peter's web shooters - or the fluid formulation - or when he needed to blow off some steam. "Any more run ins?"

"Ah, not for me," James said, then gestured behind Scott into the living room where Annie and her family were watching with broad smiles. "Met your girlfriend, by the way. Hope that's okay."

Annie smiled widely and slipped over to Scott to take his hand and kiss his cheek. "Hello," she said, then nearly laughed when she saw how shocked he was to see her there. "Oh, it's a long story. I think my family may be in protective custody?"

"For what?" Scott asked in disbelief. The idea was absurd enough to nearly get him to laugh.

"My big brother has a grudge match with Emma Frost."

Scott stiffened up entirely. "What."

"It's fine, Dad," James said. "He's here with Jan and Jarvis spoiling him."

Scott gave him the driest look he could manage. "Having been on the receiving end of her fury, I can tell you firsthand it's not fine."

"Alright. But it will be."

Annie stood on her toes to kiss Scott's cheek. "Don't you worry. Between James' devices and all these protective heroes, we have plenty of support." She grinned up at him. "But since you mentioned it, should I read too much into your ex coming for my family?" she teased.

Scott stared at her, not at all expecting her to take that particular tack with him. "I … I think you're fine. She doesn't know you…"

"You just said they weren't," James pointed out, just to rile him. "Wrath of Emma Frost or something."

Scott turned his whole body James's way - as Billy broke down snorting, obviously enjoying watching James take his dad to task, all things considered. And with Annie chuckling beside him, Scott was well and truly outnumbered. "I meant I don't think Emma will target Annie for that reason…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "This… this is always complicated, isn't it?"

Annie chuckled and kissed his cheek. "No, no, keep digging," she teased him.

"Okay, well, while you two try to decide how dangerous your proximity is, I'm going to drive Doc over to his place to get a few things," James said as he pushed back from the counter.

"I'm coming with," Billy said. "Clearly, I missed out on a good story, and you need to catch me up."

"You saw the best part," James promised as he took Tony's keys. "But I'm sure Doc is always ready to share."

"Oh, I like him," Annie said, grinning as she leaned into Scott. "Did he come with all that sass or have you been holding out on me?"

"Came that way," Scott said without missing a beat.

Annie laughed. "Well, my brother doesn't get nearly as much teasing as he should, so I'm glad to see it," she said.

Craig rolled his eyes her way. "Love you too, Annie."

"Can't get rid of me, Craig," she called back to him, and Scott couldn't help but laugh at the obvious camaraderie between the two of them.

He shook his head and let Annie lead him to a couch to sit down. "I don't think I've ever seen you with both of your siblings," Scott said.

"Oh!" Annie turned bright red. "Well! You've already met most of them, and you know Craig from James' therapy, so… welcome to my family? I guess?"

Scott rubbed the back of his neck. "And you've met James now, apparently."

"And, unsurprisingly, I love all of your kids," she said, grinning up at him and then rearranging herself so she could sit with her shoulder against his chest until he put his arm around her. "And I've met the Avengers today too. It's been quite the day."

"Yeah? Anyone catch your eye?" Scott asked.

Annie laughed and then pointedly laid her head on his shoulder. "I like the one I've got."

Scott smiled - and blatantly pretended he couldn't see Jan across the room standing in a doorway and doing everything in her power to silently communicate to him that she was beyond thrilled with his new relationship.

James, Craig, and Billy took off without another backward glance, knowing that Craig's family was safe and sound and in good company. And surprising Craig, James didn't hotrod with Tony's car, or do anything that he expected most teenagers to do in that position - all while Billy watched from the backseat, waiting for someone to crack and start talking outside of the basic directions to Craig's place.

As they pulled up, James finally seemed to really get into 'business' mode, which was a new look for Craig to see up close. "You've got your disruptor on you, right?"

"Absolutely," Craig said as he reached for the door handle.

"Good. Stay here for just a minute," James said, then held his hand out for Craig's keys. "I just want to make sure nothing was tampered with. It'll only take me a few minutes to know if anyone's been through here."

"Is that strictly necessary?" Craig asked, though he was handing over the keys all the same.

"Hopefully not, but … really," James said. "Just a few minutes."

"I'll come run a spell too," Billy offered. "My grandfather made sure some of the first spells I knew by heart were the paranoid kind."

"Do it from the car," James said. "I definitely don't want her messing with your head." He gave them both a grim sort of smile, then headed off at a quick clip - first up to the front door, then around the side to the back to try and scent it out for any kind of trouble.

Billy blew out all his breath and fell back against the seat of the car, and Craig gave him a tight smile.

"I know you already have to split time with him," Craig said apologetically.

"Yeah, well, I actually like the part where he's being heroic, so this kind of thing I wouldn't mind if the stupid school wasn't … like it is." Billy crossed his arms. "None of this would have happened in Genosha."

Craig raised an eyebrow. "Regretting your decision?"

"No," Billy said, then paused and frowned. "No, not regretting being here. Just… annoyed living in a place that thinks mutants are less than."

"That has to be a huge change from your grandfather's viewpoint," Craig said mildly.

"Yeah. I know. Kate gave me a hard time for it, and I get that. But it's still better than here."

"It is now," Craig allowed.

Billy scrunched down a little more. "Yeah. Well. I miss my boyfriend."

"I know." Craig was quiet as he looked toward his apartment complex. "I know it doesn't help in the moment, but you are almost done with all this. If you're willing to put in the work to wait."

Billy bristled. "Of course I am!"

"Then I'd suggest acting a bit more like the adult you claim to be."

"Wow."

Craig almost smirked. "Sorry. Can't turn the therapist part of my brain off."

"Wow."

"I know." Craig finally broke into a smile. "But really, I think you'll find the adults in your life will be far more willing to take your side if you step back and breathe."

Billy sighed. "Not really looking for advice right now, okay?"

"That's fair," Craig said, dropping it for the time being to instead wait for James.

James came back at a more leisurely pace, his hands in his hoodie pocket as he looked up and down the road only to open the passenger door. "No one's been here that shouldn't have been. Nothing suspicious. We can wait out here for you if you want some privacy."

"Thanks," Craig said - not because he wanted privacy but because James and Billy hadn't spent any time just the two of them, and he could see Billy driving himself to distraction already.

James waited exactly as long as it took for Craig to get into the building, leaning on the car with Billy, before he had to ask. "So, how long did it take him to try and crawl into your head? Five? Ten seconds? He had that look on his face." He kicked away from the car, tipping his head so Billy would get the cue to join him on a slow walk up to the building.

"More like two," Billy said, though he wrapped his coat around himself a little tighter and they took their time getting closer to the building.

"Still not surprised," James said airly, then smirked crookedly in Billy's direction. They had a little time, but as usual, when they weren't with the Avengers up at the tower, they were in public, and they still hadn't made that leap yet.

The two of them stood there in the cold with James keeping watch and Billy quietly working a spell that would keep the three of them from being seen by anyone that might be inclined to sell a picture. Not because he was overly worried, but because it was something to do.

When Craig came down, the two heroes shared a look and silently took up a position in front of and behind him as they walked toward the car. They were almost there when Emma's voice rang out, catching their attention.

"This explains so much," Emma said, her tone dripping with disdain as the three men turned her way.

"Just get in the car," James told Craig and Billy.

"You're the one that started this witch hunt?" Emma nearly shrieked at James.

"Yep," James said, not missing a beat and not even pretending as if he would entertain her wrath as he stood his ground while Billy and Craig got into the car. "But you're using the wrong terminology. It's not a witch hunt if it's the truth, Miss Frost." She was almost up to him, furious and near growling when he held up both hands. "Pretty sure you need to be more conscious of where you put your hands for a change. Especially with me. Back off."

Emma glared hard between James and Craig, then, in a fit of rage she turned her focus first to James in an attempt at a psychic attack that never really had a chance to be effective, and then toward Craig - though when she focused on Craig, the feedback kicked in and she let out a cry of pain that brought her to her knees as she backed out of her attack and shifted to her diamond form.

"Right," James said, approaching her on his way to the car, though he paused out of her reach to half crouch down to her level so he could talk to her and remain somewhat private about it. "Since you tried to kill my therapist, I decided you're not allowed to even think about screwing with him. Do yourself a favor and don't push to see what my next level of dissuasion is."

"You think you're grown up enough to threaten me?" Emma scoffed.

"I don't think I have to threaten you at all," James replied. "As far as I can tell you're smart enough not to need a blatant threat. But if you want one … I'll be keeping track of him and keeping an eye out for you. That may not sound too threatening, and that's fine. I prefer being underestimated."

Emma glared at him as she got to her feet. "Careful now," she said through her teeth. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Neither do you," James said, then stood up straight and turned on his heel leaving her there while he calmly got in the car - and immediately was nearly accosted by an amorous Billy.

Craig was outright laughing as Billy practically climbed into James' lap, grinning widely. "Seriously, James," Billy said and kissed him hard, "have I told you how hot it is when you do stuff like that?"

"Nope. Not once."

"Well, it is. It's very, very hot."

Craig snorted. "Guys, I'm not a limo service," he said. "Last thing I need is another run-in with the police right now, so could you please at least wear seat belts until we get to the tower?"

"If you're gonna be a joykill about it, fine," James laughed. "I shouldn't even let you drive this thing. So you better be sure you burn out every time you shift on the way back."

Billy grinned but did, at least, slide into his own seat - only to lean over to James and whisper, "If your therapist wasn't in need of a bodyguard in the worst ways right now, I'd have wished us to, like, an ivory tower by now. Just so you know. I'm practicing restraint."

"I think he heard you and it'll be in the notes later," James stage-whispered back. "A+ for effort."

Billy grinned and then leaned his head on James' shoulder - and then, just to get James to grin, he whispered a spell that meant there would be green lights the whole drive.