Chapter 12: What's the Story?

Zoe had thought about asking to take an earlier rotation in Westchester than she was scheduled for, but then, she remembered her mom's advice to cut her losses if need be, and she didn't think she'd be able to go cold turkey and re-configure the way she was thinking, so… she wound up driving to Westchester on her own time.

She didn't have an excuse, but maybe that was better. She was allowed to come say hi to an old friend who had come back from the dead, right?

She had been expecting (and dreading) the knowing look her Aunt Kate gave her — but thankfully, Kate was on her way out the door with her bow and with Billy and Teddy. Some kind of mission, apparently. It wasn't a mission bad enough that Kate had her game face fully on, but it kept her from razzing Zoe too badly.

Zoe poked around a bit until she made her way down to the game room, somehow not at all surprised to find Krissy and Chance competing at darts — even if they weren't dating, they couldn't stop competing — and to spot Sying with his little girl. She was, however, surprised when she saw Cody… because her parents hadn't prepared her for how much taller he was now.

"Oh, um, so… secondhand Avenger storytelling sucks. No one told me you grew two feet in both directions," Zoe said, waving tightly as she let herself into the room. "Hi, by the way. Little bird said one of my oldest friends was still alive, and I wanted to see for myself."

Krissy immediately teleported over to hug Zoe. "Long time no see!" she gushed. "Your dad wouldn't put Ariel down when he took his turn two weeks ago. Are you absolutely sure you're not coming with big sister news?"

Zoe made a face but hugged Krissy back anyway. "You're so weird, you know that?"

"You didn't see what I did."

"She's not wrong," Chance agreed. "Was kinda nice to not be the only one around here getting looks for the baby face." He made his way over to hug her too. "You know, spot's always open for you on the junior team if you want to move out of the little leagues."

"Oh ha ha, very funny," Zoe said, shoving his shoulder. "I happen to like being an Avenger. And besides, where would Eleanor and Dani be without me?"

"The way I hear things, they're the ones getting you out of trouble," Chance pointed out.

"Get your ears checked," Zoe said, shaking her head. She looked past him to see that Elin was sitting with Sying and called out to her, "Your husband thinks being mean to me is a recruitment strategy!"

"He's just like that. I think it's the Hale side," Elin said.

Zoe grinned wider as she extricated herself from between Krissy and Chance and made her way toward Elin, using that as an excuse to come to where Cody was — since he still hadn't actually said hi. "Heard about all the other crap too. So now, turnabout: wanna join the safer team?"

"Who, me?" Elin said. "I'm pretty sure I outgrew Avenger-level trouble when I was Nikki's age."

"Oooh, remind me to throw my brother under a bus about his spectacularly bad dating decisions. Or flirting. He's not legally allowed to date them…"

"Well, remind me to tell you that you don't need to date anyone to get into trouble," Elin said.

"Yeah, Mom already broke into Peter's office and informed him about some HR changes…"

"Sounds like they were needed," Elin said. "So … what brings you all the way out here to hang with the cool kids? At the risk of backing up my husband, are you thinking of stepping it up from the Avengers?"

"I really do like the team I'm on," Zoe promised.

"Good. I don't want you to join anyone if you're not totally sold on it on your own."

Zoe had to pause at the wording, wondering if Elin knew more than she was letting on and then realizing that, yeah, she probably did. She let out a light laugh, rolled her shoulders, and nodded. "Yeah, well, I really did want to come say hi to Cody, actually," she said, smiling Cody's way. "I was glad to hear he's not dead."

Elin gestured to him. "What's stopping you? He needs hugs all the time. Ask Lily."

"Oh, well, I… I did actually want to ask about, like… Mom and Dad were light on details so if there's anything I should absolutely avoid with him…"

Elin watched her for a moment with a half-smile. "Hey Cody," she called out. "You have a visitor. I think she missed you." Then, Elin leaned toward Zoe. "I don't think you'd hit any of his triggers. Most of that seems to be centered around various X-Men. Avengers ... " She couldn't help but give Zoe a once over as a tease. "... clearly aren't a threat."

"You're hilarious," Zoe said under her breath.

"I am," Elin agreed.

Cody smirked Elin's way as he made his way over. "What, you're doing announcements now?"

"Only when someone is pussy-footing around even trying to say hi," Elin said. "I know she didn't come out here to hear Chance's recruitment speech … now, if someone else had a recruitment speech …"

Zoe shot Elin a dirty look. "Geez, try and be careful and ask about triggers around a traumatized person."

Elin waved a hand as she got to her feet. "I already told her Avengers weren't a threat … right, Cody?" She popped up on her toes and pulled at his arm so he'd duck down, allowing her to kiss his cheek. "Have fun."

Cody smiled as Elin slipped off with Sying and Ariel — and then let out a surprised noise when Zoe rushed right over to hug him. "Oh… hi?"

"I was told you need hugs. The tiny blonde said so, and no one argues with her, apparently," Zoe said, and Cody laughed.

"Yeah, she's in charge," he agreed. He looked down at her, not sure how much she knew about everything that had happened, though she had never been very good at telepathic defense and was all but shouting that she was worried about what might have changed. "So, ah, hi."

"Hi." She glanced up at him and quickly let go again. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for hugs that Lily ordered," Cody said with a soft smirk. "Just not sure what question you want to ask first." He tapped the side of his head. "Telepathy. You're pretty loud."

"Oh crap." Zoe's hair turned bright, bright red along with her face, and Cody could hear all the mental walls slamming down to lock down her mind. She knew how to do it, but she didn't keep up the practice after she graduated from Westchester. "Sorry. You're just… I just wanted to check on you?"

Cody gestured with one hand. "It's a common hobby."

"I'll bet." Zoe bit her lip. "Sorry I'm terrible at this. I didn't join the team that does daily resurrections or whatever."

"Yeah, not really in the handbook, but I know it's a joke on the other team," Cody said with a rueful smile.

"Can you tell me… I mean, I don't want to know the gritty details, but tell me what changed. You're super tall. I mean, it's not as bad as it could have been, right?"

"It could have been a lot worse, yeah," Cody admitted, then sighed, knowing he both needed and wanted to tell her what she didn't know yet. "Can we go somewhere away from the crowd?" His question was soft, and his shoulders had shrunk in, making it abundantly clear that he wasn't comfortable talking in the group.

Zoe nodded quickly. "Yeah, let's… we can go to the docks. I liked to skip stones on the lake sometimes when I was here."

When they got to the lake, Cody took a moment to gather his thoughts, his hand resting on the back of his neck as he thought it over … it was a gesture that he used to do all the time but was just now starting to do it again after Sinister, and every time he realized he was doing it, he'd quickly readjust and awkwardly try to find something to do with his hands. Which was the first thing that Zoe noticed that was radically different aside from the sheer size of the guy and the different manner of speaking. When Cody started to tell her what had happened, he did so in a soft, understated tone that was just loud enough that she had to pay close attention to hear all of it. The story was very matter-of-fact, lacking any emotion in the retelling, and when it was done, Cody looked as if he honestly didn't know how to proceed.

By the time he was done, she felt like she was going to bite through her lip for how many times she kept chewing on it. "Wow," she said at last, softly. "That… that sucks. That really, really sucks. I can't even sugarcoat it."

"Sinister is dead now," Cody said. "So he can't come back to stir up trouble again."

"Yeah, I did actually get that in my Avengers briefing," Zoe said. "I mostly came here because I was worried about you. I mean… no way anyone can be okay after being gone that long. And you were one of the best friends I had when we were kids, you know?"

"Yeah," Cody said in a breath.

"Right." Zoe nodded. "Right, so… so I guess… I'll just have to come over more. Or… something. Let's hang out more. You need someone outside the drama circle, I'll bet."

Cody nodded. "Okay."

"Great!" Zoe sat up a bit straighter. "There's an ice cream place Krissy and Kari introduced me to that I love. Whatdya say to hanging out with ice cream while I tell you the totally not world-ending drama of being an Avenger. It mostly involves Dad pretending he's not setting me up so he can retire in peace — except he keeps changing his mind and joining missions anyway. Like a dork."

"Okay," Cody said — but it was the fact that he'd said it in the same tone as the last time he said it that caught her attention.

She paused, narrowed her eyes, and cocked her head to the side. "Wait. I've changed my mind. We should get donuts. There's sugar-covered cinnamon ones in town too."

Cody met her gaze and then let out a breath. "You know you're easier to read when you're that concentrated, right?"

Zoe blushed but didn't look away. "You're the one just going along with me. Do you even actually want to hang out or are you just placating me? Because there's a difference."

"I … want to go," Cody said, frowning lightly.

"Okay, well, I'll let you pick where we go, then," Zoe decided, nodding to herself. "I still totally want to hang out, but you know your limits better than I do. I'm also fine with just coming and sitting on the lake if you're not supposed to go far from home or something."

"We can go to one of those places," Cody said.

"Okay. Well." Zoe took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay. But let's … okay. Why don't you tell me how Lily got to be in charge of you?" she offered. "Let's hang out."

"She kind of decided it on her own," Cody said.

"Sounds like her," Zoe agreed, nodding and trying to relax and get into a conversation — but she had already figured out what was bothering her, and she genuinely didn't know how to seize her path like her mom had told her to do when Cody wasn't independently thinking well.

In the meantime, though, she was actually enjoying having Cody back. And if she could get him to joke around like he used to, she'd consider the day a win.

So, that was what she was shooting for. For now.

It wasn't long before Alyssa had talked James into a double date with Chance and Elin. She'd been curious about Chance's scar and the story behind it ever since the last time she'd seen them, especially because she remembered that those two had been involved when James had been hurt on a mission and she just knew there was more to the story than anyone had told her.

Call it a reporter's intuition.

And besides that, she genuinely wanted to see them again, because she liked the whole family and liked spending time with them.

They ended up deciding on a summer picnic, complete with a horse ride out to someplace private — which Alyssa suspected at that point was really just an excuse to have separate rides and plenty of space to spread out after the picnic was over, but she wasn't going to complain about that, either.

The ride itself was perfectly peaceful out to the spot Elin had picked out, too. It was a cloudy day, so the late July heat wasn't quite so oppressive — and the spot was shady, too. Which meant everyone was more or less relaxed. And, Alyssa hoped, in a talkative mood.

She didn't really find a good segue in the conversation to bring it up, but she couldn't quite control her curiosity any longer when she finally blurted out, "So, what happened to your scar?"

Chance looked up from whispering something to Elin and then blinked her way, absently putting a hand to where the 'H' used to be. "Long story."

"Don't look at me; I told her it was your story," James said.

Chance let out a sigh James' way before he seemed to think for a longer time than Alyssa thought was strictly necessary and then leaned back. "Alright, so," he said, "it's not so much a long story as it is a stupid one."

"Off the record," Elin said. "Of course."

"Of course!" Alyssa agreed quickly.

Both Elin and James looked at Chance as if to say 'your story', then both leaned back to listen. Which just had Chance shaking his head at them before he leaned forward again. "So, I don't know how much of the story is public knowledge," he admitted. "Or if it's just that, well, Sinister's dead."

"Sinister never did anything publicly," James said with his gaze on the ground. "Unless he's screwed with you or someone you love, no one knows who he is."

Chance looked toward Alyssa, who nodded lightly to confirm James' story, and then let out his breath in a woosh. "Alright," he said. "Well, to put it simply, he was a pain in the butt and tried to kill me a few times. Since, you know, I was a kid." He ran a hand through his hair. "Long story short, he came pretty close this last time, and as part of it… well, the healing afterward was not fun and had to be done artificially." He gestured to his face. "So, the scar went with it."

"The guy was a far ahead-of-his-time geneticist," James said in a low undertone. "He had a fixation on the Summers family in particular."

"And the creep took offense to my being a human," Chance muttered.

"That's okay, took offense to me being smarter than him," James said with a tight smile.

Chance nodded his way with almost the same expression before he looked back toward Alyssa. "Anyway, it wasn't exactly my choice. But I'm not so attached to it that I want to get another branding, y'know? I'm fine like this," he said with an attempt at a smile.

James couldn't help but gesture to Chance. "You sure about that? I could work something up for you …"

"No, James," Chance said, shaking his head at him.

"Open offer," he said before he leaned back onto one elbow.

Chance rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, I'm good, thanks," he said, though he fell silent until Alyssa broke in to try to reduce the tension the story had obviously brought up. She did feel bad about asking about what was so obviously a sore spot.

"Well, I'm really sorry to hear about that — all of that," Alyssa said.

"He's fine now," Elin said, squeezing Chance's arm. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" he couldn't help but tease. "I'm amazing."

"And totally modest, too." Elin leaned over to give him a quick kiss.

"That hasn't changed at all, then," Alyssa whispered to James. "So he's fine."

"That's what they tell me," James agreed, nodding slowly.

"What about you two?" Chance asked. "The English class going okay?"

"Oh, she's gonna fail it," James said with a perfectly straight face.

Alyssa smirked and hit him lightly in the shoulder. "Of course you think that."

"You're writing well enough to ace it," James said. "You're just dealing with a total tool of a prof."

"I really am," Alyssa groaned. She turned to Elin with a look of frustration. "He picks the stupidest books. And he only wants you to share his opinions on them."

"You're making me want to take his class," Elin said. "Just so I can hit him."

"I wouldn't complain in the least," Alyssa said. "He deserves it. You should have heard the Lolita section. He thinks it's a love story."

"That …" Elin stopped and frowned. "What's his name? I'm sure James can dig into him a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised if he was an actual creep if he thinks that's a love story."

"Professor Jenkins," Alyssa said. "English department. Literally all of the ladies in my class would throw themselves at you if you did," she added in a teasing tone toward James.

"Then I'll just tell them you did it," James said. "Investigative journalist and all…"

"I couldn't take credit for someone else's work," she said, though she bit her lip and had a bit of a spark to her gaze. "But if you helped me look into it…"

James nodded at that. "Sure. You can use my laptop. It's untraceable."

She grinned and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "This is why I like you."

"Questionable online activity? Has to be the first time someone's said that," James said.

She just laughed at that. "Uh-huh. We'll go with that."

Chance grinned over at Elin. "Well," he said with a pointed look. "I'm sure there's someplace we can be."

"Not subtle," Elin said quietly. "And I'm starting to wonder if I should grill her."

"You can," he said. "Or… we could let them have a little fun… and have some ourselves."

Elin gave him a dry look. "If it was your younger sibling …"

"If it was Cody, I'd be glad to see him getting out there," Chance pointed out. "Chloe… I'd kill the guy."

"So it's a double standard then," James said. "Good to know."

"Um, yeah, if you consider 'used to be a traumatized slave and needs affection' versus 'small sister who sucks at flirting' to be a double standard."

James raised his eyebrows and nodded lightly. "It is."

"Good to know," Chance said, rolling his eyes.

But James wasn't about to let that slide when clearly, Chance wasn't looking at all the angles. "He needs someone to watch out for him," James said as he got to his feet. "Especially since he can't say no." He offered Alyssa a hand up and pulled her to her feet. "Chloe? She will kick the crap out of anyone if they cross her."

"This… is a good point," Chance admitted. "I was thinking about the fact that he looks like the world is ending when he's alone too long."

"Sexist," Elin teased with a laugh. "Maybe you should take that class. We can judge you on how well you do with that professor."

Chance made a face. "Ugh. No way. I have standards."

"Standards that think that guys that have been beat around are better suited to dating than ass-kicking girls," James said, shaking his head. "I'm telling Chloe. In front of Cody so he can have a laugh."

"Point made, guys, jeez," Chance said, throwing up his hands.

"You'll learn how to quit when you're ahead," Elin promised before she kissed him. "Probably. Eventually."

He shook his head at her and dropped his voice to a whisper that Alyssa couldn't hear. "I've got time," he said.

"No excuse to be a slow study," she teased, trying hard not to laugh.

He smiled wider at her and shook his head before he kissed her deeply again, and Alyssa tugged on James' hand lightly, taking the clue that it was time to split up.

"What happened with Cody anyway?" she asked in a whisper. "All I know is that his family's glad he's back, but I don't know how the resurrection worked."

"Same creep, slightly different story," James said. "The guy had him for a long time. He wasn't dead." James helped her onto her horse and then hopped up onto his horse to head down the trail. "The truth is, he had a hold of most of us for specimen collections. I know I said he had a fixation on the Summers, but he met my dad for the first time when Dad was about my age."

"Ummm. What," Alyssa said, turning toward James with wide eyes.

James let out a sigh. "It's very complicated and doesn't sound like it's possible," he admitted. "But again the short version of it was he was the one working for Apocalypse to find powerful mutants." He shrugged lightly. "Or he was supposed to be."

"Is it normal for me to have more questions after every answer you give? Because I feel like it just gets more ridiculous whenever you say anything at all."

James had to smile her way. "Considering the subject matter? Yeah. Totally normal. I'd be concerned for your sanity if you were to just shrug it off."

"Oh good. Because… what?"

He let his shoulders droop visibly. "Not the subject matter I thought we'd end up with, but … okay. I'll give you the cliff notes version." They took a long, winding, and slow trail as he did just that — going as simplistic as he could to try and gloss over the details on this one particular creep that had plagued both families for over a century, though he was, of course, sure to avoid the finer points of his own time with Sinister and the details on what had happened to Chance and Elin as well.

By the time he was done, Alyssa was fairly wide-eyed, even without the details, her lips slightly parted as she looked at James with something almost like panic. "Is this … normal for X-Men? I never even heard of this guy… except for, like, a few mentions in old archives!"

"All of them? No," James said. "And that's it. He's dead. For sure. It's not going to be a problem anymore."

"No offense, James, but 'dead' doesn't seem to be very permanent with the X-Men and their villains," Alyssa said with a frown.

"It … seems that way sometimes, yeah," he had to admit. "But this wasn't just one person that saw to it. And I can tell you that Apocalypse started the ball rolling when he stripped some of Sinister's powers."

She regarded him for a long time before she finally nodded. "Alright. If you say he's dead, then I believe you. But that is just… wrong. All of it."

"Yeah, it is," he agreed. "But not like I can pick and choose which parts of the family history to accept. Sadly."

Alyssa shook her head at that, though by that time, James had led them to a stop, and she let him help her dismount. "And here I am worried about a creepy professor," she muttered, still shaking her head to herself.

"In all honesty, I'm a little worried about your stupid professor," James said as he picketed the horses nearby.

"If he turns out to be some… power-sucking demon, I'm going to scream," Alyssa warned, only half joking.

James smiled to himself. "If he turns out to be a misogynistic sack of crap, we can just send Dad down to have a word. He takes issue, believe it or not."

"Considering how you are, I can believe it," Alyssa said with a smile.

"Had to learn it somewhere," James agreed.

Alyssa took a deep breath and let it out all out in a woosh. "But… let's talk about something else," she said, once again reaching out to make contact and begin to get all wrapped up. "I'm getting creeped out by proxy."

"Anything," James agreed, closing his eyes and nodding as he let her direct him. "Please."

Alyssa bit her lip, glanced over her shoulder, then pulled him into a kiss — deciding that was the best course the conversation could take, after all.

When Zoe got back home, she was relieved to see that Nikki and their mom were busy going over some old codes. She didn't want to have to deal with Nikki's teasing — or, if she was honest, her mom's inevitable silent questions about how it went until she broke down and told her so she didn't have to deal with the looks anymore.

It seriously wasn't fair that she had the Black Widow for a mom.

On the other hand, her dad didn't miss the fact that she was dragging her feet, still thinking over everything she'd seen in Westchester. She'd tried to go past him while he was refilling the coffeemaker, but he caught her arm before she could get out the door.

"Yeah, that ain't gonna work, baby girl," he said, gesturing for her to come sit with him. "So. Didn't go as planned, huh? How bad is it?"

Zoe frowned at him. "It's not like I thought I was just gonna waltz in and kiss him, Dad."

"No, but something's bothering you," he pointed out.

"What gave it away?"

"You mope worse than I do," Clint said, smirking hard as he put his feet up on the chair across from him.

"That's not even possible," she said, crossing her arms again.

"Zo, you walked in here so slow I could have put a snail in front of you and you'd still lose the race."

She rolled her eyes. "You are so funny, Dad."

"I am. It's part of my charm." He gestured with one hand. "So, what's the story? Can't hug him? Touch sensitive? Won't talk to you? I mean, hugging and chatting are your two big go-tos.."

"No, that's not … it's weird, you know?" Zoe said. "I don't really understand how, but he doesn't really … say no. To like, anything."

All of a sudden, Clint sat forward, even taking his feet off the chair in front of him. "Okay. Walk me through that one. Is he scared of standing up for himself or incapable?"

"He doesn't seem scared," Zoe said. "I don't think he can. He didn't exactly say it outright, but he doesn't say no. And I don't … I can't follow Mom's advice when he doesn't really seem able to be him yet. The guy that had him must have been a top-notch creep."

"I was there after he died the first time, and yeah, he was," Clint said.

"So … yeah," she blew out a breath and doubled down on her efforts to shrink in on herself. "I don't know what to do with that. And I don't think I can … just … cut and run or even give it a shot."

Clint was quiet for longer than Zoe was used to hearing from him. "Well, baby, it's tough. It really is," he said. "Your mom and I both — well, your mom worse than me — but both of us went through it dealing with creeps. Loving someone who isn't the same after someone tore them out and used their body and skillset for themselves… it's tough. I won't sugarcoat it for you." He took a deep breath. "You can't give it a shot right now. You're right."

"I know. But I don't think I can just cut him out either," she said.

"No, that would hurt him even worse," Clint agreed. He sighed and leaned into his hands. "But right now, what he needs is consistency. Someone who doesn't want anything from him. You show up, you be there for him. Let him remember who he was before anything else."

"Yeah, that's what I figured," she said quietly. "But I wasn't thinking I'd have to tell Mom she's wrong."

Clint snorted. "She's not wrong," he said. "I don't see you running away from him. Tells me pretty clearly you love him, Zo."

"Don't know that right now," Zoe said in a rushed breath.

"Uh-huh." Clint couldn't help but smirk. "Listen, I'm not saying he's the one. But you're allowed to be in love, and, god help us all, you fall as hard and as easily as I do, but you fall like your mother."

"Nikki is the one that falls for people like you," she said. "And he's always falling in love."

"Point." Clint shook his head. "That's a whole other discussion I've got to have with your brother, because he's as bad as I am at falling hard and sucking at dating."

"Again …. not even possible," Zoe teased, then gestured openly. "The Avengers talk."

"And you spent a while at Katie's school. Yeah, I know." Clint leaned back and shook his head. "Point is… you've got a long road ahead of you. I don't envy you, because I remember how hard that was."

"Have you ever had to help someone like this?" Zoe asked, trying to shift the conversation slightly to a more reasonable angle.

"Yeah." Clint chewed over his next words for a while. "There was a while there that your mom barely remembered who she was. And she helped with Bucky. And I know how to do it wrong too, but I won't scar you with stories about Wanda, alright? It was bad all around."

"Alright," Zoe said quietly, then shifted to slip over and latch onto his side. "Thanks."

"Anytime," he said, pulling her close to kiss the top of her head. "You need help, I'll be right there, alright? Even if you just need a good cry. It's stressful, I know."

"Love you too, Dad."