Notes: CC and Arly, I'm totally with you both. I love getting to see this family expand, and I especially love that Clint gets to be a big brother! He's so good at it... and I don't think he even realizes it.

Chapter 6: Bad Move, Bro

Logan took his time getting to the Bishop home — and he was careful to park several blocks away from the house before he walked down to it, keeping out of sight and in the margins so he could watch the place before he made a move to break in.

It really didn't look like there was any reason to be concerned. The traffic in the area was understandably light, and no one seemed to give the Bishop house more than a passing glance, if that. So, based on some light surveillance, Logan started forward and snaked around the property to break in through the back. The security system was fairly impressive for what Logan was expecting, but none of it was beyond what he could get past, so he was quick to get in all the same. And from there, it was just a matter of cautiously going from room to room.

The girls' bedrooms were next to each other, obviously decorated to their styles. Susan's room had plenty of pink, frilly things, lots of princess-y decorations. The prize possession, though, had to be her well-used set of books, all of which were cute little stories about girls with horses. Those were on the table next to her bed, the pages all bent up from how many times she'd read the short little stories.

Katie's room was a little harder to place as to what was important, since the kid seemed to be a tornado of activity. Toys were everywhere, and so were her drawings, carefully-done squiggles of crayon and fingerpaint. And considering most of that fingerpaint had made its way to a couple stuffed animals — a purple bear and a blue monkey — those had to be her favorites.

He made sure to grab those as well as a few pictures — family photos of all four of the Bishops in particular, though he only found three of those, and all three were in the girls' rooms, not on display in the main areas. The rest were individual pictures of the girls or Derek.

Which was all well and good until Logan heard someone trying (and failing) to be quiet as they snuck into one of the girls' rooms — Susan's, at the end of the hall.

Logan tipped his head at that and found a little hollow to tuck himself into for a moment to listen, though when the bumbling idiots only got louder, he set the bag down and stepped closer to see what, exactly, was going on.

The men in Susan's room were wearing the same tracksuits as several of the men that had been there at Fisk and Bishop's meeting before, and they were obviously looking for something, peeking in the closet and under the bed.

It didn't make a bit of sense to Logan, so he did the one thing that seemed to be the least dramatic move he could come up with — and simply crossed his arms and leaned in the doorway, waiting for them to realize he was there.

There were so intent on what they were doing that it took a minute, but finally, one of them looked up to talk to the others. "She not here, bro," he said in a heavily accented voice. "Maybe we—" He froze when he saw Logan.

"Who's not here?" Logan asked, tipping his chin up.

The others were starting to take notice that there was a problem as well, and several of them were already reaching for their guns. "What are you? Butler?" one of them asked.

"Not fancy enough, bro," another one put in. "Janitor, maybe."

"Unless you're lookin' for toy horses, you're in the wrong damn place," Logan said.

"Hey, bro, we cut you in," one of them said. "Bishop got killed anyway. Better gig with us, yeah?"

"I don't think so," Logan said, shaking his head. "Who the hell are you anyway?"

"We work for business partner of Bishop, yeah?" one of the tracksuits said. "Much better than books. We do rent. Houses. Apartments. Is good business, yeah?"

Logan frowned at that. "So what the hell're you doin' here?"

"We have deal with Bishop," one of the guys said.

"And since Bishop is dead, we no have the money. So, we find it other way," the other one said. "It goes to girls, yes?"

Logan shrugged one shoulder up, still looking as non-threatening as he could. "Yeah, I suppose that's what the lawyer said."

"Yes, exactly," the first one said. "So, we get girl, we get money. Easy! You can join too!"

Logan shook his head. "You're not gettin' the girls. And you're not touchin' their money."

The tracksuits glanced at each other, losing their friendlier expressions. "And you think you stop us, bro? You are by yourself. We have whole vans full."

"Yep." Logan nodded. "By my count, you're outnumbered."

"Um. No?" One of the tracksuits shook his head. "Is not how counting works."

Logan smirked. "Don't seem fair, does it?"

"Not for you, maybe," one of the guys said as he raised his gun.

Logan didn't move — and he didn't look as if the gun was any kind of concern. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He kicked away from the doorframe and unfolded his arms. "I'll get a little cranky if I gotta pick bullets out later."

"You crazy, bro," the tracksuit said — and then pulled the trigger.

Logan simply started to growl at that though, and when he met the guy's gaze, it was as he popped his claws and dove at him. He vaguely heard the sound of more gunfire as he attacked, and he really didn't hold back much, going for clean efficiency for most of them … though the last one was a sad little standoff with the tracksuited idiot shakily holding his gun toward Logan as Logan growled low and rumbling. He was trying to decide if the guy was stupid enough to pull the trigger — especially since it didn't look as if he'd shot the gun yet. "Put the safety on and you live," Logan told him.

The guy was still shaking like a leaf as he raised his hand and quickly did just that. "No claws, bro," he breathed out. "We good."

"Get out," Logan growled out. "Don't look for those girls again."

"No problem, bro," the guy agreed, looking like he might actually pass out from relief as he positively rushed out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him for good measure.

Logan looked around the room one more time after he was sure the creep left and then headed out to the hall to pick up the duffel bag he'd put the girls things in. He needed to do a little more digging into Bishop's old associates if they were looking for the girls. Not that he was surprised after what Murdock had told him, but still … he wasn't expecting to find a bunch of Russians in their rooms.

The ride back to Westchester was a relatively fast one — though on his way through Salem Center, Logan was sure to pick up a few containers of ice cream for the girls. Katie for sure would want it, and he guessed that Susie wouldn't turn it down either. When he stepped into the house from the garage, the blood on his shirt had dried, and he'd taken the fresh flannel out of the back of his jeep to cover the not-so-white tee shirt. Susie in particular was a little too scared of him when he had anything like that near him.

The duffel bag was slung over his shoulder, and the ice cream was in a plain brown paper bag in his other hand — though that didn't last long when Susan spotted him first.

"What's that?" she asked, her nose scrunched up as she pointed at the bag.

"It's for you and your sister," Logan said. "Which bag do you want first?"

"Umm… that one," Susie said, pointing at the brown bag. "What's in it?"

"Ice cream," Logan said simply before holding it out to her.

Susan gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. "Ice cream for me?"

"And Katie, yeah. Took a guess at what you might like."

Susie peered curiously into the bag and then let out a giggle. "Did Dr. Blue tell you I like strawberry?"

"Nope," Logan said, shaking his head. "Just took a guess. And if you didn't like it, I would."

"You like strawberry too?" Susie asked, her eyes wide.

"Sure. What did you think I liked?"

"Umm, I dunno. My dad likes weird stuff. Adults are weird."

"I like stuff that's not too mixed up," Logan said.

Susie nodded seriously. "Me too. I don't like it when stuff touches. It's gross!"

"Well come on; let's get you some ice cream before it melts," Logan said, tipping his head toward the kitchen. "We can deal with the other bag later."

"Okay," Susie said, giving Logan a smile that was only halfway shy before she skipped off ahead of him to go get the boys and Katie so they could have ice cream too.

By the time they all got to the kitchen, Logan had pulled down the bowls and cracked open the strawberry first. "Barney, you can handle the other one, eh?"

"Yeah, sure," Barney said with a smile as he went to the drawer to find an ice cream scooper.

"No, Barney should scoop strawberry," Susie whispered urgently, tugging on Logan's sleeve.

Logan held up his hands and took a step back. "Alright," he replied low, then raised his voice for Barney. "Trade you, kiddo. Don't need you sugaring up Katie too much." He winked at Susie and slid over, quick to snatch the chocolate out of Katie's hands. "You need to share."

"Don' wanna share chocolate," Katie giggled, trying and failing to jump high enough to reach the ice cream.

"Not even with Clint?" Logan asked.

Katie paused and bit her lip as she looked Clint's way. "Well," she said slowly. "Okay. But only with Clint!"

"What about if Barney wants chocolate too?" Logan said. "Or if Rachel toddles in — which I'm sure is gonna happen."

"Oh. Well. I wike Wachel," Katie said uncertainly. "So… I guess I share."

"I got plenty," Logan promised.

"For you too?" Katie asked.

"I'm goin' for the other one," Logan said.

"Okay," Katie said, smiling up at Logan before she grabbed Clint's wrist and pulled him until he came and sat with her — and then falling apart in giggles when Jean arrived with Rachel and an innocent expression that absolutely no one believed.

"I heard there was ice cream?" Jean said with a smirk.

"As if you don't have your own stash," Logan said in a low rumble.

Jean smiled at him and pulled a bowl down for herself anyway — plus a little one for Rachel. "But Rachel wants to be with the other kids. And I've been craving chocolate."

"Uh huh. You know, I thought about getting you your usual," Logan said. "But then I remembered you like to send out your errand boy."

"Be nice," Jean said, shaking her head at him.

"I am," Logan replied, frowning at her, though he set her up with some ice cream all the same.

"He likes strawberry, like me!" Susie told Jean with a little giggle.

Jean couldn't hide her smile at that — especially because it was the first time Susie had shown any interest in Logan outside of "stay away from me" and generally mistrusting him. "Oh really?" Jean asked, crouching down to Susie's level.

"Uh-huh." Susie smiled. "So we like the same things. Just on ice cream, though."

Jean smiled a little more at that. "I'll bet if you give him a little time, you can find more things in common."

"Okay," Susie said with a shrug, clearly more intent on her ice cream than Jean's nonsense.

"So you're just … scanning for any time someone brings in sweets?" Logan asked as he and Barney got their bowls and headed for the table with the others.

Jean rolled her eyes at him. "More like listening for times when Rachel can play too. They're all so much older than her."

"You can't pin it on Rachel," Logan said. "Kids were all here before I got back. You can admit it, Jeannie."

Jean smirked his way. "What? Rachel was asleep until ten minutes ago."

"Uh-huh."

Jean laughed and telekinetically tipped Logan's chair back — which got a whole new round of giggles from Katie, too.

But Katie didn't see the wince when Logan caught himself from going further back than Jean had intended, and Logan absolutely wasn't going to draw any attention to it. "Spoilsport," he grumbled to himself.

Jean simply smiled his way — and then managed to get completely caught up in the whirl of sugared-up kids, especially when Clint tried to help Katie get herself cleaned up and both of them ended up needing to get hosed off instead.

"You're such a good big brother," Jean said with a smile as she helped Clint get the last of the sticky handprints off.

Clint smiled. "I'm tryna be."

"Well, you're doing a great job." Jean kissed his forehead. "Not that I'm surprised. You were already amazing with Rachel, after all."

Clint shrugged at that, though Jean could see the flush of pleasure he was wearing before he gave her a quick hug and darted off to help Barney, who was helping to wipe off the tables too.

"When you girls get cleaned up, I've got something for you," Logan said as Susan did her level best to pick up with Barney.

Katie beamed. "Pwesents?"

"Not exactly," Logan said. "You'll see."

The girls shared a look, giggled, and then tried to hurry through the rest of the clean-up until they were hand-in-hand standing in front of Logan. "Inna see!" Katie sang out.

Logan smirked, though it wasn't as bright as they were used to seeing. "Hey Susie, you know that big bag I brought in? Go open it."

Susie smiled and then carefully slipped over to where the bag was — only to let out a loud gasp when she saw what was in it. "My books!" she said, almost dancing in place before she rushed over to hug Logan at the waist — while Katie was snuggling her stuffed animals behind her.

"I tried to get what I thought was you favorite stuff," Logan said.

"Thank you," Susie said, hugging him a little more. "Thank you lots."

He was sure to give her a hug in return too as he let his voice go softer just for Susie. "I also got some pictures I know you're going to want. You should set them up on your dresser."

Susie glanced over her shoulder, but it was Katie who saw them when she peeked into the bag and then let out a squeal of happiness. "Mom!" Katie said, snatching up the picture at the top of the stack and hugging it tight. "You got Mom!"

"Is that okay with you, Susie-Q?"

Susie smiled and nodded. "I miss her," she admitted quietly.

"I know," Logan replied. "That's why I got every picture I could with her in it."

Susie nodded, and then her lip started to tremble and she clutched onto Logan again — and Logan wasn't about to let her go until she got it out of her system.