Notes: I couldn't let that evil stand for too long ;)

Chapter 12: Hero in the Making

In Westchester, Logan had of course woken up before Hank did, though when he saw that K and Clint were both missing, he swore under his breath and then shook the doctor awake, careful of the two sleeping girls that Sinister clearly hadn't cared to look at.

Susie was still asleep, snuggled into Hank's side with her hand wrapped up in the fur on his shoulder. Hank's first instinct on waking up was to make sure that she was alright, and once he had determined that much, he also frowned over Katie sleeping on Logan's shoulder.

Neither Hank nor Logan needed to say aloud what they were both thinking. They both knew what had happened, since they both recognized the taste and smell of the lingering gas. And since Sinister had managed to catch them with all the equipment still set up to look into K's pregnancy, it couldn't have been difficult for him to figure out that there was another little one to catch his attention.

The two of them headed upstairs, somehow not surprised to find that the rest of the X-Men were in varying stages of consciousness. Nor were they surprised when they got to the living room and saw that Rachel's toys were still all over the place — and Jean's ice cream was still in a bowl by the couch — but there was no sign of the Summers family.

Logan set Katie down on the couch, and Hank sat down beside the sleeping little girl, knowing that, until then, she had been the only thing keeping Logan from rushing into a hunt to try to find his wife — even if they both knew he wouldn't find anything.

"I'll watch over these two," Hank promised — and just like that, Logan was off like a shot.

While Logan hunted and the rest of the mansion started to wake up and take stock of themselves, then, Hank turned his attention to the two little girls. Katie was still solidly out, and Hank frowned to himself; the gas had to be much more potent in a little body. But Sinister never used anything that would leave lasting damage on his "subjects," so she would be alright… if a little groggier than the rest of them.

As for Susie, she was starting to shift slightly in her sleep and let out little, tired noises, so Hank was reasonably sure that she was coming out of it faster than Katie was. He gently bounced Susie, still holding her to his chest, and then smiled as she very sleepily peered one eye open. "Hello there, Susie Q."

"Hi," Susie said, then let out a great big yawn and snuggled back onto Hank's shoulder.

Hank couldn't help but smile, especially seeing how comfortable and safe Susie felt with him. "Rise and shine," he sang to her. "It's not bedtime — not yet."

Susie let out another tired noise and rubbed her eye with her fist. "I don't wanna."

"I know," Hank said. He shifted how he was holding her so that she wasn't leaning on him quite as much but sitting in his lap instead. "Can you tell me how you feel? Do you have a headache or anything?"

Susie shook her head. "My mouth tastes funny." She frowned. "Am I sick?"

Hank smiled and booped the very end of her nose. "No, but you did breathe in something that shouldn't be in the air. It made you very tired, and we all fell asleep too. I just want to make sure you aren't suffering from any lasting effects."

Susie nodded slowly, seriously thinking it over so that she could try to help Hank if something was wrong. "I'm okay," she said, still nodding. "Just my mouth is funny and I'm tired."

"I'm very glad to hear it," Hank told her, letting his relief show in the hug that he pulled her into. "Even if I am very sorry to hear how tired you are. It's not fun when you feel like you have to drag yourself through the day, right?"

Susie nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Well, I'm going to wake up your little sister, and then do you think you could help me to check on the rest of our friends? They all breathed in the same gas we did, and I wanted to be sure they're alright."

Susie nodded, starting to wake up a little bit more now. "Can I be a doctor too?"

Hank couldn't hide his smile as he tapped the end of her nose again. "Yes, of course. You can be my assistant."

Susie broke into a huge grin at that and then flung her arms around Hank's neck in a tight hug.

It actually hadn't taken too long for the X-Men to find their missing friends — to everyone's great relief. Once Jean reached out to Charles, it was a quick matter to locate them and send out a jet. But even with as fast as they got there, it was clear everyone felt like it was too slow. Especially since two of the youngest kids in the school, not to mention the three babies on the way, were vulnerable to Sinister the whole time.

When the jet landed, though, Logan had to narrow his eyes when he saw that K was still leaning against Clint. She was doing a good job hiding how much she needed the help when the others got there, but that just wasn't going to work on Logan — and she knew it.

It certainly wasn't helping his temper, either, that Jean was so pale or that Clint was almost convulsively looking over his shoulder like he was just waiting for Sinister to show up and break up their escape. The one upside was that Rachel seemed to be totally fine; she was even in high spirits and babbling to Charles, holding her hands out until Scott put her in Charles' lap so she could get his full attention — even if Charles was only half paying attention to the little girl while he conversed telepathically with Scott and Jean to get the story of what happened.

Still, Logan's main focus was his wife, and he put an arm around her and led her back to the jet, watching her with a concentrated sort of look on his face that didn't go away, even after they were seated in the jet.

But whatever was on his mind, it got a bit derailed when Clint simply attached to Logan as soon as he sat down. Even if he wasn't as small as he used to be, he was almost tucking into Logan's side all the same.

"It wasn't super horrible this time," Clint said — though that seemed a little hard to swallow, considering how tightly he was holding to Logan. But then again, with a guy like Sinister, pretty much everything was relative. "He wasn't cutting anyone up or nothing. He just… took lots of little blood vial things and did some stuff like Dr. Blue does when he checks on Miss Jean and Mom… and he gave Rachel kind of a checkup too. She's got a Band-Aid on her finger." It was obvious he was still shaken by how fast he was talking, though Logan also noticed that he hadn't said a word about himself, either — and Logan could see he was pale too.

"Alright," Logan told him in a low rumble, though he was more or less stuck with K on one side and Clint latched on to the other. "Just take a breath, try and breathe even." He was frowning over the idea of it despite his comforting tone, and though he knew Clint wasn't lying, he was still having some trouble not trying to sift through the scents to see if there was something he could decipher outside of the usual medical scents clinging to them both.

"Actually, Clint's the one that got us out," Scott said as he and Jean sat down nearby.

"Not surprised," Logan said. "He's workin' on gettin' a tryout for the team, you know."

Scott smirked at that, especially when Clint was nodding so enthusiastically. "He got me loose so I could hit Sinister, and he took care of Rachel for me too, didn't you, Clint?"

Clint nodded, starting to draw himself up a little. "I wasn't gonna let a stupid creep hurt anyone," he promised.

"You did good," Logan promised.

Clint smiled at that, obviously pleased with himself. "It's 'cause he wasn't expecting me to be so good at fighting back already," he said, leaning toward Logan, his eyes sparkling now that he had realized this was heroic and a chance to show that he could be an X-Man. "Even if I'm not so small anymore, people always underestimate kids."

Logan smirked, especially since Clint was coming out of his clear panic. "Good news for you, then, eh?"

Clint nodded. "D'you think that means I can try out for the team sooner?" he asked. "Since I already took on a supervillain?"

Scott smirked at that. "You need to get through Logan's class first, Clint."

"Well, he's my dad, so I'll just make him teach me — right, Dad?" Clint turned to look at Logan. "Right?"

"We'll see how it goes," Logan said. "No reason not to start trainin' you right."

Clint grinned even wider. "That's great." He settled back against his seat, nodding a few times to himself, well and truly distracted now that he had something else to focus on.

You should know, Jean projected to Logan, since Clint had clearly moved on, from what we saw and the panic Clint was projecting — both K and Clint are in his crosshairs with us. He really wasn't expecting Clint to be awake. It might be a power starting to show up.

That doesn't really help, Logan projected back.

No, but I thought you should know what was going on — because you know Clint won't tell you about himself if he can help it.

Right, Logan replied, though that was almost to himself as he thought it over. Gonna have to come up with a better way to keep the guy back. I just don't know what the hell I can do.

I won't lie: if I hadn't been so drugged, I was this close to just lobotomizing him in his body. Keep him there so he can't get away and then… deal with it. Jean shook her head. Fun fact: it's much harder to hold back angry, destructive, fiery power when I'm already emotional and pregnant and miserable.

That's great, Jeannie. Logan's response even sounded completely flat. Thanks for the heads up.

Oh, I can handle it, Jean promised quickly, recognizing the tone for what it was and trying to keep him from getting too depressed. It's harder, yeah, but having Rachel around grounds me like nothing I've ever had before. The Phoenix can't offer me anything that I want more than my family, not when I see Rachel. I'm just trying to figure out how to get rid of Sinister without crossing other lines, you know?

Logan didn't respond more than to simply look her way and nod once.

"Oh, hey!" Clint said, breaking into their conversation with a small smile. "I know he's a creep an' all, but he says it's a boy too, so I'm for sure getting a brother to help me fight off Katie and Susie takin' over. Isn't that great?" He grinned at Logan. "I'm going to teach him how to be an X-Man and Avenger too!"

"If there's a market for it by the time he's old enough," Logan said, doing his best to try and keep Clint going. "You might just clear out Hydra by then."

"Oooh, good point," Clint said, nodding seriously. "I am older." He glanced at K. "What do you think, Mom? Maybe I should leave some small bad guys for my brother to fight?"

"Oh yeah, that's … just a matter of time," K said in a tired tone. "Nah, he'll live without 'em fine."

"Okay. Maybe he can help me get rid of the evil government guys that're after you and Dad after I get rid of all the Hydra guys…"

"I'd rather get rid of them first," K replied. "Then you don't have to deal with them."

"Okay, but if you don't, I'm gonna get rid of 'em so fast their heads'll spin, okay?" Clint smiled K's way. "I'm gonna take care of you once I'm big enough. Since you take care of me so much."

K tipped her head a little more, settling in at Logan's shoulder, though it was clear she was still a little off by her answer. "Might be a good idea," she said in a sigh. "Undercover, non-mutant … handsome as hell. Some spies start younger than you, though, training wise, anyhow … "

Clint nodded. "Can you help me do it?"

Before K could answer, Logan reached up to cover her mouth. "You're not gettin' any promises outta her when she's like this."

"Awww, you're no fun," Clint pouted.

"Yeah, except I've seen the kids going through spy programs, and I'm not havin' it," Logan said.

"But I'd be with Mom…."

"I'm not gonna let you get spy crazy before you're old enough to not let it take over your whole personality."

"I'm old enough!" Clint insisted. "I am!"

"Why don't you focus on getting through a combat class in the fall first," Scott suggested.

"He knows he'll do fine there," Logan said. "Or he thinks he will."

"I know I will," Clint said. "I've been learning with you and Mom — and Jan's been helping me too!"

"Oh, yeah, fashionista chic'll help you there," Logan chuckled.

"She's my favorite Avenger," Clint insisted.

"Nothin' wrong with that," Logan said. "If you wanna fight like her."

Clint rolled his eyes. "She's not the only one helping me. You can't… pigeon-hole me."

"Alright," Logan said, settling in where K could snuggle in deeper. "If you say so, kiddo. Hell, you got Stark lookin' into ways to make sure your bow is a viable weapon if you keep it."

"Yeah, he told me he's thinking about finding more stuff that goes boom," Clint said with a grin. "I think it's because he's mad we're staying here this summer while Mom's hiding from people."

"Yep," Logan agreed. "He was hopin' to spend time with both of you and hopin' that I'd take Cap up on the offer to go Hydra hunting. I'm not."

"Mom did pretty good hunting Hydra, you know. You should totally both be Avengers in the summertimes and stuff," Clint said.

"She did," Logan agreed. "But I'm stickin' with her for the summer."

"Well, yeah. Because she's doing all the work, like you said."

"Smart kid," Jean laughed.

"Among other things, yeah," Logan agreed.

"And handsome," Clint said, smirking K's way. "Can't let 'em forget that. Even if Mom's still too tired to catch it."

"I just thought it went without saying," K defended with a smirk.

"Yeah, but you like saying it," Clint teased right back. "You're weird like that."

"Yeah," she agreed, then picked her head up a little to look at Clint. "So … I am going to let you tell Jan that there is no way in hell we're using her baby name pick."

"Umm… okay. What did she ask for?"

"She was stuck on 'Elizabeth'," K said. "Which ... "

"Is a double-barrel 'no'," Logan finished.

Clint paused and looked between the two of them and their matching expressions. "Okay. I feel like I'm missing something…"

"It's ours," Jean broke in. She knew the look on Logan's face and didn't want him to have to talk about whatever had him looking that way if he didn't want to. "I wanted a Lizzie."

"Didn't know that, but … good," Logan said.

"She picked the girl, and I thought we could use 'Nate' for the boy," Scott said. "Family name."

"Nate and Lizzie," Clint said, his head tipped to the side. "Nate and Lizzie and Rachel. That's pretty cool."

"Glad you approve," Jean said, smiling Clint's way.

Clint smiled and then glanced up at Logan before he slipped out from under Logan's arm and then gave Jean a solid hug too. "I'll help all of them learn to be heroes too. Don't you worry. I won't just help my brother and Katie."

Jean smiled at that and kissed his forehead. "You're amazing — you know that, right?"

"That's what Mom says," Clint said.

"Well, it's true," Jean said. "Thanks for watching out for all of us."

"He's just like that," K said. "He can't help himself."

Clint smirked at that and simply snuggled in. "Okay, Mom."