Chapter 7 - Little Girls

Bobby was pacing in the cell that he'd been placed in with Chance. Storm and Magda were in a cell with Rachel — but no one had seen Elin, who was exactly the reason Bobby was so mad. "She's just as small as the other ones are," he said irritably as he headed away from the girls. "There's no reason to separate her."

Chance was trying to match pace with Bobby — though with significantly shorter legs, it just wasn't possible. Still, he was nodding along to every muttered word he could hear Bobby say. "No reason," he agreed with all the force of an angry five-year-old. The little guy still had tear tracks down his face from the screaming fit he'd had when they had tried to separate him and Magda. But with Bobby as mad as he was, Chance had eventually changed tacts to follow Bobby's lead once he'd calmed down, copying his movements almost exactly with a watchful gaze — except the times when he paused and pressed his little face against the bars of the cell to peer across and try to see the girls.

Across the hall, Storm was still out cold, and Rachel had Magda tucked into a little ball in her lap. Out of everyone Weapon X had managed to get their hands on, Magda was the youngest, and she was clearly terrified. Unlike Chance, she hadn't had a screaming fit when the Weapon X soldiers separated them along boy/girl lines. Instead, she had just started crying, quietly — and she still hadn't stopped, no matter how much Rachel gently shushed her and tried to reassure her that everything was going to be alright.

Still with his face pressed up against the bars of the cell, Chance watched with wide eyes as Magda sniffed and cried before he glanced up at Bobby with a perfectly serious expression. "If anybody touches my cousin, I'm gonna kick 'em in the shins."

Bobby stopped in his pacing to turn toward the little guy, let out a sigh, and crouch down beside him to ruffle his hair. "You won't have to worry about that; you know why?"

Chance shook his head, wide-eyed. "Why?"

Bobby tipped his head toward the cell across the hall where the girls were. "Because your big sister is tougher than any of the bad guys they've got here, and when Storm wakes up, she's super tough too."

Chance seemed to think this over for a long moment, glancing at Rachel, who held his gaze and nodded reassuringly. "Is… it okay if I still kick them in the shins, though? Because I really want to, because they made Magda cry."

"We'll see, bud," Bobby said before he gave the little guy a hug. "I don't want you getting hurt by beating anyone up."

"That's silly," Chance told him seriously. "I'm gonna kick them, not the other way around."

"Make sure you talk to Logan about that when we get out of here," Bobby said with a smile. "It's not always easy to do stuff like that."

Chance nodded thoughtfully, his lips pursed into a frown. "Okay," he said slowly. "I'll ask him. I'm gonna go to school soon anyway, so maybe it'll be like that?" He glanced up at Bobby and started to smirk a little bit. "Kicking bad guys for homework?"

"I'll bet he'd go along with it if you put it like that," Bobby said with a little laugh. He glanced over at the girls and then made sure to meet Chance's gaze. "We should keep an eye on things," he told Chance quietly, "in case we need to kick someone's butt."

Chance nodded seriously. "We gotta take care of them," he said, gesturing with one little hand to the girls as he straightened up a little bit.

So when the group of them heard the commotion outside and down the hallway from where they were being held, Bobby had to step a bit in front of Chance — the kid was so ready to take on whoever it was. But Chance's 'heroic' look quickly turned into a full-on giggle when the doors simply flew off their hinges and they saw their rescue party: Erik, Scott and Noh.

The three rescuers wasted no time in disabling the dampening field that would have kept Erik from doing any more dramatics before Erik simply pulled the bars out of the walls so that the group of them could walk out — and Magda broke free of Rachel to run right to Erik and wrap herself around his leg. He just bent down and scooped her up to balance her with one hand as he kept right on working with the other outstretched.

"I have never been more thankful to have Magneto on our side," Bobby muttered as he followed behind him, Chance in his arms, even though the little boy was squirming to run after Erik too. To get him to ease up, Bobby iced up so they could slide on a path behind him, which seemed to get the kid to relax at least.

"He was instrumental in finding this place," Noh said, one arm underneath Storm to support her as she came back to consciousness, alongside Scott, who was glancing Rachel's way with a look that said the only reason he hadn't hugged her outright yet was that there was work to be done.

"Yeah, he's one high-powered metal detector, alright," Bobby replied as Rachel stepped up next to him and started to power up a bit on her own too — an unspoken agreement clear between them.

"Ooh, the bad guys are in trouble," Chance whispered with a delighted giggle as he watched the adults around him.

"Yep," Bobby said with a smirk. "They made your sister mad. Watch out!"

"They made my sister and my dad and Storm and Erik mad," Chance agreed, listing them off on his fingers. "They are in a lot of trouble."

The group of them followed behind Erik as he followed the winding paths down to where the Howletts were being held — and woe to anyone who tried to shoot at him while he was holding his granddaughter, because the soldiers who did weren't just crushed in their armor but torn apart by the armor itself. Out of eyesight of Magda, of course.

So when they did finally get to where the little Howlett family was being held apart from everyone else, it was just a matter of a whole bunch of ticked off X-Men versus Weapon X soldiers who clearly didn't understand the very, very bad idea that it was to take on this group when their kids were in the mix. Storm and Rachel alone were bad enough, but throw in optic bursts and metal manipulation and even the huge group that was close by the Howletts were just… nothing. Not in the mood they were in.

They burst through the doors, and it took all of a few seconds for Erik to yank not only the doors but the restraints keeping Logan and K apart from each other and from Elin. Once again, Bobby had to play 'stop the Chance' to keep him from running in for a snuggle when K and Logan were intent on getting their little girl back.

K scooped up Elin as Logan turned to find the guy that he knew was in charge of that particular little experiment prep. It took moments to isolate him from the rest of the remaining group of doctors and guards before he just made a beeline for him — furious, growling, and claws bared. He drew his arm back and was rushing to skewer the guy when Scott called out for him to stop.

It was too late for Scott to get all the kids to look away or cover their eyes, and he cringed, missing the sound of Logan's claws retracting just before they would have made contact. Instead, the room echoed with the sound of adamantium-laced fists pounding the guy's face over and over.

The last of the soldiers either cleared out on their own or succumbed to one of the team members as Rachel scanned the doctors' minds for any potential trouble before she nearly wiped all of them clean. She gave her father a look as the computer mainframe behind her spontaneously combusted. "They were working on something truly awful," she told him. "It's a shame all the research was on that mainframe."

He had to smirk her way at that. "Yeah, a real shame," he agreed.

"They made Rachel mad," Chance supplied over Bobby's shoulder, grinning widely.

Rachel grinned right back at him before she came closer and booped him on the nose. "Not smart, huh?"

He giggled and shook his head 'no.'

"Someone had better remind Bobby of that," Noh said with a little smirk that had Scott's head swiveling his way with a look of disbelief.

"No, silly. Bobby told me Rachel's tougher than all the bad guys," Chance said, dissolving into little giggles as Bobby glanced at Scott and then Rachel and gave them both a little shrug.

"Yeah, well. It's true," he said.

"He's not wrong," Noh chuckled as the little group started to head out.

Once they were loaded up on the blackbird, they all seemed to fracture off into their little family groups for the flight. While the kids were still a bit keyed up after everything that they'd been through, by the time they got back to the mansion, everyone under the age of eight was asleep — Elin on Logan, Magda on Erik, and Chance on Scott.

The moment the jet touched down, they were greeted by a very relieved-looking Annie, who rushed to where Chance and Scott were to fuss over the sleeping little boy, as well as a nervous Alex and Lorna, both of whom relaxed substantially when they saw that Magda was sleeping peacefully on Erik's shoulder.

Alex ran over to scoop up the sleeping girl, but Lorna looked past Erik's shoulder, seemingly looking for someone else to get off the plane. But when no one else came out, her frown deepened. "Is this everyone?"

Erik frowned at that. "Are we missing anyone else?" he asked. "Rachel scanned the mind of the man in charge, and there was no one else there."

Lorna looked distressed at that. "I was hoping ... I hoped Billy went with you," she said with wide eyes.

"Maybe he headed back to the labs," Bobby suggested.

Alex shook his head. "Already been down there. Nobody but Hank and Tyler and Tommy," he said.

K had made her way to where James was snuggled into the chair, rubbing his eyes, and she simply picked him up with a little kiss on the nose before the little group started toward the stairs. "I can check upstairs … see if he went to find some privacy," she offered. "If he's here, we should be able to find him."

"Please do," Erik agreed with a steadily growing frown.

"I'll take a bamf with, let you know in a few minutes," she said with a nod as the little pack of ferals headed up to put the kids to bed — with a bamf on her shoulder making faces at James.

"We called Teddy to see if he was home," Annie told Erik as she and the others headed inside as well, pausing in the doorway, since she was headed upstairs and he was headed back to the labs in case Billy had gone back there after Alex checked. "He wasn't there, but Teddy promised to call if he came home."

Erik nodded wordlessly, his good mood from having snuggled with Magda all the way home gone in an instant — since he now had another grandchild to worry about — and he swept downstairs in a hurry.

They were just putting a tea kettle on when Logan appeared with the bamf. "No one's upstairs or on the roof," he said. "I have to see where Jubilee is ... " He turned to Rachel. "Mind doing a little more thorough search, maybe hit Cerebro?"

Rachel nodded quickly. "I'll expand the search. I'm sure he's just… gone somewhere to be alone. He was pretty upset about how badly Tommy was hurt," she muttered as she headed off to do just that. "He might not have hard Hank was able to get his heart started again for Ty to work him over."

Logan drew in a deep breath and frowned before he started off toward the medical bay. Something wasn't quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on it just yet. When he got to the med bay, though, where Henry was doing his best to coax Tyler into taking a break — since the kid was clearly exhausted from all the excitement with the raid and then Tommy — he had to just stop and stare at Jubilee across the room, who was doing her best to look as much a part of the scenery as possible.

"Jubes," Logan said, headed her way with a frown. "Ask. For help. You need it."

"I'm fine," she said.

"Lying through your teeth. To me?" he challenged before he called Hank over. "You're slippin', Henry."

The frazzled-looking blue doctor glanced at Logan and then at Jubilee — and his eyes widened the second he caught her scent properly. "Oh, my stars and garters," he said before he very quickly got down to work to start gathering his supplies he would need for surgery.

Logan turned to the bamf still on his shoulder. "Go get her bookend, would ya?" The tiny demon nodded seriously before he teleported off in a plume of smoke, and Logan went to her to keep her company at least until Noh showed up.

When the little bamf reappeared with Noh, the Kree fighter went directly into concern when he saw the state Jubilee was in and rushed over. "Why did no one tell me this was happening?"

"Because she didn't tell anyone," Logan said, giving Jubilee a look.

Jubilee returned the look in spades. "Hey," she grumbled. "I wasn't gonna step in it when they were trying to save Tommy's life."

"Well good news: Tyler's fuelin' up and watchin' him, and Hank is runnin' around like a chicken with his head cut off just for you," Logan teased. "Dramatic punk."

Jubilee stuck her tongue out at him for that one and then leaned back with a sigh, though she picked her head up again when she noticed Logan moving aside for Noh and halfway growled out, "Don't you go anywhere, mister. You are staying right here."

Noh chuckled slightly. "No use telling her no," he teased Logan's way as he very gently took Jubilee's hand in his and let her crush it to her heart's content while Hank finished with the setup.

"I wouldn't dream of leavin' you here like this," Logan promised. "When you get done breakin' his hand, you can try for mine."

That wasn't entirely necessary, though. Hank got her started on the "good stuff," as she called it, and once it started to set in, she was totally relaxed within just a few minutes — though still insistent that Logan was not allowed to go anywhere. "You," she told him with one finger leveled his way, "you are meeting your granddaughters. Like. Now."

"That is the plan," Hank said from behind the drape. "Shouldn't be but another ten minutes or so if you two would like to back away so I can keep the field clear …"

Logan gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and stepped to the side. "Not goin' far. Promise."

"I'll hold you to that," she swore.

And, as Hank had promised, it was only another ten minutes before they could hear the first little cry — and then another few minutes before the second little half-Kree made her debut. Neither of them cried for long — just once, loud and clearly annoyed at being taken out of their warm environment as both of them cut Hank looks worthy of their mother.

Tyler had stepped in to help get them both cleaned up and weighed — since Hank had the tougher job of finishing the surgery. But once they were each cleaned up, he handed them both one by one to Noh. "When she gets to a normal bed, she can hold them. Angle is bad with the surgery table," he explained before he gave Jubilee a broad smile. "Just like their mother."

She gave him a little smile. "Tell me we got the white hair, though," she teased.

"Oh yeah," Tyler said with a laugh. "What little they have is white. They look like you, though."

Noh beamed down at the two little ones and gave them each a kiss on the foreheads. "Perfect," he agreed. "Absolutely beautiful." He was pretty far gone over the little girls — that much was obvious — though once they'd moved Jubilee so she could hold them, he very gently tipped one little girl into her arms and then another.

"Come over here, Wolvie," Jubilee called out, grinning widely.

"Don't you want to hold 'em yourself for a while first?" he asked, though he did as she asked.

She grinned up at him. "Mmhmm," she said. "But you need to hold one. Which one? Melody or Celeste?" she asked, tipping her head at one and then the other.

"Oh no, that's your call," he argued before he leaned down to give her a quick kiss on the head. "Nice work, kiddo."

She kept right on grinning crookedly at him. "Thanks," she said. She took a moment to look over the nearly bald little darlings before she glanced up at Logan again and nodded. "Melody it is," she said, gently rearranging herself so she could give him the one that was more awake — Celeste was drifting off peacefully, while Melody was wide-eyed and trying to take in the whole world at once.

He picked up the little one and took a seat nearby, letting the wide-eyed little girl stare at everything around them. "Little early to be handin' her off so I'll put her to sleep, isn't it?"

"Never too early for Grampa Wolvie," she teased right back.

"That reminds me," Noh said with a little smile. "Where is K?"

"With James and Elin," Logan replied. "She took them up to put them to bed."

"Ah." Noh nodded. "Well then, we'll have to wait, but she should meet these two little stars as soon as she can."

"I'm sure Kurt would watch over a couple of sleeping baby ferals so you could drag her down kicking and screaming," Jubilee offered. "But if that's how it goes, you must videotape it for me."

"I'm certain our favorite reporter bamf will get it all on video," Noh chuckled, already headed for the stairs. "It's just a shame it's so late — Sying will be upset he missed his sisters' debut."

"Official debut in the morning," Jubilee said with a little wave.

Noh had to laugh at that before he zipped up the stairs and came to a stop just outside of the Howlett's room, very gently knocking before he pushed the door open the slightest bit to peer in.

K was curled up on the bed with both little ones, who had fallen asleep quickly in their parent's bed. "Everything okay?" she asked, though it was clear she hadn't been sleeping — or if she was, she wasn't sleeping well.

"Jubilee has had our twins," he whispered quietly, grinning wide.

"Congratulations, glitter pants," she said with a little smile. "Is that where my sweetheart has been hiding?"

Noh chuckled and nodded. "He's getting to know your granddaughters. I thought you might like to do the same," he offered.

"Might need someone to stay with them after the night they had," she said, sitting up.

"Jubilee has already volunteered Kurt's services, though I'm certain Scott would not say no either."

"Does Kurt know?" K said with a little laugh.

"Not just yet," Noh admitted, still smiling.

"Well, grab someone. I'll be ready in two minutes."

Noh grinned at that before he skipped off down the hall — to grab Scott first, not Kurt. It took him only a few moments to explain the situation before Scott readily agreed to babysit a couple sleeping kids, and he was already headed down the hall when Noh made his last stop to where the Wagners were all curled up in the usual cuddle pile of bamfs, elflings, Kate, and Kurt.

When he saw Noh at the door, Kurt carefully slipped out from where he had been snuggling his girls and smiled Noh's way when he saw the huge grin on the Kree fighter's face. "What's happened?" he asked.

"Only the most wonderful thing to ever happen on our anniversary," Noh told him warmly. "Come on — you must meet our little girls."

In the meantime, Scott had earned himself a kiss on the cheek from K as he came to her door and offered his babysitting services for a little while. "You're an angel," she told him before she gestured to the two passed out little ferals. "I probably won't be too long."

"Don't worry about it," Scott assured her. "Take as long as you need; I don't mind."

She stepped out into the hall where Kurt and Noh were just leaving Kurt's room too. "Alright boys," she said softly. "I guess it's time to meet two little shooting stars."

With that, Noh proudly led the way down to the labs, where Jubilee was curled up with the sleeping Celeste — wearing a pink hat — and Logan had Melody — with her yellow hat.

"Non-accidental color choices I see," K said quietly before she gave Jubilee a kiss on the forehead. "Typical. Race to the finish line."

"They just wanted to make sure something good happened on my anniversary," she teased, raising an eyebrow Noh's way before she very gently tipped Celeste into K's arms. "Say hello to Grammy K," she told the little one.

K carefully picked the little one up so as not to wake her before she sat on the edge of Jubilee's bed and smiled at both of them. "Oh yeah, they got all the looks. Sorry, Sparkle Pants."

"No need to apologize; I happen to agree with you entirely," Noh said with a proud sort of smile as Kurt peered over Logan's shoulder at Melody.

"And it's a good thing their dad brought you both here, seeing as you're godparents," Jubilee pointed out, just to see the looks on K and Kurt's faces.

K just looked her way with raised eyebrows for a moment and couldn't help but tease. "Oh, well, Kurt's everyone's godfather. I set it up so he's my godfather too. Just in case."

Kurt chuckled her way but grinned at Jubes. "They're perfect, Jubilee," he told her, looking very proud.

"Logan has little Melody," Noh explained to the two newcomers. "And this is Celeste," he added to K, smiling brighter and brighter the more he looked at the little girls.

"Perfectly suitable names," K said as she reached over to take Jubilee's hand and give her a squeeze. Jubilee grinned up at her and snuggled in, content to watch her favorite people and her little girls for a while before she started to drift off — which everyone else took as a cue to head out.