Chapter 12 - Dadpool's Good News

Logan and K had just gotten back from visiting Heather and Mac, and as K had expected, it had taken three whole days to get Heather to the point that she was ready to see the two little ferals go back to their parents.

They'd just gotten the kids settled in for a nap — since they'd been playing hard and couldn't settle down in the plane — when there was a knock at the door, followed by Wade letting himself in.

K's head popped up from where she was drinking a cup of green tea and reading a book when she heard the knocker come inside, though she relaxed substantially when Wade called out to her. "Hello? Anybody home?" he sang, though he was loud about making his way to the kitchen.

"Everyone's … doing their own thing, Wade," K called back. "Come on in. I think Scott's managed to secure himself the honor of cooking tonight. But only because Annie said he was allowed to grill."

"That does sound great, and I nee-e-e-e-ed to talk to the big ol' Laser Face anyway," Wade said, delightedly and obnoxiously grinning.

"Well, big ol' Laser Face is shopping, so sadly, I'm about the most 'official' person around for a while. Sweet Stabbers is upstairs with the little ones."

"Oh, well, what about the resident weather witch?" Wade asked hopefully.

"Vacation with her sweetheart and her husband," K said. "Sorry to disappoint."

"No-o-o-o," Wade said quickly, shaking his head. "No, always happy to hang around the shorter and stabbier Wolverlady."

"Please don't call me that," she said. "Or I'll stop calling you 'snuggle muffin'."

Wade let out an 'eep' and mimed a zipper over his mouth, nodding quickly, though he started trying to talk through closed lips, paused, held up one finger, unzipped his mouth, and tried again. "I just need to talk to somebody in charge about admissions," he said, leaning forward with a grin.

"You're a little old to attend, snuggle muffin," she said with a smirk.

Wade laughed delightedly. "Yes, yes, I know these things about myself, but I was talking about Ellie. Right, Ellie?" he called out, seemingly to no one — which was just that much more off-putting when the response, again from seemingly nowhere, was 'uh-huh.'

K couldn't control it as a low growl reverberated the room and she tensed up, searching for the source. But that just had Wade doing double time to get her to relax.

"Woah! Easy there!" he called out, both hands in front of himself. "She can't control it, and I promise … I thought you'd know she was there."

"I can't smell her," K said, though the growl hadn't quit, and she was just watching for any movement. "What did you do?"

"Yeah, nothing … he didn't do anything ... Dad tried some infrared goggles to find me, and they didn't work either," Eleanor's voice rang out.

K closed her eyes, her jaw locked down tight as she tried to control her reaction and force down the growl. Finally, she very carefully wet her lips before speaking slowly. "We should probably take you down to see Henry first."

"Yes please," Eleanor said politely as Wade bounced in place.

K got to her feet and made her way to the door leading out of the kitchen before she held out her open hand. "Eleanor, please hold my hand."

K could feel Eleanor take her hand and squeeze it as she said in her quiet voice, "I really didn't mean to scare you."

"I know," K replied with a little smile. "I just don't react well to things that fall outside of my senses," K explained. "Holding your hand helps with that."

"I'm trying to be visible," she promised.

"Don't try anything," K advised. "If you can't control it yet, you might be focusing on the wrong thing accidentally."

"Alright," Eleanor said, then paused. "Lisbet didn't growl as loudly as you did."

"She's not as reactive as I am," K admitted. "Or anywhere near as mean."

"Well, she didn't say she couldn't sense me at all, but I think I scared her when she couldn't find me…"

"That's because she won't admit that anything scares her until it's so obvious it hurts," K told her. "You more startled me than scared me."

Eleanor giggled at that and squeezed K's hand again. "It's alright. Dad freaked out when I fell asleep and he couldn't hear me to know if I was in the room."

K frowned and looked over her shoulder at Wade. "How long has she been invisible?"

"Since about midnight last night?" Wade offered, his shoulders shrugged up to his ears. "It's… been a long night. And day. And evening."

"We'll figure it out," K promised. "We're just a little bare bones with everyone on break."

"Right, right," Wade nodded seriously. "Gotta get all the babymoon vacationing in for the lovely glowing ladies."

"You're ridiculous," K said under her breath, shaking her head as the elevator door opened to the sublevel that housed Hank's lab. She led the two of them over to Hank, who looked almost anxious to see her there.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, on his feet in a flash.

"Not with me," K insisted as she held up Eleanor's hand — though Hank of course, couldn't see it. "Eleanor is a mutant. And she's stuck invisible and — as far as I can tell — entirely undetectable."

"Hi," Eleanor called out as proof. "You should look at Dad; I think he's gonna have a stroke."

"He'll heal," K said dispassionately. "But you? Hank has more experience in these things and is less of a growler."

A few things in the lab moved as Eleanor hit them on purpose in passing before she hopped up next to Hank, the indent on the bed the only proof of where she was. "So, this just sort of happened?" she offered.

"Oh my," Hank said, frowning at the space that the girl had to be occupying. "Yes. That's how it happens — all at once, usually." He frowned and pulled up a seat to sit across from her, since an actual examination was more or less out of the question for the time being. "What were you doing when this happened?"

"Playing with Lisbet, actually," Eleanor said. "Dad got a new VR game setup from Uncle Phil, and she agreed to try it with me, and when we took off the helmets from fighting off invading archers — poof! She couldn't see me."

"So you were submerged in a virtual reality," Hank said, nodding slowly. "It's possible you triggered some portion of your brain while you were playing. The flashing lights paired with the slight sensory deprivation or … alteration as it were …"

"All I know is I've never heard Lisbet hit that pitch before," Eleanor giggled.

"Low or high?" Hank asked with an amused smile.

"High," Eleanor giggled again.

"And your father? Did he go higher or lower than Lisbet?"

Eleanor giggled some more. "Oh, higher, definitely."

"Betrayed by my own blood," Wade said sadly, shaking his head with one hand to his heart.

K reached over to absently pat his arm. "Pretty sure you'll live, big guy."

"Or heal from it anyway," he teased.

"That too," she agreed. "Hank ... she's got no scent, and Snuggles said she's invisible to infrared. What have you got to help her through so one of the other more reactive types doesn't accidentally stab her? Short … of putting a bell around her neck, that is, because I'm sure Wade has teased her about it already."

"Actually, he was going to cover me in flour and say I was haunting the house," Eleanor said, which had Wade giggling madly and nodding.

"It would be so convincing! And she'd fit right in with the real ghosts!" Wade insisted.

"No," K said, shaking her head. "What about the clothes? Have you tried putting on a baggy shirt or something, or does that just fade out with you?"

"It seems to fade out with me," Eleanor admitted. "But not people, just things."

"If that's the case, then makeup — or flour — would be of no use," Hank said. "I'm afraid you'll likely have to simply wait for Rachel to return. She's exceptionally good at finding the triggers to new abilities."

But that just had Eleanor giggling all over again. "But Dani said she's on vacation with Iceman. Dani said she saw them going shopping for swimsuits."

"Don't tell Cyclops," K whispered.

"Oh, never," Eleanor agreed, still giggling.

"Logan might be good for meditation. That helped Tyler … maybe that would help you too?" K offered.

"Oooh, yes," Wade said, nodding quickly. "Overstimulating VR to very very quiet stabby meditation. Good thought. Yes. I like it."

"There is no stabbing in the meditation … usually," K corrected.

"Would he need to hold my hand too?" Eleanor asked honestly.

"That … would be up to him," K replied. "I'm a little extra on edge right now." She rested one hand on her stomach and shrugged. "Can't be helped."

"Yes, this is true. Mama Bear instincts are strong with this one," Wade agreed, nodding seriously. "But maybe we should introduce our favorite Wolverine to my little girl in a controlled lab environment," he added, again entirely seriously.

"Oh yes, because a lab is definitely relaxing for him and doesn't put him on edge at all," K said in her most sarcastic tone. "I'll be there. Let me handle him."

Eleanor hopped down from the examination table — the indentation was no longer there — and let out a little sigh. "Alright, let's try it. I was supposed to go out with Lisbet and Dani and Jessica Jones for a girls night, so if you can fix it, that would be great."

K nodded and started toward the door. "Tell me about what you girls are up to tonight," K said, a plan in place already on how to get Logan in on this little job.

Eleanor giggled. "Oh, I can't tell you all of it," she said.

"Why not?" K asked with a little laugh. "I can banish your father if he shouldn't hear it."

"No, Dad's the one in on it; I'm helping him shop for Lisbet," Eleanor explained.

"Then you definitely need to tell me what's up. Get permission and all that noise."

"Oh, not rings." Eleanor giggled, though she dropped her voice to a whisper. "Not yet anyway."

"Are you sure?" K asked. "I thought for sure he had one already for her."

"Well, I don't know. He keeps going back and forth," Eleanor whispered low enough that only K could hear. "You know. Because he doesn't want to mess it up."

"Does he need picking or heartfelt encouragement?" K asked quietly.

"That second thing, probably. I think he's scared to ask permission," Eleanor giggled delightedly.

"On it," she said with a nod before she raised her voice to more normal speaking levels to change the subject to if Eleanor wanted to go to the school in the fall, knowing that Logan had to be in the kitchen by now. "Which classes would you want to take?"

"Oh, wow, I haven't even thought about that," Eleanor admitted.

"Well, the basics are picked for you," K said, looking over to Logan as they entered the kitchen. "Self-defense is mandatory, though." She tipped her head toward Eleanor with a significant look Logan's way.

"Dad might have a heart attack.… He doesn't like me fighting," Eleanor said.

"Only because he'd be afraid you'd kick his ass," Logan said, catching on quickly and trying to see the girl outside of the fact that K was clearly holding her hand still. "What happened?"

"I'm a mutant!" Eleanor said brightly.

"Whaddaya know," Logan said slowly. "Musta got it from your mom's side."

"That's what Dad said," Eleanor agreed. "You know. Once he could talk again."

"Slim's in town still," Logan said, still trying to see something. "You're stuck, aren'tcha?"

"Since last night," Eleanor admitted.

"Rachel won't be back for a few days anyhow — unless of course the point of this little rendezvous is to run off with her popsicle.… We could call Scott. Have him rush back. Unless you got other ideas…."

"Meditation," K said. "You could teach her that and see how it goes."

"Sure," he agreed. "And if it doesn't work, you can scare the crap outta Slim. That's always fun."

"Dad already suggested I pretend to haunt the place. I thought it would be fun to pretend to be the Force for Sying's next birthday," Eleanor giggled.

"Could be fun to act like you're there and he's the only one that can't see you," Logan suggested.

"Yeah, let's start with being seen again, please?" she asked. "It's weird being stuck like this."

Logan smirked and made his way over to where she and K were standing, then offered her his hand. When she switched from K to Logan, Logan looked up at Wade and stuck one finger in his face. "You … can't go."

Wade let out a terrifically long groaning noise. "Fiiiiine."

"And that's why," Logan said before he led Eleanor out of the house and down to the dock at the lake, leaving Wade staring out the window and watching him go with the invisible girl.

"You need to relax a little," K said. "She's in good hands."

"Yeah…" Wade kept staring out the window. "You know, she used to be yea tall and never turned invisible ever."

"Kids change," K replied, as if it was inevitable that any of them would just become … invisible.

"Yeah…" Wade said in that exact same tone as before.

"You okay, Wade?" she asked. "There are worse things than finding out your daughter is genetically superior."

Wade let out a little laugh and leaned back in his chair. "It's the best news ever," he said with particular relish.

"So .. what else is eating you?" she asked before she offered him the last of Annie's chocolate chip cookies. "Is Lisbet being a pain? Because I will kick her trash across six states …"

Wade shook his head, bringing his chair down to all four legs as he leaned almost halfway across the table. "No picking on my girls," he said seriously. "I can only take so much in one day, and invisible baby is my limit."

"She's my sister? So I'll pick at her if I want to," she countered. "Even if it's because she's being a pain to you or Ellie."

"No, no, no, no, she is Lisbet. And Lisbet is… Lisbet," Wade said as if that explained everything, his hands clasped under his chin.

"I know, right?" K pulled a face, sticking her tongue out. "She's awful."

"She's amazing," Wade said, and even though the chair didn't spin, he was doing his level best to spin in it anyway.

"Come on," K said, waving one hand at him. "You can't think she's that great."

"Oh no?" Wade spun ninety degrees and turned his head sideways. "Just because you're her sister you have to not think that — but you are sadly, sadly, sadly blind!"

"Saying I'm wrong doesn't make it true," K countered. "Especially when you have nothing to back it up."

"Lies," Wade said, one hand over his heart. "Lies, dirty, dirty lies."

"I have only ever lied to you once, and that was only because it was hilarious," K pointed out.

"That … is true, but that only means that you are sadly, sadly, wrong. Your sister is amazing and beautiful and she's so nice to my baby girl and she should be sitting on a picket fence somewhere being painted by Da Vinci and…"

"That might hurt," she said. "But … I have to ask. How long have you two been together?"

"Two years, seven months, eleven days, and ten hours."

K smirked. "Do you love her or just the mental imagery of Da Vinci painting her fence?"

Wade leaned forward even further with as serious an expression as it was possible to convey with the mask on. "Oh, definitely love her, definitely. Yes."

K pushed her mug out of the way and rested her hand on his arm. "Then what the hell are you waiting for? Do you know how long your 'brother' waited before he started pestering me?"

"I thought it was when the little tiny adorable heartbreaking future Summers came into the picture?"

"More like a month before they announced they were pregnant with said future heartbreaker," K told him.

Wade stared at her openly. "Oh. Oh." He let out a sort of noise that fell somewhere between delighted and terrified. "OH." He scooted back. "Do all the women in your family make men wait that long?"

K cleared her throat. "No, that's just me. You should ask her. She thinks the white picket fence thing is very attractive."

"Yes, okay, but see… seeeeee." Wade shifted around a bit before he finally sighed. "Yes. Right. Yes. Okay."

"What am I supposed to see?" K asked.

Wade shifted around some more. "I am … not picket fencey."

"You're her picket fence," she countered.

Wade giggled delightedly. "Okay?" he said, sort of spinning again.

"And I can … pretty much promise that it won't take a Sabretooth attack to get a yes out of her," K said.

"Oooh, don't say things like that out loud," Wade said seriously.

"Pretty sure he'd be after me anyhow," K said.

"Yeah, but if you tempt fate, you tempt the evil brains, and they are scary," Wade said seriously.

"Yes, yes, the evil brains that make the world miserable; you've said that before," she replied rolling her eyes. "Honestly, Wade. Where do you come up with this crap?"

"It sounds weird, I know, but that's what they call it when they want to make their characters sad." Wade shrugged.

"Come on," she said, shaking her head at him. "We can get the rest of dinner started before Scott and Annie come and freakin' take the place over. Logan and Ellie will be a while, and I can tell you what Lisbet always wanted in a proposal."

"Oh, would you pretty please?" Wade asked delightedly.

"Sure," she agreed. "Just start peeling potatoes."

The two of them got to work, with K telling Wade all of the details on what Lisbet had always wanted out of a proposal, down to the tiniest of details she had ever talked about — for decades. Scott and Annie came in about halfway into the batch of lemonade that K was making — both of them almost out of breath from laughing about something or other.

Both of them stopped dead when they saw K and Wade working away. "Wade … has good reason to be here, and he's starving," K said without more than glancing at Scott.

"Well, you're already halfway on your way to solving the starvation," Annie said after a moment as she smiled at the potatoes and carrots that had been peeled.

"Bread's proofing," K replied. "And dessert's in the fridge."

"Sounds like you have everything covered," Annie said, already carrying the hamburger bags out toward the door.

"Just waiting on your beloved," she agreed.

"Burgers and hot dogs for the kids will be done in no time," Scott promised. "Little longer for the steaks, though."

"Be sure you put some up for Ellie," K said. "She wanted to see you too."

"Oh, really?" Scott asked, pausing on the way out the door.

"She's playing with Logan right now," K called out to him, then shrugged at Wade. "Close enough," she said quietly.

"Well, we'll set out a place for her at dinner," Annie promised. "You too, Wade. Is Lisbet coming too?"

"Ah, no. She's out with friends," Wade admitted. "Ellie was going to take her shopping before our plans changed... " He glanced toward K and was all but bouncing in place.

"Wade … would you go tell Logan and Ellie dinner is about done?" K asked with a little smirk. "I can finish the lemonade alone."

Wade beamed at her, nodded, kissed her cheek, then zipped off quickly to do just that as Annie and Scott shook their heads. "What's going on with him?" Scott asked. "Do I want to know?"

"You probably do," K admitted. "But I'll let him tell you. He … is excited." She paused and turned to face Scott properly. "And no, he's not trying to join the team."

"Not today anyway," Scott said with a smirk despite himself before he headed to the grills to get started.

A short while later, Wade was bouncing at the door with Logan and … an almost-clear Eleanor a few steps behind him.

"Oh!" Annie almost bounced over to Eleanor as well, her eyes wide on seeing the beaming young lady. "What…?"

"Did what we could," Logan said. "Still not crap for figurin' out how to stop stuff like this when meditation doesn't work."

"You did great," Eleanor assured him, grinning down at herself delightedly. "At least everyone can see me now."

"You were invisible before?" Scott asked.

"Very," Eleanor agreed with wide eyes.

"And undetectable," Logan added. "No scent. I could hear her when she walked, but if she was still …"

Scott had both eyebrows raised and nodded as he looked over both Wade and Eleanor. "When did this happen?"

"Last night," Eleanor said as she took the seat Annie indicated for her. "Dad freaked out when we couldn't figure out how to turn me back to living color."

"Right, right," Wade agreed. "And we wanted to ask about admissions, oh great Cyclops," he said with a dramatic wave Scott's way. "For my darling baby girl."

"Dad."

"For my favorite person on the planet."

"Dad."

"For Eleanor."

"Yeah, of course," Scott said. "If she wants to go here, that is. We'd be happy to help you learn to control your new abilities."

Eleanor beamed. "Yes, please. I'd like to be visible. It's weird when no one knows where to look to look me in the eyes."

Scott smirked. "I'm sure." He shook his head to himself as he went back to prepping for dinner. "Rachel will be back in … what … a week? In the meantime, I'll work with you on finding out how to turn it off and on."

Eleanor nodded politely. "Thank you," she said. "K was telling me about some of the classes here. I think it sounds pretty amazing."

"Did she try to sell you on her horseback riding group?" Annie asked.

"The dance class, actually," Eleanor giggled. "It would be hard to ride horses if they couldn't see me or smell me or anything."

"And disappearing when your dance partner stinks is much more useful," Logan agreed.

"Well at least if I did it in the middle of a dance, we'd be holding hands, so they'd know."

"So he'd look like he was dancing by himself," K said with a smirk. "And we could all point out how he must be terrible."

Eleanor giggled at that. "I just hope no one sits on me in class."

"You'll probably have pretty good control by the time school starts. We just need to practice," Scott said before he headed out to the grill again.

Eleanor was just beaming by that point as a few more people started to trickle down for dinner, though she leaned over to K with a crooked smile. "Didja talk to Dad?"

"Maybe a lil' bit," K replied. "I'm sure he'll gush to you about it later. Tell you the whole story in excruciatingly exaggerated detail."

"You know that's true," Eleanor giggled. "Thanks."

"That's my job right? As un-official-not-related aunt?" K asked, bumping shoulders with her.

"Well ... you mean soon-to-be aunt," Eleanor whispered back.

"Not the way your dad tells it," K replied.

"He'll ask her. He's just … like this."

"He's got a whole plan that I'm sure he'll make bigger before it gets done."

"I'd rein him in, but Lisbet loves it," Eleanor giggled.

K leaned closer to whisper so only Eleanor could hear her. "I told him what her dream proposal scenario was. He's going to go completely overboard."

"Do you want me to record it? I bet I could get away with no one noticing," Eleanor pointed out.

"She'll want you to," K said. "I'm not too wrapped up in that side of things."

"Something to look back on in your not-old age," Eleanor teased.

"Or something like it anyhow." K waved Eleanor over to have her help finish prepping. "I'm going to go get the kids. I can hear them giggling from here."

"Dad says that's because they're betrothed."

"Oh, yeah. That too. Has nothing to do with the tickle fight happening," K replied. "At least it sounds like a tickle fight... and there is no screaming … so."

Eleanor shooed her forward. "Go ahead. I'm good. Thanks for helping me and my dad, really. It's been a day."

"It was nice," K admitted with a little smirk as she rested her hand on her stomach, not unlike how she'd usually smooth the fabric out. "It'll be nice to have all of you around more." K gave her a little smile then turned to find the kids, squealing with laughter long before she walked into the room.