Chapter 18- Dramatic Entrance

The school year was quickly approaching, and almost all the kids had come back from their summer vacations. There was plenty of hustle and bustle around the school, but Kate was just looking forward to getting an ice cream sundae for dessert. She was exhausted after watching Kurt make dinner with the bamfs, who were being particularly pesky that day.

"Hey, stop that," she directed toward one of the bamfs, who was trying to sneak off with the chocolate sprinkles for himself. He gave her an impish grin and teleported over to hand her the sprinkles, and she shook her head, laughing at him.

A couple of the other bamfs were actually helping out with the washing up, jabbering between themselves as they handed off dishes to each other — while a few others were trying to grab the dishes from their more helpful friends to toss back and forth. Eventually, Kurt teleported off with the worst of the troublemakers when it looked like Annie was gearing up to threaten to turn them into stew, though.

While Annie and Scott were gathering up everything for the dessert, K and Logan were handling the kids — or more to the point, K was snuggling a very sleepy Elin while the little kids were piling on Logan. Chance in particular was delightedly laughing as he 'pinned' Logan, and Charlie was waiting for Chance to help her as Logan tickled her. All was well and good with their little game until Logan decided he'd had enough and wanted to quit — but Chance wasn't having it.

He latched onto Logan around his neck, and laughed even harder when Logan stood up with Chance scrambling to stay on his shoulders. Charlie of course decided that she'd gotten the short end of the stick and wrapped herself around his leg, demanding to be picked up too.

Logan chuckled as he reached down to let her grab onto his arm — which she grabbed onto just as tightly as she'd done with his leg, screaming in laughter when he picked her up and tipped her halfway upside down. The twins were having a blast, and Logan thought he was almost off the hook — until Annie's nieces came running in and attached themselves too.

"Okay, hold on now," he said with a little frown as Leslie Ann and Mary Beth both more or less did exactly as Charlie had done and attached themselves to his legs.

Kate had to laugh as she watched Logan with all four of the kids. "Get 'im, kids," she called out. "Take him down!"

"You're not funny," Logan called back as the girls actually tried to do just that, with Chance laughing maniacally. But Logan couldn't find a way to try to walk away from them without taking a chance at stepping on one of the girls — who were actively trying to knock him down.

"I'm hilarious," Kate insisted, and to accentuate her point, she made a face at Charlie, who stuck her tongue out in return and giggled.

"Wait until it's you with the gaggle of kids trying to … whatever they're trying to do," he said as he frowned at Leslie Ann, who grinned that much wider as she pulled on his arm hard.

"I already have one trying to pull me down," she teased. "And make me drop everything…"

"Yeah, well I have one here … that's half asleep," he said before he looked at Leslie Ann again. "Is that what you're after? You tryin' to pull me down?"

"She said to take you down!" Leslie Ann said with a totally straight face for all of a second before she burst into giggles.

"You always do what she tells you? She's tryin' to get you in trouble, you know."

"But you let Chance and Charlie knock you over, and they're just babies."

"I did not," he replied gruffly, teasing her with a ill-hidden smirk. "You're making up stories, half pint."

"Nu-uh. You are!" she insisted.

He smirked a little more crookedly and shook his head. "So whatcha gonna do about it?" Logan asked with a little growl that had no heat to it at all.

"Take you down!" Mary Beth supplied for her big sister, who nodded and looked proud.

"You an' what army?" Logan asked as Chance climbed down off of his shoulders.

Leslie Ann looked over at Mary Beth and then grinned. "We could so do it," she declared.

He leaned down to let Charlie climb off of him before he looked the girls square in the face and somehow managed to keep from laughing. "Bring it, troublemakers."

Shrieking with laughter, both girls practically threw themselves at him in what was obviously their very best attempt to take him down. He caught them both up off of the ground before he peeked over his shoulder to make sure the twins were nowhere near before he took the fall and let them claim their victory. "You're cheatin'," he teased before he started tickling both of them mercilessly, going so far as to drag them back by the ankles if they tried to escape.

"I save you!" Chance declared as he very bravely rushed in to try and rescue his cousins by trying to tickle Logan's sides. But all it really did was get him pulled into it as Logan snatched him up and started tickling him too.

K looked over at Kate as she grinned at the mess of kids trying to take Logan down. "And I count … five kids on the floor. What are you seeing?"

"Three kids, one wannabe dramatic hero, and a hug magnet," Kate said without hesitation.

"Like I said. Five kids."

Kate chuckled and nodded as she reached past K to get the maraschino cherries so she could have her ice cream sundae.

"I wanna see a rematch with Gerry and Dani in the mix," K said with a smirk.

"Dani might tip the scales," Kate pointed out with a grin.

"Kind of the point," she replied.

Kate smirked and pulled open the drawer to grab the ice cream scooper when, very suddenly —

"Ow." She stopped short, her eyes wide, as she put both hands on the counter for a moment and just… "Ow."

K turned toward her with a concerned look. "What's going on, lady?"

Kate gritted her teeth, shook her head, and gasped in a breath. "Back feels like ... Flint Ward ran me over again," she said through her teeth.

"Uh-oh," K said as she shot Logan a look and stood to head toward Kate. She reached over with one hand to rub her back for a moment. "I think it's time for Kurt," she said as she gave one of the bamfs a significant look. "As in go. Now."

The little guys dropped whatever they had been doing as a couple of them teleported off to go get Kurt. A couple others rushed over to hover nervously by Kate, and a few more still looked very panicked.

From the floor, Logan took in the scene unfolding and simply stood up with all the kids dangling off of him. "Come on guys; movie time. I'll let you throw Milk Duds at Bobby."

"Oooh. He gives them back to us frozen and then they're like popsicles," Leslie Ann agreed as she willingly let herself — and the others — get shepherded out just before Kurt popped in with an urgent expression on his face.

"Was ist los?" he asked K as he ran to give Kate a little support, his eyes wide.

"It's time," K told him. "Logan's got the kids cleared out to watch movies. I'll … supervise them. You two? Good luck. See you on the other side, unless you want me to stick around." She wasn't looking at Kurt in the least as she waited for Kate to decide.

"No, you go ahead. I just—" Kate took a deep breath.

"Yeah," K said with a nod. "Send a demon if you change your mind."

Kate nodded before she reached down to grab Kurt's hand with her own and hold on tight. "I need Hank," she said through her teeth as the wide-eyed Elf very quickly nodded and teleported them both down to Hank's lab.

"Henry!" Kurt called out as Kate threatened to break his hand and muttered something that sounded like 'your fault' under her breath when he helped her to sit down.

Hank came around the corner and quickly raised his eyebrows over the edge of his glasses. He very calmly went about looking Kate over, though when he did, he dropped a bit of his outer calm as he simply said, "Oh my stars and garters."

"She's not due for… she's early," Kate said, sounding more annoyed than anything else.

"I'm afraid they tend to make their own schedules," Hank replied calmly as he checked her blood pressure and pulse.

"She is impatient, then," Kurt said with a look somewhere between excitement and terror. "Is everything alright?"

Hank just gave him a look over his glasses as he finished the most preliminary of the check ups. "She doesn't seem to be in distress — outside of nerves," Hank replied. "How long has she been in labor?"

"In labor?" Kurt repeated, surprised, and Kate looked like she might throw something.

"This just happened," she hissed out. "I can't — it was like, two minutes ago!"

Hank watched her for a moment and then shook his head. "Then you're progressing quite quickly. You shouldn't be this far into it if it only now started up."

Kurt looked a bit concerned as his tail switched behind him. "Is that... should we worry?"

"I'm afraid I have little to go on when it comes to … well. A part demon," Hank said. "I'll simply have to keep a close eye on you, Kate. Although if you wanted medication, we might want to do that right away."

She shot both of them a bit of a glare. "Yes," she ground out. "Please. Do that now — discussion later."

Hank gave Kurt a look and drew the curtain around her before he very carefully and quickly gave her the pain medication she wanted. Within a few minutes of the medicine hitting her system, Kate was no longer feeling the pain — but the pressure was still there. "I'll be nearby," Hank promised. "Just call if you feel like I'm being too slow to return."

"I'll let you know," she promised with one eyebrow raised.

With Kate a little more relaxed, Kurt slid over to her side and settled in to sit next to her. He reached for her hand with the one she hadn't been holding before and gently squeezed it, though it was clear he was nervous as well — especially at how fast she was progressing. He looked like he had no idea what to do except to just stay there and fret — which he did.

Kate was clearly blaming Kurt for her discomfort, though it wasn't long before she was also shouting at Hank as well to "get your fuzzy butt over here" when it was clear her little elf was simply ready to make her debut. Though by the time little Kristina made her grand entrance with high-pitched, squeaky screams, Kate had switched from angry to simply melting as soon as the first little screams started up.

Henry worked quickly to clean the little one up and then very gently laid the tiny, fuzzy baby in Kate's arms. Tiny Kristina had ears that were a bit bigger than she'd quite grown into, pointed at the ends of course, and she clearly had no control of her tail; it just seemed to be moving all on its own, with no regard for any outside stimulus. And she was purple. A deep, almost royal color, but purple nonetheless.

Kurt beside her was nearly still and breathless, staring with wide eyes at the very small perfect fuzzball. "Wilkommen in der Welt, Licht meines Lebens," he said very softly as he reached down to play with the fur on the top of her head. She didn't quite have much hair yet to play with, though there was just the hint of a few black wisps there.

And of course, as soon as the first little cries sounded in Hank's lab, another sound joined them — the little bamfs appeared throughout the lab, shyly peeking over the curtains and over the edge of the bed to see the small little elf. A couple of them got brave enough to come closer and investigate, though of course, when one of them got close enough to Kristina, he got a small purple fist in the face.

"That's right, Kristina. Sock it to 'em," Kate said with a smirk as the last of the bamfs showed up — this time with the ferals in tow.

"Are you alright?" K asked, though the concern slipped away and she smirked Kate's way when she saw the little bundle in her arms — and the thrashing tail. "Nevermind. That was awfully quick, Hawkeye."

"Blame her," Kate said, tipping her head at Kristina. "She's impatient."

"Wonder where she gets that from," Logan teased as the two of them made their way closer to say hello.

"From me, I've been told," Kurt said with a small smile as Kate very carefully handed the littlest elf off to him so he could show her off to Logan — though of course, once he was holding Kristina, he broke into the widest smile they'd seen since he and Kate got married.

"She's got your coloring, Kate," K said with a raised eyebrow.

Kate rolled her eyes at K. "You're not funny."

"Well. You should learn to love that; you're going to hear it constantly," she replied.

"Well, purple is my favorite color," Kate allowed, grinning up at Kurt for a moment.

"Nobody likes purple more than little Katie Bishop," Logan agreed.

"Except possibly little Kristina Wagner," Kurt corrected him. "Seeing as she seems to be wearing it."

"Nah," K said, looking over Kurt's shoulder. "She's gonna love yellow"

Kate made a face. "Why?"

"Why not? It's cheerful," K replied.

"It… doesn't always go very well with purple," Kate pointed out. "You have to get something very pastel-yellow."

"Nope, bright yellow — complementary colors."

"Something like Logan's suit then?" Kate teased.

K nodded with a troublemaking smile. "Exactly that."

"A few minutes old, and already, they are planning her X-Man suit," Kurt said, shaking his head at Logan with a quiet laugh that was much softer than the huge sparkle in his eyes — though that spark quickly died when the group of them saw what was now becoming a familiar vortex forming in the center of the room.

Logan and K both stood in front of the little family, claws ready, both of them prepared to fight the moment they saw Azazel step inside.

But Azazel let out a breath of a laugh as he froze the two ferals in place. "Oh, this isn't the time for fighting — though I assure you, that will come later." With a wide and beaming grin, he headed over to where Kurt was holding Kristina, looking positively delighted at the little purple bundle. "I see the little one has a bit more of my coloring than you did," he said with a small chuckle as the little elf started to make little squeaky noises of protests the closer Azazel got to her.

"Shove off," Kate spit out with a glare, which only had him chuckling that much more as Kurt took a step back, closer to his girls.

"I have a right to see her. There's no doubt she's one of mine, after all, though the color is … disappointing. Closer … but not quite."

"That's where you're wrong — on both counts. She's perfect as she is, and she is ours," Kurt replied with a glare as Kristina kept squeaking angrily.

But before Azazel could get any closer, the door to the room burst open, and Noh arrived with one of the bamfs on his shoulder urgently pointing the way—- he looked to have sprinted down at top speed, though whether he was there to see Kristina or if the bamf had told him about the obnoxious visitor wasn't exactly clear.

In a flash, Noh went for the stasis weapon he'd 'liberated' from the Kree when he and Clint went after Zarek. He bared his teeth and let out a low hiss at the demon, freezing him in his tracks — and freeing up the ferals in the process.

"I didn't realize there was such immediate trouble, or I would have been here sooner," Noh said, slightly panting. "I didn't quite understand what my little friend here was trying to say, so I simply prepared for trouble of any kind."

"You are right on time," Kurt told him, letting out a breath of relief and pulling Kristina up into his arms, kissing her forehead and murmuring to her in quiet German to get her to calm down.

Noh couldn't help but smile as he slipped over to where Kurt was and looked over his shoulder at the small little one. "Oh! She is purple."

"Yeah, that's what everyone's gonna be saying when they meet her, apparently," Kate said, shaking her head.

"I meant it as a compliment. She's quite beautiful."

"I meant it as a compliment too, but someone's a little sensitive," K said with a teasing smile.

Kate rolled her eyes at K as Kurt absently patted her hand with his for a moment before he looked toward his frozen father. "Noh, could I trouble you to remove my father?" he asked.

"It's no trouble," Noh assured him. "I believe Scott and I spoke to Fury about a cell for this … creature." As he spoke, he moved to get Azazel out of there, and as he did so, little Kristina was still squeaking out her anger.

"It's alright, Prinzessin," Kurt whispered softly to her. "Noh is getting him away from you." He gave Noh a look to speed things along, and in a moment, Noh had removed the annoyingly creepy grandfather.

"Maybe we should go," Logan said as he reached for K to pull her with him.

"No, no, she was scared of Azazel, not you," Kurt reasoned, shaking his head. "You haven't held her yet, Logan — please. She is your goddaughter."

"You sure about that pick, Elf?" Logan asked with a surprised expression on his face.

"It took him maybe two seconds to make the decision," Kate broke in, smirking. "Nat's godmother."

"Another decision that took only a few seconds," Kurt agreed before he very gently tipped Kristina into Logan's arms while the little one was still a bit squeaky. "Say hello, Prinzessin."

Logan looked up at Kurt for a moment before he gently adjusted the little one in his arms and smirked down at her. "You two did good work on the little Elfling," Logan said before he glanced up at Kurt — just waiting to see the expression on his face.

Kurt's lips parted into an 'o' for just a moment before he had to shake his head and laugh. "How long have you been waiting to use that?"

"Oh, just forever," Logan admitted.

"Well, I like what Kurt calls her," Kate said with a smirk. "My little princess."

"She doesn't know what she's saying," Logan told the newborn as he leaned against the bed across from Kate where K was sitting. The two little ferals grinned a bit at the little one, and K couldn't help but to brush the back of her index finger down Kristina's cheek.

"She's precious," K said as she leaned on Logan and peeked down at her, smirking as the little one's tail settled down a bit.

One of the bamfs poked his head in to see if the coast was clear, and when the little guy saw that there was no sign of Azazel, he giggled and chattered at Kate, who had to shake her head and laugh. "Yeah, yeah. I know. If I don't feed the wolves soon, they'll come descending." The little guy grinned at her, and Kate leaned back tiredly and waved her hand at him. "When these two are done, why don't you get Nat and Clint, okay?" she asked, and the little guy giggled and saluted her.

"We really should let you two snuggle Squeaky," Logan said as he handed Kristina back to Kurt.

"Scott and Annie will only watch over Elin so long when there's a new baby waiting for the Southern girl seal of approval," K explained before she gave all three of the Wagners a little kiss on the cheek or forehead. "Rest up, guys. You did good."

With that, Logan put his arm around his wife, and the two of them silently headed out of the medical bay, half curled around each other as they went.

Almost as soon as the two little ferals were gone, a couple bamfs sounded — and Clint and Natasha found themselves in the room as well. Clint broke into a huge grin on realizing what was going on and half tripped over himself to get to where Kate was.

"I thought you weren't due yet!" he said. "You said September."

"Kristina had other plans," Kate said with a small shrug, already looking tired as Kurt shifted the little one in his arms, though she had to chuckle when she looked up at two of the men she loved most in her life looking so far gone over her little girl. Kurt hadn't been able to stop grinning — or to stop his tail from almost lazily swaying behind him in obvious joy. And Clint… was almost laughing with happiness as Kurt very carefully handed the little one to him.

Clint immediately went into making faces at the tiny elf while Natasha slipped over to where Kate was and very gently squeezed the younger woman's hand in her own. "How are you feeling?"

"Totally wiped," Kate admitted, half leaning into Kurt as he absently wrapped his tail around her arm at the contact, his gaze still on the little one.

"And?" Natasha prompted.

"Pretty darn pleased," Kate added, which had Natasha smiling outright and patting Kate's hand before she slipped over to watch Kristina's big, yellow eyes start to drift closed.

"She's beautiful," Natasha said softly.

"Say hi to your goddaughter," Kate prompted.

Natasha raised a single eyebrow at Kate before she broke into a gentle smile. As Clint made a big deal over very carefully handing over the little one, it was clear for everyone to see he was already smitten with the little girl. "Privet malyshka," Natasha whispered so softly it was nearly a coo as she tickled the lazily swinging tail. When Natasha looked up again, her smile was wide. "Well done — both of you."

"We didn't do anything — she is simply a perfect little princess all on her own," Kurt said, his voice slightly rough with pride and affection, and Kate leaned against him again with a contented sigh.

"Good answer," Natasha said with a smirk. She looked down at the tiny elf in her arms and simply started to murmur in Russian at the little one until Kristina drifted off, and by that time, Kate was very nearly asleep as well.

Softly, Natasha made her way over to Kurt to return the darling girl, and she watched with a growing smile as the seasoned X-Man all but melted around his daughter and back into his chair as he stared down at the precious little newborn.

"What did you have to do to get a purple one?" Clint teased, and Kate let out a long sigh and mightily rolled her eyes.

Natasha reached over and lightly smacked Clint in the back of the head before she turned back to Kate. "She's beautiful, of course," she said.

"Of course," said a new voice that came with a flash of light as Billy and the rest of the Young Avengers arrived. "She's yours."

Kate had to laugh when she saw her friends. "Couldn't wait for the baby snuggles?"

"Not even a little bit," Teddy said — though Cassie beat him to the punch getting to Krissy so she could scoop up the little purple girl from Kurt's arms with a bright 'athankyouverymuch' that had Kurt laughing.

The group of Young Avengers wasted no time bouncing the tiny baby from one person to the next, every single one of them making her over in one way or another. America in particular promised her that she'd show her the "right way to make trouble."

Kate couldn't help but smile as she watched all of her friends with her little girl, even though she was fairly exhausted from the whole thing and could feel that tiredness settling around her shoulders despite her best attempts to be in the moment. After all, having a baby was hard work.

Natasha was the one to notice her exhaustion, though, and she plucked Krissy out of Teddy's arms with a no-nonsense look. "Visiting hours are over," she informed the group. "You can see her tomorrow if you're all really that deprived of contact."

For just a second, Teddy looked like he might argue to try and get the baby snuggles back, but the look on Natasha's face was simply not one that anyone could argue with, and he shut his mouth pretty quickly and nodded along. "Alright."

Natasha smirked at him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll deal with these troublemakers," she promised Kurt and Kate. "You two enjoy yourselves."

The two new parents smiled gratefully at Natasha as she herded the group out, leaving Kate and Kut to curl up with their new little one. And for as tired as they were, it wasn't long before all three were passed out asleep.

And only then did a certain god of mischief show up and leave an Asgardian protection charm on their bed stand to watch over them on their first night as a family.

Translations from German:

"Was ist los?" - What is it?

"Wilkommen in der Welt, Licht meines Lebens" - Welcome to the world, light of my life

From Russian:

"Privet malyshka" - hello, baby

And that does it for this one! Robbiepoo2341 and I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this one and I'd like to direct you to her profile to see the next installment: 'New Teams, Old Problems'.