Notes: Okay, so even though there's still plenty more to this story, the made one-a-day pace will be pausing for a moment so me and my husband can go on a romantic anniversary trip for a little while. I'll be back later!

Chapter 3: Don't Touch My Mom!

Clint didn't want K to know that he was still kinda a lot nervous about the bad guys coming after her, especially after what had happened when they grabbed him, so he was fairly quiet when they found a place to camp out for a little while — far from the main roads and in a well-wooded area.

He knew that K had been real mad about how that had gone down, too. He'd never heard her make the sound that she'd made when the bad guys had him, but it had echoed all the way down to his feet, so he knew it had to have scared the bad guys… even if it had scared him a little too.

Not that he'd tell K that. He didn't want her to think he was scared of her, because he wasn't. He just… didn't want to deal with those bad guys again. They had been real big, and he hadn't been able to hit them like he wanted. But… if he had to, then next time he would work real hard to make sure he did hit them hard.

"You look like you've got a lot on your mind," K said quietly once she'd settled in a little better. "Not that I blame you."

Clint bit his lip and nodded. "It's just… it's just you're my mom," he said. "And I wanna stay with you."

"Well that is the plan," she said.

"Yeah, but…" He looked down at his hands. "I'm not real good at fighting those guys."

"Yet. It's hard when you're small," she agreed.

"D'you think I'll get better, then?" he asked. "Because I didn't even get to hit 'em like I wanted until after I bit the guy that grabbed me," he added, his eyes wide as he tried to emphasize how little he'd been able to do of what he had been learning.

"Of course you will," K replied. "They got the drop on you, too. Don't forget that. I know you weren't expecting them."

"Yeah, I guess that's true too," he allowed, then bit his lip and looked up at her. "I just don't want you to get hurt either."

"I'll be fine," she said, sure to give him a little smile.

He nodded slowly and then started to smile. "Yeah, because you're really scary to bad guys and you can take 'em down," he said.

"I've had a lot of practice," K told him. "Hopefully, you won't have that much."

Clint shrugged. "That's how you get good," he said. When she opened her mouth to argue, he quickly added, "But we can start with some not-super bad bad guys. Like… like training wheels on Barney's bike. Right?"

"Yeah, something like that," she agreed, shaking her head. "Just regular jerks first."

"Okay, yeah. We'll do that," Clint agreed and then made sure to dash over to hug her, his face all but pressed into her side. "I love you a lot, Mom."

"I love you a lot, too," she replied, wrapping him up in a hug.

He grinned at that and then rushed off to go find Sicem. They'd found a barn that it looked like the owners weren't using — maybe they were gone for a summer vacation; Clint didn't know. There was old hay and a loft and everything, and he was more than happy to explore with Sicem, even if K had to warn him to be careful of some of the wood that was in disrepair so he didn't fall.

Even if he told K that he wasn't scared of heights at all and that he was going to be a pilot one day and fly like a bird. Since, after all, she said he was a baby chick.

And speaking of baby chicks…

"Mom!" Clint shouted, his eyes wide. "Mom, there's a nest up here!"

"Yeah? What do the babies look like?" K called up to him before she started climbing up to see alongside him.

"Umm… brown," Clint said.

"Fuzzy?"

"Yeah, brown and fuzzy," Clint said, nodding along.

She made her way up and settled in right next to him as he pointed across the open span to where the nest was — tucked up high. "Oh. I thought they might be barn owls, but … nope," K reached over to ruffle his hair. "You probably can't hear it - but mom is getting upset outside. We should get down. Red-tailed Hawks are a little territorial and they won't like us this close."

"Sorta like you, huh?" he teased as he started to follow her down. "Mama hawks don't like it when you mess with their baby chicks?"

"I don't think that there is one kind of animal that appreciates people screwing with their kids," K pointed out.

Clint nodded, jumping the last two rungs on the rope ladder with a smile. "Well, I guess I won't sleep up in the loft so I don't make anybody mad," he said with a nod.

"The loft is probably fine," K said. "But maybe keep out of the rafters."

"Never know — maybe I'll find more babies up there," Clint laughed. "Some owls or maybe some itty bitty ducks or some baby spiders or… lotsa things could be here!" To emphasize his point, he started poking around some of the hay, determined to find more animals.

"More likely just the spiders," K replied. "The smaller, tasty things are going to keep away from the hawks."

"Probably smart," Clint said.

Eventually, Clint did get tired of poking around the barn and came back to find that K had pulled together dinner for them over a small fire outside the barn. She'd made sure to set it up before it got dark so that they wouldn't attract any attention, but Clint wasn't really thinking about that. He just liked the smell of the fire and the warmth and the feeling of sitting in between Sicem and K by the fire.

K pointed out to him a few of the different sounds of the night creatures — she could hear them a lot better than he could, but he could pick out some of them if they were clear or loud enough. And she also showed him a few tracks before they lost the light altogether, and K kicked some dirt on the last embers of the fire.

Clint ultimately decided that he wouldn't stay in the loft, because he wanted to give the mama hawk plenty of space. Instead, he curled up with Sicem close by where K would sleep — though at the moment, she didn't look like she was getting ready to sleep, instead listening to the night world around them.

She was frowning, and Clint sat up a little straighter when he saw it, tapping her arm to get her attention and sign out, You okay?

She held one finger to her lips and tipped her head, eyes closed, as she listened a little harder to the night around them. Go hide. Quietly.

Clint nodded quickly and got to his feet, doing his best to be as sneaky as he could as he ducked further back into the barn. There were some tall stacks of hay that he thought might be good hiding places — and there would be space for K, too.

He had only just ducked out of sight when he caught the first glimpse of soldiers starting to melt out of the darkness, and his heart skipped a beat. He clapped a hand over his mouth to try and stay quieter, ducking down further. He was sure his mom would handle it like she had before — but he didn't want them to find him and make her mad again.

Clint stayed low as much as he could before he popped his head out just slightly to see how things were going... but unlike the other times he'd seen K take on guys like this, it didn't look like she was winning. At all.

He winced down behind the hay as the soldiers rushed in around K. She wasn't fighting as gracefully as she usually did with a handful of what looked like darts sticking out of her arm and shoulder, but that didn't mean she was making it easy for them, either. Clint wanted to help if he could, sneaking around the edge of the fight to look for an opening. He still had his pocket knife in his back pocket that he could maybe throw if he could get a clear shot at the people closest to K, though there were a lot of them.

But when K started to stumble a bit, Clint saw an opening and threw his knife right through the wrist of the soldier who reached for K when she slipped — exactly like K had taught him to throw it. So that was pretty good, even if it meant that the guys in black uniforms looked his way and it was starting to dawn on Clint that oh yeah that might have been stupid.

As a few of the soldiers moved to start to carry K off, and it was obvious she was drifting into unconsciousness, a pair of soldiers split off to move toward Clint. But before they could get any further, a new group came rushing in.

Clint didn't know who any of these people in weirdly colorful clothes were, and as long as they were fighting off the guys in black uniforms, he didn't exactly care — right up until one of the newcomers stooped down to pick up K.

And then it didn't really matter who these new guys were. He didn't care if it was a power play or what; he just knew that nobody — nobody — got to put their hands on K.

He didn't have his pocket knife on him anymore, but these guys hadn't snuck up on him, and K had taught him how to make it count if he really had to fight, so in a rush of little-boy snarls, Clint launched himself from behind the bales of hay to attack the guy in yellow and blue.

What he couldn't have known — because he had never in his life read a newspaper or anything — was that these newcomers were the X-Men, and the guy he was trying to take down was an Avenger to boot, Wolverine, and there was just no way the hits were going to put Wolverine down, even if he was hitting all the right spots that K had shown him.

Not that it was going to deter him from trying even harder when the guy holding K didn't go down right away. That was his mom, after all.

And Logan, for his part, was more than a little caught off his guard by the tiny, blond ball of fury that had attached himself as soon as he'd bent down by the little brunette to carry her back to the jet.

The kid couldn't have been more than eight, maybe. And yet it was abundantly clear that someone had taught him how to fight, because if it hadn't been for the adamantium and the healing, some of those hits would have actually done him some damage.

It was clear to tell the kid was terrified, and Logan tried to get him to calm down. "Take it easy, kid," Logan rumbled out as he frowned at the flurry of kicks and hits. "You're gonna hurt yourself." But the kid's scent and heart rate spiked when Scott got there to try and help Logan by pulling the kid off of him.

"Leave her alone!" Clint shrieked, squirming around as Scott tried to get a better hold of him while Logan shifted how he was holding the unconscious woman and simply carried her toward the jet.

"It's alright," Scott tried to explain to the clearly panicked boy. "It's alright; we're not going to hurt either of you."

But Clint flat-out didn't believe Scott and simply responded by biting his hand hard enough that a very surprised Cyclops simply dropped Clint, and Clint took off at a sprint to catch up to Logan and K.

By the time he caught up, Logan was almost to the blackbird with K, where Hank would be there to give her a better once-over, considering some of the heavy drugs that Logan could smell they'd given her, but once again, he had a very angry eight-year-old to deal with when Clint rushed to block him. "Comin' back for more, killer?" Logan asked over his shoulder.

"You better let her go or — or you'll be in trouble," Clint shot back, still wide-eyed and with his hands in fists.

"I'm just gettin' her away from the creeps in the black pajamas," Logan said, totally undeterred.

Clint shook his head, clearly not believing the line, but this time, Clint didn't get close enough to Logan, telekinetically pulled back. Jean reached out a hand to clear the path for Logan to deal with the unconscious woman and she reached out telepathically to calm Clint down. We're here to help, she promised Clint. We just want to make sure she's alright and get her some medical help if she needs it.

Clint spun around to face Jean, his eyes wide and his hands clenched in fists, but he didn't launch himself at the tall, pretty redhead like he had with Logan, instead just glaring at her. It was clear to the whole team that Clint was terrified, but since they hadn't known there was a kid in play going in, a lot of them were thrown off their game.

Jean gave Clint her warmest, friendliest smile as she slowly walked toward him. "You can stay with her," she offered.

Clint didn't need any more excuse than that before he took off at almost a run to the jet with a golden retriever flying behind him, both of them climbing inside and surprising Hank as the little boy simply rushed to K's side, looking distressed at the fact that she wasn't awake yet — and then outright terrified when he saw that there was a fuzzy blue Beast working on her.

Jean reached out to put a hand on Clint's shoulder to stop him from doing something rash like attacking Hank the way he'd attacked Logan, but Clint pulled away from her and rushed to put himself between K and Hank with such a look of terrified determination that it set Hank back a step.

"She's not hurting anybody so just — just leave her alone!" Clint insisted in a shaky voice as Sicem pushed his head under Clint's hand, half whining at him until the little boy automatically started petting the dog's ears.

"My dear boy, I would never harm someone who is to be under my care," Hank said as gently as he could, though it was clear he was taken aback by the young man. "We simply wish to get you far away from the men who were trying to capture her."

"You guys're the ones capturing her!" Clint pointed out with his chin stuck out defiantly.

"Young man, we're getting you away from the men that had her captive." He shook his head and crouched down so he was on Clint's level. "You'll both be free to leave if you choose once we're away from these rogues."

Clint narrowed his eyes at Hank, clearly not believing him in the least. "Sure," he muttered.

"Now, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to monitor her and make sure that whatever they drugged her with doesn't kill her."

Clint frowned for just a moment before he finally stepped aside and nodded. "Okay, but I'm not going anywhere, and if you hurt her, you'll get it," he warned seriously, though once Hank started to set K up for monitoring, he went from standing in front of K to a more nervous sort of hover, peering over to make sure he could see she was okay for himself.

While Hank was working on K, Jean sat down next to Clint to try to give him a better introduction for the team, since it was clear he was scared still. "What's your name?" she asked with a gentle smile.

"You first," Clint shot back without missing a beat, and Jean shook her head at that and ignored the smirk from Logan that she didn't even have to turn around to know about.

"Jean," she said, still trying to give him a reassuring smile.

"Clint," the little boy said, watching Jean carefully as she smiled and went through the names of everyone in the jet, though she was surprised when he actually let out a sort of snort when she explained that "we're the X-Men."

"Uh-huh, okay, no really," Clint said.

She smiled his way, doing her best not to laugh. "No. Really. That's what we call ourselves. Kind of like the Avengers but more specialized."

"Okay, but the Avengers are superheroes and I've never heard of you," Clint said.

Logan snorted as Jean tried again to explain that yes, they were also heroes, just not as well known. "Most of our work is for the mutant community."

"O….kay," Clint said, wrinkling his nose at her. "So how come you're here?"

She paused and blinked a couple of times before she tipped her head K's way. "Your friend... She needed help."

"My mom," Clint corrected her quickly. "And she can handle herself."

"Alright, your mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to assume. And … those people were going to take her. We fight them more often than we should have to."

"Are they after you too?"

"Some of us," she said, nodding.

Clint looked around the jet with a little frown before he slowly nodded and crossed his arms. "She can kick their butts."

"That's good," Jean said, nodding. "But everyone needs a little help now and again." She leaned forward a little bit. "Can you tell me what it is that she can do?"

Clint looked over at K and frowned for a moment. "I guess… I guess she has super hearing and stuff," he said. "And she can smell way better than me." He leaned forward with a little smile, seemingly unheeding the silence that had suddenly descended on the jet. "And she can kick butt with knives and swords and a bow and everything, so watch out!"

The jet was quiet again, and Clint looked around at the suddenly frowning group. But since he had no idea why they all looked like they were just starting to realize why the soldiers had been after K, he just grinned that much wider. "Toldja she's scary."

Well, that explains the size of the force that went after them, Scott said, though the adults were sure to keep their conversation telepathic when there was an obviously stressed kid in the jet.

"Water's in the cabinet in the back if you need it," Logan said to Clint, since the others were obviously trying to figure out how to handle this situation. Might be making a mistake taking her in, Logan added toward the group. Just barely got 'em to back off.

More reason to take her in, Jean pointed out.

Could take her to the Avengers instead, Logan replied. Too many mutants they want in one place could be more than they'll pass up.

We're not taking her to the Avengers, Scott said, giving Logan a dry look.

Why not? Logan was being perfectly serious.

Well for one thing, Jean cut in before Scott could get going, there's a sweet little boy.

Not sure that's much of an argument, Logan replied. Better security — more chance of public outcry if they try it there.

No one knows how to keep mutants safe better than us, Scott said, shaking his head. Come on. This is what we do.

Might want to find out more about her first, Slim.

Clint was completely ignorant of the telepathic conversation going on around him as K finally started to stir a bit — not waking up but slowly coming back out of the full unconsciousness — and he all but tripped over himself to where K was to stand by Hank, craning his neck a bit.

"She's okay, right?" Clint asked, for the first time losing some of the overconfidence.

"It would seem so," Hank replied gently with a little smile. "Perhaps a bit more time."

Clint nodded carefully as he watched K. "She's ... they snuck up on us," he said, defensively. "That's all. She doesn't need help — we don't need help, okay?"

"I'd still like to speak with her when she wakes up fully," Hank told him — just as gently as before. "That's all. Just a little talk, and you can both be on your way if you so choose."

Clint let his shoulders drop a bit as he exhaled all his breath at once. "Fine. I guess," he said, settling in to wait.

When K did finally open her eyes, it was to quickly glance around her surroundings before she sat up and took a more thorough look at everyone in the plane — at least until she saw Logan. Then, it was clear she'd recognized him, and every muscle was tensed, ready to fight her way out.

Not that Logan's reaction was anything to deter the situation. Once he saw her react, he couldn't help but tense up too. And that's how the two of them spent the next long few moments — just waiting for the other to make a move.

And once again, the mood of the jet had shifted. Where before, Clint had relaxed a bit, once he saw that K was tense and watching Logan, he was right back to not trusting the group and standing between K and Hank, which had the good doctor frowning at the two strangers.

Jean frowned and held her hands out and up between them. "No one is going to hurt anyone," she said evenly.

K didn't respond except for the slight tightening around her eyes as she tried to figure out which of them she'd hit first, and when her gaze found Clint, he quickly signed out a quick question: "Run?"

She nodded minutely in response and tightened her fists, ready to call the redhead a liar, though the confrontation came to a sudden and immediate pause when they were nearly to Westchester and both of the newcomers simply… froze.

"Yeah, that'll make this go easier," Logan deadpanned.

"At least it'll get us to the school and out of the sky," Scott pointed out.

"This isn't going to keep your plane in one piece anyhow," Logan said, turning his head to look out the window — and to rile Scott.

"You're not going to throw down with her in front of her son," Scott said.

"You don't know if he's her son," Logan said, sounding totally unconcerned.

"Oh, well that changes everything," Scott said dryly. "Go ahead and throw down then; I'm sure he won't mind."

"I wasn't gonna fight her — just stop her." Logan shook his head with his eyes closed. "But since I've got permission …"

"Both of you stop it," Jean said, shaking her head at them. "We can figure this out when we're on the ground."