A/N - yes! Hello, PracticallyAnAvenger! FFN changed things again, so you have to adjust your notification settings if you want to know when new chapters come up. But ... we're closing in on this one ...

Chapter 147 - Gloves Off

When James went in to renegotiate with Sinister, he didn't bother trying to start off on the right foot. In fact, rather than open with a peace offering, he came into the empty lab with a tall latte and no bookbag or laptop, making it clear he wasn't planning to stay and work once he was done saying what he went there to say.

Sinister was already irritated, too - a day off out of the blue was a ridiculous notion, particularly under the guise of 'sickness'.

"Office," Sinister barked out and James looked up to meet his gaze and pointedly sat down on a stool at a work bench.

"No." James took a drink of his coffee then set it down, knowing full well that Sinister would be coming at him to freeze him in place next. "We're alone here as it is, no reason to have a second locked door when we're just going to be talking."

"Where are your materials?" Sinister challenged.

"Put away where they belong," James answered. "You and I both know I've already done a full two years worth of coursework for my degree. Everything else going on is your discretion and you've been taking advantage."

"A bit less charitable this time, are we?" Sinister said, realizing that James hadn't tried to open the same way he had before. "No extra tea today?"

"No, see, I'm American," James said. "And I prefer coffee, so … no. Especially after my olive branch last time was snatched out of my hands and used to beat me." He turned to face Sinister fully, looking more like himself around him than he had in months. "Let's just get right to it. The blackmail is back on."

Sinister grinned broadly. "My dear boy, I believe you'll find that impossible to do now. You helped me to disable it yourself. And I've long since shifted to more reliable backups. Go ahead, set loose your little worm."

"We've talked about this," James said. "You and your insistence to get new samples constantly … I would have thought that you'd keep up on your data much better." He tapped his head. "I no longer need a laptop to trigger it. Cross a line that I've drawn in the concrete and your life's work is gone."

"You must actually be ill," Sinister said. "You know as well as I do that your coding won't do a thing without the right commands."

"And those commands and methods are no longer composed of code," James said. "The trigger on this gun is now magical, tied to my intentions - which are being guarded in part by some handy work my brother did, some spellwork my fiance did, and a sliver of the Phoenix force."

"I thought you weren't eligible to be engaged until your prince was twenty-one?"

"Just a matter of time. And not the point."

Sinister scowled and threw a hand out to freeze James in place before he stalked over and took a hold of James's head. "We'll see about that."

Tread lightly, James warned with a projection. Things have changed here since last you were putting your feet on the furniture. I know you have traps, but Nate has more. And Rachel's contain fire.

When Sinister projected to James, it was all he could hear - far more all encompassing than anyone else had done, and his words rang with exactly the menacing emotions that he was feeling as he spoke. Do you think those children had any idea how to disarm everything I left behind? Do you truly think that I'd let your arrogant little threat from last time stand without repercussions?

Though he was frozen in place, James looked up to see how quickly Sinister had shifted from cautious and inconvenienced to furious and holding back while he loomed over him. Regardless of what you think, I don't want to fight with you. I don't want this to come to that.

I know you don't, Sinister said, though even telepathically, it sounded as if it came from between gritted teeth. Understand this, boy: I have worked too hard and come too far to simply roll over for anyone. What is mine will remain mine, and not you or anyone in your little pack of friends will dictate to me where that line is.

You know my terms, James replied, shoring himself up slightly. My family and friends are off limits. That includes adoptive family. Stay away from the Summers family.

How am I to do that when I'm the only one trusted enough to care for Katherine?

James paused, knowing that Sinister was looking for a way around the traps and triggers Nate and Rachel had set up to thwart him. He hadn't dove in entirely, so he hadn't figured out a way to circumvent much. How much of that is genuine and how much is manipulated?

How much of your willingness to work with me is genuine? Sinister shot back. Consider your answer carefully. You may just find that Katherine is contending with a similar level of cooperation.

Manipulated or not, that was exactly the right angle to take to make James slow down - because he did actually want to learn from him. He knew that there was no better teacher for this subject on the planet … and Sinister could actually teach.

"I'm not going to trade my family's welfare for anything," James said sternly.

"And I refuse to sacrifice my life's work to appease a ranting child."

"You know that's not what's going on."

"For the moment." Sinister scowled and pushed past the level of simply projecting to and reading projections. He knew there were traps, but he didn't have much confidence in children who had learned from anyone less than Xavier. Their instruction was second hand at best. So he didn't truly expect more than a haphazard simple trap that had been erected out of rage and too much power.

He wasn't expecting to find himself encapsulated in a glowing sphere that kept him from touching or altering anything on the psychic plane. For an instant he wondered if he'd managed an actual trap, but as soon as he started to test the boundaries of the bubble to push through forward, he began to feel as if the air was being ripped from his lungs. The harder he pushed, the harder it was to breathe.

A far cleverer trap than he was anticipating, but not exactly something he couldn't work around. The trick, of course, was to push through the panic of not being able to breathe … when one truly didn't need to breathe on the psychic plane to begin with.

Nate and Kate had decided to stay in Genosha for a while after the initial scare, especially since it was clear that Scott and Annie needed the support. But they were on a completely different time zone, so Scott and Annie were asleep at the moment, and Nate and Kate were curled up with each other in the guest room.

And then, in the middle of a long kiss that was threatening to turn into something more substantial, Nate nearly came out of his skin as an alarm went off in his head that let him know one of the many traps he'd set had been triggered.

Kate pulled back to watch Nate and then, seeing the look on his face, pulled out her phone and texted Tommy. "Need me to get you a ride to Westchester?" she asked.

"Yeah," Nate said, his eyes already glowing as he pulled the covers off and started to pull clothes and socks and shoes on. "Faster is better."

"Yeah, I'll make sure he knows that," Kate said.

In no time at all, Tommy zipped over and didn't ask questions before he got Nate to Westchester. His mom had let him know that something was up with that family - again - and he'd honestly been half-expecting to be needed. And he was starting to get more involved anyway, now that the ban on his powers had been lifted.

Nate went tearing down the hallway to Cerebro and jumped into James's mind as soon as he could, not at all surprised to see that Sinister was already pushing his way through the bubble that was his first trap.

And since Kate was still half on his mind, Nate announced his entrance with a psychic arrow right into Sinister's chest just as he emerged from the bubble. "Stay the hell away from my brother's mind," Nate said, stepping in front of James in the psychic plane.

"What makes you think that I'll listen to your demands any more than I'd listen to his?" Sinister hissed.

"Because I'm not asking," Nate said, his eyes glowing with power. The bubble Sinister had stepped out of shattered, and all of the shards of it turned to sharp glass headed right for Sinister.

Before they could hit Sinister, they disintegrated in a flash of red power that turned into a much more focused laser headed right for Nate. Nate threw up a glowing blue shield, but the laser knocked him back a step into one of Sinister's traps: a pool of red energy that swirled around Nate's ankles and pulled at him with hands reaching from the pool, threatening to drown him if he didn't pull away.

"You aren't fighting some amateur, boy."

Nate's eyes flashed again, and he sent another arrow toward Sinister. Since Sinister had already seen that move, he calmly sidestepped it - but Nate had been aiming for his own trap, which was behind Sinister anyway. The trap went off in a burst of blue light, and Sinister found himself once more in a bubble, this time filled with smoke that made it difficult to see Nate.

That gave Nate enough time to pull himself free of Sinister's trap, but of course, that meant Sinister had the time to escape the trap Nate had set off. And that left them both standing on even ground again, glaring at each other.

"Yeah, I'm not an amateur either, old man," Nate said, settling into a fighting stance.

The fight that followed lasted a good, long time in that way - and felt longer than it was because it was all happening on the psychic plane. Both of them had traps set in James's mindscape that they were each making use of, and it was those traps that gave Nate the advantage, because he'd been through James's mind ahead of time and had fixed much of what Sinister had broken. But Sinister was a more powerful telepath than Nate had ever dealt with, and so while Nate had the environmental advantage, he was constantly making use of those traps and tricks just to keep Sinister off-balance - because each psychic blow Sinister landed was substantial.

But the moment Sinister landed a hit that sent Nate to his knees with a psychic knife that had him gasping in pain, Nate lost his temper. Sinister had nearly escaped the bear trap-like trap that Nate had set off, but before he could, Nate reached out with one hand and yanked the trap toward him, nearly taking Sinister's leg off in the process. And he didn't pause, flipping the trap around to throw it toward Sinister's head.

Sinister was panting as he threw up a shield to stop the trap from hitting him, but he was smirking as well. "How good it feels to be proven right. Even if you are lashing out a bit. The determination, however … it suits you. You will lose this round, though, my boy."

Nate pulled a face, one hand to his stomach as he got to his feet. "Yeah, yeah. You give up yet?"

"Not when I have so much more I can do here," Sinister replied.

"I already told you that isn't happening," Nate said.

"Then I'll just have to retreat," Sinister said, grinning in such a way that it was very clear that whatever followed would be damaging. "And take all of my protections with me."

"Okay."

Sinister was grinning as he turned his attention to the massive box that Nate had been unable to breach - and in a matter of moments, all of Sinisters left over traps went off at once and the box cracked open.

Nate had known that whatever Sinister was about to do was going to be rough, but he had said he would do it in retreat, and so he'd prepared to throw whatever energy came his way right back at Sinister to propel him out of James's mind, forcing him to make good on his promise to retreat.

It was genuinely exhausting, because there was so much energy and instability. He was hit with the sharpness and stickiness and hurt of a dozen traps, because he'd been so focused on sending Sinister out that he hadn't shielded himself. And while he was on the ground, curled in on himself and trying to play cooler because James was right there, the ground shook and the wind picked up.

And then, both Nate and James saw a parade of memories flood out of the box Sinister had broken open. They saw James working with Sinister, learning how to use Sinister's methods on people. On subjects. They saw James learning his techniques.

A lot of the memories passed by too quickly for either of them to stay too long in them - thankfully - but when James realized that he recognized one of the subjects as he saw that memory burst out, the memory itself slowed down and surrounded the two of them, with Nate doing his best to keep his concentration and not get too lost in the memory like James was getting.

But it was hard not to get lost, because he knew how close James had gotten to Noh while they'd gone after Midas, and in the memory, James's eyes were wide as Sinister talked him through what he wanted to study in Noh, even though he wasn't a mutant.

Sinister had his hand on James's shoulder. "You see," he was saying to James in the memory, "while the specific genetic codes we have in our world are not the same, it is always interesting to see another geneticist's work. Your new teammate's people engineered their citizens; let's see what we can learn from them."

"How do we do that without a clean sample to start from that isn't already tampered with?" James had asked, which only had Sinister smiling widely.

"You're absolutely right," Sinister said, obviously pleased. "It is easiest to see changes with a comparison like that. However, I've already looked at his genetic structure, and it seems his people engineered a triple-helix. The third helix is where we will focus our study; that seems to be where the most engineering was done."

James nodded, then simply got to work in the memory with Sinister looking more and more smug as the memory continued.

"James, what the futz," Nate said, his voice breaking into the memory and startling James.

"I … don't …" James was staring at the memory as his breath came in shorter, shallower breaths before he let out a soft curse.

It was genuinely horrifying, and it was everything Nate could do to make sure Sinister was still stuck on the outside. James was watching it all and having a genuine panic attack, and Nate couldn't help him because he was hurt and putting everything he had into making sure Sinister didn't come back in while James was that vulnerable.

"Hey. Big brother," Nate said in a whisper as he dragged himself upright. He'd taken a serious beating from what Sinister had pulled, but he was too stubborn to let the defenses down. "Hey, I need your help," he said, hoping that would break James out of his horror. But when not even that worked, Nate, groaning, dragged himself over, pulled himself upright, and hit James. "Hey!"

James was still half out of it, but now he could at least recognize that Nate was in trouble. "You're going to get hurt worse," James told him as he shifted to trying to support Nate, though he was still visibly reeling. "I'll be alright - you can go. Before it happens again."

Nate shook his head. "I'm okay," he promised. "And I used his attack to kick him out. He can't get in right now." Even as he spoke, they could see red light shattering against a blue dome above their heads as Sinister tested Nate's telepathic defenses.

James did his best to help hold Nate up. "This is so far out of my realm."

"That's okay. Just means I get to be the badass this time," Nate said with a crooked smirk.

"What else is new?" James said, starting to pull himself out of the panic. "It's just a toss up between you and Rachel, and we all know you've got her beat."

Nate grinned at that. "Yeah, well, speaking of Rachel… can you reach out to her real quick? I'm too tired to do anything but keep him out, and we need to reset all those traps."

"Yeah, I think so," James said, keeping a hold on Nate as he concentrated on Rachel.

Nate leaned heavily on his brother, letting James hold him up so he could put his whole focus on keeping Sinister out. He was getting tired, but as soon as Rachel arrived, he relaxed a bit more.

"Okay, we have to reset the traps," Nate said.

"Nate, I'm right next to him outside of the psychic plane," James pointed out. "You need to get out and get your strength back in case he decides to kill me."

"Yeah, just… we need our alarm system to work. I only need like, two minutes," Nate said. Rachel was already getting to work, taking the fight into Sinisters head using the energy Nate had redirected to push him all the way back. "We can't take chances with him. Just… look, I hate to be grim, but even an instant kill, it takes a few seconds, right? For your body to die? I've got time to get out."

"Yeah, in theory," James said. "And I doubt it would stick, but still …"

"I've got it set," Rachel said - faster than Nate had expected… and much fierier than usual. "Let's go."

"I'm texting Billy to wish you out of there as soon as I get back in my head," Nate told James. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and was about to leave when all of a sudden, everything dimmed to darkness and fell silent. Nate instinctively snapped back into his own head, opening his eyes in the Cerebro room and gasping in his breath, his hand on his chest in pure panic when he realized what had happened.

That was too close. And it was genuinely terrifying that Sinister was willing to take a chance at losing Nate by killing James- even though Sinister was so thrilled with Nate. With both of them.

Nate's nose was bleeding freely, and he had an extreme headache. With shaking hands, he pulled the helmet off and slid the rest of the way to the floor, then put his head between his knees for a long minute before he did text Billy.

Wish James to you. Now. But be prepared. I think Sinister killed him. Not permanently. Just… lashing out.

He set his phone down and rested his head on his knees, too tired to care what Billy's reaction was as long as he got James to safety. And he stayed there until he heard the door to the room open. He didn't even have to look up to know it was his sister, either; he'd seen how worried she looked. "I'm fine. You need to go to James and Billy and set more traps or this will all have been for nothing."

"Yeah, well … you're getting a few too. That was nasty," Rachel said as she sat down next to him.

"Yeah, James is the priority," Nate said, wiping his hand under his nose and frowning at how much blood was still there.

"Pretty sure Billy has him covered right now."

"Yeah." Nate took a long, deep breath. "I beat him, Rach. That's why he killed James. He couldn't get back in because I threw his damn traps back at him."

"And he was with James physically … yeah, that really sucks."

"But we've got the blackmail back on, and as long as we keep our alarm system and traps in place, we'll be okay until we figure something else out," Nate said firmly. "Right now, I'm more worried about James. Sinister was controlling him before; that's what that safe was. And Dad can't know about how that went down today, because he's already stressed enough as it is. He's still convinced we're doomed when it comes to this guy."

"I get that, but I'm worried about you and James," Rachel said.

"You never stop, huh?" Nate teased lightly and leaned over to rest his head on her shoulder.

"Sure I do. Right after you."

"Touche." Nate sighed and closed his eyes. "Sorry. I'm getting blood on your shirt. I should probably ask Hank for something to make that stop."

"Try using my shirt," Rachel deadpanned.

Nate chuckled at that, and they sat in silence for several long minutes before Nate cleared his throat. "So. I guess this is what we do now."

"Sit around and bleed?"

"Nah, fight a terrifying supervillain with hardly any notice just to keep our brother from being turned into an unwilling lab assistant."

"I didn't see all that," Rachel admitted. "I'd be more worried about how he handles that part."

"He didn't respond to me asking for help until I hit him, so…"

"So about as well as you'd imagine."

"Pretty much." Nate wiped his nose again and was glad to see that the blood had slowed down, at any rate. "So, do we pull in the people who don't know? I know Dad and Uncle Alex and James want to keep this in the family, but, like… this is bad, right?"

"It is bad," she agreed. "But we should regroup with those most central and work our way out. No telling if there are telepathic commands buried in there that would be triggered if we step out too quickly."

"Yeah, I'm just saying: it seems like Wanda wants a shot at whoever's bothering us…"

"I'm sure she does, but," Rachel took a deep breath. "I'm worried about repercussions on the magical realm with her. She has her father's temper."

"Good point. And James doesn't want the whole team involved."

"James doesn't get much of a vote," Rachel said flatly. "He's been under this creep's thumb for the whole school year."

"No, this was before the influence," Nate said. "When he looked into the guy… I don't know. Part of why I haven't told, like, Thor or somebody what's going on is that Sinister treats some people differently than others. Some are disposable. And he killed James because he got mad - and he doesn't want me or James dead." From Nate's tone, it was increasingly clear to Rachel that Nate wasn't filtering his thoughts and was panicking more than he realized he was - and hurt more than he would admit.

"And he almost killed you tonight," Rachel said gently. "If you had been a little slower …"

"He doesn't want me dead, and he almost killed me," Nate said, still spinning. "He wouldn't have left even the possibility of escape if it was someone else that he didn't care about. And I keep going back and forth on totally understanding why James doesn't want to get anyone else involved and risk lives and wanting to ask for help because that was bad, Rach. It was bad. And my head is killing me," he added, letting out a sound from the back of his throat.

"So … you need Kate."

"Yeah. And. Um." He cleared his throat. "I wouldn't say no to you setting a few traps for me."

"Oh, I was going to do that anyhow."

"That's the big sister I know and love," Nate said, closing his eyes to let Rachel into his mind.

Tommy had gone to his brother as soon as he'd dropped off Nate, knowing things were about to go down. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew his brother and the Summers family were up to something.

So Billy had a little bit of warning ahead of time, but neither of them had expected Nate's text.

"Ho-lee crap," Tommy said when Billy wished James to them. James was a bloody mess with a scalpel jammed underneath his jaw at his carotid.

"I'm going to wish him into the sun," Billy said through his teeth - but what he did instead was remove the scalpel, cover the injury with his hand, and give James a healing boost with a spell his mom had taught him now that he was studying more magic with Strange.

After a few minutes, James started to breathe, and Tommy leaned back, shaking his head. "This sucks. Whatever it is, I hate it already. What the heck."

"You can't tell Mom about this," Billy said, even as he shifted so James's head was in his lap, supporting him more than healing him.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because she'll try to fix it, and I've already looked into what it would take to do, and I can't find a solution that doesn't tap into that weird cosmic something I used when I killed Katarina," Billy told him frankly. "We're fighting a guy that can send his soul into other bodies; it's hard to kill something like that."

"You mean without any big consequences."

"Right. And from what I've seen from the books I've borrowed from Strange, soul-hunting is… it's bad. It's really bad."

"Well it doesn't exactly sound good," Tommy pointed out.

"Yeah. So, you're in the circle. We're dealing with a mad scientist who's figured out how to make himself practically unkillable. It sucks, but we're dealing with it." Billy peeked down at James, who was starting to wake up. "We're dealing with it, right? What's going on? Do we pull the blackmail lever now, or…?"

James took a second to focus on where he was before he drew in a quick breath and sat up fast - one hand on his neck where he'd been stabbed. That wasn't anything like he'd been expecting - and though he knew it was a distant possibility, Sinister had been so careful with him up until that point … "What?"

"What?" Billy blinked back at him. "What happened? Nate texted me to wish you here, and you were dead, so… you're the one with answers, handsome."

As James thought about it, his hands started shaking all over again, on the edge of a panic attack as he remembered everything that Sinister had set loose. But his tone was almost distant when he responded with "He lost his temper."

"Yeah, I'm getting that idea." Billy shifted so he could put his hand on James's chest and pull him back down for a moment longer. "You've got good backup, though. We got you out."

"I pushed him too far." James shook his head. "I'm not going back unless I have to."

Billy let his shoulders drop, and he kissed James upside down. "Good. You can be my cabana boy, then," he said, trying to tease out a smile.

James gave him a dry look. "I can finish most of my doctoral stuff without being on campus."

"So, cabana boy," Tommy put in, grinning.

"That's boy to you."

"Okay." Tommy shook his head and got to his feet. "So, Billy will explain things to me later, I'm sure, but I know not to tell anyone about your mad scientist problem. But if you need help, I'm in the circle now, just so you know."

"Hey Tommy?" James said, which at least got him to stop before he took off. "Thanks for getting Nate so fast."

Tommy paused and then smiled despite himself. "Hey, you're gonna be in the family soon. Billy says I'm best man, so… I gotta get the groom to the wedding, right?"

"Provided I don't find new, stupider ways to screw myself over, you mean."

"Yeah, that," Tommy said, giving James a two-fingered salute before he rushed off, leaving Billy shaking his head.

"Okay, seriously, you okay?" Billy asked once Tommy was gone.

"No," James said crisply. "I need to go take a shower and freak out for a minute. I am failing at holding back a panic attack and I just … need a minute."

"Okay." Billy helped him to his feet. "I'll order food. I know you need to heal after that."

"Love you too," James said, frowning at himself when all he could see looking down was deep red. "Oh, man. Sorry about the whole …" he gestured to himself and let the sentiment fall.

"James, if blood was a dealbreaker for me, you'd know by now," Billy teased. "I'm fine. Go clean up and you can catch me up on what I'm sure was an epic fight."

"I'll do what I can," James said before he stole a quick kiss and headed off at a fast clip. He practically dove into the shower, then slipped down to sit on the floor, hugging his knees before he let himself go. He wasn't exaggerating to Billy. He needed to just … go ahead and have that panic attack. But at least this time, he didn't try to rush himself or push it back. Instead, he rode it out, even though he ended up entirely curled into himself until the water ran cold.

When he finally got out of the shower, dried off, and headed to the living room to see Billy and grab a bite to eat, he was exhausted. And entirely unprepared to see Rachel, who nearly tackled him in a tight hug when she saw him.

"You gotta do this right now?" James asked, though his shoulders were relaxed as he snuggled into her.

"Yes, of course i do," Rachel said, sounding emotional. "You have to stop using yourself as a buffer. You're going to get yourself killed permanently."

"Did you just come here to read me the riot act?"

"No. I'm reinforcing Nate's work and setting more traps," Rachel answered. "We can't let you go wandering around with Sinister knowing how to get in there and screw with you."

"I'm not going back unless I have to."

"Uh huh. I'm sure that'll work out long term," she said, shaking her head. "You know he won't let this be."

James shrugged. "You never know …"

"Optimistic. I like it. But you know he's going to come for you. He liked you."

"I just took a shower and suddenly feel like I need another one."

Rachel crossed her arms and gave him a wry look. "James. You've been defending him for months. You're just now listening to everything we were telling you before. Don't act like you've been upset the whole time."

"You really wanna pull an I told you so on Dad's behalf right now?"

"No," she said, frowning mildly. "I want to safeguard you. Let me try and protect you, doofus." Her frown shifted to a much warmer expression. "And if you end up not going anywhere near that creep for the rest of your life, then great. I just don't want you to leave yourself open in case he decides to come looking for you."

James nodded and followed her over to the couch, grateful that Billy welcomed him there with hot food while his sister prepared to do battle in his head … just in case.

Annie kept Scott in the loop with as much information as his kids were willing to share with him. For the moment, it seemed like they had won at least some kind of ceasefire with Sinister, though how long that would last, none of them were sure.

And Annie was doing her best, but she was struggling to keep hold of her emotions. Even with as well as things were going, even knowing that the tide was turning to their favor, she just felt like she'd been hit so many times first with her father and now with this… she couldn't help but get emotional.

Scott knew that he was asking a lot of her, too. He had meant to be there for her, to be around to hold her up after she had sacrificed so much to be part of his life. But all he could do, for now, was mentally curse Sinister for choosing now of all times to show up and make it difficult for him to help.

Of course, Annie kept assuring him that the colorful swearing he was doing in his head, all directed at Sinister, was more than cheering her up. And the even more colorful swearing as he had checked to see if the light still hurt his eyes while he was healing - and it did - also had her laughing. So at least there was that.

But when Annie took a moment to herself that night after dinner, Scott grabbed his phone and called Alex. "Hey," he said without waiting for Alex to say anything other than "hello." "New development. Can I borrow you tomorrow if things don't get any better? Someone came and played with my optic nerves, and even cyberoptics don't help with that."

"...what?"

"You heard me." Scott leaned back. "Look, I wouldn't ask, but Annie just lost her dad, and I hate to-"

"Scotty, why the hell do you wait to tell me these things until you're in recovery somewhere?" Alex interrupted him. "I'm coming over. See you soon." With that, Alex ended the call, leaving Scott shaking his head.

So, Alex is coming over, he projected to Annie. I told him what happened.

I was wondering when he'd be here, Annie admitted. Weren't you just talking to him after it happened?

Checking on his kids. Sinister was looking into Chris before, remember?

If it was me, Craig would have broken down the door about an hour after it happened.

I believe it.

Has he already eaten?

You don't have to feed everyone that comes over.

You weren't raised with the etiquette I was. I'll make sure we have something… I'm pretty sure I have some cookies I was going to send to Kate; he can have a few of those.

Scott smirked, but he knew Annie really did do better when she had something to do, so he let her be. He took a moment to himself to see if his eyes were healing up, too, and, small miracles, light didn't hurt anymore. He had no idea what Sinister had been playing with, but it seemed like his cyberoptics were reconnecting and possibly repairing whatever it was.

He knew the layout of the house well enough by that point that, even if he hadn't been able to see at all, he would have been able to find Annie in the kitchen. So, he made it a point to slip over to where she was looking through the cabinets and put his arms around her to pull her into a kiss.

"Hey," he said quietly, "I called him so you could get a break."

"I am far too stressed to sit down right now," Annie shot back. Then, she paused and returned the kiss. "But thanks. Maybe I'll call my own siblings, check and make sure they're okay. It should be morning there."

"Early," Scott said.

"Right. Time zone math." Annie rolled her eyes. "But really, if you want privacy-"

"No, I just wanted to offer you a break."

She smiled at that. "Thanks. I'll be fine. Isn't that what you're always saying?"

"Okay, that's not fair."

"Sure it is."

Scott smiled and leaned over her shoulder as she worked, hanging onto her waist and being absolutely no help, as she kept telling him through laughter - until Alex knocked on the door and he finally stole a kiss and went to go greet his brother, glad to have gotten Annie laughing, anyway.

"Alex, I'm fine," he said as he opened the door. "It's not like I can do anything but wait to heal right now."

"Oh sure, don't even give me a chance to help before you tell me I can't," Alex said before he pressed a pill bottle into Scott's hand. "Take this. It's supposed to help specifically with nerve pain. And if it doesn't do that, it definitely helps with anxiety, too."

"Oh, good, can you get more?" Annie called from the kitchen, dusting her hands off on her apron. "Have you eaten, Alex? Scott seems to think I shouldn't be hospitable and ask that."

Scott pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not what I said."

"I'm good, Annie," Alex said brightly. "And there should be enough in there to last him a week if he lets you tell him when it's time to take them."

"He will," Annie said, slipping over to give Alex a warm hug. "It's good to see you, honestly. We haven't really gotten to breathe in a while, and as selfish as it sounds, I'm so glad someone else knows what's happening."

"Yeah, well I'm a little behind on that, admittedly," Alex said before he turned back to Scott dramatically - for Annie's entertainment. "What is going on, big brother? And why did you wait to tell me anything at all?"

Scott sighed and gestured for Alex to follow him to sit down at the table. "Seems like Sinister figured he had a way around that blackmail James had against him, and he was in James's head deep enough that Nate and Rachel had to fight him to get him out," he explained. "He's out again, the ceasefire is back on, and we're back where we started - just waiting for him to figure out another avenue of attack."

"Yeah, that sounds like it's time for me to start sleeping on your couch."

"I'm fine," Scott insisted.

"Well I'm not fine knowing that my big brother's closet monster is creeping around like dracula again."

"Not to mention the man was trying to prep to replace those eyes instead of just studying the damage," Annie said, blatantly saying what Scott wasn't. "And wondering aloud if while he was in there he shouldn't change more things."

Alex gestured to Annie with one hand. "This is the kind of thing you always leave out," he complained.

"Force of habit," Scott said at the same time Annie snorted.

"Well, knock it off!" Alex half shouted.

Scott held both hands up defensively. "It wasn't my idea!"

"The exploratory surgery, he means," Annie said, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry; I've become his translator. I swear that's why that vampire gave me these powers. He is maddening when you can hear the ninety-percent of thoughts he has without speaking them into being."

"Wait, I called you so you could give Annie a break, and now you're teaming up," Scott said, running a hand down his face.

"That's because he's a lovely future brother-in-law," Annie said, smiling warmly at Alex. "And he's on my side."

"And you don't talk," Alex added. "I have never been telepathic. I need words, Scott."

Scott kept his hand over his eyes as the two of them built on each other. And then, quietly, he said, "I did call to ask for help."

"Yes, but you need to be more specific and tell me more before you're in a spot where you need all this help."

"Sure, I'll get a crystal ball," he said dryly.

"When was the last time you talked to your therapist?" Alex challenged.

"Oh, I love him," Annie said, grinning triumphantly.

"You were doing so much better before, Scotty," Alex said. "You are slipping."

"I can't actually tell him what's going on," Scott pointed out.

"So, you can't tell him about Sinister, but you can keep working on any of your other very actionable therapeutic issues."

"Most of which I'm struggling with because of Sinister," Scott said. "You see how that's a problem, right?"

"Yeah, but you see how it's a problem to let it just go wild in the meantime, right?"

"He'd totally understand if you just explained that there was something going on with a telepathic bad guy," Annie said. "He'd just ask you to talk about what you could."

"Right?" Alex said, gesturing to Annie with one hand. "Because this one is a real therapist and can actually help."

Scott leaned back and then swore under his breath. "Of all the times to gang up…"

"Can you call him and make arrangements?" Alex said to Annie, ignoring Scott's reaction.

"Oh, absolutely," Annie said. And then, because she knew it would help their argument, she added, "He gave up a lot of his clients because he needed to be on call for all the heroes seeing him. And he needs something to do right now. Losing Dad hit him hard, and he's drifting."

"Do you want ours for a while?" Alex teased.

"Lord, no. Your father is a fool."

"Are you sure?" Alex was grinning broadly. "Might take your mind off of things."

"It absolutely would in all the worst ways."

"Okay. You heard it, Scotty. Either you work out something with your therapist or I'll ask Dad to come keep you company for the duration."

"I can't believe this is how you decided to be helpful."

"Hey. Our Dad is a pirate. I learned things. And I did bring you some meds for the nerves, so I helped … and now I'm helping some more."

Scott swore under his breath. "Fine," he said.

"I'm sorry, what?" Annie said, smiling broadly.

"Fine," he said. "But only because I know Alex will actually follow through on his threat."

"I will cry on the video call," Alex said, grinning.

"Devious," Annie said. "But let's save that for when we get married and you're in charge of getting him to our wedding on time."

"Oh, I'll just tell him it's a week before it actually is, then have his crew maroon him here."

"Yeah, that'd work," Scott said, smirking quietly. "Okay, I'll call Craig. Now can we move on?"

"Oh, yes, please, tell us about Chris!" Annie said. "How are his powers coming along? I know you've been excited to work with him."

Thank you, Scott projected to Annie as Alex beamed and took a deep breath to break into bragging on his son.

I'm going to call Craig myself if you back out.

Yes ma'am, Scott said, and Annie rolled her eyes but leaned over to kiss him anyway.