Cheshire ... guess you get All-Star status this chapter. Thank you for the review and as usual everything else. And Taisiki thanks for the favorites! Start reviewing and ill try getting you some feedback too.
Things are gonna start moving and I think it's about time. Not to worry ... plenty of stuff to toss at all our favorite ferals ; )
Well this was a disaster. And this place certainly matched it.
The kids were on lock down in different sections of the Mansion. Dropped school supplies ... half-eaten meals ... even some shoes, littered the hallways and living rooms. Damn ... sometimes he forgot just how big this place was ... Attack must have happened before the first classes of the day. Typically he was accompanied at all times whenever he set foot on the property nevermind actually inside. He was tempted to look around but the bugs his team had dropped would just have to do. X-Men that crossed his path would give him a look but the chaos and keeping students calm were seemingly more pressing. Normally he'd be able to deal with Logan or even Dr. McCoy but both had been occupied. Dealing with Summers always left him feeling irritated. Kid was such a little soldier ... like he even knew what it meant. Which was fine ... He had what he came for.
Director Fury stepped out the front door of the Mansion in time to see a unit carrying the carcass of one Victor Creed towards a quinn-jet. Shit ... Logan had taken his head clean off. He'd been promising it for years but ... somehow never thought he'd actually get the chance to go through with it. With a shake of his head and a quick gesture, Fury's personal unit fell into step behind him as he crossed the grounds.
This all could have gone a lot of ways but ... this wasn't the worst scenario.
"You need any backup sir? Coms went down when you stepped into the structure."
Fury smirked a little. Agent Hill ... always the worrier. Course that kept his ass alive so he let her do her job.
"Negative. We're already heading out. Tell the Montana sit to get the lab ready for us. We're three hours out."
Looking back Fury wasn't exactly sure what got him to pause. A prickling at the back of his neck ... a clench in his gut ... regardless, Fury had kept himself alive this long from trusting feelings like that.
"Sir ... there a problem?" Agent Paxton stopped his unit and turned to see the Director had stopped seemingly for no apparent reason just short of the entrance to the Director's jet. They'd landed just under the shade of the large forest that covered the edges of the compound. Coming to this place put all the agents on edge ... too much firepower ... too little intel ... too many damn mutants. And there were those stories going around the bases ... whispers. About some monster that was tearing through the darker parts of SHIELD and leaving bodies. Rumor was that it was some mutant ... others said it was a beast ... or a demon shadow. Seeing as Paxton had just seen some kid with horns ... he was almost gullible enough to believe them.
"No problem solider." Fury worked his jaw as he stared at the open hatch, glancing once over his shoulder back at the mansion before letting out a breath as he turned back to the jet.
Paxton furrowed his brow at the director's behavior and motioned for the rest of the unit to close guard. They were raising their guns when Fury cut them off.
"Don't bother agent. You'll just piss 'im off."
"But sir -"
Fury rounded on the Paxton, his single eye riveted.
"You wanna get killed agent? That it?" The other men looked between themselves as Paxton seemed lost for words. Fury gave his head a hard shake and tisked.
"Fall back agents. Fifty yard perimeter."
This time Paxton didn't respond aside from relaying the order and falling back. Fury watched them spread out and finally let his hands drop and taking another moment, Fury hardened his features and calmly strode onto the jet.
"You gonna step out or keep hiding? I ain't sticking around here all day." Fury didn't bother talking over a conversational tone as his voice carried through the jet. Not that he had to talk above a whisper. He wasn't sure where exactly he stepped out of but from the shadows appeared Weapon 22.
"Apex." The Director tilted his head a little and kept his arms loose.
"Fury." He smirked a little. All the egg heads back at SHIELD kept rambling on about these ferals sensing emotions and reading off body language ... Fury thought they were all full of shit. But that didn't mean he kept eye contact as the two stared holes into each other for more than a minute. But there was only so much time for games.
"I didn't send Sabertooth." Fury said steadily.
"That's why you're not dead."
Fury squinted a little as if he was having trouble focusing. Apex remained unreadable, even his tail laying slack around him.
"You almost sound protective there Apex. Somethin' I should know about?"
"The ferals are off limits. The school is off limits."
"Yea ... that sounds somethin' like our arrangement. But last time I checked ... gettin' Creed to take K out was your plan. Hell ... that woman was tearing through our intel faster than we could encode it for months to find Creed and you found him in what ... a week? Course ... not sure she was willing to go quite as far as you did to find him. X-Men start wondering what happened to the Marauders yet?"
Apex just glowered.
"What are you doing with Sabertooth's body?" Fury smirked a little and ignored the question. There was something new here ...
"You know ... it wasn't too long ago that you reached out to get me to take Logan's little fiance off your hands." Fury said easily. Apex bared his teeth and growled.
"The ferals are off limits."
"So you keep telling me. But here's something new that's off limits," Fury closed the gap between the two until they were standing a foot apart, "you're done with your little crusade as far as it comes to SHIELD. You wanna go running around picking up the scraps of Weapon X? Go ahead. That organization is a ruin anyway. But you're going to leave my people alone ... and answer my god damn messages when I call for you."
Apex huffed as fists tightened.
"I don't work for you."
Fury was smirking again.
"Didn't say ya did. But I do know that Logan wouldn't be too pleased to find out that you were the one responsible for lettin' Creed get to his soon to be wife. Pretty sure she's kinda close to those two girls that were there too ... not to mention Jubilee. Sure they'd understand."
Apex narrowed his eyes as Fury continued.
"You guys have got some pretty serious security round this place. Trust me ... we know. Only way to really get in clean is with access." Fury said it so easily that it took Apex a moment to realize what he was saying. Only a handful of people had full access to the security of the entire grounds: Xavier, Scott, Logan, Forge ... and him. It wouldn't matter to the X-Men that Sabertooth was capable of infiltrating the grounds regardless ... Fury would make sure that the message would be interpreted the way he wanted, that guilt would be placed accordingly.
He tensed as the growl ripped through him but Fury stayed relaxed.
"I'd stay put if I were you."
Apex's brow furrowed and he raised his eyes out of the open hatch and across the grounds to the far tree line. He couldn't see or scent it but ... there was really only one option.
"Don't feel too special. I got Clint shadowing me whenever I go someplace unfriendly. Though I will admit ... he did seem pretty keen on meeting you this morning. Mentioned something about you killing his team in Kosovo ..." Fury said thoughtfully as Apex took a grudging step back.
"So here's the deal: As far as you're concerned, Creed never existed. You stay outta SHIELD. Answer my calls. And I'll keep your little ... 'secret.' Let you keep playing house with your tigress ... and maybe Logan won't get tipped off by a telepath or figure it out himself and try skinnin' you alive."
Paxton checked his watch. What was going on in there? Signaling to the group he peeled off and headed back to the jet. No one had come on or off but that didn't mean he was ready to leave the director alone. Not around a place like this.
"You alright in here sir?" Paxton stepped up the ramp to find Fury in what he took as deep thought. Sometimes the director could get like that ... just stand in one spot thinking for hours at a time. But Fury shook his head a little and nodded.
"I'm fine agent. Let's get out of here. I got what I came for."
"Greer… Let us out please."
"Yeah Greer please, we're dying in here." and the tigress could only gesture with her hands for the girls to keep their voices down. Despite being part of the senior staff even she wasn't a 100% aware of what exactly was going on. One minute she was tutoring biology and the next thing she knew, alarm, lights flickering, a lot of mad scrambling and then the whole school went into lock down… She kept her eyes on the door… For all she knew the threat could be on the other side… and speaking of the threat… She didn't even know who it was… Some of the students have claimed to have seen Creed… For all their sakes, Greer was hoping they were desperately wrong…
"I can't, I haven't got the all clear yet… I'm sorry girls…" and she tried to hide her own anxiety by calming the mad swaying of her tail. There had to be more than fifty of them crammed into one of the classroom for hours and Greer was barely containing her overwhelming urge to burst out of the doors herself… Last thing she wanted was to be freaking out and in front of all these girls she was supposed to be setting an example for… Stupid claustrophobia… Any minute and Scott would be giving the all clear…
"YOU KNOW WHAT? Screw this I'm getting out." Sophia suddenly declared getting onto her feet, half of the other students following her example.
"Are you crazy? I saw Saber tooth out there! Sit back down." Zoe hissed while Chloe nodded in unison, prompting a good deal of hesitant looks and a few girls sitting back down embarrassed.
"So what? It's him versus like a hundred of us. What chance does he have?" and Sophia's comment seemed to have struck a cord with everyone in the room as pretty soon almost everyone was voicing their own opinions and Greer desperately tried to get them all to quieten down.
"Girls… girls…" but no one seemed to be listening and she swallowed an annoyed snarl… Damn it she was never really good at controlling a rowdy crowd… That was up K's alley… K… Everybody listened to her… Even freaking horses… Couldn't be too hard right? And Greer took a deep breath… What would K do?
"GIRLS." and everybody visibly flinched from the timbre of Greer's growl, clearly shocked by their usual easygoing tutor sounding so… Commanding.
"If its really Cre- Sabertooth out there. Trust me you wouldn't want to be out there. None of us." and Greer paused for emphasis, her arms going akimbo… Another thing K seemed to do… "Stand a chance against that man." and everybody hushed up. Well almost everybody…
"But the simulations… We've trained with them." Sophia argued.
"Simulations don't mean squat to the real thing." and Greer paused. "Did I really just say don't mean squat?" she thought in surprise before continuing her emulation of what she thought what K would say.
"I trained with the simulations too… And then I got my ass handed to me when I fought the real thing, so if you want to get yourselves killed, be my guest… Otherwise, wise up… Stay here." and Greer mentally applauded herself as Sophia sat back down without a word… This was the first time in the tigress's recollection that a situation played out as smoothly as it did in her head… And almost as if she was being rewarded, Kitty came phasing into the room and the tigress let out a relieved breath.
"All clear?"
"Yea ... all clear." Greer's brow furrowed at Kitty's tone as the little brunnet stepped into the room.
"Is everyone all right?"
"It - It's K."
No words needed to be exchanged when Greer rounded the corner to meet Colton by the infirmary, the slight curling of his lip was all the indication she needed and she felt her stomach drop.
"How bad?" she asked softly.
"Bad." Colton growled back and Greer winced.
"And Logan?" Apex looked over at Greer and saw the concern and worry etched on her face. He cared about her. Only her. But Greer could somehow care for so many people ... and few more than Logan.
"See for yourself." and Apex held the door open for the two felines to walk into the med bay. Greer had expected Dr. McCoy to make a fuss about people invading his workspace. The fact that he didn't told Greer she should be worried. She moved to run right to Logan but Colton grabbed her wrist to stop her. She gave him a confused look but he just nodded his head towards the two ferals. Greer looked and saw Logan holding his fiance's hand ... and the other looked ready to tear through whatever offending object came his way. Some part of Greer knew what Apex had realized immediately ... it was best to keep her distance. But that didn't mean it made what she saw any easier.
Greer almost couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was just so ... strange to see the little tough as nails berserker just lying there. The bed was too large for her small frame and though Greer had never seen her this way and never thought it was remotely possible K looked ... almost fragile.
"What happened?" Greer had said it quietly to herself and Logan growled low in his throat.
"Creed. Creed happened." and Greer's blood went cold.
"He was here? How … What happened?"
"She should have waited ... Stubborn woman ... Why the hell didn't she wait." Much like Greer's question, Logan's answer wasn't clear if it was for her or simply for himself with his low timbre.
"Is she gonna be OK?" Greer fought the urge to walk over and check on the little feral herself.
"She did great ... Course you did ... Right up until that asshole stuck 'er full of carbonadium," Logan took a look at the monitors, "Shoulda known he was never gonna fight you fair ... she should have waited."
Greer's heart broke as she watched Logan gripping K's hand as if afraid letting it go would have her slip away from him.
Greer thought her first reaction would have been fear ... that one of her nightmares of Weapon X had followed her home. Fear that Creed was going to break her down, that she'd see nothing but his damn smile from then on. It had took so long to make her forget that damn smile ... and Greer's fist clenched, her knuckle protruding as her claws dug into her palm. It wasn't fear that she felt … It was anger - no rage. Pure rage. And Greer bared her teeth and snarled low.
"Creed has to pay …"
For the first time since they'd walked in, Logan briefly looked in their direction, his face grim.
"He has darlin'. You don't need to worry about him. Not anymore." And he was right back to watching over K.
Greer opened her mouth to ask Logan what he was talking about but a soft pull from Colton and brief shake of his muzzle and Greer let out a tired breath. Giving the two ferals one more look, Greer quietly followed Colton and left K to rest.
Greer had planned on seeing K as soon as she was awake, assuming that Logan would back off a little and make speaking to the little feral a non-lethal option. Honestly, he was all snarly and growly even around her… Grump ass….But after two days in the infirmary, when she heard that K was up ... and that Logan had absconded with her straight to their room and hadn't been seen since. But Greer tried taking it as good news that K was up and well enough to ... well ... Greer tried not thinking that deep about it.
But what she was not ready for was after another three days to find the door to Logan's room open, his jeep gone and the realization that the two ferals had left. No one knew for how long and suddenly the tigress found herself feeling ... well a little down. Apex walked past Logan's room on his way downstairs and on more than one occasion spotted Greer just sitting in K's preferred chair that looked over the grounds. Other times he knew she was bugging Jean on updates on where the two were or when they might be back. To Apex at least, it was pretty obvious ... the tigress missed the little feral.
"I just ... I wanted to make sure she was OK. That's all." Greer mumbled when Apex had brought it up the fourth night K and Logan had been gone.
"She's well enough to travel. And she's with Logan. And trust me ... K can take care of herself." Colton rumbled and she knew he was right. But all Greer saw in her mind was the little woman laid up in that hospital bed and that didn't help improve her mood as the days dragged on. Jean, Kitty, Rogue, Betsy ... they seemed content with knowing K and Logan were together and took the opportunity to get some much needed planning done on the pending wedding. Greer tried getting excited with them but always seemed to end up on the roof looking out towards the entrance on the grounds.
A week since disappearing, the two ferals finally made their way back to the Mansion. K was relaxed, and looked totally contented as she returned the calls of greeting and waves from the rest of the mansion with nods of her own. While Logan headed inside K managed to slip away to the barn. After what she and Logan had been up to, a shower, some food, and some sleep was what she had in mind but she knew after all this time there'd likely be hours of chores to catch up on. So she was pleasantly surprised to find the barn in relatively good shape and a note tacked to the board to let K know that Jubilee had handled all of the chores for the night. So without anything holding her back, K headed back to the mansion and hopefully a solid day of sleep. She was nearly to the stairs when a elated roar got her to pause.
"K!" She spun on her heel and smiled as she responded to the excited Tigress.
"Hey Tig. How're you - oof" K staggered back a little as Greer practically launched herself at the little feral and hugged her. K tensed for a moment as Greer wrapped herself around K, lifting her off her feet slightly as she nuzzled in. Greer pressed herself a little tighter against her friend… Taking in that scent of lake water, worn leather and pine that was thankfully no longer contaminated by that awful sterile smell of the infirmery ... though gave off a bit too much Logan for her preference. But that wasn't really worth noticing right now.
"Um Tig?"
Fighting back the urge to purr and suddenly feeling just a little self-conscious from that over the top display of affection, Greer pulled back to take her in, holding her by the shoulders tightly.
"I'm so glad you're back! I never got a chance to talk to you after - well before you left. Are you alright? What happened? I mean Jubilee told me but - well you're OK now right? And where did you go I didn't -"
"I'm fine!" K suddenly intervined, her tone suddenly cutting and Greer blinked as those eyes flashing with an unfamiliar look. With her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised Greer loosened her grip on K and she took a minute to look her up and down before just smiling again… It was just such a relief to see her friend again….K on the other hand was clearly not expecting this from the tigress, and all at once - her body language, her pupils - the way she was grinning from ear to ear… That rudder of a tail swinging up a storm - K realized that this was not some sort of test. The girl was actually truly happy to see her. It took her breath away for a moment as she'd truly gotten herself convinced that the only one there that really gave half a damn if she was there or not was Logan.
She didn't even think about it after that. In a rush K closed the space between them and squeezed her back. Startling Greer for a moment as K nuzzled her face into Greer's hair and rumbled out her response. "I'm fine, really. Didn't mean to worry you, but ... Logan needed to be taken care of a little bit. He was ... a little upset." At that, Greer's shoulders relaxed and the tigress simply returned the embrace.
K got that day in bed she was hoping for. She'd expected some sort of trouble from Logan but he'd just given her a smile and picked off a bit of orange fur from her shoulder and held her till she'd passed out. Internally, Logan was grateful that K had taken in his furriest adoptive daughter. He knew things were tough for Greer and sure he'd trained her and had Colton looking out for her but ... he knew there were just some things K could be there for that he couldn't. He'd caught there little display on his way upstairs.
The next afternoon found K making her reluctant return to life in the Mansion and with Greer tutoring and Logan busy catching up on his own work, K was irritated to find that some of the women of the mansion seemed to have no problem inviting themselves to coffee with her. Kitty and Jean were hiding behind a poorly veiled attempt at trying to pry from K what her favorite flowers were and she was steadfastly ignoring them.
As they listed off every flower they could think of, K's gaze landed on Colton as he slipped into the kitchen and stayed for just long enough to grab a few things from the fridge and slip away again. She frowned to herself as Kitty stuck a picture of flowers under her nose.
"Come on, K - peonies, right? You gotta like peonies," Kitty suggested with a bright smile.
"Yeah, they're great - hey. What's wrong with him?" K asked as she turned to face them again. She was met by a sea of confused faces and with an internal sigh K nodded at the panther.
"You mean Colton?" Kitty sounded even more confused now.
"Yes him." Jean and Kitty did a marvelous job of maintaining any sort of cover and turned in their chairs in time to watch the quiet panther heading for the deck. K's look as she watched him was markedly different.
"Colton - K ... nothing is wrong with Colton," Jean insisted as the two turned back to K. "He's just ... doing what he always does. I'm sure he's fine." But K tipped her head to the side as she looked from Jean to Kitty and slid her gaze over to the distant Betsy who chose that moment to make her own exit.
"You two have the observational skills of a wall you know that?" K grumbled into her coffee.
"K -"
"Wait," Kitty interjected, her look almost suspicious, "why do you think something's wrong with him?"
"Cause I have eyes?" K retorted, quickly losing patience with something she never had any interest in.
Jean and Kitty shared some look that K didn't quiet get.
"So ... you can like - read him?" Kitty's tone hadn't changed. K meanwhile was a bit frustrated at the change in topic. Maybe it was being gone for a week or just with her little adventures with Greer and then Creed consuming everything she just hadn't been paying attention but ... there was definitely something off about the panther. It was more curiosity than concern though. Regardless, she took that as at least better than blind ignorance.
"Yeeeaaah," K said with a raised eyebrow as if the question was even stupider than the dozen or so she'd already fielded about flowers that afternoon.
"No K. Nobody reads him." Jean sounded like she always did when she felt she was explaining something obvious to K. And as usual, K found her condescension grating.
"Then nobody's paying attention," K returned and without another word K grabbed the closest available paper and headed for Logan's office and some blessed quiet.
