Chapter Three: Make An Appointment

Tammy was sitting in the hanging chair in the garden with one of the books from her general English class. She was only part of the way through Othello, but she was losing some of the light as a storm was moving in, dark and gray. There were a few little orange lights closer to the house, but she was so comfortable where she was that she didn't really want to leave. She was just reading with the book floating in front of her and her hands behind her head when she let out a small cry of surprise as a hand seemed to appear out of nowhere and snatch the book out of the air.

"You doofus!" She sat up quickly when she saw Tyler grinning down at her. "You scared me!"

"Hey, it's been a great afternoon so far, I've been doing everything right, apparently," he said with a little laugh as he sat down next to her.

She tried to glare at him but found it was hard to do that when he was grinning and clearly having a great day. So, she snatched her book back and lightly smacked him in the head with it. "Except for scaring me," she teased.

"Scaring wasn't … okay. So maybe I was trying to scare you — but I was really just trying to see how well I could sneak," he said, still grinning, still in a great mood. "Sorry."

"I'm gonna put a bell on you," she threatened half-heartedly before she grinned and folded down the corner of her page in her book. "So, what's got you so happy, besides sneaking up on me and stealing my book?"

"Just been a good day," he replied with a little shrug. "I aced my test, top marks on my report, and … you know. It's peaceful here."

She grinned and nodded her agreement as she waved her hand and got the swing moving on its own, grabbing his hand with hers. "I'm not surprised. You studied your heart out," she said, sounding proud before she grinned at him a little wider. "And there's the party tomorrow night, too, so hopefully your streak will just keep going."

"We'll have to see," he said with a sly smile. "Week is rounding out the right way."

She grinned and nodded at that before she leaned slightly on his shoulder. "Think you could give me some of your luck? This English teacher is brutal. I like the class, but seriously."

"You're a genius; you don't need luck," he told her easily.

"You're the genius," she replied just as easily. "Gonna be an amazing doctor one day, too."

"Just trying to do it honestly," he said with a little frown. "I don't need the license to just fix people."

"Maybe not," Tammy agreed. "But like Scott and Logan keep saying, we can't rely on our powers." She waved her hand as she pulled one of the late-blooming flowers from the bushes nearby and pulled it to her. "Not that that's gonna stop us much."

"Probably not, but they're kinda right," Tyler said.

"Maybe." Tammy let out a sigh. "I'm getting my butt kicked in English and self-defense."

"Everyone gets their butt kicked in self-defense," Tyler told her, trying to reassure her. "Kate said Logan even got his butt kicked at least once."

She raised her eyebrows at that one. "So then…" She started to smirk. "Who kicks K's butt?"

Tyler laughed a little bit and shook his head. "I … can't answer that without it biting me at some point."

"Smart man," she teased.

They leaned back, enjoying their evening and talking about their classes, holding hands while one of the bamfs laid on the top of the swing, watching them with his head in his hand and his little tail swaying slowly behind him. When the conversation died down, Tyler frowned and looked up at the little bamf — he'd taken out a stolen MP3 player and had turned on some soft classical music for the young couple to relax to.

"Who did you take that from?" Tyler asked with a frown, and the little bamf giggled and disappeared in a poof of smoke, taking his stolen music with him.

"I'm sure Noh-Varr didn't mind," Tammy teased. "As long as it gets back to him."

"They're such little trouble makers," Tyler said shaking his head. "I guess we should think about heading inside," Tyler said. "You know. Before..." He trailed off.

"Before what?" she asked.

He turned his head a bit and closed his eyes to try and focus. "There's … there's a scent here that shouldn't be."

Tammy dropped her teasing smile and sat up a little straighter, frowning hard. "Want some eyes in the sky?" she offered. "I can fly up and see."

"I don't want you to make a target of yourself," he said. "Let's head in and tell Scott or Noh."

"Okay." She very quietly nodded, though she was keeping an eye out, and she had a solid hold of his arm. She was totally ready to send any bad guys flying — and very nearly did when she saw an unfamiliar face until she realized that she recognized him. "Oh. Oh my gosh." She let out a little relieved laugh. "Why's J. Jonah Jameson here?"

"I don't … why is he here?" Tyler asked with a frown.

"That's the question of the day, kitty cat," she teased. "Let's go find out, shall we? Or did you want to go back to the swing?"

"Let's see what the big deal is," Tyler said. "I kinda want to give that guy a dirty look anyhow."

"Me too," she agreed with an expression that was probably supposed to be intimidating but actually looked very adorable.

They slipped into the kitchen and right away they could hear what was going on. JJ and Cyclops were having a little bit of a showdown in the entryway around the corner. Logan and K were sitting on the kitchen counter, smirking and enjoying what they were hearing as Scott flat wasn't letting Jameson take another step further inside. When the teens looked over at the couple, K held her finger to her lips so they'd know to keep quiet.

"I've told you before — this is a school," Scott was saying. "You can't just show up here without an appointment. We have to respect the privacy of our students."

"I just need ten minutes with those two — that's it. I'm not here in any kind of investigative capacity. This is a … a business proposition," JJ replied with a bit of heat, and Tyler could see from where he was standing that JJ was irritated at Scott's hard line. "I don't care what's going on in this place in the least. This is about my story."

"If you have something business related to discuss, you can call ahead," Scott insisted.

"But I just got this stupid notification from my lawyers today, and all I want is a release to use the information I've got in those files." He looked as if it was the simplest of matters imaginable. "Five minutes."

"You can still call ahead. I don't care how long ago you got the notification. You should know how to pick up a phone." Scott had his arms crossed over his chest. "Even our youngest students know how to do that."

"Listen, I know they're back. They're here ... "

"And you can respect their privacy no matter where they are," Scott insisted. "This is their home. Do you show up at other people's houses and demand to be let in without calling ahead?"

"Yes."

"It's not going to fly here." Scott pointed toward the door. "You can come back after you make an appointment."

"But they've been refusing my calls!" He countered at nearly a shout. "How am I supposed to arrange anything when they won't return the damn calls?"

"Call here if you're desperate, but don't show up unannounced waking up my kids with your yelling," Scott countered.

"Probably woulda got further if he'd watched his mouth," Logan whispered to K, who buried her face in his shoulder to stifle the laughter.

"You've got the number of our school. Call. Make an appointment. And maybe they'll talk to you — at normal hours." Scott had on his deepest scowl.

"If he throws him out, I'm making him godfather," K told Logan with a grin that had Logan chuckling to himself.

"You're serious," JJ said, only then finally getting that Scott wasn't having any of his pushy nonsense.

"When are you going to realize I'm not going to waste my time lying to you?" Scott said, almost sounding tired.

"Alright, fine. I'll … have my secretary call," he finally conceded. "But I'm not going to take no for an answer."

"Sounds like a challenge," K whispered, and Logan nodded as in the next room over, JJ turned around and complained his way out of the door — and all the way to his car.

Scott came back into the kitchen shaking his head in near disbelief. "Gonna have to screen our calls," he muttered.

"I love you, Scott," K said with a little smirk.

He matched her smirk for a moment. "He's not getting in here unless you two okay it," he said definitively. "So at least we don't have to worry about that houseguest."

"I'm just glad he didn't wait until tomorrow. I can see Bobby letting him in just to fry him with Pete's impression," Logan said, shaking his head.

"Or letting him in thinking he is Pete," Tammy said quietly with a little smirk of her own.

"To be fair, we won't be at the Halloween party anyhow," K said. "So that wouldn't have been an issue."

Tyler had lost his little smile, though, and looked a bit concerned as he crossed the kitchen to stand closer to Scott. He shook his head with one finger pointed his way. "That … is not the scent I smelled outside."

Logan and K shared a quick look before they both hopped down from the counter without a sound. "What scent?" Logan asked.

"We were outside on the swing, and Ty smelled someone that didn't belong," Tammy said, now looking distinctly worried.

Logan darted out the door and Scott made a quick lunge to grab K by the arm. "You wait here," he said with a little glare. "We can head off to the security room and see if we can spot the trouble." He didn't let go of K, and the two of them only got halfway there before he called out to Noh, who had Sying and Elin working on learning Kree. "Possible breach," he said. "Logan's looking for the scent."

"Past my security?" Noh sounded distinctly insulted as he very quickly let the little ones down from his lap and ran over. "This cannot stand. Do we know where they were? Are they still here?"

Scott looked over his shoulder at the young couple in a silent question for more information.

"The garden swing," Tyler said. "That's where I smelled it — but I don't know where whoever it was went from there." He looked a bit sheepish. "I thought it was JJ, since I didn't recognize the scent, and JJ had just pulled up."

"You two stay with Jubilee and the kids; be ready to take them to the Danger Room," Scott warned. "I'm not letting K go anywhere without supervision."

"Got it," Tyler said with a nod. Tammy was already going over to the kids, lifting them in the air so they could 'fly' to distract them from the fact that Noh was definitely agitated and already headed out the door to find the breach in his security.

"I can be trusted to hang out with my daughter, can't I?" K asked, though Scott hadn't let go of her arm yet. At that, Tammy grinned as she flew the two kids around to land them in K's arms. "You are not helpful," K told her with a tiny growl.

"Sying, kiss your grandmother. She's growling at me," Tammy said cheerfully.

Sying giggled and kissed K on the cheek before he turned to Tammy. "No growl." But that didn't stop him from kissing K's cheek again. "Love Grammy K."

"Yes, and you're very sweet, little sparkle pants," K told him before she looked up at Scott. "Think I'm gonna go busting into battle with a baby on each hip and one in the oven to boot?"

Scott had to smirk at that. "Alright. We'll let you know what we can find — but if I call in and say it's time to get to the Danger Room, I mean it. Take the kids and get there fast."

"Yes, Dad," K said as sarcastically as possible before she bellowed up the stairs. "Annie, your sweetheart is being pushy again! I think he hates me!"

Scott rolled his eyes and headed out to join Logan and Noh in looking for the intruder. By the time he got out there, Noh was back from checking the garden and looked annoyed.

"They took advantage of the psionic circuits in my security," he said. "Whoever came here did not have immediate dangerous intent, or they would have been stopped in their tracks." He ran a hand over his face. "They were too happy for the circuits to think they were a threat."

"That … I don't think I understand that," Logan said as he made his way up to the two of them.

"I didn't want the security systems to stop wayward children or lost souls," Noh explained.

"Not a real issue, seein' as this place has hoboglyphs tattooed across the front gate," Logan muttered.

Noh sighed. "It's a precaution we always took on my ship when we set up on missions. But I didn't know about those," he admitted.

Logan smirked at him and shook his head a bit. "It's … something from the Great Depression. Told homeless guys where they could find a hot meal and a place to stay for the night. Nevermind."

"Well then." Noh sighed. "Still ... whoever these intruders were, there was no murderous intent, simply… excitement. Curiosity. Something else, too, but the excitement overrode the circuits." He looked at the two older men. "Perhaps this is a case of… peeking Thomas?"

Logan stared up at him, clearly in disbelief of how close — but so far — Noh was to that idiom, leaving Scott to handle it for the both of them.

"Peeping Tom," Scott said, though he didn't look like he was doing much better than Logan on handling Noh's… idiosyncrasy. "And yeah, maybe…. But let's keep an eye out. Just because they didn't mean anything harmful now doesn't mean anything for the future." He shook his head. "Everybody wants in today, apparently."

"You guys been having a lot of trouble with this stuff since … well. Us?" Logan asked.

Scott raised an eyebrow at him for a moment before he had to pause to consider. "It was more common when they were considering that stupid bill. Mild vandalism, that sort of thing. It's almost Halloween — maybe some kids came out on a dare."

"You ever gonna tell me all the hoops you had to jump through?" Logan asked with his arms crossed.

Scott shook his head. "It would take too long," he said with a smirk.

"Remind me again why you wanted us back then?" Logan replied, sounding serious again as they headed back toward the house.

"Chance missed Elin," Scott said with a shrug. "The kids were all heartbroken."

"Yeah, so next time that happens, get a dog."

"Maybe next time," Scott said with a smirk. "But you know Sying would miss Grammy K too."

"I'm sure he'd cope," Logan replied with a little scowl.

"Maybe," Scott said thoughtfully. "But Noh wouldn't. He's too old to forget his lawyer-mom or whatever it is he calls her," he added as the smirk widened.

"Whatever you say, Slim," Logan muttered. "I'm goin' to bed. Had enough of chasin' down dead ends." He looked over his shoulder at Scott. "By the way — trail went cold at the road. Not that you needed me to figure that out for you."

"What would we do without you to chase down teenagers on dares?" Scott deadpanned.

"Get a dog," he replied. "Least you can say they were pickin' on him when it bites 'em."

"Would probably listen too," Scott said.

"Yep," he agreed.

"I'll have to start coming up with names," Scott said, still smirking.

"Can't help you," Logan told him with a shake of his head. "Not my thing."

"No, we'll just make sure he goes on runs with you and the kids when they need those early morning runs," Scott said.

"Yeah, except in that scenario, I'm not here — so you'll have to walk your own damn dog."

"What, I can't have a dog and you guys?" Scott grinned outright. "I bet Elin would love him."

"Only need one or the other," Logan replied. "And Elin loves everything."

Scott paused and tipped his head at Logan for a moment. "Well…" He let out a breath. "Guess I'm not getting a dog. Can't separate Elin and Chance again. Or Sying and K." He grinned. "Too bad. The kids love playing with Lucky at Clint's place."

"I think you need to go to bed too, Slim," Logan said, shaking his head. "You're rambling. Must be a sign of old age."

"Or exhaustion." Scott shrugged. "Twins woke up at four for no reason. Just decided it was time to play." He shook his head at Logan as they got back to the mansion. "See you in the morning."

"Probably," Logan replied before the two parted ways and Noh simply had to shake his head at the two of them.