Chapter Nine: Kisses And Banana Bread

As Jubilee drove them home, Logan was completely swamped with little kids in the back of the car as every single one of them wanted to snuggle with him.

He had James snuggled into one shoulder, Elin on his lap, and Chance occupying the other arm — and any time Chance peeked up at him as he kept his eyes closed, Logan gave him a little reassuring squeeze. Krissy and Sying were tucked into one side and Charlie into the other, and while Sying seemed to have a tight hold of Krissy's hand, Charlie was more focused on something else entirely, looking not at Logan's face but at the blood on him.

"Need Twinkies," she decided at last. "Twinkies and ban-aids."

Logan cracked one eye open and peeked at her. "No, little darlin', I'm fine."

But Charlie didn't seem to believe that and just kept frowning and very carefully trying to investigate the blood on him. "Oush," she said, frowning harder as she saw that there was plenty of it as she tried very gently to clean him up.

"No more oush," he told her. "Just a tired."

"Futzy creep hurt Wogan," she said with a very determined little glare his way. "You need ban-aids."

He gave her a tiny smirk and shook his head. "No, no band aids. I'm fine."

Charlie stuck her finger out at him. "No being wike Daddy," she admonished him.

"No, not that. I don't have any cuts, darlin'," Logan told her. "Not anymore."

The other kids were starting to take notice of the small argument Charlie was having with Logan, little faces scrunched up in confusion as Charlie saw that, no, there were no marks on Logan anymore, just blood.

"Ty help?" Sying asked.

"No, Ty didn't help," Logan said with a sigh and Chance sat up to look for himself. "I just heal fast."

"All better?" Chance asked, his nose wrinkled in confusion.

"Just tired," Logan said with a nod.

Chance thought it over for a minute before he nodded and snuggled into Logan, patting his cheek gently as he looked at the other kids and put a hand over his mouth to tell them to "shush" — now determined to help Logan get a nap.

Logan gave him a little bit of a tighter squeeze. "You're a good kid," he said softly — just for Chance to hear.

Chance snuggled into him with a very proud smile on his face and patted his cheek again. "Wuv you, Wogan."

Elin reached over to Chance and booped his nose as she snuggled in too, a tiny little smile on her face as they continued their little ride back. None of the occupants of the car older than five said a word for the whole exchange — steadfastly minding their own business and facing forward — though Jubilee looked somewhere between slightly emotional herself and very proud of the kids and how they were trying to take care of Wolvie.

She couldn't help but lean toward Tammy after a little while. "That is how you get in the club."

Tammy nodded with a small sort of smile. "Duly noted."

By the time they got back to the mansion, the kids were well and truly snuggled in and almost half asleep, pretty tuckered out by the whole terrifying experience, though they perked up a bit again when they got home: the rest of their parents were waiting for them, all looking anxious.

Noh and K were outside, ready to take off, though K looked as if she was just allowing Noh to hold on long enough to see how bad the damage was when the car came to a stop. She didn't do a head count, though — having spotted Logan in the far back, with a pile of kids on him, that's where she went.

"Everyone okay?" K asked as the kids started to peel themselves off of Logan.

"Fine," Logan replied before he handed her James and gave her a long kiss. "Scott and Ty are wrapping it up now."

"All otay," Charlie assured her. "All better."

"I know, baby," K told her before she let her shoulders relax and gave her a little kiss on top of the head maybe half a second before Annie pulled the little girl into a hug.

Noh was right there too, sweeping Sying up into a very tight embrace, smoothing out his hair and pressing little kisses to his forehead and looking very relieved. Krissy looked around for her own parents for a moment, her tail swishing behind her when she couldn't find them.

"C'mere kiddo," Logan told her offering her an arm to pick her up. "What do you think about movies tonight?"

Krissy seemed to brighten at that and nodded enthusiastically. "Danke. Peease."

"We're gonna head up to our room and curl up — that work out for you?" he offered as he picked up both Krissy and Elin.

Krissy was nodding enthusiastically some more, her tail swishing happily. "Ja!"

Logan looked over at Annie as the two little girls snuggled him. "I doubt they want it, but the twins can come later if they want. I'm sure Scott will want to see them."

Annie looked over the tops of both of her kids' heads at Logan with a warm smile. "If they don't go right to sleep, I'm sure they'll want to be where the other kids are."

With that, the little group of ferals and the tiny purple elf headed out together, leaving the others to head in with Annie to the kitchen, where she had indeed been cooking in their absence — though it wasn't a full out baking bonanza they were expecting. She'd been too nervous for that.

As Noh snuggled into Sying, Jubilee reached out with one hand and caught Jana's arm without looking at her. "Waitaminnit," she said, cracking her gum before she turned to look at the girl. "You're not running off until Scott clears you."

Jana shook her head hard. "Lemme go."

"Fight me. Go ahead and try it. You might be taller, but I grew up around Wolverine. I will put you in the dirt."

Jana thrust her chin out at that. "I grew up in Detroit on the streets. You don't scare me."

"Yeah, been to Detroit, not impressed," Jubilee replied. "I'll let you go when Scott gets here. It's up to you if I'm sitting on you in the snow and mud before then."

Jana glared at her openly. "Lemme go — I didn't do anything!"

"Don't need enhanced senses to know that's a bald-faced lie," Jubilee said easily. "But we are going inside. It's cold out here, and I think cocoa is in order."

It wasn't ten minutes later that Natasha arrived at the mansion as well, eight months pregnant and miserable-looking, though she seemed more upset for her little uncle than anything else. She swept right up the stairs as gracefully as a waddle would allow and headed right to Logan and K's room.

When she got there, K and Logan were wrapped around each other, with James between them, and Elin and Krissy were lying together at the foot of the bed watching movies. "You lost, Nat?" Logan asked. "Or just lonely?"

Natasha looked over the scene and made her way over to his side of the bed. "Scoot over," she instructed him, climbing in carefully and leaning on his shoulder as soon as there was room. "Clint called to tell me what happened. I'm just checking on my godbabies."

"The kids are fine," Logan said. "Clint's a little bit of an alarmist."

"He always has been," Natasha agreed with an affectionate smile as she leaned that much further into him. "But I'll be staying anyway. Scott invited us to stay for the last few weeks before Zoe decides to come so we can be close to Hank."

Logan nodded thoughtfully and tried to phrase it so as not to upset her. "I was going to take off for a few days." He turned her way. "You going to be alright if we do?"

"Do you want me to watch James and Elin for you two?" she asked.

"Thought I'd take them with," he said. "See if that helps at all."

She thought about it for a moment and then let out a long sigh. "As long as you're back before I have this baby."

He looked her up and down for a moment. "I'll just hide here and wait then."

She didn't bother to hide the relieved look as she took his arm and gently kissed his cheek before she laid her head back down. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Shut up and watch the damn movie," he grumbled low.

Clint and Scott got back to the mansion about twenty minutes after Natasha had, and neither of them were surprised to see her car there. But they'd only taken two steps through the doors before Annie met them there, simply wrapping Scott up in the tightest hug she could manage as Clint didn't even bother to make an excuse to get out and leave them in privacy.

"Are you alright?" she asked, running her hands over him to check for herself.

"Perfectly fine," he replied. "Not a scratch. I promise."

She hugged him again at that and this time didn't step back or let go. "I was so worried," she whispered.

"You don't have to worry about that anymore," he told her before he gave her a tight squeeze. "He's gone."

Annie stilled at that and took a step back to look up at him better, her eyes wide as she looked him over. "What…?"

"He's dead." Scott said simply.

Annie held his gaze for just a moment to see the truth in his expression before she all but melted into him, the pure relief folding her. "Thank God," she whispered softly.

The two of them made their way inside and to the kitchen, where Jubilee was still pointedly keeping one hand on Jana — at this point just to irritate her and because she could. The girl looked like she was inches from shouting at Jubilee, but when she saw Scott and Annie come in, that expression quickly changed as she very quickly looked down at her shoes and generally tried to look small and invisible.

"You wanna deal with this one now, oh, fearless leader, or do I need to take her down to the Danger Room until you and Miss Annie have a moment?" Jubilee asked with a little smirk. "You know, since Logan offered to let the kids sleep over at his place tonight."

Scott just raised his eyebrows at the information, and Annie glanced up at him and looked between him and the sullen teen at the table and made his decision for him. "I'm going upstairs to take a shower," she told him. "Come up when you're done here." With that, she very quickly kissed her husband and headed upstairs, leaving Scott to deal with Jana.

"I've got it from here, Jubilee," Scott said before he gestured for Jana to follow him as he led his way down the hall to one of the ready rooms. Once they got inside, he closed the door behind them and told her to take a seat.

"Tell me everything," Scott said. "And I mean everything. If I think you're lying, I'll have to go get Logan — and believe me, you don't want me to do that right now."

She had her knees pulled up underneath her in her chair and was trying to look as non-threatening as possible, clearly feeling trapped and scared. "I didn't know," she muttered into her knees.

"I would hope not," he said. "But that doesn't tell me anything about what you do know."

She stared down at her hands for a long while as Scott waited her out. "I thought it would be a good place to crash. The castle's supposed to be abandoned ... but I found him instead," she explained quietly. "And he said he could give me a job." She looked up at Scott with wide eyes. "There were these huge guys, and I thought they could snap me in half, but he was just… he didn't yell or anything. He seemed like he actually wanted to help."

"Was that before or after you told him what your abilities were?" Scott asked.

"Um, well." She hedged. "I didn't ever really tell him. It's just that … when one of the big guys grabbed me when I was sleeping, I could tell what he could do." She drummed her fingers unconsciously on her knees and glared at her hands.

"Do you know who he was? Or what he did?" Scott asked quietly. "I guess I'm asking: what name did he give you?"

"He said he was Dr. Essex," Jana said.

"He goes by Mister Sinister," Scott told her frankly. "I know he's been reported in the news like that anyhow. He is … or was ... not a nice person at all."

"I figured that out myself, thanks," Jana muttered. "Not the Sinister part, though. That's…" She looked wide-eyed up at him for a second before she quickly averted her gaze once more. "I didn't know. He just said he was a doctor and a researcher."

"He was a doctor," Scott said. "And a researcher of his own design." He let out a sigh. "He only ever helped someone if he turned them into one of his Marauders. If you want to call that helping. Mindless bodyguards is a more accurate description."

"You mean those huge guys?" Jana picked up her head again, looking totally terrified. "Do you think…"

"I think if you expected him to change anything for you ... it would have ended up like that," Scott told her. "He had a long history of twisting the gene structure. Stealing people's abilities. Experimenting on them." He took a deep breath. "Some of us have had to deal with him for decades, because apparently, once you were on his radar, you never got off."

The look of abject terror still hadn't left Jana's face as she just stared at him for a second before, very quietly, she said, "He said he could give us powers. Better powers, like… like yours."

"Jana, he would only have changed what he didn't like in you and take what you already have," he said as gently as he could. "He wanted abilities from us again."

"He had a list," Jana said suddenly.

"Yeah," Scott said in a little distant tone. "I'll bet. Healing from Logan, beams from me, telepathy from Jubes and telekinesis from Tammy ... " He frowned a bit at Tyler's power set, trying to figure that one out. "Doesn't make sense. He'd never care to heal anyone else."

"You talking about Tyler?" Jana asked carefully.

"Yeah," Scott said, still frowning. "Pretty obvious what he wanted from you. Your friends ... well... They have 'future Marauder' stamped on their foreheads."

"Tyler can… He has the potential..." Jana paused and tried to reorder her thoughts. "When I read people, I can sort of see what they can do even if they can't do it yet. And he can turn powers on and off. I mean ... not now. But someday."

"That sounds more like him," Scott said with a nod. He took a moment to soak in the information she'd given him. Finally. "You can't trust just anyone because they're nice. You're street smart. You should know that by now. And anyone that has an entourage that looks like retired linebackers following them around just to talk to a kid—"

"I never trusted him," Jana said bitterly. "I just worked out a trade."

"But you never trusted us either," Scott pointed out. "Or you would have told us about this before this happened."

"But if I told you I was spying on you, you'd have kicked me out!" she said in a rush.

"No," Scott said firmly, shaking his head. "We would have hunted him down before he could hurt anyone — including you."

But Jana didn't believe him in the least; it was clear that she wanted to run."You would have kicked me out or locked me up, then," she countered.

"Have you met half of our teachers?" Scott asked. "Do you want to venture a guess as to how many of them don't have some kind of actual on file criminal record in one country or another?"

"But — but I took pictures," Jana said. "Of all of you. Everyone in the house. Even the kids!"

"And you gave them to Essex, who used it to get us there so he could take our abilities. You're a kid. That's nowhere near the worst thing that we've dealt with in the student body. And we've never kicked a kid out."

"I didn't know he was going to kidnap all those kids," Jana swore. "You gotta believe me. I thought he just wanted to study… I didn't know."

"I do believe you," Scott said reasonably. "But you'll need to make sure your whole story passes by Logan and K if you want to mend fences. Whatever you do — when you see them next, don't lie. At all. They will know."

"I'm not lying," Jana said stubbornly.

"I know you're not lying now," he replied. "But you've lied in the past. I'm just telling you that you can't lie anymore."

She pulled her knees up tighter under her chin and fell silent for a long time. "I… can try."

"Just be prepared," he warned. "Most of the staff will be open. You'll have to work hard to earn their trust, though. You'll have to work hard to earn mine, too." He paused, fixing her with a look. "But don't quit. Own up to the mistakes and fix it."

"You're not… you're not gonna lock me up?"

"Do you want me to lock you up?" Scott asked.

"No." She looked down again quickly. "But I was working for the bad guy. Shouldn't I get locked up?"

"You didn't know who he was," Scott said. "This would be an entirely different conversation if you came in here and told me you knew you were working for Sinister and did it anyhow."

"He was always talking about getting permission," Jana said in a rush. "I thought that's what doctors and researchers did. They get permission."

"He was talking about getting permission because he crossed a demon who stripped him of every power that he stole," Scott explained. "He was trying to force permission out of us so he could get it back — and obviously, he needed the healing worse than the rest." The last part of his own statement faded off as it really did sink in. Had he not been pushing for Logan, Scott might have thought there was still a chance he could come back. But without the healing... "He's gone now."

Jana's lower lip was quivering. She was trying very hard not to cry in front of anyone, even if it was just her and Scott. "I'm glad he's gone," she said fiercely.

"Me too," he said as he gave her a little squeeze on the shoulder. When it was obvious she was still on the verge of breaking down, he opened his arms up to her. "Come here; you did alright. You got out in one piece, and we're all more or less fine."

She regarded him carefully, unsure of the gesture, before she very carefully uncurled and leaned over to wrap her arms around him. As soon as she did, she fell apart when he hugged her. "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry," she kept saying over and over.

He let her get it out of her system, hugging her until she settled out. "Come on; let's get some food in you. Tyler healed you, but you need to replace all the reserves he robbed to do that." He looked her over when she sat back in her chair. "Then off to bed. Rest. You'll feel better in the morning."

"So I can stay?" she asked carefully.

"I wish you would," he replied. "You need a safe place, and this is as safe as it gets."

"Logan's gonna hate me," Jana muttered. "I saw what Essex did to him."

Scott smirked. "You really think you're the first kid around him to be manipulated? He'll be okay. He won't hate you."

"He should," Jana insisted. "I've dealt with creeps my whole life. I knew this guy was one; I just didn't know how bad."

"You also knew he was a lot more powerful than you, and he lied to get what he wanted from you. He was just a higher class of creep than what you've encountered before," Scott said. "At risk of telling you the same thing Logan will — eventually — trust your instincts. Especially when it comes to creeps like that."

She nodded and let out a breath. "I want to stay," she said at last. "I'll work really hard. You'll see. I'll get good grades, and I won't cause any trouble, and I'll do anything you ask me to, honest."

"For now, let's get you upstairs, fed, and off to bed," Scott said, and though she still looked suspicious of how nice he was being, she let him lead her back to the kitchen, where she gratefully dug in to some of Annie's cooking.

Once he'd seen Jana off, Scott finally headed upstairs to his room — where he wasn't too surprised to find that the twins were gone, probably off with Logan and K. He could hear the shower running, so he slipped down the hall to check on the kids first, poking his head in on the movie snuggle fest going on there.

Logan was asleep, as was Natasha, but at the first sign of anyone coming near, K had opened her eyes and was glaring until she saw Scott step halfway in. "They'll be fine here, big guy," she said quietly. "I'm watching."

"I know they will," he replied just as quietly, watching with a soft smile the little pile of kids at the foot of the bed. Charlie had let Sying fall asleep next to her and was trying to tuck him in with her blanket, and Chance was nestled in next to Elin as usual, with Krissy in the middle kicking her feet up behind her happily as she watched the movie.

"I heard your little guy is a regular hero in the making, though," K told him. "Tried to protect the girls from the Marauders."

Scott looked proud as he glanced down at Chance, who had one arm around Elin. "He's just like his mother," he said with a little smile.

"Yeah, I think you're off there," K said with a little smile of her own. "I think he's a carbon copy of his father — my hero."

Scott smiled her way. "Is he alright?" he asked, then paused and reworded. "He is now. I mean ... did they hurt him when he was playing hero?"

"No," K said. "From the sounds of it, he bounced right off of them, and they weren't trying to do anything to him in retaliation."

"That won't last forever," Scott said thoughtfully.

"We'll teach him something useful if he's going to insist on being a hero," K said easily. "More substantial than a stick and a string, though."

Scott had to chuckle at that. "Kate will be disappointed."

"She'll just have to live with that," K replied. "I can't have my little buddy running around like it's the Stone Age."

"When he gets a little older," Scott said.

"A lot older," K agreed.

"When that happens," he said, his gaze on Logan for a half a second before he looked back to K, "would you help me teach them both?"

"Absolutely," she agreed. "Anything they want to learn."

"Thanks," he nodded. He glanced at the snuggled up kids one more time before he let out a breath. "When they're much older," he repeated to himself before he slipped out, closing the door behind him, to rejoin Annie.

When he got back, Annie had her hair in a towel, and she was pulling on some warm pajamas. She had a book on the nightstand, clearly ready to wait until he was done and expecting him to take a while longer, so when he came in earlier than she had been expecting him, she grinned and ran over to give him a kiss. "The twins went to the big sleepover down the hall," she told him as she took him by the hand and pulled him to bed. "We have the place to ourselves."

"Yes, we do," he agreed with a little smile before he gave her a kiss, and she pulled him gently down to her.