Chapter 13- "I'm Fine" is Russian for "OW"

It had been about a week since Kitty and Peter's wedding, and while that meant that the guests that had flooded the mansion were all back home, it also meant the students were returning to the school from their holiday break, and Natasha was still feeling miserable and missing the peace and quiet of Clint's place — which she had never considered to be quiet before.

She knew, somewhere in the part of her mind that was logical still, that she had wanted this, wanted a family — but that part of her mind was hard to hold on to when she was crying and having a hard time keeping a grip on anything approaching emotional control. She was, quite simply, miserable and in pain.

K and Kate came up to bring her a bite to eat and fill her in on all the incoming stupid as a means of trying to get her to relax. "I've got the Annie Summers spread for you today," K told her as they stepped into the room. "She got a little overly enthusiastic with the incoming kids."

"You'd think she was excited or something," Kate agreed with a smile, though Natasha just glared at both of them for a moment and pulled the covers up a bit more.

"Yeah, that look doesn't work on me," K told her, yanking the covers down a bit. "Try another one."

But Natasha kept up her glare, because anything else was threatening to turn into tears, and she didn't want to have to put up with that.

K watched her for a few moments and wrinkled her brow, clearly assessing the situation much more carefully. "You should go see Hank," she said finally.

Natasha's glare deepened as she said through her teeth, "I'm fine."

"You're lying, you're hurting, and you're not fine. Believe me; I'm the last person to send anyone to the doctor — but you need one. And some heavy painkillers if that kind of thing works for you," she replied in a no-nonsense tone. "You're going to see Hank. The only question here is if you're going to do it on your own or if those little fuzzy blue bastards are going to do it for you."

"You wouldn't," Natasha said.

K smiled at her widely as she offered her hand. "You know damn well that I would."

"I hate you," Natasha half muttered, though she was pulling down the covers.

"That has been the case for years. I'm okay with that."

Kate watched the whole interaction before she ran over to help Natasha out of the bed with wide eyes. "Can you even make it?" she asked before Natasha gave her the deepest glare yet.

"She's Russian; she can make it," K teased. "Might take the whole house down with her, but she can do it. The question is: does she want to?"

"Watch me," Natasha said as she straightened up a bit and headed to the door.

"For the record, I didn't say you couldn't. I know you can, but ... you don't have to prove anything."

"Why don't you just find my husband and get him down. He will need help," Natasha replied.

"Kate, you know where he is. I'll keep Natasha company," K promised.

"Got it," Kate said, all but bounding out of the room to go find Clint, while Natasha gave K a very dry look as she got to the hallway.

"If it helps with your pain management, feel free to stab me," K told her.

"Don't do that," Natasha said. "I know what you're doing. I can handle it."

"I know you can, but I also know where you're at right now. And ... it's tempting. Better me than Clint." K gave her a significant look but didn't offer physical assistance unless Natasha looked like she was on her way down.

Natasha, to her credit, was doing fine, even though she had to pause a few times and just … clench her fists. But she didn't ask for any help all the way down to the lab — where Hank looked slightly alarmed when he saw the state she was in.

"I'll guard the door," K promised Natasha as the redhead finally sat down on a gurney. "No one but Clint?"

"Logan too," Natasha said as Hank let her sit.

"You got it," she agreed before she took a guard position just outside of the doors, arms crossed.

It wasn't much later that Kate arrived with Clint — who, as predicted, was the one who needed the support, all but leaning on Kate with wide eyes. "This isn't another false alarm?" he asked almost breathlessly. "It's for real this time?"

"No," Hank replied, "this is no false start. She's ready any time, actually. Apparently, she was trying to ignore it."

Clint shook his head. "Tasha…" he muttered under his breath before he got a second wind and pushed past Hank to go stand by Natasha — all but falling over to sit next to her once he arrived, though. "Nat, what's the deal? Didn't want to call me? I stopped passing out at the sight of blood about a week ago. I'm getting better," he teased gently.

She gave him a look. "Shut up, Clint," she said, grabbing his hand and refusing to let go once she had it.

There was a little scuffle outside in the hall as Logan and Peter Parker arrived. Logan had given K a quick kiss before stepping in, but when Peter tried to follow, all Natasha could see for a second was feet straight up in the air as K put him on the ground. Peter complained loudly — though it was muffled through the door, and all that was discernible outside of his squeaking about wanting to see his Mama Spider was a low growl before Peter simply left.

"Guess it's just you and me and Wolverine," Clint said mildly, though he couldn't hide the smirk at the situation as Logan joined them. Natasha didn't do anything except to smirk just the slightest before she grabbed Logan by the hand as well, too focused to do anything else.

Clint didn't say it, but he was pretty grateful to have Logan around for Natasha to hold on to, because he had marks on his fingers from Natasha — and Logan could take it better than he could. Logan didn't even flinch when her nails broke the skin, instead kissing the top of her head and whispering encouragement in Russian to her.

K kept up her guarding routine over the next several hours — with Kate and Kurt taking a turn when she needed to pause and feed James. But no one else tried to get in after Peter had told them what happened.

It was late at night when Zoe finally made her debut, and she came out screaming her displeasure at Hank as soon as the fuzzy doctor cut the cord. She screamed and glared right up until Hank set her in Natasha's arms, and then she settled out enough that she was no longer crying — though she did cut a glare at anyone who wasn't Mom that looked like they might try to say hello.

"She looks like you, Nat," Clint teased when he saw the little glare.

"You did good, darlin'," Logan said before he gave her another kiss — this time on the cheek. "I'll leave you three to get to know each other."

"Hey." She glanced up at him and looked very tired but was grinning now. "Thanks."

"Any time," he replied, giving her a little smile before he slipped out of the doors to stay with K — still keeping anyone from bothering them.

Natasha leaned against Clint with a smile, but Zoe was still glaring at this person who was not her mom. Clint didn't seem bothered by this at all, though, and he pulled both of his girls closer. "Hey, Zoe. Already practicing the intimidating glare, huh?" he teased as he reached over to play with the little wispy red curls on top of her head. She watched his every movement with wide eyes, but the glare was softening a bit as he spoke.

"Keep talking," Natasha said as she watched her little girl.

Clint smiled a bit wider at that. "You're gonna be amazing, Zo," he told her as the smile just kept growing. "Look at you. You're already perfect. And it's just gonna get better."

Zoe's glare kept softening the more Clint talked, and slowly, Natasha leaned against him and relaxed as Zoe finally let her dad see her wide eyes instead of a glare — before she drifted off to sleep soon after.

It wasn't too long before Natasha, speaking in a normal tone, said, "K, you can let Kate and Kurt in now," knowing that the little ferals would hear her speaking.

When Kate and Kurt peered into the lab, they were both grinning wide — but it was absolutely nothing compared to the look on Clint's face as he ran over to meet them before they were fully in the door and wrapped Kate up in a spinning hug.

"Katie, she's perfect. Come see!" he breathed out as he finally set her back down.

Kate grinned when she saw how much her mentor was on Cloud Nine. "Of course she's perfect," she said as if it was obvious before Clint wrapped Kurt up in a hug as well and led them over to see the sleeping little redhead.

"Oh, look at those curls," Kurt said with a smile as Natasha gently tipped Zoe into Kate's arms.

"Just wait til you see the suspicious glare," Clint said, chuckling. "Just like her mom."

"I dunno," Kate said thoughtfully. "That nose is yours. I've seen the pics Barney shows the kids when we come to visit. Cute little button nose… freckles… she's a Barton."

"Yep. Zoe Elizabeth Barton," Clint said with a smirk. "I wanted to make her a Romanoff, but Nat said she wanted my name…" He looked like he still couldn't believe it, though Natasha was smirking as well. "But hey... Got a nice ring to it, right?"

Kate stared at him wide-eyed. "You didn't…"

"Thought about Zoe Katherine, but it doesn't have the same ring," Clint said, clearly enjoying the look on her face. "Plus, we didn't want to overdo it. Pulling out your first name and making you godmother. Just a bit much, right?"

Kate was completely gobsmacked. "...Right."

Kurt chuckled as he gently took Zoe from Kate so she could sit next to her fellow Hawkeye and process that revelation. "She's perfect," he told Natasha. "She'll be lovelier every day, too."

"Of course she will be," Natasha said matter-of-factly as she leaned back into the pillows.

Zoe was just snuggling into Kurt in her sleep, looking much more like Clint when she was totally relaxed like that than she had before — when Kate let out a cry of dismay as a very familiar smoking vortex filled the middle of the lab floor.

"Your dad. Has. Horrible. Timing," Kate said through her teeth.

Both Logan and K rushed in, ready for a fight, when Azazel simply hit both of them with a bolt of energy that froze them to the spot before he turned toward Kurt and Kate. "Practicing already?" he asked with a delighted grin when he saw Kurt holding Zoe. He shook his head a bit at the pink blanket as he sighed. "Though of course, it would be better if you could give me a grandson this time. An heir is an heir, but the family name, my boy…!"

Clint looked like he was going to pound the guy for that one, but he had his hands full a second later as Natasha tried to get out of the hospital bed to do it herself, swearing at him in low Russian. But after over twelve hours of labor, she wasn't up to fighting a demon, and Clint took a punch to his chest when she got mad at him for stopping her.

"I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting … these two," Azazel said as he inched his way closer. "More ill tempered animals or simply fellow heroes?"

"Family," Clint corrected him without a breath of restraint. "Take another step toward my Katie and I'll show you how friendly we are."

"Somehow I doubt that," he replied, though he did take a moment to look Clint over more closely on hearing that they were family. "You were in the group that tried to fight me on my island."

"Tried to? Seems to me you lost pretty handily," Clint said as he moved to stand between Azazel and his new little girl.

"You were not one to land the final blow — not with those silly sticks and strings."

"Yeah, Kurt did all the swashbuckling," Clint said with an easy shrug, one hand on the edge of Natasha's bed, just waiting for Azazel to make a move toward his girls.

"There were a lot more of you then, and the little guard dogs are out of this particular game too. I'm not concerned," Azazel replied as he made another step toward Kate, who, to Clint's surprise, was being still and quiet. She caught Clint's eye and nodded just the slightest bit — the signal to relax, though Clint didn't know why she would be asking him to stand down when a demon was in the room with his baby girl.

Azazel shook his head as he smirked at Kurt. "Are you waiting for all of your friends to make playmates and pets for my grandchildren before you get started? Would it be easier for me to just find ways to force them into it first?"

"Hey." Kate broke her silence and stepped slightly forward herself, pointing her finger at him with a glare that just had him grinning wider at her. "They're not part of this. They're — you leave 'em alone."

"I just want to make it as easy on you as I can," Azazel said through an almost gleeful chuckle.

"Liar," she almost snarled his way before she took two steps forward and socked him in the jaw. It was obvious he didn't think she was a threat — he was outright laughing at her — but he didn't know just how dangerous one punch could be. It froze him in place mid-smug chuckle.

As soon as Kate made contact, the hold Azazel had on the ferals broke and K pulled out her phone and called Tony up. "Get here now," she said before simply hanging up, and the two of them started putting things into motion.

"Kurt, maybe get Nat and Zoe outta here," Logan said. "I doubt Nat wants Stark to be here right now while she's a little too tired to tease him."

"Yes. Let me at least get some sleep so I can destroy him," Natasha said.

Kurt didn't need any further prompting before he teleported away with Natasha and Zoe, though he reappeared only moments later after dropping them off in Natasha's guest room to pull Kate, who was still nearly shaking with rage, into his arms.

Clint was watching the whole thing with wide eyes. "Didn't know you packed a punch like that, Katie Kate," he joked lightly. "What happened?"

"Strange put a spell on me and the kids," Kate explained, glaring at the frozen demon in front of her. "We've got about an hour for Tony and Kitty and Noh to get here and get him locked up tight so he can't bother us anymore."

K and Logan made their way over to Azazel and decided to take a chance at moving him to where he'd be stuck if Tony and Noh didn't get there fast enough. So, the two of them hauled him off to the Danger Room to lock him in.

But the nice part about having Tony working with a guy with superspeed was that they didn't have to wait too long. It was about fifteen minutes later that the two tech geniuses arrived with the arc-stasis module, about the size and shape of an air canister, which Tony was carrying while Noh had him slung over one shoulder — which Tony didn't exactly look happy about, even if it was the fastest way to get there.

"Have a nice ride?" K asked conversationally as the two of them set up.

"You know, I didn't get to stow my tray table properly. I think the air stewardess needs to work on his air etiquette."

"They prefer 'flight attendant,' you neanderthal," K laughed.

"If you say so. You moonlighting for that job too?" he asked as he got the reactor properly hooked up.

"Not this week," she shot back. "But maybe next …"

"Do you two do this for every occasion, or only when I'm around to suffer through it?" Noh asked, rolling his eyes.

"Pretty much every occasion," Kurt told him. "They can't seem to help themselves."

Noh let out a sigh of longsuffering before he looked to Tony and nodded as he stepped back from the stasis generator. "Ready when you are," he said, and Tony broke into a huge grin as he fired it up. A moment later, they could feel the slight hum of the field around Azazel if they got too close.

"You should be able to move him in this state without breaking the field," Noh said. "But we'll triple-check everything once he's in place."

"I already sent Kitty a warning," Logan said. "So it's all you, Elf. Worst case scenario, Kate'll have to give him another love tap before Kitty turns it on."

"She wouldn't mind that at all. I think she rather enjoyed it," Kurt said with a smirk before he disappeared in a poof of smoke to go get Kitty.

When he returned some time later, it was with a fairly suntanned Kitty in shorts and a tank top who looked over the group quickly before she cracked her knuckles and nodded. "You were right, Logan. Big project."

Tony waved 'hi' very quickly and started to tell her the plan. "I don't think it would be a problem for you to move the equipment, but … I have a spare back at my place if it fritzes out."

"Got it," she said with a nod before she shook out her hands and grinned at the group. "Alright, if that's all, I have a honeymoon to get back to, so let's just get moving," she announced before she took hold of the trapped demon and sank right through the floor.

The entire time Kitty was gone, Noh and Tony both were watching their readouts carefully, Tony half bouncing in place with nervous energy at the launch of a new invention, while Noh looked ready to fight if things went wrong. Logan was just waiting, his arms around K's waist and his chin on her shoulder, hoping that his crazy little cobbed-up plan would actually work. All of them more or less silent as they waited for Kitty's return.

So when Kitty came back up grinning, it was a relief to the group at large as she dusted off her hands. "Well, he's not going anywhere," she declared.

"Monitors working alright?" Logan asked, looking between Noh and Tony.

"Like a dream," Tony said, sounding proud. "This guy twitches and you'll know about it two milliseconds later."

"So … it looks like it might work."

"Might? Wolverine, it worked," Tony said with a grin. "I call this little field test a resounding success."

"Then I guess all we have left is to get you home," K said with a nod. "Come on; it'll take a little longer than the sparkle pants express, but I'll give you a lift."

"Yes, that sounds much better than the sparkle pants express," Tony agreed with a smirk.

"You can keep an eye on James and Elin, right?" K asked toward Kurt and Kate. "He should be good for a couple hours anyhow."

"Oh, absolutely," Kate assured her. "Krissy loves sleepovers with your family anyway."

"Perfect," K said, taking Tony in one arm and Logan in the other. "I think we need a drink, boys."