Chapter Twelve: Shutting Down Department K
The weather was being incredibly cooperative for the two women as dawn broke. K was nestled into the mountainside, her camo hiding her perfectly despite the fact she was wearing bright white and red under the ghillie suit. Natasha was almost at her side, keeping an eye on the surrounding area as K took her turn in the spotting scope, watching the operations going on below. K tipped her head a moment and looked at Natasha as she listened.
"You don't like me very much," K said, not surprised in the least when Natasha drew in a breath and held it for a moment.
"I haven't got much of a reason to yet," Natasha replied, glancing over at her for a moment. "And my job today is to keep you out of trouble. Not to like you."
K smirked and went back to her scope. "Not the first time you've had that assignment, is it?"
She could almost feel the woman bristle for an instant. "Actually - it's the first time I've had it in a protective manner."
"And you think you're going to succeed this time," K said, nodding to herself.
"You're married to someone I care very deeply about," Natasha told her. "And you did it without giving me proper time to dig into all that I should have. So yes. I will do everything I can to keep you from doing something stupid and hurting him. You should get used to that now."
All was quiet for a long while as the two women pointedly tried to ignore each other until finally, K's head automatically popped up at a sound too soft for Natasha to hear, though she'd seen the motion from Logan often enough to know that it was probably time.
"Sounds like the party just showed up," K told her quietl as Natasha doubled her efforts to watch out.
"I'll keep an eye out. Hopefully the other guys don't have reinforcements coming in. They're already better guarded than we anticipated," Natasha replied in a business-like tone, warily watching the scene below. Something big was about to go down. That much was clear. A string of Kamaz trucks was trickling in and it looked as if they were ready to start loading up equipment.
Both women shared a frown - none of this was what they were prepared for. "I'm calling this in," Natasha said quietly as some medical equipment was loaded into the back of one of the military trucks. "Those uniforms aren't US or Canadian. They were tipped off. We have to stop them before they leave." She made it through to Stark, who told her they were landing, ground attack was minutes out.
"What have you got?" Natasha asked K. "I know you have something you shouldn't."
K shrugged and pulled out one of the armor piercing magazines and racked it in, ready to start shooting out engine blocks if need be. "I can stop them from leaving," she promised. "If you want to check the windage …"
Natasha looked up with a smirk and started spotting with Stark still on the line. "We can stop them, but it will give away our position," Natasha told him, before turning her attention to K, and not bothering to flip off the comm. "K - Looks like you're at 3.5 MOA."
"Thank you," K replied, shifting her left hand to support the butt of the rifle after she racked a round into the chamber.
"Woah, NO. Just wait! Don't do anything unless there's no other way. We're almost there, Logan's on the ground right now."
K took a deep breath as she saw a flash of yellow in the trees on the far side of the compound. They watched them loading, waiting for the go ahead when finally Scott's voice came over her earwig.
"Take the shot, K. We're in position, but we need a diversion. Be careful," Scott said. Before he'd finished the sentence the first round hit the engine block on the lead vehicle. She racked a second round as the soldiers below scrambled, trying to move the disabled truck. The second truck in line was hit, and the third, all within thirty seconds. Natasha was having trouble keeping up with K's pace, but she was smirking hard to herself while K kept it up, disabling one after the other until they were all unusable.
Stark's laughter echoed through the com at the chaos breaking out at the trucks, and K switched to the standard rounds and kept her eyes open. She spotted Logan, pinned down by two different gunmen. His cover was flimsy and they were advancing fast. Before Natasha could give her all the information, she dropped one and racked a second round, already taking aim.
Logan's head shot up in the general direction where the two women were hidden on the mountain, trying to spot them as the second shot hit true, clearing his path. They were far enough out that the sound from the rifle was very delayed and not very loud, obscuring their position further. He couldn't spot the muzzle flash either. Damn, they're better than I thought, Logan thought to himself before he dove back into the fight.
The battle waged on below as K and Natasha kept an eye out for trouble, and whenever they spotted one of their own in a bad position, K would simply drop whoever was the biggest threat to their well being while Natasha looked for the next victim and worked up new numbers.
In the meantime, the soldiers below were told to find the sniper. The enemy platoon worked quickly, they were a few hundred yards away, and K's eye was in the glass when Natasha spotted them making their way slowly towards them.
"Damnit," she mumbled, hastily pulling up her side arms and waiting for them to get out of their cover.
K continued to clear the paths for their team below, even as she asked Natasha what the situation was on the soldiers headed their way. Her question was answered when Natasha opened fire. K moved from the glass to see how many and how heavy the fire was, pulling her own sidearm as she did so, and firing on several of the soldiers. As it turned out, it wasn't a small scouting squad they'd sent up the mountain. It was a full platoon and the two women were quickly pinned under heavy fire.
Natasha had good cover behind a boulder, and K's borrowed uniform was doing it's job, deflecting round after round fired on her. K poked her head out long enough to drop a couple soldiers at a time while Natasha took over firing on the rest of the platoon advancing. Her position gave her an advantage finally as the men were all now in the open. When the dust settled, Natasha called out to check on K, turning to find the little feral lining up another shot in the scope of the rifle as a round hit Natasha in the thigh.
The Widow glanced down at her leg wound and quickly realized that it had been a clean through and through, which, although it meant she didn't have to fish anything out, the truth of the matter was it was in a very bad place and she was bleeding heavily. She got on her com, asking for assistance since clearly, the other side had a sniper somewhere too.
Thor had volunteered to clear the mountain for them and was en route, ready to do whatever necessary to aide the two women as K blocked Natasha bodily from the direction the shot had come - despite great protests from the redhead.
When Thor got to their site, Natasha quickly told him what she knew, and sent him to scan for the shooter while K pushed her down flat and began to dress her wound. "You are not supposed to cover me like this," Natasha argued, though K already had her situated so she couldn't fight her very easily as she put on a tourniquet bandage and stayed low over her.
"Then I guess it's just too damn bad for you isn't it?" K said. "I wonder if your little uncle would get mad to find out you got cover after you were injured. I'd venture a guess toward the negative."
"Those are armor piercing rounds that made it through my kevlar," she snapped, trying to push K away from her.
"Then it's an even better thing that I've got something better than kevlar," K snapped back, dropping flat to cover Natasha as a few more shots ricocheted around them. As soon as K thought it was clear - and Natasha's wounds were at least given some field first aid, Natasha got around to asking what was happening below while seeking out a little better cover.
The main strike team was now in the heart of the complex, with gunfire echoing the corridors. Heather's team had found its way to the labs, and after clearing them, Stark started on the computers while the rest of their team began helping the test subjects that were still strapped to various tables and devices.
Mac's team was in a little more trouble though. Where he suspected the mainframe was located turned out to be where the soldier's bunks were, and there were many more than they'd anticipated.
The fight had taken some serious time, and when they had nearly gotten a handle on it, an bellow of rage echoed through the complex, rattling all of them where they stood.
Outside, where Logan was busting up their transportation and defenses, when he heard the roar, not only did the soldiers freeze and then flat take off running, but Logan even paused. This was not good.
The soldiers nearest Mac and his team quite suddenly dropped their weapons and started to run, many of them pushing past the advancing group of heroes. Clearly, they knew what made the roar and didn't want to stick around to wait for it. Without knowing what else to do, Mac opted to try to finish out their end of the mission, continuing on towards what he hoped would be the mainframe.
Heather's team was releasing the test subjects when the roar echoed through the level they were on, shaking the ground they stood on. Wide eyed, the beat up mutant in the cell before her began to beg for her to open the door, frantically trying to get away.
On the mountain, K's targets were cleared out and she even had time to check on Natasha, who was looking pale and incredibly angry. "I've got the last of them down," Natasha called out, still prone from where she'd been firing on the approaching soldiers.
K nodded to her and returned to her scope, but she didn't expect what she'd found there. Mid fight, Logan's sparring partners suddenly turned tail and ran, leaving him and the rest of the outside team in the lurch, until the great raging behemoth that had broken loose in the lower levels made his presence known, bursting through a wall not fifty yards from Wolverine and Northstar. The roar was clearly heard on the mountain as the beast took one look at Wolverine and attacked.
K racked a round and was taking aim when Natasha screamed at her to stop. "That's the Hulk! You can't shoot him – it won't hurt him!" she shouted, the warning clearly not one born of Natasha's current assignment of 'protect'. "He'll just come looking for us!"
K let out a frustrated growl and watched as the Hulk and Logan fought. Logan got in some good hits, but he taking it just as hard as he was giving. The rest of the team was scattered, dealing with the soldiers that were trying to take advantage of the distraction that the Hulk brought with him, but ulimately they had to keep back. All it would take was one half assed hit from the Hulk to probably kill any one of them.
And though Storm waited for an opening, the two men were fighting too closely to allow her to send in a bolt of lightning. For all intents and purposes, Wolverine was on his own. K was sure that Logan was getting a small reprieve when Thor returned to help Logan, though he managed to take a hard hit right off the bat that knocked him over the mountain K and Natasha were tucked into. To make matters worse, his hammer was out of his hand as the unconscious God landed who knows where beyond the ridge.
"This isn't like him – they did something to him," Natasha said as she started to rack in a new magazine and watched the Hulk rampage at Logan again, intent on pounding him into the rocky ground as the sounds of his hits echoed in the mountains. As soon as the Hulk had turned his back though, Logan was on his feet, unwilling to let him walk away to do damage to anyone in his current state.
The two continued their battle until finally, Logan slipped, losing his balance from a well timed hit to the ground, and the Hulk in his rage and took advantage, truly hammering him with all he had.
But K couldn't watch from a distance any more. She was on her feet in an instant and she started to run for all she was worth, ignoring Natasha's shouts for her to stop. The closer K got to him, the more the ground shook as he pounded her now defenseless husband into the dirt. She was barely into the clearing when the Hulk turned his back and picked up a boulder to continue his assault on Wolverine, intent on smashing the little man into a puddle. Panic stricken, K threw caution to the wind and rushed between the two, shielding Logan as best she could, hands outstretched to the rampaging creature as he turned back to finish the job.
"NO!" K shouted, desperation clear in her voice - eyes and arms wide as she stared at the mountain of a monster, that was oh, so much bigger from this angle - particularly with the boulder raised high over his head. "Oh, crap," she whispered, really taking in his sheer size and trying hard to control the panic.
But something in his eyes flickered as he looked at the tiny woman in front of him.
"Please stop," K said, trying to take advantage of any kind of edge she might have gotten from pulling his attention, even though her voice was wavering. "He won't bother you, he won't follow you. I swear it. Please just stop."
The giant green monster's face scrunched up as he watched her stand her ground. Incrementally, he relaxed, and the boulder dropped to the ground next to him, rattling the trucks scattered around the area and nearly knocking K off her feet. He walked up to her slowly, and K unconsciously took a few steps back before he crouched down to get a better look, studying her hard as she trembled, heart racing and clearly more scared now that he was listening.
He had to see that she posed no threat to him. But it was also clear that he had no idea why she had tried to stop him. He reached out to her - to barely touch the dark hair that had fallen loose from her braid and she was sure that her heart would stop in her chest if it wasn't hammering entirely too hard. But she didn't move - she couldn't.
For an agonizingly long moment, he didn't move, still frowning hard and studying her, then all at once he let his hand fall to his side and he took half a step back. K watched, still frozen in place wide eyed when with no warning, the Hulk jumped, and disappeared.
There was a moment where she just stood there, gasping to catch her breath and get herself under control until she turned and stumbled towards Logan. He was a mess, and by the beating that he'd taken, he looked like there was little left of him solid that wasn't adamantium.
With her hands still shaking, she leaned forward, and pressed her ear to his chest, finding a weak, stuttering heartbeat. Hank was there quickly, and with a look of sheer concern and disbelief, he pushed her away so he could scoop up Logan, and bring him to the blackbird for a safe, quiet place to heal. He barely paused before he gave her a stern look. "You need to follow me," he told her, and numbly, K simply nodded from where she was seated on the ground, one hand still over her heart.
K gathered herself and followed, though she ended up having to leave the two men when the blackbird was fired on by enemy combatants. Hank tried to stop her, but she was out the hatch, hunting and shredding them, leaving their screams to echo through the woods.
While Hank studiously examined Logan, fretting over what he could do to help the battered man, a commotion rose up outside with much shouting echoing through the trees into the blackbird. Familiar shouting. In fact, Hank realized, it sounded a lot like Gambit now that he was closer, shouting in his mixture of creole and french, swearing generously as he neared the stairs, shouting for him. Hank turned to the doorway, and let out an angry growl when he got there. K was in Gambit's arms, limp, eyes open, and bleeding from the neck, her suit was soaked in blood with very little white visible.
Remy handed her to Hank, and let a distressed Beast get to work. He quickly realized that the wound went straight through her neck, and blood weeping out both sides. The weeping was what had Hank the most concerned, too.
Yet, by the time he'd gathered his supplies and turned back to his wayward patient, paddles at the ready, K had recovered her pulse, and was awake just enough to cover the wounds with her hands, allowing them to close up easier. When Hank approached her, and she acknowledged him, he let out an irritated chuff. "Stay. Put," he growled out, not entirely shocked when K simply agreed.
Nearby, Logan was healing quickly as well. Stark had to bring Natasha in off of the mountain - as soon as the bulk of the soldiers were cleared out a short time later for medical treatment, and he was swearing up a storm at her for not calling for help sooner.
On Natasha's arrival, K left the medical area to flop down in the co-pilot's seat intending to rest, and to make room for the other minor casualties they'd sustained in the raid.
When Logan woke up, Scott was nearest him, and before Scott realized his teammate was awake, Logan spoke up. "Didja pull K yet?" he asked, slightly out of breath, and clearly worn, his uniform in tatters, and covered in his own blood.
Scott paused and glanced toward the cockpit before he answered in a steady voice. "What do you remember, Logan?"
"Why? Where is she?" Logan asked, his stomach feeling like lead and his body positively aching everywhere.
Scott let out a little breath and clenched his jaw. "She's – in the cockpit." Logan let out a breath of relief before Scott continued. "She saved your ass, Logan. I don't know what the hell she said, but whatever it was, you're probably alive because of it."
"Yeah, she's a damn good shot," Logan said, shaking his head as he thought of her picking off the soldiers around him.
"No, Logan." Scott looked irritated as he tried to explain so he would just … listen to him. "She stepped in front of the Hulk. She managed to talk him out of taking a boulder to you."
At that, Logan rose to his feet and stared at Scott before he shakily made his way to the cockpit. He dropped to one knee when he found her fast asleep in the co pilot chair. "Cripes, woman," he whispered, gently touching the sides of her neck as he looked her face over and her hands rested on his forearms. It wasn't hard to note the blood in her hair, and all over her neck and hands, but she smiled at him, glad he was already well healed. "What the hell were you thinkin'?" he asked, as he scanned her face then glared at her, in pure disbelief of what Scott had said.
She sighed heavily, knowing she was going to hear it. She opened her mouth to speak, and on finding it incredibly painful, she reflexively rested her hand at her throat, then swallowed hard when no sound came out. He frowned deeper when he saw the obvious trail of blood on both of her shoulders.
"You got shot too?" he asked, looking more strained. "Was that before or after the Hulk?"
She looked down, knowing there was no good way to answer him. "After," she rasped out in a hoarse whisper, even though her throat had healed long ago.
"You were supposed to stay out of the fight. No more missions."
"You mean until after the baby's here," she replied, but only got more angry herself when he shook his head grimly. "But I'm fine," she argued quietly.
"No," he said in a harder tone, clearly still mad. She opened her mouth to say something in return when he raised his hand, palm open to her. "I said no."
But at that, she glared at him, and narrowed her eyes. "You know, you were supposed to take care of yourself too. Instead, I end up stopping some giant green jackass from mushing you into more of a puddle in the dirt." She was growling right along with him as they squared off. But as soon as Scott called out that they were ready to go - and that he needed the cockpit, the two ferals got to their feet and growled all the way to where they took their seats next to each other.
"The Hulk wasn't supposed to be there," Logan grumbled under his breath at her, irritated that she was right about him tusslin' with his old sparring partner.
"Neither was the other sniper, but you don't see me pissin' and moanin' about it," she snarled back just as quietly, her arms crossed as she glared straight ahead. He watched her, confused as to what she was talking about, but he was still trying too hard to keep his angry mood to ask her now.
"Can I bring you two some water?" Kurt asked from the seat across the aisle from them, smirking widely to himself when both of them growled out an angry 'no' in unison. He turned forward, chuckling as the rest of the team filed in around them.
The two ferals didn't talk to each other on the flight back, but shortly after take off, as K stared out the window, Logan slipped his hand onto her thigh, and K immediately intertwined her fingers with his. Kurt watched the gesture, amazed by how even angry at each other, they couldn't seem to deny the need to touch. It was reiterated when they stepped out of the jet, and K lost her footing. Logan caught her before she could get beyond a small stumble, and she didn't let go of him, allowing him to hold her close as they finished exiting the craft. K smiled at him, in spite of her lingering irritation, and his the light in his eyes danced in response.
She'd barely been upright when Heather greeted them at the bottom of the steps. "How did it go?" she asked, looking K over, and diving right to running her hands over areas that Natasha had said the bullets were bouncing off of, lamenting the amount of blood on the white portions of her spare suit.
"Heather, come on … you don't need to give me the once over," K pointed out as Heather's hand skimmed K's side.
"Oh, sorry – I was just checking for damage to the suit," Heather said. "Totally not trying to see if there is a bump. Nope." K gave her a dry look as Heather grinned then cleared her throat. "Aside from the blood stains and the claw holes in the gloves, it looks perfect."
Logan's expression remained mostly neutral. He was torn between relief that she was fine and anger at the fact that she wouldn't need checking over had she listened to him in the first place.
"You can retrieve your suit shortly, Mrs. Hudson." Celia said, cutting into the teasing that Heather was clearly gearing up for - though she had a smile on her face as she walked up to K, file and paperwork in hand. "K, come with me please, you need to be checked over before you return to clashing horns with Logan."
K stopped short and stared at Celia a bit wide-eyed. "But I'm fine. The suit held up – I can go after I change, right?" K asked followed closely by Hank's sigh as he shook his head.
"We have to check both you and your tiny bundle of joy," Hank said as he wheeled Natasha past them on a stretcher, positively doped up on morphine with her eyes rolling in her head. K opened and shut her mouth before she finally nodded and silently followed Hank, with Logan's hand on her hip as he stayed close.
Once they were in the lab, she stepped behind the curtain though Logan stayed beside her as she slipped out of Heather's uniform. He set it on the counter next to her after she slipped on a gown and climbed up onto the bed, covering herself with a sheet as she asked Logan to grab her clothes. He nodded and wordlessly slipped away as Celia entered the room.
The doctor pulled up a chair and set up the ultrasound machine, obviously taking her time.
"Come on, lady, lets get this show on the road," K said, anxious to just go to bed already and leaning back in anticipation of her quick exam.
"Oh no. We'll start when your husband returns. He deserves a peek at the little one after all the stress he's gone through today," Celia told her.
And just like that, K suddenly got nervous. What if she had done something to hurt the baby? What if after all her bravado, her injuries had done some harm? It didn't make sense that it would, her body was well protected, after all. But how much blood had she lost? How long was her heart stopped? Her stomach was flipping and twisting as she nervously waited for Logan.
When Logan returned, he greeted Celia quietly as she gestured for him to sit. He was barely in his chair when K reached for him, reflexively looking for comfort. He gently took her hand in his, intertwined their fingers and kissed the back of her hand, the tiniest of smiles on his face. K watched him as Celia began the ultrasound. It took a few minutes before the whooshing sound came out loud and clear. K let out a breath and closed her eyes as she tipped her head back. Though when she got around to opening them again, it was to find a crooked smile on Logan's face as he listened to the odd wooshing sound.
"For as far along as you are, I think you're safe," Celia said as she studied the screen. She cocked her head sideways and stopped, staring at it before changing her angle entirely, now showing the baby turned the other way. "Hmm," Celia said quietly, but not quiet enough to escape either parent's ears.
"Whats wrong?" K asked, not even thinking to try and hide the note of panic.
"It's just that the adamantium is making the imaging come out less than clear. We may need to do this a different way," Celia said, though she kept trying and frowning at the screen before she cleaned the gel off of K's abdomen and readjusted the sheet. In a moment, she switched to a more … intrusive looking wand. "We need to use a different style probe.." Celia gave her quick instructions on how to proceed, but K simply stared back at her, sure this was some kind of twisted joke.
"Why?" she asked, not at all ready for a test like this.
"Because I can't get the measurements I need. I can't see everything, and I'm assuming you don't want to go into a regular OB who will ask you to do the same thing anyhow, and then take exception to your skeleton," Celia rattled off, looking at the feral woman over her glasses.
K stared at her for a moment, lips parted and quickly realizing how incredibly stuck she was. She didn't want to do it, particularly with her husband sitting there, waiting for her to go ahead. "Work with what you have." K growled finally.
Celia looked irritated and let out an impatient sigh. "Just do it," Logan said, leaning back in his chair.
K stared over at him in disbelief. "Easy for you to say, seeing as you're not the one that has to do it," she growled out, flinching as the test began. A few minutes later, Celia was done, her measurements recorded and K was sullenly trying to regain some semblance of dignity as she pulled her shirt over her head, her back to Logan while she got dressed - feeling out of place, yet again.
Logan hadn't moved hardly at all but to hold her hand during the test, and as soon as Celia left them alone, and she was dressed, he pulled her into a long kiss, holding her head in his hands.
K ran her teeth over her bottom lip when the kiss ended, unable to not smile after the quick display. "What was that for?" she asked as he smiled sedately at her.
"For doin' what's right. Even when I've been wrong about it. Today would have been a disaster without a sniper, and the only ones we know, I wouldn't trust with a slingshot," he told her.
"My pleasure to help," K muttered thickly as she let him pull her closer and wrap her up in a tighter embrace.
"Oh, and I don't know why Hulk left you alone, but I sure as hell don't want you to ever put yourself in that position again. Not for me. Not for anyone. Not worth the risk," Logan said, and it was easy enough to hear the nerves in his voice. But K wrinkled her brow and shook her head.
"Well ... If you won't take care of your own safety, I can promise that I will. I want to keep you around, mister," K told him quietly though it was hard to miss the sheer determination on her features. "I do not want to have a child alone."
Whatever Logan was expecting to hear from her - that wasn't it, and instead of fighting, with her or picking nits, he simply let his shoulders drop as he nodded and led her upstairs.