From CC: Well. I am partial to her, and the more I write of the two of them, the more I believe my own opinion that yes. Yes. this is the way it should be. Give K to Logan and give Annie to Scott. POOF. Happy boys. Yes Good. (Griezz. Omg. I don't know what that word was but I'll take it. Your attempt to turn Logan into a K-name is commendable.)

SUPAH glad you girls approve because it was gonna happen anyhow! ;)

*robbie is giggling too hard at the valiant attempt to K-ify Logan's name to do anything but nod along to what CC's saying*

Chapter 11: "A Matter of Trust"

Noh had been following Hank's instructions to the letter in an attempt to get better — and he honestly didn't mind in the least spending this much time with Jubilee, either. He did feel bad about how much food he needed to kickstart his healing — but she seemed more than happy to crawl in bed with a tray and a movie anyway. And he was feeling much better, with his arm around her shoulders and her head on his chest without his pain receptors turned off, so that was a good sign for his recovery.

So when the little whine started up from the arm band, he did his level best to just ignore it. It was an annoyance, and surely Assistant Director Hill couldn't expect him back this quickly. Not to mention the fact that Jubilee was curled up into him, and if he looked like he was reaching for his communicator, she would try and steal it first.

Eventually, the noise got loud enough that it was hard for him to concentrate on anything else, so he tapped the band to acknowledge it but still made no move to leave. That would buy him a little time, anyway.

At his movement, Jubilee snuggled in a bit deeper and leaned forward in her sleep to kiss his neck, still drifting, mostly unconscious.

He leaned into her hair and kissed the top of her head with a little contented smile, and he closed his eyes to just try and relax. He had actually fallen back asleep when the high-pitched whine started up again, this time much more insistent, intense enough that it not only woke him but had his entire body on edge, the frequency seeming to cut right through his tympanic membrane. And it didn't stop when he touched the arm band, either — just kept getting more insistent and intense.

Jubilee's eyes fluttered open quickly at the way he was tensed and half holding his breath. "Are you — did I do something?" she asked, a bit of alarm in her voice.

"No — no, not you," he said through his teeth.

"Then what?" she asked. "What's happening?" She looked truly worried, and it was clear she had no idea what she could do to help.

"I just — it's not—" He had his eyes closed and gave up on trying to explain to her entirely as he tried to focus on rerouting his brain patterns so he could just ignore the input, but it was hard to focus, his concentration shattered by the sound that was literally traveling through his body. It was the kind of frequency the Shi'ar used to make Kree hurt, though not quite at the level of Warbird's war cry that had shattered his entire membrane the first time they met. When he finally gave up that approach, he just reached for his communicator. "I need to get to my ship," he whispered, still through his teeth.

Jubilee frowned at him as she put it together. "How are they doing … whatever they're doing?" she asked, her eyes flashing.

"It's not — don't worry," he told her as he pulled up the message with the coordinates and responded to it directly — which finally stopped the noise. He let out all his breath as he could finally function again, and he tried to smile her way. "I'm fine."

"Noh, please tell me what they're doing to you," she asked quietly. "I trust you completely, but what they're doing ... I need to know."

He looked taken aback for a moment and looked up at her with wide eyes — still not quite able to believe that she trusted him after everything he'd done to break that trust — before he just leaned over and kissed her. "It's not your concern," he told her seriously. "Please don't make it your concern."

"So, is it that you're being stupid and trying to protect me?" Jubilee replied slowly. "Or is it that you don't trust me to tell me anything?"

He looked genuinely hurt. "I trust you with my life, Jubilee," he said sincerely.

"Then please, please tell me who is making your life miserable." She let out a breath at his hesitation. "Or at least give me a clue, because I am about thirty seconds from flying up to kill Brand. And I'm not even joking."

"It's not Brand," Noh said quietly, rubbing the Kree calming band as he said it. She was an ally — in a way. He didn't want her caught up in what she had clearly disapproved of.

She narrowed her eyes at him and concentrated hard on trying to just ... calm down, but in the process, she started to get a feeling for who it was. "Not SWORD," she half breathed out. "But close."

He just kissed her temple before he slipped out of the bed faster than she could react. "Just ... trust me, Jubilee," he said.

"Always," she replied, though it was clear she wasn't letting this subject fall.

"Then trust me when I tell you this: don't look into it," he said seriously. "Not if you value your freedom."

"I love you, but I'm not going to let you stop me either," Jubilee replied easily. "So ... sorry, but I'm not sorry. And I'm not going to just wait in the wings."

His eyes widened the slightest bit, and he stopped just beside the window. He … couldn't believe what he was hearing, and her timing couldn't have been worse, as he was half afraid the noise would start up again any moment, and he didn't know that Hill would keep to her promise to leave the mansion alone if she thought she had to come there to retrieve him.

"I love you too, Jubilee," he said softly. But he wasn't going to let her keep questioning him, and he just ducked out the window, running down the side of the building and off to ... wherever faster than she could stop him.

Jubilee had just let out a sigh and quickly changed for the day when there was a little knock on the door. She was relieved to see that it was Logan — apparently coming to check on her.

"You okay in here?" he asked with a little frown. "What the hell was that damn noise?"

"What, you've never heard a fight before? I doubt that somehow," Jubilee said with a little snort. "Surprised Noh can take it that well."

But Logan was already shaking his head. "No, no this high pitched noise. Kinda ... damn near like a squealing. What the hell was it?"

Jubilee turned slowly to face him with a deep frown on her face. "High pitched — how high pitched?" Logan just shrugged. "And was it off before or after Noh ran down the wall like a scared little cockroach?"

"Before — why?" Logan asked, and all at once, Jubilee looked positively furious again.

"Who's in charge of SWORD?" Jubilee asked as she stalked up to him, her hands on her hips. "Not Brand. Who's her boss?"

"You'd have to ask Fury," Logan said with a fair bit of caution. "Why?"

"No reason yet. Hey. Make sure you're free when Noh gets back, I think I might need your help."

"Whatever you need, kiddo," Logan agreed before Jubilee stalked past, bound for the computer to do some digging. It was there, at the computer as she was just getting into her search for the top of SWORD, that Scott knocked on the door with a little smile.

"Working hard on something important, or a personal project?" Scott asked, quickly putting his hands up in front of him. "It's fine either way, really. Just had a little favor to ask if you had a few minutes."

Jubilee glared at him for a moment but then leaned back in her chair. "I might be persuaded to help you when I run into a dead end here," she replied.

Scott grinned at her outright before he stepped in the room the rest of the way and closed the door behind himself. "We just picked up a woman in Wyoming — accidental thing; we only caught up with her because Creed was trying to collect a bounty," he explained quietly. " Think you could double check that she's legal?" The question came with his most pleading look, and Jubilee just sort of deflated a bit before she finally nodded her head.

"Just write her name down and I'll … dig around for you," she replied, only to get irritated when Scott simply wrote a single letter.

"Good luck," he said before he stepped out of the room. She frowned at the 'K' on the page and stuck her head out of the door to yell down the hall at him.

"Nothing good has ever come from a single letter like that," she shouted. "You know that, right?"

"Have a little faith, Jubilee," Scott called back. "I'm not the one that brings trouble home with them."

After her art class was over, Warbird had taken recently to patrolling the hallways, not only for something to do but because the so-called warrior who had offered to help with the security of the mansion had done nothing but either take up Beast's time or simply be absent from the duties he had volunteered himself for. Typical Kree behavior, she thought as she turned down the hallway.

Besides, it was her job before it was his.

While classes were still ongoing, there was very little in the way of movement or excitement around the school, though she did pass Beast on his way up to the residential areas to check on his ongoing patient. Really, that Kree was more trouble than he was worth.

So when she saw Beast on his way back as she made a second pass of the halls, she only just managed not to look too entirely delighted when she saw his livid expression. At least she wasn't the only one who could see sense around here.

"What ails you?" she called out to him, knowing exactly the answer already but just… wanting to hear it.

Henry turned her way with a look of near rage, though he was probably one of the best in the mansion to put that particular emotion in check quickly. "I'm afraid nothing that concerns you, my dear."

Warbird smirked at that and shook her head. "I've nothing to do this afternoon — if you require assistance," she pressed, hoping she could help expedite an eviction if she was lucky.

"You have never offered your services in my lab before," Henry pointed out. "Forgive me if I find your offer … ill-timed."

She wrinkled her nose the slightest. "I wasn't offering to help aide that excuse for a warrior, but to help his exit. Or am I reading your expression entirely wrong?" she asked in a tone that was filled with triumph.

"Warbird," Henry said, leveling his glare her way, his eyes flashing. "If it comes to that — I can guarantee that I will need the assistance of no one."

She paused at the anger in his gaze, not taken back by it but simply surprised to see it from him, of all people. "I don't doubt that," she said after a moment. "But surely it's reached that point? I have not seen you this way… not in peacetime, at any rate."

Henry seemed to bristle at that, but again, he managed to keep his true feelings in check. "Time will have to tell," he replied with much more of his usual easy tone. "For now, I'm afraid it's not my decision to make."

"I can make it for you," she said with relish in her tone. "He doesn't belong here, and you know it."

"That decision is for Jubilation to make — no one else."

Warbird made a derisive noise as she shook her head. "Horrible taste. She'll come to her senses."

"If and when that happens — if she requires your help — then and only then will we discuss this again."

Warbird watched him for a moment through slightly narrowed eyes before she let out a huff and turned on her heel. "When she does come to her senses, tell me. It will be a good show even without my involvement."

"Indeed," Henry agreed before he continued his trek back to his lab. Whenever that boy returned, Henry hoped to be the one to catch him — and remind him again how thin the ice was he was walking on.

Kate was just finishing up taking K on a tour of the mansion, which was fairly empty when they arrived, seeing as classes were still in session. She grinned widely when they got to the med wing. "So, you still haven't met my sweet little Elf," she explained. "He got a bit ... shot."

"You broke him?" K asked. "That wasn't very nice."

"I know, I'm horrible," Kate agreed before she just rubbed the back of her neck ruefully. "Actually, you're not far off? My nemesis shot him, so — pretty close."

"So you didn't break him," K decided. "He was in the wrong place and did a spectacularly stupid impression of a human shield."

Kate snorted. "Wrong place, yes. And while he does tend to do stupid protective things? This one caught us all by surprise," she admitted as they entered the med wing. "He's usually pretty good at dodging."

"I"m going to just not pick at you right now about being a Hawkeye and missing that. Just this once." She looked at Kate very seriously. "But only this once."

"Well, good, because I'm pretty sure I heard that line already," Kate shot back with a raised eyebrow. "Multiple times, from many different people."

"Shameful. Then show me this boy that was so distracted by your beauty that he forgot to dodge bullets."

Kate grinned outright and showed K back into where Kurt was, surprisingly, awake and grinning her way, as Hank was talking to him with a clipboard in hand.

"How you feeling today, Engelchen?" Kate asked in a low whisper as she leaned over to kiss his cheek.

"Much better, Vögelchen," he replied with a warm smile. "Where have you been off to today?"

"Bringing home strays," Kate said, tipping her head K's direction with a wide smile. "Can I keep her? I like her."

"That's quite the endorsement," Kurt said with a laugh. "Where did you find her?"

"She's the best bartender-fashion director in all of Wyoming," Kate said, grinning. "Scott and I had to fight a big Sabretooth to win her over, but I think she likes us."

He raised his eyebrows at that. "You had to fight Creed? Are you alright?" He was already directing Hank to check her over with one hand.

Kate playfully batted Hank away from her and showed him the tear in her uniform. "Literally just a scratch," she promised.

"Might want to have that cleaned," K said calmly as she leaned against one of the empty beds, arms crossed. "No telling what he's been doing with those claws. He keeps them inside his body after all."

Kate shuddered dramatically. "Ew. Just ew."

"Just sayin'," K replied with a shrug. "You might want to take a bath in rubbing alcohol. I do."

"Whatdya say, Hank? Can you hook her up with such a bath?" Kate asked with a serious expression. "He had her over his shoulder. Full contact. Very gross."

K was nodding seriously with an expression of disgust on her face. "He grabbed my ass too. Straight up nasty."

"It's a good thing we had our tight-pants boss man around to blast him," Kate said with a serious expression to match.

"So, so nice," K half purred. "Such lucky girls." She frowned a bit and looked to both of the blue men nearby. "I don't suppose you two want to give us a parade?"

"I'm not that much of an exhibitionist," Kurt said with a look Kate's way that had her giggling behind her hand.

But K crossed her arms and fixed him with a look as she narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you little liar. But I'll let it slide, I'm not big on tails that have tails."

"More for me," Kate said with an impish grin as she just slid into a chair next to Kurt and beamed at him.

"Well, I'll leave you two to … whatever it is you're up to," K said, already edging toward the door. "I'll ... find my way out."

"What, without your alcohol bath?" Kate teased.

"I'll exfoliate. With a belt sander. I'm sure it'll be fine." She was very nearly to the door when Hank managed to block her exit and gently redirect her back toward his desk, explaining that all the residents had to put up with a bit of an exam, though he promised nothing terribly invasive. She frowned at him and allowed him to lead her, though she clearly dragged her feet and tried not to pout about it too much.

As he went through the usual run down, Hank called out to Kate — partially to tell her the news, but also to try and illustrate how simple the exam was. "Kate," Hank said. "You can take Kurt back upstairs today if you'd like; he's healed enough for pills and a little trust."

Kate beamed at Kurt outright. "Oh, good. Our bed is much more comfy," she said as she leaned over to kiss his nose. "And I think the bamfs miss the massive cuddle piles." She tipped her head to indicate one of the bamfs, who was trying to be sneaky about peering at K with an openly curious expression.

The little brunette purposely ignored the little demon until she locked eyes with him and shot him a little smile. He tipped his head in response and hung in the air upside down to just keep staring at her, though this time with a little grin before he teleported over to get much closer, still upside down and grinning.

She let the little smile fall entirely before she just leaned forward and gave him a little kiss on the nose. "Cheeky," she said at just over a whisper, which just got the little guy to fall into giggles.

"Careful, or they'll never leave you alone," Kate said with mock seriousness. She pointed her finger at one of them and giggled out, "Don't go bothering our new neighbor. She's staying across the hall from us for a little while, and I want her to like it here."

"They're cute," K said as she offered her upturned hand to one to climb up into so the little guy could sit on her hand with an impish grin.

"I think so too. But I'm pretty fond of the big one, so I might be biased," Kate said with a teasing smile Kurt's way.

"Well if he's as flirty as the little ones, I can see why you like him," K teased.

"Yep. He's a charmer," Kate agreed as Kurt just laughed and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"You know," K said, looking Kurt's direction. "It took her forever to tell me her name. All she wanted to do was brag about her cute little Elf. Sickening."

"Is that so?" Kurt asked, grinning Kate's way as she just nodded seriously, just running with the story K was spinning.

"Oh, yeah. I thought she needed to know about your swashbuckling, handsome, fuzzy blue self. Triple wield with the tail — so very cute."

K nodded along. "It's a hostile environment, clearly. No names — just bragging on the cute boys. Unbelievable."

"And then when she met Annie and we got her started on Scott…!" Kate shot a look K's way and just started to grin.

"It was impressive. The detail that she was willing to get into with a total stranger over her husband. I was shocked. Impressed. But shocked."

Kurt was looking between the two of them with a bemused expression on his face, and he just started to shake his head. "Where did you find her, again?" he asked almost disbelievingly.

"Doesn't matter. I'm keeping her," Kate said.

"Hope you don't mind sleeping in the middle." K smiled sweetly his way and shot him a wink.

Kurt just shook his head at both of them again. "Please tell me you haven't introduced her to Jubilee yet," he said. "I don't think the mansion can handle all three of you at once."

"Ooh, that's a great idea," Kate said with a huge, troublemaking grin. "K, you so have to meet Jubes. She's my partner in crime on all things awesome. We're already setting up this year's Halloween bash."

"I like her already," K replied before she caught Hank's eye. "What do you say, Doc? Is it terminal?" Hank stopped what he was doing and gave her a little raised eyebrow look.

"I'll have to get back to you," he teased. "Don't leave the grounds, please. Not until Scott gives you the all clear. I'd rather not try to patch you together should Creed come looking." She gave him a little smile and rolled her sleeve down before she turned to Kate.

"Are you escorting him now, or are we going to come back for him and carry him upstairs?"

"Oh, he doesn't need to be carried," Kate said with a wide grin as she just leaned onto Kurt's shoulder. "We can go upstairs anytime he wants. In a little poof of smoke and brimstone."

"Well that's a shame," K replied. "No carrying."

"Oh, there's plenty of carrying," Kate laughed. "When we first met, he plucked me out of the sky."

"Sounds dreamy," K replied. "I don't have any fun stories to tell." She shrugged and let out a little sigh.

"Well, stick around. The fun never stops." Kate glanced up at Kurt and then back to K. "I'm going to 'escort' this one. See you at dinner?"

"Oh, probably," she said with a nod. "Have fun. Don't go turning into K-cubed."

"No danger of that, seeing as you're not invited," Kate shot back, sticking out her tongue.

"That is so not what I meant, but okay, I can run with that too," she laughed.

"See you at dinner, then. We're ordering pizza after Bobby burns water," Kate said before she and Kurt disappeared in a poof of indigo-blue smoke that smelled of brimstone.

K let out a sigh as Hank rested a hand on her arm. "Perhaps I should escort you to your room," he said with a little smirk. "Classes will be out in a few minutes, and I'd rather you didn't get caught up in the rush."

She considered him for a moment and just nodded her agreement, more than a little surprised when he offered her his arm when she was solidly on her feet. She gave him a little smile and gently held onto him. "It's terribly hard to say no to a gentleman," she told him with a smirk.

Hank only covered her hand with his and chuckled, giving her his version of a tour on their way upstairs, and she was totally engaged with his tour, enjoying the company and his kind tones.

When the two of them hit the kitchen, however, Logan was sitting at the table with his paper and a cup of coffee. He did a bit of a double take as the two of them walked in, and K looked slightly taken off guard when she saw him, going so far as to stop short, though Henry was quick to stop with her.

"Logan, our newest resident — at least for the time being," Hank informed him when he saw that the look Logan had was almost identical to the one K was wearing. "She goes by K."

Logan frowned and just watched her for a moment. "Why is that?" he asked.

"Just the way it is," she replied with a tiny shrug. That got him to frown deeper and tip his head to the side the slightest as Henry pulled her forward again. "See you later," she said when she saw he looked as though his hackles were raised. "Maybe."

"Definitely," Logan replied as K glanced over her shoulder at him and gave him a clear once over followed by a tiny smile that left him staring after she and Henry disappeared around the corner.