Notes from robbie: Griezz: Sinister is incredibly intelligent, with an eye for detail and a brilliant mind. But when he doesn't care about something or someone, it's a big blind spot for him. He didn't care about Chance, so he didn't care about putting them in the right spots. It's just not important to him. Chance isn't important to him. (which is a shame because he's so cute)

Beyond that, the memory erasing isn't necessarily to hide the fact that he's taking them. The truth of the matter is that he knows they know something's up, especially after he stole their medical records. It's really more about making sure the X-Men can't find his lab and about, surprisingly, avoiding too much trauma, which would not be good for K's baby or Charlie - or any babies that Annie and Kate might have cooking (which is why he's taking them too). He wants to study a full mutant lifespan… so a trauma-induced miscarriage would be a bad thing. It's not really about hiding his identity. Hope that clears up your question :)

As for Clint… well. You've summed it up beautifully. It's Clint. He is so intelligent and so stupid at the same time. Kate says it's from all the concussions.

From CC: Not to mention the simple fact that even though Sinister has a great level of detail in his perception of things - his lumbering idiots that do all the actual heavy lifting do NOT. It is not an oversight. It's common sense that he's not doing this crap himself if he has more important things to do … like … the actual research. So yeah. Sinister is like that but he got what he wanted, so …. He's done. Hand it over to the lackeys to finish up.

Summers Snuggles

As soon as the X-Men arrived in the hangar back from fighting the Shi'ar, there was someone already waiting to greet them. And Annie looked like she hadn't slept a wink as she ran right over to Logan on seeing that Scott wasn't with them. "Is he alright?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, he just had to patch up the jet. He's on his way, it's fine. Really," he told her warmly. "How did things go here?"

If Logan had been expecting an easy answer to that, he was quickly disappointed when Annie responded by seizing one of his arms with both hands, eyes wide. "Scott was right," she said breathily. "It was… it was Sinister. And he came back, Logan."

He looked alarmed as he tried to get the whole story, supporting her as she held onto him. "What are you talking about? What happened?"

"We don't know. That's the worst part!" she told him earnestly. Her obvious worry and whispered conversation was starting to draw the attention of the other X-Men who had come on Noh's ship. "We don't remember anything — one minute I was with Charlie, and the next, I was with Chance, and K had Charlie, and we were missing a few hours!" She looked downright alarmed as she added in a hiss, "And that man has been messing with my little girl."

"Are they alright, or do I need to go find them?" he asked, clearly ready to head right out and tear Sinister open with his bare hands.

She shook her head, still holding onto his arm. "No, no, they're asleep. K's with them ... I didn't want to leave them alone. But he… he was only interested in Charlie. He didn't touch Chance, Tyler said. He looked us over when we … when we realized what had happened." Annie held onto Logan a little tighter for a moment before she finally seemed to take a breath, letting go of his arm and looking simply exhausted.

"Where are they?" Logan asked, already leaving the hangar.

"Upstairs," Annie said, trailing behind him. "In our room."

When they got there, K was curled up with both little ones, who had snuggled up on her in the big bed. Charlie was perfectly content and asleep on K's chest, but Chance was starting to wake up, a little bit squirmy, and when he saw Logan, he smiled and held out his hands. "Pees!" he half-demanded.

Logan barely hesitated before he picked him up — though he was a bit surprised when Chance latched on and snuggled in. "You okay?" he asked toward K, who simply shrugged in response.

"Same old, same old," she replied. Logan looked disheartened by her answer and took a seat in the chair nearby.

"That's not what I was hoping to hear," he said quietly, but K shrugged one shoulder.

"That's what you get for hoping," K said dryly.

Logan frowned a little deeper at that and decided that getting her alone would be the best option. "You want to go to bed?"

K looked toward Annie and just tipped her head toward Charlie, who was starting to stir as well. "If you can get her, I can leave you be."

Annie smiled slightly as she headed over to where K and Charlie were curled up. "You know, she's pretty picky about who's allowed to hold her," she said with a soft smirk. "Let alone who she'll sleep on."

"Sure she is," K muttered, though at that, Charlie looked up at her with a sleepy frown and reached one hand up to cover her mouth and say 'shhh' very insistently.

At that, K gave her the tiniest of low growls and pretended to nip at her hand, which got a giggle and a 'no' as Charlie shook her head at her. K gave her the growl again but kissed her little palm instead of nipping.

Annie watched the whole exchange with a growing smile. "I don't know," she said with a teasing tone to her voice. "I think Charlie's happy where she is."

"She'll be happier with you."

Annie chuckled at that and very carefully took Charlie, though not before the little girl absolutely insisted on giving K a very wet baby kiss. Annie tried to do the same for Chance, but the little guy flat-out refused and just tried to snuggle Logan harder, shaking his head obstinately with a glare worthy of the Summers name any time his mother tried to get him to let go.

It was another little while before the rest of the team arrived in the blackbird, though the little ferals were still in the room with both Annie and the twins when Scott arrived and blinked at all five of them in mild surprise before Chance finally released his grip on Logan and held out his hands for Scott with an insistent "dadadada" that continued until Scott scooped him off of Logan's shoulder and he snuggled right in.

"You know about what happened?" Logan asked.

Scott nodded, his gaze on Annie with a little frown before he looked K's way as well. "Kurt filled me in on the basic overview, but I was hoping to get a few more details on what went down."

"Good luck with that," K replied as she headed toward the door. "Welcome back."

"I don't think you understand," Scott said. "You need to try and tell me what you can remember — anything at all."

"What? Are you after a debriefing?" K asked with a frown. "I was under the impression that was for missions. All I did was to sit here and be … screwed with." She shook her head hard and started to leave again, though Logan looked as if he wanted to hear her version of events too.

"Look," Scott said, crossing his arms as he looked her over. "I know you don't remember it, but anything — anything you can give us would be a lead at this point, even if it's subconscious."

"Oh. Well. That should be easy … consciously remembering something subconscious. Tell you what," K said with her eyes narrowed. "I'm out. Off the team for the duration, anyhow. So this?" She gestured around the room. "This wasn't an assignment. It was a favor. I have nothing for you, so just — back off."

Scott matched her narrowed-eyes look with one of his own. "So that's it? You have to go on medical leave, so why try? Didn't realize healers were so thin-skinned when they have to sit out for a while."

"Let's get one thing straight right now — I can fight circles around you any damn day of the week. You pushed me out. Both of you." She turned toward Logan too. "If you're right about Sinister — and I'm not saying I believe it — then he's targeting me too. While you're tying my hands. I. Have. Nothing to add to this fight."

"Sinister is targeting you, and that's exactly why you need to see if you can remember anything, before or after or anyting in between," Scott argued. "We still don't know anything — we need leads." He gestured to K with the hand that wasn't holding Chance as the little boy looked wide-eyed between the two arguing adults. "You're still in this fight. You don't have to stab things or hit them to be part of the team. Or is that all you think you add to this team?"

"What else have I ever been asked for otherwise?" she shot back. "You two — you don't want my help on the grounds that it's too dangerous, but tell how I'm safer. Please."

"You'd rather be out somewhere no one will notice if you go missing for hours at a time? Days at a time?" Scott was glaring hard, a slight red to his eyes starting up at the corners. "Because one of these times, Sinister's going to decide he doesn't want to give you back, and that's when your team comes in handy." He shook his head at her. "He's not interested in you. You're dead weight in about five, six months to him."

"So what's the difference between your outlook and his? That's my main reason to keep breathing right now, right? Or do you need some live bait?"

Scott actually had to take a breath and close his eyes at the red flash that started up — he was that furious. He dug in his pocket for his glasses as he said through gritted teeth, "If you think …. if you honestly think I'm — the X-Men are anything like Sinister… you clearly don't know anyone on this team. At all."

"All I know is that this guy is going to do whatever the hell he wants regardless of what you do. If you're right about the rest of it? I don't have much to look forward to, do I?" She didn't look overly emotional about any of it as she stormed toward the door.

"So you're giving up again. Typical," Scott half muttered to himself, though neither of the ferals missed it.

"Over the damn line," Logan growled out between his teeth, looking every bit as furious as Scott had ever seen him.

"Yeah?" Scott glared his way. "Then tell me I'm wrong."

"No, you're not," Logan said with a shake of his head. "But she's not either."

"On which part?" Scott asked, still obviously angry. His hands would have been in fists at his sides if he wasn't holding onto Chance, who was pouting at the angry tone of the adults around him.

Logan looked torn between furious and flat out disappointed. "This is what he wants, and neither one of you are smart enough to see it. It's not about you, Scott."

"No — this time it's about them," Scott pointed out, sweeping his arm out toward Annie and Charlie as well as K. "Believe it or not, I figured that out myself, thanks."

"Then maybe don't tear down the pregnant girl in the process," Logan growled out.

"Right. How dare I ask her to be part of finding Sinister. She hasn't been asking to be part of missions or anything," Scott said with a glare.

"You're an idiot, and I'm not going to argue with you about this. I'll let Annie try to explain. The girls have spent enough time together for her to get it. But I'm done before I hurt you."

"Get out of my room," Scott said through his teeth.

"Nothin' I want more," Logan countered as he took a hold of K to lead her out, but she stopped short and pulled her arm out of Logan's hands to turn back to Scott.

"I'm not trying to block you. I can't remember what happened. It's just not there. Bring in Rachel if you think I'm lying to you, since you don't sound like you trust me. I don't care. But there's nothing there to see," K said, looking frustrated as Logan once again took a hold of her arm, and the two of them headed right to their room — Logan already having decided it was high time for some distance.

That next morning, Scott was still in a bad mood — not just from the previous night's fight but from everything Annie had told him happened. The lost time, the fact that Sinister was focusing on Charlie, the fact that they couldn't figure out how to keep it from happening…

So, he got up early and decided to head out and check over some of Noh's security measures while everyone else was still asleep and the sun was hardly up. He walked the perimeter and ran some checks, just… trying to do something that felt semi-useful.

He honestly hadn't expected anyone to be up this early as he followed the perimeter alerts system and then went into the grounds, planning to start at the barn and move across from there — so when he saw that K was up as well, he almost just turned right around, not in the mood to deal with her. Until he noticed that she seemed … off.

She had clearly finished all the barn chores. The horses were all happily enjoying their hay, but she was half tucked behind a bale of hay with her knees drawn up to her chest.

Considering everything that had happened, he couldn't help but jump straight to concern as he approached her. "K?" he called out to her, not wanting to startle her and get claws in the chest. "Are you alright?" But when he made his way over and she looked positively ill, he dropped straight into a crouch beside her. "K, what's wrong?" He paused and frowned, openly looking her over for injury with the sinking feeling starting to strangle his chest. "Did something happen?"

But she just shook her head and buried her face in her arms.

He frowned deeper at that and scooted a bit closer. "If you're feeling sick ... if something's happened ... if you need something…" He was honestly worried now at the little tucked up feral in the barn, convinced Sinister had done something to her that was lasting. When she just tucked in a bit further, he reached out carefully, his hand hovering uncertainly over her arm. "K, can you hear me?"

Her hands balled into fists, the fabric of her sleeves clenched up in them as she all but trembled. When he repeated her name again and very carefully rested his hand on her arm, her head popped up enough for him to see the clearly devastated look on her face an instant before she unfolded herself enough to slide over to him and melt into his chest and fall into a total breakdown.

He was totally caught off guard by the reaction and didn't know what else to do except pull her into a hug and let her cry it out, completely at a loss as to what was wrong and still half-worried something had been done to her. He was racking his brains for something to say, knowing that "you're safe" wasn't going to cut it when Sinister was apparently traipsing in and out of the mansion whenever he wanted, so he finally settled on, "I'm here."

She was still leaning on him and totally silent, so he tried to come up with something comforting again. "I swear ... we're going to figure out how he's getting in here, and we'll stop him. Somehow."

But she just shook her head and started to draw herself smaller again. He let out a sigh and pulled her a bit tighter, still very much out of his depth, before he simply shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I don't really believe that either. But we've gotta believe it anyway. Or there's no point — and he wins."

"He already won," she half whispered.

"K…" He shook his head and just pulled her as tight as he could into the best hug he knew how to give. "I'm sorry. Really. He's… I'm sorry."

At that, she finally wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him back, though she was shaking the tiniest bit. "If it's not him ... he's not the only one."

"If it's not him, we'll find out whoever it is and I'll personally make sure they never bother you again," he swore.

"Not your problem."

"You're on my team — so yeah, it is," he told her with a small smile, relieved that she was at least talking. That was a good sign. "And besides, you're also my friend. So even if you weren't, it would still be my problem." He let out a sigh and tried to hug her tighter as she just sort of frowned. "I'm sorry I can't stop him. I wish to God I could."

"You're a good guy, Scott."

He tried for a little smile her way. "Annie's worked hard on keeping me there," he said with a smirk. "Couldn't do it alone…. You don't have to either, you know. I don't mind getting cried on when you need it." He hugged her again before he added, "I can't stop Sinister — but I think... maybe ... the team can. We've got a pretty good one."

She frowned a bit at that. "You should probably tell them that."

"Yeah, maybe you guys need to hear it more often," Scott said. He let out a breath and looked down at her before he simply decided that, while she was there and obviously upset, he'd try to repair what damage he could — while it was just the two of them. He wasn't sure if talking to her was helping, but he just… couldn't watch her fall apart. "I've got one team member I know I screwed up with. She thinks I only want her on missions for the heavy lifting, like I don't know she's got the intelligence and training for just about anything. I'm not sure how that happened, but she's got it in her head pretty tight that I think she's useless right about now." He tried for a smile. "But you know, I could really use her help."

"I'm sure you'll do just fine," she said dryly.

"Oh, yeah. I've got a stellar record so far," he said, shaking his head before he looked a bit more serious. "Really, K, I could use your help. I've seen your file. I know you've done intelligence work, and this — there's so many different leads we could chase when we've got nothing to work with. I really could use some help sifting."

She shrugged a bit and nodded to herself.

He bit the corner of his lip for just a second before he let out a long sigh. "Yeah, I know. It's boring, and it's not my favorite thing either. Those couple of weeks before Alex had me back using my powers at all? I hated that intel work when I wanted to be on runs with the team. But it's something to do, you know?" When she still didn't seem to be convinced, he tried to grasp for something else to help. "I still want you on the team, K. Please."

She nodded her head silently, though she didn't look up at him.

He let out all his breath. He had officially run out of things to say — he couldn't think of anything else that might help. So, he let her lean against him and just… stayed there, settling in to just do whatever he could to make sure she felt safe, even a little bit.

The usual coffee time was nearly over when the two of them headed back up to the house. There was no way Scott was going to leave her there alone to stew in her thoughts, and it was a little bit unnerving how easily she managed to hide the fact that she'd had a solid cry, though it was obvious right away that she hadn't gotten off entirely when Logan handed her a cup of coffee.

The frown he'd worn turned almost into a scowl when she took the mug, and Scott was sure he was going to catch the fact that K had been crying — but that wasn't apparently the thing bothering Logan. "Why the hell do you smell so much like Scooter?" Logan shot a glare Scott's way over her shoulder as he pulled K a little tighter.

"He was handy. Made himself useful," K replied before she wrapped her arms around him and just laid her head on his shoulder.

Logan nodded to himself and simply kissed the side of her head without another word spoken about it, perfectly content to go back into the usual swing of things from there.

….

It had been almost two weeks since the big Shi'ar battle and since K's quiet breakdown, and ... nothing had happened. It was wonderfully normal for a good, long time, where the only thing anyone was concerned about at the mansion was midterm season and (at least for some of the teachers) taking bets on whether or not certain students were going to go on dates to the Halloween party at the end of the month.

Kate may or may not have been heading up the betting pool, and it may or may not have mostly been centered around her favorite little blond healer. She wasn't going to say either way — even if she grinned like a loon anytime anyone asked.

But that afternoon, her focus wasn't on Halloween party planning, or on helping Kurt pull together a second attempt to get Logan and K married, or on chasing around after Chance, who had up and decided to try walking one day just because he felt like he could get closer to your face to shout his 'pees' declarations to be picked up — even if Charlie was content to make people come to her.

That afternoon, Kate had a mission, and she was so going to get K out of the house.

She was even taking Clint's car, just so Scott couldn't get mad about 'recognizable vehicles.' At least Clint's car was only recognizable to tracksuits, and if they ran into those guys? It would be fun. They'd trash the jerks and go get ice cream to celebrate.

She waited for K's riding class to finish up before she all but skipped out to meet K on her way in from the barn. "Hey, you are coming with me, my friend. It's time I did my part in the wedding planning process."

"Just do whatever," K said. "You don't need me for anything outside of showing up on the day."

"That's what you think," Kate said with a grin as she slipped her arm through K's. "But if we're going to get you fitted for a wedding dress, I do actually need you to be there. It's one of those few things we can't do without you." She leaned forward with a little teasing grin. "And just so you don't feel all put upon, I even scheduled one for me too so the ladies at my favorite dress shop aren't all… fawning over just you. Scale back the attention, you know?"

She looked a little taken back. "Oh," she said quietly. "Really?" She scrunched her face up.

"Really really," Kate replied. "And you're going to look amazing."

"I'll look passable," she muttered.

"Well if you can't take a compliment, at least promise me you'll compliment me on mine," Kate teased lightly. "I'm vain, you know."

"That's an entirely different story."

"Oh good. I was worried for a second there," Kate laughed. She pulled her arm tighter through K's. "Come on. I stole Clint's car. Let's change all his presets." With that, she pulled K along with her, grinning broadly.

She didn't tell K that she'd had to pretty much promise the world to the boys back in the mansion to get an outing with just the two of them, though. Oh, no. There would be no mention of the fact that she was checking in with Kurt at regular intervals or anything like that just to be safe. No — today was supposed to be about wedding prep, and it was going to be amazing.

When they got to the dress store, it was obvious Kate had been there plenty of times. She knew all of the girls there by name and was chatting with one of them about how her little toddler back home was doing as they pulled out two long garment bags that must have been the dresses. Kate turned the full force of an excited grin K's way and directed her to the nearest changing room. "You first. I want to see the look on your face. It took me forever to pick this one out."

K wasn't exactly sure what Kate would have picked out for her, though she'd been assured enough times that it wouldn't be "gaudy" that she wasn't too worried about something… huge.

What Kate had found was ... pretty simple and elegant, actually. The dress itself was made up of simple, draped silk, with delicate floral lace over the entire dress as an overlay that extended beyond the hem like a second, more ethereal layer floating beyond it. The biggest detail was that it was both sleeveless and had an open back detail— but that was all the design that went into it. Otherwise, it was … very understated and was going to look gorgeous in the autumn leaves.

K stared at it on the hangar until one of the shop ladies asked if she needed a hand. But she quickly called back that she was fine, though she was reasonably sure that it just wasn't going to work out right, even as she stripped down and slipped into it.

One of the seamstresses slipped into the room and offered to zip her up as K very quietly took it in. Kate had really done her homework on this one. The cut was flattering and even a little old-fashioned. It fit the wedding as a whole, quite frankly, but she simply wasn't emotionally prepared.

"K?" Kate called from outside. "Does it fit? Do you like it? It doesn't suck, does it?"

"It's charming, Kate. And it fits today …"

"Great! Come on out and give me a twirl. I can totally ask everyone else to leave if you're shy," Kate said, grinning.

"I'm not that shy or dramatic," K replied.

"Then lemme see how it looks on you," Kate insisted. "And then I swear you can take it off again after they do all the measurements if you need alterations and stuff, and I won't make you wear it again until day of."

"Kate... I doubt anything is going to work at the rate we're going," K said, though she did step out, her eyes on the carpet.

Kate let out a little delighted giggle when she saw K, and she clapped her hands together underneath her chin with a wide grin. "Oh, you look gorgeous. Yes. Yes, this is the dress. And this is the wedding. It's totally happening this time, just because it looks perfect. Seriously."

K peeked up at her, though it was clear she thought at least part of Kate's statement was off. "I think you're being a little optimistic."

"Honey, I fight bad guys with a stick and a string. I live in the land of optimism." Kate grinned. "Alright. Let's get you all sewn up and then you can tell me I look horrible."

"What makes you think it won't work?" Kate's seamstress asked as she started pinning and pulling at the dress K was wearing. "You're not on a deadline, are you? Outside of the wedding day, that is."

K took a deep breath and glanced at the seamstress. "I'm due in April," she said frankly. "There has been some insistence on getting it done well before."

The woman frowned and stepped back to look at her more critically. "No you're not," she said with a little smile. "You're not showing yet. Your dates must be off."

"They're not," K replied.

"You're just teeny tiny. With a teeny tiny little one," Kate teased. She shook her head at the seamstress. "Wedding's real soon — she'll be fine."

"Well how soon?" she asked. "If she's that far in …"

"I'm not jinxing it. Just trust me on this, Ella," Kate assured her.

"Alright," Ella replied with an easy shrug. "Maybe you could tell me when you need these alterations done?"

"Couple weeks," Kate said. "Told you it was a rush job — sorta." She rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish grin before she looked past Ella to K. "You'll look totally amazing."

"You're overly generous."

"It's just cuz I love you." Kate positively beamed at her. "Who else can I get to give me an honest assessment of mine? I mean, besides America, but she's in space."

K gave her a bit of a smile and waited while the seamstresses finished up their pinning and notes. "Do it, Hawkeye."

Kate beamed at her. "Stay right there," she said, holding up her hands. She slipped into the nearest dressing room to change into her own dress — which she needed a bit of help with. She was going for the full cathedral-length style, so there was… lots to it. But when she emerged, she was positively giggling with delight. The top was almost the same cut as her usual uniform, though with sheer lace sleeves, and from the neck to the top of her bodice was clear lace with gorgeous designs in it. "Whatdya think?" she asked, holding out her arms.

"Most beautiful bride ever," K replied with a little smirk.

"Naturally," Kate said, grinning. "Of course, I brought the second-place with me."

"You're delusional," K said as she finally slipped out of her dress and handed it over to be altered.

"I've been called worse," she said, shrugging up to her ears. "Besides, I think you're mispronouncing 'awesome.'"

"No, I don't believe that I have ever mispronounced that," K replied. "You're going to knock him for a loop, future Mrs Elf. "

"That," she said with a wide, mischievous grin as Ella fussed over the waistline a bit, "is entirely the point, my dear future Mrs. Magnet."

"That is not a thing," K told her.

"It so is. It's okay, though. I know the hug magnet likes to keep it on the down-low."

"So low it's not even a thing."

"Riiight." Kate grinned at her before she got distracted by Ella and her shoulder alterations. She chatted with the seamstress for a bit until she was all done, and then she had to get a little help getting out again — but finally, the two women were ready to leave.

As they headed back to Clint's car, Kate draped an arm around K's shoulders. "So you know, Logan's going to die when he sees you. Not just because of the dress."

"Oh?" K asked. "I thought it would be entirely from your dress selection and its magic hiding arts."

"No, no. That's just the wrapping. Or didn't anybody tell you that?" Kate said with a confident grin.

K put on an expression of pure innocence. "What do you mean by that?"

Kate patted K's shoulder consolingly. "It's alright. We'll make sure someone gives you the talk."

"Is there a movie version available? My attention span is crap."

Kate just snorted out a little laugh and shook her head. "I'll look into it," she promised.