"You see anything?" I asked Nico, my brother, as we patrolled the nearby rocky shore.

"No," Nico answered back, I could tell by his tone that he was mad at something. I didn't know what it could've been at. The recent retrieval mission had gone smoothly, and the trip back to home base was going nicely.

"Nico, what's wrong?"

"Are you seriously asking me that?"

"You know I can't read your mind. I was not gifted with the abilities of a telepath."

"You bring three unruly teenagers on a delicate retrieval mission, and you expect me to just let it go?"

"Those unruly teenagers are well trained, and are my kids. Beside they need to start getting field experience if they ever want to continue the family business."

"This may be true Christin, but I still don't like taking them along."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Nico was a trusted soldier and friend, but sometimes his mood was not very uplifting.

"I'll check the rocks; you continue down shore." Nico told me. I didn't mind, it was a sound plan, and I wasn't coming up with anything better at the moment.

I had just found a bunch of tide pools, and couple of shells. I picked a few of the prettier ones up and put them in my jacket pocket. The girls back at the safe house would enjoy these.

"Christin!"

Nico? I bolted towards the sounds of my brother. Was he alright? I ran until I found the rocks.

"Nico!? Nico, where are you?!"

"Over here!"

I ran towards his voice. I rounded a large boulder, to find Nice pushing up and down on a young man's chest. I froze, the boy was covering blood, cuts, ice and burns. His clothes were in shreds. His skin was pale. His hair was matted and his left arm was missing.

"What happened?" I practically screamed and ran up to them. My parental instincts started to take over.

"I'm not sure, I found him like this and pulled him from the water. He's not breathing and doesn't have a pulse." Nico stopped chest compressions and began to give the boy mouth to mouth.

"Back up."

I placed my hand on the boy's chest and focused. I felt the electricity go through my hand and fingers, and the boy's chest arched at the sudden shock. I check his pulse, nothing. I pulled away and let Nico continue CPR while I readied for another charge.

"Ok, I'm ready."

Nico nodded and pulled away. I placed my hand on his chest again and sent another shock. I felt for a pulse again. Suddenly the boy, jerked and I heard a waterlogged choke.

"Turn him." Nico ordered.

We grabbed his shoulder and turned him on his side. Water, amongst other things, began to spew out of the boy's nose and mouth, followed by a choked gasp and coughing. We rolled him back onto his back. He started to shiver and his breathing grew erratic. I reacted my hand out and began to rub his head, and scraped his dark hair out of his face.

Nico started to pull off his tattered clothes, to see his arm better. I barely noticed that ground around his left shoulder had been stained crimson with his blood. I gasped when I saw what was left of the kids arm. The wound was awful. Flesh was ripped and torn, the bone was snapped and although still half frozen, it was bleeding profusely. It was a hideous sight, and that wasn't even considering all of the other cuts and burns on the rest of him. What happened to this kid?

"Christin! Give me your scarf, and start checking his legs for breaks!" Nico ordered. I may have been in charge of our little mission, but he was better trained at first aid, so I was fine with taking the backseat here.

I quickly ripped off my scarf and handed it to him. Moved over and began to check the boy's legs. His femurs seemed to be intact, and so was the rest of his left leg, but when I got closer to his right ankle, his body suddenly jumped in pain. I gently slipped the boot off, his ankle was clearly broken, badly. But that was the least of my worries, I noticed something shiny sticking out of his leg. I ripped open his pant leg, to find a large piece of shrapnel embedded into his calf.

"Nico?"

He looked over. "Oh, shoot! He wouldn't be walking on that leg for a while."

"That's an understatement."

"C-cap?" we heard a small voice that was hoarse with seawater and exhaustion.

I quickly made my way up to boy's face and grabbed his hand. Nico was already there but comforting was never his strong suit. God! I hating seeing something like this happen to a kid. With rescuing people from the mutant trafficking system being my job. I've seen some horrible things, and in all honestly the worst thing is seeing the kids that get wrapped up in this. But this is one of the worst injuries I had ever seen. It hurt to see someone so young in this state, and Christ! I had kids of my own close to his age. I couldn't imagining this happing to them.

I rubbed his head again, "Hey, you're ok. You're just hurt, that's all."

His eyes blindly widened and his breathing picked up as he began to struggle. "NO! NO! GET AWAY! GET AWAY YOU HYDRA SCUM! CAP! CAP!" he began to shout, his icy blue eyes becoming wild with fright.

I had to gently pin him down. He felt warm, really warm. He was starting to get a fever. Slowly he stopped struggling and his eyelids started to flicker, like a fading light bulb desperately trying to stay on. Worried, I looked up and saw Nico's face, he was panicking.

"Nico?"

"He's bleeding through the scarf." He said as he pressed harder on the wound. "This one of those rare times that I wish Amelia was here. Heck! Right now, I'll even take your boy, Taiga."

This kid was going to bleed out. I had happened before in my line of work but it still hurt. I just gripped his hand tighter, hoping that he would know that he didn't go alone.

"Dad?"

I turned around. Arrow? Oh, no! Why did she have to come here? I know she needs field experience, but I didn't want my daughter to see someone die just yet.

"What happened?!" Arrow shouted.

"Arrow! Go back to the safehouse!" I shouted back at her.

"No, wait! She could save him!" Nico Shouted. "Arrow come over here!"

She looked over to me, her eyes asking for approval. I nodded quickly and she rushed over to Nico.

"Arrow you need burn the wound, but be gentle about it. We want to do the minimal amount of damage to his nerves," Nico instructed.

My daughter kneeled down eager to help. However, I thought she was going to pass out when Nico removed the blood-soaked scarf. But thankfully my brave little girl, sucked it up and used her powers. She gently traced the wound with her hand burning the flesh to stop the bleeding. I had never been so proud and grateful to have daughter with fire abilities.


We managed to get the kid back to the safe house, without losing him. Amelia our medic and my son Taiga, immediately took him into the makeshift infirmary we had at the safehouse. Quite a few of the little ones were very confused when we came running in with a half dead kid. A half dead kid, who probably wasn't a Mutant. Even if he was dressed like one of us, it didn't mean he was one of us. There has been many who have impersonated our people in the past.

I sighed deeply as we waited outside the infirmary, "What are we going to do now?" I asked Nico.

"Patch him up, and drop him off at the nearest town," Nico said.

"What?"

"You know he can't stay here, Christin. He compromises our entire operation."

"He might not be with them."

"Christin you've worked in this business for over 20 years. We protect our own, not some random kid we pull out of the ocean."

"You don't need to tell me that, Nico."

"Are you sure? Because, it seems like I need to knock those emotions out of your head and some sense into it."

"Believe me, I don't, Nico. The mission is still my objective, but this is a kid were talking about. An injured kid."

"There's a doctor's office in the closet town."

"I've seen the office; it's not equipped to handle an amputee. He'll die if we leave him there."

"It's not our problem Christin."

"You can't be serious. He's just a kid, we're not going to sentence him to death."

"If the battle field wants him…"

"I want him."

"Christin, I can not allow you to put our people in danger."

"I'm not putting them in danger! I'm saving a life!"

Nico sighed, "Becoming a father has softened you little brother. 17 years ago, you've put that boy out of his misery."

"Oh? Was I the one that was trying to stop his bleeding?"

"You treat until it is of no use then you just let them pass on."

"Then why didn't you just leave him there and walk away?"

"I had yet to decide!"

"And I have made my decision! We're helping him!"

"Christin!"

"Don't you go lecturing me!"

Nico sighed again, "If our father saw you today…"

"He would be proud of me taking command, which he handed over to me not you, and saving a life!"

That shut Nico up. I knew that I shouldn't have played the dad card, but he pulled it first. I still don't know why our father decided to hand the family business to me. Maybe it was because I already had children with powers. Sure, my brother had fathered offspring, but both his boys had taken after their non-mutant mother, and never had powers. I never really got an answer from my old man of why he chose me over Nico before he passed away.

I sighed, "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know that you two weren't on the best of terms when he…"

"It's alright little brother. You are in command, and I should have remembered that. I also shouldn't have brought our father into this either."

I nodded, and was about to say something when Nico started again.

"But when this blows up in your face I claim 'I told you so' rights."

"That's fair."

We wait in silence for a more moments. Well, it was silent until Nico started sharpening his dual swords and then the sound of stone rubbing against metal rang throughout the hall. I sighed again, shaking my head. He had to choose to do that right now?

"Dad?"

I turned to the right, towards the familiar voice. I see my eldest daughter, Jenette, coming towards us.

"Yes, Tweety?" I asked, and watched her face crumble with embarrassment.

"Dad, I'm seventeen, not ten, don't call me that," Jenette said.

"Sorry, kiddo. Force of habit. Is something wrong?"

"The little ones are starting to get hungry, but are still too scared to ask for it."

"Alright I guess we better get dinner together. I just wish we had something better to give them other than poorly cooked ramen."

"After starving for who's know how long? I don't think they mind, Dad."

I nodded sadly, it was true, "What's your sister doing right now?"

"Row's currently reading them one of her books."

I nodded and began to walked down the hall. It didn't feel right to just leave but I knew that the kid would be safe in Amelia's care. Besides I had to focus on the others. I had six kids all under the age of ten, all suffering from some sort of trauma they had experienced in the Mutant trafficking system, that I needed to get back to home base for rehabilitation. I couldn't get sidetracked for too long.

I stepped in the barracks, one of the most secure rooms of the safe house, though it was really more of an underground bunker. I find that all the kids had climbed onto Arrow's bed and were listening intently at the book in my daughter's hands. It was good to see that the kids had grown comfortable with us that they could sit so close to someone older than them.

Sure, Arrow, was only sixteen but to them she looked grown up and a lot of other grownups had been despicably cruel to these poor kids. With all of the scars that were visible on their tiny underweight bodies, it was sometimes difficult to get them to trust us, especially this early on into their rescue.

Once me and Jenette got dinner all set, we decided that we would bring the food to the kiddos rather then pull them away from the story. It was the same as most nights, the kids would eat quickly as they could without choking and leave the dishes where they were. I silently prayed for the day when they realize that we won't take their meals away if they didn't eat immediately.

With the kiddos taken care of I finally can look at Arrow, she seemed tired, and her eyes were a little dazed. I should have noticed the mask of a smile she had put on for the little ones sooner. I quickly walked over to her and put my arm around her.

"Are you alright Shortpike?" I asked.

"Yeah, Dad. It's just a lot in one day," Arrow said.

"I know kiddo, but you did a good job keep up that smile for the kids. You actually had me fooled. You know I think you got a better one then you uncle, don't tell him but I think his fake smile is creepy."

Arrow giggled, and her blush lips split and curled up revealing her usual toothy grin.

"Yeah, there's that smile," I ruffled her short messy bob styled hair, and we both laughed again.

The smile slowly, faded from her face, "Is he going to be alright?"

I sighed, "I don't know Firecracker. Amelia hasn't told me anything, yet."

"His life was in my hands. I washed his blood off of my hands. Is it always this bad when someone nearly dies?"

"It can get a little less jarring the more you see it, but I'm going to be honest with you Row, you never truly get used to it," I pull her into a comforting hug.

"Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome, Firecracker."

After a few more moments of hugging one of my baby girls, and continuing the story book Arrow was reading to the kids, it was finally time to put everyone in bed. One of the more difficult tasks as a lot of them had developed fears of the dark. Though, being a father of six I had a lot of experience of putting little kids to bed. Arrow seemed to be able to gently sooth the little ones to sleep like me, but her sister was another story. Jenette was not a 'kids person'. Heck! On multiple occasions I had thought that kids actually scare her. Though, her inability to comfort the rescued little ones was a bit ironic, considering that she had been one of these kids before me and my wife adopted her. But I never pushed her to help us, affection just wasn't her thing.

Me and Arrow had just laid the youngest of the kids down in her bed, when Nico walked in. He gestured for us to leave the room, which I was grateful for. Just because you know how to get six kids to sleep doesn't mean it's easy, and I didn't want to have to do that again tonight.

"Uncle Nico what's going on?" Arrow asked.

"Amelia wants to see you both, I think you know about what," Nico said, before leaving to go who knows where.

Me and Arrow are quick to head over to the Infirmary. Once there, Amelia was quick to let us inside.

"It's about time," Amelia spoke in her thick southern accent, "That son of yours Christin, had fallen asleep on me, after we got the kid stable. You better get him to bed, because he sure ain't sleepin in my infirmary."

Me and Arrow walked inside. The first thing I saw was my eldest son, Taiga, sleeping on one of the medical beds. His tongue hanging out of his open mouth, as he snored. It was the same when he was a little kid just minus the snoring. The memory brought a warm smile to my face. But that smile had dropped, the moment I noticed the patient in the bed next to my son's.

The poor kid, was lying still on the medical bed, he looked so small, underneath the old grey sheets. His arm, or what was left of it, was wrapped up in thick bandages, as well was his torso. An I.V, several monitors and different types of tubes were hooked up to every part of him. His skin seemed sickly and pale, making his dark brown hair appear black and a shank of it had fallen back onto his face.

"What's his stasis, Mel?" I asked.

"Aside from the more notable problems, like the arm. He has a lot of blood loss, and his temp keeps slowly creeping up, meaning he might have caught some kind of infection. I have him on some antibiotics, in case if it's bacterial. If those don't start working, I'll switch him to something else," Amelia answered.

"Couldn't we give him more blood?" Arrow asked, gently brushing the boy's hair out of his face.

"Sorry, sweetheart. As much as I want to, we can't. We only got a mutant's blood here, and he's normal. There's no telling what would happen if we gave him mutant blood. He's fragile enough as it is," Amelia answered.

"His O2 levels are a bit low should he be intubated?" I asked again.

"Humm…They aren't low enough for me to worry to much, and they have been stable with just the oxygen mask he's hooked up to. So, unless they start to suddenly plummet, I'm not going to put him through that procedure," Amelia answered.

I nodded, taking in the information. I looked back over the kid; my daughter had slipped her hand into his. I had to agree with her choice of action, he needed all the comfort he could get.

"Have we been able to I.D him?" I asked. If this kid had a family, or someone that loved him and was looking for him. I wasn't going to keep them separated.

"Not yet, the computers in this place really need an update. They're glitchin and super slow. I honestly think he's going to wake up before we can do a proper search," Amelia said.

I nodded, sighed, and looked back to the boy. Silently, I vowed to return him to his home, where ever that may be.


A/N:

Hello! Everybody! I'm sorry I haven't been updating recently things have just been crazy, with finals and finishing they year up. Anyway, I decided to update this and a little explanation! I will be telling this story from three different POVs, Bucky's, Christin's (Or superdad), and Arrow's. So Just understand that! I'll see you all in the next update whether it's this story or another!