Chapter 18 - Double Good News

When Christmas came around, it was once again a huge get-together, and once more, Howard absolutely loved it when he and Sadie came with Maria along with his parents as they went to Westchester. Clint, Nat, and Jess were there, too… it was a big party.

It took next to no time for Maria to get snatched up by Kari to spoil her goddaughter, and not long after that, Sadie got swept up with her family — though Howard made it a point to grab James by the shoulder and smirk his way. "So. A reporter told me that you're single. Congratulations; you're now officially tabloid fodder."

"Um … I was before?" James pointed out. "So … not really news."

"Yeah, but how come I had to find out this kinda stuff from a reporter?" Howard said, making a face.

"Do you want to know that kind of stuff?" James asked, making a face back at him.

"Not particularly, but seeing as I'm apparently going to be informed of it anyway, I'd rather hear it from you than the idiots with cameras."

James grinned as a thought occurred to him. "Did you freak out and act all surprised?"

"Give me credit, man. Tabloid-level nonsense I can deal with," Howard said, shaking his head.

"Missed opportunity. Could have been funny."

"Hey, we're gonna be running a company together. I'm trying to at least look like I've got your back," Howard chuckled.

"They'll get bored with it," James said with a wave.

"Yeah, they will," Howard agreed. "In the meantime? Come say hi to your goddaughter."

James looked over to where Kari was half wrapped around Maria. "She looks pretty set right now. And I see her all the time. I can share with the ones that aren't around."

Howard shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'm gonna go watch my mom get attacked by your little brothers. She's in love. It's so fun."

"They know she likes it, so they'll keep it up," James said.

"Oh good, because she needs the attention."

James put an arm around Howard's shoulders and pointed at John. "He's bringing her a cookie."

Howard just grinned at that, following James as the group started up the usual present exchanging now that everyone was there.

But what no one had been expecting — except for the ferals — was the moment when Gerry and Charlie gave their parents matching tiny boxes for their presents and insisted that they open them together. Which was enough to get them looking suspicious, but when Annie let out a gasp and Jess's jaw dropped, the rest of the group knew even before Clint started laughing and Scott picked up the teeny little onesie what was going on.

Logan made his way over to Jess and put his arm around her shoulders, then leaned in with his voice dropped low. "You alright?" It was pretty clear that Jessica was freaking out, though she wasn't exactly processing it very well either. "Just gotta breathe, Spider-Granny."

That finally got Jess to break out of her head for a moment and turn to smack him. "Don't you start," she told him.

Logan started laughing and looked honestly amused. "It's not me starting you need to worry about."

"You're terrible!" she said, hitting him again.

"But not wrong, Jess," Clint said, laughing hard.

"Come on, Spider-Granny," Logan said — loud enough for those closest to hear it this time. "Try to be nice."

Gerry started laughing at that. "Come on, Mom. We have to distinguish the three grandmas somehow, right? Granny Annie… Mama Spider…."

Logan gestured to him with an expression that clearly read how right he was. "And Spider-Granny."

"That's still not my call sign," Natasha said with a smirk, though she was clearly amused by how over the moon Clint was.

Of course, by that time, Charlie and Gerry were completely wrapped up in hugs, including a great one from Cody that picked Charlie up off her feet. Which was about par for the course for all of the happy announcements that had gone on with their families — until Natasha pulled Gerry aside to whisper something in his ear that had him doubled over laughing.

"What?" Charlie whispered when Gerry got his laughter under control.

"Hope you don't mind having a baby at the same time as my stepmom," he whispered to her, which had Charlie blinking in surprise before she couldn't help but grin at him as well — now trying to listen to see if she could hear Natasha's little one too. She grinned when she caught the very soft, still burgeoning music. "No," she said, "I don't mind at all."

James had been sure to get some pictures of the celebrations, of course, but he got a bit sidetracked when Kari brought over a very fussy Maria. "Help?" she asked. "She likes you, and I can't figure out what's got her upset other than she's just tired…"

"Seriously?" James said, with one eyebrow raised, though he let out a breath and took the little one and let her snuggle into his neck — and she let out a contented sigh a few moments later.

Kari gestured to him grandly. "Told you she likes you."

"She sees me a lot," James said with a little shrug.

"Yeah, that's the one downside to all the travel." Kari sighed. "Well, that and jet lag."

"What's that all about?" James asked with his best confused look.

Kari rolled her eyes and shoved him in the shoulder on the side that wasn't occupied with Maria. "You're so awful sometimes, you know that?"

"Awful by existing? Yeah, probably."

She rolled her eyes at him and then held out her arms. "Okay. I want my goddaughter back now."

"Forget it; you'll just make her cry," James said with a little laugh.

She scrunched up her face. "Awful."

"Just because I'm right? Hateful."

"Yes. Yes, you are," she shot back, though she was grinning widely.

"How is your grand tour going? I missed out on sending you off from Tokyo, after all …"

She smiled widely. "Well, now that the holidays are here, I'm taking some time to breathe. I don't have anything scheduled for a while, actually. Just some time with Lucas and with my family."

He nodded at that. "Are you at least getting used to the press crap?" He frowned a little deeper. "I know there's been a little backlash."

Kari waved her hand. "It's fine. It took me a minute to get used to being attacked, but Mom's been a big help with kicking people in the teeth for being hateful just because I was willing to show the world that you guys were actually people."

He nodded again and turned to find Tony to hand off Maria. "Yeah, well … I have something for you."

Kari grinned. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, don't get too excited. It's not the usual kind of thing. But it hit me when I was watching some of the overly friendly types in Tokyo," James said. "Looks like a silver bracelet, but ... " he handed her the little device. "It works a lot like the suit that I tore apart from Mac. Only … as a projected taser. Kind of."

She beamed at him. "Thank you!"

"Your mom got one too," James said. "It'll monitor vitals, and if you hit the button and get a sustained raised pulse, it'll shock the hell out of anyone touching you."

"That would definitely deter the touchy types," Kari said with a smile. "Do you have one too?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Doesn't jive really well with adamantium."

"Oooh, yeah, I didn't think about that," she said, wincing in sympathy. "That's too bad. I'd love for the girls playing that stupid game to get a wakeup call."

He winced. "Yeah, I'm not … sure that'd stop 'em right now."

"I dunno…" she said thoughtfully. "If it's that terrible, I could drop someone into a lake…"

"They're definitely more aggressive lately," he admitted. "But I can avoid most of it."

"Offer's always on the table," she told him.

"I don't think it's that big of a deal," James said.

"Yes, but it's fun to 'port idiots into the lake," she argued. "You know — fun?"

He nodded. "Oh, yeah, I heard about that … but you already have plenty to deal with."

"Sounds like I'll be busy," she laughed.

"I meant your pushy admirers," he said.

"Well, that too," she said with a sigh. "It drives Lucas nuts."

"Thin-skinned," James said, shaking his head. "He'll get used to it."

"You have to admit: this tour more than others has been hard, considering the subject material," she said reasonably. "He's just protective." She leaned over to kiss James' cheek. "Just like you are."

"I'm gonna go ahead and take offense to that," James said.

"What? You don't think you're protective and sweet?" she asked, shaking her head with a smile.

"I think it's entirely different," James said.

Kari let out a sigh. "James, I wasn't trying to insinuate anything. I just love my boys."

He scrunched up his nose at that. "Yeah, alright."

She kissed his cheek again. "Thank you for the bracelet, James."

"No problem," James replied. "Gotta watch out for the less-inclined to fight."

"We who are not X-Men thank you," Kari said in a lofty sort of voice. "Even if I can still absolutely take you at staves."

"You go ahead and think that," James said as he patted her shoulder. "That was a long time ago."

"Well, maybe we can practice now that I'm not going to be gone all the time," she said. "I really did like that part of it, anyway."

"I'm barely here," James admitted. "Got a chair in my lab that I crash in half the time."

"I'll 'port you to the gym when I feel like it," she teased. "I'm good at kidnappings."

"Have to find me first," James pointed out. "And I do have that anti-teleportation field operating."

"Party pooper."

"Security protocol."

"Stick in the mud," she giggled.

"Yeah, I'm the stick in the mud. Okay."

"I'm traveling the world having a blast, and you're falling asleep at work," she pointed out. "Fuddy duddy."

"I'm falling asleep after bouncing between two teams and blowing things up. Yeah. Real boring."

She shook her head with a little laugh. "True. Life of adventure never stops for us, does it?"

"Hope not," he said. "I get bored when I sit still for too long."

"Me too," she admitted, then threaded her arm through his and teleported back to where the others were. "But I'm faster than you are," she teased, stepping back to let the tiniest Summerses set upon their uncle with giggles and delighted little cries of "up!" in stereo.

He shrugged. "Only when you 'port," James said as he bent down to pick them both up.

As soon as they were "up," of course, Matthew had to try to show James his growl, getting right up in his face to do their usual competition, spurred on by his giggling sister.

And as usual, James let him get started with it, keeping it low until Matthew got more aggressive about it — and then he started to show off a little for the toddler, growling both normally and while he inhaled too … just to change the pitch and get him staring. But when Liliana let out a little high-pitched growl of her own, both James and Matthew turned her way. "That's my girl," James laughed as Matthew started to pout. He looked up at Chance across the room. "Hey, how long has Liliana been growling?"

Chance grinned. "She did it to her mom a couple weeks ago, but she mostly just does it when Matty gets overambitious," he laughed.

"That explains it, then," James said before he gave both of them a little kiss on the head and shifted his grip so he could tickle Matthew.

Matthew started to giggle madly, trying to get James back and trying to get away, and by the time Chance came to get Liliana so the two boys could really get into it, he was laughing hard enough that James had to let him take a break to breathe. But as soon as Matthew had the slightest inkling that James was letting up, he positively attacked James, almost headbutting him before James got out of the way at the last minute of the little guy — who was growling and trying to tickle James' neck and arms and anything he could reach.

James, of course, let him do it until he was just getting frustrated at James not falling apart laughing, and then, he simply took the little guy and hung him upside down by his ankles so he couldn't reach. "You're such a little troublemaker."

Matthew tried to reach him a few more times with several more growls before he finally gave up, looked at James upside down, and grinned at him outright, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"You forgot something, little guy," James said quietly as he looked over at Chance and tipped his head for Chance to step in and tickle him while he was stuck.

Matthew fell apart in giggles, squirming to try to get away and shaking his head 'no' until Chance picked him up the right way and hugged him until he calmed down a little bit. "He's just like this," Chance laughed. "Wants to fight everything. Yesterday, it was his mom's bedside table when he figured out he could gum the handle."

"Takes after you, obviously," James said. "Liliana wants to get things perfect before she shows off … that's all her mom."

"Hey, I wasn't this much of a handful," Chance said.

James stopped and gave him a look for a long moment. "O-kay," he said, drawing it out far too long.

Chance shook his head. "Matty, say goodnight to your uncle," he said, letting the little boy positively launch himself so that James had to catch him before he could get too far, though once he caught him, Matthew did just hug him, and Liliana joined in, smacking her lips to "blow a kiss."

James gave him a little snuggle and kissed the side of his head before he set him down on the floor again. "Merry Christmas, Little Chance."