Chapter 19: "Outreach at the White House"
President Martinez had invited all five of the people who had been involved in the mission to the White House — against advisement. But she wanted to thank them in person, and little Alejandra wanted to see for herself that everyone had come through the other side of a very rough mission.
Scott and Tony both went as well, though of the group, obviously, Chance was the most excited, simply because of age and the complete lack of a poker face. But it was still a big deal, and they all knew it.
"We really need to work on you," Elin said, though she was definitely not as paranoid as her parents or even James.
"I'm not opposed," Chance teased and leaned over to kiss her cheek.
"I'll lock you in a basement with Dad and then tell him you're the one who hid the beer. Which … you know. I'm sure will teach you something," Elin said with one eyebrow raised slightly.
"I'm not sure what it will teach me other than an even healthier fear of what your dad is capable of," he said, shaking his head at her.
"Did you need more of that?" James asked, looking at both of them like they were nuts.
"Um, no, but your sister seems to think I need to learn… something. Not sure what," Chance said, shaking his head at Elin before he stole a kiss again.
"Maybe it's how to roll with head trauma," James suggested.
Chance snorted at that. "Possibly."
The security was high — not that anyone was surprised, and several of the men standing guard were obviously doing their level best to not catch either Logan or K's eye. The moment that one of them did, it was a very quick look away that would have been funny in just about any other situation. But considering how tense the two of them were, it really was a bit nerve-wracking.
But it was a different story when they did get to where the president was, and she beamed at the group of them as they arrived. "It's nice to meet you all in person," she said as she moved to shake their hands, completely at home with the White House press corps, even if the X-Men weren't quite used to that. "I just wanted to thank you myself. I'm well-aware of how much we asked of you — and how much was at stake."
Logan and K shared a little glance as James shook his head, unconsciously echoing their sentiments. But Scott was sure to smile at her and thank her for the invitation. "That's what the X-Men have always done."
"Yes, well, I'm not one to let something pass without showing my gratitude," President Martinez said. "We give our armed forces medals; the least I can do is give you all a handshake for keeping the world safe."
"She's like Annie in a pants suit. No wonder Scott likes her," K muttered quietly to Logan, though both James and Elin caught it and had to check themselves at their reaction.
For the most part, while the press corps was still taking pictures, the group of them exchanged basic pleasantries, but once they got to the Mural Room away from all the pictures, Alejandra seemed to perk up a bit, and she gave Scott a huge grin before she said, "You know, when I said I wanted to know if they were okay, you didn't have to bring them."
Scott shook his head at that. "Your mom's the one who invited us."
She grinned and nodded and then turned toward the group that had gone out into the desert. "Are you guys really okay? Because pretty much the whole place watched you walk into, like, death."
"We're fine," Logan said in a tone that was mostly patient, but clearly, it was the phrase that had come out of his mouth more often than anything else lately.
Alejandra nodded at that, though Scott stepped in before she could go too far down the line of questioning and get plenty more 'fine' responses. "You know," he said, "Elin is excellent at learning languages. She's been doing it since she was just a few months old."
"I've been saying 'yes' and 'no' since I was that old," Elin argued, giving Scott a look.
"You did more than that," Scott said, shaking his head.
"Right, I forgot about 'hello,'" Elin laughed before she turned to Alejandra. "He's exaggerating."
Alejandra smiled at her. "Well, if you're good with languages, maybe you could help me?" she said, glancing at Scott, who nodded.
"I can try …" Elin said, looking between the two of them. "But I haven't had much luck with Chance."
Chance smirked and nodded. "Yeah, I tried learning Swedish from her… didn't work so well."
"He's just not motivated," James said with a smirk.
"No, I've been learning it on my own," Chance said, rolling his eyes. "El's great at teaching self-defense, not so much with languages," he said, giving Elin an affectionate smile.
"And I'm very sure your mother wouldn't allow you to do James' version of how to learn Japanese. Or Swedish. Or … whatever," Elin said before she gave her brother a look.
"Well, I can understand it," Alejandra said. "Anything that you say… I just don't know what to say in response."
"What do you want to learn?" James asked, crossing his arms.
"Well, I'm only bilingual in terms of spoken languages. But I'd like to learn more… maybe Mandarin would be good. And maybe I could learn Arabic? Or even something alien — that would be cool," she said, starting to grin.
The two younger ferals shared a look and shrugged at the same time. "That's … I could help with Kree, maybe," Elin said. "But the others … can be a little frustrating."
"Yeah, I'm having a hard time learning just because I can already hear it in my head as English or Spanish," Alejandra admitted. "I'm not learning it to understand it but to say it."
"You're asking the wrong person," Tony cut in with a smirk. "But it would be hard to get him to come down to the White House on the regular."
"Who do you recommend?" the president asked with a small smile.
Tony smiled wider and gestured to Logan. "If history's any indicator, he'd probably teach her self-defense at the same time." At that, Logan and K both stopped what they were doing and glanced over at Tony.
Alejandra looked over the moon, her grin wide and disbelieving. "Would you please?" she almost breathed out, almost bouncing.
"He's not wrong," Logan said, making a point to meet one of the security detail's gaze for a moment. "I'm not crazy about this place."
"Me neither," Alejandra admitted, rolling her eyes. "But I can't exactly go anywhere. Not without an entourage."
"Has to be a middle ground," K said. "If it can happen." She turned toward Tony with a sweet smile. "Like somewhere Stark related."
"Hey, we've got a great place in DC. Not exactly a school setting, but it's got a great board room with a view."
"And adequate security," James added just to rile Tony.
"Adequate," Tony repeated in a breath, rolling his eyes. "Top-notch, you mean."
"Not yet," James replied low so Tony could hear him. "Second-class right now." He couldn't help but smile wider his way. "You know. If I can talk Noh into looking it over."
Tony let out a scoffing kind of noise. "Oh, come on."
"I'll code it against your DNA," James teased. "So you won't be tempted."
"They're just like this," Chance said, shaking his head, though Alejandra looked totally entertained.
"I think it's a great idea!" she said, grinning widely.
Logan had watched the entire back and forth with a less than amused expression. "We'll see how it works out."
"If you can fit it in," the president said, tipping her head Logan's way. "I know you have a lot on your plate. Lord knows I know what it's like to be busy and have one more thing added to your list of responsibilities."
"Hey, we're supposed to be about teaching mutants, no matter who they are," Scott pointed out. "We'll find a way to make it work."
And the whole time Scott was talking, Logan was giving him a look that clearly said that he knew what Scott was up to.
"So!" Tony clapped his hands together when it was clear there was no arguing to be done. "I'll let my people know that we're handing you the keys to the board room for a few hours a week? Maybe?"
"We'll work out a schedule," Scott said with a nod.
"I'm going to want that list of people," K told Tony quietly. "You can be nice or I'll just go get it myself."
Tony gave her a little smirk. "We could work out a trade…"
"Oh sure," she said, nodding. "Tell me what you want to keep."
"That is not what I had in mind."
"Well, you'd be trading with Logan anyhow, so …"
Tony pulled a face. "Yeah, fine, I'll get you the list."
Alejandra looked between the group of them before she let out a little excited noise and darted over to Logan to hug him. "Thanks so much!" she breathed out before he could stop her.
"Yeah, alright," Logan said, half shaking his head at her. "Enough of that."
"Oh, sorry," she said, taking a step back and biting her lip.
"Go ahead, sweetheart," K said. "He just wasn't expecting that."
Alejandra glanced at K, bit her lip again, and then rushed forward to hug Logan again, grinning widely. "I'm really excited to get to learn from Wolverine," she said, her eyes wide. "This is the coolest thing to ever happen!"
Logan shook his head at her again. "Just keep your mind on what you're supposed to be doing, and you'll do fine."
"I will," she promised.
"And I'll make sure she studies," President Martinez promised.
"He'll know if she doesn't," K said with a smirk for the two of them. "And you should know before you start that you can't lie about any of it, either."
Alejandra nodded seriously. "I won't do that, I promise."
"You'll let me know if she's any trouble for you, won't you?" the president asked.
"She won't be," Logan replied easily.
"Good." The president smiled at the group of them before she gestured around them. "Well. I hope you're all prepared for the rabid press at the dinner I've arranged."
At that, Logan and K shared a little look, smirked and then put an arm around each other. "Won't be an issue."
The president raised an eyebrow at that but nodded. "Well then, I'll go first," she said with a smile, leading the way out to the event — and surprised when, instead of the mobbing she was used to, it seemed like the reporters were giving Logan and K an incredibly wide birth.
"Oh yes," she laughed as she sat down at the head of the table. "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
Once everyone was back from the White House, the last of the to-do list items had been checked off. There was nothing pressing on the horizon other than the "usual" stuff.
So, of course, that was when everyone crashed, finally feeling the weight of all that had happened.
Elin and Chance were asleep in their room, wrapped up in each other, with a "do not disturb" sign on their door — hung there by one of the bamfs. Kurt and Kate were in the middle of an intense game of pool that was made harder by the fact that they were both drunk and laughing as the bamfs did their best to "help" with every single shot. Jubilee had curled up with Logan for a while until Noh had come to get her so they could play with their grandkids. And then, Logan and K had curled around each other to catch up on the sleep that they still so badly needed. James was asleep in Kari's art studio, and Kari was painting him. Krissy and Sying were watching most of the little ones because everyone else was so stressed and they wanted to give their friends a break. Scott was in the kitchen helping Annie wash dishes after all the stress baking she'd been doing.
The mansion was, strangely, pretty quiet. And that was a good thing. Quiet meant peaceful.
For the moment.