Disclaimer: I don't own Deadpool

Warning: Mentions of suicide.

XXX Chapter 21 Rescue Mission

Stephanie Singh looked at the red and black vigilante in complete awe. Her eyes traveled over him and then to the buildings around her. Her ears were ringing. Her palms were sweating. The surroundings were spinning.

She was trying to decide if this was reality or not. Her black hair was all over her face and sticking up on end. Deadpool reached over and patted down the loose strands like he would a puppy. Her expression softened despite still shaking from the adrenaline. She actually started to look relieved.

That was a good sign. She might not want to die.

"W-what, what just happened?" she asked. "Who are you?"

He put his hands on his hips. "I'm Deadpool. The world's greatest superhero."

Stephanie wrapped her arms around herself. "I think I've seen you on the news, but you're usually assassinating people, not rescuing them."

"I assassinate the bad guys. You're not a bad guy," he explained. "Why don't we go somewhere?" he suggested.

"Okay."

There weren't many places they could go this time of night. He could take her to a 24/7 restaurant, but his costume would attract the wrong kind of attention. Instead, Deadpool walked her to a park bench and sat her down. A chilly breeze blew by. Maybe he should have brought a blanket or something. If he was going to do rescue missions instead of assassinations, he'd have to put together a hero kit or something. Did the Avengers use something like that?

What did damsels like? Blankets, snacks… a teddy bear?

Stephanie opened her mouth to speak but then immediately broke down crying. She reached for him and buried her head in his shoulder. Deadpool awkwardly patted her on the back. Is it okay for a married superhero to comfort the opposite sex like this?

He waited several minutes for her to calm down. Quite honestly, he hoped this wouldn't go on all night. He had gotten so much better at the patience and empathy from being a father, but she was getting snot all over his nice costume. "Sorry," she said. "I just didn't think I'd ever find a way out of that situation. I didn't think anyone could help me."

"What kind of help do you need, exactly? Is this a personal problem, or a 'villains are after me' kind of problem?"

"The latter," she said, sniffling.

"Did you try contacting The Avengers?" he asked. "I would think a congresswoman should have the connections."

Stephanie nodded. "Yes. They never got back to me. They must have too much going on. It doesn't help that Tony Stark and Black Widow are gone since defeating Thanos. Oh, and I think there was that Vision guy, too."

Deadpool nodded. He knew the superheroes were either overworked, dead, or spread thin. It didn't help that they lost some of their key players after defeating the Big Bad.

"How did you know where to find me anyway?" she asked.

"Oh, um, well, I know a guy from the future. Yeah." Stephanie waited for him to elaborate but he didn't. "Why don't you tell me what's going on?" he asked instead.

Stephanie looked around for anyone who might be watching. Then she shrugged. "I'm in trouble. I think it's because I've been trying to pass legislation that will curtail corruption in large corporations. It wasn't long after I drafted the bill that I received warnings and threats in the mail. I ignored them. I was told it was just part of the job, and our security would be sufficient," she said, scoffing.

Deadpool nodded. "I'm guessing security wasn't enough to stand up to a bad guy with superpowers?" he asked.

"Exactly." Her eyes grew big. "Somebody came to my house. No one normal. He must have been a mutant." She looked off in the distance as her voice lowered to barely what he could hear.

"What did he look like?" he prompted.

She groaned. "He was a tall monstrosity with pale, decaying skin. He was dressed in black with spikes," she said, choking out the last words.

Deadpool felt his heart stop for a moment while cold blood pumped through his veins. Maybe he should have killed T-Ray when he had the chance. He began calculating how he could track him down and kill him. Who would he even bring for a job like this? Maybe he and Cable could kill him. Or maybe he could bring Russel again. He idly considered Logan.

"He told me that his employers needed me to stop doing what I was doing," Stephanie continued.

Something wasn't adding up. "Okay, so how did you end up on that window?"

Stephanie started crying again and held her face with her hands. "He said I needed to die in order to send a message to my colleagues, but I couldn't just end up dead because it would be suspicious. They couldn't let anyone else continue my work either. He said if I didn't kill myself, he would make me wish I had." She looked at him through the spaces in her hands. "The implication was clear that he would hurt my family."

Deadpool hadn't cared about politics before he had kids. He just took whatever he wanted and it didn't matter who was in office or not. But now he had an invested interest in preserving life as he knew it. He didn't want his kids growing up in a nation where corruption was allowed to thrive because of the power that evil people wielded. He remembered what Cable said about the horrible state of the world in fifty years (probably forty years now), and he wasn't going to let that happened.

In that moment, he found he cared about more than his own family. He cared about Stephanie Singh and how she had no one to turn to. He imagined somebody threatening Vanessa or Iris like this, and how they couldn't defend themselves.

Not if he could do something about it.

The vigilante grasped her hands. "Stephanie," he started, "I know who that is, and I know how to stop him. You're going to be just fine."

XXX

The sun was just starting to rise as the Singh family stood in the front door to the X-Men castle. Multiple luggage sat beside them. The family was tired and scrambled from the trip but they seemed to like what they saw when they entered the impressive castle. The two boys looked like Deadpool's own kids when they saw the place for the first time.

"Thanks for agreeing to this," Deadpool whispered as he walked up to the old professor who dutifully sat waiting.

"We help when we can," Professor X said aloud. Then he turned to the family. "I know the circumstance are poor, but we're glad to meet you. Please think of the Xavier Institute as your temporary home."

With nowhere else to put the Singhs, Deadpool had called up the X-Men. Thankfully, they were more than willing to help. Not only did they get to protect an important member of society, but it was an opportunity for a government official to get to know the mutants. Perhaps she could return a favor in the future.

Deadpool was proud that he'd saved the Singhs for the time being, but that didn't mean he enjoyed everything about hero work. The journey to the castle had been long and tedious and nothing like he was used to. After he and Stephanie had left the park, he took her back home, and she had to explain to her family what was going on. There were a lot of tears and panic.

Then they had to explain that they needed to leave in order to get away from T-Ray because Deadpool couldn't protect them every second of the day. The family packed up their most important belongings into two cars while Deadpool made a call to the X-Men. After he secured a place to stay, he tried to leave, but Stephanie had begged him to accompany them to the castle. Reluctantly, he drove one of their cars the four-and-a-half-hour journey from Washington D.C. to Westchester County, New York. They didn't encounter any danger, but they could have.

Now he was eager to go home for a nice nap.

"Thank you, Deadpool," Stephanie said.

XXX

It looks like Deadpool has been going through some serious character development.

I've been having more fun writing this story, which is good. But I'm inspired to write more when I get reviews!

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