Chapter 43 - Smoothing Frayed Edges


Kate had been cleared by both Natasha and Rachel of the brainwashing Vojteck had managed to do, and she was glad she hadn't fallen into self-blame as deeply as she could have, despite how stupid she felt for trusting the guy on any level. She knew pretty clearly whose fault it all was, and that was an easy reminder to play on a loop in her head.

But she almost wished she was struggling more than she was, because that meant the only thing she was working on with Doc Hale was techniques to stop reliving trauma. And that was exhausting and hard and was going to take a lifetime of practice, because the memories would never go away.

And as stupid as it was, she almost wished she had more work to do and not just… techniques to do over time. That was a long, indefinite project, not something she could say she'd fixed like clearing the commands with Rachel.

So, in an effort to find some sanity, she was trying to set some goals for herself. First and foremost was trying to get back on the team. Sure, she'd fallen apart and doubted whether the team was worth all the backlash, but she had never wanted to do anything else in her life, and she was trying to claw back the person she used to be.

Thankfully, she felt like she had a solid backup plan or two. She'd been designing with her Aunt Jan since she was a kid, but… she also had a pretty awesome kid with Nate, and there was something appealing about raising David a little bit away from the team and away from the trauma…

…yeah, she had never empathized with her father-in-law more, though she supposed that was better than the Corsair-level panic she'd had before.

Yay progress?

At any rate, she wasn't practicing with the team, but she had booked time in the Danger Room for herself, and she had asked Kitty to run the programs for her. Someone she wasn't related to by marriage, someone she hadn't grown up with. Someone she could trust not to slow walk her - but someone she could also trust to get there fast if she came apart.

The thing was that she wasn't coming apart while she was fighting. She was coming apart when the bad guys started talking.

It was beyond frustrating. One minute, she was hitting amazing shots that would have made her dad proud, and the next, some Friends of Humanity creep (she wasn't fighting Hydra in any sims yet; that was a whole other thing) had made a comment about her looks and she panicked. She bolted. She ditched.

It was the same thing with anti-mutant rioters. It was the same thing with alien invaders. And when Kitty queued up some of her dad's tracksuit bros, she'd enjoyed herself making fun of them, yeah, and she didn't panic as badly with them because she was so used to them, but… she still panicked. She still kicked that flight instinct into hyperdrive. And she still failed the sim.

It wasn't like she hadn't known the comments were coming. She had specifically asked Kitty to program them into the sims at random intervals, because Kitty knew just as well as Kate did that no matter who they were fighting, there was always going to be someone who thought they were entitled to make comments about the girls on the team. Every last one of them had endured catcalling and lewd comments on the job, even just from bystanders, especially when they were wearing tight-fitting uniforms.

The tracksuits were the last sim, and Kate sat down on a bench, glaring and frustrated and wishing she could ignore those comments the way she used to be able to. They'd rolled off her back so easily before.

And now, all she could think about when it happened was the fact that not everyone kept it to just talk. Hydra had twice now shown just how much they felt entitled to her. All of her. And they weren't unique in that regard.

Kate had just set her water bottle down when Kitty came to join her and sat down next to her, visibly wincing into her smile. Kate was used to seeing that exact expression everywhere she went. Everyone knew, so everyone got it.

Still, it was nice when Kitty's first words once she sat down were, "That was an epic double shot on those Friends of Humanity creeps targeting that girl with the tail."

"Kinda have a thing about men creeping on girls."

"Hey, whadya know." Kitty lightly bumped Kate's shoulder. "Look, I totally get why you're doing this, but…" She let out a long, careful breath. "I dunno. I think it's stupid that this happens so often I have to run desensitizing games. A swift kick in the balls is the only thing these guys deserve."

"I totally agree," Kate said.

"Then … same time next week?" Kitty offered her hand to Kate but didn't seem bothered when Kate got up without her hand. That was nice. "I know if I try to tell you you're doing better, it sounds stupid and empty…"

"Yeah, I hear what you're saying," Kate said. She ran her hand down her face. "Thanks, though. Seriously."

"Hey, what's the point of saying the X-Men are family if we can't throw trauma at each other?" Kitty teased.

"If that isn't the definition of family behavior," Kate shot back, and Kitty laughed.

"Okay, speaking of family. You know you can ask for babysitters beyond the family, right? I know there are jokes about me swearing off of babysitting forever, but-"

"I haven't heard those jokes," Kate said.

"Oh, really?" Kitty blew a raspberry. "Yeah, so, there… were a lot of things said when we were caught by Graydon Creed. Some stupid, sexist things about how I was only good for running away with my powers, but he had a use for me as a nanny…"

"Oh my god." Kate covered her mouth with one hand.

"Yeah." Kitty shrugged. "Everyone else had it way worse, but, like, I was trying to take care of scared toddlers, and then Bobby showed up after Logan beat him down, and … yeah, I definitely turned Wanda down on hanging out with her kids for… a while."

Kate didn't realize it, but she was doing the same wincing smile that Kitty had given her before. "It's hard being the one that gets dismissed, isn't it?"

"Hard to be stuck not being able to help, more like."

"That too." Kate sat in the quiet with Kitty for a good, long while before she cleared her throat. "Well, speaking of David…"

"Yeah, go give him a kiss from Aunt Kitty, would you?"

"Can do," Kate promised, waving with the tips of her fingers as she headed out the door.

And though she didn't realize it, she was thinking about what Kitty had said far more than she was beating herself up for not bouncing back as quickly as she wanted to, so she was in a relatively much better mood than usual after a Danger Room session like that when she got back to the suite she shared with Nate and David.

Good workout? Nate asked, already pulling her into a hello kiss telepathically and waiting to see if she'd follow up on that prompt physically.

I'm amazing, as always, she said and sidled up to him for a real kiss, resting her hand on his chest and she projected out the rest of it.

Nate blinked and then let his shoulders drop. I'm glad you've got Kitty.

Had to find someone amazing to keep up with me, right?

He laughed. You're in a surprisingly good mood.

Just… nice to commiserate.

If that's what it takes to bring your smile back, I'm all for it.

Kate smiled and pulled him into a longer kiss for that. Love you too.


It took a few days for James to get back to work at Stark Industries, but he was finally back in his lab, ironing out a few things that he'd thought through in his down time. There were a few projects for the US Military, a humanitarian device that used recyclable materials to clean water at nearly no cost to produce, and another one that he was just finishing up that converted sea water to drinking water without a massive electrical cost.

And he was getting into a progressively better mood just getting some traction on those projects that could potentially help so many underserved people. He'd even taken some of the down time between projects to work through the paperwork that had been slowly starting to appear on his desk … though he knew there would be plenty more where that came from once he hit his twenty first birthday. Tony was still going full steam ahead with his plans to make James a VP - and eventually, CEO once he was old enough and had a little more experience under his belt.

So, he wasn't paying much attention to who was hovering around the door to his lab while he waited for his lunch delivery to show up. He heard a knock and looked up to see on the cameras that Coulson, of all people was standing just outside the door looking … a little heated, if he was honest about it. Still, James made his way over and opened the door all the same.

"You don't look anything like my delivery girl," James pointed out. "If I'd known you were coming, I'd have ordered you a latte."

"I'm not here for coffee, James," Coulson said with a little heat before he held up a manilla envelope that had clearly been opened. "What the hell is this?"

James frowned as he took the envelope from him, then looked at the letters inside. "Well, I could be mistaken, but this looks like an offer of employment."

"Oh, is that what you call it?" Coulson asked as he stalked toward the work bench.

"Well, obviously, there are some points that can be negotiated," James said calmly. "But it looks like a reasonable starting point, I think."

"For what, exactly?" Coulson shot back, looking more irritated as the conversation went on.

"Did you even read it?" James asked.

"I did, and you have to know I already turned down an offer from SI. I'm not looking to be private security, James. And you know that."

James let out a breath. "Alright, let's get down to it. You really think I need security?"

"I think this is a thinly-veiled retirement offer," Coulson said, which told James exactly why he was frustrated. "And I don't need it."

James crossed his arms over his chest. "That's funny. I thought you were trying to get your best agents and run a few missions of your own. Looked to me like you were just lacking funding - and an army of lawyers to back you if things went wrong."

Coulson narrowed his eyes. "Fitzsimmons," he muttered, since he knew May and Quartermain wouldn't have let anything slip.

"No, actually, I broke into May's database," James said, smirking.

"You don't need to get involved, James."

"No, I don't, but I want to fund you and give you the cover of being my security."

"You and I both know Fury will see through that, and he's already pissed at you specifically."

"Fury can kiss my ass."

"I don't want to give the man the excuses he's looking for. I appreciate the offer, James. I do."

"Coulson, you need friends right now. Don't let that harpy scare you off of the support you need. It's not just you. There's plenty of room for negotiations on behalf of your team - as large as you want it to be."

Coulson sat down, his mouth pressed thin as he considered it. "I want to send new agents with the X-Men to observe how bad it gets."

James frowned at that. "Why not just give them a telepathic download?"

"Because smart people are able to convince themselves of anything. Because it's better to see it and experience it themselves. Because I'm trying to inoculate the new crop before they turn into the same group that looked the other way for Department H."

"I'd need to vet them before I can let them near my team," James said.

"And that's after I vet them," Coulson agreed. "I'm only asking for observation."

"I get it," James said. "I just can't promise that anyone would see what you want them to on any given timeframe."

"I know. But I also know what I didn't know until I was assigned to be team liaison."

"And a large part of that was to report back to Fury," James said.

"This group won't be part of SHIELD."

James nodded a few times as he weighed it out. "If you think that'll be enough to educate them, then we can probably work something out."

"I think it will be enough to start the necessary conversations."

"Are you going to allow mutants on your roster?" James asked. "Since SHIELD was definitely cherry picking."

"They were. I'm not going to turn down good people," Coulson said. "Clay already has a suggestion to add to the team as it is."

"Names?" James asked.

"Kid named Johnny who can fuse into anything he touches. Got a big sister with powers too; apparently she read Clay the riot act when he was trying to mop up SHIELD's collateral damage and he decided he liked the pair," Coulson laughed.

"So … do you want them for your crew or are you trying to direct them for more training with us?" James asked

"No, I'm claiming them," Coulson said. "My read on them from what I've seen is that they don't like too much attention but have too much of a sense of injustice in the world not to help. Exactly what I'm looking for."

"Okay," James said. "So … I know there's some hesitation because of my ties with Tony, but I'm going to be straight with you - I don't operate like him. If you accept my offer, I'm not looking at it like a 'report to me' kind of thing. More a collaboration. And that applies to your crew, too."

Coulson nodded, turning more serious again as he leaned forward. "I'll consider it."

"Oh, bullshit, just take the offer," James said low. "I'll ask May and Quartermain next if you're going to be stubborn about it."

"Low blow; May adores you."

"That's a stretch, but I'll still do it. I have the same offer typed up for both of them and ready to roll."

"This feels like blackmail somehow."

"Blackmail would be if I said I'd tell on you to your boss. And I mean Fury, not May - don't get twisted."

"I was gonna ask," Coulson said with a light smirk. He tapped a pen against the folder. "If," he said slowly, "we do this as a collaboration, I'd like to drop a few things your way if I think it needs a heroes' touch and not a spy's touch."

"Yeah, of course," James agreed.

"Then you should know your stepmother is in Emma Frost's crosshairs again."

James was still for a moment as he considered it. "What crawled up and died with her this time?"

"Annie debuted with the team while you were out - and has telepathy. She's convinced Billy gave it to Annie Summers when he took hers away."

James narrowed his eyes for an instant. "I'll handle it."

"Thought you might want to. I've already got May handling a few other things related to her tantrum, but this part felt personal."

"Well, she really can't take it when younger women show her up," James said reasonably.

"And she's not getting the support she had with the Hellfire Club either."

"She's not a mutant anymore, and she's not rich. There's no reason for them to be interested in her."

"Still a member."

"A member with a well hidden rank," James said.

"M is the new White Queen as of last week."

"She's a gem, too," James said thickly.

"I understand Billy had a run-in with her," Coulson said, smirking.

"A couple of them, actually," James said. "She interrupted a date."

"Bad move."

"Cheap entertainment."

"Something like that." Coulson sighed and cracked open the stack of papers. "Alright. I just have a few requests on technicalities here and then let's get this going."

James nodded and came over to look through it with him. "Obviously, if you have people already lined up for permanent staff, I'll get papers going for them, too."

"That's what I was thinking."

"Just get me the names and send them up," James said. 'I know you keep good people around you."

Coulson nodded. "Try to anyway." He let out a tired sigh. "Congratulations, by the way. I came to the reception but you were already gone."

"Yeah, you never would have guessed it, but Billy got impatient at some point and wanted to go."

"What a surprise."

With that, James and Coulson sat together and went over the contract a few times, and within an hour, they had an agreement drawn up with the alterations Coulson was requesting. James hadn't denied Coulson anything he'd asked, and while Coulson still thought this was more of a placating move than anything, he knew May would sign it in an instant for the funding and the freedom, so… he didn't question it too hard and even made sure to pass on a wedding gift from the team.

James thanked him for both the thought and his time - and once Coulson had taken the time to sign the new papers with the notary, James rushed to get the offer letters for the rest of Coulson's team so Coulson could take it to them as well.

"If something comes up, or you need an offer for anyone else, just let me know," James said. "Tony told me he expected me to use what he allotted for security … and technically, this counts as far as I'm concerned."

"He'll figure out what you're up to fast, you know that."

"He'll giggle himself into a fit," James said.

"Sounds like him." Coulson shook his head as he got to his feet. "By the way, you don't happen to know why there seems to be some kind of spell involved with Hydra and their inability to put their logo anywhere?"

"Yeah, that would have something to do with them pissing off Wanda," James said. "They screwed with her baby boy more than once, she's not giving them a strike three."

"Makes my job easier when they're struggling to recruit."

"If Hydra's your biggest problem, then you're going to have a very easy job ahead of you very soon," James told him.

"Honestly, the first item on my to-do list was to clean house as much as possible getting Hydra out of any embedded positions we could find."

"I don't know how it happened," James said with his best innocent tone, "But … I have this feeling that anyone that was on Hydra payroll in any way will be kind of screwed over the second they open any communications with any of Hydra's servers. Including the three that miraculously didn't go down with that last wave. Not like it's just sitting there like a time bomb at all or anything."

"Yeah, you're a punk," Coulson said with just enough affection for it not to be the insult he meant it to be.

"I didn't say I did anything," James defended. "It's just … a feeling."

"Uh-huh." Coulson shook his head as he headed for the door.

"Hey, Coulson - welcome aboard."

Coulson chuckled, shook his head, and then waved as he left. "See you around," he said over his shoulder.

As soon as Coulson was gone, James made his way over to get changed. He knew that Emma had been awful to Annie on too many occasions to let her keep going - and honestly, he knew that she hated it when anyone showed her up. It had been a while, and to be honest, she'd been an absolute nightmare for him the last time he'd seen her, but he was also pretty sure she wouldn't be expecting him to show up and ruin her day, either. The fact of the matter was that he had unfinished business with the White Witch anyhow, so it seemed like a fitting thing to do before the rest of his family caught wind of it.

Once he'd adjusted his tie, he ran a hand through his hair and headed off to confront the problem head on. His siblings would get emotional if they were involved. Billy would likely disintegrate her to diamond dust - and he absolutely couldn't let his father know what was going on. At all. So, he grabbed a car and headed over to Frost's office halfway across town.