What If? Episode 907

Waiting For Trouble

School had been dragging as it always seemed to do before a big holiday break, and without his usual guardian, Scott was lost even more than before he'd met Logan. All of the kids were making plans for Christmas, and even the teachers were caught up in the swirl of excitement.

It was just hard for Scott to focus - and even harder for him to even do his work than usual - particularly when the English teacher decided that they were going to free write a two page essay on 'family traditions' for the upcoming holiday.

While the other kids dove in, excited for their easy 'A', Scott just stared at the paper as he remembered Christmases as a child. Warm fires, warm family - plenty of hot cocoa and homemade cookies as they watched movies and played board games after the holiday festivities.

Even in the orphanage they'd have the kids share in a meal before they 'celebrated'. But this was his first year without all that, and the way that the days were slipping by, Scott wondered if he was going to end up spending the holiday with Thor.

He frowned to himself, wondering if the Asgardian knew much about Christmas. And then he simply looked up as the question of how much eggnog Thor could down popped into his head. If it was anything like how he drank coffee - or how quickly he cleaned out Logan's liquor cabinet it might actually be an interesting question to pose.

"Do you need help getting started, Scott?" the teacher asked, jarring him from his thoughts. "You look a little lost. What are you thinking about?"

He blushed slightly and then tried to bury the smirk. "Um ... eggnog," he said finally when it was clear that the teacher wasn't letting him go without an answer.

"Oh, that's a good place to start," she replied with a warm smile, clueless as to what had the boy looking so amused.

Scott realized belatedly after the start of his last hockey game before Christmas break that after flat out disappearing for a week with no explanation, it was entirely probable that Logan no longer had a job when he got back. With that hanging over his head suddenly, Scott started to wonder how long they could stay where they were if he didn't have an income.

He glanced over at Dr. Blake shortly after stealing the puck and passing it to his captain - and then getting bashed into the wall - and found himself wondering if the Avengers got paid.

He'd heard the buzz that was creeping its way into the school. Mostly from Nathan - about how his father was looking to prove himself since he never got a chance to face Logan one on one, but it wasn't just Nathan's dad that was talking that way. Plenty of other kids' dads were planning to get into the ring as soon as the next fight came up - which, incidentally was shortly after the new year. The talk was all over town. No one could have missed the buzz on it.

But his attention wasdrawn back in the game at the coach's whistle leaving Scott to get back to what he was supposed to be doing.

To Scott's amazement, Nathan did manage to keep his mouth shut - at least to Scott for the duration of the game - and the group of them were working really well when Nathan got down to business. It was the first time Scott had actually seen the guy apply himself - and he was pretty darn good, too.

With the end of the game and their clear win under their belts, and a fair amount of praise from the coach with a lot of enthusiastic 'attaboy's to Nathan, Scott was more than happy to join in with the team in a genuine appreciation of the guy's skills. But of course, that wasn't enough for Nathan and as Scott tried to be a team player - Nathan took a swing and knocked Scott flat on the ice before walking away.

It took him a moment to process it, but before Nathan could get off the ice, Scott quickly got to his feet and made a rush to slam into him at full speed. The two of them started duking it out, though Nathan was quickly irritated when he couldn't hit anything that wasn't padded.