What If? Episode 907

Help And Interference

It wasn't until a few days after Logan and Scott were settled in that Steve talked Scott into taking his study material to the kitchen, where he promised the light was better, snacks were far more readily available - and the interruptions would be more brief, since ... whoever it was looking for Steve wouldn't feel like they'd walked two city blocks to find him holed up with Scott working.

The only drawback of that, of course, was that there were simply more brief interruptions. Steve had been sure to warn Janet to not judge on the kid's project material - and even advised her not to touch it, let alone read it since - it wasn't exactly an Avengers matter - officially. For now. But she still managed to stick around and try to help however she could - mostly playing interference when Hank would come up from his experiments in a mood and feeling confrontational.

For Scott, it was a real lesson in interpersonal relationships - and it was clear right off the bat that Janet had the patience of Job to deal with Hank when he was in a mood. He was not in a mood however when he appeared one afternoon for a short break and a refill on his coffee - and to observe the two 'guests' as Steve worked with them on figuring out where most of this trainwreck had occurred.

It was clear right away that Logan was worn out, and that paperwork simply was not his forte. At all. Particularly since Steve and Scott were working over a map trying to find a location and Logan was a few seats down pressing on a few pressure points near the inner corner of his eyes, jaw locked and clearly trying not to growl.

"You ever get around to taking a nap or something?" Pym asked, only to get a hard glare from Logan as answer. "I'm sure I can help with that. There has to be something in the lab that would work around your healing abilities and knock you out for a little while."

There was a heartbeat of silence as both Scott and Steve just watched Logan - of all the things that Hank could have said to put him on edge, that had to be at the top of the list. And Logan's body language was loud and clear.

He'd tensed up ready to spring in an instant, a laser focus on Hank as his hackles were clearly raised. "I'm fine," Logan ground out through clenched teeth, but Hank was ignoring - or missing the clear warnings.

"It'd only take a minute, and obviously you need it," Hank said with a shrug. "I'll just go grab something real quick. You probably won't even feel it."

"Come at me with a needle and I'll jam it through your skull," Logan replied evenly and quietly. "I said. No."

"Aren't you a little old to be afraid of needles?" Hank said with a frown, and like that, Logan was on his feet and Cap was between them, both hands on Logan's shoulders to stop him.

"C'mon, Cap ...let him go. It could be fun to watch the show," Tony said mildly, grinning as he leaned against the doorway.

"He's serious, Tony," Steve said shaking his head.

Tony just chuckled as he pushed off from the doorway. "Yeah, and tell me it wouldn't be funny to watch him try and get past Jan - either of them."

Steve smirked the slightest. "I still don't want that to happen," he said, shaking his head still. "You have no idea what you're talking about here."

"Me?" Tony shook his head. "You underestimate me, Cap. I'm wounded." He put his hand to his heart for emphasis. "SHIELD is not hard to peek into for a total genius. Fury really needs to try harder and Hank, you really don't want to piss him off. As entertaining as it would be."

"Is there something you wanted, Tony? Or are you just stirring up trouble and hiding behind 'protecting' your teammates?"

"Yeah, actually. The coffee is here," Tony pointed out as he made a show of heading over behind Steve and Scott to the pot.