Unwilling Weapon

Not The Mission Ending We Were Expecting

Kurt was still fairly doped up and sleeping that evening as Kate climbed up beside him after dinner. She was content to just curl up with him and Kamala's most recent chapters, her head on his uninjured shoulder and waiting for a few moments of conscious cutie as she read. That was how she'd been spending most of her time since he got shot anyway — only really leaving for food and coffee.

She was almost done with what she had printed out — with notes in the margins — when Scott came down to Hank's medical wing and had to smile when he saw how tucked in she was. She looked up at him with a wave and a smile and took the pen out of her mouth so she could grin properly. "He's asleep right now, but if you wait around, he'll start pointing out obvious things," she laughed.

"Yeah, I know how he gets," Scott replied with a little laugh. "But I actually came down here to talk to you. I know you're pretty comfortable right now, and things are ... a little hard. But, I'm just getting ready to do a run, and it's ... it's really perfect for you if you can break away for a little bit."

Kate tapped the pen against the side of her mouth as she thought it over. "Just a quick run?"

"Just have to zip out to Wyoming, check on one of our graduates from last year for a few minutes, since there's been a lot of Sentinel activity up that way," Scott replied. "If all goes according to plan, it shouldn't take more than a few hours."

Kate looked over at Kurt, who was still peacefully sleeping, and then threw her legs over the edge of the bed. "Right. Give me a few minutes to change, and I'll meet you in a bit."

"I'll be prepping in the hangar," Scott told her before he turned and walked out of the med lab.

She stacked the chapters with the little pile of things she'd accumulated on one of Hank's tables, gave Kurt a quick kiss on the forehead, and then rushed back to her room to grab her gear. Not ten minutes later, she was skidding into the hangar with a little grin on her face. She'd brought the quiver full of acid and exploding arrows as well as the usual kind — she was getting to the point where she had different ones set aside for different bad guys possibilities with this new team. And Sentinels meant acid and splodeys. For as stupid as she'd called Clint for his trick arrows... they were actually incredibly useful. Not that she would ever, ever tell him that to his face.

She climbed into the jet still wearing the wide grin and slid into co-pilot. "Alright, boss man. Let's go to skiing country."

Scott just grinned at her and leaned over for a second, looking like he might remind her of something co-pilot related, but she gave him a look and mouthed 'I will crash you,' and he decided against it.

The flight was an easy one, and like the previous blackbird, the new one had a habit of making record flights, which had Scott grinning at the speed — this flight had beat out the last trip to Wyoming by ten minutes. He didn't even try to hide it when they landed, and Kate gave him a look that just had him grinning wider.

"Didn't take you for a speed demon, boss man," she teased.

Scott just grinned and shrugged at her. "I like flying," he said as if that was all the answer she needed on that front.

The two of them made the quick trip to where the former Xavier's student was staying: a little bunkhouse near a ranch whose sign boasted backcountry hunting trips and cattle drives for tourists and intrepid adventurers. "He's been working with the tourists," Scott said. "All of it apparently has been very customer-service related."

"Sounds very boring," Kate said with a shrug. "But I guess whatever floats your boat."

"He wanted 'normal'."