The Traitor, The Avenger, And The Killer

Like Adopted Earth Mom, Like Adopted Sparkly Son

Everyone had broken off into their own little family groups in Tony's bunker — playing with the little ones or cleaning up after them, as the case may be. Chance and Charlie had invited Gerry to play their "gone fightnin" game, and all three were simply running around at top speed trying to take each other down, with Gerry letting the two younger kids catch him on occasion when Natasha gently reminded him that he was bigger than they were and it wasn't entirely fair. The Hale kids didn't take long to decide they wanted to play as well, though Leslie Ann and her sister decided that they needed a better target than the teeny tiny toddlers and piled on top of Scott until he tickled them into submission.

"You gon' play with de others, petit?" Gambit asked little Dani Cage when he noticed her watching the scene with all the kids with her head tipped to the side, but she shook her head and went back to coloring in her coloring book.

"They're playing hitting games," Dani said. "And Mama says I shouldn't do that until we know how much like her and Daddy I am." She gestured pointedly toward her mother, who was asleep and worn out from roughhousing with some of the kids — though that didn't stop Charlie from peering over at her occasionally, apparently to check that she was okay.

"She a smart woman, that mama of yours," he agreed with a smile as she handed him a red crayon and gestured for him to join her.

"That's what Daddy says," Dani said, which got Gambit chuckling again, though it was drowned out by the sounds of Scott being so soundly 'defeated' by both of his nieces.

Somehow, despite all the noise in the hidden-away bunker, Kate had drifted off with her head in Kurt's lap as he played with her hair — after Kristina had finally settled out and stopped kicking her.

Jessica Drew, Peter, and Natasha were talking quietly in a corner. Jess kept looking more and more concerned as she heard about how the rescue efforts were going, almost absently resting a hand on Natasha's arm. Even though she and Clint weren't dating anymore, it was obvious she cared about him deeply — and she knew from experience that being Clint's girlfriend in the middle of this kind of mess was trying even when he wasn't about to be publicly executed.

Natasha didn't miss the move and was sure to give Jess's hand a little squeeze in return, a silent 'thank you' for the support. They hadn't said anything aloud because of the little ears in the room, but both of them knew that Natasha was in far deeper than she cared to admit, and if this didn't work out — if they didn't find Clint or, worse, if they found him dead — then Natasha honestly wasn't sure she would be able to handle it.

Laura and Gabby had eventually left the cuddle pile on Logan after he and Elin were asleep, simply because Gabby was more interested in sneaking around to where the kids were playing to tickle anyone who got too close — with constant reminders from Laura to be careful with the littlest ones, always with the response that "I know."

And with Nate and Hope helping Scott with the small army of little ones, that left Elin and Logan and Jubilee to take up their quiet corner undisturbed. Elin had fallen asleep curled up on her dad's chest, and Logan was simply wrapped around the little one when Jubilee heard the telltale chime that meant Logan's phone was charged up.

She punched in the code and glanced at the number of missed calls and texts and shook her head before she quietly called out so as not to wake any of the sleeping people around them. "Kurt — you win. Punk." But then, she moved on to the texts and who they were from. She saw a few of her own, and some from Kitty, and a pretty serious string from Wade that she was sure would be worth reading simply for the entertainment factor — and of course, the string from the guys on the young Avengers .. though the bits that she saw from them looked exceedingly polite in their wording. They were obviously still trying to stay on Logan's good side and not reveal that they were the adorable fanboys that everyone knew them to be. Which was totally a losing battle, as far as Jubilee was concerned.