Leaving on a jet plane

Chapter 1

“You're what?� her mother's voice filled her skull like the reverberations of a church bell.

Her father did not sit down with weak knees and a befuddled expression on his face – instead, she was greeted with squared shoulders and jutting jaw. She could hear his teeth gnashing and grounding together as his hackles rose. The ropey cords of his neck stood out, and Kendall hadn't lived nineteen years under this roof to miss a warning sign when she saw one.

'You may meet ideological resistance and emotion-based reluctance' seemed like such a petty, frivolous phrase in the face of this sight, but nevertheless she straightened her spine, clenched her jaw and took a measured breath.

“I'm joining S.H.I.E.L.D,� Kendall repeated, forcing her voice to evenness, noting absently that Dylan had gone absolutely still, his hand resting on the open refrigerator door.

“The fuck ya are,� her father ground out, voice like gravel, and planted his knuckles on the table.

“I am,� Kendall growled back and mirrored his position, locking blue eyes on blue. Same blue of deep wintry lakes, not the wild, bright azure of her mother's and brother's gaze, and same bloody-minded stubbornness and flammable temper behind them.

For a while, the only sound in the kitchen was growling as father and daughter glared at each other.

Then there was a bang as her mother straight-armed the 'fridge door shut and forcibly planted Lux in her brother's arms, extracting the toddler's starfish hands from white hair with a pickpocket's deftness.

“Dylan, take this child upstairs at once,� Ororo commanded and turned Kendall's little brother door-wards by the shoulders.

“But Mom...�

“Now, Dylan.� There was a note in her mother's voice Kendall seldom heard outside the battlefield and her kid brother wisely took his leave before the shouting really started. All the same – his sensitive ears would catch the 'conversation' anyway.

Logan pushed himself up and paced to the window, not breaking eye contact. “Ya wanna play with guns and things that go boom an' beep, ya go to the Danger Room.�

“It's not about playing, Dad,� Kendall said, turning to follow him. “It's work. Real work, and a chance for me to do something good with my life.�

“Savin' the world not good enough for ya any more, kiddo?� He lit up, blowing an irate stream of smoke in her face.

“I'm gonna do that at S.H.I.E.L.D, too! They asked me, got a position tailored for someone just like me.�

“What, someone who heals fast and can take a bullet in the chest before breakfast?� her mother entered the conversation, eyebrow already up.

There should really be a law against that damned eyebrow. Kendall bit back a groan.

“Very funny. The people I spoke to said they'd been 'following my progress for a while' and were impressed with my abilities. My non-mutant abilities.� A note of bitter pride had made its way into Kendall's voice and she didn't bother masking it.

“Really.� Her father sounded more than a bit offended, and sceptical. “Bet they didn't make a fuss outta ya usin' them, though.�

“They said they were impressed with my problem-solving skills and with my mechanical prowess. Eclectic was the word they used.�

“So? Can'tcha see they want another tool in their pocket?� Logan snarled. “Yer fuckin' handy for their purposes.! And willin' ta be used!�

“They asked me, Dad. Me!� Kendall shouted and jabbed her fingertips into her chest hard enough to bruise. “Not because of my claws or my looks or my connections or traditions or even my powers, but what I am. My goddamned brain! They want me to come and work in a new rapid reaction force, maybe even lead my own team.�

“And you with scores of years in service experience,� Ororo said sarcastically and crossed her arms. Storm's accent always got thicker with negative emotion, and right now it was deep enough for Kendall to wade in. “Do you have any idea what you're getting into, girl?�

“I've seen my share of battle, Mother, and led my own team,� she snapped. “I'll be overseeing basic combat training and taking part in guerilla action as well as LRRPs. Subterfuge and reversing it.�

“Yer talkin' like ya already enlisted.�

“I leave at first light.�

Her father spared her a sharp glance, gnashed his teeth and stalked out of the house in the general direction of the forest, banging the kitchen's back door almost off its hinges in one neat, forceful slam.

Ororo and her daughter watched his retreating back through the window above the sink until it disappeared into the woods. Then Kendall had the dubious pleasure of having her mother's full attention.

It was hard to keep calm, to keep from squirming under that blue gaze that seemed to see right through her, but Kendall held her mother's eyes until the silence in the kitchen became too heavy.

“Aren't you gonna lecture me? Ask questions, put a guilt trip on me?�

“Would it change anything?�

“Nope.�

“Then you have decided, and I must honour that decision.� There was something cold and snippy in her mother's voice. “How does your boyfriend feel about this?�

“I don't have a boyfriend.� Kendall's stomach lurched nastily when the memory of that morning's argument with Stephen, but those thoughts were quickly shoved aside. Not the time to get mushy and weepy.

“Ah, so that's how it is, then,� Ororo said softly and suddenly there was sadness in her eyes. She set one warm hand on Kendall's shoulder and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her daughter's ear.

“It's a big change, child, and you'll be on your own in a large organization full of people who do not know you and do not care about you. Are you sure you are ready for this?�

Part of Kendall wanted nothing more than to step forward into her mother's arms to be embraced and coddled like a baby – to accept the comfort and understanding that had always waited her there, regardless of what she had done or where she had been.

Her mother had a way of calming everyone around her, some of her inner tranquility and equilibrium rubbed off on people, seeped through her skin and shot through people's veins like some marvelous sedative.

It would be easy. She could take that step forward and stay here, call her contact at S.H.I.E.L.D, apologize to Stephen, let herself be lulled back into the ebb and flow of life at the Institute, tread the paths her feet knew so well and accept the lot of life that had fallen in her lap almost as a birthright.

Stay, save the world some more, follow the footsteps of your parents. Reap praise and admiration for doing the right thing, for making the choice that really never was a choice, be the good daughter and the fearless team leader they all want her to be.

Oh, hell no.

“I'm not a baby anymore, so stop mother-henning me,� Kendall spat and pushed her mother's hand off her shoulder. “I make my own damned choices and you know where you can stuff your fussing!�

The words were out in the open before she noticed them, but Kendall was too riled up to care even as her mother visibly flinched. There was a look of hurt in Ororo's eyes and then something changed, shifted, and suddenly it was Storm standing before Kendall, staring at her through a mask of marble. This wasn't her mother, but someone haughty and terribly proud.

Suddenly their sunny kitchen, the setting of so many happy memories and a perennial haven from the evils of the world seemed frighteningly small and desolate. Light seemed to bend and arc wrong around Ororo, and when she spoke, there was little warmth in her voice.

“Very well, Kendall. I will not baby you around since it troubles you so, but a mother cannot but worry when her child is about to do something splendidly stupid.�

“What's so stupid about joining S.H.I.E.L.D?� Kendall asked, careful now.

“That was not my main concern. You are blazing a trail through people that care about you with little thought on how they fare once you've moved on. It's selfish, making leaving easier for yourself by kicking up conflict and driving wedges between your loved ones and yourself.�

“I'm not - - “

“Oh yes, you are!� Ororo snapped and a wall of rain lashed the kitchen windows like tsunami wave. The retort of a thunderclap rang over the lake. “Are you burning bridges to make leaving seem like the best and only alternative to yourself, or to others?�

Kendall could not find an answer and was left to watch dumbly as the wind rider turned on her heel and made her way to the same door through which her father had stormed out. A gust of wind flapped it open before Storm, making the blinds on its window rattle like a viper's tail.

“I will say this to you in lieu of maternal fussing,� she said quietly, almost too quietly to be heard over the rain's rapid rat-tat-tat against the roof. “For someone who resents being treated like a child, you seem to have taken people's lives and emotions as playthings to be cast aside when they do not suit your game any more.�

“Mother...�

“No. Get on your plane, go play James Bond. Come back when you're done with games.�

The door shut nearly soundlessly as her mother made her way into the woods, wind dancing at her heels like a concerned family dog, howling, wailing around the boathouse like a banshee.

Well, that went well...



A/N: Here is John Denver singing 'Leaving on a jet plane', which is more than a soundtrack to this fic. If you're like me, you may prefer this version by Me First and The Gimme Gimmes.

Chapter 2

On her night table, a framed picture of Stephen smiled at her. To Kennie with all of my love, it read, scrawled in her boyfriend's... ex-boyfriend's endearingly haphazard hand.

She would not cry. Not an option to let the lump in her throat win the war, or let the sting behind her eyes spill out in wet droplets that were threatening to spatter on the coverlet on her bed.

She gave her eyes an angry wipe with the back of her hand and set to packing her duffel bag with seam-bursting vigour. So caught up was she in manhandling clothes into the bag that she was startled by a rap on the door frame.

Dylan walked in, Lux on his shoulders, her tiny hands firmly fastened in his black hair like she was holding the reins of a particularly stubborn mustang. As usual, the child was laughing at apparently nothing more than the joy of being alive but her sunny expression turned solemn at the sight of her big sister.

“Hey, Monkey,� Dylan said softly and leaned against her dresser, dislodging Lux from her perch and setting her on the bed.

“Munn-key,� Lux said precisely and giggled to herself.

“You come to tell me off too?�

“Nah. Don't know which of them's more pissed,� her brother said quietly, picking up one of the bracelets on her dressed and handing it for the toddler to inspect. There was a moment of silence broken only by the sound of Lux sucking enthusiastically on wooden beads. “Think you've really upped the ante on the whole parental explosions front. Fuckin' near thermonuclear.�

“Watch your language,� Kendall said absently, trying in vain to hunt down a pair of hole-less socks from the dresser's drawers.

“Pfft. Bringing home the next report card should be a cakewalk compared to this,� he said glibly, too glibly. “Math is kicking my ass out of the window this year.�

“Dylan!�

“Alright, defenestrating my delicate derrière. Sheesh! You think she hasn't heard all of the fancy words from Dad yet?�

The siblings took a moment to snicker together. Some things you didn't need to learn at school from your friends.

“I thought he would've taken this better,� Kendall said quietly.

“I know, right? It's pretty cool that they have a custom-tailored position ready for you.� There was awe in Dylan's voice.

“I thought so too,� she said and shook her head. She sat down on the bed and picked her baby sister up, wondering what Lux would look like when she saw her the next time. If there was a next time. Kendall sighed and kissed the girl's forehead. Would the two-year old forget her big sister in time, would they be strangers when their paths next crossed?

“I thought they would get it,� she said to Lux, watching the toddler frown at her in confusion. “I wanted to have something for myself, you know? To be wanted because who I am, not because I'm daughter to two X-Men and happened to inherit their mutations in a merry cocktail of claws and thunderbolts.�

“I know,� Dylan said with all the sullen air a fourteen-year old boy could muster. “So you really are leaving at the crack of dawn?�

“Yep,� said Kendall and bounced Lux. “Dunno when I'll be back again.�

“Don't probably hate go, though,� Dylan snorted.

“And no-one's wedding ring to wear when I get back either,� she said quietly, sliding the bracelet, doubled up, on Lux's arm. The girl laughed her delight. “I hate that song.�

“Yeah, and I'm Elvis. I used to think you'd wear the CD out.�

“Brat,� she said but there was little fire behind it. The damned lump was back in her throat.

“Stuck-up bitch,� Dylan countered in an oddly strained whisper. “Gonna be in permanent nirvana once I see you take off.�

“Liar,� she said and this time the tears did come, falling on befuddled Lux, who got awkwardly squished between her older siblings as they hugged each other.

For a moment they weren't the constantly bickering sister and brother who had found it hard for years to be in the same room without scratching each other's eyes out. Instead, they were the two kids who used to walk to the school bus together, the siblings who were inseparable friends in the face of the evil old world. Kendall wasn't the quickly hardened youngest leader of the X-Men's newest team, Ecru, and Dylan wasn't the slouchy, short teenager just beginning to come to grips with the power surging through his veins. For a few breaths, they were the short little boy who got bullied in school and the older sister that was his avenging guardian angel always watching his back.

Kendall straightened gruffly and wiped her eyes again, purposefully not looking at her little brother as he did the same. The Howlett-Munroe genes came with a touchy pride.

“Got you something," Dylan said shakily after a moment, digging something flat out of the kangaroo pouch of his hoodie. “Meant to give it to Mom to put it in her office, but I figure you're gonna need some target practise material.�

It was a photo, shot in panorama style, taken that summer on a family picnic. Dylan, a budding photographer, had managed to snap a shot of their unsuspecting family. Their mother was tickling Lux's nose with a stalk of grass. The child, as usual was laughing, seated on the chest of their father who was lounging on the picnic blanket a careless ear-to-ear grin on his face. His cowboy hat was on Kendall's head, and she was sticking out her rolled tongue at her brother who was puckering his lips at her in a mock kiss. Behind her stood Stephen, guitar slung rakishly across his back like a poor man's Johnny Cash, looking at her with adoration written across his face.

Kendall swallowed. It was a perfect moment caught on celluloid, and she folded the picture carefully and stuck it inside her wallet. “Thanks,� she ground out. “Wish I could give you a keepsake myself.�

“Could always sneak me out tonight to the tattoo parlour,� Dylan said hopefully, hankering for the Maori-style tattoo he'd been wanting since he'd turned twelve.

“Nah,� she said and rolled to her feet, setting her little sister on the floor. “Think I can do better than that.�

Dylan watched her fingers skim across the floorboards directly under the night table next to the bed and deftly pry a seemingly nailed-down plank up by the edges. She rummaged inside the floor a while and eventually pulled out an oblong bundle of cloth. She set it down across Dylan's knees and plonked the board back in its hole.

“It's no katana, but it's not half bad.�

Dylan unwound the heavy black fabric to reveal a curving ornate leather sheath with an even more ornate bone handle sticking out of it.

“Draw it out,� Kendall said softly. The blade slid out, and even Dylan knew a perfectly balanced blade when he held one in his hand. It was a kukri, curving in an angle of efficient, lethal beauty.

“It's yours, kid.�

“I can't take this, Kennie!�

“You can and you will,� his big sister said in her field commander's voice. “It's not just for your sake, you know.�

She turned to face the window and gazed at the rain lashing the glass, eyes fading white as she absently read the air before her. “Mom gave me that knife when you were born.�

“... But you were only five!�

“I know,� she said softly. “I was real jealous of you, see? You got all the attention I was used to gettin'. I wanted to be the baby again. And possibly murder you in your crib.�

“And this has changed how, exactly?�

“Har har. Anyway, Mom said that as much as I'd always be her baby, I'd need to be a big girl and hold my chin up because a big sister's job was to guard and guide her little brother. Set a good example, that sort of thing, and since I'd been begging Dad for a pocket knife for ages I got one on the grounds I would stop whining about you taking my place as the baby.�

“Pretty extreme knife for a five-year old.� Dylan was turning the blade this way and that almost reverently.

“You know Mom.�

“Be careful what you wish for?�

“Exactomundo.� Kendall turned back to watch her brother catch Lux as the toddler ran at him gleefully. The child had recently mastered the art of moving fast but had not yet found the brakes, and stopping was often a matter of collision, not slowing down. “And with me gone, you're gonna look after Luxie like I looked after you. No arguments accepted.�

“Wasn't gonna make any,� Dylan said. “Any other words of wisdom? Threats, demands, other hidden stashes of deadly weapons I should know about?�

“There are two hand grenades under that floorboard, too. Mom keeps a bottle of tequila under the sink in the mansion's loft, the spare keys to Dad's Speed Triple are in an hollow cut into the middle of War and Peace in the den bookshelf, and there are three emergency phone numbers of Mum's old boyfriends on the bottom of the earless coffee mug that she keeps pens in the kitchen. You get into a seriously big mess and no-one is around, you call one of them.�

“Woah,� Dylan said. “Can't I call you and have you come in guns blazing?�

“Just keep outta trouble an' you won't have to.� Kendall took the kukri from her brother's hand and sheathed it with practised ease. “Keep it sharp and learn to use it.�

“Yes ma'am,� Dylan said and saluted her, standing up and tucking the knife in his hoodie's pouch. Something serious was lurking under the light tone and joking, though, a new maturity blossoming in her kid brother's eyes, the first hints of adulthood hiding behind the softness of his boy's features.

“Man, I wish I had heard that from you more often growing up,� she grumbled half-heartedly as she ushered Dylan out of her room as Lux took off towards the hallway in a waddling sprint.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you love me 'coz you can butt heads with me, Monkey!� came a shout from the general direction of the stairs as her brother gave chase to the toddler at large.

“I do, don't I?� Kendall said softly to herself, turning back to her packing. The weight in her chest had shifted, somehow lighter and heavier at the same time, and excitement fluttered in the pit of her belly, rivaling dread.

Close your eyes and I'll be on my way...


A/N: A Triumph Speed Triple looks something like this.

Chapter 3

Dawn wasn't far now, and Kendall was having a major case of nerves.

Jacket belted tight about her waist, duffel flung over her shoulder she made her way to the boathouse's roof where she had agreed to be picked up by the connective shuttle ride to S.H.I.E.L.D's latest Helicarrier.

Her mother stood on the edge of the roof, bare feet in a perfectly balanced stance, toes hanging over empty air. She did not turn when Kendall stepped onto the roof's ridge.

It was raining, no surprise there, but it was a mournful, contemplative drizzle – no furious, overwhelming downpour for me anymore, Kendall thought bitterly.

“All packed?�

“Yep. Not gonna need much stuff with me.�

“Less things to weigh you down as you soar to the skies, kestrel.�

“Listen, Mom...� Kendall shifted her weight from one foot to another uneasily.

“Mom, is it now? I thought her services were no longer required.� Ororo's voice was brutally conversational.

“Yes, and I'm sorry I said that. I didn't mean - “

“I think you did, and it is all right. I apologize for shouting at you, Kendall.�

“Oh yeah, that was like, the third time, ever? Think I earned it,� she snorted. “I sometimes wondered how you never snapped at me or Dylan when we probably deserved it royally every now and then.�

“You have no idea,� Ororo said dryly and turned in one fluid motion, the white silk robe she donned twirling around her like a dervish's skirts. She walked to her daughter with unerring balance, a feat Kendall often had envied like hell.

This time she didn't shy away her mother's touch as a warm hand cupped her face.

“Keep safe, my girl,� Ororo said, “and don't do anything I wouldn't do.�

“You still angry with me?�

“Angry? Goddess, no!� Her mother laughed, head thrown back. “I'm furious!�

“Aww, crap. And Dad?�

“I believe the non-verbal grumbling has subsided into a lot of swearing and yelling at trees.�

“Peachy. Better take my leave while it's voluntary,� Kendall said, unable to mask the bitterness creeping into her voice.

“It's not like that, Kendall. He's simply afraid of losing you to the world, and you sprang this on us so suddenly,� Ororo said gently. “You'll always have a home here, a safe haven you're welcome to any time, no matter who you become and what you do.�

“Think I fucked up bad enough already,� Kendall muttered and raked a hand through her stubborn hair.

“Nothing grand in the scheme of your years, child.�

“Nothing grand? You gotta admit that was a spectacular reaction I got outta you guys.�

“Maybe,� her mother said, head tilting with a smile dancing around the corners of her mouth. “I am proud of you, regardless." She kissed her daughter's forehead.

"Fair winds.�

And then her mother was off, free-falling off the roof in one fell plummet that stopped inches from the ground as she took off like a shot towards the horizon, her winds twirling the nearing S.H.I.E.L.D mini-jet around like a bottle spun in a game of Truth or Dare.

“Give my love to dear old Nick!� could be heard across the sky as well as the silvery peals of the weather witch's laughter disappearing above the clouds.

Just because she could, Kendall gave the jet an additional twirl of her own and snickered. It made the butterflies in her stomach settle down – it was hard to feel so anxious about something you could squash like a bug if you really wanted.

She watched the jet teeter back to its course and slowly advance the boathouse's roof and her perch, engines whining and roaring simultaneously. The wafts of air flattened the grass around the house and tore leaves off trees as a ramp lowered to touch down on the roof.

“S.H.I.E.L.D, eh?� came a low growl behind her. She spun around to see her father stalking across the roof to her, and swallowed hard. He looked fit for fire and brimstone, jaw clenching and unclenching rapidly and arms crossed across his chest.

Again, father and daughter regarded each other with raised hackles, a staring contest in the making. Then, suddenly as a bolt from blue, she was yanked into a bone-crushing bear hug.

“With it, not on it,� he growled, voice thick. “Make damned sure yer Mom never has to receive a three-man group bearin' a notification with yer name on it.�

“I will.�

“Ya better, kiddo.�

“Daddy, I - -“

“- - have a plane to catch,� Logan said and let go of his daughter, giving her nose a tweak.

Kendall smiled and blinked back tears that were threatening to spill out again, then turned to walk up the ramp just as the sun's rays peeked over the horizon.

“Give 'em hell, darlin'.�

“Count on it,� she said, giving him a big shit-eating grin over her shoulder as the hatch slowly slid shut behind her.

It was going to be an awfully big adventure.

Epilogue

Kendall speaks:

It was almost three years after that day before I set foot on the Mansion grounds, on a sunny autumn's day that seemed to paint everything with that crisp gold that seems to be Nature's way of going out with a bang before winter turns the world barren and cold.

The place seemed unchanged and I was almost overwhelmed by shameless nostalgia as I trod towards the Mansion, maple leaves crunching under my boots.

I felt a bit misplaced, having changed so much since I had left on that nippy September morning. I had grown up and blown away, and now the winds of the world had carried me back home.

My time with S.H.I.E.L.D was spent in a constant state of change and self-discovery. I believe it changed me in ways nothing else save for a lobotomy could. During my three years away, I had cut my hair, taken up smoking, broken the hearts of two men, saved the world a bit more, got a tattoo and earned my very first scar.

Laugh at the last bit all you want, punks. I know it makes me sound like a lily-assed princess, not having a mark on me before I went and played with the big kids, but when you grow up with a healing factor that mends deep tissue damage in a matter of minutes permanent markings take on a novel, grand meaning. You bet your bippy I wear that scar like a badge of honour. I had a good friend die in my arms on that mission. But I digress.

I got a royal welcome once at the mansion. Well, I didn't make it indoors before I was bowled over by Pru, mad as a wasp and unable to decide whether to laugh, cry or beat me into a bloody pulp with her tiny little fists. I may have deserved the black eye she almost gave me. We didn't exactly part on the best of terms, but once she got herself under control Prudence was all smiles. Like everyone else.

I don't think I've ever been hugged so much in a single day. During that day I found myself surrounded by my extended, strange family 'til nightfall, eager for stories and souvenirs. I hadn't realised how much I had missed them and how much the feeling seemed to be mutual.

I also hadn't realised that fool of a Petty was waiting for me, still.

With a guitar strapped to his back like a poor man's Johnny Cash and stinky, cheap menthol roll-your-own cigarette stuck between his lips, still.

Between his insanely kissable lips, still.

With an engagement ring in his pocket and the kindest eyes I've ever seen, still. Said he understood if I wanted to think about it, he did. Asked me to be his wife.

Boy idiot, still.

'Course I said no. I told him he could go ahead and be my husband, though. Would have to start as a fiancée, though, the larval stage of a spouse. He said he didn't care, about anything. I think he knew I hadn't been exactly true nor blue and certainly not a nun through three years.

Non, je ne regrette rien.

It would be two more years until I would return home permanently and grab the reins of my old team, a long engagement during which we saw each other seven times. Seven stolen weekends, twenty days over two years of calloused guitarist's hands tracing the lines of the eagle flying over my solar plexus.

When I finally came home for good, tired and achy after a mission from hell, I tried to pick a fight with him.

I asked him if it didn't bother him not knowing where I had been or what I had done. I asked him if he didn't care that I had blood on my hands, blood in my eyes.

The bastard laughed at me. Nearly broke a rib cackling like a hag until I drenched him with a gust of rain. I asked him what was so damned funny... and wanna know what he said?

He said life was too short, and that I was cute when I'm pissed off.

Fool of a Petty.

The next morning after a little visit to the City Hall there were two of us. The ceremony itself was dull and short, but neither of us wanted embellishments or fussing.

Mother nearly had a coronary when I told 'em. 'Course they threw a party for us at the Mansion, so's Luxie got to play flower girl and Dad walk me down the aisle, the whole shebang. Pru cried her eyes out and Dylan took brotherly pride in taking the pictures.

'Course we also took our leave early from the festivities, by innocently commandeering one of the new jets the Institute had purchased recently.

Something borrowed and something new, and if marrying your first love isn't old, I don't know what is. We set course for a small Polynesian island, stuck some John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers in the sound system and I showed him just how high you can fly on a kestrel's wings.

Carpe diem. I'd come home.