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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.





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