When the group of X-Men reappeared in the mansion after leaving the helicarrier, Logan just let out a sigh that clearly told those who knew him best that he was not looking forward to this mission. "Guess we should get this over with," he said at last as he turned to the others. "What are we taking? Blackbird would be bait."

"We can take my ship if you don't wish to bait this person," Noh offered, but Kurt and Logan were already sharing a look between them.

"You did say that your ship needed refueling. Are you sure it will make the trip?" Kurt asked politely.

Noh considered this for a moment before he let out a sigh. "Maybe we should take yours, then," he conceded.

"Then we can leave the uniforms behind for now," Logan said, before he looked over at Noh, who was still wearing his Marvel Boy getup. "You have anything that doesn't look like you fell off the moon?"

"I'm sure I can find some blue jeans," Noh said with a little smirk. "I did go through a bluegrass and flannel phase a year ago."

"Well," Logan said with a raised eyebrow. "We're headed to Alaska." When Noh just smiled and nodded at that, Logan just had to shake his head.

"I'll get my earmuffs," Kate said with a pretended longsuffering sigh before she glanced over at Kurt with a little smile. "And huddle with the fuzzy blue heater."

"You're lucky I'm so snuggly," Kurt replied without missing a beat.

"Yes. Yes I am," she agreed as she just laced her arm through his and put her head on his arm to prove the point, pulling herself nice and close.

"Whatever, I'm gonna go check the weather report," Logan grumbled, half growling to himself. "Make sure we don't end up in something that'll crash the plane and have to listen to the two of you until you die of frostbite."

"Oh, are we being obnoxious?" Kate asked in pretended surprise as she looked over at Logan, who was already headed away from the snuggly pair.

"Don't tease him, liebling," Kurt said gently in her ear. "He is truly not looking forward to this ... discussion."

"You know you have a Tiger you can hug if you need it," Kate called out to him.

Logan just flat out ignored her as he continued down the hall, obviously in no mood to play. "Maybe we should switch out me for Storm," Logan called back, clearly addressing Kurt. "She's got a better shot at this."

"It's a shame she's in Wakanda right now, then," Kurt replied, though the look on his face told Kate that he didn't want to switch out his best friend for Storm even if she had been around. "I believe she will be back in a few weeks, if this goes as poorly as you think and we need to repair the damage," he added with a light smile. "Though that... is not nearly as likely as you may think."

Logan didn't acknowledge him as he kept walking, and Kurt just let out a little sigh. He turned his attention back to Kate as he pressed a little kiss into the edge of her jaw before he whispered to her, "You are about to witness the two most stubborn people I know meet up."

"I can't decide if I should be insulted I don't rank or pack snacks," Kate replied, trying to lighten the mood.

"You should be proud," a voice said from the ceiling, surprising them both before Peter Parker dropped down next to them. "It takes highly advanced levels of stubborn to meet up to that standard."

Kate just grinned at Peter. "Well I'll just have to work harder on my stubborn," she said before she bit her lip and decided to see if she could drop a fun bombshell on Peter while he was here. "I was planning on practicing my stubborn anyway, seeing as we're about to send out the press release on the new publishing standards at my office. Gotta warm up for JJ."

"Dowha-huh now?" he asked, turning her way quickly - his expression so confused and shocked that she only just kept from openly celebrating the success of her bombshell.

Kate giggled and waved her hand. "It's been in the works for weeks. I had Jenny and Matt Murdock help me add in a whole new section of policy on hate speech for Bishop Publishing. You should read the release. Murdock can write."

"Oh, man. And ... you're going to speak with JJ about hate speech?" Peter asked with a disbelieving look.

"Well, Bobby said I should be ready for it, anyway." Kate shrugged. "And he's the news expert around here. I think he's making a big deal out of nothing — JJ won't come for me until I start dropping authors who violate the policy." She grinned a little wider as she said it.

"Don't be so sure about that," Peter replied, honestly looking concerned for her. "He ... doesn't play by anyone's rules but his own."

"Same here." Kate just kept grinning at him, not too worried about the whole thing.

"Oooh, yeah," Peter said, waggling his finger at her as he drew himself up a bit in his best "I am older and more experienced" impression as he looked her way. "When you get back from this daring do whatever it is — we're going to have to have a nice long talk, young lady."

"I'll take notes." She smirked at him for a moment, her head tipped to one side. "Who knows. If he really ticks me off, I might just ask Spiderman to write a book for me. I bet it would be a best-seller. And it would annoy the heck out of him to see that wall-crawling little — what's he call you? Menace? — succeed in his turf."

"Um ... we'll come back to that?"

Kate grinned and zipped over to ruffle Peter's hair — which seemed to always make him laugh because he was older than her — before she said, "Think about it, Spidey. It's a good job offer. I happen to know the boss is nice."

"I'm sure she is," Peter said, smiling despite himself as he tried to smooth his hair back down. "But I'm serious, Kate. You don't want to tangle with JJ without some serious preparation."

Kate just gave his arm a little squeeze. "It's so cute that you worry about me," she said, but when Peter still looked serious, she just let out a breath and gave him a real hug, no longer teasing him. "Really, it's sweet." She squeezed him a bit tighter and then added, "We'll chat when we get back, okay? Promise."

He just hugged her back for a moment and then shook his head at her, but he didn't try to stop them from heading after Logan so they could get their show on the road — though he did mutter at Kurt as he passed, "Guess this is one lesson she wants to learn for herself?"

Kurt just chuckled as he passed Peter. "As ever," he said quietly, and Kate just gave both of them a look as she walked backwards down the hallway to glare at them before Kurt just laughed and teleported them both down to the hangar, still giving her a teasing grin even after the smoke had cleared.

When they got to the blackbird, Logan was just sitting in the pilot seat, a cigar between his teeth and his hands resting on his thighs as he just glared down at the panels. Jubilee and Noh were already on board, and it wasn't until the hatch had been closed that anyone considered taking up copilot spot.

Kurt kissed Kate on the side of her head and promised to catch up later — and to discuss how to deal with Spiderman acting like a big brother all of a sudden — as he slipped up to join Logan, who hadn't said a word since anyone's arrival.

"Who are we going to see that has Wolverine so ... irritated?" Noh asked Jubilee quietly.

"Oh no, I am not ruining this one for you two," Jubilee said with a smirk directed at both Kate and Noh, her hands behind her head as she leaned back in her seat. "It's going to be too epic for me to wreck."

"So long as no one loses a limb in the process," Noh said with a small smile.

"I cannot guarantee that," Jubilee replied with a matching smile.

Kate just settled in to play with a couple of the bamfs, tickling them and ruffling their hair and grinning at the two of them. She directed her question at the bamfs, but it was clear from her volume that she meant the others to hear: "I didn't tell Spidey that Fury assigned me to play photographer for this particular meetup. Do you think he'll be jealous when we get back?"

"Oh my God," Jubilee said, sitting up straighter. "You better have your camera ready. I'm going to film this."

"Oh, I'm totally ready. Anything that had Fury smirking like that? Definitely camera-worthy," Kate assured her.

Jubilee all but cackled in response. "You have no idea." She grinned widely. "You should totally blog this. Best. post. Ever."

"Oh," Kate said, laughing now. "It's so going on the blog."

"Teddy and Billy are going to die," Jubilee laughed, looking far too excited to be allowed. "You have no idea."

Kate just grinned in response. "You know it."

Noh looked like he was going to ask just what it was that their friends were going to die over when the bamf from earlier, the one that had been interested in his hair, poofed right in front of his face, wide-eyed and looking very serious. He very slowly approached the top of Noh's head before, quickly, he jammed one of Kate's headbands on Noh's head and then stepped back to look over his work before he quickly shook his little head, took the headband back, and bamfed away again.

Kate burst into laughter. "Oh, I was wondering where that headband went. Have you guys been hoarding my stuff again?" she teased as she looked down at the bamfs, who just burst into giggles and didn't seem to answer her one way or the other.

"It's because they think you have good taste," Jubilee teased.

"Oh no. They held my scarf hostage for kisses the other day. They're totally just... little demons," Kate corrected, ruffling the hair on one bamf's head affectionately.

"Well, yeah." Jubilee grinned, and the three of them fell into easy conversation as Kate relayed some of the other trouble she and the bamfs had been getting up to — sometimes involving pranks played on her, and sometimes involving a bamf-Kate teamup on Kurt that always somehow ended up with the fuzzy blue Elf just whisking Kate off somewhere to kiss the ridiculousness out of her, which seemed to be the whole point of the pranks.

Finally, Logan found a good spot to take the jet down outside of Anchorage, and when they landed, and old friend of his met them there with a grin. It was the first time since they had decided to take on this trip that Logan had worn anything even resembling a smile as he grasped the older looking man's hand and the two of them greeted each other warmly.

"Harry, you remember my friends Kurt and Jubilee, don't you?" Logan said as the rest of them walked up to the two old friends.

Harry Tabeshaw grinned widely at them. "Oh — that can't be the same little Jubilee all grown up, is it?" Jubilee just rolled her eyes and bounced over to give the old man a kiss on the cheek.

"Nice to see you too," she said. "You still have that old bucket of bolts for a plane?"

Harry looked mortally offended for a moment before gesturing behind him to an open hangar. "You know I don't leave home without her," he said as the others looked to see the old WWII bomber tucked away inside. He handed Logan the keys to a SUV parked near by. "Got you the wheels you asked for. Try not to give it back in the same condition as last time, eh?"

"For this little run, I'm not makin' any promises," Logan replied before he waved Kate over. "You should meet Kate — not Katie — and her friend Noh. They're the newest troublemakers to this little crew."

"And the most awesome since Jubes," Kate informed him before she held out her hand for Harry to shake. "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, if that's the case, I'm gonna need to hold your credit card, Logan," Harry teased. "I know how awesome usually turns out." He took Kate's hand and gave her a warm smile. "Don't let him get you into too much trouble."

"Oh please," she said with a little grin. "I get him into trouble."

Harry straightened up a bit. "You say that like it's hard."

"It's really not," she agreed, grinning wider. "But oh so fun."

Harry just nodded his head in agreement before he just turned to the group as a whole, waved, and started to head back inside. "Have fun, welcome to Alaska, kids!" he called out. "I'm headed into the pilot's lounge."

With that, the little group loaded up, with Kurt playing navigator through the neighborhoods around Anchorage until they found the street they were looking for.

"You sure this is it?" Logan asked as they took in the little cottages spaced up and down the street. Everything about it looked very much like a gingerbread village, coated in snow with smoke curling out of the chimneys. "Looks like a damn story book."

"These are the coordinates Fury gave us," Kurt said, looking around them with a similarly disbelieving look.

"Then I'll have to make sure he's not a Skrull," Logan muttered.

"I can help with that," Noh offered politely, finally finding a part of the conversation that he could understand.

"If you want to double check, sure," Logan said. "But they haven't been able to get past my nose yet."

Finally they turned into one driveway, and when Kate saw the name on the mailbox, she turned to Jubilee with pure excitement in her eyes and whipped out her cell phone quickly. "Oh, you were right. This will so be amazing."

With the two girls at the ready with cell phones, the little group approached the nicely painted front door with a holly wreath on the door knocker. Logan glanced over his shoulder for just an instant before he knocked and just half held his breath until a very pretty, bright-eyed brunette opened the door."

"Oh, hello!" she said, taking them in for a moment. "Are y'all here for Scott, or are you carrolin' early?"

"No, we're — is this Scott Summers' place?" Logan asked in a bit of disbelief.

She nodded with a bright smile, her light Southern accent honey-dripping as she said, "Yes, sir. You've come to the right place. Why don't y'all come inside from the cold? You look half frozen to death standin' out there, and I'm sure I can make more cocoa."

Logan just stared at her for a moment before Kurt answered for him. "Danke, yes, please," he said as he pushed Logan ahead of him and glanced at Jubilee with a little bit of a nervous look.

As they walked into the little house, a little girl with dark pigtails in bright pink bows came running down the stairs and all but froze in her tracks when she saw the assembled group. "Oooh, Aunt Annie, who are they?" she asked, grabbing onto the brunette's hand to pull on it.

"They came to say hi to Scott, Leslie Ann," Annie explained as she reached down and scooped up the little girl and booped her on the nose. "Say hi."

"Hi." The girl opened and closed her hand with a shy giggle before she burst out with, "Are you X-Men like Uncle Scott?"

Logan and Kurt were just staring at her in silence for a moment before Logan very slowly nodded his head and raised one finger to his lips. "That's supposed to be secret."

Leslie Ann giggled and nodded, pressing a finger to her lips. "Ooh. Okay. I can keep secrets," she agreed before she loudly whispered, "I'm gonna be an X-Man someday."

"Then we're gonna be good friends," Logan told her with a little smile he just couldn't quite stop..

Annie was beaming through the whole exchange before they made their way toward the living room, where she called out, "Scott! You have some visitors."

The group of them were surprised when it only took a second for a familiar sunglasses-wearing face to pop up from the floor in the next room over — where he had apparently been tackled by a toddler. The little girl, who looked much like Leslie Ann, was still attached to his leg as he got to his feet and looked over the group for a long moment without saying anything.

"Hey, Slim," Logan said finally when it was clear that no one wanted to break the moment.

Scott finally stopped staring at the group at that and swept over in a few long strides and surprised every single one of them when he simply wrapped both arms around Logan. "You were dead," he said simply. "I thought—" He hugged Logan a bit tighter. "Welcome back."

"Scott—" Logan said quietly, completely unsure of what to do with him and clearly not expecting that to be Scott's reaction, before he relaxed his shoulders a bit and did what he could to return the gesture.

A few short moments later Scott just released him and took a step back, cleared his throat, and bent down to pick up the little girl at his feet. "You probably didn't come all this way just to say hello," he said with a little nod, not addressing or mentioning what had just happened.

"No, not really," Logan said, still frowning a bit as he looked Scott up and down, openly confused about the little girl that was so attached to him — not to mention the entire setup he'd found him in. "Fury sent me. He wants you in on a mission."

Scott frowned for a moment and shook his head. "He should ask Cyclops — the younger one. I don't really do that anymore."

"The little punk that stole my motorcycle? No," Logan replied with a dismissive shake. "He wants the good one."

"What for?" Scott asked, still frowning slightly.

"We have a little Skrull problem brewing," Logan said. "And he thought you'd be the right guy to head it up."

Scott just kept right on frowning deeper at that and took a moment to set the girl in his arms down with whispered instructions for her to go find her mother. When he looked back up, he crossed his arms. "I don't think he wants me heading up anything."

"It's more or less what his paperwork said," Logan replied, avoiding the fact that there was no mention of who was to lead the team. "But — this is the team he's sending." He gestured to the rest of the group around him.

Scott looked over the other four and broke into an actual smile when he saw Jubilee. "When did you find a cure?" he asked, genuinely pleased.

"Oh, you know. Not long after Logan got back. Reed Richards had a theory and he and Dr. Banner figured out how to reverse it. Just took about three gallons of this guy." She tipped her head Logan's way, then rushed over to throw her arms around Scott's neck in a hug,. "Missed you."

Scott picked her up off the ground as he returned the hug. "That's great news, Jubilee!" he told her.

"Got my sparkles back too," she told him brightly.

"Really?" He grinned wider. "I'm sure you're taking the world by storm."

"Trying to," she said with a theatrical sigh. "It'd be easier if I had my fearless leader, though."

"Oh, I'm sure you can do it without me. I'm surprised you're not running the X-Men by now," Scott told her. "Seeing as you're no longer a vampire."

"You never finished my training," she accused him, poking him in the chest.

He held up both hands and just shook his head with a smile. "Well, that is my fault, then. But give it another few years. I'm sure I'll see you on the cover of every newspaper."

"Come on, Slim," Logan said. "Can't tell me you don't want to go with."

At that, Scott let out a little snort and shrugged lightly. He seemed to think about it for a moment, looking over the little gathered group — as Jubilee was bouncing slightly, and Kurt couldn't stop the grin that had started somewhere when Scott hugged Logan and just kept right on.

"I can't miss Christmas," Scott said at last, emphatically. "Annie's entire family is coming."