Life At A Stand-Still

Chapter 14

Lily was walking around the city with Logan. She gazed up at the large buildings in awe, amazed by the height and beauty of them.

"Be careful you don't run into a pole," Logan warned. Lily snapped her head down, just in time to swerve, narrowly missing a pole. Logan chuckled.

"Sorry," Lily mumbled, before gazing back up at the skyscrapers, being sure to watch where she was going this time.

The two walked  for a few more minutes, talking about the strangest things, before arriving at their destination. Central Park.

Lily had always found it relaxing to be near nature. This was as close as she could get in a city, however.

"So..." Logan trailed off, sitting down onto one of the benches. "What do you want to do now?"

Lily hummed as she sat down next to the older man, wordlessly communicating her answer that she was content to just sit there for a while.

Logan seemed to be fine with that, as he settled back as well.

After a few minutes, two people by the pond caught Lily's eye. One of them was obviously male, while the other was female. The male, who seemed to be around twenty, was watching the female, who looked about five or six.

Lily thought nothing of them until the man turned around and she caught a glimpse of his face.

She froze time immediately, getting up to check who the man was. Upon finding no conformation, she checked his wallet for a piece of information. The man just looked so familiar!

Lily nearly dropped the wallet when she saw the name of the man.

Cory Peter Everlast.

Lily replaced the wallet and sprinted back to the bench, resuming time as she slid to a stop in front of Logan.

"Logan," she whispered. "My brother."

"What about him?" Logan sat up.

"He's here."

Logan jumped up. "Then let's go see him!"

Lily dragged the man over to her brother.

"Cory!" She shouted as soon as she was close enough.

Cory turned to face the person calling his name. When he saw his sister, his face flashed from confusion, to surprise, to complete happiness.

"Lily!" He all be screamed back as he raced to meet his sister. When he reached her, he enveloped her in his arms, hugging her tightly and lifting her off the ground slightly.

The two siblings held each other for a long time. Lily finally pulled away when she remembered Kate and Logan.

"You should call Kate over before she falls into the pond," Lily pointed out. Cory almost smacked himself in the face when he realized he had forgotten all about his youngest sister.

"Kate! Come over here!" Cory shouted. Kate looked up and ran over to where her brother was standing.

"Hey Kate," Lily greeted softly.

"Kate, do you remember Lily?" Cory asked.

"Yeah," Kate replied happily, before hugging her sister.

"And who is this?" Cory gestured towards Logan.

"Logan Howlett," Logan replied.

"Howlett? As in Logan Howlett, the Wolverine?" Cory looked surprised. "You've been hanging out with a superhero ever since your tenth birthday?"

"Come back to the tower and I'll explain everything." Lily replied, not wanting to discuss it in public.

"Tower?" Cory mumbled confusedly to himself as he grabbed Kate's hand and followed Lily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Lily had brought Cory and Kate back to the Avengers tower. After the initial shock, Lily sat down and started explaining. The others jumped in when they had something to add to the story.

In a few hours, Lily finished, Kate having wandered away a while ago to find something to do. Cory sat with a dumbstruck expression on his face for about a solid minute.

"Woah," he mumbled. Lily smirked sadly. "I guess you've had a pretty good time, huh?"

"I would have given it all up immediately just to have you all back." The twelve year old hugged her older brother again. "What about you? What have you and Kate been doing?"

"The paramedics found us. We were in the hospital for a long time." Cory's face suddenly took on a rather sad face. "We were the only one's to survive."

Lily solemnly nodded her head. "But you guys are here now, and that's all that matters." Cory nodded his head in agreement.

Lily opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Blackberry meowing. 

"Blackberry? Come here girl!" She called in the direction of the meow.

She turned around just in time to see Blackberry's head poke through the wall.

"Um..." She dragged out. "I don't think cats are supposed to do that."

Everyone laughed. Blackberry jumped up onto the couch Lily was sitting on and plopped herself on Lily's lap, demanding attention and head scratches.

As Lily fulfilled her cat's wishes, she found herself thinking,

I could get used to this.