Connor immediately brightened and held up his picture.

"It's Capin Merica!" he enthused. "Beatin' up bad guys!"

Mavin couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Connor looks up to Captain America," she explained to Steve.

"I see," Steve said, smiling. "Looks like he's doing alright there."

"Capin Merica's the best!" Connor said. "He beats all the bad guys!"

Steve chuckled quietly. "I'm sure he does," he said, rather indulgently, before he stood again. "Looks like they'll get the better of him if you don't get back to helping him out there."

"I will!" Connor chirped, going back to coloring. Once he was fully engrossed in his drawing again, Mavin turned to Steve.

"Thank you for playing along," she murmured to him.

"I didn't know you had a son," Steve murmured, looking from her to Connor and back.

Mavin opened her mouth, and then sighed.

"I was going to tell you, at some point," she said. "But, well... I guess I get kind of protective of him, with everything going on."

Steve nodded after a moment. "Understandable," he murmured. "Not exactly a lifestyle you want your son copying."

"I will tell you right now that there is no better hero for my son than Captain America," Mavin said frankly, although she kept her voice down and glanced occasionally at Connor to make sure he was still coloring. "But with everything going on right now about the Accords and how divided everyone is on them... I don't want to take the chance that he gets put in danger because someone targets you, or the people helping you."

Steve nodded. He could understand that reasoning. And he certainly wasn't about to start an argument in front of Connor. Instead he looked at her for a moment and then shook his head again briefly.

"You don't need to explain to me, it's your private life." With that, he nodded to her, pulled his sketchbook in front of him, and went to settle in a corner to doodle for a while.

Mavin just let him go. She wasn't about to start an argument in front of Connor, either. She let her son color until she saw the tell-tale signs of him getting sleepy, right at his usual bedtime.

"Come on, baby," she murmured. "Bedtime for you."

Connor mumbled something unintelligible and didn't protest much as Mavin took him to their room and settled him in to sleep. Once she was sure he would be alright for a bit, she made her way back towards the art room. She didn't know if Steve would still be there, but she still had to clean up Connor's coloring.

Steve had removed himself after they left to go hide in his room for a while and think this all over. As flexible as he was, this would take some getting used to before he'd be able to really accept it.

Several weeks later, Bucky had progressed to the point that the UN had grudgingly allowed him back into the outside world, as long as he kept regularly seeing the Professor to keep clearing the programming out of his mind.

Steve was thrilled with that freedom. So of course he headed back to New York city, because there were things he had been neglecting for a while, and people.

Lucy was in the city for the day with Mavin and Connor, just getting out and about. She didn't normally do cities and crowds and people, but Connor had asked, and Lucy just couldn't say no to her nephew. So out she went.

Mavin was willing to indulge her son for the day, and they were stopping for some ice cream. She sighed once she had him squared away with a little cup of chocolate ice cream and she sat down on the bench with him.

"Are you holding up alright?" she asked Lucy.

"So far," Lucy murmured. She had her own ice cream, and was taking her time enjoying it. "It's a lot, but it's not as bad as last time. I'll have to admit the Professor was right, da--rn it." She grimaced at her almost-slip in front of Connor.

Mavin couldn't help a bit of a snicker at that. She did insist on cleaner language around her son, but she also knew Lucy was definitely making an effort.

"Well, you know you're always welcome to focus on me instead," she said. She grinned a bit. "That cheesy 'my heart is your shelter' from when we were kids still stands."

Lucy snorted quietly. "I know. Thanks." She grinned a bit. "So far I think we're okay."

Then she paused and tipped her head to the side, her gaze settling on middle distance.

"Something the matter?" Mavin asked when she noticed Lucy's gaze unfocus some. She leaned over to wipe Connor's face once he finished his ice cream.

"I'm not sure," Lucy murmured, frowning. "There's something..."

She didn't have to finish her thought. There was a small explosion, and then lots of screaming and running as people panicked. One mutant was flickering in and out, teleporting between places quickly and dropping open canisters that billowed gas out into the air.

Mavin's heart leapt into her throat and she had scooped up Connor before she realized it, putting herself between him and the explosions. The child immediately started crying, and Mavin pulled his shirt up to cover his nose and mouth.

"It's okay, baby," she murmured to him, looking around quickly for somewhere to take shelter. One of the canisters was dropped nearby, and she pulled her jacket off to protect Connor from as much of the gas as she could. "It's okay." She coughed as the gas reached them. It burned as she breathed it in, and the heat seemed to move through her wickedly fast.

Lucy reacted without thinking. She reached out with her power, incapacitating at least two of the rebel mutants with sheer terror, and pinged Charles a little desperately. She, at least, kept calm, and tried to help calm down Mavin and Connor. The gas didn't seem to be affecting her, at least not much that she could tell. Yet. She did bare her teeth a little as one of the mutants keeled over and curled up into a ball several feet away. This was really oddly satisfying.

Mavin could feel the waves of calm from Lucy, and in the back of her mind she was glad that they were keeping Connor from panicking. The wicked pain from the gas was still rolling through her, and she clenched her jaw against it. She managed to get Connor into a corner against a building, putting herself between him and everything else just in time for one of the other mutants to come towards her, one hand seemingly on fire. She bared her teeth at him, snarling wordlessly.

Lucy actually tackled the one trying to grab Mavin and Connor, sending them both rolling away from the two. She got in a good couple kicks while he was down to make sure he stayed down, nearly vibrating with power and energy as she kept the three mutants down. That was more than her fair share, and it looked like the last couple were getting the picture and leaving.

Mavin kept Connor behind her, where he was safe. She was trembling, she could feel it in her limbs, but she wasn't going to move until she knew it was safe again.

Lucky for them, Logan chose that moment to barrel onto the scene, snarling. He caught the last two mutants and put them on the ground, though he restrained himself and didn't draw his claws yet.