Back in the privacy of his TV room Tony sat back his chair and put on his most casual expression as he watched the video JARVIS was streaming for them. He ignored the others around him and focused all his attention on the little genius on the screen. JARVIS gave them both views; one that showed the agents and one that showed Spencer. It was subtle, but he could see the signs of discomfort on the kid and it made him want to be out there even more.

It was torture to sit in here and not be out there with him. Oh, sure, he understood the reasons why and he didn't blame him. If he were out there, there was no way Tony would be able to hold his tongue. Especially not as they grilled the kid for every single detail.

Off to the side he heard Remy cursing under his breath. They'd gathered quite a crowd in here. Tony, Natasha, Derek, Remy, Logan, and Bruce. None of them were enjoying this. The more tense that Spencer became, the more tense the room became. Natasha had her eyes on the screen and was fingering a small blade in her hand that Tony bet she would've happily planted in any one of the asshole-trio.

But it was when they were done making Spencer recount everything and they move on to their questions that the tension really grew.

"When did your powers first manifest?" Agent Noah Farris asked.

A tiny twitch at the corner of Spencer's eye was his only outward show of discomfort at that question. "Twelve."

"Dey better not fuckin' ask him about dat." Remy murmured murderously. He had a deck of cards in his hands and was shuffling it in a way that just bled threat. Any other time and it might've amused Tony just how much threat someone could pack into shuffling cards. At the moment, he was too busy focusing on the implication of Remy's threats. "You know?" He found himself asking.

Without looking away from the screen, Remy nodded. "Oui. An it aint a pleasant story. Rarely is fo' us, cher."

That was another thing to go on the list of questions Tony had for his wayward adopted-nephew.

Luckily for the agent, he didn't ask Spencer about that, saving him from having not just Tony but a few others come racing out there. No, he was pursuing a different line of questioning entirely. "So you're telling us that you've been a mutant since you were twelve years old…"

"No." Spencer said, interrupting him with a cool and calm voice. A scientist presenting his facts. "I've been a mutant since the day I was born. Being a mutant is about more than powers, Agent Farris. It's a part of our very genetics, the same as the color of your eyes or your hair. I am, however, telling you that I've had my powers since I was twelve years old."

Amusement tugged up the corners of Tony's lips. "Good job, kid. Keep him on his toes."

Agent Farris didn't look too pleased by Spencer's interruption. "The fact of the matter remains, if you were unaware of the fact that you were a mutant before that, it's safe to say that you would be aware after your powers manifested."

"Hard not to be." Clint said dryly.

"And yet," Agent Farris continued, deliberately ignoring Clint's remark. "When you applied to the Bureau, you reported no such thing."

Spencer didn't bother denying it. "That's correct."

"Nor did it show up in your medical exam."

In response, Spencer said nothing. That wasn't a direct question and Tony could tell he wasn't going to answer it. Smart kid. Others might not think so, judging by the way that Derek was muttering "Don't antagonize him, Reid" but Tony knew better. Spencer wasn't going to directly admit to something if he didn't have to. Nor was he going to open his mouth and inadvertently let them steer him into giving more information than he wanted. They were going to get only what Spencer wanted them to get.

"Do you understand the seriousness of these allegations, Dr. Reid?" Agent Farris asked him. He folded his hands in his lap and fixed Spencer with a stern stare. "You've committed fraud against the United States government. By deliberately omitting your status as a mutant from the government and somehow managing to deceive our medical staff, you've committed fraud."

"Does it still count as fraud when a person is protecting themselves from discrimination or risk of physical harm?" Steve interjected. He was standing at Spencer's side in his full 'Captain America' mode even without the suit. There was that stern disapproval in his gaze that had cracked plenty of people before. Usually, though he didn't like to admit it, even Tony squirmed under that look. These agents only seemed slightly bothered by it.

"It does." Agent Jung said. He didn't look pleased to have to argue with Captain America, which made Tony shake his head, but he held his ground. "It's still fraud, sir. No matter the intentions."

Spencer held up a hand to stop Steve. Their comments didn't seem to be getting to him at all. His feathers weren't even ruffling. So either he was hiding it really well, or he just wasn't as worried as everyone else. Tony had a feeling it was probably a mix of the two. His voice was certainly calm when he spoke again. "It's a matter you'll have to discuss with my lawyer, I'm afraid. She wasn't able to be present for this meeting, but she advised me to maintain my silence on this subject until she's able to be present with me during such questioning."

That had the others stiffening and Agent Owen scowling. Behind them, Aaron Hotchner looked like he was fighting back a proud smile.

Obviously trying to scramble to get back on task here, Agent Farris pulled up a new question, one that Tony hadn't expected. "Is it true you have contact with the terrorists known as the X-Men?"

"Ah, merde." Remy swore softly. At the same time, Spencer arched one of his eyebrows at the men. "They rescued me from the bomb site and, when it became apparent that no assistance was going to be offered, they also provided protection for all victims at the hospital." Left clear was the implication that the Bureau hadn't offered that protection. When he was sure that dig had sunk in, Spencer continued. "If you're asking if I've spoken with them during that time, the answer is yes. But if you're asking if I've had contact with them before this in some attempt to accuse me of delivering government secrets to an alleged terrorist group, the answer would be no. Even if I had spoken with them prior to these events, which I have not, I swore an oath to protect my country's secrets."

The way that Spencer's wings gave a small flutter behind him showed that the kid wasn't as controlled as he thought. Tony fought back the urge to march his way out there as he watched Spencer lean forward as best as his wings would let him. He rested his arms on his thighs and lightly clasped his hands together. His eyes, however, were sharp and they were locked right on Agent Farris. "Let's stop playing games here for a moment, Agent Farris. You and I both know that you're not going to press charges against me for fraud, no matter how you bandy that word about."

"Reid," Aaron said warningly.

A hand gesture from Spencer silenced him. The genius never broke his gaze away from Agent Farris. He was done taking their shit, Tony could see. For the most part Spencer was a rather easy going guy and he took a lot of shit from people. Way more than he should. But everyone had a point where enough was enough and Spencer had reached his.

"You know it's true, Agent Farris, and so do I. The publicity this would cause, especially on the heels of an anti-mutant bombing, would be horrendous. The Bureau can't afford that kind of negative publicity. They won't risk drawing this out into a long, very public battle – and I assure you, I will make sure my trial is very public. I'm not someone you can simply sweep under the rug or bulldoze over. Look around you and think for a moment about who exactly I have in my corner."

This time Tony's grin was sharp and proud. He lifted his drink towards the screen in a toast. "You tell him, kitten."

Tilting his head, Spencer smiled. A small one, but a smile. "I promise you, if you want to make a spectacle of me, I will absolutely oblige you. But you won't. Because that's not something the Bureau wants to do. Especially not when there are more important things to be taken care of."

There was a long moment of quiet. Agent Farris silenced both agents with him, making sure they said nothing, while he continued his stare-down with Spencer. Then he reached forward and deliberately shut off the recording. "What do you want?"

"I want to make a deal." Spencer said. The whole TV room sat up at that, as did the people in the room with Spencer. He ignored the ones with him and watched Agent Farris closely. "In exchange for you dropping these ridiculous charges you're compiling against me, I will willingly step down from my position at the BAU and I'll agree to refrain from going to the press and exposing just how many ways the Bureau has failed since the bombing started. The blatant lack of assistance in relief efforts, the lack of protection detail that any other civilian would have offered, and the fact that not a thing has been done in an attempt to find the ones that did this. Any assistance from the Bureau has been indirect and provided off hours by some of its staff. Tell me, how would the general public react if I held a press conference and told them that the Bureau had abandoned one of its own simply because they were a mutant? How would they react if they knew that the Avengers and the X-Men had to step in because the government had offered nothing in the way of help or protection?"

It was a bold, daring move. Tony was crowing inside at the smarts this kid was showing. He had them backed into a corner and the looks on their faces said that they knew it. What little came next were only formalities. Spencer was going to win this. It just broke Tony's heart a little that he'd had to lose his job at the same time. He'd caught that, even if the others didn't seem to be focusing on it.

Natasha was wearing a sharp grin as she watched Spencer. "He's got them."

"That's a hell of a set of balls that kid's got." Logan said admiringly.

Over in his seat, Remy had leaned back a little and was fanning his face. "Is anyone else turned on right now?" At the groans around him, he flashed them all a grin. "Non? Just me, den?"

A look over showed that maybe Tony wasn't the only one who had caught on to all of Spencer's words. Derek looked pale and his mouth was pressed into a hard, unhappy line. Tony sighed and took pity on the kid's friend. "You knew it was going to come down to this." Tony told him, not unkindly. "I know Spencer's big brain figured it out a while ago. There was no way he was going to be able to keep his job after this."

"He's too public a figure now." Bruce said, looking subdued and sad. He leaned a bit towards Tony, who reached out to touch him just to relax them both. Drawing strength from that touch, Bruce continued on. "There'd be too much discrimination for him to deal with. If he showed up on a case, there's no telling what kind of crowd it would draw, or how the locals would react. Public opinion about mutants still isn't that great."

"It's not fair, but it's how it is." Tony said bluntly.

During their conversation everyone had gotten a bit distracted from what was happening on the screen. At least until Remy pointed out "Dey're leaving" and everyone spun to look at the screen once more to confirm it. Tony could see Aaron escorting the men to the elevator, thank God, but he saw something else that had him worried all over again. Spencer was on his feet, facing towards the windows, and Steve was marching up behind him with a look on his face that made it clear just how unhappy he was. All of them could hear it clearly as Steve demanded "What do you think you're doing, Spencer?" He gestured behind him with one hand to the elevator doors that had just closed. "You just gave them everything they wanted!"

Oh, shit. Tony shoved up off his seat and, ignoring everyone else, rushed out towards the living room. He should've thought of this. Politics wasn't Steve's game. He was a soldier and a brilliant tactician out on the field or in battle. When it came to the press and politics and things like that? The man was a mess. He had no idea how to handle any of that. It was why Tony took care of the press for the Avengers as well as anything else like that. Steve just… he did what he knew was right. To him, what Spencer had just done wouldn't seem right. The man would only see that Spencer hadn't fought for himself. That would strike him wrong no matter who was doing it; the fact that it was Spencer would only make it all worse.

When Tony reached the living room, the others on his heels, no one had really moved. Aaron was standing nearby looking unsure of himself and Clint was leaning forward on the couch as if ready to launch up after Spencer and Steve if he had to. Spencer still stood staring out the windows, his wings held in tight against his back in a way that made it clear how agitated he was. Steve, the idiot, didn't seem to be reading it quite right. He either wasn't sure how to read those wings yet and how much they gave away, or he was just too caught up in everything else to pay much attention.

"You could've fought this, Spencer." Steve was telling him. "They have no case against you here. With the right lawyer, you could fight this."

Spencer didn't bother even moving. "Why?"

"Why? Because it's the right thing to do! They have no right to take your job from you!"

Without hesitation Tony strode right into the middle of things. He was far too used to being the center of attention, be it good attention or bad. "All right now, everyone, let's just calm down."

Of course, that wasn't what happened. Steve spun towards him and shot him a glare. "Did you see what he did?"

"Of course I did." Tony said easily.

"And you're okay with that?"

With feigned nonchalance, Tony shrugged one shoulder. "It's the smart choice." Even as he spoke, he kept one eye turned towards Spencer, monitoring the kid carefully. There was a tension in Spencer that Tony had seen plenty of times before. Wings or no wings, this was still the same kid that he'd gotten to know, and his tells were all the same. Spencer was on the edge here and was close to running. It was what he did when things got too bad. Even if it was just to the other room, he tended to run when things got emotionally too much for him. Emotions were never easy for him. The bigger and stronger they were, the harder they were for him to handle. He hated raised voices and he hated anger of any form being directed at him. That was one of the things that Tony had always found so strange about him being a profiler. Working at the FBI put him right in the middle of the kinds of situations that Spencer hated.

Temper flashed on Steve's face and he opened his mouth to argue, only Tony beat him there."

"You're not thinking clearly here, Rogers." The engineer said firmly. He shifted his weight a little and put himself just a bit more between Steve and Spencer. Not blocking them completely from one another, but granting Spencer the ability to make a quick exit behind Tony and to the hall if he needed to. At the same time he made sure that Steve's focus stayed on him. "Spencer did the only thing he could do. I mean, yeah, sure, he could fight this if he wanted. He'd win, too, with Jen as his lawyer. But at what cost?"

Remy stepped forward and put himself at Tony's side in a move that surprised the older man. There was no fear on the Cajun's face as he stood up to Steve Rogers and calmly explained to him "De whole world knows he's a mutant now, mec. Oui, he could win a case against de Bureau here an keep his job, mais every case he went on would be another battle. He'd have to fight anyone dat had a prejudice against him. Can y' imagine doing dat kind of job with everyone ready to hate on y' de minute dey saw y'?"

"Not only that, but how many people are really going to call in the FBI if they think they're going to get a team with a mutant on it?" Tony asked bluntly. He hated to say it; hated the way that Spencer flinched under his words. They needed to be said, though. It was the only way to make Steve understand. "He'd be spending so much time fighting off the locals, the press, or any fool in that town with an anti-mutant agenda, he'd never be able to do his job."

From behind them came the soft sound of Spencer's voice. "It was the only choice that could be made here, and it was made on my terms." There was a wealth of sadness there. So much resignation it broke the hearts of everyone listening.

A small shudder ran down Spencer's body and Tony knew—they'd reached his limit. This was too much for him. Just too much. Maybe if they hadn't all been in there, a few of them could've talked Spencer down, calmed him down enough to stay here and talk about this. But too many things had built up on him and there was too much of an audience here for the kid who'd been taught to never let anything show. Even as Spencer's wings tensed, Tony knew what he was going to do. He was going to run.

He just hadn't anticipated how Spencer would go about it. The "I need to get out of here" was expected. Opening up the window and practically throwing himself out of it—not so much.

Tony darted over to the window at the same time as Remy. The others were moving, someone was shouting, but Tony only had eyes for the wings that had snapped out and the body that was now going up instead of down. Spencer gave a flap of his wings that took him up, up, up, right above the buildings and off into the sky. Damn. Those wings gave him a whole new way to run.

Luckily for him, following after him was a snap.

Tony was already turning to head for where he kept his suit stored here. On his way, he shot a sharp look at Steve. "Pull your head out of your ass while we're gone, Rogers. I'll go get him and bring him home, but when I do you better have gotten this out of your system. He doesn't need us calling his choices stupid. He needs us to have his back." With that said, Tony was gone. He'd leave the idiot to the others. Right now, he had a different idiot entirely to chase down.

Spencer didn't think about it when he dove out the window. All he knew was that he had to get as far away from there as possible. But once he was up in the sky, once he could stretch out his wings in a way he hadn't been able to for far too long, he found a peace that he'd been needing ever since this bombing. Since before, really. There was a peace to flying that he hadn't ever been able to find in anything else.

For how long he flew, he had no idea. He circled over DC, went out over the water and let the air blow through his feathers, flying and flying until his wings were aching and his body was trembling from the effort he was putting out. Eventually he had to finally come in and land. He chose the top of the tallest building in sight and set himself down there. When he landed, his legs didn't want to hold him and he was grateful there was no one to see him come crashing down.

Once he was still, he didn't move himself much. He simply shifted himself to the edge of the building and let his legs dangle down, his wings stretched out and trembling behind him.

That was where he was still sitting when Tony joined him.

Hearing the sound of Tony's repulsors hadn't been any sort of surprise for Spencer. He knew the man would follow him. Tony landed not that far behind him on the roof. After a second, he came forward, suit and all, and sat himself down on the ledge at Spencer's side. For a long time the two of them just sat there together. It was kind of nice to just sit with him and know that they were both okay. To know that he wasn't alone.

Eventually, though, that silence had to be broken. There was no way they could sit there all day. It was no surprise that Tony was the one to break it. "You scared everyone with your little dive bomb out the window."

"I don't care." Spencer said flatly.

They both knew it was a lie. They knew he cared. He didn't call him on it, though.

Something about that spurred Spencer to keep speaking. Words that he hadn't even known were inside him came tumbling out and there was nothing Spencer could do to stop them. "I don't care." He repeated, his voice aching. "I don't care how worried everyone else is. I don't care about their feelings right now. I can't! I've been worrying about everyone since the moment I woke up. I'm so tired of having to be the adult here, Tony. I'm tired of always having to be the one to take the hits and just keep getting up afterwards. No matter what happens, it's expected that I get back up, that I be the bigger person. That I don't fight back because it's not a fair fight. That I do fight back so I can stand up for other people. I'm always being told to be the bigger person, to be the adult, and I'm just… I'm so damn tired of it. I don't want to be the adult anymore."

"Then don't be." Reaching out, Tony caught hold of him with one hand and used that hold to drag Spencer in so he was tucked under one arm. It was a rare glimpse into that softer side that Spencer was one of the few to get to see.

Closing his eyes, Spencer rested his cheek against his friend. "I don't know how to be anything else anymore."

"Yeah, well, luckily for you I know a few people who are pretty damn good at scientist wrangling."

That brought a hint of a smile to Spencer's lips. "They'd have to be, living with you."

Tony tugged Spencer in a little more and gave him a small shake. "Brat."

They sat there for a few moments longer and Spencer found himself slumping against Tony's side. Exhaustion was truly settling in and he just, he didn't have the strength to fight it. Letting out everything there to Tony had taken too much of his energy with him. He just...he couldn't right now. He just couldn't. Turning his head, Spencer pressed his cheek against Tony's armor and just let himself lean for a little while.

He wasn't sure when he started to drift off to sleep. Only that Tony was tapping at him suddenly and asking him "Hey, Tweety, come on now. I can't have you falling asleep here. I can't carry you back with those great big wings of yours."

Instead of moving, Spencer reached down inside himself and done what he hadn't been able to yet so far since the whole bombing had happened—he twisted that place inside of himself that drew his wings back in and let his body shift back to its human form. Above him, he heard Tony suck in a surprised breath, followed by a "Well holy shit" and then "We are so studying that later, kitten. But when you're more alert to answer some questions for me. For now, c'mon, let's get your ass home."

Plenty of people would've been surprised if they'd looked up right about then. They would've seen Iron Man holding on to a slender figure like it was the most delicate of packages. With Spencer in his arms, he flew back to his penthouse, bypassing the rest of the team entirely to land on his private dock. He kept the suit on as he made his way to his bedroom where he found Bruce already waiting for him. The man looked up the instant they came in and he started to push up when he caught sight of Spencer in Tony's arm.

Opening the mask, Tony quickly told him "He's okay." Then he came forward and laid Spencer down gently on the bed. To no surprise, he found the kid passed out. "He just exhausted himself, that's all."

Bruce still checked him, feeling his heart and palming at his forehead. "This was hard for him."

Because it was just Bruce here, Tony let out the words that were burning in his throat. His own worries that had been plaguing him as the watched the kid. "He's burning out, Bruice. They're asking too much of him and he's burning out."

"We'll make sure that doesn't happen."

The firmness of Bruce's tone made it sound like it was just something simple and easy. Like he was daring anyone to try and convince him otherwise. Hearing it, Tony reached out and cupped his face, leaning in for a quick and hard kiss. "You're amazing." He said when they pulled apart.

The shy little smirk that curved the other man's lips was pure Bruce. Only he could manage to smirk and still look shy at the same time. "We'll figure this out, Tone. We'll make sure he's okay."

Damn right they would. The rest of the world and its issues was going to have to wait, because there was no way in hell Tony was leaving here yet. He'd planned on coming out here to make sure that Spencer was okay and to see what he might be able to do to help. Now? Now, he was damn well going to make sure that things ended up okay. He wasn't going to sit aside and watch as the kid they'd all adopted kept getting screwed over. There had to be something he could do to help. He just needed to figure out what that something was.