Hero Recovered

Prologue


I sat in the plastic chair, my elbows on my knees as I bent over; my left leg was bouncing.

"Scarlett?" I heard a voice call. "It's your turn."

I sighed as I slapped my hands on my knees and stood up. I walked up to the podium and placed my hands on the edges as I looked out at the group. It was a small group tonight, which was good; seeing how this was the third time I'd tried talking to them.

"My name is Scarlett," I began before stopping and licking my bottom lip, "and I'm an alcoholic. Ands it's been three weeks since the last time I had a drink."

I closed my eyes as I admitted it out loud. I had tried to take care of this by myself, but two weeks after New York Happy pulled my drunk ass from the beach. I had officially reached rocked bottom, so I did the thing that was the hardest thing I've ever done. Admitting that I didn't know how to get better, how to move on, that I needed help.

"I drink to make me numb, to everything," I confessed opening my eyes and staring at the group. "But I realized that I can't go through life numb, I have to feel things, even the bad stuff." I stopped not knowing what else to say so I took a step back and made my way to my chair, my eyes on the floor trying to make myself invisible.

"That's a very good start Scarlett" the leader of our AA group said. I nodded my head as I glanced at the clock, it was seven, it had been almost four days since I've checked my blood to see if the cancer had come back. I squeezed my hands so hard I left nail marks in my palms. Calm down, I told myself, the cancer is gone.

"Is it?" I heard Loki's voice in my ear.

I jumped and flinched causing the plastic chair to screech against the floor, in turn causing the group to turn around and look at me. "Sorry," I whispered as I stood and rushed out of the room. I made it down the hallway before breaking into the small lobby of the building and resting my head against the wall. An urge to start drinking ran through me. Ever since he left, I couldn't help but wait for the other shoe to drop, for Loki to come back and do whatever he wanted with me.

"Hey," Steve's voice broke me out of my thoughts. "The meeting get out early?"

I opened my eyes and smiled at Steve sitting in the sunken couch in the lobby. "No, I… I needed to leave"

"Did you talk tonight?" he asked as he stood up and made his way over to me.

"I did," I said. "Well, like three sentences, but still."

A smile graced Steve's face as the two of us walked out of the building. "That's progress," he said.

I nodded my head, "It is," I said.

"Food?" Steve asked as I slipped behind him on the motorcycle.

"I could go for a hot dog right about now," I admitted.

"Coneys it is," Steve said as he took off to find a hot dog stand.

We ordered our dogs and walked over to a bench and started to eat.

"Are you still leaving tomorrow?" Steve asked.

I nodded my head and then swallowed my food. "Yeah, tomorrow morning to Malibu."

"Do you think it's smart to go back?" Steve asked.

"No," I admitted, "but I miss my family, 'sides it will only be for a visit."

We finished our food and Steve drove me back to my tiny apartment in silence.

I hopped off and looked at Steve. "Thanks for the ride," I whispered.

"Be safe," Steve said as he gripped my arm. "Worry about yourself."

I nodded and went into my apartment.


While it was true that I was leaving, I lied to Steve about going to Malibu. I arrived at Clint's farmhouse early in the afternoon.

Clint opened the door for me and he looked just about as shitty as I did.

"Hey Tweety," he said as he gave me a hug. I buried my face into his chest as I blinked the tears out of my eyes. "Hey, hey," Clint said. "What's wrong?"

I wiped my eyes with the palm of my heel. "I'm trending," I quaked as I shoved my phone into Clint's hands.

Clint eyed me as I walked into the house and sat at the table with my bags.

"Shit," I heard Clint whisper as he walked in and sat across from me. The phone sat between us with the giant headline that read 'Scarlett Stark goes to AA'.

"There was a fucking a reporter at the meeting," I snapped. "And they have my entire session on fucking tape because my goddamn AA leader took a pay out."

"Do I need to punch him?" Clint asked.

I sighed. "No, you need to keep the alcohol away from me," I said. "And let me crash in your guest room because I've officially become a hermit from society."

Clint chuckled and motioned to the room. "It's is all yours," he said. "Laura and the kids are at the grocery store."

"Thanks Big Bird," I said as I grabbed my bags. "I will babysit the kids anytime you need."


I shot up in bed gasping as I swallowed my screams. I tried really hard not to wake everyone up as slipped on a pair of socks and made my way to the porch. These past couple of days out here had been peaceful. Clint was struggling with his own demons so I tried to keep my own issues at bay.

I sat on the porch chair and stared out at the farm. I missed the beach, especially the view from my family home, but those halls were just filled with too many memories that I want nothing more to forget.

"Out here again?" I heard Clint's voice, still laced with sleep.

"Yeah, I couldn't fall back asleep," I said as I brought my feet up on the chair.

"Nightmares?" Clint asked.

I nodded my head, avoiding looking at him. "I stopped drinking, but it didn't make the nightmares stop."

"What made you stop?" Clint asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you did, but why?"

"We sent Thor and Lo- him back, and at first it was fine; we were together as a family and working on cleaning New York back up and then there was the whole government issue about the Avengers that I took care of, but once it was all done there was nothing for me to do. Which means that there was more time for me to think about everything that's happened. Dad moved us back to Malibu to get away." I paused, going deeper into my thoughts. "And thinking leads to feeling and I can't handle all of those feelings, so I drink. And drink, and then I would go down to the beach and just stare out at the water with my feet in the sand. But one night I was too close to the shore line and I kept drinking and passed out. Happy found me before I drowned but that was my wake up call."

Clint put his hand on my knee but didn't look over at me with the pity I knew was in his eyes.

"So I went to D.C., started looking for something, anything, that would keep me busy and away from my thoughts. Steve had contacted me and told me he moved down there and we started hanging out," I finished. "Found an AA group and started going, built up the courage to actually talk and found myself as the most talked about topic for the week."

Clint sighed. "Tweety," he said.

"Please don't," I whispered. "I'm here to escape and get better."

"I don't see your dad being okay with you just leaving like that," Clint said.

"Oh, he wasn't," I said laughing. "But he is running into his own problems post New York. 'Sides," I said as I slipped off my ring and handed it to him. Clint looked at it and saw the inside of the ring. It had a small screen and there was a heartbeat and pulse readings displayed. "It's my dad's," I said as I slipped the ring back on. "He's got my readings, too. It's our own freaky way of making sure that we aren't dead."

Clint chuckled. "Whatever gets the two of you out of the door," he said as he slapped his thighs, and stood up. "Come on," he said holding his hand out for me.

I raised an eyebrow at his outstretched hand. "I can't go back to sleep," I said.

"No, we are both awake, time to start the day." Clint replied as he grabbed my hand and hauled me off of the chair. "Let's go for a run."

"What?" I cried as Clint walked into the house.


One Month Later

I crawled up the steps into the Barton's house and managed to make it to their dining table before sprawling across the bench. I had been running every morning for the past month. Every morning when I wake up with fear clenched in my throat I would stumble out of bed and throw on some tennis shoes. There was a running track and I would start to run until I physically couldn't anymore.

I closed my eyes and threw my arm over them as I took slow steady breaths to regain my breath.

I was strapped to a chair, my mouth covered as pain raced through me. I screamed and cried and I looked over and saw Obi standing there. Obi, my father's oldest friend. My grandfather's friend. He was the one behind everything. He squatted in front of me and grinned as he pressed the button once again, my body thrashed and I screamed out in pain again.

I shot up with a scream and looked around, I had fallen back asleep in the kitchen. I looked around and saw Laura in the kitchen, she was making breakfast but I could tell she was trying to ignore my screams. "Sorry," I whispered as I moved off of the bench.

"Don't be," she said as she slid me a plate of waffles. "Sit and eat. It's not good to run and then not put food into your body."

I nodded and sat back down and slowly picked at the waffles.


Three months later

I smiled down at Cooper who was standing next to me bouncing on his toes. I couldn't blame him I was just as excited as he was, because between the two of us we had finally wore Clint down.

He was going to teach us how to shoot his bow.

Which was a complete failure, I may be a genius but that doesn't give me the ability to pick up anything with a snap of my fingers, unfortunately.

Even Cooper did better than I did, which Clint took a big kick out of. "It's in the genes kid," he said as we headed back to the house.


It was time, time for me to go home. Time for me to go back to reality and face people. I hadn't had a nightmare in a few weeks and was feeling better than I had in years. It was tough but I think being around Clint, Laura, and the kids was a major turning point.

Clint and the family had gone on their vacation, Natasha met up with them there and I received a dozen pictures of their adventure.

I packed up my stuff and left Clint and Laura a thank you note, though that could never be enough for what they did for me, and left the solitude of the farm; ready to face the world again.