A/N - Alright I know I have more pressing stories to write. But this one is practically finished and I adore it so it is uploaded. It takes place two years after avengers and in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D verse which I place about two years after avengers happened due to Coulson's Tahiti time. Speaking of witch this takes place post bridge so Coulson is not present. :( Hope you all enjoy.
Prologue
Christmas Eve will find me.
Phil Coulson had always been a man of knowledge. A staple of logic in an illogical world of Norse gods, self-experimenting super scientist, and assassins, Because of this he often made statements that one would then say, damn right. "You choose this life or the other one," was one of those statements. It was a statement the Barton family knew all too well. In joining S.H.I.E.L.D the family, of two at the time, traded a future of recitals to recon missions, P.T.A meetings for espionage, and normal family time to a life taken over by insomnia suffering scientist who had way too much time on their hands.
However, five years since joining S.H.I.E.L.D Clint Barton had always gotten one day off to be his daughter. That day was Christmas. At midnight December 24, come hell or high water Clint Barton was finishing arranging presents under a tree waiting for what the early morning hours would bring. He had missed Thanksgivings, Holloweens, Fourth of Julys, and much more but never a Christmas. He shuttered at the realization that he would this year, for at three minutes shy of midnight December 24 his mission went to hell in a hand basket when there handler became compromised and he and Natasha ended up in an abandoned factory building. He had told the idiot that this was Red Room not some little job. He had told him they needed a plan B but Agent Gregg listened to no one. Especially not his two newest assets for which he held little respect, A red tape agent Barton and Romanoff operated on self-created conduct rules and where disliked for it.
Curing the fact Erin would miss her first Christmas in seven years without him Clint kicked an old can across the floor.
"If Gregg somehow comes out of this alive I am shooting an arrow though his eye." He said with a growl and Natasha looked up as she cleaned her gun.
"Not if my bullet hits him first." She smiled, after all Erin was practically half hers anyways. She was the girls self-proclaimed 'Mommy' and despite only getting three Christmas mornings with her rather than Clint's six she knew that two days from now she would miss the bouncing bundle of energy as well. Both however agreed that they did not pity the man who would be telling Erin that her parents would not be home for Christmas this year.