Well, here we are, the final chapter. Ah, but the end is bittersweet. This chapter is actually more like an epilogue and set AFTER the movie. Thank you to all of you for reading and reviewing. Please, enjoy (and keep the reviews coming)!


"Clint," Natasha said, entering their room at Avengers Tower.

"I know," Clint sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. He had royally screwed up – forgetting his wedding anniversary when married to the most deadly person in the world wasn't wise. "I'm working on it." By 'it' he meant finding a babysitter on short notice for their two year old daughter, Emma.

Not deigning to respond, Natasha simply nodded curtly and left to give Emma her afternoon snack. Clint glanced at his alarm clock. He had about 3 hours to find a babysitter. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

He went through the list of sitters in his head. Tony was right out. There was no way he was leaving his little baby girl with someone so irresponsible. Banner was visiting a university and working on something science-y, Clint hadn't bothered to get the details. Steve was going out of town to see Peggy in her retirement home. Thor was on Asgard.

"Pepper?" he asked carefully, coming into her little office space in the Tower.

"Oh, hey, Clint. What's up?" she asked, pausing in her ridiculously fast typing.

"I, uh, forgot that it was our anniversary – "

"Say no more," Pepper interrupted his sorry explanation. She and Natasha had become extremely good friends since marrying Avengers and living together as the only adult females in the Tower. Pepper understood how important Clint was to Natasha, especially how important it was for them to have alone-together time. Natasha had made huge strides since her Red Room days, no one could deny. And motherhood had, to everyone's astonishment, been very good for her. But she needed Clint to herself sometimes. Their wedding anniversary was most definitely one of those times. Pepper also knew that Clint had forgotten about it and was hastily trying to make up for his lapse in memory. So of course Pepper was going to do everything in her power to get the couple some alone time.

"You'll watch Em for us?" Clint asked.

"Absolutely," Pepper replied. "Have you made dinner reservations yet?"

"Yeah, I already called her favorite little Russian restaurant in the city and reserved a table," Clint said, running a hand through his hair in relief. He knew he'd gotten off fairly easily – this time.

"Good. You know, JARVIS can give you a reminder beforehand. Natasha wouldn't even know. Just set a little reminder to be sent to you personally like a week in advance or something. That's what I did for Tony after the third year in a row that he forgot."

"Heh, I already did that. I just… forgot after JARVIS gave me the reminder," Clint said, having the grace to blush.

"Oh. Well then you're on your own, pal. Good luck," Pepper said, turning back to her computer screen. "I'll come to your suite at six thirty."

"Thanks, Pep."

"You owe me."


"Nat, can you get the door?" Clint called from the bathroom. They were preparing to go out to the formal party SHIELD put on every year. The only reason they were going was that it was required, not only because they were Avengers, but also because they were SHIELD's best agents ever.

"Hello?" Natasha answered the door. When she saw the fourteen year old girl that babysat for them, she took her hand off the gun in her thigh sheath.

"Wow, Mrs. Barton, you look amazing," Mandy breathed, taking in the whole of Natasha. The assassin's stunning red hair was twisted elegantly up and back but left pieces to frame her face; her dress was black with a somewhat plunging neckline (she'd worn deeper necklines than this before though) and parts of the back cut out, with a slit in the side from the hem on the floor all the way up to her hip; as usual, her jewelry was tastefully minimal, as was her makeup.

"Why thank you, Mandy. Come on in," Natasha said, stepping away from the door. Mandy walked into the apartment and followed Natasha into Emma's room.

"Hello there, cutie pie," Mandy said, going forward to sit on the floor with the toddler. "I think she's even bigger than when I was here a week ago," Mandy said, craning her neck to look up at Natasha, who was smiling down at her daughter.

"She's growing like a little weed," Clint agreed, appearing in the doorway.

"Don't call my daughter a weed," Natasha winced, smacking her husband lightly. "Nobody likes weeds."

"Not even if she was, like, a cute little dandelion flower weed?" Clint pouted.

"Oh, stop," Natasha said, rolling her eyes. "Alright, our numbers are on the fridge, as well as alternate emergency contact numbers, the doctor's number, and–"

"Nat, she knows the drill by now," Clint said. "Hurry up, we're going to be late." He crouched down and Emma toddled over to him. "Good night, sweet pea," he said to the little girl. "Daddy will be back later, okay? You be good for Mandy." He kissed his wife's cheek on his way out to get his tuxedo jacket from the kitchen.

"Right, well, you know where everything is, and as always, you're welcome to whatever food's lying around, just not the coffee," Natasha said. "And we should be back by one. And she's already had dinner, so don't worry about that."

"Sounds good, Mrs. B," Mandy said, trying to reassure the mother and get her out the door on time. Much as Mandy thought they were a gorgeous couple and enjoyed watching them together, they needed to be away so she could do her job. "Have a good time."

"Alright, I can take a hint," Natasha said, conceding defeat. "We'll be back later. Good night little Emma," she addressed her daughter in Russian. The little girl mumbled some Russian back, making Natasha smile.

"Come on, Nat, Fury will give us never-ending paperwork if we're late again," Clint said from the foyer of their suite.


"Hey, Clint, Natasha, we're back," Steve said, knocking loudly on the Barton suite door. A bleary-eyed Clint opened the door a minute later.

"Oh, you're back," he said, taking in Steve and Bruce and his daughter, who was swinging by her arms between the two men delightedly.

"Daddy!" she squealed, letting go on an upswing and, with Steve and Bruce's help, effectively launching herself at his chest.

"Hey, baby girl, how was the zoo?" Clint asked, awake enough, or with just good enough reflexes, that he caught her. Emma started babbling about lions and gorillas in Russian. "Did you guys want to come in?" he asked, remembering his teammates standing in the hallway.

"No, no, that's alright," Banner said, thinking they probably wanted some family together time.

"Thanks for taking her for a couple of hours," Clint said, not able to stifle a yawn.

"Oh, please, Clint, we were happy to take our little niece to the zoo," Steve said, smiling hugely. He absolutely doted on the little girl, who was the perfect balance between Clint and Natasha. She had Natasha' looks, but more of Clint's personality.

"You still look exhausted, man," Bruce piped up with concern. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, just trying to catch up on sleep," Clint said.

"You've been sleeping this whole time?" Bruce asked, surprised that Clint still looked so knackered. They'd been gone for a good three or four hours. Emma wouldn't let them skip looking at a single animal in the zoo, as well as riding the train all the way around the zoo and going to the petting zoo to pet the goats.

"Hm, yeah," Clint agreed with a sleepy smile.

"You know what? We can take her til dinner time," Steve offered, agreeing with Bruce's assessment. Clint looked like shit. He clearly needed more sleep.

"What? No, you guys have done enough already," Clint tried to say, but was interrupted by a yawn halfway through.

"Uh huh. Give her here. Go get some rest," Steve said, taking Emma back from Clint's arms. She was still telling him about her visit to the zoo, moving on to the topic of elephants and in English.

"Thanks. We owe you," Clint mumbled. "Emma, you want to go play with Uncle Steve and Uncle Bruce?"

"Yes!" she squealed. Clint used all his will power not to wince at the high pitch and volume.

"You better be on your best big girl behavior, okay?"

"Promise, Daddy," she said in Russian. Sometimes it was a struggle to keep up with her because she liked to switch between the two languages randomly.

"Okay. Have fun," Clint said, waving to his daughter as Steve carried her out to the kids' floor. He had thought that Tony dedicating an entire floor of the Tower to the Avengers kids (Tony and Pepper's two, Max, who was six, and Lena, who was two, and Emma), but it was times like these he was grateful for the reprieve from noise. He loved his daughter and niece and nephew, but kids were loud. He padded back to his bedroom and slid into bed beside Natasha.

"Where's Em?" she mumbled.

"Steve and Bruce are entertaining her for another couple of hours," Clint replied, snuggling back into the nest of blankets and pillows he'd made.

"Sounds wonderful," Natasha replied, going back to sleep.

"I certainly thought so," Clint agreed, pulling her in to his chest. He drifted off to sleep, dreaming about Tony inventing a working cone of silence.


"Oh, Nat, we really need to do this more often," Pepper said, relaxing as her masseuse went to work on a particularly tight knot in her muscles.

"I'm glad you introduced me to this wonderful experience," Natasha replied. "I didn't think I would like it, but it feels amazing."

"Why wouldn't someone like a massage?" Pepper asked, horrified by the suggestion.

"I don't like people touching me, especially ones I don't know," Natasha replied offhandedly.

"If it makes you feel any better, Tony's run thorough background checks on everyone at the entire spa." Pepper had to giggle a little at her husband's over-protectiveness.

"How do you think the boys are handling babysitting duty?" The women, exhausted from running Stark Industries, the Avengers team, their families, and SHIELD business, had taken a spa day to get away from the crazy for a little while and pamper themselves. It also gave them a chance to just hang out together, an activity that was fairly restricted by their busy and often conflicting schedules.

"Hm. I think they're fine," Pepper mused. "At least, they better be. Otherwise, they'll be given a long, loud, and unhappy lecture about it."

"Followed by another one by me as well as a thorough butt-kicking," Natasha agreed. She knew Clint was capable, but he'd been under some stress recently from Fury, about what she didn't know (yet), and she was worried about him. But she knew the other Avengers would take care of him.

"Here here," Pepper said, sighing as her muscles were unknotted and untwisted.

"How long did Thor say he was going to be staying, do you know?" Natasha asked.

"Mm, a couple of weeks, I think," Pepper said. "Why?"

"Emma just adores him. I was hoping she would be able to spend time with him," Natasha replied.

"That'll be nice."

They talked about other things, both Avengers related and not, careful not to say anything too revealing, however, because they weren't alone. They went through the spa together and at the end of the day had been rubbed, pampered, and relaxed to a level seldom enjoyed by either of them.

"Tony? Guys?" Pepper called, walking into the main communal floor that everyone spent the most of their together time on.

"Clint?" Natasha added, looking around for her husband.

"Where could they have gone?"

"The kids' floor, I guess." They went down a floor and, sure enough, found their children, husbands, and friends.

"Pepper, thank God you are back," Tony said, hugging Pepper around the middle and burying his face in her shoulder.

"Why, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I need you Pepper. The phone keeps ringing and people expect me to know what's going on. Fix it please?" The phone rang as if to make his point. He gave her puppy dog eyes.

"Honestly, I leave for an afternoon and you can't run things around here?" Pepper teased. She disentangled herself from Tony's arms to answer the phone.

"Hey, Nat," Clint said, coming up behind her and kissing her neck. "How was the spa?"

"Heavenly," Natasha replied, angling her head so he could reach that one spot… "How did you fare here? Everything as we left it?"

"Eh, Tony's about to break down if he has to answer the phone again, Thor is playing with Emma and not understanding a word she says, Steve is playing basketball with Max, and Bruce is trying to video tape Thor and Emma's conversation."

"And what have you been up to?" Natasha asked, homing in on what he wasn't saying.

"Um," Clint said, knowing he was about to be caught. "Supervising Emma."

"What happened."

"What makes you think something happened?" Clint said, stalling. She saw right through him.

"Tell me what happened."

"Fine. Emma and Lena may or may not have gotten into your makeup and closet and played dress up princesses."

Natasha sighed. "Is that all?"

"That I know of," Clint said, waiting for the storm.

"Okay."

"You're not mad?"

"It's just makeup and clothes, and it's all on SHIELD's tab. Easily replaceable."

Clint said nothing, beyond thrilled that he'd gotten off so lightly. Pepper hung up the phone and went to join Max and Steve on the basketball court. They stayed a little while longer before Clint and Natasha gathered up Emma to go up to their floor to get ready for a big, group dinner.

"Oh my God," Natasha said upon seeing her and Clint's room.

"Honey…" Clint said, wincing. The mess was worse than he remembered.

"Clint, go get Emma cleaned up for dinner," Natasha said tightly. "We'll talk about your parental supervision skills later."

"God help me," Clint mumbled as he carried Emma into her room to get her ready for dinner. "I think Daddy's going to be sleeping on the couch tonight, baby girl," he sighed.


"Mom, I don't need a babysitter," Emma huffed. She was twelve years old already. She lived in the Avengers Tower. The Avengers. Hiring a babysitter was completely unnecessary.

"Emma, we're not going to do this again," Natasha said, rubbing her forehead tiredly. She and her daughter had the babysitter argument every other day, it felt like.

"But Mom – "

"No. We aren't leaving you unsupervised in such a high-target location. We've been over this before," Natasha broke in. She was the Mom. That should have been enough for her word to be law, but her daughter had inherited her stubbornly strong will.

"But Mom, all my friends are allowed to stay home alone when their parents go out for the night!" Emma tried a different tack.

"Your friends' parents aren't internationally feared assassins," Clint said, coming in while finishing tying his bow tie to take his wife's side. They were once again required to attend a formal, black-tie affair for something or other and had to get dressed up.

"Daddy, I know all the rules and I promise to stay on our floor and the common floor. Please can I not have a babysitter tonight?"

"I'm sorry, Emma, but I'm gonna have to side with your mother on this one," Clint said firmly. "It's just too risky. It's for your own safety that someone stay with you while we're gone."

"I don't see how having a civilian here will help me if someone came here to kidnap me," Emma muttered sullenly, crossing her arms.

"Sweetheart, I know you hate it, but we're trying to do what's best for you. But, tell you what. If, in the near future, you prove to us that you are responsible enough to be left alone when we have to go out, then we'll revisit the babysitter issue, alright? For now, Mandy is on her way up here and we expect you to do what she says," Clint said. He hated when it was left to him to referee between his wife and daughter. No one was ever happy after that.

"Fine," Emma huffed just as there was a knock on their door. Natasha opened it to reveal Mandy, Emma's babysitter since she was just a baby.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Barton," Mandy said, walking in. She had spent enough time here to feel at ease, compared to the first time she'd come over. That may have been the interrogation in the lobby and being searched for weapons on her person, though. "Hey, Emma, how's it going?"

"I'll be in my room," Emma said in reply, storming off.

"You know the drill, I guess," Clint said, turning to Mandy. "She'll come around after we leave."

"Oh, it's fine, I'm not worried," Mandy assured him. "You look very nice, Mr. Barton."

"Why thank you, Mandy. I did the tie all by myself and everything," Clint said proudly, posing a little, making Mandy laugh.

"Come on you buffoon, we're going to be late. Again," Natasha said, emerging from the bedroom where she had remembered the perfect bracelet to go with her evening gown. "We should be back between 12 and 1," she said to Mandy.

"That's fine. Enjoy your night," Mandy said, waving good bye and shutting the door behind the assassin couple. They called the elevator and stepped into it, making tiny adjustments to their clothes and weapons holsters.

"I wish Phil was here," Clint said unexpectedly in the silence.

"I miss him, too," Natasha said quietly.

"He would love Em," Clint said wistfully.

"He'd be left babysitting her and complaining about deserving a raise," Natasha said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but he'd do it and secretly love every second of it."

"We certainly gave him some hell, didn't we?"

"We were his favorite agents; we could do whatever we wanted," Clint said.

"And we took full advantage," Natasha agreed. She shifted over and put her arms around Clint's middle, pulling him tight to her and resting her head on his shoulder. "I do miss him. I wish he could have been here, with us, and met Em."

"Me too, sweetheart," Clint murmured, putting an arm around Natasha's shoulders. "Me, too."