The SUV driver, a young SHIELD agent by the name of Agent Phillips, greeted them accordingly as Clint sat in the front seat and Anise crawled into the back. The trio exchanged quick introductions before asking any questions.

"So where exactly are we headed?"

"I'm under direct orders to send you to Mr. Stark's beach house in Miami."

Clint looked over at his co-worker in shock. "Why there?"

"SHIELD requested a location with high security features, and it was the only available location at the moment."

Anise smiled and leaned forward, edging her way into the conversation. "So does that mean I get to meet Iron Man?"

Clint frowned, looking over at the backseat passenger. "And why would you be so excited to meet Iron Man? You're already hanging out with the best avenger out of them all!"

She scoffed. "I didn't know I was hanging with Captain America-have you seen him around somewhere? He must be lost."
Agent Phillips laughed while Clint held up a hand in mock defense. "Ooh, that hurts."

She just smiled and leaned back in her seat, content with herself.
"Mr. Stark is currently at Stark Tower, but his assistant should be at the beach house for the weekend."

"You mean Pepper Potts?"

"Yes, Ms. Potts is on a temporary vacation there currently."
Clint nodded and looked back out onto the street they were driving on. As he looked out, he watched as they passed the Illinois state border and a new sign, one saying "welcome to Kentucky" appeared in his line of sight.

With her forehead pressed to the window, Anise vaguely thought back to when she used to travel with her parents as a child. She was never in one place, it seemed, as her parents had a tendency to pack up and leave on the slightest whim. She remembered weekends where she would skip going to birthday parties and spend a weekend with grandma and travel to Worlds of Fun or Washington DC instead. She liked it at first, always having a suitcase packed in case her parents woke her late at night to say they were going on a trip, but as she grew older, she wanted to become more grounded and just stay in Illinois for as long as possible. She hated leaving when she was older because her parents figured she could just stay in a hotel while they had fun and drank at foreign bars while she was left alone with the pay per view television. The last time she had taken a trip before the whole SHIELD mess began was five months or so beforehand, when they went to visit a distant cousin or something.

Now, as she felt the car move at a rapid pace along the high-speed interstate, she longed for the normalcy of staying in one place again that she never usually had. She missed going to school every day. She missed visiting her grandparents on Sundays and sitting at home afterwards to watch a game show of sorts. She wanted all of this to be a long, overly-strung out nightmare that would end soon, just so she could wake up and continue on with what was a somewhat-normal lifestyle.

When she couldn't bring herself to think straight anymore, she started drifting into unconsciousness, away from the chaos that was reality.

When she woke up, Anise immediately realized three things;

One, it was nighttime.

Two, someone had stuck a pillow in between the window and her face,

And three, they were parked outside a McDonald's.

Of course-would she expect anything less from Clint? Slowly, she sat up and looked over to see Agent Phillips was now asleep in the passenger seat, while Clint was munching on some French fries.

"Morning sleepyhead." He muttered, taking a sip of his pop.

"Isn't it nighttime?"

"Yeah, but you've been asleep for almost nine hours. We're in Tennessee as of now, and hopefully we'll get to the beach house by morning."

"You're planning on driving this late at night?" She rubbed her eyes as she spoke.

"I got a nice cat nap in; I should be good for a few hours."

She shrugged, adjusting herself in a comfortable sitting position. "If you say so."

He put the SUV in drive and sped off without another word, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead. While he drove, Anise dug through her duffel bag and found the files she was looking for-her parent's will. Pulling out her phone as a makeshift book light, she started reading through the carefully penned words over and over, just to let it sink in.

Meanwhile, Clint glanced back for a second to see Anise looking through the will in his rear view mirror. She looked up momentarily, then continued scanning the document. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat, which made her look up again.

"So maybe we could head to the beach or do something fun while we're in town-how's that sound?"

She nodded in agreement. "That would be interesting I guess."

"Alright then." He muttered, focusing on the road again. He didn't know whether to bring her parent's death up again, but he didn't want to pretend like everything was all rainbows and sunshine. Deciding to leave her to her own thoughts, he allowed the car to press on in silence.

All in all, the trip to Miami from Illinois took about eighteen hours, including various bathroom breaks and driver switches. Each passenger was equally tired and certainly dying for a good night's rest-except for Anise, who slept for a whopping twelve hours.

The SUV climbed up the rocky pass and drove into the side street that seemed to be Tony Stark's driveway. Standing at the doorway, a woman with orange-blonde hair was smiling with bright pearly whites that matched her blouse. She walked towards them as the car came to a halt and each passenger stepped out.

"Ms. Potts, good to see you."

"Nice to see you too, Clint."

She shook hands with Agent Phillips as well and offered him a coffee break before he left, but he quickly denied and said he had urgent matters to attend to afterwards.

"And you must be Clint's new friend?" She looked behind the man to see Anise grabbing a duffel bag from the backseat.

She seemed to be taken aback from the "friend" comment, figuring she would simply be referred to as his assignment, nothing more. "Ahh yeah, I'm Anise, by the way."

"I'm Pepper Potts, nice to meet you." They briefly shook hands before she moved out of the way and began talking with Clint again, asking them how their trip had gone and such. Anise, taking the hint, took her things inside and left the three alone to chat.

Making sure she was a far enough distance away, Pepper deemed it to be an appropriate opportunity to ask about his new companion. "She seems kind of shaken. Did something happen?"

Clint ran his hands through his short hair. "Her parents…they-"

"I understand." Looking back through the glass door, the two watched as Anise marveled at the various sculptures and expensive furnishings, to her own shock.

"Well, let's head inside, shall we?" She said, leading the way for the archer.