Chapter 7: Getting back on the Horse
AN: Enjoy the next chapter! Sorry for the late update, busy schedule!
Natasha helped Alex make her way to the living room; the backdoor was in there. She came around the corner; everyone was either watching the TV or sitting staring at the floor. Skye who was on the couch looked up; seeing Alex in the doorway, her eyes grow big as she leaps off the couch toward Alex. Alex gives a smile before Skye swept her into a gentle hug. Alex used her spare hand to gently hug Skye back. Coulson and Steve look up also; smiling. Alex smiles back before letting go of Skye; who lets go as well still a big smile on her face.
"I can't believe you're up already." Skye says. Alex nods.
"Yeah well, it can get pretty boring sitting around…" Alex says with a smirk.
"So what you gonna do now?" Skye asks her. Alex nods toward the door.
"Goin' to see Storm, thank you for that." Alex says; Skye smiles.
"Don't mention it." Skye waves a hand. Alex gives a nod before heading toward the door; Natasha helping her. Natasha pushes the door open; cool spring air rushes toward Alex as she steps onto the grass. The sun was still close to the ground and the morning dew was still there. Alex took a deep breath; smelling the flowers and cut grass.
Alex sees the barn ahead. It was dark oak wood and had white finish on the stall windows. They soon arrive at the stall Storm was in. Alex walks a little faster; opening the stall door with her spare hand; Storm's jet black face appears in the stall. Alex gives a huge smile; Natasha let's go of her arm; allowing her to fall against Storm; giving him a huge hug. Storm nickers; Natasha walks into the stall after Alex.
"So what did this horse of yours have to do with all this?" Natasha asks. Alex turns to her; her hand supported on Storm's neck.
"Well the reason I came here was to see him and feed him; but then I realized that that wasn't the only reason I came." Natasha nods understanding. "I wanted to find out why these people were trying to kill me. The only reason I'm alive right now is because of him." Alex pats Storm's back. Natasha nods, she walks over; lightly petting Storms neck.
"So how did it play out?" She asks. Alex sighs remembering.
"I was riding him in the field; we came to the forest edge; people started appearing in the forest, all armed. We rode back to the others, and once we figured out a plane, I rode out with my bow and-"Natasha cut her off.
"Wait did you say you rode back out? With your bow?" Natasha looked a little shocked. Alex nodded.
"I was going to wait to tell you but I guess you would find out at some point." Natasha nods.
"So do you like have your horse stand still and shoot? Or what?" Natasha asks. Alex shakes her head.
"No, I ride my horse bareback at any pace and shoot." Alex answers. Natasha looks at her; her eyes growing big.
"What?! Do you know how dangerous that is? If he tripped and you got yourself with an arrow-"
"See?! This is why is why I wasn't going to tell you! Cause you would get all protective…" Alex says. Natasha throws her hands in the air; then her face softens.
"Let's not fight about this. We'll discuss it later." Natasha says. Alex nods before giving Storm one more pat then hobbles over to her. Natasha helps her back to the house.
AVENGERS
Alex sat with Skye on the couch watching the movie 2012. Steve walks in the room; eating something on a plate.
"What's this?" he asks. Alex looks up.
"'2012" Steve nods; sitting in a chair.
"What's it about?" He asks. Alex looks back at the TV.
"The end of the world." Steve stops chewing for a moment, and then nods.
"I will never understand why people insist on making movies like this, do people enjoy watching the world end?" Skye chuckles. Alex continues watching, she looks back over at Steve.
"Is that dinner?" Alex asks. Steve nods.
"Steak and potatoes." He answers. Alex nods, getting off the couch slowly she hobbles into the kitchen. Natasha was making a plate while Clint was sitting at the table. Tony and Coulson were standing and eating by the counter. Alex walks up behind Natasha, she turns jumping seeing it was Alex.
"I didn't think you would be walking around yet!" She said. Alex smiles. Natasha gives her a hug. "You hungry?" Alex nods. Natasha hands her the plate she was making.
"Did Agent Woods make this?" She asks. Natasha nods.
"She thought a good hot dinner would be what we needed." Alex walks the counter then returns to the couch. Clint walks in with his plate standing next to the couch.
"Agent Woods thinks based on your condition you should be able to leave in about a day or so." Alex looks up at him.
"Really?!" Alex says with excitement. Clint nods smiling. Skye gives her a pat on the back. Alex does a fist pump. But puts it down slowly; feeling pain. Then Clint walks back to the table.
AVENGERS
Two days later…
Alex was now able to walk normally and her wound was almost healed. They all walked toward the two quinjets in Agent Woods yard. Alex was walking with her bow in hand when she turns; she blows into the whistle in her pocket then looks to the skies. A minute later, Jace comes out of the trees; then lands on her arm. Her bow in her left hand; she walks toward the quinjet. Clint and Natasha walk up to Agent Woods, Natasha gives her a hug and Clint gives her a nod.
"Thank you." Natasha said. Agent Woods nods.
"It was the least I could do. After all, she has a name to live up to." She looks at Clint, then Natasha, they both smile then say their goodbyes then walk toward the quinjet. Coulson walks up to her.
"We could still use you on the team you know." Coulson says. Agent Woods nods smiling.
"I'll think about it. If you ever need me, you know where to find me." She says to him. Coulson nods; shaking her hand then going to the quinjet. Alex walks to the ramp and Clint walks up next to her.
"Speaking of training how is it so far?" Clint says hesitantly. Alex hesitates a well, and then smiles.
"Good, can't wait to get back to it." Clint nods, and then continues.
"Like your trainer? There was no one else around." Clint says.
"Yeah, he's pretty good for someone with no experience." Alex says with a smirk.
"I heard that," Steve walks past them onto the quinjet. Alex chuckles then turns back to Clint.
"Well we better get going." He says. Alex nods following her dad onto one of the quinjets. Once everyone was on, they took off toward the Helicarrier.
AVENGERS
It had been a couple hours sense Alex's return to the Helicarrier. She was just about fully healed from the incident. She was on her way to the bridge to receive some papers on her first incident at her old house. Alex walked down the halls passing some rooms, Alex rounds the corner; looking into a window the lab she sees Dr. Banner. She decides to introduce herself. Alex walks into the room and up to the counter where he was standing. He looks up; then her furrows his eyebrows.
"I'm sorry do I know you?" He asks. Alex shakes her head.
"No, but I'm Natasha and Clint's daughter Alex." She puts out a hand and he shakes it.
"Weren't you shot like two days ago?" He asks hesitantly. Alex nods. "Aren't you suffering any pain or anything?" He asks. Alex nods.
"Well it's a long story, and really hard to explain, I'm actually on my way to see what I can find out now." Banner nods.
"Well it was nice meeting you; I'll ask Fury about this, it's quite odd how you're up and about already." He says. Alex grins; nodding before walking out the door toward the bridge.
Alex arrives on the bridge. Coulson was at a computer pulling up files. Alex walks up behind him and looks at the screen.
"What's all this?" Alex asks. Coulson looks over seeing Alex standing there, and then looks back at the screen.
"This is all of Agent Woods' info on you. It includes what could have caused your healing and anything else we might not know about yet. Here's a list of things that could have caused it." Coulson pulls up a document. Alex skims through it. It included all sorts of medicines and other healing products, and then two catch her eye.
"What are those?" Alex asks. Coulson looks where she's looking.
"Those are the things that above all are the most obvious but not likely. The super soldier serum and Gamma exposure. In order for either of those to count, you would need someone that can trace back to army or scientific backgrounds. Not to mention access to high leveled and classified files." Alex nods.
"Well let's not hope it's either of those." Coulson nods in agreement. Alex continues looking at the list. "So how are we going to narrow this down?" Coulson keeps his eyes on the screen.
"We dig, we also have some scientists that will look at you and see what they can find. We're going to ask Dr. Banner about it to." Alex nods. Well I guess that answers my question. Alex then walks over to where Natasha was, she was sitting at the center table, looking over something. Alex clears her throat and she looks up.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" She asks Alex shrugs.
'Fine I guess, I was thinking could we do a little training?" Alex says innocently. Natasha sighs then gets up from the table; the hologram on the table disappears.
"I guess sense you are feeling better we could do a little." Alex smiles. "Follow me." Natasha says, walking toward the door. Alex nods then follows her mom to the gym.
AVENGERS
Natasha was in the gym teaching Alex some fighting moves, and she was learning fast. Natasha dodged Alex's punch, sending a kick toward Alex's face, but she dodges as well, and then slips between Natasha's legs. She looks down in confusion. Alex then comes up behind her and before she can react, Natasha rolls to the left then kicks out her foot, knocking Alex on the ground. She huffs sitting on the ground staring up at her mother.
"Dang, how long have you been able to do this?" Alex asks. Natasha puts out a hand and Alex grabs it pulling herself up.
"Sense I started learning." She said with an amused tone. Alex nods, then puts her hands on her knees; breathing hard. They walk over to the bench and sit down. Alex takes a long drink while Natasha pulls out a knife from her boot. Alex looks at it. It had a black handle and the smooth rim curved out; coming to a deadly tip at the end.
"Nice." Alex comments. Natasha smiles.
"It was you fathers a while before the battle of New York." Natasha then puts it in her hand and leans it toward Alex. "And I think it's time you had one of your own." Alex's eyes widen a bit, she steadily puts out her hand taking the knife.
"You're kidding right? You give stuff to me way too often." Alex says guilty. Natasha gives her a shrug.
"Just making up the years we missed." Alex nods, then puts the knife in the holder; attaching it to her thigh. Then she gives her mom a hug. Then Natasha pulls out of the hug.
"I have some news on school related business." She says, Alex gives her a disgusted and confused look, then smiles. Natasha pulls out a case from her duffel bag. Alex gives it a confused look before turning her gaze on her mom. She opened it; Alex's eyes immediately turned to a document with her picture and name on it. Alex skimmed the information. It had info from the time she first was introduced to SHIELD to the time she returned just a couple hours ago. She took the case from her hands then pulled out what looked like a pad with a black rim with dark glass; Alex turned it on and went to her files. She started typing in something Natasha couldn't read. "What are you doing?" Alex keeps her eyes on the screen.
"I'm trying to find out the background information on my kidnapping." Alex sees a box saying to you wish to proceed to files? Alex clicked continue but before it got pasted the load, big, bold red letters popped up. It said ACCESS DENIED. Alex frowned then started typing in a password block.
"What are you doing now?" Natasha asks her. Alex gives a small smile.
'Hacking the network." She said casually. Natasha nods, then stops turning to her with shocked and confused eyes.
"Excuse me? You know I'm sitting right her right? You can't hack into SH-"
"Done." Alex says. She opens up the file then begins to skim through it. Her eyes widen and her finger slowly falls away from the screen. Natasha looks at her.
"What? What's wrong?" Then Alex throws the pad aside, and then gets up; running out the door and down the hall. Natasha yells her name but it falls on deaf ears as Alex speeds toward the bridge.
Alex storms out onto the bridge and walks up to Fury.
"Want to explain about my kidnapping?" She asks in an angry voice. Fury turns to her; a confused look on her face.
"Would you like to elaborate on what exactly you talking about Barton?" He says in a calm voice. Alex keeps her gaze on him.
"I saw those files; you knew those people experimented on me! Why didn't you tell me!?" She raised her voice. Fury's eyes widen for a spit second.
"How did you get access to those files?" He asks her. Alex ignores the question.
"You knew all this time that there was something in me; something not normal! When were you planning to tell me! Or my parents?! "She asks. Fury holds up his hands, and then sighs.
"We didn't want to expose unstable information. We found out about the experiments but didn't know what they were using. We didn't want to give you or your parents any ideas, only to tell them we were at a dead end." He explains. Alex gives him a cold glare before turning, seeing Steve walking up to them. She slows down.
"Everything ok here?" He asks, looking at Fury them Alex. She looks back at Fury with a death glare.
"Everything is fine." She says, and then she walks off toward her dorm.