DISCLAIMER: I think it is pretty clear that I do not own anything dealing with the Marvel Universe.

AN: I would be ever so grateful if you could review! It helps me with the direction of where the story is going and if I should continue certain things or not. Also, I was thinking of making a separate story, I guess, that would have a bunch of short stories dealing with Lottie and the Avengers when they are not dealing with evil robots. I am also planning another story with a different OC as well as a prequel to this story where it deals with the events of the first Avenger's movie. Enjoy!

"Lottie...something happened with Pepper."

Steve's words played over and over in Lottie's head as she rushed into the hospital. She hadn't asked where Tony had taken Pepper, all Lottie cared about was getting there. The two Avenger's that came to the Barton house had taken the Quinjet, so the ride to the location was cut in half due to the speed and swiftness of the jet. Lottie had been told as she tried to remain calm that the rest of the team was going to meet them at the hospital. That was the only thing that anyone spoke to her to entire ride; not because the people with her didn't want to talk to her, but because Lottie locked herself away in the Quinjet bathroom the entire ride. And now here she was, pushing past people, trying to find Pepper.

"Where is she?" Lottie practically yelled at a nurse that was attempting to slow her down.

"Miss, I'm going to need you to calm down." Lottie froze and looked at the woman, staring her down fiercely.

"Calm down?!" Lottie bitterly spat. "I will calm down when someone tells me where the hell my sister is!"

"Lot," a third voice interjected from behind the nurse. Lottie away from the poor nurse to look at Tony, who was still in the Iron Man suit. The mask was up, showing Tony's face. It was expressionless; totally void of any emotion. While his face was blank, his posture was droopy, as if he would just drop at any moment. Lottie had never seen Tony this way.

"Where is she?" Lottie asked again, going around the nurse. Her voice was softer than it was when she came in, but was still firm.

"She's still in surgery. I talked to the doctors…" Tony's voice trailed off.

"And?"

"They are doing the best they can, but they say that it doesn't look good."

Lottie felt like her hearing vanished and was replaced with a buzzing sound. She could feel the blood drain from her face as Tony finished his sentence. It was the same sentence the doctors told Pepper and herself before their mother passed away. All of those emotions that she had locked away when her mother died suddenly sprang up. Her legs felt like they had been turned into jelly and she struggled to keep composure.

"Oh," She felt her legs begin to crumble, but before she could crash to the ground, two bodies came to her sides to hold her up. Lottie looked over sluggishly to Steve and Clint, both holding onto one of her arms.

"Lottie, you need to take it easy, don't open up the stitches," Steve quietly told her. Natasha had taken care of her injuries from her fall: cleaning out the small cuts and stitching up the gash on her head. The younger red head opted to not tell her other friends about the incident with the stone, feeling that the team didn't need more bad news.

Lottie could feel the tightness of her forehead from the stretched skin and the wound seemed to pound in her head. She gently nodded to Steve, and allowed the two men to guide her to the waiting room, sitting down on the slightly comfortable chair the hospital had to offer. She could feel everyone looking at her and knew the whispers behind her back were her friends discussing what to do. She hadn't even realized that her hands were shaking until Clint's hands wrapped around her own, ceasing the tiny movement.

"Why didn't you stay with your family?" Lottie asked in almost a whisper.

"Because you needed me, kid." Clint gave her hands a gentle squeeze. Lottie let out a shaky breath, and gave the man next to her a small smile. She was grateful that he was here, believing that she would easily break down into a giant mess without him.

"What were you going to say when you came back?" Clint asked after a few moments of silence. He had remembered the girl bounding into the house, ready to spill everything that she had found, but she showed no hint of discussing what she wanted to say.

"Oh," Lottie started, taking her hands back. She used the one where she stone was embedded to scratch the back of her neck, hoping to hide the yellow object. "We didn't find anything." She lied. Clint could tell she wasn't telling the truth; it was easy for him to read her. But he chose to remain silent and not push her any further.

"Lottie," Tony's voice cut into the conversation, causing both Lottie and Clint to look his way. He had gotten out of the Iron Man suit, looking a tad worse for wear. The clothes he had on looked worn and his face was no longer expressionless. It hid something that Lottie could not figure out. Anguish? Guilt? Lottie pulled herself out of her thoughts and stood up.

"Can I see her?" She asked, feeling her throat constrict. Tony only nodded, fearing that if he spoke, it would only be apologies to the young woman about not being able to protect her sister better. Lottie gaze passed Tony's shoulder to Pietro and Wanda. Pietro wasn't looking at her, instead his back was to her, but Lottie knew he was whispering unknown things to his sister. Wanda, however, had her gaze set to Lottie, occasionally going from the girl's face to her hand which hid the secret. Lottie shoved both of her hands into her jacket pockets, hoping to evade her friend's stares. It didn't surprise her that Pietro would tell Wanda about what happened. In fact, she was happy that someone other than the two of them knew what happened in the forest.

"The doctor has to talk to you first." Tony told her, his stance defeated.

"I want you to come with me." Lottie said to him. She knew the rules of the hospital with only family of the patient being able to know certain information, but Tony was a part of her family. He had taken Lottie into his home, gave her a job, and made her sister happy. Lottie could see Tony begin to smile and nodded, leading her to outside Pepper's room, where the doctor was standing.

"Miss Potts," The doctor began, looking over at Tony when he noticed that the hero was not leaving. "Mr. Stark, I'm sorry, but I can only tell this to fam-"

"He is family." Lottie argued. "So, he gets to hear whatever I get to hear." The doctor looked at Lottie for moment, noticing her serious expression.

"Very well," The doctor said, nodding his head. "We did the best we could with the size and damage of the injury and we were able to stabilize her. However," the doctor paused slightly before continuing, "however, in order to do that, we had to put her into a medically induced coma."

"What? Why?" Lottie asked, trying to keep her voice level. Her hand subconsciously held onto Tony's arm for support.

"While the blast damaged her spinal cord, the fall from it was severe enough to cause a brain injury and swelling. The coma will make it easier for her brain to heal and for the swelling to go down."

"How long will she be in a coma?"

"It could take weeks or months. It depends on how fast she will heal. Your sister is in good hands, Miss Potts." The doctor told her. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have another patient to see. The nurses will help you." He told her, giving her a reassuring smile before walking away.

"You can go in." Lottie looked to see the nurse that had tried to calm her down when she first arrived standing behind where Tony was standing. She hadn't even realized that the nurse was there, but didn't make a comment about it. Instead, she opened the hospital room door, hesitating before stepping in. Laying on the bed was Pepper, but at the same time it wasn't. It was her body, but the liveliness was gone; replaced by tubes and wires. The color in her face was pale, and all that moved was her chest with each breath the limp body took.

"I can't do this." Lottie whispered after staring at her sister's body, not wanting the emotions she felt when her mother passed to resurface. She spent years pushing back the anger and sadness in order to be the 'happy go-lucky' person that everyone needed. But now she could feel those years of hard work go down the drain with just one look the hospital bed.

"I-I need to get out of here." She said, turning and quickly walking out of the room.

"Lottie!" Tony called after her, attempting to follow her. Lottie ignored his calls for her to come back. She knew that her legs were moving faster with every stride that she took, but everything felt numb to her. She saw the rest of the Avengers in the waiting room get up when they saw her moving quickly away from where she had just been, the nurse and Tony following in suit.

"Lottie, where are you going?" Tony called again, motioning for someone to stop her.

"I-I need to go. It's too much right now." She explained, her voice weak as she continued to walk away from everyone.

"Lottie, stop." Another voice said. She could feel her breathing increase and her heart beat quicken. Her head began to pound and her palm began to burn. She heard a voice in her head, repeating the same word over and over again.

Stop stop STOP

With each reiteration, she felt her hand burn more, until the pain and pounding in her head suddenly ended. Lottie felt her breathing slow down and the voice disappear. In fact, all voices seemed to disappear. Lottie turned around slowly, to see everyone where they had been before, but seemed to be frozen in place.

"Guys?" Lottie said, unsure of what to do. Tony and the nurse were in mid-sprint after her, Tony's mouth open as if he was about to say something. Thor and Natasha also had their mouth open, ready to speak. Lottie looked over at Clint, who was in the middle of getting up from the seat. Wanda's face was frozen in worry and confusion, while Pietro's face was hard, his gaze set to where Lottie's hand would be.

"What have you done?" A voice said and Lottie looked over to see the only person who was still moving.

"I don't know what happened!" She explained, her voice high. Vision walked towards her, each step as elegant and smooth as the first. Lottie had almost forgotten that he had been there, but it wasn't surprising as he went everywhere that Wanda went.

"What is that?" He continued, grabbing Lottie's hand roughly. He made it so her palm was facing up, the yellow stone slightly glimmering under her stone. "Where did you get this?"

"I-I..." Lottie felt dumbfounded, not knowing how to explain what happened.

"Where did you get this?!" He repeated, this time with more intensity.

"I found it! In the woods! And then I picked it up and it just, it just went in my hand and I don't know what to do! What did I do?" Lottie could feel tears prick at the edge of her eyes. Vision sighed, seeing that Lottie actually did not know what caused everyone, expect himself to suddenly freeze.

"Lottie," He let go of her hand, gently placing both of his hands on her shoulders. "Lottie, calm down. It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I froze everyone!" She squeaked.

"Okay, what happened before everyone froze?" Vision asked, trying to coach her through her worry.

"Um," Lottie began, trying to remember what exactly happened. "I did not want to see Pepper like that and so I ran out and I...it started burning and then there was a voice that kept repeating stop. And then everything stopped."

"A voice?"

"Well, it was my voice, but I don't remember thinking what it was saying. It just kept saying stop and now...and now this." She sighed, looking over at everyone frozen in place. Even the clock was frozen. "Why aren't you like them?" She asked.

"The stones are connected. I believe since I hold one of the stones, I am able to be unaffected by the power that stone holds, and possibly vice versa for you."

"How do I fix this?" Lottie asked quietly.

"Calm your mind," Vision ordered. Lottie sighed and closed her eyes, attempting to push any thought out of her mind. Fear, regret, sadness, anger; everything just flooded out of her brain. Vision saw her body relax and continued speaking to her. "Now, the only thing I want you to think about is unfreezing everything."

"Might be a bit harder than you say." Lottie quipped.

"Lottie, focus."

"Right, right sorry." Lottie regained her composure. She began to picture everything moving.

Move.

Lottie felt her hand begin to burn, just as it did before. She continued to repeat the word in her head, over and over again until movement was all she thought of. The burning in her hand heightened with each thought until it felt like someone was putting her hand into a fire. And just as before, it suddenly stopped. She opened her eyes, feeling a headache begin to build in the back of her head.

"Lottie, don't leave." Tony's voice reached her ears and Lottie looked around, seeing everything move again. She looked at the clock and watched as the hand that showed seconds tick again. She looked back at Tony, watching him point to where Vision had been standing before and then to where he was currently standing.

"How did you? You know what, never mind, I don't really care." Tony walked to Lottie, looking down at her. "Lottie...please just come back. She needs to know that you are here for her."

Lottie swallowed hard, putting away the feelings that were ready to bubble over again. No matter how much she did not want to be in the room and see her sister in the state she was in, Lottie knew she could not just abandon her. She sighed and nodded, following Tony back through the hospital and to the room where Pepper was.

"And training sucks, they make me run like 10 miles and I hate running." Lottie continued to inform Pepper about everything she had been doing since the last time they saw each other. She sighed, leaning back in the seat she had been in since Tony had brought her back in the room. He had been silent the entire time, watching Lottie decide whether or not she should hold Pepper's hand and getting spooked at one of the machines making an odd noise. Running her hand through her hair, Lottie stood up, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"This is so stupid! I doubt she can ever hear me. I doubt she would even want to hear what I would have to say."

"Lot, you know that isn't true." Tony said. Lottie ignored him, however, silently wishing that she was alone with a bottle of wine, drowning out all feelings. Or alone with a certain Russian speedster, doing things that coworkers, let alone friends, should not do. Lottie blushed, ashamed that those thoughts even went into her mind. But at least the drinking and the distraction of Pietro would be a better way to control her feelings, rather than trying to hold them in the way she usually did.

"It is true. She would not want to hear the things that I don't even want to tell her. I don't even know why I am here." Lottie finished, beginning to walk to the door. Tony, though, stepped in front of her, blocking her from leaving.

"Listen," Tony began, his voice firm, he pointed his finger to Pepper's body, "that there is your big sister. Sure, you fought and maybe she broke your trust. But, she is your sister and what she needs right now is you not being an ass!" Lottie didn't dare look at Tony, knowing that if she did, she would break down into tears. She knew he was right, but for some reason she couldn't swallow her pride and anger. "Why are you acting like this?"

"Because I'm mad." She told him.

"Mad at what?" Tony pressed on, the volume of his voice increased slightly.

"At everyone!" Lottie yelled back, finally looking at Tony. She could feel the tears at the brim of her eyes, but willed them not to fall. "I'm mad at myself for getting this stupid stone in my hand, I'm mad at Pietro for making me feel weak and causing me to get feelings for him. I'm mad at Clint for caring too much." Lottie couldn't hold back the tears anymore, they spilled over her cheeks. They left a burning trail as they left. "And... and I'm mad at Pepper for leaving me." All the emotions and fears that Lottie hadn't even known she was holding in burst out. It was the one thing that she feared: showing her emotions and allowing them to get a hold of her. But, letting them out and admitting everything felt oddly comforting.

"Lottie," Tony's voice became soft as he pulled the woman into his arms, embracing her. He felt her arms wrap around his midsection and hold onto him for dear life. "Lottie, Pepper isn't leaving you, she's still here."

"They said that about our mom too. They said she would be okay and that she was in 'good hands' and then she died. I-I can't go through another death. I don't want to be alone, Tony."

"Kid, you said before that I was apart of your family. You and Pep, you are my family. And you got Barton. You know he thinks of you as a daughter. Lottie, you are never alone."

"What if she doesn't wake up?" Lottie asked, her voice sounding distant and small.

"She's a Potts. You guys are too stubborn to give up." Tony heard the faint sound of Lottie's laugh and knew that she was going to be alright. "Now, what is this thing about Pietro and a stone in your hand?"

"The stone has chosen Lottie to be it's host. We do not know the risks if we try to remove it from her." Vision explained, standing at the head of a long wooden table. The group had gone back to the S.H.I.E.L.D facility in upstate New York, where Nick Fury and a group of, what Lottie assumed to be, agents were waiting for them. The Avengers, Lottie, Fury, and the small group had been discussing the predicament of what had happened with the stone for the last half hour. Lottie slouched in one of the chairs, bored and annoyed with the on-going conversation. Bored because the same things were being repeated over and over again, and annoyed because the unfamiliar agents had not let her speak up for herself.

"But we also do not know the risks if if stays in her." One of the men replied to the android. He was a tall, burly man with graying hair. He seemed to be older than everyone in the room.

"Councilman Woods," Nick began, making the identity of the stranger known. Lottie looked around to the other people who came in with him, noticing that they all seemed to be spaced around the room, their eyes glancing everywhere. Bodyguards. "We do not even know which stone it is."

"It's the Time Stone." Lottie spoke up, her tone bored. "If you had allowed me to explain everything in the beginning, then maybe we would be done with this meeting." She felt two hard kicks under the table and looked up at see Steve and Natasha, both giving her a look of warning. This man was apart of the World Security Council and was to be respected. However, when the man seemed to ignore Lottie completely, she decided that he would not have her respect. Councilman Woods had been given his position after the events with the Winter Soldier and was known for being unapologetically harsh in everything that he did. He was more hands-on than the other councilmen, opting to attend meetings and show up at random times to the facility. Lottie had heard rumors, though, that he believed that an agent that was a woman could not do the same things an agent as a man could do. His sexist views were one of the other reasons why Lottie would have no respect for him.

"This young woman needs to be placed in lockdown. She is in possession of an alien artifact that we do not know how to control," Councilman Woods said, "Not to mention she has multiple accounts of breaching national security!" Lottie felt a blush creep up on her cheeks as the man brought up the fact that the only way Lottie knew about S.H.I.E.L.D was because she hacked into the database.

"You can't control the stone, sir." Lottie told him, her voice filled with acidity. She was about to continue, but she felt another kick come from the direction of Natasha and decided to keep her mouth shut. Councilman Woods finally seemed to realize that Lottie had spoken and gave her a hard, distasteful look.

"Then we must simply control you if you are the 'host' of the stone. With this Ultron out there still, having this stone in our possession will give us an advantage."

"No." Lottie looked over to Pietro, surprised that he had spoken up. He had said nothing to her on the plane ride back to the facility, not even glanced at her.

"Excuse me?" The old man questioned, although he spoke to Pietro with a little more decency causing Lottie to fume in her seat.

"I said no. She isn't going to be used as a weapon. She is not a soldier." The whole room was quiet, and the councilman seemed surprised that someone would speak up against him. The air was thick and no one would look at one another. Just as the quietness started to become unsettling to Lottie, the door of the room burst open with Bruce Banner running in, papers in his hands. The glasses on his face looked as if they were about to fall off and his attire had been like Tony's, unkept and worn.

"More files were...Am I interrupting something?" He asked, clearing his throat and pushing the glasses back up the bridge of his nose. Bruce felt everyone stare at him and he felt his throat constrict as he made brief eye contact with Natasha.

"Mr. Banner, we did send you the memo that there would be a meeting." Nick said, breaking the silence.

"Oh, uh...I was busy."

"Busy with what?" Fury asked.

"Another file was uploaded to Lottie's computer." Everyone straightened up in their seats at the mention of the new file. "It was hard to decipher, but I ended up getting the picture. It's a bit blurry, but it could still be helpful."

"Picture? It wasn't a person's file like Pepper's?" Lottie asked. Bruce opened up the beige folder and slid the picture onto the desk. The group leaned around the table to get a look at what he placed. It was a blurry picture of a woman smiling as she watched 2 children play in a room, cradling a small object. Clint stood up from his chair, recognizing who was in the photo immediately.

"Barton? Where are you going?" Nick Fury asked, watching the man walk towards the door.

"The bastards after my family." Clint replied without turning or stopping, his pace picking up. Lottie looked down at the picture again as everyone stared after Clint in shock. She picked it up, now clearly seeing Laura's image with a giant black "x" over her face.