So...I lied about this being the last chapter, there will be an epilogue after this chapter, so there's a little more before the sequel. This chapter may include- several awkward conversations. Also, the award for coolest parent goes to...Clint Barton! Why? Read on and see!
Disclaimer- I do not own the Avengers, all rights go to their proper owners.
~~~~~In the Helicarrier~~~~~
Somehow, Phil had convinced Shay to get a cast for her ankle. Belle really had no idea how he did that, because three years ago Shay had fractured her femur and the bone had literally been sticking out of her thigh. She had shrugged and said it was only a flesh wound, they'd had to knock her out for her to get it splinted.
So now, Shay had a red cast on her ankle and was handed a pair of crutches, and her only response was to glare at the ceiling, she had learned that one does not simply disagree with Phil Coulson, despite how hard you try.
Iris' arm was in a sling, just a normal sling, but it didn't seem to bother her very much, probably because she knew that she could still kill everybody in this room with only one hand.
Archer simply had several bandages all over his body, he was right, he only had a few cuts and bruises, but he did have to get a small row of stitches on his chin, where he had gotten a nasty scratch, but he was still getting checked for anything worse.
"Ah," The doctor who was examining him, Dr. Garrett, said. "You have a big bump on the back of your head." She told Archer, her fingers touching his head very gently.
Archer frowned, he didn't remember ever getting hit in the head during the fight, and apparently none of the others did either. Did it happen during the drug bust mission? He hadn't checked his wounds since before then.
"OH!" Shay's eyes widened, then she turned to the doctor. "Yeah, that was me." She told her.
"...What?" Dr. Garrett asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Yeah, I had to whack him on the back of the head and knock him out." She told her. "But I had a very good reason." She added when the doctor looked at her strangely. "Don't worry, I'm positive that I didn't give him a concussion." She sounded almost proud of herself.
The doctor stared at her for another minute, then sighed and shook her head in exasperation. "I'll never understand children." She muttered quietly, and said children smiled.
"Alright," She started. "You're right, that bump won't leave a concussion, and you besides that, you're all finished." She told Iris, Shay, and Archer, then she turned to Belle, Ethan, and Alek. "Are you three sure you're not injured?"
"Yes, we don't get hurt easily." Belle smiled as thanks, and the doctor only looked at them all from head to toe, before seeming to accept it, and walking out of the room.
That left the team alone in the room, sitting in silence, before it was broken, by Shay of course.
"So...anybody wanna sneak out and look around?" She asked, looking at the others, who either snickered or rolled their eyes.
"Shay, we're in on of the most protected places in the world, and you wanna sneak out of the medical wing, which is the only place that we're authorized to be?" Iris raised her eyebrow at Shay like she had two heads.
"We've done it before." Shay shrugged. "And besides, either we all go explore, or I hack into their files from right here." She offered, then she smirked. "Which do you think is more likely to get us into trouble?"
Belle stared at her from a second. "I hate it when you're right." She said emotionlessly.
"I'm usually right, besides we won't get into trouble if we have America's Sweetheart there to talk us..." Shay's sentence trailed off and she stared at Belle with a weird look on her face.
"...What?" Belle asked after a moment of silence.
"The nicknames I have for you are now 100 times more ironic." Shay said, straight faced.
Belle paused for a moment. Yup, Liberty Bell, America's Sweetheart, the Star-Spangled Girl, all the patriotic nicknames Shay had given her over the years, most were because of her love of Captain America, would now make much more sense to a stranger.
But for now, she just rolled her eyes. "Alright, somehow, you've convinced me, so is anybody coming with us?" She asked the rest of the group, who all shrugged, and followed their team leader and the technological genius out the door.
They passed by several agents, who still did nothing but stare at them, apparently too scared or amazed to stop them, or they just didn't care that six unauthorized people were wandering around their hallways unsupervised. The team hoped that it was the first one, otherwise they prayed for Shield's security.
They simply walked around for awhile, they were completely silent, well, not completely silent, all of the kids were tapping their fingers against their thighs, or in Shay's case, her crutch, they were speaking morse code.
"You think they're looking for us?" Ethan tapped.
"Depends, who's who?" Shay tapped back.
They all knew what she was talking about. The people in Medical probably weren't looking for her, Phil was probably looking for them, their parents...well they honestly had no idea.
That question was answered when Archer, who was in front, rounded a corner and ran straight into someone's chest. He let out an "Oomph," because the person that he ran into was really fucking built.
His eyes met dark blue fabric, and Jesus this guy was tall because Archer was 5'8 and still only hit the middle of his chest, and...oh...
He almost, note- almost, yelped, and leaped back and almost ran into Belle who had frozen right behind him.
"Uh...hi." He said trying to sound casual, like he hadn't just run face-first into Captain America. He didn't think he did a very good job of sounding casual, because his voice cracked slightly.
Goddamn puberty, why couldn't he have gone through it already like Ethan and Alek? But no, he has to stand here and make a fool out of himself.
He cleared his throat and took another step back.
The Captain wasn't alone, he had the rest of the Avengers behind him, and they were all staring at them, and wow. How did Archer not notice how intimidating they all looked together.
"Uh...hello." And that was Hawkeye, and Archer almost, again, note- almost, flinched. Hawkeye was staring at him, and wow, he was uncomfortable.
"Shouldn't you kids be at the hospital?" Captain asked.
"Nooooooo." Archer drawled out, and why was he the only one talking, he's just gonna shut up now.
"Why don't I believe you?" Cap asked again.
It was silent for a moment, Archer following his resolution to stay silent, and then Shay answered Cap's figurative question.
"Because he's absolutely horrible at lying." She muttered, odd, considering Shay usually made herself be heard, no matter who was listening. She could feel Tony's eyes on her too.
Then it was silent again, and it lasted another minute, before it was broken again, this time by Natasha.
"Fine, I'll be the one who points out the elephant in the room." She said, rolling her eyes. "All of us know about it, right?" She asked the children.
"Yeah, we know." Iris, who seemed to get some o her normal courage back, said, nodding her head.
"Okay, then we need to talk about it, we can't just sit quietly forever." She said.
"Are you sure about that?" Shay asked sarcastically, by instinct because she could barely talk right now.
Natasha rolled her eyes, but didn't really look surprised.
"Yes, and I know, that some of you don't want to talk about it in front of everybody, so I say we split up." She didn't even wait for a reply, and put a hand on Iris' shoulder, and lead her away from the rest of group.
"Yes," Thor's voice rumbled loudly, and he walked up to Alek and put his hand on his back. "It would be wise to speak to you children about this." He lead Alek in the opposite direction that Natasha lead Iris.
Cap was next, offering Belle his hand without a word. She took it, and he lead her away. She looked at her teammates as she passed, and nodded at them, because the three left were the three she was scared were going to go running down the hallways screaming any minute.
That left the Banners, the Bartons, and the Starks standing there awkwardly. It took a moment, but then Bruce cleared his throat.
"Um...We should probably go before Natasha comes back." He cleared his throat again, and made like he was about to grab Ethan's shoulder, but changed his mind halfway through, and instead gestured for Ethan to follow him, and started walking away. Ethan gulped, and followed him.
Then, Clint seemed to find his voice. "Well, can't put this off forever." He said, clapping his hands together.
"You'd be surprised." Tony was the one to break in with a sarcastic mutter this time, and Shay nodded silently in agreement.
Clint smirked slightly, before turning back to Archer. "You coming?" He asked, and Archer smiled slightly, and followed Hawkeye out of the hall.
That left Tony and Shay standing in the middle of the hallway, awkwardly, trying to avoid talking for as long as possible.
Shay sighed, and finally looked up to meet the eyes that she'd felt on her for the past 5 minutes.
Well, this was gonna be awkward.
~~~~~With Iris and Natasha~~~~~
Iris allowed herself to be lead to another room in the helicarrier, it was completely empty. If it were anybody else leading her, Iris' instincts would've been screaming at her to stun them and run, but it was Natasha Romanoff. Agent of Shield, Black Widow...her mother.
Natasha closed the door behind her, and then turned to Iris, who had finally gathered enough courage to look her in the eye and seem casual about it.
"Alright, you can drop the mask." Natasha said gently, and at Iris' raised eyebrow, she continued. "I know a good mask when I see it, and you don't need to wear it around me." Said mask slipped off of Iris' face, and she let her confusion, surprise, sadness, and fear show.
Natasha paused for half a second, before seeming to get her thoughts together. "So, who's been raising you for all these years?" She asked, leading Iris over to two chairs leaning against a wall.
"Her...Her name was Monica Volkov, and, well Geoff did too, Geoffrey McGee." Iris started, and bit her lip, not knowing where to start.
Natasha seemed to understand that. "Where do you live?" She asked Iris, putting an arm around her.
Iris smiled slightly. "A small condo in Albany, near the less crowded part of the city, but I'm only there about half of the time." She said.
"Where do you spend the other half?" Natasha asked, trying to get her to keep talking.
Story time with the Black Widow, that was something that Iris would never think would happen.
"Well, a good portion is-was, spent at Cyclone, another portion was spent out on missions. Most of the time I'm not home though, I'm usually over at one of the other team's houses, but usually it's Shay's..." Her sentence trailed off.
Natasha rubbed her shoulder, seemingly absent-mindedly, but they knew it was on purpose.
"Alright, I'll admit, this is not something I've ever expected." Natasha told her. "I've been married to Clint for two years and I'm pretty sure neither of us have even thought about having children." She said. Iris knew about the marriage, of course she did, everyone did. It had been the most secretive wedding in America's history, only about 15 people had been there, and nobody else knew where the wedding had taken place, or that it even had. All people knew, was that Black Widow had started to wear an engagement ring, and then five months later, her and Hawkeye both had wedding rings.
"But," Natasha was talking again, she'd better pay attention. "I'm not exactly disappointed." Then she was smiling at Iris, a comforting smile that made Iris' shoulders slump very slightly in relief.
"So, what's your full name?" She asked, and Iris immediately answered.
"Iris Evangeline Volkov." She said, instinctively.
"Are you willing to tack a Romanoff to the end of that?" Natasha asked her again, and Iris smiled.
"Yes, yes I am."
~~~~~With Alek and Thor~~~~~
Alek didn't exactly feel awkward, he never felt awkward, he wasn't an awkward person by nature. He was worried. He was worried that Thor wouldn't like him, he was worried that he wouldn't be accepted, he was worried that he didn't want a fifteen-year-old son.
Alek prided himself in knowing everything about Thor, the man was his favorite Avenger after all, so of course he knew about Jane. Jane was Thor's wife, they had been married for almost seven years, and she was expecting a child. So Alek was also worried that Jane would not like him, or the soon-to-be-born child would not like him.
Apparently he didn't have to worry, because Thor was grinning at him, the familiar grin that Alek had seen in magazines and posters, and he felt a small wave of relief go through him.
"So, you are the son that Anthony has informed me of." He rumbled, his grin still in place.
"Yes, so you are the father that Shanelle has informed me of." Alek couldn't keep the smile off his face any more.
"It would appear so." And then Thor was hugging him, and Alek was okay with that, because he was, what Shay called "a huggy-person." However, he was still slightly in shock, because you'd be in shock too if Thor hugged you.
"I must bring you to Asgard, you are a son of Asgard, and I would like it very much for you to meet my father, and perhaps even Loki, if he is in a good mood, and Jane of course, you need to meet Jane very soon. I called her on the flight here, and informed her of the situation, and she is very excited to meet you."
Alek grinned, and for the first time in his life, was completely silent while he listened to his father babble about who he had to be introduced to, and what Thor wanted to know about him.
~~~~~With Belle and Steve~~~~~
Belle was completely silent as Steve lead her to another empty hallway, and so was he. Neither of them knew what to say, but both knew that they had a lot to talk about, so when they stopped, Steve thought for a moment, before starting to talk.
"Alright, uh...I'm not the best at talking, so I'll just...get to the point. This was unexpected, I won't lie, when Tony told us that we had children, none of us really believed him until he showed us the files..." He trailed off, smiling and chuckling sheepishly.
"I was in shock on the way over here." He told her, rubbing the back of her head, still smiling at her. "Back in my day, it was looked down on if you got your girl pregnant without being married to her, and now I find out I've got a daughter who's mother I didn't even know, and apparently she didn't know you were my daughter either." He chuckled again, wrapping an arm around Belle and giving her a side hug.
"Stranger things have happened though." He said.
"True." Belle nodded, and Steve' smile grew.
"And this will be nice, it's a surprise, but a good one." He was still smiling at her again, and that smile was contagious, because soon Belle was smiling back at him.
This was the man that she had looked up to for longer than she could remember. She used to run around wearing a Captain America shirt, carrying a toy shield, that had happened when she was six, all the way up to when she was eight.
He was a lot liked she had imagined him to be, and she was willing to bet he could be more. She was willing to bet that he could be more than America's Hero.
Maybe he could be America's Best Dad too.
~~~~~With Ethan and Buce~~~~~
It wasn't any better alone than it was with the others, Ethan was a quiet guy, and apparently so was Bruce. They sat in silence for a few minutes, both had things to say, but both of them were too...well, scared to say them.
It took five minutes for Bruce to crack.
"So...uh, I don't think either of us were expecting this." He said, hesitating.
"...Yeah, I really don't think anybody would expect this." Ethan agreed, although, it really should've been obvious. It would explain Junior, who, for the first time in a long time, was completely quiet in the back of Ethan's mind. Normally, Junior was a constant presence in Ethan's mind, it was almost...reassuring, in a way. Now, he was quiet, completely silent, if Ethan didn't know better, he'd say that Junior wasn't there.
Bruce sighed. "I never thought I could be a father." He mumbled, walking over to a window, and leaning on the windowsill. "After the accident, I never thought they'd allow me to have children, or that anybody would even consider having children with me." He wasn't looking at Ethan, he was just staring out of the window, and Ethan couldn't look at him for very long either.
"And now I find out that I have a child, and I'm actually getting the chance to raise him." He said, a small smile on his face. "Do you know who Betty is?" He asked, finally turning to Ethan.
"Yeah." Ethan replied, because yes, he knew Betty Ross-Banner, Bruce's wife for a little more than five years.
"Well, she's infertile, she can't have children." Bruce told him, turning back to the window. "I'd given up on the idea of having children, and now I get the chance." He was smiling, and Ethan was too at this point.
"What I'm trying to say..." Bruce started, turning back to Ethan, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, for giving me this opportunity."
~~~~~With Archer and Clint~~~~~
Clint was talking when he led Archer away, and Archer tried his best to reply trough the shock, but he was still having trouble with that.
"So, your name is Archer? Wow, who came up with that?" Clint asked, because he knows a bad pun when he sees it.
"I honestly really don't know, all I know is that we were already named before we met our foster parents, so whoever named me knew, and did it on purpose." He shook his head in annoyance.
Clint snickered, and patted him on the back, almost comfortingly. "There, there." He said.
"Now, I'm just gonna cut the small talk, and get right to it." Clint started."I've never really been big on family, or, they've never been big on me, to be exact, but, hey I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. So, I'm gonna try this whole, father thing." He said, putting air quotes around the last two words.
"How are you gonna do that?" Archer asked, because really, he couldn't resist.
"Well, we'll go to the range together, and I'll show you the exact vent-systems of Stark Tower, because I know Tony will probably invite you to live there, he has a habit of doing that, and I'll even steal money from Tony's wallet to give you an allowance every month." Clint offered, a sarcastic grin on his face, even though they both knew that he was telling the truth.
Archer laughed, because wow, this family would not be normal at all.
"You wanna go get pizza later, we can do what all good men do and bond over food." He offered with a serious look on his face, and Archer nodded just as serious.
Clint was talking to him like they'd known each other for years.
Archer could get used to that.
~~~~~With Shay and Tony~~~~~
Cue awkward silence that lasted for what seemed like hours, but was really only a few minutes.
Well, it could be worse.
Both of them kept opening and closing their mouths, both trying to start a conversation, but their horrible conversation skills were getting in the way. They were good actors, they could act like the type of person who always has something sarcastic to say, but they were really absolutely terrible at talking.
So, Shay decided to do something. "So, I'm sure neither of us wanna go through the horrible act of talking about something that both of us already know everything about, so can we just like...I don't know, skip the whole awkward conversation that the others are, no-doubt, having right now. Can't you just...like...pat me on the back and say "welcome to the family?" Shay almost begged.
Tony stared at her for a moment, eyebrow raised, and the he smiled. "Yup, you're definitely my daughter." Tony said.
Then, he patted her on the back. "Welcome to the family." He said, and both of them smiled.
"So," Tony started, and put his arm around her, starting to lead her in another direction. "I know that you and your friends all live on...well, opposite sides of the country, and I also heard about your...foster parents..." He trailed off.
Shay nodded, silent, he was about to ask her something, she could tell.
"Well...Shield won't just let you go anywhere, so you guy really only have two choices." He said, and held up one finger. "You could live here, which I know you wouldn't like." He made a face, as if living here was the worst thing he could imagine, and it was probably up there on his list.
"Or," He held up a second finger. "You guys could all live at Stark Tower, or Avengers Tower, as it's more commonly called, nowadays." He sounded like he was trying to change the subject before he got an answer to his question.
Wait, he wanted them to live at Avengers Tower? The place that they had wanted to visit for as long as they could remember? And he was asking permission?
"I-We...well, that sounds...nice." She finished lamely, but Tony understood the unspoken "yes."
~~~~~End Chapter~~~~~
Wow, this story is almost over, which only means one thing, I really need to start working on my other story, which I kinda stopped working on for a while so I could finish this one. So I'll probably finish this story, and take a break to work on Mischief Makers, and then I'll start on the sequel.