Chapter 28:
10 months later…
Things had gone basically as Emma had planned. With the help of Dr. Strange, all the memories of the Avengers as well as those at S.H.E.I.L.D. HQ had been altered and somehow in a freak accident, a prisoner transport had gone down over the plains of Nebraska. All aboard were killed.
Yet Emma knew otherwise.
She knew that the Winter Solider had escaped. But the time had not been right to tell Director Fury about all that he had "forgotten".
So she waited.
She continued to wait through her brother's ingenious idea of destroying all of his Iron Man armor suits after a battle with the Mandarin, along with Pepper Potts being exposed to the Extremis serum. But even then, Tony managed to fix everything.
Soon Pepper was back to normal and Tony even managed to get the shrapnel removed from his heart. She had waited with Pepper, Clint and James Rhodes in the waiting room during the surgery in a Hong Kong hospital. Thankfully Dr. Wu knew exactly what he was doing and soon enough Tony was back on his feet.
That had been a Merry Christmas indeed. Seeing her brother and Audrey both rush to open Christmas presents was amusement enough for Emma.
Yet still she waited to reveal the secrets that she had been entrusted with.
The time still wasn't right.
Other things had changed as well for the rest of the Avengers. Steve had moved to Washington, D.C. to be located closer to the Triskelion. Thor returned to Asgard to make sure things were in order there and he still had not returned. Everyone took that as a sign that things were not good. Black Widow went off and did whatever needed to be done for Fury, while Banner stayed put for the most part in Avengers Tower.
Kaleigh had moved into the apartment that Emma and Clint shared to help tend to Audrey whenever they could not be around. Kaleigh thought that it was awesome being surrounded by heroes all the time. But like she had always been growing up, she promised to keep the secrets of those who lived in the tower to herself.
Amongst all of the upheavals, Thor did return to Earth – or Midgard as he called it from time to time. But not to the Avengers per say. Like any good intelligence agency, S.H.E.I.L.D. had been monitoring the events that had taken place in London with Thor involved.
Even after all of this, the time still wasn't right.
"How do we get the missions in the most remote locations?"
Emma turned and glanced at Clint through her snow-rimmed goggles. Here they were at the base of K2, trying to search for something that had been spotted on S.H.E.I.L.D. satellites. It was too cold, let alone dangerous for drones to be sent in. that meant boots on the ground.
Who else would Fury turn to besides two of his best?
"It's because you are the best at what you do," Emma quipped.
"Then why are you here?"
"To keep you motivated," she said, winking at him.
In her pocket, her tracker began to sound. She reached into her oversized jacket and pulled out the handheld device and looked at it. "Whatever we are looking for should be right around here," she said glancing around at their location. Clint moved next to her a locked an arrow into place – better to be safe than sorry.
As Emma took a step forward, the beeping grew in intensity. The more she walked, the louder the signal became. Clint moved behind her, taking in their surroundings.
"We should be right on top of it…" Emma said turning to look back at Clint when suddenly the glacier below her gave way and she slipped down the side into the crevasse that was opening up.
Acting quickly, Clint used a few arrows as a grappling hook and managed to catch one of Emma's hands and that clinging to the side of the ice. He pulled them both back up to their feet. Once they were both standing back up, Clint pulled his wife tight against him and held her close for a second to allow them both to calm their nerves.
"You ok?" he asked, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
She nodded.
Together they slowly moved towards the edge of the glacier – away from both the crevasse and a cliff side that fell hundreds of feet in a river valley below. Instead they were heading back to solid land, even if it meant going up the steep façade of K2.
Yet that was to never happen.
Clint heard it before he had time to react – a round was being chambered in a rifle.
He pushed Emma out of the way as the bullet struck him in the chest with another one striking him in the stomach. The impact from the shot sent him backwards and off the cliff side. Emma tried to scramble towards where Clint had fallen, but two shots struck her as well – one to left shoulder and one to the right side of her stomach.
Slumping down in the snow, Emma allowed her last coherent thought to be that of Clint and Audrey and just how much she loved her family...hopefully Tony would know how to raise her and Clint's daughter the right way…
AN: Yes I know I am mean…but leave me some loving and I will update sooner!
