It took Connor a moment.

She had always imagined her life when she was a little child – before the Avengers, before S.H.I.E.L.D, before her family died – but it never had really occurred to her that she wouldn't reach that part of her life.

She wasn't going to grow old, she wasn't going to see her friends grow old and get married and have kids, she wasn't going to save anymore lives, she wasn't going to be able to sit at the top of Avengers tower and look into the sky knowing that Thor was looking out for her, she would never be able to go on a mission with Coulson's team or the Avengers or anything for that matter – but what hit her the most, in that moment as she was lying on the metal tiles, was that she wasn't going to be someone that lost their whole family anymore. She was joining them.

She could hear the fight raging on down below, and her radio laying only a few metres away was buzzing with the voices of her team wondering what was taking her so long to shut down the security. She just couldn't reach. She was trying, she really was. She just couldn't.

Connor knew they deserved a goodbye. So why was it getting harder for her to grant such a thing?

With her last bit of energy she slowly reached over, feeling more blood leaking around her as she moved and she gasped out in pain but clasped her hand around the radio, just managing to press down on the receiver.

"AT LAST! CONNOR SHUT IT DOWN!" She heard Tony's voice yelling at her but Connor couldn't shut the machine down, she couldn't reach it. She sucked in a deep breath and she heard the team stop for a moment. There was a pang in Connor's chest and the girl was not sure if it was her heart or if it simply just the deep wound that hurt.

"Connor?" Steve asked urgently and the girl opened her mouth, finding a small trickle of blood was dripping out. She closed her eyes tight to try and block the pain before finding her voice.

"...it's okay..." she started, and she could hear the shots and bangs dying down from below. She could almost sense the team's confusion and their sudden realisation.

"...guys...not heal..." she was panting for breath now, her body becoming so exhausted. "...you've got to win...for me..."

She could hear Clint's voice on the radio. "DAMMIT CONNOR, DON'T YOU DARE!" Connor smiled slightly at him but she felt another cramp of pain in her stomach and she whimpered, her eyes shining blue. She could hear part of the team running, and she could faintly register footsteps coming up the metal stairs. She pushed herself over as much as she could and with her last bit of energy smacked the small button to shut down the machine.

"...it's okay...I'll be with my family...I love..."

The radio slipped out of Connor's hand, before it slipped through the holes in the tiling and landed god-knows where. Her head rolled back smacking against the metal while her eyes blurred in and out of focus.

The team reached the sectioned off area only moments after. Connor was against the side of the cube, a puddle of blood around her and her eyes staring upwards, glowing blue and cold. Clint looked over at Tony who was trying to hack into the system to open the doors.

"OPEN IT!" Thor yelled not wanting his friend to die – even though he could see she was dying fast.

Tony shook his head, a panicked and defeated look on his face. "It's a one way lock, I can't override it – it can only be opened from the inside of the cube."

Clint crouched down beside her, only being separated by the panel of shatterproof glass. The team watched as she slowly twister her head to look at them, her eyes losing the blue glow. Connor's eyes flickered in between all of them, taking them in.

"I don't want to go..." Connor said, tears now coming from her eyes. Clint hushed her and pressed his palm up against the glass.

"Shh, it's okay. You're just going for a sleep and when you wake up we'll all be here okay?"

"I'm scared Clint...it hurts." Connor groaned out, a hand on her stomach. The man ran a hand through his hair in shock while the Avengers stood behind him.

Natasha had her hands covering her mouth and her eyes were wide with tears. She was trained to not show emotion but this was too close to home to not care.
Tony was on his knees, his mouth open and tears flowing from his eyes while Steve stood behind him with a hand on his shoulder, watching the girl in pity.
Thor had long dropped his hammer as he watched his friend dying and knowing there was nothing he could do about it just brought back memories of Loki's death and Coulson's death.
Bruce was wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his spare shirt, knowing that Connor was the only one who understood the constant inner battles for control.

"Just keep your eyes open okay?" Clint said, now having tears running down his face too.

Connor reached her arm over as far as it would go and she just managed to hit the unlock button on the sturdy door. Clint rushed up immediately, opening the door and kneeling down beside her before gathering her in his arms tightly as they sat on the ground.

Connor looked up at Clint, her eyes becoming more panicked. "Oh god Clint, it hurts." She whimpered and he held onto her hand tighter before looking round at Tony.

"We need to get her to a hospital!" Clint said urgently and Tony nodded.

"The suit's almost recharged, I can just get her to the nearest before it loses power." He blurted out urgently after quickly checking its stats.

Clint gently lifted Connor, feeling more dread set in as blood from her wounds dripped onto the floor and through his fingers. Tony moved forward and lightly took Connor before firing a hole in the roof and taking off.

Clint stood staring at the blood on his hands as he heard Steve, Bruce and Thor leave to probably meet Tony at the hospital. He heard Natasha walk up behind him.

"She'll be fine, it's Connor – she's always fine." Clint turned and hugged her, burying his face in her neck.

Tony landed at the hospital, a few nurses and a doctor coming out to see why Iron Man had just turned up outside. He took of the mask of his suit and rushed towards them, trying to stop the blood loss from Connor. The nurses and doctor immediately set into action, two of the nurses gently lifting Connor away from Tony and rushing inside with the others trailing behind.

Tony quickly suit down the suit, locked it and followed them closely.

"We have a teenager, three piercings to stomach, lost probably almost 1 and a half litres of blood, needs stitches urgently!" The doctor yelled out as hospital staff dashed around the girl.

The doctor turned to look at Tony. "Any idea what caused these wounds?"

Tony ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know – a knife, sword, stick – oh god." One of the nurses pushed Tony into a chair and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Breathe. Connor – that's her name right?" Tony nodded and she continued. "Connor's going to be good soon; you might want to call her family."

"I am her family." Tony said and the woman nodded, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before rushing into the operating room where they had taken Connor. He walked over to the window where he could watch as they operated on his friend. His face was fallen, watching urgently to make sure she was still breathing. The only thing keeping him together was the beeps of the heart monitor that she was hooked to.

After a few minutes, the rest of the team arrived and walked over to the window to join Tony. Clint held Natasha's hand as he stared at Connor's body lying there. Her t-shirt had been cut just at the middle of her ribs and they could all see the blood pouring from her stomach. Bruce stared at her in pain, he should have been there.

A doctor came out, closing the curtains so they couldn't see their friend. Although they protested, they were taken down to a waiting room as they waited for Connor to get out of the surgery. Natasha knew what she had to do, she picked up her phone and dialled the number.

/

Connor laughed as Clint threw the ball towards her and she swiped it from the air, running past Tony and slamming on the ground.

"TOUCHDOWN! IN YOUR FACE STARK!" Everyone laughed apart from Tony who stormed away in a sulk.

Connor looked around at everyone before she sighed in content. "I belong with you guys."

/

Coulson's team were spread around the room, Trip passing out beers to everyone. As May ecused herself to answer a call, they all continued to talk.

May put the phone down as everyone turned to watch her as the older woman paled. Everyone knew something wasn't right. Skye asked first.

"It's Connor. There's been an incident."

/

The whole team stood up as the doctor who was operating on Connor walked down the corridor slowly towards them. There was blood covering his overalls, similar to the blood covering Clint from where he had held his friend. Clint looked down at himself, noting the blood stains of Connor still tainted his body, sticking to him like sweat.

The surgeon pulled his mask off his face, before looking all of them in the eye.

Before any of them could say anything, they already knew what the man was going to say. Natasha felt her whole world crumble in an instant while Tony just looked at Bruce, their eyes saying more than their mouths. Thor didn't understand but he did at the same time, he felt it. The doctor's mouth opened and Clint swore it was almost like slow motion as the archer fell to his knees at the two words he uttered.

"I'm sorry."