Watching a group of scientists study a glowing alien artifact in a facility located in the middle of nowhere for ten hours a day was defiantly not on Clint's list of favorite assignments but on the bright side at the end of his shift he went to his quarter's and got to watch his little girl play while his husband cooked them all dinner and talked about his day. This had been their routine for the last three and a half weeks now so it surprised Clint when he walked into the living room and saw that Jessica was still watching Tasha. "Hey you two, how'd it go today?"
"Da!" Tasha beamed, dropping what she had in her hands before running and leaping into Clint's arms.
"It went really well, except someone didn't want to take her nap today so she'll be ready for bed pretty early tonight." Jessica answered as she started picking up toys.
"Don't bother with that Jess, I can get it." Clint told her as he set Tasha back down on her feet. "Actually, little miss here can pick up her own toys."
"Yes." Tasha nodded before moving towards the center of destruction and began picking up her toys.
Clint glanced at the clock and was surprised to see that it was almost six and normally Phil was done at four. "I'm sorry you had to stay later, I hope Phil called and told you he was running later then usually."
"It's totally fine Clint and yes he did call." Jess replied as she grabbed her bag. "He wanted me to tell you to go ahead and eat without him as he was going to be pretty late tonight."
"Okay, thanks again Jess." Clint smiled as he followed the teenager to the front door. "Phil and I really appreciate you watching Tasha for us while we are stationed here."
"Honestly it's my pleasure, I love watching Tasha and I sure will miss her when you guys are done here."
"I know she'll miss you as well but don't worry from the sound of things we will be here for a few more months at least." Clint smiled down at his daughter as her arms went around his legs. "You better get back to your quarters before your mom starts to worry."
"Oh gosh, yeah she'll freak if I'm even slightly late." Jess winced as she glanced at the time. "So you're off duty until Thursday right?"
"That's right, and I'm not on duty until ten so you don't have to be here until nine thirty."
"Sounds good, I'll see you then. Good night Clint, night Tasha."
"Night." Tasha waved.
"Night Jess." Clint replied, waiting until the girl was in the secured elevator before shutting the door. "Well sweetie, it's just the two of us for dinner tonight. What are you wanting to eat?"
"Ghetti."
"Spaghetti, excellent choice." Clint replied.
"Puppy join?" Tasha asked as she moved to grab her stuffed dog from the couch.
"Of course puppy can join us for dinner." Clint replied as he set a pot of water on to boil before turning to watch as Tasha walked in with her stuffed dog. It was almost hard to believe she would be turning two in a month, Clint really wasn't sure how the last year flew by so fast.
"Da, baby?"
Clint glanced down at Tasha in confusion. "Sorry, what was that sweetie?"
"Baby, dolly." Tasha replied before walking out of the kitchen then back again with said doll in question. "Baby."
Clint kneeled down and allowed Tasha to place the doll in his arms. "Well this is new, did Jess give this to you?"
"Yes." Tasha smiled as she began to pet the dolls head. "Pretty."
"Just like you baby girl." Clint smiled as he looked down at the doll in his arms and instantly he felt an ache of longing for the baby he never had a chance to hold. "Tasha." Clint paused to gather the words he wanted to say. "Would you like to have a brother or sister?"
"Like Cinder?"
Clint puzzled over that for a moment before coming to a realization at what his daughter meant. "Well not like Cinderella's siblings, more like Princess Merida's from Brave."
The frown that crossed Tasha's face quickly disappeared as she beamed up at Clint. "Yes, be my baby."
"Yes sweetie, it would be your baby as well." Clint pulled Tasha into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "Now why don't you go play with puppy and dolly until dinner is ready."
"Kay." Tasha picked up her puppy and once Clint placed the doll back in her arms headed back out to the living room.
Sighing softly, Clint got up and added the pasta to the water before glancing at the time hoping Phil would be back soon as they had quite a bit to talk about.
It was just shy of ten when Phil finally arrived at their quarters. He successfully managed to unlock the door while balancing everything in his arms only to drop everything the moment he stepped into the room. "Shit." Phil quickly scrabbled to grab the paperwork that had fallen out of brief case before the cold coffee from the now open thermos got to it.
"Rough day babe?"
Phil sat back on his heels and looked up at his husband who was leaning again the living room doorway in nothing but his boxers. "Just the opposite actually but still it was a rather long day." Phil replied before setting the papers back in the briefcase and stepping over the mess to pull Clint in for a kiss.
"Well." Clint paused to catch his breath. "I'm just glad your home."
"So am I and you won't believe this Clint, but we found him."
Clint raised an eyebrow at the sound of Phil's voice going almost fan girl high. "Found who… no, you're not saying… that's impossible." There was only one man, after yours truly of course, who could make Phil act like a complete fool.
"I said the same thing when the Director called me but then I talked to one of the men in charge of the expedition and he confirmed details of the ship that SHEILD never released. But here is the best part, Captain America is still alive. He's in a hibernation like state and it's a fifty-fifty chance of him waking up but the possibility is there and having Steve Rogers wake up would change so many things."
"The initiative being the biggest one." Clint added as he knelt down to clean up the spilled coffee. "And seeing as the initiative is your baby I'm assuming you'll be leaving fairly quickly then."
Phil nodded as he closed his briefcase and set it aside before following Clint into their bedroom. "Someone needs to be in charge of the extraction team and escort Captain Rogers to New York where we plan on setting up a recovery room. This assignment is too big to just send anyone and I should only be gone for a few weeks but it all depends on if Captain Rogers wakes up or not."
"Just promise me that regardless to how long this assignment takes that you at least make sure you're here for Tasha's second birthday." Clint said as he settled himself in bed.
"Of course, I wouldn't miss her birthday for anything. Nothing is more important to me then my family." Phil replied as he started undressing.
"So how much longer do we have you for?"
"The Director wanted me to leave first thing in the morning but I requested a later flight seeing as this will be the first time I'll be apart from you and Tasha for this length of time since she was born." Phil said as he finished hanging up his suit before getting into bed next to Clint. "I haven't even left yet and I already miss you both."
"We will miss you too. It will be weird not having the three of us together." Clint replied as he laid his head on Phil's chest. "Phil, before you go there is something I want to talk to you about and it's something that I've put off for too long and you told me that when the time was right we would talk about making a decision on whether or not we would have any more children."
"Clint." Phil murmured as he wrapped his arm around the other man.
"Before you proposed to me the first time we discussed the fact that our daughter shouldn't be an only child and I know that having more children is still something you want even after..."
"This is a decision we need to make together and if you if you don't want to try again we can always go the adoption route but yes having more children of our own is still something I want."
"Good because I want to have another baby." Seconds after the words left his mouth, Clint found himself flat on his back with Phil's body pinning his down.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Phil smiled before leaning down and covering Clint's lips with his own.
A/N: Thanks as always to all you lovely people following this story and a special thanks to those who have left a review for the last chapter, I really appreciate it! This chapter I had actually planned to have up much sooner as I wrote 90% of it the day I last updated but trying to end this chapter was a bit of a pain and finally I just decided to leave it like I did as this chapter was just setting the stage for the next one which brings us to the events from the Avengers movie. So I apologize in advance if the next chapter takes awhile as in all honesty I'm not sure what direction I want to take or how close I will follow the events from the movie.
