A chapter!

Still not Marvel. (Dang it)

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Claire had fallen asleep. It was understandable that she had just drifted off eventually, sometime in the afternoon she thought. When she woke again, it was to dark windows and sounds she was unused to hearing in the tower. When she looked up, she saw a girl lying next to her, and had the sudden and highly illogical thought that she'd somehow slept for several years and it was Natalia, now five or six years old. Or even older.

She was rescued from her confusion by a pretty, brown-blond woman with a kind smile holding out a soup bowl towards her. "Here, Claire," the stranger said soothingly, "have some food. Are you feeling alright? Oh, and I'm Laura," she added with another reassuring smile, as if that explained everything.

It didn't explain anything to Claire.

By pure reflex, Claire pulled herself up into a slightly less reclined position, and accepted the soup bowl. She looked around the room.

Labyrinth was playing on the big screen, Sam and Natasha were sitting in a corner with Bruce, Tony was playing checkers with a small boy over on the thickest carpet, and the woman - Laura - just accepted Natalia back from Steve, while Bucky carried another, even smaller boy against his shoulder. Clint was back, lying half upside-down on the couch on the little girl's other side.

"Claire?" Laura gently reminded the engineer that she'd asked her a question. "You with me? I'm sorry for just appearing, it must be so disorienting after everything. Clint thought you could all use me for a few days, and of course I couldn't leave the kids."

"Of course not," Claire agreed, clearing her throat before adding, almost in a whisper, "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

Immediately, every eye in the room turned to her with various degrees of shock and even... was that shame?

Laura frowned, and then sent Clint a loaded glare. He held his hands up as if shielding himself from it somehow. "Really, love?" Laura shook her head. "You never told her?"

"Surely, we must have at some point, that's..." Steve denied, looking confused, just as Clint's too high-pitched voice ran through the room.

"I'm sorry! It just never came up in conversation!" He turned to Claire, shrugging and looking quite sheepish. "Laura is my wife. You have our daughter Lila next to you, and our youngest with Bucky is Nathaniel. He's named after Natasha, obviously... she's known forever, the rest of the Avengers found out a few years back when Tony happened to hack me... like he does, you know? I'm really sorry. I just forgot to say anything to you."

Claire closed her eyes again, Steve having to step in and grab her soup as she forgot she had it. She blinked, a bit ashamed, as she felt him grab it from her hands. "Sorry... and yeah, I get that," she added for Clint's benefit. "It made no sense for you to tell me right away... I've never heard them mentioned so I'm assuming it's a secret?" She looked around at the general nodding, and leant back against the sofa, holding her hands out for the soup. Steve carefully returned it.

"Well, now we've met, anyway." Laura smiled at her. "And I'm glad we have, thought the circumstances could be a little more..."

"I'm not at my best," Claire agreed, "but I'm glad to meet you, too!"


A low mumble of voices were heard in the pressroom when Pepper Potts entered for the briefing. Stark Industries had made a lightning takeover during the morning, and had already called for a press conference before rumours had started to circulate that the baby somehow shared between the former power couple and the Black Widow had been kidnapped and maybe killed.

This was cause for enough talk, of course, but now the CEO of Stark Industries entered the briefing along with the wrong billionaire business owner. Everyone had expected her to be alone, but even if she wasn't, Tony Stark ought to have been the one with her. He wasn't. Pepper Potts had brought with her Bruce Wayne.

Smirking at the immediate raise in the noise levels, Pepper threw a glance at her temporary company. She needed a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist for this bit, and Tony was occupied, but Wayne was available.

Bruce smiled back at her, just as used to the press as herself or Tony, and seemingly amused more than anything. He sat down next to her, patient and silent as she bulldozed across all unsolicited questions and went over the takeover first. His bit was at the end, when they went over the new release of their clean energy tech.


That evening, as Claire finally left her cocoon behind to actually sit at the table for dinner, every self-respecting news station in the country (and quite a few of those overseas) excitingly proclaimed the breaking news about the botched kidnapping.

One small news station from Brooklyn had perhaps the best, or at least most entertaining reporting on the case.

"A league of idiotic criminals tried to abduct Doctor Bruce Banner - mostly known for being the alter ego of Hulk from the Avengers - Miss Claire Thomas, known for being some sort of live-in secretary or assistant to Tony Stark, and Natalia Maria Stark, the daughter of Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanova and Tony Stark.

The criminals in question somehow missed the detail that kidnapping and beating up Dr Banner and an innocent woman and baby would lead to an appearance of the Hulk, who subsequently tore them into so many pieces paramedics had to gather them together before identification could even be started. No ambulances were requested at the scene, but Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, confirmed the well-being of her baby at tonight's press conference.

There has been a photo circulated of supposedly Miss Thomas held in the arms of Captain America, Steve Rogers at the scene of the eventual rescue, but it is believed to be a hoax. Possibly it is not as Bruce Wayne, owner of Wayne Incorporated, for some incomprehensible reason present at the aforementioned press-briefing, briefly commented on how Miss Thomas had some light injuries. She is said to be alright, and with some luck we will soon be able to tell for ourselves, as there's a vintage car auction held downtown next month and she is usually Stark's date to such events."

The Avengers all had a good, if somewhat grim, snicker about it after Clint found that one.