~:~

INFIRMARY

I opened my eyes to a bright light. Am I dead?

As my vision cleared, I noticed tubes and IVs stuck into my body. Nope not dead.

I panicked and started to pull them out. The monitors blared and a nurse came rushing in.

"Hold on, hold on!" She grabbed my hands. "Let's get you checked out first."

I shook my head and tried to speak. She shushed me and handed me a glass of water. "Here drink this" I gulped down the liquid and coughed roughly.

"Cli-i-i-int?"

She handed me another glass. "Let us clear you first."

The doctor came and checked my injuries. Once he gave the okay, the nurse helped me clean up. I looked in the mirror, and noticed the bruising around my neck. The nurse left and came back with a high collared shirt.

"You don't need to cover that with makeup just yet. Your trachea is still bruised so you don't need to put pressure on it." I nodded my head and finished getting ready.

The doctor came in and checked me one last time, "Just be careful and don't stress yourself too much."

"Aye, aye, doc."

I looked out the window and saw Tony run down towards the room.

"Are you okay?" He came up and hugged me.

"I'm fine," I winced at the pain. "But can you please let go?"

"Sorry," he pulled away. "Forgot about that."

"It's okay. Don't worry."

He pulled at my collar. "So how'd this happen?"

I jerked his hand away. "Not if your going to hurt him."

"I'm not. Unless him is Loki. Then, I have to." Tony crossed his arms. "You don't have to tell me now. Just, remember that you still have to tell me about all this. From the beginning"

"I will...when this is over."

Tony nodded. "Good."

I noticed him fidgeting. Something's totally up. "Tony… what happened?"

"That agent. Coulson. He um…" Died.

I nodded. You didn't even have to tell me. "Loki?"

"Yeah. But he got away."

I got up off the bed and walked towards the door. "Then, make him pay."

He nodded. "Stay safe. Don't do anything I would do."

I smirked. "How do you think I'm still alive?"

"Touche." He said as he followed me out. "Well, I'll be in the workshop."

"Hey, Tony?"

He turned around. "Yeah?"

"I have a son." His face paled. "And no it wasn't Grant's doing."

"I know," he replied. I cocked my head in confusion. "I heard some kid on your phone call you 'mom' one day. I also had JARVIS run some stuff. Which reminds me…." he raised a brow. "Hela Bell?"

Dammit, Murdock. "Don't ask, okay." He gave me a thumbs up in reply. "Stay safe."

"You too, kid."

After he left, the nurse led me to Clint's room.

I saw Natasha at the edge of the bed. She looked up and glanced over to the bathroom.

"Angie?"

I turned to see Clint in the doorway. I ran up and hugged him. When he hugged me tighter, it put pressure on my throat and I began to cough erratically.

Natasha handed me some water and helped me sit down. She unzipped the collar of my shirt, exposing the bruise that covered my neck.

"I did this, didn't I?"Clint gently brushed his fingers near the bruise.

I started shaking my head."Clint, don't do this to yourself," I croaked. "You weren't in control."

"It doesn't matter, Ange. What if I had killed you? Huh? I would have to live with that for the rest of my life." I could see the tears welling up in his eyes.

I put a hand on his cheek. "But you didn't."

"Time to go." I turned to see Cap.

"Go where?" Tasha asked.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

Clint stood up."I can." Cap looked to us and we nodded in confirmation.

"Got a suit?" Clint nodded. "Then suit up." Cap turned to leave, then stopped. "Angie. I'm glad you're okay."

I smiled. "If I wasn't, then I wouldn't be me." He smirked and stepped out into the hall.

After Tasha left, Clint grabbed his bag and put on his gear. "Stay here until this blows over." I quirked a brow and crossed my arms. "You know what I mean, Ange."

"On one condition." I walked up to him and put my hands on his shoulders. "Come back."

"Ange-"

I shook my head. "No, Clint. I know you can't but at least try. Please." I lifted my hands to his cheeks. "I lost you once. I don't want to lose you again."

He kissed my forehead and gently hugged me. "I know. But this time I promise you that I will come back. I will come back from the dead if i have to." When I tensed, he pulled back immediately. "Sorry..."

I turned and sat on the bed."It's not the neck. When you said that you'd come back from the-."

He nodded. "I know. I miss him too, kid."

"He just died...And I couldn't do anything." I looked down and stared at my hands.

"Angie, no one could." He sat beside me and took my hand in his. "Don't beat yourself up about this."

"You don't understand, Clint." I looked up tearily. "First, it was you, and then…." I sobbed.

Clint threw and arm around my shoulder and rocked me back and forth as I broke down. "Shhh, it's gonna be okay."

As my sobs subsided, Tasha walked in. "It's time."

He stood up and threw his quiver on his back. "I'll be back."

I nodded, giving him a smile. "Keep everybody safe." Shooting up from my seat, I shouted out for Clint. Once he turned around, I took a deep breath, "When you get back, we need to have a long talk."

~:~

HELICARRIER- COMMAND DECK

Fury turned around. "Ah, Miss Jarvis. It's good to see you up. Maybe you can help us."

"What do you need?"

"First. help us get our communications back on," he motioned to his main computer. "I don't care what you have to do. I need eyes on everything going on down there."

My fingers danced across the screens, re-coding and decoding everything. "Aye, aye, Captain." The system was difficult but not impossible, but then one, two, three… "Got it. You got eyes from Harlem to Financial."

Hill gawked. "That was fast."

I shrugged. "Not my first rodeo."

"Stark teach you that?" Fury asked crossing his arms.

"Nope, I had to learn to clean up his mess." I smirked. "Did you really think he only hacked the Pentagon?"

He shook his head. "Remind me to talk with you about that after we save the world."

"You know I was kind of joking, right?" I walked over and sat in one of the chairs

"You definitely are a Stark." He muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck. Grinning, I leaned back with my hands behind my head and put my feet on the table.

My phone starts buzzing. Logan…. "Hello?"

"Angie, what the heck is going on?"

"Um, I kinda can't tell you. Classified info."

"Really, cause right now I'm watching a dude in spangly spandex, a giant green dude, your robot uncle, a bearded lady, Robin Hood, and a supermodel fight giant lizards from outer space."

"How much time did it take for you to come up with that elaborate explanation?"

"Does-"

"Rhetorical Logan! Look," I dropped my voice lower, "I'll tell you more when I come back, okay."

"Fine." Click. Wow, someone's beer turned.

I looked up and noticed Fury staring at me. "What was that, Miss Jarvis?"

"Um," Crap, crap, crap. "That friend that helped us track the Tesseract. He, uh, was making sure we found it." He raised a brow. "And I wasn't going to tell him anything over the phone and risk anything. I am smarter than that."

"Whatever you say." He turned back to the screen. "Just remember-."

"Sir," Hill's face paled. "The Council is calling."

He pressed the screen. "I'm a little busy here." I couldn't hear what they said but then Fury shouted, "I recognize that the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."

My head popped up. What the heck are they doing? I looked over and see Hill panicking.

"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman." Fury's face hardened. "Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population….I'd send that bird out, we already have." He shut the transmission off and stormed away from it.

Hill looked at him."What are we gonna do?"

"Let's hope they-"

I noticed something on the screen and pointed. "Uh, guys…"

Hill walked up and her eyes widened. "Sir, we have a bird in motion!" Fury ran off the bridge."Anyone on the deck we have a rogue bird. We need to shut it down! Repeat, takeoff is not authorized!"

I watched the screen as he destroyed the first aircraft but missed the second. No, no, no. I pull out my phone. "JARVIS call Tony."

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Stark is unavailable-." Are you kidding me!

Fury ran onto the bridge, yelling in his earpiece. "Stark, you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city...Three minutes. Max. Stay load can wipe out Midtown."

My eyes bore into the screen as I watched Tony race for the missile. He caught up and started to turn it toward the portal. My phone started ringing. Tony…. The words from my dreams rung in my ears. No, please, no. "Tony?"

"Yeah, kid. It's me. Look-"

My eyes watered. "Please, don't do this. I still have to tell you everything."

"Tell me, keep me company. Tell me 'bout that friend Clint."

" 'Kay, um. Remember when you were sick? Well, SHIELD assigned him to keep an eye on me."

"Like Romanoff?"

"Yeah, and one thing lead to another and we became friends. And then he got reassigned to find-"

"I love you kid." The call shut off and the line went static.

"Tony? Tony!" I turn back to the screen as the portal begins to close. "Tony, no!" As it closes, i see something fall from the portal. "Hill, what is that?"

She zooms in closer. "It's Stark…"

Please, no. His body plummets to the ground. He's not slowing down. The Hulk grabs him and slides down the building, placing him by the others. "Hill, patch me in." She hands me an earpiece. "Cap?"

"Angie? What are-"

"Is he okay?"

"I don't-" I hear the Hulk roar through the comm.

Suddenly, I hear Tony gasp. "What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Cap laughed. "Yeah, Angie. He's okay."

I turned to Hill. "Does this patch through to all of them?" When she nodded, I called out, "Tony?"

"Hey, kid. So you were at reassignment."

I chuckled. "You're not done yet, get back to work. I'll see you later."

"Fine!"

"One more thing. DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN."

"I love you too kid. Meet us at the shawarma place on 6th in 30."

"So now that this is over," I turned off the comm and looked at the two spies. "It was only Burger King. He insisted that he had to know what was in their secret sauce."

Fury chuckled. "We already knew that, Miss. It's just fun to watch your skin crawl."

I mocked disgust. "Well, I'll be going then. Something about shawarma."

~:~

We ate there in silence, until Tony said, "So, where were we? Reassignment?"

I wiped my mouth. "So, bro-friend here got reassigned to New Mexico until Loki. He came to visit once, but very briefly."

"Wait, that was it? No emotional reunions or sweet battles?" He frowned.

"Only in video games. Other than that, nope," I said popping my lip. "Anything else you want to know?"

Tony leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, how'd you and Capsicle meet?"

"Fury asked me to come in for a consultation. When I got there, Cap was a literally a Capsicle." I said taking a bite of my taco. "They wanted me to help him adapt to the twenty-first century."

"Adapted yet, Cap?" He gave Steve the cheesiest grin.

He shrugged. "Mostly. Still learning."

"Anything else, Tony," I said. "Or are you going to interrupt my taco again?"

He shook his head and then we went back to eating in silence.

~:~

HELICARRIER

"You what?"

"You heard me." I took a sip of my beer.

He uncrossed his legs and leaned back against the wall. "How long?"

"Over a year ago," I replied. "He asked me to. It was kinda hard to say no; he's a cute kid."

"Tony know?"

I nodded in reply. "He figured it out and I just confirmed it."

"How old is he again?"

"15."

"You're crazy, you know that? You're what, 27?" he grinned.

"Tony was bound to rub off on me sometime."

He laughed," True, true." He gulped down the last of his beer and crushed the can. "How's the research thing going?"

I sighed. "Not much more than what I knew last time I saw you."

"Which is….." I inwardly groaned and proceeded to tell him what I had learned.

"So, you're telling me that he's like your what?" I gave him a look.

"You think I realize that."

"You sound crazy, you know."He shook his head.

"Have I ever been wrong?"

He bobbed his head."A few times." I crossed my arms.

"Oh, really?" I said, crossing my arms. "Name one time." He sat there trying to think of something, and threw up his hands in defeat..

"Fine! You win."

"Uh huh, that's what I thought." I undid my ponytail and shook out my brown locks.

"What are you gonna do after tomorrow?"

"Don't know yet. Fury said that Cap is adjusted mostly. They don't need me anymore," I replied. "Probably visit Westchester and go on some crazy road trip. Wanna come?"

"Westchester, no; crazy road trip, maybe."

"What do you mean maybe? There will be alcohol and beautiful people."

He turned and narrowed his eyes at me. "Who are you and what have you done with Angie? She doesn't love either of those things."

"What are you talking about?" I scoff. "I enjoy a drink from time to time and I do admire men from afar."

"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "And aren't you not so secretly dating that agent?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I have my sources."

"Which is…."

"I may or may not have had Tasha follow you around while I was in New Mexico."

"Anyways…."I replied, rolling my eyes. "No, we aren't dating. At least not anymore."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Doesn't matter anymore. And back to our other conversation: It's been a long three days and I've lost almost three people to an alien invasion." I crossed my arms. "I think I deserve a vacation. Plus, it's time me and my kid had some family bonding time."

"True. But if we do take a road trip, I have just the place to bring you."

My face paled. "You're not going to kill me are you?"

"What for? Going after me? Nah, we cool." He laughed. "You'll see where. You'd love it."

"Really? Hmm, it must be special. So…" I smirked. "What's up with Budapest? And why do you and Nat remember it differently?"

"Natasha." He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Well I guess it's time you knew." I turned my body towards him and crossed my legs, sitting there like a little kid. He laughed, "Well, it was nighttime and I heard this rustling…."

~:~

LATER THAT NIGHT

I walked down towards the bridge and saw the others. Thor looked up. "Ah, milady. 'Tis most wondrous to see you well. I apologize for my brother Loki's trouble."

"It's okay, Thor. But can you promise me something?"

"Anything, Lady Jarvis."

The corner of my mouth quirked up."Can I punch him before you two leave?"

His mouth twitched. "I think that can be arranged."

I pumped my fist and ran towards the training room, as the others laughed. "Clint! I need you!"

~:~

THE NEXT DAY- CENTRAL PARK

We gathered to see Thor off with Loki. After the others had said their goodbyes, I walked up to Thor and hugged him. As I walked over to Loki, I glanced at Clint who gave me a thumbs up and to Thor who nodded. And I punched Loki so hard, he'll be feeling it till Ragnarok.

"That's from me. And Coulson." I turned away and strutted away as Heimdall whisked them away.

"Nice punch," Steve said when I walked up to him.

"What do you think Clint was helping me with? Didn't want to break my hand." I jammed my hands in the pockets of my jacket. "So, where are you going after this?"

He shrugged. "Stay here until Fury reassigns me somewhere else."

"Sounds good." I said waving goodbye to Tony. "Um, I've also been meaning to talk with you. I need your help."

"What do you mean?"

I shifted my footing. "Remember my mom's journals?" He nodded. "Well, I found some information. That's where you and your beautiful mind come in."

He furrowed his brows. "How?"

"Does the name James Buchanan Barnes mean anything to you?"

~:~

Hey guys, thanks for reading.

So, this next part which goes through Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron might take a while. There's an aspect that I'm trying to get through, but I keep finding a dead end.

Send me some ideas this way through PM or review and maybe it'll clear up some of my writer's block.

See y'all next time! Goodbyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee!