FINDING HOME

SUMMARY – Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER – All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER 6

It had been an impossibly long day for Paul. Really it had been a long week, a rough month, and a downright brutal couple of years. Ever since Sam and Jared had approached him two years ago about helping them start up their construction business, it seemed like he never had a moment to himself to just relax. Granted, the insanity that was his life now really started long before that. He had been buried in responsibilities from the first day that he phased.

Thinking back on those early days, Paul couldn't help but cringe. Sam had always done the best he could for the pack, but back then, when danger seemed to be waiting for them around every corner, they'd all been hopelessly out of their depth. And they'd lost a lot of good people as they desperately tried to fight their enemies.

Things were considerably quieter now on that front; there was only the occasional nomad to deal with, and Sam had lightened up on the patrol schedules as a result.

But Paul couldn't really bring himself to enjoy the reprieve from the constant vampire hunting. Because it hadn't come cheap, and the whole pack knew that there was someone still paying for it every single day.

Bella Swan.

Things had only calmed down after Bella left town for good, and it didn't take a genius to guess that the trouble had followed her straight out of our lives. And by then Charlie, Billy, Harry, and Sue were all already dead.

Not that anyone could ever blame Bella for that. He knew that she likely blamed herself; the letter she left the night she disappeared made that fairly clear to all of them, but despite what she might think, they never blamed her. In fact, Jake, Seth and Leah had all immediately taken off after her to try and convince her to come home.

They never saw those three again, not even in the pack mind, at least not after Sam relayed the news about their families' deaths three days later. So we could only assume that either they decided to leave with Bella, which was entirely possible since their families were gone, or Victoria and her army got to them before they got to Bella. Either way, their absence was even more painful for the pack to bear, and made it that much harder to enjoy the peace now.

Sam blamed himself, and drank to drown his pain. Jared poured himself into the business to distract himself from the pain, barely sparing enough time to eat, sleep, patrol, and tend to his imprint. Quil and Embry both suffered the most from the grief over losing first Bella, who had become like a sister to all of us, but was especially close to each of them, and then the loss of Jake, who was practically their brother.

Collin and Brady were still in high school, but as the end of their senior year was rapidly approaching, they were both making plans to stop phasing and get as far away from La Push and the pack as they could; Bella had practically raised them both after their gran died, and they were lost without her.

Even the imprints were depressed without their little hellion ring leader around. Emily had become especially close to Bella in the months leading up to her departure, and Sam's pain was made all the more potent by the pain of his mate.

And that left Paul. He combined a bit of all of it. He drank to try to forget that those he had sworn to protect her gone. He fought. He partied. He worked himself into the ground.

He had slept with damn near every girl within a hundred miles of the res, only to be bound to and then rejected by his imprint when she returned for Billy's funeral. As if he didn't have enough to deal with in this mess of a life, the spirits decided he needed to be tied to his 'perfect soulmate', who the imprint bond found in none other than his fallen pack brother's older sister, Rachel Black.

So to say that today had been long and grueling was a bit redundant. These days, every hour was too long and too painful for Paul.

He had been checking on a new site for Sam in Seattle, and was now making a quick stop for boos at the gas station on the way out of town, fully intent on spending the rest of his night forgetting his grief in the bottom of a very deep bottle.

That is until he heard what the gentlemen at the front counter were asking Greg, the owner of this little piece of crap gas station.

They were perhaps thirty feet away from him, clear on the other side of the little convenience store attached to the pumps, but with his wolf hearing, every word was crystal clear.

The taller of the two, a muscled soldier-boy type with light blonde hair was holding up a tablet, apparently showing Greg a photo when he said the only thing in the world that could have made Paul pay any attention in that moment, "Her name is Isabella Swan. She lived a few hours from here, but we're pretty sure she stopped in here on her way out of town. Did she say anything about where she was headed?"

Who the hell were these guys? And what did they want with Bella after all this time? Paul couldn't help the pain that coursed through him as he thought about what must have been running through her head that night. And to think that he'd been passing through the doors of this place at least once a week, and talked to Greg a thousand times, and he'd never once even thought to ask him about Bells.

"You know what," Greg said, a surprised laugh following his words, "I actually do remember her. Though I swear she said her name was Charlie something or other. Sweet girl."

Charlie? If Paul wasn't absolutely sure that this was their Bells this stranger was asking about, he was now. She'd taken her father's name when she ran? Why hadn't any of them ever thought to check for that when they looked for her?

"We believe she was using the alias Charlotte Connolly at the time she passed through here," the shorter, stockier man with the long, blonde hair explained, "She may have introduced herself as Charlie. But it's very important that we find her. Is there anything else you can remember that might be helpful?"

Paul had set his bottle of bourbon back on the shelf and was openly watching the men at the counter now, though he hadn't moved from his place across the store.

"Who did you fellas say you were with again?" Greg suddenly asked, sounding somewhat suspicious, and Paul was impressed with the man. He didn't know Bells, but he wasn't going to go telling her personal business to just anyone all the same. And honestly, Paul wanted to know who these guys were too.

Soldier-boy pulled a badge from his jacket and showed it to Greg patiently saying, "We are agents with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD, as I told you before sir."

"We have reason to believe that Miss Swan may be in danger," the other guy said, sounding genuinely concerned, "She needs help, and we just want to find her before she gets hurt."

Could it be possible that these mystery government types somehow knew about Victoria? Or had Bells gotten herself mixed up in something else that had agents trying to find her? Paul's fear had kicked up a notch, but at the same time, a small part of him was thrilled. If these guys were still looking for her, then she must still at least be alive right? After three years with no word, he wasn't the only one who had begun to worry that she might have gotten herself killed at some point.

"Alright," Greg relented with a heavy sigh, "All she said was that she was headed North, wanted to see the sights, maybe spend some time in Canada. It was a long time ago, but she just seemed special somehow, you know? Like anyone with eyes could tell she was scared out of her wits and running from something, or someone, but she stopped to help this young gal calm down her crying baby girl, and she was real kind. I don't know, there was just something about her that stuck with me I guess."

Paul knew exactly what Greg was talking about. That was just so Bells. Running from a sadistic vampire bitch and she takes the time to help out a complete stranger simply because it seemed like the right thing to do… Selfless to a fault.

"You're going to help her, right?" Greg asked the two mystery guys before they left the store.

Looking back over his shoulder at the small man behind the counter, soldier-boy smiled kindly and told him, "We're going to try." And then the two of them walked out and climbed into an SUV in the lot, one which Paul noted had government plates.

His boos completely forgotten, Paul followed them outside and pulled out his cell phone, pushing 1 in his speed dial as Agents one and two drove away.

"Hello?" his alpha's voice answered on the second ring, sounding tired, "Paul? Everything alright at the site?"

"We need to call a pack meeting Sam," he said, letting his hope and curiosity and fear all leak into his voice as he finished by saying simply, "I have news about Bella Swan."

"My house. Two hours. I'll call the others," he ordered, his voice taking on a purposeful timber they'd rarely heard since Bells left, and then his alpha hung up without another word and Paul quickly climbed in his car and headed back towards La Push.

And of course, Paul couldn't help but notice, Soldier-boy and his side-kick were headed in exactly the same direction.