Cooper

It had been a long journey back to the farmhouse, and Natasha had collapsed into bed at three in the afternoon and slept like a rock until eight. Still a little bleary-eyed, she made her way downstairs to seek out some water and a bite to eat.

There were voices in the living room. Despite having been on exactly the same mission as Natasha, Clint was awake.

"No. Absolutely not," Laura was saying, but her giggles betrayed her.

"It's unique!" Clint argued, "And it's accurate!"

Rounding the corner at the bottom of the stairs, Natasha spotted the two of them on the couch. Laura was leaning back comfortably, and Clint was on his knees in front of her, his hands on her rapidly-growing baby bump.

"What do you think, kiddo?" Clint said to the bump. "'Lucky' is a great name, don't you think?"

"Lucky!?" Natasha cried, unable to help herself.

Both Laura and Clint jumped a little. As a general rule, Natasha made virtually no noise when moving around, and they had not heard her come downstairs.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she said sheepishly. "But seriously, "Lucky"!? I mean, it'd be a great name for a dog, but not your son!"

"See? Thank you, Nat! Finally, some sense." Laura's tone clearly indicated that she considered the argument won.

Clint looked between the two women, who were smiling and sharing a knowing look with each other. "Hey, this isn't cool, you know, you two ganging up on me!"

"We only do that when you're being an idiot-"

"-which is most of the time."

Clint opened his mouth to retort, but then realised it would probably have been a waste of time. Instead, he beckoned earnestly to Natasha. "Come here, Nat, you can feel him kick."

Slowly, cautiously, as if approaching a scared animal, she crept towards the couch. After looking up at Laura for permission, she laid her hands on Laura's abdomen. Moments later, she felt a distinct movement.

"You see?" Laura smiled as Natasha looked up at her, eyes full of wonder. "He knows his Auntie Nat's here."

Coulson

"No, that is definitely not a good idea."

Laura overheard Natasha using her 'firm but calm' voice in the kitchen. She paused in her tidying and listened more carefully.

"No. No way. Are you completely insane?"

The slightest hint of panic, carefully disguised, was slipping into Nat's voice. Laura poked her head into the kitchen to see what was going on.

Strike Team Delta was huddled at the kitchen table, peering at something on a laptop. Natasha was standing behind Clint, her hands on the back of his chair, her shoulders tense. Clint was sitting sideways in his chair, twisting upwards to look at Natasha as he spoke.

"It'd be so cool though. And he'd be such a great friend to it," Clint argued earnestly.

Laura wondered what whacky idea her husband had come up with now. She hesitated, unsure of whether her input would be required.

"We are not buying Coulson a pet alpaca for his birthday!"

Ah. That's what it was.

"But look, he's so cute!" Clint gestured wildly at the computer screen.

"Clint!" Natasha sounded quite exasperated. Laura guessed that this discussion had been going on for some time. "Laura, what do you think?" Natasha asked suddenly. Laura was not surprised that Natasha had noticed her presence.

"A pet alpaca really does not seem the most practical idea," Laura agreed.

Clint narrowed his eyes accusingly. "But he's cute!"

"As cute as the alpaca is, Coulson does not live on a farm. It would definitely cause him more headache than anything else."

Clint's eyes darted between his wife and his partner, frowning suspiciously. "That's almost word-for-word what Nat said..."

"Is it?" Laura grinned. "Well, you know what they say about great minds."

With a sigh, Clint admitted defeat. "I suppose you're right. Let's see, how about a nice fish?"

Medical leave

Usually, when Clint was away on medical leave, Natasha tried to hang around the farm as much as possible, helping out around the house and spending time with baby Cooper. This time, however, Fury himself summoned her for a solo mission while Clint was still recuperating from a bullet wound to the shoulder.

As a result, Clint was already two weeks into his medical leave by the time Natasha showed up at the farm. She parked her motorcycle near the hay shed, swung her bag over one shoulder and walked up to the house. The door was unlocked, and she was expected, so she slipped through and dropped her bag in the entryway, then made her way through the house to find her hosts.

"Clint? Laura? You home?"

They weren't anywhere on the ground floor, so Natasha went upstairs, trying not to become worried. It had been a minor flesh wound, and two weeks ago at that. Had it become infected? Why else would he and Laura both be upstairs in the middle of the day?

As Natasha climbed the stairs, she could hear voices coming from Cooper's room. That was good, she thought. They weren't up here because Clint was bedridden; they were just taking care of the baby.

But as she drew closer, it became far too clear that it wasn't all rainbows and diaper changes at the Bartons'.

"Please, Clint, just wait a little longer. I know it still hurts." Laura was speaking softly, presumably to avoid waking Cooper, but she sounded close to tears. Natasha felt an uncomfortable jolt in her chest. Laura rarely cried.

"He's my son! I just want to pick him up." Clint sounded like he actually was in tears.

Panicking a little, Natasha quickened her pace and hurried into the room. The scene before her just about broke her heart.

Laura was standing in front of Cooper's crib, blocking access to Clint. Clint had removed his sling and held it in his good arm, and was shifting his weight from side to side, trying to get around Laura. If it had been anyone else, he probably would have just shoved them aside, but he could never do anything to cause even the slightest harm to Laura, and she knew it.

They both turned when they heard the door creak open, and Natasha was shocked to see that Clint's cheeks were wet.

"Natasha, thank god," Laura breathed.

"Oh, Clint," Natasha sighed. She took one step forward, and when he didn't back away, she walked right up to him and gently maneuvered his injured arm back into the sling. He was clearly too spent to protest.

"He's growing so fast, Nat," Clint said helplessly. "I just want to pick him up."

"I know."

"I can do it, you know. I can handle a little pain."

"It's not just a little pain, Clint, you could do permanent damage," Laura said tiredly. She had clearly gone through this exact conversation many times over the past two weeks.

Natasha nodded in agreement. "You're an archer, Clint. You need this arm."

"I'm a father first," he retorted.

Natasha simply smiled. "He's going to keep getting bigger, you know. And he'll still want you to pick him up. You need that arm to heal, Clint."

Clint sighed, and remained silent for some time. Laura flashed a grateful look at Natasha, who nodded ever so slightly in acknowledgement.

"I'll put him in your arms again once he's up," Laura promised. "So you can hold him again. And then in a few weeks, when your shoulder's healed, you can try picking him up."

Clint simply nodded, finally accepting the reality of the situation. "Thank you," he whispered, "to both of you."

Christmas

It was simple and elegant. Silver, not gold. A tiny charm on a delicate chain. And most importantly, subtle. The only kind of jewellery she would actually wear.

"I love it," Natasha said earnestly. She felt her throat closing up with emotion and had to fight to keep her voice steady. "It's beautiful. Thank you, truly."

Laura and Clint smiled at each other. Laura nudged her husband slightly, and he got to his feet. He took the necklace from Natasha and put it on for her, carefully securing the clasp at the back. The tiny silver arrow settled comfortably above her collar as if it was destined to belong there. Natasha touched it gently, and smiled.

"We wanted something subtle, so you could wear it with your everyday outfits," Laura explained. "Well, I say 'we'. Clint, as usual, wanted to take it a dozen steps too far."

"Hey!" Clint protested, looking up from where he had begun wrestling bits of wrapping paper away from Cooper's mouth. The baby had a strange fascination with eating the wrapping paper. "I just wanted something really special."

"This is special," Natasha said, looking down at the necklace fondly.

Laura smiled, a glimpse of triumph beneath her eyes, but Clint wasn't done yet. "Well, yes," he said. "But it could have been more special, if Laura hadn't vetoed my idea."

"We want her to actually be able to wear it, Clint."

"She could've worn it!"

"Not without the world seeing her entire life history-"

"Nah, the world's not that smart."

"-not to mention how heavy it would be around her neck."

"Have you met her? She's the Black Widow. She's strong!"

Natasha was amused by the bickering, despite having no idea what was going on. But unfortunately, the argument meant that no one was watching baby Cooper, who seized the lapse in his parents' attention to take a large bite out of a piece of wrapping paper decorated with cartoon reindeer.

"Watch it!" Natasha grabbed a now-headless Rudolph out of Cooper's grasp, and tried to recoup the head from within his mouth. Somehow, it seemed, he had already swallowed it.

The commotion over Cooper and the wrapping paper seemed to remind Clint and Laura of Natasha's presence. Giving up on Rudolph's head, Natasha turned to them and asked, "So what's this other potential necklace that Clint designed?"

Laura rolled her eyes. "Clint found a website that allows you to pick a sequence of charms. He wanted to make you a giant metal rope around your neck."

"Now that is an exaggeration. I had only picked out a few. Let's see - there was the hourglass, of course, and the firefly-"

"It was a house fly," Laura interrupted. "They didn't have fireflies."

"But we could have pretended!" Clint insisted. "Anyway, the hourglass, the firefly, the Russian temple thing-"

"The synagogue," Laura interrupted again. "It was a synagogue."

"Close enough. And also a spider, a set of Russian dolls, a pair of ballet shoes, the little love-heart inscribed with 'Auntie' and, uh, there was one more I think..."

"The arrow," Laura supplied, rolling her eyes again.

Clint ignored the eye roll. "Yes, the arrow. You see? Come on, Nat, side with me for once."

Natasha stared at her partner for a long moment. She was a little overwhelmed by how much thought he'd put into this, and had to push away that familiar lump in her throat again. But still, she couldn't deny the facts before her.

"Clint, that's really sweet of you." She looked him in the eye carefully, so that he could be sure that she meant it. Then she turned to his wife. "But...Laura?"

"Hmmm?"

"Thank you."

Laura grinned, and Clint threw his hands up in exasperation. "I never win against you two!"

Lila

Having lost the right to name his firstborn, Clint was determined to come up with a great name for his daughter. Knowing that between Laura and Natasha he was completely outnumbered, he set about holding brainstorming sessions with little Cooper, so that he would at least be able to try for an even vote.

"How about 'Dorcas', eh? What do you think, buddy?" Clint asked one night, as he was bathing Cooper.

Cooper shook his head emphatically. "No!"

"Hmm, I suppose you're right. What about...'Candida'?" Clint consulted the book that he'd procured, and looked at the definition. "Candida means 'pure white'. That's nice, eh?"

Cooper was suddenly distracted by his rubber duck, and merely shrugged.

"Right, that can go on the 'maybe' list," Clint decided. He glanced at his watch. "Okay, time to get out, buddy."

As he was drying Cooper off and dressing him in pajamas, Clint heard the front door open and close. Natasha was here, on leave for two weeks, which would hopefully coincide with his daughter's birth.

By the time Laura and Natasha came upstairs, Clint had managed to wrestle his toddler son into pajamas and tuck him into bed. He'd just begun negotiations over the number of bedtime stories tonight when he heard Laura's voice outside the door. "If you're quick, you might be able to catch him before bedtime."

The two women entered carefully, then relaxed as they saw Cooper was still awake.

"Auntie Nat!" Cooper cried happily, and practically dove out of bed to greet her. Natasha, a huge grin on her face, knelt down to hug him.

"I only just got him into bed," Clint groaned, but he was smiling. He rarely got to see Natasha this happy, and he wanted it to last.

"I help Daddy with baby names!" Cooper declared proudly, as Natasha tried to tuck him back into bed.

"Oh really?" Natasha raised an eyebrow. "What did you come up with today then?"

Clint noticed that Natasha wasn't at all surprised at this topic of conversation. He strongly suspected that Laura had told her about his brainstorming sessions with Cooper, and had recruited her into vetoing all of his proposed names.

"Candida," Clint answered, because Cooper had obviously forgotten. "It means 'pure white'."

Laura was already shaking her head.

"Aww, come on! White, you know, as in pure, untainted, innocent. It's a pretty concept!"

"It's archaic," Natasha said, an amused smile playing on the corners of her lips.

"It's traditional," Clint insisted, "which is not necessarily bad."

"Maybe not," Natasha agreed. "But in this case it's bad. As Candida albicans is the name of a common yeast infection."

That stopped Clint in his tracks. He had opened his mouth to protest, but promptly closed it again. Laura and Natasha shared an infuriatingly familiar look of victory.

"What's a 'yees infeshion'"? Cooper asked.

Nathaniel

"Nate, for the last time, you can't ride a pony to school. Dad's going to drop you off in the car with Lila and Cooper."

Laura was entangled in an argument with her youngest. They had been having the same argument every day for the past month. Laura blamed Clint.

It had been a casual family dinner. Nathaniel had been so excited to start school, and Clint had offhandedly suggested that his first day of school should be special.

"Cooper and Lila went on the back of Nat's motorcycle. Maybe Nate can go on a pony."

And that was that. The idea was rooted in Nate's head, and much like his namesake, Nate had a knack of getting ideas stuck in his head and refusing to let them go.

"But Mummy! Daddy said Cooper and Lila got Auntie Nat to take them. Why can't I have a pony?"

"Because, sweetie, as we said, Auntie Nat is a responsible adult whereas a pony is not. Also, we don't have a pony."

"'Was', Mummy."

"Hmmm?"

"You have to say "Auntie Nat was a responsible adult". Because she's gone now. I read that in a book."

Laura heart did a somersault. Her son was right. All of a sudden, the grief was back, and she was blinking back tears again. Most days now, she could say Natasha's name without falling apart. Clint struggled a bit more, but he was getting better too. But sometimes, usually from some unexpected trigger, the loss of Natasha hit hard and fresh again.

"You're sad, Mummy."

Laura gave him a watery smile. "I miss your Auntie Nat, that's all."

Nathaniel nodded knowingly. He hadn't really known Auntie Nat, but his whole family had, and he'd watched them grieve. He was a sensitive child, and had done his best to understand how they were feeling.

"Do you think Auntie Nat would have let me go on the pony?"

Laura chuckled.

A voice piped up from the doorway to the kitchen. "Definitely not."

"Daddy!"

Nathaniel ran up to Clint, who picked him and hugged him tightly.

Clint had gone out for a grocery run. He put Nathaniel back down and sent the boy off to fetch more groceries from the car. Nathaniel ran off, and Clint grabbed the groceries that he had already brought in, then started to restock the pantry and the fridge.

"I still think the pony's not a bad idea," he said to Laura.

Laura raised her eyebrows. 'You're right-"

Clint started a little at hearing those two words coming out of his wife's mouth.

"-Natasha would not have agreed," Laura finished.

Oh. Clint sighed. Of course.

"Yeah," he agreed, a little hoarsely. He turned his face away from Laura, pretending to concentrate on pulling apples out of a bag. But Laura wasn't fooled, and she touched his shoulder gently.

"Hey."

Clint let out another sigh, and took a seat at the kitchen table. "I miss her, Laura. Sometimes, I think I can hear her voice. I know her - knew her - so well. I know what she'd say to me. If I close my eyes sometimes, I can just about hear her say it."

Laura took a seat opposite him at the table. "And what would she say now?"

"'A pony, seriously, Clint? Do you want him to be endlessly teased? A motorbike is cool. A pony is not. Just steal one of Stark's bikes and take him on that.'"

Laura laughed, her eyes still a little wet. "That sounds exactly like her."

They sat for a moment, holding hands over the kitchen table, lost in thought. But they were soon interrupted by Nathaniel's excited voice.

"Mummy! Daddy! Auntie 'Lena's here!"

Yelena had visited regularly, ever since that first night in New York when Clint had successfully convinced her that no, he had not killed her sister and yes, he really thought it should've been him. Nathaniel had had trouble with 'Yelena', so she became 'Lena'.

Clint and Laura hurried outside, where Yelena was already being accosted by Nathaniel, who was chattering excitedly. "And Daddy said that Lila and Cooper went to school on their first day on Auntie Nat's motorcycle, but Auntie Nat isn't here anymore, so Daddy thought I should go on a pony, but Mummy said no, because Auntie Nat was a responsible adult but a pony isn't, but Mummy said 'is', and I read in a book that-"

"Okay, Nate, let Auntie Yelena breathe."

Yelena was laden with chocolate, as usual, which she passed to Laura. Laura did not fail to notice that Yelena was blinking rapidly.

"Nate, honey, why don't you take this chocolate into the kitchen?"

Nathaniel hurried off, eager to help his Auntie Lena, leaving Yelena with Laura and Clint on the porch.

"I'm sorry about him," Clint said, also noticing Yelena's distress.

But Yelena smiled. "We all miss her. It's good to remember, even if it hurts."

Nathaniel's excitement seemed to have given him super speed, because he was back out on the porch in an instant, breathing a little rapidly but talking no less quickly.

"Why are you all still out here? Come in, Auntie 'Lena, I want to show you my drawing!"

"Nathaniel," Yelena called out, and grabbed one of his arms to stop him darting away again. She knelt down so that her eyes were level with his. "How would you like to go to school on my motorcycle instead?"

Nathaniel's eyes lit up with delight. He looked up at his parents. "Can I?"

Clint was too choked up to speak. He feigned a coughing fit and surreptitiously wiped his eyes. Laura smiled gratefully at Yelena, then turned to Nathaniel. "You may."

"Yes!" Nathaniel did a fist pump into the air and was instantly running off again.