AN and Disclaimer: I don't own 'em – I'm just borrowing them. Thank you to all those who have reviewed, added me as an alert or made this story a favorite of theirs. Please keep the love coming!


Chapter Nine:

"You may now kiss the bride."

Without hesitation, Clint pulled Emma close and kissed her deeply on the lips. Finally they were married. Finally he knew that she was defiantly his – forever.

A tug at the bottom of his shirt broke the kiss. He and Emma both looked down at Audrey. "Can we go now?" she asked, whining a bit. They both smiled at their daughter. She had been an absolute angel the entire afternoon while they wait in the massive line to get in front of the Justice of the Peace to get married.

"Yes we can go now," Emma said as Clint scooped up Audrey and the newly minted Barton family happily left city hall.

Now it was time to celebrate. Emma was healing just fine after a few days of bed rest. They were finally married. And to top it all off, in Clint's mind, he and Emma would be working together again.

The only downfall would come in a few days when they told Audrey about the new living arrangements. But they would worry about that later. Now was a time to celebrate.


"Lack of sleep does you no good," Pepper said walking into Tony's garage/lab area of Stark Tower. It was 3 in the morning. When she had woken up in a cold and lonely bed, Pepper knew exactly were to find Tony.

"I know," he said, making one last adjustment to his newest Iron Man suit, the Mark VIII, which could be used in space. Could come in handy if the Chitauri ever decided to attack the Earth again.

Whenever he was short with her like that, Pepper always knew that something was on Tony's mind. Typically it was something big. "What's wrong?" she asked as she moved behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Usually whenever I get back from California, you don't want to leave the bedroom."

"It's not you Pepper."

"Is it Fury?"

"You could say that."

"What'd he do this time?" she asked, as she moved a chair next to Tony's and sat down. She knew that this could take a while.

"Did you know I had a little sister?" he asked without looking at her.

"No."

"Yeah, I did. She died in the car accident with my parents. She was seven. I always wondered how she might have turned out if she had survived. She was just as smart and creative as I was, but my father felt that the Stark women should be seen and never heard. So her genius was kept hush, hush."

Tony placed his head in his hands and rested them against the desk as he tried to fight off the wave of emotions that had been building up inside of him for the past few days. Here was his chance for a release and he was fighting it.

"Whatever it is Tony, please tell me," Pepper said moving closer to him and placing her hands against his.

"She's alive Pepper. She was hidden from me," he mumbled without looking at her.

"Who? Your sister?"

Tony took a deep breath then looked up at the woman who had stood by him through everything. He sighed before going on. "Yeah. But there's a catch. She doesn't remember me."

"Oh Tony," Pepper said, pulling him close and cradling him in her arms. That was when Tony Stark lost it and for the first time in their entire professional and personal relationship, he cried. He cried for all the mistakes in his life. He cried for how his little sister had been treated by their alcoholic father at times for being smart. And he cried for not telling Pepper Potts that he loved her sooner then her had. He clung to Pepper and sobbed like a child.

"Is she happy though?" Pepper finally asked after a few minutes.

"I think so. But she works for S.H.E.I.L.D., so I dunno if she would really be happy or not."

"How'd you find all this out?"

Tony retold her the entire ordeal about downloading the encrypted files from the helicarrier then the discussion with Fury at her grave site. He even told her that he saved her life and managed to run a DNA test on her hair, just to be on the safe side.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Actually do what Fury suggested. Wait for the right time. But I honestly don't know how much longer I will be able to wait. I've been mourning her for almost 25 years."

"What does she look like?"

Without saying anything, JARVIS pulled up all the images that Tony had been given of his sister. "Her name is Emma."

"She looks just like your mother."

"Yes she does."

After a few more minutes, Tony wearily got to his feet and pulled Pepper up with him. Silently, the couple walked out of the garage/lab and headed up to bed.


Clint watched with a smile on his face as Audrey sat in between him and Emma on the couch and read to them before her bedtime. It was the little things that he missed during his time away from his girls. He couldn't believe how much Audrey had grown in between the times that he actually got to be at home for a little while. Skyping with them was nothing compared to actually being at home. When he was at home, he could actually unwind and relax.

"I don't want to go live with grandma!" Audrey said as she burst into tears as soon as she was done reading the story. "I wanna stay here!"

The little girl buried her face in her father's chest and wailed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. It had been a few days since Emma had decided to return to S.H.E.I.L.D. and also since they had gotten married. They both knew that they were going to have to tell Audrey sooner or later about her having to go live with grandma. They had explained to her that they wanted her to be safe and that mommy was going to go back to work with daddy.

"So does that mean I won't see you everyday?" Audrey had asked earlier that day. She had been so used to seeing her mother everyday.

"Yes," Emma had answered. "You won't see me every day. But I will make sure that you see both daddy and me more often then we see him now."

Even that conversation still didn't matter. Audrey had kept on crying for most of the day. And now when she should be getting ready for bed, she was working herself up again. Clint held her in his arms, while Emma rubbed her back to try to get her to calm down. Finally after a few minutes, Audrey had cried herself to sleep. Clint got up and carried her to bed, returning a few minutes later.

"She's still asleep," he said, sitting back down next to Emma. She curled up against him on the couch as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Are we bad parents for doing this to our four year old?" Emma asked sighing.

"Hell if I know. I'm pretty sure that I gave my parents a lot of trouble growing up. I think they would have loved to ship me off to my grandparents."

"I don't remember much of mine."

"You what?"

"I don't remember anything before the car accident. Everything that I know about my parents, I was told by my Aunt Peggy. And even then, tis really not much."

"Why are you just now telling me this?" Clint said sounding a bit hurt. He pulled his arm from around her and stood up. He walked towards the window and looked out into the busy New York City night.

"Why does it matter?" Emma asked, standing up and moving behind him. "Maybe my parents were awful and treated me horribly. The only person who really knows is dead and can't answer them for me! What if I'm some sort of freak that S.H.E.I.L.D. is covering up! Aunt Peggy worked for the S.S.R. before it became S.H.E.I.L.D. so maybe they just pawned me off on her! I told you all of this when we were first partnered up!""

"Hey, hey, calm down baby." Clint said turning around. He walked up to her, pulled her into his arms and began to rub her arms to calm her down like she had done with Audrey. "I'm sure that it was a clean cut case of next of kin taking over. Where are all these feelings coming from?"

Emma sighed. "I've been having memories or something like that come back in bits and pieces lately. Mainly it's the car accident I'm seeing. Or that's at least what I think it is."

"How long has this been going on?"

"A few months."

"Why haven't you told me before now?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry! I knew that you were out doing something big for S.H.E.I.L.D. and you needed to focus on that. Besides it wasn't like it was happening every night."

"Dammit Emma! I don't care if it is Armageddon. If there is something wrong, then by God, let me know!"

Emma looked up at Clint and saw his face full of frustration. "Loki's influence still bothering you isn't it?" she asked worriedly as she placed her hands against his chest.

"A bit. Everything was so backwards. Those that I loved were the ones I wanted to injure the most. The ones I swore to protect the world against were the ones that I wanted to help the most. I actually plotted in my head how to kill you and Audrey if I had gotten the chance."

Clint buried his face into the crook of Emma's neck and sobbed. She and Clint both had baggage that they were finally airing. They stood there in silence for a few more minutes as they both took in what they had each told the other. Clint knew that Emma was a spy to the core and that there were things that she kept from those she loved and Emma figured that there were going to be after effects from whatever this Loki guy had done to Clint. She just didn't know how drastic it was. Perhaps it was a good thing that Fury had made Clint take time off to get his head on straight.

"I don't even deserve to be an Avenger after all I did," he said after a few minutes.

"Don't say that. I saw the news footage. You were out there with the rest of the team, killing those ugly things. You are a hero in so many people's eyes, especially your daughter's and in mine."

Clint leaned down and kissed his wife deeply on the lips. He would be lost without Emma. He had been before he had been teamed up with her at S.H.E.I.L.D. She was the reason for so many things that he had done in his life – including staying with S.H.E.I.L.D. after she had left. Now he decided that he'd rather make good use of the time at home they had left. He swept Emma up in his arms and carried her off to bed.


"What is my assignment this time?"

He was handed a file by a shadowy figure that sat behind a desk. Inside were two photographs- one of a slender, red head and the other was of another slender female with dark brown hair. "Both work for S.H.E.I.L.D. and both are deadly assassins," the figure said. "Do not kill them but bring them to me."

"Nothing that I can't handle."


"Daddy."

Clint wearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes as they adjusted to his surroundings. Light from the bedroom window poured into the darken room. Standing in front of him was Audrey holding out Emma's cell phone.

"What is it sweetie?"

"Grandma wants to talk to you."

"What?" he asked confused a little as he took Emma's cell phone and put it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Now listen here, Clinton Francis Barton, you will not make that little girl leave New York if she doesn't want to. I will just move there then. I can take over running Emma's bookshop since she is going back to work as well. Then it makes it easier on everybody."

"But mom…"

"But nothing young man. I will not have my only grandchild unhappy! I will be arriving tomorrow night."

"Fine mom, you can move here."

"I will see you tomorrow. Bye."

Clint said bye and hung up the phone before turning to look at his daughter who stood by the bedside grinning from ear to ear. By that time, Emma was waking up. "What's going on?" she mumbled lay her head on Clint's shoulder and looked at Audrey as well.

"Mom's moving here instead of Audrey going to Iowa. She said she's going to run the bookshop for you."

"Who gave her that idea?"

Clint jerked his head towards Audrey, who was still grinning. "Your daughter called her this morning."

"She's half yours too."


The last few days of vacation were busy as could be. Between having to get ready for grandma Barton to arrive and trying to keep Audrey calm enough so that she wouldn't start crying again, Emma was drained just about every night. Clint helped out as much as he could, but most of the time he just felt that he was in her way. Typically he retreated to the bookshop for a few hours just to make sure that it was all still running fine without Emma. He was also getting everyone there ready for the arrival of his mother.

After Clint's mom arrived, Emma finally could take a breather. She and Clint would spend most of their final days of vacation with Audrey just doing things as a family – going to the zoo, the park or even just walking around.

But at night, Clint would have Emma studying the data files that Fury had given her on the Avengers, while Audrey would be taken care of by her grandma. The good thing about the files was that Emma already knew the background on most of them; she just needed a refresher course on them.

"What if they don't accept me into the group?" she asked setting down the datapad.

"Obviously you've never seen all of us in a room before. Trust me you will fit right in. I know that if Fury put you on this team, then the others will follow suit."

"Even Natasha?"

"If not, I will deal with her."

"I hope you're right."

"I know I am," he said kissing her lips softly.


AN #2: I wrote this chapter extra long because I might not have much of a chance to up date this week because it is the last week of school and being a teacher, I have a TON of paperwork to do! So enjoy! I also know that Clint's parents were killed in a car accident in the comics, but since this isn't true canon, I made it so that one of his parents was still alive.