AN: Here is a long overdue chapter! So, sorry for the wait! Enjoy!
Someone: I love getting your reviews! No hindrance, just didn't want you thinking I was ignoring you. J
Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton are exhausted. They have fought against armies and assassins; been stuck in the stickiest situations with no help of getting out. But this? This is the hardest situation they've ever been in.
They sit on the couch listening to their three-month old daughter cry in her crib. She has to learn that she doesn't need to be held every time she cries; she has to learn to calm herself down. However, Alex is still an infant and Natasha and Clint are new parents so exhaustion comes with the territory and those two facts combined is making this harder for them.
Suddenly, Natasha grabs Clint's arm and looks over at him, pulling him from his thoughts. Clint looks over at Natasha, furrowing his eyebrows at her. Romanoff points towards the back of the house where Alexandra's room is located.
"Listen," she says, looking relieved as the tension in her shoulders dissipate. Clint cocks his head slightly and listens for a moment to the silence.
"Finally," Clint sighs in relief and slouches back into the couch. It has only been three months but he is already very protective of his daughter and he doesn't like hearing or seeing her cry so this whole self-consoling business killed him every time.
The two SHIELD agents sit back in the couch intent on relaxing for the evening. They don't get to for very long though, because suddenly guns erupt in open fire causing the living room window to break and crash to the floor in hundreds of pieces. Romanoff and Barton dive to the floor for cover, not knowing what is going on. Clint rolls to the right, opening the drawer in a nearby desk and pulls out a gun. Romanoff rolls to the left and rips a gun off the bottom of an end table it is taped to.
They take cover just as the front door is kicked open. Clint and Natasha begin shooting, taking out multiple assailants. There is a crash from the back as if someone broke a window. Clint runs towards the other side of the room, handing his gun off to Natasha. Barton flings open the closet and grabs his quiver, slipping it onto his back as he grabbs his bow. He reaches behind him and pulls out an arrow, stringing it up. He rushes into the hallway and sees one of the attackers approaching Alex's room. Clint raisedshis bow and arrow and pulls the string back, letting it go. The arrow flies through the air and hits the guy in the chest. The guy stumbles and falls into the wall next to the door and crashes to the floor.
After accepting the gun from Clint, Natasha continues shooting the attackers as they come through the door. There is a noise and she looks in time to see their assailants climbing through the broken living room window. Natasha begins shooting at them while simultaneously shooting at the door. Soon, Natasha's original gun runs out of bullets and she alternates shooting at the window and the door. When she moves to shoot a guy coming through the door, an arrow embeds itself in his chest. Trusting Barton to take care of the door, Romanoff focuses her attention on the window.
It's not long before the two SHIELD agents diminish the threat completely. Natasha and Clint share a look before their eyes grow wide and they rush to their daughters' room. Clint slams the door open and Natasha runs to the crib, looking inside it.
"No! Clint she's not here!" Natasha shouts, panic making her voice quiver slightly. Clint runs to the crib and looks inside, frantically moving the blankets around as if Alex is hiding somewhere. Clint looks around the room and sees the window is broken. He jogs over and looks out the window but doesn't see anything. Clint climbs through the window and jumps down, searching around the backyard. Natasha quickly follows after him, the two of them moving towards the woods, looking into the trees. Natasha wraps her arms around one of Clint's and curls in on him. "Clint?"
"We'll get her back Nat; we'll find her," Clint assures determinedly, glaring into the trees before them.
AVENGERS
Lost in the journal entries, Alex almost doesn't hear the front door open and shut. Alex freezes and looks to the closed study door, her heart rate picking up. She quickly closes the journal and shoves it in her backpack. She throws her backpack over her shoulder and swiftly moves to the door but freezes when she hears footsteps climb up the stairs. Alexandra can feel her heart beat faster and her breath quicken. She turns around and looks around the room, her eyes lying on the window across from her. She swiftly moves over to it and opens it up, slipping one leg outside it. Sitting in the window, Alex looks up when she hears the study door open. A man in his mid-thirties with black hair walks in. He looks up and sees her sitting in the window. He furrows his eyebrows but then his eyes grow wide.
"You. We've been looking for you," he says, sending a sneer her way. Alex slips her other leg out the window and turns around to face the house. The man charges at her and Alex hangs down from the window, letting go and landing on her feet in a crouch. She looks up and sees the man looking down at her, a snarl on his face. He turns and disappears from the window and Alex jumps to her feet before she turns around, running into the woods.
Alex hears the man running after her and she quickens her pace. She isn't about to get caught by these people now. She runs around a rock formation and trips on a log, crashing to the ground. Alex lets out a groan and glances behind her; the man is only a few yards away. She jumps up to her feet, feeling the cuts on her knees from falling. Looking at the log Alex realizes it's more of a fat, short, club-like branch. She picks it up and flattens herself up against the rock in wait for the man to appear. The man rounds the corner and Alex swings the club and smashes it into the man's head. The dark-haired man crashes into the rock, cracking the back of his head against it before falling to the ground. Alex drops the branch and squats down next to the man, feeling for a pulse. It is there but he won't be waking up any time soon. Alex quickly runs through the woods, back the way she had come.
As Alex nears the spot where she left the Camaro, she pulls out her phone intent on making a call to one of the few people she trusts at the moment. She pushes a few buttons and her thumb hesitates over the call button. Before she can back out, Alex pushes the button and puts it to her ear.
AVENGERS
"The house," Clint Barton announces out of the blue, standing and leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed. The rest of the Avengers, Fury, and Coulson all look over at him, furrowing their eyebrows.
"What?" Coulson asks, shaking his head slightly.
"The house. She'd go back to the house," Barton explains, sharing a look with Romanoff. Natasha nods her head in agreement.
"It's where I'd go. She wants answers so what better place to go than the first place she remembers," Natasha adds, looking at the group sitting around the table with her.
"It's a better offer than we've come up with," Coulson says, nodding his head and standing up.
"I'll get the plane ready for you," Fury says, pulling out his phone and making the phone call. The Avengers all move to their feet and head towards the door.
"We meet at the plane in twenty," Clint says with a look at each member of the team. The Avengers nod their heads and disappear to get themselves ready, Barton following after them.
Fifteen minutes later finds Clint, Natasha, Thor, and Tony waiting at the plane for the rest of the group to show up. Barton's phone begins ringing and he pulls it out of his pocket. Seeing who it is he quickly answers it, glancing at the others next to him.
"Alex? You okay?" Clint asks into the phone, glad they've finally heard from her. Natasha looks over at him with wide eyes.
"Put it on speaker phone," Natasha whispers, stepping closer and pointing at the phone.
"Yeah, but someone's after me. I'm coming up to the Camaro now," Alex says in return as Clint pushes a button and Alex's voice sounds through the speaker.
"Where are you?" Natasha pipes up, looking at the phone being held in the middle of the group.
"In Maine. Out at the old house. There was some guy there and he started chasing me and…" Alex answers, trailing off suddenly. Clint furrows his eyebrows at the absence of his daughters' voice.
"Alex?" Clint calls out as dread begins to pool into his stomach. A nervous laugh sounds over the speaker. "Alex?"
"Get her!" a voice is heard in the background and there is shuffling heard over the phone before the call cuts off.
"Banner! Rogers!" Stark shouts towards the door. Steve and Bruce come running into the room, having been walking down the hall to the room already. They take in the worried and angry faces before them, wondering what they missed.
"What happened?" Steve asks as he and Bruce come to a stop in front of the group.
"They're after Alex," Natasha says, Clint already climbing into the plane. The others follow after them in a rush. Tony lags behind and grabs Thor's arm. Natasha looks back at them, giving them a questioning look.
"We'll go ahead, see if we can intervene sooner," Tony says in reply as he holds Natasha's gaze. Natasha nods her head and shuts the door after giving Tony a thankful look. Thor and Tony take off, heading in the direction the house is.
AVENGERS
"Alex? You okay?" Clint's voice comes in over the phone and Alex feels some of the tension leave from her body.
"Yeah, but someone's after me. I'm coming up to the Camaro now," Alex says, coming up to the edge of the woods she is in.
"Where are you?" Natasha's voice chimes in and Alex feels a smile appear on her face. She stops for a minute and glances back the way she had come.
"In Maine. Out at the old house," Alex says turning around and walking out of the woods and into the pull-off. "There was some guy there and he started chasing me and…"
Alex's voice tapers off as she sees a group of five men strolling from around the Camaro and her eyes grow wide. She can hear her dad's voice calling her name but all she can think is that she's in big trouble. A nervous laugh escapes her as fear clenches at her stomach.
"Get her!" one of the guys shouts and the group of men bolts towards her. Alex turns and begins running, almost smacking into a tree. She stops herself, her phone hitting the tree and falling to the ground, the call ending abruptly. She quickly pushes herself off the tree and takes off into the woods, hearing the men crashing after her.
AVENGERS
Thor and Stark fly over the woods, keeping a lookout for anything that will point them in the right direction to either Alex or the house. Tony spots it first and pulls to a stop, hovering in the air. Thor stops next to him and Tony points ahead of them to a spot in the trees that seems to be mostly clear. They fly over to it and soon a house comes into their view. They descend and land on the ground, taking a look around them and not seeing anything that poses as a threat. They quickly walk up to the house and Tony aims his palm at the door and blasts it open.
"I don't think that was necessary," Thor says, giving Tony a look. Tony shrugs and enters the house with a scowl; he is upset that Alex is in trouble and he is upset that Fury kept this from everyone. Thor follows after him and heads up the stairs while Tony searches the downstairs. Thor begins looking into the rooms but doesn't see anything until he reaches the last one. He notices the window open and he walks in taking a look around, which is when he notices a piece of wood lying in the doorway of the closet. He walks over and picks it up, looking around in the closet, seeing the compartment that Alex had found earlier. Seeing it empty, and assuming whatever was in it Alex has already taken, Thor tosses the piece of wood on the ground and swiftly walks back downstairs meeting Stark in the entryway.
"Anything?" Tony asks him and Thor shakes his head in answer.
"I found a secret compartment but it was empty," he explains, looking around the house but not moving anywhere. "You?"
"Except some things scattered on the floor? Nothing," Tony replies with a shake of his head.
"My assumption is she ran into the woods," Thor says, looking out the open doorway into the trees before them. Tony rolls his eyes.
"Most likely. Especially if the owner came home and chased her," Tony says, already heading back out the door and into the clearing. Thor follows after them and they take in the surrounding woods, debating their next step. Tony talks into his com. "Romanoff…Barton…Rogers…"
"Here Stark," Romanoff answers through the com system.
"We're at the house. No sign of Alex or anyone else for that matter. How close are you?" Tony says in turn, watching as Thor walks away towards a make-shift path leading into the woods.
"We're about twenty minutes out," Romanoff replies, her voice strained from worry.
"We're going to start looking around in the woods, see if we can find her," Tony relays, following after Thor who has just disappeared into said woods.
"We'll contact you when we get there," Romanoff replies, going silent on the other line.
AN: Please review and let me know what ya'll think! Things are just getting started!