Chapter Seven:

Barton's POV:

Since I had pulled out of everything, I had given Kate my bow and quiver, granting her permission to use the name Hawkeye. It was the final sign that I wasn't intending on going back into action. For Christmas, Anya and I decided to rent a cabin in Montana with the kids, using one of my covers. We were planning on staying from a few days before Christmas until after my birthday. We had invited Sophie, Steve, and Bucky for Christmas and New Years', but they said no. Sophie wasn't up to the festivities.

On Christmas, I got up and put out the gifts that Anya and I had gotten for Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel, who was nearly two years old. I let Anya sleep in because she had started running a fever on Christmas Eve. By the time the kids got up I was making breakfast. After getting them settled, I took a tray in to Anya. She still looked sick and frail.

"How are you feeling, Anya?" I asked.

"Tired. The fever hasn't broken, Clint."

"Do you need a doctor?"

"Not today."

"Anya…"

"I haven't been able to celebrate Christmas in nearly twenty years, Clint. Please, I don't want to ruin this, especially not for the kids. If I'm still feeling like this tomorrow, you can take me to a doctor."

I sighed. She was always putting everyone else ahead of her. But Anya was just as stubborn as I was.

"Fine, but only if you don't get any worse. If you start to get worse, we're going to the hospital, I don't care if it's Christmas. I think the kids will be more traumatized if they lose you then if they have to go to the hospital to take care of you."

She nodded at me, giving in.

"Thank you. For everything. You've taken such good care of me since you found me, and I can never repay you for that. I love you."

"You don't have to repay me, Anya. I love you, and I want to take care of you."

"It's not your fault, Clint. Me getting as sick as I did. I ignored the signs that were in front of me, I didn't tell you," Anya said, taking my hand and changing the subject.

I kissed her forehead. How could she not blame me? We've been living in isolation because I decided to join the Secret Avengers. She agreed to become their doctor. And nobody noticed she was in pain.

"Anya, I should have seen it…"

"You couldn't see it if I wasn't going to allow you to. I hid the signs from everyone around me, hoping I would get better on my own. I'm sorry. It was stupid. I just didn't want to put stress on anyone with the possibility that I may need to go to a hospital. We would have had to go through so much to protect ourselves to do that…"

"Screw that, Anya. I would have taken you without the precautions. You are more important to me."

"Then Sophie?"

It was a low blow.

"I can't choose between you and Sophie."

"But you did, Clint. When we walked away from the Secret Avengers, you chose me. I let you because you were grieving the loss of our unborn child, but don't forget that we have Sophie who still needs us. She may be an adult and married, but with everything going on with superhumans, she needs us to help protect her and those she loves."

I looked at her and knew she was right. I had kept my distance from the Secret Avengers. When everything happened, I pulled away from Sophie and the entire resistance, shutting myself off from the world with Anya and the kids. But Sophie was our daughter and she couldn't just walk away from the resistance like I did. Her husband and best friend were at the center of it. Honestly, so was she. Anya was right, she did need all the help she could get.

"Did you know you were pregnant, Anya?" I finally asked her.

"No," she said looking away. "I didn't want to think I could be, considering I could feel my kidney failing. The signs, other than the missed period, could all be attributed to the appendicitis or renal failure."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought I would be okay."

Cooper came to the door. He was excited.

"Can we open our presents, yet, Dad?" he asked.

My son sounded so different than he did last Christmas. His voice was changing. I was worried that he would be miserable, but it was like he was trying not to let everything get to him. It was hard to believe it had only been five months since his mother died. It seemed like it was so much longer. The time seemed like years, Sophie and Steve's whirlwind romance, her arrest, their eloping, Anya's issues, it all seemed like it happened over years, not months.

"Sure, Cooper. We'll be out in just a minute and you can open them then."

"Awesome!"

I helped Anya to stand up. Carrying her breakfast tray outside, I sat her down to eat while the kids tore into their Christmas presents. I helped Nathaniel open his. It didn't seem fair, how normal everything seemed, when in reality all of our worlds had been turned upside down in the last year.

Sophie's POV:

"Give me his bow, Kate!" I snapped at the Young Avenger.

"He gave it to me!"

"You can have it back, I just need to borrow it for now!"

"For what? I'm Hawkeye now!"

I wanted to strangle her, but I was trying to remember she was younger and weaker than me.

"I need to answer this and it's calling for Hawkeye!"

"I'm Hawkeye!"

"My brother and sister are in the middle of this! It's not about you and you are not going, Kate!"

"Kate," Tommy said from the doorway, "give her the bow and quiver. This is Cooper and Lila in danger here."

"I'm Hawkeye, Tommy. The letter says for Hawkeye to go," Kate argued.

"Yeah, and it was left at the cabin my father was staying at. It was meant for him, but I'm not going to let him go. So give me the bow and quiver, Kate!"

Kate shoved the bow and quiver at me. I opened a portal, leaving me a mile from the location mentioned in the letter. Someone named Trickshot had my brother and sister. He wanted a confrontation with Dad, but Dad hadn't been in fighting shape since Mom miscarried. I had gone to deliver a message to the cabin for Mom and Dad while they waited for her meds when I found the letter pinned by arrow to the door. Dad didn't know yet. I was going to try to get Cooper and Lila back before he found out.

I made my way to the location. Scouting it, I saw Cooper and Lila. Lila looked fine, Cooper was hurt. The anger started to boil inside of me. I shot a volley of arrows from the front of the house, quickly using the cover of the trees to get to the back, where I snuck inside to the kids. I untied Lila and handed her the healing serum.

"I need you to put this on Cooper's cuts, Lila. Can you do that?" I asked her as I untied Cooper.

She nodded at me and started spreading the serum on our brother.

"Stay here and tell Cooper I'm here," I told her. "Hold onto this. When I tell you to, push the button and the two of you will be taken back to the cabin."

I walked to the front room as Trickshot walked back in. He looked at me in shock.

"You're not Hawkeye. Who the hell are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, kidnapping kids."

"You have Hawkeye's bow. How?"

"Why should I answer that?"

"I want Hawkeye!" he said as he lunged at me.

The two of us wound up fighting and he was better than I gave him credit for. He landed a blow to the side of my jaw that made me bleed for a minute. I spit the blood out and watched the light go off in his head as he realized I was enhanced when I started to heal in front of him.

"What are you?" he asked me.

"What are you doing with those children?"

"They're my brother's. I wanted to lure him here!"

Brother? Dad had a brother? I knocked Trickshot out, going back to the other room. Cooper was coming around thanks to the healing serum.

"Sophie!" he said, looking relieved to see me. "What's going on? Who was that guy?"

"Never mind, Cooper. Here," I said handing him Dad's bow and quiver. "Bring these back to Dad tell him to get them back to Kate."

"What's going on?" Cooper asked.

"I'm not sure, Cooper. Just…"

I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I didn't let on to Cooper and Lila that something was wrong.

"Aunt Nat!" Lila exclaimed.

"Lila, push the button!"

Lila pushed the button and she and Cooper disappeared. I turned, forcing myself to struggle with the drug in my system, to face Natasha.

"Where'd you send them, Sophie?"

"Away from you."

"You need to come with me."

She went to grab me and I let off a bolt of electricity that knocked her off her feet. She hit her head and didn't get back up. I pulled the dart out of my back. Making my way out of the house, I ran into an enhanced I had only heard about before… Deadpool. It was then that I knew that Stark had to be really desperate.

"You must be the electrifying pain in the ass," he said, looking at me. "Do you want to make this fun for me or are you going to come with me?"

I went to open a portal and Deadpool pulled a gun. Before I could open the portal, my mind still struggling to work past the drugs, the bullet hit me in my chest and there was nothingness.

Stark's POV:

"She's not going to give us any intel, Hill. Don't bother asking her."

"How did she survive? Deadpool hit her point-blank in the chest."

"Advanced regeneration and healing. It's some of the data we already had on her."

"We need to use her to find the others."

"It won't work, she won't give them up."

"So what do you suggest, Stark?"

"Maybe set a trap? Lure them to try to rescue her again."

Barton's POV:

Sophie had been missing again since just before my birthday. Lila and Cooper told me about the man who came and took them, how Sophie rescued them, telling them to use the teleporter to come back to me when Lila saw Natasha. That meant that Sophie was back in custody. That was bad enough. But after talking to Cooper, I was more worried, worried enough that I took them all back home immediately.

Trickshot, the Trickshot that had taken my kids, was my older brother. We had been on the outs for a long time and I hadn't expected to see him anytime soon, let alone find out that he had kidnapped my kids. Sophie found out they were missing before I did, so she went after them, which is where Natasha found her, but it made me wonder, would Natasha have arrested me if I had gone instead.

"You're thinking too much," Anya said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I can't stop thinking about the situation with Barney."

"Has anyone seen any sign of him?"

"Nothing. There's no record of his arrest and he's just in the wind again."

"He won't be able to find us here, Clint."

I nodded, knowing she was right.

"I know; it's just that the timing bothers me. He shows up, takes Cooper and Lila, and when Sophie goes after them Natasha is there to arrest her? Something is off here, Anya."

"I know, and I'm worried about Sophie, but I'm glad that Cooper and Lila are alright. Sophie is an adult, we'll figure this out. If anything had happened to the kids, I don't think either of us would have forgiven ourselves for deciding to rent that cabin."

"Could he somehow have gotten involved with Stark's side of things? Did he even know who Sophie was?"

"The only way we can find out, Clint, is if we find him."

"I never even told Sophie about Barney. How do I explain this to her when we get her home?"

"Just tell her the truth. That's all that will matter."

She was right, I just didn't know what to do in the meantime. I felt helpless.

"Anya… I think I need to…"

"Rejoin the fight, Clint? I knew you would go back. I was waiting to see how long you needed before rejoining your team."

"You're not mad at me?"

"That you want to fight for the protection of people like our daughter? How could I be? It's who you are, Clint Barton. You are a fighter, a protector, and I would never try to change that about you. It's how we fell in love."

"I love you, Anya," I said as I pulled her to me and kissed her.

"I love you, too."

Things were so different with Anya then Laura. This would have been a huge fight with Laura. I felt guilty because of what Laura did, but Anya did love me unconditionally as I was.

Bucky's POV:

"Hey, Anya, how are you holding up?" I asked coming through the teleporter.

Barton had gone to my house to work with Steve, asking me to stay with Anya and the kids to make sure there were no problems after the kidnapping. Anya was sitting at the computer in the basement, Nathaniel in the playpen behind her.

"I'm… I'm not sure, Bucky."

"What' s wrong?"

"It's the situation with Barney."

"What about it?"

"My parents died when I was eighteen in a plane crash, but my grandmother had a brother. I've been trying to figure out what happened to him. I'm trying to figure out if Sophie and I really are the last of our line."

"So what's wrong?"

"I'm having issues accessing any information about my family."

That wasn't normal. People could research their families and others easily in this age.

"How are you searching?"

"I started by using my mother's birth name, but it comes up blank, as if my family never existed."

"Let me try. Why don't you give me your grandmother's name? Maybe if we go back that extra generation it might help?"

"Rebecca… Rebecca Proctor."

"Is that her maiden name?"

"No, it was…" she started, looking at me in shock.

"What was it, Anya?"

"My grandmother's name was Rebecca Barnes, Bucky."

She couldn't mean, could she? I typed in the name, searching for my sister, starting the search there. I found her marriage license, which changed her name to Rebecca Proctor. Now it was my turn to go into shock. Anya was my sister's granddaughter. That meant Sophie was her great-granddaughter, my great-grandniece.

"What did you find, Bucky?"

"You and Sophie are my family, Anya. Rebecca was my sister."

"I don't remember Mom ever telling me about an uncle."

"My sister wasn't even married when I 'died' so your mother never would have met me."

"I can't believe that we're…"

"Family?"

"It's hard to believe, you look younger than me," Anya said with a nervous laugh.

"I already treated you both like my family. I just never expected it to be true. I always thought the only reason I was so protective of Sophie was because of how much she acted like Steve after his mother died. I didn't realize some of the stubbornness reminded me of my sister, I don't think I could handle seeing it after all these years."

"You became family to me as soon as I saw you with Sophie. Seeing how much she cared about you, how much you cared about her, the way the two of you would risk everything for each other, how could I not accept you as family? You took better care of her then I could for most of her life because of our circumstances. I'm glad that she had you for that time. It helped her become so much stronger than she already was. You don't know how much that meant to me, especially when I found out that she thought I was dead."

I laughed and felt a little uncomfortable.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just after we were captured by the Avengers last year, every time that Sophie and I spent too much time together, Barton thought there was something inappropriate going on. He kept implying I was trying to sleep with her. I never was, mind you, I've always looked at her like a sister and friend, but knowing this, just makes his assumptions that much more wrong."

Anya laughed.

"Do you want to tell him, then?"

I grinned at her.

"Sure."

"It's good to have family again, Bucky."

"Yeah, it is, Anya," I said, pulling her into a hug.

Barton's POV:

Things got weird after Bucky told me that Anya's grandmother was his little sister, making me realize my daughter and my girlfriend were both related to him. But I had to put it aside, because not long after he told me, I got a lead on Barney. I found out that he had found Baron Zemo, who Stark had recruiting supervillains for his cause. Once I knew who Barney was hanging around with, it didn't take me long to track them down. I grabbed the bow and quiver of arrows Sophie made for me for Christmas and made my way to them.

It was just after dark when I found the dive bar they hung out at every night. The bar was the kind of place that most people would refuse to go near, worrying about what kind of people would hang out at such a dingy, run-down joint. I, on the other hand, had no problem walking in there. In fact, I slipped in unnoticed. Once I saw where Barney was, I put an arrow through the shot glass that was in his hand. He turned in my direction and I smiled at him.

"I heard you were looking for me. Here I am. If you want me, Trickshot, and you have the balls, meet me outside alone," I said, slipping out as quickly as I slipped in.

He didn't wait long to come after me. I led him on a chase, away from the bar his buddies were at, away from anywhere Stark might have spies, so we could be alone. When I was sure we were good, I turned toward him, an arrow already knocked in my bow.

"Give me a good reason not to put this through your heart," I said to him.

"You don't have the balls to, Kid. You would've already done it if you did."

"You don't know me anymore, Barney. What you did, when you took my kids, who were you working with? What was the point?"

"Why do you think there was a point other than getting your attention?"

"Because Black Widow and Deadpool, both part of the pro-registration forces, were waiting there. Why, Barney?"

"What makes you think I know anything?"

I shifted my aim, letting the arrow go, taking part of his ear with it.

"Wrong answer. Tell me what I want to know or the next one will be in the family jewels."

Barney looked scared because I already had another arrow ready and aimed. He knew how good my aim was.

"Fine! I wanted to get to you, teach you a lesson, but these registration people told me they'd let me do it without going to jail if I signed up on the registry and didn't kill you. They said if I let them take you and the kids, they'd let me do other things too, that I'd get paid for it. Looks like the tables turned and you're the criminal again, Clint."

"Why did they want me and my kids?"

"To lure some superhuman and her husband. They said if they caught the two of them, they'd be able to squash the resistance."

I let the arrow go, essentially nailing his foot to the ground. Barney yelled out in pain.

"What the fuck did you do that for?!"

"That superhuman they wanted you to help lure out to capture, is the one who went after my kids, Barney. She's my daughter. And thanks to you, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Maria Hill have her again. They tortured her the last time they had her," I snarled at him. "You better hope that she doesn't get tortured like she did the last time she got arrested, Barney. Because if she does, there's nowhere you'll be able to hide from me when I come to kill you for what she goes through."

I shot him in his thigh and used the teleportation device Sophie had created to get us out of the field quickly to get home, furious that my brother was so stupid.

Steve's POV:

Every day that we didn't find Sophie, my mind couldn't help but worry the worst was happening to her. I didn't know what happened to her the first time she was in custody, but she wouldn't talk about it, so it had to be really bad. The way she would wake up screaming from her nightmares, it made me want to take Stark out for hurting her.

Unfortunately, I had let things slide too much trying to find her. It had come time. We needed to find our missing comrades. Wanda, Billy, Teddy, Karolina, and Xavin had been in custody for too long. Thor had returned to Asgard, with promises that he would keep an eye out in case we needed his help again. Barton returned to the Secret Avengers and Bucky had a renewed sense of passion, finding out that Anya and Sophie were Becca's descendants.

We had just found out where Wanda, Billy, Teddy, Karolina, and Xavin were because they had been moved to a few different locations in an effort to keep us from getting to them. They were being moved from the prison they had been in to 42, the prison for superhumans in the negative zone. Once they reached 42, it would be almost impossible to break them out, so we needed to break them out before they could get them to the portal on Riker's Island.

"Does everyone know what their part is?" I asked.

The Secret Avengers nodded back at me. I could tell that some of them were still in shock that this was taking priority over Sophie. It should have been priority long ago.

"Then let's go. We hit them fast and hard. We get our people back and get out of there before they can call for back-up. Hopefully, because we haven't made any attempts before now, Stark will think we're focused on finding Sophie instead of trying to get the others back."

We all grabbed our gear and made our way out. It was time to get our team back… as many of them as we could.

When we got to the location we were going to ambush the transport, we had just enough time to get into position. In the distance, I could see the bus coming.

"Team one, transport is almost in range. Get ready," I said to Bucky and Barton, who, as the best shots on the team were going to disable the vehicle.

"Gotcha, Cap," Clint replied.

A minute later, the tires on the bus blew as Bucky and Clint fired on the vehicle.

"Team two, go!" I called to Hope and Scott.

"Team three, get ready!" I called to the team of Young Avengers and Runaways.

And I came out with Bucky and Clint at my side. All teams converged on the bus, fighting our way past the guards. Tommy, being the quickest of us all, got onto the bus and started freeing the others. Suddenly, the fight changed.

Wanda and Billy's powers erupted from them, having been restrained for so long. The guards were completely knocked out. Suddenly, Scott started shouting.

"We need to get the hell out of here! The bus is about to blow from all this excess energy!"

We all started making our way as far from the bus as we could before it blew. When we were far enough away the explosion wouldn't cause interference, we used the teleporters to get back to the safehouse.

Barton's POV:

We had gotten back to the safehouse after getting Billy, Teddy, and the girls before they were transferred to the negative zone prison, 42. Anya was waiting to give medical attention to the team and our newly freed teammates. Tommy, however, wouldn't leave Billy's side.

"I've been worried about you, Billy. Electric Hawk got captured again, and Hawkeye retired, giving Kate his bow, quiver, and name, then came back. Thor was here for a while, Man, and that was cool, but I couldn't believe how crazy everything was without you here."

"I missed you too, Tommy," Billy said.

The two boys hugged. Anya checked Billy and found nothing majorly wrong with him, minor cuts and bruises. When she cleared him and Teddy, the three boys went off on their own.

"How are you holding up, Clint?"

"I'm fine, Anya."

"How are you doing, working with Bucky, now that you know the truth about our family?"

"I guess we're okay."

At this point, Bucky walked in.

"Anya, are you busy?" he asked.

"What do you need?"

"My arm feels a little… off. Can you check it out?"

"I don't know Sophie's work…"

"I meant my right arm," he said smiling at her.

"Oh, sure, Bucky. Come in."

I stepped aside as she started feeling his arm, moving it around. When she was satisfied with her exam, she took a heating pad and wrapped it around his upper arm.

"Just relax with that for a few minutes, Bucky. You're fine, just a little tense."

"Wouldn't a muscle relaxant do the same thing?" I asked.

"Not for him. It would metabolize out of his system before it could affect him. The heat is better."

"I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" Bucky asked.

"No," Anya answered. "I was just asking Clint how things are going now that you two know that you're my granduncle."

"I'm hoping that this wiped any thought that I'm after Sophie from his mind, but other than that, I think we're pretty much the same," Bucky answered.

"It's a little weird, I'll admit, but yeah, I guess we are the same."

"I'm glad," Anya said.

At this point, Steve came downstairs.

"What is it, Cap?" I asked.

"Billy just did some tracking on Sophie."

"Where is she?" Bucky asked.

"42 in the negative zone."

"Shit," I said. "Now what do we do?"