Once he'd landed the heli-carrier, Clint didn't take time to kill the billionaire. Agent Hill and Pepper met them when they landed and gave him directions to the room, and he rushed straight back to the infirmary in time to hear the words spoken by an unfamiliar voice, "It's a girl! I'm going to go ahead and cut the cord now."
"I will!" Clint declared breathlessly, practically busting in the door to get to Lucy and their child.
"You're late," the redhead nurse said coolly as she handed him the sewing scissors.
"I'm sorry," Clint apologized, looking at Lucy. "So, so, so sorry. There was an alien, and Tony didn't tell me what was going on, and Nat's killing him as we speak, and she's already promised that you can pick his bones clean if you want once Thor and I are done with him, and-"
"It's fine," Lucy finally said, cutting him off with a weary smile. "Now take care of your daughter, Clint."
"Oh…" Clint whispered in awe, his eyes finally landing on the screaming little girl in the nurse's arms. He cut the umbilical cord, murmuring to Lucy, "She's beautiful."
"Can I see her?" Lucy excitedly asked the woman who was still gently holding the newborn.
That was when Clint swallowed nervously, realizing that the baby was angled in such a way in the nurse's arms that Lucy had yet to glimpse her daughter. "Why don't you let the nurse clean her up first, Angel, then you can see her in all of her best glory," Clint suggested, walking over to take Lucy's hand.
Lucy licked her lips, looking at him nervously as she realized that something was off. "I was right, wasn't I… about the Jotun blood in her?"
"She's a beautiful little girl – our beautiful baby girl – and she doesn't need to be anything more than what she is, Angel."
"Mother could cast the spell on her that I told you I had, if you'd rather," Lucy suggested weakly, her eyes searching his.
"No, Lucy," Clint murmured gently, kneeling down by his wife's bedside and taking her hand. "No spells, please, Angel. Let her be who she is from the very beginning. She's beautiful because she's ours, and she shouldn't have to change a thing if she doesn't want to. Just like you."
"You really think that?" Lucy asked.
Clint nodded, and he saw a thought flicker through her eyes in the second before they were loudly invaded. Avengers poured into the room – his team, Pepper, Agent Hill, even Jane. Knowing that Lucy would be content for a moment without him when Thor and Jane came over to her bedside, Clint made his way to the corner of the room where the nurse was holding his now-cleaned-up baby daughter close and eyeing the crowd warily.
"Thank you for helping my girlfriend," Clint said, still not quite used to the word on his tongue.
The woman's smile was uncertain as she said, "Thank you for helping my child."
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm Frigga of Asgard," the nurse said, her expression gaining some confidence as she spoke. "Odin's wife and L…ucy's mother – adopted mother, but we both count it."
Clint nodded, trying not to show his surprise as he replied, "Then I'm sure it meant a lot to her to have you here today." Frigga nodded, that same coolness sliding back into place, and Clint felt obliged to say, "I promise you, I would've given anything to be here for her while she was having this baby. I love her and don't mean to hurt her, but… well," he shrugged and smirked with self-depreciation. "I'm only human."
Frigga smiled herself saying then, "I understand, Agent Barton, and so does my daughter. She grew up watching me as the wife of a warrior and king; she knows there are sacrifices that must be made for the good of others.
"She is a trooper, my Lucy," Clint said proudly, glancing back over his shoulder towards the woman in question.
"Agent Barton," Frigga paused before asking, "Did you mean what you said about my granddaughter?" Frigga shifted the well-concealed bundle of blankets so that Clint could look straight at the tiny blue face and tiny blue hand that was peeking out from the layers of material. "About your wanting her to go without a spell?"
"I did and I do," Clint replied, carefully holding out a finger and hissing when extreme cold wrapped around the digit. "It's just daddy, princess," Clint said, and by some miracle the baby girl seemed to recognize his voice, because the cold suddenly decreased to the point of no longer being close to giving him frostbite. He turned back to Frigga, asking in a low voice meant just for her, "Isn't that what started Loki's rampage? He wanted to prove himself a worthy son once he found out that he hadn't been told the truth of his Jotun origins? It seems to me that could be avoided by letting the child know the truth from the get-go. Why disguise who they really are?"
"That is idealistic, Agent Barton," Frigga said, her tone caught somewhere between skepticism and admiration.
"I don't want her – Lucy or the baby – to be hurt any more than you do; I just happen to believe that leaving her as she is is the lesser of the two evils in the long run. When you're with the Avengers, you're just one more superhuman freak among many. Believe me, Frigga, she will be safe as she is with us."
The nervous grandmother nodded and sighed, looking something like resigned as a smile lifted the corners of her mouth and she asked, "Do you want to hold her?"
"Of course," Clint said with a smile, taking the baby girl.
He smiled adoringly, taking in the fine dark hair and sharp nose that had come from her mother along with the round shape of her face that Clint recognized as his own. The little girls hand wrapped around his finger again when he offered it, and she blinked moodily, giving him a glimpse of eyes the color of Tony's suit.
"You're such a beautiful little girl, he murmured to her.
He was so zeroed in on his newborn daughter that he never saw Tony come up behind him until the inventor screamed, "What the heck is that thing?"