Farewells and Hellos
A/N Hey everyone! This is the last chapter of this story, but feel free to check out Walls of Ivy, the first chapter of which will be posted not long after this chapter! But anyway, thanks for reading! Special shoutouts go to NicoleR85, EzzieRulez and Hannahonskittles! :-D
Nobody says much on the trip back to Earth. Really, the only words spoken are the short farewells given when Sif and Gaia leave them at the Bifrost.
"Thank you." Lena says quietly to them both. They shake their heads, and smile.
"I'll see you soon." Sif tells her, although they both know that this will be a hard promise to keep. Once Odin finds out what happened, which of course, he will, he will probably monitor the movements of Sif for a few months. He won't be pleased by what has happened, and the way Sif intervened. Gaia, he will probably forgive, as he gave her instructions to look after Lena. But Sif acted against the wishes of her king, and who knows what will happen to her. It won't be anything serious, but she might not be trusted as much.
Even Heimdall doesn't try to break the silence, just wordlessly opens the Bifrost, watching them go with a sad look in his eyes.
Clint keeps a steady arm around Lena until they get to the lounge of Stark Tower, which she's grateful for. She thinks it might be the only thing holding her together, and keeping her moving, the only thing stopping her from breaking down completely. She's so tired, hungry, and guilt is coming too. Guilt because she feels she shouldn't have gone.
She kicks herself every time she thinks about it. Why didn't she listen to Clint? He's always been right before, and she was stupid to ever think he was wrong. She feels so bad for getting him involved like this, and she can tell he was worried out of his mind. Will he be mad?
Lena freezes slightly. Oh goodness, what if Clint's really angry with her?
She looks up at his face, and feels relieved when all she can see is happiness, relief and just a hint of exhaustion.
Clint isn't mad. He's mad at Loki obviously, but not Lena. He doesn't have to be telepathic to know she's afraid he will be mad. How could he be? She made a wrong decision, so what? She's only human.
They walk through the streets of New York, ignoring the stares, focusing straight ahead. Nobody flinches when traffic flies past them.
Then they get in the Tower, and everybody relaxes. They're safe. They're all safe.
Lena sits down on the sofa, hugging a cushion to her chest and resting her chin on it. Tony walks to the kitchen and puts the kettle, humming Abba to himself as he pulls mugs out of the cupboard above his head, dumping tea bags in them.
Tony hands Lena a steaming cup of tea a few minutes later, smiling when she does. He sits next to her, but doesn't say anything.
Silence fills the room, although it's not entirely uncomfortable. There's a certain awkwardness on Lena's part, as she doesn't know what to say, and neither does anybody else.
Eventually, Natasha speaks up. She looks around, and sits forward, leaning her arms on her knees.
"Lena, if there's anything you'd like to tell-"
"No." Lena interrupts quietly. "You can all guess, and anyway, I'm moving on. It happened, okay?"
They all stare at her. She blinks. "Well, I'm going to bed." She says, standing up. She walks out the room, only too aware of the loud sound her feet make on the floor. Each step feels wrong, and her natural instincts are telling her to turn around, explain and let them understand. She can tell how much they want to, and to be there, but she just can't let them. She swallows this feelings, and proceeds onwards.
When Clint goes to find her a few hours later, she's not in her usual room. Of course, he thinks, why would she go there?
Luckily, she's picked a room only a few doors down, which takes Clint only seconds to find. He opens the door carefully, and sees Lena asleep on the bed, curled up in a tight ball.
Her chin is on her knees, and there's sweat pouring down her face. She's shaking slightly, and muttering something under her breath.
Clint doesn't know whether to wake her or not. She's scared, obviously, but does he know it will get any better if she wakes? She's not one of those people who likes others to see them when they're weak, even those closest to them, and if Lena knew Clint had seen her like this, it might make her only more irritable and annoyed. This would make her even more withdrawn then she already is, and Clint can't take that. He's finding communicating with her difficult anyway.
And he's never been the best socially. He won't be able to help bring her out of her shell. He can comfort her, but he can't make her better. But maybe he knows someone who will.
Reed Richards jumps when the phone rings. He's never particularly liked his phone, even if he admires it slightly for the technology involved. He prefers emails, and other simpler ways of communicating. That way, you can pretend you haven't got the message of you don't want to talk to somebody.
Lots of people have criticised him for this. "You're twenty two!" They'd say. He'd nod, confused. "You're meant to be using the latest technology and understanding it!". He'd just shrug. Sue is more of the technology person. She was the one that convinced him to get a phone.
He reaches for the phone, sinking down into his chair. Almost immediately though, he sits up again, his eyes widening when he sees the caller ID. His heart begins to beat very fast, incredibly panicked.
"Hello Clinton." He says shakily into the phone.
"Is this about Lena?" He frowns at the reply, and closes his eyes.
"What happened?" He pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Of course. I'll be there in a few days. There aren't that many flights from Seattle to New York with spare seats."
He hangs up and puts the phone gingerly down on the desk way in front of him, and stares at it for a few minutes.
Then he goes to find Sue. She looks shocked when he tells her in a shaky voice what has happened, but nods silently when he tells her he's going.
Clint bristles slightly when Lena's dad calls him by his full name. Nobody has called him Clinton for years. And for good reason. Usually people who do find themselves with an arrow to the knee.
In fact, that's what Reed got last time he met Clint in person. The situation between them has been quite icy since then, and there's still no sign of spring.
He explains the situation as briefly as he can, not wanting to upset Reed with all the details but also wanting to show to Reed that it's bad enough that he has to come to New York.
To his credit though, Reed agrees to come immediately, and he hangs up.
Clint goes back to bed.
It's Tony, who suffers from insomnia, who is the first to hear the screaming.
He leaps out of bed, thanking himself he was unable to sleep and can stop whatever jumped up super villain decided to run wild in New York at one o'clock in the morning.
He's yelling to Jarvis as he runs down the corridor, but stops when he realises the screams aren't coming from outside. They're coming from inside the Tower.
He turns a corner silently, and finds Steve and Natasha waiting outside a door. Seems as though they were woken as well.
The door they are standing by is ajar, and the light is on. But the screaming doesn't stop, although it is punctuated with a girl's voice muttering something.
"no, please don't. Loki, please!" She screams again, and Tony's heart sinks. What did that son of a bitch Loki do to her?
Tony stands with Steve and Natasha, for some reason finding tears prickling his eyes as he watches an already crying Clint try to shake Lena awake.
It's only when Clint yells her name that the screaming ceases, and her eyes snap open. She's breathing very fast, a panicked look in her large green eyes. She relaxes when she sees Clint throw, and she throws her arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder.
Clint hugs her back, and tells her it's okay, she's safe now. Lena believes him, but doesn't believe that this won't happen again. She feels vulnerable and embarrassed.
Then she looks up at the guilty and sympathetic looks of the other Avengers, and just feels disappointed. The guilt on their faces confirms her worst fears, that they blame themselves.
She pulls away from Clint.
"I'll think I'll go back to sleep now." She says, and lies down, pulling the duvet up to her chin before anyone else can say anything. Clint gives her a small smile, then walks away, closing the door and turning the light off.
Lena can hear the muttered voices outside her door.
"Is she alright?" Steve asks. Clint's voice replies telling Steve he doesn't know.
"Look, let's go to the lounge." Tony says. "We can call Bruce and see what he thinks."
The others silently agree, and Lena hears their footsteps getting quieter and quieter as they retreat to the lounge to discuss her.
She silently gets out of bed, and turns invisible, one of the powers that has returned to her since she has been recovering in Stark Tower.
She creeps along the corridor, feeling slightly like things are returning to normal. It's a happy link with her old reality to use her powers, and it makes her smile slightly. If only she could experiment with her powers. But Clint and the others are keeping too close an eye on her for that.
She hears the voices of her friends, and her heart contracts. All of them, every word, is showing their guilt, and that they blame themselves for what happened. No. They can't do this. They couldn't have stopped her.
She's about to burst through the doors, and tell them so, when something Clint says stops her.
"I called her father. He's coming."
The others pause.
"What is his name?" Tony asks.
"Reed Richards." Clint says.
"The Reed Richards?"
Clint( or the shadow Lena has assumed is Clint) nods. Lena blinks. Her father is coming? She feels happier. She missed her parents so much, and she'll be glad to see them, but now it's her turn to feel guilty. They will have been so worried after Clint called them, she knows. She hopes they are okay. Come soon Dad, she thinks.
Then he speaks again.
"I just feel so bad..." He trails off when Lena barges through the doors, angry tears pouring down her cheeks as she yells at them.
"Shut up! Shut up, all of you! I can't have you blame yourselves for this! It was my decision, and my decision alone. Nothing anybody said could have stopped me, so stop feeling guilty! Just shut up!" She screams.
When she finishes, she feels drained, and tired, like a massive weight has been lifted off her shoulders. She sags slightly, and sits down.
"Please." She says.
Lena is very relieved when her dad gets to Stark Tower. It gives her someone to talk to who isn't feeling guilty, who isn't blaming themselves. Obviously her father is upset for her, but he doesn't seem to blame anybody but Loki, which is nice.
The others say they don't blame themselves, but their thoughts tell a different story.
She hugs her dad tightly, and she doesn't feel as though she ever wants to let go. He hugs her back, and she's relieved. She's missed him so much, and it's obvious he's missed her too.
Before she can even suggest that she leaves New York, he say it himself.
"You are coming back with me, Lena." He says, smiling slightly at his tiny daughter. She smiles back.
"Yes please."
Once back in Seattle, Lena ignores the texts, emails, calls and general messages Clint bombards her with. She doesn't want to talk to him, doesn't he get that?
A tiny part of her wants to reply, but a bigger part of her tells her to move on, and ignore him. So she does, however guilty she feels because of it, and however much she sometimes regrets it.
That's until a few years later, when a man with blue eyes shows up, looking for her.
"Hello." He says.