In this chapter; Evie is nine, Elijah and Henry are five, Alexis is eight months old, and Natasha is six months pregnant, Jacob would be five and Oliver would be 11 months old
Clint, Tony, Thor, Bruce and Steve had been called into Fury's office on the helicarrier, interrupting their scheduled training with Coulson due to an emergency situation.
"Some moron had decided to set himself up with a sniper rifle in the Manhattan mall" Fury explained.
This 'moron' was demanding the government closes the Manhattan Mall, and all the malls across America in the fight against consumerism.
"Local police and FBI have been called in and have managed to evacuate most of the mall, but the guy's still in there with about 25 hostages and he's threatening to shoot one every few minutes until his demands are met"
"He's deranged"
"I think I covered that with 'moron' Stark"
"Yeah, well... I was just reiterating it"
"We need to get in there before he starts shooting, he's been in there 20 minutes already so we need to mobalise and strike. We don't want any casualties here. So heres the-"
Clint's phone began ringing, and Fury stopped his speech, turned and faced him. Eyebrow raised; almost challenging him to take the call, and to Fury's surprise, Clint did.
"Tasha? I'm just in a meeting with Fury. We've got a mission; some psycho at the mall..."
"Clint, I know"
"What do you mean? How do you-"
"We're here; at the mall"
"Who's we?"
"Me and Pepper; the kids are with Darcy... Clint, this guy-"
Clint heard shots fired down the line before it went dead;
"Tasha! Tasha! Dammit!"
"Agent Barton?"
"Tasha and Pepper are at the mall, they're caught up in this whole mess"
Clint kicked his chair across the room; but it did little to make him feel better.
Agent Hill arrived; "Director Fury you may want to see this" she flicked on the TV and selected the news channel; it was covering the situation:
"The latest development here at the Manhattan Mall Standoff; we've just been informed that shots have been fired inside the mall, we have no confirmation yet but it is suspected at least one of the hostages has been hit. Police and FBI agents are working to try and talk down the sniper, but so far negotiations have been unsuccessful. Rumors are circulating that The Avengers have been called in to try and deal with the situation but they have yet to make an appearance..."
"Have we got access to the security footage in there?" Steve asked, watching Clint carefully as he paced back and forth, kicking another chair in rage.
"No, all security footage to that section of the mall has been cut. We're blind on this one"
Pepper looked around in horror; an elder man across the room fell first; a shot to the leg. Next a woman was on the floor; bleeding from a shot to her abdomen. Everything seemed to go into slow motion, her vision was blurred as the adrenalin pumped through her system.
Suddenly. everything snapped sharply into focus as she turned and saw Natasha go down; a bullet wound in the shoulder.
"Fury why the hell are you stalling? You said you wanted us in there pronto!"
"The situation has changed Captain Rogers"
"Exactly, we've got people in there, shouldn't we be acting even more quickly now?"
"Rogers, I want Romanoff and Potts safe as much as you do, but we can't rush this. There are over 20 other hostages held in there and we need to ensure their safety"
"He's already opened fire Sir; we need to get in there!"
"Rogers I said no! We're working on getting the surveillance footage up. We need to make sure there's not more than one hostile"
As much as Clint hated Fury right now; he knew he was right. The rapid fire shots meant there was either more than one sniper in there or he had an automatic weapon. The fact that he had fired at all changed the profile; no one had truly believed a man against consumerism would really hurt anyone.
The news reporter went on;
"We've had confirmation that three of the hostages have been injured but not killed. The three gunmen used sniper rifles to take down their targets from a vantage point on the upper floor of the mall food court. The 'leader' of the men announced to the hostages that these were three warning shots; the next shots will kill. He promised to keep shooting hostages until he is listened to..."
"Where the hell are they getting their information from?" Tony asked. While Clint had taken to rage to express his emotions, Tony had sat silently in his seat; leaning his head in his hands, eyes closed and rubbing his temples.
"Hill, see if you can find their source!"
"Right away sir"
Clint re-entered the room; "Tony, I spoke with Darcy. She's got Oliver and Jacob too. She's taken the six of them to Jane's lab"
"Is she okay to keep them occupied til we get this whole mess sorted?"
"Yeah, her and Jane are going to take them out for dinner; they're already getting suspicious as to why Nat and Pepper haven't picked them up. Evie is asking a lot of questions"
"Are they going to tell her what's going on?"
"No, I told them not too. Evie can't keep secrets and I don't want the younger ones panicking"
"Good, I don't want Jacob to know about this"
"Sir, the press' source is one of the hostages; a kid. He's hidden under one of the tables. His mom is one of the victims"
"They still got an open connection?"
"Yeah"
"Get me on the phone with him!"
"Oh my God, Tasha!"
"I'm fine Pepper, I just need you to see if it was a through and through"
Pepper hesitated; there was so much blood. But she helped Natasha sit up slightly, finding the exit wound in her back; Natasha grimaced in pain.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine, I've had worse"
"You've never been shot and pregnant at the same time Nat"
"No, true"
A second later another shot sounded; and a man in a business suit collapsed to the ground, a single shot through the head.
"Your government better hurry up and listen to us, we're running out of patience!"
"Okay; here's what we got from the kid; three went down from the first wave of 'warning shots'; his mom, an elderly man, and a pregnant woman"
"Wait what?!"
"Clint I-"
"You gotta let me in there"
"There's no guarantee it was her Barton"
"Oh come on! Its Nat; of course it was her!"
"Barton sit down. We're still coming up with a plan and I need you level headed and thinking straight"
"With all due respect Director Fury; it's his wife and baby in there, and Tony's wife. Our teammate and our friends; would you be level headed?" Bruce said from his corner.
Fury nodded at the mans comment;
"Agent Barton, Mister Stark; I am sorry, I truly am. But we need to work this out to minimise casualties and make sure we get this right. So as I was saying; three warning shots, these three victims are all still very much alive, the first kill shot was fired a few minutes ago; a middle aged man was murdered. They're getting angsty and impatient. We're still trying for video feed, and we've got schematics of the building coming in now"
A blond woman crawled over to where Natasha and Pepper were sat; she was a nurse named Jenny and offered her help. Pepper was trying to stem the bleeding but there was just so much blood, she was thankful for someone coming to lend a hand; everyone else seemed too terrified to move.
"I think he hit your axillary artery"
"Is that bad?" Pepper asked
"It's not good"
Natasha took a sharp intake of breath and winced in pain, though it was not her shoulder which was bothering her.
"Oh Tasha, please tell me you're not in labour!"
"You can't be in labour! You're not even seven months yet!"
"You're only six months?" Jenny asked, not hiding the worry in her voice.
Natasha nodded, too preoccupied with breathing through the pain to answer.
"She's almost 27 weeks"
"Damn it that's far too early! We really need to get you to hospital; an injection of terbutaline or magnesium sulphate can stop pre-term labor. We need to get your shoulder looked at too, you shouldn't be losing this much blood"
Six more shots were fired as Natasha tensed through another contraction, and Jenny dropped dead beside her.
"There have been six more casualties, and no Stark, I don't know who. But we're going in. Everyone suit up; I can't believe I'm saying this but we're using Starks plan"
The five members of the team boarded the quinjet, along with Hill, Coulson and a full medical team. Clint would normally have flown but he was too anxious, there was no way he would delay reaching Natasha by strapping himself into the pilot seat.
It wasn't a long flight, and before they knew it the quinjet hovered silently above the glass dome roof of the food hall where they hostages were held. Tony was to break the glass with his repulse while Clint, Steve and Thor repelled down and took out the hostiles with tranq darts before they knew what hit them. Bruce was to stay aboard the jet unless the plan went terribly wrong.
Natasha was starting to slip in and out of consciousness, she'd lost too much blood and Pepper was struggling to keep her awake. The only thing that seemed to snap her back to alertness was the searing pain of her contractions; which were getting closer together and more intense as time went on.
By now the two other victims hit with warning shots had bled out; nine of the hostages were now dead and the gunmen showed no signs of giving up anytime soon.
Natasha looked at Pepper, struggling to keep her eyes open when something in her expression changed. Every ounce of strength she had left she used to pull Pepper down; the red target light of a sniper rifle had been aimed at her head. Three more shots were fired, but only two hit their targets.
The team heard another three shots fired and decided it was time.
One blast from Tony's repulsor beam and the glass dome shattered, a second later and Thor, Clint and Steve had all taken down their targets; Clint and Steve with tranq guns, Thor had improvised and knocked his out with a small lightening blast.
Tony landed in the middle of the food hall; he counted 11 dead and breathed a sigh of relief when Pepper wasn't one of them.
Natasha remained conscious just long enough to see Clint running towards her before she passed out completely.
Tears streamed Pepper's face in relief as Tony took her into his arms. Steve held the boy who'd talked them through what was happening on the phone as he cried for his mother. The police swarmed the building; evacuating the remaining hostages, while SHILED personnel collected the gunmen.
This whole standoff had been a mess, it had been handled badly and escalated rapidly. The cause the men stood for had been completely disproportional to their actions and this made everyone extremely angry.
Three days later Natasha woke in the infirmary at SHIELD HQ; she hated it there. It smelled of disinfectant and everything was too bright.
Clint was by her side, asleep in the arm chair they'd moved in here several years before; when this had become Clint and Natasha's usual room. Alexis slept in his arms. Henry was sprawled across the foot of her bed; his blond hair covering his face. Elijah and Evie were cramped onto another chair on the other side of her bed; Evie's arm wrapped over her younger brothers shoulders, hugging him tightly, her other hand gripped Natasha's own.
The baby moved and gave strong kick. She went to move her arm to place her hand on her stomach and found she couldn't; it was in a sling; kept firmly in place against her chest.
There was a gentle knock at the door and Pepper peered her head round the door, clutching a coffee in her hand.
"Hey you're awake"
"How long-"
"Three days"
"Wow, must have been some pretty good blood loss"
"Yeah, you had us all worried!"
Natasha wasn't really sure how to respond, she'd been worried herself. Her baby had been at risk and that was not something she was used to.
"The baby-"
"They baby's fine Nat, the labor stopped progressing when you passed out, the doctors have been monitoring you and they baby; it's all fine"
Clint slowly stirred from his sleep
"Anyway, I'll see you later" Pepper placed the cup down next to Clint and turned to leave, "By the way, thanks" she added with a grateful smile.
"Thanks for what?" Natasha asked, somewhat confused. Her memory of the events leading up to her stay on the medical wing was somewhat cloudy
"You saved my life" Pepper answered
"Ditto" Natasha smiled back.