Disclaimer: I do not own in any sort of fashion, except for my characters.

A/N: This is sort of a filler chapter, sorry. Also, if any of you want to see what Norah's outfits look like i have them on polyvore and Pinterest and will give you my username or link so you can see them. Let me know!

Chapter four

Finally, after being in Sokovia for a few days making a plan of attack and then attacking the Hydra base in Sokovia the Avengers and Norah were heading back home to New York – to Stark Tower. Norah for one was excited to get back to the tower, she missed her nice, big and comfortable bed that had six pillows laying on it, her stuffed otter Mr. Puddles (yes she was a twenty some year old with a stuffed animal. Who cares?), she had a beautiful view of the city from the bay window that was in her room that had deep blue cushions. The first thing Norah planned on doing once they all got back to the tower was flinging herself onto her bed and wrapping herself up in her blankets and maybe, if she was lucky, take a small nap. But that would have to wait for a few more hours, they were still a bit out from arriving at the Tower.

At the moment Norah was seated down beside Clint who was laid up on a Stark designed medical gurney with an IV in his arm and looking every bit of being in pain, "You know," Norah started as she looked at Clint who shifted a bit so he could look at her better. "Being the skilled assassin that you are I thought you'd think to check for a dud in your arrows," she began and ignored Clint's exclamation of 'it wasn't a dud' and continued speaking as if he never interrupted. "Then, after that you got knocked down by a twenty-something year old guy and then you let yourself get distracted enough to get shot in the side by one of the Bunker weapons." Norah finished, tsking at him in faux disappointment. "Are you sure you're not getting too old for this?" Norah asked jokingly.

"If I wasn't injured at the moment I'd kick your ass for your smart assed mouth." Clint said as he glared at Norah who was grinning widely at him, as if she was proud of herself for being a smart ass to Clint.

Norah scoffed, "You love me like this and you know it. Your life would feel incredibly boring if you didn't have my sparkling personality, innocent looks and smart ass comments to make the day go by faster." She said cheerily.

At that Clint rolled his eyes at her, "Innocent my ass." He grumbled under his breath. "Sometimes, Norah." Clint said looking into her dark brown colored eyes which contrasted against her pale skin and blonde hair. "You are a bit too much Tony. And I really think for a few moments that you share DNA."

"If Tony was actually my father I would be ten times worse." Norah pointed out to him simply which made Clint shudder at the thought of Tony reproducing – it would be complete chaos.

Norah closed her eyes for a moment and leaned her head up against the wall and tried to empty her mind of everything that just happened in Sokovia but no matter how much she tried to clear her mind one face kept on popping up. His face. The speedster's. Touching her lips with her finger Norah couldn't help but give a quick smile at remembering the feeling of his lips against hers, she didn't know why exactly she decided to kiss him, it was as if her body had a mind of its own. Norah shouldn't have enjoyed giving a quick kiss to him, but she did. God Norah so needed to get out more and go to the bars if this was how she reacted around a fairly attractive guy – a Hydra one at that. It's been…a while, a really long while since Norah has been with anyone or dated anyone. Norah just kept on yelling internally at herself that he was with Hydra, that he was bad, that she shouldn't even be entertaining the thought of him, as if it was a mantra. Something to live by.

"Norah?" Clint questioned in concern when he saw her stare off into the distance, lost in her thoughts. "You okay?" he asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts Norah looked at Clint and plastered on a forced smile, "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. No worries." She told him, waving his concern off but Clint just stared at her intently as if he was trying to unravel why she suddenly had a far off look in her eyes not but a moment ago.

Clint opened his mouth to question Norah on the subject but thought better of it and closed his mouth, he's known Norah for the last three or so years and knew her well enough that if she didn't want to talk about something that she wasn't going to. She was stubborn as a bull. Clint knew that this time was one of those times when she didn't want to talk about something; it was in how she clenched her hands and how she tensed her arms up a bit. All pointed to the fact that she didn't want to talk about whatever it was that she had been thinking about.

"Usually I'm more than happy for you to go off and take on bad guys, you have a killer power and if you have it you should use it." Clint said as he scrunched his face in pain for a moment. "But Norah, you shouldn't have run off after that guy by yourself. We didn't know what his powers were for sure other than he can run fast." Clint pointed out to her, a serious look in his eye and just as Norah opened her mouth to retort Clint continued on. "Look, I know you can take care of yourself. I've seen you use your power to full capacity and blow a jet up not that Fury was real happy about that but we learned how far we can push your powers. But, we don't know the capabilities of these people or how far they'll go to get what they want."

At that Norah gave a heavy sigh and crossed her arms under her rather well-endowed chest, "Geeze, you're starting to sound like Steve now Clint." She said in annoyance at she was basically getting the same conversation twice. "I knew what the dangers were when I ran off, okay? I know that he could have had more than just the ability to run as fast as lightening. Okay, I do get that. But it was a chance I was willing to take." She said to him stubbornly. "I was the only one who had a chance of keeping up with him. He may be fast, but I have skills too."

"Norah, you could have been led into a trap by him." Clint pointed out calmly as he could, he worried for her like anyone else on the team did. "If Hydra got their hands on you….it…I don't know what we would do Norah." He admitted to her. "Nothing good would have come of it, they would have done horrible things to you. Tortured you. Experimented on you."

"I know!" she hissed at him quietly so that the others couldn't hear exactly what they were talking about. "I know what the risks were when I agreed to come on this mission of your guys'." She huffed at him and then rubbed at her temples, she felt a head ache coming on. "I thought out of everyone you and Tasha were the ones who believed in me and my abilities and were willing to let me do my own thing for the most part." She said and gave him a pointed look, silently questioning why he was acting like this now.

Clint ran a hand over his face, the one without the IV in it. "I know, I know. I'm sorry Norah. It's just that this was one of the more dangerous of missions that we've gone on. If something happened to you….well Pepper would skin us all alive and you know it. We care about you." He told her.

Instead of responding to that statement Norah gave a wry smile on her face and gently squeezed Clint's hand in thanks; it's been a long time since someone has cared for her as if she was their family. Sure, the guys at Xavier's Institute cared for her and welcomed her with open arms but the only people who really treated her as if shew as family had been Kitty and Piotr. Even when she moved to Europe and settled down in Sweden she didn't really find that many people – friends – to connect with and to feel as if she could consider them family one day. The Avenger's though, they were accepting through and through, they were her chosen family.

"Did you find anything out?" Clint asked curiously, breaking the silence that had settled between the two of them.

"Eh," Norah said noncommittal. "Not all that much." She admitted to him with a frown on her face. "I learned that he and his sister volunteered to be experimented on by Strucker. From what I could understand Strucker offered them a way to help their country, to somehow bring true Freedom to their country, to free them from the corruptness that Sokovia seems to be surrounded by. They volunteered to be experimented on so that they could help their people and their country – not so different from Steve." She stated quietly, seeing the eerie similarities to Steve when he volunteered to take the Soldier Serum and now with what the speedster and his sister did.

Clint's lips thinned when he heard what Norah said and what Strucker did in order to get volunteer's. "Strucker pulled on their heartstrings, made them feel, made them believe in him and hear what he was offering up. He offered something up to them that they wouldn't be able to say no to." He said with a shake of his head. "They are still with Hydra though Norah." He said to her. "Don't forget that."

Norah looked at Clint with an unimpressed look, "I know Clint. Don't worry."

After that the two of them settled into a comfortable quiet silence, Clint trying to ignore the pain that was quite obviously causing him a lot of discomfort and Norah trying to clear her mind and trying to not think about the guy and his sister and feeling for them and understanding why they did what they did. They were with Hydra, no doubt about that but Hydra lured them into joining, into being experimented on by dangling what they wanted and what they needed to help their country right in front of their noses. No one would have been able to resist. Not even Steve.

If Norah had been in their shoes she would have made the same decision as the two of them, she would sacrifice anything and everything in order to protect what she loved and those that she loved and cared for. She would straight out kill for Pepper and Tony, no questions asked.

The voice of Natasha asking Thor for a report of the Hulk broke Norah's train of thought and forced her to look towards where the majority of her other team members were.

Thor grinned triumphantly, "The gates of hell are filled with the screams of his victims." He stated as if that was the exact answer that they wanted to hear but when he saw Natasha looking at him wide eyed and unbelievable he back tracked a bit. "Uhh not the screams of the dead of course. Wounded screams maybe, whimpering and a great deal of complaining about sprained deltoids and uh, gout." He finished lamely.

Hearing that Norah couldn't help but snort in amusement and then look over at Clint who had an amused smirk on his face, "He's not one for tact, is he?" she questioned rhetorically as she looked over at Thor who was looking at Bruce apologetically.

"Not as far as I have known." Clint answered simply.

The moment that they all had arrived at Stark Tower, Clint was wheeled away into Bruce's lab so that Dr. Cho could work on fixing Clint and the injury he had gotten in his side which was at least a tad bit concerning, Natasha following along where her best friend was being wheeled. Thor also left the jet going to who knows where in the building which left just Tony, Steve and Norah in the quinjet.

Norah got up and headed towards her father figure and hip bumped him playfully and looked up into his eyes and gave him a serious look, "Don't keep yourself locked up in your lab going over that scepter." She said and poked his chest as she ended her serious statement. "I mean it. And don't forget to eat."

"Who are you, Pepper?" Tony questioned. "I get enough of this from her, I don't need you on my case too! You're supposed to be on my side, my mini-me!" he said excitedly. "The non- Austin Powers sort."

At that Norah gave a small smile at the eccentrics and oddness of her 'father' and poked him hard in the chest, "I mean it Tony, don't go overboard or else Pepper will kill you. Not to mention adding that onto the fact she will be killing you anyways for having me come with you on this mission, she will find out." She said to him in a deadly serious tone of voice. "And I'm not crazy enough to get on her bad side."

"Don't worry." He said flippantly as he turned in his seat as Maria Hill walked up and into the quinjet.

"I tend to worry when you tell me not to worry." Norah pointed out to him with a shake of her head. "If you get yourself killed from doing something stupid, I'm so not telling Pepper." She said under her breath and then headed out of the Quinjet and to the elevator so that she could go to the floor that her room was on.

Norah did want to fling herself onto her bed and sleep the day away – Pepper would reprimand her if she found out – but realistically she knew she couldn't sleep. For one, she was covered in grime, a bit of woods, and some blood which was probably Clint's so really, all Norah wanted to do now was get out of her clothes and change into some clean one's that would make her feel a bit more human. A shower would also help relax her sore and overworked muscles from running and rolling on the ground with a certain blonde/silver haired Sokovian.

Feeling less nasty and more clean after taking a shower and changing into a pair of knee length yoga pants and an old Misfit's band T-shirt Norah left the confines of her room and headed down to Bruce's lab to see how Clin't was holding up. Opting to go barefoot Norah took the elevator down a few levels and then padded her way down the hall and down a few flights of stairs before arriving at the level Bruce's lab was at, spotting the majority of the Avenger's Norah made her way over to them.

"You sure he's going to be okay?" Natasha questioned as Norah walked inside. "Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together." She joked in an almost serious tone of voice.

Cho smiled at that, "There's no possibility of deterioration. His cell's don't know they're bonding." She said to Natasha and Clint.

Bruce came up and looked amazed, "She is creating tissue." He said in awe at what her machine could do.

"If you would have brought him to my lab the regenerating cradle could have done this in twenty minutes." Cho explained to them as she watched the progress of her much smaller machine.

"Nah," Norah said as she came up on one side of Clint and watched the light of the machine scanning the wound so to say and creating new cells – fascinating and disgusting all at the same time. "Let him suffer, make him have to wait longer to heal up. We all know it's driving him nuts." She said with an amused grin sent towards Clint who was rapping his fingers against the bed.

"Uh oh," Tony said passing drinks out. "He's flat lining, call it. Time?"

Clint gave a bit of a raspy laugh, "No, no, no. I'm going to live forever. I'm going to be made of plastic." He said with a grin on his face at that thought.

Cho shook her head at Clint, "You'll be made of you Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference."

"I don't have a girlfriend." Clint pointed out to her.

"Well that I can't help you with." Cho said to him and watched the progress of Clint's healing.

Norah continued to watch the machine heal Clint up, it was amazing that the medical field has come so far that they are able to use this sort of technology to heal people from damn near anything apparently. Watching this machine go at it was making Norah have the urge to touch the light, or at least poke the thing itself but she held that urge back. Sometimes Norah couldn't help but act like a five year old child, she blamed that on the fact that she didn't really have much of a childhood when she was growing up; her father was an alcoholic and a drug dealer and her mother had to work just to keep a roof over their heads since her husband was always drunk.

Steve came into the room wearing normal clothes rather than his Captain America outfit, but even when in normal clothes he looked like he stepped out of a movie from the 1940's. "How are you holding up?" Steve questioned as he looked at Clint.

Clint smiled and then gave a thumbs up, "Fine Cap, gonna be good as new thanks to Dr. Cho's technology." He said to him. "Not gonna be made of plastic thankfully."

At that Steve cocked his head to the side and looked at Clint a bit oddly but shrugged, "Glad to hear." He said with a nod and then turned towards Norah with an undistinguishable look on his face. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked.

Norah gave an inaudible sigh when Steve asked that but gave a nod in affirmation nonetheless. "Sure." She said and watched as Steve turned around and walked out of the lab. "Well, bye. I guess I'm going to have a little talk. Don't go dying on me." She said as she looked at Clint pointedly and then left the lab to go have a talk with Steve.

Steve led Norah down a hallway and then up a set of stairs before he turned around and leaned his forearms against the railing and looked out and over the floors that they could look down into. For a few moments Norah studied Steve, trying to see what he wanted to say to her but shook her head and decided to follow suit and also lean against the railing and look down at the few scattered people that were milling down on the floors that were below them.

"I was wrong." Steve said to her suddenly as he glanced over to Norah who had turned to him. "I was wrong about how we've been treating you when we ask you to come with us on missions. Natasha and Clint are the only ones who seem to never be worried about you when you come with us, they believe in your skills and in your powers. But the rest of us, we treat you like a kid, as if you don't know your right from your left when you go into battle. We stick you with a babysitter so that if something happens they can protect and help you, when you first started coming with us that was needed because you've never been out fighting the bad guys but now…..now it's unneeded." He said and paused for a moment so that he could gather his thoughts and put what he wanted to say to her into words. "I never thought it was possible to have special abilities like yours and like other Mutant's have, I because this," he said gesturing at himself. "Because of a science experiment basically. You, you were born like this. You've always been different; it just took time for your powers to develop."

Steve stopped talking for a moment and seemed to be waiting for Norah to say something to him but rather than saying anything Norah stayed quiet and looked at Steve Expectantly, waiting to her the rest of whatever he had to say to her. It was obvious he had a whole speech prepared to apologize to her.

"I've seen you fight Norah. You may not be on the level of Natasha but you can fight. And your powers are an asset, something you should rely on if you have them." Steve began and turned so that he could look at Norah better. "I've seen what you can do with your powers…you are incredibly powerful with them and I have no doubt that if you wanted to take me out that you would be able to with little to no effort." Steve said which gained a small smirk from Norah. "You are twenty-two years old Norah and we don't have a right to treat you like that, the only one who has a right to be overprotective of you is Tony. The rest of us have no right. It's about time we start treating you like any other team member." He ended.

For a few moments neither Norah nor Steve said anything; Steve waiting for Norah's response to his apology and Norah letting everything sink in and trying to figure out the best way to respond to Steve's apology and saying that he had been wrong.

"I'm not happy about how you guys treated me," Norah started after a few moments of silence. "I'm not saying you treated me badly but you did treat me unfairly. I'm too old to be treated like that Steve, I've done too much, seen too much and have experienced too much to be treated like a piece of glass. I understand that you all being stronger than me and more skilled than me in fighting that you want to protect me and that back in the day that's how you men type treated woman and sure, a bit of coddling and care is pretty damn nice but not when it's in the middle of a mission. Not when you all know that I can protect myself." Norah explained to him as she ran one of her hands through her long, wild and crazy curly blonde hair. "I don't need to be constantly watched over, okay?" she questioned with a 'listen to me or else' sort of expression on her face.

Steve nodded without much hesitation, not wanting to get on Norah's bad side. "Okay. I'll do my best to." He answered with a slight smile on his face. "It's in my upbringing to treat dame's like you properly and to make sure you are cared for." He said with a shrug of his shoulders as a way to explain why he did what he did at times.

"Well try and reign that upbringing in when it comes to me, okay." Norah said to him with a playful smile on her face.

In response to that Steve chuckled a bit, "I'll see what I can do."

After their talk and Steve understanding that he needed to let Norah be an actual team member and treat her like one rather than a child, the two went their separate ways. Steve to do whatever it was that he wanted to do and Norah headed to her bedroom, she was tired after all these long days in Sokovia and fighting so she figured that she might as well go to bed early and get a good night's rest in her very, very comfortable bed that has been calling to her since she got back at the tower. Once in her room Norah made quick work of stripping out of her clothes and pulling on a simple knee length night shirt and settled herself on her bed and then reached over to her night stand and pulled out a photo album that she's had since before she ran away from home at fifteen years old.

Something that Norah would do almost every night was pull out a photo album of her family – her family in Minnesota that was – and look through the pictures so that she could remind herself what her mother, her older sister Niki and handful of other relatives looked like. But Norah mostly looked at the pictures of her mother and sister and wondered, she wondered what they were doing, how they were, what they've done with their lives since she ran off, if they miss her, if her sister was married yet, did her sister have any kids yet, she wondered if her mother and sister thought of her at all and wondered if they had tried to find her.

When Norah had moved in with Tony she asked him for a favor, to find out if her mother and sister still lived in Minnesota. She didn't want to know anything else about them; she didn't want to know if her mother got remarried, she didn't want to know where exactly they lived and she definitely didn't want to know their phone numbers. Tony did as Norah asked and found out that her family still lived in Minnesota and that he had even found some pictures of them but Norah refused to look at them saying she couldn't look at them, that if she did she'd want to go back and see them and that was something she couldn't do. Not yet at least. The only thing Norah had told Tony after he found out they still lived in Minnesota was to ask if he would keep tabs on them, just so that Norah would be notified if they decided to move out of state or something along those lines.

Norah appreciated that Tony didn't try and push her and question her on why she refused to have anything to do with her family, why she didn't want updates on their lives and why she didn't want to see pictures of her family. He understood her, understood why she couldn't and for that Norah would be grateful to him.

Not even when Norah had been running away did she feel hate towards her mother and sister, in fact, she loved them so much and felt so much despair and pain for the fact that she had to run away. She knew that coming to terms with the fact that someone you love was a Mutant was hard, that it was hard to understand Mutant's in general and actually comprehend that not all Mutant's are bad or dangerous and need to be 'fixed' as some people referred to it as. Norah wished she could help them understand, help her mother and sister understand that not all Mutant's were bad and that not all of them ended up becoming evil and horrible people who only want to hurt others, to hurt regular people. But Norah knew she was fighting a losing battle and made the hardest and best decision that she could – to run away. Norah knew if she stayed at home her mother would force her to go to a doctor that would try and 'fix' her and that was something that she would not let happen to herself, she was a Mutant and refused to lose her powers simply because her family was afraid of what she could do.

There was no doubt that Norah was angry and bitter over the fact that she had to leave, that she had to run away because they didn't understand when tons of other Mutant's that she went to school with had understanding parents, had people who accepted them for who they were and what they were. Norah didn't want to run away, she didn't want to steal her mother's other car and drive off to destination unknown. She wanted to stay home, she wanted to see her friends, she wanted to hang out with her friends and laugh with them and gossip about the cute boys in movies. Instead, she ran away and drove through a couple states, ended up being attacked in St. Louis and eventually found by the X-Men and was given the option to go to school with people like her. Xavier's was the first time she felt truly accepted, she was accepted by all of them because they were like her and she had friends who she wouldn't have to hide her powers from. But even if it felt like home, it wasn't.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ A Few Days Later ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It's been a few days since the group went to Sokovia and reclaimed Loki's scepter, and now, it was the day of whatever party Tony had decided to throw which Norah still had no idea why he was throwing it. She figured he was throwing it just so he had a good reason to drink.

At the moment Norah was on the level that Tony's lab was on, she was a bit bored and wanted to see if Tony wanted company and/or help in his lab. He's let her help him before, though she never understood what he was teaching her or having her do, but Norah did as he told her usually and there was only one time she accidentally fried the wiring on whatever project he was doing because her mind wandered off on her. He kicked her out of his lab after that and banned her for almost a month – he was such a drama queen at times.

"What are you working on Tony?" Norah asked suddenly from the glass doorway of Tony's lab and saw the scepter in the middle of the room while both Bruce and Tony were looking at computer screens that were doing….something, analyzing she assumed. "Hey Bruce." She said offhand to the man.

The moment both heard her voice they jumped and turned around to look at her wildly, Tony strode forward. "What are you doing here" he questioned and did his best to block Norah's line of vision so that she couldn't see what he was doing around his lab at the moment, something he knew everyone else would not approve of him doing. "Shouldn't you be playing dress up with Natasha? Or Thor? You and Thor could braid each other's hair. I think he's more of a French braid sort of person –"

Norah cut him off, "What are you doing Tony?" she questioned again with narrowed eyes, at first she hadn't been suspicious of what he was doing but now…now she knew that Tony was up to something that he shouldn't be doing but she wasn't sure what it was exactly.

"What?" Tony questioned as he gave her an innocent look. "What makes you think I'm doing anything?" he asked her as he avoided eye contact.

At that Norah raised a brow, "You're avoiding the question Tony." She pointed out to him stubbornly and crossed her arms, waiting for him to answer her question.

Norah attempted to peak around Tony's shoulder but he moved into her line of vision which made her scowl, she shuffled a bit to the side and then so did Tony, she tried to jump to see over his head and so did Tony. Yep, he was definitely hiding something.

"Tony." Norah said in a warning tone of voice.

"It's nothing," Tony said defending himself and then holding out a bag of dried up fruit that he seemed to be obsessed with, but all Norah did was look at it blankly and then look up into Tony's eyes expectantly. "Norah I promise it's nothing bad. No need to worry that blonde head of yours." He said to her and gently mussed up Norah's hair in a loving fashion.

Norah didn't believe Tony for a second, the fact that he was trying to hide whatever he was doing from her view, the fact that he wouldn't let her step one foot inside of the lab and the fact that he wasn't bragging about whatever he was doing made Norah worry that whatever he was doing wasn't going to be something good.

"Do I have to call Pepper?" Norah questioned as she leaned up against the glass wall that encased Tony's lab and then looked from him to Bruce and back again. "What are you and Bruce working on?"

Hearing that Tony groaned in frustration, "Why does everyone always threaten me with calling Pepper?" he questioned rhetorically with a roll of his eyes as if he has heard this one too many times which he more than likely has.

"Because you do stupid shit that makes people have to threaten you with Pepper." Nora pointed out with a shrug and stole some dried fruit out from Tony's hands and popped them in her mouth. "Plus," she added. "She makes you act like an adult for about five seconds of your day."

Tony scowled when she said that, "Shut up." He responded in annoyance at how rght Norah was.

Once again Norah attempted to go further into the lab but once again Tony blocked her way and forced her back a few steps so that she couldn't see anything that he and Bruce were doing, in response to that Norah raised her brow at Tony in annoyance and wanting to know what he was doing now. Norah was about to open her mouth and question Tony on what he was doing exactly and was going to try and make him tell her what he was doing but before she was able to do so Tony started talking.

"You ready for tonight?" Tony asked, trying to divert Norah's attention from what he was doing to something else. "You do have a dress, right?"

At that Norah looked at him weirdly, "What are you, female?" she questioned with a shake of her head. "No Tony, I'm not going to the party." She told him simply.

When Tony heard Norah say that he gave her a shocked look at that admission unable to believe that she wouldn't be going to a Stark party, "What?! Of course you're going." He said to her matter of a factly.

"Uh, no I'm not." Norah said to him, a stubborn look on her face. "I don't like parties all that much. Especially one's as big as you throw." She said to him. "So you guys can all go and enjoy your party and the alcohol and I'll stay up and away from the party and read or work out or something like that."

Tony shook his head at her, "Nope! Not an option dear daughter." He said to her as he crossed his arms stubbornly. "You're going to the party and you're going ot like it. If I have to I will have Jarvis lock you out of every room so that the only place you can go is the party and I doubt you want to be wearing sweatpants and a tank top to a party." He said to her.

"No." Norah said stubbornly, copying Tony's pose and crossing her arms.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"Ugh!" Norah finally yelled and threw her arms up in frustration. "Fine. Jesus, fine I'll go as long as you stop acting like a damn two year old. Geeze. How does Pepper put up with you?" she question rhetorically. "Just know that I am not happy about this." She pointed out to him fiercely, a cold glint in her eyes as she spoke.

Tony grinned at her, "Yes, yes I know." He told her. "You hate this, you hate me, you hate parties, you hate being surrounded by tons of people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard it all. Free drinks though."

At that Norah gave a half shrug of acceptance, "The one good part." She admitted reluctantly and then looked at Tony with a hopeful smile. "So, can I help?" she asked hoping that he said yes so that she could figure out what the hell he was doing that needed to be so secret.

Usually Tony would love to get help from Norah even if she knew almost nothing about what he was doing, he was a big softie when it came to her – he's joking told her that she ruined his rep by making him feel all fatherly towards her – but this…..this was something big, something that he couldn't let her know about. Norah enjoyed causing a bit of mischief by helping Tony with things that Pepper would not fully approve of, like cars that went faster than Nascar cars (they had been yelled at for a week straight for trying them out) but this Ultron project was something that he knew Norah would not be for. Norah wanted the world to be a better place and that was one of the reasons why she was willing to help the Avengers once in a while with missions but she didn't believe that the world would ever be completely without evil, without bad things happening, that it was human nature to cause problems, to have war to be selfish and sometimes those things cause bad things to happen. Norah thought that no matter what you do, how much good you try do to in the world, how safe you try and make the world it will always have bad and evil things in it and from that people like SHIELD and the Avengers come to be. People who want to help others.

"No!" Tony said a bit too quickly which confirmed Norah's thoughts that Tony was definitely working on something that the other's would force him to stop doing, and Bruce was helping apparently. "Nope! Geniuses only allowed! Let the real masterminds work." He said to her. "Now shoo Blinker. Go and get yourself ready for the party tonight. I know you females take forever to get ready." He said as he waved his arms out in front of him and at Norah.

Norah rolled her eyes at Tony and how he was acting, "You know, if I didn't know you better I would be feeling quite insulted at the moment, tears might even become a factor in this conversation." She said to him but shrugged off his hurried words. "I'll leave you and Bruce to it and let you guys do your….secret science shit."

Shrugging to herself Norah took one last look at Tony and Bruce before she Blinked herself from her spot in the doorframe of Tony's lab and up to the living room/kitchen area and into a stool at the kitchen Island making Clint jump a mile in his seat.

"Jesus Norah!" Clint said as he clutched at his heart. "Do you have to do that?" he questioned.

All Norah did in response to that was shrug, "Not my fault you get jumpy easily." She said indifferently and grabbed a banana off of the bowl on the Island and started peeling it.

"Clint," Natasha admonished in a teasing tone. "I thought you were a seasoned and skilled warrior. Not a skittish old man." She joked as she leaned up against the counter besides Norah as she smiled teasingly at Clint who just gave both girls a dark look.

"Shut up." Clint said underneath his breath.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Author's Note ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Glad you all are enjoying the story so far, I love and appreciate all of you just so you know! Please, leave feedback I love hearing from you all and having you tell me what you like about my story. So please, don't stop.

Quotes:

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

Henri Nouwen

Real family does not come from your blood. It is the people standing beside you when no one else is.