Disclaimer: Not mine as usual

A/N: you know, I meant to get this out last week or something but was unable to becasue of Daryl Dixon - love me some zombies and rednecks. Anywho, sorry for teh lateness of this I'll try and work on the next chapter in the next few days or so. No definite plan though, sorry. Enjoy!

Chapter Eighteen

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Six Days later ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

These last four days of living with the Avengers at Stark Tower have been…..interesting for Pietro and Wanda, to say the least. Pietro remembered what it had been like growing up in Sokovia with his parents and his sister; it wasn't even close to what he has experienced in the last four days. Natasha, Clint and Steve had offered to show Wanda, Pietro and Vision around the city a bit – a way for them to get their mind off things – but Pietro had refused, saying that he would rather stay at the tower in case anything happened and in case Norah woke up earlier than expected.

Living at the tower was like living in a completely different world; Sokovia was mothing like New York or even most of the cities in America. Pietro remembered the rundown apartment he, his parents and sister had shared, he remembered the fact that their parents would always give he and Wanda more food than they gave themselves and he also remembered the second hand clothing he and Wanda would get all of the time. One thing Pietro remembered almost crystal clear was when some of the girls at their school had been making fun of Wanda for having worn clothes with holes in them and the fact she only had two or three outfits to pick from and so Pietro confronted them at the age of eight and threatened them until they promised to leave his sister alone. Pietro remembered that his mother and father both worked multiple jobs just in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, they both would come home exhausted out of their minds but would always make sure to help both Pietro and Wanda with their homework and make time for 'family fun' as they had called it, a time when they would do something that wasn't work or school related with one and another.

At the tower though, neither Pietro nor Wanda had to want for anything if they didn't want to. If they wanted to they could have the newest tablets, computers and phones available – Stark would probably insist on the one's he created – but the two siblings weren't all that into electronics. If they wanted to have a three course meal there were ingredients in the kitchen and pantry to do just that, there were multiple rooms with TV's in them – some the size of the walls in the room – there was a game room with video games and systems such as Xbox, a Will, a playstation 3 among other things. On another level in the tower there was a fully stocked bar, the common room which was connected to the kitchen which had plenty of room for all of the Avengers and anyone that they might invited over. It was a shock to the system that was for sure.

At the present moment Pietro was sitting at the kitchen island digging into a plate that was stacked full of eggs, sausage and toast with some flavored preserve by himself. He had an unnaturally fast metabolism from the experiments they did on him which resulted in him burning calories and food at a much faster rate than a normal person would and so he had to either eat much bigger meals or eat more meals throughout the day just to stay healthy. With a mouthful of food Pietro looked around the kitchen and listened quietly to see if he could hear if any of the others were around at the moment but all he heard was silence which means none of the Avengers were near him or on the level he was on at the moment – most of them weren't known for being all that quiet – which meant they were off doing whatever it is that they did when they weren't fighting the 'bad guys' so to say. His sister though, well Pietro had no idea where she was either but he assumed she was either getting acquainted with the tower and figuring out where everything was, reading or she was talking with Vision….again. He didn't like Wanda spending so much time with Vision, it made him feel protective.

While Pietro was distracted with his thoughts – mostly thinking about Norah and the fact his sister was spending time with a male – a book suddenly clattered onto the countertop in front of him making him jump in surprise, looking away from the worn book that was suddenly thrown at him he looked up and saw Natasha.

"What is this?" Pietro questioned, a brow raised at the red headed assassin in curiosity.

Natasha moved through the room gracefully and settled herself in a chair opposite from Pietro and smirked at him as she leant forward on her elbows and settled her chin in the palm of one of her hands. "I believe," she said to him. "They call them books."

Pietro glowered at her when she said that to him, if the woman wasn't a trained killer he would think of ways to get her back for that comment but he didn't have a death wish. "I know what a book is." He said in annoyance. "Why do you give to me?" he questioned, his brow furrowing.

"Norah loves poetry," Natasha told Pietro simply. "Especially Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. Read it to her." She elaborated.

At that comment Pietro stopped eating for a moment and cocked his head to the side in confusion as he stared at the redhead that was sitting in front of him and sitting there while looking at him with an unreadable look in her eyes. It was curious that Natasha was being nice to him – her version of being nice at least – and for the life of him Pietro couldn't understand why especially since it was his sister Wanda that had messed with her mind and made her relieve a terrible time in her life. If Pietro was in Natasha's place he would not hesitate to hurt him, to do anything possible to deter him from talking or being near Norah and would make sure he knew how much he disliked him.

"Why are you telling me this?" Pietro questioned as he picked his plate up that was empty of all of his food and sped it over to the sink and was back in his seat before fifteen seconds had passed by. "Why are you being….nice?" he asked, uncertain if that was the word he was looking for exactly.

Natasha studied Pietro with an unreadable expression for a few moments, unnerving the Sokovian a bit with how guarded her eyes were, and finally opened her mouth to tell him why she was being 'nice' as he put it. "You and your sister may have been fighting against us at the beginning, and your sister may have reminded me of a …..horrible time in my life when I was younger but Norah means a lot to me even if I don't show it like the others do. I may only be a few years older than you, Norah and Wanda but I had to grow up faster than most people because of who I was raised by and how I was raised. Because of my upbringing it's hard to trust people, to care for people as easily as the other's do but Norah….well Norah is a whirlwind and nothing stand's a chance against her." She said with a chuckle which earned a small smile from Pietro who experienced just that with Norah in the woods of Sokovia when they had first met. "I care for Norah, she's the closest female friend that I have and is like a….a sister to me almost and I want the best for her even if Tony can't see that it is what is best for her." She told him and paused for a moment as she looked out of the floor to ceiling windows that covered one whole wall of the common room/kitchen area. "I haven't seen everything that's been going on between you and Norah, or as Tony likes to call it 'the weird ass flirting thing' but I am a spy and I can see things in the smallest of gestures and movements and I can see that you care for Norah and that Norah cares for you in return even though you two haven't known each other all that long."

At that Pietro looked down at the marbled counter top and couldn't help but agree with the last thing that Natasha had said to him; even though he's only known Norah for such a short amount of time he cared deeply for her and didn't have a clue how these feelings had developed so fast and so intensely for her. He was lost the moment Norah opened her mouth to sass off to him, Norah was his little spitfire, his little bull and Pietro knew that in time he would grow to not just care for her deeply but to eventually love her. Love was a terrifying thought for him. He remembered the love of his parents and the love that he had for them and he knows the feeling of love that he held for his sister but loving someone that wasn't family, well for Pietro that was uncharted territory.

"You chose the wrong side in the beginning," Natasha said to Pietro as she looked into his blue colored eyes closely. "But you came over to our side eventually, you helped us fight against Ultron and helped us defeat his metal army. You are a good person even if Tony doesn't think so at the moment, but he's also an eccentric asshole most of the time." She said flippantly and gave a shrug of her shoulders which made Pietro snicker. "I've seen how you are always by her side if you can be, how you look at her as if she is the center of everything and how you do what you can to be sure she is comfortable even when she's unconscious." She said with a whisper of a smile on her face, a true smile which only her closest of friends got to see. "You'd be good for her and she deserves to date someone and be with someone who wasn't an asshole like her last two boyfriends were. Someone who wouldn't look at her like a freak simply because she was a Mutant. Someone who didn't care that she was Tony Stark's daughter."

Hearing that Pietro smiled softly and then nodded at Natasha, "Thank you, is nice to hear that from someone who is not Pepper." He said to her. "Your friend….Clint, he does not like me. It is surprising to me that you…approve? That is right word, yes?" he questioned.

Natasha nodded at him, "Clint is still a bit bitter about what happened in Sokovia and South Africa but he'll come around, don't worry." She said to him with a smirk on her face as she stood up from the stool and turned to leave but before she did she looked down at Pietro menacingly. "If you tell anyone that this conversation happened or about what was said I will gut you and hang you from the ceiling as decoration. Do you understand?" she questioned as she looked at him pointedly, her brows raised in an expectant manner.

Pietro nodded at her stiffly, not daring to utter a word to the assassin who as small as she was could be utterly terrifying.

"Good." Natasha said in a pleasant tone of voice. "Go and read to her." She said and then turned heel and left without another word to Pietro.

Not wanting to waste any time, Pietro quickly left the common room/kitchen area and headed towards the Medical Wing – to Norah.

~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~

Wanda never liked hospital rooms, they were too white and smelled like a mixture of bleach and staleness, not exactly the most pleasant of smells out there, but then again her experience with hospital rooms were none too pleasant. Hydra's attempt at a hospital room was where she and Pietro had been experimented on for hours on end, though they had volunteered to be experimented on for the betterment of their country it did not mean that they didn't suffer at Hydra's hands, that they didn't feel pain from them and have horrible nightmare's because of what Hydra did to them and made them suffer through just because Strucker had said the right thing at the protests and had convinced them and half the people of Sokovia that they were doing something good. . . . . . that they were trying to help their country.

This room of Norah's though, it was not so bad. The walls were not a stone grey color or brilliant white, it was a soft blue color that made Wanda only think of peaceful things and not about the horrible things she has seen in her life thus far, it made her feel as if she was safe and didn't have to worry about anything ever again. It was a nice place to be, considering the circumstances and all Wanda hoped was that Norah would wake soon so that her brother would calm down and stop confining himself to the tower and so that everyone else would stop fretting around like little girls – other than Natasha of course.

"Ti blesava devojko." Wanda said from Norah's bedside, speaking to the stubborn blonde haired girl in her mother tongue even if she couldn't hear her. "Sigurno ima njuh za dramatične ih, zar ne. Moj brat je ponaša kao dete koje je izgubio svoju omiljenu igračku , jer ste bili ranjeni." She said with an amused shake of her head. "Drago mi je da su u redu, ali ja želim da ti probudiš i stavio ga na njegovo mesto i reci mu da prestane da bude takav beba." She finished with a slight look of annoyance on her face.

Wanda looked down at Norah and smiled hopefully; hoping that her wounds would heal faster and that they would be able to bring her out of her medically induced a coma sooner and she hoped to get to know Norah better once she wakes. The only real friend that Wanda has ever had has been Pietro, there was a girl in elementary school that she had been friends with – Ksena – but she and her family had moved away after Wanda and Pietro had turned nine. Sure, Wanda has talked a bit with Pepper and Natasha since coming to the tower but it was different. Pepper was older than Wanda and had a business to run as Stark put it, and Natasha was a bit intimidating and terrifying to talk to or to even think of approaching. Wanda may be powerful and able to do destructive things with her power if she wished it but even she was intelligent enough to realize that she shouldn't cross the red-headed Russian assassin.

So Wanda does hope that Norah wakes up soon so that she may get to know her better and hopefully become friends with her, so that she could have a girl to do all of those girl things with and to talk about girl stuff with – boys, makeup, periods even, to have a chick flick movie night, to go shopping together and things such as that. Wanda wanted all of that since she never had the chance to have it, she wanted to have a female friend that she could talk about anything with and hoped that Norah would eventually be that person.

Before Wanda had a chance to continue with her train of thoughts the door was suddenly pushed open and in walked Thor who had a wide grin on his face which only grew widen when he spotted Wanda sitting beside Norah's bed. "Lady Wanda!" he boomed as he strode forward and clasped her shoulder in a greeting. "I have not seen you about these last few days."

"I can be as you say, sneaky, when I want to be." Wanda replied with a small smile on her face as she looked at the blonde haired Norse God that seemed to tower above her. "I have been wandering, exploring, to find where everything is in Tower. I got lost a few times." She admitted sheepishly.

Hearing that Thor nodded in understanding, "I, too have gotten lost here. The home of Tony Stark is massive but not nearly as grand as my home – Asgard. There are no golden halls filled with plentiful food, or a Throne room or even that impressive of an armory." He said as he shook his head in disappointment, as if these were grave offenses to him. "You would not mind if I-" he said, cutting himself off and gesturing to the other chair that was beside Wanda and near Norah's bed.

Wanda nodded without hesitation and gestured to the chair, "Yes, sit. I can leave if you want." She said to him, thinking he might want alone time to talk with her but instead Thor shook his head at her and gestured for her to stay seated.

"No, sit." He insisted. "I am going to tell her a tale from my home, you can stay and listen if you want." He said to her as he sat down in the chair that she offered him.

At that Wanda looked at Thor curiously for a few moments before she gave a nod and settled herself back into the cushioned chair that was beside Norah's bed, wondering what kind of stories and tales Thor had from his homeland/home world of Asgard.

"To the north lies Niflheim, covered by ice and snow," Thor's deep voice sounded throughout the room. "To the south lies Múspell, a world seething in fire and flames. Between was a vast emptiness called Ginnungagap. Venomous water from the spring Hvergelmir in Niflheim flowed into this emptiness, freezing again and again, layer after layer of ice and rime frost." He spoke from her bedside as he looked at the unconscious Norah who he has come to care for like he did for his other Avenger friends. "Hot winds from Múspell blew over the ice, causing it to thaw and drip. Life began in these drops and took the form of the giant, Ymir, the first of the evil frost giants. As Ymir slept, he sweated. A man and a woman grew out of the ooze under his left armpit, and one of Ymir's legs fathered a six headed son on the other leg. Thus, Ymir was the forefather of all the giants."

While Thor was speaking in his warm tone of voice the door to Norah's room opened up once again and quietly, in walked Pietro who gave a small smile to Wanda and Thor who looked over at him. Thor nodded at him but turned his attention back to Norah, telling the story of creation as his people knew it to be; he's always enjoyed Norah's love and fascination for anything and everything related to Norse mythology, it was nice to know that there were still mortals out there who were fascinated by his people, by their history and by their stories.

Rather than venturing further into the room Pietro opted to lean up against the wall near the door of the room, the book Natasha had given him to read to Norah pressed up against his chest by his crossed arms and listened to the rest of the story that Thor was telling Norah.

"Some of the other melting ice took the form of a cow, Auðhumla." Thor continued on, his voice soft but deep. "From her teats ran four rivers of milk, enough to nourish Ymir. She fed off the ice, licking the salty blocks. Her licking formed one of the blocks into the shape of a man. The shape became animated, and the man named Búri walked free out of the ice." He spoke and paused for a moment remembering the stories of his homeland – of his people. "Búri had a son called Bor, who married Bestla, the daughter of a giant. They produced three sons, Óðin, Vili, and Vé. Óðin, Vili, and Vé took Ymir's body to the center of Ginnungagap. From his body, they made the world. Ymir's flesh became the earth, and his unbroken bones the mountains. From his teeth and bone fragments, they made rocks and stones. They used his blood to make the lakes and ocean encircling the world. They raised Ymir's skull over the earth to make the sky and placed a dwarf at each of the four corners to hold up the sky. Glowing embers from Múspell were thrown into the sky to make the sun and moon and stars and planets. Ymir's brains were thrown into the sky to make the clouds. Ymir's eyebrows were used to make a fortification around the world, to protect against the giants. Inside the fortification is Miðgarð, the realm of man."

With that said the story Thor was telling ended and for a few moments Thor, Pietro and Wanda sat in a comfortable silence, all their gazes directed towards Norah who still laid unconscious and unaware that she was surrounded by people who cared for her and were waiting for her to wake up.

Wanda looked over towards Thor with curiosity in her eyes, "That was story from your homeland, yes?" she questioned.

Thor nodded, "Yes, it is the creation of the worlds. Of Asgard, of Midgard, of Niflheim, of all the nine realms." He said to her with a soft smile, he enjoyed talking of the stories of his people and explaining them in detail to any who would listen, Norah being one of such people.

"Did all that happen?" Wanda questioned, never in all her life had she heard of any such story or tale like the one that Thor had just told, but then again, she has never met an actual god before now.

"It is said that it did." Thor said to her before he looked over at Pietro and the book that was within his hands and then looked back at Norah once again before he placed a gentle hand on her forearm. "Sleep well my friend and heal, you have many who wish to see you wake." He said and stood from his seat, his massive form seeing to dwarf Wanda who was still seated. "I will take my leave now, good day friends." He said with a smile and gave a nod to Pietro before leaving the room to go and do who knows what.

Wanda looked over towards her brother who was just staring at Norah and shook her head at him before she gestured for him to join her at the curly haired woman's bedside and in less than a moment Pietro was seated in the chair that Thor had once occupied and had a book held loosely on top of his lap while looking at Norah intently, as if he was hoping she would miraculously wake from her induced a coma. A hopeful thought, but unrealistic.

"Pietro," Wanda said as she looked at her twin in concern. "You have not left tower since arrive here, you coop self up in this tower and only go to gym, kitchen, bedroom and this room. It….it worries me." She told him honestly with expressive eyes as she looked up into his blue colored eyes, trying to convey how worried she was for him. "It is not good for you. Norah will be fine, you do not need to keep self here in the tower all hours of day, you can take time for yourself, to see New York. It is alive all hours of the day and Norah will still be here when you get back." She said to him.

For the first two or three days Wanda understood Pietro not wanting to leave the tower and not wanting to leave Norah's side – even with the glared that Tony sent him when the two men were in the room together – but refusing to leave whatsoever, even refusing to go down the street to get some coffee and pastries. Well, Wanda thought it was getting a bit excessive. The doctors told them that Norah was going to recover just fine, a few scars on her body but otherwise she was going to be fine and they passed the time frame where there was a chance for her to get infection so Pietro really had no reason to worry so much and hover around Norah as if she was going to drop dead any moment.

"No." Pietro said stubbornly as he shook his head at his sister. "I won't leave until she can." He told her.

"Pietro-" Wanda started but was interrupted by him giving her a pointed look which made her stop herself.

He shook his head at her once again, "It is part my fault why she is here, why she was shot by Ultron. I will not leave till she can leave with me." He told her with a set jaw.

Pietro refused, absolutely refused to leave the tower until Norah woke up from the a coma she was in at the moment and was able to walk out of Stark Tower on her own and show him around the massive and bright city of New York that seemed to never sleep. Seeing New York and being shown all that there is to see and do was something that Pietro wanted to experience and do with Norah, something normal that a person his and Norah's age would do when they were interested and had romantic feelings towards one and another – a date.

"All right." Wanda said with a tone of acceptance and grabbed her brother's free hand and squeezed lightly, a show of support in his decision. "Do you wish for me to leave?" she questioned as she looked at him.

At that Pietro nodded, "Please?" he asked her.

Wanda gave a gentle smile and patted him on the hand, "Yes, I do not mind. I have chatted to her already. I will visit her again, you take your time with her." She said and stood from her spot and adjusted the new clothes Pepper had forced her to buy when they had gone out in the city. "I love you." She said and kissed him atop his blonde/silver colored haired head.

"I love you too sister." He said as he looked up at her with a soft smile on his face.

"I will see you at dinner." Wanda said and left the hospital room that Norah occupied so that her brother could have some alone time with the woman he cared deeply for.

Once Pietro was alone in Norah's medical room he pulled his chair closer to her bedside and crossed his legs while sitting on his chair and pulled one of Norah's hands into his – the one with the sensor on it – and pressed the warm palm against his cheek and closed his eyes for a moment. Every day he came into Norah's room and waited until there was no one there or until he knew it was late enough that no one would wander into her room for a visit and would press her palm against his cheek and enjoy the warmth that radiated from it; a way for him to be sure that she was still alive and that she was healing. He knew that she was fine, that the doctors checked her over and that she was technically fine and that they will be taking her out of her induced a coma in a few days or so but he couldn't help it. After seeing her being shot, being shot to save him and Clint and that kid, well it was terrifying and there was so much blood and it killed Pietro that there wasn't anything he could do to help and so now he had to check every night to be sure she still breathed and was still on her way to recovery.

Pietro pulled Norah's hand from his cheek and instead laid it gently on his knee that was only a few inches from her bedside and then opened the book that Natasha had given him not but fifteen minutes or less ago, "Natasha said that this…this Shakespeare is one of your favorite books, no, writers. Yes, that this Shakespeare is one of favorite writers. So I come and read to you." He said to her as he flipped through the book until he was about ¾ of the way through and opened the book to whatever page he landed on.

Looking at the worn pages, Pietro gave a wry smile when he saw writing in the margins, notes Norah had made.

"Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war

How to divide the conquest of thy sight.

Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,

My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.

My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,

A coset never pierced with crystal eyes;

But the defendant doth that plea deny,

And says in him thy fair appearance lies.

To 'cide this title is impaneled

A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,

And by their verdict is determined

The clear eyes' moiety and the dear heart's part,

As thus: mine eyes' due us thy outward part,

And my heart's right, thy inward love of heart."

For a good long while after that Pietro flipped through the book and read poem after poem after poem to Norah, though he didn't understand much of what some of them were either trying to imply or were saying but nonetheless he still read them to her because Natasha said she enjoyed them. The things he does for a woman….the things he does to impress a woman even though she's unconscious. He gave an amused grin at that thought and was about to flip through the book once again to find another poem to read to Norah when the door to her room suddenly opened and in sauntered Tony – quite arrogantly too – and Pepper.

The moment Tony saw Pietro sitting at Norah's bedside he scowled darkly and crossed his arms across his chest in a threatening manner, trying to intimidate Pietro into leaving. "Leave." He demanded of him. "It's family time now." He said to him and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to get up and leave.

At that Pietro just stayed where he was, with Norah's one hand resting on his knee book in hand and looked up at Tony Stark with a raised brow and making sure that Stark knew he was unimpressed with him at the moment. Tony may be Norah's dad in every way that matters but Pietro wasn't about to leave, he…..he cares deeply about Norah and no amount of insults or dirty looks thrown his way by Tony will make him leave. Yes, he admits, that Tony and Pepper do deserve some alone time with Norah but that doesn't mean he's going to leave simply because Tony demands it and says it's family time for him, Pepper and Norah. Tony is just trying to get rid of him and make him leave Norah's side because he doesn't like whatever is going on with Pietro and Norah.

"Are you family?" Tony asked snidely as he stepped further into the room. "Nuh uh, you're not so why don't you use that little powers of yours and speed your way out of here and do something useful. Go on," he urged and waved his hands at Pietro. "Shoo."

Pepper frowned at Tony when he said that to Pietro and for the fact that he was treating him as if he was the dirt beneath his shoes; she understood that Tony was protective of Norah and that he loved Norah as if she was his own blood and didn't want her to get hurt but six days of this is getting a bit ridiculous even for her even temper when it came to Tony and his idiotic tendencies. Pepper liked Pietro and liked the relationship or soon to be relationship that he and Norah had and thought that both he and Norah deserved something good and some happiness in their lives, especially after the lives both of them lived thus far. Norah running away from home at the age of fifteen because her mother didn't accept her being a Mutant, being hurt in some horrible way when making her way away from Minnesota and all the Mutant hate that she and others like her have received over the years, and Pietro losing his parents at such a young age from bombings, bombs that were sold by Tony who didn't care who he sold to at that time in his life, having to live in a war torn country that is filled with discord and then being experimented on by Hydra just hoping that they'd be able to help their people and country.

"Tony!" Pepper reprimanded with her hands on her hips as Tony looked back and glanced at her with a 'what did I do' sort of look on his face. "Seriously?" she asked rhetorically before stomping a few steps towards him, grabbing him quite hard by the ear earning a lot of 'owes' coming out of his mouth and then dragged him out of Norah's room. "We'll be back." Pepper said as she caught the smile from Pietro who just nodded at her and turned his attention back to Norah.

Once outside of the room and down the hallway a bit Pepper let go of Tony's ear and turned to him quite angrily, her arms crossed. "What is wrong with you Tony?" she demanded him as she looked at him and saw him rubbing the ear she had grabbed none too gently and had dragged him out of the room with.

"What?" Tony asked obliviously, thinking he didn't do anything wrong. "I didn't do anything." He told her.

At that Pepper rolled her eyes, "Tony. You're treating Pietro as if he's the enemy." She pointed out to him and gave him a disapproving look.

"He is!" Tony said believing every word he just said. "That kid is the enemy, he was on Ultron's side until we got to Seoul and then suddenly he was on our side, no questions asked and he suddenly had a thing for Norah. No, I don't trust that." He grumbled, a dark look forming across his face as he looked over at Norah's door.

"You're being an asshole." Pepper said to him bluntly, usually she wouldn't say something like that to him and would instead leave it to Norah to call him an asshole or something along those lines but Tony needed to hear it. "You're acting like this because you're scared of what Pietro could represent to Norah, what he could mean to Norah in the not too far away future. You're afraid that she's going to be taken away from you, that you won't matter anymore because Pietro is around." She said as she inched closer and poked him hard in the chest while she was saying this until his back hit the wall opposite of Pepper.

"What?" Tony asked incredulously, his eyes widening. "No, of course not. What the-" he started to say but was stopped by Pepper who glared at him.

"Don't try and lie to me Tony." Pepper said to him sternly. "I've been working for you for years and have been dating you for the last three of them – I know you." She said and took a breath and slowly let it out before she looked into Tony's light brown colored eyes. "I understand a bit of why you are acting like this, why you don't like Pietro and are treating him like this and being an ass to him but honey," she said as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair. "This is a bit much. Pietro genuinely cares for Norah; he cares for her so much and is fascinated by her. This…this is a good thing. Norah deserves something like this in her life, she deserves to have a person who cares for her because of her and not because of who her self-appointed father is. Pietro and Wanda will be able to understand Norah and what she feels when it comes to her power unlike the majority of us, they have powers like she does and will understand the frustration and fear that comes with having them at times. You love Norah just as much as I do and you need to trust her and if she chooses to be with Pietro and pursue a relationship with him, you need to accept that." She told him.

"But-" Tony began but Pepper slapped her hand over his mouth and shook her head at him.

"No, Tony." Pepper commanded of him. "Accept it or at least accept the fact that Norah is an adult and has to make her own choices and mistakes." She told him before she released his mouth and began to walk back towards Norah's room. "Now are you coming or are you going to stand there like a weirdo?" she asked saucily and opened the door to Norah's room and walked back inside.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ 11 Days after Sokovia: Norah ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

Waking up felt like a chore to Norah, sure, usually she was a bit slow at waking up especially when it was morning and all she wanted to do was stay under the covers for a while and read on her phone or look at Facebook or something but right now as she was attempting to wake up felt like a battle. But it wasn't just the fact that it was hard to wake up and open her eyes – which she hasn't done as of yet – but the pain she was feeling at the moment wasn't all that pleasant either. Her chest hurt like a bitch, there was no getting around that and felt as if it had been rammed by a truck like a semi or something along those lines, her side hurt, her neck hurt and her right thigh as well. It was trying for her to think about what had happened, what she had done or tried to do that resulted in all of those places hurting to badly but at the moment her mind seemed to not be working and all she could think of was small flashes of what had happened. Pietro. Clint. A boy. Gunshots.

Finally, with great effort, Norah managed to pull her eyes open and look around at her surroundings and try and figure out where she was. The last thing she remembered as being carried onto one of the transportation ships/life boats by Pietro and heading towards the Helicarrier but she lost consciousness apparently before they had a chance to get to the lifeboats. Letting her eyes adjust for a moment Norah looked around the room which was illuminated by a single lamp near the door which didn't give much light to the dark room and saw that digital clock on the wall read three a.m. Way too early to be awake, at least in Norah's opinion it is.

Norah noticed a chair near her bed and one that was pushed up against the wall near the foot of her bed and in those chairs were Wanda and Pietro, Pietro sitting in the one directly beside her bed and Wanda in the other. Looking at Pietro's sleeping form Norah couldn't help but give a soft smile, he was deep asleep and had his head thrown back and was snoring lightly in sleep. Wanda was the opposite of her brother at the moment, she wasn't asleep at all but was instead reading a book in her corner next to the lamp that was doing a horrible job at giving light to the room – Tony needed to invest in better lamps instead of stupid modern looking one's that didn't even do their job.

"Wanda." Norah said hoarsely and very quietly, her voice hurting from disuse and probably from being unconscious for who knows how long. "Wanda?" she tried again, a bit louder this time, startling the female Sokovian.

Looking up from her book Wanda saw that Norah's eyes were open and that she was looking directly at her, a small pain filled smile gracing her features. "Norah." She whispered, a wide smile spreading across her face and hurried over to the opposite side of the bed then what her brother was on, not wanting to wake him from the sleep he so desperately needed, he hasn't been able to sleep much since Norah got injured. "You have finally woke." She said excitedly as she gently took Norah's hand into hers, squeezing it thankfully. "We've been worried, Pietro and Tony especially."

Hearing that Norah groaned, "Oh god, tell me they haven't been fighting like cats and dogs since I…well since I've been asleep or whatever." She said to her and attempted to sit up a bit but before she was able to Wanda pushed her back down gently.

"You must stay lying down," Wanda advised her and then looked at her brother and then Norah again. "They were able to be civil eventually, but over the last few days Tony has gotten better and seems to almost like Pietro and his sarcasm." She said with a shrug before looking at Norah seriously. "How are you feeling? Do you remember what had happened?" she questioned.

At that Norah gave a tight smile, her mind working much better than when she first woke up and the bandages that were quite obviously covering certain parts of her body being a big clue as to what happened. "I….I was shot."

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

Sorry I've taken so long, I've been having a few issue's getting this up and then I started to read some Walking Dead fanfiction and yeah...I got distracted. But tada! Here it is so I hope you enjoy it!

As usual all my translation's are done by google translate so if they are horrific and wrong, blame google.

Translations:

Ti blesava devojko. sigurno ima njuh za dramatične ih , zar ne . Moj brat je ponaša kao dete koje je izgubio svoju omiljenu igračku , jer ste bili ranjeni . Drago mi je da su u redu , ali ja želim da ti probudiš i stavio ga na njegovo mesto i reci mu da prestane da bude takav beba .

You silly girl, you certainly have a flair for the dramatic's, don't you. My brother is acting like child who lost their favorite toy since you were injured. I am glad you are fine, but i wish for you to wake up and put him in his place and tell him to stop being such a baby.

Quotes:

"When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable."

― Jess C. Scott, The Intern

"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."

― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary