Hey guys, i'm sorry for the slow update, i've been busy with college work, but i will try to update again, as soon as i am able.

Thank you for all the support and i hope you are enjoying the story so far!

I really appreciate your reviews, and any ideas you have would be great to read!

Hope you enjoy this chapter

~Girlwithnosoul

Natasha scowled in annoyance, her previous enjoyment had all but dimmed as she took in the scene before her. Tony was giving the soldier a death glare across the table, avoiding eye contact with his daughter. Steve was looking pretty sheepish, and every time he looked at Grace, his cheeks would get lightly pink. Grace was simply not looking at anyone, and hung her head as she ate her lunch.

And Thor was just confused. Seemingly oblivious as he happily his ate his pop tarts.

Something had to be done.

"Grace." Natasha snapped suddenly, and the young girl looked up at the redhead.

"Go get some workout clothes and meet me in the gym." Grace looked confused, so Natasha added "From now on, I'm going to train you to defend yourself"

Both Tony and Steve looked horrified at the thought of the small girl going head to head against the redheaded assassin, though a well-aimed glared silenced the pair. Natasha sent a meaningful look at Clint

Talk to the pair of them.

Clint glanced at his two team mates, before turning back to his partner, almost pleadingly

But Nat!

Her gaze hardened

NOW.

With a resigned sigh, he subtly nodded. She then turned to Banner, who seemed to have already deduced what the assassin was thinking.

"Thor" He said it almost unwillingly "Do you want me to explain how to use your phone again?" The last attempt had failed terribly, with the God breaking the device after he had lost at Angry Birds. Thor however beamed like that of an excited child.

"Yes Banner that is an excellent idea" He boomed, and with that, he led the god to the living room, almost as if was walking to his execution, knowing that Natasha was smirking behind him…

Grace, was no means oblivious. Though she was unsure as to why, Natasha wanted to talk to her alone, but knowing she couldn't necessarily refuse the older woman, she stood up.

"Alright" She conceded, giving a small smile to Steve and her father, whilst not looking the pair in the eye, she went to get change. Natasha didn't react till Grace had left. Facing the males before her she narrowed her eyes

"You are not to come into the gym." She stated

"Er I do own the gy-"He was quickly silenced by the death glare from the scowling woman

"Sure sure" He quickly conceded "Gym's completely yours"

"Natasha" The red headed assassin turned to the quiet super solider.

"Don't push her too much" He almost pleaded, and she would have teased Steve again, had it not been for the presence of the girl's father, who had shot Steve a dark glare…

Natasha raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she left, leaving her partner to fend for himself in the tense atmosphere between the two team mates

Grace had always hated PE. It's not that she disliked exercise. She just disliked it in front of others. Dressed in a pair of grey yoga pants and a tracksuit jacket over her vest top she entered the gym, to find Natasha stretching.

Deciding to follow the Redhead's example, she slowly and reluctantly took of the jacket, knowing she would be too hot if she didn't. Getting warmed up she didn't meet Natasha's eye, knowing the same look would be most likely on her face.

Pity, Disgust. It was what she was used to.

However in this case she was wrong.

Natasha, though hidden by her stoic mask, was feeling a range of emotions. She had seen Grace's reluctance to take her jacket off, and how tense she was. She had assumed that she had maybe a couple scars from where her ex had hit her.

She hadn't been prepared for what she saw. Scars that must have been years old covered her arms. More so on her forearms, which Natasha assumed came from protecting her face. They were rough and jagged in varied sizes. Some were fainter then others, having to look closely for some. Her eyes also noted the bruise on her arm from yesterday.

Getting over the shock, she had about to speak when as Grace was stretching downwards, Natasha noted her back was probably covered in worse scars. These ones were big and looked deep, and Natasha immediately recognised, that somebody had wiped her back repeatedly over the same wounds and scars.

Perhaps feeling her gaze on her, Grace stopped excising to find a scowling Natasha looking at her. Feeling as though she could trust the red head, she spoke softly

"I used to live with My Uncle Cal. He used to drink a lot" She didn't have to say anything else, to her it was self-explanatory. She'd never shared what had happened to her during that time. It hurt too much, and it still tormented her dreams. She had never recovered from her time with her uncle, as despite the happiness she had found living with her father, those dark times always plagued her. And it didn't help that things were repeating themselves again.

"Did he ever…"Natasha trailed off, and Grace smiled at her sadly knowing exactly what she meant.

"… If I said yes… Would you think different of me?"

Natasha couldn't say she didn't. She'd thought that Grace was a daddy's girl, who had gotten a lucky break when she'd met her father, and other then that the always smiling girl seemed to have had a relatively happy life.

"Yes I would" Grace turned her eyes away, feeling foolish for expecting anything other than that, and rubbed her arm, ashamed.

"I would think that you're stronger then I gave you credit for"

It seemed that as soon as the others had left, Tony finally exploded.

"You stay away from my daughter do you understand old man!" Steve returned the glare.

"She's my friend Tony!"

"Oh is she not good enough for you now, is that it?"

Nothing seemed to please the older stark, and Clint wasn't even helping, he watched the argument like a game of tennis, watching the argument go back and forth. Steve had a lot of patience, but he found himself becoming frustrated with the older stark

"She was telling me what happened with that low life Zac! And she cried so much she fell asleep alright?!"He snapped finally having enough of yelling at the billionaire.

This stopped the discussion immediately

"And..."Clint tentatively asked.

Steve grit his teeth, and Tony could tell that whatever his daughter had gone through.

It had been bad.

"He broke her arm when she called the police" Steve finally spat out "Only for the police not to do anything about it!"

Clint raised an eyebrow.

"The police didn't do anything?" That seemed awfully suspicious, and something in his gut told him that, there was something more to that.

And Clint always trusted his gut.

Tony was silent, till he glanced at the ceiling.

"Jarvis is there anything else I should know that Grace hasn't told me?"

Jarvis was quiet for some time

"Are you pertaining to the issue at hand sir?"

Well that was an odd reply

"Why is there something else?"

"Perhaps you should speak to Miss Stark sir" The Ai answered evasively

Tony frowned

"I'm asking you J"

"I'm well aware of that sir" he dryly replied, and his creator couldn't help but grit his teeth in annoyance.

It seemed he was long overdue for a chat with his daughter.

He glanced at Steve.

And he still had to deal with this new problem.

Keeping Steve away from his baby girl.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed with the small girl. Sure she hadn't made huge improvement, she was quite flexible, and hadn't given up since they had started. However the girl wasn't even trying to put up a fight, and seemed solely focused on avoiding on dodging, and protecting her face, leaving the rest of her unguarded.

"Grace try and hit me at least" She sighed and the girl felt a twinge of guilt, thinking perhaps the assassin was losing patience with her. Noticing the girl's hesitation, Natasha tried a different method

"I thought you didn't want to be a burden?" She snapped "Because that's what you look like right now." She aimed a kick at the girl, and made contact with her abdomen.

"You can't protect anyone by dodging" Natasha continued her onslaught of cold words as she attacked, calling her weak, a coward…

Words that cut deep into her, as if the assassin was slashing at her sharp dagger, however she also knew that she had to change. She couldn't go on always being protected.

For once she had to protect herself.

So clenching her fist, she grabbed Natasha's wrist, blocking another blow that the woman was about to give her, and she aimed a punch straight for her face.

Which of course Natasha easily blocked. However a small smirk flickered across the SHEILD agent.

A small grace, was no longer looking down, but looking at her with a fire in her eyes.

That was the look she had wanted to see.

"Try again, but put your body weight forward."

"You do realise that if you two are still fighting, Natasha will kill you" Clint added dryly, as the pair glared at each other.

"I won't have a problem, as long as Spangles here stays away from my daughter" Steve grit his teeth.

"Tony, she's my friend"

"She's my daughter" He snapped "She's been hurt enough, and I haven't been protecting her like I should have been" The admission surprised the men. Tony was arrogant, and never failed to brag about his success, or to make excuses about how he was right.

"Tony" Clint began "This wasn't your fault"

Tony is silent for a moment, a rarity, Steve notes.

"Of course I know that Katniss" Clint bristles at the nickname "It's that bastards fault" He turns back to Steve

"And as I was saying before I got side tracked, you are to leave Grace alone from now on. That clear enough for you Spangles?" Before Steve could even reply, Tony shot up.

"Excellent, now that's done with-"

"That isn't happening Stark"

"And why is that Captain?"

"Because I like her"