Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Marvel Studios, Disney, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome back! Feel like this chapter was long overdue, but this is just how it worked out when I was planning this story haha. The title comes from Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac. Perfect theme for the chapter, imo.

Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoy. Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~primis, omega, superhero, genius~

~somebody to love~

~chapter 18: don't stop~

Penny stumbled into the Avengers Tower, feeling exhausted as she ran a hand through her curls.

Today had sucked, plain and simple. She'd received a ten-top at seven-thirty, before any of the other waitresses had arrived, and then an eight-top at seven-fifty, so she'd had two party tables to deal with on top of the usual number of four-tops or less. The ten-top had tipped her very well, a good thirty percent of their bill, but the eight-top hadn't tipped her shit – even though she'd attended to them quite frequently, kept a smile on her face, and everything. She'd heard them whispering about her behind her back, saying things like "look at her hips, she can't possibly be a beta," and "I bet you she's an omega," and "you know what they say, omegas who use scent suppressants like that are destined for hell."

Granted, they weren't wrong about her being an omega and using scent suppressants – the hell thing, that too was probably true, just not for the reasons they were thinking of, but still. All she'd been able to do was grit her teeth and smile at them pleasantly, pretending like she hadn't heard a thing. Both because she was masquerading as a normal person, and a normal person wouldn't have been able to hear them, and because she was a waitress. She couldn't cause a scene.

Then at ten o'clock, while she'd been on the floor, one of the newer waitresses, an omega girl named Emma, fresh out of high school, had spilled an entire pitcher of syrup on her. It had been an accident, of course, the other omega had tripped over her own two feet, but then Penny's entire front had been covered in warm, sticky syrup. Jason had given her a break to clean it up as best as she'd been able – actually, he'd suggested she go back to the Tower to get another dress, but that wouldn't have been using her powers responsibly, and not to mention it would've been too suspicious for her to make a trip so many blocks away and then come back in thirty minutes. Everyone at the restaurant save for Jason and Bélen thought she was still in living in the same area she'd used to, but that was also quite a bit of a way's away. Not as far as the tower, but not close enough. So she'd spent those thirty minutes wiping at her dress and apron with a wet rag, but in the end she hadn't been able to get out the syrup entirely. Of course not.

But neither of those things were what had been the most horrible.

No, what had made her day completely irredeemable was the fact that Bridget was leaving. After a year and four months of the two of them working together, the redhead had turned in her two weeks' notice to Bélen today. Penny understood why. Bridget had recently found out she was pregnant, four months pregnant because she hadn't had any of the usual symptoms and had only realized what was going on when she hadn't had her heat. So she wanted to quit and start her maternity leave early, so she and her boyfriend could prepare for their baby.

Still, it hurt.

"Oh, please don't cry," Bridget had pleaded when she'd told her. "If you cry, I'm gonna cry." As if her eyes hadn't already been shining.

Penny had sniffled. "I'm not crying," she'd reassured her anyways. "I'm happy for you. I just – fuck, Bridge, you're my closest friend here. And now you're having a baby." Now you're leaving.

"You're my closest friend here, too," Bridget had replied. The two of them had hugged. "We'll have to keep in touch, yeah? I'm gonna need somebody to help me design the nursery for my munchkin."

It hurt, because Penny had no intentions of doing any such thing.

The longer she thought about it, the more she was assured in it, as much as it pained her. Her life was a revolving door of people – people coming, people going. For the betterment of everyone, it had to be that way. And this was the perfect opportunity for her to let go of Bridget in the same way she had Gwen, MJ, and Ned, for their own good. In two weeks' time, Bridget would leave, and that would be the last time Penny would ever see her.

The only real friend she had now besides Weasel, who was also pregnant and she knew that was going to complicate things but she wasn't willing to give him up yet due to him being her drug dealer among other reasons, was JARVIS. But that was subject to change at a moment's notice for each of them. Nothing in her life was permanent.

That was the way she needed things to be.

Fighting back further tears, she used her badge to get through the security systems, as she always did. Then she went over to the elevator that led all the way up to her floor. "My floor, please, JAR," she requested weakly.

The AI immediately sensed that something was wrong, as was his wont. "Is everything alright, Miss?"

"Yes," she replied, only to falter. "...No. But I don't want to get into it right now. Just take me to my floor, please."

"As you say."

The elevator began to go up.

Sniffling once more, she became lost in her thoughts and overall self-pity. As such, she didn't really notice her spider sense go off, slight but there – pathetic of her, really. It was only when she both heard and felt the thud! on top of the elevator that she realized something was wrong, and by then it was too late. Like a civilian and everything, she let out a shriek as she saw the panel that led to the shaft in case of emergencies be pulled open. Instinctively, she made to activate her web-shooters at the same time and as a body fell to the floor with a groan, more in line with the superhero that she was.

Except, too late she remembered she didn't wear her web-shooters to work due to the obvious, so there was no way she could subdue whoever had just fallen into the elevator.

...Although, maybe that was a good thing. A second later she realized who the person was:

Clint Barton.

The alpha groaned as he stood up. "Dammit," he muttered. Then he blinked as he lifted his head and saw he was not the only one in the elevator. "Spidey?"

Penny stared at him, trying not to gape. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Trying not to get my ass kicked by Natasha," he said, as if that explained anything. His expression changed as he finished taking her in visually. "Shit, are you crying?"

She was, however she wouldn't admit to it. "No."

"You are," he refuted stubbornly as he rubbed at one of his wrists absentmindedly. He'd probably fallen on it. "What happened? What's wrong?"

For good reason, this annoyed her. "Nothing," she snapped heatedly.

He didn't so much as bat an eye. "If nothing was wrong, you wouldn't be crying. What happened? You don't have to tell me," he rushed to say when she opened her mouth once more, predicting her move before she could make it, "but if you need somebody to vent to, I'm here. Metaphorically, and, uh, physically, I guess."

She snorted at his phrasing, before biting the inside of her cheek. Neither of them spoke for several seconds.

Unfortunately for her, fortunately for him, she figured he probably thought, this was all the time left it took for the elevator to finish getting to her floor. But JARVIS was a lifesaver, as he always was. "Do you have a floor which you would like me to take you to, Mr. Barton?" he requested of the man pointedly.

The archer cringed. "Is there a floor where Natasha wouldn't be able to find me?"

JARVIS was amused. "Most likely not, as you are aware."

"Fuck," he groaned in response, drawing out the word for several syllables.

Penny was more interested in this than she had any right to be. She idly played with the strap of her purse. "What did you do?"

Barton winced. "...I may or may not have covered the floor of her study in plastic cups of colored water, making it impossible for her to get to anything without her picking them up or spilling them. And then put a giant bucket of water on her desk, putting her computer in our safe so she couldn't find it."

Abruptly, she had the urge to laugh at the absurdity of it. She didn't, but she did come close. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"No."

"That is up for debate," JARVIS cut in.

Barton glared up at the ceiling. "Traitor." He angled his head back towards her. "Natasha and I do this shit all the time. She's just mad because she doesn't know where her computer is. She thinks I've hidden it somewhere elaborate – "

" – Not realizing you've hidden it somewhere obvious," she finished for him. Not gonna lie, she was kind of impressed. "Smart."

He grinned. "Thanks. But now she's chasing me down. I thought I was going to be safe in the vents, but it's just like Budapest all over again."

...Wait.

"You crawl through the vents?"

He shrugged. "On occasion. Don't worry, the ones on your floor are completely off-limits." Pure, unadulterated panic flashed across his face. "Shit, I've been here too long. JARVIS, where is Nat?"

"You know that I cannot inform you of her location, Mr. Barton, or the other way around. As the two of you have instructed, I am to be completely impartial during your prank wars."

The way Barton's face crumpled did make her laugh this time. He scowled. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Listen, I've got to go. I'll see you around."

Like it was a completely natural thing for him to do, he jumped up so he could lift himself out of the opening panel of the elevator, putting said panel back in its place. She heard and felt him get off of the top of the elevator, presumably to go somewhere else. Probably the vents.

Once he was gone, JARVIS opened up the elevator doors to her floor. "Thank you, JARVIS," she said quietly.

He understood her meaning. "You are welcome."

She went back to crying over the soon-to-be-loss of Bridget as he threw her dress and apron into the washer just the same, because it was simply too much, but she did feel minutely lighter after coming across Barton. It was nice to know that, even as she suffered, the other Avengers could be having fun.

Apparently, Romanoff and Barton pranking each other was something of a common thing around the Tower.

They hadn't been doing it since she'd come to live here, but now it seemed that spell had been broken. Over the next two weeks, when she came across one of them – which was only three times total, she just wanted to say – they were up to something or another. The rest of the Avengers were used to this. Stark found it highly amusing, Rogers moderately so. Banner was mostly resigned to it.

Penny was somewhere similar to the doctor in mind. Part of her was impressed that two grown adults could keep it up for so long when she was exhausted all the time (conveniently ignoring that her experiences were far from the norm), and there was also something to be said for their creativity.

But most of her was just annoyed. She wasn't in a good mood any of the three times she was around them or the times she was around the other Avengers, the loss of Bridget looming over her. On the day it came, she nearly wasn't prepared for it. Clocking out for the last time when Bridget was there felt akin to treason.

"See you around, Penny," Bridget told her before she left, hugging her tightly.

Penny smiled sadly. "Goodbye, Bridget."

The next day was her day off, and Penny was thankful for this. She was able to grieve over Bridget in peace, crying her heart out and eating an entire pistachio and honey ice cream for breakfast. JARVIS had all of her favorite comfort movies to offer: Matilda, Hook, The Goonies, and etcetera. Sue him: for some reason, she was feeling all of the movies she'd loved watching growing up today. The ones where there was no science or high fantasy (beyond Peter Pan) involved, just good old-fashioned fun.

Towards the end of The Goonies, she put it on pause so she could take a bathroom break and get something to eat for lunch. Honestly, she didn't feel like eating much of anything. She felt pukish, if anything. But her metabolism was not to be ignored, so she pilfered through her cabinets, looking for something that her brain could latch onto.

JARVIS heard the rustling. "Delilah, if you would like – " he began to offer.

"No."

"But if you are currently unable to – "

"I said 'no,' JARVIS." Finding a bottle of popcorn she honestly didn't remember buying, probably hence why it still had the sealing on it, she bounced it a few times in her hands. Popcorn was filling, but it was not nutritious and nor did it have the amount of calories sufficient for her needs. It would have to wait until later. Settling on a blueberry bagel for now, she put the halves in the toaster and got out her butter and cream cheese. "I'm a big girl. I can feed myself."

He was silent, but she sensed his disagreement anyways.

Penny caught one of the bagel halves as they popped out of the toaster, picking up the other one a moment later and putting it with its sibling on her plate. She buttered and cheesed them up to her liking, taking a bite out of one of them as she took the plate and a glass of orange juice to the couch. Placing them down on the coffee table, she snuggled back into the side of the couch she'd chosen earlier. "JARVIS – "

Before she could say anything more than that, the AI spoke over her. "Delilah, I'm sorry for interrupting, but Mr. Barton is currently requesting entrance into your apartment."

Penny jolted. Actually jolted. "What?"

This –

This had never happened before. The Avengers had promised her that they wouldn't bother her while she was living here, that they wouldn't infiltrate her space without her say-so. And granted, Barton was asking for her say-so, but –

"Again, I am sorry," JARVIS apologized. "Still, he has asked me to ask you this."

Her lips suddenly felt dry. She wetted them nervously. "What – what does he want?"

JARVIS' tone was definitely not approving as he spoke. "Safe refuge. He put blue food coloring in her shampoo, which has given her purple hair for the time being. Ms. Romanoff is most displeased." Penny had no doubts that was one way of putting it, and probably a vast understatement. "Mr. Barton knows the rules. He must face the consequences. Technically, this would be cheating."

She smothered a laugh. Who knew JARVIS would be such a stickler when it came to the rules of pranking wars?

...Well, actually, that was probably a trait to him that would've been obvious to any other person. Still.

"Would you like me to tell him 'no?'" JARVIS prodded.

She opened her mouth to tell him to do that.

But what came out instead was: "What is Romanoff threatening to do to him?"

The AI seemed just as surprised at her question as she was. He rolled with it anyways. "She has threatened to pin him down and dye his hair red with permanent coloring, including where 'the sun doesn't shine.'"

Penny cackled at that. She couldn't help herself: the imagery was just too funny, especially since Barton deserved it.

But she did feel sympathetic for him, just a tad. This was a mess entirely of his own making, but he'd probably been running around the Tower from Romanoff for a while now, hadn't he?

When she asked that question, JARVIS said, "About forty minutes now, Miss."

She decided to take pity on the alpha. "If he promises not to ask questions and not to snoop around, or do any other spy bullshit, he can come in."

There was a pause.

"He promises, Delilah," JARVIS told her uncertainly.

A beat later, the elevator doors opened. Clint literally tumbled out. "Oh, thank you, Spidey," he breathed, catching himself from falling at the last moment. "Thank you, thank you, thank you...you're the best human arachnid, ever."

She snorted. That sounded like something Weasel would say. "I'm the only human arachnid there is, Barton."

"Same difference." He looked around the living room and the open divider between it and the kitchen curiously. "So, this is your floor, huh?"

...Okay, so maybe this hadn't been a good idea. Too late, Penny had realized what she had done: she'd taken pity on Barton, yes, but she'd also let him into her apartment. The one place where she was always totally free from the other Avengers. Granted, she would be totally free again after this, as Barton never had to come back into her apartment again, but...

She wouldn't have made this mistake if she hadn't been feeling so darn miserable about herself. What an idiot she was.

You know it's not just because of your misery, a voice in the back of her mind whispered. It's also because –

Shut up! Penny told it, jerking.

Barton noticed this. His face went from curious to somber. "You know, if you don't really want me here, I don't have to stay," he said. He seemed to look right into her mind, seeing what she was thinking. "It was nice of you to offer, but if you're uncomfortable – "

May hadn't raised her to be rude, or to turn people away unfairly. Penny had made her deal, she had to stick with it. "No, you're fine."

"Okay then, if you're sure." He meandered over towards her, looking at the TV. "You're watching The Goonies?"

"I was." She jutted out her chin. "Why? You've got a problem with that?"

"No, The Goonies is a good movie. I remember when it came out. I was just," he almost pinched his thumb and finger together, leaving only a little bit of space, "at the age for it. My mother took my sister, brother, and I all out to see it at the movie theater."

"Brother?" Penny was surprised. There had been no mention of a brother in his files.

"Barney," he confirmed. He gave a strained smile. "But...let's not talk about him."

Ah, so there was trauma there. She could understand that.

"Can I sit here?" He gestured to the other end of the couch. When she nodded reluctantly, he did. "So, this is your plan for the morning? Sit around and watch movies?"

"For the day, actually." She didn't often take breaks from Spider-Woman, almost never did truly, but her mood today felt like it necessitated. Just the fact she'd been able to get out of bed had been a feat in of itself.

"Oh," he said. "You're feeling that bad, huh?"

She bristled. "Excuse me?"

Barton's eyes widened. "Fuck, I'm sorry," he apologized. "That didn't come out right. Most of the things I say don't. I'm a lifelong sufferer of foot-in-mouth disease. I mean..." He trailed off, before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter what I meant. I'm sorry."

"It's...okay," Penny said. His social awkwardness, along with his humility of it, was a little endearing, as much as she hated to say it.

"It's not," he rebuked. "But thanks, anyways."

They sat in silence for several uncomfortable moments, as she didn't have the energy to grab the remote and didn't want to break the quiet by asking JARVIS to play the movie again.

She surprised herself by speaking. "I am feeling...sad today," she offered slowly. "Sad." That was the understatement of the century. She diverted her eyes away from him so she wouldn't have to look at him after that. "My best friend at work had her last day yesterday."

"Oh." He sounded like he wasn't quite sure what to make of that information. "I'm sorry."

Tell him more, that voice in her mind said. You told him not to ask questions. He's not gonna ask why this makes you upset. You'll have to tell him.

She was too weary to deny the voice a second time. That, or the idea of talking to another person about this was just too unavoidable. She had JARVIS, and JARVIS was great, he was her friend, but sometimes the metaphorical touch of a human was just too irresistible to ignore.

"She was my third closest friend, after JARVIS and...somebody else. And now she's gone," she told him, blinking away tears. She wasn't going to cry, she told herself. Not again. "I won't ever see her again."

"You can always keep in contact with her – " Barton began.

"No," Penny retorted. Snapping her eyes back to him, she glowered. "No, I can't. It was bad enough that I even let her be my friend in the first place. Bad things happen to the people I love."

He frowned. "I know it probably seems that way, but that's not true."

She laughed bitterly. "Oh, isn't it?" Standing up, her bagel and orange juice long-forgotten, she started to pace around the room. "You don't know me, Barton. My parents died when I was eight. My uncle died when I was fifteen, because I could've prevented his death, but I didn't. My aunt died from cancer when I was seventeen. And I got my husband killed because of my sheer stupidity! I'm a cancer, all I ever cause is – !"

Strong hands gripped her arms. "Okay, okay." Barton's voice was soft, his chest almost rumbling with it. Alphas usually only reserved their chest rumbles, the ones that weren't growls, for the most intimate (which did not always mean romantic, as they did it with their children, too. Ben had done it with her) of moments. So him doing it now was enigmatic to her. Nothing she had done necessitated it. In fact, it almost reminded her of – "We're getting you out of here for a while."

His words made her stop short. "Huh?"

"I know you want to stay in here for the entire day, but it obviously isn't being good for your mental health right now," he said delicately. "So, let's get you out to do something. Get your blood flowing."

Penny's mouth curved downwards. She felt the line between her eyebrows appear. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." Proving his point, he began to push her towards the hallway that led to her bedroom. "Come on, get dressed. We're going to do something fun."

"What if I don't want to?"

He shoved her into her room, closing the door shut behind her. "Too bad. Get dressed."

Baffled by his behavior, she instinctively went and did as she was instructed. Minutes later, when she came out of her room, Barton scrutinized her for a second before nodding. "Yep, that'll do."

She tried not to stare at him too much. "What are we doing?"

"You'll find out," he answered cryptically. As they went back into her living room, he went to the coffee table and picked up her food and drink, before handing them to her. "Finish these up, and we'll get going."

Like an omega in heat or something, she cringed. "I'm not hungry." Her stomach was tying itself into knots, over and over again. She hadn't completely come out of her near-panic attack unscathed.

He was patient, but not overly so. "Yes, you are. You wouldn't have gotten these ready if you weren't. So come on, eat."

With much reluctance, she did. The bagel tasted like ash in her mouth, and her throat felt like it was going to close up with every swallow. But she got it finished within five minutes, and knocked back the glass of juice before putting them both in the kitchen sink. She was just about to grab her purse off of one of the chairs afterwards when Barton said, "You're not going to need that."

"Why?" she scoffed. "Are you going to be buying everything for me, like a proper alpha would and all that bullshit?"

"Nope. We're not going to be leaving the Tower. We're not going to be going out your front door, either." With a quick glance towards her ceiling, he went over to underneath the one ceiling vent in the room. Then, jumping up, he was able to get it open quickly and without a screwdriver, seemingly hitting it at just the right place, like this was something he was well-experienced in. Actually, that probably wasn't too far off-base. "We're going through here. You and I, you see, Spidey, are going to be pulling a prank."

"What?"

"You heard me." Barton smirked. "It's the perfect cure for your problems, a guaranteed way to turn that frown upside down. So, let's go, before Natasha finds out where I am and what I'm doing. We don't want her to ruin anything, right?"

Word Count: 4,261

Next Chapter: saturday in the park