This chapter has been posted due to the courageous efforts of a dear friend of mine, T. Rycbar. Thanks buddy. On a more important note- I'm really tired and school freakin sucks. Oh and thanks to TheSarcasticKnight for the comments (Kill 'em Joey). Happy reading.
IDon'tOwnMarvel
Clint still had his bow and arrows with him. The quiver kept bumping slightly against his shoulder as he walked at a brisk pace, forcing me to an awkward half-jog just to keep up. It hadn't been that loose earlier, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do all those crazy acrobatic moves with the Chitauri, so he must've loosened it before we left.
I wonder how hard it'd be to steal one of those…
I shook off the thought quickly. Clint seemed to be tolerating me so far, and I didn't want to risk pissing off every person I encountered. Otherwise no one would listen to me when I needed them to. We walked out of the park and into the city, where we went across three crosswalks before entering a small building. I huffed a quiet sigh at the set of stairs that awaited us inside.
I hate stairs, I grumbled to myself, shooting them a heated glare for good measure before reluctantly following my designated babysitter. The stairs led up to a long, dimly-lit hallway. I trailed after Clint as he walked about halfway down to pull a key from his pocket, insert it into one of the beige doors lining the hallway, and shove it open.
"Make yourself at home. There's food in the fridge and cabinets." He set down his bow at the door and hung up the quiver on a coat rack. "Are you allergic to anything?"
I shook my head.
"Why're you so quiet all of a sudden? You had no problem telling off Tony earlier," he asked, wandering into the poorly decorated apartment.
"Yeah, I'm not normally like that," I admitted, tugging at my sweatshirt nervously.
"That's too bad. I was hoping to see more of that," he frowned and pulled a granola bar out of the cabinet before tossing it at me.
I caught it. "You might if he keeps acting like an asshole. He doesn't know it yet but I actually saved him from some pretty severe PTSD...if I really did close the portal like you guys keep saying I did."
"PTSD, huh?" He tilted his head.
I cracked a smile. "Yeah. Someone was going to launch a nuke at the city to stop the invasion and Tony was going to redirect it into the wormhole. He almost didn't make it where I'm from."
"Hm, no act of heroism for him then?" He flopped down on the couch and looked at me still in the doorway. "You can come in, you know. I'm not that threatening am I?"
"Oh no, it's not that, sorry." I shook my head and stepped timidly in before sitting down on the floor in front of the couch.
"Why the floor?" He frowned.
"My sister and I sit together on the floor so that not just one of us is on the chair." My heart tightened at the memory.
Not like that'll ever happen again.
Clint didn't bat an eye. "You have a sister where you're from too?"
"Yeah, I do." Did.
"That must be nice. I had a brother, but we were never close."
"That's too bad. Sisters are a pain, but they're nice to have when you need to borrow clothes."
Oh, come on you wimp. Don't cry now. I bit back the tears again and chuckled instead.
"So I've heard," he said, pretending to ignore the flash of grief he no doubt caught sight of before I managed to bottle it up. For all his chipper one-liners and smiley attitude, Clint was still a spy. Not as good as Natasha, mind you, but he was definitely no slouch. Besides a quick glance of confusion I caught him giving me out of the corner of my eye, though, he seemed content to drop the matter for the time being.
Then, he turned on the TV, and we fell silent in favor of watching a Planet Earth rerun that was occasionally interrupted by commercials for Bob's discount furniture. I don't know about him, but I wasn't really paying much attention.
So in this universe, Ellie dies in a car crash with the rest of us. I was a little confused at the turn of events. Suicide or car accident. Is there a universe where she isn't doomed for a short life?
Clint occasionally looked down at the mysterious kid. She didn't look the type to talk to a virtual stranger about her past, especially considering the flash of grief he'd noticed when she mentioned her sister. He wasn't sure how to address such a situation anyways. Not to mention, he was exhausted. Clint glanced down at her to see her eyes getting heavier after a short while. Finally, her head rolled slightly and she was out like a very stubborn light.
He waited a few extra minutes until he lifted her up and put her on the bed. He frowned. The one day off he gets in weeks and he has to give up the bed to a slightly insane super-kid. He could have put her on the couch, but it didn't seem like the polite thing to do. She stirred slightly and her face wrinkled up in discomfort. Clint, not wanting her to wake up and blast him to kingdom come by accident, hastily dropped her on the bed and tossed a blanket over her before heading back to the couch. He stopped and picked up the unopened granola bar on the way before placing it on the corner table.
He knew that Fury knew that he had kids at home, but he was nowhere near prepared for a teenager. Younger kids were easy if you looked past the crying and potty-training. All you had to do was give them a juice box and they'd be happy. But teenagers? Way out of his league. No, this little trip was not going to be easy. He couldn't exactly pass her off completely to Stark, and Banner was just as bad from what he'd seen. Hopefully she'd turn out to be independent and relatively level-headed, not moody and reckless like he'd been at her age.
He sighed and turned off the TV. The dirt and sweat that had accumulated on (and under) his uniform was starting to itch, and he was beyond ready to pass out on the couch for the night. With a short sigh, he heaved himself back to his feet and made his way to the bathroom, casting one last peek into the solitary bedroom to make sure the kid was still there. Even as he stepped into the shower and began hastily scrubbing the alien blood and dirt from his skin, he kept one of his hearing aids in and set to a bit higher than his normal volume. Just in case. Nat would never let him hear the end of it if some random kid managed to give him the slip while his guard was down.
Clint finished up his shower quickly, pulling on a loose t-shirt and a pair of shorts from his go bag before stumbling back to the couch. He didn't even bother to remove his hearing aid before collapsing face-down on the ratty green surface, falling asleep just minutes after his head hit the pillow.
The clock on the microwave had read 9:53 when Clint walked past it on his way to the couch. When his sleep was suddenly interrupted by a quiet noise in the next room, causing him to shoot up into a seated position, the glowing red numbers only read 11:06.
Clint didn't waste any time. He stood up and silently started making his way through the apartment, stopping momentarily to grab a kitchen knife off the counter as he passed. But when he poked his head into the bedroom, there was no one there but Lincoln. She was still under the covers but speaking incoherently, obviously in the middle of a nightmare.
"Ellie please! What would I do without you? You can fight this. I'm here with you, don't you see?" I had hot tears falling down my face.
Ellie looked torn between me and the decision. "You d-don't understand. I don't want to be here anymore." She stuttered with her own set of tears. "They'll never love me after this. They already hate me. I can't go back." She started shaking her head. "It's too late now."
"No! No it's not! Stop saying that! I love you. Think about us Ellie! Mom, Dad, our crazy stupid cat. We all love you. You have to let me help." I tried to wipe away the tears and keep my eyes fixed on Ellie.
"NO! You're lying! They won't love me if I come back from this!" Her hands shook on the rail as she tried to fight back my words.
I couldn't speak. I was frozen then. Why couldn't I speak and reassure her? My mouth was caught with the words. I willed myself to say something but nothing came out.
"See? Even my own twin doesn't care." Her hands slipped.
"Ellie, wait!" I jolted out of the bed I was sleeping in, only for my mind to relax in milliseconds. What a weird string of dreams I had.
I wiped my hands across my eyes. Was I crying in my sleep- wait, by beds not a queen size. I sat up all the way and looked around, only to see a figure staring at me very concerned with his hands up like he had been caught red handed. I jumped back in the unfamiliar bed as the memories of the last 12 hours all came rushing back. Clint Barton in a sweatshirt was standing beside the bed looking haggard and slightly uncomfortable.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up" His stance relaxed into one less guarded as I sat up.
"Oh." I quickly scrambled to pull off the blankets. I didn't know how I ended up in this bed but it sure as hell wasn't mine. "Sorry."
I flopped over onto the floor and stood on the opposite side of the bed.
"I didn't, um," I couldn't find the right words for this. I didn't mean to sleep in your bed? Sorry I woke you up? Hell if I knew. I just stood there looking like an idiot.
"What was the nightmare about?" He pushed his hands into his hoodie pockets.
"Not a nightmare. Just a memory." I mentally slapped myself. Stop oversharing! No one cares about your messed up life.
"Oh. Yeah I get those too sometimes."
So there we stood. A bunch of emotionally stunted fools who had no clue how to talk to each other without being uncomfortable. "Sorry I slept on your bed and woke you up. I know you were tired and all."
"It's all right. I can only really sleep for 5 hours tops anyways."
"I'll- um, sorry." I moved to the other side of the room and passed him out the door without saying anything more. He didn't speak either and just watched me go. I moved past the kitchen into the living room and sat down on the couch. I felt his eyes on the back of my head so I lowered the rest of my body and curled up on my side. It was a weird interaction and probably not one I ever wanted to have ever again. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to.
Clint closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Okay, that could have gone worse.
Oh, who was he kidding? That was no better than a train wreck. He was no good at this and now she had moved into the living room leaving him to fend for himself in the bedroom. How was this responsibility on him again? Oh yeah: non-essential. Suddenly, the term didn't seem as great as it did 24 hours ago.
It wasn't like he didn't want to help her. He just had no idea where to start. Little kids will tell you they dreamed of a purple monster with golden gloves and all you had to do was tell them purple monsters with golden gloves don't exist. That display however, was not something that was to be taken as a monster under the bed.
"Not a nightmare. Just a memory."
He cringed. Something told him that wasn't a good memory. Clint rolled onto the bed and laid on his back, still very much awake.
And who's Ellie? It had to be someone close to her for her to have bad dreams about them. Maybe it's her sister. He thought she was upset talking about her sister before because she'd passed in one way or another. This whole incident definitely proved his instincts right, at least. He didn't have the chance to ponder on it much longer, though, as his exhaustion caught up with him before long. It had been a long past couple of days.
The alarm went off at 6:30 forcing Clint out of bed once again. He wandered through the bedroom door and started the coffee maker after seeing that Lincoln was still on the couch. She was sleeping much more peacefully this time so he opted to not wake her. He went back to the coffee machine after it beeped and poured himself a cup before pausing.
Do teenagers drink coffee? No, that couldn't be right. He poured the rest of it into a travel mug for when he left and sat down at the small corner table taking a quick note of the now missing granola bar.
The sleeping kid stirred before sitting up and looking around. She caught eye contact with Clint and frowned. He froze. Did I do something wrong? Do I look funny? Why are teenagers so inherently judgmental?
"Is that tea?" She asked, suddenly looking down at his cup before shaking her head at her own question. "No, you don't drink tea."
"I don't?"
"No, but I think Fury does." She stood and headed into the kitchen.
He almost snorted at the idea. "Fury drinks tea?" Clint could get used to this fountain of useful trivia about his colleagues. Who knew how many embarrassing tidbits she had on Stark?
"Yes, but don't tell him I told you that. I think I'm on his good side right now." He saw her smile to herself which made him feel a little bit better about the situation. She couldn't be all bad if she was still willing to smile once in a while, right?
She opened a few cabinets before she found what she was looking for, pouring herself a bowl and sitting down across from him at the table. Clint left her to her breakfast, his mind still stuck on the idea of his boss drinking tea in his travel mug as opposed to coffee darker than the souls of his enemies.
"Fury's preference of tea? Is that all it takes to amuse you?" She gave him a half smile across the table.
"Yeah, that sums it up." He smiled back before checking his watch. "We're leaving in about half an hour. I just have to meet up with the rest of the guys when they kick out Loki and Thor."
"Am I going?" She looked almost hopeful at the idea.
"If you want. You have to come to New York anyway." He figured if there was any way to get Lincoln to trust him, taking her places was probably a good start. He also didn't really have many other options.
She kept eating but nodded at him. After she finished, she cleaned her dishes and put them on the drying rack. He rinsed out his own mug too while she used the bathroom.
Mental note- Little kids don't do their own dishes. Apparently, teenagers do. Lincoln didn't have other clothes with her and simply pulled the sweatshirt back on that she had probably taken off to sleep when she moved to the couch.
Clint was feeling better after the small moment of mutual trust at the kitchen table. This allowed them to walk in comfortable silence back to the quinjet. It was only a short walk so there wouldn't have been much to talk about anyways. He had to smile again when he saw a twitch of excitement cross her face at the sight of the stress ball she had thrown around earlier. It was sitting on top of the folded blanket that she left on the seat.
He could tell she couldn't wait to get on again but she paused until he was on the plane before following him in and snatching the ball off the seat. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she immediately began tossing it around.
"Alright. I hope you don't mind fast because we're going to get to New York a whole half hour faster than Nat. She flies this thing like a kiddie toy." Clint called from the cockpit.
Lincoln still had a smile plastered on her face from the simple stress ball. She took her seat as they took off but as soon as they were up in the air, she found herself back on the floor. It was an hour and 45 minutes before they approached New York City. Clint steered the jet and landed quickly, yet gracefully, on the top of an Undercover Shield building only three blocks from Central Park.
He couldn't help but notice the hint of worry in her face and how she was squeezing the stress ball even more aggressively than before. "You doing alright?"
Lincoln's face quickly dropped any signs of worry and she gave him a half smile. "Yeah. I'm…fine. Never better."
"You hesitated."
"How's Laura?" She gave him a smile, trying to change the subject or at least startle him out of asking.
He was only slightly fazed by the question. "Don't try and distract me with my own wife. I promise I won't tell anyone as long as you don't mention the wife and kids."
Her face dropped down from the fake smile. "Fine, but you really can't tell anyone."
"You got it."
"I have to speak to two people still and I'm not so sure about one of them." She looked even more anxious and started picking at the ball more.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Loki and Tony." She looked down at the ground when they finally stepped into Central Park and started down the walkway.
He paused for a moment, mulling over her answer. Loki was pretty bad but she didn't have trouble calling either of them out yesterday.
"Which one's the difficult one?"
"Tony. I have some information I have to get to him before something else happens, but I'm not that good at breaking news to people. You were there for the train-wreck with Steve," she said, waving her hand noncommittally.
He hummed a response, not quite sure how to answer that. After all, he wasn't that good at breaking news to people either. He pondered it for a moment. There wasn't anyone who was close enough to Stark that would be able to tell any kind of heartbreaking news without him losing it. To be fair though, it wasn't like he knew what this heartbreaking information was. Lincoln had compared it to Steve's, though, so he doubted it was good news.
"If it helps, I could be there too."
She stopped only a couple hundred feet away from the rest of the gang. "You'd do that?"
"I mean, yeah, sure. I can beat up Loki for you too. He's got it coming." He laughed a little.
Clint froze as she wrapped her arms around him. Before he could pat her on the back or return the hug she continued on ahead of him towards the group.
I guess that worked?
I don't know why I hugged him, but I did. He seemed very startled by the gesture, so I didn't give him a chance to return it before I was off again. I may have been a tiny bit excited to see Loki and Thor, but now that I was going with Tony and Banner, I would probably have to leave Clint. I liked Clint. He was nice and didn't push too much for information. It was odd how he knew what kind of stuff to ask for and what else to let go.
Probably has something to do with his fancy Shield training.
I spoke again when he caught up to me. "I can't talk to Tony here or now, but I'll let you know when I do."
I was glad that he was willing to help me with Tony. I was already going to be having a tough time speaking to him about the true cause of death with his parents. I didn't really need to get blasted through the door in the process for not telling him sooner. With Clint there at least there was a chance I would walk out of the room alive. The chances of Tony trusting me again after that, were very slim too. Oh well, what can you do? Wait, shit, he's the one who's supposed to help-
"Katniss, Birdie," Tony shot me out of my own thoughts "You here for the big show?"
I gave him a quick smile but ultimately ignored him.
Bruce was stealing glances at me when I stood beside Clint in the little circle that was created. Either he wasn't filled in on my sudden appearance, or he felt bad about the Hulk almost killing me. Judging by his face it could have been either one. I gave Clint a look and he nodded at me. As casually as I could, I stepped up to face the two gods.
"I need to speak with Loki if that's all right." I looked between the muzzled one and his very intimidating brother.
"What for?" Thor's voice caused my hand to clamp down on the stress ball even more than it was.
"It's about the future. It's really important that he hears this because I don't think I'm going to see either of you again and I want to know that I did the most before I leave."
He looked between his brother and myself before nodding and pulling Loki away from the group. I followed after and Thor pressed a button on the muzzle, releasing it before walking off as well.
"What?" Loki looked down on me but I simply glared back.
"Don't take it."
"I don't take orders from children." He tried to look uninterested but there was a hint of curiosity in his voice that proved otherwise.
I crossed my arms in annoyance. "During a prophesied event, you pass the Space Stone and you take it. Don't take it."
"And if I do?" He was gaining more interest in this by the second.
"You die. Half of Asgard dies and you'll really regret it. You look like a guy who has some sense of self preservation. Don't. Fucking. Take it." I could have just told him that something bad happens, but without threatening his own mortality, there was no way he was going to listen.
"How do you know this? What are you?" He narrowed his gaze at me, accusingly and I squinted right back.
"I just do."
"You're not human are you?" His eyes shifted dangerously over me.
I kept myself still and void of emotion. "That's none of your business."
"I'll find out sooner or later so you might as well just tell me."
"Like I said- I'm not telling you anything else."
He looked incredibly critical and I turned to leave but he stopped me. "Wait." I looked back. "Will he trust me again?"
I paused and looked between him and the group of people who were watching us very carefully. I sighed "I think you'll have to wait and see for that. Please repair things with your mother too. She does love you."
He scowled at me after the mention of his mother. "You're incredibly cryptic."
I smiled and beckoned over Thor. "You know it. Oh, and don't tell your brother. He asks a lot of questions."
I returned to my place beside Clint who was smiling about something or another. "What was that about?"
I didn't look up at him with my answer. "Oh, you know. Fate, destiny, saving the world one idiot at a time. I just told him something that'll be important later."
"And you trust him with it?"
"I trust that he has a large amount of self preservation." I turned to Clint who was giving me an odd look. He just shook his head with a smile and watched as Thor and Loki each took a side of the container holding the Tesseract. Loki gave me a quick nod and soon they disappeared into a string of blue light.
A nod. I got a nod from the God of Mischief. That was pretty exciting.
Tony almost immediately made his way over to me after the last remaining blue light dissipated into thin air. "Hello Moody, welcome back to your origin grounds."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm from New Hampshire."
"And yet, fake you is from Massachusetts."
"Ugh, god. Really?"
Fake me was a Masshole. This universe keeps getting better and better...
He crossed his arms with an expectant gaze. "What'd you talk to Loki about?"
"It doesn't really involve you yet." I tried to stay calm in this situation but Tony was already starting to get on my nerves. I squeezed the stress ball again. There was no way I was crying in front of a bunch of superheroes.
He glared. "Yet?"
"Yes, yet." I kept my face blank so that he couldn't attempt to read it.
Tony opened his mouth to speak again but after looking behind me at something, it closed. I turned to see Clint watching him very nonchalant-like.
"Alright. You're coming with me and Banner anyhow. I'll get it out of you before you leave." He turned and got into a very fancy car beside Banner before speeding off.
"What an odd man." Clint said from behind me. "I take it, I shouldn't tell him either?"
"It's probably best." I mused, following Clint to the van with Selvig, who also looked uncomfortable with my presence.
It was then that I remembered the absence of both Steve and Natasha. Chances were that they were helping Fury at the time with the whole Hydra debacle. I didn't think it was very important to make a comment on the difference, but I was starting to think about the repercussions of changing time. It never really ended well in most time-travel movies.
'Terminator', 'Interstellar', 'Hot Tub Time Machine', that one animated movie about turkeys and thanksgiving...
Yeah, so...maybe I didn't want to feel the effects of changing time. Pizza for thanksgiving? Thats a real nightmare.