Chapter 80
AN: Thank you so much for the support. Hope you like this chapter.
After working with Bobbi to study Chemistry Melinda and Natasha finally left Bobbi's room, telling Bobbi that she needed to sleep and not just study, before heading to their own room where they finally washed off all the blood and grime from their mission, before heading to bed. After a night where Melinda couldn't get much sleep, she got up extremely early, and having been extremely careful not to wake Natasha, got dressed, and after spending a moment watching Natasha sleeping, and feeling how peaceful she is, Melinda heads out of their room, heading down to the backyard.
Once in the backyard Melinda makes her way to the pack patio where, between the outdoor dining area that they have set up, and the barbecue, she starts to do Tai-Chi in the place where there is enough room for her to do so, doing her best to try to herself from what she knows the week is going to bring.
Well over an hour after Melinda got up Natasha wakes up alone. The second she wakes up Natahsa is extremely concerned, and confused, about where Melinda is. Getting up Natasha gets dressed into the first clothes she can find, which include jeans that she is pretty sure are technically Melinda's, before heading downstairs, using the main staircase.
Once downstairs Natasha heads through the library and to the office, figuring it is the most likely place to find Melinda, but after she doesn't find Melinda, she heads to the kitchen/dining area where she doesn't find Melinda, but instead she finds Tony who is seemingly starting to get everything ready for breakfast.
"She's out back, doing Tai-Chi," Tony says to Natasha, having realized the second he realized that Melinda was out back alone that before long Natasha would be looking for her.
"Did she say anything?" Natasha asks, walking over to the island where Tony is, knowing that will tell her a lot about Melinda's state of mind.
"No, I just came down and she was already out there, I figured it was best to leave her be," Tony admits. "Nat, you know as well as I do that if Mellie is doing Tai-Chi this early it means…."
"She is trying to center herself," Natasha finishes, knowing that just as well as Tony does, and Tony nods, Natasha being able to tell that he is just as worried about Melinda as she is. "I'm worried Tony, this is the first anniversary and Lin's barely got her gift under control," Natasha says, needing to talk to someone about what she is worried about and feeling that Tony is the best person to talk to. "I'm worried that she is going to try so hard to keep that under control that she won't let herself acknowledge the pain and grief she knows she would be feeling if she could," Natasha admits, feeling worried about what that would do to Melinda.
"Me too," Tony admits, admitting what he would usually keep secret because it is Natasha he is talking to. "That's exactly why I made sure I was here this week, Mellie needs to feel the pain, she needs to feel the grief, and the only way she can do it is if we feel it for her," Tony explains, that having been something has been thinking about since he found out the advice he and Natasha gave Melinda made her control over her gift worse and not better.
"That's a good idea, we feel what she needs to feel so she can feel it," Natasha realizes, feeling amazed that quite often emotionally stunted Tony has realized that.
"Of course it's a good idea, I'm a genius, good ideas are kind of my thing," Tony comments with a smirk, and as he does Natasha, who is doing her best to hide her amusement, picks up a grape out of the fruit bowel, and throws it at him, but before the fight can devolve anymore, something that is likely to happen because of the way Natasha and Melinda can get, there is a knock on the door, distracting them.
"Truce," Tony says.
"Truce," Natasha confirms.
"That's probably Mom, I'll get that if you want to go talk to Mellie," Tony offers.
"Thanks, feel free to tell her she doesn't have to knock," Natasha says.
"I will, but she won't listen," Tony says, putting down what he is doing and heading to the front door, while Natasha heads to the backyard.
About a minute later Tony gets to the front door and without checking to see on the other side, going against all the safety precautions he was taught, Tony opens the door and just like he assumed he would he finds Peggy standing on the other side.
"Hi Mom, Nat says you don't have to knock," Tony says, hugging his mother who returns the hug and kisses his cheek. "It's good to see you," Tony says to her, as he hasn't seen his mother since Bobbi's birthday.
"It's good to see you too," Peggy says to her son. "Is anyone else awake yet?" Peggy asks curiously, as Tony closes the door and the two of them start to walk towards the kitchen, Peggy knowing that she is rather early so there is a good chance that not everyone will be awake.
"Mellie and Nat are out back, pretty sure Hope, Bobbi, Yelena and Daisy aren't awake yet," Tony explains to his mother, though he can't be certain of that, and in fact he is wrong as both Bobbi and Hope are in their respective rooms studying. "I was about to get started on breakfast, did you want to help, or do you need to get cleaned up?" Tony asks curious, as he honestly has no idea where his mother has come from, he has no idea what she has been doing.
"I can help, I'll wash up later," Peggy says. "I just need to put my bag in the office," Peggy says, telling Tony without actually saying it that she has weapons, meaning he was doing something dangerous, and because of that Tony can't help but frown.
"Are you hurt?" Tony asks, worried.
"No Honey, I'm fine, I promise," Peggy assures her son. "It was just a routine follow up on something I found in one of Reinhardt's file," Peggy explains, as that is what she has been working on since they killed Reinhardt and Carson and destroyed the fortress, following down every hint and lead that the files they stole had within them.
"Anything we should be concerned about?" Tony asks interested, and wondering just what his mother is trying to handle on her own… again.
"No, it led nowhere," Peggy reveals, not realizing that while they were focused on Reinhardt and Carson Hydra were covering their tracks, making sure that nothing Carson and Reinhardt knew could be traced back to wider Hydra. "I'll go put this away then we can talk about what I was doing while we cook," Peggy tells her son, as while she isn't going to tell him everything she will tell him enough so that he can understand what she has been doing.
"Sounds good," Tony says, feeling curious about what exactly his mother has been up to, and while he continues to get everything ready for breakfast Peggy goes to put her bag in a safe place.
After walking away from Tony Nataha headed out the French doors, onto the back porch, down the stairs, and onto the back patio where Melinda, who she walks over to, is doing Tai-Chi which she has been doing for a while.
"You could have woken me," Natasha says in a gentle voice, trying to control how worried she is as she doesn't want to overwhelm Melinda.
"I thought one of us should get some sleep," Melinda admits, as she continues to do her Tai-Chi, as considering how peaceful Natasha was feeling she didn't want to ruin that.
"Did you get any sleep?" Natasha asks worried.
"A little, not a whole lot," Melinda admits.
"Lin, anniversaries are always hard. It's one of those things that even we can count on, but you can also count on us, all of us who love you," Natahsa tells her. "We're going to be here for you, and help you in whatever you need, but we need you to tell us what that is, we need to know what you need," Natasha admits, as while she thinks Tony's idea is a good place to start, she also knows that they need more information about exactly what it is that Melinda needs and that information can only come from Melinda herself.
"Honestly, that's what I need. You, our girls including Hope, Tony, Aunt Peggy, our family, that's all I need this week, that's all I want, to be with all of you," Melinda admits, telling Natasha as she knows that Natasha deserves to understand what is going on with her.
"Well, you've got that, you've always got that," Natasha assures her, giving her a comforting look.
"I know," Melinda responds. "I've still got a little while to go before I stop, want to join?" Melinda asks as she knows she would like to do Tai-Chi with Natasha.
"Definitely," Natasha responds and the two of them proceed to do Tai-Chi together.
For a little while Melinda and Natasha do Tai-Chi together before heading inside where they help Tony and Peggy with breakfast. As they get everything ready Melinda pretends not to notice Natasha and Tony spend longer than needed in the pantry as she knows they are planning something, though she isn't sure what, for her and she doesn't want to completely ruin the surprise, and just as they finish getting everything Hope, Bobbi, Yelena and Daisy all walk into the kitchen for breakfast, as they all smelled the food and came to investigate.
Hours after Peggy arrived at the Lebanon house, she, along with Tony, Melinda, Natasha, Hope, Bobbi, Yelena and Daisy are enjoying one of what is likely going to be last nice days of the year by spending there Saturday morning in the pool.
While Tony is resting on a floaty in the middle of the pool Natasha, Hope, Bobbi, Daisy and Yelena are playing together in the water and as she notices Peggy in the water but leaning against the wall a little away from the others, Melinda, who's arm isn't completely healed even though she has taken off the sling, swims over to her.
"Are you okay, Aunt Peggy?" Melinda asks, moving so she is next to her once she is close enough.
"Yeah, I'm good," Peggy admits, smiling slightly. "I'm just enjoying how happy everyone is," Peggy admits.
"It is pretty amazing," Melinda admits, as she can feel how happy everyone is feeling, which is pretty incredible to her and is the very thing she likes to feel most.
"How are you doing?" Peggy asks her, feeling worried about Melinda as, like both Tony and Natasha, she knows that it is going to be a very hard week for Melinda, even if she refuses to admit it.
"Okay, I think," Melinda admits, knowing there is no point in lying to Peggy. "This, being around all of you, feeling what you're all feeling, it helps," Melinda admits.
"Good," Peggy responds, and she puts her arm around Melinda, and once she does Melinda rests her head on Peggy's shoulder, taking comfort from what she is feeling from her. "How long do you think before Tony ends up in the pool?" Peggy asks Melinda, curious, about a minute later, keeping her voice low so that Tony doesn't hear.
"Not long," Melinda says, noticing Natasha whisper to Bobbi, Daisy, Yelena and Hope, and just like she predicted, less than a minute Tony's floaty is flipped over and he falls into the pool, and after a few seconds he makes his way back to the surface.
"This is war," Tony say and the next hour is spent with Tony, Natasha, Melinda, Bobbi, Daisy, Yelena, Hope and even Peggy who was drawn into it, laughing and having a water fight in the pool which involved a lot of people dunking others into the water; while making sure they are doing it in safe way so that no one gets hurt.
A couple of hours after Tony got unceremoniously dunked into the pool everyone has dried off, while the group of eight are still in the backyard they aren't in the pool. Instead of being in the pool they are in the area of the backyard where the monkey bars that Tony just finished building, that is actually more of an entire gymnastic system including a vault, balance beam, and high rings, has been set up. Despite the big size of the structure there is still plenty of grassed area around the year and Tony purposely put the gymnastics structure it in a location where they would still have room to land a plane if needed as he knew that is important.
"You really went all out," Melinda notes, knowing that if she could she would be impressed not just about what Tony built, but how quickly he did so.
"Of course, only the best," Tony says, as there was no way he would have built something for the girls that wasn't perfect, he wouldn't have done it by half. "Lena, what do you think?" Tony asks, looking at her, because she is the one he built it for, so he wants to make sure she likes it.
"I love it," Yelena says, before throwing her arms around Tony, hugging her tightly. "Thank you, Uncle Tony," Yelena says amazed.
"You're welcome," Tony says, feeling glad she likes it so much.
"I love you," Yelena says.
"I love you too," Tony responds, kissing the top of her head. "I think you need to give it a try," Tony says.
"Definitely," Yelena says. "Bobbi, Hope, Daisy, come on," Yelena says to her sisters, wanting to try it with them, and they all follow her onto the structure, and start using different parts of it, even Daisy who isn't as athletic as her sisters clearly enjoys it.
"Don't you think it would be better if Mom, Mama and Aunt Peggy joined you?" Tony asks with a smirk, ignoring the less than impressed looks that Melinda, Peggy and Natasha are giving him.
"Yes! That would be great!" Yelena says excitedly. "Come on Mom! Mama! Aunt Peggy!" Yelena exclaims and as none of them can refuse the girls Melinda, Natasha, and Peggy join the girls on the structure, while Tony who is able to remain on solid ground, is incredibly amused.
A little while later Melinda, Natasha, Peggy, Yelena, Bobbi, Daisy, and Hope are still on the gymnastics structure that Tony built, as Tony watches on, and it is perfectly clear that the four younger girls are very impressed with what Melinda, Natasha, and Peggy are doing, the skills the three of them are showing off.
"Okay, you have to teach me to do that," Bobbi says to Natasha, who just used the high rings to do a flip and land on the ground perfectly.
"I can, with your strength I don't see you having any problem mastering it," Natasha tells her daughter, as she starts to climb back up.
"Awesome," Bobbi says with a grin.
"Well, that looks like fun," Kora's voice says, and everyone looks towards where her voice came from where she, Gordon, Jiaying, Harrison, Angelica, Sharon, Antoine, Rhodey, Coulson, Clint, Laura, and Maria are together, walking towards them from the house.
"What are you all doing here?" Melinda asks, realizing that neither Natasha nor Tony are surprised, which tells her that this is what they were planning earlier, which makes perfect sense.
"We thought we would join in the fun," Clint says, the truth being that as soon as Tony contacted them, he knew they had to do what they could to help.
"We are having fun that's for sure," Natasha says, as she Melinda, Peggy, and the others get off the equipment and walk over to their family, greeting them, while Melinda feels how glad everyone is to be together, and how much they want to help her, which means everything to her.
A few hours after Kora, Jiaying, Gordon, Rhodey, Coulson, Clint, Laura, Maria, Harrison, Angelica, Sharon and Angelica arrived at the Lebanon house the twelve of them as well as Melinda, Natasha, Tony, Peggy, Hope, Bobbi, Yelena and Daisy are continuing to enjoy good weather by having a barbecue outside, as well as planning on having a bonfire once the sun goes down.
After seeing Natasha and Tony go inside to get more supplies Melinda excuses herself from the conversation she is having with Maria and Hope, and heads inside as she wants to talk to them both. Walking into the house Melinda closes the French door so that she, Natasha and Tony can have a conversation in private.
"Thank you," Melinda says as she looks between Natasha who is collecting more knives and other cutlery while Tony is getting supplies from the pantry.
"What for?" Tony asks, faking confusion.
"For getting the rest of the family here," Melinda says. "They're exactly what I need this week," Melinda says.
"We know," Natasha says. "That's why we got everyone here," Natasha explains. "We said we're here for you, Lin, this is us being here for you," Natasha explains.
"Thank you," Melinda says, walking over to Natasha and kissing her, and once they break apart she walks over to Tony. "Thank you," Melinda says, giving Tony a hug as well.
"We are well past thank yous, you know that Mellie," Tony says to Melinda in a quiet voice, before the two of them break apart, and before either of them, or Natasha, can say anything else the French doors open, and Hope sticks her head into the kitchen, searching for Melinda, Tony, and Natasha who she sees.
"Um, we need your help out here. Uncle Rhodey and Uncle Coulson are arguing about the best way to cook a hotdog," Hope says, having seen this very argument, many times, before so she knows for a fact that the only way to stop it is for Melinda, Natasha, and Tony to get involved.
"We'll be right there," Natasha says, with a sigh, knowing she should have seen this coming, and once she does Hope nods and closes the door. "They have this argument every time, why do we keep letting them cook the barbecue?" Natasha asks, looking between Melinda and Tony.
"Because they're the best at it," Tony answers.
"Good point," Natasha says amused. "Guess we better go play mediator," Natasha comments.
"Yep," Melinda and Tony say, and the three of them pick up everything they need and head back into the backyard where they quickly have to defuse the argument between Coulson and Rhodey, which is something they have a lot of experience with and also never fails to amuse them as except when they are cooking barbecues together Rhodey and Coulson are the best of friends.
Once the argument between Coulson and Rhodey is defuse the family advises to have an enjoyable time together, and after sunset, as they sit around the bonfire Melinda looks around at her family and knows that if she could she would be feeling incredibly grateful for them, as considering everything being with her family is exactly what she needs.