"What did you call her?" The voice was menacing and dark, matched by the murderous expression in his eyes.

Jeremy flinched and stepped back as much as he could in security's grip, cowed by Uncle Bucky's sudden appearance and his violent demeanor.

I grinned a little, I'd never liked the man, and to see him shut up like this was amusing. But I didn't want to attract any more attention, and the Avengers had lost their baseball caps long ago—which feeble disguises though they were, had been better than nothing.

I wrung my hands, nervously looking around at the other houses hoping none of my neighbours were up yet, or had already left for the day. Unfortunately, I noticed Pattie across the street stepping out onto her porch. Of course it would be the street's busybody. Even more unfortunately, she happened to see my brief glance at her, and must have decided that meant an invite because she briskly descended her steps and crossed the road over to us.

Ignoring Jeremy for a moment, certain he wouldn't do anything while he was being glared at by my uncle, I went down the driveway to meet Pattie before she could get too close. And also to make sure no security tried to accost her. She was nosy, but harmless.

She peered at me over her glasses, looking me up and down, and I suddenly became hyperaware of how disheveled I must look. I hadn't brushed my hair or changed my clothes since yesterday morning, I'd been traveling, packing, and sleeping, and I'm sure it all showed. I gave her a tight smile, "Good morning, Pattie."

"Good morning, dear, I couldn't help but notice there seems to be quite the goings-on over here. Is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine, Pattie, just packing up the house."

"Mmhmm, and last I heard you weren't planning on that for quite some time, why the change of heart, dear?"

"It was tim—"

Her gaze landed on something behind me and her eyes widened as she leaned in to conspiratorially whisper, "Oh my stars, is that the Black Widow?!"

I winced, of course she'd followed me. I briefly debated trying to deny it, but then Pattie's eyes widened even more, "AND CAPTAIN AMERICA?!"

Of course, he'd also come outside. I hung my head, suddenly extremely happy I'd be moving away, "...Yes, Pattie."

"Why whatever are they—" her gaze once more got distracted, and I winced even harder when I realized what she'd seen now, "Why on earth is Jeremy in handcuffs?! My dear, you must tell me everything, are you certain you're alright?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously towards Natasha and Steve and her voice lowered, "Do you need help, dear?"

Okay, her immediate determination to go against the Avengers to protect me, even though that wasn't at all the situation, made me regret any uncharitable thoughts I'd ever had about her. Still, I was quick to reassure her, "No, really, Pattie, it's fine."

I saw her unconvinced expression and knew I'd have to give her something or she'd never leave. I sighed, "There's just been some dispute over the house between Jeremy and me. Some of the Avengers are helping me out. They've got it all handled."

"Well, if you say so dear, now how on earth did you get the Avengers to help you?"

"That's a story I don't really have time for right now, Pattie. I really should be getting back to the matter at hand with Jeremy."

"Right, of course, dear. Well, I'm across the street if you need me. You have a good day, dear."

Oh, how well I knew she was there. I gave her a warm smile, "Thank you, Pattie. You have a good day too."

I exhaled as she finally went back to her house, and I turned to Natasha, "You're all too recognizable. Everyone on the street will know by noon that you've been here now."

Her eyes looked calculatingly across the street, "Will that be a problem?"

I frantically shook my head, worried what she might do to shut Pattie up, "Not to the level that you need to worry about."

She eyed me for a moment, then inclined her head acceptingly as we began to walk back towards Jeremy. "Well, we should be well out of here by noon anyways. The truck is almost loaded, we just need to wrap this up with Jeremy."

"Good. Perhaps we should try to move the conversation inside or to the backyard? Try to attract a little less attention?"

"Probably not the worst idea," We'd reached the group by now, and Natasha tilted he head towards the house as she addressed the security people holding Jeremy, "Bring him around back and into the sunroom."

They quickly complied, Jeremy cursing at them as he was led away. The rest of us went in through the front. Natasha turned to the super soldiers, "You two keep working on helping them load the truck, I can handle this. The sooner we're done here, the better, is what I'm thinking."

They looked like they were going to argue, but one raised eyebrow from Natasha had Steve pulling a grumbling Uncle Bucky towards the dwindling pile of furniture. Natasha, Happy, and I continued to the sunroom.

Jeremy's angry gaze landed on me when I walked in, "This is trespassing! And theft! You can't just come in here and take everyt—"

"Actually, she can. And this court order proves it." I tried to hide the shock on my face at Happy's words as he continued, "Y/N inherited all of her mother's assets, which includes all the items in the house and the house itself. While you may hold the guardianship of the possession of the house itself until she's of age, you have no such right to anything in the house. And as the house technically is to be inherited by Y/N, while you hold it in guardianship, you can't deny her entry or her ability to access any of her belongings."

I sucked in a breath, I was going to have to give Tony a big hug when I got back. And maybe bake the legal team thank-you cookies. The house guardianship had seemed pretty ironclad, but they'd found a loophole that was legalizing our actions here.

Jeremy blustered incoherently before aggressively pointing at me, "You may have gotten away with this part, but all it will take is one call to CPS and they'll know you're all on your own."

I met his eyes, "I am not on my own. I have my father, who has already gotten legal guardianship of me. CPS has nothing to be concerned about."

"She has all of the Avengers, she'll never be alone." Natasha added.

I smiled at her, then turned back to Jeremy, steel in my voice. "Just accept defeat already. It's inevitable."

He glared, "I'll still sell this house. Or maybe I'll burn it to the ground."

Natasha leaned forward, meeting Jeremy's eyes with an intense stare, "Try it. See what happens."

Jeremy gulped and leaned backwards. Natasha's expression didn't change as she continued, "I think you'll just leave all of this be, leave Y/N alone, and just go on with your life. What do you think?"

She and Happy both crossed her arms, staring Jeremy down as they waited for his response. Jeremy looked between them then stared down at the floor, "Fine."

"Good choice. And if you change your mind, we'll find you."

With Natasha's promise left to ring in his head, the security people escorted Jeremy back outside, returning moments later to confirm he'd left.

I gave a grateful smile to Natasha and Happy, "Thank you."

Natasha smiled back and Happy gave a quick nod before turning and heading out of the room, "Let's go see how the others are doing."

We followed him, arriving in the parlour to see that there were only a few pieces of furniture and some boxes left. Steve looked up at our entrance, "How'd negotiations go, Nat?"

Natasha grinned, "Got what we wanted out of it. How much longer do you think you'll be here?"

Steve shrugged, picking up one of our heavier chairs with one hand, "Maybe about half hour?"

Natasha nodded, but I perked up at the news. "So, we have some time to spare, right? Since there's nothing for us to do while they finish loading?"

The three of them gave me a wary look, Happy looking especially concerned, "Why?"

"Well, Jeremy's all calmed down, right? So it should be safe for me to go do something in town before we leave?"

"Absolutely not." Happy's voice was stern.

"Why not?"

"Because Tony would kill me. And then you. And then me again."

I sighed. "What if I let Natasha come with me?"

The side of her mouth quirked up, "It's cute that you think you'd be letting me do anything, Y/N."

I rolled my eyes and looked at Happy for his answer. He exhaled heavily. "Fine. But if anything goes wrong, you're the one explaining it to Tony."

"I think I can handle that."

Happy looked unconvinced, but he wandered off into the next room without further resistance, so I headed for the door, grabbing one of the caps off a table as I passed, knowing Natasha wouldn't be far behind.

I walked down the driveway, waving at Uncle Bucky as he carried a pile of boxes into the truck. Natasha fell into step beside me, "Are we taking the car?"

"I don't think Happy would support that. Besides, we should be just on time for the bus if we start walking now."

She gave me a skeptical look. "The bus?"

"Yep! Oh, and put this on." I passed her the baseball cap I'd grabbed and began walking down the street.

She rolled her eyes but pulled the cap over her hair. "So where are we going anyway?"

"The cemetery."

A short walk and a slightly longer bus ride later, we were passing through the cemetery gates. I walked the familiar path to my family's plots. Grandpa had been first, then Grandma. And now my mom. I belatedly realized perhaps I should have invited Uncle Bucky, in case he wanted to visit Grandma, but I'm sure we could always come back. As we neared the row, I looked hesitantly at Natasha, "Do you mind staying here? You'll still be able to see me."

She nodded, "Of course."

I left her leaning against a tree, and walked over the grass, settling down on ground in front of my mom's marker, idly tracing the letters of her name with my fingers. Tears pooled in my eyes.

"Oh Mom…I have so much to tell you…"

I sat there, talking out loud to the markers of my mom and grandparents. I talked about finding the journal, asking why my mom had lied even though I knew no answer would be forthcoming, and everything that had followed. I told Grandma about Uncle Bucky. And I apologized because I knew I wouldn't be visiting as often as I'd promised anymore. Then I just sat there, listening to the wind in the trees and the distant sound of the occasional car on the road.

Finally, I exhaled and stood up, whispered "I love you," and went back to Natasha, continuing on to the bus stop. She walked quietly beside me. Just as we arrived at the bus shelter, her phone rang.

She glanced down, "It's Steve." She picked it up, "Hello…okay, good…yeah, we'll be back in about 15-20 minutes… you'll be ready to go when we get there?...great…see you shortly."

She hung up the phone and glanced at me, "Ready to head back to New York?"