Chapter 4
Clint drove with his passengers like he did everything while on a mission. With perfect precision and a careful attention to detail. He was brutally aware of the toddler babbling to herself in the back seat, so he took extra care to drive slowly and smoothly. Or at least he tried. New York drivers it seemed had a different idea. Horns blasted as cars raced past him and cut him off as they zipped to their own destinations.
"Watch it you fucker!" Clint shouted without thinking as the fifth driver cut him off.
"Fucker," the toddler happily copied from the back seat. Clint forced himself to keep his eyes on the road, but he felt every muscle tense as he expected the woman next to him to freak out. He might have been raised in a literal circus, but he knew most guardians did not like their small charges to be swearing.
"I don't know if I should be happy she's saying something other than asking for her parents, upset its swearing or shocked she hasn't picked any up from me yet." Charlotte said. Clint took his eyes off the road long enough to see the small smile pricking at the corners of her mouth. He let himself smile in return.
"Let's go with the first one, it has the best outcome for me. By that I mean you're probably not going to smack me for corrupting her if you're happy about something." he joked as he let the car pick up a little speed and blend into traffic.
The rest of the drive to the tower was quiet and comfortable with the occasional fucker coming from the back seat. Each time Clint noticed both he and Charlotte had to press down bouts of laughter even if a giggle or two escaped.
Clint pulled into the private underground garage and parked the Lexus SRX in its spot. Tony had insisted he take this particular car. The scientist had rattled for twenty minutes about the different safety features while Natasha just told him she'd already installed a car seat in the back. Clint wondered who'd be the one to tell Tony they all knew how much he cared.
Clint carried the bag full of toys and wooden books Charlotte had brought to entertain the toddler while Charlotte carried the little girl herself. Clint noticed she carried the little girl on her left hip. He vaguely remembered it being her right shoulder that had been hurt. He didn't know anything about carrying kids, so he didn't know if her shoulder was healed or not. He made a note to ask her later. Stitches typically took 10 days to two weeks to come out, so it was a toss-up if she'd gotten them removed yet. He'd have to ask.
Somewhere when Natasha couldn't hear him. She'd been giving him enough shit about bringing the woman to the tower to find the kid's parents.
The trio entered the private elevator that led to the residential floors of the tower.
"JARVIS, where's Tony and Bruce?" Clint asked as the elevator rose into the sky.
"Sir and Dr. Banner are both in the common room waiting for you and Ms. Mathews." the disembodied voice said.
"Thanks Jar, tell them we're on our way please." Clint said.
"Yes, Agent Barton."
Clint turned to see Charlotte looking at him with one eye brow raised.
"Tony Stark." he said as a way of trying to explain all the crazy that existed in his life now. Not that it was much crazier than his life had been. He tried not to think about it too much to be honest.
Charlotte snorted in a particular unladylike way and shook her head. She smiled at Clint though, so he figured everything was all right. Baby Girl clung tight to her guardian and made faces at herself in the reflective metal sides of the elevator. Clint envied her for a minute. He was doing better than he had been after the whole Loki thing. Fury had told him Phil was on the mend in a SHIELD hospital that not even the president knew about. Phil's docs were sending both him and Tasha (and by proxy of them the rest of the Avengers) daily updates. They expected Phil to come out of his coma soon. Knowing Phil hadn't died, that Fury had played them to make them work together, made everything else a little easier to deal with.
Clint had a complicated relationship with the SHIELD director, but he couldn't say his methods didn't work. Besides, Natasha had already stolen his eye patch so unless Clint wanted the revenge to get physical there was nothing he could do about it.
Besides he got to watch Steve give Fury the Captain America Glare of Disappointment and that helped a lot.
Knowing Tony replaced all of Phil's original Captain America trading cards with a double set (one set signed by Steve) helped even more.
Still sometimes he wished he could (voluntarily) forget everything that happened and just make faces at himself in a mirror without looking like he needed more trips to Psych. The lack of sleep from the nightmares wasn’t helping.
Kids, they got all the understanding in the whole coping with tragedy thing.
The elevator gave a quiet ding when they reached the common room floor. A second later the doors slid open to the large open floor plan lay out.
"Nice digs." Charlotte drawled out as they stepped into the room. The huge kitchen gave way to an even bigger living room with the spot Hulk had slammed Loki into the floor epoxied over on proud display. A huge TV projection system was surrounded by some of the most comfortable couches Clint had ever sat on. Steve was in the kitchen making enough food to feed an army although it was probably just enough for himself, Thor and the rest of them. Tony sat at the huge peninsula counter tinkering with something on the StarkPad in front of him while Bruce read some science journal. Thor sat close to them as he peppered Natasha with questions about Earth.
"Lady Jane and Lady Darcy will be coming today." Clint caught Thor saying, "I wish to give them a most warm welcome. I fear Lady Jane and Lady Darcy are not happy with me at the moment."
"Dude, you were on world, saved the city, left world and didn't call them until you got back two days ago. They were invited to work here by Tony- not you. Of course, they’re pissed. I imagine any woman in any realm would be pissed." Clint said as they walked into the room.
Everyone turned to look at them while Thor nodded in agreement.
"I shall enjoy proving myself to them." Thor said. Clint turned to look at Charlotte to see how she was handling all of this. He wished he could say he hadn't expected everyone to be present, but it turned out soldiers, scientists, gods and billionaires were an easily bored lot of people. Pepper currently had them all on a version of lock down while SI PR flunkies made sure everyone still liked them. Clint didn't mind, he needed time to get his head straight. The others on the other hand were getting antsy and anything new was something that held potential amusement.
Charlotte looked remarkably composed for a teacher from Harlem meeting some of the most recognized people in the world right now. The only tell Clint could see that she was nervous was the polite smile on her face that came nowhere near her eyes and the tight grip she had on Baby Girl. The toddler in question began to squirm and turned and buried her head in Charlotte's shoulder at suddenly being the focus of attention.
"There you are Legolas," Tony said looking up from the StarkPad, "this the teach and kid?"
"Tony, this is Charlotte, Charlotte- Tony." Clint said as an introduction, "Bruce is the one with glasses, Steve is the Doritos shaped man by the stove, Thor is the shampoo commercial's wet dream and Natasha is the redhead. Everyone this is Charlotte and the toddler currently known as Baby Girl."
"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you all." Charlotte said, "I appreciate your help trying to find her parents."
Clint could hear the slight tightness in her voice along with the polite, detached tone he hadn't heard from her before. Still he was impressed, distant and polite was a solid reaction as far as he was concerned. Tony popped up from the table and came around to look closer at the toddler.
"We should hopefully be able to do a facial recognition from Facebook or other social media. Parents love showing off their kids. If not, we can use foot print and check for DNA in any system. If we're lucky we'll have her parents found in an hour and on their way here on a Stark Jet." Tony said as he approached them, "Can you look up for me kid? My AI needs to get a good look at your face for my computers to work."
Baby Girl took her head out of Charlotte's neck. She looked at Tony full in the face for several seconds as she blinked a couple of times.
"Fucker." She said before digging her face back into the safety of her guardians’ neck.
Clint lost his shit as Tony blinked at the child. Natasha let out a rare full laugh, while Bruce giggled. Thor's laughter boomed across the room and even Steve covered a laugh with his hand. Clint saw Charlotte go beat red and stare down at the toddler in her arms.
"Her parents are going to fucking kill me for that once we find them and I'm putting all the blame on you." she said looking Clint directly in the eye. The polite distant tone was gone, and the casual alto of the voice Clint had come to recognize came through.
The team began to laugh even harder as Clint leaned against one of the peninsula chairs to contain his mirth.
~&~
"That's not the first time a woman has called me that, but they tend to be older, and drunker." Tony said as he laughed.
"I'm very sorry Mr. Stark. Clint swore at a driver on our way here and it seems she decided to start copying people now. She hasn't spoken much since the attack. We still don't know her name." Charlotte said as she tried to regain the polite, put together presentation she'd learned over the years.
"Tony. Mr. Stark was my dad and he was an ass." Tony said already typing something away on the StarkPad in his hands.
"Ass." the toddler cheerfully said. Charlotte marveled at children's ability to find the worst word in sentence and repeat only that.
"Tony." Charlotte agreed, noting for a moment that she was calling the richest man in America by his given name in his own home. Before she could think about it too much the toddler began to squirm in her arms. Her right shoulder still pulled a little and her left arm reminded her that she'd been carrying the twenty some pound girl from quite some time. She bent over to set the toddler on the floor. Clint automatically handed her the bag of toys he'd been carrying. She dug in the bag until she found a small block set Esme's church friends had given her. She set the blocks out and sent a little prayer to a god she didn't quite believe in any more that the toddler would be good and amuse herself quietly for a time.
"Thank you, for looking." She said as she straightened up.
Tony flapped his hand in front of his face as if he could push her thanks away.
"I have the resources so why not?" He asked. Charlotte didn't press the issue. She recognized when someone didn't want to be thanked too much.
"I can give her a checkup if you'd like." The absentminded professor looking man said from the huge kitchen peninsula. Dr. Bruce Banner, Clint had said. The Doctor Banner currently had a stethoscope around his neck and Charlotte guessed Clint had asked him to look over the toddler. She found herself feeling immensely relieved and grateful.
"I'd really appreciate that. Someone looked her over the day of the battle, but I haven't had the chance to get her checked out since. Even if I could the hospitals and clinics are as backed up as everything else." Charlotte said.
"It's no trouble." Bruce said as he got up and walked over to the little one playing on the floor. Charlotte watched as the scientist folded himself onto the floor next to the toddler.
"Hi sweetie." He said. The little girl looked up at him for a moment before going back to her blocks.
"Can I play too?" He asked. The toddler looked up again for a few moments longer before nodding. The six other adults in the room watched as Bruce made a game out of giving the child a quick exam. Well everyone but Tony watched. Charlotte didn't see the other man lift his eyes from the StarkPad once. Still she'd bet any designer dress in her closet that he was aware of everything that went down in his tower. You didn't become the Merchant of Death or Iron Man without a little awareness of what went on around you.
"She looks to be perfectly healthy. You said in your TV interview she hasn't been talking much?" Bruce asked as he stood back up.
"Not much at all aside from today's voyage into cursing. She mostly asks for her parents or things like juice, book, toy. Stuff like that. One-word sentences not the two or three words you'd expect." Charlotte explained.
"That's pretty normal after a traumatic event." Bruce confirmed what the social worker had told her. "She should start to bounce back soon although I'm guessing you're seeing the temper tantrums on a regular basis."
"Every couple of days. Luckily, it's summer so I haven't had to figure out daycare for her and with the chaos we're really only going out for groceries. I try to get her on a walk most days." Charlotte said.
"Routine helps, finding her family will help too." Bruce said.
"How old is this child?" Thor asked from across the room, "Midgardian children age differently than those on Asgard."
"She's about two and a few months we think." Charlotte said as she turned to address the blonde man.
"She's two years, four months and five days to be exact." Tony said. Charlotte snapped her head back to the man who still hadn't looked up from the pad in his hands.
"You found her!" she cried out. The toddler in question looked up at her and Charlotte bent down to gather the girl in her arms. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought it inappropriate to let the child play on the floor while she found out who she was.
"Her name appears to be Elizabette Marie Scoffield. Born January 30th 2010. Mom is Helen Marie Scoffield nee Nelson and father is Patrick Allen Scoffield." Tony read.
"Holy fucking shit balls." Charlotte breathed forgetting every manner she'd ever learned- along with her policy of not swearing in front of children or strangers. "You found her. Where are they? Where are they from?"
The thought of why they hadn’t been looking for their daughter played in her mind, but it was such a common thought she easily pushed it aside.
"No family for either of them from the looks of it. Only children, parent’s dead. They’re from South Dakota. Looks like they were vacationing in New York when the attack happened. Looks like dad worked in a factory on nights and mom was stay at home. Not many friends on Facebook. They're each other’s next of kin listed in emergency contact forms. Baby was a home birth." Tony read from the screen. Finally, he looked up a mix of sadness and acceptance on his face, "They both died in the attack, their bodies are unclaimed in one of the city morgues. No id's on them, wallets look to have been stolen before the bodies were found. Somehow Elizabette here survived. She must have run and gotten stuck where you guys found her."
Charlotte sat down on the floor in the middle of the common area, her legs no longer able to hold her up. She realized when no one came forward there was a chance it was because no one could come forward, but it was one thing to think and another thing to have confirmed.
"Fuck." She said as she held the toddler tighter to her. "What the fuck are we going to do?"
Later she’d freak out about losing her composure in front of complete strangers. Later she’d freak out about being in the same room as the heroes of New York. Right now though the past two weeks were crashing down around her and she couldn’t help the tears that leaked out of her eyes.
The toddler- Elizabette- put her hand on Charlotte's face.
"Sad?" she asked.
"Yes honey, I'm a little sad." Charlotte told her.
Elizabette stretched up and smacked a loud kiss to Charlotte's cheek.
"All better." She announced. All of the adults in the room smiled sadly at her.
"Does she have any family at all?" Charlotte asked looking back up at Tony. He might be the richest man on the planet but he also was the only person who had answers.
"I'm looking, might take a while. You guys should stay here while I look. Capsicle over at the stove is making late lunch/early dinner."
Charlotte looked up at the other adults in the room. The second blonde Adonis over in the corner held up a spatula in a small salute. His face was as grim and as tired as she felt
.
"Thank you. She'll probably need a nap soon, is there somewhere she can lay down?"
"She can sleep in my apartment." Clint spoke up. "JARVIS will tell us if she wakes up."
Charlotte nodded dumbly. She wasn't sure what a JARVIS was and realistically she hadn't known Clint very long, but he'd helped her save Elizabette and checked on them after, he'd even found them more help. That meant something and earned him a lot of trust. No one broke the silence in the common room, but no one made any move to leave for the next half hour. Charlotte didn't move from the floor but played with the toddler.
Soon, as Charlotte expected, the toddler began to yawn and fuss. Normally she wouldn't have her nap so late, but she'd missed her early nap while Esme had her and honestly after the news she'd just gotten Charlotte didn't really care. Clint helped her gather the things and led her back to the elevator and up a floor to an apartment. Charlotte's entire apartment could fit into half the open kitchen, dining room, living room floor plan of Clint's apartment. The front area was arranged much the same way the common room was with bookshelves lined on one living room wall broken only by a door that led to a balcony.
"Tony doesn't do things half assed. Guest rooms back this way." Clint said quietly. Charlotte followed him as he led his way to the back hall of the apartment and opened the first door on the left. An expensively furnished but still bland lilac room greeted her. A large bed lay against one wall with a dresser and vanity along the other two. It didn't take long to put Elizabette down and after one book the girl’s eyes dropped closed.
Charlotte shut the guest room door behind her and walked back to the living room where Clint sat on the couch with his elbows on his knees. She sank down next to him.
"I really thought this one might have a happy reunion at the end of it." Clint said. His voice sounded as rough as hers felt.
"Me too." Charlotte said. She leaned her shoulder against the other man looking for some kind of comfort. "Me too."
"Come on, lets head back downstairs, see if Tony found anything else." Clint said as Charlotte watched him push himself to his feet.
"Wait, I can't leave her alone in here." Charlotte said.
"Ms. Mathews, I can monitor Ms. Elizabette while you rejoin the others, I shall alert you if she appears to be waking or restless." the same disembodied voice she'd heard in the elevator spoke above her.
"Ok what the fuck is that. Who the fuck is that?" Charlotte demanded.
"My apologies Ms. Mathews. I am JARVIS. I am an AI built by Tony Stark. I run most things in the tower and I can monitor Ms. Elizabette's breath and movement patterns and alert you if anything changes. I can also monitor her vitals." the voice- JARVIS- said again.
"Of course, Tony Fucking Stark has a mother fucking robot babysitter that can think for itself. Of fucking course." Charlotte swore. She looked to Clint for his opinion. He lived here and was obviously used to the ceiling voice.
"JARVIS is cool, he keeps an eye on everything and makes Tony go to bed if he's been in his lab too long. Baby G- Elizabette will be safe here."
"Ok, I'll take your word for it." Charlotte said standing herself, "God that names a mouthful. Pretty but a mouth full. I hope she has a nickname."
Clint nodded, and the pair headed back for the elevators to go back downstairs. Charlotte thought longingly about the bottle of wine she had in the cupboard back in her shoe box apartment. If Elizabette went to bed easy tonight she might be able to drink a couple glasses before she fell asleep herself.