Chapter Ten
"Hey, you can sleep in my room again!" Lila bounced up and down with uncontainable excitement. "It'll be like another slumber party! Me, you, and Auntie Nat! No boys allowed!"
Lainey thought it was a cool idea. She loved to have little slumber parties with Lila every time she visited the farm. They did all sorts of fun things. They painted each other's nails, did each other's hair, and told the silliest stories. At first, Lainey wasn't very good at making things up, but after a while, she got the hang of it.
"Come on! Let's go!" The younger girl took her hand and dragged her upstairs to her room. "Mommy put a trundle bed in here, just for you. She even got some sheets she thought you'd like, see?"
And no mistake, there was a trundle bed in the room, right next to Lila's bed. It had a light blue duvet with pink sheets and light blue pillows. Laura had excellent taste. Lainey loved it. Though, she probably would've loved the sheets even if they were just plain white, because Laura had gotten them with her in mind.
Once the novelty wore off a little bit, Lainey realized that her bag with all her stuff was probably in the guest room with her mother. The shirt she was wearing was too warm and she knew she probably had a much looser one in her bag, so she left the room to go and get it.
Her hand lifted to knock on the door, but she stopped when she heard voices come from inside. Her mother wasn't alone. She was with Bruce…..
"I didn't realize you were waiting." She heard him say to her.
"I would've joined you, but uh, it didn't seem like the right time."
"I used up all the hot water."
"I should've joined you."
"Missed our window."
Now Lainey knew that it wasn't polite to eavesdrop, but she had seen something going on between Bruce and her mother, and she just wanted to know what all of this was about.
Were they in love? How did they fall in love? Would they get married? And why would her mama want to fall in love anyway?
"Did we?"
"The world just saw the Hulk. The real Hulk for the first time. You know I have to leave."
"But you assume that I have to stay? I had this...dream. The kind that seems normal at the time, but when you wake….."
Lainey could empathize with her mother on that one. She had those dreams very often. And they were usually about Allison and what life was like before the Avengers found her. They were so scary and they felt so real, that when she woke up, she felt confused and alone. Was she still dreaming? Or had that been real and all of this was just a dream?
"What did you dream?"
"That I was an Avenger." Natasha sounded like she was struggling not to cry and it made Lainey upset. She had never seen her mother cry like this before. She didn't like it and she wanted to fix it. "That I was anything more than the assassin they made me."
"I think you're being too hard on yourself."
"Here I was, hoping that was your job."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm running with it. With you. If running's the plan, as far as you want."
"Are you out of your mind?"
"I want you to understand that I'm—"
"—Natasha, where can I go? Where in the world am I not a threat?"
"You're not a threat to me." Natasha began to sound a little desperate, trying to hold on to the man.
"You sure? Even if I didn't just…..there's no future with me. I can't ever— I can't have this. Kids. Do the math, I physically can't."
"Neither can I." She admitted. "In the Red Room, where I was trained. Where I was raised. Um, they have a graduation ceremony. They sterilize you. It's efficient. One less thing to worry about. The one thing that might matter more than a mission. It makes everything easier…..even killing. You still think you're the only monster on the team?"
Lainey, though tender in age, knew a lot more about the Red Room than she should've. Through her training, Allison had taught her about all the Avengers and where they came from. Of course, one of those places was the Red Room. Girls from all over the world were brought there to become the best spies in the world. The training was rigorous and the teachers were brutal. Lainey had been threatened with that kind of training many, many times and Allison had even incorporated some things into the way she taught the child. But Lainey would never really know how bad it truly was, not even by listening to Natasha speak about it.
But she wasn't a monster. Just because she couldn't have kids didn't mean she was a monster and Lainey hated that she thought that. Her mama was not a monster. She was a good woman and she loved her immensely.
She wasn't a monster. She wasn't.
"What, so we just disappear?"
Lainey's eyebrows shot up to her hairline as she continued to listen. They were talking about running away. They were going to leave and never come back.
And she didn't think she was a part of that equation. Her mother had found someone who she could confide in and love, so she didn't really need her any more. They were going to run off together and leave her who knows where.
Why wasn't she good enough anymore? Why didn't anyone want her? What was she doing wrong? If someone would just tell her, maybe then she could try to fix it! Why wouldn't anyone give her a chance?
Tears blurred her vision momentarily before she angrily wiped them away, unwilling to listen to anything else the two adults had to say. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, sneaking away from the door to leave the two alone.
Unfortunately, she left right before the conversation was finished.
"We don't have to disappear." Natasha shrugged, fiddling with the belt of her robe. "We can take Lainey to the countryside, buy a nice house with a yard, maybe buy a dog…..or a monkey. She loves monkeys."
"She does." Bruce chuckled. "She's a special kid."
"She's the most precious part of my life. She saved me, I can't imagine not having her here with me….The Red Room thought that by sterilizing me, I'd never have children. And for a time, so did I. But then she came along and I just..…she wormed her way into my life and as much as I fought it, she won."
"You love her." Bruce's eyes twinkled.
"She has no idea. She's everything to me."
"Hey, Lainey? Do you wanna play another game?" Cooper asked the girl as she marched down the stairs.
He was building something with his father, but would be more than accommodating to have her join in on the fun.
"No." She shook her head and rushed out the door, practically flying off the porch. She didn't know where she was going to go, but it needed to be away from everything and everyone. Maybe she'd go in the barn and hide away for a while. Just to clear her head a little.
"Lainey?" She heard Clint call to her, catching Steve's attention.
"Alayna?" The blonde had been chopping wood with Tony before the smaller man went into the barn to fix a tractor or something for Laura several minutes before. He was in a sour mood as a result of the vision the Maximoff girl had shown him, but that didn't mean he wouldn't make time to speak to Lainey if she needed it. "Alayna, I know you can hear me calling you."
"I don't care." Lainey glared back at him.
Steve shared a worried glance with Clint before jogging to reach Lainey's side, taking ahold of her arm. "Alright, c'mon, what's going on?"
"Leave me alone." She tried to rip herself away, but Steve was far too strong to do so. "Let me go."
Why wouldn't he just let her go? Why did he want to talk? Couldn't he see that she was upset?
"Honey, what's wrong?"
"Leave me alone!" Lainey gave him one rough shove and he took the hint and let go. Either that, or he was just too shocked to hold on any longer.
She's never acted that way with him before. She would never dream of it. Something must've really been bothering her. But there was nothing he could do except stand there and watch her trudge over to the barn all by herself.
Maybe she'd be more receptive to a conversation later on.
"Oh, sorry, kid." Tony apologized after bumping into her on his way out of the barn. "Didn't see you there." When she didn't laugh at his joke, he grew serious and looked down at her angry little face. "What's wrong, Tornado Alley?"
"I don't wanna talk, so leave me alone." She spat.
"Whoa." He threw his hands up in surrender. "Don't bite my head off, I'm only trying to help."
"I don't need your help."
"Alright, well, if you decide to stop being so ornery and you do wanna talk, come and find me."
"No." She grouched out of spite before watching him leave.
"Lainey." A new voice interrupted her thoughts. "Come over here."
It was Fury.
Lainey hadn't seen Fury since that day in D.C. He had to lay low so that Hydra wouldn't find out that they failed at the job they set out to do. So that meant scheduled phone calls and no more periodic visits.
"I don't wanna talk."
"That's funny." He looked at her and got a really good glimpse. She was a couple of inches taller than before, bolder, too. "Because your attitude is telling me different."
"I don't have an attitude." She grumbled, but went to him anyway, huffing when he lifted her up onto his lap.
Fury had no doubt that she was having feelings that were too big for her to handle all by herself. Usually, he was the one pretending that he didn't want her crawling on his lap, but today, after not having seen him in nearly a year, she didn't even want to look at him.
"So that stink eye you're giving me if just for fun? I know that these days to all the cool kids, 'bad' means 'good', but I didn't realize times were changing so drastically that a stink eyes mean that you're happy to see me."
That got a small grin out of the child, but once she realized that she had smiled, she quickly tried to cover it up.
"It's too late." Fury shrugged. "I already saw it."
"That's not fair. You made me."
"Life isn't fair. Now what's going on?"
Lainey bit her lip and fiddled with the nail of her thumb, trying to decide how to open up a conversation like this. She didn't even want to talk about it, but she knew that Fury wouldn't let it go unless she told him the truth.
"Can I live with you?" She finally asked.
"What?"
"I don't think Mama wants me any more."
"And what makes you say that?"
"Just stuff…..I heard her talking."
"I'm positive you misunderstood." He narrowed the single eye that wasn't being covered up by the patch. "That's what happens when you listen in on other people's conversations."
Of course he'd say that.
"I know, but she—"
"—She loves you." Fury cut her off, though not unkindly. "I haven't seen her this happy with anything or anyone as long as I've been working with her. She loves you. Now the question is, do you love her?"
"Yes."
"Then trust her."
"Is there a reason you've been avoiding me all night?" Natasha sat down on the porch swing, right beside her daughter. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Uncle Steve says that you yelled at him and Uncle Tony said that you were upset. Is it something I did? Have I done something to hurt your feelings?"
To that, Lainey shrugged.
"Alright." The Russian pressed further. "Can you tell me what I've done so that I can fix it?"
"Do you still love me?"
"Of course I do." She furrowed her eyebrows. "What have I done to make you think that I don't?"
"Promise you won't get mad?"
Uh oh. That was a loaded question. The last time Lainey asked her that, Natasha found a huge mess coming from the washing machine. Lainey had tried to do some laundry, but only succeeded in flooding the washing machine so that soap and water would leak out of it in bubbles all over the floor.
She tried to fix it herself, but was incapable, so as a last ditch effort to make things right, she told the truth.
The clean up was horrible and she wasn't allowed to touch any of the knobs on both machines again.
"I can't promise that I won't get mad, but I can promise to listen to you and let you explain everything to me."
"Okay." Lainey sighed. "Where will I go when you and Uncle Bruce leave?"
"Where will you— Where is this coming from?" Natasha forced the child to stand up in front of her so that she could look her in the eyes.
"I don't know. I heard you earlier. You guys were talking about running away together. I just wanted to know where I was gonna go when you do."
"Lainey, I want you to listen to me very carefully." The redhead took a long, deep breath. "If I go somewhere, you will always come with me. I will never leave you behind."
"But what about all that stuff about disappearing? I heard you."
"See, this is why you're not supposed to listen in on conversations that weren't meant for you, Little Miss." Natasha gently tugged on Lainey's braid. "When we spoke about disappearing, we meant, together. You, me, and Uncle Bruce. I would never leave you out of that equation. You know that."
"But what about how sad you were when you talked about the Red Room and you said you couldn't have babies?"
"I'm not so sad about that any more."
"You're not? How come?"
"My baby is standing right in front of me. She has dark brown hair and beautiful, blue eyes with a big smile. She's something the Red Room can't ever take from me." She drew her onto her lap and began to lightly swing back and forth. "We've talked about this before nenita; you didn't come from me, but that doesn't make you any less my daughter, do you understand me?"
"Yes, Mama."
"Good."
"Mama?"
"I didn't like it when you called yourself a monster." Lainey leaned her head on the woman's chest, listening to her steady heartbeat. "It made me feel bad. I don't like it when you're mean to yourself."
"I won't say it again." Natasha promised. She was now beginning to realize she had to watch how she spoke about herself from now on. She had no idea that what she said would affect Lainey like that.
"You're not a monster. You're just Mama."
"You're right, Lainey Bug." Natasha bit back tears, cradling the girl's head. "I'm just Mama."
"Go on up to bed, Little Miss." Natasha coaxed Lainey into going upstairs with Laura and the kids.
"No, Mama. I wanna stay here." The ten year old shook her head and turned away from her aunt.
Laura just smiled and waved off Natasha's apology, finding it to be unnecessary. If Lainey wanted to be with her mother, then she wasn't going to pull her away. She'd fall asleep eventually.
"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something." Fury spoke. "The amount of vibranium he made off with. I don't think it's just one thing."
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.
"He's easy to track. He's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."
"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony questioned.
Lainey started to wiggle a little, growing a little restless and unwilling to sit still for this little meeting. A quiet whine escaped her throat when she tried to get down, but Natasha held her in place, snaking an arm around her middle so that she couldn't go anywhere. "Mama….."
"Hush." The woman bounced her leg, hoping that Lainey would fall asleep soon. The girl's sleep had been cut short when Clint woke her up to get her on the jet and she had been so excited about coming to the farm, that she hadn't even taken a power nap the way she usually did when she didn't sleep well the night before. She didn't want to make this a pattern for the girl, so if by the time this meeting ended, Lainey was still not asleep, Natasha was tucking her into bed regardless of how awake she claimed to be.
Lainey rubbed her eyes and kicked her sock-clad feet. She didn't know why her mama wouldn't just let her get up and color by the couch. Why did she have to stay so still? She hated staying still.
"Yes, he is." Fury answered Stark. "But he's not making any headway."
"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."
"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."
"Nexus?" Steve raised a brow.
"It's the world internet hub in Oslo." Bruce clarified for him. "Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on earth."
Clint shot Lainey a very unimpressed look when she pouted at him and tried to get away again, but that didn't stop the girl from trying. "So what'd they say?"
"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."
"By whom?" Tony glanced at Fury.
"Parties unknown."
"Do we have an ally?" Natasha removed Lainey's fingers from her mouth, a bad habit she noticed the girl picked up during the time she had been toddler. Lainey only really did it now when she was sleepy.
Natasha made a mental note to ask Laura how to break the habit before it got any worse.
"Ultron's got an enemy. That's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."
"I might need to visit Oslo, find out 'unknown'."
"Well, this is good times, Boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha smirked.
"I do." The man quipped. "I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."
"You know what, Romanoff?" The blonde scoffed playfully, taking Lainey out of her arms and settling her on his hip.
At the change in setting, Lainey looked around and tried to squirm down, but Steve only tightened his grip and forced her head onto his shoulder, swaying from side to side very lightly while patting her back.
"Sorry." She mumbled, letting her fingers play with the collar of his shirt the way they always did whenever she was in his arms.
"For what, Pal?" He whispered. He didn't even have a clue what she was talking about.
"I yelled at you and I pushed you."
Steve gushed, having forgotten all about that little hiccup, but appreciated Lainey's initiative to apologize. "All forgiven. Now go to sleep. It's bedtime for you."
"No, I wanna stay up." She whimpered, the lack of proper sleep catching up with her.
Steve didn't debate it with her, though. He was sure that if he held her long enough, she'd be out in a few minutes tops.
"So what does he want?" Fury asked.
"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."
"Person bodies." Tony elaborated. "The human form is insufficient, biologically speaking, we're out boded. But he keeps coming back to it."
"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed. You should've listened to my child."
"Uncle Steve?"
"Ssh, ssh." The man continued his rhythmic pats on her back, feeling all the fight leave her.
Lainey rested her chin on his shoulder and blinked lazily. The adults in the room were not going to win this fight. She was going to stay awake. She wasn't sleepy.
"They don't need to be protected." Bruce glanced down at a picture of a butterfly Lila had made for Natasha. "They need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."
"How?"
"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"
Lainey woke up to mumbled voices coming from downstairs. She looked out the window and saw that the sun was just barely rising and furrowed her eyebrows. They must've been planning to leave before everyone woke up.
So she quickly got herself ready and rushed down the stairs, watching all the Avengers make their plans. She knew that they'd never ever take her along with them, which meant that she needed to act fast.
No one was anywhere near the door, so it made it easy to slip out and run to the quinjet. Lainey mastered the art of sneaking around years before this and had perfected it to a 'T'. She knew exactly where to hide to make herself scarce and go where no one would even think of looking for her.
As much as she loved to stay on the farm, she didn't like having to anxiously wait for Natasha to come home. She didn't like worrying about what condition she'd be in when she got there and she didn't like not knowing where she was when she was away.
This was wrong, she knew that. But it was worth it.
It seemed Lainey was successful in her plan of hiding inside of one of the bins in the quinjet. The little girl cracked the lid open to see just what was happening on the outside and found Clint sitting in the pilot seat.
She heard when her mother got on her motorcycle and dropped out of the jet in order to ride through the streets and find the cradle Dr. Cho created before Ultron could use it for his own benefit and create more powerful robots for his army.
She figured that the coast was clear enough to get out and stretch her legs. She'd been cramped in that plastic storage bin for hours and could really use the space to stand up. She knew that Clint would be beyond mad at her, but she needed to do this. Being away from her mother was just too hard.
"They're heading under the overpass." Clint spoke into coms. "I've got no shot. Take a hard right….now."
Lainey removed the lid completely, stepping out and shaking her limbs. Even though she knew she had just done something she wasn't supposed to, she felt strangely energized by it. It was almost like she went out on her own personal mission and she didn't fail.
"U-Uncle Clint?" She gently tapped his shoulder, making him jump in surprise.
"What was that?" Steve asked over the communication system.
"Nothing." Clint glared at the child, pointing to the seat beside him. "I'm just thinking out loud."
"Clint, can you draw out the guards?"
"Let's find out." The archer was still steadily glaring at Lainey as he motioned for her to put on her seatbelt. And he did successfully manage to draw the drones out of the truck Natasha had been following. "Heading back towards you. So whatever you're gonna do, do it now."
"I'm going in." Natasha told him. "Cap, can you keep him occupied?"
"What do you think I've been doing?"
Lainey got tired of not being able to hear anyone, so she picked up a headset and turned it on, satisfied when her ears were met with the voices of everyone else. Though, Clint didn't look too happy about it.
"The package is airborne. I have a clean shot."
"Negative. I am still in the truck."
"What're you doing in the truck?!" Between Natasha and her daughter, those two were going to give him a head full of grey hairs.
"Just be ready. I'm sending the package to you."
"How do you want me to take it?"
"Uhh, you might wish you hadn't asked that."
Wow, if this was what the Avengers did all the time, Lainey was beginning to think that she wanted to be one. They didn't have to do the things that they did, but they did them to keep people safe.
And in return, they asked for nothing.
She wanted to help people when she grew up. Just like they did.
"I lost him!" Steve shouted breathlessly, interrupting her thoughts. "He's headed your way!"
"Nat, we gotta go." Clint was answered by the cradle being dropped directly into the quinjet. But Natasha was nowhere the be found. "Nat!" And upon receiving no answer, he began to panic. "Cap? Do you see Nat?"
"If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!"
Lainey's stomach dropped and she watched a usually calm natured Clint, attempt and fail at keeping his composure at the thought of losing her mother. She was missing and there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it. The feeling of helplessness didn't sit well with him and he was just itching to be able to do something.
But right now, his priority was to get the cradle to Stark, then take care of Lainey, and then work on finding Natasha.
He was too old for all this excitement. Retirement was looking better and better every single day.