Better Days

NATASHA POV:

I hated leaving Wanda, especially when she was getting sick. Clint needed me though and he had done so much for me, I couldn't just say no to helping him out. Besides, Wanda was here with Pepper, Steve, and Tony. I trusted all of them to take care of her if she got worse.

Worst comes to worst, I packed Lila and Cooper up and brought them over to the compound for a few days. 

Wanda was still grounded but I honestly didn't really care if she broke her grounding. I hoped she wouldn't but I was about to call off the whole grounding so that she didn't hesitate to call me. After making sure that she knew she wouldn't be in trouble with using her phone to call me, I said a quick goodbye and left. 

She didn't seem that sick anyways so she should be fine. I tried not to focus on the worry I felt for her as I headed to the Barton farm.

She had called me, sounding absolutely miserable. She said that her stomach hurt and that she had a headache so I told her to have an adult get her ibuprofen before getting some sleep. I then asked to talk to Pepper.

"Hey Nat," she said.

"Hey, can you get Wanda an ibuprofen?"

"Sure." I then heard her tell Wanda that she would be right back before she got back on the phone. "She's okay, just a bit under the weather."

"Okay," I sighed, relieved that it wasn't too bad. "I already told her to get someone if she has a nightmare but she has a history of hiding it. Can you make sure FRIDAY wakes someone up if she has a nightmare?"

"Of course Nat, I'll have FRIDAY wake me up if Wanda has a nightmare. She'll be okay."

"Thank you so much for taking care of her." 

"No worries Nat, hopefully we'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, goodnight Pep."

"Goodnight." I hung up, feeling relieved that my poor, sick Wanda had someone there to take care of her.

I got to the farm late, Lila and Cooper were already in bed. Clint and Laura were still at home with the sick baby Nate.

"Thank you so much for coming," Clint told me as soon as I had gotten into the house.

"No problem, how's Laura doing?" I asked, knowing how much she worried about her kids. 

"She's doing okay, wants her baby to get better but she's okay."

I walked further in the house to see Laura bouncing a fussy Nate. I could hear his breathing all the way across the room.

"We brought him to the doctor earlier today and they said that he had pneumonia. They sent us home but told us that if it got worse, we needed to take him to the hospital," Clint explained as I watched the distraught Laura.

"Thank you for coming Nat," Laura told me as soon as she noticed me.

"Of course, I would never not come."

"Where's your kiddo?" she asked me.

"Oh, she's not feeling too well and she didn't want the others to get sick. She misses you though." Laura and Clint both nodded as they gave me a quick rundown of what to do while they were gone.

"I've got them, go get little Nate some help," I told them as I gently squeezed Laura's shoulder. She looked exhausted. 

"Okay, thank you again," they said as they walked out the door and headed to the hospital. I was worried for Nate and hoped that he got better soon. He was still young, it was dangerous for them to get sick.

I went to go check on the kids, starting with Cooper. He was fast asleep. Lila was next. I heard a small noise when I was right outside her room.

I quietly opened the door and the noise got louder. Poor Lila was sobbing into her pillow.

"Lila?" I questioned gently as I pushed the door open more.

Her head popped up. "Auntie Nat!" she sobbed as she crawled out of bed and rushed over to me. She grabbed onto my legs, sobbing into them, and I was quick to pick her up and set her on my hip. 

"What's going on baby?" I asked as I rubbed her back and rocked back and forth.

"I want mommy!"

"Shh, I know," I told her as I bounced her slightly. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"No," she sniffed as she rested her head on my shoulder. 

"What's going on?" I asked her gently. I didn't want to work her up right after she had calmed back down but I wanted to know what was going on.

"I miss mommy and daddy and Nate."

"I know you do sweetie," I told her as I moved to her bed. She was no longer crying and was now just sniffing occasionally. "They're going to be home before you know it!"

"I wanted to say bye to Nate but daddy yelled at me to go to bed." So that's what she was upset about. Lila never did well with being reprimanded or yelled at. I gently set her on the bed, wrapping her blanket around her.

"I'm sure your daddy didn't mean to yell at you, he was just worried about Nate. He loves you very much and will be home very soon to tell you that." 

"Okay," she sniffed as she laid down. "Goodnight Auntie Nat." 

"Goodnight Lila," I told her as I gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead before tucking her in and leaving the room. Poor, sweet, innocent Lila. I couldn't help but compare her to Wanda. All Lila had to worry about was getting yelled at by Clint for not going to bed and she would have a major meltdown. I wasn't judging her at all, I wished Wanda could be the same way but unfortunately, Wanda would have similar meltdowns caused by things a lot bigger and badder than being yelled at by her dad. I just wish that Wanda never had to go through all of the terrible things that made her cry like Lila had just done.

All of this caused me to think about Wanda and wonder how she was doing. It was late but I still sent a quick text to Pepper, asking how she was doing.

I got a response from Pepper shortly after saying that Wanda had gotten worse but was in bed now. She had gotten her to eat but apparently Wanda had looked miserable and it took a lot of bribing to get her to eat. Pepper had made sure that FRIDAY would notify her if Wanda had any nightmares. 

I desperately wanted to go home and take care of my baby but I knew that Clint's babies needed to be taken care of right now.

I sent Pepper a text, thanking her for taking care of Wanda before heading to the guest room to get some sleep. Hopefully Wanda felt better in the morning and that Nate was deemed okay by the hospital. 

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

Morning came early. I woke up at 5 and instead of going back to bed, I got up and got ready for the day. I knew that Lila would likely be up soon, Cooper following soon after her.

I decided to make some coffee and just relax before anything. I texted Pepper, asking how the night went with Wanda, but didn't expect a response until later. Wanda hadn't been having nightmares the last few nights so I was hopeful that she would have a good nights' rest. It was important for her, especially if she wasn't feeling well.

Just as I had expected, at around 6 o'clock, I heard tiny little feet coming down the stairs. 

Lila came running around the corner and almost seemed disappointed as she saw me. 

"Is mommy home?" she asked me.

"Not yet honey, I bet she'll be home super soon though." I told her. Her face fell a bit but she seemed to perk up as she thought of something.

"Is Wanda here?" She started looking around the room, trying to see if she could see Wanda.

"No honey, she wishes she could be here though. But hey, I'm cool right?" I joked.

"Yeah Auntie Nat," she said as she walked over to me to give me a hug. "Can Wanda come next time?"

"Of course she can come next time! We'll have to plan a trip out here soon, maybe this summer we can spend some time together?" I asked her.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she said as she bounced around.

"Cool," I laughed. "We'll plan on doing that then. Until then though, do you maybe, I don't know, want some pancakes for breakfast?" I asked, trying to make it seem like I wasn't 100% sure that that was what she wanted.

"Duh Auntie Nat!" she exclaimed as she ran into the kitchen. I laughed and followed her, grabbing the stuff to make pancakes. "Can we put chocolate chips in them?"

I knew that Laura liked her kids to be relatively healthy and usually would just make them regular pancakes but what the heck. I wasn't Laura. "Of course we can put chocolate chips in them!"

"Yay!" Lila screeched as she ran to the cabinet to grab the chocolate chips. She dumped almost a whole bag in the batter when I wasn't looking.

"Okay!" I said as soon as I saw her. "I think that's enough chocolate chips," I told her as I grabbed the bag.

"Okay!" she said as she mixed them in.

My phone buzzed with a text from Pepper. Wanda had slept through the night with no nightmares and was still sleeping. That wasn't surprising to me, it was only 6:30. Pepper had checked on Wanda as soon as she got my text and she was fast asleep.

I then texted Clint and Laura to see how Nate was doing.

Clint responded quickly saying that he was good. He was on a breathing treatment and the hospital was hopeful that he could leave later today. Laura was also finally getting some sleep. Apparently Nate had been sick the last few days and Laura hasn't slept at all. Nate got worse in the last day though.

"When's mommy coming home?" Lila asked while I flipped the pancakes.

"She should be home by this afternoon as long as baby Nate starts feeling better."

"He was making funny noises when he breathed," she told me.

"Yeah, well the doctors are going to make sure he makes no more funny noises when he breathes."

"Good," she said matter-of-factly as she watched me pour the batter onto the pan.

"I need to go get Cooper!" she said as soon as the pancakes were finished.

"No, it's okay, let him sleep. He can come eat pancakes when he wakes up," I told her calmly. 

"But they'll be cold and yucky."

"We can heat them up or make more okay?"

"Okay!" She seemed to take my answer as she sat down and started eating.

Cooper woke up about an hour later and came down to eat. 

"Hi Auntie Nat," he told me quietly as soon as he saw me. "Are mom and dad coming home soon?"

"Hi buddy, they should be home later this afternoon."

"Okay." He never got super excited anymore when he saw me. I remembered 3 year old Cooper running into my arms whenever I came over but now that he was older, he didn't care as much. 

The rest of the day was spent trying to keep the kids busy. We went outside and played soccer, watched movies, played board games, and colored. Laura and Clint let me know around noon that the doctors were going to be discharging them this afternoon, they just wanted to do one more breathing treatment.

I waited to tell Cooper and Lila until they got discharged because I didn't want the plan to change and then have two upset kids on my hands. 

Pepper texted me telling me that Wanda still hadn't woken up. I told her to let her sleep a little more. Since she was sick, she needed all the sleep she could get. 

I then got the call from Laura and Clint saying that they were on their way home. 

"Hey guys," I said as I walked into the living room where Lila and Cooper were watching a movie.

"Your parents are on their way home with Nate!"

"Yay!" Lila said as she jumped off the couch and ran around the living room. Cooper was smiling but wasn't jumping around. I worked on settling Lila down to continue watching the movie as the hospital was a bit of a ways away and I knew they wouldn't be home just yet.

About an hour later, we heard a car pulling up. Cooper and Lila ran to the door. Before I could stop them, they were both running out of the house, no shoes or coats on. I just laughed as they ran into their parents' arms.

Clint had Cooper and Laura had Lila and Nate as they walked into the house, all with large smiles. 

"I missed you so much!" Laura said as she smothered Lila with kisses. Lila giggled as she squirmed around in her mom's grasp.

"Thank you for watching them Nat," Clint and Laura said as soon as they were done saying their hellos to the kids. 

"No problem, they were angels," I said as I smiled at them. "Wanda wished she could've been here but we'll have to plan some kind of trip out here as soon as she's done with school."

"Yeah, we'll definitely have to do that," Laura said. "Speaking of Wanda, you probably want to head home to your baby." I smiled back at her as I nodded. 

I grabbed the few things that I brought before saying my goodbyes and climbing back on the jet to head home. I loved spending time with the Barton family but I missed Wanda. 

Pepper had let me know that she woke Wanda up at 1 to get some food into her. She also let me know that she seemed a lot better. She still looked a little sick but she was apparently doing much better. 

The trip home felt like it took forever. I quickly landed the jet, made sure it was secure, and then ran into the house to see my baby. 

"My poor baby," I said as I pulled her into a hug. "I heard you didn't feel well last night, how'd you sleep?"

"Good," she told me. I looked to Pepper, just to make sure there was no information that I missed. 

"I didn't get any notifications from FRIDAY of her waking up."

"Did you sleep at all last night?" I asked, trying to make sure that she didn't pull what she did last time. 

"Yes."

"She slept until 1 pm so I would say she slept," Pepper laughed.

"Good," I exclaimed as I pulled her in for another hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

She then asked how everyone was to which I responded, "They're good." I then went on to explain how we were going to have to go visit them soon. Wanda seemed to like that idea. 

"Perfect, we'll definitely plan a trip down there soon, now you my dear need to rest, we want you feeling 100% by tomorrow."

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies and resting. I wanted Wanda to be able to go to school tomorrow but I wasn't going to send her if she was sick.

I was glad when she didn't argue at bedtime because I had her go to bed early. 

I slept through the night until our alarm went off and I was happy to see Wanda stretching, looking as if she had just woken up. Another night with no nightmares. I was so relieved that her nightmares were not as big of a problem anymore. That poor girl needed her sleep and she couldn't do that if she was kept awake by nightmares.

I dropped her off at school and then headed back to the compound to get some work done before it was time to go get Wanda.

At around lunchtime, I got an email with two absences recorded for Wanda from today. I tracked her phone and saw that it was at the school. So she wasn't ditching, I would have to ask her about them later.

I really hoped that she wasn't ditching again. I thought I had deterred her from doing that again and I really didn't want to punish her right after she had gotten over a sickness.

I tried to forget about it for the rest of the day but found that I couldn't. I was worried that she was ditching again. I wanted to text her to see but her phone showed that she was at the school. Maybe she left her phone at the school.

After a few hours of worrying about it, I decided to head back to the school early. I drove around, looking for any sight of Wanda. I trusted her but I just couldn't shake the feeling that she was ditching. I didn't find anything that would lead me to believe that she ditched so I drove to the school.

I was there an hour early but I kept watch around the school, waiting to see if I saw her walking back into the school from anywhere outside. 

I didn't see anything and when the bell rang, I saw her walk out the front doors. She headed straight to the car and jumped in. I immediately smelt the cigarettes but there were more pressing matters I wanted to talk to her about.

"Hey, oh, before I forget, I saw that you were absent from your first two periods today. Anything you want to tell me?" I wasn't stern, just asking a quick question. I also made it seem as if I had just thought of it so that she didn't know how much time I had spent thinking about it.

"Oh, yeah actually!" she responded which made me listen carefully. "The school counselor called me to her office to see how I was doing after my first few weeks of school. I made it to third period late but had a pass for them to mark me as here for that class. She said to not worry about it."

Oh, I was relieved to hear that as I started to drive away. She told me what she said and then I asked if she had sat near the kids who smoked. She told me she had. I really wished she would stop sitting near them as it made her smell like a cigarette but she said that she had nowhere else to go. She told me she would make an effort to sit somewhere else though. 

I was glad that she hadn't ditched school. My Wanda was so good.

WANDA POV:

I spent the rest of my afternoon texting Blair. I was added to a group chat with Bri, Blair, Ashley, Zack, and Aidan. Apparently this is where all of the planning went on for parties, lunch events, and ditching school. 

'I finally did it!' Aidan texted.

'Did what?' I texted back while everyone else in the group started cheering.

'I figured out how to hack into the system and block absences from our accounts so our parents can't see them!' he responded. What? How the hell did he figure out how to do that? 

'You know what this means?' Blair texted.

'NO MORE SCHOOL!!!!!' Bri responded.

I couldn't believe it! I didn't have to go to school! 

The group made plans to ditch the rest of the week and I went right along with them. There was no way I was going to that hell hole if I didn't need to and the best part was, Nat would never find out.

So that's what I did, the rest of the week was spent running around town with Blair and all of our other friends. I was having the time of my life. 

I emailed all of my teachers too to ask for all my homework so that Nat didn't see any missing work. This plan was going wonderfully! Nat had no idea and I was free to smoke all I wanted because it gave me extra evidence for me being at school. I would complain about the "smoking group of kids" every day to Nat to make her think that I was at school all day.

She had absolutely zero suspicions of me and it was great!

I had had the most fun this week then I had ever had! We went to the railroad tracks and played chicken. We would stand on the railroad with our eyes closed and had to jump off of the tracks based on the vibrations. Whoever jumped off closest to the train won. 

I had gotten really good at it, waiting until the last possible second to jump off the tracks and tumble down the hill to avoid the oncoming train. 

Ashley almost had an accident with it on Thursday so we decided from then on we wouldn't play the game. She hadn't jumped and Aidan had to run up and push her into the ditch behind the railroad before she got hit. It was just too close and we decided that we would at least take a break before playing it again.

It was exhilarating though and I decided that I might play it by myself if they decided not to play. It was fun, knowing that you were so close to death but you escaped it every time. 

This kid named Tyler was throwing a party Friday night and I was super excited for my second party. I knew I needed to find a way to get out of the house but it would be fine, I'd figure it out. 

I didn't want to pull the sick card again, especially because Nat would be all over me due to sicknesses being so close together.

I asked Blair how she snuck out and she just told me she used the window. Super helpful Blair. That would work for me if only I didn't have someone who slept with me at night. Not to mention I lived in the Avengers compound, it wasn't exactly a regular house.

"Hey Nat, can we watch a movie?" I asked her after dinner. Blair was picking me up at 10 so I had a bit longer tonight. I figured I could get Nat to fall asleep and then I would leave. 

"Of course!" she said. We quickly got ready for bed and then headed into the living room to watch a movie. I was glad no one else chose to join us because it would've made my plan harder. 

Since it was only 8 at night, I realized pretty quickly that getting Nat to fall asleep was going to be hard. 

I told her I had to go to the bathroom really quickly and I ran out to figure something out. I googled how to make someone fall asleep. I eventually found medications you could take. 

I snuck out of the bathroom and rushed to Nat's room where I found melatonin, NyQuil, and ibuprofen PM. I grabbed several melatonin pills, the NyQuil bottle, and two ibuprofen PM pills.

I then headed to the kitchen where I made two cups of hot cocoa. I crushed the melatonin pills and the ibuprofen PM pills and added them to one of the drinks. I made sure that they were dissolved before adding a splash of NyQuil. I had smelt it and it smelt pretty strong so I only added a little bit so that the flavor didn't come through.

I then made sure I kept track of which cup had the medicine as I headed back to the living room. I handed the cup with the meds to Nat as I sipped on my hot cocoa. 

I watched her face as she sipped on her cup. She set it down and it was still more than halfway full.

"Aww, you don't like my hot chocolate?" I asked her, pulling the puppy dog eyes. I was running out of time.

"No sweetie, I love it," she told me as she pulled me into her.

"Uh-huh," I said as I crossed my arms, looking at her disbelievingly. She laughed but picked up her cup and downed the rest of it. 

"There, better?" she asked me and I nodded, satisfied with my plan.

We made it to the end of the movie and I was happy to see that Nat looked tired. We headed to our room and we laid down. 

Within half an hour, she was asleep. Thank gosh!

I quickly but quietly got dressed into another skimpy outfit, did my makeup and hair, and then hopped out the window. I had gone into the hallway to let FRIDAY know that I was going to another one of my tutoring sessions. It was a little harder to convince her this time not to say anything but she told me she wouldn't say anything unless someone asked.

I had to run to the house that I supposedly lived at in order to make it there before Blair picked me up. 

There were two other people in the car who I didn't know this time as she drove to the party. This one was further away but when we got to it, I was super pleased to see that there were even more people here than last time. 

As soon as we entered, I immediately looked for the kitchen. Once I found it, I started drinking random liquids, trying to get the buzz feeling back as soon as possible. 

All of my friends and I started dancing. Over the course of the night, my friends started disappearing upstairs with different guys. 

A guy started dancing with me once he saw I was alone. I didn't know who he was but I was enjoying the attention. I had a drink in my hand and kept sipping on it throughout our dance session. 

I started feeling a bit dizzy and he grabbed my hand and led me up the stairs. He brought me into a dark room and we somehow ended up on a bed. He was kissing me and tried to take off my clothes. I started to freak out a bit but couldn't really do anything as my body was feeling heavy. 

"I hafta go to the bathroom," I slurred as I gently pushed him off of me and moved to the bathroom that was luckily connected to the room. I locked the door behind me right as I started vomiting. 

I wanted Blair but I could barely move around. I opened the door and found that the guy was gone. He was probably disgusted with me for drinking so much to the point of vomiting. I still felt dizzy and heavy though.

I tried leaving the room but found that it took a lot of energy for me to move my body. Then my powers started flowing out of my body. I couldn't control them and I was panicking. I locked myself back in the bathroom while the red tendrils continued to flow out of my hands.

My body forced more vomit out of me and then there was a blast of red before my powers stopped. I sat, leaning against the bathtub, crying as I felt super sick.

I heard a knock on the door and then Blair's voice. It took a lot of energy but I crawled over to the door before unlocking it and telling Blair to come in.

"Oh my god Wanda!" she said as she walked in to see me lying on the floor. "What happened?"

"Some guy brought me up here and I got sick," I told her, trying to stop the flow of tears. I felt like I was going to vomit but was unable to move so I ended up vomiting all over myself and the floor.

"I think you were drugged," she said as she pulled out her phone. "Let me drive you home." I could hear her slurring which probably meant she was drunk but I didn't care, I wanted to go home.

Blair helped me down the stairs and into her car. "Let me go see if anyone else is coming home with me. Stay here." 

She didn't need to tell me twice. I leaned back as I held the bowl that she had given me close to my chin, just in case I got sick again. I looked at the radio in her car to see what time it was and saw that it was just past two in the morning.

Blair came back shortly with only Ashley, saying that everyone else we took had found another ride home. She then took off to bring me home.

I had thrown up one more time in the car. Blair wasn't driving straight but rather was driving in zig zags which did nothing to help my stomach. "Go straight in and maybe take a shower," Ashley told me as I climbed out of the car and headed to my "house."

They sped away before I could even make it across the street. I could barely walk but somehow managed to get to the driveway of this random house. I had no more energy so I laid on the sidewalk, trying to stay awake. I was exhausted and felt really sick, I just wanted to go home.

I ended up throwing up two more times in the street. I saw headlights heading towards me but didn't really care what they thought. 

The car that belonged to the headlights stopped right in front of the driveway I was lying in and a blurry figure got out.

"Wanda? Oh my gosh!" I heard as the blurry figure got closer. I quickly realized that the figure was Natasha. Shit.