There are No Debts in Family
Chapter Eight
There are No Debts in Family
Clint heard the alarm going off. He even heard and felt Kate get up. He however, refused to answer the demands of the clock. Last night was hard. After the park Clint drove Lila, Charlie and Nate to Cooper’s school and waited for what seemed forever for the boy to get in the car. Charlie had used the time to fill in her siblings on the activities of the afternoon. By the time Cooper finally got in the car the story had morphed into a ‘kill or be killed’ heroine tale between her and the Hulk that Charlie was the victor in. The children did have enough sense to not run into the house yelling to Kate about it, but that was probably more due to Clint’s threats of taking all electronics and being grounded. He also thought he had made it pretty damn clear that he would be the one to tell Kate after dinner. He wasn’t asking them to lie to her, just not to stress her out. Clint felt slightly guilty about playing the ‘you know Kate gets sick when she is stressed, and no one wants her to be sick.’ card to his children. But desperate times and all that.
However, he was only able to plug the dam for so long. Once dinner was served and everyone started to eat, Kate, as she or Clint did every evening, asked how everyone’s day was. Charlie, always the diva knew she had the best story, regardless of being told not to tell it, and waited to be last all the while staring Clint down with a wicked grin on her face. He could feel it deep in his soul that Charlie was going to spill it all. Wanda watched in silence the staring match between father and daughter, picking up emotions of excitement, shock, and from Clint, worrying.
“Charlie, how did it go at the compound?” Kate asked the last child.
Stabbing her carrots with a fork Charlie answered her mother very casually. “I stapled some stuff. Then two of dad’s and grandpapa’s friends showed up. One of them turned into the Hulk and ran after me. He tore the place up. Mr. Sam hid me from him, and Colonel Rhodes put his Avengers suit on and protected me. Grandpapa put his suit on too and stopped the monster from killing me.”
It all went to shit from there. Kate calmly asked Charlie to ‘start at the top’ which the girl was happy to oblige. At the end of the storytelling segment of dinner, Clint watched his wife wipe off her mouth with the napkin and place it on her plate, get up, and very politely ask to speak to Clint out back on the deck. The one-way screaming match ended with Kate slamming the deck door and every door she went through leading into the master bedroom. Clint made a call to Tony and arranged a nurse to start the next day for Kate after filling in his wife’s father in on the potential medical emergency that they had narrowly missed that evening. Finally, when he figured enough time had passed and his bedroom light was off, meaning Kate must have gone to bed, Clint reentered his home.
Turning on his side, he saw it was almost six o’clock. Sitting up he could see into the bathroom Kate doing her makeup. He pushed aside the nagging need to question her where she was going because last time he checked, full hair and makeup wasn’t needed in the carpool lane. “Are you speaking to me today?”
Applying mascara to her eyes Kate replied, “No, and tomorrow isn’t looking so good for you either.”
“Come on Katie-Kate, it wasn’t my fault.”
Putting the mascara wand back into its container with more force then was needed, Kate threw it on the vanity and walked out the bathroom door towards Clint. “I wanted her to go to school. I wanted to speak to the Professor myself, but you ‘put your foot down’. Tony took her to the compound while you went to a meeting. As a result, the Hulk tried to kill her, and you weren’t even there because you were talking with Xavier. Then after you found out it happened, you didn’t even call me! You took her to the park to play?”
Mumbling under his breath as he passed her to go into the bathroom, “If you are going to use facts to come to a logical conclusion, then I can’t talk to you.”
Kate debated her next words as Clint started to brush his teeth. At last she decided on informing him of the new statute she wanted in place. “She isn’t going back to the compound as long as Banner is there.”
Spitting into the sink, Clint wiped his mouth off with a hand towel. “Well that will make dinner awkward to say the least.”
“What about dinner?”
“Tony and I would like you to speak with Bruce.”
“Do you two share a brain cell and it’s Tony’s turn this morning?” Kate insulted in surprise of the request from her father and husband. “What is to say that Bruce’s reaction to Charlie won’t be the same with me?”
“Oh no, Tony is positive that it will be the same reaction.” He lightheartedly reported then saw that Kate didn’t see the humor in any of this. Taking a more solemn approach he explained what Tony had told him on the phone last night. “He thinks it was the shock of Bruce and the Hulk encountering the same serum in another being. Now that the Hulk knows Charlie isn’t a threat to him, it is presumed that he won’t do it again. Just don’t touch him and there won’t be any problems.”
Kate just stared at her husband. “Out of curiosity, do you even believe one word of what you just said to me?”
Clint didn’t know what he believed. He wasn’t a scientist, so he had to form his thinking based on what a scientist did tell him. Tony told him that Bruce wanted an answer to the events of yesterday, afraid that it could happen again. Not just to Charlie, but anyone who was ever exposed to the serum. Banner wasn’t a ‘people person’ to any extend of the meaning, but the added fear that an act so simple like shaking hands could unleash the Hulk could force the man further into isolation. Not wishing to burden Kate with the problems of the Avengers, he summarized what he supposed. “I don’t know. I do believe that Tony wouldn’t chance it happening again. So I sort of have to go with his theory here. I got to hope that if there was a remote chance of the Hulk coming out again against Charlie, Tony wouldn’t just go on his best guess with his granddaughter’s safety at risk, he would have something to back it up.”
“You guys still yelling about the Hulk?” Lila asked coming into the bedroom with one shoe on and the other in her right hand. She presented the shoe towards Kate. “Kate I can’t get the buckle to undo to get it on. Please help.”
Kate sat down in one of the chairs in the sitting area of the bedroom and motioned for Lila to bring the shoe to her. Undoing the buckle, she gestured for Lila to give her the unshoed foot. Balancing herself with one hand on the small table between the two chairs Lila raised her foot and Kate put on the shoe and fastened it. “There you go dear.” She said to her stepdaughter. “As far as yelling about the Hulk, we are not. We are just concerned about safety, for all of you.”
“Dr. Banner stayed at the farm with us once.” Lila informed looking to her father for verification. “He was really nice. He didn’t become the Hulk then.”
Gently holding Lila by both arms so the child would pay attention, Kate enforced a point that may had been misheard last night and again this morning. “I never said Dr. Banner wasn’t a nice person. He is like me. He got sick and can’t control what the sickness does to him. The same way I can’t control what the sickness does to me.”
“You can control it, just like he can. You both have to calm the hell down, and everything will be fine.”
With her ‘what the hell Clint’ expression on her face, Kate released Lila and put both hands up in a question. “Do you think you’re helping right now?”
He wasn’t, and he knew it, just couldn’t pass up the chance to rebuke her comment about not being able to control the effects of the poison on her body. “I’m going to go take a shower.”
“Good choice.” She dryly replied. Waiting until he closed the bathroom door behind him, Kate finished her discussion with Lila. “That being said, when I get sick it only hurts me. When Dr. Banner gets sick, he can hurt a lot of people.” Seeing the she had lost Lila somewhere in her comment to the inner workings of the girl’s mind, Kate called the child back. “Lila? What’s wrong?”
Lila was clearly hesitant to say anything and looked down to her shoes. “I think you are wrong.”
“About what?” Kate thought she had explained the situation in the best possible way to a young girl for comprehension.
“Saying that it is just you who gets hurt when you get sick.” Lila looked up into Kate’s eyes. “You hurt a lot of people too Kate.”
Kate didn’t have any response to that innocent observation from her stepdaughter. How much did Lila know about what happened last year when Kate almost died following the wipe. They were practically strangers to each other at the time, however over the past months, Kate had come to love the child and treasure her as much as she did her biological daughter. All she could do was nod and fake a smile at the girl. “It is almost time for breakfast and I still have to get your brother ready. Go on, finish up getting ready for school please.”
~~~
“And every other day, I get to go to the Professor’s office. Just him and me for forty-five minutes!” Charlie excitedly told her mother.
Kate was at the stove frying up bacon for breakfast. The scrambled eggs were already done, and Charlie was helping by making toast for the family. “I know, it is really exciting. However, you know this is only for as long as you can keep your grades up. The moment you fall behind, I will have the Professor put you right back into study hall.”
“Yes mom.” Charlie knew the terms of her continuing her one-on-one class with the Professor. Her father had made it crystal clear to her yesterday in the car. Remembering her new chess set that she had forgotten all about, she asked, “You think he will play chess with me today?”
“Isn’t that what you normally do with him?” Kate asked as she was about to take down some plates out of the cabinet. “Go ahead and sit down please.” Cooper, Lila and Nate were already seated at the table awaiting their meal, and she saw Clint and Wanda coming around the corner into the room.
“Sometimes.” Charlie described as she made her way to her chair next to Lila. “Other times he makes me take a walk with him around the school or practice with my powers.”
Clint stepped in front of Kate to pull the stack of plates out for her, not liking the idea of her reaching up and holding that much weight above her head. “I think it all sounds good.” He said about the activities Charlie may be doing today. “Might I suggest you bring up what happened yesterday and discuss with him what you could have done in that situation with your abilities?” Everyone became hushed at Clint openly talking about Charlie using her mutant powers. Even Wanda was taken back by the statement. Clint knew he was doing something that he had openly spoken out against his oldest daughter doing. Taking two of the plates that Kate had already dished up, he walked into the dining room and placed them in front of Nate and Lila. Being sure to maintain a relaxed tone, like it was something they always discussed, he glanced at Charlie before going back in to the kitchen to retrieve more plates. “Like should you have tried to make a barrier of some sort to separate the two of you until someone got there?”
Cooper was the first child to supply an idea as he leaned back so his dad could put breakfast in front of him and Charlie. “If I were you, I would have made a pit of quicksand for him to fall into, or a pit of tar like the dinosaurs.”
“Dinosaurs!” Nate exclaimed which resulted in everyone laughing at the preschooler’s contribution to the conversation, seeing that he had an audience the boy added sound effects. “Roar!”
“You could have made flying shoes like Grandpapa and flew away.” Lila offered before she put a fork full of eggs into her mouth.
Clint gave Wanda her plate as he sat down with his own as Kate walked in with her plate and hers and Clint’s coffee cups. Taking the cup from Kate, Clint complimented the children’s suggestions, “Those are all great ideas.” Addressing Charlie, “Talk to Professor Xavier, see what he says. Hopefully it never happens again, but it would be good to have different solutions already solved in your head so you can react fast.”
Charlie was unsure about what was happening in the dining room of her home. They were all talking about what she should have done with her abilities. This had never been the meal topic before, or really anywhere with her family. This was the type of conversation she had at school with her friends. Looking to her mother for endorsement that it really was ok, Kate smiled back at her reassuringly knowing what her daughter was thinking. Turning to the other end of the table to her father, Charlie asked for clarification. “So, if someone is trying to kill me, I can use my powers?”
Charlotte was the master of ‘double talk’ and finding a loophole. Anything Clint said had to be black and white with no room for misinterpreting. Staring her in the eyes, Clint stressed his message. “I told you already. If your safety is at risk, you do anything you can. If that means making a wall, quicksand, tar pit, or flying shoes, you do it and you do it fast.” Directing his eyes to his plate to start eating he added, “Your mom, you and I are going to sit down and talk about this more later. If you are going to be practicing with your abilities at school with the Professor, then I would like to see what you are learning when you come home.”
“Use them at home?”
Kate hadn’t touched her plate yet. She was leaning against the back of her chair watching the table with an emotionless face other than the smile she threw at Charlie earlier. Clint didn’t know what was going on in her mind, but she hadn’t said anything to support or rebuff his statements. That meant it was a crabshoot right now if she was mad or something else. “There are still going to be rules, but I believe between us, we can figure it all out where everyone is happy.” Now he was going to attempt going in for the kill, “You are a mutant Charlotte. That doesn’t mean you stop being one when you get in the car after school. You are a mutant here too. I don’t see it helping you to just being allowed to be yourself for seven hours a day, five days a week. You are who you are twenty-four hours a day. You can’t ‘turn off the mutant’ when you walk in the door, it’s who you are.” Addressing the entire table to all of his children, “I was a kid once too you know. I know there is a difference between who you are at school compared to who you are at home. I get that. However, I do not want anyone believing that they can’t be themselves at home. That there is a mold that your mother and I want you to fit. You are all unique and individuals, and we respect that.”
Wanda was watching Charlie out of the corner of her eye, careful not to give the child more attention than she wanted during Clint’s speech directed mostly at her. When she felt Clint’s gaze on her, she looked to him with a smile and a nod. The Scarlett Witch’s meaning was clear, Charlie got the message Clint wanted her to. Wanda then ever so slightly bobbed her head at Kate and raised her eyebrows telling Clint that something was going on in his wife’s head that Wanda thought he should know about. He didn’t want to call his wife out at the table in front of their children, so he searched the room for a reason to get her attention. Lucky for him, his youngest child was dressed differently than normal, the boy was in jean overalls with a red long-sleeved shirt underneath. “Kate? Why is Nate in kid handles?”
Kate was jarred out of her thoughts when she heard her name called. “I’m sorry, what?”
He really wanted to ask if she was alright and what was wrong, but again, there were children present. “Nate.” Clint repeated looking to the boy, “In overalls?”
“Oh, he is going on a field trip today to the apple orchard. I thought overalls and a long-sleeved shirt would be best to reduce sun burn and ticks.”
“I’m going to go pick apples with Peppy.” The child added.
Pepper was the CEO of Stark Industries, often working until midnight to successfully manage the company. It didn’t sound right to Clint that the woman would take an entire day off to attend a field trip, even if it was with her step grandson. “Pepper is going?”
“Well I really can’t run after an energetic four-year-old in the woods right now and you maybe shipping off this afternoon.” She explained placing her hand on the top of her baby bump for emphasis of why she wasn’t going. “Tony wanted to do it, but Pepper asked if she could. A Stark Industries corporate representative was needed anyway, something about community outreach and good PR, really wasn’t following. My best guess is the public relations department wants a picture of their CEO out picking apples with children to show the ‘human’ side of SI. I think Pepper just made it up so she could go on the field trip and call it work.”
“Get a lot of apples Baby Nate.” Charlie ordered her little brother using the nickname she and Lila had for him. Clint thought it would be interesting to see if the name continued once Vee was around. “Mom, can you print me out recipes for stuff to make with apples?”
“Of course honey.” Kate quickly agreed to. Charlie’s coping mechanism was cooking, and after everything that had happen yesterday, the mother knew the child was itching to create something in the kitchen. “I will see what I can find after I get some work done and before I have to leave. I wouldn’t mind having some apple turnovers for breakfast one morning.” She moved from speaking to Charlie to the child seated on her immediate right. “Nate, you going to pick a lot of apples for Charlie and make sure to get me a big red apple?”
Nate sharply nodded to his responsibility. “The biggest mama.” It was still a puzzle to Clint why Nate called Kate ‘mama’. It was the name the child picked and attached to his stepmother all on his own. Cooper and Charlie called Kate ‘mom’, both moving away from their youth tendency of calling her ‘mommy’. Lila went with just plain ‘Kate’, having been ten when Laura betrayed them and later was killed. Nathaniel had called Laura, his biological mother, ‘mommy’ but that name was never used with Kate. Just one day about five months after the wipe’s reversal, Nate just called out for Kate’s attention in the store by simply saying ‘mama’. No one made a big deal about it and acted as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Kate looked at her watch. “Okay guys, I need you to finish up and get upstairs for teeth brushing.” She stood up with her untouched plate and grabbed Nate’s empty one.
Clint grabbed his own and as he leaned over to grab Wanda’s she whispered to him, “She’s not feeling well, and worried, about a lot of stuff.” While he had rules about Wanda and Charlie using their powers in the house, there was some stuff Wanda couldn’t ‘turn off’. One being the emotions of others. She described it once to him as an ‘energy’ that exuded off a person that she couldn’t ignore. Clint nodded at Wanda’s heads-up, and followed Kate into the kitchen.
Waiting until after Kate scraped off her plate into the trash and moved to the sink, Clint probed about her well-being. “Hey, are you alright this morning? You didn’t touch your breakfast.”
Opening the dishwasher after cleaning off the plates she had, Kate reached behind her to grab the two plates in Clint’s hands. “I’m good. You know my daughter was almost killed by the Hulk yesterday and my husband and father want me to sit down to a meal with him this evening with my children present, but I’m good.”
“That’s it? That is all that is on your mind this morning? You’re not feeling sick or worried about something other than Bruce?”
Kate studied Clint for a minute. “You and that witch are going to be the death of me. Am I not even allowed to feel my emotions anymore without someone tattling on me to you?”
“She wasn’t tattling on you, she was concerned. You know Wanda doesn’t come running to me every time you feel something.” Really, this was the first time Wanda had come to him about something going on with Kate. Clint had in the past asked the woman for ‘insight’ when Kate said she was fine and he had doubted the authenticity of the statement, but Wanda had never done it before unprovoked. “Kate, there is a good shot I am leaving for a few days, and I need to know if there is something before I take off. I can’t be worrying about you and successfully conducting a mission.”
“Then don’t worry about me. Simple. I’m fine. I am eight months pregnant, everyday can’t be a winner”
Clint was going to have to accept that for the moment. He wasn’t going to push her if she didn’t want to talk. He was just happy she was talking to him after last night and this morning. Odds were that he was going to be receiving the silent treatment when he got back once her new nurse showed up in the afternoon. He had taken the easy way out and asked Tony to send the nurse over later, once Clint had left the country. He had already informed Wanda this morning before they went downstairs of the storm looming in on the horizon that she was going to be caught in this evening. “Alright. How do you think it went with Charlie?”
Reaching out for the dishes that Cooper was bringing in, Kate answered, “I think you did well. It will need to be reinforced a few times before she totally buys it, but it was a good start.”
Clint took the dishes from her, so she didn’t have to bend down again to put them in the washer. “I just wanted to start the conversation. Give her something to think about while I was gone.” Standing straight up again he went back to a comment she made a bit ago. “You said to Charlie that you had to leave later. What are you up to today?” He tried to make it sound like an off-the-cuff inquiry, not an interrogation.
“I need to speak to Scott Summers about this whole mess. I don’t know if I will be able to stop Williamson from getting his way about a hearing, but I would like to get ahead of it if I can. Rhodey is going to be with all of you for the mission debrief today, so it falls to me to go up to the school.”
“You’re calling the X-Men up?” It sounded like a drastic measure for a simple arms deal gone wrong for Clint.
“The committee approved it already.” Kate supplied cueing Clint that the matter may be more critical than he was led to believe originally. She didn’t mention anything about the committee being involved in it yesterday when she was speaking with Peter and Tony. He knew she was in contact with the committee at various times yesterday, but he had assumed that was due to the two violating the Accords and she was trying to smooth it over. “I need a team to handle this and now. The Avengers are busy and honestly, I don’t want you all near this one. The X-Men have encountered the suspects before. It would be similar to if Ultron came back and I asked the X-Men to do it over the Avengers. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s reinventing the wheel. I don’t have to brief Scott in detail or hand over a dossier. I just have to tell them that these people are players again and I need them brought in. The X-men will take care of the rest. It will look a lot better to everyone if the X-Men brought the wayward mutants in, shows that the community can police itself to a degree.”
“That’s not how it works Kate.” She was smarter than that and they both knew it. “The moment isolated groups protect and police themselves, the entire judicial system breaks down. You know this, you have seen what happens. How many times had Fury sent us on missions that were because of that very reason?”
“It has to in this situation. I can’t have people, high ranking people, spreading vicious rumors to the general public that all mutants are bad and causing panic.” Kate leaned back on the sink and quickly rubbed her forehead. “Showing that the X-Men will go after any threat to the common good, mutant or not, proves that. It demonstrates there isn’t a bias regarding an enemy of the state. A fugitive is a fugitive despite any enhancement they possess”
“I hope it all works out the way you plan.” Because he knew it wouldn’t. All Clint could hope for was that he was back in time to shield her when it all blew up. “They know you are onto them, they will have to make a move soon.” He meant ‘you’ as in the government, but even he didn’t believe it. Deep down he was aware that Kate was a target if these ‘fugitive mutants’ knew a human was in control of their destiny and possibly had handed them over to the Department of Defense and Interpol. The results of that were too frightening to even think about. Clint hadn’t asked Kate yet if this ‘list of mutants’ existed; life got in the way of that question. Now with the opportunity to ask, Clint decided not to. Too many people would be asking her that in the coming days, and he didn’t want to be a voice lost in the crowd.
Kate let out a small laugh and nodded her head to Clint’s prediction. “I am actually very surprised a move hasn’t been made yet by the group. It would make finding them a hell of a lot easier.” Not exactly the words Clint wanted to hear before he left town, but she was right. In this kind of situation, it was easier to react, develop a defensive game and adjust as needed. “They aren’t the type of people to sit and hide out only because the government may be on to them. These people believe they are supreme over humans and wouldn’t bat an eye over the ‘human’ government coming at them, even the Department of Mutant Affairs. They are avoiding Xavier, which means they don’t want the X-Men to find them. That makes the X-Men the perfect people to send.” Kate took a deep breath, “For all I know they have already made a move to show their strength, and I just have to wait until the message is revealed. I need Scott on this before that because any message they send in retaliation to any of this, the weapons intervention or Rhodey and Williamson going at each other over the list, won’t be good.”
Kate had actually given Clint more then he asked for, which was a rarity. Maybe she needed to talk, needed someone to listen to her who was not in the Department or mutant community. He wasn’t naïve enough to believe that all of this mess was what Wanda warned him about. Kate had a path already paved regarding the weapons robbery and Williamson. There were some weak links in her plan, but she knew it and would take it as it came. She was still hiding a deeper issue from him and he needed to know. “Just so I understand this correctly, you are driving up there and handing this off to Scott. That’s it?” Clint gestured wiping his hands. “You’re out?”
“It’s all I can do currently. That isn’t the only reason I need to go up there.” Clint let out a deep breath, here they were finally getting to the point. He was going to send her a dental bill for the teeth he had to pull to get to the main issue. Lifting an eyebrow up for her to continue, he looked out into the living room to see that none of the children had returned yet downstairs, but they needed to hurry. “Dr. McCoy and Dr. Honeycutt want to put an inducement on the calendar, and I need my weekly checkup. Now that I am a month out, Hank wants to get weekly levels and its standard obstetrician practice to have weekly appointments at this point anyways. They don’t see a reason for me to have to see them separately every week. Honeycutt is going to the school with the more specialized equipment, so I can get it all done at once.”
Clint wanted to yell ‘aha!’. She has to see Hank today, that explains everything. She was worried about her levels after the last twenty-four hours. If they were high enough, she would be hospitalized, simply put – forced bedrest. He, of course, didn’t want her numbers to be high, but the prospect of her forced to rest while he was away was an attractive thought. Even with all the ways her checkup could turn out that he should be concerned about, Clint picked up on one point that he probably should have known about prior to this morning. “You’re picking Vee’s birthday today?”
“They are picking the day when I am induced, that doesn’t mean that the baby will be born that day. They need to collaborate with the hospital’s schedule and their own to select the most convenient day for everyone. Don’t worry about it, I will let you know.”
Repressing the sarcastic response of ‘gee, thanks for letting me know the date you need a ride to the hospital’, he let his wife’s last comment go. Clint decided instead to question his participation in her appointment. Obviously wanting input on the inducement date as well as being a party to the discussion of what happens to Kate if her levels were questionable. “Is there any way I could be on the phone for that? I have a schedule too you know. I would like to hear the options of days. Personally, I would like an even number date.”
Kate laughed at Clint’s preference on the birthday for their child. She was fully aware he was trying to get in on the appointment. She didn’t really care if he was on the phone, but the time didn’t work out for him. At that point, the girls had come down and went straight to the foyer to collect their backpacks. “My appointment is at ten o’clock. You could still be in your briefing or on a plane by then, but I will express your preferences to the doctors.”
Both parents walked out of the kitchen when Cooper, Wanda and Nate came down. They had to get themselves ready along with the kids. Clint grabbed Nate’s bag and handed it to Kate and jabbed sarcastically, “I think I can step away for that call.”
Adding her purse to the hand that also held Nate’s bag, Kate presented a counteroffer. “How about I text you afterwards and when you can, call me back.”
“Because I don’t trust you regarding this kind of stuff and you know it?” Clint shot back in a low voice so the kids wouldn’t overhear. “Have Hank call me.”
“He is a busy man Clint, he may not get around to it. And it is just plain hurtful that you don’t trust me to tell you what happened.”
“Cooper, Lila, my car now please.” Clint called over at the two who obeyed immediately. Turning back to Kate, “Here’s the deal, you text, I call back when I can. If I think or even think I think you aren’t being truthful, I will have Tony move in here until I get back.”
“Guess I have to take the deal.” Kate coolly said back. Looking to Charlie who was getting ready with Wanda, “Charlie say goodbye to your father, he is leaving for a work trip this afternoon and you won’t see him for a few days.” He would say a proper farewell to Lila and Cooper once he got them to school, but this was it for Nate and Charlie.
Charlie looked up to her mother then to her father, “Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.”
“Gotta stop letting her hang around Tony.” Clint observed to his wife when he turned around so the girl couldn’t see him smiling at her comeback. Turning back, “Come here girl.” Charlie bounced over and Clint kneeled down. “Please be good, and if you can’t be good, don’t get caught.”
The girl dutifully returned, “Yes dad.”
“Clint, you just said Tony was a bad influence.” Kate chastised rolling her eyes at Wanda.
“Yes he is, what I am doing is teaching her a life skill Kate.” Returning to Charlie. “Kidding aside, use your head.” Clint poked her on the forehead. “You know right from wrong, always choose right. I love you.”
Charlie wrapped her arms around Clint’s neck and returned the farewell. “Love you too.”
Releasing Charlie, Clint casted away any doubts he had about the honesty of Charlie’s response. He next went to Nate who was holding hands with Kate. Picking the boy up, “You have fun with Peppy today alright? I will video call later and I want to see the big apple you picked for mama.” Nate shook his head up and down in excitement over his trip to the orchard. “You’re going to be a big brother really soon, just like Cooper, so I need you to help mama take care of Vee. Vee needs to sleep and can only do that when mama is sleeping.” Clint lied to hopefully get the boy to guilt his mama into resting while he was away. He caught Kate to his left shaking her head at the lame try.
Nate paused to process the great duty he was just charged with. “Mama can sleep after she eats the apple.”
Giving his son a big smile at his idea Clint approved, “Sounds like a plan. I love you.”
Nate leaned in to hug Clint, “I love you dad.”
Still with Nate in his arms, Clint leaned over to embrace Wanda. “Thank you for taking care of them while I’m gone. Seems I will never be able to pay back the debt I owe you.”
Returning the hug, “There are no debts in family. Didn’t you tell me that?”
“That sounds a little bit too profound for it to be something I said, but I’ll take credit.” Clint said as he passed her Nate. “Kate and I will be right out if you can buckle Nate in for her please.” Wanda took Nate and motioned for Charlie to get moving. Hearing the door shut behind him, it was just Kate and him in the house. Walking up to her, he put a hand on each side of her stomach. “I am leaving Vee here, I expect Vee to still be here when I get back.”
Placing her hands on his, “It’s a few days, not months. Vee isn’t going anywhere.” She then moved her hand to grasp him under the upper arms. “Be smart, be safe, be alive.”
Clint looked down and grinned. They were old words, words that they would exchange back in their S.H.I.E.L.D. days when one was leaving the other to go out on a mission. He hadn’t heard the saying in over a decade. He bent forward and kissed her as if it was the last time he ever would. It pained him to force himself to part from her, but he did. “Yes ma’am.”