Author's Note: Hey all! Sorry for the delay. I'm an overachiever who only posts chapters when the next two chapters are written and ready to go as well. I actually didn't start posting this story until it was completely done, and wanted to be able to say the same for the next story in the series.

So, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favorited (this word is SO made up) this story. I love you for it! A shout out to people who have followed and reviewed this story from the start. Thank you so much. Here is the end… and be looking for the sequel, Sidelined, in a week or so.

Chapter 13: Moving Forward

Wanda Maximoff

Babies are slippery no matter what they're wrapped in. I nearly dropped little Nathaniel twice the first time I held him a few days ago, but for some reason Laura and Clint keep leaving me alone with him.

I don't think Nathaniel likes me. He squirms and wriggles and whines in my arms, his baby gray eyes stormy when they lock onto mine. Laura tells me that he really can't see me very well yet, but I think he sees me just fine. There's something very wise behind those eyes.

Nathaniel squalls and his big baby head rocks backward so hard I have trouble supporting it. His arms and legs flail. "Shh… baby," I plead and look to Pietro for help.

He's already crossing the room to take the baby. Nathaniel quiets as soon as he's in Pietro's arms. Nathaniel likes my brother. I don't know why.

"He likes the way I smell," Pietro says softly, cradling Nathaniel and gazing down on him, seeming absolutely intrigued. "At four and half weeks, babies still recognize people better by scent."

"Are you saying I stink?"

"He smells your fear," Pietro says, sounding off-hand and casual. He winks at me and bounces a happy, cooing baby.

The nursery is on the second floor next door to Lila's room. The walls are lined with soft green paper and every corner is crowded with stuffed animals and baby contraptions. It's like an exotic zoo. There's even a cage for the baby—a wooden crib fashioned by Clint himself. All of his children slept in it.

"You, Little Pietro, are the best baby in the world," Pietro tells Nathaniel as the baby seems to listen with rapt attention.

"His name is Nathaniel," I stress.

"Plenty of people choose to go by their middle names, especially if their middle names are cool." Pietro looks down his nose at me, and then turns his attention back to the baby. He raises Nathaniel up and blows on his onesie covered belly. "You are so lucky you're a boy or you would have been named Natasha. Lucky, lucky baby!"

"You know." Both Pietro and I jerk at the sound of Natasha's voice from the door. She leans in the frame, holding a baby monitor in one hand and nodding to the corresponding monitor next to Nathaniel's crib. "I can poison you in such a way that no one would ever know you didn't die from natural causes."

Pietro brings Nathaniel's head to rest on his shoulder and smirks at Natasha. "There's more than one receiver to that thing I hope you know, and Laura keeps one of them in her pocket at all times. So, tell me again how you're going to kill me."

Natasha gives a creepy grin that makes my skin crawl.

"Shut up, Pietro," I say. "Ignore him. His psychiatrist says he's not ready for human interaction quite yet."

"My psychiatrist says I'm darling," Pietro counters.

"And there goes all confidence I ever had in her expert opinion," I snort.

"You just don't like her, because you think she has a crush on me."

"That woman is 56 years old." And I know she has a crush on him, but she's not going to do anything about it. "You would think you'd have learned your lesson after—"

"Oh my God! Can you never mention that again?" Pietro's hand encompasses the baby's head as if to protect it. "Little Pietro doesn't need to hear it either."

"Do you two ever stop?" Natasha asks, coming to Pietro and stretching her arms out to take Nathaniel. "All you do is bicker." Pietro shifts the baby into Natasha's arms. Nathaniel gurgles but doesn't cry with Natasha either.

"We're not bickering," Pietro and I say in unison.

Natasha shakes her head. "Lunch time, Natty. Let's go," she purrs to the baby.

"Natty?" Pietro makes a disgusted face.

"Better than something lame, like Little Pee-Pee." She gives that creepy grin again and leaves the room with the baby.

Pietro glowers after her. "Little Pee-Pee my ass." He mutters a string of curses in Sokovian. "How does Clint work with that lady?"

Clint and Natasha work together like a finely tuned machine. They know each other's moves and follow each other's logic like they're of one mind on missions. I got to practice with them once. They're scary in assassin-sniper mode. But I'm not going to share this with Pietro, instead I say, "I don't know, but you better figure it out. You're going to be in her boot camp two weeks from now."

"Don't remind me." Pietro goes to the picture window across from the crib and stares out at the farmland. He's still lean, but a firm healthy lean, corded with returning muscle tone. His doctors and physical therapist won't let him run full out yet, but it's only a matter of time. He's better, stronger… and still fighting his personal demons without me. But he's got a shrink, it seems to be helping. The darkness that comes into his eyes sometimes has lightened.

"I got Steve for boot camp," I tease. "I've heard that he's much easier. Natasha's goal is to wash out as many new recruits as she can in one fell swoop."

He sneers at me over his shoulder. "I didn't finally pass that stupid psych evaluation to flunk out of Natasha's class."

I frown at him. I don't want to make him clam up on me, but I want to know about his sessions with the psychiatrist. Clint knows a lot, but he's honor-bound to keep Pietro's secrets. I'm so glad he talks to Clint I can't even be angry, though I can't help being jealous. But swallowing my jealously and curbing my urges to nag and prod Pietro has actually brought us closer. Now that he trusts me not to bother him about things that hurt, and not act like his mother, he seeks out my company more.

Pietro turns, leaning back on the window and propping his elbows on the sill. "I don't know though. I might flunk out completely. I'm still…"

I don't speak and keep my face blank, trying not to appear too eager. Yes, yes, talk to me, sweetheart.

"I'm still afraid to run," he finally says. "I—I tried it for the first time a few days ago, before we came here. It was terrible. Everything around me stopped moving completely and it took so long for this world to back into focus." He shakes his head. "I don't want to get stuck in that place." His eyes are large and dark, haunted.

I move closer to him, taking his face in my hands. "When you've gone that place, do you ever try to call to me, with your mind?"

Pietro shakes his head. "I don't want it not to work, so I don't try."

"Try," I say gently, stroking his smooth cheek. "Wherever you are, I can find you and bring you back. I proved that once before, didn't I?"

He snorts out a weak laugh. "You did."

"Call to me, and I'll respond. I'll talk to you until you can get back to us, and if you can't find the way on your own—well, we do work with a team of geniuses. We'll find a way. No need for worries."

"You sound like Dr. Menden," Pietro says. "She used to be a cheerleader, you know."

"Will you stop talking about that 50 year-old woman! Or should I remind you about—" Pietro clamps a hand over my mouth and I lick his palm.

"Argh!" Pietro snatches his hand back and stares at it and me with revulsion. He wipes it on my shirt. A mischievous glint comes into his eyes, the darkness all gone. "I'm going to tell Laura."

"You go right ahead. She's not going to be thinking about you while she's breastfeeding the baby!"

"Want to bet on that?" He clicks his teeth and strides out of the room.

I stare after him. Is he serious? I poke my head out of the room and see him starting down the stairs. That little… I jog after him, but even at his slowest he's faster than me. I burst into the family room to find him on a blanket on the floor with Lila, picking up an Ever After High doll. Laura and Clint sit on the couch, Laura feeding Nathaniel. Natasha plays Pokémon cards with Cooper. Bruce Banner adjusts logs in the fireplace, looking quite the lumberjack in corduroy pants and a checkered shirt.

"Hi Wanda!" Lila calls, waving me over to her blanket.

I join her and Pietro, all the while trying to catch my twin's eye. Pietro looks over at me with a wink. "You know what Pietro?" I ask, pitching my voice so everyone can hear.

"What?" Pietro smiles at me and looks over his shoulder, probably to make sure Laura's listening should I threaten him.

"I agree with Clint."

"Huh?" Pietro draws a blank.

Now everyone in the room stares at me. Guess it's not often for people in this house to agree with Clint. I laugh at their expressions, feeling warm and welcome. It's good to be home again. I love these people—even Natasha and Bruce… and perhaps the baby too.

"What do you agree with me on?" Clint sounds suspicious.

Everyone leans in.

"That Pietro's a brat!"

Clint beams, Laura laughs, Natasha rolls her eyes, Bruce shakes his head, Cooper jumps up to defend Pietro who's pretending to look hurt, and Lila hands me a doll.

"Here, you can be her. She's my favorite and so are you."

I kiss her cheek, and stick my tongue out at my sputtering brother.

"This calls for something special," Clint says, rising to his feet.

"Seriously, Old Man? She gets presents for insulting me?" Pietro asks, sprawling over the floor like a wounded man.

"For exposing the truth!" Clint corrects him. "I think I'm in the mood to make sweet potato pie."

Laura whoops. "If I'd known agreeing with you would get me pie, I might have admitted to liking that wallpaper you put up in the bathroom last year. And speaking of wallpaper, when are you going to get started on Wanda's room?"

I grin at the pole-axed expression on Clint's face.

"We just had a baby, I'm making pie—" Clint starts.

"I just had a baby…"

I glance over at Natasha, wondering how she accepts bickering from Clint and Laura, and chuckle at her amused grin. Her mind seems happy and comforted. Clint and Laura's bickering is familiar and friendly. After she gets to know us better, she might react the same way to Pietro and me bickering.

"Clint just needs to accept defeat and go make pie," Pietro grumbles loud enough to be heard.

"Now see here you little smart ass—"

"Dad!" Cooper gives Clint a look of disapproval better than any Laura could ever give, and shakes his head. "Language!"

Lila levels Clint with this patented look that only she can do which seems to question Clint's intellectual competence. Clint's mouth drops open as he stares at his offspring, floundering for words.

Natasha lets out an honest to God snort as she laughs and Laura and Bruce join her.

Pietro folds his arms over his chest with a superior grin. "Didn't see that one coming, did you Old—ah!"

A couch pillow nails Pietro between the eyes. There's no doubt in my mind that he could have dodged it, but why would he when Laura is watching?

"Clint!" Laura snaps, and rounds on Clint, nursing an infant and disciplining a grown man simultaneously as the Natasha, Bruce, Cooper and Pietro, recovered from his pillow "injury", laugh.

I smile at the scene—my family.

If things had happened any differently, I might not have this now—and I no longer feel guilty for thinking this way. There were so many mistakes made, so many lines crossed, and I know that I wouldn't choose to follow this same path if I could go back. But you know what, I don't care. I can't go back in time, so this is my reality, and it's not so bad.

I brush my doll's hair and decide what she's going to wear on her first date while Lila tells me the doll's back-story over a soundtrack of friendly arguments and laughter.

A hand touches my elbow and I trade smiles with Pietro. He rests his chin on my thigh and I lean forward, planting a kiss in his hair.

Thank you, soră.

/You're welcome, dragă./

THE END

Author's Note: So, what's the verdict? Liked it? Hated it? Don't care about it either way? Well, any way you liked it, let me know. Please review! Sequel, Sidelined, coming next week!