Author's Note: It is highly likely that you will need tissues. Don't say I didn't warn you if you cause water damage to your computer/tablet/phone. I accept no responsibility.

Epilogue 2

Many years later

She'd thought Hawk was sleeping until she touched him and found his skin was cold. Perhaps it was the best way to go. Just drift off to sleep one night and never wake up. For a man who'd lived over half of his long life convinced he would die in battle, it would have been the last thing he expected.

Jen dried her eyes with the corner of the sheet after a long time and picked up the phone. After she'd called her eldest great-grandson – Steven Stark, her great-grandson and Tony's, the head of Stark Industries, current Iron Man and the one with the power to make everything happen smoothly – she lay back down beside the man she'd loved for over seventy years and laid her head on his chest.

"You better come find me soon, my Hawk," she whispered before closing her own eyes.

2137

It was her first week of college, and it already sucked. Even in the twenty-second century, there were still some guys who were stupid enough to be condescending to women who wanted to study engineering. She stomped into the bar and gestured to the bartender.

"Bourbon. A double, on the rocks." The drink was delivered, and she picked it up, taking a sip and turning around to survey the bar. Looking for somewhere quiet to sit and drink away her annoyance. Her eyes slid over the noisy group playing a game of darts, and then slid back again, snagged by she knew not what.

The broad-shouldered man turned away from collecting his darts from the board, laughing and accepting the congratulations of his friends. Something drew his gaze across the bar, and his stomach tightened in a visceral reaction as he met a pair of clear blue eyes with his own.

"Where are you going? Hey man, I want a rematch!"

"Later." He tossed the darts on the table and walked across the room, drawn by a force he couldn't explain. She watched him come to her as though pulled on a string, a flush appearing on her cheekbones.

"Hi." She cast those pretty blue eyes down shyly.

"Hello." He looked down at her. "You are by far the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he said wonderingly.

Her eyes came back up, and she smiled, quirking an eyebrow at him. "You use that line on all the girls?"

2252

She was five. It was her first day at a new school, and she had no friends yet. The other girls all wanted to play with dolls (stupid babies). She ended up sitting on her own in the sandpit at recess, carefully sculpting an intricate castle.

"That's a dumb castle."

She looked up to see a boy, a year or so older than herself. Blue-green eyes glinted at her for a moment before he looked down, hiding them behind sandy blond eyelashes.

"It's not dumb."

"It needs defensive walls. And weapons. Maybe a catapult." He hesitated, poking at the sand with his toe. "I could help, if you like."

Wordlessly, she held out her shovel.

2399

"Major, we'll drop an engineer off to assist you."

"About fucking time," the Space Marine officer muttered. He and his team could jury-rig most equipment, but the ship's stalled arc reaction engines were beyond their skills. They were dead in space, a sitting duck for the Kree, until help arrived.

The tiny shuttle dropped from the passing fighter-carrier docked and he stepped forward to open the airlock. A small figure in a skin-tight shipsuit entered, removing the faceplate once the engineer gained the breathable ship air.

Blue eyes met blue-green, and they both froze.

Oh…

A/N: Rather to my surprise, I cried a bucket while writing the first part of this epilogue. I've got awfully attached to Clint and Jen. But, you see, it does turn out happily EVER after for them after all.

Soundtrack for this chapter:

Now Comes The Night: Rob Thomas

Beautiful In My Eyes: Joshua Kadison

Love Story: Taylor Swift

Now PLEASE, PLEASE review. I know there have been an average of over 400 600 unique visitors reading each and every chapter of this fic, and the most reviews I've had on any one chapter is… 10, almost always from the same faithful cadre of reviewers. So 590+ of you have NEVER reviewed.

If you've been reading since the start, you've had nearly two months of DAILY entertainment, and over 100,000 words out of me. One review to tell me what you thought of the whole story isn't so much to ask – is it? After all, I'm not getting paid for this, except in personal satisfaction!

And who knows – it might encourage me to write more. And quicker ;)

Thank you so much to those of you who have regularly reviewed. It really does make an author's day to know that other people are getting a kick out of this. And yes, that even applies when the story was finished a while ago. I still get alerts on my reviews.

There WILL be a series of one-shots in between the conclusion of Through A Glass Darkly and the beginning of A Shattered Reflection. I'll try and put up at least one a week. Follow me as an author to make sure you don't miss anything!

Happy reading, and thanks for sticking with me through this crazy ride! It all started with a hangover dream…