Chapter 20

(Epilogue)

Three months later:

Dusk was settling on the open farmland, a mist was rising up and over the scattered treeline. A sharp red glow caressed the edge of the horizon as clouds once glowing and bright were now heavy, dark masses that inched toward the dying light. Stars twinkled to life high above as a fire burned below in the middle of a field just away from a farmhouse that sat a dark sentinel over meadows and a barn where a single light shone above a large crooked door. Fireflies danced above tall grass as the head lights of a single car broke the peace of the encroaching night, cutting through the thin evening mist.

The car pulled up to the house and stopped, lights off, all was dark until the door opened and the interior light outlined a woman's figure. She leaned into the car before closing the door and walking toward the fire and the figure seated there.

"Drink?" Clint raised a just opened bottle above his head as Natasha approached from behind. She took a sip while walking in front of him, "Apple juice?"

Clint shrugged while standing to give her a welcoming hug, "Cider."

"It's good." She raised the bags in her hand, "I come bearing gifts."

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "Good thing."

"Or what?"

"You kidding? It'd be outta here." He patted her back and kissed her cheek as he pulled away. Both hands back in working order, "Long time no see. Good flight over?"

When he let go she shrugged, "It was fine. Short. How have you been?" She took a seat in one of the chairs circling the fire pit. Clint sat back down as well, a small video baby monitor with a soundbar bouncing up and down slightly, rested on the arm of his chair. He didn't want to talk about the first few weeks here, not yet. About the struggle to recuperate from everything that had happened while a new little life relied on him. The mending of things physical and all the things that would take much longer to heal. Nor was he ready to mention the room upstairs that was already baby girl pink, one wall covered in lamb patterned wallpaper and decorated by his mother before she passed in expectation or hopes of a baby that would never arrive. It was a room he had avoided, a room he had never had the heart to touch. That was until now when he refurbished it for the little girl who shared his mother's name, leaving the lamb wallpaper she had lovingly applied on a single wall. The past few months had been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. One he was glad no one was there to witness besides little Edith who smiled oblivious to it all. He took a sip of his drink before answering simply, "Good. How's the gang?"

The team, with the exception of Clint, had stayed in Caracas to help with the clean-up. Stark had put his considerable finances to use where he could, where it would help. There was no public outrage toward Hawkeye or the Avengers. The widespread disdain, the ruination of a hero, Last had tried to ignite never grew louder than a low rumbling from those who could not be solaced. Not that Clint would blame anyone who railed against him or felt he was responsible for the loss and destruction. If you asked him, he was to blame. Their wrath would be well placed. It had been an unforgivable disaster. One he had failed to prevent. "Missing one member."

"Nat."

"I know Clint. You can't. I'm only saying you're missed."

"So are you." They stared at each other a minute before Clint shifted in his seat, "So what's in the bags?"

She smiled, "First." and pulled a small box from her pocket, "These are for you."

"Is that..." He took the box and opened it. The outer receiver of his ear implants were sitting nestled within. "Oh, they are getting some love for this. They're good then? They got it?"

"One way to find out." She smiled.

He took them and carefully snapped each one into place. The sound of crickets singing, and the fire crackling rushed in like water from a breaking dam, washing away the oppressive tinnitus that plagued him otherwise. It sent his blood pressure up, his heart racing for an instant, but in the most glorious and welcomed way. He closed his eyes and just listened.

Natasha watched him a minute, reluctant to break into his reverie, before asking, "I take it they're working."

Clint looked at her, "Like a dream." Taking a deep breath, he smiled and slapped his hands together. "What else you got?"

"Geez, A few months in the middle of nowhere and you get greedy."

His smile widened. He couldn't seem to stop. Her presence was having that effect on him, "What can I say. I got needs."

She slid her hand into one of the bags and pulled out a small cooler, "From Kevin."

He took it, opened it, and removed a vacuum sealed steak, "Aw. He sent meat."

"Apparently it's the best steak he could find. Said if he couldn't get you to come to the meal, he would send it to you. Oh, and something about stop avoiding the rematch already...I don't know." Clint nodded knowingly.

She reached back into the bag, "This is from Rogers." She handed over a small, soft square wrapped in paper. Clint began to slowly unwrap the gift. He sat still for a minute staring at the contents of the package before lifting a small patchwork blanket. "A quilt and..." he unfolded it, "a quilt."

"It looks hand-stitched, old." Natasha examined it a little closer. "Really old."

"You gotta give him a hard time for this. Has he been walking around with his blankie all these years?" He laughed heartily at the thought as he gently folded the time-softened fabric back into a neat square. More appreciative of the gift than he let on.

Natasha smiled, "No. Not happening." She peeked in the bag and paused before wrapping her hand around a collapsible bow and quiver and handed them over, "From Tony and Banner."

He took them slowly, looking over the highly designed tools of his trade solemnly. Turning the bow in his hand but not opening it, not testing it, as she would have expected.

"How's the arm?" She asked, seeing his hesitation and the turn in his mood.

"Close. Aims a little off still. It's the muscles...I just need to keep at it." He turned it over some more before placing it on the other gifts on his lap. "Tell them I said thank you. Everyone. It means a lot."

"I will." She looked around, "Did you do the thing?"

"Yeah." He took another drink, "It's over there. Come on. I'll show you." He stood, sat the old glass milk bottle almost empty of cider on the ground, and the stack of gifts on the chair, before walking out of the firelight. Natasha followed. They came to a spot within a grove of trees where a small stone was engraved with the words Bernard Charles Barton: Son, Brother, Father. The stone was placed to face the house and barn in view below. A memorial to a man never found. The sky felt larger from this spot. The dome above, filled with the milky way that stretched from horizon to horizon, wrapped a little wider. She took his arm, "He would've liked it."

"I don't know. Maybe, but it's not for Barney. Hell, it's not even for me." He rubbed his hand through his hair quickly, stopping to scratch the back of his neck, "It's for Edy. A place for her to go, you know, when the time comes."

Natasha hugged his arm a little tighter, "I suppose we all need a place to go to remember."

Clint looked around the farm that stretched out below them. "And to forget."

She watched his eyes wander from field to barn and nearly whispered, "I'm sorry we couldn't save him."

He didn't respond right away and she began to wonder if he hadn't heard her before he finally exhaled, "There was no saving him Nat." His end was a road he had started on long ago. "I...I asked him to come here, to see it, to stay a while." Barney had never been back to the farm, not since the night their parents drove away and social services returned in their place. He had never seen home again. He never would. He swallowed down the emotion that threatened to choke him and looked up at the stars. I wish I may, I wish I might..."I wish he'd had a chance to turn it around...to raise his daughter. I think that's all he wanted. He just left so many things...undone." He clenched his jaw against the pressure that had returned, encircling his vocal chords, and making his eyes water. Damn it all.

She watched him in silence, but cradled his arm, and kissed his shoulder. There were no words that could comfort so many levels of grief. His eyes glimmered with tears that refused to fall as his gaze returned to the stone. He had been here alone, with all of this, all these weeks upon weeks. It was how he had wanted it, and maybe she had been afraid to join him, but looking at him now she could feel nothing but guilt that she hadn't come sooner. She looked down and back to the driveway where her rental car sat reflecting the starlight and the flickering bonfire, "There's something else I wanted to give you."

"Oh yeah?" He took a deep breath, rubbed his hand down his nose, and straightened his shoulders.

"Yeah." She reached into her pocket, pulling out a toothbrush.

"Uhm...?"

"It's mine. Thought I could stay a while." She watched him hesitantly. Had she thrown away the chance to try? Had she decided to take this leap only to find it had taken her too long? Would he let her in now that the stakes were so much higher?

Clint pulled her close. She hadn't needed to worry. He knew this was no small gesture. This was her facing monsters she could more easily avoid, readily deny, and yet she was here. She was trying and he wouldn't push her away again. "Stay forever."

They leaned in to kiss when below them Edith's cry came through the monitor. He stopped and looked at Natasha, shaking his head, "That's the first time I've heard her." He was swept away for a moment and leaned back, rubbing his hand along his mouth. He huffed, amused, and looked back at her, "I think she's saying hi."

Natasha grinned, "Sounds like welcome home."

He looked in her eyes as she searched his. How he loved her. He had from the start. In small ways, in fleeting, nameless feelings that refused to be pinned down until they became an all encompassing, unwavering dedication. "It only needs you. All its ever needed...if you want it."

She rubbed her hand along his chest. She didn't know what she wanted, beyond that she didn't want to be anywhere but here, with him. She wouldn't walk away from him. She wouldn't leave him just because things had become more complicated. No, she couldn't because somewhere along the way they had become more than a team, more than lovers, more than friends. They were each others, two halves of a whole. Her eyes returned to his as she leaned closer to him, he held her tight as they kissed under the heavens and the bows of old trees that arched like the rafters of a cathedral.

Edith's cries grew louder, pulling him from their embrace. He stepped back, dropping one of her hands as he started to walk, but she didn't move. He waited as she stared at the house below. "I have to go Nat. I have to take care of her." When she still didn't move he nodded, sideways grinned, and released his grip on her hand.

He started to walk, but she held onto him tightly, stopping him for the second it took to step forward and walk beside him. She smiled, "Then lead the way Barton."

Together they walked down to the fire, collected their things, and walked toward the house. The path was dark, interrupted only by a few fleeting fireflies, as they leaned into each other, pushing through the parting grass, moving forward, two darkened figures becoming one as the stars looked on.

The End

*A/N: Can you believe we've reached the end!? I hope it was worth the ride. I'm already planning the story that will follow this and there may be a one-shot or two. So, until next time. I'm sending a little hug to every one who followed (member and anonymous alike), faved, or commented on this one. You are amazing and I hope I've entertained you at least half as much as you have made me happy. :-) Thank you for reading!

**A/N: This update is in response to the last guest review. Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. As far as what the future holds for Clint and Nat, never trust me. I'm terrible and this ending is only a bittersweet pause. Nothing is set in stone. ;-)