Disclaimer: Last chapter, still not mine...

Author's Note: Thanks to everybody that's read, reviewed, favorited, lurked :).

Chapter 15: From Superhero to Family Man

Barton Farm
Iowa

Laura Barton did not watch the news. The news was depressing. Half the time, it didn't do any good to watch the news anyway. Clint was a long-distance sniper. There were never any pictures of him on the news footage anyway, which just made her worry more.

But this morning, for some reason, she had turned the little TV in the kitchen on. Her finger had stopped on the channel button for ZNN and she couldn't tear her eyes away. Catastrophic destruction, the anchor was saying. Thousands dead. She hit the mute button. No reason for the kids to hear that. Cooper and Lila were both on the couch, reading. It was one of their rituals on a Sunday morning-quiet time in the house. She was making breakfast. Church was in a few hours, and today, she thought to herself, today might be a good day to go.

And Clint…Clint was…

The front door opened. Laura nearly dropped the teakettle she was holding as she saw who was standing in the entryway.

Clint was standing there, in jeans and his favorite leather jacket. Standing next to him was his brother. Both alive. Both well. And, Laura noted, both together.

She smiled and came to join them in the living room as Clint reached over the back of the couch and tapped the kids on the heads gently. Cooper and Lila both looked up, screamed, and dropped their books, scrambling over the back of the couch to throw their arms around their father.

"Hey, guys," Clint said, hugging them fiercely. He set them both down. "There's someone you guys need to meet," he told them. He turned to Will. "This is your Uncle Will," he introduced them. "Will, meet Cooper William Barton and Lila Laura Barton."

"Hey, guys," Will told them warmly. "Sorry I ah...had to run out on you last time." Cooper stayed near his father, but Lila threw her arms around Will's legs. Will grinned and picked her up.

"Did you bring us anything?" she asked him.

"Lila-" Laura began, but Will was laughing.

"You know what, sweetheart, I didn't." He looked at his brother. "That must be part of the being an uncle game, huh."

She nodded. "Well, Lila," Will continued with a glance at his brother. "I'll learn," he promised her. "I'll learn." Then, he smiled. "Besides," he added, with a look over the top of her head at Clint, "If you think uncles are supposed to bring stuff…wait until you meet your grandma and grandpa."

Laura reached around Cooper and hugged Clint fiercely. "We missed you," she said into his ear.

"You won't have to much longer," Clint replied quietly.

She looked up into his face, and he smiled, tiredly. "One last project," he reminded her. He looked over at Will. "Project complete."

Avengers Facility
Upstate New York
One week later...

Clint had never seen Nick Fury look...confused.

But this look...this was definitely confused.

"You're...sure...about this?" he asked him, for what Clint figured was the fourth or fifth time since he'd walked in with his resignation letter.

"As sure as I was the first three times you asked me," Clint finally said. He was going to miss needling his boss. "Coulson's gone. Natasha has the Avengers...and I have a family I've been neglecting for too long. Laura's due any day now and I need..." He took a breath. "I need to be home. My kids need their dad."

Fury couldn't argue with that. "You think you can really leave all this behind?" he asked, waving a hand. Out his office window, Clint could see Steve and Sam Wilson chatting. Behind them, Wanda hung back, a faint red glow on her fingertips. As if she knew he was looking, she looked up, and gave him a small smile. The red disappeared. She was going to be in good hands, Clint knew. She and Vision had been hanging out a little-now that was a random pairing if he'd ever seen one.

Clint smiled as he got up out of his chair and shook Fury's hand. "Yes," he said firmly. "They don't need me anymore," he said simply. He gave Fury a two-fingered salute, turned on his heel, and left the room.

Fury leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping Clint's letter on his desk. "You'd be surprised, Barton," he said thoughtfully. "You'd be surprised..."

Three weeks later…
Baltimore, Maryland

The home of Donald and Laura Barton was buzzing. Donald Barton, Baltimore PD retired, was arguing with Clint over the grill in the backyard of the Barton home in Baltimore, over whether or not the steaks he was currently grilling were medium rare or well. "Not all of us want our meat to 'moo' when we eat it!" Donald was protesting his son's opinion.

"Dad, this is corn-fed Iowa beef," Clint argued. "It's better a little pink!"

"You know, if you guys stand there and argue any longer," Will cut in, leaning against the deck railing, "they'll all be well done."

Something wet nailed him in center of his back, and he turned to see a giggling Cooper taking off for the safety behind the shed, a blue water balloon in his hand. "Just like his dad!" Laura teased Uncle Will, who set his drink down and hopped over the railing to go chase down his nephew. He was immediately soaked with the hose by Lila, who squealed and took off running as Will changed direction and went after his niece instead, dropping her into the small kiddie pool the grandparents had bought. Cooper joined a minute later, throwing water at his uncle.

Laura was bouncing baby Nathaniel Pietro Barton on her lap, much to the delight of his adoring grandmother Laura. "You better get out there, Clinton," Laura Brandt told her oldest. "Will's got the disadvantage!"

"Got that covered," Clint grinned, reaching into the cooler and producing a cheap dollar-store water pistol. "Gang up on Uncle Will!" he called out. He started sniping his brother from the deck before coming onto the lawn to join in the fun.

"How is he holding up?" Laura asked her daughter-in-law.

Nathaniel squirmed and Laura rocked him a minute before answering. "He's okay," she admitted. "That was rough on him," she said. "Not as many nightmares as….well, as before," she said. "But I think he'll be okay. He needed this," she added, nodding to the yard and the grill. "He needed to spend time with his family."

Laura Brandt laughed. "Especially now that there's more family!" she said with a grin. She laughed and pointed to the kiddie pool. Clint and Will were both soaking wet now. Lila still had the hose and Cooper had just dumped a bucket of water over his father's head.

"I swear they're just like their father and his brother at Cooper's age," Donald said. "I've missed this," he admitted. He reached over and squeezed Laura Barton's hand. "Welcome to the family, sweetheart. We're glad to finally know you."

"I thought you'd be..." Laura searched for the right word. "Upset," she decided on finally.

"We don't keep secrets in this family," Laura Brandt told her. "I'll admit, at first I was a little angry at my oldest for not telling us, but, I can understand why he did it." She smiled. "I'm just glad Clint decided not to keep you away from us forever!" She chuckled. "Now I can stop bugging at least one of them about grandchildren!"

"I heard that!" Will told her, running past the desk as Cooper chased him with a water gun.

"Is is true Clint's retiring?" Donald asked, closing the lid on the grill.

Laura nodded. "Turned in his resignation to Director Fury a few weeks ago," she replied. "I couldn't be happier, except now I'm not sure I'll ever get him out of the house. I swear, that man always has a project."

"That's the curse of the Brandt men," Laura Brandt said, reaching over to hold her grandson. "There is nothing in the world that can hold them down. That's why one's a superspy and one's a superhero."

"Except family," Donald spoke up, coming to join them at the table, setting a plate full of steaks on the picnic table. "Family's the only thing that keeps them grounded."

"And free food," Will said, coming up the stairs to join them on the deck. He hugged his parents from behind, and Donald Brandt swore, temporarily forgetting there were kids present. Clint came up behind Laura, and Laura had just enough time to pass Nathaniel off to his grandmother before she was encased in a wet family group hug.