Chaaaapter 17!

Comments: I updated pretty soon this time! I'm so proud of myself. Anyways, this chapter is short and a bit on the melancholy side. I know I promised last chapter that this chapter would be better but... I lied. It's actaully NEXT chapter that will be better. Haha. I also found out you can put those really cool divider line thingys into your story! Now I dont have to use the asterisks anymore! Its an evolution!

Shout outs: miller330, ita-chan01, archangelavyn05 and brittany for your reviews!

Charlie pried her eyes open slowly. The room was dark and she blinked a couple of times so that her eyes would adjust. She was lying on her stomach with her limbs splayed all over the bed. Her head rested on the comfy pillow as she stared at the wall. It was so dark in the room that Charlie was beginning to think it was still night. She looked at the bedside table but there was no clock. Charlie sighed quietly. Still lying on her stomach, she propped herself up on her elbows and said into the air;

"Jarvis? What time is it?" Suddenly, dim light flooded the room as the windows became un-tinted and lights in the room turned on. Jarvis' voice responded to her.

"Good morning, Miss Anderson. It is ten forty-five A.M. Temperature is fifty-six degrees with rain showers all day. Chance of thunderstorms is sixty percent." Charlie looked over at the window and saw the dark clouds that sprinkled rain to the ground below. "Would you like me to start brewing some coffee for you?" Charlie smiled.

"Sure. Thanks."

"You're welcome, Miss." Charlie heard the coffee pot begin to crackle over in the kitchenette. Charlie sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Right away Charlie noticed how cold it was in the room, or maybe it was because she was only wearing her sports bra, and goose bumps ran up her arms.

"Jarvis. Is it possible to get you to turn up the heat in here?"

"Of course." Charlie sat on the bed for another minute and felt the room become warmer.

"Ahh, nice and toasty." Charlie stood up and stretched her arms above her head. Her eyes started to sting and she blinked several times in a row. "What the…" then she remembered she didn't take her contacts out before she went to bed. "Shit!" She exclaimed before running to the bathroom. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" She burst through the bathroom doorway and headed to the mirror.

She stopped in front of the mirror and saw her eyes were all red. "Awe hell." Charlie reached up and took each of the contacts out of her watery eyes. She didn't bother to save them as she threw them into the sink and flushed them down the drain with water. She splashed some water into her eyes to help relieve the sting. She looked up and stared through blurry vision at her red, irritated eyes. "Great. Just what I need."

"Miss Anderson. Mr. Stark asks that you see him right away." Charlie sighed and nodded but then remembered Jarvis could not see her.

"I'll just be a minute." Charlie squinted her eyes so that she could see a little bit better and made her way back into the bedroom. She walked over her duffel bag and sat on the floor next to it. She dug through the bag until she found her glasses and put them on. Then she picked out a grey off-the-shoulder knitted sweater and white wash ripped skinny jeans. Charlie stood up and put her left leg in her jeans, then her right, she wiggled a little and then jumped. She buttoned her pants and then replaced her sports bra for a normal one and then put her sweater on. Charlie let her curly hair out of her bun and the thick mass fell over her shoulders. Her hair had gotten so long and she desperately needed a haircut. But that was at the end of her very long list of things to do.

As soon as Charlie walked into the kitchenette, the aroma of fresh coffee hit her. She looked for a mug and once she found one, she filled it with the black liquid. She added some cream and sugar to it and took a sip to make sure it tasted right. Charlie put on her grey converse, grabbed her coffee mug and left to go find Stark. She got to the elevator and Jarvis told her what floor and what room she needed to go to.

She reached the room and Charlie walked into a huge lab area. The room was circular with white walls and it had very modernized feel to it. There were high tech computers and machines in the room. In the middle was a round conference table. Charlie walked over to the table and set her coffee mug down on it. Charlie looked around the room again, taking in the impressive technology.

"I hope that you slept well last night." Charlie turned around and saw Stark walking over to the table.

"Yeah, I did actually." But when Stark saw her blood shot eyes he looked like he didn't believe her. She waved a dismissive hand. "Don't ask."

"Wasn't going to." He motioned for her to sit and she did. Charlie picked up her mug and took a sip. "Now, I was told that Gaby's son had a little present for you the other night." He said as he sat down. On impulse, Charlie reached up and touched her neck.

"Yeah. Uh, he said it was some kind of serum infused with vibranium and adamantium. Which is what Fury told me Cap's shield is made out of… and it's the only thing that I can't go through." Tony rubbed his chin.

"Did it work?" Curiosity filled his voice. Charlie opened her mouth to respond but someone spoke before her.

"There you are." Charlie and Tony looked over to the door and saw Agent Cohan striding over to them. He wore a confidence that irked Charlie. "I went to your room but you weren't there." He must have noticed her eyes because he made a face. "What happened to you?" Charlie glared at him.

"Nothing happened. Just go away."

"I can see there is no love lost between you two." Stark interjected. Cohan just smiled and took the seat next to Charlie. She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him.

"To answer your question, yes it did work. I couldn't make myself immaterial no matter how hard I tried."

"Interesting. Well, I'm going to need a blood sample if you don't mind."

"It's been two days though. Do you really think there might still be traces of it?"

"Depending on what else was in the serum, it could still be yes."

"But if it was, would I be able to do this?" Charlie turned in her chair and shot her arm out towards Cohan's chest. Unfortunately, instead of going through it like she thought it would, her hand just smacked his chest. Charlie gaped at her hand.

"Ouch." Cohan said sarcastically.

"There's your answer." Stark said from behind her. Charlie furrowed her brows and turned around in her chair to face Stark again.

"Alright. You can do the blood test. But I have to ask, how much are you going to take?"

"'Just a little bit' my ass." Charlie said to herself as she walked back to her room. She rubbed the crook of her arm where the needle had been. Stark had ended up taking four test tubes of blood. Cohan merely made fun of Charlie for being such a wimp. She had always hated needles.

Cohan had tried to follow her back to her room but she, well, let's just say she changed his mind very quickly. But she unfortunately didn't get the last word before she walked away.

Charlie got back to her room and set her coffee mug in the sink. She went into her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed and stared out the window. It was still raining and the clouds were the same shade of grey they had been this morning. Charlie couldn't help but wonder where Clint was. What kind of mission was he on? Who was the target?

These were questions she would probably never get answers to. Charlie sighed and she was suddenly overcome with exhaustion. She took off her glasses and put them on the bedside table. Kicking off her shoes, Charlie fell back onto the bed but kept her head turned so the she could still look out the window. There was something peaceful about the rain.

But there was also something menacing about it. There was a saying from a movie that Charlie remembered: "A little rain never hurt anybody but a lot can kill you." Rainy days always made Charlie think back to her parents' funeral. She shook her head to get rid of the unwanted images. Charlie felt her eyelids get heavier. Soon her fatigue was too strong to fight anymore, so she closed her eyes and slept.

Ever have to bury both your parents on the same day? I did. I remember that day like any other but not in a good way. It was a dark, cold, rainy day. Why is it always raining on funerals? Isn't it kind of stereotypical? Anyways, black umbrellas surrounded the two coffins. I stood next to my Aunt with her arm draped over my shoulder. For some reason, I didn't cry at all. Don't get me wrong, I was a wreck. But I felt like I had shed too many tears already. There were none left to shed that day. And I reminded myself that I needed to be strong.

The priest said the last words of his eulogy. I placed a rose on each of my parent's coffins before they began to lower into the ground. After, everyone took turns throwing a handful of dirt into the deep ground. I was the last to do so. I bent down and picked up some of the wet dirt. I kissed the back of my hand before sprinkling the dirt down onto the coffins.

I remember looking over at my brothers grave which was now right next to my parents. Then I looked up past his gravestone and into the distance. There was a man. He was dressed in black like everyone else. He stood underneath a willow tree with no umbrella. He was staring at all of us. Not all of us. Me. He was staring at me.

I tugged on my Aunts sleeve and looked away for a second. I asked her who that man was but when I looked back, he was gone. My Aunt thought that I had been imagining things. But I know I wasn't. He was there. He was real.

Charlie woke with a gasp. Her eyes opened too fast and her head began to spin. Charlie brought a hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes. She looked over at the window. The rain had stopped and a slight fog had settled over New York. The lights were off in the room, courtesy of Jarvis. Charlie moved slightly and felt something draped around her waist. She turned her head to look over her shoulder.

Someone lay beside her and she could tell by the way they were breathing, they were very much asleep. Charlie tried not to move too much as she reached over to the table and got her glasses. She put them on and looked over at the person again. She smiled.

Barton lay beside her and she could tell he'd been there for a while. He must have gotten back from his mission while she had been asleep. And he came here. Not anywhere else. Here. Charlie smiled to herself again.

She didn't want to wake him because even though he was sleeping, he looked beat. Charlie took her glasses off and set them back down on the table. She rested her head back on the pillow and scooted closer to him. She placed her own arm overtop of his and closed her eyes.

But when she closed her eyes, she saw that man again. The man that stood in the distance at the funeral. The man who was staring at her. The man she most definitely didn't imagine. Charlie slowly opened her eyes and she felt her heart rate quicken. A flash of lightning flooded the room with light, followed by the low rumble of thunder. Realization hit her.

The man was Gabriel.