Part 47

Third person point of view: 

"Nick you ready? Come on let's go. If we don't get going soon we'll be late." Coulson said rushing into Fury's office while tying his black tie that he only wore for funerals.

"I'm not going." Fury growled without even turning around in his chair to look at Coulson, he was too preoccupied staring at the piece of paper in his hand. 

"Bullshit you aren't going! Get your suit on and get in the plane. let's go." Coulson bossed bringing Fury's suit over to him. 

"I don't see the point in going or even having this idiotic ceremony. She wasn't even alive for fucks sake!" Fury yelled when Coulson brought over his suit. 

"Nick that's bullshit and you know it. She was as alive as you and I are right now. You don't mean that you're just upset. Come on let's go. We aren't missing our Granddaughter's funeral." 

Maria walks through the door and sees Fury standing in his usual attire with Coulson holding his suit and asks quietly. "You're coming right Dad? You aren't going to make us do this all alone, right?" 

"Fuck! Fine, yes I'm coming, get out so I can change. I can't disappoint both of my daughters and my granddaughter on the same day." Fury grumbled as the other two left. When he had changed he made his may onto a quinjet for the ride to the cemetery. 


Pepper and Tony got ready in silence without looking at each other until Tony spoke up. "Pepper. I need your help. I can't tie my tie. I'm shaking too bad." 

"Of course Tony." She said walking over to him. While she fixed his tie he wiped a few stray tears from her face. 

"It'll get better after today, right?" He whispered.

"I hope so." Pepper said finishing his tie. 

"Clint's coming, right? He wouldn't miss this."

"Yes he told me he would be here weeks ago and I made him promise that he would." 

"Good. We need everyone, you told Natasha, right? And did you somehow get a message to Thor?"

"Yes Tony. It's all taken care of. I crossed everything off the checklist, you helped me, remember? Calm down." Pepper huffed putting her hands on his shoulders. 

"Hey, you guys almost ready? We still have to get Bruce out of the lab." Steve asked as him and Bucky came through the open door. Bucky was wearing an all black suit with his hair gelled back and Steve was wearing a midnight blue suit with a pink tie. 

"Yeah. Let's go. It's going to be a fight to get him out of the lab." Tony said getting his grey suit coat from the bed and heading out the door with Pepper's hand in his. 

When the four of them step out of the elevator they find Bruce surrounded by holograms and was doing math equations on a whiteboard. 

"Bruce come on buddy. It's time to go. Pepper already laid out your suit and has everything ready for you. It's time to go." Steve said gently coming up to him. 

"No. No. I can't leave. I have to figure this out. I'm so close. I have to find out what happened." Bruce said manically. 

"Bruce. Come on. We need you today. We need you with us. Please?" Pepper begged. 

"No. No. I can't let Natasha down. I have to find out what happened. I have to find out what happened to Elizabeth. I have to find out what happened to her daughter." 

"No Bruce. You aren't letting Natasha down. You would be letting Natasha down if you didn't come today. Take a break for a couple of hours and we can come back to it." Tony said softly. 

"But what if Natasha is there and I have nothing to tell her. What am I going to do then?" Bruce said out of breath. 

"What if Natasha is there and you aren't. Do you really want to have to explain to her why you weren't there?" Tony challenged. 

"You're right. OK. Where is my stuff?" Bruce sighed after a moment of rubbing his eyes. 

About half an hour later everyone who was still staying at the tower minus Sam were on the way to the funeral in the Avenger's quinjet. The plane ride over was silent and short, when they stepped into the snow covered field they saw Sam standing watch over the tiny coffin that him Rhodey and Steve had dropped off earlier that morning. The Avengers arrival was followed quickly thereafter by Fury, Coulson, and Maria's. There was a sudden flash of light in the sky and suddenly Thor appeared in a more elegant and darker battle armor. 

"Hello, everyone. I'm back. I received the message that Miss. Potts sent out. Thank you for inviting me Pepper." Thor said subdued by the occasion. "Are Clint and Natasha going to be here?"

"Clint's coming he promised he would be here, and Natasha should be on her way." Pepper said nervously. 

"They aren't coming. Neither of them are coming why are you still holding out this hope for them!" Fury screamed violently. 

Pepper opened her mouth to retort, but Rhodey stopped her by starting the ceremony. "We are gathered here today to honor and cherish the memory of Elizabeth Peggy Barton, who was taken from us much too soon. Who would like to start the speeches?" 

Tony raised his hand and began speaking as a man in a hat with a suit walked near the party, but stayed far enough away from the group to go momentarily unnoticed, yet he was close enough that he could hear what they were saying. "I met Natasha years ago and never once did the thought cross my mind that we would be standing here today. I never imagined that we would be here at a frozen cemetery during the middle of winter having to bury her daughter, the daughter that I was lucky enough to be able to call my goddaughter for the short time that she was on this earth. The night that I was crowned Elizabeth's Godfather was the singular best night of my life so far. I was so lucky and grateful to be able to take care of and cherish and help raise Clint and Natasha's beautiful baby girl, who I loved with all of my heart. My only wish was that I got to spend more time with her, that I got to spoil her and buy her everything she ever wanted, that I got to give her a hug as she went off to her first day of school. My only wish was that she got to live." Tony choked out.          

After Tony had gotten himself together Coulson began. "Natasha is my daughter in law, she was and is a huge part of my family and I love her with all of my heart along with my son, which is why the day I found out that Natasha was going to be having a baby with my son, I was absolutely shocked and floored. I was so excited that two of my favorite people were getting a chance to have the life that I never had, but always wanted, it was amazing for me. I also found out that same night that I was going to be a grandfather, something that I had growing up as a child. My grandfather was someone who I always admired and someone who I still look up to today and I took that role very seriously. I wanted to be the best grandfather I could be to Elizabeth. Elizabeth she was so amazing, and I remember sitting at my desk when I got the phone call that Natasha had gone into labor. I wanted to rush over right away, but I couldn't and I still hate the fact that I wasn't there. One of my biggest regrets in life will always be that I wasn't there when Elizabeth was born. I feel so terrible that I didn't get to be there to help Clint and Natasha through the loss of their child and for that I will never forgive myself." 

Everyone was quiet after Coulson finished waiting for the others to go first as they collected their thoughts. Steve went next and started quietly. "Elizabeth Peggy Barton. That was her full name. I was the first one to find out. I was stunned that Clint and Natasha had named her after Peggy and I was honored that they had thought so much of the woman that I had loved. When I had learned that I was going to be an uncle, I was so happy, I actually almost broke the table I was sitting next to when I jumped on it. I wanted to take her to my old neighborhood, teach her about the past, let her see everything. Actually there isn't much that I didn't want to do with her, but one of the things I was most looking forward to was taking her out to Conney Island with Bucky. It was one of our favorite things to do as kids and I wanted to pass that tradition on to her. I've made so many sketches of what I thought she would look like over the past six months, but when I finally saw her, I knew that my sketches weren't even close to doing her justice. So I made her a portrait and I drew in Clint and Natasha. It was my way of coping." Steve finished, grabbing the portrait and displaying it next to the coffin.

Maria looked at the picture and walked closer to admire it with a smile on her face and after a moment she began. "Natasha and Clint loved the baby so much, she was their everything. It wasn't fair that they lost her when they did. I don't know how many nights Natasha called me excited that she felt the baby move, she was so starstruck by everything that she had to tell someone. I wish that I was able to do something to make this better for her and Clint, but there is nothing anyone can do for them at this point. They are handling things their own way and knowing them they are together, trying to figure out what they are going to do now." She took a breath and looked at Sam. "They are together mourning the loss of someone who they loved, someone who I loved, someone we loved." She said without breaking eye contact with Sam around the lump in her throat with tears starting to fall. 

Sam waited for Maria to finish and then went. "I remember one time..." He paused, took a breath and then started over. "I remember one time, I was staying at the tower and it was just Natasha and me. I think you guys had a meeting or something and I was the one who got to stay home with Natasha. I remember she was just sitting on the couch eating cereal, it was one of her favorite foods to eat while she was pregnant, or as she would say it was the baby's favorite food. I sat down with her and I remember I was terrified to ask her, but I asked her if the next time she felt the baby move if I could feel it too. She was so happy that I asked, like so unbelievably happy that she grabbed my hand right away and the baby moved for me. Now mind you this was pretty late in the pregnancy and Elizabeth was breech at this point so Nat was a little nervous. I mean she didn't want to complicate an already complicated delivery even more. " Sam had to stop to wipe his eyes and clear his throat because his voice had died out. "After she went to Bruce the next day she came running up to me and gave me one of the biggest hugs I have ever gotten, and she told me that I had flipped the baby. She said that I was her knight in shinning armor because nothing else had worked. But I mean look where that armor landed us." Sam choked out, finally letting some emotion slip through.   

After Rhodey gave Sam a hug he wiped his eyes and went next. "I've never told anyone this because Natasha had asked me not to, but considering the circumstances I don't think she would mind. One night I was staying in the tower and it was late and I couldn't sleep so I was just walking around, and I heard noises down in the lab and I got really annoyed because Bruce and Tony had both gone to bed, so I went down there to check it out, thinking it was one of them, but instead of finding Bruce or Tony, I found Natasha. This was early on in the pregnancy, but I found her on the table where she would always get her ultrasounds done and she had the ultrasound machine on. I went over to talk to her to tell her to go to sleep because she didn't respond to me. But when I got closer to her she was crying, and if I didn't know Natasha better I would say she was crying hysterically, so I freaked out. When I finally got her to calm down and she was able to talk to me, she told me that she couldn't hear the heart beat and that she thought she lost the baby. The first thing I did was give her a hug and I held her while she cried, then when she got up to go wake up Clint and tell him, I told her to wait and to see if maybe she missed something. When I went over to the ultrasound machine the first thing I noticed was that the sound dial was turned all the way down to off. After I told Natasha and she rechecked the baby, we had a good laugh. Too bad that this solution is a lot harder than just turning the sound on." 

"Who is the guy in the hat over there. He's been standing there since we started and hasn't left, I'm about to go kill him." Fury said angrily which brought everyone's attention to the man in the hat. 

"Oh, that's just Wade Wilson. He was the only person outside of the family that Clint wanted here. Just leave him be, he said he didn't want to intrude, but Clint asked for him to be here." Pepper said around the lump in her throat. "Since I'm talking I might as well go. I could talk for hours about what Natasha has been through, how much Natasha wanted this, how excited I was for the baby, how excited she was for the baby, but none of it seems right and all of it feels right. I guess I'm not making sense, but nothing makes sense right now. It wasn't fair that we didn't get the chance to see her, but it was even less fair that Clint and Natasha didn't get to have their daughter who they would have done anything, gave anything, tried anything for. They both would have happily laid down their lives for her, Clint especially and now Elizabeth's gone and she was their everything. I'm not only scared for what is going to happen next, I'm terrified that because we lost our niece and I lost my Goddaughter, that we are going to lose Clint and Natasha too, and I think that that is going to be too much loss for any family to handle especially ours because they are our glue. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I wish that this didn't happen so we might have had a chance at predicting what come next." Pepper choked out finally letting the floodgates open and Tony wrapped her in a hug. 

After a long moment of silence Bruce began to go. "Clint has always trusted me. He's been one of the very few people who didn't care that I am the Hulk or that he lives inside of me. We had an understanding of each other, both of us did things we regretted and didn't want to do when we weren't in control of ourselves. He trusted me with Natasha, with the baby, with his and Natasha's baby. He got Natasha to trust me after I almost killed her, he's done so much for me, and he's never asked me for anything in return until now. He asked me to take care of Natasha and Elizabeth, he trusted me with their lives, and what did I do? I let them down, I let him down. I don't deserve their friendship or my spot as Elizabeth's Godfather, but I am so happy that they gave it to me, I just wish that I could have done something, anything for them, anything to save Elizabeth because I loved her and I love them." He finished by wiping away the tears that had started to fall.  

Thor began to go and Pepper who had finally stopped sobbing began to get nervous, along with the rest of the team. "I adored baby Elizabeth she was so cute, even though I had never seen her. I remember Lady Natasha letting me feel her kicks and movements, she would have made a great warrior, she had a fighter's spirit. I wanted to take her to Asgard on the weekends, she would have been treated like royalty, I wanted to take her across the nine realms and show her all the beautiful sights that they had to offer. I quite loved the young Barton child, just as I love the Barton's and I hope that they will find peace in knowing that they will see their little girl again one day when they meet together in Valhalla. I hope that Elizabeth is touring all of the nine realms and enjoying all of their wonders at her place in the halls of Valhalla."  

After three minutes of no one speaking up to go Rhodey took control again and began to end the ceremony. "Now that everyone has spoken that wanted to go, we will end this ceremony by placing roses onto the casket." Rhodey goes down around the circle handing everyone a red rose except for Bucky who had his own. The circle then disbanded into a line with everyone keeping the same order except for Maria and Sam who were now walking hand in hand to put their roses on at the front of the line. After everyone except for Thor and Bucky had went the procession stopped momentarily so Thor could put an Asgardian blessing on his rose before he set it down next to the others. After Thor had set down his everyone waited as Bucky pulled out and placed down a white rose on top of the others. 

After everyone had placed their rose and said their goodbyes everyone started to pile into their vehicles with only Bucky and Fury still outside in the cold. Fury was by the car with Maria and Coulson inside and Bucky was still by her headstone so Steve came up to him. 

"Hey buck, do you want me to stay with you?" He shouted over the wind to which Bucky only shook his head, and Steve respected his wishes by getting in the plane and leaving with everyone else. Over by Fury's car Bucky could hear him shouting. 

"WOW! You're such a piece of shit Barton that you couldn't even make it to your own daughter's funeral." Fury finished as an arrow soared through the air and took out the phone. Fury looks at it with surprise and tosses it away and mutters under his breath, "Well shit." and gets in the waiting car and drives away. 

"Nick, where's my phone?" Coulson asks as he starts to drive away.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get you a new one."

Bucky was standing in front of Elizabeth's headstone gently running his hands over her name that was carved into the white marble as he shouted. "You can come out now Barton. It's just me. I won't tell the others." 

Clint came out of the shadows and walked up to Bucky who immediately wrapped his arms around Clint in an unreturned hug. "You look like shit man. Have you heard anything from Natasha?" 

"No." 

"Have you looked for her?"

"Not really." Clint said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Do I need to go look for her then?" 

"I don't know, I don't really care. She doesn't love me anymore so it's whatever." 

"Clint you know that she couldn't stop loving you even if she tried."

"Well she is obviously trying because she left. Are you done here?" He asked as Bucky started to walk away.

"You know that if you don't go look for her you'll always regret it." He said over his shoulder as he walked away. 

Clint mutters, "God dammit Bucky." as he walks away. 

Clint turns back to the headstone and stares at it for a little while and then sits down and pulls out his bow and begins to talk to the headstone. "Hey Elizabeth. It's your Daddy here. So I was going to teach you this when you got older, but you know I'm going to teach it to you now. So this is a bow, it's beautiful but it's mine. I would have got you the best bow had you gotten older, it would have been great, we would have gone out shooting, I might have let you beat me one time, maybe. These are your arrows right here, they can be made of almost anything, but I prefer carbonfiber when I have the option. So here's how you shoot a bow and arrow, you put the arrow in the string then you pullback and hold it until you find your target and then you release." Clint said demonstrating while sitting. "You know, I think you would have loved this. I know I loved you. You know that right?" Clint asked pausing to wipe away the tears. "I love you so much and so did your mom. Your mom she wishes that she could be here, but she's having a really hard time right now and so am I, but your mother and I handle things differently. We are kinda going through a rough spot right now, but that doesn't mean that we love you any less. I mean the only thing holding me together right now is the fact that I know I'll see you again eventually, which will probably be sooner rather than later. Your mom she couldn't come to say goodbye right now, but I'll bring her back here one day to do it properly with her. I love you Elizabeth, please never forget that." Clint said as he placed his carnation next to Bucky's white rose. 

"Пожалуйста, прости меня Элизабет. Я люблю тебя так сильно. Однажды я увижу тебя снова." Clint said and gave the headstone a kiss and walked away.  

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top