Space Between Us

Dreams and Explanations

Three year old Emily Stark ran into the living room. It was a Saturday morning and her Auntie Pepper had promised to take her to the zoo. They hadn't been able to celebrate her birthday the week before because her daddy, the famous Tony Stark, had been dragging them across the country for expos and, of course, parties. Pepper smiled at her, "Good morning Emily!" 

She gave the woman a toothy grin, "Good morning Auntie Pepper! What's for breakfast?" 

She picked up the little girl and walked them into the kitchen, "How about I get you some cereal?"

A hungover Tony half stumbled half walked into the kitchen, "Oh. Hey Pepper." 

The older woman gave her boss a crisp, unimpressed look, "I'm taking Emily to the zoo today. You have two meetings this afternoon." 

"Why does that spoiled brat get to go to the zoo? It's not like its her birthday or anything," he raised an eyebrow at her.

Pepper tensed and put Emily onto the floor before walking towards him, her voice cold, "It is her birthday and the only spoiled brat here is you."

~~~

She sat up as soon as she woke up, needing to go and tear apart a punching bag. Every now and then she would see a memory of her childhood before the Red Room Academy, punching something always helped her get it out of her system. Always. Her biological father never cared for her, and Pepper only looked after her so she didn't die. Emily Maria Pepper Stark was a burden and had died at KGB- Maria Petrova took her place. Then Maria Petrova was destroyed- Morrigan Romanoff Barton showing her face. Three personalities, eighteen years. Even though her name changed it didn't change much. It just made the memories easier to handle. A silent reminder she wasn't Madam B's perfect little assassin, or her former family's unnecessary burden. She slid off her bed and grabbed her crutch before limping her way down the stairs. When she finally reached the kitchen she found Nat and her parents in the kitchen, talking quietly between each other. Clint looked up when he spotted her, "Hey, I didn't hear you come down." 

"I'm an assassin, you're not supposed to hear me," she rolled her eyes and 'walked' over, a small smirk on her face.

Nat gave her a gentle hug before getting down to business, "Tell us what happened in Italy." 

She sighed and slipped onto one of the stools, "Why do you want to know? It really isn't that important." She wasn't trying to be rude but she didn't want to talk about it. 

Laura gave her a slightly annoyed/loving look, "Because we know all the injuries you got from that mission and want to know what happened. Now stop putting it off and tell us everything." 

She sucked in as deep of a breath as she could before launching right into the story, "The Captain and I were tasked on taking down what was supposed to be a minor Ten Rings base- that's why it was just us- but the place was like an iceberg, most of it was underground. We were only expecting a hundred or so hostiles, but there were over a thousand there. We were barely conscious and they kept coming at us. We got cornered and ended up jumping to almost certain death, but we landed on the walkway. I got knocked out when I hit my head, and seconds later a bomb went off- inches away from us. The walkway collapsed, part of the ceiling did too, and we were stuck under the rubble for an approximate 21 hours. A SHIELD team finished the last little bit of the mission and dug us out. We were both in surgery for about six-ten hours. Five days later Rogers woke up- I followed three days later. You happy now?"

"Why were you under the rubble for so long?" Clint frowned and shook his head, there was something she hadn't mentioned.

There was a short silence, "The recovery team almost didn't find us- if it wasn't for the fact I woke up briefly we would most likely both be dead by now." Before anyone could say anything her phone started buzzing.

 Director Fury                                                                                                                                                                  You only have three weeks until you're expected at work. Be ready.                                                      

She didn't reply, but was relieved it was so short. As fun as breaks were she missed the action. Nat scolded her, "Put the phone away, Mor, we're having a serious conversation here." 

She obliged but shrugged, not caring, "It was Fury- I had to check." It was a silent rule that if Nick Fury, Phil Coulson or Maria Hill called or messaged them they were allowed to respond. Even if it meant missing a birthday. Their job was too serious to be off to often but they tried to be free on important days. 

"What does he want? You're injured for Christ sake, you can't go on missions!" Laura crossed her arms.

Mor shook her head- although it was nice being looked after sometimes it felt a bit over the top, "He was just telling me when I needed to be back- he knows how bad the injuries are." Usually one of the people in charge of SHIELD's employees would message them about something as small as that but Fury was directly in charge of her, so either Coulson or him dealt with it. 

She relaxed and nodded, "Good- there would be trouble if he was giving you another mission." Laura herself wouldn't be able to do much, but Nat could, and would, help her if she was about to storm into SHIELD and yell at the director.

~~~ 

Mor, Laura and Nat were curled up on the sofa with a blanket over them. Mor's head was on Nat's shoulder, and her legs over Laura's lap- there was a bowl of popcorn on the table in front of them, surrounded by a bunch of other snacks. Clint was upstairs, putting Cooper to bed and they had decided to put on Titanic. The film lasted over three hours and would make them all stiff, but it was a favourite of theirs, so they never cared.  After half an hour Clint joined them. He would never admit it but he loved Titanic, even if it was 'too goddamn sad' and 'ancient'.