Space Between Us

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She leant back in the chair of the quinjet, not letting go of her backpack for even a second. She had already changed into the clothes she had packed- the ones she bought not long before she was attacked- and was waiting to get back to the Helicarrier so she could give Fury the Tesseract. Not to mention Steve, Clint and Nat should be waiting for her when she arrived. She smelt awful and needed to get her wounds checked in the med-bay, followed by reporting to Fury, and eating a proper meal. Then she could go see her mom and siblings. "We are arriving now, Agent Barton."

~~~

She gripped the straps of her bag tighter as she walked into the control room, scanning for her boss. He saw her first, "Agent Barton, welcome back." 

She slipped the bag off her back, "I have something I believe you will like." He raised an eyebrow at her, Hill and Coulson started listening in. She opened the bag and a blue glow flowed out, brightening as she pulled the Tesseract into the sight of the entire room. 

Fury smirked, "Good job." He turned to Coulson, "Get a team of scientists and guards to protect the tesseract and let Rogers, Barton and Romanoff know she is back."

Coulson left, and Mor lowered her voice so only Fury could hear her, "HYDRA is back." His head snapped towards her, eye wide.

~~~ 

Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Steve Rogers were sat in the waiting room- not talking to each other. Occasionally Nat and Clint would whisper to the one another but Steve made no effort to start a conversation. They all looked towards the door when Phil Coulson walked in, "Agent Barton has returned, she is in the control room." Steve jumped to his feet and ran out the room, yelling a thanks to his superior agent over his shoulder. Clint and Nat raised an eyebrow at each other before following behind him. When they got to the control room Steve was already there, hugging Mor- both were obviously happy. Steve kissed her cheek, "I missed you so much, doll." 

She laughed and held him tighter, "I missed you too Brooklyn." Clint and Nat stood a little away from them, watching them in shock. She had never been that close to any of the other agents. It was just as likely as Coulson not being a Captain America fan. 

Hill spoke up from next to them, "I know. They're really close though- you'll get used to it." 

"She has an accent," Clint frowned, glancing at Nat.

The spider rolled her eyes, "No sh*t. She also has a guy best friend and you haven't over reacted yet." 

The archer shrugged, smiling a little, "Even if I only just met him I've seen proof of him looking after her- that is all that matters." Hill and Nat gave each other a look: give it time, he'll over react eventually.

~~~  

It was a five hour flight from the DC SHIELD base to the Safe House. Clint piloted, with Mor asleep against Nat. The redhead was running her hand through Mor's far too long hair, scowling at the bandage on her left hand- the one she hadn't let anyone look at. Clint switched on the auto-pilot and sat opposite the girls, "She looks so...peaceful when she sleeps." Nat nodded, smiling down at her niece. 

Mor shifted a little in her sleep, muttering to herself, "Little motherf*cker." Both assassins laughed.

Clint's eyes drifted down to the bandage on her hand, "What do you think happened?"

Nat gave him a grim look, "I don't know, but she has been acting off since she got back- like after Cairo- I don't think this is something she will want to talk about." Mor shifted again, her fingers curling around something they hadn't noticed she was holding. Before either could question it a beeping from the front of the jet alerted them they were about to land.

~~~

Cooper and Lila's faces practically lit up when their sister walked through the door and they ran over to her, "Mor!" She knelt down to their level, hugging them briefly before standing back up. 

Laura was next, hugging her before whispering into her ear, "Go up to your room for a bit, I'll call you when lunch is ready." She gave her her a grateful smile before running up the stairs, letting a few tears run down her face.

~~~

Mor stepped back to look at her work. On her 'frantic' bag packing between escaping the guards and stealing the tesseract she had managed to grab all the photos of her and the twins she had, along with the bracelets. She had shuffled around all the photos of her siblings, parents, Nat and Steve so they could all fit on. She was pretty proud of it. "MOR LUNCH TIME!"

~~~

Clint glanced back up at Mor, who hadn't said a word since leaving SHIELD. She was still in the clothes she arrived in and smelt faintly of different spices. There was a silver bracelet around her wrist, she hadn't had it when she left but every now and then she would touch it with her free hand. Lila was chatting excitedly to Nat about her first day at school and Cooper was telling Laura about his new friends. Her phone started buzzing and she smiled a little when she read the ID, "Hey." Whatever the person on the other end said made her smile a bit more, "Yeah I'm fine----only if you do the same----I'll call you later----okay----bye--bye." She hung up the phone and ignored the slightly surprised looks from everyone at the table.

~~~

She stared up at her blank, white ceiling. She didn't know why she couldn't sleep, she hadn't done anything out of the usual in Sokovia. For the most part anyway. For the past 11 months she had done the one thing she swore to never do: get attached to people involved in her mission. She didn't make friends at all, Steve being the exception- somehow. Perhaps it was guilt for leaving them, or simply missing them. Missing the way Wanda stuck to the rules as much as she could, missing the way Pietro would joke with her. Missing talking about guys they saw in the market with Wanda and missing how Pietro would scowl at any guy who so much as looked at them for too long. Light started to filter into her room and she sighed, pulling herself out of the warm embrace of her covers.