What's up my awesome readers! I'm feeling super pumped for this chapter and I hope you are too! This is probably going to sound weird, but I'm super excited for next school year because I'm going to be taking AP Psychology.
I find psychology fascinating. Lol, and I find myself diagnosing people that I know. I'm like, "She has ADHD I think.". "Thanos is kind of schizophrenic.".
Yeah, I'm different.
Anyways, I'm probably going to do a Steve's pov in this chapter. I don't know yet. And I also think that in a couple chapters that Bucky is going to have another pov.
Also, if you haven't voted on the previous chapter yet, please go do so! Votes are what keeps Melissa's story alive and if you want to find out more, then please vote!
And commenting and feedback is very important and every time I see someone comment on a chapter, it makes my day. And I will most likely always reply to your comment as well!
~Grace
Melissa's pov
The Quinjet lands outside a large farmhouse and it almost reminds me of my parents farm. We all get out of the aircraft and walk towards the house.
"What is this place?", Thor asks, uncertain.
"A safe house?", Tony offered.
"Let's hope.", Clint opens the door and we all follow him. "Honey, I'm home.". Then I know that we are in Clint's new house that he told me about a while back. I couldn't wait to see the other guys' faces when they found out that Clint had a secret family.
Laura, who is heavily pregnant, which I definitely did not know about, walks in from the kitchen.
Clint walks up, "Hi. Company. Sorry, I didn't call in advance.".
"Hey.", she said to all of us, obviously a little uncomfortable with the most famous people in the entire world in her house.
Laura kisses Barton and Tony says to Thor in denial, "This is an agent of some kind.".
"Gentlemen, this is Laura.", Clint introduced, turning to us. Laura turned to me and gave me a hug. "It is so good to see you again!", Laura said, giving me a loving squeeze.
"I see that you have a new package about to be delivered.", I smiled with a wink.
"Yeah.", she placed her hand reverently over her abdomen and then turned to everybody else, "I know all of your names. I try not to smile as they all look at her awkwardly and some of them even glance at me in question.
Clint turns around and says happily, "Ooh, incoming.", Clint's children, Cooper and Lila, run in.
"Dad!", Lila yells in excitement and jumps in his arms. Clint picks her up, "Hi, sweetheart.", then he kissed the top of his son's head. "Hey, buddy! How you guys doing? Ooh...".
Tony interrupts and says to the others as they watch in pure surprise and disbelief, "These are...smaller agents.".
"Look at your face! Oh, my goodness!", Clint says to his daughter.
Lila asks in her adorable voice, "Did you bring Auntie Nat?" and a look I have never seen on Nat's face appears. Almost vulnerable and a pure joy spreads across her face as she bends down and opens her arms, "Why don't you hug her and find out?". Lila rushes towards Natasha, who picks her up in her arms.
Steve, always so old-fashioned and polite, "Sorry for barging in on you.".
"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed.", Tony explained a little snarkily.
"Yeah, well Fury set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low.", Clint explained to the others.
"Honey. Ah, I missed you.", Laura said affectionately at Clint.
Natasha set Lila down and walked over to Laura. She touches Laura's stomach, "How's little Natasha, huh?".
Laura replies a little apologetically, "She's...Nathaniel.".
Nat bent down towards Laura's pregnant stomach, "Traitor.", she whisper haughtily at Laura's child.
Little Cooper walked up to me and tugged on my thigh holster, which thankfully did not contain a gun. I looked down at him and smiled, "What have you been up to since I last saw you, you little rascal?".
He smiled and held his hands up for me to hold him. Picking him up and setting him on my hip, I asked Laura, "So when's the baby due?".
"Oh, not much longer. It could be a couple days or even a week.", Laura replied, caressing her swollen abdomen. I felt a strange pull at my heart at the tender gesture. I knew from the time that I was a young girl that I wanted to be a mother. It was one of my life long dreams. I know that there are other ways of having children, like adopting, but there is nothing as special and sacred as carrying a child of your own.
Knowing that a miracle is growing inside of you, it is something that I have always wanted to experience, but now, that chance is gone. Sometimes you have to let go of your dreams to find new ones, but it's hard. At least for me it is.
"If you need a babysitter after the baby comes, I'll gladly be the one to do it.", I offered.
Laura thought for a moment, "That would actually be a huge help, thanks Melissa.", she hugged me awkwardly, her swollen belly in the way. We both laughed, "I can't even fit behind the driver's seat anymore!", Laura exclaimed, bubbling with laughter.
We talked for a while. Topics ranged from kids to Ultron and even the funny, mundane things of life. I was all sticky and grimy, which I abhor. I placed my hands on my thighs and stood up, "I think that I'll go take a shower, if that's okay with you.".
"Be my guest.", she gestured to the bathroom.
"Thank you.". Locking the door, I turned and looked in the mirror at my disheveled self. My hair was poking up in all directions, black grease was smudged on my face, and there was a trickle of dried blood on my forehead. I touched it lightly and winced before drawing back from my reflection. I turned the hot shower on and sunk down on the closed toilet seat. Head hanging in my hands, I thought over the events that had taken place in just mere days. I felt the air starting to thicken with hot steam and I stripped myself of my foul smelling suit. Tossing it carelessly to the side, I stepped into the shower and felt the scalding hot water soak into my skin.
I let out a satisfied sigh and squirted some shampoo into the palm of my hand. I scrubbed my scalp vigorously, removing any fetid odor from my hair. I rinsed my hair out and put in some conditioner. I let the conditioner soak into my hair as I washed my body. Heavenly is the word that I would use to describe the feeling of getting clean. I stood underneath the stream of steaming water and watched distantly the soap sliding off my body.
Finished and replete, I stepped out of the shower. I wrapped a cream colored towel around my body and opened the door, peeking out. Frowning, I felt something in the way of the door. I looked down and saw a pile of neatly folded clothes and a note on top.
Curious, I picked up the note and read, "Melissa, these are for you. I figured it wouldn't be very comfortable or pleasant to sleep in your suit. Laura.". I smiled and bent down to pick up the clothes. Locking the door again, I donned the comfortable pajamas that Laura had lended to me. I exited the bathroom with my suit in hand. I put it in the guest room before walking to the kitchen where the rest of the team was having a pow wow.
We were there for just a couple days and I could already see Steve and Tony becoming restless, like they were desperate to get back to fighting again.
Clint walked into the room, "Hey, Melissa, would you mind helping Tony and Steve chop wood? They need to be shown how to. And I thought that since you lived on a farm...", but I interrupted, "Of course. I never shy from showing the boys that they don't know everything.", and with a smirk I walked out the door.
I jogged down the steps and approached them. They were both staring awkwardly at the large pile of uncut wood holding axes, obviously having no clue whatsoever what to do. With my hands on my hips I called out, "You look a little lost, boys. Need me to show you the ropes?", I said a little patronizingly.
"Uh, yeah. Sure.", Tony shrugged.
I walked up and held my hand out, gesturing for Tony to hand me his ax. It took him a split second to figure out what I was wanting. "Oh.", and he handed it to me quickly. I nodded my head and proceeded to the wood pile.
I grabbed a block of wood and set it in the center of the tree stump. "So, one of the first things that you want to do is make sure that your piece of wood is in the center of the stump. Then you keep your eye on the target, which is the center of the wood, so that you can chop the wood in half.".
I glanced at them and they apparently weren't grasping what I was telling them. I sighed and faced them. "It's like how you, Tony, aim your blasters at your target and you don't miss. And Steve, it's like how you throw your shield at something and it hits it exactly where you want it to.". They nodded their heads slowly. Good, they're actually getting it.
I turned back to the stump and in one, perfect swing, I sliced the wood in half. I picked up the two pieces and showed them to Steve and Tony as an example. Their eyes widened in shock and Tony asked, "When did you learn how to do that, because I don't remember you ever training to chop wood.".
I rolled my eyes, "Uh, I grew up on a farm. That's a pretty obvious thing, so that should explain why I know how to chop wood.". Handing Tony the ax with a smirk, "That should be an example enough for you, I promised Cooper that I would help him build his Star Wars Star Destroyer lego set.", and with that, I walked into the house.
Cooper squealed in delight when he saw me and grabbed my hand. He practically dragged me to his room and I saw that he already had his room picked up and the legos set out with instructions.
We both sat down and got to work. We worked non-stop for three hours, except for bathroom and snack breaks. When the Star Destroyer was complete, Cooper carefully carried it out of his room, with me not following far behind, into the living room. He proudly showed off his masterpiece and was delighted to hear the oohs and aahs, along with the rain of compliments that followed. He set the ship onto the coffee table and ran back into his room. When I followed, he was already working intently on another lego set. Shaking my head with a smile, I walked back into the living room. We've got to leave soon.
At the U-Gin Genetic Research Lab...
"Two minutes. Stay close.", Steve ordered through comms. Not soon after, I heard Steve exclaim, "Dr. Cho!".
"He's uploading himself into the body.", Helen sounded like she was seriously wounded and she was rasping out the words.
"Where?", Steve asked anxiously.
"The real power is inside the Cradle. The gem, its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark.", Helen breathed out sharply, her voice sounding weak.
"First I have to find it.", Steve replied thoughtfully.
"Go.", Helen said, urgency filled her voice.
"Did you guys copy that?", Steve double checked.
"We did.", Clint replied.
"I got a private jet taking off, across town, no manifest. That could be him.", Natasha proposed.
"Do you want me to head there, Cap?", I asked.
But before Steve could answer, Clint said, "There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap. on the loop by the bridge. It's them. I got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the drive.", Clint suggested.
"Negative!", Steve ordered. "If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron.".
"I'm game.", I replied and started running in the direction that Steve instructed me to go. I saw in the distance Steve try to open the truck door but Ultron blasted it.
"Well, he's definitely unhappy! I'm gonna try and keep him that way.", Steve shouted through comms.
"You're not a match for him, Cap.", Clint was not being very helpful.
"Thanks, Barton.", Steve said with irritance.
"Super encouraging, Clint. Not.", I said, annoyed.
I hear from behind me, "I'm always picking up after you boys.", I glanced back and saw Natasha riding a motorcycle.
"Hey, why didn't I get one of those!", I complained.
"Just hop on.", Nat ordered, obviously not in the mood to hear my complaints. I hopped on the back and she sped up.
"They're heading under the overpass, I've got no shot.", Clint informed us.
"Which way?", she asked.
"Hard right... now.", Clint instructed. She does so and I grip the seat so as to not fall onto the hard concrete going 60+ miles per hour. We spot the truck and she heads for it. "Here, take the handles.", Natasha said quickly and she let go of the handles. In a panic, I quickly grasped them as Nat threw Steve's shield back at him and he used it to knock Ultron away from him.
We are riding through heavily crowded streets and Nat is trying to navigate through the chaos, "Out of the way, coming through! Sorry, coming through!" We both jumped off the motorcycle and ran over a couple of cars.
"Come on!" Steve muttered in frustration.
"Clint, can you draw out the guards?", Nat inquired.
"Let's find out.".
"Beep beep!" Nat yells.
"That means get out of the way!", I added to some of the pedestrians who just stood there staring. They scurried out of our path as we charged on. "Heading back towards you. So whatever you do, do it now.", Clint said.
I split up from Nat and ran to where Steve was. I crashed through a window on the train, which hurt. I started running through the cars, using brunt force to go through the doors. Then a whoosh goes by me and Pietro stops in front of me.
"We're here to help.", Pietro informed me, because I was in shock.
I glared at him through narrowed eyes, "Am I supposed to believe that bullshit?" I demanded.
"There's no time to explain.", then he sped away. I felt a tingling sensation and I turned to see Wanda standing there, looking ready for a fight. She strode past me and started fighting against Ultron.
"Please. Don't do this.", Ultron pleaded, which was strange.
"What choice do we have?", Wanda asked brokenly. Then Ultron flew off, "I lost him! He's head your way!", Steve shouted.
"Nat, we gotta go!", I heard Clint say. A few moments pass until Clint's panicked voice asks, "Nat! Cap, you see Nat?".
"If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!", Steve commanded, having no time to look for Nat. This was important. The mission was important.
"Do you have eyes on Nat?", Clint wasn't budging.
"Go!", Steve ordered, yelling louder. He turned to Wanda, "Can you stop this thing?". She nods and Pietro dashes away and [icks up civilians and moves them out of the way of the uncontrollable train.
Wanda pulls her arms back and uses all of her power that she can muster and red shoots out of her hands and the wheels start to screech in protest. Eventually the train comes to a stop and we help get everybody out of the train.
Wanda goes over to an out of breath Pietro, "I'm fine. I just need to take a minute.".
Steve and I walked over with stern looks on our faces, "I'm very tempted not to give you one.".
"You have some explaining to do.", I said.
Wanda ignored us, "The Cradle, did you get it?".
"Stark will take care of it.", Steve put it to rest.
Fear filled Wanda's eyes, "No, he won't".
"You don't know what you're talking about, Stark's not crazy.", Steve tried to set her fears at rest.
"Tony does make mistakes, but he learned from this mistake.", I added.
"He will do anything to make things right.", Wanda's eyes were filled with desperation, she was wanting us to believe her, but that's pretty hard to do considering what she did to us, including me.
Steve sighed and put his hand to his ear, "Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?". No reply as fear and realization starts to creep in.
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?".
Wow, another chapter is done and it is really long, well really long in my opinion. There are two or three more chapters until we reach the halfway mark in this book! Woo-hoo! Almost another milestone reached!
Now, just click that next part button for me.
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Lots of love and hugs
~Grace