Tony Stark kept his arm wrapped tightly around Audelia's waist, guiding her along with the team up to the large farmhouse that Clint was currently leading them toward. He hadn't let go of her since she had snapped out of whatever it was the Maximoff girl had done to her, knowing that whatever it was it really messed her up.
"What is this place?" Thor questioned as Clint led them up the stairs toward the front door of the house. Deli shrugged her shoulders.
"A safe house," she spoke, her voice soft. It broken Tony's heart as he held one of the strongest women he's ever known tighter in his arms.
"Let's hope," Clint said to the team, opening the front door of the house with Natasha slung around his shoulders. "Honey? I'm home."
The team stopped in their tracks as a heavily pregnant women turned the corner into the living room, looking at them in complete shock just as they looked back at her in shock.
"Hi, company. Sorry I didn't call ahead,"
"This is an agent of some kind," Tony mumbled to Deli and Steve, as Clint placed a kiss on the woman's lips, turning to face the team once again.
"Everyone, this is Laura, my wife," Clint told the team as Laura smiled nervously, waving her hand at them.
"I know all of your names..."
Footsteps were heard on the stairs as suddenly two young kids came rushing down, the boy and girl's faces lighting up at the sight of Clint.
"Dad!"
"Hey guys!" Clint laughed, taking the kids into his arms as he held them tightly.
Deli smiled at the sight, nudging Tony in the side.
"What are these, smaller agents?"
Tony rolled his eyes, ignoring the comments from his lover as the kids ran toward their 'Auntie Nat'. Natasha's face grew a large smile as she hoisted the little girl into her arms, spinning her around. Steve looked around awkwardly, clearing his throat to gain everyone's attention.
"We're sorry for barging in on you like this-"
"Yeah, we would've called ahead but we were busy having no idea that you existed," Tony finished off with a shrug as Clint laughed.
"Yeah, well, Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files and I'd like to keep it that way. Figured it's a good place to lay low."
The team nodded in agreement, knowing that laying low was all they could do at the moment.
Thor was the only one who still seemed completely off, turning on his heel immediately and stalking out of the front door. Steve told Tony he'd handle it, following closely behind the god to get answers.
"Hey, Laura," Tony spoke awkwardly, looking between Clint and his wife before casting a glance down at Audelia, who still stood quietly at his side. "Is there a guest room we can use? Maybe rest for a moment?"
"Of course. If you just head upstairs-"
"I think I'm going to get some fresh air first," Deli finally spoke, sending the woman a kind smile as she stepped out of Tony's arms. "Thank you for your hospitality, I just really need some fresh air at the moment."
All Tony could do was watch as Audelia followed in the footsteps of Steve, heading right out the front door as he was left inside with the remains of the team, unsure of what to do.
"She needs you right now, you know?"
Tony turned on his heel, seeing Natasha now standing beside him instead of Laura and Clint. She was visibly shaken up as well, dark circles under her eyes, but her concern was focused on her friend that had just walked out the door.
"What she needs is space,"
"Yeah, from the rest of us," Nat told Tony, shrugging her shoulder as she turned to follow Bruce upstairs. "But never from you."
Footsteps making the wooden boards of the porch creak, Tony Stark made his way down the stairs, seeing his love sitting off in the distance under a tree, feet curled up on the bench beneath her as she looked off into the distance at the field of green that expanded past her.
Deli was caught in her own thoughts. She wasn't scared, she wasn't sad, she wasn't sure what she was. Something about reliving that moment...it almost brought her peace.
"You seem to be enjoying this," Tony spoke quietly, sliding into the space on the bench beside Audelia as she continued to look off into the trees. "Big house, lots of land, is this your dream retirement plan?"
She cracked a smile, adjusting herself on the bench as she looked up at the tree branches above her.
"Throw in a lake and I might be sold,"
Tony laughed, watching the woman he'd loved his entire life look up into the light breaking through the tree branches. He reached his hand out, taking her smaller one in his, and held her tight.
"Dell...what did she make you see?"
It was all quiet for a moment before Deli turned, looking the man she loved in the eyes as a tear fell down her cheek.
"Mom...I saw mom,"
That was all she had to say for Tony to know exactly what she meant, his heart breaking knowing she had to relive the most horrific moment in her life. He opened his arms, allowing Audelia to place herself in them, leaning on his chest as she stared forward into the trees.
"It's been so long...I forgot the sound of her screams that day," Deli's hands were shaking slightly as she placed with the ends of Tony's shirt. "I forgot what it was like to hear her beg that soldier to spare me, to stare into her eyes, to watch him almost kill my dad too. Having to watch it all happen again, it was..."
"I swear, when I see that little bitch, I'm going to k-"
"-it was cathartic in a way,"
The word surprised Tony as Deli looked up at him, a sad smile on her lips.
"I never knew who killed her that day. No one ever knew who the man was that pulled the trigger. But reliving that moment...I saw him," Deli paused for a moment, remembering the man that pulled the trigger. "It was HYDRA."
Tony's arm tightened around her as he sighed, swallowing the lump in his throat.
"Should've known. The work that she was doing...doesn't surprise me that they wanted her gone," Tony paused for a moment, realizing that Audelia had said she had seen the man. "Dell...do you know the man that did it?"
Audelia smiled as she looked off into the clouds.
"I do,"
"Who was he?"
"It doesn't matter," Deli told him with a smile. Flashes of that silver arm with the red star floated through her mind for a second, before she remembered the look on James Buchanan Barnes' face that day by the water as she knelt beside Steve. The terror, the confusion, the guilt. "Because the soldier that killed my mom...that's not the man he really is. I forgive him, for all of it."
The pair sat in silence for a moment, piecing together the last few hours of their lives. Audelia sat back, looking up at Tony as she smiled, placing her hand on his cheek and bringing him into a loving kiss that they melted away into.
They didn't speak of that moment again, not as they got up and walked back toward the house. Like Audelia had said, it was cathartic.
Steve Rogers was busy chopping firewood as Deli and Tony joined him, helping him chop up the pieces. Deli remained silent, letting the two men talk as she helped gather the firewood into piles.
"Thor didn't say where he was going for answers?"
"Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things," Steve shot back, giving Tony a look. "I was kind of hoping Thor would be the exception."
Tony rolled his eyes, ignoring the comment as he passed Deli another piece of firewood.
"Yeah, give him time. We don't know what the Maximoff kid showed him,"
"We're supposed to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes, that's what they call us," Deli cut in, shaking her head as she turned to look at the boys. "Ultron and the twins...they pulled us apart like cotton candy. Like it was nothing."
"Seems like you walked away all right," Tony said to Steve, who stopped in his tracks and looked back at him.
"Have a problem with that?"
"I don't trust a guy without a dark side. Call me old fashioned,"
"Give the star spangled man a break," Deli joked, laughing at Steve's eyeroll at the old nickname. "Maybe we just haven't seen it yet."
"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?" Tony interjected again as Steve sighed.
"Well I guess you'd know. Whether you tell us is a bit of a question,"
Tony looked appalled, looking to Deli for guidance. She shook her head, holding her hands up in surrender as she watched the mini fight unfold before her.
"Banner and I were doing research-"
"That would affect the team-"
"That would end the team!" Tony shouted, shaking his head in exasperation. "Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the "why" we fight, so we can end the fight, so we get to go home? So we cna be happy, retire, get on with the rest of our lives?"
Steve's annoyance was at a breaking point as he ripped the log in his hands in half, the two pieces falling to the sides as he glared at Tony.
"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time,"
Tony looked to Deli once more, who shoot her head as she leaned on the shovel in the ground next to her.
"Honey, you already know my thoughts on Ultron, what I thought about the whole thing. The team deserved to know, and he shouldn't have been made," she shook her head at her love as Laura Barton approached them from the side. "Don't look at me for help here."
"I'm sorry..." Laura said, walking up to the group awkwardly. "Mr. Stark, uh, Clint said you wouldn't mind, but, our tractor, it doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought maybe you might..."
"Yeah, I'll take a look,"
Audelia stood back with Steve, watching as Tony stalked away from the pair toward the barn. She could tell that whatever Wanda had showed him that day in Sokovia, it was still with him every second.
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Not gonna lie, I'm so ready for Age of Ultron to be over so I can get onto Civil War already jesus