Clint returned to his family on the farm, retiring, for now. The new Avengers facility had now moved to upstate New York.
Natasha was touring around the new HQ, when she received a message.
She saw the message was sent by Laura. It was a video of a baby. She frowned, remembering how her and Clint's son had "betrayed" her. She reluctantly pressed play.
'Say hi to Auntie Nat.' Laura said cheerfully to her son. He cooed at the camera, waving aimlessly.
Natasha saw the baby had been named Nathaniel Pietro Barton. She felt slightly warm about it, but it didn't override her feelings about his first name.
'Fat,' she said flatly, ending the video.
She heard someone walk up to her. She turned around to see Nick Fury.
'One of our tech boys flagged this, splashed down in the Banda Sea,' he said, handing her a tablet. 'Could be the Quinjet. But with Stark's stealth tech, we still can't track the damn thing.'
'Right,' she said apathetically.
'Probably jumped out and swam to Fiji,' he said indifferently. 'He'll send a postcard.'
'Yeah, yeah,' she said scathingly. 'Maybe, "Wish you were here." You sent me to recruit him, way back when. Did you know then what was going to happen?'
'You never know,' he said discerningly. 'You hope for the best and make do with what you get. I got a great team.'
'Nothing lasts forever,' she said bluntly.
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'Trouble, Miss Romanoff,' he said. 'No matter who wins or loses, trouble still comes around.'
He gave her a cordial nod, and walked away, leaving her staring at the wall, sighing.
~
'That man has no regard for lawn maintenance,' Tony said frivolously. 'I'm gonna miss him though. And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears. And hugs and kisses, or more, from Romanoff for you.'
They walked over towards Tony's car.
'I will miss you, Tony,' Steve said sincerely.
'Yeah? Well, it's time for me to tap out,' Tony said. 'Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book and build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up.'
'The simple life,' Steve said, lowering his head.
Tony looked at him sympathetically. 'You'll get there one day.'
'I don't know, family, stability,' he said thoughtfully. 'The guy who wanted all that went in the ice seventy-five years ago. I think someone else came out.'
