The Lone Wolf (Clint Barton)

Chapter 32: Surprise!

Jackie POV: (6 Months Later)

"Clinton Francis Barton, I swear to God, if you do not open this damn door, I will break it down and make you fix it!" I exclaimed, folding my arms with a huff. I had just come back from hunting to be met with being locked out of my own house. Granted that I hadn't lived in it for about 10 years until a couple of months ago, but it was still my name on the title. Okay, not my real name, but one of my cover names. Wow, this argument with myself really isn't helping anything. It's times like this that I really miss Shadow.

Yes, me snapping Thanos and his army out of existence had taken my wolf form and Shadow away from me, so now I was just an ordinary person...that just so happens to be a highly trained assassin, daughter of the Winter Soldier, the adopted daughter of Nick Fury, cousin of Iron Man and niece of Howard Stark. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that my best friend was the Black Widow and my boyfriend is Hawkeye. Okay, just maybe I'm not a normal human being. Plus, I have cougars as hunting pets.

Growling (I hadn't lost my ability to perform wolf-like sounds), I brought up my leg to kick in the door when it swung open. "About time." I snarled, glaring at a smiling Clint. Chuckling, he took the deer from my shoulder and let Simba and Kion into the house. I entered the closed-in porch, tossing a couple of birds onto a bloody table while Clint hung up the deer carcass.

"They're getting a little too big to be in the house." Clint pointed out.

"So is Lucky." I pointed out, nodding to the now-grown Golden Retriver. 

"He's a dog." Clint deadpanned.

"Simba and Kion are my cats then." I snarked.

"And here I thought you were a dog person." Clint teased.

"Just because I turned into a wolf didn't mean I was a dog person." I chuckled. "I've always preferred cats to dogs, but why not have a couple of dogs running around the place?" I shrugged, referring to the litter of Blue and Red Heelers that had arrived a couple of months ago. Since Clint and I had decided to leave the superhero business, I was getting into ranching. This led to me buying several head of cattle and some good horse breeding stock.

"Right." Clint nodded, glancing towards the house.

"Who's here?" I asked. Laura and the kids had decided to move into town, since Laura had gotten a job as a nurse. Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel still came here on the weekends of course, but it was quiet without kids running around. Noticing Clint looking slightly awkward, I turned from the carcass to face him. "Clint?"

"Come on." Clint sighed, directing me into the house to reveal a lot of our 'family'. Pietro, Wanda, Laura, Cooper, Lila, Nathaniel, Ed, Pepper, Morgan, Dad, Nick, Maria, Phil, and Melinda all gathered around a birthday cake. "They remembered that your birthday was today and came in to celebrate it with you." He whispered while pressing a kiss to the side of my head as they started to sing 'happy birthday'.

"Thanks guys." I smiled softly, leaning into Clint's one-armed-hug. "But you didn't have to."

"And miss your 50th Birthday? Yeah right." Ed scoffed.

"As if you're any younger, Mr. 55-year-old." I retaliated, smirking in victory as Ed sighed in defeat. Taking the offered piece of cake from Pepper, I sat on the arm of the chair Clint was sitting on. Taking a bite of the cake, I sighed while relishing the taste. Red Velvet, my favorite. After finishing the cake, we started talking and visiting, everyone going home around 6:15 pm.

Leaning against the door, I sighed in relief. Since I no longer had Shadow, my energy level had decreased significantly. "You okay, Princess?" Clint asked, finishing up with the dishes. Even though we had a dishwasher, he still insisted on washing the dishes by hand. Coming over to stand in front of me, he lifted up my face with his finger underneath my chin. "What's going on up in that brain of yours?"