The Widow Soldier

Chapter 28

"Where's Nathan?" Maggie asks me, as I walk up to her.

Instead of answering I take the small bottle of vodka that I took out of Nathan's pocket moments before, and place it in her hands. I watch as she realizes, and slowly places the bottle down on the seat she is standing next to.

She then looks at me, as if asking for permission to, I believe, slap me. I nod telling her she could. Not a moment later I feel a hand slap me across the face.

As quickly as she slapped me, she had pulled me into a hug. Crying her heart out for her late husband. I can feel her tears dropping onto my chest, wetting the top of my suit with her salty tears.

The team stands there watching this scene play out, not fully knowing how, or even if, they should intervene. Natasha, Clint, and Kira move to the cockpit to control the flight, as well as give Kira some tips for when she is finally cleared to fly a quinjet.

By the time I had, relatively, calmed Maggie down, and she was sitting with Sage, we were almost halfway to the team's destination. I had no way of telling where they set the coordinates for, so it was a guessing game for me.

"You said you would pick up your coat on the way out. Where is it?" John asked from the other row of seats.

"I lied." I stated simply to the child, "You're wearing my coat right now."

The child looks down at his body noticing he is still indeed wearing the coat I had given him prior. He takes it off and tosses it towards me.

"Nice catch." A man says.

I turn and see who spoke and my eyes land upon the man who was known as the 'Falcon'. He gives me a quick smile before turning his head away, almost as if scared or uncomfortable with continuing looking in my direction.

———Time Skip———

By the time the plane had landed, it was already past midnight and approaching sunrise quickly. The team all unloaded from the quinjet and began their walk to their respective rooms, or floors, as Tony, being a full-tilt diva, has his own floor.

Maggie, Sage, and I stand at the bottom of the quinjet ramp, still outside on the docking pad, not knowing if we were welcome, nor where we would go, if we went in.

We stood their deciding to find a motel to stay at, before the older of the two kids approaches us. He looked very tired and in need of sleep. This somehow got to me, like I was somehow responsible for him getting, or not getting, enough sleep.

"You two can sleep in an extra room we have. And um...mo- uh..River... we have a room for you already." The kid explains, receiving nods from Maggie and I.

After being shown to our respective rooms for the night, by the boy, I help Maggie get Sage settled while she changed and out her hair up in a braid. After seeing her mom put her hair in a braid, Sage asked if I could help her put her's in two braids so she could match her mom. I obviously complied, and immediately got to work braiding the precious girls hair.

When I was about halfway through the first braid there was a knock at the door. Maggie quickly got up to answer it. I get Sage to hold the braid so it doesn't fall apart, while I walk behind Maggie, hand resting on my knife in my shirt sleeve.

"Hey I just brought some extra blankets for Sage." The boy who had earlier shown us to our rooms, states.

Maggie takes the blankets saying a quick thank you before the boy, who was obviously still tired, walked back to I'm assuming his room is. I finish braiding Sage's hair and retreat back to my space for the night, leaving the duo to get some rest.

———Time Skip———

At about 2:30 in the  morning I awoke from a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep. I sat on the floor of the, where I had slept, room trying to remember what the nightmare was about, not remembering much. By the time it reached 3:36 I had given up on trying to remember and sleep, and had instead started a light workout to get my mind off of it. Using only what I had on my, which was nothing, and the floor.

When the sun started to rise I had a thin layer of sweat beading on my forehead, and had injured my right pinky finger hitting it against the bed frame. It wasn't that injured, but it was still bleeding ever so slightly.

Just then a knock came from the door. I open it and see Sage, sleepy eyed and clearly just woken up, in Maggie's arms. We make our way to the kitchen area, the smell of pancakes filling the air.

"Hey come have some breakfast." The person standing at the stove says.

They turn and I see that it is the man I remembered as Clint. Maggie takes Sage and sits down just as a few more people joined us in the kitchen. After everyone was in the kitchen and eating either at the table, standing, or at the counter top sitting on stools.

"What happened to your pinky?" One of the boys asks, and I remember his name is John.

Without saying anything I simply shrug to say that I didn't know, even though I know exactly how I injured it. I went back to eating and making sure Maggie and Sage were ok, as John leaves. A few minutes later he comes back with a band-aid.

"Here, for your pinky." He states as he reaches his hand out, asking for my hand.

I give him my hand reluctantly, and he puts the band-aid on my pinky. He then goes back to eating finishing his food quickly and walking out with the archer man, Clint.

———Time Skip———

I walk into the gym lookin for some way to let out some anger when I hear a bug thud. Someone had obviously been sparring and fell on the mat. When I turn I see Clint the arrow guy, and the boy John. The boy quickly gets up off the floor and right back into their sparring session.

After a good hour and a half of punching the devil out of a punching bag, the redheaded women Natasha enters the gym. Clearly they don't have a training schedule, as everyone comes and goes as needed or wanted. Once Natasha is seemingly warmed up she makes her way over to me.

"Wanna spar?" She asks, clearly hoping that I would spar with her.

Right as she asks me the two super soldier's walk in and immediately notice that we are talking. They very obviously watch us as they go to another sorting mat to spar with each other.

"Sure." I swiftly agree to sparring with her, and we make our way over to the mat.

Natasha seems to be on the offensive and ready to pounce and attack so I take the defensive and put my arms up to protect my face and torso. She makes the first move by swinging at my head, which I block. Since the sparring match has officially initiated, I can fight back. I swing for her head but she blocks it, and then with the time I bought with her blocking my first hit, I hit her in the torso, which pushes her back.

This gives me the perfect advantage to swiftly move around to her side and push her down, face first into the mat. While she's getting up I put my arm out in front of her and put her in a headlock. Once she taps out she stays sitting on the mat.

"You were much better before." She states.

Hey my peeps!

Please comment on spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, I will fix them.

Sorry this one took so long to get out! A lot has been going on with the holidays and school stuff.

Word count-1341
Word count does not include A/N at the end of the story.