Venom | Avengers: Age of Ultron [5]

Chapter 30

3rd Person's POV

Clint rushed out of the door, soon followed by a worried Nat and Scott. They found her passed out in the grass, and Clint quickly checked her pulse. "What's wrong with her?" Scott asked as he scooped her up. "We don't know," He admitted. Nat was about to say something, but Clint was already back inside.

"Is this normal?" Scott asked her. "Sort of. It only started last year," She admitted as the two went back inside. Up in Ellie and Nat's room, the kid was startled as Clint came in, laying her on the bed. He looked up at Clint with questioning eyes, pointing to her. "She's okay. She just needs some sleep," He lied, before coming back downstairs.

"Will she be okay?" Sam asked nervously. "We think so," He said. Steve was pacing in the living room, deep in thought. "You think so?" Bucky asked in disbelief. "This isn't the first time this has happened. We don't know what causes it," He said.

"It's arguments," Natasha blurted. "What?" Everyone's eyes had snapped onto her. "When we were on the porch, she told me arguments are what causes these episodes. It only happens with people close to her," She said. "Then wouldn't these happen every time Steve and Tony were butting heads?" Clint asked.

"I think it's only major arguments," Nat admitted. "Why didn't she say anything earlier?" Tanya asked. "She was going to until the argument broke out, and we know what happened then," She said. "So this is my fault," Steve spoke up. "Basically, yeah," Clint was pretty pissed at Steve at the moment and the way he had treated Tanya.

"What has been going on with you, Steve?" Nat asked. "What do you mean?" He asked. "Your head's stuck pretty far up your ass," Tanya snapped. "No one's listening to me!" He defended. "We're a team. That means we work together, we don't blindly follow one member," Nat pointed out.

"I'm trying to keep us all safe," He argued. "Фигня. You nearly abandoned two kids, two innocent kids, in the middle of the forest," Bucky snapped, and Steve cringed. He hated listening to Bucky speak Russian, it reminded him what he had gone through, and it wasn't the man he was used to. "They could be spies," Steve argued.

"Spies? Seriously, Steve? One's a baby and the other one's four years old. You really think they could be spies?" Sam scoffed. "I thought you were on my side. Why is everyone against me?" Steve snapped. "We've been talking, and we agree that you haven't been acting the same. Just tell us what's bothering you, and we can work to resolve it," Scott said, trying to keep the peace. "It's because of her," Steve pointed at Tanya.

"Me? What have I done?" Tanya asked, angered. "You're spinning up delusions that get crazier by the day and you won't tell us squat about your true intentions," He snapped. "I am not delusional! You haven't seen one glimpse of the shit I had to go through. And you don't want to, unless you want to lay awake at night, plagued by nightmares of people begging you to let them live and to watch, helpless, as you kill them with no remorse and watching your best friend--your first friend--die in front of you while you're helpless and it feels like the universe just put you there to watch. You go through all that, then you can decide whether I'm delusional or not," Tanya spat. Discreetly, she grabbed a pan and snuck up behind Steve, smacking him on the back of the head and knocking him out. "There. Silence," She said, letting her arm drop.

"Did you just knock out a Super Soldier?" Scott marveled. "You don't know everything about me, Lang," She pointed out, setting the pan down. "Only an Asgardian or another Super Soldier could knock Steve out," Nat muttered. "Well, lucky for me, I fall into one of those categories. And the term's Aesir," She replied. "You're a Super Soldier?" Tanya facepalmed.

"I'm an Aesir. Well, Half-Aesir. Or Half-Breed, as my cellmate so aptly called me," She explained. "One of your parents was Asgardian?" Sam asked. "Aesir. And yes. My mother," She admitted. "What happened to her?" Tanya looked down, grief stirring in her chest. "I don't want to talk about it," She said, turning away.

"Hey. We've all got rough pasts. You can tell us," Scott coaxed. "I said I don't want to talk about it," She said, her voice strained. "Hey, lay off, Lang. She'll tell us when she's ready," Bucky said. Afterward, the group dispersed, with Wanda deciding to sleep on the couch as Tanya dragged Steve upstairs, making sure to hit his head on a couple of things out of spite. Clint went up to Ellie and Nat's room, sitting down on the bed.

The little boy stared as Ellie started to stir before sitting up, seemly perfectly fine. "Hey, Clint. Wassup?" She asked. "You feeling alright?" He asked. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" She asked. "There was another argument. Steve's knocked out, probably will be for the rest of the night," Clint admitted.

The boy crawled over to her, pulling himself into her lap. She wrapped her arms around him, standing up. "Let me guess--you talked to Steve," She said. "Yeah. He uh, he--he told us what was wrong, but it's not something we can fix," He admitted. "Can I ask you something?" She asked suddenly.

"You just did," He pointed out. She laughed, really laughed, for the first time in several months. "Yeah, yeah I guess I did," She said, still grinning. "So, fire away," He said. "If anything happens to me, will you look after Nat?"

Whatever Clint had been expecting, that was not it. "Nothing will happen to you," He said, just as much for him as for her. "Just in case. Please," He hated the thought of losing one of his little girls. "Promise me, Clint, please," She begged.

"I promise,"

Ellie Barton will return in Snakebite.