Where your loyalties lie (Two New Bartons book 2) (completed)

What am I gonna do? - Pietro

I peek into the van to find my sister fast asleep, curled up against Clint, her head on his shoulder. I feel like a huge chunk has been carved out of my heart when I think about how she used to sleep like that on me. Maybe she never will again, all because of three simple, misplaced words.

Incidents like Lagos.

I regret those words more and more every second. 

When Clint catches sight of me, he looks slightly guilty, but I just get in, walk over and sit down on his other side. He reaches over and takes my hand. The gesture is so gentle, so father-like, that I almost can't hold back the tears.

"She'll come round," he whispers so as not to wake Wanda and Lang. 

"How do you know?" At the moment, that seems impossible. 

"Because you're all she's got. She may not want to admit it to you, or even to herself, but she needs you, Pietro."

"What if she doesn't?"

"She does."

"But what if she doesn't?" I repeat the question. 

Clint sighs. "Then you'll both have me. I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise?" 

"Promise."

I lean forward to look at Wanda's face. She looks so peaceful, so happy, in sleep. I wonder what she's dreaming about. When she's really upset or scared, she has the nicest dreams. Perhaps she's remembering playing with our parents, or maybe the joy of finding new parents in the Bartons. Whatever it is, it's brightening her face like a spotlight. 

I close my eyes and push myself into her mind. Her guard is down, and I slip in easily. I have just enough time to fill her mind with the words, I love you, sister, before her subconscious slams up her mental wall and I'm thrust out. 

I keep watching her though. The smile looks brighter, so my thought at least had some impact on her. 

After a while, I lean back again. I need to cheer myself up; it's not good for morale if all of us are this depressed. "Can I borrow your phone?"

"What for?" Clint frowns, but he's already pulling it out. 

"I want to call someone. Thanks." 

I clamber out of the van, phone in hand, and slide the door shut. I lean against it, scroll through Clint's contacts for a second and select Cooper. It's got to be around midnight there, but I have next to no doubt he's awake. 

As though he's trying to prove my point, my almost brother picks up after about a millisecond of ringing. 

"Dad?" he whispers straight away. He looks tired, but wide awake at the same time. He's clutching a mug of hot chocolate in the hand not holding the phone. 

"Guess again." I pull up a grin from somewhere, just for him. 

"Pietro!"

I hear another familiar voice say, somewhere off screen, "Pietro?" then then camera is jerked and Lila joins Cooper on my screen. She looks about as bad as Cooper, except there's a brown stain on her nightdress where she spilled hot chocolate on it. By the way it's slightly faded, I guess it's from last night.

"Hey, little sis," I smile. "Didn't think you'd be up."

She giggles and asks, "Where's daddy? Is he okay?"

I put a hand to my chest as though she's physically wounded me. "Am I not enough for you?"

She has to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from giggling so loud she wakes up Laura. 

"He's fine," I assure them. "He's in the van with Wanda. She's asleep right now, but maybe I'll get her to call and say hi later, yeah?"

"Okay."

"How's everything over there? Are Nate and Mum okay?"

"They're fine," Cooper replies. "They're sleeping, too."

I nod. "And the chickens?"

Lila giggles again and Cooper lets out a tiny chuckle.

"They're okay," Lila says. "We had three fresh eggs this morning!"

"Oooh! Very nice!" I don't think I can keep this smile up much longer, so I say, "Listen, I've got to go. I'll see you soon. Tell Mum I said hi."

"Tell Dad we love him!" Cooper says.

"And tell Wanda we miss her!" Lila adds.

"Yeah, okay. Bye!"

I wave and press end call. As soon as their faces disappear, my smile does, too. So, that didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped it would. I slide down the side of the van to the floor, my head between my knees. 

"What am I gonna do," I murmur. 

I stay sitting like that for a second, then get up and, tugging back the smile as well as I can, slide open then door. Wanda is lying on her side now, on a bed of cushions, and she's covered by a fluffy blanket. Clint is struggling to roll Lang onto a similar pile.

"Here, let me help. You might break your back, old man." I flash forward and, a second later, Lang is lying on the makeshift bed, covered in an almost identical blanket, and Clint is glaring at me.

"I'm really not that old," he says. 

I just shrug. "Whatever you say, old man."

More glaring. Then he says, "What say you, you and I go get some midnight dinner?"

"I say, 'Brilliant, I'm starving'!"

He laughs and we scramble out of the van. 

Word count: 884