Forever and Always

Chapter 17

Two days later

The past two days felt like forever. It was a lot of walking around the building, anxiously waiting for a call from someone who had gotten dusted, staring up at the sky, waiting to see The Bentar flying back, or just sitting alone in her room. She got bored of checking in on Vision after realizing that going in a checking on him literally did nothing and was a waste of time and a reminder that not only did she lose the only man she lived, but she lost the only other person she considered as her closest friend.

On a semi-happier note, she had very few conversations with Pepper and Tony. More like, Pepper would tell Tony to rest when he'd want to get out of bed, and she would be called in to settle the disputes. But, it was nice because it got her mind off of other stuff for a little bit.

This morning, however, she woke up to the news that Pepper and Tony were leaving early. After lots of talking, they decided, to Clara's disappointment, they they wanted to head off early. They didn't want to be here when Steve and the others came back because they knew it would be awkward and tense, and they wanted to spare everyone from another scene. They hadn't said much to her to where they were going, but she remembered Tony saying before they drove off that he wanted to "try out that normal family lifestyle." One: with a family like his in a time period like right now, normal was hardly the word for it. Two: the use of the word "family" felt like that he was subtly hinting the fact that Pepper could be expecting and he wanted to spend time with her. Of course, that was only an assumption.

Anyways, Pepper and Tony went off together, and the building was more silent than ever. Something about the quietness left her uneasy. It reminded her of the room she was stuck in back in 2014. Unlike the room, it wasn't dark and super claustrophobic, but it was awfully silent. Silent to the point to where it made her spine shiver. Don't think about that, Clara pushed that thought away. It happened so long ago. I shouldn't even be worrying about that anymore.

Clara suddenly heard a faint beeping noise. Every few seconds, it would be a quick beep, then be silent, then beep again. Curious to where it was coming from, Clara started running in and out of rooms, opening and closing doors, following the beeping noise as it got louder, and tuning in the opposite direction if it got fainter. She ended up going down to the first floor and into a conference room. She opened the door and found the source of the beeping noise. It was coming from a tablet embedded in the table, and on the tablet it read:

Front Gate

Could it be? Clara suddenly felt butterflies erupt in her stomach, wanting to escape. Her palms got sweaty. Did they do it? Was someone who had gotten dusted at the front gate? She didn't want to get her hopes up though. She was about to press the screen, but she stopped inches away from the screen, her finger hovering above the flashing red button. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. But rather than exhaling, she held it in. She put her finger in the screen, and a hologram lit up above the screen, showing an angle from a security camera. She was disappointed to see that it wasn't anyone she was aware of that was snapped away. Instead, it was this man in a suit. He was standing outside a black van he must've driven.

"Hello. Anyone home? The name is Tyler Hayward, I'm the director of S.W.O.R.D. I was given information that you were hiding the body of The Vision here." Hiding? Who the hell does this guy think he is if he thinks I'm hiding Vision here? What what the hell is Sword? Clara looked down at the tablet, and saw a button labeled "speaker". Hesitant, she pressed it.

"What is Sword? I sure as hell never heard of you before." The man...Hayward, looked almost surprised that someone was here, and he stared directly into the camera.