Forever and Always

Chapter 22

By the time Clara arrived at Avengers Headquarters, it was already pretty late. She pulled up to the gate, and rolled her window down. She could feel the cool air blow into her car as she rolled her window down, and she stuck her hand out the window to buzz herself in. She pressed the button, and an annoying beeping sound filled the silence before a voice came through.

"Who is it?" It wasn't Steve's voice. But it was a male voice.

"Uhhhh, it's Clara Peters." It was silent, and then the voice came back. Hearing the second time, she realized that it was Scott Lang speaking to her.

"Oh Clara! I remember you! Yeah, Steve said you'd be coming sometime. Yeah, Nat is still gone, and Steve is getting an update on Thor, so I'm left in charge with this."

"Cool, cool." Clara sat there in her car, and she swore that for a second, Scott forgot that he had to buzz her in. "Uhhh Scott?"

"Yeah?" Clara didn't even have to say anything for him to realize that she was just sitting out in front of the gate. "Oh yeah, right! Sorry! Just a minute." There was a long beep, and the gate opened up smoothly to a road lit up by lampposts.

"Thanks, Scott!" She said to the box and she drove into the headquarters. She looked in her mirror to see the gate close behind her, and she drove down the long driveway that would eventually end up at the front. As she drove, she looked to the left to see the giant field of nicely kept grass. She remembered how five years ago, the Bentar, yeah the Bentar, had landed there with a half-dead Tony on board. And a few days later, the Bentar had come back from its second trip since it's been here with the devastating news that we couldn't bring everyone back. That's when Clara left, and now, five years later, she was back with a chance to actually bring them back. The entire road trip here, she only thought about how they had a chance, and it just sounded unbelievable to her. She just couldn't get herself to believe that they somehow had a chance, which she still didn't understand how. But Steve said Scott will explain.

She finally came up to the entrance and she just parked her car right out in front because she was t really sure where else to put her car. She got her suitcase out of the car and she was met at the front by Scott, who looked literally exactly the same as he did seven years ago. She held out her arm, and she gave him a hug. He was also taller than she remembered.

"Hey, Clara! Wow, it's been...it's been awhile since we've seen each other."

"Yeah, back in Germany. If only we didn't have to go to prison afterwards. What ended up happening, anyway?"

"Oh you know, I just got three years of house arrest. But it wasn't that bad. My friends kept the business going, and my daughter and I found ways to have fun, and then towards the end I kinda had to help my girlfriend get her mom back without having the FBI figuring out I was helping them, and then these other dudes were chasing us for reasons I don't understand." Clara wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that.

"Uhhh...wow! Umm well you had and eventful three years. Uhh, Steve told me that you would explain everything to me because you'd explain it best, so my first of many questions is: how the hell are you here if the monitors said that you got blipped away with everyone else five years ago?"

"Oh yeah! That!" He did this snap-thing with his fingers then pointed to my suitcase. "Why don't you put that in your room, Steve said it's the same one you used when you were first here, then you can meet me in one of the conference rooms to catch you up." Clara nodded and went off to the elevators. She went up to the second floor and to her room/ Wanda's old room, which looked exactly the same as it did five years ago, just a little dustier. She put her suitcase on the bed then left the room to go find Scott, who was eating a sandwich. She sat across from him and sat back in the chair.