Frost

Chapter 75

The Barton's

Ivy rested her head on Jack's shoulder while her eyes stared into the void. She heard Maria's voice over the radio, talking to Tony as he flew the Quinjet. She saw the rest of the Avengers, who were just as dejected as she was. All of them except Tony and Clint had seen something, a memory, a nightmare, their most terrible fear. Ivy was awake, but her mind would not let her wake up from her nightmare. The images raced through her mind. She saw the warm blood rolling down an innocent girl's face as a bullet flew through her skull. She heard the gunshot. She felt the weight of the gun in her hand, felt a single tear run down her cheek and land on the ground, mixing itself with the blood under her feet. She had killed people in the war, but they had been bad people. The girl had been innocent. The girl hadn't been able to help falling in love with the wrong guy. And Ivy had taken her life because she wasn't strong enough to get her brother out of that hell.

Jack nudged Ivy with his shoulder, causing Ivy to wake from her stupor. "We're here." He stood up and helped her to her feet. He looked just as beat up as she did. The same empty look in his eyes. He had been a child, too, when he had met the devil. Like Ivy, he couldn't help being born into this family. It wasn't his fault that he had a shitty father and his mother wasn't strong enough to take him with her. He had been a kid when he had first killed someone, an innocent child raised by a monster. Ivy and Jack had sent their demons back to hell, but they didn't feel a bit better. In fact, by now the question was whether they had not become a monster themselves. Possibly they were monsters in someone else's story.

"Where are we?" asked Ivy as she and Jack left the Quinjet and followed the others to a house. They were somewhere in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around them except fields and woods. Ivy didn't have a good experience with places like this. There was no one here to find or help you. "A safe house?" wondered Tony, following Clint to the door. Ivy saw Steve helping Natasha to the door. Natasha looked as traumatized as Ivy, while Bruce was full of guilt. Wanda's mind games had made him lose control and let the Hulk tear apart a city until Tony stopped him.

"Let's hope," Clint said, and entered the house. The rest followed him and Ivy looked around queasily. It was a normal house that had a peaceful atmosphere. "Honey, I'm home" called Clint and Ivy raised her eyebrows in surprise. She spotted some toys on the floor and when a pregnant woman entered the living room she understood where she was. This was Clint's home, Clint had a family, children. "Hi. Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead."

"Hey," Laura greeted and kissed Clint. "What the hell," Ivy heard Jack mutter beside her. "This is an agent of some kind" Tony explained to Thor and Ivy rolled her eyes. She glanced at Thor and saw him looking only more confused at Clint and his wife. "Leave the poor God alone, Tony," she warned him.

"Gentleman, Ivy, dipshit, this is Laura" Clint introduced his wife. Laura slapped his arm lightly when she heard him use that term, while Jack stuck his tongue out at him childishly. "I know all your names" Laura said and Ivy smiled awkwardly. She glanced toward the stairs as she heard light footsteps hurrying down. Two pairs, a couple of them lighter than the other.

"Ooh, incoming." A boy and girl ran in to the living room and ran to their father, which only made Jack and Thor look even more puzzled. "Dad!" the girl called out, and Clint picked her up. "Hi, sweetheart!" Clint kissed the son's head and Ivy and Jack watched the action. "Hey buddy! How you guys doing?" Neither Salvatore knew such fatherly love. Ivy's father had done experiments on her, while Jack's father had had him beaten up  when he acted like a child and not like a soldier when he was only a little kid. To see a father hug his children and look at them with so much love was something Ivy and Jack were seeing for the first time.