Doctor Stark (C. Barton)

Chapter Twenty Two

*Time Skip - A few months*

Fury sent Clint on less missions after what had happened to him because of Loki. He gave the man time to recover from the mental damage Loki had done to Clint. Fury blamed himself honestly, but he wouldn't tell anyone that. He wanted to look superior and he wouldn't look that way if he admitted such guilt, well, so he believed.

A few months after Clint came back, Bean turned two years old. Mercedes had actually sent an invitation to Pepper about the birthday party, but she didn't mention who's it was. She just said that she wanted Pepper and Tony to come, and to bring Happy and Rhodey.

Sadly, Tony and Pepper were unable to come. Tony had some important meeting he needed to take care of with Pepper, but they sent gifts to her old apartment that Natasha stayed in sometimes. Pepper didn't ask any questions, so the gifts were definitely too big and girly for Bean. Mercedes understood though, so she sent the stuff back to each store it came from and used the money to buy other gifts for Bean.

Clint, at first, wasn't very happy about it. He was upset that Tony didn't even have the audacity to call Mercedes and ask what kind of gifts, but then he realized that Mercedes wouldn't have told her father the truth over the phone. She had planned to tell him to his face at the birthday party, but he didn't come, so he lost his opportunity for the truth.

The next opportunity he had was Christmas, but things went bad, fast. There was an accident, and Happy was hurt. Pepper had called and told her about the accident, then only a few hours later, Mercedes seen video of her father telling the man that attacked Happy where he lived.

Mercedes was furious with him, and she called immediately, telling him that what he did was stupid. He was not arguing with her though, he simply told her he'd send her some nice gifts to make up for it. She tried to argue, but he told he loved her, then hung up the phone.

Later, she recieved a call from Pepper again saying that the Malibu house was gone, and that Tony was out there somewhere. She didn't know where, but she knew he was alive. Mercedes had cried that night, knowing that her father was out there, and he was supposed to be dead because of the Mandarin.

On Christmas, Mercedes tried to call, but she never got through to anyone. She was worried about them, and she had no idea what to think. Clint tried to calm her down, but there was only so much he could do. Later that night, Mercedes handed Clint a box. Inside of the box, there was a small picture and a mini action figure. On the picture there was a small note, Baby Avenger coming soon...

"You're pregnant?" He asked, and she nodded.

"I wanted Dad and Pepper to know about Bean before I have this, but the universe doesn't seem to want them to know," She answered,"I don't even know they're alive now." She added, her voice cracking.

Two days later, Mercedes recieved a call from Rhodey. He told her that Tony and Pepper were alive, and so was Happy. He said that Pepper was getting a procedure done to get the extremist from her body, and Tony was finally getting his body fixed from many years ago when the arc was put in his chest.

Mercedes was very worried about her father and Pepper, but she didn't know what to do. She wanted to tell them to come to her, so she could explain everything, but she knew they needed time to heal. It took months for Clint to stop having nightmares, or if he still had them, they weren't bad enough to wake Mercedes anymore.

She decided to wait. She'd call them for her birthday, and she'd explain everything when they came. One way or another, she'd tell them the truth, and everything would finally be the way it should've been. Clint was proud of her for it, and he encouraged her to hope for the best, even it the outlook didn't look too good.

Mercedes didn't know how her family would react, considering now she was having another baby before she told them about the first. She almost wondered if her father would disown her for it, or if he would potentially hurt someone because of his anger. She wouldn't let him hurt her fiancé or her children, rather that meant she never seen him again or not.

She refused to let her mind think of that scenario for very long. She knew her father, so she knew he'd never hurt a child. He also always wanted her to be happy, and she was happy with Clint, so she believed he wouldn't hurt the man either. She wasn't sure how he would feel about all the secrets she kept though. She knew that was something serious that didn't need to continue happening, yet it seemed to continue regardless of how much Mercedes wanted it to stop.

She considered going to Stark tower, or rather Avengers tower, to see her father, but she knew that was a bad idea. Clint had her, Moxley, and Bean—before Bean was even born—move to the farmhouse for a reason, and she didn't want to put herself or anyone else in danger because she wanted to go see her father.

Eventually, everything would come to the light, and that was something that scared the hell out of Mercedes. She wanted to do what was best for her family though, and she knew her child, or now children, deserved to know the rest of their family. They could hate her all they wanted, but she wanted them to love her children. Her children deserved all the love in the world, and she was going to make sure they recieved it...