Bartoned

Chapter 27

Steve and Bucky being on their honeymoon meant life for everyone else suddenly got that much busier. There was no time for house hunting when Clint was out on missions all the time. You were still on your maternity leave and would be for another three months, but there was an incident downtown where you'd ended up being called in anyway, and you'd ended up leaving baby Natasha with Hill while she stayed in the tower and ran comms.

By the time the newlyweds had returned, you, Clint, and Baby Natasha were all exhausted. It didn't help that Clint had been out on an overnight mission on the last day either. His first day off in three weeks and you'd had plans to go out house hunting and have lunch somewhere semi-nice while you went through possible wedding venues. Instead, you had wanted nothing more than to just sleep, but Natasha had been whiny and needy all morning, and if Clint even thought about putting her down she'd start screaming.

"Oh, little peanut, I missed you too but Daddy needs a break. Why won't you let me sit down?" He cooed in a soft sing-song voice as he rocked Natasha. She was draped over his shoulder and whining. Her eyes were red with exhaustion but she was fighting it with everything she had.

"I don't know why she won't sleep. She didn't sleep at all last night," you said as you watched him pace the floor. "I tried everything. I even got Wanda to come down at 3 in the morning to see if she could tell me. She said... she said... she said she just wanted you," you explained, breaking down into tears.

You weren't quite sure where they came from except a place of complete physical and mental exhaustion. But they came. You sobbed, a body-wracking sob as you sat, curled on the couch.

"Aww no. Not you too," Clint whined, sitting down next to you and wrapping his arm around your shoulder. No sooner had he sat than Natasha started screaming again. Clint looked from you to her and back again like a startled rabbit.

"Stand. I'm okay," you sniffed, pushing him.

He got back up and started bouncing on the spot behind you and patting your head like you were a dog. "She just missed me. It would be worse if you were gone overnight," he said.

"I'm a terrible mother," you cried. "I can't even get my own daughter to sleep when you're not here. She prefers you to me and I'm the one the food comes out of."

"Babe," Clint said with a tinge of helplessness in his voice. This was the stuff Clint wasn't good at. You knew he wanted to have the right words to reassure you. But there was some kind of breakdown between his brain and his mouth when it came to the emotional stuff. "She would have been worse if it was just me. She has no object permanence."

"That's not how that works," you sobbed. "She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you," Clint soothed. "I didn't sleep well without you guys either. Maybe she was just picking up on how tense you were about me being on mission?"

"I don't think so. She just likes you best," you sobbed.

Clint huffed and looked between you and Natasha again. He moved around to the front of the couch and placed Nattie under her baby gym. She started screaming immediately, her face screwed up and big fat tears running down her cheeks as she flailed around. "Come on, baby girl. Play with your toys while I talk to your mommy for a minute," he begged, wiggling the toys above her head to get her attention.

She didn't stop crying but he left her, moving over to you and wrapping you in his arms.

"You shouldn't just leave her," you said. "She'll get an attachment issue."

"I dunno, babe. Might have already got one of those," he said. "I'll get her in a second. We both need a break." He kissed you on top of the head. "You're doing great, you know? Doing all this. The Avengers. Being a mom. Me. With all the other stuff we have going on too. But the past three weeks have been rough. We're all exhausted. Even the ones without kids. Who'da thought Cap did so much shit around here? So how about, I run you a nice bath, and I take the fusspot there out for a walk. You can relax and sleep and hopefully when we get back so will she."