gravity || p. maximoff

chapter seventeen

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IT WAS THE NEXT DAY, AND AFTER A THREE-HOUR AND SOME MINUTES FLIGHT FROM NEW YORK TO MISSOURI, JOEY WAS EAGER TO GET OFF THE QUINJET.

She didn't know how much longer she could stand to be seated between Nat and Clint, who were talking across her, while the Maximoffs sat across from her, one of which she nearly kissed last night.

She also couldn't wait to hug the rest of the Bartons. It was long overdue.

Tony's voice was muffled and gravelly over the quinjet intercom as he let the five of them know that they were beginning to descend, from where he and Heidi were sitting in the cockpit. As excited as she was to see the Bartons, it was taking everything in Joey not to think about the fact that Heidi wouldn't be coming back with them tonight. Her leg began to bounce as the jet lowered, and Nat nudged her with an elbow.

"How you doing, Jo?"

Joey turned her head to the right, and she took a breath, stilling her leg. "Nervous. Excited. Just trying to be that, for now."

Nat gave a knowing smile before slinging an arm around Joey's shoulder. Responsively, Joey leaned her head toward Nat's shoulder, and her eyes made their way back to the front. When they did, they met Pietro's. As quickly as she could manage, she averted her gaze.

All five of them bounced slightly in their places as the wheels hit the grassy floor, and suddenly, Joey's nerves flew out the window, replaced with genuine excitement, and happiness. Now that they were physically here, in Missouri, landed, on the ground, it was hitting her that she was actually about to meet one of her best childhood friends and her family.

Tony and Heidi made their way into the main cabin of the jet, and Tony tousled Joey's hair as they passed by. Despite her classic Joey fashion of whining after an instance like that, she didn't. She was too taken by the fact that as soon as this door dropped, her life, her family's life, was going to change.

Heidi stopped walking when she reached Joey's side, her arms folded across her chest, but Tony kept walking until he reached a button on the wall, which began to lower the door. Joey's face lit up when she saw Laura with Nate on her hip, Cooper standing to the right, and on the left, Lila. When the door was fully open, Joey and Lila booked it for each other.

"Oh my god!" Lila laughed, enveloping Joey in a hug. Their hug moved back and forth, it spun, it almost fell over.

"You're real!" Joey laughed. She stepped back, keeping her arms on Lila's shoulders. "And you're taller than me? Oh, this is gonna ruin my ego, Barton!"

"Shut up," Lila laughed, hugging Joey once more before gesturing for her to follow over to the rest of them. Joey's adrenaline lowered to a more normal level now as she took in the rest of her surroundings.

The house was just a ways away; it was white, it had two floors, and slightly further than that was a small brown shed. Both were pretty much smack in the middle of several acres of land. Not that Joey was exactly sure how much an acre was, but she knew it was a lot, and she knew that this was a lot of land— enough that she couldn't see the animals that this family owned, and she knew that there were a lot of those, too. Somewhere.

But more than that, Joey took in the people before her: Heidi and Laura clicked immediately, Joey could tell by the way her mom was smiling. It wasn't one of the fake smiles she used when she talked to, say, their neighbors back home. The two of them were talking amongst themselves, along with Tony, Nat, and Clint, and Lila went to join whatever conversation Cooper was having with the twins. She hugged Wanda, and then Pietro, and then she smacked Cooper's arm after he said something that made the other two laugh.