On The Run

Scott talks

Chapter 14: Scott Talks

"Yeah, I'll talk to you as soon as I can, Peanut. Yes. Yup. I love you too. Good night," Scott thumbed the END CALL button and sat staring at the blinking screen for a good five or six minutes, as if that could somehow call Cassie back to him. Kurt had flown in and finally worked his wizardry; now there was apparently a 0.999% chance that their phones could be tracked, which meant they were free to make calls. Although Steve discouraged calling people extraneously, he understood that Clint and Scott had families of their own-and they were able to get in touch with them nearly every night. Clint was always talking about visiting the farm someday, when all the buzz surrounding their escape had calmed down-but it had been a couple of weeks now and they were still front page news. Tip offs were pouring in from around the world; fortunately for the Avengers, none of them were true. "Man, does that picture make me look ugly."

For obvious reasons, they tried to stay away from news channels...but every so often the temptation became too great. Everyone was getting used to seeing their faces on Wanted posters.

It had come as a shock to everyone to see that Natasha was a fugitive as well. Clint had spit out his coffee, Scott had said some very...crude words, and Steve had practically fallen off the stepstool he was using to hang the curtains (they'd fallen off the rod again) and nearly impaled himself on the tape dispenser. They'd been trying to make contact, but wherever Natasha was it was obvious she didn't want to be found. To be honest, Scott didn't mind all that much; he'd only seen the Black Widow once but that was more than enough exposure therapy for him. But it was obvious everyone else missed her.

There was a lot of missing people that went on in the cabin. Every so often he would see Steve staring into space at nothing in particular and it would take a few minutes for him to snap back to reality again or watch Clint go into the woods early in the morning and not come back until dark. He certainly missed Hank, Hope, Luis, and Cassie. He thought about them all the time-from when he got up in the morning until he finally dragged himself to his bedroom at night. But there was nothing he could do about it; by choosing to join Captain America-a choice he didn't regret even now-he'd made it nearly impossible for him to ever see his relatives again. He'd had to adjust; they all did. They'd had to stop being an uneasy team and start being true family-because if they weren't there for each other, no one else would be. And he hated being lonely.

"They weren't exactly trying to flatter you," Sam replied, taking another swig of coffee and concentrating on the game of Monopoly he was playing with Bucky. Scott wasn't sure exactly what kind of bad blood there was between them but they both seemed locked in a constant fight to outdo each other-whether it was who could cut up the most apples for Wanda's fruit salad or who could shoot the most layups in their makeshift basketball games. "None of us look good."

"Be glad they haven't found us yet," Steve replied from his chair in the corner where he was reading a book. The cabin had come well stocked with books of all size and description; they'd been tearing through them like lightning, mostly because they didn't have anything else they could do instead.

Scott had to admit that the last couple of weeks had been quite relaxing, though. Not have anything to do or anywhere to go while living in a constant state of fear as to whether or not they'd be found and arrested had certainly made them better companions-and he was beginning to realize he had more in common with these real life superheroes than he'd previously thought. Sure, he was still the new guy. And sure, he didn't quite fit in, but he was trying. He was doing the best he could-and for now that was all he could do.

"Hey Tic Tac, why don't you go upstairs and see if Wanda wants to watch a movie or something?"

"Oh...sure," Automatically he glanced toward Clint, waiting to see if he wanted to handle this one instead-Clint was the best at talking to their youngest member. Wanda was probably the Avenger Scott knew the least about; she'd been nice to him the few times they'd had a conversation but he still couldn't help wondering if the rumors were true and she could really make people see their worst nightmares. It certainly seemed like she could do everything else. But it didn't look like anyone else was going to cover for him this time so upstairs he went.