To The Moon And Back (Fanfic)

Chapter 4

     Wanda watched the skinny branches of the trees and the green grass bristles sway roughly as the jet left the ground and flew off with Clint, Natasha, and Steve. She worried about Clint. She worried about all of them, of course, but most especially Clint and how he would handle the situation if it turned out his family was found by Ross before he had the chance to reach them himself. She had never met Clint's family. Then again, it had never crossed her mind. She wondered if it had ever crossed his. She knew he had a daughter and two sons – one she did not know the name of, and one she knew had been named after Pietro. God, she hoped they were okay; that they were safe from Ross and any harm possible. Be safe, she echoed in her head as if she were saying it to Clint and the others aloud, be safe... be safe...

     "Alright," Sam cleared his throat; interrupting her thoughts, "Let's get to work." He turned to Wanda; who was forcing herself away from the back window, and Bucky, "You two and I will start thinking of new locations and safe houses to stay at–"

     "And I'll try and contact the guys to help us out." Scott finished. He laughed. "I find it funny how Cap made such a big deal about quote 'not bringing anyone else in for help' but... here we are–"

     "Natasha was right," Sam scolded, "you talk a lot."

     Scott lowered his head; "right..." he pulled his phone from his back pocket, "I'll get to it."

     "Please." Sam cocked his brows.

     "And how are we supposed to do our part?" Bucky asked, "It's not like safe-houses are something we can google."

     "We brainstorm and figure it out ourselves." Sam explained. "It's like hide-n-seek; you wait until the seeker passes you in your current hiding spot, then once he's gone, you move to a different one."

     "How do you play hide-n-seek?" Wanda asked; crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

     Sam shrugged, "it's the easiest way to win."

     "It's also cheating." Wanda smirked.

     Sam grew serious, "I don't think Ross is using any rule book."

     Wanda's expression tightened, and then she nodded. "Ok." She uncrossed her arms and stepped towards them, "so we just... outsmart the seeker?"

     Sam grinned, "Figuratively speaking..."

     Wanda turned to Scott. "Hey Scott; have you reached them yet?"

     Scott leaned back in his chair and turned his head, smacking his lips together, "Well...It takes longer than a minute for these guys to respond to my texts."

     Wanda narrowed her eyes.

     "I wonder why." Sam spat.

     "Can you quit? Can you please quit with that?" Scott swiveled his chair around.

     Sam raised his voice and crossed his arms; annoyed, "Just do your job – less talking; more doing."

     "Since when are you the new guy in charge? Cap never gave you that title." Scott stood up from his seat.

     "Well, he certainly never gave it to you." Sam stepped closer. He was nose to nose with Scott; trying desperately hard not to beat the shit out of him. "I'm not gonna fight with you, Lang."

     "Why? Too scared tic-tac is gonna toss you around like a rag-doll again?" Scott pushed.

     "No; too scared to go to jail for murdering a pest – quite literally."

     "Ladies... are you done yet?" Wanda stepped between them.

     Bucky chuckled, "Wait what do you mean, 'toss you around like a rag-doll again?'"

     "I don't wanna talk about it!" Sam turned away.

     "Good – don't." Wanda warned. "You want us to get to work; so help us do that."

     Sam and Scott both nodded before glaring at one another. The phone on the table buzzed – Scott's phone.

     Scott high-fived himself subtly and ran over to answer. "Hey man," he said and grinned at the other three watching him, "you got a place for them?"

~

     Steve threw his jacket on over his grey shirt. He leaned his arm against the overhead area and watched the town thrive underneath him. Clint played with some switches and the jet flew higher in the air; giving Steve a better view and a better opportunity to take in everything. This was the closest he'd been to other people, aside from his team of course, within the past week or so.

     Not that the company he had was terrible. Natasha wandered over to him and patted him on the back. "You alright, champ?"

     Steve grinned and nodded. "Keen."

     Natasha draped her hand on his shoulder and watched the people underneath them as well. Her small smile faded and she sighed quietly... and Steve said aloud what she was thinking.

      "Something is going to happen to those people because of us." Steve tightened, "I know it."

     Despite sharing the thought, Natasha denied it. "They'll be fine. Ross doesn't know where we are."

     "He will."

     It stayed quiet for a long while. Natasha went back to her seat after rubbing the spot on Steve's shoulder where she had rested her hand. He didn't object. He just let her go – even though he wanted her to stay next to him.

     "How far is the house from here?" Natasha asked.

     Clint leaned back, "A couple hours... roughly."

     Steve sank into one of the seats in the jet. What are we gonna do for a couple hours... roughly?

     Natasha looked to Clint. His hands clang to the control lever so tight that his knuckles had turned pale and his veins sprang up from his hands and arms. He was so nervous; so worried. And why wouldn't he be? He had put his family in danger and he didn't even realize it until now. But even if he had, there was next to nothing he could've done. The first day after their escape had been chaos. None of them could even step outside without fear of being seen. Ross and his men weren't airborne that day; so that's where the team went... up. The jet they had escaped on was SHIELD's, so it was layered with reflective panels that disguised the jet with the sky. For hours they did nothing but fly around in circles until Ross and his men left the area – then they ran around scouring to find empty, abandoned houses to stay in for as long as they possibly could before the men returned... and that would be soon. They had been there the past three days, but Ross has enough men to cover more than half the United States, so of course by now they would be retracing their steps in attempts to find them... which is why they had to act fast to retrieve Clint's family.

     "Clint," Natasha soothed. He didn't meet her eyes, but he raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips to indicate he was listening. "It's gonna be alright. Your family will be fine."

     "Yeah – I hope so." Clint said.

     "Laura's smart; I'm sure she followed the plan as soon as she heard the news." Natasha bet.

     Steve raised his head. "What plan?"

     Clint sighed. "When I joined SHIELD, Laura and I sat down and came up with an emergency escape plan in case anything bad ever happened. There's another house a few miles back that she and the kids are supposed to go to. If I'm right, she's already there."

     Steve furrowed his brows, "So why are we flying out to your house?"

     Clint looked back, "Because I don't know if I'm right."

     "We're just checking – better safe than sorry." Natasha nodded to Steve.

     After a few minutes of eerie silence and loud, wandering thoughts, Clint sighed desperately. "Yeah..." he flicked a switch on the control panel and adjusted himself in his seat, "I better be right."