One Too Many Covers

Chapter Four

Grant Clinton Romanov.

Natasha reached her hand through the wall that divided her from her son. "Hey, mister.." She murmured and watched as the baby wrapped his small hand around her finger. Clint stood by and watched, chewing on his bottom lip.

He'd held the child for the first few days while Natasha recuperated but as Natasha got better, Grant got worse. It went from being able to hold the healthy little boy to watching the weak kid as he struggled to breathe from behind the clear wall of his cradle.

Clint watched as Natasha kept her face rested against the wall, stroking the back of Grant's small hand with her thumb. He tentatively walked forward and rested his hands on her shoulders. He leaned down and kissed her cheek before whispering in her ear.

"Nat?.. Nat. Can I talk to you please?" He had to pull her away from the cradle and she started crying softly, rubbing at her nose. "Hey, hey.."

Natasha wrapped her arms around his waist. "Why is he so sick? He was so.. healthy and happy.. and." Clint hushed her and kissed her hair as she buried her face into his neck. He shook his head and rocked back and forth with her, humming gently.

"I think it's time to tell Steve, Nat. His son is born and very sick. He should know Grant is, well, Grant. He's a real baby who needs his dad," Clint whispered and rubbed up her back. He pressed another kiss to her hair when she pulled away. "Nat."

"No. No, Clint I can't," She whimpered, shaking her head. Her red-rimmed green eyes shifted to look at Grant, his tiny body heaving slightly with a mask strapped over his small mouth and nose. "He's safe and hidden away."

Clint grabbed her wrist gently and was about to say something when the doctor walked in, calling Natasha away. Clint rubbed her hand before letting it go as she left. He sat down next to the cradle and smiled softly at his nephew. "Hey.."

Natasha closed the door behind her nervously and wiped away the tears, folding her hands behind her.

"We've looked over everything about Grant, ran all the tests and he's perfectly healthy."

Natasha laughed bitterly and wiped away her tears again, her voice breaking as she talked. "He's so sick, how can he be 'perfectly healthy' when he's.. so weak?"

The doctor shook his head and took her hands, feeling really bad. "But.. we decided to look into his DNA because we're so stumped on what's wrong. We did find something."

Natasha quickly wiped away her tears again and nodded, furrowing her brows. "Yeah? Yeah? What'd you find?"

The doctor paused, not knowing exactly what to say which only caused Natasha to grow more and more worried. He noticed this and nodded quickly. "It's something we've never seen before.." Natasha's eyes widened and she bit the the nail on her thumb, waiting for him to continue. "It's his actual DNA.. it seems to be decaying."

Natasha looked shocked, her eyes dulling a bit as she thought over what that meant.

"So fundamentally, he's breaking apart and we're not sure why or how to stop it." The doctor continued and Natasha removed herself from the situation, going back inside the room in order to kick Clint out of the chair so she could sit. She reached in to her son and rubbed his soft skin, new quiet tears streaming down her cheeks.

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Tony had stayed at the Avengers Compound, upgrading it and working on different projects to fill his time. Of course, he had Peter Parker to deal with but it felt so empty and didn't really feel like a home anymore.

The very last thing he expected, though was hearing a familiar voice as he answered his private phone.

"Tony, I need your help."