Saving Grace

Thirty Four

Three years later, and not much has changed.

Grace's room has, of course, after that Christmas: white walls, a trundle bed with a gray comforter — minus the canopy — a new art studio in the corner with all new supplies, and a large book shelf to top it all off. She's been keeping in touch with Harley after all this time, and his life is pretty normal, too, especially now that he's had all that stuff for a while.

Savior is also finished now — has been for some time. Tony lessened the restrictions on her a little, and he taught Grace how to use the blasters and flight power. She's still as purple as ever.

Oh, and then there's the Avengers. Three years of seeing them off and on have caused some bonds to be developed.

Nat is still teaching her self defense when she has time, and Bruce is like a responsible uncle at this point. Clint has been around sort of often, too, and he's practiced archery with her a little bit. It's not her thing, but Clint is fun to be around. Steve is starting to grow on her, even if he is a bit of a square. She hasn't seen much of Thor, but he's cool, considering he can literally, like, control lightning. And, of course, her relationship with her father is as good as ever.

Life is amazing right now, actually. Her online classes are getting a bit harder, yes, but that's about it. She has Tony, Happy, Pepper, and, sometimes, the Avengers and Rhodey. Any missions Tony goes on are small, so there's really nothing to worry about.

She's had a lot of time to work on her art and read, too. She started re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia and recently did a water color of Aslan that's currently up on her wall. Now, she's just working on a flower painting for her mom to hang in her bedroom.

She hums softly to the music playing in her headphones as she paints, absently wondering when her father will be back from the mission he's on with the Avengers right now.

~~~~

The Avengers are attacking a Hydra base, fighting foot soldiers and the like to get inside. Clint is on the back of a jeep that Natasha's driving, Tony is by himself in the air, and Thor and Hulk are all over the place. Steve, meanwhile, is on a motorcycle.

Tony fights a few bad guys, but his main concern is the base itself; he's the one that's supposed to get in.

He flies towards it, thinking he'll just bust through the doors, take a few guys out, and get what they want — Loki's scepter. However, he bumps into an invisible force field. He swears. Loudly.

"Language!" Steve says from over the comms. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"

"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield," Jarvis replies. "Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken."

Tony, then, hears Thor's voice. "Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it." There's a pause, the sound of someone getting hit with Mjölnir. "At long last."

After another pause, Nat replies, "At long last is lasting a little long, boys." Then, gunfire.

"Yeah, I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint says.

"Wait a second," Tony butts in. "No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?"

"I know," Steve says, sounding like he's rolling his eyes. There's a crash and some screaming, then, "It just slipped out."