Saving Grace

Forty One

Vision arrived with Wanda in his arms, Tony and Thor arrived at the same time, and Nat ran over from the other side of the carrier. With Clint, Steve, Rhodey, and Grace already there, everyone was accounted for except Hulk. The last anyone saw him was in that jet, which they tried to track, but it was in stealth mode. So, Nat contacted the ship and left him a message, asking him to turn it around — to come back.

But he cut off the message before she was finished. Nat was hurt, Grace could tell, and it made all the more sense when she knew what had happened between the two of them — not in detail but still.

Vision took off again, going back to make sure Ultron was really gone. When he came back, he assured them that he was.

~~~~

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk," Tony sings badly as he drives the car.

"Dad," Grace groans from the passenger seat, a book open in her lap.

Tony laughs, turning up the music. "What?! Sorry, I can't hear you!" He continues to sing, now louder. "And now it's alright, it's okay, and you may look the other way. We can try to understand The New York Times' effect on man."

Grace sighs, closing her book as she knows she'll never be able to read with the music this loud. So, she decides to join him. "Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive." Tony laughs again when he hears her singing with him, and they continue as he turns onto the road leading to newly built Avenger's Compound. "Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking, people stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive."

Tony turns the music down as the pristine, white compound comes into view. A jet lands as another flies overheard. People are walking around outside — employees, probably working in the lab Dr. Cho is the head of inside. "Look at it. Isn't she beautiful?"

Grace playfully rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah." But it serves as a reminder of everything that happened. It's been a few months, during which she's figured out what everything taught her and started to heal. Every time she thinks about Pietro her heart aches — for him and Wanda — but she thinks about him less now, even if she'll still upset that she never got to know him, just as a friend; for a while there, right after it happened, she would imagine talking to him again, what they would say to each other — a sad attempt to bring him back. She's just glad she didn't see it happen.

Tony parks in front of the doors and gets out, and so does Grace. When they enter, they meet up with Steve and Thor, who were already walking outside. Tony and Steve quickly begin a conversation, one Grace mostly tunes out as she observes the compound.

"The rules have changed," Steve is saying a bit later. Grace decides to listen in now.

"We're dealing with something new," Tony adds.

"Well, Vision's artificial intelligence."

"A machine."

"So, it doesn't count?"

Tony shakes his head. "No. It's not like a person lifting the hammer."

Steve agrees. "Right. Different rules for us."

"Nice guy, but artificial."

"Thank you."

Thor sighs. "If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with Vision, and these days, safe is in short supply."

Steve's brows furrow as he thinks. "But if you put the hammer in an elevator...?"

"It would still go up," Tony says.

"Elevator's not worthy."

Thor chuckles. "I'm going to miss these little talks of ours."

"Not if you don't leave," Grace pipes up.

Thor sighs again as they reach the front lawn. "I have no choice. The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. But once all these pieces are in position-"

"Triple Yahtzee?" Tony says.

"You think you can find out what's coming?" Steve asks.

"I do," Thor replies. "Besides this one, there's nothing that can't be explained."

He lifts his hammer into the air and shoots off to Asgard, leaving a large, circular pattern in the grass. Tony shakes his head. "That man has no regard for lawn maintenance. Gonna miss him, though. And you're gonna miss me," he says to Steve.

Grace chuckles, then pats them both of them on the shoulder. "Alright, I'm gonna go and let you old coots have your little heart-to-heart. Where's Nat?" Steve tells her, and she runs inside to find her. It doesn't take long. "Nat!" she says.

Nat smiles and hugs her. "Hey, Grace. Where's Tony?"

"Outside with Steve," she replies. "How's Clint? And Laura?"

"They're doing good — oh, which reminds me..." She pulls out her phone and shows Grace a video of the new baby looking at the camera and laughing. His name is on his onesie: Nathaniel Pietro Barton.

"Say hi to Auntie Nat," Laura says from behind the camera.

When the video ends, Nat puts her phone back up and gestures to a door. "Everyone else is just in the next room. I'm sure they'd love to see you."

Grace walks into the training room, where Rhodey, Vision, Sam, and Wanda are. Grace goes up to Rhodey first, and they fist bump, as he's in the War Machine armor.

She turns to Vision, and he immediately holds up a fist. She smiles and fist bumps him. "You remembered. I'm impressed." He beams.

"I thought that was our thing," Rhodey says, frowning.

"I just don't think he's quite ready for an intricate handshake yet," Grace replies. "And, besides, we have other things." Rhodey reluctantly concedes.

"Hey, Sam," Grace says, politely waving at him, as she only met him the one time, then she hugs Wanda.

Wanda hugs back. "It's nice to see you, iertare."

"It's nice to see you too," Grace says quietly. She pulls away, knowing her father is probably ready to go now, if he's not still talking to Steve. "I guess I should go now. Dad's probably in the car, honking the horn as we speak."

Wanda chuckles. "Goodbye, Grace."

She starts to walk out of the room. "Bye, Sam." He nods in response, smiling a little.

She continues up the stairs, still looking over her shoulder. "Bye, Uncle Rhodey."

"See ya, mini Stark."

"Later, Vis."

He starts to say goodbye, but stops, confused. "Vis? You've given me another name?"

"Yeah, it's a nickname," Grace explains, stopping at the door. "Like, 'small one', or 'mini Stark', or... 'Iron Child.' Those are nicknames for me, but my actual name is still Grace. Like yours is still Vision."

He nods in understanding. "Oh, yes, I see." He smiles and waves at her. "Goodbye, small one."

She laughs as she walks out the door, running into Steve and Nat. Steve smiles. "Tony's waiting for you outside."

"I figured," she replies, hugging them both and then starting to head for the door. "Bye, Cap! Bye, Nat!"

"Hey, listen, if you can convince your dad, you should join the team," Steve jokes. "We're kinda low on numbers."

Grace reaches the door and scoffs. "As if. He'd never let me." She sighs, pushing the door open and pausing for a second. "And I think I've done enough fighting for a while."

"Fair enough," Steve replies. "Bye, Grace."

"Bye, Grace," Nat echoes. "See you when I see you."

Grace smiles. "See you when I see you."