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When Elizabeth started to go in for half-day at the infant daycare, Clint began to make friends more often than Phil did. That and Clint, unless he was on a mission, was more likely to take her there and drop her off. So, that was how he met the Hendersons and began to get them invited over. Not wanting to make waves, Phil posed as an uncle and, considering that Elizabeth hasn’t started talking yet (which was worrying Phil to near-insanity), they didn’t have to worry about her calling Phil ‘mama’ (Clint had started it, but it was accurate). And, with creating their little world, they brought Natasha and Nick into this as well, only with Natasha saying that she could ‘dress as she wanted due to it being Halloween’ and Fury was going to be dashing.
Most of that was, frighteningly enough, her words.
“Why am I allowing you to do this to me again?” Phil asked calmly as he felt Clint carefully dress him up.
“Because you are madly in love with me and we’ve been unofficially married for a few years now,” Clint answered calmly.
“Who has Elizabeth?” Phil questioned.
“Natasha. She’s insisting that she should get to carry around my little baby angel girl because she fits into her theme that she has with Nick, supposedly,” Clint answered.
“She does and I’ll be force to remove her spleen,” Phil responded.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Nick countered.
Natasha could be heard speaking Russian to Elizabeth. “Stop calling her kitten!” Clint snapped, even as he felt the last article, the hat, be settled on his head.
“Ta-da!” Clint called and removed the blindfold.
Phil blinked at his outfit, before he glared at the ‘falconer’ that Clint had made himself. “I’m a horse,” he stated and Natasha laughed.
“Horses are great and noble creatures. And we can’t have an obvious theme. I think the Hendersons are those kind of people,” Clint answered cheerfully before walking over to where Natasha was. Phil turned and blinked at the site before him.
Fury was dressed like a prince. A one-eyed prince, but a prince all the same, who seemed to be staring at Natasha with a look of wonder on his face that Phil had never seen before.
Natasha, however, was dazzling as a beautiful swan princess, complete with feathered accessories. Her hair was either dyed white or was a white wig, but with the make-up, she was a beautiful picture.
Especially holding a falcon dressed Elizabeth (said falcon costume had nothing actually hanging off of it and it was more like the feathers were printed on the costume with over-the-top big feathers falling from her arms to better replicate the wings).
She immediately began to make babbling noises, and Natasha carefully deposited her into Phil’s arms, snapping Nick out of his look.
“There. A hunter with his eyas and his steed,” she stated, with a smirk on her face.
Phil glared and Clint rushed in an attempt to cover his daughter’s ears. “Not in front of my little eyas!” he corrected, glaring at her.
Natasha just blinked her eyes innocently at him and Clint scowled before gently scooping Elizabeth up into his arms. “We have a party to get to. And I am expecting everyone to participate in keeping Elizabeth from screaming her head off thirty minutes into it,” Clint stated, heading for the door.
Phil followed calmly and Nick stepped up to Natasha’s side, wrapping one arm around her waist. “If you say one word about how good I looked with a babe in my arms, I shall remove your kidneys and sell them on the black market,” she warned.
“Duly noted. Doesn’t change the fact that I went to a place that I am sure my brain shouldn’t have gone,” he answered.
She rested a hand on his own. “I liked it too,” she whispered and he pressed a kiss to her temple.
“One day?” he questioned softly.
“Maybe.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
There was a place for the kids, when they fell asleep, but for now Elizabeth seemed content to travel the room in various arms, though Natasha refused to hold her after said baby tried to yank out some of the feathers.
Her costume was not childproof.
Phil was the one who held Elizabeth the most, mostly because if they tried to put her down after she started to sleep, she woke up and began to cry.
And she did sleep best with Phil.
Made sense, considering she heard his heartbeat, voice, and everything for nine months.
Clint smiled as he walked over to where Phil was talking to Mr. Jonathon Henderson. “Hey, Phil. She fall asleep again?” Clint asked, even as he carefully picked his little eyas out of Phil’s arms.
“Mr. Coulson here was telling me about your…family dynamics,” Jonathon stated.
“Oh?” Clint questioned softly.
“Yes. That woman over there is his…second sister was it?” Jonathon asked and Phil nodded.
Clint was very thankful he hadn’t made Natasha his sister. So awkward on so many levels.
“Yes. Sandra is the youngest and married to Clint. However, she flipped gender roles on him rather viciously, I’m sad to say,” Phil answered with a smile.
He was rather thankful that he always had dodged questions about his wife. “Oh?” Jonathon asked.
“Yes. Usually it is the men who cheat and run off with their mistresses, leaving behind their children. I have done what was needed to insure Sandra never comes near us again. Talia was rather gleeful about that as well,” Phil answered, even as Clint rubbed Elizabeth’s cheek.
“Ah. I’m sorry for that,” Jonathon said and quickly left.
“You’re going to be dragging us out of here, aren’t you?” Clint asked.
“And changing our girl’s infant daycare. I just spent ten minutes with Henderson and if his wife is anything like him, Talia is going to be pissed and resisting the urge to maim," Phil answered calmly.
"Well, let's prevent that," Clint answered.
Phil game his 'if I could, I would kiss you right now' smile, and they headed over to Nick and Natasha. They conversed, managed to not insult anyone on their way out, and Clint settled Elizabeth into her carrier even as Natasha folded herself into the passenger seat.
As they drove along, Phil glanced up into the rearview mirror and sighed. "Director Fury, under your seat is a box of guns. Please start passing out the ammo," Coulson stated.
Clint twisted around and cursed.
Behind them was a car and someone leaning out to take aim.
And with that, Coulson put the pedal to the metal.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The resulting chase had Elizabeth crying as she was awoken by the swerving of the car and the use of guns. Clint had managed to pull the cover over her so she would have protection and leaned out the back window, aiming. "HYDRA, Ten Rings, AIM, what?" Clint shouted.
"Not bright enough to be AIM," Fury countered, even as Clint aimed for the tire and blew it out with a few well placed bullets.
The car crashed, another crashed into it, each one causing those who had been leaning out to go flying out into the pavement, and then get run over by those chasing them. Coulson didn't hesitate, even as Natasha pulled herself out, one of her wrist launchers prepped. She aimed and sent it flying, even as Clint let out another series of shots, sending another car careening off the road and into a lightpost.
"We've got three cars down, but that leaves...shit, we've got four on our tail now. We need to loose them Phil," Clint stated.
'I am working on it," Coulson called back.
Clint gave a sharp nod and fired off again, this time through the windshield.
The blood splatter told him enough.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Clint smiled down at Elizabeth, stroking her cheek, as the four of them hid out in a cheap hotel. "Thank god I brought two bags," Phil muttered, even as Natasha took over the bathroom.
"So, how long do you think we'll be here, sir?" Coulson asked, looking over at the Director, who was dressed normally.
"I don't know. They knew we were at that party though."
"Do you suspect a leak?"
"No. I suspect that someone there has connections to some people who knew who we were. Natasha is starting to get into troubles with people recognizing her. And Phil has always been our Everyman," Fury answered calmly.
"Many people there are in the import-export. I know one who happens to has some ties to Stark Industries," Coulson stated.
"Aren't we investigating SI?" Clint asked, looking up from the still wide awake Elizabeth, who fussed softly in his arms.
"Yes. We suspect an inside man might be making dealings with the Ten Rings," Natasha answered as she exited, shaking a bottle as she did. She glanced at it and then held it out to Clint, who took it with a grin and made sure it was okay before holding it up to Elizabeth's lips.
She latched on and grabbed the bottle, holding it and Clint began to sing softly to her as the other three discussed what happened.
Lighting conditions meant he hadn't been able to get a read on any of the people who, maybe, survived.
"When SHIELD went to do a scour, the wreckage was already gone that could suggest 'street gunfight'," Fury added and Clint gave a nod.
That made sense.
"So, HYDRA then," Coulson stated.
"So it seems."
"I thought we got rid of them," Natasha responded.
"Yes. But, they are like the legend. The only way we can kill them, is if we cut the legs out from under them," Coulson explained and Clint frowned a little, while Elizabeth shoved the bottle away.
Clint obeyed his little girl and tossed it at Coulson, who caught it. "I'll rinse it out," Coulson reassured, even Clint moved to burp her.
She didn't spit up, but she did burp, and Clint made a cradle in the middle of the bed before he went to get ready in the bathroom. When he came back, she was fussing and whining.
However, Phil was already there, handing her Na-fu.
She happily passed out and Clint glanced around. "Where are Tasha and Nick?" he asked.
"They went out to get supplies and make a few hotel room purchases. At other hotels. Across the state," Phil answered, and Clint got into bed, curled around the pillows that protected their baby girl.
Phil paused and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "We'll be fine. They won't be gone long. And like you'll let anyone in this room without a code," Phil stated and Clint nodded cheerfully.
Phil was back rather soon and they both stayed wide awake, thrumming on adreneline, till Nick and Natasha returned. Only then did they relax and fall asleep. It was light, but they were in a rental car before noon the next day, driving off normally as they could.
Halloween had come and gone.
Clint was just glad he managed to get pictures before everything had gone to hell in a hand basket.