This is it!

JRBarton: Here it is! the very end! We will see where it goes from here!

Niom Lamboise: thank you!

discordchick:hahahaa! i loved the hashtag! Oh, Clint, he always thinks he's so funny.

Jesuslovesmarina: I love that Indian Grandma! We'll wrap some things up about Laura here...

Batghost: LOL, true, true... I was a lazy author!

I-OfTheHawk: Ahhhhh cliffhangers, they ARE my friends:) As to the Inhumans... you will see!

amy. .9 : Hope i wrap up most of the questions here! might have to revisit this book again later just so that I make the writing a little better. Didn't know where it was going at first, and nor that it's over, I cant help but be surprised myself:)

mafiabro : Aw, thank you! It is totally right that you love em this much:)

The Spoiled Duchess: he is too adorable!

WestonFollower: Deep breaths indeed! I did LOVE that dialogue too (in the other chapter you liked). I hope my little solution for the Barton Family Home makes you smile too:)


Epilogue

The water worked. It was one of the final successes of the new location for the Barton family's favorite old house. Laura stood over the white plastic washtub, letting the water run hot before she attempted to hand wash the endless nooks and crannies of Nathan's baby bottles and the family cutlery. One square window looked out over the distant lolling hills. Bruce stood out there beneath their newly made swing set. He made quite a sight with the baby in his arms and his foot bopping Lila forward. The little girl's quest of the day was to go as high as Uncle Bruce let her, which never seemed to be as high as she really wanted.

Cooper raced through the picturesque scene. Odin the cat tore off across the lawn, chasing the long tail of wheat Cooper had in his hands. They zig-zagged across the grass together. In the far distance, Lila's new pony, Sleiphner, chomped lazily at the ground scrub. Occasionally he'd turn one dark black eye in the direction of the house and nicker at his little girl. Laura smiled. Everything seemed so right. Spring came, driving out the cold and pulling with it the life new beginnings are made from.

When Clint was well enough to leave the Reservation hospital, the family found themselves faced with the same predicament as before: homelessness. Determined to be some help in the situation (and not see his new favorite family left out in the cold), Sam called in a favor to a friend unacquainted with the Bartons (or any other Avengers). By the time Clint was healthy enough to leave, the new home was ready and it bore a remarkable resemblance to the one he already owned.

Pym Particles. Laura didn't know much about them and neither did anyone else, it seemed. What she did know, was that Sam's new ant friend had found a way to shrink the Barton family home to the size of a dollhouse and transported it across state lines. In this place, tucked close to the Canadian line, the farm house, its barn, their car, and everything else that belonged to the Bartons had been magically deposited and arranged over the hillside.

While having their own home returned to them, complete with Tony Stark's invisible shield hologram to keep it from prying eyes, was a welcome surprise, it did not come without its own unforeseen troubles. Firstly, the entire contents of the house had been thrown about like the contents of a snow globe. Also, though the house was intact, other items had not traveled along with it, such as the plumbing, electricity, and other basic essentials. Apparently the thought hadn't occurred to anyone until Steve went traveling precariously through the mess to the restroom and noticed that it didn't flush. A minor oversight and open opportunity for Clint to enjoy his household projects.

A small river flowed at the bottom of the hill. Large enough for fish, but too small for any real flooding, it served as their water for the first few weeks it took to get the plumbing sorted out. In the meantime they lived off the prairie like traditional country folk, washing their clothes, dishes, and all the rest in the river and hauling water to the house in buckets. The Avengers helped get the family on their feet, but it was long past time for the Avengers to return to normal things again and leave the Bartons to what they liked most, peace and quiet.

Only, it wasn't all that peaceful.

Clint had dodged death once more, something he had an incredible knack for. He would dodge it a second time over when the Smith patriarch visited along with Laura's mother, a hunting dog, and shotgun over his shoulder. They knew at once the last thing Jackson Jamison Smith planned to go after were pheasants or deer. Lila and Cooper were happy to entertain their grandparents, as always. Clint on the other hand endured the stiff-lipped grumblings of Laura's father about his ill-treatment over the phone when last they spoke. It was at that moment Natasha Romanov came strolling down the stairs, wearing Clint's button-down plaid shirt and absolutely nothing else. Father Smith deemed the Barton household a den of depravity. Natasha checked around for the kids, found them to be absent, and flipped him her middle finger. She'd never been an open advocate of the man, privately or otherwise.

After being shot in the arm, shot in the leg, and cognitively recalibrated, Natasha decided it was her sworn duty to be waited on hand and foot by whoever would cater to her. She'd spent only a few hours in search of Phil's double at the fake SHIELD base before she uncovered more things than she ought to. Five Inhumans fell before Gordon took her on, and even he received a carefully placed chair to the gut for his troubles. By the end of the fight, Natasha was stuck in a position she could not escape from on her own. With no way out, and zero back up, her band of kidnappers decided to use her talents in their favor. They had small numbers and survived on their lies. Natasha was told everything from the death of Steve Rogers, the kidnapping of the Barton kids, the murder of Clint, to anything else they might cook up. All of it meant to break down her walls. Little did they know how adept she was at working against the influence of others. Only Agent Daniels, the mind-controlling Inhuman, got her in the end.

In Natasha's opinion, she did not survive all of that only to listen to Clint's father-in-law flex his might. She sent him packing with a measure less decorum than either Laura or Clint could muster on their own.

Aside from Clint's slow recovery, the lack of proper plumbing, Natasha's injuries, the tension with the grandparents, an entirely new layer of trouble entered their lives the minute Bruce and Natasha came under the same roof. Their first argument had more intensity than a lightning storm. In Bruce's opinion, Natasha had not only lied to him, but seduced him. In Natasha's opinion she had saved him. Bruce didn't take to that very lightly and Hulked out, forcing Thor to step in as Natasha's protector. Cooper made a bag of popcorn and he, Lila, and Jake Red Fox sat on the front porch of the Reservation hospital watching the two duke it out.

This same scene repeated three more times.

If Bruce planned to stay at the Barton house while Natasha recovered, a few ground rules had to be in place. Bruce stayed in the barn apartment, Natasha stayed in the house. Bruce made breakfast, Natasha made lunch. Their schedules were perfectly opposite and, under no circumstances, were they allowed to speak to one another. Cooper and Lila were the perfect deputies to keep both of them in line.

The greatest challenge of all belong to Laura. It was a subtle thing. She felt it first whenever Clint came close to her. A strange warmth that flushed her skin, a peculiar sharpness to her reflexes, and an awareness to everything around her . . . As Clint entered the kitchen directly behind her, and decided to sneak up and throw his arms around her waist in surprise, he forgot about these elusive nuances.

Laura turned on him. Where once she might freeze, jump, or utter a squeal in surprise, now she said nothing at all. Her hand gripped the handle of the knife in the wash basin, she dropped out of his arms and in a single fluid move turned on him with the knife parallel to her arm. It would take little more than a flick of her wrist to filet his neck wide open.

Clint stopped and waited.

Horrified, Laura dropped the knife from her hand. Clint had to adjust his foot away quickly to avoid letting it stab right through the top of it. Laura's hand flew up to her mouth. She was shaking.

"It's all right," Clint whispered to her. He looked up for a moment, noted that the children and Bruce were still outside, and he knew already that Natasha slept upstairs. No one had to see Laura like this.

"I'm so sorry!" Laura exclaimed, reaching for him. She found no sign of blood along his neck where she expected it to be. He had narrowly avoided her a second time. "Clint, I'm sorry. I didn't . . . I never meant . . . "

Clint leaned down stiffly and lifted the knife. He set it back into the soapy water of the sink. "I said it's ok."

"What if that was Lila? What if it was Cooper, Clint, I can't just keep going like this!"

"It wasn't them. It was me."

"What if—"

Clint took her hands in his and squeezed. "What if doesn't matter. The world's changing, Laura. We can't trust anyone else with this. Not Phil, Nick, I don't even want to tell Nat. Tony's on this rampage after what the Inhumans did to us. He's scared. He wants their names out there the way he is. These secrets are ours and as long as Bruce is for us, then that's all we can do."

Her fingers tightened around his. "I'm dangerous, Clint."

"Only around me you are, or Natasha. It's not like you can turn green on us. We'd have known that by now. So what if you decide to be a Valkyrie around Thor and can lift his hammer? Vision does that too. I don't even care about those little things you decide to levitate when Wanda strolled by, or that you can randomly use Steve's shield now, or my bow, or shoot a target two thousand yards out. Laura, I don't care. Do you understand that?" He said the last part gently, his hand resting beside along her chin.

Laura leaned against him, pressing her lips against his fingers. "What am I going to do?" she whispered.

"We," he corrected, "are going to do the same thing we always do. I'm going to do my job and hopefully keep Tony off of this high horse he's on, even if it means siding with Cap to do it. You are going to keep being the same adorable, strong, fantastic mom that raised me right before we even had kids to think about."

He pulled her closer to him and draped his arms over her shoulders, his head resting beside hers. They watched their impromptu Hulk babysitter set Nathaniel down in his outdoor pack-and-play before Bruce ran off across the grass to chase the cape-wearing Lila. Bruce hoisted the girl over his shoulder, letting out his practiced Hulk/Bruce roar. Lila squealed in happiness. Cooper rushed to her rescue, in one hand his toy Captain America shield and Thor's hammer in the other. Odin the cat strolled over to the baby and rolled over in the sunlight.

Clint smiled as he watched his family. He didn't really know what it meant for them to be Inhumans. He considered asking Thor, though he had yet to take that step. Were his kids affected? What did this mean for them growing up? Were they eventually going to attend Xavier's school in New York? Were they going to be happy, healthy, and safe? With this changing world, was the government planning to place his kids' names on some list and track them like cattle?

Laura had already change before his eyes. He didn't want to face that reality, but it continued to stare him in the face. She wasn't dangerous, he would never think that of her, but she was different and that required some adjustments. They had plenty of money to live on between her savings and his, so for now she decided to take a break from the job hunt and focus on herself. As a mother of three, he wanted her to have everything she ever wanted.

Things change. That was life. He just wished his life changed less than everyone else on the planet.

Holding her a little tighter, Clint whispered, "You know, if you ever do turn blue or something, I think it would just make you sexier."


DAW!

I just love him.

So, as you can tell, i wrote this to sort of set up Clint's decision to join cap in Civil War. Not sure if I will write an extra story in this series in between now and that movie release. I might wait to see what happens to our favorite characters!