Author's Note:

Hello! Welcome to the final chapter!

Thank you to discordchick, Guest Cruelia. for reviewing the last chapter!

Right, here's the nicely-lengthed ending.

Andrea sighed, keeping her eyes closed despite her burning curiosity as to why this location needed to be kept a secret. She was just glad she hadn't been blindfolded - if that had been suggested, she would have changed her mind about the job right then and there. Nothing good ever came of being driven around by a strange man while being blindfolded.

"We're pulling into the driveway now." Her new boss, Mr. Barton, updated her as the car started up an incline. She was eagerly awaiting the 'big reveal'. She'd been told plenty about the house where she'd be spending the next few months, and had seen a few pictures of the inside, but something told her that seeing it would be a much more grand experience in person.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" She asked as pleasantly as she could, trying not to sound impatient. Ever since the beginning of this car ride she'd been nervous about giving off the right impression to Mr. Barton; she felt more self-conscious than when she'd been on stage for a high school play.

The man chuckled good-naturedly, helping to put some of her worries to rest, and the car came to a stop. "Okay, now you can open them."

At first she had to blink furiously to readjust to the bright mid-afternoon sunlight shining through the windshield, but once she could properly see the house, she almost gasped in surprise. The house was enormous, but not unwelcoming, settled on what looked like over an acre of land. From what she could see, the backyard looked to be sprawling hills and patches of trees. It was gorgeous! "Oh my… this is amazing!" She complimented.

Clint Barton smiled in appreciation and opened his door. "Thanks." He got out and stretched, and she followed suit, getting her bag from the backseat and pulling it over her shoulder.

She followed him up the front steps and into the entryway of the old house, pleased to find a well-lit, friendly interior decorated with pictures of a happy family. The house was over fifty years old, she'd been told, but it certainly didn't seem like it. It was perfectly clean and smelled fresh and inviting. She could definitely enjoy living here.

"Here, you can set your bag in your room before we start the grand tour- it's downstairs, immediately to your right." He instructed, showing her to the basement door. She went down the flight of steps to find a large, open room with plenty of windows and equipped with a full screening area. Her room was off to the right, and was even bigger than the one in her brother's house, where she'd been staying before this. There was a spacious closet, a fully-functional attached bathroom… yes, she was going to like it here. She deposited her things in her room and climbed back up to the first floor.

"Your house is beautiful," she noted, but was surprised to find not only Mr. Barton, but a redheaded woman that Andrea had never seen before. Had she been there this whole time? "Oh, hello! I'm Andrea." She introduced herself politely, giving the woman a friendly smile.

The woman's eyes scanned over her and she made a sound of dissatisfaction. "Yeah, I know," she commented before walking off.

Andrea furrowed her eyebrows at the strange woman, confused at how… closed off she was. She turned and gave her boss a questioning look. "Did I say something wrong?"

The man sighed and shook his head, seeming disappointed or at least lightly annoyed. "No, she can just be kind of… abrasive, at times." He answered. "She's not taking this move very well."

The way he worded that confused her even more. Who was that woman? Mr. Barton had never mentioned remarrying, or dating, or having another family member living with them. Clearly they knew each other very well, though. Could she be a friend? Neighbour? Coworker? For a moment, a panicked thought of please tell me THAT isn't Lila! ran through her mind before she shook it away, reminding herself that Lila was six years old. Still, she was unbelievably confused.

"Ah, I get it… and she's… ?" She'd meant to guess, but nothing came to her that made complete sense, so she just left it open and hoped she wasn't being rude.

"His mistress," the woman called through.

Clint Barton shot an exasperated look at the doorway through which the woman had disappeared earlier. "No, not my mistress." He corrected her, before turning back to Andrea. "She and I have been… dating… for the past few months. We've kind of kept it on the down-low, so the kids aren't really aware of it." He informed her, his tone telling her that she wasn't to tell the kids. Although, she couldn't help but wonder if she really was his mistress. "That's Natasha. The kids will be getting here tomorrow, so I'll do the rest of the introductions then."

"Oh, okay," Andrea replied, unable to not have questions, but decided to limit the ones she actually asked. "Wait… why doesn't she like the move?" She asked quietly, not wanting to somehow have the woman - Natasha - overhear and be offended.

"Well… she's staying behind. We're going to be much farther apart than before," Mr. Barton said rather sadly.

"She doesn't need our life story, Clint," Natasha said walking into the room, handing Mr. Barton a beer and then walking straight out in a different direction.

Was she like a spectre, just floating throughout the rooms? Andrea felt like she was out of her depth in regards to interacting with this woman.

Mr. Barton took a small swig of his beer before putting it down on the counter. "Alright, let's get the tour done."

Andrea couldn't help but smile eagerly as the children were let into the house, immediately gaping at the house that they'd apparently lived most of their lives in. The joy on the younger child's face was enough to make Andrea instantly like her - she'd forgotten how much she loved the beautiful innocence of children. The older brother, Cooper, was more contained, but no less enthusiastic. When the kids noticed Andrea, they both smiled happily.

"Hi, I'm Lila!" The little girl introduced, seeming to wiggle in excitement. Andrea kept her tone as upbeat and friendly as possible, extending a hand to the little girl.

"Hello, Lila - I'm Andrea. And you must be Cooper." She said, turning her smile to the boy. He shuffled his feet shyly and nodded.

Mr. Barton came up behind the boy and clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, son, be a gentleman," he urged with a small amused smile. Cooper blushed and extended his hand for her to shake. She took it and shook, pretending not to notice how flustered he was.

"Nice to meet you," the boy said quietly - but he was still smiling, if not a bit awkwardly, so at least there was that. She was sure he'd adjust quickly enough.

The rather sweet moment of introduction was suddenly cut short when both children visibly perked up before sprinting past Andrea and into that Natasha woman's waiting arms. Andrea held back a defeated sigh; it was only natural that they had a more favoured woman than her, after all. Still, she found herself hoping that someday they'd react the same way to her.

"Natasha!" Lila cried, her arms firmly around the woman's neck. "We missed-ed you!"

"I missed you both, too!" Natasha replied with such perkiness in her voice that Andrea had to take a step back out of shock. "You have to tell me everything you did!"

Cooper was all too eager to pipe up. "I stayed at Mark's house for two days and we played laser tag and we got to jump on his trampoline!" He informed her.

"And I got to play house with Kelly!" Lila chimed in. Andrea chuckled a little in the background - oh, kids. Well, at least now she already had a good feel of what each child liked to do.

"That's great!" Natasha replied, giving them both a squeeze before letting them go. She glanced at Andrea with a blank expression before her face brightened up again as she looked at the children. "Why don't you both go and check out your rooms - you can show Andrea them too!"

Before she could quite process it, Andrea was being dragged by two kids up the staircase, both of them rapidly rambling on and on about how excited they were and how awesome their rooms were.

Clint enjoyed the peace that nighttime brought as he and Natasha sat in the living room, casually talking with an easiness he'd missed for a while now. Andrea had tucked in the children two hours prior, allowing him and Natasha more time to talk and relax on the couch, and was now presumably asleep in the guest room downstairs. The TV was on, the show some sort of documentary about sloths, but they weren't paying much attention to it.

After they'd reached midnight and were still in the living room, talking, Clint sighed and stood. He had to get some sleep so he could be well-rested for work tomorrow. "I think it's time we went to bed," he commented as he stretched.

Natasha didn't stand and instead tilted her head to the side before glancing around. "Clint," she started ominously, "would you be willing to do something for me?"

He wasn't sure how he felt about the tone she used. "Yes," he answered almost immediately.

She hummed in response, glancing at the back wall for a second. "Would you be willing to build an extension so we could have a completely different bedroom for the two of us?"

He hadn't been expecting that, and his heart leapt a little at what she was implying. If she wanted a bedroom here… "Of course," he replied eagerly, a smile growing on his face. "It'll take some time, but of course!"

Natasha smiled; he was sure it looked relieved. "Great, then I won't have to stay at the base or on the couch."

The thought made him so happy that for a moment he wasn't sure what to say. "Well, I'll get as much done as I can before your next visit," he eventually promised.

"I predict you'd get very little done; turns out I'll be able to visit a bit more than we first estimated," she admitted.

He raised a brow in surprise. "Really? Why?"

"I did something crazy," she told him in a hushed tone, obviously not wanting anybody to overhear her. He knew it must be serious when she leant forward. "I transferred to the same base as you."

Clint outright stared at her in shock, unsure if he was hearing correctly. Natasha wasn't one to make such big changes out of the blue. "You're… wait, you transferred?" He exclaimed, as though needing confirmation for something he had already understood.

"Yes," she confirmed shortly, looking up at him with a blank expression.

His smile returned instantly. "That's… that's great, Nat!" He didn't question her on why she did, not wanting to really press it. He was just glad she did. "Does that mean you'll be moving in here?"

Her eyes actually widened and she leant backwards. "Hell no. We are definitely not there yet; I don't even have a place to sleep here. The base is the only home I need."

"Ah. But you'll be around more often," he affirmed.

Natasha gave another nod. "Yes, it's not that far from here- in fact, it's ten hours closer by car than it would have been."

Well, he certainly couldn't argue with that. "Have I told you lately how amazing you are?" He asked with a giant grin.

"Nope," Natasha answered as she finally stop up.

He slowly pulled her into his arms and looked down at her before kissing her. "Well, you're amazing, and beautiful, and I'm so very lucky to have you in my life," he said earnestly, but kept his voice from getting too mushy so it wouldn't put her off. She hated mushy.

"I know, you'd be nothing without me," she teased with a smirk.

With a chuckle, he pulled her into another kiss.

Natasha had instantly thrown herself into work at the new base, as well as going back to her now old base for half of the week. Even though she had transferred, she still had existing work which needed to be finished and the odd mission she had to go on. She didn't mind the extra travelling at all, nor did she mind doing double the amount of work and prepping for double the amount of missions she had done before.

Transferring bases had increased her workload, even though she was now at a smaller base, and it was honestly the best decision Natasha had ever made.

However, Clint had asked her a few times if she wanted to go back to his for dinner to see the children, but she was actually too busy. So, apart from a five am breakfast and an extended lunch on two different days, she hadn't seen him that much.

Today, however, was different; it was Wednesday morning and she was given the day off. It seemed that all agents were entitled to one full day off a week unless they were on an extended undercover mission. The maximum they allowed agents to work was 13 days, and then they get two days off. Natasha briefly wondered if the agents would be softer and weaker here because of it, or more relaxed and attentive at work. She'd have to pay attention to that in the next few weeks.

Natasha had changed into 'casual' clothes, which consisted of leggings and a long top… or short dress… she did not understand this ludicrous fashion. Either way, it was comfy, practical and suitable for hanging out with Clint's kids - who she was leaving to meet up with now.

She enjoyed the hours-long trek, deciding to park a bit further from Clint's and walk to the farm instead of her usual jog - the scenery was really spectacular. Her time was cut slightly short when she saw Clint outside, which obviously meant he had already seen her coming.

"Hey, Nat!" He called once she got close enough. He was sitting on the porch railing, watching her with a smile, while Cooper and Lila were swinging rambunctiously on the porch swing. Natasha thought amusedly that he was the only agent she knew that was small enough to sit on the railing without breaking it or falling on his ass - he was taller than her, but in comparison to the other male agents on the base… well, he was a shorty. Best keep those thoughts to herself, though.

"Hey," she called back idly, not speeding up her pace - he can wait for her. "Doing nothing productive, I see."

Clint pulled a face at her, swinging his legs idly. "I'll have you know that I've spent the past week working doggedly on that new addition - I'd say I'm allowed to be a potato every once in a while."

"Daddy, you look like a potato!" Lila cried mischievously.

Clint pursed his lips at her. "Thanks, Liles."

Natasha chuckled under her breath. "Children are delightfully honest. Hey, Lila," she greeted the young girl with a hug.

Cooper jumped up from the swing right after his sister and wrapped his arms around Natasha eagerly. "We missed you!"

"It's only been a week," Natasha reminded them, but gave them a little extra squeeze anyway before letting them go. "I've been busy at work - your Dad has been slacking off, though," she teased with a smirk directed straight at Clint.

Clint frowned, looking exaggeratedly insulted. "Oh yeah? I'm gonna make you eat your words." he taunted, leading the way inside. As they walked through the house, Clint paused in the hallway and sighed. "Lila, get that thing off the dinner table!" Lila giggled and wormed her way past the group, skipping into the kitchen and coming back into view with an enormously fat white cat in her arms.

"He was lonely!"

"He's a stray - he doesn't like people!" Clint retorted, rubbing the space between his eyes with the look of someone who's been through this situation at least ten other times in the past day.

Lila pouted. "He does too! He lets me pet him, and hold him!" She argued, turning her big eyes to Natasha. "Isn't he sweet? Daddy's being mean to him."

Natasha stroked the cat without any problems. "He's cute, I suppose." She wasn't really an animal person - what's the point in having to take care of something which doesn't give you anything back? At least children grew up. One thing she'd never understand was animal lovers. "Doesn't seem hostile," she pointed out, loud enough for Clint to hear, before she saw what he had done with the building works. "Woah."

His annoyed scowl transformed into a smug smirk. "Told you! I've been working on this all week." He led the way into the framework of the new room. "Hopefully it'll be done by the end of the month."

"Not bad," Natasha said approvingly as she walked into the new room. The base was done, with the whole outer framework already done. The roof was half completed, too. It was probably already waterproof, but it wasn't raining and testing it would be strange seeing as it wasn't finished. "I saw a good bed and mattress for sale; I look forward to trying it out with you," she said softly, winking at him.

Clint smiled a little at that, although he seemed to hide it considering the children were nearby. "I'll be waiting with bells on," he replied. Cooper cocked his head curiously.

"Are you gonna build me a new room, Daddy?"

"No, buddy - your bedroom is perfectly fine the way it is," Clint replied, ruffling his son's hair.

Lila came out, still holding that huge feline. "Can Sprinkles have your old room? Pleeeeaaase?" She asked as innocently as she could.

Clint sighed. "Lila, that thing is not getting its own bedroom."

"Where did you even find Sprinkles?" Natasha inquired.

Lila perked up, snuggling her face against the cat. "He followed me inside after I played on the swingset! He loves me!"

"Honey, he probably thinks you'll have a huge stash of food for him. He's a stinky stray," Clint argued.

Lila pouted. "No, he's my best friend! He loves me." She asserted.

Natasha took the stray, Sprinkles, from Lila and held him for a minute. "He looks very well taken care of - are you sure he's a stray?"

The little girl looked troubled. "I… no…" She admitted, shoulders sinking a little.

"So… Sprinkles might have a family who's missing him a lot?" Natasha asked her, before glancing up at Clint.

"But…" Lila stared at the cat, denial flashing in her eyes. "But he followed me! He doesn't…" Her lip began to wobble and, sighing, Clint put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure his family is worried sick about where he is. He needs to go home." He said gently. Lila sniffled, eyes getting watery.

"But I want him!"

"And so does his family; they could be crying for him right now," Natasha pointed out.

Lila's heartbroken look got deeper before she finally nodded, tears slipping down her face. "O-okay. B-but how do we know if he does have a f-family?"

Clint looked thoughtfully at that cat that was currently trying to nibble on Natasha's hair. "He doesn't have a collar, so we don't have a phone number or address… we could tie a note with our phone number around his neck and then once his family finds him, they can call us and tell us he got home safe," he suggested.

Natasha sat down next to Cooper as she watched the youngest of the four of them cry. "Maybe you can get a pet for Christmas - that's only in a few weeks."

Lila whimpered but seemed to perk up a little at the thought. "C-could I, Daddy?" She asked with giant puppy-dog eyes, folding her hands under her chin pleadingly.

Clint looked down at her for a good five seconds before sighing. "We'll see. Now let's get this ball of stench back to his home."

Natasha leant back on the couch and looked at Cooper, who was grinning at her. "Could we really get a pet?" He asked quietly whilst Clint was pre-occupied.

"Depends - what did you want?"

Cooper spent a pretty long time thinking before listing a few options. "Guinea pig, or real pig, or a dog. I love dogs."

"I'll see what I can do… don't tell your father," Natasha whispered back, fully planning on getting them a pet, if Clint liked it or not. Maybe this was why people got pets, to annoy somebody else.

Natasha used Clint as a pillow as they laid on their new bed - which she bought - and admired the room. There wasn't really much furniture in the room, just a few boxes of Clint's clothes, the bed and her bag of clothes. She was thankful that he hadn't decided to just move his old room into this room, but knew they needed to decorate it in some way… or get chest of drawers. Her eyes focused on the stars which could be seen through the skylight, which was only one of the many amazing surprises. She hadn't known how well Clint could actually build.

"Are you sure you didn't get any help?" She asked him for the fifth time, still unable to believe it.

He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest under her head. It was a nice sound. "I may have watched a few tutorials online…"

"A-ha, knew it," Natasha replied, glancing up at him. She contemplated whether or not to thank him for all of this, but that would be weird - who did that? Instead she continued to turn her head up and kissed him deeply. Although, they both groaned when his phone went off. "For once, it's not my phone."

Sighing, Clint leant over and snagged the offending phone from the bedside table- or the stack of boxes currently serving as a bedside table. He read the caller ID and let out another groan before answering. "Barton. Yes. … Yes. I understand." He said; the other end of the call was muffled and hard for her to overhear. "Wait, why is it being kept in New Mexico? … Really? You're kidding me. A ha-" He cut off as the other person started talking. He sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll be there in two hours." With that he terminated the call, massaging the bridge of his nose. He was quiet for a few seconds before turning to her. "I have a mission."

"So much for breaking in the room… when it's finished, anyway," Natasha replied grudgingly as she laid down on the bed. Her eyes opened as she realised he hadn't moved. "Aren't you going?"

He made a reluctant noise. "Well… today is Andrea's day off…" He said.

"And…?" Natasha asked him pointedly. How did that relate to him not leaving for the mission… unless he didn't want her babysitting the children. She had done it before… hadn't she?

Clint shrugged. "Well, I don't want to just ditch you with the kids - and I'm apparently going to be gone all weekend." He said, looking sheepish.

Natasha rolled her eyes, seriously, Clint could be really over dramatic when he wanted to be. "Just go, you idiot, I've got this."

He blinked. "You sure?" He asked, sounding a bit surprised. "I mean, I know babysitting isn't your favourite pastime."

"It's not babysitting, they're…" What? They're what? Natasha paused for a moment. "Go to the damn mission, Barton."

If he had seemed surprised before… Well, he was definitely surprised now. The look on his face clearly said he wanted desperately to question her further on what she'd been about to say, but thankfully was smart enough not to push it. She knew there was a reason she kept him around. "Alright, alright. I'll leave my card in the kitchen so you can pick up a pizza for dinner tonight, if you'd like to." He said, pushing up from the bed and quickly slipping on a clean shirt. "If you could try to get them to do their homework at some point, that would be great, and I'm sure you know the rest of the spiel, right?"

"I know how to take care of kids - get out before I kick you out," Natasha grunted. Now he was making an effort to be annoying. She stood up, gave him a kiss and then literally pushed him out of the room. Clint chuckled, grabbed his go-bag and left, leaving Natasha alone in the house with the kids.

There was a few minutes where she listened to Clint gather his things, sneak upstairs to say goodbye to his sleeping children before grabbing something - probably unhealthy - from the fridge and leaving. She then pushed herself up into a seated position - so far, this wasn't the greatest first night spent at Clint's. She decided to make the bed properly; they had just thrown the sheets on after putting together the bed frame and throwing the mattress on.

Natasha couldn't help but venture into the main part of the house and look around; Clint, the children and Andrea had only been living in this house again for only a few weeks, but it looked completely different from when she had first seen it. Sure, there was still the same furniture, and mostly the same photographs - a few updated ones of the kids scattered around. The house remained really tidy - mainly thanks to Andrea. But there was a completely different vibe, and she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

For so much of her life, she had been broken down into what others wanted, and to this day, she was still broken. She was able to relate to Clint because he, too, had been broken and was also still broken in one way or another. It was weird to think that them being broken together made them almost whole - or completely whole.

Suddenly, something caught her eye; a picture frame hanging on the wall that she was sure hadn't been there last time. But it wasn't the frame itself that caught her attention, but rather the photo - one of her and Clint. He'd insisted a while back that they take just one picture together, because he was Clint and he was much too sentimental, but she had eventually obliged and he proceeded to pull out his phone and take a picture of them holding each other. She'd forgotten all about it - it had been months ago.

Now as she finally looked at the final product of that little photo shoot, she found her eyes drawn to herself in the image. To the genuine happiness in her own eyes as she leant back against Clint, his arm around her shoulders. She had only ever experienced that sort of happiness once in her life - one that hadn't just been a fleeting occurrence. However, after Alexei died, and so did her hope of everlasting happiness, she hadn't imagined seeing that expression on her face again. It was almost a shock to her system to see that she was still capable of such joy - and that it had lasted this long.

Natasha was finally confident that this was absolutely where she belonged. Her whole life was falling into place, and she didn't even feel broken anymore.

Final A/N:

A huge thank you to every single person who even clicked on this story, you all helped it to involve into what it is now! It's a very bitter-sweet moment for me, I'm glad that I was able to end this story in a sound way (before I ruin it). But, it's now ended... I did have loads of plans of integrating it with other Marvel films, but, I'm happy with ending it here - pretty sure most things wouldn't change anyway!

I won't bore you all with a long A/N, just know that I am extremely thankful to you all and loved writing the majority of this!

HAPPY DECEMBER! HAPPY CHRISTMAS! ENJOY THE NEW YEAR!

Violet: I can't believe this is the end! Vanilla, our baby's all grown up!

Seriously, though, thank you all so much for reading, favouriting, following, and leaving your lovely reviews! We had so much fun writing this and you guys are what makes it all worthwhile! :D