➶ ｡˚ ° ➶ ｡˚➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚
(𝐑𝐔𝐍)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN-----▹ 

The sound rang through the air still almost echoing through the marble penthouse, "Stay exactly where you are." Jack said, slowly circling around to the front of Clint, "Jack, no!" Kate exclaimed, running up Iskra right next to her, the click of Eleanor's heels echoed against the floor, "What the hell is going on here?" she asked, just entering the room.

"And why are there two Avengers in my dining room?" she asked looking between, Clint, Kate, and Iskra, "Hi." Clint said flatly, and Iskra gave a small wave, "Oh, oh my God. You're Archer," Jack said slowly lowering his sword, "Hawkeye." "Clint." Kate and Clint corrected at the same time, "It's the branding issue, I'm telling you." Kate whispered, "Yeah sure." he replied sarcastically, "And you're Kate's friend, uh what was your name again?" Jack asked nodding towards Iskra, who was barely managing to hold back an eye roll, "Iskra." she said with a fake smile. 

"Come, let's all sit down," Eleanor said, leading them away to a table, as they followed her Iskra pulled Kate back a little, 'I'm going to kill you' she mouthed, dragging her pointer finger across her throat, 'sorry' Kate mouthed back with a shrug.

"Hawkeye and I are working on a case, and we needed to use the bathroom," Kate began to explain, but Iskra could already tell the brunette was a terrible liar. "Uh...he did. So, we were by the house, and we dropped in no big deal." Kate shrugged, Iskra may have been slightly over paranoid, having not taken a single sip out of the coffee mug sitting in front of her. 

"How terrific." "Working on a case together?" Jack and Eleanor said at the same time, Eleanor sending a look in Jack's direction. "He's my partner," Kate said, and Iskra sent her a look of overexaggerated offense, Clint scoffed, "We're not partners," Iskra muttered something under her breath along the lines of I'm gonna murder someone any minute, she didn't do well with people she had a disliking towards. "Or, friends-slash-partners," Kate shrugged, "I wouldn't really describe us as friends," Clint spoke with an extremely fake smile. 

Eleanor's phone went off with a buzz, "Someone used my laptop to sign onto my work account ten minutes ago. Any thoughts Kate?" she paused, "Hawkeye? Iskra?" before they had the chance to answer she spoke up again, "I know your mother, Iskra, and I'm sure she would find a call from me very interesting." Iskra rose an eyebrow at the woman, "Is that a threat?" she asked, and Eleanor shrugged. Kate haphazardly pointed to Iskra, "Oh, you'll never get anything out of her, she was trained by the best of the best." Iskra shot her a look, "she's a real pro."

"Although she thinks she tells me nothing and acts all tough, then she ends up telling me everything." Iskra sighed, "I have told her almost nothing." Iskra adds, "But, yeah I think it's because I'm generally pretty chill. You know, I'm not like 'OH MY GOD HAWKEYE' " Iskra couldn't deny the smile that tugged at her lips, "Definitely not." Clint said, "Nope, not you."Iskra added sarcastically. "By the way, thank you...for saving the world." Jack said, "Don't mention it." Clint said just as Iskra was saying, "It's kind of our job...Literally." 

"I would like my daughter to start telling the truth." Eleanor stepped in clearly just as tired of this conversation as Iskra. Kate suddenly got very serious sensing her mother's frustration, "I logged into your account because I needed information on an actual case, with actual people, who are in actual danger." Kate stated. Eleanor looked towards Clint, "So Kate is helping you with an Avengers level threat?" Clint shook his head, "Not exactly." 

"But you are working together?" she asked, Iskra, shot him a look, and sighed, "Yes. Sounds weird 'cause it is." Eleanor shared a look with Jack, "Well, I guess I'm just going to have to trust everyone at this table to do what's right." there was a pause of silence, before Kate spoke up again, "Cool. Well, it was great bumping into you guys." Kate started, "Kate please stay," Eleanor cut her off, and Kate reluctantly lowered into her seat.

"Can I see the both of you out?" Eleanor said dryly, Clint nodded, "I'll get my coat. Jack." he said, the three of them walked towards the elevator, "Let me clarify," Eleanor said stepping forward, "Kate is not a superhero." Iskra just hoped that the elevator would come faster, "Oh, yeah. Come on, I already knew that." Clint paused, "I mean she's pretty good at all this but..." His voice trailed off, "Natasha Romanoff was pretty damn good at it wasn't she?" Eleanor noted, and Iskra was done, she wasn't going to let this conversation continue much longer, "Being good isn't always enough to keep you alive." she added.

"No." Iskra shook her head ignoring the tears the welded up in her eyes, "Iskra..." Clint warned, "No." she said a little louder, "You don't get to just throw her name out there like that you didn't know her, you don't know what happened." Iskra said, "Iskra please..." Clint pleaded, gently tugging her arm back towards him, and then the elevator dinged, opening up, "C'mon." he whispered. 

Iskra walked into the elevator pressing into one of the corners, "Clint?" Eleanor asked, "Yeah?" he looked at her, "Do you have kids?" she asked, "Yeah, I'm gonna assume that you do. It's been a rough week for my family. But I am letting you know that I can not lose Kate." she paused, "I've lost people before. I know in your line of work, you have to." she said. "I understand. Okay," he said stepping in the elevator, "So you'll forget about this case?" she asked, "I can't do that. But what I can do is assure your daughter stays safe. Okay?" she nodded.

Once the elevator door closed he pulled out the sword, "Are you ok?" Clint asked, "Mama was always so much better at this." Iskra said motioning with her hands, "She helped me work through...everything. And now she's gone, and I..." she inhaled deeply, "And I'm having a really hard time." she said leaning into him, "I know kid. Me too." he said gently hugging his niece. Clint sent a quick text to Laura.

The Uncle Niece duo was walking down the sidewalk when Laura called him, "Hey. Did you find anything?" Clint asked, "I talked to that friend of yours. He's really busy." Laura said, 
"He's been learning Russian and jogging a ton." Laura spoke, "Tracksuits. So Sloan is there front?" Clint asked, "Yep. He said his boss, Jack Duquense, never gives him a day off." she stated, "Jack's CEO? He's laundering money for the big guy?" Clint questioned, Iskra, walked beside him, a distant look in her eye. "Let me guess you're gonna need another day?" Laura asked, "Yeah, look uh this kid I'm helping, is stuck in the middle of it. So I can't leave until I know she's safe." Clint glanced at the still, silent, zoned-out Iskra, and continued in a hushed tone, "Iskra...she needs her family, and I'm the best she's got right now." 

"I've been wondering..." Laura paused, "Did anything else go missing from the compound?" she asked in German. "You mean the Rolex?" Clint asked, "Exactly." she replied, still using German due to being around the kids. "I don't think...I don't think so. Why wasn't that destroyed, like years ago?" he asked, "Well I thought so, but I thought the same thing about your fancy outfit." Clint stopped walking and Iskra barely even noticed, only stopping when Clint placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's worth looking into." he paused, "Of you can check the signal from the transmitter."

Clint continued his phone conversation with Laura, but Iskra was too spaced out to have even retained any information, all of her emotions really were catching up to her. When they got back to the apartment, Iskra was really kind of done with everything, she changed the battery on her hearing aid and followed Clint's lead with taping the frozen pina colada mixes to her various limbs. 

She sunk down onto the couch, closing her eyes, hoping to finally get some rest, just then the intercom buzzed, "Not it." she said quietly, not even opening her eyes, Clint mustered up the energy to go and get the door, praying to God it wasn't a bomb or a bad guy. "Hey, it's me. I come bearing pizza and holiday cheer. Let me in." Kate said from the other side of the intercom. he buzzed her in walking back to his seat. 

Soon Kate came through the door with Pizza Dog trailing behind her, "Come on Pizza dog."Kate said softly. "Hey!" She said, Pizza Dog waltzed right over and ate Clint's Cheez-its, "Hey, get outta there." He scolded, "A little help?" Kate asked, barely being able to hold all of the stuff she had in her hands, "Where's Iskra?" Kate asked, he pointed towards the couch, "She's a little out of it, something your mom brought up got under her skin." he replied, "Shit." Kate cursed softly under her breath. 

"What is all of this?" Clint asked motioning to all of the stuff, "This is me, saving the holidays." she replied with a smile.