-CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

— "WHAT FUCKING FILE, TONY?" Clint asks as soon as Bucky releases him and Katherine is out of the room. He rubs his throat, side eyeing Bucky as the man sits back down.

Tony is at the bar, cleaning off his shoe and generally avoiding having to answer any questions that might incriminate him. Although, upon hearing a gun cock, and finding the archer pointing it at him, he changes his mind. "Look, I accidentally found a bunch of HYDRA and SHIELD files on her when I went searching on her." He says. "I put them all in a file, and I guess she found them, okay?"

Natasha takes a deep breath, she was the only one that knew anything about her past.. but not all of it. She didn't know anything about what HYDRA had on her. "What do you mean, she found them?" She asks. "The girl barely knows how to work her phone, she would have had to have been really searching for them in your database for FRIDAY to give it to her.."

Tony bites his lip, looking down at his glass of bourbon. "I didn't store them on my network." He says. "I didn't want to risk SHIELD or HYDRA finding them, or bugging my system.." He looks up at them then, noting that they were all staring at him. "She found the hard copies."

And that was when all hell broke loose. He wasn't sure who was yelling at who, it started out yelling at him and then it turned to yelling at Clint, and then back to him. He could say nothing, couldn't be heard over the sound of their yelling and as Peter snuck past with Logan shortly after, he sent them pleading looks with his eyes, begging them to save him. Peter was too shy to jump into the fight, and his Aunt May called him before he could even think about it. He shrugged, holding up the phone as it flashed with her caller I.D. and backed himself into the Elevator.

Logan, logan was a different story. He begged the girl with his eyes, even going so far as to wave his wallet at her in a bribe to get her to distract them so he could leave. The teen only laughed at him, cackling with her head thrown back as the Elevator open once more.

Tony was now convinced that she was Satan incarnated.

AFTER APOLOGIZING TO Logan and sending her home, Katherine sat on her bed staring quietly at the floor. Peter had left not long before Logan after the teen had felt the need to berate him playfully ( "Spider-Man? I only see a spider-dork!"), unintentionally hurting his feelings.

Their absences left Katherine to sit in silence, her thoughts dwelling on the events of the previous hours. She could hear yelling coming from the living room where she had just assaulted Clint, she felt bad for it but he had scared her and she immediately decided to do self defense. She hadn't meant what she said of course, about hating all of them it just slipped out and she felt horrible for it now.

And the look of hurt on Tony's face when she said that none of them were her parents, that hurt more thank Clint pushing her. She never knew that Tony felt that way towards her and she never meant to make him hurt.

As it started to grow quiet she had the sinking feeling that they were talking about getting rid of her, of sending her back to head quarters and started to grow panicked. What if they were? What if they wanted nothing to do with her ever again? The thought brought instant tears to her eyes and caused her heart to start racing, and before she knew it she was throwing her bedroom door open and racing down the hall.

She caught all of their attention as she slid into the living room, running too fast in only socks to actually stop herself on the marble flooring.

The adults were sitting in a group around the coffee table and all looked up as she abruptly interrupted them, the tears streaming down her face alerted all of them. Bucky moved to the edge of his seat, eyebrows furrowed as Clint jumped up, grasping her shoulders.

"What's wrong?" He asks as the girl takes a staggering breath trying to stop the tears from flowing. It was too late though, the dam had already been broken and the tears were on full rush, as was the word vomit she was about to spew. "Kat, sweetie?" His first thought was that she was hurting, that he had hurt her when he pushed her.

"I'm sorry!" She spits out, her hand on her stomach as she's struggled to breathe between sobs, her whole face was turning red. "I'm so sorry for what I said, to all of you! I don't hate you, I love you guys!" She says, everyone shares a look with each other and stands, Tony setting his drink down before enveloping her in a hug. Katherine leans into him as he hugs her, her arms going around his torso. She grips Clint's shirt and pulls him into it as well. "And I'm sorry to you guys because you're both like my dads and I appreciate you so much for putting up with me because I've never had that before and I didn't know what that's like, but I do now and I love you!"

Both guys had a hard time keeping up with her words but got the general gist of it and squeezed her tighter as she started speaking again. "And if you guys want to send me back, that's fine!" She says, her crying slowing down. Her whole face was now red though and her voice was slightly muffled with it being pressed against Tony's chest. "I understand why, I just wanted to say that before you called Fury.."

"Katherine," Steve starts, confused. Sending her back to SHIELD had never been in their conversation or thoughts. "Why would we send you back? It was just a small fight, we're not going to send you off after one fight..that's not how family works."

Kat sniffs, wiping her eyes as she lets go of Tony, the man wished she would have held on just a little longer though. "Is that what we are?" She asks, sitting down on the couch as Steve pats his empty spot. She was now next to Bucky, and automatically leaned against him and relaxed as his arm wound its way around her waist. "A family?" Steve gives a silent nod. "I was under the impression that Families don't keep secrets from each other."

"It's kind of hard to keep a secret if you don't know that there's one to keep." Clint says grufflfy, still a little pissed at her. He understood where she was coming from though, if it were him he would have expected all of them to know about the file as well.

"What do you mean?" Kat asks, looking up at him with her eyebrows furrowed. The dark brown iris's were full of sorrow and sadness and Clint felt his heart clench as all of his anger at her washed away. How could he stay mad at her when she was so obviously hurting?

"I mean," Clint says, shooting a very pointed look at Tony, who just looks down at the floor with his lips pursed. "that someone never told us that he was even looking for information on your past, or that he had gathered a whole file on you of things that SHIELD tried to hide or cover up."

Katherine looks at them all in confusion, suddenly feeling like an ass. Had they really not known? Had she been harboring ill feelings towards them, and they were innocent this entire time? "You.. you didn't know?" She asks, her voice raspy from the crying. Her eyes were still glassy and puffy from tears, and she looked like a kicked puppy, which made Bucky want to wrap her up and never let her go again. They all shake their heads. "About any of it?"

"I knew that I found you in a dumpster." Natasha says quietly, looking at her softly. The mom in her wanted nothing more than to make her some chocolate chip cookies and wrap her up in a hug until she felt better. "SHIELD told me to tell it the other way though, but I swear that's the only thing I've ever hidden from you!" She says putting her hands up in a 'surrender' stance, to help portray the truth. "I didn't know what they did to you after that, or that you were even still in the compound for that matter.." That was a lie, because she always asked about Katherine and Fury would always give her updates on her.

Katherine nods her head, she knew the woman was telling the truth. "Clint?" She asks, looking at him. She wanted to hear him say it, she needed to. She needed it from all of them.

Clint nods his head. "Kid," He starts. "I didn't even know you existed until the day we were sent out to find you after you escaped." And that was the truth, because Natasha had never told him about her, or that she had been the one to find her. Fury never mentioned it either. He always just assumed that the pair had a side romance going on when the Director would pull Natasha aside or keep her after meetings. Never in a million years had he thought they were whispering about a kid locked away in the sublevels. "And I certainly didn't know anything about the file, or what was in it. I swear."

She nods again, looking to Sam and Steve. "Sam, Steve?" Besides Bucky, Thor, and Bruce the pair had been oddly silent throughout the whole ordeal. And she knew enough to know that the pair usually had something to say about whatever situation was at hand.

Steve purses his lips, looking at the floor. Should he tell the truth, or should he (for once) lie? He looked up at her then, taking in the fragile little girl that sat in front of him. He would lie, he decided, she was already broken enough by this, he didn't need to make it even worse. He shakes his head. "I didn't know anything either, Katherine." He says, looking at Tony, who narrowed his eyes at him. Tony knew him just as well as Bucky, who was also narrowing his eyes at the Captain. They knew damn well that Steve knew everything that SHIELD had done to her, maybe not her HYDRA files, but he knew what SHIELD hid. "I'm honestly shocked that he would spend all that time digging it up and not share it with us, it kind of makes me wonder if he was trying to hide something." He was unsuccessfully trying to turn the subject back on to Tony.

Kat furrowed her eyebrows, confused. Was he trying to hide something? The thought had never crossed her mind before. She looks at Tony then, done with her small trial. "Why didn't you tell them? Why'd you even go digging it up to begin with?" She asks, pausing for a moment as a thought that had been nagging her since she found the damn thing popped into her brain. "And, most importantly, why didn't you tell me you were doing it, or that you had done it?"

Tony falters for a second, fidgeting. He wasn't used to being called out, especially not by someone as young as Kat. "Yeah, why didn't you?" Thor pipes up, curious about that factor as well. Kat shoots him a small, greatful smile.

He leans against the back of the arm chair, diagonal to the couch, supporting himself with his arms. "Look, I got curious when you said that you didn't have a last name, okay?" He says, referring to her first night at the Tower. "Everybody has a last name, and I wanted to find it for you.. I figured you at least deserved to know what it was.." He looked at her, before looking around the room. He had everyone's attention now. "I was going to tell you once I found it, but then FRIDAY and Vision started uncovering hidden files, shit that was buried deep and I started to get more curious." He looked at her again. "And then they found more, and I know that if I told them, they'd tell me to get rid of all of it and I couldn't do that.." He pauses again. "I was going to tell you when I knew for certain I had found it, but then the files started coming through and I knew I couldn't tell you about your last name without you asking if I had found anything else, I don't think I could have lied to you with all of this information sitting right there next to me."

"So why not just throw it out?" She asks. "Or at least lock the file up instead of leaving it out in the open like you did?" She lifted a brow at him, she definetly wasn't angry anymore, she just wanted answers. "I didn't want to know all of this, I was fine not knowing what my last name was, or who my parents are or how I was created..I didn't really want to know, and now that I do.. I can't forget it."

"I'm sorry." Is all he can say. "I don't know what else to say besides that..I can't undo it, what's done is done." He says. Katherine nods silently. After a tense moment of quiet, he claps his hands together. "So, are we all done here? Can we move on to dinner? Because fighting makes me hungry-"

Katherine can't help but chuckle, nodding her head softly. "Yeah, yeah we're done.." She says. "I'm not mad anymore, as long you as guys aren't mad."

"Why would we be mad?" Natasha asks, watching her shrug as she stands up. She gives Tony another hug, apologizing once more.

"Because I've been an asshole to all of you," She says, giving Natasha a quick hug before moving on to Clint once more. She squeezed him tightly, savoring the comfort he gave her as he spun her around gently. "and because I called Clint a sniveling bitch at breakfast."

Clint laughs, setting her down on her feet to let her go. "I'm actually kind of proud of that, that was really good." He says, watching her face flush as she shakes her head. "No hard feelings, shit happens." He brushes hair out of her face that had been stuck from the wetness of her tears. "For future reference though, you don't keep secrets from Family, okay? Even if you think we already know it, or if it's something bad that you did..we'll never get mad at you."

"Okay," Kat says, a relieved smile on her face. "no more secrets, I promise." Unfortunately for her, and unbeknownst to all of them at the time, that promise would be broken by events that were out of all of their control..events that would ruin some of them, and cause a world to collapse for one..

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and here we have the beginning of the end of an era.. get ready guys,, because everything after this chapter is going to be a roller coaster ride of emotions and drama and action and you're not ready for it!

also shoutout to softskarssgard for the edit they made me (aka the gif at the top) and to -ravenclaws for the aesthetic mood board she made me!! that will be posted in the intro very, very soon!!