(MCU) Forged Reality: Chapter 11 - A New Barton

Chapter 11 - A New Barton

Summary: An unexpected visit brings chaos, laughter, and a moment that changes everything.

Tony was just finishing preparing the pizza he promised Lila and Cooper as the Bartons were supposed to arrive at any moment now.

Tony didn't actually plan for them to come so soon; Tony just saw Jane and Darcy off a couple of days ago, and it was on his way home that he got a phone call.

Flashback

Tony was driving back to the tower after dropping Jane and Darcy at the airport. He did offer them to use one of his jets, but after hearing that report from Pepper, they didn't feel comfortable with the idea and just used their already bought tickets.

He decided to use the hour he still had on the road to catch up with a little work from SI when Friday's voice cut in, "Boss, you have a call from the Barton family."

Tony raised an eyebrow and said, "Put it through, Fri."

Without another word, the screen on the back of the seat in front of him turned on, and the face of Clint Barton filled it. Tony smirked a little and asked calmly, "What's going on, Legolas?"

Clint glanced over his shoulder and whispered into his screen, "I just wanted to point out whatever happens next was completely their idea."

Tony blinked in confusion and began to ask, "What do you..."

He trailed off as the screen Clint was using was snatched out of his hands, and a familiar voice asked sternly, "And what are you two talking about?"

A moment later, the face of Laura Barton replaced her husband's, and she looked at Tony with a hard stare that demanded an answer, so Tony blurted out the first thing coming to mind, "Just business as usual, L."

Tony only once before dared to underestimate this woman, and he still internally flinched when he remembered the consequences of that. That is the reason he was glad when, after a long moment, her eyes lost some of their hardness. Tony took it to mean she accepted his excuse, even though he could see in her eyes she didn't buy it in the least.

Tony was about to ask what they were calling about when Laura beat him to the punch, "I heard from Pepper that you were working without any rest since we talked."

Tony looked away from the screen and rubbed the back of his head, saying with a nervous chuckle, "Well, thanks to the whole Ultron thing, I had a lot of work piled up, and I just wanted to catch up, so I..."

She cut him off again in a stern voice he heard her using toward Cooper before, "You decided to exhaust yourself just after you finished healing from the brink of death."

Tony rubbed the back of his head a little nervously and replied with, "I wouldn't say it like that."

"But it would be right," Laura insisted with a glare. Then her face softened, and she sighed, "I think it will be better if we come visit you for the weekend."

Tony immediately realized that if he agrees to it, then he will have no time for anything else but the Bartons the entire three days. Trying to salvage the situation at least a little bit, he tried to argue, "How about I visit the farm instead?"

Laura snorted and was on to him immediately, "So you could cook up an emergency and go back to work?"

Tony blinked at how fast she figured it out and was about to ask how when Laura smirked at him and answered the question he was about to ask, "I've known you for a year now, Tony; you're not that hard to figure out for a mother with sharp instincts."

Tony sighed in defeat before an idea popped into his mind, and he was quick to point out, while trying to make sure not to smile, "You are nine months pregnant; you should stay close to home."

Tony felt smug with his victory before his heart froze as he noticed the smirk never left Laura's face. She shook her head and said casually, "I still have two weeks before my due date, and both Cooper and Lila came a week later, so I should be good for the weekend."

Tony just nodded in acceptance of his defeat. How the hell has a housewife just outmaneuvered him?!

Laura clapped her hands and said, "Good, then it's settled. See you soon, Tony; better be prepared for a child storm."

With that, the line went blank, and Tony felt even more tired than he felt an hour ago.

End of Flashback

Tony sighed again. Just remembering it was causing him to get tired again.

FR FR FR FR FR

Tony stood in the entrance to the landing pad on top of Stark Tower as the jet he sent for the Bartons landed.

The moment the doors opened, two missiles left it and headed straight toward him. Tony barely had time to brace himself before two bodies collided with his own.

Somehow, he managed to keep himself up as four small arms embraced him. Despite himself, Tony looked down with a smile and said, "Hello to you too, mini-agents."

The kids chuckled and raised their heads to look up at him with the brightest smiles he could remember before saying in unison, "Hi, Uncle Tony."

Tony raised his hands to ruffle the kids' hair and asked, "How are my two favorite Bartons doing?"

"I'm hurt, Tony. Saving each other's lives doesn't make me the favorite?" Clint said as he walked slowly next to his very pregnant wife.

Tony smirked. "When you'll be as useful as the mini-agents, I'll consider it," he said playfully.

Clint gasped with mock offense, but before he could say anything, one of the bodies attached to him shifted, and Tony looked down at the pouting face of Lila who said, "Don't be a meany, Uncle Tony."

Tony wasn't sure if she was referring to messing up her hair or his comment to her father; anyway, Tony just smiled at her without any words, which oddly seemed to satisfy the girl as her frown turned upside down.

Tony looked up again and said enthusiastically, "Well, we should go inside. I'm sure mommy over there would love nothing more than a seat."

Laura raised an eyebrow at Tony and said with a small edge to her voice, "Careful, Tony, that almost sounded like you were trying to insult me."

Tony could feel a shiver go down his spine, the same shiver he felt when Loki held him by the throat and got ready to throw him out the window.

Tony forced out a chuckle and tried to save himself, "Of course not, L. I would never dream of it." Before anyone could say anything else, Tony turned around and said, "Now let's go to my floor, and I will show you your rooms."

As he turned, Tony saw Clint was smiling at him, full of amusement. Tony wanted to call him out on it, but drawing attention to himself right now would be a bad idea.

Once they were inside, Tony showed them to their rooms—one for the kids to share and another for the parents. Tony tried to prepare it in a way that he thought would be most comfortable for them after receiving a tour in their farmhouse.

FR FR FR FR FR

Tony was sitting with the kids watching some new Disney movie. He sat in the center of the sofa with a kid under each arm as they were smiling at the large screen across from them. On the sofa next to theirs, Clint and Laura were cuddled together as well, but unlike the kids, they weren't watching the screen; rather, they were watching Tony with the kids with a smile on their faces.

While Tony felt warmth spreading in his chest at being part of this family moment, it was contradicted by the pang he felt in his heart thinking about how he never had that with his own parents, and never would because one of them chose to kill both of them and leave Tony all alone in the world.

Alone. Tony had felt this emptiness for a while now, since he and Pepper broke up, and honestly even before it. Tony began to believe he would never find the kind of wholesome feeling that Clint and Laura had.

Maybe he was just destined to die as Iron Man. After all, he was lucky so far by barely surviving alien and AI takeovers; the next global threat might just be his end.

That thought once again brought conflicted feelings to Tony, but before he could delve any deeper into those thoughts, he felt the weight on his shoulder increasing, and he looked down to see Lila leaning further into him.

The little girl smiled widely and kept watching the screen while saying, "I like the new Uncle Tony; you are really soft."

Tony chuckled, but before he could reply to the girl, Friday's voice filled the room, "Boss, you have guests that want to meet with you."

Tony raised an eyebrow at the closest camera and asked, "And who exactly is that?"

"The Maximoff twins," came the easy reply from Friday.

Tony could feel himself stiffening a little. He wasn't sure how he should take it. While it's true that after he left the compound, the three of them were on better terms, he was still apprehensive with them.

Clint, though, perked up and asked cheerfully, "Are they now?"

Laura raised an eyebrow, asking curiously, "Oh, those are the twins from Sokovia, right?" After receiving a nod from Clint, she smiled. "Oh, I would like to meet them."

With no other choice seeming available in the moment, Tony sighed and said, "Show them the way in, Fri."

Friday's voice turned perky, and she said, "On it, Boss."

Cooper looked up and asked, "Who are they?"

Tony forced a smile on his face and cheerfulness to his voice, "Two new members of the Avengers."

Before anyone could say anything more, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened, revealing Pietro and Wanda Maximoff wearing casual clothing and relaxed faces.

When they stepped inside the room and scanned it, they froze, probably not expecting four extra people and the Disney tune coming from the TV.

Lila and Cooper jumped from the sofa and stopped short of the Maximoffs. They looked up at them with stars in their eyes.

Pietro, ever the social one, smiled at the kids and said, "Hi there, kids."

Lila squealed, while Cooper immediately asked, "Are you two really Avengers like Uncle Tony and dad?"

Tony and Clint flinched at the question, something that Laura didn't miss but the kids did. Pietro struck a heroic pose and began, "Oh, we are the best..."

He was cut off when Wanda slapped him upside the head and reprimanded him, "Stop boasting, idiot." Then she smiled down at the kids and answered, "Yes, we are new members of the Avengers."

The kids seemed to bounce in place with happiness at meeting other heroes of the Avengers. Tony cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention to him so he could ask, "So how can I help the two of you?"

Wanda looked away awkwardly while Pietro's face turned serious, and he said, "Clint mentioned something a while ago about terrorists capturing you."

Tony could hear two small gasps filling the room, and Tony had to hide the wince his body tried to perform. He tried to keep his voice calm, "I believe the entire thing was covered well enough in the news."

This time it was Wanda who spoke with a heavy tone in her voice, "Hydra lied to us about why you were gone for three months, so we had to read back a little, and still there is a lot that we noticed was missing from those reports. I tried to ask Romanoff and Rogers, but they seemed to be very... uninterested with the topic."

Tony was surprised at the fact. He thought that Natasha would take an opportunity like that to spin her own tale to the girl. But that was when it hit him: Natasha didn't know about the little conversation Tony had with the twins. Both she and Rogers thought that the twins despised him, and as such, there was no reason to put in an effort to make him look bad.

Tony's mind raced with a few ideas, and in the center of them all... Tony took a deep breath and said, "Fine, I will tell you everything..."

Before Tony could finish, he was interrupted by Laura, who doubled over and screamed in pain.

Clint was at her side a moment later, stepping into something wet. He blinked once before screaming, "Shit, your water broke."

Laura snapped right back at him, "You think so, genius?!"

Tony quickly pulled out his phone and called a familiar number. It took only a moment for a female's voice to come from the other side, "Tony?"

"Helen, where are you right now?"

Helen probably noticed his urgent tone and answered immediately, "I'm at the medical wing, working on the New Cradle project."

Usually Tony would ask about the status of the project, but right now there was only one thing on his mind, "I have a woman in labor here; can you help?"

Helen sighed deeply, saying, "What the hell did you do this time, Tony?" Before he could voice how offensive this comment was, the woman on the phone spoke again, "Get her to the medical wing as fast as you can; I've already begun preparing for delivery."

Still offended, Tony simply hung up the phone and looked at the Barton adults, "We need to take her to the twentieth floor where the medical wing is; Helen is already waiting for you."

Tony felt a gust of wind caressing his face before Laura was in the arms of Pietro. The speedster smirked and said, "I can handle it." He then turned to Clint and added, "See you there, old man." And with another gust of wind, both Pietro and Laura were gone.

Tony could only feel relief at his forethought of warning Helen once she came back to work a couple of days ago of the situation with the Maximoff twins; otherwise, the reunion right now might be... tense.

He could hear Wanda cursing under her breath; he didn't catch all of it, but he did hear a few words like "...idiot... pregnant... speed."

Tony shrugged and said, "I guess we should just head out."

Clint was still in shock, so Tony had to guide him to the elevator while the kids took each of the female Maximoff's hands and followed her into the elevator as well.

FR FR FR FR FR

Tony was standing with Clint, Pietro, his sister, and the kids around the bed where Laura was laying with their new baby resting on her stomach.

Helen just left after announcing that both the baby and Laura were completely healthy, and the kids were stretching to get a glimpse of their new brother.

Clint was close to his wife, and the two were whispering with each other. Tony could only smile at the scene, and he noticed so were the Maximoff twins.

Clint then looked up at him and said, "Hey Tony, why don't you come look at your godson?"

"Sur..." Tony froze before he could finish, his smile slipping off and his eyebrows jumping to his hairline before he said, "My what?!"

Laura smiled and said softly, "Nathaniel Anthony Barton, your godson."

Before Tony could protest about either the name or the position, Cooper voiced his own grievance, "I want to be Uncle Tony's godson too!"

"Me three, me three!" Lila shouted as she jumped in place with a raised hand.

Clint smiled fondly at his kids and informed them, "Oh, you don't have to worry about it. He already is."

The kids cheered while Tony's face began to heat, and he screamed at the top of his voice, "When the hell did I sign off on that?!"

Clint smirked at him and said casually, "Oh, you did. Don't forget I'm a spy after all; getting things without anyone knowing is what I do."

Tony's jaw moved, but no response came out of his lips; he could think of no response. He heard laughter coming from the Maximoff twins but ignored it.

He stepped closer to the bed and looked down at the baby. In that exact moment, the baby looked up at him. Tony couldn't help the smile on his face and whispered under his breath, "Nathaniel Anthony, huh?"