After throwing back some painkillers for the raging headache that both Nat and Eleanor had, the pair took a mid-afternoon nap for a couple of hours. There hadn't been much time to sleep since the party, so if they were to continue with advancing on Ultron, then it was a must.

They snuggled up next to each other to fall asleep, so every little movement from one could be felt by the other. A few times during their allocated time to sleep they were woken up by the other trembling in fear, the aftermath of Wanda's magic plaguing their minds as they slipped into a vulnerable state.

Eleanor had decided not to fall asleep again after being woken up a few times by both herself and Natasha, but as she absorbed the warmth from her wife her body yet again succumbed to the darkness. The darkness then formed the void, and she once more found herself staring down on Nat who was on the edge of death.

Screams tore through her as she collapsed to her knees, the black void having a rippling effect at the impact. The shining emeralds in Natasha's eyes disappeared, leaving a shell of what once was.

Natasha was gone again. Eleanor had let her go again.

The sounds of pain continued, but abruptly stopped and soon only the sounds of Eleanor's panting could be heard. Nat's body and eyes weren't moving, but she was talking to her, Eleanor's eyes widened in horror at the terrifying sight.

"You need to wake up, it's just a bad dream, you're okay".

Eleanor's head tilted as she shuffled backwards, her knees scraping on the floor. The voice sounded like an echo, it was so close, yet so far. "El", Natasha's voice pushed through again as she felt her body shake.

Her eyes snapped open and she could see the cream walls of the bedroom covered with Lila's flower paintings. "There you are, good job, you're okay", Nat cooed down at her, and it was only then that Eleanor realised silent tears were streaming down her face.

Pulling herself further into Natasha she balled her fists on Nat's sleep shirt, "You were gone again". Nat frowned and lay back down again and ran her pointer finger up and down the bridge of Eleanor's nose and between her eyebrows to soothe her, her eyes fluttering shut in response.

She hadn't been told anything about the vision that Eleanor had on the ship, but it was easy for Nat to deduce that Eleanor had lost her, just like she had lost Eleanor. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise you". When Eleanor looked up to meet Natasha's gaze, her wife's heart broke at seeing her bottom lip quiver briefly, but she nodded in acceptance of the fact that Nat was there. She wasn't leaving.

"It's almost time for dinner now, so how about we take a breather then get ready and have some food, hm?". Eleanor nodded with a small smile, she could never turn down a meal cooked by Laura.

---

They slowly padded down the stairs, feeling a lot better having freshened up and with the prospect of food on the horizon. The sun was setting which caused a nice orange glow to hit their eyes, and colourful shadows from glass ornaments danced around them.

Eleanor gave a half-smile as she looked around the hallway, it was the small things like that that made her feel alive. Which was something that she desperately needed to feel after feeling agonisingly empty.

Natasha stood idly by the stairs as she watched Eleanor in awe as she moved around the hallway, looking at all of the trinkets and how they glowed in the sun.

Whilst she watched her wife move around with elegance, Natasha took notice of how her skin looked radiant under the orange light, how her hair glistened with gold, and how her eyes twinkled with an amused glint. And it was at this moment that Natasha knew they would be okay. Whatever was coming their way, whatever they would be facing, they would be okay. How could it not be when she was fighting alongside her perfect human.

A familiar voice that boomed through the house soon had both women's heads snapping towards the shared dining and kitchen space. Instinctively they walked hand in hand through to the other side of the house and stared with their mouths slightly agape.

"Well I'll be damned", Eleanor breathed out as a smile slowly made its way onto her face.

"Nick". Natasha's voice got his attention, and he turned around to face them. In all of his eyepatched glory, Nick Fury was back in business and standing right in front of them.

Eleanor rushed forward and enveloped him in a hug. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders in classic awkward Fury hug fashion in return, but he clung on tighter than he had ever done before. Eleanor was someone who had been a constant in his life for a long time, it was weird not having her around, he missed her.

The other Avengers in the room hadn't expected such a warm welcome because of how cold Fury kept his demeanour, so they looked at the pair as if it was a circus act.

When he looked up at Natasha, the two shared a knowing look as she nodded at him. That was all those two needed to do to show their respect for one another and how they felt.

"What are you doing here?", Eleanor tilted her head up and took a few paces back, reaching her hand out behind her for Nat to take, which she promptly did.

"Maria told me you guys had run into some robot problems, I'm here to lend a hand", he shrugged and walked over to where Clint and Laura were prepping the table with copious amounts of food and plates, "But first, we all need to sit down and eat".

The large group of people situated themselves around the small table as best as they could, but with the lack of chairs to accommodate them all, some ended up standing nearby with their plate in one hand, awkwardly fumbling with cutlery in the other. With the group gathered together, Eleanor noticed that Thor had still not returned. She hoped that he was okay, but thought it was likely that he was considering he's a God.

Laura's food was delicious as always. Whilst Eleanor was soaking up some sauce on her plate with a bread roll, Steve took notice of a certain photo framed on the wall of the family home.

It showed Eleanor and Natasha in their wedding dresses smiling at the camera, their eyes crinkling with joy with the Barton family, Maria, and Sarah standing beside them. His head tilted as he thought back to the day that the men found out they were married on the day of their move to New York. Clint looked shocked that they were married, and they said that they had eloped.

"So you got married here then?", Steve gestured at the photo with his head and smiled. Natasha kept her face relatively blank as she looked over at Steve, and Eleanor pursed her lips at their white lie being revealed.

"I thought you eloped?", Tony stood to go and look at the photo, the group couldn't see it, but he had a small smile on his face at seeing them both look happy at an important time in their lives. Tony really did care about the team in his own ways.

"Well", Eleanor's voice went up an octave as she dragged out the 'e'.

"We eloped as far as we could whilst in hiding", Nat smirked as she took a sip of Eleanor's fruit punch. Eleanor slapped her arm with the back of her hand and slid Nat's empty glass in front of her, hinting for her to get more instead of drinking her juice. Nat shrugged and downed the rest of the drink, laughing at the look of betrayal that was shown. Nat had crossed a line, this wasn't just any fruit punch, this was Laura's fresh homemade fruit punch.

Nat gestured with her hand towards the wedding photo, "What's mine is yours, and vice versa".

"I'm not sure that includes stealing my drinks, Romanoff".

Laura chuckled as she began clearing the plates away. "Here let me help", Eleanor stood and took most of the plates out of Laura's hand, not wanting her to put too much strain on her body with little Elliott.

With the plates all washed up and the sun fully set, Clint guided his wife and kids toward the living room so that Fury could get started on whatever he wanted to say after the food had been finished. There was only Natasha and Eleanor still seated at the table. Steve and Bruce were standing by the doorway to the living room, Fury was drying the dishes and preparing a snack for himself, and Tony had found a dartboard that he was using whilst listening.

"Right, down to business. Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something". Eleanor's brows furrowed, what could Ultron be building? Her worries were wiped clean though when Lila appeared next to Natasha with a butterfly painting she had done that day. Nat gratefully took the drawing out of her hands with a smile and affectionately rubbed her cheek in thanks before the young one scuttled off back to the living room to sit with her Mum.

"The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing".

"What about Ultron himself?", Steve spoke up with his arms crossed as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere. The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit". Eleanor's nose scrunched at the analogy, and Natasha gave her thigh a playful squeeze instead of laughing at her reaction. "It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though".

"Is he still going after launch codes?".

"Yes, he is", Fury replied to Tony who was still throwing darts, "But he's not making any headway".

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in High School on a dare", Tony once again bragged about something. It was a common occurrence in the Tower, and everywhere else apparently. Though it was such a Tony thing to do that Eleanor couldn't help but have to hide a smile as the others continued talking.

"Well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that".

"Nexus?", Steve turned to Fury, he hadn't heard of it before.

"It's the world Internet hub in Oslo", Banner answered for him, "Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth".

Eleanor huffed slightly in an amused manner, "You Americans say 'data' weird". At seeing some confused looks being thrown her way she cleared her throat and shuffled in her chair slightly, "Uh... continue".

"So, what did they say?", Clint joined in on the conversation as he examined a dart.

"He's fixated on the missiles. But the codes are constantly being changed".

"By whom?", Tony then had a dart fly straight past his head and hit the bullseye, Clint being the culprit. Eleanor shook her head slightly at technically another brag, though this time not from Tony.

"Parties unknown".

"We have an ally?", Nat spoke up for the first time since the fruit punch incident, though her voice sounded more strained and tired now that they were back on the topic of Ultron, almost as if she had allowed herself to sink fully into the domestic moment for while.

"Ultron's got an enemy. That's not the same thing". Fury was right, someone could not want Ultron to bomb the world, but also hate the Avengers. The two weren't exclusive. "Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is".

Tony stopped playing darts and leaned against a doorframe nearby, "I might need to visit Oslo. Find our unknown".

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you you'd have more than that". Eleanor turned to face Nat. Yeah, they were still very much in the dark in terms of what Ultron was planning.

"I do. I have you".

"We haven't had the best luck in terms of Ultron", Eleanor fiddled with the side of her plate as she looked down at her plate only left with crumbs.

"You're alive", Fury shrugged, making Eleanor look at him with a bemused look, not being dead was a low bar. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere. Ears, everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard".

The heroic speech and aura of the room was interrupted by Natasha smirking at the Captain, "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk".

"You know what, Romanoff?", Steve smiled back and Eleanor had to hold a laugh in as she saw that most other people in the room looked serious and didn't want another round of blank faces looking at her like with the 'data' comment.

"So, what does he want?", Fury continued.

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies".

"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it", Tony spoke in response to Steve's revelation.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed", Natasha deadpanned, Eleanor nodded along with the corners of her lips tugged down, that was a fair comment. Their life-saving programme was working as a world-destroyer.

"They don't need to be protected. They need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve". Eleanor looked up at Banner curiously, contemplating his words, letting the cogs in her brain take effect.

"How?", Fury put his drink down and looked over.

Eleanor narrowed her eyes at the butterfly painting that Bruce was touching whilst he had come to his own realisation. Her eyes widened. They knew someone who could literally rebuild bodies. "The Regeneration Cradle", Eleanor breathed out, and Bruce pointed a finger at her and nodded.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?".