Maria Hill was being shown on a small screen that was placed on Tony's wrist. She was giving him a briefing of the damage and what they were to do forward.

"The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air."

The room remained silent, and only Tony's voice was the only one that could be heard. "Stark Relief Foundation?"

"Already on the scene. How's the team?"

Tony gulped and looked around at the members of the team inside the plane.

Thor was being uncharacteristically silent, staring down at the floor.

Steve was thumbing through some files, trying to rid the vision from his mind.

Clint was quiet, but seemed to be in a better shape then everyone else.

Bruce was curled into a ball, physically drained.

Natasha was all but unconscious, staring blankly at the wall.

And Dahlia... Her silence was the most unsettling of all. She was sat criss crossed, twirling a strand of her hair and letting it spin, over and over again. After knowing her for the majority of her life, Tony knew she only did that when she was thinking far too hard than she ought to.

He, himself, wasn't doing all too well. The stress of the situation was wearing down on him, and he kept blaming himself for everything bad that happened. He caused this, he knew that.

"Everyone's... we took a hit. We'll shake it off." Tony said honestly.

Dahlia, though Tony knew her well, wasn't feeling exactly as he thought she was. In fact, she was feeling quite guilty for lying. Maybe she had been wrong to let them go, maybe helping them was the wrong choice.

But she just couldn't let Wanda bleed out, she couldn't be responsible for her death.

No matter what they did, Dahlia couldn't help but feel like there was good in them. They were being manipulated by Ultron, that much was clear, but Tony and the others were too blinded by fear and hatred to see that the two were really just two scared, lonely kids.

"Well for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here."

"So, run and hide?" Tony asked tentatively, trying to hold back his annoyance at the situation.

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer." Maria sighed.

"Neither do we."

Tony shut off the computer and turned to Clint, who was flying the jet. "Hey, you wanna switch out?"

"No, I'm good. If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out." Clint said, readjusting the steering wheel.

"A few hours from where?"

"A safe house."

•

Dahlia found herself in a field of lavender, with the sound of a creek coming from right behind her.

The air was light and breezy, the sun basking on her face, providing a warmth like no other.

She heard the grass crunch beside her, and as she turned to see what caused it, Dahlia caught a glimpse of white-blonde hair.

Pietro.

At her other side, Wanda was stood there.

"Wanda! Pietro! Are you alright? Are you safe? Are you hurt?" She said frantically, turning to check on them in turn.

But just as her hand was about to make contact with Wanda's forehead, to check for a fever, she disappeared right in front of her, exploding into dust.

"Pietro?"

He did the same, the dust that was left over flying through the wind.

"Come back!" She called, over and over until her voice went hoarse.

"Come back..."

Natasha had been watching Dahlia writhe in her sleep for about an hour now.

Every few minutes, she'd turn and mumble something Nat couldn't hear, and then fall limp yet again.

"Pietro... Wanda... Come back..." Natasha could just make out what she was saying, and she felt herself tense up when she heard it.

Maybe being out of the field for a bit was what Dahlia needed. The poor girl had been under constant stress and could barely get through a day without worrying about anything and everything.

The jet shook around them, and the movement stopped all at once, signaling that they had landed.

Natasha got up reluctantly and headed to wake the girl from her sleep.

"Dahlia, honey. We're here."

Her eyes opened slowly, the amount of light filling the plane making her wrench them shut once more.

"Five more minutes." She grumbled.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this just yet, but if it gets you up then so be it. We're at Clint's."

Dahlia's eyes shot open and she ran out of the jet as fast as humanly possible, leaving Natasha chuckling behind her.

Something that came with practically being Natasha's daughter was being really close with Clint's entire family, even though the rest of the Avengers weren't aware they existed.

Dahlia was particularly close with Clint's daughter, Lila. Nat used to bring her here when she was only eight years old, and at that time Lila was only a baby. Slowly, over time, they had warmed up to each other and became inseparable. Lots of times, when Dahlia was on missions, she missed the little girl, and kept the friendship bracelet Lila had made her on at all times, even when they were fighting.

She ran and caught up with Clint, who was trying to avoid answering questions about where they were until he had to.

"What is this place? A safe house?" Tony asked suspiciously.

"Let's hope." Clint replied. "Honey I'm home!"

As the group entered the house, Dahlia elbowed past Clint and ran up to Laura, Clint's wife.

Laura wrapped her up in a giant hug and a million questions.

"Oh Dahlia, honey I missed you! Lila's been raving about your letters nonstop."

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you hungry?"

"How are you feeling?"

Dahlia laughed at her concern. "I'm fine, Laura, I promise."

Clint cleared his throat and the two looked back at him. "Hello? Husband returning home here who at sill hasn't gotten any sort of recognition?"

Dahlia stuck out her tongue at him. "I'm her favorite, suck it up Clint."

Laura moved to embrace Clint, kissing him

on the cheek.

"This is an agent of some kind." Tony hissed to Thor.

"Gentleman, this is Laura." Clint introduced his wife to the men, who were standing very awkwardly in the doorway.

"I know all your names." Laura laughed and an awkward silence ensued.

"Ooh, incoming." Clint said as his son, Cooper, came bounding up to him.

Lila came running from the other room and before Dahlia knew what was happening, Lila had jumped into her arms and began rambling about practically everything.

"Auntie 'Lia! I missed you a lot, Momma said she didn't know when you were coming back, and not to get my hopes up, but I still did because Poppa says I have a problem with rule following so I got all excited even though no one else thought you were coming, but you're here!! I can't believe it, I missed you like..." Lila stopped to think of a big enough unit of measurement. "I missed you like how big the sun is!"

Dahlia chuckled and kissed the top of her head, letting Lila lead her away into the playroom.

"These are... smaller agents." Tony said.

Dahlia returned to the room, wanting to know all she could about the situation before she ran off with Lila.

"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve apologized.

"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea you existed." Dahlia hit Tony on the arm at his words.

"Yeah, well, Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files. I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low."

"Honey, I missed you." Laura smiled.

Natasha stepped forward, touching Laura's stomach. "How's little Natasha?"

Dahlia scoffed. "I think you mean how's little Dahlia, but it's okay Nat, we all make mistakes."

"Shes... Nathaniel, or Darren. Haven't decided which one yet." Laura said quietly.

"Traitor." Nat playfully glared.

Thor left the house abruptly and Dahlia followed him out to the porch.

"Thor? Where are you going?"

"I saw something in that dream. I need answers. I won't find them here." Thor replied, looking up at the sky.

"Be careful, please. I'd like my best friend to return in one piece."

He smiled at her slightly. "Always, Lady Dahlia."

He spun his hammer and flew away, leaving Dahlia alone with the clouds in the sky.

•

Tony wasn't sure what to do with himself while they were staying at the Barton house, because everything seemed to be a complete shitfest and he couldn't do anything to help, which was the worst feeling one could have, in his opinion.

All he could do was work on the quinjet and pretend the anxiety of the Ultron situation wasn't eating him alive.

As Tony finished fixing the left wing, he decided that he needed to go back inside soon, or someone would get concerned.

So he finished up his work on the wing and went to go repair the camera footage, not sure if it had been damaged in the fight.

There, as he reran the footage just to check it, he saw something he never expected to see.

Dahlia was helping the Maximoff's. Tony wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't right in front of him. She sewed up Wanda's injuries and patched up Pietro's arm, before letting them get away.

Tony shook with anger, his jaw clenching and if steam could be shooting out of his ears, it definitely would've. These people hurt everyone on their team today, caused everyone emotional trauma and almost killed Clint, and she was helping them?

"Hey, Tony. Laura sent me to get you for dinner, it's in like five and you have to help me set the table because I don't wanna do it by myself." Dahlia smiled, walking up toTiny, who's back was turned away from her.

He turned to look at the girl behind him, and Dahlia's heart dropped as she examined the look on Tony's face.

It was full of hurt, anger, and betrayal.

It was because of this look that Dahlia knew exactly what it was that made him so upset.

"Tony?" She asked quietly. "Are you okay?" Dahlia didn't know what to do. She couldn't move, and she didn't want to pry so much that he'd explode in anger.

It was silent for a minute or so.

"Tell me this isn't true." His voice was low, and if she was being honest, it scared the shit out of her.

"What isn't true?" Dahlia lied through her teeth. Of course, she didn't like lying, but she didn't want to risk bringing it up unless it was really what he was upset about.

"Don't make me do it."

Dahlia gulped.

Tony gestured towards the monitor where the footage was playing and she felt her stomach drop.

On the video, just as she suspected, it showed her bandaging Pietro and stitching up Wanda's wounds, the concentration on her face as she did so showing clearly on the screen.

Neither of them said anything. Dahlia turned on her heel and walked back up to the house, not knowing what to say, and frankly, not wanting him to say anything either.

She entered the house and started setting the table silently, trying to appreciate the calm before the inevitable storm Tony would bring inside with him.

The Avengers all sat down at the table, everyone chatting happily except for Dahlia, who's guilt was gnawing at her.

"Hey, Auntie 'Lia, are you okay?" Lila was looking up at her, concern filling the small child's eyes.

Dahlia smiled down at her. "I'm fine, Liles. Thank you."

She tried to knock herself out of her trance, listening to Lila's vivid storytelling as best she could, trying to act normal.

"And so then, Momma said I couldn't go down the slide unless I apologized to Cooper for punching him in the face, but I didn't do it cause he said white chocolate is better than dark chocolate, and I couldn't let that slide, you know?" Lila's eyes lit up as she told her stories.

Dahlia chuckled as Laura shook her head in amusement. "Maybe you've been spending too much time with me, Lila."

The small girl shook her head fervently before returning to the mashed potatoes on her place excitedly.

Just then, Tony entered the house and she felt herself stiffen at his presence.

He sat down gruffly across from her, a cold expression on his face.

"Would you hand me the mashed potatoes, Dahlia?" Tony's harsh tone made her flinch and made everyone turn their heads and look at the two.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me about the potatoes before I eat them, Dahlia?"

The room went silent.

"I wouldn't want to you lie to me about them, or betray my trust because we don't do that to each other, now do we?" Tony stared straight at her.

"Tony, please don't do this now." Dahlia said quietly, keeping her gaze on her plate.

Everyone was extremely confused about what was happening, and no one knew what to say. Dahlia simply wanted him to stop.

"What are you talking about Tony?" Steve said cautiously.

Dahlia shut her eyes tightly, hoping that if she did so, this whole situation might go away. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Well, Cap, if you must know, I was fixing the jet when I noticed something... interesting on the surveillance tapes."

"Tony." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the amount of pain in it made it audible to everyone at the table.

Natasha's eyes narrowed in his direction, not knowing what was happening but automatically wanting to protect Dahlia.

"What was it?" Clint asked, confused.

Tony didn't seem to notice the hurt in her voice or the glares from Nat. "Oh, nothing, just Dahlia on the ship right before we got on."

She didn't dare breathe, hoping Tony would stop there. Of course, he didn't.

"She was helping the Maximoff's."

Clint's fork dropped onto his plate, making a loud noise.

"Helping them? What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"Oh nothing much, just stitching up the girl's knife wound and bandaging up the boy's arm."

More silence. Dahlia didn't know whether defending herself would make this worse or not. With one look at Tony's sneers, she decided it couldn't get worse.

"Tony, she was bleeding out, okay! She was going to die!" Dahlia had enough of his attitude.

"That's not your problem. Do you not realize how deeply those two hurt this team yesterday?" Tony's voice was sharp.

She took a breath, remembering her vision, but then an unfamiliar surge of empathy took place. "They're both twenty four, like me. They're practically children. I can't help but feel like they've been lead the wrong way! It was definitely a stupid decision on their part to join Ultron, but I wasn't about to let them die because of it. You, of all people, should know how capable he is of convincing people of the wrong thing."

"What do you mean, me of all people? Are you saying that I taught him to be a murdering asshole?" Tony growled.

"You know I'm not. All I'm saying is that he'a skilled at convincing people to do things. I don't think Pietro and Wanda know that he's using them." Dahlia may have been terrified of Tony in that moment, but she was enraged as well.

"So now they're Pietro and Wanda? When did we start addressing them by their names? I only think of them as the people we need to take down, and that's how you should be thinking, too."

"They're humans!" Dahlia said, exasperated. "They deserve to be treated like human beings because they are! They're not animals."

An evil smirk crossed Tony's face. "Oh, I know what this is about. You're just a kid who has a crush and you're going to put the whole team in jeopardy for it."

Natasha was two seconds from leaping up and strangling Tony herself, but Dahlia took care of it on her own.

"If that's all you think of me, a girl with a crush, then clearly you don't know me. I care about their lives because that's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to be the good guys, but I'm losing faith in that every single day I'm around you." She stood up from the table and turned to leave the room, but paused once more before she did so.

"Maybe they're right about you, Stark. You don't care about anyone other than yourself."

After that, she excused herself from dinner and went to go sit out on the porch. Now that the heat from the argument was gone, it left her shivering outside on the wooden porch outside.

Back inside the house, Tony was getting his ass beaten verbally by Natasha. She wanted it to be physically, but Clint gave her a warning look.

"What on Earth possessed you to do that? You're legally her guardian, you're supposed to support her, Tony! I'm not too happy about what she did either, but if your shame her about it, she'll never trust you again. Honestly, how much of an idiot are you? Do you not know a thing about kids?"

Tony only scoffed and said, "I'm right, and you're all too biased to admit it."

Steve had to physically hold Nat back from strangling him at that moment.

"Anyways, I have to go take care of my daughter because someone," Nat shot a glare in his direction. "Royally screwed up her self esteem and I need to go build it back up."

"Actually, Natasha." Steve started quietly. "Could I go talk to her?"

Nat just stared at him. "Are you sure? Shes pretty terrifying when she's upset."

"Yeah... I'd like to try."

"Fine, but if you don't come back I'm not gonna be sad, I'll just say I told you so."

Steve gulped but headed out to the porch anyways, because if he wasn't stupidly heroic, Steve had no idea what he was.

Out there, sitting on the porch steps, was a shaking figure. Dahlia.

Steve wasn't sure how to approach her, the shaking of her body could either be shaking in anger or...

No, Steve thought. It can't be.

Dahlia was crying.

Steve sucked at comforting crying women, if he was being honest. Back in the 1940's, he once made a girl punch him in the jaw because of how badly he tried to reassure her that everything would be alright.

He didn't want a repeat of that situation, and he didn't doubt that Dahlia wouldn't hesitate to punch him in the face if need be, so he thought about his next actions carefully.

"I'm fine, Nat, just leave me alone." Dahlia's voice was muffled because her head was buried in her arms.

"I've been mistaken for a lot of things and people," Steve cleared his throat. "But Nat was never one of them."

Dahlia let a small smile crack onto her face, but only because she knew that he couldn't see it.

"Why are you out here, Steve? You usually stay away from me unless it's absolutely necessary."

Steve winced at the insinuation, but it was true. Dahlia bothered him quite a bit. He appreciated people who were focused and serious on missions while they were happening. That was why he argued with Tony so often, and that's why he and Dahlia didn't get along so well. She joked and messed around far more often than he thought was appropriate, but he had to hand it to her, she always got the mission done.

"I thought you could use a new face to talk to." He said honestly.

She was silent for a moment.

"Yeah, I guess so. I love Nat a lot, but she always ends her talks with threats to punch whoever hurt me in the face. Not that I mind, though." Dahlia laughed quietly.

Steve took a seat beside her.