The journey to Clint's farm proved to be difficult. Especially with the pressure of protecting Cooper and Lila, there was no room for mistakes. If their location was found it wasn't like they were in a safe house where they could up and leave when trouble hit. This was a family home. 

They had to return the rental car for starters, if they stole it then it would bring a lot of attention to them. They openly rented the car in public and CCTV would easily identify them, especially with their faces fresh in everyone's mind after the hearing.

Now they had to find a mode of transport to get them to the farm that wouldn't cause them to be in the spotlight. They debated using the Captain's method of going to a quiet area to "borrow" a car, but if it was reported as missing then authorities could easily track it via camera recognition and they would lead people directly to the farm. No, that wouldn't work.

Natasha suggested that they go back to their apartment and figure it out from there, they had all of their pre-packed suitcases by the door anyway so needed to go back regardless. On the walk back from the rental place, a few people looked at them with recognition, but they just kept their heads down and hoped that people wouldn't stop them or start harassing them. News outlets hadn't been the kindest. 

Their faces were plastered across various papers and tabloids, talking about Natasha as a murderer, and Eleanor as a liar.

They just had to hope that everything would die down soon and that the attention would be removed from them. 

When they got up to their apartment, they were confused when they opened the door and saw a note on the floor. Fear immediately ran through them, someone had been in the building and to their apartment door. 

Natasha walked forward first and read the note, relief flashing in her eyes as she read it, "It's Maria again". 

Eleanor huffed as she closed the door, "That woman needs to stop giving me heart attacks. What did she say?".

Nat just turned around and grinned, "She's gotten us a car, the keys are inside and it's outside of the apartment, she's written the license plate here too for good measure". Eleanor looked very clearly shocked, sure Maria had said that she would try and make sure that they would be safe, but she had expected some help on the legal side, not her gifting them a car.

They didn't dwell on it too long though before shooting a thank you message over to her, and then wasting no time in loading it with their luggage and saying goodbye to the apartment. They really missed being at home on the regular, it was their safe bubble, but their situation wasn't one that could be easily controlled.

A quick toilet run was also done before they left as it was decided that they wouldn't take any breaks on the way other than quickly stopping on a layby to switch drivers. Going into any stations to grab food or go to the toilet would be risky with CCTV, so they decided to not go to any of them and to just do the long drive to the Barton family farm in one stint. If they needed the loo, they would need to cross their legs. 

It was extremely tiring, but the two kept each other awake from the passenger seat by yelling songs that were playing on the radio or randomly pointing out things in view. Eleanor had shouted "Cows!" quite a few times on the way. At one point she had shouted it so loud that Natasha very nearly swerved the car.

After many, many hours of driving, they arrived and were very glad to finally be able to get out of the car. Natasha parked in the main barn next to a tractor to keep the car out of the way. 

When the two walked to the boot of the car to get their luggage, Eleanor suddenly flopped her head against Natasha's shoulder, who automatically placed a hand on the back of her head. "What's going on in that little head of yours?", she asked with clear concern lacing her voice.

"My head is normal-sized", her voice was muffled due to resting on Natasha but she still heard and let out a small laugh. But when there was silence Eleanor knew that Natasha was waiting for an actual answer, so she sighed, "Clint's gonna make fun of my face isn't he?".

Natasha felt her heart break slightly, she had no clue that Eleanor had been feeling conscious about it. She suspected that she might have done when it first happened, but when she showed no sign of being bothered about it Nat thought that Eleanor had just come out of the situation on top. Evidently not. 

She moved her hands to cup Eleanor's face and moved her off of her shoulder, "Honey, why didn't you tell me?".

"Tell you what?", Eleanor frowned.

"How you've been feeling about the scarring", Natasha gave a half-smile to reassure her that it was okay to quickly talk about it before heading into Clint's.

"I don't know, didn't want to make a big deal about it", she shrugged. Eleanor really didn't want to talk much about it in detail, she hadn't wanted to seem weak about it. She had preached to Natasha for years about being proud of her scars, and here she was, being a hypocrite.

"You don't have to hide those things from me детка", Nat began softly as Eleanor nodded slightly, "You look beautiful". Though those last three words seemed to set her off.

"No, no I don't. It looks horrible, I look horrible", she pushed herself away from Natasha as she began spiralling, "I mean it's fucking huge, Nat. It goes across my entire face, it's the thing everyone is going to notice about me from now on and how bad it looks, I mean people already look at me weird about it-". 

Natasha said her name a few times to get her to stop which eventually worked as she stopped talking and stared at her with heavy breaths, "You are beautiful, a scar doesn't change that. You've always told me to wear mine like a badge of honour so now it's my turn to do the same, it shows that we have overcome something and are stronger people for it. This scar, yes people may look at it, but I see that my fiancée fought against someone with super strength and a metal arm to keep him away from me, and to save Steve. You jumped into action without a second thought. It shows me that you're a hero, okay?".

Tears pooled in Eleanor's eyes but she blinked them back as she took a few steps back towards Natasha, "I just hate it", she whispered. 

"I know you do now, but I promise it will get easier, and if Clint mentions it I will kick him in the shin so hard", she smirked and took Eleanor's hand as she opened the car boot.

Time to see the Barton's.

Suitcases in hand, they walked up to the front door and knocked. Eleanor was very nervous but when Nat squeezed her hand she couldn't help but smile.

It didn't take long at all before the door flew open revealing an excited Clint, but when he looked at Eleanor his features immediately dropped to one of shock, "Jesus El, what happened to your-", he was stopped by Nat abruptly kicking him in the shin. 

"Motherfu-!", he began but was once again cut off by Laura coming up behind him excited to see them, she had been extremely worried since the news of SHIELD falling and so was desperate to see them in person. 

"Are they here?", she practically squealed as she opened the door more and shoved a hobbling Clint out of the way. She beamed at them, and when her eyes met Eleanor's her smile faltered slightly but immediately lit up again, she knew better than to point it out, unlike her husband, which Eleanor was thankful for. 

"Hey Laura", Nat smiled.

"Thank God you two are okay", she breathed out and brought the two of them into a hug. She smiled when pulling away from it and then looked over to Clint who had a very annoyed look on his face, "What's wrong with you?".

He looked over to Nat and frowned more, causing her to smirk at his behaviour, "Nothing, anyway the kids are so excited to see you both", he quickly changed the subject and plastered a smile on his face as he took their luggage for them. 

Nat and Eleanor hurried in, the mention of the kids making them even more excited for the visit, they loved those kids with their whole hearts. 

A few seconds after the door closed they heard the stomping feet of the kids, Lila came sprinting in first and flung herself into Natasha's arms, and Cooper who wasn't far behind barrelled into Eleanor's side and engulfed her in a big hug. "Hey little man", she laughed as she tried to keep her balance. 

Nat also chuckled at his enthusiasm whilst she shifted Lila onto her hip. When the young girl caught sight of Eleanor her jaw dropped, kids are not subtle at all, but neither is Clint so his kids are even worse. "Is Auntie El okay?", she turned to Natasha.

Eleanor sent Nat a small smile before she ruffled Cooper's hair as he tried to drag her to look at the game that he was just playing.

When Eleanor had left Nat smiled at Lila, "She's fine peanut, you know how we fight bad guys?". Lila nodded slightly. "Well, El fought a big big bad guy! But he gave her that in the process, but it looks cool right?", she tried to encourage the young girl to see it in a good light.

"It does, she looks like a superhero!".

Natasha grinned, mission accomplished, "That she does peanut, that she does. Shall we go see what your brother's up to?".

---

That day both women's spirits were lifted by hanging out with the tiny Bartons. Lila spent a while showing them her progress in archery. They were impressed, she was good for her young age, and she also spent an hour or so teaching them archery as well.

Having used various weapons previously and generally having good aim from experience, it didn't take long for them to get the hang of the basics and hit good parts of the target, but they mostly aimed for the outer rings so that Lila didn't think that she hadn't been making good progress in her practice. 

Cooper spent a hefty amount of time showing them the new game he got on his iPad called "Goat Simulator". Natasha was very unimpressed with the game and thought that it was ridiculous, which she obviously didn't show the young boy. But Eleanor thought that it was hilarious and had a lot of fun with the gravity goat when Cooper let her have a go. Natasha was very much questioning her choice of life partner, but couldn't help but smile at the antics when Eleanor started doing a stupid monologue as she played as the goat to make Cooper laugh. 

The day passed quickly though especially as they had arrived in the afternoon, and soon enough dinner had been eaten and the kids were in bed, leaving the adults in the living room with either a glass of wine or a can of beer.

Eleanor and Natasha had agreed that they would tell Clint and Laura about their engagement when the kids went to sleep, as it was almost a guarantee that they would want the story explained, and it would involve being on the run. None of the adults wanted the children to know about that part or the fact that SHIELD had been destroyed.

"So...", Natasha started as she placed her wine down during a lull in the conversation. Eleanor quickly turned to her with a smile on her face, knowing exactly where this was going. "We have some news", she continued. 

Clint and Laura looked perplexed, Natasha's tone of voice was not letting them know if it was good or bad, so they stayed quiet and just stared expectedly. Natasha turned to look at Eleanor and grinned, nodding for her to continue. "We got engaged about a week ago".

Clint's jaw dropped, much like Lila's did earlier, and Laura's face lit up as she ran over to congratulate them. She tried to look for a ring on either of their hands but they explained that it just happened whilst they were in that motel, so didn't have one to hand and that they would probably just leave it and focus on the actual wedding bands. 

When Clint recovered from the initial shock he also stood to congratulate them. "You're all grown up now", he smiled and patted Eleanor on the back. He was partly joking to annoy her, but some of it held truth. He had known her since her late teens, so the news of her being engaged was a lot to wrap his head around.

"Oh come off it, Barton", she laughed and pushed him away.

"Where are you thinking of having it?", Laura asked when they all resumed their previous positions on the sofas.

"We don't really know, it's not like we can risk going anywhere for a couple of months anyway", Eleanor shrugged.

Both Nat and Eleanor could see the visible lightbulb moment that had just occurred within Clint. "Have it here!". They sent him questioning looks so he rolled his eyes and continued, "Knowing you two, you won't want many guests, so it will be easy to set up a nice venue outside, there's plenty of space, you won't have to wait long, and it will be free", he wiggled his eyebrows at the end.

"Are you serious?", Nat asked.

"Deadly".

It sounded perfect, it was a place that meant a lot to them too, not some random venue in the middle of nowhere. They both thanked him and then Laura, who started erratically talking about how they could set up the field and how amazing it would look.

Nat and Eleanor just gazed at each other as the other woman rambled on, their eyes sparkling with excitement. 

A/n- Thank you for 5k reads! <3