Chapter Text
Back in Shield Headquarters, Hawkeye finished telling his ghost story, smirking at the open-mouthed looks of astonishment from the others of his team. Well, Tony, Steve, and Bruce were open-mouthed, while Natasha was unfazed, and Thor just looked spooked.
“What about those aliens?” Tony demanded.
“The blue portal must’ve sucked them all back to their homeworld.” Hawkeye said, shrugging. “We never found any.”
“And Marie?” Thor asked, sounding hopeful. “Did she find peace?”
Hawkeye smiled.
“I hope she did,” He said softly, and Tony shook his head.
“I don’t believe you-you made it all up!” He said, and Hawkeye smiled, pulling out a single aged comic book that read The Amazing Hawkeye! on the cover.
They stared at it, and Natasha snorted and then whacked him on the head.
“Ow! What was that for!” He protested, rubbing the injured spot.
“For ignoring Coulson’s orders to get out of there when he told you,” Natasha said mildly, sipping her tea.
Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Thor all looked vaguely disturbed at the comic book, while Clint complained about being abused by his own teammembers and Natasha sitting and smiling.
Coulson watched from the doorway with Fury, who shook his head.
“Ghost stories already,” Fury grumbled. “It’s not even Halloween yet!”
“Halloween’s only a few weeks away, sir. That’s what makes this story all the better,” Coulson pointed out calmly.
“And that portal? Any news?”
“The circus has been taken away to be properly examined, the area where the circus was has been completely cut off from all the rest of the world, and there’s no sign of
Marie Chandler-but we have found her remains, and that of her family, sir. A proper burial to take place on Halloween, if your interested.” Coulson said with a smile.
Fury grumbled, but Coulson knew he was interested-he always paid respects to the brave ones, the innocent ones…and Marie had been both.
With a barely noticeable smile he watched Fury leave to head back to his office. Coulson heard laughter in the breakroom, as Clint was teasing Tony about being scared of ghosts, and Tony was giving back as good as he got. Coulson frowned when he felt a flicker of cold, and a soft, gentle whisper of…
“Thank you,” A young girl’s voice. He couldn’t place who it was, and looked for a good five minutes, before he heard Steve calling,
“Phil! Come join us!”
He saw Natasha eyeing him, as he seemed spooked a bit, before shaking it off. It didn’t matter who it was that said thanks. Only that they had.
And he had a good idea of who it might’ve been too.
Smiling more pronounced, he went into the breakroom to join his team.
The avengers.