Chapter Text
All Laura wanted that day was a hot dog. That was it, nothing more. She just wanted to sit outside with her family and eat hot dogs.
The sensation could only be explained as fading. It all happened so fast. One moment she had been preparing the kids hotdogs when the sensation passed over her. After a few seconds, it was over. Only now everything was … off. There’s no longer any food in her hands, the sun is lower, and it feels a few degrees colder. And Clint is gone. Looking around, she can tell similar thoughts are running through Lila and Cooper’s minds. Nathaniel has’t registered any problems, clearly not bothered. Her eyes met Lila’s.
“Where’d Dad go?” Lila hesitantly asked. Laura blinked, thinking the exact same thing.
“Wasn’t he with you?” Cooper asked. He was looking around frantically. “Where’d all the food go? What’s happening?" Panic began to colour his voice. Nate picked up on this and ran over to his mother.
“Mom,” he started, jumping into her arms, “What’s going on?”
All three of the children were staring at Laura with wide eyes. Unable to speak, she reached into her pocket to grab her phone. The first thing she noticed were the dozens of missed calls. Feeling her panic begin to rise, she quickly dialed Clint’s cell. The phone rang multiple times, and still without an answer, she had no idea wh-
“Honey-” His voice was so full of emotions she couldn’t place. He sounded relieved, which instantly raised her suspicions; he sounded exhausted, which caused confusion, he’d been right there a few seconds ago.
“Clint?” She needed to know what was going on. Where he is, and why he sounds so weird.
“Honey.” Laura hears him getting choked up. She’s about to ask him where he is when the line goes dead.
“Clint?!” She can hear the alarm in her voice. “Where are you?” After waiting a couple seconds for an answer, she hangs up and calls again. She turned to the kids and shook her head. “Voicemail.”
They looked so confused and scared, and she hates not being able to ease them. She began to scroll through the notifications on her phone. There were at least a hundred, if not more, missed calls. The first couple dozen were all from Nat, which caused her fear to grow. Why had Nat tried calling so much? She was on the run and only called when it was super important, like one of the kids' birthdays. Laura instantly tried calling back.
“Who are you calling now?” Cooper asked.
“Auntie. You try Dad.”
Cooper nodded and pulled out his phone. She saw his eyes widen and assumed that when Nat had failed to get a hold of Laura she tried the kids.
The phone continued to ring before going to voicemail as well. Laura was about to hang up when she realized it wasn’t the recording she was familiar with. Nat had always used an automatic recording to keep up the secrecy of her life, yet here she is, using her own voice - and name. The oddity of the situation only added itself to the ever-growing list. After trying to call a few more times, Laura gave up. Nat always answered Laura's calls. She tries to prevent herself from fully panicking and begins looking at her phone. There was something weird about the notifications. The first one was dated April 13, 2018, today’s date. But the time was marked 1:23 pm. Laura had checked her phone a few minutes ago and it was only 12:50. She glanced at the top of her screen and saw it was now 4:13. Worried that she was losing her mind, Laura opened the calendar on her phone and dropped it.
“What?” Lila asked, “What happened?” Laura could barely move let alone speak. “MOM!” She snapped her head up to face Lila.
“I- I -”
“What?!”
Laura turned to the three of them, all the blood drawn from her face. It took all her effort to spit out her next words.
“It’s 2023.” They come out jagged and lost. Lila and Cooper stared at her for a moment before shaking their heads.
“No. No, Mom, it’s not. It's 2018.” Laura handed Copper the phone.
“That makes no sense,” Cooper began, “It’s not possible.”
“Give me the phone back,” Laura demanded, “Let’s go in the house. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Carrying Nate, she walked to the door. It was definitely not 2023. That couldn’t be possible. Though, Laura did realize it looked as though time had passed. The cars were gone, and the rust on the door had increased. But there is no way five years had passed in three minutes.
While she wanted to deny it, she knew in her gut something happened with the Avengers.
The four of them sat down on the couch, completely stunned and confused. They sat still, with the exception of Nate, who played with his ball. They stayed like that for far too long. After about 15 minutes, Cooper reached for the remote to turn on the news. The scene they see is terrifying. It looks like an expulsion has occurred. The voice over attempts to provide an explanation.
“Th- we’re all in confusion, folks. It seems as though everyone who disappeared 5 years ago is returning.”
Laura closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before rewinding the news to make sure she was processing the words correctly. Disappear? People don’t just disappear. The four of them did not disappear.
Though, the more she thought about it, the more sense everything started to make. That would explain the time change, and why Clint was missing. It would explain the lack of food and calls from Nat. As hard as she tried to resist, the puzzle was slowly putting itself together.
“What we’re seeing here is a sent in photo of the Avengers compound-,” The three of them gasped and even Nate looked up, “in New York. We are doing our best to get reporters on the ground, more information to come.”
Cooper immediately turned off the TV. The deafening silence of tension echoed throughout the house. Laura thought back to the abrupt end to Clint’s call and the devastation at the Avengers and let out a long sigh. He’s there. He was in or near the explosion. For whatever reason, her husband was no longer on the farm and had found himself in another life-threatening situation.