Archive of Our Own

"Phil?"

Phil buried his head a little more firmly in his pillow and mumbled something he hoped would send whoever was trying to wake him up away. He was still in that fuzzy space between sleeping and waking and he intended to stay closer to the sleeping part for at least the next twelve hours.

"Phil?"

The voice was a little louder now and accompanied by a not very gentle poke in his ribs. Phil rolled his head and cracked one eye open to look up blearily.

"You waking up yet?"

Normally, the sight of Clint with his hair mussed from sleep and his chest invitingly bare would have been enough to wake Phil up completely. Even after six months, he still seemed to have a Pavlovian response to Clint, mornings, and a bed. It was a really good thing they were both on the same page on the subject of morning sex.

Except they'd been working for forty-eight hours without stopping and Phil felt like he'd only just crawled into bed five minutes ago so it was going to take a lot more than a naked Clint to get him to consider waking up.

Clint sighed and held out a cell phone. "Sorry, but this seems kind of important."

Phil stared at the phone for a moment and then, reluctantly, rolled over and forced his eyes open. Clint wordlessly handed the phone over and lay down, pillowing his head on his arm and looking more awake than Phil felt.

"Hello?" Phil mumbled.

There was a brief pause and then a stern voice said, "Is this Philip Coulson?"

"Yes?"

"Mr Coulson, do you know an-" There was a pause and the sound of papers rustling. "-Abigail Durant and a Tabitha Baker?"

The warm sleepiness abruptly drained away and Phil sat up, holding the phone more firmly against his ear. "Yes, they're my nieces. Who is this?"

The man on the other end of the line made an irritated clucking sound. "Mr Coulson, your nieces arrived unaccompanied in JFK airport two hours ago. As they're both minors and no arrangements were made with the airlines they travelled with, we can't release them until a parent or guardian is here to release them to. They tell me their parents are in Illinois."

Phil supressed a groan. "They are."

"They're refusing to provide any contact details for their parents but they claimed you could take responsibility for them."

"I could."

"We'll need you to provide government IDs and proof that these are your nieces," the voice said forbiddingly.

"I can do that," Phil said.

"And we'll need to contact their parents."

Phil hesitated. Usually Abby and Tab were sensible, responsible kids who had never shown any inclination to run away from home, except for that one time when Abby was six and she slipped out of the garden on her bike for three hours. Nobody had even noticed she'd gone because she'd been playing in her tree house all day. She came home when she got hungry, after working out that two Barbies and half a bag of Doritos weren't sufficient supplies for running away, and nobody would have known if she hadn't confessed everything immediately and then cried for two hours because nobody noticed she'd run away.

Even Tab was surprisingly level-headed despite her mother's flakiness.

But today they'd somehow crossed half the country on their own, which was so far outside what he'd expect from them he couldn't help worrying. They'd also run to him and he was sure that meant something because if they were smart enough to get this far, they were more than smart enough to go anywhere they wanted.

"I'll contact their parents," Phil said, injecting just enough of his 'Agent Coulson' tone into his voice to hopefully overwhelm any protests. "I'm an agent of SHIELD - you might have heard of us - and I'm sure your supervisors will be more than happy to release them into my custody."

There was an audible swallow on the line. "Yes, Mr- .... Agent Coulson. That sounds fine. You can provide proof, can't you?"

"I can have my boss call your boss, if that would help."

"No, no!" The voice squeaked slightly. "That won't be necessary, Agent Coulson."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Phil said.

He ended the call partway through a breathless thank you and stared at the phone for a moment, debating whether to call Jeannie and Danni now or later.

"Where are we going?" Clint asked, sitting up.

Phil sighed as he felt Clint press a kiss against his bare shoulder. "JFK. Apparently Abby and Tab ran away from home, bought themselves airline tickets and flew here."

Clint whistled. "That's impressive."

"I'm sure my sister and Danni would disagree with you," Phil said tiredly.

"Are you going to call them?"

"Later," Phil said, making a decision. "When I know what happened."

Clint grinned and pushed the covers aside. "Afraid of Jeannie yelling at you?"

"They ran away without any encouragement from me so she can't yell when it's not my fault. What are you doing?"

"Coming with you." Clint shrugged and padded over to the dresser where he started digging through the drawers. "Your family is my family and all that shit."

The words made Phil's breath catch for a moment and he paused in the middle of trying to straighten the bedcovers. Clint looked up from his search just at that moment, a pair of socks in his hand, and whatever he saw in Phil's face made a fond smile appear.

"You're kind of adorable sometimes," Clint said lightly. "Come on, get your ass in gear. I'll buy you coffee on the way. I think we're going to need a shit ton of caffeine to get through this."

***

Phil brought every piece of ID he owned but it was Clint's - Hawkeye's - face that got them quickly through the security guards at the airport. Privately Phil suspected it was the arms as much as the face that were Clint's passport to anywhere he wanted to go but Phil also suspected he might be biased about that.

They were taken to a massively tall guard who looked them up and down with an unimpressed expression for a long moment. Phil couldn't decide whether he disapproved of two men who obviously shared a bed or just of people who were asleep at five in the afternoon. He hoped it was the latter.

"Agent Coulson?" the guard said, his voice just as stern as it had been over the phone. "Bill Jones, I spoke to you on the phone."

Phil nodded politely. "I recognise your voice. Can I see my nieces?"

Jones gestured. "Your paperwork checks out, apparently. Follow me, please."

The room he led them to was an impersonal but fairly comfortable looking lounge and Phil sent up a silent thank you that the staff had had the sensitivity not to put his nieces in an interrogation room. There was a young woman in one of the blue airport security uniforms sitting in the corner and the two girls were sitting on the room's only sofa.

Abby jumped up as soon as she spotted Phil and nearly bowled him over in her rush to wrap her arms around his chest. He rubbed a hand soothingly down her back and kissed the top of her dark blond curls. She'd grown at least an inch since Christmas and he was startled to realise that she wasn't much shorter than him now.

Tab hung back, as she always did, even though Phil held out a hand to invite her into the hug. She nodded to him and offered a shy almost-smile to Clint when he said hello. The remains of her mascara and heavy eyeliner had created a panda effect around her eyes and her leather jacket was at least a size too big. Despite the big black boots and the short, spiky black hair she'd acquired since Christmas (Danni probably had kittens when she saw that, Phil reflected), she looked young and tired.

Surprisingly, it was Abby who looked like the older teen when she stepped back and quickly wiped her eyes. The latest growth spurt had shot her above Tab and her clothes were exactly what any fourteen year-old trying to look eighteen would wear.

Clint brushed past them to pick up the two duffle bags near the female guard's feet. He rolled his eyes and shook his head when Tab made to help him, earning himself a soft snort from her.

"Do I need to sign anything to get them out of here?" Phil asked.

Jones shook his head. "You're good to go."

"Thanks, Uncle Phil," Abby said quietly and ducked under his arm for another hug as they left.

***

Phil watched Abby and Tab in the rear-view mirror whenever he dared to take his eyes off the road long enough. Abby seemed happy: she was chattering to Clint, leaning as far forward as her seatbelt would let her and asking about everything they passed. She was completely unself-conscious about being a country girl in the big city and she seemed aware that her stay might be brief so she was trying to absorb everything she could. Clint had twisted around in his seat to look back at her and he was answering everything he could and making up outrageous stories that made Abby laugh whenever he didn’t know something.

Tab was had curled up in her corner of the backseat and she seemed to be trying to shrink into herself. Her head was turned to look out of the window so Phil couldn't see her face, but the way she was hunching her shoulders and twisting a loose thread on her jeans around and around her finger told him more than enough about her state of mind. If he'd ever been a betting man, he would have put money on Tab being at the centre of the reason the two girls had ended up in JFK on a Thursday afternoon.

"Is that Avengers Tower?" Abby asked, her slightly awed voice breaking into Phil's reflections. "Seriously, am I getting to stay in Avengers Tower? 'Cos that's going to be so cool."

Clint snorted. "It's Stark Tower, you'd better not let him hear you call it Avengers Tower."

Phil caught Abby's grin in the mirror. "Am I going to get to meet Iron Man?"

"No," Phil said quickly. "You're never getting to meet Tony Stark."

"Awwww, Uncle Phi-il," Abby said, somehow managing to add a few extra syllables to his name.

"No," Phil said firmly.

"Are we planning to lock them up where Tony can't find them?" Clint asked innocently.

"We're totally staying in Avengers Tower!" Abby exclaimed happily. "Tab, did you hear that? We're staying with the Avengers!"

Clint laughed. "We could go to your uncle's apartment, but it's been three months since he last visited it and he seems to have forgotten how to find it."

As Phil was turning into the parking garage under the Tower when Clint said it, he couldn't argue that. It hadn't been his plan, he'd intended to take them to his apartment, but he'd been so busy worrying about Tab that he'd been driving on autopilot and ended up here anyway.

"Do you live here now, Uncle Phil?" Abby asked as Phil pulled into his space.

As there was a parking space with his name on it, Phil had to shrug. "In a way."

"Yes, he lives here," Clint said cheerfully. "He's in denial about it, but he moved the potted plants over in March so I think it's mostly for show."

Abby narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, an expression Phil recognised immediately because Jeannie always looked like that just before she asked an excruciatingly embarrassing and personal question. He turned off the engine and opened his door.

"The plants were dying and Stark has people who can take of them when we're away on business," Phil said smoothly. "It seemed sensible."

He opened the rear passenger door, smiling at Tab and getting a slight nod of acknowledgement as she began uncurling and climbing out of the car.

Abby giggled as she got out of the car. "You don't have to pretend you're an accountant, Uncle Phil. Tab knows everything."

Phil sighed. "Is there anyone in my family who doesn't know?"

"Aunt Danni and Grandma," Abby replied. "And Dad, I guess."

"Hey, why don't you two go and wait by the elevator?" Clint asked as he closed his door. "I'll help your uncle with your bags."

"Sure," Abby said. "You guys definitely need both of you to carry our bags. Come on, Tab."

Tab followed Abby across the garage and Phil noted again the way she seemed to be pulling in and trying not to take up any space or attract any attention. Clint grabbed both bags out of the trunk, but he reached up before Phil could slam it closed. It didn't give them much privacy, but at least no curious eyes would be able to read their lips.

"Does Tab seem off to you?" Clint asked quietly. "She's not a talker, but I don't remember her being this quiet at Christmas."

"She wasn't," Phil said.

Clint nodded. "What's the plan?"

Phil closed the trunk and leaned against it, but he kept his voice low. "Feed them and put them to bed. They're exhausted."

"I can work with that," Clint said.

He tangled his fingers with Phil's for a moment and Phil gave him a small smile. The gesture was warm and private, a brief touch that told him Clint was going to be there for whatever he needed to fix this.

"I'll call Jeannie while they're eating," Phil said.

Clint squeezed his hand. "Before we eat. You look like you need food as much as they do, so don't think talking to Jeannie gets you out of eating."

"You don't look much better," Phil said, letting his voice return to its normal level.

They started walking across the garage and Clint's indignant protest echoed around them, making Abby laugh as Clint declared he looked fucking amazing considering he hadn't slept for fifty hours. It even raised a ghost of a smile from Tab so Phil couldn't quite make himself protest about Clint's language. As he pressed the button that would take them to Clint's - his and Clint's, maybe would be more accurate - floor, he reflected that they probably heard worse at school every day.

***

"I thought it would be bigger," Abby commented as she looked around the apartment.

Clint threw the girls' bags on the couch and mock-glared at her. "Yeah? You know, your uncle's place is smaller and he only has one bedroom. So you guys would be on the sofa there."

"Yeah, but this is Avengers Tower," Abby said. "I kinda figured it would be..."

"Bigger?" Clint finished.

Abby shrugged. "Your kitchen is right here in the living room and it's tiny. I thought you'd have one of those huge fancy ones with all the cool gadgets."

The open-plan living area didn't have the grandeur of some of the other floors in the Tower, but Phil liked the smaller, less overwhelming space. It felt more like a home than the big kitchen a couple of floors up. This was a place for relaxing in, for cooking waffles and bacon and muffins with too many chocolate chips and eating pizza with plates balanced on knees in front of the TV.

"This is our kitchen," Clint said. "There's a big kitchen with cool gadgets if we want to cook for everyone, this is where we can just cook for us."

"And not have to share your food with all the other superheroes you guys live with?" Abby asked innocently. "Not that I want to meet them, but..."

"They're all asleep," Phil said firmly. "You wouldn't meet them even if we let you loose in the Tower, which we won't be doing."

"Who's hungry?" Clint asked as he headed for the kitchen area Abby had been critiquing. "I'm making pancakes."

"I love pancakes," Abby said quickly. "Hey, Tab, why don't you help Clint while Uncle Phil shows me where we'll be sleeping and I get our bags put away?"

With that incredibly unsubtle set of instructions, Abby picked up one of the bags and gestured to the other one. Phil took it with a wry smile and led her down the short hallway to the guest room. At least there was no chance she'd be getting recruited as a spy any time soon, he reflected to himself.

The guest room had one large double bed because they'd never thought about whether any of Phil's family would be visiting. It was an oversight Phil was already regretting, although Abby didn't seem bothered about sharing a bed with Tab for a night. She was too busy throwing herself onto it face first and then bouncing happily for a minute. Then again, the sleeping arrangements at Jeannie's over Christmas could get crowded so she was probably used to bunking in with Tab like this.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked, putting his bag down beside the dresser and sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. "I really need to talk to your Mom and let her know where you are so-"

"Yeah, I figured you would so I wanted to talk to you first," Abby interrupted.

"Without Tab?"

She sat up and crossed her legs, swinging round to face him. Despite her attempts to look brave and grown-up, Phil noted the way she started pulling at a thread on the hem of her jeans and the exhaustion in her eyes. It was all a front she'd been putting on for the world and she was reaching the end of her reserves.

"Without Tab," Abby confirmed quietly.

Phil nodded. "Tell me what happened."

Abby hesitated for a long moment, obviously trying to work out where to start, and then she asked, "Remember that guy Aunt Danni started seeing?"

Phil looked at her blankly. The way she sighed and rolled her eyes was about twenty years too old for her and exactly the look Jeannie gave him every time he wasn't paying attention to family gossip.

"Do you ever listen to what Mom tells you about her?" Abby asked.

"I do listen," Phil said solemnly. "Sometimes I don't retain the information, but I do listen."

"It leaks out because you've got other stuff to remember that's more important than Aunt Danni's latest boyfriend?"

Phil winced. "Something like that."

Abby shrugged. "Fair point, she has a lot of them. Anyway, there was this guy. Some kind of delivery guy, I think. She met him in January and you know what Aunt Danni's like, he was hanging out and staying over way too fast and Mom pretended she was totally OK with it but she wasn't."

"That sounds familiar."

"Yeah, because it happens every time Aunt Danni gets a new guy," Abby said wisely. "Anyway, you know Tab. She just lets her mom do her thing and ignores the guys, because they never stick around, but she didn't like this one. Like, really didn't like him. She never says much about personal stuff because she's kinda weird about it, but she was all weird about him so I knew she didn't like him and Tab's good at people so I figured Aunt Danni wouldn't keep him around for long but she did."

Abby paused, catching her breath, and Phil nodded encouragingly. He'd done more than a few victim interviews over the years and he'd learned that the first time they told their story, it was best to let them just talk and get it all out without asking for details they weren't ready to share yet. He'd nudge them if they seemed to be struggling to talk, but otherwise it was best just to let them tell their story in their own way and at their own pace for now.

"I guess she forgot something at school and she went home at lunch yesterday," Abby continued. Her voice was lower now, quieter and more hesitant. "There was...Uncle Phil, if someone does something wrong but they were protecting someone when they did it, is that bad?"

Phil took a careful breath and reached out to take Abby's hand where she was still picking nervously at the hem of her jeans. She held onto his hand tight and shuffled slightly closer until her knee bumped his leg.

"It's difficult to tell without knowing what happened," he said honestly, keeping his voice as calm and gentle as he could. "Can you tell me?"

Abby paused for a long moment and then she squared her shoulders and met Phil's eyes. "This guy, he was hitting Aunt Danni. I guess it was pretty bad and Aunt Danni fell or something. Tab got there...I don't know, I guess just when Aunt Danni fell down?" Abby shrugged. "And she got scared and the guy didn't look like he was going to stop so...she hit him. With a baseball bat."

"Why did she have a baseball bat?" Phil asked before he could stop himself.

"Aunt Danni keeps one by the door, 'cause it gets scary where they live sometimes so she likes having one just in case," Abby said. "Tab said she didn't think, she just grabbed it and hit him and he went down, like, bam. Right there. And he wasn't moving and she didn't want to get close enough to check on him in case he was faking. So she ran upstairs and called 911. Then she got scared they'd arrest her because she hit the guy with a baseball bat so she packed a bag and ran as soon as she heard the sirens."

Phil had to throttle down on his instinct to call every kind of fire down on the man who had beaten Danni and terrified Tab so completely. Instead he focused all his attention on Abby.

"She ran to you?" he prompted when Abby seemed stuck for words.

"Yeah, I guess she hopped a bus or something," Abby said. "She snuck in my bedroom window at, like, three this morning and scared the crap out of me. I said we should talk to my mom, but Tab was too scared. She's convinced they'll send her to jail or something. She said, if I told Mom then she'd be out of the window before we could get to her and she was going to sneak onto a train. Guess she saw a documentary on Discovery about teenagers who ride the rail lines when they run away from home and she figured she could do that, too."

No wonder Tab had been so quiet and withdrawn. Phil was torn between rushing out to check on her and hearing the end of Abby's story, but he forced himself to stay where he was and keep his expression neutral so he'd have the full picture.

"So I told her about you," Abby said. "About how you’re a secret agent and Uncle Clint is Hawkeye and you know people who could help her. She pretty much knew you weren't an accountant already but I showed her the pictures on the Internet and Uncle Clint's Wikipedia page and I said we should come here if she wanted to run and you'd fix this. Uh, I might have let her see the stuff on Wikipedia about Uncle Clint's background." She frowned worriedly. "When I went to the bathroom, I left it open so she could read it. I was totally subtle about it."

Phil doubted there was any subtlety to it at all, but he smiled gently at her. "That's why you wanted her to help Clint with the pancakes?"

Abby nodded. "I figured...she needs to talk to someone and he kinda...knows. What she's going through. Even though he didn't hit anyone with a baseball bat."

"He's a good listener," Phil said and Abby smiled at him. "He pretends he isn't, but if she's ready to talk then he'll do it."

"And you'll fix all this?"

"I can make some phone calls and see what's happening," Phil said. It wasn't a commitment but it was enough for Abby: she looked instantly relieved and a smile even started to pull at the corners of her lips. "How did you get here?"

"Uh." Abby shifted guiltily. "Plane?"

"That much I'd worked out. How did you manage that?"

Abby winced. "Uh, Dad gave me his credit card info a couple of months ago so I could buy my birthday present. I still had all the codes and stuff so, er, I used them. To buy the plane tickets. And then Tab snuck out with my bag before Mom woke up and I pretended to go to school but we took a cab to the airport instead and it all worked out so much better than I thought it would."

Phil had to work hard not to let any hint of a smile show on his face. Just because he'd learned to intensely dislike his soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law over the last year, that didn't mean he could condone Abby's actions. Even if he was slightly proud of her ingenuity.

"Let me guess," he said gravely. "All the economy seats were booked up so you had to take business class?"

"Yes?" Abby said weakly.

There was a headache starting to build just between his eyes. Phil closed them and rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a moment while he thought. It didn't help the headache and Abby was still watching him with a mixture of hope and worry when he looked at her again.

"Uncle Phil?" she asked. "Am I going to be in trouble?"

"I'd say you're definitely going to be trouble with your mom," Phil said tiredly.

"But if I'd told her what was going on, Tab would have run away properly and then we'd never find her again," Abby protested.

"Which is probably what's going to save you from being grounded for life," Phil said. "Just for the rest of this decade."

"Sorry," Abby said quietly. "I guess Dad's going to be mad about the credit card as well, isn't he?"

As Derek had paid for him and his new girlfriend to go to the Caribbean twice in the last six months, Phil didn't have any worries about whether Derek could afford the flights Abby and Tab had bought. It almost felt like poetic justice: the idea Derek had given Abby his card details because he couldn't be bothered to buy his fourteen year-old daughter a gift made a cold knot of fury lodge in Phil's chest.

"You leave your dad to me," Phil said.

"What's going to happen to Tab?"

Phil sighed. "I'll call your mom and find out what's going on. Then we'll figure out what to do next. Why don't you go and help Clint and Tab with the pancakes?"

She hesitated, probably unwilling to interrupt in case Tab was confessing everything the way Abby hoped, but Phil raised his eyebrows and she gave in. He was surprised to get a kiss on the cheek as she slid off the bed and the unexpected gesture confirmed to him how tired and how overwhelmed she was feeling.

The only surprising thing was that she'd kept herself together for this long despite everything the last twenty-four hours had thrown at her. Phil had known grown adults who fell apart when they were confronted with less.

The exhaustion that had been clawing at him since Clint shook him awake was seeping back and Phil lost a couple of minutes just sitting, his mind blank, until he roused himself back to full awareness. Girlish laughter floated down the hallway as he padded the short distance to the bedroom he shared with Clint and it was cut off when he closed the door.

Sound-proof doors. In a place like Stark Tower, Phil could understand why Clint had made sure his bedroom was quiet no matter how many small explosions Stark, Banner and even Thor on bad days could create.

He sat down on the bed and propped himself against the headboard as he pulled out his cell phone. There were no messages or missed calls, which a bit of a surprise but Phil concluded that Fury had actually meant it when he'd announced Phil was on stand-down with the rest of the Avengers.

Before he could change his mind and succumb to the temptation to just shuffle down a little further and sink into sleep, Phil scrolled through his phone book and hit the call button.

Jeannie answered on the first ring. "Phil?"

"I've got Abby and Tab here," he said without preamble. "They're fine."

There was a short silence and then he heard a shuddering sigh. "Oh thank god." Then she paused again before asking, "Wait, they're with you? In New York? How the hell did they get there?"

"They flew," Phil said mildly. After a moment's thought he added, "In a plane."

Jeannie chuckled weakly. "I guess with your life, the plane thing is sometimes optional."

Phil hummed noncommittally. "They ended up in JFK with nobody to meet them so airport security took them in and called me."

"Called you? Why?"

"I was the only contact they'd provide," Phil said drily. "I think they're afraid you'll be angry with them."

"I'll be mad later," Jeannie said. "Right now, I'm just too relieved to feel anything. Did they tell you anything about what happened?"

"Abby gave me an outline," Phil said.

Jeannie listened quietly while he summarised what Abby had told him, taking out Abby's commentary on events and sticking strictly to the facts in an unemotional tone. It all sounded a lot worse when he explained it that way but Jeannie didn't say anything, only her quiet sigh at the end betraying any anxiety.

"How is Abby holding up?" Jeannie asked when he finished.

Phil shrugged before reminding himself that she couldn't see him. "Right now, I think she's so exhausted she's gone numb. We're feeding them and we'll get them to bed as soon as we can."

"'We'?" Jeannie asked with a hint of her usual teasing.

"Clint's apartment has a guest bedroom," Phil said smoothly.

"And most of your stuff, right?"

"You're as bad as your daughter," he grumbled.

Jeannie snickered. "I raised that girl right."

Phil rolled his eyes and deliberately changed the subject. "How is Danni?"

"Better than I expected when I got the call this morning," Jeannie said soberly. "I picked her up from the hospital a couple of hours ago, she's got a nasty concussion and her shoulder's a mess but she's going to be fine. She's more worried about Tab than anything else. I didn't know Abby was missing as well until she didn't come home from school a couple of hours ago."

"You can tell Danni that Tab's worried, but fine," Phil said. "What's happening to the boyfriend?"

Jeannie made a rude noise. "Danni's pressing charges. He's too embarrassed that a girl knocked him out to file anything against Tab and I've got my lawyer ready to kick his ass if he tries. I've got to give Danni credit, she's foolish about men but she's not stupid. She won't be letting that bastard get away with anything."

"I can help if you need it," Phil said quietly. "I know people-"

"Who can make charges against Tab go away?" Jeannie asked. "Or were you thinking of something else, maybe something more...permanent?"

"You have a very odd impression of what I can do," Phil said.

"Says the guy who's sleeping with a superhero," Jeannie said.

"One day, that's going to stop being funny to you."

"Maybe. In about ten years, give or take."

"So I can tell Tab that she doesn't need to worry about going to jail?" Phil asked, trying to steer the conversation back to a safer place.

He strongly suspected Jeannie was just starting to hit the stage of relieved and exhausted where everything was inappropriately funny.

"You can tell her that she's not going to jail, but she's got herself a social worker who'll want to talk to her when she gets back," Jeannie said. "And you can tell her that she and her mom are moving in with me for a few months, until Danni's back on her feet and a bit more stable anyway."

Phil felt some of the weight drop away from his shoulders at the news. "That sounds like a very good idea."

"So, speaking of bringing the kids back," Jeannie said, "how the fuck did they pay for last minute plane tickets?"

"Derek's credit card," Phil said.

There was a short pause and then Jeannie started giggling. She laughed for at least a couple of minutes and she was still hiccupping when she finally spoke again.

"I'm sorry, this is completely inappropriate," Jeannie said, her voice still filled with barely suppressed mirth. "I shouldn't laugh. Abby committed credit card fraud."

"Technically, he gave her the details," Phil said, feeling a smile pulling at his lips as well. "And he gave her permission to use it. He's going to have a hard time claiming fraud."

"Yeah, he gave her permission to buy herself a present two months ago because he's too lazy to hit Amazon and press a few buttons," Jeannie said happily. "I'm not feeling all that sympathetic right now, particularly as I haven't been able to contact him to tell him is daughter's missing because he's surfing in Hawaii with the secretary."

"Ouch."

"Am I setting a really bad example if I'm feeling pretty proud of her for what she accomplished today?" Jeannie asked. "I'm going to be mad as hell that she ran, but Jesus Phil. She got herself and Tab to New York and they probably only got held up because a security guard got suspicious."

"You did a good job with her," Phil agreed.

"Now I've just got to figure out how I'm going to get over there to bring them home," she said tiredly. "I can't tap into Derek's cards and I can't see last minute flights being cheap."

"Leave that to me," Phil said.

"I really can't-"

"You can. Don't worry. I'll send you the details as soon as I have them. It probably won't be until tomorrow, so you get some sleep and work out how to tell Lucy and Jake that their sister got to visit the superheroes before they did."

"Oh shit," Jeannie moaned. "They're going to hate her."

"You could bring them out later in the summer," Phil offered before he could rethink the idea.

He could almost feel the evil grin Jeannie was probably wearing.

"Perfect punishment," Jeannie said. "Abby and Tab are going to spend the summer working off Derek's Mastercard bill and they'll have to stay behind with Danni while the rest of us take a real vacation with you."

"It's diabolical and terrible," Phil agreed. "They'll hate it."

***

Making all the necessary phone calls and then sending flight details to Jeannie took a while and Phil could feel the exhaustion trying to pull him under by the time he finally sent the last email. It took a lot of willpower to swing his legs down to the floor and stand up when what he really wanted was to roll over and go to sleep.

When he reached the kitchen, it was immediately clear that he wasn't the only one running on fumes. Abby and Tab were sitting at the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living area. They were picking at the last of their pancakes and they both looked like they needed matchsticks to keep their eyes open. Clint gave Phil a tired smile as he put his empty plate in the sink and moved over to the stove to begin cooking the last of the pancake batter.

Phil took a seat and wrapped his hands around the steaming mug Clint gave him, breathing in the scent of peppermint and liquorice gratefully.

Tab, next to him, kept her eyes firmly on her plate but Abby leaned around and pinned Phil with an inquisitive glare. He offered her a small smile and she grinned at him.

"Tab?" Phil asked.

The girl looked up and he saw that she'd washed away the smeared make-up, revealing the dark circles under her eyes and the faint lines of tension around her both. "Yeah?"

"I spoke to Jeannie," he said quietly. "Your mom's going to be fine. You're both going to be staying with Jeannie for a while."

Tab blinked hard and her voice cracked when she said, "That's...that's good. Great. Thank you, Uncle Phil." She paused and then, in a smaller voice, asked, "What about Chuck?"

Somehow, Phil hadn't been completely surprised when he'd found out the ex-boyfriend's name was Chuck. It seemed Danni had managed to find every bad stereotype in one man this time right down to the name and the history of DUIs and previous charges for domestic abuse. Jeannie's assessment of her was, at least, accurate: she was foolish when it came to men, always thinking she could fix them, but at least she never stayed foolish when things went bad. One of Phil's calls had confirmed that Chuck had been charged and he was confident that Jeannie would support Danni all the way through whatever trial there would be.

"You didn't do any permanent damage," Phil said reassuringly.

"Am I going to jail?"

"No," Phil said immediately. "He is."

Some of the tension bled out of Tab and she gave him the first small smile he'd seen since she arrived. "Thanks, Uncle Phil."

"Is Mom mad?" Abby asked anxiously.

Clint made a suspicious choking sound but he didn't say anything, just continued casually flipping pancakes.

Phil did his best to keep a neutral expression despite the smile that kept trying to break free. "Right now, your mom is just relieved that you're safe. When she gets here tomorrow evening, she'll be mad."

"Oh." Abby shrunk a little. "Oh."

"I think she mentioned something about working off the credit card charges," Phil added.

Abby winced. "Oh."

"Ab, we should probably go to bed now," Tab said quietly, although there was a suspicious twitch at the corner of her mouth that was probably a suppressed smile. "I'm really tired."

Instantly, Abby was all concern and agreement with her apprehension put aside until another day. Tab bumped shoulders with Phil, as close to a display of affection as she ever got, and allowed Abby to tow her away to their temporary bedroom.

Clint was quiet while he turned the final pancake onto a plate and slid it onto the breakfast bar with a fork. He fetched the bottle of maple syrup from its position next to Abby's plate and watched Phil carefully drizzle some onto his plate.

Phil hadn't realised how hungry he was until the food was in front of him and he realised, with a start, that he couldn't actually remember when he last ate. That probably wasn't helping his exhaustion levels. He dug in eagerly and pretended he couldn't see Clint's amused expression as he nearly inhaled the first two pancakes.

"That was mean," Clint commented when Phil started to slow down.

Phil swallowed a mouthful and shrugged. "It was honest. Abby knows Jeannie's going to be angry, pretending she won't be would raise false expectations."

"You're annoyingly logical sometimes."

"I'll remind you how much logic annoys you the next time you use deductive reasoning in public."

Clint rolled his eyes and started gathering dishes to wash up, piling them up on the counter while he ran water and soap into the sink.

"Did Tab talk to you?" Phil asked as he cut another pancake into neat pieces.

"A little." Clint tested the temperature of his soapy water and turned off the faucets. "I got a picture of what happened, anyway. It would be wrong to send Natasha down to visit Chuck in jail, wouldn't it?"

His expression as he looked over his shoulder wasn't completely joking and Phil couldn't pretend he didn't understand Clint's anger. He'd been fighting the urge to make a few calls and add a few charges to Chuck's sheet since Abby told her story and the only reason he'd held back was because it would probably rebound on his family in some way.

Sending Natasha to terrify Chuck would be less traceable but probably no better if he was honest with himself. No better ethically, anyway, and there were supposed to be lines he couldn't ask her cross now that she was a superhero.

He dipped his last piece of pancake in the puddle of syrup on his plate and chewed it thoughtfully.

Clint sighed and rinsed the suds off a plate. "Yeah, you're right. Jeannie's probably going to eviscerate him without Natasha's help."

Phil chuckled and carried his plate over to the sink, where Clint took it from him and smacked a maple-flavoured kiss on his lips at the same time.

"Your family is never boring," Clint said.

"Are you sure about the 'my family is your family' idea?" Phil asked.

He picked up a towel and began drying up, keeping his eyes on putting a shine on the plates so he didn't have to look at Clint while he waited for a response.

"I'm sure," Clint said firmly. "They're part of you, which makes them important to me, and they seem to like me. I didn't expect that, but it feels kind of...amazing."

Phil couldn't find any words for a moment. He had to clear his throat a couple of times before he could say, "Thank you."

Clint grinned and leaned in for another kiss, which led to some more kisses and soapy water dripping down Phil's shirt and onto the floor. Then Clint broke the kiss to yawn and Phil found himself yawning as well and they ended up just leaning against each other for a while, too exhausted to move and too exhausted to stay where they were.

"Time to call it a night," Phil said tiredly.

"Sounds good," Clint agreed.

They left the last dishes to dry in the rack and Clint half-heartedly swiped at the counters with a wet cloth while Phil checked on the guest bedroom. All he heard was the quiet sound of breathing and he smiled. Clint took his hand and led him to their bedroom where they stripped down and crawled into bed with exhausted sighs. Clint spooned up against his back, warm and comforting, and Phil was asleep moments later.

***

Phil woke up slowly, his sleepy mind happy to concentrate on the familiar feel of Clint's leg across his thighs and Clint's breath warm on his throat. If he opened his eyes and turned his head slightly he'd probably be looking at the top of Clint's head because Clint seemed to have an irresistible attraction to burying his face in the curve where Phil's neck and shoulder met.

For the first couple of months they'd slept together, he'd wondered how Clint had survived in a bed on his own for years when he had such a strong tendency to cling onto Phil like he was a giant stuffed toy. Then Phil found a huge body pillow shoved in the back of Clint's closet and he'd smiled to himself.

It felt good just to lie in the warm, comfortable bed knowing there was nowhere in particular he needed to be. They didn't get many mornings like this and Phil was still too sleepy and relaxed to do more than drift. He vaguely knew there was something he was supposed to be remembering but his mind was too fuzzy to pull the thought to the surface.

Clint stirred and Phil reluctantly turned his head and opened his eyes just as Clint raised his head. A slow smile greeted him, the one that always made Phil's heart beat a little faster, and then Clint was leaning down to kiss him, slow and deep and perfect.

Phil smiled against Clint's mouth and parted his lips, letting Clint take control of the kiss for now while he slid a hand down to Clint's bare thigh and encouraged him to press closer. The skin under Phil's fingers was warm and firm and he gripped a little tighter when Clint hitched his leg higher and pushed closer, grinding against Phil's hip with a low groan. This was one of Phil's favourite things, this stage where Clint was just starting to harden and his hips were barely moving but they both knew the intent was there.

A low curl of heat started to build low in Phil's gut and he slid his hand higher, onto the smooth skin of Clint's ass, and Clint's groan this time was a little louder. Those needy sounds were intoxicating and Phil wondered, as he always did, how he'd spent so many years pretending he didn't need them the way he needed air.

Clint's breath hitched and then he was pulling Phil, flipping them so that he was on his back with Phil sprawled on top of him. He wrapped his legs around Phil's hips and Phil gasped as their hard lengths lined up perfectly.

The temptation to just go wild and thrust against Clint until they both came was there, it was always there, but Phil lifted up a little so he could look into Clint's eyes and say, "Good morning."

"Morning," Clint said with a cheerful grin, his hands shifting restlessly on Phil's back. "Guess you're awake now."

"I hope I am," Phil said, "Or this is going to be a..."

A thought had been nagging at the back of his mind since he woke up, trying to push past the sleepy heat and want, but suddenly Phil knew what it was and he froze.

Clint sensed the change and his hands stilled as he frowned up at Phil. "What's wrong?"

Rolling away from Clint with his invitingly bare skin and clever hands took an effort and then Phil lay on his back for a moment, waiting for his breathing and heart rate to slow a little. Waiting for some of the blood to return to his brain so he could think clearly.

"Abby and Tab," he said.

"This is a sound-proof room," Clint said. "We're not going to corrupt them if we get a bit loud."

"That wasn't what I was worried about, I already know you can be quiet when you have to be."

"It wasn't me I was thinking about." Clint's grin was wicked. "You can get-"

"Where do you think they are right now?" Phil cut him off.

Clint rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand, which wasn't helpful because the combination of messy hair and the way the sheet had mostly fallen away from his body weren't helping Phil to concentrate.

"I don't know much about the habits of teenage girls," Clint said, "but they're probably in the kitchen raiding our fridge. Or watching something on the TV." There was a short pause. "Huh, they're probably hungry, right?"

"And we haven't shopped for a couple of weeks so the fridge is empty-"

"There might be an egg left. Maybe."

"-you ate the last of the cereal a couple of days ago and I'm fairly sure the bread isn't edible," Phil finished.

Clint shrugged, the muscles in his shoulder rippling distractingly. "So they've gone upstairs to raid Stark's fridge, JARVIS won't let them starve."

Phil waited and after a moment he watched a look of sick horror slide onto Clint's face.

"Oh shit," Clint said. "Abby. With Stark and Thor, unsupervised. They'll have the Tower destroyed in half an hour."

"My thoughts exactly."

***

The disturbing thing about the scene they found in the kitchen wasn't the part where Tab had clearly just thrown Natasha over her shoulder or the sight of Abby fist-bumping Stark.

No, the disturbing part was that it almost looked normal compared to what Phil had been expecting.

"Uncle Phil!" Abby shouted, her voice filled with excitement. "Tony said I can help him in the workshop today!"

She was sitting at the breakfast bar with a huge mug of coffee - Phil was going to kill Stark for caffeinating her so much - and a muffin in front of her. Her green "HULK SMASH" t-shirt and orange pyjama pants clashed almost as badly as one of Danni's outfits and her wide grin was infectious. Phil had to fight to keep a matching smile off his face.

Stark was standing on the other side of the breakfast bar clutching a mug of coffee. There were scrapes and bruises on his face but the bone-deep exhaustion of yesterday was gone. It amazed Phil sometimes how fast the man bounced back from a bad fight. He wasn't any kind of superhuman, he didn't have the training Clint and Natasha did, but he kept up with them anyway.

Banner was leaning against the counter next to Abby with a cup of tea and a fascinated expression. Phil could understand it: the prospect of Abby and Stark in the workshop together was filled with a terrifying potential for chaos.

Tab and Natasha had pushed the kitchen table aside so they had a clear area to work and Phil thought about asking why they hadn't gone to one of the sparring rooms but he dismissed the idea. This was clearly an impromptu lesson. Tab was still in her sleepwear - black pyjama pants, black t-shirt with a skull on the front, incongruous neon orange socks - and Natasha was wearing jeans and a sweater, which Phil knew wouldn't be the case if this had been planned. He watched as Tab held out her hand and helped Natasha to her feet and felt a small jerk of surprise that they were both the same height.

When had Tab and Abby grown up?

There was a small smile on Tab's lips and Natasha's answering smile was unexpectedly friendly.

She glanced over to Phil and raised an eyebrow inquiringly. Phil gave her a slight nod, unspoken approval, and Natasha refocused on her unexpected pupil.

"Want to try that again?" she asked.

"Does it hurt?" Tab asked, gesturing to the floor.

Natasha shrugged. "Not if you learn to fall right."

"Can you teach me?"

"To fall?"

Tab shrugged. "Not to get hurt."

The words "or let anyone else get hurt" went unspoken but Phil heard them and he knew that Natasha did as well. He felt Clint move a little closer to him and brush their hands together, the only sign that Clint had also heard and was offering his silent support.

"I can teach you a few things," Natasha said. "It depends on how long you'll be here."

"Mom's coming to get us tonight," Abby said, looking a little subdued at the reminder they'd be going home eventually. "I guess that means we've only got today."

"That's not much time for sightseeing and helping Tony," Banner said quietly. "You'll probably have to choose."

"Why don't you save sightseeing until your mom's here?" Phil asked, still fighting hard not to smile. "I couldn't get her a flight home tomorrow, so she'll have to stay for a couple of days."

There was a moment of stunned silence and then Abby narrowed her eyes. "You think Mom would let us sightsee after all this? I mean...she's gonna be so mad at us. Our grounding will start before we even get home."

Phil looked at Stark, who was trying to look innocent and uninvolved and failing completely. He looked at Natasha, who was quietly showing Tab how to break a man's nose with her hand.

"Given a choice between letting you stay here and taking you out somewhere," Phil said, "I think she'll pick sightseeing."

Under Abby's whoops and Starks cheerful chatter about what kind of machine of destruction they were going to build, Clint leaned in and whispered, "Can we go back to bed now? They seem to have this under control."

Phil winced as he heard the world 'repulsor' from the corner where Stark, Banner and Abby were now sketching something on a napkin. "I'm wouldn't call this under control."

"It could be a lot worse," Clint said lightly. "A lot worse. Would you want Natasha giving Tab weapons training instead of sticking to the hand-to-hand?"

Half a dozen other ways it could be worse came immediately to mind and Phil was forced to agree, even as he watched Tab and Natasha slip away discussing suitable workout clothes and sparring rooms.

"You're right," Phil said.

Clint snorted. "I need to record that for posterity."

"Brat."

"Coming back to bed?"

Phil hesitated, not entirely comfortable with just abandoning the girls for a couple of hours even though they were both completely absorbed in their own plans.

"I'm only thinking of your well-being," Clint added innocently. "You're going to need your rest if you're going to go with Jeannie on her sightseeing tours."

A vision rose up of Jeannie on family vacations when they were kids. She'd always spent hours poring over guidebooks before they left, wielding a highlighter pen and a stack of post-it notes to produce detailed itineraries of everything they just had to visit including every museum she could find. It had never surprised Phil much when she'd eventually announced she wanted to be a history teacher.

"You make a good argument," Phil admitted reluctantly.

There was a burst of laughter from the huddle in the corner and Clint immediately grabbed Phil's hand and began towing him to the door. As the door closed behind them, Phil heard Stark say something about 'flight capable' and he almost turned back but Clint didn't let go of his hand and after a moment's hesitation, he decided that Clint was right.

It was definitely better not to know what Stark, Banner, and Abby were building until after it was all over and the dust settled. Phil took a moment to hope it would only be figurative dust and then he shrugged and let it go.

Both of his nieces were going to be fine and he had Clint sending him wicked grins while they waited for the elevator. As days went, this one was shaping up to be a good one.