Down Fall

Epilogue

Weeks had gone by since the death of Isabella Barton. SHIELD had held a private funeral service for  her and the rest of the world had been told that she had been kidnapped and murdered. On the news Isabella's old name was used to protect her true parent's identities. They were still looking for a suspect, which was true they just didn't have a description of him. James would see this information broad casted on the news, he watched the interviews with Isabella's foster parents. 

Her mother had managed to stiflle a bit of tears during her interview about how Isabella was a great kid academically and how she would never put a toe of line. Her mother began to complain that life wasn't fair and James almost expected her to throw herself to the floor in agony. 

"James turn that off please, that woman makes me sick." Steve Rogers said from his place at the breakfast table. 

Steve Rogers knew exactly what Isabella had suffered through at home and he couldn't believe a woman with so little love for her would even dare to make a fool of herself on live TV like this. The publicity stunt was terrible. They hadn't even attended the funeral, though they had been invited. 

Steve was happy to be home again with his wife and son, It was something he had been waiting for, for a long time. Steve knew that James was taking what had happened very hard, Steve knew what loss felt like and it was hard for him to see his son this way. He couldn't tell him it would get better because it won't, Isabella was never coming back. It was hard for Steve to feel so powerless in these situations. Though Steve didn't know James was grateful for him not trying to bring it up every couple of minutes or making him talk about it. 

Grace and Steve knew that James would have to go back to SHIELD eventually to continue his training. Since he had dropped out of school SHIELD had employed him, James hadn't wanted to go back because he didn't want to lose more people. Eventually James would warm up to the idea that in order to not lose more people he would have to protect them. 

Meanwhile Clint and Natasha Barton weren't too sure how to be. They both felt horrible for what had occured and tried to be logically about their daughter's tragic end. They tried to see it as unpreventable but in truth it was preventable. Many people took blame for Isabella's death but Clint found most of the blame to be his. If only he could have prevented her from running off to New York.   Many of the SHIELD agents wished she wouldn't have had a reason to want to leave. Natasha had felt worse of after neglecting the child since birth. Like the trained the assassins that the two of them were their emotions were rarely shown and their pain was saved for the moments they got alone. 

It was a sad ending that most people couldn't believe. Why would Loki kill a sixteen year old girl and then disappear? Many people asked themselves this question but no one could seem to find an answer. 

Bruce Banner had said he was tying up lose ends, he had created something he wouldn't be able to control and so he needed to finish her while she was weak. 

Tony Stark had said she was just a test subject for Loki's personal pleasure. He needed to test out his serum and when he had satisfactory results he killed the experiment. She wasn't of any further use to him. The only reason he chose Isabella, for Tony the answer was simple she was one of the Avengers children and Loki still hadn't forgiven them for foiling his plans last time. 

Steve Rogers had assumed her death was a threat of things to come. He expected that Loki would be back and even if he wasn't they would hide their children in fear and everyone would be cautiously waiting for his return. 

Nick Fury was the one most puzzled by everything that had happened over the course of so many days. The amount of agents lost was painful and topping it off was Isabella's death made it unbearable. SHIELD had taken these children from their homes for their protection and now there was only one remaining. 

No matter what the actual reasons behind Loki's homicide mission the team could not come to a general consensus. They would eventually leave the argument and only bring it up upon occasion. Even though the reasons were unclear James felt the heavy weight of guilt regardless. He would often visit her grave and bring her flowers. The hours he spent there was part of him endlessly apologizing and just talking to her. Steve would accompany him because he was too afraid to leave his son alone. He wasn't in ear shot of what was said and he never asked James what he always had to say to her. Today James sat by her grave but could think of nothing to say. 

"I'm sorry I can't think of anything to say today." He started placing the flowers near her gravestone. It read: 

Isabella Barton

2014-2030

It didn't say much and it was simple but that was the point. 

"Sometimes it makes me sad to know that you and I can never be together and grow up together. That we couldn't finish our training. I know i've said this a million times but i'm so sorry that I left you  at the hands of a man who you feared the most. I'm sorry that I took away your opportunity to succeed in life, to be something great. To be finally a part of SHIELD if that was what you wanted. You could have done anything you wanted and I took that away from you. Loki told me you came looking for me in New York, I'm so sorry that I had to run away. I wish I had never done that, I wish you were still alive. I wish I could have kept you alive." He sighed fighting back the tears he always told himself he wouldn't shed. He wiped them from his eyes and off his chin and sighed. "I know I say the same thing every time but this time I do have something new to say. I'm going to go back and work for SHIELD so that things like this don't happen. So that if I ever get a second chance, one that I know I don't deserve I can't mess it up and hopefully I can learn to protect that people that I care about the most."