This was inspired by elsiesnuffin Tumblr post If I Was in Charge of the Cap 2 Credits Scene
Clint Barton is lying, bruised and bloodied, on the floor of a sparse yet expensive looking studio apartment.
His head is pounding, something that is not helped by that music. Is that his phone? Yeah, it's his phone.
With a groan he opens his eyes.
Looking down at him from the sofa is a girl in a purple sweater and a mangy looking yellow lab.
"Someone named Natasha keeps calling," the girl explains as she hands the phone down to him. "And texting."
Clint takes the phone. Fifty two missed calls. Futz.
"Ok," he mutters. "This looks bad."
He began to stir. Sunlight came through his windows and he realised it must be morning. He'd come in late the previous night after scouring the rooftops, hiding in alleys and shadows, trying to move unseen. His extraction never came and he couldn't get a hold of Fury for the past couple of days. He knew something wasn't right so he decided to return to New York alone. But before long he was being tailed and only just managed to slip away.
But now, finally home, without opening his eye, he tried to move but all he could feel was the cold, hard floor beneath him, the wood rubbing into the cut in his shoulder. He could feel the bruises across his body, arms aching - it all hurt too much.
His head was pounding along with music somewhere in the distance; vibrations against the wooden floor were reverberating towards him.
What was it?
Suddenly the music and the vibrations stopped and the soft pitter patter of feet moved around him. He reached to his side, his bow lying next to him but groaned as the pain shot up his arm. Three days of running away from the enemy will do that to you.
The music started to play again but no vibrations this time. The sound seemed to have moved across the room.
He lifted his head up and forced his eye open, his vision began to focus and his apartment came into view. Sat on his sofa, only a few feet away from him with her feet tucked under her, a cup of coffee in one hand, a phone in the other and Lucky sprawled on the couch next to her was Kate Bishop.
Should've guessed.
'Natasha keeps calling,' she said nonchalantly as she sipped her coffee and scrolled through his phone. He rested his head back against the hard floor. 'Fifty missed calls – record'.
This looks bad.
'Where were you anyway?' she tossed the phone onto his chest and he felt the pain shoot through him again.
'Mission for Fury but I can't get in touch with him,' he managed to say as he fought through the pain to push himself up.
'Oh,' she let out a little sigh, 'You haven't heard.'
'What?' he said as he pushed himself again the wall of his apartment.
She slid from the couch onto the floor and handed him her cup of coffee. It was still warm as he grasped the side and took a sip from it. He felt like shit – probably looked it too. When he looked back at Kate she was just sitting, staring at him, quite. If it was meant to be a dramatic pause; it lasted way too long.
'Fury's dead,' she finally managed to say as she bit her lips like she didn't want to admit it. She didn't say it but looking at her he knew her eyes said I'm sorry.
'What?' he said again, but this time curious for her to elaborate.
She let out a sigh again, 'and SHIELD has been taken over by HYDRA. I say taken over, always run by?'
He shook his head, was he just tired or did one of the goonies hit him too hard? None of what she said made any sense, 'Don't make say it again Kate – what are you taking about?'
'You really need to be caught up – I didn't know you didn't know: Your boss Fury, he's dead. Someone shot him – I think. I don't know who or why but SHIELD went into chaos. As in the headquarters in DC got destroyed and Natasha released all of SHIELD secret files which basically said that SHIELD's always been run HYDRA this whole time. It's been the only thing on the news for the past couple of days.'
Reaching around, she turned on the TV and flipped to the news. And there was Nat, sat in the middle of a conference room surrounded by politicians and congressmen being questioned and interrogated on what happened at the Triskelion, on what happened to Captain America and why a super secret Nazi terror group had been running SHIELD for the past 70 years.
Okay, this looks really bad.
Getting to his feet, Clint moved across the apartment, 'I need to go.'
'Where?'
'Anywhere. If SHIELD has been disbanded and run by HYDRA then they are going to go after Agents who are not affiliated with them. Looks like they already got to Fury so I need to get out of here.'
Kate got up and followed Clint across the apartment, Lucky at her feet, 'Wait, what were you doing for Fury during all this anyway?'
Without turning to look at her, he replied, 'He sent me on an off the books mission. He said something was going on and he didn't trust anyone; told me not to trust anyone. He needed some information, stuff he said that was going to reveal something. I was to break into an off-shore SHEILD facility and get what I could.'
'He knew all along?'
'Looks like he suspected something and it looks like it turned out to be worse than he thought.'
He pulled out a bag from under his bed and stuffed it with everything he could see. He didn't own much so getting ready to go quick wasn't too hard. He opened closet and grabbed a case with another bow and a couple of special trick arrows. He was low after his last mission but these would get him by.
'Where are you going to go?' Kate asked as she sat on his bed and watched him clear out his room.
'I am going to guess and say none of the safe houses are going to be safe anymore so I am going to have to go off the maps, somewhere they won't think of finding me. Wait until everything blows over or Nat comes to find me. Most likely the second one.'
Suddenly Kate sat up, 'Let me come with you.'
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her straight in the eye, 'No. They are going to hunt me down. I am not going to put you in danger.'
'You won't. They aren't going to be looking for me so they won't be tracking me. Plus, you could use a better archer and someone to watch your back.'
He shook his head, 'You're not better than me.'
She smiled up at him, 'Okay maybe not but you could still use my help.'
'Fine,' he said as he tossed her his bow, 'let's go then.'