It's only in the aftermath that Coulson realises that this low-life, mad scientist with his telepathic broadcasting machine has ruined everything. He can feel the eyes of the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Clint's fellow Avengers on him and tries to pretend he doesn't notice.
They have been so careful. Four years and no one ever suspected anything. He made plans for just about every possible situation but a mad scientist kidnapping Clint, torturing him and broadcasting his thoughts during that to everyone inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. building?
Knowing his job he should have planned for that, too.
Someone clears their throat next to him and Coulson turns around to find Steve Rogers looking at him as if he was a grieving widow.
"You should go to the infirmary. We can do the cleanup without you." Coulson wants to protest but even Tony Stark looks at him with sympathy and it's done. He might as well visit Clint while he still can.
"Thank you, Captain Rogers. I will." When he passes Natasha she might hug him and Thor is the only one who looks confused. Of course, no one updated him on the specifics of working place dating within S.H.I.E.L.D.
Everyone is looking at him with sympathy and it makes his skin crawl.
"Hey." Clint says when he sees Coulson. He looks good for someone who has spent a couple hours being tortured at the hand of a mad scientist bend on public humiliation.
"Hey." Coulson answers and sits down on a chair next to Clint's bed.
"So, this is it, then? It had to happen eventually, right?"
No it hadn't but Coulson has never been one for the what if's.
"Looks like I can compete for the Olympic archery team after all." Clint says lightly.
"You're not leaving, I will." Coulson tells him flatly.
"No, you're not. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you more than me. I can still help out the Avengers when I'm not an agent but without you Earth will be overrun by aliens within a week." It's an old joke but it falls completely flat this time.
"That's not your decision to make."
"It's not your either." Clint tells him stubbornly.
/
To say that Nick Fury isn't happy would be the understatement of the year. Barton and Coulson are both valuable members for S.H.I.E.L.D. and now he's going to lose one of them because they were so stupid to break the regulations.
A fling he could have understood but four years of evading and subterfuge. If he wasn't so furious he would have given them an award and signed them up for a lot undercover missions.
He already yelled at both of them separately and together. Now it is time for something more constructive. Since he saw what everyone had seen, Fury knows that asking them to end the relationship would only be met by agreement and then more subterfuge. If it was only him who saw Barton's memories and thoughts he would have done that but everyone saw it and he doubts that even Coulson and Barton can maintain a secret relationship when all of S.H.I.E.L.D. is watching them like hawks.
"Sir, I would like to hand in my resignation." Barton starts but Coulson glares at him and says himself.
"Please ignore him, I'm going to leave S.H.I.E.L.D." Now they're both glaring at each other. Unsurprisingly they talked about this already. Personally Fury is more inclined to go with Clint's request because Coulson is a bit more valuable and Fury spent years to make sure he never got to see all the job offers from all the other agencies that would have done a whole lot more than simply changed their policies of workplace relationships to get him.
Unfortunately in S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson is pretty much taken for granted and a policy change is unlikely.
However, before Fury can say anything Tony Stark marches into his office followed by Steve Rogers, Thor and Natasha Romanov.
"Out of my office, Stark." Fury bellows at him but the Avengers take a demonstrative stand behind Barton and Coulson.
"Before you fire either of them, you might want to look at that." Tony puts a folder on Fury's desk.
"What is that?"
"All of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s interpersonal relationships. It looks like you have to fire everyone except yourself." Stark's smirk widens. "In fact you're going to have to fire everyone on this team with the exception of Thor." Rogers blushes in a very interesting way when Stark makes this announcement.
"What do you want me to do, Stark?"
"You're a man of resources and intelligence, you can figure that out." Only Stark can something like that and make it sound like an insult. Fury grits his teeth but he has an idea.
"Stark, you and Selvig will take that machine apart and if your report shows that the machine generates false memories to implicate people, after all the scientist in question used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. associate, then I see no reason to take action against Agent Coulson and Agent Barton. And now out of my office, all of you." He bellows for good measure.
As soon as they're all out of the door, Fury opens Stark's folder. With a bit of luck he'll find enough in here to get a policy change through. And if not he still has excellent material to convince a lot of people to take some of the more unpleasant missions if they want to keep their jobs.