Chapter One:

"Barton," I heard the Captain say on the other side of the line. "You need to come back. We have a situation with an enhanced. One that we need you for."

"Look, Cap, I appreciate that, but I left for a reason. I thought you respected that, Man."

I could hear Rogers sigh on the other side. There were things he didn't want to tell me on the phone.

"I do respect your choice, Barton. You did your time. You have every right to leave," he explained to me. "But this is different. This isn't just any enhanced. We need you to come back for this. I'm not asking you to stay, Barton. If you want to leave again after this, I won't stop you. But we need you on this one."

I took in his words. It was only one more mission. They needed me and they'd let me leave when it was over. It couldn't hurt, could it?

"Laura's not gonna like it, Cap."

"I understand."

"Give me until tomorrow. You can brief me when I get there."

"Actually, I'll be coming in the Quinjet to come get you. We don't have time to waste. See you tomorrow."

Before I could say anything else, he hung up and I was worried. Things must have been more serious if he was going to come out to me in the Quinjet for this mission. Now all I had to do was tell Laura.

I walked downstairs to Laura, watching her with baby Nathaniel. I loved the kid with everything in me, especially knowing our last mission almost kept me from ever knowing him. But I knew the longer I took to talk to Laura, the harder it would be. I sat down next to her.

"What's wrong?" she asked me.

"What makes you think something is wrong?"

"I know you, Clint. You're worried about something. What was that phone call?"

I sighed. Laura always knew. It's part of why I loved her. Spy or not, there wasn't much I could hide from her.

"That was Steve. There's a mission…"

"Clint, you promised me you were out," she said, getting upset.

"I am. And I told Steve that," I replied. "But Laura, he said they needed me for this last mission. Something about an enhanced that they needed my help for."

"You already told him you'd go, didn't you?"

I nodded.

"Didn't you think that was something you should talk to your wife about first?"

I felt like she'd slapped me in the face, but she was right.

"Laura, you married a spy. I told him I was out, but there is something important about this, otherwise Steve wouldn't have called me. He hasn't called me to ask me to come in once since I told them I was out. Doesn't that show that this time is different?" I asked, trying to make her understand. "I can't just ignore what I am."

"What you were, Clint Barton. You were a spy. You're not anymore."

I just looked at her. She didn't understand that when you became a spy, you could walk away but you never stopped being a spy.

"When do you leave, Clint?"

"Steve is picking me up here in the Quinjet tomorrow."

"And when will you be back?"

"When the mission is over, Laura. You know that."

"You mean if you don't get yourself killed first, right?"

She got up, taking Nathaniel and walked away. I thought back to Sokovia. Twice I fought there with the Avengers and twice I'd nearly gotten killed. Laura knew the truth. The second time someone else died in my place, Pietro Maximoff, the man Laura and I had named Nathaniel's middle name for. He saved me and a civilian child, in the process getting killed. If he hadn't I would have been killed by Ultron.

I spent the rest of the day with my sons and daughter. Laura was still mad at me, but she wasn't going to show that in front of them. She knew there was always a possibility I wouldn't come home. If I didn't, she wouldn't forgive herself if she let an argument keep me from spending time with the kids before I left.

At first light, the Quinjet landed about a hundred yards from my porch. I was ready. I kissed Laura's head, then went and did the same for each of my three kids. Finally, I grabbed my gear, and made my way to the Quinjet, where Captain America was waiting for me.

"Was Laura mad?" he asked me.

"Furious. She barely spoke to me after I told her yesterday, so I really hope this is something you couldn't do without me, Rogers."

"Relax, Legolas. He wouldn't have called you for just anything," Tony Stark said from the pilot's chair, turning to face us.

"Stark? I thought you got out, too?"

"We need the whole team. We don't know enough about the enhanced and she's dangerous," Rogers said, pointing down to the bandaging around his thigh.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Capsicle took a shot from the enhanced, only according to J.A.R.V.I.S., we weren't within 500 meters of another living being."

"She sniper-shot you, Cap?"

"Yes. This is my point, Barton. We don't know enough about her. We have no idea about her age, what she looks like, abilities, or anything else."

"We know she's a good marksman, up there with Legolas," Stark said.

Stark turned back around and got the Quinjet off the ground. The Captain and I went to one of the computer bays and he sat down with me, going over the intel.

"We don't think she's that old, maybe early 20s. But she's already been wreaking chaos. Her abilities as a marksman aside, she's skilled in combat…"

"Nothing in here makes her sound like an enhanced, Cap."

"A team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents went after her. They were unsuccessful. They said she nearly killed them before they got anywhere near her. When they managed to get up close, she mangled them pretty badly before…"

"Before what?"

"Before she hit the ground, a wall of flames shot up, and when it fell seconds later, she was gone, Barton."

It took me a minute to take that in. An enhanced with fire abilities. They could be some of the most dangerous in the world.

"Which team?"

"Agent May's team."

"Any casualties?"

"No. Close, but May doesn't think she was actually looking to kill them, just keep them away from her."

"And May couldn't even get the drop on this enhanced?"

"No, why?"

"You don't know about May?"

"What about her?"

"She's one of the top agents S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever had in the field. She was Coulson's partner, they called her the Calvary. Not much she can't do."

"Well, you'll get to talk to her and her team back at the new base."

"What do you mean?"

"We've brought them in. They've been the only ones we've been able to track to survive a face-off with this enhanced, so we've brought them in for a debriefing before the mission."

"What is our mission, Cap?"

"Ideally, apprehension, Barton."

"And if we can't apprehend her, Captain?"

"We need to eliminate her."