Will finish in like, an hour. Just my feeling on what they did to Phil Coulson in the movie.
And how those bastards made me cry like a baby in public.
Title from Woke Up New, by The Mountain Goats
Established Clint/Coulson relationship.
Woke Up New
"On the morning that I woke up without you for the first time, I felt free and I felt lonely and I felt scared…
….And I sang oh, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do without you?"
Clint is the last to know. And its not his fault, Loki had control of him when it had happened and no one told him after he got back. He's on the building rooftop, calling them as he sees them, leading Tony to Thor where they're beating on those alien things when it happens.
"Hey Coulson. I bet this is way above your pay grade, huh?" Clint says into his comm. Unexpectedly, the line is silent. There's no answering dry comment about focusing or grunt of agreement. Clint let another arrow fly, and frowned, warning Steve of another oncoming attack. "Coulson?" he says. Then he smirks. "Is this punishment for letting Loki get to me, sir?" When he gets no response, he says, "Coulson are you even there?"
No. Answer.
"Guys," Clint says, addressing the other Avengers who had studiously and suspiciously been ignoring him, "where's Coulson?" No answer. "Hello? Steve, do you know?" He hears a grunt and spots Steve in the thick of a fight. He scans around until he finds Natasha. She won't ignore him. "Tasha where's Phil?"
He hears, "Phil," and that's Tony, the there's a crunch of metal and he hears Natasha say in a tired voice, "Clint, he's-"
And then Clint says, "Hang on," and shoots an arrow at another alien. He reaches back for another one to find that his quiver is empty. He snags one from a fallen alien and takes a split second to think before he tosses himself off the building, switching arrowheads till he has a claw that punches through a window, allowing him to swing through the rest of it, shattering the window as he crashes through. He groans from his place on the floor and shifts, glass digging into his back.
"You're giving me a massage when we get home," Clint says, trying for Phil again. All he hears is a gasp and a muffled swear, one belonging to Steve, the other to Tony.
And Phil never answers back.
"Where is he?" Clint asks, more like growls, when it's all said and done. Thor and Loki are long gone and he's staring down the rest of them. "Where is he? What happened? Where's Phil?" The panic threatens to choke him when Natasha's face goes blank and in contrast, Tony and Steve's pale. Bruce looks away.
Before Clint can say another word, Fury walks out from his office and says, "Agent Barton, can I have a word?" When Clint doesn't move, he adds, "A private one?" and gestures to his office.
They walk in and the rest of them wait until a few moments later, there's a strangled yell and Clint walks out , slamming the door into the wall, the metal creaking in protest on it's hinges. His eyes are glassy and his face is contorted into something like anguish. He tries to meet everyone's eyes, but no one will look at him.
He leaves the room after that.
In the following weeks and months, if Clint wasn't a loner before, he becomes one now. He speaks to no one, goes right home after missions, and refuses to say his name.
Because Agent Phil Coulson is dead.
Just another chapter left. Have at it.