AN: Thanks for checking out my story. I'm not sure what to say here other than this is my first fanfiction. Hope its good.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers. I wish I did. I don't though.


Some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives. -Richard Bach


"Are you sure about this?" Natasha's voice came through the comms link in Clint's ear.

Clint took a sip from his water bottle again before sighing and leaning back in his chair. "I'm not sure about anything but he's still got five more minutes before he even has to be here."

"I don't like it," Natasha said. "It feels off."

"You just can't imagine anyone wanting to meet me more than you," Clint said with a chuckle but the bravado was just that, bravado. He too felt uneasy about the situation. A source calling in claiming high-interest information in exchange for a meeting with the famous Hawkeye, well, it was unusual to say the least. "Besides, you'll be there to watch my back."

Clint wouldn't blow Natasha's cover by turning around to look at her but he could feel her gaze on his neck. As always, she was there for him. "Quiet. Someone's coming."

Clint looked around until his eyes landed on a man dressed in an expensive looking suit and followed by a man who might have been part grizzly. Clint was on the shorter side for a man but his training leveled the playing field significantly. However, he had a feeling that if it came down to a fight between the grizzly-man and himself he wouldn't be placing any bets. The well-dressed man sat down at the table with Clint but the bodyguard remained standing at his right shoulder. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Agent Barton."

"Not to sound cliché but obviously you have me at a disadvantage," Clint said. It was a tacky move, a move Natasha abhorred, to show your information as a form of intimidation. Clint would not be daunted.

"I'm sure one would be hard pressed to every put the famous Hawkeye at a disadvantage but my name is Kline. Jonas Kline," the man said. "And like I said, it's a pleasure."

"Sure," Clint replied.

Natasha's voice came through again. "Play nice. He has information SHIELD wants."

Clint sighed, "The pleasure is all mine."

The man chuckled. "They told you to be pleasant, make sure the source felt comfortable, right?"

"Look," Clint said, eager to make sure the man knew he would jump through no hoops for this information. "You asked for a meeting with me in exchange for the information you would give us. Here I am."

"Here you are," Kline repeated.

"Are you going to share the information?" Clint asked.

Kline gave the archer a grin that reminded him of a car salesman. Clint had not come here to strike a deal. "Well, as interesting a person you are Agent Barton, the information I have could change much of the world. The meeting was simply a way to get in contact with you."

"I don't have the authority to make deals on behalf of SHIELD," Clint said. He wasn't entirely sure if he did have that authority considering the problem had never arisen but he didn't want the authority anyways.

"This deal has little to do with SHIELD and more to do with its top assassin," Kline said. "I have many enemies and you are the best."

Clint was marked speechless. He narrowed his eyes at the man and through gritted teeth replied, "I am not a hired gun."

"You are an assassin earning a wage correct?" Kline asked.

Clint snapped back a reply. "I am a sniper working for a legitimate government agency."

"Call it what you want. The information is highly valuable and worth about 150% of your rate when you were taking contracts before," Kline said.

Clint didn't want the reminder of the weak time in his life. "I'm done with that. Now, if you'd like money I'm sure SHIELD would be happy to negotiate but-"

Kline interrupted. "I will accept nothing but the best."

Clint froze. All Director Fury had talked about for the past week leading up to this mission was how desperately SHEILD needed this information. Would they want him to take the contract? Natasha's voice came back through. "I know you're considering it. Tell him to shove it and leave. You're working at getting rid of the red not adding to it. Fury will just figure something else out."

Natasha was right. His reasons for joining SHIELD had been to better himself not allow SHIELD to loan out his skills to whoever had the best information. Clint stood. "I'm sorry then. We're done here."

Clint turned and walked away but not before Kline got in some final words. "We may be done here, Agent Barton, but we shall meet again. Until then, tell your redheaded friend over there I said hi."

Clint hesitated but resisted the urge to turn around and shoot him with the gun at his hip. He took a deep breath and kept walking. It was only with a momentary pause that he shoved the feelings inside the pit of his stomach away. Surely those rolling feelings were only unease and not fear.

Natasha met up with him at the rendezvous point as usual. Somewhere along the way she had abandoned the newspaper she'd had at the café and changed clothes. The red sundress on her looked dazzling. Of course, the Black Widow could wear a garbage bag and still be the most beautiful woman in the room. Clint, however, paid surprisingly little attention to Natasha. Instead he went over the meeting in his head and wondered how it had gone so wrong so fast. Natasha grabbed his arm and stopped him in the street. "Stop. You're going to worry yourself to death. I think we've all done enough distressing over the past few months without you picking apart a simply meeting."

"I just, well, I didn't think I would have even considered it," Clint said. He pulled her hand off his arm but kept hold of it. "When I left that part of my life I was sure that nothing would be important enough for me to consider taking a contract."

"So what made you consider it this time?" Natasha asked. "Surely it wasn't SHIELD's desire for the information."

"Well, maybe a little bit. Mostly I just started thinking about you and the fact that if I took the contract that'd be just one less mission you'd have to go on," Clint said. He said it slowly like he knew the anger it would cause in his fiery haired and tempered partner. He did know.

Natasha's eyes lit up. "And it would have been one more mission for you. We promised not to do that. I can handle myself just like you can."

"I'm human," he said. "What happened with Loki made that painfully clear."

"We're all human," Natasha said. She paused and then amended, "Well, except for Thor but that's really a special case."

"We aren't all human, Nat, mostly just you and me," he said.

She smiled and corrected him, "You and I."

"Whatever," Clint said with a roll of his eyes. "The fact is that I turned the contract down. With any luck Kline will disappear and I won't have to think about him again."

Natasha leaned forward to lay a kiss on his cheek. "That's my Hawk."


Clint dropped onto the couch in Stark Tower. He wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten here. In the literal version of that he knew he'd debriefed at base, caught a ride with Natasha, and took the elevator up to this floor. In the way that he questioned how he'd managed to find himself living in Stark's tower, it had been only two months after the events in New York. First Banner had moved in, grateful for a place to call home permanently, soon after Tony had renovated Stark Tower to include space for Steve who had been living in SHEILD headquarters. Clint's invitation to stay with Stark had come by a mere accident. Truthfully, the people Clint worked with had mostly accepted him back into the fold. They understood exactly what had happened to Clint under Loki's control. Some of the people around him didn't agree that he should be let off the hook. On a chance visit with Steve Clint opened his room to find the word MURDERER painted in red on the wall. Clint hadn't been all that surprised when the next day Stark came with an offer to stay. Steve had seemed concerned after all. Natasha went with him wherever he went. Soon the Avengers were in Stark Tower and Fury was confused as to how he'd lost control of the team.

"You look tired, Katniss," Tony said plopping down on the couch next to him. The man had more energy in him than anyone needed but he made up for it by being nearly dead any time before noon. "All work and no play makes Legolas a very dull boy."

"Can it, Tony," Clint replied. "It's been a long day."

Tony put his arms behind his head and leaned back into the couch. The movement caused his shirt to stretch over the arc reactor in his chest. "So, movie night again? Maybe you'll make it through the whole Lord of the Rings movie before you fall asleep this time."

Clint highly doubted it but it didn't matter anyways. "I can't. I have to pack."

"Pack? Fury sending you on another mission already?" Tony asked. "There are laws against overworking one's employees."

"I'm not going on a mission. Besides, this last trip was just a meeting. I haven't had a mission since New York," Clint said.

Tony frowned. "Well then, where are you off to?"

"It's protocol," Natasha said. Clint wondered what had taken her so long to join him. The Lord knew he preferred her company to Tony's any day. "As an agent of SHEILD if one of us is ever threatened by name he or she is removed from the area and put in a safe house. It's to protect us as much as him."

"Well that sucks," Tony stated bluntly. "Are you sure you don't want to drop SHIELD and just do the Avengers thing full time?"

"I'm sure Tony," Clint replied. Actually, he and Natasha had talked about doing just that. They decided that they actually enjoyed working for SHIELD. For right now they could and would do both. "I could use the vacation anyways. Who doesn't enjoy a good safe house in the middle of nowhere?"

Tony raised his right hand. "Well, me for starters. Whatever, Bird Brain, do what you want."

"I always do," Clint replied.

Thirty minutes later Clint was packed for a four week trip and was on his way to the safe house he'd be tucked away at during that time. He leaned his head against the cool glass of the window. The sun was setting and he grew more tired with each passing second. Oh yes, a vacation away would be ideal.


After a little over five hours in a car to the Adirondack Mountains and a eight hour nap after that Clint woke up to the beeping of his wristwatch at nine-thirty. The sun was already peeking through his bedroom's window shades. He stretched in his bed and considered turning off the alarm and going back to sleep. It was a bad habit to start so with only a mild sense of regret he got up. He paced around the room for a bit, unsure what he was supposed to do with all this time. He'd seen this protocol go into effect although this was the first time it had ever been used for him. Natasha was always close to her targets so they were more likely to threaten her. He was questioning whether he could have dragged her along with him when his phone rang.

It was secure, so he wasn't worried it would give him away, but he couldn't imagine any needing to call him. Natasha wasn't sentimental enough to be missing him after only hours away and the rest of them would never think to call. He picked it up, read blocked on the front, and realized it must be Fury. "This is Agent Barton."

"Greetings," said a voice that was very much not Fury.

The voice, however, did sound familiar. "Who is this?"

"Why, Agent Barton, I'm almost insulted you don't remember me. We only met yesterday," The voice said.

There was only one person Clint had met yesterday. "Kline."

"The one and only," he replied.

"How did you get this number?" Clint demanded.

"Are you near a computer?" Kline asked.

Clint looked around the safe house until his eyes fell on the laptop at the desk. "Why?"

"Good. You have one," Kline said. "I'll give you a moment to connect to the internet."

"Look, I told you once already that I am not going to kill anyone for you. This conversation is over," Clint replied.

"Clint," Kline said. Clint stiffened at the use of his first name. "Please connect to the internet so I may direct you to a website I believe you'll have a lot of interest in."

Clint considered simply hanging up on the man. He almost did but instead, something in Kline's voice made him take a seat at the desk. "Give me a minute."

"Thank you," Kline said calmly.

Clint fired up the computer, logged in, and finally connected to the internet. "Alright, what website am I heading to?"

Kline rambled off an IP address with more numbers than pi and then finally told him to enter. The screen changed to a simple log in box. "Are you going to supply me with the username and password?"

"It certainly works in my benefit if I do," Kline replied. "Username is Clint Barton. I'm sure you can figure out the spelling on that one. The password is assassin."

Clint ground his teeth together but didn't reply. After hitting the LOG IN button the screen faded to black for a moment. Slowly a single box appeared on the screen. Above the box read, STEVE ROGERS. On either side of Steve's name were arrows pointing to the sides of the screen. The box loaded to show what appeared to be one of the training rooms. The mirrors in the room were foggy though. Finally Clint's eyes landed on the shivering shape in the corner. Steve was rubbing his hands together to keep warm but from all the quivering Clint didn't think it was working. The room had to be miserably cold for it to affect Steve. Clint hit one of the arrows and watched the video change to Natasha and Bruce surrounded by armed guards. Bruce was meditating with closed eyes. Clint couldn't figure out why Natasha wasn't fighting back until she reached up and scratched her nose. In doing so she dragged Bruce's hand up with her, handcuffed. Natasha appeared to apologize to which Bruce kept his eyes closed but managed a small smile. He hit the arrow again and the video changed. Several of Tony's new Iron Man suits surrounded him in his lab. Clint couldn't even imagine how the suits had got up and walked by themselves. Tony reached for something but when one of the suits took a step towards him he quickly raised his hands up in surrender. "What the hell is this?"

"It's quite the genius idea if I do say so myself," Kline replied. "I asked very nicely and even offered some information well worth your services. I tried to work with you."

"This better be some kind of joke," Clint snapped. He kept flipping from one screen to the next.

Kline remained calm. "This is no joke. I am a man unaccustomed to being told no but it has happened. This was my backup plan."

"I am not going to kill someone for you. What don't you get about that?" Clint asked.

Kline sighed over the phone. "I didn't want to make this harder than it had to be. Let me make myself clear. There are four people in Stark Tower right now that you are fairly close to. In reality, I only need one of them to make this work. Do I need to kill one of them to prove my point? If I shot Dr. Banner how do you think the Hulk would react?"

Clint went to Natasha and Bruce's video stream. The Hulk might have developed some tolerance for the team but in the heat of the moment. Natasha was so close. Clint swore and then said, "Fine."

"I'm glad we could work something out," Kline said.

"I swear to God if you hurt them…" Clint let the threat trail off.

Kline seemed to take the hint. "Nothing has to happen to them if you just do what I ask."

Clint stood up and it took all the strength in him to resist the urge to kick something. "What do I need to do?"

"Catch a plane to London," Kline said. "I'll explain more there."

"Why can't I just know now?" Clint asked.

"Don't be impatient," Kline said sounding slightly impatient himself. "I don't want you rattling off information to SHIELD. Speaking off which, let's lay down some guidelines."

"Oh, just say it. They're rules," Clint said.

"Call them what you want," Kline permitted. "Rule number one, don't involve SHIELD. That's a hassle you don't need."

Clint didn't miss the warning there. "Any other rules I should worry about?"

"I'll let you know as I think of some," Kline said. "Until then, be intelligent and don't try to make this harder than necessary. I have four, I need one."

"I can do simple math," Clint snapped.

"London," Kline repeated and then he hung up.


AN: And that's that. Leave a reply! (They make me update faster!)