The Beginning of The Hawk
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Marvel characters….unless you count action figures or DVD's or my posters. LOL!
I can dream though…
Authors Note: This will be my second story I've posted…..more to come. Enjoy!
The blackness pulled him into it's shadowy depths. He struggled against it but to no avail, it swallowed him whole.
It seemed like an eternity before he was fighting back again. The darkness still threatening to consume him but this time he could see a light in the distance, so he fought with all he had. It slowly got brighter, he could almost touch it. Then as before the shadows moved in and surrounded him, suffocating him and pulled him back again.
He lay in the darkness. He was fed up fighting to reach the glowing light to have snatched out of reach once again. So he lay still, he couldn't see anything anyway but he kept his eyes closed. It felt like there was something watching him in the shadows of his mind.
Then he heard voices. They were speaking in the distance, he couldn't make out what they were saying but they sounded distorted like he was under water.
"Ca….ou…ope….you…eye..?" He heard the garbled message but his aching head couldn't understand what was said.
Then there was a different voice. A man talking quietly in his ear.
"Your ok..kid. Try…t….open.. ." He made that one out a bit better. Open my eyes, he thought. For some reason that sounded like a lot of work.
He tried anyway, he wanted to know where he was and what was happening. It took a few tries but soon enough his eyes sought out the blurry figure above him. At first he panicked, he didn't know who these people were or how he got here. The man with the soothing voice placed a hand on his shoulder keeping him in place but not applying any pressure, he was just making sure he didn't injure himself.
"Your ok, we've got you kid. You're safe here, alright?" The man walked round to the side of the bed. "Try not to move to much, you've got a few broken ribs and your not long out of surgery."
"Surgery?" He managed to croak out. He looked horrified for a second as he realised if that's how bad he sounded, what on earth did he look like. He glanced around the room he was in. It looked like a hospital but had a slightly more homey feel to it. There were drawers to the side and a small table with two chairs in the corner and his own bathroom just to the right of his bed. The lights had been turned down low so as not to hurt his eyes. He was grateful as his head felt like it was going to burst.
He looked at the man standing patiently beside the bed watching him with concern.
"Who…are ..you?" He asked and gave the man a grateful look when he gave him some ice chips to sooth his aching throat.
The man straightened and introduced himself. "My name is Phil, Phil Coulson. I work here as an agent for SHIELD. It's a government agency, not many people have heard of us."
The boy just nodded, trying to figure out why a government agency had him in their medical bay. He couldn't remember anything that would tell him why he was here in the first place.
Phil noticed the confused expression and decided to try and fill in some of the blanks the kid obviously had.
"What's your name kid?" He would start with an easy question.
The teenager regarded him silently for a moment and Phil didn't think he was going to answer.
"It's Clint. Clint Barton." Then he asked what he really wanted to know. "Why am I here?"
Phil gave Clint a sad smile and grabbed the nearest chair. He set it down beside the bed and sat down heavily and sighed. This was going to be hard.
"What do you remember Clint?" He asked.
Clint thought hard but nothing was coming back to him, just pain and darkness. He shook his head at the agent and Phil leaned back in the small chair.
He might as well dive right in, so he began with what he knew from SHIELDS intel.
"Your brother Barney and the man known as Swordsman had been drawing some attention to themselves. In recent months SHIELD has become involved. They had been caught selling weapons to the highest bidder, we were notified when one of the arms dealers we have been keeping tabs on got involved with them. When we followed them back to the circus we were surprised. Then we found out they had been stealing money from the circus to purchase the weapons. There isn't really much of a record for anyone that works there, especially yourself and Barney." Phil paused as Clint's hands clenched into fists every time he mentioned his brother and he knew why. Clint gave him a small nod to continue and relaxed his hands against the thin sheets covering him.
"We heard the argument between the three of you, you had found out they were stealing the money and you were going to report them. They tried to get you to join them, you told them to go to hell. We realised too late what they were going to do, we rushed in and found you, you'd been stabbed in the chest. They took off but I have people looking for them. We brought you back here as quickly as we could and our doctors fixed you up. You were really lucky though, you lost a lot of blood and we almost lost you on the table. But our doctors told us you were a fighter."
Clint was silent as he absorbed the information, he couldn't believe his own brother had done this to him, after everything they had been through.
He felt the anger build up inside him and clenched his fists so tight his nails were digging into his palms. Phil noticed the boy was shaking and went to put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him but the kid flinched away. Phil saw the tears falling and clenched his own fists. How could the kids own brother do this to him, the boy was only a teen and had already from what little they had found out about him, had lost his parents at a young age, been put into an orphanage then they had ran away. Now he knew they had ended up at a travelling circus where his brother had become a thief, a criminal and stabbed his own brother in the chest.
Phil was brought back from his thoughts when he heard the boy sobbing, he didn't even think twice, just pulled Clint gently to him careful of his injuries and held him as he let it all out. The pain, the fear and the betrayal.
Clint wiped away the last of the tears and pulled back from Phil. "Sorry." He mumbled and looked away, feeling embarrassed.
Phil just shook his head and turned the boys face towards him. "You have nothing to be sorry for Clint. Understood?"
The boy nodded but Phil could tell it would take a while for that to sink in. It seemed the teen never really had anyone looking out for him or loving him the way he should be loved.
Coulson knew he was going to have his work cut out for him. But he hoped in the end it would be worth it. The kid was special, he would just need to prove it to him.
"Get some rest Clint. We talk more later if you like?" Phil stood and moved the chair back to it's original position.
"What's going to happen to me Phil?" The agent barely made out what the kid said as he spoke so quietly.
Phil paused before turning back to him. "That's up to you kid, but we will talk about it later. Ok?" Phil patted his shoulder and headed for the door but stopped when Clint spoke again.
"Will you stay Phil? Just till I fall asleep?" He looked so small and vulnerable in the bed, like a small boy wanting protection from the monsters in the cupboard. But Phil knew this boy probably had some pretty real monsters lurking and didn't even have to think as he closed the door and walked back to the kids bedside, grabbing the chair on the way.
"I'll stay Clint, no one is going to hurt you again. Not on my watch." He squeezed the boys hand and pulled the cover up over his chest and settled back in the chair with a book from the bedside table. After a few minutes he heard the soft snores coming from the bed and smiled. He meant it when he said nothing would hurt this boy again, not while he had any say in the matter. The kid was now under SHIELD protection and god help Barney or Swordsman if Phil got his hands on them.
He knew the kid had skills, he had heard of the Amazing Hawkeye just never knew it was a young boy who never missed a target. But he knew he could help him hone his skills into something truly amazing.
If he could get his way Clint Barton would be the youngest agent in SHIELD's history, if he agreed to the training. But Phil was sure he would, the kid had to much talent to waste.
The older agent knew that given a few years Barton would be well know as Hawkeye and would be one of the agencies best assets and he would be there for him, every step of the way.
The Hawk had finally found his nest.