"Have you seen Clint?" Carson asks Barney. It's early in the morning so the older man had assumed that Clint would be still in bed but when he went to wake him up he'd found this to be untrue.
"No, he was gone when I woke up this morning." Barney says barely looking up from his conversation with Jacques "He's probably practicing somewhere."
"I've already looked everywhere, I thought he might have told you where he went. He's not here."
"Why would he tell me where he went?"
"You used to care." James points out coming up behind his father, his eyes narrow on the can of beer in Barney's hand.
"I still do." Barney says defensively, he stands up and digs around in his pockets. Sure enough he has a voicemail and missed call from an unknown number. Clint probably got lost when he went for a walk and wondered too far. Barney clumsily puts his voicemail password into his phone, the device on speaker phone so the others can hear.
"Barney, not that I think you'd care anymore... anyway it's Clint. I'm not putting up with the shit that hangs around the carnival anymore. You told me a few days back to start taking care of my self, so I guess this is my effort to do that. Anyway, I got some money and decided it was time I left, so I bought a train ticket. Things aren't going all that good for me anymore. I know you don't care that I'm gone but I needed to stay goodbye. And thanks again for all the stuff you used to do for me. Anyway goodbye Barney."
"You son of a..." James jumped forward and punched Barney right in the jaw. Barney hit him back in the gut cutting off the rest of his sentence. The two boys end up brawling in the mud. After about five minutes Carson orders Jaques and other bystanders that the fight has attracted to beat them up. Both boys come away bloodied. "You're a son of a whore, you know that." James yells in Barney's face as he spits out the blood that pools in his mouth. "Clint is just a little fucking kid, and you treat him like a pile of shit. He's barely even ten. And you've made him go and run off." James spits again, splattering blood across Barney's face.
Barney jumps toward James again, but Carson steps between the two boys and knocks Barney to the ground, well aware that a crowd made of patrons is forming off at the rope barrier. "That is enough." The much older man growls. Most had never seen him angry before so all stop in their tracks. "Barney you'll go to the train station and see if they can tell you where Clint bought a ticket too. He's too young and fragile to be on the streets by himself. James get to work." Both boys nod not daring to cross the older man. It's only when Barney has started on his way with Jaques at his side that Carson speaks again, adding an additional threat. "And Barney, if you can't bring my star back I'll be damnd sure to make your life a living hell."
"Beautiful car you've got here." Barney strokes the paint of Stark's vintage G6, a baseball bat hanging casually but threateningly at his side.
"I like to think so." Clint says glancing over his shoulder at Stark who has stopped in his tracks near his SUV to stare in horror. Clint and he exchange a glance, Clint has an ugly feeling that by the end of this he'll owe Stark a new car. But for now the other man will play along.
"It would be a shame if anything happened to it." Barney says slowly raising the baseball bat, expecting Clint to react. Clint plays along.
"Yeah, it sure would." He says slowly guiding Cooper and Lila behind him, and closer to their mother and the Avengers who have slowly gravitated toward the impending fight.
"This your family?" Barney asks, peering around Clint.
"Something like that." Clint says tensing as other Carnies come out of the shadows.
"Remember when we were kids and you said that you never wanted kids."
Clint did remember that day.
"What part of hide did you not understand?" Barney hisses at Clint when he runs into him on the streets while fleeing from the building he just helped rob.
"There were people there."
"What kind of people?"
"Social Service type people." Clint says shuffling on his feet back and forth, Barney hears sirens in the distance.
"Clint we've got to move." Without further notice Barney throws Clint onto his shoulders and begins running into a nearby alley. He tucks first Clint then himself in behind a dumpster. Once the sirens have passed, Barney turns back to Clint. "How'd you know they were apart of social services?" Barney had left Clint in the back of a diner in a booth by himself with some money and a coloring book to keep him occupied until he could come back and get the younger boy. Clint was hiding, just in plain view.
"You left me at the diner too long, the owner noticed and called them. A lady introduced herself to me. I didn't tell her my name, I didn't want to talk to her but she was insistant. Eventually I pretended to have to go to the bathroom, then climbed out the window and ran. I kept running until I ran into you."
"This is too fucking much." Barney mumbles under his breath to himself. Barely fourteen himself, he's not really qualified to take care of Clint, not that he has much choice. He's all Clint has left. And while Clint knows that Barney tries, the life they live really isn't good for a six year old. "Damn our fucked up parents." Barney seems to forget that Clint is beside him as he punches the dumpster. "Damn them for getting themselves fucking killed. Damn them for not being here for us. If you have kids you should fucking be there for them." The dumpster receives a beating as Barney begins alternating between punching and kicking it. As Clint watches his brother, fear takes over him. Barney looks almost like an animal the way he releases his pent up anger. Slowly Barney calms himself down. Once he's stopped, Clint looks Barney dead in the eyes and says. "I am never having kids."
Barney meerly sneered a Clint. "Yeah, well I never intended on having them either, but I'm stuck with you. So you might as well be mine. You don't always have a choice, Clint." After the words left his mouth, Barney seemed to realize he was a little harsh. He took a deep breath then looked a Clint cowering away from him in the back corner of their hiding space. "Come on Clint, let's go home. The cops will have cleared out by now." He'd offered Clint his hand, Clint had taken it still shaking.
"Yeah, I remember Barney. But I'm not the same person I was when I was six."
"No, you're not." Barney agrees.
"But I see you're the same person you were at fourteen." Clint says the words to distract Barney, he knows they'll make him mad, but he hopes it'll buy him time to get Laura and the kids away from the carnival.
"You son of a..." As he speaks, Barney raises the bat, he swings it down hard shattering t vehicles windshield. Clint takes the moment to yell at Laura to run. His weapons already drawn, he keeps the carnies at bay while Steve helps Lila get to the other car, he tried to grab Cooper as well but he insisted on running. Meanwhile Natasha has joined Clint, weapons drawn covering Steve's rescue. Unfortunately, before he can reach the car Cooper trips, before he can get back up, Carson steps out of the shadows and grabs him. Natasha had already turned to prevent the carnies from advancing when Cooper had tripped confident he'd make it to the car. So it's only when the boy cries out for his dad from the large mans arms that anyone realizes he's in trouble.
"That's not even your car, is it?" Carson asks, effortlessly carrying the struggling child toward the carnies.
"It's not." Clint admits while gesturing to Tony, who is now in his full Iron Man suit. "It's his, and I don't think he's very happy you're letting Barney beat on it."
"Barney has anger issues he needs to work out, but I'm sure you know that." Carson says as if they're talking about the weather. "Nice plan, wasn't it. I knew you wouldn't care about the car, but that you'd pretend to get your family out. All I had to do was wait, then trip your son here. Now we can both have what we want."
"I don't appreciate you using my child as leverage." Clint says, his bow string drawn tight as he speaks.
"I don't appreciate that you ran away from my carnival when you were a child. You were what allowed us to stay alive, well that and Barney's own particular set of skills. But you were the reason we were legally finacially stable. Tonight only proves that. So I have a simple proposition for you, rejoin the carnival. If you do, your family will walk away unharmed, if you don't... well we'll see if this little guy is as good at fire swallowing as his father."
"What about the third option, where I put an arrow through your fat gut, then do the same to anyone of your friends that try to grab my family." Clint says the threat with no emotion in his voice. He will do it.
"Henrietta." Carson calls for his daughter who splits through the crowd to show Clint a small device. A device Nat and himself are very familiar with.
"You shoot me, Henrietta blows up the car the rest of your family are in." Clint slowly lowers his bow, pretending to admit defeat. His team, however know him well enough to jump into motion. Natasha shoots Henrietta's hand forcing her to drop the device, she then shoots Carson in the gut. Cooper is released, he quickly scurries away to hide behind Clint. Before one of the other Carnies can grab the detanator, Steve runs in and snatches it up. Tony meanwhile has managed to release Laura, Lila and Nathaniel from the car. Bruce works on deactivating the bomb. Steve then scoops up Cooper and guards him along with the others off to the side, while Tony grabs a hold of Barney. As they walk to the car Steve had called while Barton had everyone else distracted, Clint covers them all. Then before leaving he calls over his shoulder. "Next time you threaten my family, I won't be so nice." Then with a nod to Tony who takes off with Barney in his posession, Clint climbs into the car. The driver immediately driving off.
