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24 JULY 2002
I've tried looking for Laura, but recently not as much. She might want Clint back, but I'm not sure if I can be him anymore. Maybe I haven't found her because fate doesn't want me to. But fate has dealt me a really shitty hand so far, and maybe it's time for that to change. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's just the way I'm destined to go.
I'm walking down an alley. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do wrong anymore. There's a man following me. I don't know if he's following me or if he's just going the same route I am. I trail around a few block trying to shake him, but he's definitely following me now. I walk down the alley I was originally down and wait for him to realise that I'm waiting for him.
"Hi." He says to me. "My name is Phil Coulson and I'd like to talk to you about the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division." I aim to punch him but he blocks it. I can tell he's a good fighter and I don't particularly want to cross him. I'm getting better at hand to hand, but I don't think I'm ready to take him. Not yet anyway.
"I'd like to talk to you about doing some good in the world."
"What?"
"We've been watching you for a while now, Mr. Hawkeye, and we can either take you prisoner or employ you." I'll take being employed over being imprisoned any day. I'd be facing several life sentences or the death penalty.
"What do I have to do?"
"You can start by telling me your name, Agent."
"Barton. Clint Barton."
9 OCTOBER 2002
Training at S.H.I.E.L.D is tough. I've been training for a long time but some of these people have to start from the basics. I can keep up, I've even been bumped up a few levels, but it's still hard. I'm on the last level I have to pass before I can become a fully-fledged agent. And I'm well on the way to making it in record time too.
I had to fill in a file about myself and it was just painful, to be honest. I didn't know what to write in the family section so I just left it blank. I know my parents are dead, but I don't know about Barney. If I made it through that night, could he? And Laura… no one can know about her. I just want her to lead a normal life. I don't want her to be attacked because of me.
15 NOVEMBER 2002
I'm an Agent now. Phil's my handler. I really like him. He's a nerd, completely in love with Captain America, but he's great. He just gets me. I like the work I do now, even though there is sometimes death involved, they are always bad people, and I know that they are. Phil understands, and he tells me all they know about how bad a person is before I have to go after him. And I'm good at that. I'm destroying the level system like nobody's business. The only catch is that I don't like working with other people. The psych said it had something to do with abandonment issues. I guess we'll have to see.
23 FEBRUARY 2003
This day was a long time coming.
This morning Phil finally asked me about the family section of my file. I didn't say anything and I guess that gave him a message as he said, "I know that it might be difficult but I'm here if you need me."
I think I should tell him. He's the closest anyone's been since Barney.
Its two now and I'm going to tell him. I knock on his door and it's the most nervous I've ever been in my life. "Clint, hi, you wanna come in." I walk in and take a seat without being offered. "Thought about what I said this morning?"
"Yeah. I want your help."
"With what?"
"I want you to help me find my sister."
"You have a sister?"
"I did."
"When did you last see her?"
"When I was eight years old."
"And you're now twenty two?"
"Yep."
"Okay. Let's start looking." And Phil's cool with it. He grabs his computer and asks me what her name is.
"You can't look for her on there!" I say, worried now. "No one at S.H.I.E.L.D. can know. She has to be kept safe, why do you think I haven't got a techie to look for her yet?" Phil gets up and grabs his laptop bag and a coat and shuffles me out the door. "Where are we going?" I ask, wondering what the hell is going on.
"We're going to get some lunch in an internet cafe"
"Those things still exist?" Phil rolls his eyes, promising that the computer is his personal one and no one at S.H.I.E.L.D. will be able to trace it.
22 MARCH 2003
We've been looking for a month now, and the paper trail goes cold for a Laura Isabel Barton in about 1999, when she was sixteen. She broke her arm and was admitted to hospital in 1992, just months after me and Barney stopped replying. From then on she was bounced around the foster system by the look of it, and somehow she's gotten lost.
30 APRIL 2003
I'm just about ready to give up. Phil isn't. He can see how much this means to me. He's sent me out for a coffee now because apparently S.H.I.E.L.D. coffee is crap and he has paperwork to do. I can't taste the difference personally, but whatever makes the boss happy.
I'm almost at the coffee shop when I notice a lady being mugged. I punch the guy in the face and take the purse back and give it to the girl.
"Thanks." She smiles. She's pretty, and she's got these brown eyes, the same brown that Laura used to have.
"What's your name?" I ask seriously.
"I have a boyfriend." She thinks I'm coming on to her.
"I don't care. Is your name Laura?" She looks really freaked out, but slowly nods. "Laura Isabel Barton?" She nods again and I can't believe it. "Laurie." I breathe and she looks at my eyes. I don't even know if she'll remember that she has a brother, but I know it's her.
"Clint?" She asks and wraps her arms around me.