Chapter 3
AN - Can I thank everyone who has reviewed the last chapter, I love to here all the comments that my readers have for me. So here is the next chapter and I hope you like it but do give me your opinion via reviews if you have any questions. As previously stated I do not own any of this material, all credit to Marvel and JK Rowling.
It was an hour before the plane departed and the team had arrived back at HQ, Pepper was in tow with 4 year old Jason Anthony Stark, clutching his trusty fluffy Iron Man teddy. Tony began to explain to the young boy what was going on and promising to phone him and talk to him as much as possible while he was in England. Clint looked over to Natasha and nodded toward the SHIELD weapons room, as they made their way over to the room Clint wondered if he should explain what was going on, now that he and Lauren had talked. He felt he owed it to Nat to at least give her the basics.
As they reached the secure door, Natasha walked in front slightly and entered the required passcode and finger print to unlock the door. As the door locks released they both stepped inside and began to put the weapons they needed into the travel cases. Knowing that most of the weapons would be given to them when they reached MI6 HQ in England, they packed only the specialized weapons like the throwing knives and other concealed weapons for Natasha and the bow and arrow, as well as spare equipment, for Clint. They worked quietly and efficiently. They were just about to leave when Clint stopped them both. Nat looked at him with confusion.
"I just… I want to tell you the basics of what's bothering me Nat, I just don't know how to tell you." Natasha was surprised; normally Clint was calm and confident. But any trace of the usual Agent Barton was gone, in its place a nervous and uncertain man was trying to tell her what was wrong. A strange situation indeed. She gave a small nod of encouragement that seemed to work as his shoulders relaxed and he took a deep breath before continuing, "When I was 24, the year before I married Lauren, I had a mission in England. I can't tell you the specifics but what I can tell you is that I was alone in London for about 3 weeks. I was doing some recon on a target, he was leaving a meeting with a potential client when I found a young boy, abandoned and alone in an alley. He was scared and thin and terrified of everything that moved. I managed to get him back to the hotel, to which I completed my mission and went back state side. With the boy."
Natasha was beyond surprise, the fact that Clint had broken rules within SHIELD and laws for this young man got her wondering. What was Clint trying to say? She looked up expectantly saying "Okay, what else?"
The calm demeanour that Nat had kept was reassuring to Clint to say the least, the fact she hadn't flew off the handle at him when she realized the infraction was always a good sign, though he could tell that she was conflicted. "I brought him back to America and adopted him. The family he used to have abused him, neglected him, it was years before he even began to think that he could eventually be a normal child. He grew up with Lauren and I, and looked after every one of his siblings as they came along. He was the perfect big brother." Clint let out a sigh and glanced at his watch to check that they still had time, they had been gone for 30 minutes and so he slowly began to push the cart back to the loading bay and as they went he continued, "He left when he was 16. Got up one morning with a bag packed and said he had an offer from a specialized training program and that he was taking it. He said he'd call when he could and he'd stop by as much as possible. Thinking we would see him again soon we gave him a hug and wished him good luck and he boarded a plane three hours later. That was the last time any of us saw him."
Natasha and Clint stopped at the ramp leading up to the plane and made their way up. They slowly began to unpack the equipment into the storage area. Natasha, curious as to the ending of the story asked, "Do you know why he never contacted you?"
Clint shook his head, "No. We do know he's not dead though because we haven't had a notification of next of kin. Though in those 10 years he's been gone it's highly likely that he could have changed it." The regret in his voice was painfully obvious to Natasha, and worried her even more. Clint was very closed off about his emotions when on the job and here he was baring them for the world to see. It showed Natasha just how much pain her partner was in.
He looked at her one last time saying, "We would have been celebrating his 26th birthday in a week if he were home." Before he turned away and headed back down the ramp.
Natasha caught up to his side and calmly laid a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, Clint." She said in an unusually soft voice.
Once they had received their briefing packets on the current status of the op and crucial op notes they needed to know to be of use, everyone bid the agents watching, Pepper and Jason along with Fury and Hill a vague wave of goodbye, before closing up the ramp to the plane and making their way to the seats. For once Clint and Nat weren't piloting the jet. Clint kind of wished he could though, to take his mind of Harry. He briefly scanned through the op notes, having already read the majority of them, he then went to the section of the dead agent.
His record was impressive for a 24 year old agent. He already had assisted in one major take down, the assassination of a Dr Mikhail Gretniev. A well-known doctor who specialized in developing torture techniques, specifically using the illusion of pain through medicines, like hallucinogenic drugs and similar substances to break a subject.
The image of the agent was quite striking as well, a young man with blond hair in a military cut and deep blue eyes looked out, the harsh red stamp of 'DECEASED' across his handsome face brought Clint up short. It was a stark reminder of the brutality of their line of work. A fact he often lost sight of, due to having made most of his career without life threatening injuries.
Clint closed the folder and put it back on the side of the plane. Taking a long sip from the overly chilled bottle of water he leant back in his chair, breathing deeply he relaxed into the calm darkness of his mind. Closing his eyes he drifted off to peaceful slumber, awaiting the typical shake of the shoulder from Natasha alerting him that they were about to land. Conscious of the fact he would most likely soon become sleep deprived because of the case he allowed the sleep to engulf him.
Steve leaned over to Natasha and in a quiet voice asked, "Is he good?" Natasha was about to turn and snarl at him that he had no right to poke his 100 year old nose in business that didn't involve him, before he quickly threw his hands up and added, "I didn't ask what was wrong, I asked if he was good." Natasha looked him in the eye, assessing him she nodded.
"He will be." And she turned away and closed her eyes to enter a meditative state and to review the fact she knew in preparation for the mission. If she had listened to her gut, she would have acknowledged that not everything felt right in her mind. But she didn't.
