Exactly twelve hours later Clint and Tasha arrived in front of Phil's room. Not that they had spent the whole time sleeping, but after a couple of hours rest, several mugs of coffee and another hot shower they both almost felt like human beings again.
Sometime in the morning the doctor's had transferred Coulson into a larger room on the order of Director Fury. He still was on 24 hour watch and hooked onto several machines but the colonel had figured that the added work for the medical stuff was outweighed by the avoidance of having to deal with a group of Avengers who could only enter one at a time.
"How thoughtful of the boss. Phil's barely conscious and he still gets to keep the lid on the mess Fury made." The sleep hadn't helped with Barton's feelings regarding the director.
Natasha snorted. "We both know he wouldn't have it any other way, so stop complaining on his behalf."
Clint carefully and silently opened the door to Phil's room, trying his best to not wake the other man if he was asleep. Natasha slipped in behind him.
Coulson actually managed a weak smile from his place on the pillow. "Good morning."
Barton slipped into the chair next to his bed and without thinking took the other man's hand in his. He did his best to smile, to push down all the shit going on in his mind right now. Phil had enough on his plate without him adding to it.
Natasha took her place on the ledge of the bed. Her smaller build allowed her to sit down on the wide bed without disturbing the injured man. "Dobroye utro, drug. You look good."
Coulson's other hand reached over to touch Nat. "Lgun."
Clint saw the way her eyes lit up as Phil had the energy to call her a liar in her mother tongue. His own fingers intertwined with those of his lover and he gently pressed against them assuring himself, that Phil was really going to be fine.
The older man turned from Natasha to Clint. "What happened?"
Clint wasn't ready to go into emotional depth, not here at the hospital, so he kept his tone light. "The same thing that happens every time when I get myself into trouble – Agent Romanoff knocked some sense into me. Then we saved the world."
"Has anyone ever told you, your reports lack a little detail?"
Nat laughed at Phil's exaggerated sigh. "Who would have thought you'd ever complain about Barton talking too little?"
It was good to see Phil smile, even if he looked tired. Considering what he'd been through it was a miracle that he was alive let alone conscious. Clint wondered briefly about the experimental treatment Fury had mentioned yesterday but he sure as hell wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. He wanted to hug Phil, hold him tight and kiss him senseless, but the two of them had a protocol for situations like this: 'No tight hugs or kisses as long as one of them was hooked into anything in med bay' – it was a sensible guideline considering infection risks, so trust Phil to come up with it. In some of his few introspective moments Clint sometimes asked himself how fucked up their lives were that they actually needed protocols like this.
At least he could be sure that his lover would take the gentle pressure on his hand the way it was meant, channeling all the love and longing he couldn't otherwise express right now.
"Is everyone alright?"
"I doubt Thor is happy with his brother in custody and all, but no one was seriously hurt."
"You can ask them yourself once they're here," Nat added.
"They're coming?" Phil's tone was a bit weary.
"They're actually on their way. We spoke to Stark an hour ago and he promised to inform the others and bring them here. They had a right to know, Coulson." Natasha understood her friends need to rest, but she had also seen the grim determination in Stark's and Roger's face when they thought Phil dead and how they had mourned him. Even if Coulson didn't know it yet, those people had earned their place at his bedside.
"If it gets too much Nat and me will have them out of here faster than you can say 'Stark's a pain in my ass'," Clint promised.
Phil smiled. No one but the three of them were here so he felt safe enough to say the words. "I love you."
The effect this had on Barton was enormous. Phil was a private person and a man of few words so it wasn't something he said out loud often and now he could see the metaphorical sunrise in Clint's face.
Before the archer could answer his lover he noticed a slight shift in Natasha's position. "They're here," she informed them.
If he hadn't been concentrating so hard on Phil he would have noticed the commotion outside himself, as it was he was grateful for his friends warning. He slipped his hand out of Phil's and rearranged his position, so that he was merely sitting close to the bed, leaned back instead of resting with his arms on the patient's bed. It was another one of their rules 'never let anyone see'. Tasha knew of course as did the director and anyone of security level 9 or higher should they go to the trouble of checking their files. It was widely known throughout SHIELD that Hawkeye, the Black Widow and Agent Coulson were a superb team and friends in private life but the general knowledge didn't go beyond that and they both intended to keep it that way. Their life was complicated and dangerous enough without the added discussions about favoritism and the potential danger of their enemies finding out and trying to use it against them. And the Avengers were still basically strangers.
Instead of Tony just bursting into the room, which was basically what all three of them expected, there was a gentle knock and the person(s) at the other side of the door just waited for a reaction. Clint exchanged a curious look with Nat, who shrugged and mouthed "Rogers or Banner, both have manners and at least some kind of influence on Stark."
Phil pulled his strength together and spoke up loud enough to be heard outside. "Come in."
When the door opened it was indeed Captain Rogers, who stuck his head in first. He seemed a bit lost and came in slowly until he was pushed further in by an impatient Stark. Thor and Banner were directly behind them.
"Son of Coul! I'm glad to see you alive and well my friend!"
Seeing everyone cringe at the volume of this enthusiastic greeting Bruce put a hand on the god of thunder's arm. "Thor, please – we talked about the inside voice."
The Asgardian knitted his brow for a moment before he nodded. "Aye – we did. Wasn't my voice 'inside' enough?"
"Hello." Phil's quiet voice ended a discussion before it could really start. Every face in the room turned again towards him.
"Agent – way to pull a Huckleberry Finn on us."
"It wasn't exactly my plan, but I'm glad things turned out the way they did Mr. Stark."
"As are we Agent Coulson."
Clint from his place at the sidelines wasn't sure what was more amusing, Stark's obvious attempt at nonchalance when he was clearly relieved to see a man he'd thought dead alive, Phil's refusal to let the billionaire see any emotion or Captain Roger's earnest honesty although he hardly knew the man in the bed. In the end he decided it was probably Coulson's instinctive reaction to talking to Captain America, he actually tried to stand at attention while lying down.
"Thank you, Captain Rogers."
"Just so you know Agent – once you're up and about and out of the line of fire, I'm planning on some nice little things for Fury for doing this to us."
Now this was an idea Clint could get behind, while he had to live with the lie that Coulson was dead far shorter than the others, he was easily as pissed as Stark at being lied at about this. And if he read the subtle twitch at the left corner of Natasha's mouth correctly she had an idea or three herself.
The shocking thing was that everyone else seemed to agree, too. Thor and Banner were nodding enthusiastically and Rogers at least wasn't protesting.
Trust Phil to burst this bubble. "While I appreciate the sentiment Stark, I'm pretty sure that we have enough problems on our hands without an all out war between a billionaire genius and the leader of the world's greatest organization of spies. Director Fury simply took an opportunity after Thor saw me getting stabbed."
"Are you making excuses for your boss, Coulson? Pepper cried when she got the news. Are you saying he was right about this?"
Phil shut his eyes for a moment. He really admired Pepper Potts and if there was one thing he liked about Stark it was the man's obvious devotion to the woman.
"The people I care most about in the world thought me to be dead." Clint's heart tightened at hearing Phil's words – the closest thing to a declaration of their love to strangers he had ever heard. "Does that make me happy? No. Was the Director right in making this call? Probably." Coulson's eyes bore into Stark's forcing him to see the point. "This isn't about making people happy. He did what he thought he had to, to make you all work as a team. And in the end it worked out – you saved the world together." He let his gaze wander from one to the other.
"We would have fought side by side to stop my brother even without his deceit," Thor declared.
"Maybe – we'll never know. But even if that's true, do you really want to hate a man because of one decision he made in the heat of the battle to save the world?" Coulson sighed. "I've known the director for years now and while I may not agree with every decision he's made, I don't think making this call has been a mistake."
Rogers was the first one to nod. "I still think we should be having a word with him, but you're right. It was his call to make."
Stark turned to him shock visible in his face. "You're saying he was right?"
"I'm saying we should ensure that in the future it isn't his call what to tell our team."
They spent the next hour or so together in Coulson's room talking. It starts with Tony babbling about the amount of flowers and episodes of Supernanny SHIELD stopped him from bringing in and quickly becomes a boasting fest between him and Thor about how they beat the Chitauri invasion. Since they don't know him Nat and Phil are the only ones to register the fact that Clint doesn't join in as something unusual.
After everything that happened Clint simply doesn't feel like boasting and maybe, just maybe, it's a sign of the fact that he wants to like these people, that he doesn't put up the mask of Hawkeye – bad-ass and loudmouth extraordinaire despite his feelings.
Nat relaxes against Banner as the physicist joins in with one or two deadpan observations about Stark. The man has issues and he almost killed Tasha during the attack on the Helicarrier. Clint decides that he has to ask her later if she did this just to put him at ease or if she really feels a connection to the scientist.
Rogers smiles with them but stays more or less quiet. Clint gets the impression, that outside the field of battle Steve is rather shy by nature. It's hard to combine this thoughtful man before him with the war hero image Coulson has admired all these years. On the other hand it's not so hard anymore if he thinks back to the way Rogers lead them into battle. Somehow this quiet, nice side makes him all the more fitting to be Phil's childhood hero.
Stark makes a video call to Pepper, to let his fiancee talk to Phil and see for herself that her friend is alright. Coulson is genuinely pleased to talk to her and they make a date for her to visit him later.
Rogers promises to organize a new set of cards for Phil and sign them. That's actually the first time Coulson seems to be upset, when he learns that the director has ruined his set of trading cards and Clint can't shake the feeling that their boss will have to do some groveling later, even if it's not about the whole 'death' thing.
Thor explains that as soon as they're done here he will take the Tesseract and Loki back with him to Asgard. Phil heavily approves of this and tells Thor as much. "Some things are just too dangerous to be left lying around here."
Banner tells them that he will accept Tony's invitation to do research at the Stark tower, so he will be in touch. This provokes an approving smile of Nat and the declaration of Stark that actually he's decided to change the tower's name.
"It's fate really, all letters except the A fell off, so I was thinking Avenger's tower. And you're all invited to stay. We have enough room so that everyone can have their own floor and we'll have a community floor, training facilities, laboratories and a whirlpool – the home away from home. You're invited too Agent."
This took Coulson by surprise. He blinked once before answering. "Thank you, Mr. Stark. I will take your offer into seriously consideration."
author's note: "Dobroye utro, drug" = "Good morning, friend" "Lgun" ="Liar" And Yes I think Coulson would have rules for a situation like this. Coulson has rules for everything. For now this is finished, it might get an epilogue later or maybe just quotes in other fics, who knows.
