~Okay, so this chapter is a lot longer than my previous chapters, and i hope it's not too wordy. Hope ya like it!
Disclaimer: Don't own avengers
P.s i have insomnia so if you think my writing sucks, just thought i should let you know i'm usually writing these at about 12:00-3:00 AM so that might be why xP
one more thing: the last chapter left you hanging with clint about to have a nightmare, that's still coming up
Review if you want too, i don't really care, i just like to write when i'm bored x)
The Team's POV:
Three days have passed since the news of Clint's death, and Natasha has locked herself in her room mostly. She finally stopped crying, telling herself that Clint wouldn't want her wasting herself away, but she couldn't get herself to go back to work yet. She spent days lounging around, and nights training in the room till her knuckles bled and blistered.
Pepper tried to comfort her, and Steve too. Bruce also, but rather awkwardly. Tony hadn't come to see her. Pepper said it was because he had locked himself in the lab, perfecting his suit with every inch. He never admitted it but Clint was his favorite friend of the team, right up there with Bruce. He was grieving just as badly as she was.
Natasha would come out of her room, still in sweats, grab something to eat, and rarely eat with the team. If she did, she would poke at her food with her fork, and sit in silence amongst the small chatter. Tony was still no where to be seen. She couldn't help but envy Thor, and yet pity him. He was in ignorant bliss in Asgard, yet he still didn't know about the loss of his friend.
It was afternoon by the time she got up, and headed to the kitchen. Pepper sat on the chair, tapping away on a laptop. Her eyes were still puffy from crying, she couldn't stand seeing Tony and Natasha in such a funk, along with the fact that she lost a friend, it was her first time feeling grief.
Bruce sat at the table, also with a laptop. Bruce was even more quiet than usual. He had bonded with Clint when talking about losing control of ones self. Especially after the whole 'Loki thing'. He also admired how little fear the archer had shown to the hulk. Who was going to get the hulk to let Bruce take control after a battle now? Stark couldn't cause he only made the 'other guy' more angry. Natasha had a fear of the hulk since the helicarrier incident, and Steve was too polite, so the hulk found him annoying, and Thor was so large, the Hulk took it as a threat. So the doctor just continued experiments, doing anything to clear his head.
Steve stood, leaning against the kitchen counter with a cup of hot tea between his hands. Guiltiness weighed him down. He was the team captain! How could they trust him if he couldn't even be there for his teammates? Clint had saved everyone's lives many times. He always seemed to be the one who would sacrifice himself, always put himself last, and the team first. And now, the archer was just suddenly, gone.
Tony was still no where in sight as Natasha's dull filled eyes scanned the kitchen and living area.
Back in the lab, Stark's mind felt numb. He's lost a friend before in Afghanistan, and he never wanted that to happen again. And now here he was, the only member of the team that would play x-box with him, the only one that would be able to stop Natasha from hurting him, the only one who would come pick him up from a bar when he got too drunk. The only one. And now he felt helpless.
Tony has been locked in his lab, connecting to satellites, reprogramming scanners, trying to find any read on his friend, but after so long, he was starting to give up hope. Never sleeping a wink, and still pushing on through the long nights. With only the whir of machines, and the faint light of his arc reactor to keep him company.
Now it was the third day Natasha had known since he'd told her, and he hadn't seen her since. Only heard her up at night, sometimes screaming in rage, sometimes a loud crash from the training room.
But today, a glint of hope sparked inside of him, and he rushed into the kitchen.
Everyone looked up to see the billionaire, purple bags and worry lines etched his features, and as he stood, his legs seemed to tire just holding himself up. But they saw a spark in his eye, which was different from the usual distant looked he'd permanently placed since the news four months previous.
"You guys! I might have found something!" he practically yelled.
All heads turned to him.
Steve abruptly stood, a questioning hope in his voice, "really?"
Bruce snapped his PC shut and got up also, "where?" he said tossing his laptop on one of the sofa's
"And how?" pepper came over to her boyfriends side, looking questioningly at the files in his hand.
Natasha, seeing the usual tension in the room break, became slightly curious, but stayed at her spot on the table, fiddling with the scrambled eggs on her plate with her fork. "what're you guys talking about?" she said dryly, her voice sounding drained.
They all turned to see her weary look and glance nervously at each other, much like three days previous before the bad news.
It was Tony who broke the silence, "Natasha, remember how I told you we've been searching for any signs of Clint?"
At this, Natasha abruptly straightened, trying to stop a small amount of hope from leaking into her heart, afraid it might break again.
With a tired sigh, Stark continued, "well, I finally latched onto a satellite, and zoomed in on the United States, still having the computer scan for any DNA similarities of our archer, and it seemed to have found a lot around the Midwest area, so I zoomed in closer. I continued the process of elimination, until I found a strong reactor pulse coming from Minnesota. Zooming in once more, I found it in a tiny town called Paynesville with population less than twenty-five-hundred. So, moving to my other screen, I hacked into cameras from stores, security cameras, and all of the above. And…" he said finally taking a breath, "Look what I found."
Opening up the file in his hand, he took out a map, another paper which had name of location, and a whole bunch of other small printed detail. Along with it, he held up a device that looked like a tiny metal square, with a hole in the middle. Grabbing the adjacent corners, he pulled them apart, revealing a holographic screen.
By this point Natasha's heart had started pounding. Was it safe to hope Clint's alive? She stood behind Tony with the rest of the team (and pepper) and watched as a high-definition holographic clip came up.
"Watch." Tony said, 'clicking' the play button.
The screen came to life, showing what looked like a coffee shop. It seemed to be from an angle of a camera that was hidden in the corner. In the coffee shop was the small little round tables, with menus neatly set, a counter with smoothies, blenders, frappe machines, and coffee making appliances that a young woman was moving around, making whatever a customer would have ordered.
She wore a blush colored polo shirt, and black pants, with an apron tied in a small bow behind her. She had long straight blonde hair that was pulled back in a pony, as she smiled at customers that came in, and took their orders. The place was rather empty, only a few people loitered at the tables, taking sips of hot coffee.
"Tony, this is just a video of a coffee shop, I don't see how…" Steve began before Tony abruptly shushed him.
"Just watch." Tony said rather annoyed, but too jumpy with lack of sleep, and too much caffeine, alcohol, and adrenaline from his discovery to care.
Just then, a man walked in. He wore a leather jacket over a white shirt, and black pants with combat boots. His hair was spiky blonde, but they couldn't see his face, for his back was to the camera.
Natasha sucked in a small gasp as her head began swarming with thoughts and her heart paced even faster (if possible). Pepper hand a hand over her mouth in shock, and the whole team was staring intently at the screen. You could have heard a pin drop as the tension in the atmosphere rose.
The screen didn't have any audible sounds, but they could see the woman laughing and smiling as she talked to the man. Until finally, he turned to head out the door, and the team's eyes widened.
There on the screen was a face they'd seen many times before. The face they've missed for what's felt like ages. They saw as he turned around, that his smile instantly dropped into the same usual stoic expression their friend always wore.
Questions ran through the heads of the heroes, but the biggest one of all was: could that really be him?
Same stormy grey, yet icy blue eyes, same muscular arms, same leather jacket, and same boots.
It was him. There was their friend, alive and walking, until he pushed open the door, and disappeared out of the camera's view, and the screen shrunk back down to it's centimeter long square.
Silence echoed through the tower's walls.
"So…" Bruce said awkwardly, "how do we know if it's him?" all eyes turned to the red head.
There was a few beats of silence again until finally, Natasha spoke, trying to keep her voice level. "turn it on again."
Tony followed her orders as the video started playing again. When it came to the part when he was reaching his hand out to push the door open, Natasha ordered softly, "stop here."
The video immediately froze to her command, and she stepped up to the hologram in from of the Stark, "zoom in here." she said tapping on his right hand.
After it zoomed in, Natasha stood still as stone for a few moments, before turning to face the team. "It's him." she said, trying to fight emotions of hope, anger, and happiness.
Hope because he might still be alive, anger because after all of this, he's fine and she wants to know what happened and how. And happiness because Clint Barton, her partner, was breathing and alive. She made a silent vow to herself that she would get him back here no matter what, even if it did look as though he was fine, though her gut instinct told her something was off.
Steve said with a look of doubt, mixed with confusion on his face, "how can you tell?"
"See right here," she said, once again gesturing to the screen, "on his right hand, there is a mark from when he was sent to kill me. I threw a knife at him and he deflected it with his hand, but not without getting a good cut. He's had a scar ever since."
The room went silent once more, thinking over everything that they had just heard, and saw.
"so now comes the real question." Steve said, deciding to voice what everyone is probably thinking, "What happened to him? SHIELD said he was missing, and that they lost track of him with no signs of anything. He has been missing for four months. We even went and checked the location out ourselves. There literally was nothing. And another thing…he is in a whole different state than where his mission had been based. How did he get there? You guys don't think he…"
"no." Natasha said harshly, glaring daggers at Steve.
She knew exactly what he was going to say. He was wondering if Clint had decided to quit everything, and run away to start a new life without leaving a trace.
Bruce spoke up cautiously, "Natasha, he was my friend too. But, we do have to consider it a possibility. I mean, SHIELD has been known to help agents cover their tracks if they wanted to start over, or even fake a death."
Now Tony stepped in, "No, Clint wouldn't do that. He kept to himself about a lot yes, but he didn't hide who he really is, or what's left of him after whatever happened in his past. I don't know what it is, but there is no information in his file about his past whatsoever. There was even more of Romanoff's past than there was of Barton's."
Natasha couldn't decide whether to glare at Stark for breaking into their files, or be happy that he had stood up for her partner.
"Yea but…" Steve was about to begin before Pepper suddenly spoke up in a wary voice.
"You guys. Stop. Right now, you need to decide your next move is. Then, we will make that move, right after everyone takes a good long nap, showers, gets in uniform, and is all packed." Pepper said sternly with a look at them to see if they dare challenge her demand. Nobody did.
"From the way you're talking, it sounds like you already know what we should do." Tony said tilting his head slightly in question. Pepper never stopped surprising him.
The strawberry-blonde rolled her eyes at him, "well it's obvious. Me and Bruce will stay here and be the contact to SHIELD. We let Fury know what's going on, especially Phil too. He's been down in the dumps ever since this whole thing. Then, you three go to Paynesville, track him down and talk to him. After discussing possibilities with SHIELD, and talking to Clint, we can understand what exactly happened, what's going on, then make our next move."
The whole team stared at her blankly. It almost seemed like crickets should be chirping.
Steve, who's eyebrows were at the top of his head, said "wow. Why didn't we make her captain?"
And with that, they dispersed, doing exactly as pepper ordered them too.
Natasha lay down after a quick shower, even though she knew she would never be able to sleep after everything.
Her only thought, was bringing a Hawk home.