Chapter Seven – Find Her!
Clint woke up in sickbay on the helicarrier, a massive lump on the back of his head. Banner brought him in after a chunk of concrete from the collapsing skyscraper bounced off his skull, the medics told him. He was lucky to be alive.
"Seriously, Barton, you survive being possessed by an Asgardian Norse God, fighting aliens, jumping off a building, and then nearly get your ass killed by a skyscraper falling on you?" Tony Stark laughed at him as they sat in the shawarma joint. It was the day after the battle. Everything was filthy. Dusty. New York looked like Clint remembered Basra, the last time he was there. But already, people were picking themselves up. Rebuilding their lives. Opening their businesses. Cooking shawarma.
Clint liked shawarma. He was one of the few tucking in, he'd eaten it many times in the Middle East and developed a taste for the spicy meat. Stark, who had wanted to come here, ate one stuffed lavosh and declared himself satisfied. Thor, who apparently never turned down food, had decided he liked it and was, for once, not talking as he ate. Natasha had picked a bit, muttered something about Mosul and was sitting staring into Captain America's eyes, as he gazed back, entranced. Banner was actually asleep in his chair, Clint thought, head tipped back, slight whistling sounds escaping his nostrils.
Clint shrugged. "What can I say. Seemed like a good idea at the time."
"What the fuck were you doing wandering around in front of a collapsing skyscraper anyway?" Stark pressed.
Clint shrugged again, and to his surprise Banner spoke up. Not asleep after all, apparently.
"Saving a pretty girl."
"What?" Even Thor stopped chewing. Clint squirmed uncomfortably in his seat as five pairs of eyes trained themselves on him with interest.
"It wasn't like that…"
"It was exactly like that, Barton. I don't know what the fuck was going on there, but if you hadn't run over and delayed her and her team going into the building, they would all have died when it came down."
Right up until that moment, that possibility – probability – certainty – hadn't occurred to him. Clint froze, thinking sickly back. Banner was right. They had been heading in when he ran over after spotting Jen, and her team had stopped to wait for her.
"Plus," Banner continued, grinning, "then he gallantly threw himself on top of her as a human shield when the tower fell."
"Oho!" Stark started laughing. "And she was pretty, you say, Bruce? I'd have thrown myself on top too, Barton – did you cop a feel while you were at it? I hope you got her number…"
Natasha was actually giggling at Clint's discomforted expression. Steve was smiling, but not unkindly, and Thor reached over and clapped him on the shoulder with a massive hand.
"Well done, Eyes of Hawk! Protecting a lady is a worthy act!"
Almost knocked off his chair by Thor's friendly smack, Clint took a moment to try and compose his face. "Was she all right, Bruce?" he said eventually, knowing that the others would mock him for it, but unable to stop himself from waiting until he could get the scientist alone to ask.
"Not a scratch," Banner grinned at him. "Except I think you squashed her a bit. She was rather small. Your body armour – and the arms you threw protectively around her – shielded her from everything. She was screaming at me to get you off her – got quite a vocabulary, that chick – and when I pulled you off she wriggled out and started yelling at you to wake up and not to fucking die on her this time."
"This time?" Stark couldn't resist. "Barton, you've been holding out on us!" He leaned forward eagerly in his seat. "Tell. Or we'll get Thor to hold you down and Natasha can torture it out of you."
"Pleeease fuck off," Clint groaned, covering his face with his hands.
"You haven't heard the best bit," Banner said, "while we were loading him onto the stretcher, she'd been running around checking on her friends – they were all fine, by the way, Clint, you were the worst injured – she came back and gave him a lovely kiss. I asked her if she wanted to come with us on the medivac flight but she said she still had work to do."
"Thor, can you please hit me on the head, I'd really rather be unconscious," Clint said, his face still buried in his hands, his cheeks burning. Although – Jen had come back? She'd kissed him as he lay on the stretcher? There was an unfamiliar warm feeling in his chest.
"No, Thor, he was joking!" Rodgers grabbed Thor's arm just before he obliged. "He is embarrassed because Tony and Bruce are teasing him." Of them all, Rodgers was the best at explaining Earth customs to Thor in terms the Asgardian understood. Those that Rodgers understood, anyway.
"Ah," Thor laughed, took a swig of his water and patted Clint's shoulder again. "Eyes of Hawk, be not sheepish. It sounds as though you have made a good first impression on the fair maiden, taking an injury in order to save her life. You should go now and 'phone' her?" He looked at Rodgers. "Is that the right term?"
"I can't phone her," Clint muttered into his hands. "I didn't get her number. Or her full name."
"I bet we can take care of that!" Stark dropped his whiz-bang transparent phone on the table. "JARVIS, Barton here needs to find a woman."
"Shall I set him up a profile on Tinder, sir?" the smooth English-sounding voice of the AI said.
Natasha went off into gales of laughter, as did Banner. Thor and Rodgers were of course completely bemused. Stark snickered, and Clint found himself laughing too. "No, thanks all the same, JARVIS. It's a particular girl. I met her during the battle."
"I see, Mr Barton. If you would provide any details you can recall for me, in that case, I will commence a database search."
Clint looked around. He would really rather have done this in privacy, but they were all watching him expectantly, although Thor had started eating again. "Her name is Jen," he said hesitantly after a moment. "She's a civil engineer. She worked at that building I was shooting off. Three blocks south of Stark Tower."
"I have that address, sir." There was a miniscule pause, and then JARVIS said "Insufficient data. That building does not host any engineering firms. Nor are there any civil engineers listed among staff. There were three Jennifers and one Jennie on staff but they were two secretaries, one legal aide and one catering manager." Four photos flashed on the screen, but Clint shook his head.
"None of them. Find her, JARVIS!"
A/N Soundtrack for this chapter:
Millenium: Killing Joke
All That You Are: Goo Goo Dolls
Lightning Crashes: Live
I love comments and reviews so please keep 'em coming!
