Disclaimer: I don't own the Avenger's or any other known characters.

Chapter 7

They all stood wide eyed and silent as the video cut off. None of them could believe it, even when they had arrived at Clint's last known position and had not found him there. They had known deep down Clint had been captured, they just didn't wanted to admit it, but now the horrible truth was in front of them, paused on that final part of the scene. One of SHIELD's agent, one of the avenger's, their friend had been captured and tortured. Even now none of them wanted to believe what they had seen. They were all silenced by the shock and news, each having their own feelings on the news before them.

Fury was staring at the screen, his one eye set in a glare that would make anyone freeze and then run for their lives. Steve was also staring at the screen, his mind processing what had happened and how they would go about rescuing their friend. Thor was in silence, his brow creased into one of slight anger, as if he was trying to control himself. Tony had anger written all over his face in no way trying to hide it and for once he didn't know what to say, his mind, like Steve's was going through what had happened and starting to think about how they would find Clint. Bruce just looked plain angry, behind his glasses his brown eyes were burning with hatred towards the man who had captured their friend. His hand was clamped tightly around the edge of the table he was leaning on but loosening as his anger lessened to something controllable.

Natasha looked at the table, her face a mask even with everything that had happened she was showing no emotion. Underneath though, there was a sense of dread and fear for her partner. She knew Clint the best out of everyone here, she had been through many a dangerous mission with him and they had become more than friends, they were like family. The silence hung in the room for several minutes before Tony looked up at the screen. "I'll go and track down where the video was sent from" he said and the other five looked at him. He stared equally back before looking towards Bruce, "You coming?"

"Yeh I'll meet you down there" Bruce replied and Tony nodded and walked out of the room. Now that the silence had been broken everyone knew what they wanted to say, they just didn't want to.

Steve let out a sigh and brushed a hand through his hair. "Right, Bruce you go and help Tony, Thor you can come with me, we can get a rough plan ready for when Tony and Bruce find the location, then it's just a matter of building the rest of the plan up around what we already have" he said as his mind started to function properly again and he came back to being a leader. "Natasha you can help us if you want, you know Clint better than any of us, which right now would be a big help."

Everyone listened to what Steve was saying and in turn each one agreed with what they had been told to do. "I need Romanoff to do something else first but then she's free to help you" Fury said looking towards Steve.

"Okay" the soldier replied, "me and Thor will be in the training room when you're finished." Natasha nodded and then Bruce walked out.

"I better catch up with Tony" he said dismissing himself with Thor and Steve behind him. Steve gave a sad smile towards Natasha.

"We'll find him."

"I know, Clint's harder to get rid of than this" she replied trying to keep the uneasiness out of her tone. Once the others had left Fury turned to Natasha.

"You gonna be alright?" Fury asked.

"Yeh, but better when we find him" she said. There was silence as the two thought about what had been said. A few minutes passed before the silence was broken but whilst it was quiet Natasha stood in thought.

Why couldn't she have been with him? She should have been, they were partners, they did missions together. It was what they did; Clint was the eyes and ears from a distance, occasionally going in head on. She was the one that did the up close fighting, the hacking into enemy systems. Together they snuck in and infiltrated the enemy, took what they wanted and got what they needed. Their trust in each other was bigger than the trust they had for anyone else. They believed in each other, trusted each other with their lives. They both knew that if worst came to the worst they would risk their lives breaking the other out of enemy hands, they knew they would give their lives for the other and they knew that the other would give their life for them.

That was the problem now. Before, when one had got captured, the other knew where they were. They had been there when it had happened, had seen where they were taken but now. Now she was lost. She didn't know where Clint was. She didn't know how long it would take to find him, but she did know that. No matter how long it took Clint would be found. She would find him and so would the others.

This wasn't the first time he had been caught. With a job like this you couldn't expect to not be caught but that didn't mean every time Clint was caught it didn't worried her. That it got her nerves on edge more than her being on a mission with impossible odds. Clint was the closest thing Natasha had to any kind of family and she was not going to lose him yet.

"I want you to go back to the building. Look around and have a bigger search."

"What am I looking for?" she asked as her mind went on autopilot. She knew what she was looking for and Fury confirmed it.

"Anything that we can use or will give us an idea of Agent Barton's whereabouts." Natasha nodded her mind thinking back to the building and where they had looked. With a quick nod towards Fury she walked out of the room.

-LINE BREAK-

Clint dragged his abused body back to the wall he had been at previously not trusting his leg to support him. His chest burned, he tried to ignore it but he couldn't it was over whelming. He was still struggling to breath. With as little movement as was possible, he touched his tender side. As soon as his hand made contact with his body a searing white hot pain shot through him and the slightest moan crept through his parched cracked lips. He had definitely broken a rib, his finger too.

As his body moved across the ground, he let his leg fall out and be dragged along by his body. It made the small distance long and use up more energy but it minimised the pain that was erupting around the edge of the shaft jutting out of his thigh.

He pushed himself up so that he was leaning against the grey wall. His mind concentrating on one thing, easing the discomfort coursing through his body. The fiery ongoing pain, the pain that would not leave him alone. He slowly leant his head backwards, in an attempt to rest it against the wall but as soon as it touched the cold metal he pulled his head forwards again as a sudden pain shot through his head and stayed as a dull throb behind his eyes.

He was slightly shocked and surprised by how one pain had caused him to forget about the pain and burning at the back of his head. He closed his eyes in an attempt to ease the throbbing behind them. It did nothing to help. He sat back for several minutes, his mind racing and not resting on one thought until he subconsciously tried to move into a more comfortable position and his mind filled with pain.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his leg. The arrow shaft still sticking out causing him pain whenever something knocked it. He watched the arrow as if it would come out by itself, hoping that it would just fall out with no pain what so ever. He grimaced at the thought of what he was thinking and slowly bent his leg so that the arrow wasn't brushing the ground.

He grabbed the bottom of his shirt and ripped the bottom of it off so that he had a strip of fabric that he could use as a make shift bandage. It was a little dirty but it couldn't have been any worse than the floor of his cell. Holding the arrow where it went in he snapped the top of it off and let out an agonised moan as the other end jolted in his thigh causing a shooting pain up from his leg to his stomach.

There was a shuffle from the other side of the room but Clint didn't look up, he was concentrating on his breathing as his vision blurred and he was threatened with unconsciousness. A few minutes passed and his vision started to clear. In the few minutes Clint had been lost in his own thoughts, his brother had cautiously walked over and was now standing next to him looking concerned.

Clint looked up and showed no sign of emotion towards the man. It was the first time he had seen his brother since he was younger and he still looked virtually the same, just older. The man's dark blonde-brown hair was still messy and left unkempt just how Clint remembered. It was in messy clumps and had bits of dirt in it from the cell but he could tell that even at its neatest it was still messy. Barney's eyes were the same as Clint's except that his were a darker shade of blue than his younger brothers and he had dark bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep. The man also had a bit of stubble growing on his chin and around his mouth.

There was an awkward silence in the air as the two just looked each other in the eye. "Are…" Barney stopped and looked at Clint as if he didn't know if he should be talking to his brother. There was another silence as the older Barton stood still, wondering whether he should continue or not. As the minutes passed and his brother made no move to carry on with what he was saying Clint turned and looked back at his leg to get on with the job in hand. Well he tried to but he couldn't, not with someone watching his every move over his shoulder.

Usually he could do that, someone could be watching him train or he could be on a mission with someone next to him, waiting for his call but this, this was different. He didn't know why, maybe it was because his nerves were all ready pulled and the slightest thing that he would class as annoying now seemed to intensify, becoming incredibly bigger and more in his face. Maybe it was because he was in pain.

He remembered when he had been on a training session with SHIELD and some new recruits five years ago, which Phil had gotten him into as payback for the frustration he had caused his handler in the year that he had been with SHIELD at that point. He had been tackled by one of the higher level Agents and they had both gone tumbling down a hill which had unfortunately had a small drop at the bottom that they had both fallen off of. The older Agent had gotten away with a few scrapes and bruises but Clint had landed badly on his leg and had picked up an open fracture which had caused him intense pain.

Whilst he had been the one who had got injured many people had gotten on the wrong end of the stick and had Clint Barton's fall fury whenever they did something even slightly annoying. Something that Clint would usually be able to put up with.

Whilst Clint thought that it could be the pain that was causing his irritability there was a little nagging feeling at the back of his head telling him that it was because it was his brother, if it had been anyone else it wouldn't have been so bad. But then again, that nagging feeling could be mistaken for the burning at the back of his head from where he had hit his head on the floor only a while ago.

He could sense rather than see that his brother was still there and he could feel his temper rise ever so slightly. With a role of his eyes he went to open his mouth to talk but was beaten to it.

"Are you alright?" Barney asked finally coming to a decision that he would speak. Now that the silence had been filled Clint didn't want to talk. The more he thought about it the more he persuaded himself that he didn't want to talk to Barney. The silence did nothing; he ignored it and asked another question. "Do you want some help?"

Clint still stayed silent. Yes he probably did need help, considering his leg hurt a lot and every time he touched it he thought he would pass out, but he didn't want it. Even with his friends he wouldn't ask for help even if it was offered, he could do things on his own. "No, I don't need your help" he said without realising he had put a little more emphasis on parts of the sentence. There was another silence, this one more unpleasant and uncomfortable than the others and Clint felt himself wanting to apologise ever so slightly which angered him just a little.

Breathing slowly Clint grabbed the bottom of the arrow and snapped it off just above the arrow head and let out another agonised breath, biting down on the inside of his cheek to stop any more noise escaping his lips. Before he did anything else Barney was in front of him and had grabbed the ripped cloth from Clint's clenched hand.

He went to carry on when Clint spoke up. "Don't pull the arrow out. It's slowing the flow of blood at the moment and blocking anything else from getting in." Barney looked up from Clint's leg.

"I know. I may be an idiot that got himself locked up in who knows where but that doesn't mean I don't know a little about first aid" he said looking back down at the bloody mixture of leg and arrow. Clint smiled in spite of himself.

He watched as Barney wrapped the cloth around the arrow and Clint's leg so as to keep the arrow in place. "Yeh well, we're both the idiots" Clint sighed looking towards Barney "ow" he said in a slightly louder voice as Barney pulled the cloth tight around his leg in a final knot.

Barney finished what he was doing and stood up, hanging around slightly as he thought about what to do. Clint watched, slightly surprised that he had almost had a conversation with his brother without getting angry. Well, they might as well try to get along, neither of them were going anywhere any time soon and their stay was all ready uncomfortable as it was without adding brotherly arguments to the mix.

Barney stopped hanging around and went back to his side of the cell leaving Clint alone again. He stayed looking in the direction Barney had walked to and opened his mouth to speak but then closed it before any sound came out. Did he really want to know? In all honesty did he really want to know why it had happened? It was going to come up at some point right? They couldn't sit here for god knows how long and not talk about it could they? Was that even possible? No, no it wasn't Clint thought. It would come up at some point so why not bring it up now. If it didn't come up at all and one of them escaped or worse died before he knew then he would regret it. He knew he would. He needed to know.

"Why did you do it?" he asked sounding like a child who was curious to know why their friend had lied to an adult.

"Do what?" Barney asked but Clint could hear the slight crack in his voice.

"You know exactly what" Clint stated noticing that the conversation was heading in the same direction as it had done hours ago. There was a thud that echoed around the room and Clint could only guess that his brother had hit something. Probably the wall. "Barney."

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does" Clint said staring at the shadowed place he knew his brother was in.

"Clint it's in the past, just forget about it." Clint laughed in scepticism.

"Forget about it. Yeah it's in the past but it's in my past and I want to know why. It wasn't a stranger; it was you my brother!" Clint shouted. "Was my brother" he said in a lower voice as an afterthought, the hatred building back up in his body.

"Clint" Barney tried desperately, "some things are left better in the past."

"Yeh" Clint said turning away from the shadows. "Some things are."

Clint noticed that there wasn't just pain from his various wounds anymore; there was a pain in his chest that was slowly growing. He sat there with head resting at an odd angle against the wall, listening to everything, every noise and slight sound, without actually hearing a thing. The sounds went in one ear and came out the other unregistered by the assassin who leant up against the wall his dark brooding eyes looking down in front of him.

Barney was doing pretty much the same, his mind in a constant battle. It was like he had been split in half, part of him wanted to tell Clint to get it off of his chest and let his little brother know why but the other half didn't want to admit his weakness. He had been young, foolish, scared easily for his brother and himself. At the time he thought he was doing what was best but now, now he could see that the right thing or as some people would see it not so right thing, had repercussions. The battle went on one part fighting for him to tell Clint, maybe he would. Clint was right it had been his brother, it was his past.

"I came across Swordsman once, like you had. He was stealing money from the carnival and I did the same thing as you. I stood there and watched, I don't know why, it was a mistake. If I had run instead of watching something that didn't concern me then none of it would have happened" he confessed to the room. He heard a slight groan as someone moved and could tell Clint was watching him. "He saw me and I ran back to our room. The next day he found me and cornered me when no one was around. Told me that if I told anyone what I'd seen he would kill me. I told him I wouldn't and he went to leave but turned back, asked if I wanted to help, I said no but he wouldn't leave it at that. He said I had to help him or he'd kill you."

Clint was silent, listening to every word, so it had been his fault his brother had got involved. "He knew I'd say yes, that I would help him. He then started to teach me how to fight, well enough that I would be able to come out of one and not be too badly injured. I was shown where to hit someone with a knife and kill them and where to do it so that it would injure them and they would survive if they got medical attention. About a month or so after I had got involved, the same thing happened to you and Swordsman wanted to kill you, he was going to kill you, I knew it so I said I would do it." Barney stopped and bit his lip as he remembered back to that day, the worst day in his life. "I thought if I did it there would be a chance you would survive, I knew that if he did it you wouldn't. I know that makes up for nothing, it's a poor excuse but that's it. That's my reason for what I did. If I had let him kill you I don't know what I would have done. I don't expect you to forgive me for it but you're right. You do deserve to know."

Clint watched the shadows in silence. He had prepared himself for every possible conclusion, including his brother hating him, everything but that. Now that he knew the answer he didn't know what to do or what to say. He just sat in silence, his brow creased, saying nothing.

Chapter 7 complete. I'd like to thank everyone who read the last chapter and a big thanks to the guys who reviewed, HALE PACK, pottyandweezlbe89, Guest, Inaya and Guest. Thank you to everyone. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.