Well it's been a hot minute. Hi everyone I ain't dead, although exams are killing me and I'm only halfway through. I know I said I wouldn't be updating till after my exams are finished by tbh I'm really bored and idk I wanted to get my ideas out. Now this chapter is actually pretty long for once which i feel kinda makes up for me being a bit MIA. Also shoutout to the guest that reviewed most of the previous chapter and Aunknowntimelord who also reviewed.

I also just wanna do a little review of endgame. If you haven't seen it or just couldn't give a shit please stop reading.

Phew okay so I actually loved endgame so much, I know there were some mixed reactions but overall it was everything I wanted it to be and more. I knew we were screwed the second the first scene had Clint in it. My fave parts were defo Cap wielding Mjolnir and basically the whole end battle which was totally epic, I mean Steve just standing alone w a broken shield against all of Thanos' army was just AMAZIN. I also loved the 2012 section idk I just found it hilarious. The thing I was kinda pissed about is Cap going back in time. That was actually my main theory as to what wld happen to him and while I did enjoy seeing with Peggy again I think we can all agree that he defo wouldn't have just left Bucky like that. But hopefully the falcon and winter soldier show thingy will do them both justice and I'm also really hyped to see Sam as Cap. Okay, so I can't put it off any longer, Natasha's death scene. HO-LY SHIT. So I was living for the Russos acc paying attention to the relationship between Clint and Nat for once but obvs that was too good to be true. I realised as soon as the thing saying vormir came up that one of them was gonna die and I just sorta sat there going "no no no no" and my friend didn't understand yet. Anyways I don't really cry that often, I didn't cry in infinity war even though I wanted to but honestly I was legit drowning in tears. I mean I wasn't sobbing I just couldn't stop them running down my face and my friend had to tell me to stop hyperventilating. As you can probably tell by now I am a huge Clintasha fan and watching them tryna kill themselves was like watching my best friends dying in front of me and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I didn't really recover after that because it came as such a shock. Also shoutout to my mum who predicted that Tony would have a child and then die by sacrificing himself for everyone. If you have actually read all this thank you very much, I don't have many people I can talk about it with and I'd love to know your opinions of Endgame.

Now onward with the chapter...

Helena gasped awake in a blind panic. Immediately her eyes found the little is window to her left framing the dark sky outside, telling her it was some time in the earlier hours of the morning.

A few fragmented memories had haunted her while she slept, this time of being experimented on. Men, dressed all in white had loomed over her, bearing wicked looking tools, white hot pain had suddenly erupted across her abdomen causing her to wake.

She pulled her shirt up to reveal one of the main scars littered across her stomach and forced her breathing to slow, she wasn't there anymore.

Helena had been wiped so many times now she was beginning to become immune to it, with each wipe her memories would return faster. That didn't make the painful experience of loosing her memories then having to relive them all over again any easier though, often forced to watch over and over again the deaths of her parents as well as the other children being experimented on and sometimes being tortured herself.

Glancing around she saw that the man called Clint had left another package, this time containing some kind of ring with what looked like sugar on it. She never touched whatever he left, certain they were intended to poison her.

It had been a week since she had first been brought to the compound. Slowly she had been introduced to a few of it's other inhabitants, accompanied each time by Clint who seemed to have taken a particular interest in her.

There had been a woman with bright red hair that fell in loose curls to her shoulders, the redhead hadn't really said much stared at her intensely with bright green eyes that contained an emotion Helena couldn't decider.

Next had been a tall man with short blond hair who had stood in a similar way to the HYDRA guards, it made her uncomfortable and she had immediately adopted the best fighting stance while still in bed, he'd left quickly after that.

No one new had visited her after that the only people who visits to her room were from Dr Cho and Dr Banner who she believed didn't present too much of a threat, and Clint.

Helena had remained confined to her bed in the same white walled room, it was driving her mad, even if she she didn't show it. For a week now she had been forming a plan of escape because whatever these people said, she didn't trust them in the slightest.

There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that this place and the people it housed were to be considered the enemy and it had only increased as the days progressed.

So she had complied with whatever they wanted; allowing herself to be treated by the two doctors who would ask question after question about how she felt and if she was healing. Helena had regained enough strength in her legs that she could walk again, although her foot remained in what she was told was a cast. She longed to rip the thing off her leg, it was heavy and annoying and would certainly make her plan a lot a harder.

For the last couple of days she had been lying about the use of her legs, pretending to fall over every time she was asked to stand. When she was left alone at night she had been practicing walking around the room, it was a difficult task as there was very little space and the weight of the cast put her off balance. Often she would fall over and wait, frozen in order listen for any one that had heard her.

But now, now she had discovered a way out.

The only window had been sealed and was no way strong to punch through the thick layers of glass, she could use her powers but didn't want to run the risk of whatever alarm had gone off when she had been startled before and find herself captured all over again. The door was also always kept locked and was made of strong metal, the kind that she wouldn't easily be able to melt without draining herself completely.

On the fifth day she had been staring absently up at the ceiling as a woman who had introduced herself as Dr Cho redressed her wounds before suddenly noticing the vent shaft in the middle of the room. It was the same one Clint had fallen out of on their first meeting, indicating it was large enough to fit a person.

Having no knowledge of the layout of the compound it was going to be tough navigating her way through the ventilation system, especially lugging around a broken foot, but she was relying on her instincts, all she had to do was make it to the roof and she'd be free.

She pulled back the sheets of the bed and stepped cautiously onto the shiny floor, all the while her eyes roamed the room, searching for any indicators that she was being watched. She pulled over a seat with wheels attached to its bottom and used the brake to station it directly under the vent.

Hauling herself up, which took her an embarrassingly long time she stood up awkwardly, her cast and useless leg weighing her down more than ever. She stood on one foot and turned her head upwards to the vent which was now only a few inches away from her face.

Taking out the small blade of a scalpel she had found disposed of in a yellow bin, she began to unscrew the vent cover, these people clearly weren't that stupid if they had taken precautions to stop her escaping this way, however they had become sloppy, lured into a false sense of security due to her inability to walk and overall complacency.

The last screw came free and she carefully pushed the cover up into the vent, leaving a sizeable gap she could easily fit through.

Now came the harder part, whilst she had been lying about her legs, Helena was still gaining strength. Severely undernourished she had begun to put on weight but she still had a long way to go. Add that to all of her still healing injuries; including the bullet hole in her shoulder and the infected wound on her abdomen and she was still as weak as a kitten meaning pulling herself into a vent with the added weight of the cast was going to be a little tricky.

Gripping the rim off the vent she pulled, managing to get her head and shoulder into the confined space. She hung awkwardly, her legs still dangling in the air, breathing hard and listening for a sign that she had been heard.

Deciding the coast was clear, Helena readjusted her grip on the metal and pulled again. She managed to pull the rest of her torso in, which was accompanied by a muffled "Shit, shit shit," as her weight bore down on her stab wound, then continued to wriggle the rest of the way in, hauling her legs in after her.

Breathing hard, she silently returned the cover of the vent and stared down the narrow metal passage that stretched ahead of her, eventually splitting into two routes in opposite directions.

She steeled herself and began to crawl forward, she had never really been afraid of small spaces, even preferred perhaps, after spending so long confined to a tiny cell it had often been difficult on the base when she had found herself in a larger room.

She felt more threatened, unable to easily keep all of the room within her eyesight, smaller spaces yielded fewer surprises.

Reaching the end of the section of the shaft she was in, Helena stared down each route.

Both lead to more metal pathways that turned away, preventing her from seeing the direction she had to travel.

A cold draft of air that carried with it the smell of damp greeted her from the right vent. She turned into it and began to pull herself forward again, following the scent of fresh air and freedom.

6 hours earlier

"We can't keep lying to Fury forever, I'm pretty sure he's already realised she's awake and sooner or later he's just gonna blow up the tower and take her by force."

It was dinner time. Tony, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Bucky, Sam and Wanda were all lounging round the kitchen, Thor having returned to Asgard the previous day.

Tony had called a meeting and tempted everyone down with the delicious smell of slight burnt pizza.

"Yeah, I know," said Clint from where he was perched onto of the counter, half a piece of pizza still hanging out his mouth, "but you know what SHIELD will do to her right?" He flipped another piece from the box and caught it perfectly between his teeth. "Either they'll stick her in a cell and experiment on her, just the same as HYDRA but without the brain washing."

Across the other side of the room, Bucky tensed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"But what do we do then, send her to an orphanage?" Said Steve from where he was leaning on the counter next to the sink.

"You can't put a kid like that in the system," put in Wanda, "she'd end up killing all the other children and no foster are ever going to want to deal with the psychological problems she has."

The group murmured in agreement and there was a moment of thoughtful silence as everyone quietly ate their pizza.

Natasha, who was sitting crossed legged next to Clint on top of the counter nudged him in the thigh. He turned a slightly disgruntled face to look at her.

She raised her eyebrows pointedly and he sighed in exasperation.

Last night, whilst they were alone, he had voiced the idea that had been plaguing him since bringing the girl in. He knew it was a stupid idea and probably would never work but he couldn't help but feel like it was the girl's last chance.

Helena was clearly not mentally stable; they'd expected her to be, but it meant that in places where wouldn't receive the right support, she wasn't going to cope.

She needed help and support and right now the only place she could get that was here in the avengers tower itself, so would it be so bad if they allowed her to stay?

It wasn't like she would always be left alone, there were usually at least a couple of avengers killing around the upper, private floors of the tower. But most importantly, they were likely the only few people to really understand what she had been through and how to deal with it.

Clint knew that if they really put in an effort, the team might just be what the girl needed to pull her back from the edge.

Natasha had taken her time to muse over the idea. Clint knew she was having a hard time seeing Helena so broken, having come from a similar background herself.

She had looked back at him, seen the pleading in his eyes and nodded firmly, telling him without words that she would stand by him no matter what the others said.

Clint cleared his throat and looked around the room, all eyes were fixed on him, eager to hear his solution.

"Wanda is right, we all know she wouldn't cope in the system but equally, we can't just hand her over to SHIELD,"

"So what do we do," questioned Sam.

Clint swallowed but felt the reassuring pressure of Natasha's body next to his.

Without looking up he spoke.

"I think her best, and really only chance at this point, is if we take her in ourselves.

His words were met with silence as everyone stared open mouthed at him.

"You're saying we should look after the kid ourselves?" Spluttered Tony, pizza frozen mid way to his mouth, "are you insane? We can barely look after ourselves, let alone a kid."

"We can manage," said Natasha, fixing Tony with a hard stare, "the tower is a big place and she needs help from people like her, you can't deny her a second chance Tony."

"Will she even want to stay?" Interjected Bruce, "I mean we can't prevent her from leaving if that's what she wants."

"We can't," replied Clint, "but we can give her every reason to."

Clint glanced around the room, the others were thinking hard, he locked eyes with Steve. The super solider stared at him for a long moment before seeming to nod to himself.

"I agree with Clint and Natasha; she deserves a chance, if we can give her that then it is our duty."

Tony rolled his eyes, "alright spangles that's quite enough righteousness for me," he scanned the room, Wanda, Bucky and Sam seemed to be coming to the same conclusion as Steve.

"Alright we keep the kid, but if she sets the tower on fire again I will be making you put it out single handedly with a bucket."

He pointed at Clint who raised his hands in defeat, a small smirk crossing his lips.

Clint woke suddenly, jerking upright asa heras gasped for air, eyes whirling frantically around the room as he tried to get his bearings.

He felt Natasha shift beside him and focused on centring himself firmly in reality.

He felt her hand on his back as his breaths became deeper and his heart rate began to slow down.

What was it She signed due to his lack of hearing aids.

Both of them often had nightmares, Natasha's stemmed from her time in the red room where as Clint was often haunted by Loki and the events surrounding him, occasionally Barney would make an appearance and he would awake in a blind panic, scratching at the scar left from the knife barney had stabbed him with all those years ago.

Phil he signed back , not looking up. Natasha shifted and pressed her head against his neck, both sat in silence for a few minutes, quietly grieving the loss of their handler and best friend.

It had been a year and a half since the attack on New York but Clint still found himself dreaming about his fallen friend. Phil has been the dad he had never had. Clint had accepted now that he was gone, but his subconscious still longed to see him and his comforting voice.

He reached over and slid his hearing aids into his ears.

"I'm gonna go onto the roof for a little bit, go back to sleep," he directed at Natasha.

She half opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it and shut it. Clint swung his legs off the bed and began lacing up his boots.

He was about to stride out the door when Natasha called after him "Jacket!"

He turned around just in time to be hit squarely in the face. He glared halfheartedly at her to which she shrugged and rolled over.

Clint quietly shut the door behind him and proceeded down the corridor to the stairwell, limping slightly, in order to take the pressure off of his right thigh which was still healing. He and Natasha had this floor to themselves, both of their rooms having been placed next to each other when they moved in. He tended to just live in Natasha's however, with both of them using his more for weapons storage.

He was glad they were alone on this floor, whilst they didn't try to hide their relationship, they were very private about it

It hadn't taken long for the other Avengers living in the tower to realise that the assassins were sleeping together once they moved in, but they rarely demonstrated any public displays of affection and refused to answer the questions Tony was constantly badgering them about.

He reached the stairs and began to climb, there floor was one of the highest in the tower, he had to give Tony credit there for designing it so that he could easily been on the roof in a couple of minutes if the tower was threatened.

He reached the door that would lead him onto the roof and breathed in the cold night air, filling his lungs and just breathing.

He crossed to the edge and sat; allowing his legs to dangle over and feast his eyes on the light show of New York below him.

He had been sitting for almost an hour when heard a loud clang, followed by a curse from somewhere behind him. Whipping around he scanned the roof, looking for any signs of movement.

Nothing.

Another clang of metal and his head turned instead to the vent shaft that emptied out onto the roof. He had climbed through this on a several occasions but the rest of the team found it strange that he enjoyed dragging himself through the ventilation system, especially when he would scare them from above, though that was often met with whatever the person was holding being thrown in his general direction. But that meant that whoever was in the vents wasn't a team mate.

He crossed to where he could get position himself next to where the shaft emptied out without being seen by whoever was in it and waited with baited breath.

Another couple of muffled curses that he couldn't quite make out echoed from within before a body tumbled out and onto the roof below.

Clint jumped on them; tackling the person so that they were held immobile with their arms behind their back.

The figure wriggled uselessly in his grasp.

"Fuck off!" It spat into the ground. Clint's hold loosened fractionally as he recognised the voice.

"Helena?" He questioned cautiously, still keeping the person's hands locked behind them.

"Get the fuck off of me." Came the voice again, he detected an English accent, confirming his suspicions. Blinking into the darkness, he could now make out the girl's thin form beneath him and the dark mass of tangled hair flowing down her back.

He released her, not wanting to risk another fire. Immediately she stood up, falling over slightly in the process as she tripped over her left foot, still enclosed in a cast and raised her fists warily.

She was wearing grey joggers and an old navy SHIELD T-shirt borrowed from Natasha. Natasha wasn't big but the clothes still hung loosely off Helena's skinny frame.

Helena looked better than when they had first brought her in, the coloured had started to slowly return to her cheeks and she was beginning to put on weight, but her eyes looked just as lost and clouded as ever.

He was starting to severely regret asking JARVIS to be turned off in her room. He hadn't wanted to alarm her again if a disembodied voice started talking to her from the ceiling but it meant that they also risked not hearing immediately from the AI if she had escaped.

What he couldn't understand was how the girl was standing at all, let alone how'd she had made it all the way up here. Admittedly she was shaking slightly from the effort of standing up but last time she had even tried to stand on her own her legs had been too weak and she had crumpled to the floor

"You can walk," he remarked, cocking his head to the side slightly.

"Get out the way," she hissed back, looking ready to pounce.

"But where are you going," he persisted, careful to keep himself between her and the edge of the roof.

"None of your fucking business, just let me go!"

Clint could feel a wave of heat coming off of her and was starting to realise that if he didn't diffuse the situation fast the tower was going to turn into a very large torch.

"You can leave if you really want," Clint replied, careful to hold eye contact to show he wasn't deceiving her, "but I don't think you know where you're going to go once you leave."

She remained where she was, fists still raised, her brown eyes boring into him.

"You know that sooner or later HYDRA is going to come for you again, and that when they do, you will be powerless against them."

"Liar," she spat, although she flinched slightly at the mention of HYDRA.

"We both know you know that's not true," Clint continued, "If you stay with us here, we can offer you protection and a safe place to recover."

"But I don't trust whoever you people are either! How do I know you're not just gonna turn out to be exactly the same, taking advantage of me and what I can do?"

Shit Clint thought. He hadn't realised Helena still didn't trust them, sure she hadn't talked much, in fact this was the longest conversation he'd had with her, but she had complied with being treated. She must have been planning her escape for a while, complying in order to lead them into a false sense of security and then lying about the regained use of her legs. It all made sense now and he cursed himself for not noticing the clear signs.

She shook her head and tried to push past him, moving towards the edge of the roof.

Clint followed at a safe distant, careful to watch her every move in order to prevent her from actually killing herself.

"You've got no reason to trust us." She whipped around and stared at him, dangerously close to the edge.

"But you will regret leaving, especially when HYDRA comes looking for you. We're not like HYDRA, we fight them in order to prevent the kinda thing that has happened to you. I'm not asking you trust us just yet, all I can give you is my word that we would never intentionally harm you in any way."

She turned to stare out across the glowing lights of New York, listening to the hum of traffic in the streets below.

"I don't trust you," she replied finally and Clint's stomach dropped; but she continued, " I don't trust anyone anymore, but I can't go back to HYDRA."

She raised her head to meet his gaze and for the first time Clint could see the vulnerability in her eyes she normally kept so guarded.

He also noticed the way she was shaking more than she had done before. Whether it was the cold or the effort of standing upright or both of these combined, her actions seemed to have finally caught up with her.

Her eyes widened as she seemed to realise, "Shit," she muttered. Her knees gave way and Clint dived forward just in time to stop her smacking into the ground. He pulled her close to his chest, slid his arm under her knees and easily lifted her off the ground.

Clint quirky crossed the distance to where the door to the stairwell stood ajar and managed to toe it open whilst hopping on his good leg. They had deactivated the lifts on the upper floors incase Helena tried to make a run for it, hoping they would find her in time if she took the stairs.

Clint stared down at the dark stairwell that seemed to never end and sighed. It was never the easy way when it came to him.

Well that was bloody long. Hopefully you found that mildly entertaining? Please let me know what you think by kindly reviewing and feel free to leave your thoughts about Endgame. Ive got 3 weeks until my exams end so I won't be updating for a little while but after that the updates will become more regular.

-R