I do not own the avengers

It had been years since she had seen her brother and yet the few minutes between being free and finding him seemed to take the longest time out of any of them. A million and one questions spiralled around Ella's head, but none of them really mattered now. Now, she can find out the answers for herself. Perhaps she should have felt nervous – after all, who is to say that they would recognise each other, or even still get on the same way as they once did – but for some reason Ella wasn't nervous. She was anxious with anticipation yes, but not nervous. She knew Clint, and when they saw each other once more, that was all that really mattered.

The cars outside still zoomed past the road without a care in the world but even their pace, to Ella, seemed far too slow.
"How far till…," she began
"Not long," Natasha interrupted, almost as excited as she was on Clint's behalf, though she didn't show any of this emotion on the outside of course.
"Yeah, we parked the jet in a park just around the corner. We couldn't get any closer according to the resident driver but personally I think that if you had added an anti-grav modular circuit it would work oh so much better," Tony summarised. "But you probably don't care about circuits or stuff. No-one ever does."

Tony filled the moments left apart with endless idle chatter that seemed to go on for hours, but Ella didn't mind it for it filled the time. Suddenly, just as Tony had suggested, they rounded the corner into the park. A huge plane dwarfed the entire area, its underside had a ramp that had lowered gently to the ground. Sitting on it, two men, who Ella would later find out were called Bruce and Steve, were lounging, talking to another agitated looked man. That man had short brown hair, and eyes… like her own.

Ella just stood there for a moment staring at him: he patted his hand on his knee nervously, just like she always did before a mission. Then he looked straight at her. Even from this distance, Ella could see his heart freeze in disbelief. Then he stood up and swiftly covered the distance between them.
"Ella," he said softly when he reached her.
"Clint?" Ella replied, half asking. No more words were said for Ella was soon swallowed up in a massive hug, Clint never normally liked showing his weaknesses in front of his team, but he couldn't help it in this situation.
"I'm so sorry Ella.. they… they told me you were dead." He stammered out.
"You are not getting rid of me that easily." A muffled voice spoke out softly. "It doesn't matter anymore." Ella didn't know what to say. What do you say to a person you haven't seen in years? Words cannot amount to the sheer emotion running through both of their veins. So they didn't say anything. Perhaps there wasn't anything to say, perhaps just being together was enough.
"Hey, happy family reunion and all that la de da but don't you think we oughtta go." Tony said, blunt as ever. Still on the jet, Steve could be seen rolling his eyes in exasperation. Yet neither sibling had had quite enough of each other yet.
"Come on man, big scary organisation with guns could come running in here any moment." He tried again.
"Clint." Another voice cut through the scene softly. It was Natasha that was able to get through to the man in question. Regretfully, he pulled away from his sister slightly, still unwilling to fully let her go. It meant a lot to him. This was a moment he never thought he would see, and my goodness, he was going to make the most of it. In fact, though he would never admit it to anyone, Ella couldn't help but notice a small trail of water trickle down his face before it was swiftly wiped away.

"I think this belongs to you." He said, passing over the bird necklace that had become very well thumbed over the last few hours. Ella clasped it in her hand tightly, never wanting to get rid of what had become her beacon of hope these last years.
"Let's get you home." He whispered in a voice that was so unlike his normal tone. Ella smiled softly as hand in hand they followed the others inside the jet.
"I'll pilot, Tony can join me." Natasha announced, reassuring Clint who had enough thoughts in his mind to think about flying a plane on top of everything else.
"Hey, wait one minute. I never co-pilot."
"Really Tony," Bruce spoke up for the first time,
"Pilot or not at all." Tony was unwilling to move his stance, but neither was Natasha. She just looked at him, eyebrow raised and hand on hip. If it were from anyone else, it would probably just look laughable, but from Natasha, it just highlighted her red room roots.
"On second thoughts, I might just stick to co –piloting." He mumbled. Ella couldn't help but giggle silently in the background as she took a seat on the side of the jet. Laughing wasn't something people generally did in the facility, but she was out of there now and could do as she pleased.

"Are they always like this?" she asked her brother.
"Pretty much." Another voice answered her, "I'm Steve."
"Bruce." The man next to him introduced himself as well.
"I guess you know who I am. Nice to meet you." Ella tried to be friendly, but at the same time a yawn that slipped out probably gave the opposite impression. Steve, ever the gentleman, didn't say anything, but turned to speak to Bruce instead, giving her some privacy.
"Go to sleep," Clint whispered in her ear, "I'll still be here when you wake up." He promised,
"You'd better be." Ella half threatened as she leant into him and shut her eyes. She didn't notice Natasha turning around from the front seat and smile fondly at Clint. She didn't notice everyone on the jet lowering their voices to a hum, and she didn't notice Clint snoring loudly beside her, for once sleeping at ease.

...

"We're here." Natasha woke the two siblings up. Gingerly, Ella blinked to clear her mind as she adjusted to the newfound light. Tony was up front still, fiddling with a few controls as Natasha moved over to wake up Bruce. It appeared Steve hadn't slept in favour of reading a book instead. And Clint? Well, as promised he had not left Ella's side all journey.
"Morning." He said, Morning, a new day, the first day in which Ella was free. That's when Clint realised it. Perhaps they had been too busy last night what with getting her out the facility and all. Perhaps he just wasn't able to see because it was dark. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that Ella was wearing old clothes that were full of dust and grime … and blood.
"Your hurt." He said bluntly,
"It's nothing, old wounds." Ella brushed it off. She had had worse before. Sure it had hurt last night, but at the facility, the Shadowless had taught her not to feel pain. She would deal with it later when she was alone.
"It doesn't look like nothing." Clint argued.
"Leave it." Ella said sharply, leaving no room for arguments. She had taken care of herself for years hadn't she. She didn't need Clint being all protective all of a sudden. Control you anger, store it and use it later. That's what the Shadowless taught her to trying to keep her emotions in check. I guess they meant it for a different purpose, to attack when the time was right for them. Nonetheless, she did as she was taught and bottled it down. Natasha walked up next to her and looked at Clint
"Ready?" she said as the doors opened up and natural daylight rushed in. That's when all hell broke loose…

Hey! Don't really think I quite found the right words to express Clint and Ella's emotions, but I hope I at least get across the idea that they are feeling overwhelmed and are perhaps not acting themselves at the moment. In any case, I had fun writing Tony, so I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as I enjoyed writing it.