"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury says as he shakes Bruce's hand. Clint watches as Bruce looks anywhere but at Fury, eyes lowered, biting his bottom lip in a clear sign of anxiety. Clint desperately wants to go over there and put a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder, but of course, Bruce doesn't know Clint from Adam right now. Clint really has to have that talk with Bruce as soon as possible.
"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce finally answers, a hint of self-mocking in his tone. "So, um, how long am I staying?" he asks warily.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind," Fury promises sincerely, and Clint spares a brief moment to pray that nothing he changes will end up making that promise the truth.
"Well, where are you with that?" Bruce asks, sounding relieved to be getting down to business. Fury directs him over to the railing above where Clint and Phil are standing. Fury gestures to Phil.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Phil reports, crossing his arms. Clint just leans back against the desk next to Jasper Sitwell, watching. Professional Phil is hot. "Cell phones, laptops," Phil continues as Steve heads over to listen and Tasha crouches down next to one of the computers running the face trace on Loki. "If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us," Phil concludes.
"It's still not going to find him in time," Tasha points out.
"You have to narrow your field," Bruce says, confidence seeping into his tone as finds his way back to his comfort zone. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?" he asks Fury.
"How many are there?"
"Call every lab you know," Bruce orders, taking off his jacket. He turns his attention to Phil. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays," he says turning back to face Fury. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. You have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff?" Fury calls, "show Dr. Banner to his laboratory please." Tasha nods and walks swiftly over to Fury and Bruce.
"You're gonna love it, Doc," she says, moving toward the elevator without stopping, Bruce following behind. "We've got all the toys."
"So," Steve says, coming to stand beside Phil and Clint, "Agent Romanov said something about trading cards?"
It's the tone Clint notices first. Steve's eyes are sparklingly and he's grinning and the tone is cheeky and teasing. Clint has time to feel grateful that their talk seems to have given Steve back some of his equilibrium before the the words themselves register and all the blood drains from Clint's face. He actually sways a little in shock at the sudden, brutal reminder of the last time he saw those cards, and when Phil grabs his arm to steady him, he can barely feel it over the panicked thump of his pulse loud in his ears and heavy in his chest. He forces himself to take a deep, shaky breath and opens eyes he doesn't remember closing to see Steve watching him with anxious concern. Clint leans subtly against Phil until he can feel the strength and the warmth of him pressing up against Clint's side.
"I'm so sorry," Steve is saying but his voice sounds distant and Clint forces himself to snap back into focus.
"It's ok," he says finally, proud that his voice doesn't waver. "It's not your fault. Just . . . bad memories." Half of Clint wants to drag Phil to the closest utility closet and fuck him up against the wall just to reassure himself that Phil really is still here. The other half wants to go grab the cards from Phil's locker and make Steve sign them with the absurd conviction that if the cards are signed, Phil will be safe.
"We'll explain later," Phil says, just as Jasper turns around in his chair.
"We've got a hit," he says, "sixty-seven percent match. Wait, cross-match. Seventy-nine percent." Phil gives Clint a discreet shoulder-squeeze and moves forward to look at Sitwell's terminal.
"Location?" Phil asks.
"Stuttgart, Germany. Twenty-eight Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
"Sir, we have confirmation from from our surveillance at the Stuttgart Institute. Webster is there with about a dozen mercs," Hill reports from the other side of the room.
"Are all the workers evacuated?" Fury asks.
"Yes, sir."
"What about the retinal scanner?"
"Deactivated."
"Then tell our people to hold back for now," Fury orders, raising an eyebrow at Phil. Phil and Clint exchange glances and nod. Fury turns to Steve.
"Captain, you're up." Steve takes a deep breath and nods, turning to leave the bridge. Clint jogs a few steps to catch up with him, Phil right behind.
"Can we have a few minutes before you go?" he asks. Steve looks curious but glances at Fury first. Fury nods his permission, and Steve smiles.
"Sure. Where?"
"There's a conference room just down the hall," Phil says, leading the way.
They settle themselves at one end of the conference table, Phil at the head of the table and Clint and Steve opposite each other next to him.
"Ok," Clint starts, "We'll be quick. Just wanted to give you a few tips for dealing with Tony Stark."
"Howard's son?" Steve asks, clearly confused. "I haven't met him yet."
"You will," Clint says, "If we know where Loki is then so does Tony, and that's where he'll be. And tip number one - don't mention Howard."
"I know he was your friend," Phil adds. "But he changed after you crashed. He became more cynical and bitter. And by all accounts he wasn't exactly a very good father."
"The quickest way to piss off Tony Stark is by comparing him to Howard. He never knew the man you knew." Steve looks like he wants to protest, perhaps defend Howard, but after looking at Clint and Phil's serious faces, he sighs in resignation and nods.
"Ok, what else?" Steve asks seriously. Clint lets out a deep breath of relief. He'd worried it would take more to convince Steve to listen, to accept that Howard is a touchy subject.
"Don't underestimate him. He's twice the genius Howard was and he thinks so far out of the box it might as well not even be there. He talks constantly, it's how he works things out in his head, so learn to tune it out if it bothers you. And don't take his attitude at face value. He acts like he doesn't take anything seriously and like he doesn't give a damn but that's just a defense mechanism. And lastly, Tony doesn't work for SHIELD. He's an independent contractor and he became Iron Man years before SHIELD got into the superhero business. He will, hopefully, choose to work with us, but he doesn't answer to Fury, so don't try giving him orders. Treat him like an equal and you should get along ok."
"I can do that," Steve says, nodding. Clint hops up from the table with a grin, Phil standing more sedately.
"Awesome. Go get 'im, Tiger," Clint says, slapping Steve on the shoulder as he heads for the door. Phil throws Steve an apologetic look as he follows.
"So," Clint says to Phil as they walk down the hallway. "Tasha next."
"What are you going to tell her?" Phil asks. Clint grimaces.
"I'm going to tell her that I can't tell her what's going on until she gets back with Loki, and then I'm going to grovel." Phil tries and fails to suppress an amused smirk, earning a glare from Clint.
"I'll help," Phil promises, placatingly.