As promised - here's the next one. Tried something a little different here. Hope you like it.

Hawk AWOL

Day 3

"Hey, Tasha. Just wondering – any chance you've seen the Hawk recently?"

"Clint? Not today. Why, do you need him for anything?"

"Huh? No. As I said, just wondering."

"He likes to go off on his own for a few days now and then."

"Oh. Okay. Good."

Day 10

"His stuff. It's gone."

"And how would you – wait a minute. Did you go snooping around his room?"

"Whoa! Don't rip my head off! Jesus. I just – well, I'm getting a little worried. I mean, it's been almost two weeks. That hardly qualifies as 'a few days', does it?"

"According to Clint's standards, it does."

"Really? What's the longest he's ever been gone like this?"

"Three and a half weeks."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"…"

"Well, if you're really, really worried, I guess you can always ask the director. Clint usually tells him around when he'll be back."

"Fury? I don't think I'm that worried – yet."

Day 28

"Fury doesn't know where he is, either."

"You spoke to him?"

"Not – exactly …"

"Then how - You didn't."

"…"

"…"

"Hey, don't look at me like that! It's not my fault they can't get their mainframe hacker-proof. I'm actually doing them a favour by showing them all those gaps in their security protocols, you know? I mean, just imagine it wasn't me but one of the bad –"

"Not interested, Stark. – What did you find out?"

"No one seems to know where he is. Your dear partner seems to have dropped off the face of the world."

"…"

"My thoughts exactly. It's really odd, isn't it? Here we are, watching that stupid movie together and suddenly, he walks out because he's got 'stuff to do'. And that's the last we see of him."

"You're absolutely sure he's not on a mission? It might be classified. Or undercover."

"Well, if it is, then it's so classified and undercover not even Fury knows about it. He's sent memos to every other SHIELD-branch out there to be on the look-out for the Hawk."

"It might still be a top secret undercover mission. To get Clint into – I don't know, into some criminal organization or something."

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be more plausible, in that case, to let him have a big public fall-out with his fellow Avengers and demonstrate to the world at large that he's not one of them anymore?"

"True."

"See? He's gone missing. – What?"

"There is another option … - No. He wouldn't."

"He wouldn't what?"

"Change sides. I mean, really change sides."

"Right. He's about as likely to do that as the Hulk is to join the Harlem Gospel Singers anytime soon."

"Great. Thanks for that image, Stark."

"Could it be – something else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well – we don't know what exactly Loki did to him and – no, please, let me finish before you kill me, okay? What if he didn't manage to get rid of it all? Or Loki hid something in his mind? And something – well, activated it?"

"Like a sleeper persona, you mean?"

"Yeah, I guess, something like that. What do you think? You know him better than anyone else here."

"…"

"Thing is, if that's what's happened, I think it's about time we tried to find him so we can –"

"- bring him in to SHIELD to lock him up for good or get rid of him?"

"Hell, no! I was gonna bring him here so we – Bruce and I – could try to find a way to help him. Provided, of course, that's really what happened."

"…"

"Tasha?"

"Right. I'll be leaving for a mission tomorrow and gonna be away for a while. Keep me updated – or else, I will kill you."

Day 37

"Hey, Tasha, it's Tony. Just wanted to let you know that I found him. I haven't told the others, yet. I'm gonna try talk to him tomorrow, so if I'm not there when you get back, I'm either dead cos he killed me or on the run from you cos I botched it."