A/N: Well hello! It's been way too long and words don't describe how much I freaking miss updating this every other day. School is just a lot, way too overwhelming for my liking. And this would have been updated last night but I came home and passed out for about thirteen hours, but I'm here now! Hopefully I'm able to make this good for you and worth the wait; thank you for over a hundred reviews, by the way! That's so amazing. I won't say much about this chapter, but it's pretty fucking hilarious for the most part. I do have a lot more planned for this, so don't give up yet, we still have a way to go and I think you guys will really enjoy what's to come in future chapters. It'll play into the sequel that I have most definitely started planning. Now enjoy. ;)

Chapter Twenty One: Something About a Hand to Hold

After Natasha, everyone came in to visit at their respected times; which naturally, was all at once. It was a little hard for all of them to be the first ones in the door, but eventually, they all managed to push their way into the room. Katniss had only been slightly stirring from the sleep that she'd been rendered into thanks to the dosages of morphine she was still on for the pain in her back by the time they'd come bombarding in the room. She smiled weakly at the sight of all of them stumbling over one another and trying to claim the chair next to her bed.

"Will you guys get out of my way—"

"Shh, we're not all supposed to be in here at once you know."

"I'd love to see Fury try and make me obey the rules."

"Way to enter quietly," Katniss muttered feebly. It took her a moment to find the strength in her to pull herself up from the bed, sitting up so that she could see all of them. The last time she'd seen any of them, they were covered in grime, sweat and blood, but now they all seemed pretty put together. Thor wasn't wearing his ridiculous Halloween costume and was in regular clothing, which seemed a little out of place, it being a new look for him. The rest of them were in their usual dressed-down clothes; Tony and the Black Sabbath t-shirt, Steve and Bruce's dress shirts, Clint in a plain grey t-shirt, all of them looking particularly tired.

Tony was the first one to make it to her side, reaching down and hugging her. Katniss had been slightly taken by surprise but she did her best to attempt at hugging him back. The last time she'd seen him, he was disappearing into a portal, as good as dead. He might not have been the most child-friendly of the group, but Tony did give good hugs; his arms were wrapped around her gingerly, as if he were scared that he would break her.

"Sorry baby bird," Tony admitted not-so-sheepishly, shrugging as he sat down on the foot of her hospital bed. "We're the Avengers, having an ounce of subtlety to us might as well be outlawed."

Steve had managed to win the contest of nabbing the chair next to her bed, doing his best to inconspicuously slide it up a little closer so he was in the vicinity of reaching for her hand limply lying down on the bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked, disregarding Tony's comments per usual.

"You took a pretty rough blow back in New York," Bruce commented.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Big Bird over here was crying the whole time you were in surgery," Tony added in, smirking in Clint's direction. It was wiped quickly off his face by the time he caught sight of the daggers Clint was firing his way, Tony's shoulders slouching slightly in defeat as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Only because he was worried; very, very worried, like the rest of us."

Thor rolled his eyes, snorting. "If any one of us was crying, the evident answer is Stark."

"Was not."

"That you were."

"O-kay," Katniss interrupted, her voice still quiet as she did her best to reign in the kindergartners of teammates she had been bestowed with. "All of you were crying, we'll just leave it at that." Her fingers weakly stretched out before retracting once more, trying to find the best way to shake herself out of the drowsiness she was still trapped in from the morphine injections.

Clint had been standing over in the corner, staring at Katniss quietly with one of his hands holding his chin as he observed closely. Her eyes flickered over there, eyebrows furrowing. "Clint?" she asked. "Is everything okay?" All heads turned his way, and he seemed rather surprised that he'd been thrust under the spotlight like that.

"Just thinking," he mused.

"About?"

"What we're going to do with you after you get out of here," Clint replied, and a groan pushed its way out of her throat even though she hadn't entirely meant for it to.

"Don't tell me you sided with Natasha on all of her bullshit," she sighed.

"What? What bullshit?" Tony asked, his eyes darting all over the room. Clint seemed like he hadn't heard anything of this, stepping forward.

Katniss sighed. "Natasha's packing my things for me and mailing me back to the Middle of Nowhere the second she gets the chance." The looks on everyone's faces gave her some insight that they'd heard nothing of the sort, especially Clint. He looked near furious, his jaw setting and eyes going dark.

"No offense Barton, but what the hell is your girlfriend smoking?" Tony spat.

"She's not my girlfriend," Clint fired back just as quickly.

"You think she's going to actually go through with it?" asked Bruce.

Everyone looked to Clint and he just shrugged. "Don't know. Once Natasha sets her mind on something it's hard to change it. She sticks with the initial plan and drives it all the way home. Then again," he added, tilting his head in contemplation. "If there's anyone who's more persistent and hard-headed than her, it's her child."

Steve hadn't taken his eyes off of Katniss, his expression for the most part blank. "Katniss is one of us; we can't let her go through with this. We'll stop her, find a way."

"Cap, I thoroughly doubt your shield's going to hold off Natasha."

"Do you ever say anything positive, Stark?

"This affects all of us, not just you!" Tony said, the edge growing in his voice. "Katniss is Clint's daughter, my goddaughter. You're not the only one who she means something to."

Bruce was standing next to the opposite of her bed, deep in thought. "As wrong as it is," he pondered aloud. "You can't blame Natasha for wanting to keep her safe."

"Are you seriously siding with Natasha?" Katniss asked softly, in utter disbelief. Bruce was the last person that she'd expected to swing for the other team, especially after the friendship that she hoped she still had with him had been formed.

He gestured around all of them with his hands. "Look around, the woman makes a point. You're in the medic wing because you got stabbed. You've got rehab scheduled for you the next few weeks once you're back to moving, you're half-high on morphine still because it hurts you too much to roll over on your side. I know you don't want to be protected, but that's our job. We're a team, and we protect each other, not because we doubt anyone's abilities, but because we care."

Katniss winced slightly at the unintended harshness in the last sentence, Steve's hand instinctively moving further on the surface of her bed to grab hers. There was a small relief in feeling her hand being embraced by his; his hand being larger and wrapping all the way over and around and the sign being hidden from Clint by the natural barrier of the height in Katniss' hips. She still hadn't told Clint about the kiss, and she thoroughly doubted that Steve had made the first move to talk to him about it either. "He's right, you know," he said quietly. Katniss' head rolled to the side, her eyes squinting. "We were all scared you weren't going to make it."

"We thought you had died," Clint interrupted, his voice cold. He was staring at the floor, deeply in thought. "We sat in that waiting room for over four hours, not knowing if you were lying there lifeless on the operating table or what. If the doctors would be able to fix you, if we'd have to start making plans and decisions; we were stuck between a rock and a wall. Kid, you'll be lucky if you make it out of anyone's sight by choice here for the next few decades."

"Not if Natasha's got anything to do with it, apparently," Katniss whispered.

"Katniss, no one is going to let her—"

"I can't go back!" she finally interrupted, her voice cracking even in the soft volumes she was speaking at. "You…you don't understand, I can't go back there. The one person that I cared about and cared about me is now dead and going back there...no one even knew I was gone, didn't care if I was dead or not. Besides, now that I know what it's like to not be alone?" Katniss' voice got even quieter as she stared downwards, away from everyone else's gaze. "Going back there would just hurt too much."

Steve's thumb ran over the top of her hand reassuringly. "No one's going to let her do that to you," he tried again, his voice calm. "We're not going to give you up without any kind of fight." She lifted her eyes cautiously, locking them onto his and giving him a soft smile. "I'm not going to."

It was like every other eye in the room was on them, and Katniss could feel the rest of the people in her room burning holes in her sides. Clint peeled himself off of the wall, straightening up, and Tony's eyebrow lifted. The heat was already rising to her face as she kept her eyes on Steve, thinking maybe if she didn't acknowledge the others through eye contact, they'd stop looking. The silence in the room was deafening. "Um…" Bruce started awkwardly. "Did we miss something here?"

No one dared to speak, not even Tony, who never seemed to have a shortage of words tucked up inside that head of his. "Katniss?" Clint tried, the edge in his voice growing harder.

"Let's just leave it at the fact we had a moment."

Steve's choice of words clearly weren't the right ones, because it was like he'd struck a match. Tony looked beyond elated, Bruce and Thor were both turning infinite volumes of red, Katniss looked as though she wanted to disappear on the spot and Clint had murder dancing in his eyes.

"How in the hell—"

"Wow, Cap, didn't think you had it in you!"

"—fighting off Loki's army the whole time, hardly a moment for fornication—"

Thor's statement clued Katniss in as to what everyone was really going on about, and she rolled her eyes, shaking her head profusely. "Oh my god, are your minds really that far down in the gutter?" she groaned. "Nothing like that happened." A collective sigh went around the room, Katniss falling back against the pillow as she found it a bit tiring to keep holding herself upright.

"So," Tony sang out, rocking forward slightly. "What did happen then?"

She might have been stabbed in the back, but Katniss was still able to shoot him a look that could have sent him twelve feet under. "You don't need details unless you'd like an arrow between your eyes," she growled.

"Seriously Clint, she's pretty much Natasha's carbon copy with your eyes and my fabulous hair—"

"I'm perfectly capable of getting my bow right now," Clint threatened.

"Guys," Steve interrupted. "Do you think that you guys could maybe give us a moment, you know, alone?" Tony sprang off of the bed without missing a beat, a devilish grin on his face. He grabbed Thor by the wrist, dragging him out the door before anyone could say anything else.

"You kids have fun!" he chirped. Clearly, Tony was all for the alone time—Katniss would have to make sure he hadn't bugged the room later—but Bruce and Clint were both rather hesitant. Neither one of them moved an inch.

"Clint," Katniss said softly once she noticed that Clint was still staring at her, as if he thought she was crazy for suggesting he leave. "I want to talk to him."

"He can get in line," Clint mumbled. "I want to talk to you too." Katniss gave him a look, as if she were telling him that it would be okay if Steve got her first. After a moment, his shoulders dropped as he gave his compromise. "Fifteen minutes." With that, he went storming out of the room, Bruce awkwardly following him out. The door slammed shut behind him, most likely Clint's doing.

It was like an enormous weight had been taken off of her shoulders and that she could finally breathe again. There was nothing like seeing her teammates and knowing that physically, they were all okay, especially after New York, but nothing had changed. They still got annoying after ten minutes. Being alone with Steve also made things slightly tenser, as they couldn't keep avoiding the obvious any longer. Katniss closed her eyes, scratching the side of her head with her free hand. "I hope I didn't make him mad," Steve muttered.

"Even if he is mad, it's not your fault," Katniss said.

There was a moment of heavy silence hanging over their heads as the two of them did their best to ignore eye contact. It was almost like the rest of the team was in there, staring them down and waiting for someone to speak. "Steve," she began, sighing, but she found herself drowned out in the sound of his voice.

"You promised me you'd be fine," he burst, letting go of her hand and sliding back from her bed. She stared at him horrified. "You told me you were gonna be okay, that you were coming back, and when…when Romanoff said that you were dying? We had to look at your body, Katniss, your body, unable to figure out if you were even still alive, had to help them load it on the Quinjet. And…and waiting, in that room, for something, waiting for them to come out and tell us that you hadn't made it, you just don't…if you had died, your last words being 'I'll be back' and you never did? Do you know what that does to a person?"

"I'm…I'm sorry," Katniss managed to utter out. "I didn't expect to be stabbed, you know. It's not like I knew that was going to happen."

Steve fell quiet, trying to catch his breath from his ranting. "I've lost too many people in my lifetime, Katniss. Too many people, and I thought I'd lost you too."

Katniss shook her head. "But you haven't. I'm still here, Steve."

Steve stared at her, seeming to be at a loss for words. After what felt almost like an eternity, the chair he was sitting in moved closer towards her bedside, him reaching out for her hand. She met him halfway, her fingers curling around his. The feeling was natural, like it was supposed to have been that way. "So what now?" he asked.

"Um, rehab, I guess," Katniss rattled off. "Fighting off Natasha at some point to keep me from going back home, and after that…I don't know. I'm open to suggestions."

One of his eyebrows lifted quizzically. "How about being normal for once?"

"We're not exactly normal people," Katniss pointed out, a small laugh following.

Steve shook his head. "No, I know that. I mean…the next step doesn't have to be this craziness. The world isn't just this, you know, not all the time. Not ever, if you don't want it to. I can show you around; you've never been past your four walls, and even though I might not be the best tour guide in the world given the circumstances, New York hasn't changed any. It's still beautiful—isn't always on fire, you know. After you get done with rehab, the two of us can go to Central Park and spend some time together, just as normal people. Drink some lemonade, enjoy the day off—no taking orders or putting up with Stark's behavior, or anyone else's for that matter."

"What's lemonade?" Katniss asked. The look Steve gave her was one of appall, and she couldn't help but to laugh at it. "So, just me and you then?" Katniss asked him, one of her eyebrows lifting out of curiosity. Steve nodded, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze as confirmation.

"Me and you," he agreed, standing up to kiss her forehead.

. . .

Clint hadn't come back in the promised fifteen minutes; there had hardly been any time before a plethora of doctors came in and started giving her a round of her medications and checking on her stitches. It hadn't been much longer before she found herself growing sleepy, and Steve had told her not to worry about it, to just get some rest. The entire time she'd been fighting her closing eyes, trying to remind herself that Clint was coming back to talk to her. It hadn't worked; she was already too far under to pull herself out.

Her sleep was dreamless, however, she startled herself awake at the feeling of her falling off what she could have sworn was the Stark Tower. She was on high alert, eyes darting all over the room in a quick scan. The chair that Steve had been sitting in when she'd fallen asleep was pushed farther away from her bedside, and Steve was no longer sitting there. It was Clint, who was deep in thought as he stared at the side of her bed.

Trying to catch her breath, she watched as his eyes flicked up to hers. "You're awake," he said calmly. "Everything okay?"

"I…yeah," Katniss breathed. "Nightmare. I have them."

Clint nodded, inching the chair up a little closer to her. "Rogers said you wanted to see me and then you ended up falling asleep."

"You said fifteen minutes, I was holding onto that."

"Well, I'm here now," Clint said. "Katniss—"

"Look, I know," she interrupted, rather irritated that she was having this conversation for what felt like the millionth time today. "You're…pissed, you're upset, you're angry, you're glad I'm okay, you're all of that. I get that I almost died, Clint. And maybe I should have listened to you, but I'm not a little girl. I never was."

"I wasn't going to say that. I was going to tell you that I'm sorry you felt like we doubted you by trying to protect you. You just have to understand that it's new territory for a lot of us. You're the youngest, and more importantly, you're our child. If you die, your mother is going after everyone who had anything to do with it with the wrath of God dancing in her eyes."

Katniss bit down on her lower lip. "Have you uh, you know, talked to Natasha yet?"

Clint shook his head, rubbing his jaw. "Not yet, she's currently MIA." The look on Katniss' face must have been much worse than she figured, because he was quick to reassure her fears. "She's still on the Helicarrier; the woman might be mad but she's not stupid. She just doesn't want to be found right now. My guess is, she's still doing her best to avoid that long conversation with Fury about where the hell she's been for the past five years."

"Australia," Katniss found herself saying. She shrugged. "Said she went to Australia after Budapest, moved around a lot after that."

"So not only has she told you what you're going to do after this, but she's telling you what happened to her?" Clint asked, the tone in his voice bitter.

Katniss nodded, before bringing up the Natasha thing once again. "Are you going to agree with her, ship me off too?"

The hurt in her voice was there as she tried to avoid eye contact with Clint. "You hunted for your own food when you were fourteen; I think you know what's best for you at this point in the game. Do I want to keep you safe and away from the madness this world brings along with it? Yeah. But I also know that sending you back isn't going to help you or anyone else anymore. Rogers would probably go after Natasha if that happened, and hate to admit it, but I'd be right there beside him."

"So…if I said that I wanted to join SHIELD after this, you'd let me?"

Clint's face fell. "We'll see about that one."

She couldn't help but to smile at him. "I'm glad I'm okay," she finally whispered.

"Me too, kid."

Clint stood up, reaching down to give her a hug. It wasn't like the first hug that he'd given her, or the hug that she'd given him after she'd gotten off of Stark Tower after her panic attack. This one wasn't one fueled by the tensions rising around them, but rather, one out of relief. Relief that they were both okay and that they would continue to be okay. She buried her face in his shoulder, sighing. "I love you," he muttered so softly that Katniss wasn't entirely sure that he'd said it to begin with.

Going out on a limb, she replied, "Love you too."

There was another moment of silence as he pulled away from her, rubbing the back of his neck. "Go back to sleep; I'll tell the others—mostly Tony, who's been demanding to come see you and give you Iron Man socks so you can apparently feel more at home—that you're just not up for company." Katniss snickered at the thought of Tony acting like his usual three year old self again; Natasha was right, his ego had definitely broken the fall. "I'm going to go and try to find Natasha, she and I have a lot to talk about."

Katniss nodded. "Good luck with that." She paused, before speaking up again. "I know I'm probably not one to…judge on this, but she does care about you. I can see it."

He gave her a sad smile, as if he actually doubted that statement. With that, he gave one of her shoulders a light squeeze before making his way towards the door. Clint's hand was hovering over the doorknob right about the time he stopped, turning back around. "Oh, and one more thing."

"Shoot."

"You and Rogers…whatever's happening there, I really don't want to know about it." Katniss' face turned red, a small smile on her face as she watch Clint grow more embarrassed the more he talked about it. "Just make sure he knows that if he hurts you, I'm a professional sniper and your mother's an assassin."

Katniss laughed. "Don't worry; he knows I can kick his ass whenever I feel like it."

"'Atta girl."

A/N: I kind of love writing the dialogue based chapters, seeing as how I can let the snark run untamed. It was nice getting to write the interactions with the whole team again, and some Clintniss and Steveniss. I hope that this wasn't too much of a filler chapter; I don't want to unload everything on you at once. Besides, this sequel that I'm planning needs some sort of setup, right? Next chapter is one that I know you all will LOVE, because it's going to focus around the main pairing of this story—Clintasha. You can go ahead and scream, I'll wait. How do you think that conversation's going to go? Do you think Natasha's going to let Katniss stay, or do you think Katniss is going to have to defy her mother and go on the run with Steve—which, might I add, would be a fabulous twist. Let me know what you thought of this and what you can't wait to see in that pretty little review. Also, tell me what your favorite line was in this chapter, because there were a lot of good ones. I love you guys and hopefully it won't be forever 'til this next update. School's just a bitch.