As soon as Hill finished dressing Clint, she handed the little archer over to Fury and silently took her leave. The faster she got out of there, the less she'd have to do to take care of the archer and the less likely she would be to hurt him. Or at least, that's what she believed. Heaving a great sigh, Fury looked down at the baby now placed in his arms. He had no clue what to do next. Clint, not knowing what was going to happen next, looked up at his boss. Apparently both of them were at a loss. For a moment they just stared at each other. Shaking his head, Fury shifted Clint around in his arms. They needed to get back to work and as he's stated numerous times already, baby or not, Clint was still an Avenger.
"You heard Stark. We need to find who is controlling those things..." Fury stated. A large wide smile appeared on the baby's face. For a second, Fury feared that Clint believed the director would bring him to the actual battle but then the old man came to his senses. Fury shook his head.
"I help!" Clint agreed as Fury began to head over to his desk. The little archer was surprised when seconds later he felt a slight up and down feeling that he had started to associate with laughing. But, Fury? Laughing? No... He couldn't be. Clint didn't spend an average amount of time with Fury and didn't tend to know about the Director's sense of humor. If the two actually did spend more time together outside of work, then maybe they would be better friends.
"Glad you're willing," Fury said back, sounding pleased and rather... Happy. Clint shuddered. He couldn't wait until he returned to normal. The people around him were suddenly acting really strange and it was starting to creep him out. And he was beginning to wonder if it really was because he was turning into a baby or not... "Now, let's get to work."
Fury plopped down in his seat rather harshly but was nice and gentle when it came to putting Clint into his lap. Shrugging it off, Clint focused on the screens before him. He had work to do. The faster he found this fucker, the faster he could get his friends to come and pick him up. A small yawn overcame him. He took a second to glance at a nearby clock. It was getting close to his normal nap time. Even though he was old enough to not need a nap, his body demanded it. Clint mentally cursed. The need to find this guy had increased. Thankfully, without the distractions of having to help his friends or the voices from the comms demanding he do certain things or even having to watch his own neck, it didn't take long for Clint to actually find the man in charge. The controller happened to be on the second computer screen, third image down and forth over. Clint pointed to it. Fury frowned.
"What?" Fury questioned, not getting that Clint was pointing out the main villain. Clint frowned now and pointed at the same area again, this time enforcing it with a loud grunt. Fury raised an eyebrow, looking between the little archer and the screen. "You want that enlarged?"
Clint's frown deepened even more but as he thought about it, he accepted. Might make it easier to point out the controller that way. Fury silently enlarged the image and amazingly he got the correct area on the first try. Clint smiled and leaned even further forward on the desk. Once he was certain that he wouldn't fall, he leaned on one hand and pointed to an area off to the left, hidden slightly in the shadows of a building. Fury leaned in himself to get a closer look.
"What?" Fury asked again. Clint grunted, pressing his finger on the screen to point the figure out. Fury moved again. "I don't... Oh... Is that. Is that the controller?"
"Ya!" Clint cheered. Fury's eye widened before reaching forward for a phone on his desk that Clint hadn't noticed. He pressed one button on it and released it. A moment later, it clicked. Clint frowned.
"What, Sir? I'm a little busy," Hill's voice snipped through the line. Clint's eyes widened before he looked to Fury. Fury smirked. Of course he'd have a direct line to Hill on his phone. Why wouldn't he? He was the director after all.
"Zoom in on Camera TT3104W," Fury commanded. There was a pause. One that Fury and Clint assumed that Hill was using to follow the direction.
"What am I looking at?" Hill growled afterwards. Clint rolled his eyes. Fury sighed. He honestly shouldn't be surprised. Specially seeing as he had acted the same way even with Clint actually pointing.
"On the left, in the building. That's your controller," Fury calmly replied. There was silence over the line. But before Hill could reply, a repulser blast decimated the area. Fury and Clint jumped in surprise. The enemies on the other screens dropped. Steve and Natasha cheered and Hulk began crunching the downed creatures.
"Ha! Thanks, Clint," Tony's voice called over the speakers. Clint laughed at Fury's dumbfounded face. They had forgotten that JARVIS had hacked the systems and so he was spying on them. Hence he had heard the whole conversation. And of course, JARVIS would know where the camera was located and been able to get Tony the target's location more than likely before Hill even spotted the guy on the screen. "So wait. Does this mean, he has to sit through debrief too?"
"He would have had to anyways, Tony. All his babysitters would have been in it," Steve's voice echoed back. Tony laughed.
"So, you're telling me that even as a five month old, Clint could pick out the man in charge before all of S.H.I.E.L.D?" Natasha growled, bouncing said babe on her knee. Clint chuckled at the feeling. Fury said nothing as he pretty much had since they arrived back on the Helicarrier. Hill at least looked a bit sheepish. Natasha's eyes narrowed. "Should we be worried?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D got along fine before the Avengers," Fury argued. Natasha rolled her eyes. Tony scoffed.
"Then Thor happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We heard it all before," Tony yapped. Clint chuckled again as Natasha bounced him higher in her agitation. Steve shook his head. He really should be more concerned with stopping this but... The fight had aggravated him along with the others. Just being down Thor and Hawkeye shouldn't have made them look and feel so lost. S.H.I.E.L.D should have been able to step up. "If you want, we could go on vacation and we'll see how well you can handle things now."
"Why do you think Clint was brought on as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent in the first place? Why do you think I allowed him to join the Avengers when so many objected it? I know he's good. Out of all of you, Clint is the only one not medically or mechanically enhanced. Yet, he still holds his own. Hell, I might be inclined to call him the best one out of all of you considering it is all him out there, but I don't... So BACK OFF!" Fury ordered. Tony backed down rather quickly at that. Natasha stopped bouncing Clint, who seemed shocked at the director's words. Steve looked slightly humbled, almost as if he hadn't thought about those facts before. Bruce seemed worried about the archer now. It had been pointed out before that technically, Clint was the only human on the team but... Clint had proven himself fine. But all it takes is one off day. "Now. Considering I can't get Hawkeye's report on this mission... We are going to act like Iron Man got lucky. Got it?"
"But," Steve started in protest, never liking when he was forced to lie on mission reports. Fury leveled a glare on him. It lasted a second before Clint let out a huge yawn that had been building since the beginning of the meeting. Fury smiled at the sight of it, and not about the fact that it was adorably cute. He pointed to Clint, who leaned back into Natasha's chest as Natasha shifted to allow him to curl up into her.
"We could sit here for a few hours, trying to rehash the whole battle from each person, keeping Clint awake the whole time. Or you can write your reports at the tower, saying in each of them, that Stark got off a lucky shot and let Clint nap. Which will it be, Captain?" Fury purposed. Steve frowned, looking his comrades over. Bruce always tended to need sleep after a battle and never did well in debriefs after a mission. Tony usually always tried to start fights even on his best behavior. Natasha and Clint were normally silent unless spoken too and even then used as little words as possible to be as unhelpful as possible but their reports were always filled with details. Steve sighed.
"Tower," Clint whined, tiredly before sticking his thumb into his mouth. A trait he had only recently picked up. One that Bruce told the others not to worry about as it was because he believed Clint was starting to teethe. Steve nodded. Fury grunted, grabbed the papers that he had brought with him that were basically blank filler paper to make it seem like they had already filled out stuff for this attack and left the room. Hill quickly followed on his heel. The Avengers were slow to follow after. Fury noted that Natasha still carried Clint and Steve had retrieved the bag that he had brought from his office.
By the time Clint woke from his nap that after noon, everyone had amazingly finished their report on the attack. And that meant everyone. Even Tony, the one who normally skipped paperwork. So that meant they were all prepared to play with the babe when he finally woke. A quick change of his diaper, a confirmation of a diaper rash and an addition of Destin cream to clear it up, then off they all went to the living room. At first, Clint basically wanted nothing to do with anyone. His stomach was grumbling and he just kind-of wanted to sit in a corner, surrounded by toys, and play by himself. But the others were basically, baby deprived.
"Clint, come here," Steve called, trying to entice him over with a bottle of water. Clint looked up at the sound of the super soldier's voice but didn't move from the corner he had plunked himself down in.
"Hey Clint, check this out!" Tony cried, smashing the remote control to a video game system connected to the large TV. Clint frowned and glanced over at the TV in time to see the genius pull off a rather poor attempt at a neat looking car trick in a racing game he had just bought. Of course, the genius didn't land it and when he didn't, he cursed. Clint rolled his eyes and went back to his toys. There was no way in hell he was going to move.
"Clint, want me to read you a book?" Natasha suggested. Clint groaned and looked up. At first he couldn't find her but then noticed she was sitting on his favorite window ledge on the other side of the room. For a moment he was tempted to go over and join her but... He was comfortable in his corner at the moment. And he didn't want to move. Instead he lay down on the ground. Natasha frowned and turned to look at Bruce, who was returning from the kitchen and held a container of puree. Clint's stomach turned at the smell of it.
"Hey, you feeling okay?" Bruce questioned. Clint shook his head. Frowning, Bruce put the puree down a good distance away and moved over to the baby. Tony paused his game and turned to look at them as Steve and Natasha stood to move closer.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked. Bruce, having just begun to examine the little archer, shrugged.
"Don't know yet."
"Stomach," Clint moaned.
"Are you hungry?" Natasha tried. Clint shook his head.
"Thirsty?" Steve wondered. Again, Clint shook his head no.
"Hurts," Clint groaned as it grumbled again.
"Like you feel ill?" Bruce inquired. Clint nodded but then paused. It wasn't entirely like that. Slowly he shook his head. No, this was different. Yet, familiar. Bruce frowned and leaned down to pick him up. He grunted. "You feel warm. I'm gonna bring you down to the medical area. Okay?"
Clint just simply nodded. He really didn't care anymore. Everything was hurting again and he just wanted it to stop. Bruce shifted to hold Clint tighter and was shocked to find that as he did so, he felt even heavier. Stunned, he looked over at Natasha and Steve but they couldn't feel what he felt. And they just seemed petrified by his look. With a sigh, Bruce covered his feelings and worked hard to mask it all so that no one would know that he had no idea what was going on. Slowly, as one, the group traveled down to the medical area.
When they arrived at the medical area, Bruce was shocked to note that Clint looked like he had grown slightly larger than his clothes. He frowned. Could the serum be reverting? Maybe all they had to do was wait it out and Clint would return to normal. That would be nice. But sadly, Bruce feared that that couldn't be the case. He had seen what the serum could do to his blood. Too many times had it turned his blood to dust by aging it too far into the future.
"Okay, Tony. Over there is Clint's file. I want to weigh him and compare the data," Bruce informed the others as he laid the pained baby down on the newest scale that the billionaire had bought for the medical area. The scale beeped as Tony had the file over. Bruce noted the number before accepting the file and opening it. He took a quick glance inside. "No... This can't be right," he said before readjusting the scale to weight Clint again.
"What? What happened?" Tony wondered, moving into Bruce's personal space in his worry over the little archer. Bruce pushed the genius back. Again the scale beeped and again read the same numbers as before. Bruce shook his head. "What Bruce!?"
"Clint... Gained over fifteen pounds in the past two days," Bruce muttered.
"How? We haven't changed his diet," Natasha complained.
"Hell, he's had diarrhea this whole time," Tony added. Bruce shook his head.
"I want to check his height," Bruce mumbled. Natasha and Steve shifted forward to help straighten Clint out as the baby had curled up in pain. Clint moaned but didn't fight back. Bruce was quick and once he nodded at the duo that he was done, they let go. None of them were really surprised to see Clint curl back up into a ball. Bruce checked the numbers. "He only grew a few inches..."
"He has been working on his muscle strength with those toys... Could it all be muscle?" Natasha suggested. Bruce frowned and shook his head as Clint cried out in pain. They all turned to look at him and were shocked to see a ripple of something rush through his body. As he was still on the scale, it recalibrated and beeped again. The numbers changed.
"Jesus. Did he just gain five pounds in like, two seconds?" Tony questioned, shifting to move closer. Bruce shook his head.
"Let's measure him again," the doc ordered. Natasha and Steve nodded, quick to grab the little archer. As they held him firm, another ripple passed through the baby's body. In their surprise, Natasha and Steve let go. Natasha let out a shriek of surprise. Tony and Bruce stopped what they were doing to focus on them.
"God, I felt that!" Steve cried in shock. "It was just like when I got the super soldier serum! He's growing!"
"Oh god, Clint," Natasha moaned, pulling the poor boy into a hug as a third ripple ran through his body. Clint whimpered in pain. This time she held him the whole way through.
"Jesus, the serum. It's reversing," Bruce cursed.
"At least he isn't de-aging anymore," Tony whispered, thankful for at least that bit of luck. Steve nodded.
"Natasha, get him out of those clothes and that diaper," Bruce commanded. Natasha nodded and quickly did as requested. She hadn't even really thought about it. His body had marks on them from where the ends of the items had sat and had been outgrown. Seeing those, Natasha even stripped the little archer of his diaper as a just in case.
Once Clint was nude, Bruce was quick to throw a towel over his growing body. Steve shifted to grab the archer and move him to a medical table and off the rapidly useless baby scale. The group watched as Clint grew older before their eyes. No one was sure what to do for a moment. Finally the billionaire looked to the others.
"Hey, at least he lost the diaper rash," Tony joked. Natasha smirked, though some tears leaked out of her eyes. Watching Clint go through this was somehow so much worse. And for some reason, Clint growing was much slower than him shrinking. Bruce had a small smile/frown on his face as he turned to Tony to give him a look that told the genius this might not be the best time to joke. Steve snorted, somewhat relieved for the joke. Clint kept growing.
"Looks like we missed potty training," Steve added when Clint kept growing. Natasha snorted now. Bruce smiled and let out one little laugh. If Steve was letting out a joke, apparently it was a good time then. Tony let out a couple of chuckles and shook his head. At least he wasn't the only one. Then again, Steve had been around Howard for a while. Especially during the time when Steve was going through a similar issue to Clint.
"I think Clint might have already had that down," Tony retorted. Steve shrugged. But Clint wasn't done growing. He just kept getting ripple after ripple that were starting to come so fast that they were being to look like seizures. Bruce frowned, beginning to get worried when Clint's body started thrashing around.
"Steve, come help me hold him down," Bruce said after the movements began to look so harsh that Clint might fall off the table. Steve nodded and shifted to the other side of the table to help hold down the archer. Natasha sighed. She really didn't want to watch any more of this. But her feet were basically glued to the ground. She was worried for her partner. Not that he'd likely remember being her partner.
"I think we might need to go out and get new clothes for him soon," Natasha groaned, the sudden thought crossing her mind even though it didn't really make sense considering the horrifying sight. Tony glanced at her. Bruce grunted and Steve shook his head.
"I'd want to bring him to the pediatrician first," Bruce muttered as the seizures began to slow. "We need to find out how old he is and if his stint as a five month old caused any long term issues we should be careful about."
"Of course, I was just saying," Natasha replied, wondering what Bruce was thinking. There was no way she'd risk Clint's health. She would never rush him around.
"Well, I think Pepper might have gotten some things around this size as a just in case when he first shrunk so he wouldn't be going naked, thank god," Tony mumbled. Bruce nodded, not concerned with that. Natasha nodded as well. She had noticed the large variety of sizes in Clint's closet. Almost as if the CEO had either predicted something like this happening or she hadn't been able to guess his size in the first place.
"Okay, his seizures are beginning to slow. Natasha, why don't you go get some clothes. I want to go get him checked out as soon as possible," Bruce stated. Natasha nodded, turning on her heel. Steve slowly let go of Clint. The archer had pretty much stopped moving now and was weakly groaning. Bruce also began to slowly let go. Tony held back, wanting to be of some sort of use but Bruce hadn't told him to do something in a long time.
"What now?" Steve questioned. Clint looked rather small still. Maybe three years old but could be older... Very malnourished and dehydrated. He was pale and shivering under the thin blanket that Bruce had used to cover him earlier. Tony and Steve were almost surprised that Clint was even alive. Bruce frowned at the boy.
"I want to get a height and weight on him before we bring him to the doc," Bruce muttered. It was very important. They needed that starting information so that they could get him back up to a healthy weight for his height and maybe even age. No matter what happened in his past... They were not going to use that as a reason to keep him like that now. Steve nodded.
"Barney?" Clint grumbled softly from his curled position. He sounded tired and meek. Tony, who had heard the name before, moved forward now. He figured out of anyone, Clint might recognize him the most. Especially considering that the genius had dealt with Clint the longest when the archer was six years old even though right now Clint didn't look to be that age. At the least, Tony wanted to have some sort of connection with Clint again. He missed being around the boy.
"No. Barney isn't here right now. But you are with friends, I promise," Tony soothed. Clint groaned and slowly uncurled and looked up. His eyes were unfocused as he took in the sight of Steve, Bruce and Tony looking down on him. For a moment, the trio was uncertain what was going to happen. Then Clint focused on Steve. His eye sight cleared enough for the boy to recognize the Captain.
"I know you. Captain America," he whispered. Steve smirked. As always, no matter what century he was in, he was usually always the first to be remembered. Beside him, Tony frowned but wisely didn't comment.
"Yeah. But you can call me Steve," the soldier said. Clint cleared his throat and nodded. He kind of remembered that that was the super soldier's name. It was from a comic that Barney had given him a couple months back. But he hadn't read the name. Barney had told him the words. But the large print on top was obvious to anyone and the large red, white and blue figure with blond hair and blue eyes. Captain America! Clint always made sure to memorize him as the boy always dreamed of one day growing up to being able to stand beside him. He knew he was never good enough to be Captain America. But he always prayed that he was good enough to be Bucky or a Howling Commando.
"Hey there. My name is Bruce. I'm a doctor. If you could do me a favor, I'd like you to get off the table and go stand on that scale over there so I can get your weight and height," Bruce suggested, gently taking command of the matter. As much as Bruce didn't want to rush this situation, he knew that they needed to get Clint to a pediatrician soon.
Clint frowned. He was tired and just wanted to sleep. Heck, he didn't even really know where he was at the moment. Everything felt strange, blurry and disorienting... But if Bruce was a doctor, a doctor knew what was right and what was wrong. If getting on the scale was the right thing to do, then Clint should do it. So, slowly he nodded and began to get up. Sadly, his muscles betrayed him and he flopped back onto the table. Steve and Bruce lunged forward to catch him before he fell on the floor. They barely made it and instead Clint's back hit the edge of the table.
"Ow," Clint moaned as he leaned against them. Steve winced and looked over at Bruce. The duo wondered if Clint couldn't stand because of his frail body of the most recent transformation. Tony frowned. That hadn't really happened when he turned six, but then again JARVIS had been down the night that he first changed. Who knew how long he actually slept the transformation off before getting up. And then when he had turned into a baby, he had been carried most of the time.
"Sorry. I guess your muscles are still not really used to being this size," Bruce muttered, more to himself then to Clint. Clint frowned and looked at the doc. The boy was so confused. What was going on?
"What do you mean? I'm about to turn 5 in a month," Clint groaned. Bruce raised an eyebrow in surprise. He hadn't expected that. Clint looked maybe no older than 3. Never mind almost turning 5.
"No, I mean.." Bruce tried to explain but stopped when Steve laid a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see what the soldier wanted. Steve was just shaking his head no. Bruce sighed. "Forget it."
"Where am I?" Clint asked. The men stiffened in surprise. "Last thing I knew I was at home..."
"You're in my home, in New York," Tony answered. Clint focused on him. The boy frowned.
"You look older than I remember..." Clint mumbled before shaking as head. Tony raised an eyebrow, itching to press the issue but knowing better. Bruce opened his mouth but stopped when Tony raised his hand to stop him. The genius shook his head. Last time Tony pressed Clint to remember things he shouldn't, it had hurt the boy. Tony wasn't going to allow it to happen again. "Wait, you are Tony Stark, right?"
"Yeah. Wait, I was already in the news when you were 4? Jeez," Tony grumbled. Clint frowned, unsure what the genius meant by that. Bruce and Steve shook their heads. "I think I'm gonna have to do a little personal research soon."
"You do that. In the meantime, Clint, do you think we can try sitting up again?" Bruce questioned. Clint nodded. This time when he sat up, his muscles worked fine. Natasha took this moment to walk in with the clothes. Seeing her, he froze and just stared. Of the amount of women he normally saw, Clint could actually pretty much count them on one hand. His mother, his teacher, his doctor's secretary (once), and that nice lady across the street.
"I grabbed a couple different sizes," Natasha stated. Seeing Clint sitting up, she smiled. "Hey."
"Hi," Clint said, unsurely to her. Steve and Tony he had known and Bruce had introduced himself but Natasha... Natasha was new. She frowned and looked to Tony. He mouthed six to her and she nodded.
"I'm Natasha. An old friend of the family," she claimed. Clint frowned. He had no reason to believe her but no proof not to believe her either. So for now, he just decided to watch her warily. Most women that he had met before had been nice so he had no reason not to think of her as evil, but something about her just screamed dangerous.
"Alright, can we try and get up onto your feet now?" Bruce asked, figuring it was best to just move on. Clint again nodded. Again, his muscles allowed it. Bruce smiled and slowly led the boy toward the scale, making sure to wrap the sheet around his waist. Clint easily followed and stepped up. Within a matter of minutes, Bruce had a weight and height. He turned to track the numbers. In doing so, he dropped the sheet. Clint took a moment to realize that he was naked. He turned beat red and turned to see that Tony, Steve and Natasha at least were decent enough to look away. The clothes that Natasha had brought were placed neatly on the table nearest the scale. Clint quickly grabbed them and dressed. Bruce barely noticed before turning back in time to see Clint come back around from the table, all dressed. "All right, time to go to the pediatrician."
"Wait, what? I thought you were a doctor!?"
4783 words. Poor Clint. Now the age of a four year old boy. When will the torment end? Never, bwhahahahahaha. I lie... I end it soon, sadly. Anyways... I hope you all liked this chapter.
News on my husband. We are waiting on speaking to a surgeon on Thursday to get rid of his gall bladder. We have no idea if that will help, but it's the only part of his body acting weird. So, we wait.
Toddler Clint is doing well. Loves his daycare and about to celebrate his second birthday on Sunday. Still not really speaking but otherwise, things are fine.
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Review Responses:
Niom Lamboise - Of course I did it. They can't escape taking care of Clint. lol
sammygirl1963 - I'm happy that you were able to picture what I was trying to say. A lot of what I write comes to me in almost like a movie form so I have to pause it in my head to get it written down right.
amy. d .fuller .9 - I'm glad you are liking how things are working in the story. Especially that internet hasn't figured out a way to do scent descriptions of things, lol. I don't think anyone would be reading after these last few chapters is that happened. As for Clint wanting to be helpful, I see most kids trying to do that. They try to be helpful but either end up being in the way or end up making things worse, lol. As for Hill, I didn't want to make her evil but I also wanted to show that not all women are completely motherly. Some women can't be motherly to save their lives. Hill falls in that area. No matter what she does, she tends to mess up. Thanks for praying for our health, it means a lot to us all.