Hamish couldn't sleep for a long time. He heard his daddy's worried yelling, their arguments, and his heart - already in pain - throbbed with it. His quiet life, his loving daddy's, and everything had gone wrong. He was supposed to be with his real dad forever, too. He was supposed to stay close. And read him stories. And tell him about mommy. Tears streamed down his face, silent sobs racking his small shoulders. He didn't even get a chance to ask about mommy. Did he have another grandpa, or grandma? What about siblings? No, now he would never know. Curling up in bed, Hamish hugged his book and let the tears soak his pillow as he stared out his misted window into the night. He would never feel more broken.
He must've drifted off to sleep eventually. In his dreams, he reached out as far as he could. He looked for his mother in every reach of the galaxy, then another, and another. She was nowhere to be found. There was no trace of her. He drew back, and had a brief dream about healing someone at school, being heroic and forever known as a hero and not the boy with two dads. Then on his radar he picked up a lightning storm. A very, very small, concentrated one. A shock big enough to injure whoever was beneath it. And then, he saw his real daddy under it. It even struck him. Hamish jumped and woke up, staring out into the dark. Why did he feel like that wasn't the last time he'd see his dad?
Hawkeye hooked on his earpiece and sprinted across roof tops as he went, scanning for any signs of the lost god. This was the sixth time he'd done this round, but he refused to let anything happen to the famous Sherlock Holmes and his family. He was in mid-air of the next jump when he spotted it. A cloud buzzing with energy. He rolled to a stop on the next roof and jogged to the edge, clutching it as he looked up in alarm. Not just any cloud. A cloud with blue lightning. One bolt, halfway across the city. He narrowed his eyes and glanced back once more before trying to find where it had struck. Just on the inside shore of the river, a mile in. He shook his head. He knew from which direction he would be coming now. But he would not abandon his position until he got an ok from Stark.
Speaking of which, Hawkeye dialed Tony Stark and looked up at the stars. It rang, buzzing in his ear, and then a click and a huff came through the line.
"Anyone die yet?"
"Stark. How is it going?"
"Not great. Me and Banner have been looking everywhere for Widow and the Captain, but it looks like Spandex is in on a government operation and Widow went back to visit Russia."
"Leave them a voicemail saying it's Loki and get your asses over here."
Iron Man paused. "That may just work," he muttered. "I'll have to find the right machines, or people, to leave that message to. But I think I can manage. Why, feeling the heat? Lonely Hawk?"
"Because I think Loki found a shred of the tesseract's power," Hawkeye shot back. "A whole lightning bolt of it."
"Oh."
"Yeah. High-tail it, Tony."
"Hahaha, got it, alliteration. 'High-tail it Tony.' "
"Stark."
"All right, all right. Fine. Hold on just a little while longer. Keep him away from that kid, hear me?"
"Copy that. Over and out."
"All you FBI." Tony muttered, and the line went dead.
