January 7th, 2014
"Target's dead." Clint whispered, removing his fingers from the neck of the man he'd spent the last two weeks trailing. "The Terminator got to him first."
"Fury has cause to believe that HYDRA is working on their own version of a super soldier serum. Try to find some evidence that will tell us if they made any progress."
"Got it." Clint opened the adjoining door. "Hill, are you seeing this?"
"Yeah," Hill's usually stern voice faltered. "I'm scrubbing the mission, get out of there, Barton."
"And what do I do about-"
"The building is ready to blow. Grab what you can and get out. Now!"
"I heard ya."
Clint took one last look at the large tanks that lined the walls. Each contained a cloned body of two people he cared about. He rushed into the next room, bow at the ready should the masked man come back. Luckily for him, it seemed the assassin had taken what he wanted and left. Something Clint knew he should be doing as well. Charging room to room, ignoring the sparks of the busted machinery and computers, he finally arrived at the office where the mainframe was stored. Plugging the USB drive into the main tower, he prepared it for a full memory backup.
"I need three minutes." He reported.
"What's the charge set for?"
"No charge, I think he had a remote detonator for the main blast."
"Leave now. There's nothing in there worth dying over. I'll be up to my ears in paperwork and Fury'd never let me hear the end of it."
"Well, anything that makes it more convenient for you." Clint let out a laugh. "Two minutes."
Metal screeched on metal and Clint spun around, bow pointed at the cabinet in the corner. Another thud and a low sound that he really didn't want to be hearing a minute and a half before he had to book it out of the crumbling bunker.
Using the tip of an arrow, Clint pulled the cabinet door open and took a generous step back.
"Shit." Hill intoned.
"You can say that again."
Clint crouched, holding his gloved hand out to the soot covered child. She hesitated, tugging at the oversized medical gown she wore.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, but we don't really have time for introductions. So, uh, don't bite me or anything, 'kay?"
The computer beeped and Clint swore again. God, he hated Hydra. He hated SHIELD. And right now he hated the metal armed masked fucker that would leave a child behind to be destroyed like a random piece of evidence.
With no time to waste, Clint shrugged off his vest and wrapped her in it. The child remained stiff and still as a statue, not moving to hold on or fight back. The bunker rocked from the explosion set off many floors below, sending plaster and debris flying around them. Clint clenched his jaw - pulled the USB drive free from the mainframe - and hauled ass to the elevator.
The heavy metal doors shut with a dull thud, just in time for the entire bunker to shake under the assault. The emergency lights flashed red. The backup power source let out an odd whirr then shut down completely.
"Fuck!" Clint snarled, kicking the door. "Hill, we're trapped in the elevator shaft. I'm going to open the access panel and see if we can climb out."
"You better be quick, I don't want to break the news to Romanoff that we had to mop you up with a sponge."
"I'd pay to watch that fight."
"Not if you're dead."
"She's so optimistic." Clint smiled at the child in his arms, slumping back against the metal wall. "I don't know if you can hear me, let alone understand me, but we're gonna get bounced around a bit here, so if I lose my grip, you hold on, okay?"
The girl simply stared at him in response as he set her down on the roof of the elevator.
"Good talk." Clint sighed, pointing his grappling arrow at the ceiling.
The ensuing explosion that followed licked at his heels while the wire device shot him and the girl toward the ceiling like a bullet. He braced for impact, wishing that the Soviets hadn't made their secret lairs a mile into the damned ground.
The heat blazed beneath him and he just knew that Laura was going to bust his balls if he came home even a little crispy. Between her and Nat, he'd have a better chance taking on Hulk alone.
"Door's open, Barton!"
"Just a sec."
"It's rumbling pretty good out here, I don't think you have a second."
"Get the jet ready."
"Already on it."
Clint felt the heat searing his legs through the thick fabric of his tactile suit, felt the thin wire eating through his glove and calloused flesh of his hand. He bit back a curse as the lights from the Quinjet came into view over his head.
"Almost there, kiddo."
"I've got company." Hill warned, a steely edge to her voice.
"Fuck!" Clint let the word fly into the air. "Where?"
"Ridge straight behind me."
Ten, five, one.
Clint launched himself and the child out of the open doors, plunging them both onto the cold snow. Doing his best to take the brunt of the fall, he used his arms to cocoon the little girl, leaving him to land hard on his side. Wasting no time, he sprung back to his feet, racing to where the Quinjet hovered near the ledge. Hill opened the bay doors, giving him just enough room to jump inside before the engines roared to life.
Clint went to the main window, focusing on the lone figure standing on the snow-covered ridge. The man with the metal arm stared up at the Quinjet - took off his mask - and pressed the button.
The entire mountain shivered and quaked before crumpling inward like a tin can.
"He waited until you were out." Hill frowned. "He could have blown the mountain twenty minutes ago."
Clint looked down at the kid in his arms. "Doesn't make us even."
"HQ can't find out about this," Hill said, "no one can. So you need to think of a place I can drop you two off at."
"You know where." Clint said, strapping the kid into a seat out of reach of the controls.
"Fury's gonna be pissed."
"I don't see a need to tell him."
"He needs to know."
"At some point, yeah, but not now. Can I trust you, Hill?"
"Did I not just save your ass?"
"You sat in the jet while I did all the work."
"Ha! I was exactly where I needed to be." Hill shot back. "Have fun telling Romanoff."
"I'm starting to dislike you, Hill."
"Go babysit, Barton."
Clint made a face and turned around to where the kid was wrapped up in his vest, clutching it to her chest like a lifeline.
What a way to start the year.
January 8th, 2014
Tony couldn't remember a time he felt so giddy. Giddy, and curious, and just outright ready to tease the hell out of Barton.
The wind whipped around him while he stood on the Party Deck of Stark Tower, bouncing on the balls of his feet as Barton exited the Quinjet holding a kid in one arm and his gear in another.
"Is it bring your kid to work day, Katniss?" Jab number one.
"Please don't start," Barton stalked up to him. "This day just can't get any worse."
"Oh it can and it will." Tony laughed, grabbing the kid from his arms and touching the tip of her nose. "You messaged my girlfriend behind my back. She left midway through some of the best se-, "adult happenings" of my life. And where was she going? Well, she didn't tell me. I had to go trolling through the digital receipts. Can I ask why you have my girlfriend buying clothes for your munchkin?"
"You're the best boyfriend ever." Barton rolled his eyes. "She's not mine. Everything I could pull off the mainframe is here. There is nothing left, unless you want to go about a mile under the rubble of Mt. Akturu in Siberia. And I'll go ahead and tell you, it's really freakin' cold there in January. You've got her. You've got the drive, I'm sure you'll put two and two together while I go take a shower."
"What do I do with the kid?" Tony looked down at the hard drive in his hand.
"She wouldn't eat anything on the way over." Clint shrugged. "You can try that. And maybe pry my vest off of her."
"JARVIS have Bruce meet me in the lab."
"Of course, Sir." JARVIS replied immediately.
"And Tony?" Barton stopped and turned around to face him.
"Yes, dear?" Tony mocked.
"This was a level 9 mission that Hill just scrubbed from SHIELD's database. This doesn't leave this Tower, or the Avengers."
"Noted." Tony leaned against the glass wall, realizing that this wasn't just some random mission gone wrong.
Barton disappeared down the staff elevator and Pepper popped up on the residential one. Happy followed behind her, arms laden with bags, a less than happy scowl on his face.
Loyal Happy took one look at the kid, then him. His mouth dropped open, obviously coming to the wrong conclusions, because he sat the bags down with a shake of his head. "I'm not even asking, Boss, I'm just gonna go."
"Oh my!" Pepper gasped, placing her bag on the counter. "Tony, she's so cute!"
"She reeks." Tony mock whispered. "All I can smell is burnt hair and Barton. Not a good combo."
Pepper cautiously moved closer, like the kid was a scared dog. "Would you like to take a bath, sweetie?"
Tony set the kid on the ground and she stood there next to him, stock still, staring up at Pepper with those haunted green eyes. "I think you've got this handled, Bruce needs me in the lab."
"Do you think it's a good idea for her to just be handed off from person to person? Look at her Tony, she's freaking out."
The kid wasn't doing anything, her expression hadn't changed. "Seems okay to me."
"Have they contacted Child Services? Usually in abuse or neglect cases they need someone to take pictures for evidence and they bring in a trained professional to evaluate the child."
"Pep," Tony moved to her side and pulled her close, "this is top secret. We're all she has until we figure out who and where her people are. It's got Barton so spooked he's willing to stay here for a week. It's got Hill so spooked she scrubbed the mission and left before Barton could get both feet on the ground."
"Okay, yeah, I understand, but I'm not qualified for this. Noone here is! This kid needs a professional."
"She's two, maybe three years old." Tony lifted his shoulders, hands in his pockets. "Kids are resilient. She probably doesn't even remember this morning, let alone anything else."
"Do you know where they got her?" Pepper fretted, hovering closer to the child. "How bad was it?"
"I don't know anything." Tony held up the hard drive. "If you can watch her for a bit, Bruce and I might be able to figure that out."
An hour later, Tony, Bruce, and Clint sat around the table at his lab in complete silence. Tony's earlier giddiness dissipated the moment he watched the video feed from the Siberian bunker. The more they dug through the files the more his trepidation grew.
"Well I feel sick." Bruce grumbled, swiping his hand across the hologram to minimize the image.
Genetic cloning. Genetic tampering. Human experimentation. In vitro fertilization of embryos into cloned bodies. So many failed attempts to create the perfect weapon. And the bastards were making progress. These mad scientists had created life and destroyed it at will when it didn't suit their agenda. The worst part of it was that it was a combined effort between SHIELD and HYDRA. It was no wonder that Hill had scrubbed the data and removed herself as far as she could from the evidence. Tony usually counted on himself to be a pretty unflappable person, but he was starting to feel the same as Bruce.
"When are the others due back?" Tony asked Clint.
"A day or two tops." Clint ran a hand over his face. "I can offer to bring them back here after the debrief."
"We're gonna need all hands on deck for this one." Bruce added. "As much as I don't want to break the news, you know, of us all working for a corrupt government agency that's willing to commit atrocities like this, I think Steve and Nat deserve to know."
"Miss Potts is at the door, Sir, along with the child." JARVIS announced.
Tony stood and moved to the glass door where Pepper was waiting with the kid in one arm and a stuffed dog in the other. The kid looked better, well not better, but cleaner, wearing mint green pajamas and frilly pink socks. Her hair had been washed and dried, leaving it in golden ringlets.
"You locked me out?" Pepper hissed as soon as the door opened.
"Top secret." Tony repeated his early statement with a sad smile. "Sorry about that. How'd she do?"
"She hasn't moved, hasn't spoken, hasn't eaten anything. I had to watch carefully to see if she even blinks."
"Not surprising with that Bit- witch training her." Barton growled and moved around the table. "Nat's going to have a field day with that information."
Clint held his arms out for the little girl and said something in Russian. The girl's eyes widened and she reached for him quickly.
"Didn't think about trying that in the beginning?" Tony glowered.
"To be honest I wasn't trying to think of it at all." Clint grinned at the little girl. "é-ta, Tony Stark. é-ta, Pepper Potts, é-ta, Bruce Banner. Mye-nyá za-vút Clint Barton. Kak tye-byá za-vút?"
"JARVIS?" Tony spoke up.
"He's introduced the three of you, himself, and has asked her for her own name, Sir." JARVIS replied.
The girl searched the room for the source of the voice.
"Mye-nyá za-vút JARVIS." The AI spoke up.
The little girl whispered something in Clint's ear and he forced a smile. "She said her name is Three-Zero-Seven."
"That's a mouthful." Tony muttered. "Any chance she speaks english?"
"Vy govorite na angliyskom?" Clint asked her.
"Yes," the child replied.
"Thank god." Tony sighed. "And thank you, little miss 307, for making us worry about you not knowing how to talk for the past couple of hours."
The child's forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"Can you ask her if she's hungry?" Pepper urged, more worried than ever.
Clint spoke quietly to the child then glowered as she whispered in his ear. "She said that she is punished by the big lady if she eats outside of her cage."
"Aaand…..I'm gonna need a minute." Bruce clenched his fists, all but running from the room.
Tony put his arm around Pepper who was doing her best to hide how horrified she was by the admission. "No big lady here, no cages here. You're safe, kid."
"No...food." The child replied.
Tony looked into those big green eyes and promised a quick death to anyone that had or would ever hurt this little girl. "Ever hear about cheeseburgers?"
The child shook her head. "Food?"
"We'll start her off with something nutritious." Pepper intervened with a scowl. "Like some oatmeal with fruit."
"I'm going to spoil her at some point." Tony argued. "There's nothing that can stop me, Pep."
Pepper thrust the stuff dog at him. "At least give her stomach time to adjust to normal meals before you start clogging her arteries."
January 9th, 2014
Natural guilt. That's what the TV psychologist had called it. Natasha thought that he was an idiot, and that maybe someone who analyzed people's motivations and feelings in front of a public audience needed to rethink the doctor patient confidentiality agreement and his own profession. That's why her current feelings made her head spin.
Steve hadn't spoken to her since they boarded the quinjet and headed back to HQ. He was angry at her, at Fury, and at Hill. Well, as much as Steve Rogers could get angry. It was the subtle tensing of his muscles when she'd get too close. The way he avoided her gaze. Avoided any situation where he'd need to speak to her. And in the off chance she was able to corner him, he gave only clipped answers.
Friendship. Another new and previously foreign concept that Clint was trying to teach her. It was the one that worried her the most. Attachments were a liability. Friends, family, even mementos, were all things that could be used as weapons. She knew that for a fact, having wielded them like blades on plenty occasions.
Clint didn't say 'hi' when he passed her in the hallway, just followed alongside Maria Hill, barely sparing her a glance. Steve walked to her left, his shoulders taught as a bowstring, as they made their way to Fury's office.
Would it kill her to lose all her friends, everything she'd worked for over the past seven years? No. She would survive it. But going back to that level of loneliness left her feeling cold.
Natasha draped herself over the chair, sitting there as though she didn't have a care in the world while Steve and Fury verbally battled each other over the benefits of omitting elements of the plan before executing a mission. She should probably interject and say something to her own defense, but it seemed like a moot point. No one cared about her opinion. A yawn tugged at her jaw and she swiftly covered her open mouth with her hand.
"Are we boring you, Agent Romanoff?" Fury pinned her with that one bulging eye.
"I'm good, you can continue your debate." She replied flippantly. "Or shall I get a measuring stick so you guys can put this to rest?"
Fury opened his mouth to tear into her. Steve closed his eyes and shook his head.
Hill opened the door, ignoring both her and Steve as she stood beside Director Fury in full business mode. "It's time, sir."
"We're done here." Fury barked out. "Follow up with Agent Barton."
Natasha bowed her head and left the room. No need to tell her twice.
As standard, after missions they'd change into their civilian clothes and get a meal before splitting up. She knew Clint was likely itching to get back to Laura and the kids, so him sticking around wouldn't be for long. In fact she just wanted to clear the air between them before she went her own way.
She leaned against the black SUV waiting for them.
"Gonna be a rainy day." Clint glanced at the skyline behind her.
Natasha forced herself to smirk. "You driving?"
"You know it." Clint put a hand on her shoulder. "Got everything?"
"Already in the back." She stepped around the car to get in behind the driver's seat.
Steve hadn't said a word, but from the way he was moving and watching the area, she knew that Clint had warned him as well. Any mention of the weather outside of missions was a code that something was wrong. A rainy day.
They were being watched.
Conversation ebbed and flowed in the front, with Clint flipping through radio stations trying to find something that Steve liked. Steve wasn't in the mood for humor, but he went along with it, scanning the crowded streets.
Natasha felt her nerves relax at the sight of Stark Tower looming in the distance. It wasn't home, but it was safe. It was the one place where the government dared not tread lest they lose their most prominent weapons supplier. As much as she thought Tony was an egotistical, narcissistic, womanizer, she had to admit he held a special place in her heart for the security he provided alone.
Ten minutes later they were stepping off the elevator on the 74th floor. The debugging room. Most of Tony's inventions ranged from useless to ostentatious, but this one she adored. It was like a spy's hot shower after a long day. She didn't hesitate stepping into the glass area with her bag, shedding her clothes, shaking out her hair, all while the scanners did their work.
When she had redressed and stepped out on the other side, Steve and Clint were waiting with Tony.
"Two on you and one on Steve." Tony shook his head and tapped his fingers on a tablet. "Amateurs. Not you though, Clint. You had five."
Natasha's hackles raised at both the insult and the fact that she hadn't even noticed being bugged once, let alone twice.
"What do we know?" Steve asked, leaning back against the elevator wall as the city sunk below them.
Tony scrubbed at his beard. "Let's just start with HYDRA is still up and active. SHIELD has been playing with some funky business partners. And I doubt we can trust anyone other than ourselves right now."
When the doors to the conference room opened, Steve stepped off then shook Bruce's hand. Natasha lifted a brow at Bruce's rumpled clothes and messy hair, taking a seat opposite him at the table. He didn't meet her gaze. Unease trickled down Natasha's spine. She'd thought the days of questioning everyone was coming to an end. She sat straighter in her chair and focused on Tony who was working through the holographic images.
"Super Soldier Serum." Tony started, flipping through the images like he was a college professor. "My father assisted Dr. Erskine in creating a Vita-Ray machine that activated it, turning our thin and sickly Stevie into Captain America."
"Maybe we should skip this part, Tony," Bruce offered, "you know, not drag it out?"
"I'm getting there." Tony defended. "Brucey boy here was assigned by dear old General Ross to recreate this magical serum. Only without the Vita-Ray machine, Brucey was forced to find an alternative activant. Hence, we have HulkyBruce. Needless to say, over the past ninety to a hundred years, scientists have tried to recreate this formula, usually to their own or their subject's detriment."
"Who is it this time, and where are they?" Steve let out an exasperated groan.
Natasha froze when the pictures of the blue IV bags popped up. "I've seen those before. When I was training. Same batch numbers. Where did you-"
"A mountaintop bunker in Siberia." Clint flexed his injured hand.
"You went to Siberia without me?" Natasha scowled, crossing her arms.
Clint grimaced. "Be glad you skipped this trip."
"Hydra bigwig," Tony pulled up a picture of a shaved headed man with a monocle, "Wolfgang Von Strucker, was working with former SHIELD scientist Mark Smith on a variation of the formula that used clones to, uh, Bruce, help me out here. Hatch? Incubate?"
"Incubate works." Bruce shuddered.
"Okay, the clones incubated test subjects while both biological 'parents' had been subjected to the serum. Thus creating super serum children. But what are you going to do with an army of toddlers? They're both expensive, whiny, and potentially dangerous. Those kids were scrapped. Literally. So Smith started working on a formula to increase the rate of the subjects aging through genetic manipulation. Most of his subjects died within a day, some lasted long enough for him to run more tests on, but eventually he found a formula that would rapidly age his subjects. They would be trained by this woman; Isa Belikova."
Natasha recognized that face. "She was one of my first instructors at the Red Room. She's the one they used to break the children of bad habits and begin their brainwashing."
"She's a sick bitch," Clint grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed.
"Needless to say, with billions of dollars being wasted and no successful subjects, Von Strucker gave the order to shut the operation down." Tony continued. "Clint had been tailing Smith's assistant for a couple of weeks when the order came in and followed him back to their mountain retreat."
"Hill was leading the investigation herself after Smith failed his psych evaluation. She asked me to tag along because I was the only one both available and with the needed skills to get in and out undetected." Clint let out a humorless laugh. "I'll warn you now, I kinda failed that last part."
"Okay, let me get this straight," Natasha leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Hill takes you on a super secret mission where you find cloned super serum freaks and you both come back unscathed. Why are we acting like it's the end of the world? We've dealt with aliens for fucks sake, not just aliens, but aliens hell bent on destroying the planet. I think we can handle some clones."
Tony rubbed both hands over his face. "Hah!"
"This is so bad." Bruce leaned back with a groan.
"It gets worse, Nat," Clint put a hand on her shoulder. "Would you rather watch or do you want me to explain?"
"I'll ...watch?" She said after a moment.
God, these dudes could be so over dramatic.
Bruce wanted to support his friends, wanted to be there for them, but there were certain things that set Hulk off and he knew there was no way he'd be able to watch or hear that footage again without going Green.
He barely had time to make a cup of coffee before the conference room door burst open and Natasha stalked towards the elevator.
"Hey," he called out to her. "Nat stop!"
"I'll kill her." Natasha ground out. "She doesn't deserve to live."
"Easy now." Bruce moved to block her path. "I know you're angry, but you can't just...wait, who are you killing?"
"Belikova." Natasha hissed. "She knew. There's no question that she used me specifically. She's using this as revenge for me defecting."
"The woman needs to die," Bruce said, a sigh of relief escaping. "I understand, Nat. It's just, we can't rush out and attack the people that did this without giving them a clue as to what we found. It's too risky."
"I can think of a million reasons for wanting her dead that have nothing to do with the.. That." Natasha took a step back.
Bruce thought of the tanks filled with dead clones of Natasha, rows and rows of them, varying in ages. The nursery room that was covered in pictures of Natasha and Steve without their superhero aliases. The bodies and remains of those failed test subjects littering the floor.
"You can't expect me to just sit here and do nothing." Natasha ground out, looking far more affected than Bruce had ever seen her.
"You can sit with me and have a cup of coffee. At least until we can work out a game plan."
Bruce moved to put his arm around her, but as usual, she shied away. Instead he walked close to her side, pulling the chair out for her to sit next to him while he grabbed another mug.
"They gave me the serum and I never knew." Natasha whispered. "I always wondered why Madame B treated me like I was special, like I was worth more than the others, why she was harder on me. They used me!"
"I'm sorry." Bruce looked down at his hands.
"I'd heard the older girls talking about being forced to stay awake during their graduation ceremonies." Natasha continued. "I didn't fear pain, but I knew what they were going to do. I didn't want to go through with it. I failed my final test on purpose because I thought that I was-"
Bruce worried when she went silent, unshed tears in her eyes as she stared across the room, not seeing anything, but remembering.
The door opening once again snapped Natasha out of her reverie. She took a slow methodical sip of her coffee, eyes trained on Tony and Steve. The latter appeared even more shell-shocked than Natasha. After all, it wasn't everyday that you learned your sperm/eggs were used in creating the next super soldier.
The elevator chimed and Pepper stepped out. The little girl in her arms froze, her eyes widening, traveling from Steve to Natasha in quick succession.
"Shit!" Pepper blurted out, then looked down at the child. "I mean ah shoot."
"Secure call from, Agent Hill, Sir." JARVIS interrupted the awkward moment. "Shall I put her through?"
"Go ahead." Tony answered. "Pep, mind taking the kid back upstairs?"
"I have a meeting in an hour, Tony." Pepper reminded him.
"Leave Squirt with Happy." Tony suggested. "Make him earn his keep."
"Are you alone, Stark?" Maria Hill's voice sounded over the intercom. "This is urgent."
"Whole gang's here." Tony typed something into the nearby computer. "Line's secure. What's up?"
Hill groaned. "Fury's been shot. The Terminator got him leaving HQ. They're taking him to Metro General in Bethesda. I need all of you here. It- It doesn't look good."
"We're on our way." Tony replied, ending the call and moving to where the Mark XLII was hidden behind a bookcase.
"You said you were done, Tony." Pepper glowered at the suit in utter betrayal. "You promised me you destroyed them all!"
"Can we talk about this when I get back?" Tony said in exasperation. "Please?"
"Fine." Pepper stomped out of the room with the little girl reaching frantically toward Steve.
Steve watched her for a second before shaking his head and grabbing his helmet. "Let's move out."
The Stark quinjet was waiting for them on the Party Deck and Natasha and Clint went straight for the cockpit, leaving Bruce in the back with Tony and Steve.
"What's our play here?" Steve asked, holding his shield in one hand.
"Check in on Fury, then go find the son of a bitch that shot him." Tony answered, on edge, probably due to the latest fight with Pepper.
In the half hour it took to get to MetroGeneral, time seemed to slow. The was was thick with words left unsaid. Natasha kept flipping switches and pushing the jet to its limits while Clint tried to keep her calm. Steve kept readjusting the strap on his shield, alternating between that and running a hand through his hair. Tony was going over the Mark XLII suit with a critical eye, changing and adjusting things, muttering under his breath while Bruce stood by, ready to help.
He shouldn't even be here. Each time he left the Tower he felt guilty. They didn't need him for this. He wasn't Fury's biggest fan. Sure he didn't want the man to die, but he couldn't find a reason to sit next to his bed and act like he cared. He'd been safe and incident free before SHIELD barged into his life. Bruce shook his head and focused on his friends. If anything, he was there to support them.
Steve and Natasha were both being suspiciously tight lipped in the hour that they found out they biologically and legally shared a daughter. Which wasn't so suspicious as it was worrisome. Bruce couldn't even imagine that level of shock. He tried hard not to think about what he'd do if Betty showed up with a child that shared their genes.
"We're here." Clint said as the craft jolted slightly upon landing.
No words were spoken as they rushed down to the operating room. Hill stood outside, looking worse for wear, but not taking her eyes off the window in front of her.
"Again," the doctor ordered.
The nurse pressed a button on the machine and Fury's body jerked upward, but there was still no tone.
"I'm calling it." The doctor announced. "Time of death… "
Bruce turned away from the window, moving to sit down in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs across the hall. Natasha joined him there a minute later, keeping her head down in either respect or grief.
A blonde woman walked up to Hill and spoke softly to her, Steve and Tony, as Alexander Pierce rounded the corner.
"Agent Hill, I came as soon as I heard." He looked past her into the room and closed his eyes. "I'm too late."
Tony had an arm on Steve's shoulder, clearly holding him back. Bruce tried to do the same for Natasha, but she jumped out of her chair, nearly reaching him before Clint stopped her. Her chest rose and fell, anger running through her like waves. In fact, she looked ready to murder Pierce with her bare hands.
"Can you think of any reason as to why Director Fury would visit your apartment?" Pierce asked in his normal authoritative tone, seeming unfazed by the danger he was in.
"We weren't very close." Steve answered. "In fact, we've had some disagreements recently concerning covert side missions."
The jab didn't go unnoticed by Natasha, Pierce, or anyone else.
"You know, some of us actually do as they're told." Natasha sprung to her feet. "How ironic that it's Captain America that can't understand a simple concept like following orders. Or is that part of your brain still frozen?"
"Easy, Nat." Clint moved to her side.
"This isn't the place for an argument." Pierce ordered. "Nor is it the time."
"I can take you back to your place, Steve." The blonde woman offered. "I'm sorry to tell you, but it's a wreck."
"I'd appreciate that.. I'm sorry, I don't even know your real name." Steve shot back. "Is it really Kate, Agent 13 ?"
"Captain Rogers," Pierce interjected. "I'm sorry for the subterfuge, but Agent 13 is assigned with making sure that you are safe and adjusting to life in the 21st century."
"So I'm being babysat, and I'm being undermined by my superiors and my team." Steve nodded. "I think I'm done here."
"Captain Rogers," Pierce called after him.
"Consider me resigned, sir ." Steve bit out, walking out of the hospital.
Bruce watched Natasha dart after Steve grabbing his arm and angrily pulling it back. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were starting to draw a crowd. Steve pulled himself free of her grip, his whole body coiled to strike.
"Out of all the people I don't trust, you're at the top of that list." He leaned toward Natasha, pointing a finger at her face. "Followed by those clowns."
Natasha flinched and took a step back.
"Breakin' my heart here, Cap!" Tony called out.
Steve thrust the doors open and stalked out. Natasha stood there staring at the swinging doors, her mouth agape.
"Should we go after him?" Bruce looked from Steve's retreating back to Tony in question.
"Nah," Tony shook his head, pulling his phone out. "I'm tracking him. Give him an hour or so to get to where he needs to be and we'll find him."
"We better hope so." Pierce shoved his hands into his coat pockets. "Keep me updated, Stark."
"I didn't know I worked for you."
"With Fury gone we'll need all the help we can get."
"I'm sure." Tony moved away. "Come on kids, let's go. Pepper's going to kill me if I'm late for another meeting."
"Maria," Clint turned to Hill who was standing there staring at the bed that held Fury's body. "Call if you need us, okay?"
Hill nodded squeezing his hand. "I will."
Bruce felt Pierce's gaze on his back. It sent chills up and down his spine, making his hands clench and his muscles tense. Natasha grabbed his hand, squeezing gently. A silent and subtle reassurance that he wasn't alone. He was safe.
At least for the moment.
Natasha reached forward and touched Tony's elbow. "Four o'clock."
Bruce looked to the right. Two STRIKE agents in full tactical gear were standing near the vending machines. They tried to appear non-threatening, but Bruce saw through it.
It was a trap.
Bruce could feel his heart hammering against his ribs.
"We've got you, buddy." Tony casually slung an arm around Bruce's shoulders. "Stay calm and we'll be just fine."
Fine seemed a thousand miles away.
"Just trust me." Tony said, turning to check out the blonde receptionist. "Please."
He took in another deep breath. They wouldn't stand by and let Pierce capture him. They'd fight. They had his back. He knew it. And better yet, the other guy knew it too.
Trust. That was the first step.