Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Final Chapter of "After the Fall, We Take Flight", and this has been quite the road for our bird, but is time to wrap up our story. I'll save the farewells and thank yous for the end, so let's get right to the action!
Enjoy the reading!
AFTER THE FALL, WE TAKE FLIGHT: A HAWKEYE AND MOCKINGBIRD STORY
Final Chapter: The Truth Shall Set You Free, Part 2 – We're in this Together
It was an infernal ordeal; a long, exhausting and very draining road, but Bobbi Morse managed to bring back the Clint Barton she once knew and fell in love with. Yet, he chose to turn himself in because in spite of her efforts, nothing will change the fact that he killed a man and the evidence is sprawling all over the media, from television to social media.
Morse, however, is still determined to set him free, even when she cannot reach the two lawyers she knows because one of them is dealing with personal issues and was also affected by Barton's personal war against The Hood, while the other one is way too busy with the Avengers; and both of them would agree that the only course for Barton is incarceration at the Cellar.
They chose to let the day go by, and the day after they'd take care of the rest. At least she is thankful that Detective Rivera decided to hold him in the local jail for the time being, with Quake and Silk heading to Nevada to further investigate the matter of Marchegianni's assassination while Kate and her teammates were helping LAPD with the retrieving and questioning of Masque's new Masters of Evil. There was only one last request she asked, and fortunately it was granted, due to the fact that she knows what both Barton and Morse had done for California in the past being two of the original West Coast Avengers.
She walks inside the interrogation room, taking off her domino mask while she takes a seat, face to face with the man she fought for, the man she brought back from the edge of darkness and hopefully, set him free eventually.
"Hey you" Morse smiles while she looks at him.
"Hey you" Barton replies, smiling at her, but his smile visibly hides the sadness he still carries inside "I have to ask, with all that transpired…why did you insisted in helping me?"
"Because I know who you are, Clinton Francis Barton" she replies as she moves her hand and holds his, in spite of the handcuffs and the interruption of the glass knocking, prompting Morse to frown upon the double-faced mirror "I don't care if it's against the rules, I'm an Avenger, I outrank you in every level, so leave me alone!" she complains to the mirror and then looks back at Barton "Sorry about that" she whispers at him, while he chuckles a bit.
"I forgot how intense you can be, Bobbi Morse" he replies, lowering his head a bit.
"I know what happened with you and The Hood" she begins to comment her perspective of the situation "You beat him, he got free, you lost faith in the system and that pushed your buttons way too far" she comments about how things went down.
"And I got too stubborn and I refused to ask for help because I knew the answer would be the same, 'Beat him, send him to jail and let the system take care of it' knowing it would never work" he replies, explaining his point of view "Which led me to ask help to the wrong guy…the Kingpin".
"So the limo you got in after you beat Robbins after you robbed his bank was Fisk's?" Morse asks, since she still did not know about the owner of the limo he got in and was last seen, to which Barton nods in response.
"But then Fisk lost some money after he gave Tony's old tower to some mutant company so Masque saved his ass by buying my debt to him" he replies, to which Morse groans in frustration.
"And because of that, Masque forced you to become her puppet" Morse replies, now connecting the remaining dots that led Barton to his current predicament.
"Masque said that this Marchegianni guy was a rival of her father's" Barton explains "She wanted him out, I refused because I still didn't want to kill a man, until that night when I saw…"
"What you thought was me but was actually an LMD" Morse replies "Which we found out was programmed by Masque, she set you up to fail, she intended to have her killed so you could attack him being blinded by rage" she explains "But she failed miserably because nothing could break you, Clint, I know that too damn well".
"I think we can agree to disagree" Barton replies, but Morse squeezes his hand.
"You listen to me Clint" Morse's voice becomes more serious "This happened because you felled into the worst case scenario, everyone giving up on you, you thought 'This is it, everyone hates me and no one will help me now so might as well disappear, let them forget about me and go to Hell' but you're wrong Clint" she begins to become teary-eyed as she starts to confess "When I saw what happened, I saw this as an eye-opener, I realized that the only good thing I had in my life was fading away while everyone else is sitting on their asses and choose not to do anything" her words make Barton look surprised upon the revelation "I wasn't gonna give up on you, and I know you're probably gonna say that I did…which is true, but I couldn't let it happen again, I don't want to lose you Clint, not now…not ever" she finally reveals her feelings for him, her still lingering feelings for the man she still loves, but before Barton could answer, the room's door is open and Rivera steps in.
"Morse, you got a call from your friends, they say is urgent" Rivera comments, prompting Morse to leave the room and head to Rivera's desk where her tablet is set up with Quake and Silk making the video call.
"Found anything, guys?" Morse asks with concern in her voice.
"You're not gonna believe what we found" Quake starts the explanation "We got help from a guy named Slade with the whole investigation and we found Marchegianni's body" she explains, making Morse remember the guy who was head of security at the Mercury Rising Casino where Barton made his attack.
"When we went to the autopsy, well…get ready for this" Silk explains and then shows Marchegianni's body, revealing a set up of circuitry alongside packets of blood "Marchegianni was an LMD".
"Are you #$%& %$ kidding me!?" Morse exclaims in shock upon the revelation.
"A very advanced LMD" Quake continues the explanation "And that's not all, Silk and I made some deep web research ad found out that Marchegianni never existed" she explains "It was a fake identity created by Lucchino Nefaria, programmed to act as a rival in the eventuality that he got incarcerated to ensure that none of his true rivals would take advantage of the vacuum"
"Which did happen when he and his Lethal Legion were sent to Ravencroft after the whole Sin-Eater disaster" Silk adds, recalling her involvement in the situation with the Sin-Eater and its director Norman Osborn.
"But Masque didn't had the memo, apparently" Quake comments, but Morse begins to connect the dots.
"Maybe she did" Morse begins to explain "Maybe this was also part of the plan, since she knew he wouldn't kill a guy, she'd make him believe he did with this LMD"
"So she'd kill two birds with one stone, get rid of the rival to take over and get a personal puppet" Rivera interjects, to which Morse agrees.
"Exactly, and could you use another allegory? Not a big fan of the 'Birds and Stone' one" Morse comments, to which Rivera rolls her eyes as response "Anyways, this is great! This clears Clint's name!" she replies to her friends.
"It does, Nevada PD confirmed it and the information is already sent to every media as we speak" Silk reveals, prompting Morse to smile upon the good news.
"Well, with that I got nothing to hold Barton in, so…let me take care of the paperwork" Rivera explains, starting to proceed with the necessary paperwork to release Clint, finally setting him free.
THE NEXT DAY, AT MORSE'S APARTMENT
They can finally leave everything behind, Barton's name was finally cleared from the fake assassination and Masque and her crew are sent to the Cellar, they can finally get a well deserved rest, but Morse had one last thing to do and it was to bid her farewell to her friends who helped her in the moment of need.
"I can't thank you enough for what you did" Morse comments to Daisy and Cindy as she hugs them, showing her gratitude for their assistance in the ordeal with Barton.
"That's what friends are for, Bobbi" Cindy replies while she returns the hug.
"Glad to be able to help" Daisy comments "You should come with us to Vegas, we must have our time of fun after the whole thing" she adds, but Morse shakes her head in denial.
"Thanks, but I prefer to stay, I want to settle one last thing with Clint" she politely rejects the invitation.
"Ugh, I really need to get a boyfriend" Cindy jokingly complains "This one has a date with that casino guy" she gestures with her head towards Daisy, revealing that she will have a date with Slade.
"Really? You and the Statham lookalike?" Morse asks, raising an eyebrow.
"He's kinda cute, in his own way" Daisy shrugs her shoulders, but before they could keep the conversation, the sound of a car horn interrupts them.
"Come on ladies! This baby is meant to be on the road, not keeping the engine stalling!" Kate Bishop calls out the girls, since she is the one leading the trip to Vegas in her Trans-Am.
"Vegas is not shutting down today, Bishop!" Morse calls out to Kate "Oh, before you guys go, I got something for you" she then grabs a bad and give each of them a folded short-sleeved shirt, pink for Cindy and olive green for Daisy. When they unfold the shirts, Morse lowers the zipper of her jacket revealing the inscription of her shirt "Matching shirts!" she tells them as they see the same phrase written on their shirts: 'ASK ME ABOUT MY FEMINIST AGENDA'.
"They're great!" Cindy exclaims, happy at the thought while Daisy takes off her jacket and her top to immediately put her own shirt now "Damn Daize, couldn't you just wait a little?"
"I'm surrounded by girls and this is California, you won't believe the amount of shirtless people walking around" Daisy jokes as she puts on her new shirt, hugging Morse again "Thanks for the gift, girl"
"Thanks to you guys" Morse replies "We'll keep in touch, alright?"
"Definitively" Cindy replies, smiling at her friend.
"Take care, Bobbi" Daisy bids her farewell and both girls head to Kate's Trans-Am, boarding it to take their leave.
"You sure you ain't coming, Morse?" Kate asks as she holds the wheel of her car, to which Morse shakes her head in denial "Alright, you take care of Barton while I take care of your girls, 'Kay?" she comments, giving them the thumbs up as she watches them leave.
With them gone, she heads back to the building, heading straight to the rooftop where Barton has been standing there while he watches his Ronin suit burning in fire, a symbol of the end of his dark side, and a scene that prompts Morse to smile.
"It's gone…for good" Barton says once he notices Morse arriving nearby "You can start the celebration" he jokes, knowing that Morse was never a fan of his Ronin suit or the identity itself.
"Believe me, I'm partying in my head as we speak" Morse jokingly replies, laughing a bit
"So, no party at Vegas with the girls?" Barton asks Morse while he keeps his sights on the horizon.
"I'd rather have another kind of party" Morse replies as she walks towards him, standing to his side "After all, we should celebrate that you're free and your name's clear"
"I know, is just…" Barton takes a deep breath "I know that it was an LMD but I can't help but think 'what if he was an actual person?'" he poses the question, but Morse assuages his fears as she holds his hand.
"But it wasn't, and even with that, you fought hard to resist the urge until someone pushed you, but nobody else will do that again" Morse replies, moving her other hand to gently hold his chin and make him look at her "Because now you know that not everyone has given up on you" she warmly smiles at him.
"I can see that" Barton smiles back at her "So…with this mess, I won't be going to New York anytime soon" he adds, recalling how things about him are still tense at the East Coast.
"Better, there's still a lot of heat and best thing to do is to wait to simmer it down" Morse comments, looking at the horizon alongside him.
"The thing is that people will still think of me as a criminal" Barton replies, believing that about him.
"But you'll convince them otherwise, even if you do it one person at a time" Morse replies "So right now, you have one person less to worry about" she comments and right then she makes Barton turn to face her, allowing her to hold him from behind his neck and come closer to him and kiss his lips, slow and deep, a kiss that he returns in the same way while he wraps her waist with his arms.
"Is this what I think you're implying?" Barton asks while he gently puts his forehead close to hers.
"If what you're implying is 'My ex-wife wants to once again start over so I have to make sure that I won't screw this one up' then yes" Morse replies, giggling a bit and then she kisses him again.
"I won't fill your head with pretty words; instead I'll just work to make it worth it" Barton replies, to which Morse nods her head in response.
"I know you will" Morse replies and then holds his hand "Now…how about we move this back inside?" she asks with a suggestive tone, winking at him while she guides him back inside.
"With pleasure" he replies as he follows her back and retake their intimate moment to make it much better.
He had a terrible fall from grace, losing almost everything on the way, but she never gave up on him and fought to set him free. There is an old adage that says: 'When you fall, you stand back up and keep going', but in the case of someone like Barton and Morse, after the fall, they stand up and take flight, up and forward, to greater and better heights.
THE END
Here we have it, the end of our story about Hawkeye and Mockingbird, with adventure, drama and a dash of romance for a popular (although apparently not popular enough) pairing.
I knew from day one that this story would be challenging in terms of popularity since Hawkeye is not precisely the most frequently used type of character for Fan Fiction (even more considering the pairing, since Natasha is the most frequent and better known one, aside from the very few Clint/Kate pairings out there) but I chose to take the challenge head on and I made it through the end instead of just dropping the story and leave it unfinished.
I want to thank the very few likes and favorites marked there, and I want to thank the ones who read it, I hope my story entertained you and that you enjoyed it.
As for my next project, don't worry, I'll return to more familiar territory with a One-Shot and then a Sequel Story, so Stay Tuned for more!
Oh and, like my previous one, expect a Post-Credits Scene of this fic as well!