Rated T for (swearing) language.

Ever since Clint left two nights ago, her eyes were glued to the news. Laura watched it religiously, changing between every news channel her television had to offer each time there was a commercial break. She needed information, she needed to know whenever there was an update to the worldwide story. Whether it was an update about the Accords or an update between the people involved, she needed to be the first to hear it. She needed to know if her husband was okay.

Laura placed the remote onto the coffee table, her fingers cramping after holding it all morning. She took in a shaky breath, elbows resting on her knees and her face buried in her hands. Her heart had been racing constantly, she was exhausted from the effort but she couldn't seem to stop it.

She never realized how different it felt.

Out of all of Clint's missions throughout the years, none of them had been like this. None had been this public. None had hit this close to home.

Clint Barton was out there, fighting a very public battle with his very public friends. If one slip up happened, his real name or face would be made public. Their small town would instantly know, the Barton's peaceful existence would be destroyed in an instant. Laura always knew this was a possibility, they couldn't possibly stay hidden forever, but she at least hoped it would happen when the kids were older and more independent, or at least happen when Clint was at her side to walk her through this. They put plans in place years ago in case that happened, what to do and where to go, but she always imagined them being together as a family on that day, not down their strongest player.

She closed her eyes. Laura was getting ahead of herself, she'd deal with that bridge when she had to cross it but that time wasn't now. After a day and a half under this stress, waiting for events to unfold, she knew now that it was far better to be clueless whenever Clint went on missions. She never had the chance to follow the events that happened in real time, she only ever knew the outcome. It was easier to just know the outcome.

"Mom?" The familiar voice of her son floated through the air, almost like a distant memory as she tried to snap back into reality. Sitting up straight, she saw Cooper standing in the doorway of the kitchen, Lila right behind him as if she was trying to hide using her brother as a shield. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Laura forced a slight smile onto her face but anyone could see the truth regardless. As she motioned the kids over, she replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just... Worried."

Both kids sat with her, Lila on her lap and Cooper at her side on the couch. It wasn't difficult to see that they all needed a little extra comfort as they sat so closely to each other. "How are you two holding up?" Laura asked.

Lila seemed to sink into her mother's arms while Cooper decided to respond for the both of them. "We're... We're a bit worried too."

Holding Lila close, Laura ran a gentle hand through her son's hair, taking small bundles and twisting them around so they stuck straight up like spikes. Cooper always pretended to hate it when she did that as he patted down each spike, but she knew it secretly calmed him when he was stressed. It gave him something else to focus on.

Seeing him pat his hair again, she couldn't help but genuinely smile at the familiar action. "I know," She said, "It's okay to be a little afraid, but your dad knows what he's doing, it's something he's done a million times before. It's just like his other missions."

"But this is a mission against his friends," Lila softly spoke, hiding her face within her mom's shoulder so Laura couldn't see the extra fear in her eyes. "Will they still be part of our family after this?"

Silence fell upon the Bartons as Laura honestly didn't know how to answer. She didn't know how far this mission would go, how far apart the team would be divided with their beliefs on the Accords, she didn't have a good answer for her daughter, so she went to the most vague answer she could give. "As long as you still consider them family, then yes, yes they are."

They sat with each other, trying to find comfort in each other's embrace until they all looked up when the commercial break abruptly ended. Their attentions immediately went to the screen as the heard the ditty that meant a report made the national news.

The sinking feeling in Laura's stomach meant it had to be Clint. She knew it was Clint.

A young woman in a suit jacket appeared on screen with a paper in hand. "In breaking news, it was just released to the media that a destructive battle at the Leipzig-Halle Airport in Germany broke out only hours ago between members of the former team known as 'The Avengers.'"

The video changed to a live helicopter feed of the broken terminals as some cleaning crews were already trying to work their magic.

To say it looked horrible was an understatement. It looked like a tornado blew through, leaving some corners untouched but mainly disaster reigned the area. Vehicles including planes were smashed to oblivion and overturned, concrete was split, passenger boarding bridges were broken in half... It was bad.

What the hell happened?

"The Avengers have been disbanded because of recent disagreements over the Accords," The news woman continued to speak, "The new set of legalized documents created between the United Nations and over a hundred other nations to regulate the actions of enhanced individuals such as the divided team."

"Is that true? Is the team gone?" Lila frantically asked after hearing that the team had been disbanded.

Laura had to quickly respond as she gripped her childrens' hands so she could catch the rest of the reporter's updates. "I'm sure she's just overreacting to their situation, the news likes to be dramatic..."

"The dispute led to members who disagreed with the Sokovia Accords aiding the well known 'patriot' Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, in breaking out the criminal James Buchanan Barnes from the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Berlin amidst his interrogation for bombing the Vienna International Centre in Austria which claimed the lives of many, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda. The members that helped both Rogers and Barnes from escaping custody were arrested at this airport after the remaining Avengers fought to take them in, resulting in damage that will cost millions."

The video changed from the airport destruction to old video clips taken from civilians as huge armored trucks roamed the streets, presumably taking some of those who were considered family away to prison.

But they couldn't be sure, maybe Clint escaped before military arrived, or maybe he didn't get involved in the fight after all and was just keeping a low profile to be safe. There was a chance...

"The cost of damage also included that of one of their members. One, who's identity has yet to be disclosed, was critically injured and immediately sent to the nearest medical facility for evaluation. There is no news on how bad their condition is yet."

Everyone could feel the added weight to the air, no one needed to say a word because the same thought arose with everyone. It could easily be Clint. He was naturally at a disadvantage physically compared to his teammates, and after his many close calls it wouldn't be surprising. Not to mention the identity hadn't been disclosed so one of the many precautions that Shield had put in place years ago might still be going strong.

Oh god, it could be Clint. He could be in critical condition.

As she clung tighter to her childrens' hands, she had to be careful not to crush them but she could tell they were squeezing back just as tight. When the woman spoke again, all of them perked up with slight hope. "Multiple offenders were brought into custody," She continued, instantly making Laura realize that this moment would make or break them all. If Clint had been taken into custody, the injured player likely wasn't him. However if he wasn't called, he either escaped or... she didn't want to think about the other possibility anymore.

"Including the former United States Air Force Pararescue, Samuel Wilson..."

Laura didn't know her heart would drop so much at the name of a friend she had only met a handful of times. She immediately hated the fact that she was hoping for names to be called because it would mean they were likely safe from the critical injury, but at what cost?

"Enhanced immigrant Wanda Maximoff..."

She heard a whimper from her chest as Lila instantly buried her face into it, trying her best not to cry. Laura soon felt a wetness through her shirt and tightly held her daughter closer, holding Cooper's hand just as close. Their older sister had been taken into custody... That was something no kid ever wanted to hear.

"Former convicted thief Scott Lang..."

Surprisingly, that name didn't sound familiar. Was that one of Clint's fake identities? Was that the person Clint needed to recruit when the Captain called him that night?

Laura didn't have enough time to dwell on her questions as the last name was called.

"And retired Shield Agent Aaron Cross."

Her heart stopped. Just for a second.

Now that name was familiar.

She thought she would feel relief after hearing Shield's fake identity for Clint still up and running, but she didn't. Within that brief second, all hope of Clint being okay was stripped away and replaced with... Nothing. She felt empty, despite the warmth of her children with her. They were all in shock after recognizing the name and in that moment they knew... Clint wouldn't be coming home from this mission.

"They will all be trialed for their crimes..." The lady continued but Laura didn't bother to listen. She had all the confirmation she needed, Clint was in custody. He hadn't made it out of the fight in time. He was arrested. He was going to prison.

God, he was going to prison.

She didn't want that to sink in. That would mean that this was really happening. Instead, she took in a shaky breath and tried to avoid thinking of what the future had in store for Clint and for their family. Closing her eyes, she wanted to be thankful that Shield was still running enough to have those safeguards up, but she couldn't find any hope left within herself. They may have dodged a bullet for now, but the thought couldn't help but persist, "how long did they have?"

This was a no win scenario. Those imprisoned hadn't won, the person who was injured certainly hadn't won, even those who 'won' the fight hadn't won. Natasha and Tony, those who had signed had to see their friends fall. She wondered if this trouble would ever be worth it in the end.

Opening her eyes, she brought Copper into a hug because god knows he needed it as much as she did. She could tell that there was one question wavering in the air, but no one had the heart to ask it because no one could answer.

'Would everyone be alright?'

Laura certainly hoped so, but she couldn't help but get a sinking feeling that this was the beginning of the end for their 'peaceful' life.


"Now tell me, who's idiotic idea it was to pump an 18 year old girl with the sedative dosage meant for a super soldier?!" A man in blue scrubs shouted to the other end of the phone. He would have started pulling out the rest of his hair if the matching scrubs cap wasn't containing it.

"Sorry Karson MacLellan, the sniper forgot to switch out tranquilizer darts from his rifle. He was originally assigned Rogers but he had escaped before he was in position. Nobody could have known that it would have affected her that much, we assumed she had a similar metabolism to the other mutants."

By the tone, he could tell this man only thought this situation was a simple mistake one of his soldiers made. The fact that it could have costed a life was an afterthought.

"Aye-yai-yai," MacLellan sighed at the shear stupidity while leaning into the backing of his chair, phone being gripped stronger by the second as each word from the admiral's mouth made his desire to slap him across the face stronger. He had to contain himself from walking over to the 'man in charge' right then and there. "Super serum or not, anyone with half a brain would know that the fact alone of shooting a 130 pound girl with the drug dosage meant for a full ass soldier twice her size is a horrible idea!" Spinning around in his chair, he gazed at the table that restrained the unconscious kid who recently had a near death experience without realizing it.

Taking in a breath, he barely attempted to control his words to the admiral on the other end. He only held back enough to keep up mild professionalism. "You wallopers are hella lucky that her metabolism happened to be slightly heightened from those powers. If she didn't have them she would have been dead in five minutes flat. I don't care what any of your radge officers think, they obviously weren't trained on the proper protocols when using tranquilizer darts. Expect a lesson next week, I don't want another "simple mistake" to happen again when next time, it will kill."

"Your request has been noted," The admiral stated as if he was the one giving the orders. "An extra training lesson will be set for next week. Until then," He finished, hanging up the phone immediately because he didn't take kindly to the doctor's Scottish insults.

Slamming the phone back onto the desk, Karson MacLellan rubbed his eyes from the long night of no sleep as he mumbled to himself. "How did those idiots ever get clearance for using drugs? I don't get paid enough for this, I'm so freakin done with these boggin ass…"

A slight blip made him instantly switch back to focusing on his job when he noticed the heart monitor start to rise in beats per minute. Bolting up, he swiftly moved to check the vitals and make sure his speculations were correct and there weren't any more complications.

After a couple minutes of the vitals remaining steady, he gave out a sigh of relief as he saw the kid's eyes trying to pry themselves open in the bright room. But the second after he felt that wave of relief, adrenaline decided to pump through him instead.

He jumped forwards, instinctively pressing down on the kid's shoulders to keep her from moving after so many… complicated cases he had worked with at the prison. It took him a second too long to realize the mistake he made as he only made the situation worse.

Seeing the panic in her eyes clear as day, he didn't have time to react differently before he was tossed across the room like a rag doll being pulled by a ghost. It was the weirdest feeling to be thrown without any physical contact. The second his head hit the metal wall, he heard a cry of pain. He almost thought it came from himself as his head throbbed from the impact, until he remembered one very important detail.

"Shit!" He shouted as he struggled to his feet with one hand rubbing the point of impact. Stumbling over to the table, he couldn't do anything as the girl laid there in immense pain with her muscles stiff as a brick.

He stood next to the girl, anxiously waiting for the clicking of the collar to stop as multiple electrical shocks shot through her every second. It sounded similar to the tasers the guards of the prison had when they used them on the rowdy guests. The five long seconds of the attack felt like a minute, but it likely felt longer to the kid feeling it first hand.

As soon as the loud buzzing stopped, all of her muscles relaxed making her body flop back into the restraints of the table like she'd suddenly become Jell-O. She let out a breath that she was forced to hold and she closed her eyes as if trying to focus on the pain being gone. Glancing at the heart monitor, it was going out of control and MacLellan really didn't want to increase it further but he wanted to make sure she didn't hurt herself again.

"Whatever you do, please don't use your powers again," He said as calmly as he could muster, but it didn't stop the heart rate from spiking as she opened her eyes in a panic to look at the man next to her. In a sign of peace, he held his hands in front of him, "I'm not here to hurt you," He said even if he knew he wasn't convincing her after the pain she just went through, "Just please, don't. If you use your powers you'll get hurt again."

MacLellan could tell that she wanted to say something, but she couldn't seem to find the words quite yet. Until she did, he decided to explain the situation. "The collar around your neck, whenever you use your powers it's designed to activate and send electrical pulses through your body to render you motionless. As long as you don't use your powers, it can't hurt you."

She was silent for a long moment as she took that information in, trying to assess her situation while looking at the restraints around her body. Realization seemed to slap her across the face. "Where... Where am I? Where's Clint?"

Panic seemed to slowly start rising again as she glanced around in hopes of finding her missing friend. "You're in the medbay of the Raft prison," He responded. "Your friends are okay, they're just in separate cells elsewhere."

"Why...?" She didn't finish her thought as her face instantly sunk, panic still present but with the added bonus of dread. MacLellan could see the gears turning in her brain, trying to put together the pieces of the events that led her here. He could tell she didn't want to believe it was real, but unfortunately, she knew it was. "We're in prison." She confirmed, "Arrested?"

MacLellan nodded. He honestly didn't know if he was certified to tell her the details, but he could tell by her crestfallen face... She wasn't even close to the nutjobs he normally had to deal with. And he didn't mean the officers he worked with.

This prison specialized in holding those who were remarkably enhanced, incredibly dangerous, and tremendously insane. This kid didn't tick the last box. After dealing with those who put up very well crafted but fake personas of regret or fear, he could tell that this kid was being truthful. The tears welling up in her eyes were real, and in that moment he saw his niece on the table restrained instead of this stranger he had never met, and he hated every second of it.

Screw it, he was going to do at least some explaining.

"You and your... Team were arrested. This prison was built to hold enhanced individuals, such as yourself, if they ever broke the law. The collar and the excessive restraints are to prevent you from using your powers," He said and motioned to her neck causing the kid to instinctively look down in an attempt to see the collar to no avail. "I was not in charge of that collar or the decision behind it, and I certainly wasn't in charge of the fact that each time the collar goes off, the greater the intensity of the shock will be, but I am put in charge of making sure that you'll be okay whenever that thing does go off."

Looking down at her other metal and leather restraints around her arms, torso, and legs, she didn't even look away when she finally spoke again. "Is that why I'm here? In the medbay?"

"Well..." MacLellan rubbed the back of his neck as he was embarrassed to explain this situation based on the fact that he has to work with the idiots responsible for this mess. "Actually, you're here because of an overdose of sedatives."

The kid finally looked up at him, an eyebrow lifted. He noticed that this conversation had at least been enough of a distraction for the girl so the tears stopped welling up in her eyes, so he decided he might as well continue. "Don't blame me! Long story short, some idiots work for this prison and I'm teaching them a lesson after this, but I had to make sure that you would be okay after their 'sedative mistake.' Good news, I think you'll be fine."

As he gave a little smile in hopes to lighten the mood a little, he could tell by the way her heart monitor wasn't going off the charts that she was at least calming down. That was a good sign.

Looking back at her own restraints in an attempt to avoid eye contact, she soon closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the cold table. He could see a frown grow deeper into her face before she attempted to quietly croak out, "Will I be able to see them again?"

He assumed she was talking about her teammates and he wish he had a definite answer for her. "Word on the street is that you'll eventually be placed into the same cell block, but not for a few days. I need to keep you in a sickbay cell to keep tabs on your recovery from the overdose. At least for a few days you'll get a slightly more comfortable cell."

MacLellan didn't blame her for not finding any bright side to this situation as she simply gave a slight nod. Before the room could fall into an awkward silence as some tears started to stream down the kid's face through her closed eyes, he started checking more vitals and said, "You should probably get some rest, your body's been through a lot. It's going to take time to completely flush the sedatives out of your system.

He could tell she didn't need to be told twice as mid-crying, she had already started drifting back under. After a few minutes, MacLellan couldn't help but let out a sigh as he untied his scrub cap. Running a sweaty hand through what thin, black hairs he had left from this job, he could tell that dealing with this kid wasn't going to be his 'usual routine at the office.' She definitely wasn't like the other prisoners.

He just couldn't tell if this would be a refreshing sight to have in the prison, or a more painful one.


Lately I've wanted to explore some side characters, so what better time than in the Raft? All the next chapters will still revolve around our Avenging friends as the main characters, but during their prison stay they will inevitably interact with various other workers within the prison. Whether that be the medics, the guards, or even behind the scene surveillance men, we'll get to see a couple other perspectives during their sentence.

Probably the only recurring character will be Karson MacLellan here, so don't mind if he throws out some Scottish slang here and there. I'll always have a little note at the bottom of the chapters to indicate what the intended meaning of his words are, so don't worry, you can all understand his various insults:P

Wallopers - idiots; Radge - violent idiot; Boggin - disgusting/dirty