Clint opened his eyes to a warm slice of afternoon sunlight. He didn't remember falling asleep, but, judging from the ache in his neck, he'd been in this chair for a few hours at least. He blinked over at the bed beside him. The girl was lying facing him on her left side with the covers pulled up to her nose. Her eyes were closed, her breathing slow but heavy. Every few seconds, her eyebrows would twitch and her legs would kick.

Should he stay? Would it be less jarring to have someone here when she woke up? Or would she be more uncomfortable with him so close?

His stomach growled.

Well, that decided it. He could use a bite to eat first. Maybe bring her back something from the kitchen. From what he could tell, she hadn't eaten much in the past few days. A bit of toast would probably be best.

Banner was supposed to run a blood test, a couple other tests too. And it was only a matter of time before Hill was knocking at the door with that snarky smile and a whole heap of guilt for him. But right now, in this very moment, all he had to do was get up.

Clint set his hands on either side of the chair and pushed. A short while later, he was down in the kitchen, alone, staring at the toaster.

He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed a familiar number.

Ring. Rinnnnng. Rinnnnnnng.

There was a click and an airy second of silence before Laura's voice came through from the other end.

"Hi, Honey."

An exhale of relief.

"Everything okay?"

Clint's tongue flicked out to wet his lips. "Everything's fine."

"Did you find him?" Of course Laura would ask.

A tiny, distant voice in the background asked her if she knew where his shoes were.

"In the back of the closet, sweetie."

Clint smiled.

"No," he answered honestly. "He wasn't there."

"Are you safe?"

"Yeah, I'm safe." God he wished he was there right then.

The answer he got back was warm, but still business. "When will you be back?"

He hesitated. "I'm not sure. I found someone else on the island. A girl."

"Hmm."

"She's connected to Safeguard Security."

Barton could almost hear the gears turning in Laura's mind. He could actually hear the pencil scratching on paper thanks to his hearing aid.

/"What's her name?"

Clint shrugged. "Rayner called her Ember." After a moment of hesitation. "She did too."

"You don't believe her?"

"No." She'd been too uncomfortable, and not in an untrusting kind of way. There was something off about the way she'd said her name. Like she was a mouthful of something rotten.

"I'll take a look. See what I can find."

"Thanks, Sweetie."

"Of course." There was a pause on the other end. "Just… come home when you can, okay?"

Clint swallowed over the guilt that bubbled in his stomach. "I will."

"Love you," Laura said.

"Love you too." And he hung up.

Sometimes he wished he'd stayed retired.

…

Bruce was still in the lab, looking absolutely exhausted with a cold cup of coffee sitting on his desk.

"Hey," Clint said, tipping his own fresh mug in the doctor's direction.

"Hmm? Oh, hi," Bruce said.

Banner's head turned toward Clint, but didn't even really look at him as he came in. How long had everyone else been off on missions?

"How is she?" Bruce asked, finally turning away from the translucent screen to face him.

"Sleeping," Clint admitted.

Banner nodded. "We should get her blood results soon."

"Mmm." The sound was more acknowledgement than agreement.

"There's one more thing." There was an edge to Bruce's voice now.

Clint braced himself. "What?"

"Maria sent over the specs on the two collars you found." Banner suddenly looks a little uncomfortable.

"And?"Just get it over with.

"Well, aside from the fact that there was enough juice in them to drop an elephant, there was a bit of dimensional displacement in one of the collars."

"What does that mean?' Clint's stomach flip flopped.

Bruce turned his chair around to face Clint. "One of the collars wasn't from our universe."

He's backwards.

Clint's lips purse. He nodded. "She's not from our universe."

Bruce nodded. "Probably not. And if a copy of her is here, we could be in big trouble."

"How big?" Clint tapped the side of his cup with one finger.

Banner shrugged.

"It's hard to say. We're still learning about the multiverse's effect on our reality. Her being here might do nothing or it might make this and every other dimension explode."

Exploding definitely didn't sound good.

"So, how do we send her back?" And why was his stomach twisting?

Bruce dragged a hand over his chin. "I don't know."