I'm still here! I'm sorry for the delay. I've had some health challenges, which made writing hard, but I'm overcoming it and getting better every day.
This was a challenging chapter for me. I fought myself while writing it. If you've read my Finders Keepers stories, you'll see it's slightly different from those. I hope it doesn't turn anyone away. I just ask you to keep an open mind, and as usual, please let me know what you think!
Once the trio had finished their breakfasts, Kate and Bucky went back to their rooms. Clint lingered in the lobby, waiting for the desk clerk to finish his phone call. "What can I do for you?"
Clint glanced down at the clerk's name tag. "Hugh, I wondered if you had any games or books available for guests?"
"We do. Beth is in the process of unlocking the storage closet now." Hugh pointed Clint to another room where his co-worker was opening a closet door.
Clint walked where Hugh was pointing to find who he assumed was Beth opening a large door. "Good morning, Beth."
"Good morning," the fresh-faced blonde woman said. "You must be here for the entertainment selections."
"Yeah," Clint said, running a hand through his hair, "need to figure out how to entertain three people while we're here. I have a feeling we're going to get tired of staring at the TV all day."
Beth chuckled. "I bet. Hopefully, you'll find something here to help you pass the time. Oh, the diner will also be open and the convenience store. The employees have rooms here for when the weather gets bad."
"Thanks, Beth. I'll let my companions know."
"Good deal. Have a great day." Beth left to join Hugh at the front desk.
Clint had no clue what Bucky and Kate did in their spare time, other than probably shooting things. He grabbed a deck of cards, several games, and a few books, taking them back to their rooms. After unlocking his door, he set the items down on a table. Looking up, Clint saw Kate and Bucky sitting at the small table. "So, I'm guessing this means my room is ground zero?"
"Well, yeah, CB1," Kate said. "You're the leader on this trip, so we're hunkering down here. Oooh, what's this?" She jumped up and hurried over to the things Clint had brought from the lobby. "Really? The Game of Life? Sorry? Yahtzee?"
Clint sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's not like I had a lot of options, Bishop. But, if you'd like to walk to the nearest store and pick up some things, more power to you."
Kate huffed. "Fine." She dragged the board games over to one of the beds. "I'm the banker," she said as she set up the Monopoly game. "I don't trust either of you. You'll try to use some Avenger mind trick to try and cheat."
"That's Star Wars, Katie-Kate," Bucky said. "Jedis use mind tricks. We just use our superhuman powers and special gifts."
"To-ma-to, to-mah-to, Barnes." Kate swiped the racecar as Bucky reached for it, then waved it in his face and smirked. "Gotta be quick, older man."
"Older man?" Bucky asked, deciding to go with the thimble. Kate scrunched up her nose. "My ma made our clothes by hand."
"Yep," Kate said, popping the 'p. "He's old man," she pointed to Clint, "so since you're like, twice his age, you're older man."
Clint and Bucky both rolled their eyes. "Wisdom of the youth," Clint muttered, grabbing the terrier. "Closest they have to Lucky." The dog lifted his head and propped it on Clint's leg, nuzzling him until Clint petted him. "Okay, let's go."
Two hours and several pots of coffee later, Clint leaned back, holding his winnings in his hands. "Park Place, Boardwalk, and all the railroads. That's the trick to conquering Monopoly."
"Sure," Kate said, "that, and cheating."
Clint dipped his head and looked over his glasses at her. "Nope, years of playing with the kids."
Kate shook her head. "Nope, I call cheating. Loaded dice, right?"
Clint rolled his eyes as Bucky smirked. "I just got the game from the hotel. When would I have time to get a pair of loaded dice? Admit it, Bishop. You lost fair and square."
Kate huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine. Since I can't figure out how you won, I'll let it slide for now." She hopped up from the bed, grabbed the Sorry game, then returned. "This one doesn't have dice to roll, so it'll be fair." Kate glared at the two of them. "That's not a challenge, either." She opened the box and set out the board. "Age before beauty, so you go first, Bucko. You do know how to play, right?"
Bucky sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, Katie-Kate, I do. Thanks for your concern." He reached for the dome to pop the dice, but Kate put her hand over it. "What now?"
"Not that hand," Kate pointed to his metal one, "that's definitely not fair, so use your other hand, buster."
"Oh, good gravy," Bucky groaned as he switched hands. "Kids these days."
Forty-five minutes or so later, Kate's jaw dropped as Bucky knocked one of her men off the board on his way to winning the game. "What the hell?"
"Told you I knew how to play," Bucky smirked.
Kate threw her hands in the air. "I give up. I can't believe how you take advantage of young people."
"Take advantage, my ass," Clint said. "You're the one who almost broke the game, slamming the popper." He glanced over at the pile of games remaining on the table, then looked at his watch. "The restaurant's open. The staff has rooms here for times like these." He stood. "I don't know about you two, but I'm getting hungry." The other two agreed, so they packed up the game and went over to the diner for lunch.
"This weather makes me sleepy," Kate said after the trio trudged back toward their rooms. "I'm off to take a nap. Come on, Lucky." Kate picked up Lucky's leash, and the dog happily trailed behind her.
Once Clint made sure Kate was safely in her room, he turned to Bucky. "Ready to watch the greatest Christmas movie ever?"
"I never took you for an It's a Wonderful Life fan," Bucky said as he walked alongside Clint back to Clint's room.
"Oh, hell, no. We are going to remedy this situation right now." Clint marched over to one bed, plopped down, and grabbed the remote, turning it to a streaming channel, searching until he found what he was looking for.
"Seriously? Die Hard? What the hell does that have to do with Christmas?"
"It takes place at a Christmas party. You can't get more Christmasy than that."
Bucky shook his head. "Your idea of a Christmas movie is – "
"Amazing. Now, shut your piehole and just watch."
Bucky huffed, but planted himself on the other bed, stretched out his legs, clasped his hands behind his head, and leaned against the headboard. "This will be the longest two hours of my life, and I was under HYDRA's control for decades," Bucky muttered. He looked over to the other bed as he heard Clint snicker. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Oh, just a lot. Steve had the same reaction when Tony ordered him to watch it. I was never quite sure if it was on Steve's list or not."
"Sure as hell wasn't on mine."
Clint shushed and pointed at the TV as the movie started. "Give it a chance. That's all I ask."
"Fine."
During the movie, Clint would glance over to try and catch Bucky's reactions. He was pleased when Bucky reacted during the explosions. He'd also noticed Bucky muttering under his breath, but with him being on the wrong side of Bucky, he couldn't hear what Bucky was saying. If Clint were to guess, it'd probably be something about how he would've done something differently. When the movie ended, Clint turned to Bucky. "Well? What'd I say? Greatest Christmas movie ever, am I right?"
Bucky bit his lower lip in thought before responding. "Fine, you were right."
"Yes!" Clint pumped his arm in excitement. "Another convert."
"Any more movie suggestions?"
"Ever watch James Bond?"
"Who hasn't?" Bucky said. "Who's your favorite?"
"Sean Connery, though Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton are up there, too. You?"
"Can't go wrong with Connery. I do like Daniel Craig, though." Bucky looked and happened to see Clint shiver a little. "Everything okay?"
"Not a big Daniel Craig fan," Clint's voice dropped to almost a whisper. Bucky looked puzzled. "Reminds me too much of Barney."
"Who's Barney?"
"My older brother.
"Guessing there's some bad blood there from your reaction." Bucky stood and went over to the fridge to grab a couple of beers, tossing one to Clint.
Clint nodded his thanks, then opened the can. "You could say that. Bastard tried to kill me."
"Damn." Bucky took a sip of his beer. "Piss him off that bad, did you?"
Clint shrugged his shoulders. "Happens when you realize the circus you worked for turned out to be a cover for a group of traveling criminals, and you refuse to help on a job." Without realizing it, he rubbed his right side just above his collarbone. "Left me to take the fall for a job. After I got patched up, got tossed in jail and was there until SHIELD recruited me."
"Man, that's rough. Sorry I brought it up."
"It's okay. You didn't know. Like I've said, it's probably all out there somewhere anyway."
"Ever hear from him again?"
"Early on, he'd call, usually needing me to bail him out of jail or somehow get him out of trouble." Clint gulped down his beer. "I was still a stupid kid at the time, so I'd come running and get screwed over."
"What finally made you quit?"
"Coulson. He eventually got it through my thick skull that I didn't need Barney's bullshit in my life, that I deserved better from my family." Clint drummed his fingers against the beer can. "Haven't heard from him in years, too busy focusing on other things, starting with Bobbi."
"Bobbi? Didn't think that was your wife's name?"
Clint shook his head. "It's not. Bobbi's Bobbi Morse, code name Mockingbird. She and I started SHIELD about the same time, but I didn't meet her until a few years later. We were paired on a mission, a long-term undercover op infiltrating a group smuggling illegal weapons. I fell for her hard. Proposed in September, married by Thanksgiving, divorced on Valentine's Day." He looked over at Bucky. "Oh, it gets better. For revenge, I asked her sister, a fellow agent, out on a date, then married her a year later."
"Laura?"
"Yep. Guess I found out blondes weren't my type, so I figured I'd try brunettes. Had better luck until now."
"Bet that made family reunions difficult."
Clint snorted. "Not as bad as you might think. Bobbi realized her sister and I were more compatible. After she and I split up, Coulson made sure we weren't on any joint missions together, plus that's when I met Nat."
"Did you and her ever?"
"Nah, I'd just gotten together with Laura, plus she was too young. After I brought her in, we grew so close people thought we were, especially since no one knew about Laura. She was only an agent for a short time and hadn't made a name for herself, so it was easy for her to bow out of SHIELD once we hooked up. Once we got married, I worked with Fury and Coulson to make sure no one knew about her. She was erased from SHIELD's files, and when we got married, there was nothing on a computer. The only witnesses were Fury, Hill, Coulson, and Nat. The kids' births were handled the same way, making it harder for criminals to track them down. It was one of the ways I tried to protect them. It worked like a charm, even after bringing the team home during the Ultron fiasco, even after Loki." Clint unconsciously shivered again. He'd hoped his family was buried so deep in his psyche that Loki wouldn't be able to access those thoughts. Thankfully, Clint discovered he'd been successful, and Loki never found out about the family. Either that or they weren't crucial to the asshole's plans, so he didn't bother trying to look for them.
"Loki. Thor's brother, right?"
"Yeah. That was something Thor and I had in common – asshole brothers. I never held Thor responsible for his brother. I always figured that would be hypocritical, what with my issues with Barney."
"What exactly happened with Loki? HYDRA never went into detail, and Steve never talked about it."
Clint looked down at his empty beer can. "I'm gonna need more beer for this one."
"I'm sorry," Bucky said. "Didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
Clint sighed. "Don't worry about it. I spent too much time not talking about it before I realized that probably wasn't the best way to deal with it."
Bucky nodded, then got up, grabbed some more beers from the fridge, set them on the table between the two beds, and then stretched out again. "Here," he said, opening a beer and handing it to Clint.
"Thanks." Clint took a long drink, then began to talk. "I was assigned to keep an eye on scientists working on some blue cube. It started acting weird, almost coming to life, then Loki appeared. He attacked the guards and tried to shoot Fury with a staff he was carrying that had some stone at the end." Clint took another drink. "Found out later it was housing for one of those damn stones Thanos had. Anyway, I shoved Fury out of the way. As I stood, he pressed the damn thing into my chest and told me I had heart. The next thing I knew, all I wanted to do was his bidding. He reinforced the fact I was a weapon, his weapon, to be used as he saw fit. It became my goal to do nothing but obey him. It was like I'd transferred my allegiance from SHIELD to Loki with nothing more than a poke to my chest." Clint took several deep breaths before continuing. "I spent the next three days plotting and enacting ways to kill my friends and co-workers." Clint's voice grew soft again. "It almost worked. It would have if Tasha's cognitive recalibration didn't work." Clint looked over at Bucky. "That's when I first met Cap, telling him I knew how to fly a plane. It took Tasha vetting me to get him to trust me." Clint guzzled the rest of his beer. "Course, that doesn't compare to what you went through with HYDRA."
Bucky listened intently to Clint's stories. He hadn't realized Clint had been through so much. Now he knows why he felt a pull toward the archer and why Steve had called him in Germany. "It's still bullshit what you went through. It doesn't matter how long it was for. Brainwashing is brainwashing. As for Stevie trusting you, he's always had a knack for looking past the outside and quickly seeing what's inside a person. It's what made him a good leader. He always saw the best in people, saw their potential."
Clint drew his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around his legs. "I remember walking through the helicarrier on the way to a Quinjet. I knew everyone's eyes were on me, wondering when I would flip and take them out. I knew they were keeping their distance because of what I'd done. Felt their eyes on me anytime I walked through SHIELD for my therapy appointments Tasha dragged me to. I began to doubt myself until I was afraid that I'd be a liability in the field. That's when Fury ordered me to get the hell back home and not come back until my confidence returned. So, I went home and licked my wounds."
"Is that why you weren't in DC when SHIELD fell?"
"Yep, was on mandated leave." 'Another thing to feel guilty for,' Clint thought to himself. "Probably wouldn't have made a difference, anyway."
"Probably not."
"Gee, thanks, Barnes."
"I didn't mean it that way, Clint. I just meant I was so focused on my mission that no one would get in my way. My idiotic best friend was willing to die rather than fight me."
Clint nodded. "Good point." He sighed. "Okay, enough of this is your life, Clint Barton." He picked up the remote. "Let's find some James Bond movies so we can complain about how we could've done a better job."
"Good idea. Speaking of Bond, you said you preferred Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton after Connery. How come?"
Clint smiled. "Easy. I prefer brunets. Tall, dark, and handsome."
Bucky scrunched his face up in puzzlement. "But, what about Laura?"
"She's a brunette. During my SHIELD career, I was the honeypot on lots of missions because of lessons learned during my illustrious circus career."
"And your wife was okay with that?"
"She knew my history. We talked about it extensively before getting married. I was upfront about my bisexuality. I'd discovered that during my time with the circus. I've never cheated on her. I do love her and probably always will. Since she'd worked for SHIELD, she knew it was a possibility I'd have to play the part during missions but knew I'd drop it as soon as the mission was over."
"It hasn't always been that easy."
"Wait a minute. You?" Clint asked. Bucky nodded. "I read the Captain America comics when I was little."
"Did you really think they'd talk about that in a comic book? And before you ask, Steve was straight, always in love with Peggy. Hell, several of the fights he got into before the serum was because of me. Even though I was probably twice his size, stupid punk thought I needed him to defend my honor."
"Sounds about right." Clint mindlessly searched the TV until he found what he was looking for. "Oh, good, a Bond marathon, just starting." Bucky understood the conversation was over, so he turned and focused on the television as the two spent the next few hours watching spy movies until he looked over and saw Clint had fallen asleep.
