Chapter 7

AN - I want to thank everyone who has reviewed/favorite/followed the story so far, the response to the story has been beyond amazing. I have got a lot of reviews asking about his back story and I plan on doing a series of one shots when I'm finished to fill in the gaps of Harry's past, but to answer a direct question Harry did attend boarding school, just not in England though it is explained later in the story. I sadly don't own any of the material, it all belongs to JK Rowling and Marvel :( I hope that you enjoy the chapter! :)

Clint leant against the door frame as he slowly lost his ability to stand. He slid down the door and onto the floor, the pure weight of the changing situation suddenly hitting him. He grappled his way to the safe in the wall to the left, seeing the phone he quickly entered the familiar number that he had long ago memorised. Only three rings later, though they seemed to be slower than normal, the phone connected, an uncertain voice came over from the other end.

"Hello?" Clint let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, as relief over took him.

"Hey Lauren, it's me." He said in a shaky voice hoping that she wouldn't hear it. Apparently he wasn't that lucky.

"Clint? Sweetheart what's wrong? And don't tell me nothing I can hear it in your voice." Oh yes she knew him very well.

"Well I guess I have good news actually." He was reluctant to call it that, but in all honesty it was.

"Oh, well don't keep me in suspense then, what is it?" She said in slightly playful tone, he wondered how long that would took a breath to calm his nerves again.

"It's Harry," he heard her let out a small gasp but continues going anyway, "I'm working with him Lauren, he's so grown up it's hardly believable."

"Harry. Our Harry? Oh, how is he Clint? Why hasn't he contacted us?" The obvious pain in Lauren's voice hurt Clint like a physical injury. Though he had been the one to take Harry in, it was Lauren who had adopted him without a second thought when they got married. She had always stayed with him.

"It probably had something to do with him being a member of MI6, they most likely had a gag order on him because we lived in a different country, national secrets and all that." He shrugged his shoulders. That's what he wanted to believe, he knew that all agents were given the option to cut ties with their families to avoid accidentally putting them in danger because of the people he went after. He would believe that until told otherwise.

"What else is there?" It was amazing how she did that over the phone, thousands of miles away she could still read him like a book.

"It's just… I can't get over the anger. He just left, told us nothing. He was gone. And it… it hurts that after everything he found it so easy to walk away from us. Did I really mean that little to him?" admitting to her that even when he got his son back, he was still consumed by anger was harder than he originally thought it would be. He could hear the sigh from the other end of the phone as he went off on that oh so familiar tirade.

"You're forgetting something Clint. He was my son too. He didn't just leave you, he left us." That brought Clint up short, he was normally very good at remembering that Harry and Lauren had been close, "And how do you know that he found it easy. We were the first and only family he had, and he loved us. I can't believe that the boy I helped raise would leave so quietly unless he had no choice." As usual she made a valid point, not that it was easy to hear.

"I know, you're right. I just wish things were still easy between us." He shook his head in an attempt to clear his head.

"I know. What you need to do is sit down and have a good long talk, clear the air." How he was supposed to achieve this Clint didn't know. By the looks of things Harry wasn't that inclined to talk to him unless it was about the op. Which would make said good long talk difficult to say the least. Evidently Lauren could here the doubt in his voice.

"I don't care how difficult it is or when, but it needs to happen Clint. You know this." The stern tone reminded him again of the tellings off he and Harry had regularly got many years ago.

Clint nodded, "Yeah, I know."

"You should get some sleep sweetheart, if you're going to be of any help to our son tomorrow you should rest," Clint murmured his agreement, "get something to eat as well, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Tell everyone I love them, yeah?" He let out a rueful smile as he knew that on one of the only occasions that Lewis would be home, he wasn't. Lauren laughed, causing Clint to smile

"You tell Harry I love him, and to come home soon, okay." Clint doubted again that Harry could do that but agreed none the less.

"Okay. Take care of everyone for me."

"I will. Love you Clint."

"Love you too Ren." He smiled and took a deep breath as he hung up the phone. Replacing the phone in the safe and adding his personal things in it he closed the safe and took a moment to remember the code.

Turning back to look into the room he caught the sound of the food no doubt arriving, preparing himself for the onslaught he new he would face as soon as he stepped out of the room. He turned to his bag and withdrew the photo frame he carried to as many missions as he could. It was a simple picture of Harry's 14th birthday dinner with the family huddled at the end of the dinner table all facing the camera. He and Lauren were in the middle, holding a 5 year old Amelia in their arms, with Lewis and Harry standing behind them, a 3 year old Adam happily in Harry's arms. They were all smiling broadly at the camera without a care in the world.

It was a quiet knock that brought him out of him memories calling out to the person, "Yeah, what is it?" He gently placed the photo on the bedside table as the person responded.

"Dinner's here Barton," so it was Steve, strange normally Nat came to get him if necessary.

"Yeah I'm coming." He turned to the door and opened it, taking in the unusually relaxed figure of the leader of their group, he was dressed in jeans and a polo t-shirt which was a change from his usual attire of jeans and a shirt. He took a breath and closed the door behind them.

They made their way over to the group who had begun happily tucking in to the meal that had been delivered. "Hey Clint," Natasha offered a small smile and offered him a tray of what looked like Chinese take out. Eagerly taking it he raised his eye brows in query as to the plan for the evening, "We were thinking we could familiarise ourselves with the case as none of us are particularly tired." She said, informing him of the plan and avoiding any uncomfortable questions that Tony no doubt wanted to ask. Nodding his acceptance he settled himself down with in an armchair and began eating.

It was Steve who broke the silence first, "Okay so what do we know about Anton Baclovitch?" He asked to the team as he navigated a particularly large mouthful of egg fried rice.

It was Tony who started, "Well you know that bombing in 2002, the Bali bombing?" Steve nodded in response, "Yeah well the three bombs that were used, supplied to them already built by Mr Baclovitch" The team stilled, while Steve had only read about the incident, the others had all witnessed it from various locations around the globe. Though not as life changing as 9/11 it had certainly been an eye opener to the real threats out there.

"Okay so how far does he go, what kinds of stuff does he sell?" It was Natasha that answered having looked over known purchases list in the file closely.

"Everything from small fire arms to nuclear warheads, if you can name it then he's sold it at some point." As the conversation continued Clint realised that as the only spy and therefore the one with more in depth knowledge, she was being very quiet. She was focused intently on her food, only glancing occasionally at Steve to keep track of what was being said. An hour or so later the group had finished and had cleaned up the food containers, Clint saw Natasha heading off to the exit of the accommodation. Catching Bruce's eye he indicated to the man he should follow her. Seeing his hesitance to follow Clint made his way over to Bruce and after putting his plate down gave the man a forceful shove in on the shoulder.

Seeing that Bruce now seemed to have taken the hint and followed Nat, Clint cleared up the last of his belongings from the main room and after wishing everyone goodnight, made his way to his room. Changing from his SHIELD gear into a pair of cotton pants, he sent one last text to Lauren 'Night gorgeous, sweet dreams xxx' before setting the alarm and finally drifting off to sleep.