flashwitch got me thinking about this chapter, it felt like it was lacking, so I added a memory for Tony that I was trying to find a place for anyway. I think it fit nicely.
+++"He was suppose to be sedated." Natasha said, as she walked back into the Hulk room with Bruce and Thor, having finished moving the last of the medical equipment out.
Tony sat on the ground next to, a still unconscious, Clint; alternating between fiddling with his phone and staring at the archer.
"They said they would keep him sedated until the swelling went down," Bruce reminded.
"And they didn't tell us that had happened," Natasha said, sounding unimpressed. "You're right Stark, fire them."
Tony didn't reply. In his lap he had a new scrub top for Clint, but had made no move to put it on him. Instead, for the past twenty minutes, he seemed to be trying to memorize the maze of scars that now covered Clint's body. He had only seen a few that were ugly and ropey, the rest would fade to discolorations. It was the sheer number of scars that was the most jarring though, they were everywhere. And while they made Tony dizzy, feeling sick, guilt and hatred warring inside; he couldn't keep himself from staring.
There had been scarring before; bullet and knife wounds here and there, the odd rope burn, all received while working for SHIELD or from his time as a mercenary. There were older ones, a few lash marks on his back, some small round burns on his arms, but Clint never brought them up, never bragged about them like the others, and therefore no one ever asked about them; though that didn't mean they couldn't guess how he had gotten them.
He reached his hand out, moving his fingers through Clint's hair, and paused when he felt a familiar line on the back of Clint's head; he knew that one.
"It feels nice when you do that," Clint said, leaning into Tony's touch. They were laying out on one of the balconies. The stars were out, but they weren't looking at them, they were really doing anything.
"Feels nice when anyone does it." Tony said, but slowed down his motion, trying to savor Clint's unguarded pleasure.
Clint shook his head. "Just you. Never liked it before, that I remember."
"Really? I thought it was a universal enjoyment."
"It was always fake. Mr. Walker would do it, I hated that bastard." Clint said, his top lip curling slightly, "And Gordon, the lion tamer, he would tousle my hair when his wife was around." Clint's head lolled to the side and he squinted his eyes as he thought, "I think she was his wife, I called her Ms. Gordon and she would always laugh, never asked why, but now I'm starting to think 'Gordon' was his first name."
Tony smiled, "Clint, you are very entertaining when you're drunk."
"I'm not drunk," Clint scoffed, while his head moved in an uncoordinated way, contradicting his denial.
"Sure," Tony tried not to laugh.
Clint blinked a few times, looking a little lost.
"Ms. Gordon," Tony prompted.
"I got passed around a lot when Barney and I first got to the circus. I was too small for heavy labor, but I had to work or I'd get kicked out. So I became the stand in for practices or if someone got sick. Ms. Gordon used a whip too. Bet they were into some kinky shit in bed. She was a marksman with her whip, she could hit a ping pong ball off a spoon I was holding with my mouth and make it fly back to her. She'd catch it." Clint smiled, acting out the catching motion. "Beautiful. So was she, I think she was my first crush. Gordon looked pretty good too; looking good was half the show, people wouldn't care as much if an ugly guy got mauled by a lion, but a handsome guy?" Clint's voice went high, "'Oh, no! What if the lion gets him! He's so hot!'"
Tony's eyes danced as he passed a glass to Clint, "Here, you're not allowed to get less drunk yet, this is too much fun."
Clint took a sip, "He was hot, so what? He could be a real shithead when Ms. G wasn't around. He used to be better than her but had hurt his hand a couple years before I got there, so he couldn't flick it the right way anymore. Look what he did." Clint said, grabbing Tony's hand and bringing it up to the back of his head. Through the hair, Tony could feel a thick three inch long scar.
"He caught me messing around with one of the whips. It was Ms. G's and she didn't care if I looked at it. No, he was mad because I was actually hitting stuff I was aiming for. So he just had to show me how it was done. Tried to knock an apple off to top of my head. Shithead. He was going to make me stand there until he got it right. If Jacque hadn't stopped him, I'd probably have a lot more of those things, could have lost an eye," he said, letting go of Tony's hand.
Tony frowned at the memory, tracing the scar with his index finger, before pulling his hand back.
After playing catch up on the Tesseract and watching the footage of it being taken, Tony had read everything Agent had given him about the other Avengers, and then was able to dig a little deeper before Loki began parading around Stuttgart to get their attention. The first had been Bruce, of course. When SHIELD had sent him to talk to Ross, he was a little preoccupied with the, newly discovered, palladium poisoning spreading through his body. He was given the file and he had really only seen a picture of Big Green, the word Failure, and the phrase 'Super Soldier Program' before closing it, because he was completely done with people who were obsessed with Captain America. He had enough of that growing up. So, when he had opened the team files, he started having the biggest brain crush on Bruce from the moment he saw Ph.D under the video footage of the Hulk tearing up Stark Industries weapons.
He pretty much skipped Steve's file, and looking back now, by the size of it, he was pretty sure agent had put it together himself. Thor's was empty compared to the rest, other than some reports and footage from New Mexico and compiled norse mythology. He had already gone deep into Natasha's file. She had lied to him for weeks, so he got the answers, and then, after seeing footage of her in action and her background, made sure to only antagonize her occasionally.
In a group made up of enhanced being, by science, technology, and, well, godly ancestors; he had been surprised to see the file of Agent Clint Barton, archer. Not a mutant, not involved in government experiments, Apollo wasn't his dad, his eyes weren't even bionic. He was chosen to fight alongside them while 100% only human. "Compromised' was across the file, and Tony had suddenly realised that Barton had been the first person Loki had 'taken'; and Tony gave him automatic points for shooting Fury, mind control aside.
But it wasn't until after Thor had taken Loki back to Asgard that Tony decided to seriously study up. If he was going to invite these people into his tower, he needed better background checks.
Bruce was already at the Tower; Tony refused to let him go off alone again or trust SHIELD with his safety, because science bros before government whorgainzations who could change their mind and let Ross have him.
Rogers wasn't as big of a self righteous, hard nosed, savior of the universe, goody goody, as his father had painted him out to be. He still had all of those traits, but he was actually a decent guy… figured.
He had tried to look deeper into Clint's past but couldn't find anything before Clint was twelve, which just stunk of SHIELD, but he decided not to keep looking because if Clint didn't want anyone to know, he could respect that, it wasn't like he had told anyone everything that had happened those three months he was missing in Afghanistan. Plus, the first thing he found about "Hawkeye" was a circus poster of him in purple tights declaring him "The World's Greatest Marksman". There was no way Tony was going to stop loving that.
The fact that Clint was on slightly rocky ground with SHIELD only encouraged Tony to finish their floors and invite the team over sooner. There wasn't a risk of Clint going to prison, apparently being magically brainwashed wasn't the strangest thing they had ever encountered, but he was restricted to base and off active duty, pending extensive psychological evaluation. Which sounded unbelievably boring and disheartening for Clint.
Tony heard Natasha continue, "Strapping him down was just a precaution in case something happened; we would have time to react. They were never meant to actually hold him for long."
"He was doing pretty well for having a concussion," Bruce praised. "How did he even get up there?"
"You'd be surprised what Clint can do."
"He covered the lens' in iodine, turned his shirt into a weapon, I'm starting to see him as MacGyver."
"What is this, iodine?" Thor asked.
"They used it to sterilize his arm for the I.V," Bruce offered.
"What the hell?" Tony asked.
The team turned to Tony, who had moved closer and was now leaning over Clint, tracing his fingers over his neck.
"Are these… these are burns."
"What are?" Natasha asked, taking a place beside him.
"These," Tony said pointing out small round scars, evenly spaced around his neck.
"Electrical burns," Bruce said, reluctantly, "The doctors thought they were from a collar."
Tony looked incensed. "A shock collar? They put a damn shock collar on him?!"
They paused as Clint flinched at Tony's voice, but remained under.
"Perhaps it would be best if we were not in the room when he wakes," Thor suggested. "Our presence provided no comfort before."
"Let him wake up alone?" Tony asked, in disbelief, "Like he did for the last year? No way, I'm staying."
Natasha bit down on the frustration that only Tony Stark could bring out. "You can't stay in here with him Tony; he's too dangerous right now."
"He's not waking up alone."
"He won't," Natasha assured, "I'll stay in here with him for that."
"Hulk's room isn't really built for visitors, or long term...," Bruce hesitated, "guests."
"This is only temporary, we'll move him out of here and into one of the holding cells, once I've gone over it to made sure he won't be able to get out," Natasha said.
"The holding cells," Tony laughed, clearly upset. "You mean the ones I built for the sniper who killed Clint? Yeah, no. He's not our prisoner!"
"He is," Natasha said firmly. "Until we can determine what happened to him and are able to help him through it, he is our prisoner.' She looked a Bruce, "Not our guest," then to Thor, "Not our teammate," then Tony, "Not …" she didn't say it, but her eyes held sympathy, which was more than she would normally show anyone.
But it didn't matter, Tony was ready to rip her head off; when suddenly JARVIS spoke up.
Sir.
Tony didn't move, just continued trying to stare Natasha down.
Sir.
"What?" Tony snarled.
There was a pause, giving Tony enough time to look away guiltily. Agent Couslon is attempting to enter the building. And while I am following Agent Romanoff's most recent order to keep all other SHIELD personnel out, he is most insistent.
The three men turned to Natasha, wearing similar questioning looks.
She merely raised her brows in return. "SHIELD needed to know who he was so that I could get him back here; that doesn't mean I trust them around him right now. The Council will hear about what happened soon enough, and then we'll really have trouble. Right now, the Tower is the safest place for him."
"At least we agree on that." Tony said, stiffly. His eyes drifted over to Clint, conflict on his face. "Fine," he bit out, "Bruce and I will go see Agent. You," he said to Natasha, his gaze intense, "stay. Don't leave him alone." It sounded more like a plea than a command.
Natasha nodded.
"Thor, you good waiting outside, in case she needs backup?"
Thor nodded, "I will guard them."
"Good, good." Tony spared a last look to Clint, before turning and heading out of the room, phone passing from one hand to the other, Bruce close behind him, "J, tell Agent we'll meet him on the common floor, don't let him near this floor until we talk to him."
Very well, Sir.
As she watched them go, Natasha could see Tony putting his armor back in place. Soon he would be Tony Stark again; genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist; covering the teammate, friend, lover. Because, while they trusted Coulson, until they knew differently, he was here for SHIELD; that meant Tony wasn't giving anything away.
The title is not set in stone. It is 'In My Remains' by Linkin Park. But if you can find a better song, tell me and I will check it out.