Five days. Five days with nothing, absolutely nothing.

If there had been no way to find Clint, part of Bruce was glad that they had not known Clint was alive. Five days of not being able to find Thor, of not knowing what was happening to him, was tearing his insides apart; almost literally with the way Hulk was a constant presence pressing on Bruce's mind.

Everyone seemed to be handling it the best that they could.

Natasha was here and gone simultaneously. No one knew that she was gone until she had already returned. She was checking her own informants, going undercover, doing what she could because just sitting around was unacceptable.

Tony had yet to come out of his lab. He would send messages to SHIELD with possible locations to check out and JARVIS would assure them, when they asked, that Tony was 'fine'. That was the word he used every time they asked, and Bruce got the feeling that if that was really true JARVIS would use more convincing words, instead of repeating what Tony had obviously said himself.

Steve would come and go with Coulson, but Bruce wasn't sure what he was doing. He had no real contacts and didn't know enough about the modern world to be of much help with such a digital search effort. He may have been leading some of the teams to search locations but Bruce didn't see the point. If any of the locations were actually promising, the Avengers would be the first ones there. But, like Natasha, he had to be doing something.

Which was how Bruce ended up watching over Clint. He was sure Tony kept the live feed going in his lab, but Bruce brought his food, allowed himself to be the physical presence of the team for Clint.

Bruce was waiting for the moment when Clint would strike out at him, wondered how he would go about it. He had distanced himself from Natasha so completely that any intimate gesture or phrase was chilling; he had gone for Thor's honor, citing his failures; with Steve, it was things that he had no control over, that he couldn't change, and didn't those weigh the most on his mind? Tony was met with silence, leaving him with the unknown, allowing his mind to come up with the worst possible conclusions.

When Clint finally did lash out, Bruce wished it had been with an attack similar to one of the others, but it was an attack and this was the point, wasn't it? A tailor fitted assault.

"I'm honestly surprised you're still here, Bruce," Clint said, after Bruce sent the tray of food through the slot.

Bruce stopped, surprised that Clint had used his first name, his unease growing. "We're not going to let you starve, Clint."

"No, I mean here at the Tower," Clint said, seriously, "I guess I thought you actually cared about the team."

Bruce blinked, "I don't know-"

"If you actually cared about them, you would leave. You told me so yourself. No one is safe around you, Bruce. I never jumped out of the vents to scare you because I agreed with you. Someone startles you bad enough and you could literally rip their head off."

Bruce rubbed his fingers together, stopping the nervous habit from spreading to his whole hand.

"But I guess you've got the Hulk room, that's safe, and you'll always make it there on time, right? How many floors away is your lab again. Isn't that where you spend most of your time? But I'm sure Stark secured that place right up. What about the common floor? How far away is that? Sometimes you all go out to eat, could you make it back in time? What about your room? How many nightmare have you woken up from with your heart racing? Did you make it there in time? Were you able to calm yourself down?" Clint was suddenly standing, staring into his eyes. "What about now? Could I piss you off enough that you couldn't hold back the Hulk from smashing through this barrier and tearing me apart?"

Bruce stepped back. His pulse was fine, there was no danger of the Hulk coming out. But Clint presence was draining. "Are you finished?" he asked, ready to leave even if he wasn't.

Clint slowly stepped back, away from the barrier, looking at Bruce intently. "So, you finally gave up on being with Betty?"

Bruce was so startled by the change in conversation, that he wouldn't stop his jaw from dropping slightly.

"Yeah," Clint said, giving a small nod, "good call on that, she seems like a sweet woman, you would have probably felt bad about murdering her in bed."

Bruce had no words.

"How's that coming along anyway? Maybe you just need to be the bottom, but I guess Hulk would have a problem with that, he seems like a very dominant guy."

Bruce shook his head. "What are you even talking about?"

Clint's face twitched in anger and his eyes grew hard, "You two deserve each other."

Who? Bruce and Betty? Hulk?

Bruce turned and walked away, not wanting to hear any more of the hateful things Clint was spewing, knowing he would be unable to bear much more when it was coming from a friend.

"You had the right idea with the gun Bruce," Clint yelled after him. "It's a shame it didn't work."

88888888

Tony waited until JARVIS sounded the all clear before making his way to Clint's holding cell. Bruce wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, Natasha was talking with Coulson and Steve on the phone, while those two were at SHIELD or wherever.

Now was the time.

The elevator stopped at the floor but the doors remained closed. JARVIS was going to be difficult, but Tony was prepared for this.

"Don't tell anyone where I am or what I am doing."

Sir you have programed me with protocols to stop you from doing such-

"Am I drunk, JARVIS?"

There was a moments hesitation, then a reluctant, You are not.

"Then those protocols don't apply to this situation."

Sir, you have been awake for almost 62 hours, I believe your judgment to be impaired. This is an unwise course of action. Agent Barton's hostility toward the team has not lowered enough for-

"Clint, JARVIS!" Tony yelled, "His name is Clint! Stop calling him Agent Barton!"

There was a breath of a pause. I apologize, Sir. It was not my wish to upset you in doing so.

The anger drained out of Tony and he slumped against the elevator door, his demeanor finally matching the circles under his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "It's not his fault, J, that he's like this now. They took him and messed him up. You need to stop blaming him."

You should, also, stop blaming yourself for what has happened to him, Sir.

Tony shook his head against the door. "That's different, J."

Yes it is, Sir, JARVIS stressed. Clint intended to kill you and almost succeeded, whereas you did not shoot him or try to harm him in anyway.

Tony was silent. "Don't tell anyone where I am or what I'm doing. Open the door."

JARVIS unwillingly complied. As you wish, Sir, he said, sounding unhappy.

Tony walked down the hall like he owned the place, and he did, so no pretending there, and began talking before Clint even came into view.

"Over the last few days, things have become very clear to me. They make sense, you know? Puzzle pieces, robots putting them together."

Clint was now sitting on his bed, startled up from his laying position by Tony's entrance.

"And hey," Tony said, gesturing to Clint, "You'll just sit there and listen to me, I don't even have to worry about you interrupting."

Clint narrowed his eyes.

Tony pointed at Clint, "Facial twitch, I win." He sighed. "I win. I always win. I won on the bridge didn't I? I lived through that, I survived. You," he flitted his hand at Clint, "also lived through it, we now know," his eyes turned sad, "but you didn't survive it, did you? And that's not right, that's not fair. Why did the billionaire get to survive? It was his fault anyway."

Clint looked around, unsure of what what happening.

"So why wouldn't you try to rip out his heart? No, not rip it out, I bet you could come up with an arrow to do that, but no, not rip it out, just… destroy it in a very poetic manner. It felt poetic to me… in between the electrical shocks. Justifiable at least. You know I'm rambling again. You were always so good at stopping me from going on and on and on and... Damn it, Clint!" he yelled, pushing his fists against the barrier, startling Clint again, "say something to me!"

Clint just stared at him. At least he wasn't smiling.

Tony dropped his head. "What were you going to say?" he pled, looking back up, "At the river. You looked up at me, and there was blood, I thought it was blood. They wanted us to believe… and we did, we thought you were dead. I thought you were dead. I couldn't save you. I couldn't even find you. I've never failed anyone so completely."

Silence, always silence now. Tony pushed away.

"But I'm going to fix this. I can fix anything." He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head.

Clint pressed himself back against the wall, looking disturbed and confused.

"I can fix this, Tony muttered again, opening the cell door and stepping in.

Sir! JARVIS' urgent, almost panicked sounding voice filled the cell. Please leave the room immediately.

"Mute, JARVIS." Tony said, not looking away from Clint, whose eyes had widened. His body was tense, looking ready to pounce.

"Look, see, here it is," Tony said, motioning to the reactor, the blue light filling the room. "My heart. That's what you were aiming for before, wasn't it, with the arrow? Of course it was, you always hit what you aim for. You wanted me to feel what I had done to you, you wanted to rip out my heart, but you did it the only way you could, from a distance."

Clint moved, slamming into Tony, pinning him against the wall, forearm against his throat. But not cutting off his air, not enough to stop him from talking.

Tony's voice was raspy, "But I'm right here now, I'm right here. You can actually tear it out now."

Clint arm loosened, his eyes searching Tony's, looking for the lie.

"I, uh," Tony gave a weak laugh, as he lifted his hand to the reactor, "I never showed you how to take it out. Took me forever to even take my shirt off around you."

Gently, Tony cupped his hand around Clint wrist and brought it down to the reactor. He could feel Clint begin to shake.

"See, you can't just unscrew the thing. I changed the design a bit, less wires. Fits in more like a plug than a car battery. There...there's a trick to it." He showed Clint what to do, guided his hand. Clint's eyes were locked on the blue glow. It took a moment, then there was a click and the reactor popped out a few millimeters.

Clint almost jumped back.

"Now… now comes the easy part," Tony breathed, heavily, moving his own hand away, "You just pull it out."

Clint stared at the reactor, flexing his fingers around it, appearing uncertain. The he looked up at Tony, locked eyes with him, and pulled it out a few inches.

There was another click and Tony took a gasping breath, the color quickly draining from his face. "Yeah, there," he groaned, "that's.. it's out."

Tony felt his legs give but Clint still had him pressed against the wall, so he didn't fall. Instead, Clint slowly lowered him to the ground, moving with him.

Clint arm was still gripping his shoulder, so Tony leaned forward and dropped his head onto it. He loved these arms. "Loved watching you practice." The muscles flexed beneath him. "I'm s-sorry I didn't come for you. Th...that I couldn't protect you." The pain increase, shortening his breath. "I know… know it was my f-fault you were shot. If I...if I…"

He leaned further onto Clint, gasping in pain, and waited. It wouldn't take long.

Obviously this chapter title is Say Something, with Christina Aguilera, but I came up with Tony's dialogue for this chapter before I ever heard that song. It came on while I was writing another chapter and I had to stop and come to this one because could it be more perfect?