Chapter Five
Clint stares at the burning barn with hate growing in his chest, "What do you want?" Clint asks with blood dripping down his chin. Long nails scrap across his cheeks while the woman forces him to look at her.
"You know what I'm here for..." Her voice melts as she stares into Clint uneasy eyes, "Stop playing dumb, Clint..." Clint tries to get out of her strong grasp on him. "I would be careful I wouldn't want to be like your wife over there." Clint glances over to Bobbie who lays still on the porch.
"He's not here..." Clint whispers trying to fight the fear growing in his chest. The woman throws him onto the ground angered by his vagueness.
"You irritate me..." She slurs while licking her long white nails. She stabs her claws into Clint's chest causing him to gasp. "I warned you...It's a pity really..." She unsheathes her claws from him while the poison fills his blood stream. Cint falls completely onto the ground watching her green cape swoosh over him.
"Search the house!" The woman orders with a thick British accent. "Find any evidence-" The sound of sirens take her attention away, "Never mind. They will be here shortly we must go." She orders while all the men with her hurry back to their black SUVs. The woman walks into the house for one last thing. She walks up the stairs searching for James's room. When she finds his room she opens the door with a smirk she scrapes her nails along his dresser before picking up a pen and paper.
"All the things that you know to be true will surely turn into lies..." She writes while leaving a stamp on the note. She watches from the window red and blue lights grow closer causing her to leave quickly knocking over a photo on his dresser of him and his family.
James and Francis pull up to the street unable to get to their house because of all the emergency vehicles blocking the road. "What's going on?" James asks breathing heavy trying to control his anxiety. Francis puts the car in park before unbuckling his seatbelt. James and Francis jump out of the car before hurrying down the road, but before they can get down they are stopped by a police officer.
"I'm sorry, boys, but you can't go up there right now." The officer orders calmly. James and Francis back away feeling frantic now.
"Sir, we live up there, and we need to know what's going on." Francis says respectfully.
"There was a barn that caught on fire and two severely injured a male and a female." The officer explains.
"What house?" James asks almost in a panic attack.
"The one at the end of the street." He answers causing James to collapse onto the ground unable to breathe. "Hey, is he alright?" The police officer asks while bending down to help James.
"James, look at me," Francis says calmly gently sitting down in front of him. "Is it okay if I touch you?" James clasps his hands over his face as he hears guns firing around, and the voice of Bucky and Sam yelling for him to get in the car. Unable to speak James grabs onto Francis's shirt with tears running down his cheeks, "It's not real, James, breathe, breathe..." Francis coos gently touching James' shoulder.
"We need a medic over here!" The officer hollers realizing James is having a panic attack. James stares off into the distance while he watches all the events when he was a child unfold before him.
"Mama...Mama...don't go..." James mutters to himself seeing his mom leave from his window. A medic walks over to the with a first aid kit.
"Look he suffers from PTSD, he had a traumatic event happen when he was a child, he is reliving that right now." Francis explains looking at the medic. James blinks suddenly coming back to reality.
"James?" Francis asks noticing him back to normal. James looks around confused for a moment then remembering what is happening. "What happened?" Francis asks genuinely concern.
"I saw them..shooting at us and taking me away. I saw my mom leave, and then it ended..." He explains out of breath with tears still streaming down his cheeks.
"It's okay, now, okay?" Francis asks watching James carefully.
"I think it's best that he's not here right now. Do you have anywhere else to go?" The medic asks observing the situation.
Francis nods his head agreeing with the Medic, "We do..." He answers feeling anxious over the situation.
"We will call you when we have more news on the situation..." The officer informs Francis, "Can we have a number we can call?"
"Yes, here." Francis jots down his number onto the officer's notepad.
Francis and James sit in the car in silence staring at the scene in front of them. "Where are we going?" James asks feeling weak.
"We're going to Griffin's." Francis answers while starting the car back up.
They drive down the road in silence not sure what to say when they arrive at Griffin's. James stares out the window feeling uneasy about the situation everything was similar to how things when he was on the run from HYDRA as a kid. He leans his head on the cool window not sure what will happen next for him. Francis looks over at James concerned for his well-being, but he was couldn't shake the fact that something terrible has happened to his parents.
"Who do you think was?" James asks unable to handle the silence.
"I don't know..." Francis answers truthfully. They suddenly fell back into the silence unable to wrap their minds around what all has just happened.
They finally pull up to Griffin's driveway. Griffin meets them at his front already alerted about them coming over from James texting him. "How is it?" Griffin asks releasing the severity of the situation from the way they look. James nods his head feeling overwhelmed. "We don't know the whole situation yet." He answers. Griffin nods his head understanding they don't want to talk about it. They walk into the house to be greeted by Griffin's parents.
"I set up the spare bedroom for you boys." Griffin's mom says with a kind smile.
"Thank you, Mrs. Shirly," James says with a weak grateful smile. They follow her and Griffin into the spare bedroom which is across from Griffin's room.
"You guys can wear some of my clothes for right now." Griffin offers gently.
"Thank you." Both James and Francis say together.
Once Griffin and his mom leave James falls back onto the bed with a long drawn out sigh. "When are they going to call?" James asks but not as soon as he asked Francis's phone started to ring.
"Hello?" Francis answers quickly, "Yes this is he." He answers once again. Francis listens closely to every word the officer says, "Thank you so much, sir. We will be there soon. Good-bye." Francis hangs up the phone and looks up to meet James anxious eyes.
"They say we can come to the hospital now. Our parents are in stable condition now, but they are still critical." Francis explains. Without further instruction, James goes running out the door to the car.
Mrs. Shirly follows the boys outside confused on where they are going, "What's wrong?" She asks.
"It's okay! They say we can go up to the hospital now!" Francis hollers out to her.
"Which hospital?" She asks concerned.
"Mercy in Iowa City, it's only an hour away from here!" Francis answers before getting in the car. They hurry down the road filled with exhaustion and fear.
"Director, I think you would like to take a look at this." An agent says from across the hall. Collison turns his attention that direction and heads to towards James room.
"What is it?" Collison asks examining the what seems like an untouched room.
"We found a note on his dresser that was filled with claw marks, and this photo was broken." The agent hands Collison the broken photo as well as the note that was stamped with the HYDRA symbol.
"Check the claw marks for any DNA... Clint and Bobbie showed signs of that they were poisoned, so we need to see who did this." Collison orders before walking out the room.
"Who else do you think it is?" A voice says from behind Collison. Collison stops at the familiar voice and turns around to meet a very familiar face.
"I have not seen you in a while, Mr. Stark," Collison says formally.
"Why all of a sudden the formal talk?" Tony asked bemused, "Look, Collison, we know who did this."
"I thought she died a long time ago," Collison says matter of factly.
"We know she played death like all of us. However you want to call her, Madam HYDRA, Viper, personally I call her Viper. She's responsible. Don't really know why she wants the boy, but she does. I was also informed they are on their way to the hospital right now." Tony explains while looking at the photos on the walls.
"Are you going to meet them?" Collison asks not sure if he's right or not about it being Viper who did this.
"I will. I haven't seen James since he was born, so this should be interesting. And what is the other kid's name?" Tony asks not really having a lot of connection with Clint since the Civil War.
"Francis, Francis Barnes." Collison answers, "You won't recognize them will you?" Collison asks.
"No, no I will luckily I have a little device that will show me who they are. I'll see you around, Collison." Tony says turning to walk away. Collison watches while Tony leaves only to feel like things are about to pick off where they left off eleven years ago.
Francis and James sit in the waiting for the ICU feeling uneasy about everything that has recently happened to them. The doors open catching both of their attentions, they turn quickly towards the door hoping it was a nurse or a doctor to give them good information. They stare at the rich man looking at his fancy phone. "James Rogers, Francis Barnes?" The man asks now looking directly at the boys.
"Yes?" James asks taken back.
"Nice to meet you my name is Tony Stark, Iron Man." Tony introduces himself with essences of cockiness.
"Oh, are you the rich bastard who locked up my father?" Francis asks with a clear disrespectful attitude.
"Oh, are you that guys smart ass kid?" Tony asks now annoyed by the twenty-three-year-old.
"Nice to meet you." Francis quips with a smile. James looks down feeling awkward.
"I will say, James, you look a lot like your father, but defiantly have your mother's eyes," Tony says observing James now.
"You knew my parents?" James asks vaguely remembering Tony Stark.
"I knew them well." Tony adds wondering why the kid doesn't really remember him.
"They didn't mention you much, then again they didn't mention really anyone much..." James feeling heavy remembering his parents.
"I'm sure they didn't. Well SHEILD is investigating the situation, but for the time being, they want you and your brother to go back to New York. They feel like you two would be much safer there, and they will have agents there to protect you two. Also, when your parents are in stable enough conditions they will transport them to Washington D.C. so they can be safely taken care of there." Tony informs rather quickly.
"Thank you..." James mumbles dejected while he walks away in a daze. Tony and Francis watch James walk away with concern deep in their eyes.
"Does he know who we suspect is behind this is?" Tony asks now turning towards Francis.
"I don't think anyone has to tell him, I think he just knows." Francis answers not taking his eyes off of James.
James stumbles out of the automatic doors out of the ER entrance now facing flashing ambulance lights bringing another injured victim. James watches as the paramedics wheel the car wreck victim into the doors. "And to think I wanted to be a doctor.." James thinks while walking still dazed and confused. James sits down on the sidewalk only a few feet away from the entrance. He takes in a ragged breath while he pulls out a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He puts the orange tip at the end of lips before lighting the cig. He deeply breathes in the burning smoke feeling the calming sensation enter into his veins.
"You know those are bad for you." A female voice states from the right. James turns to see a young nurse lighting her own cig with a cheeky grin.
"Says the nurse." James points at her navy blue scrubs. She lets out a chuckle before walking towards him to sit next to him.
"How old are you?" She asks curiously while sitting down next to him.
"Nineteen," James says with confidence which only makes the nurse laugh.
"You're only a baby." She quips while bringing the cigarette to her lips. "When you have a twelve-hour shift with grumpy patients, you'll need to something to reveal the stress." She says while the smoke blows out of her nostrils.
"The irony. You see patients that die every day from cancer or heart disease related to smoking yet." James says with sarcasm laced in his voice.
"What about you hot shot?" She asks pointing up at him. James smirk fades away when he hears her say hot shot. "Did I say something wrong?" She asks noticing the sudden shift in the atmosphere between them. James shakes his head snapping himself out of his deep thoughts.
"It's nothing, just tired." He lies.
"Alright, well it was nice talking with you...?"
"James," James says with a cute smile. She smiles noticing his attraction towards her.
"Lizzy," She says while standing up, "I'll see you around." She says while stomping her cigarette bud out before walking back into the hospital.
James sits back now enjoying the silence around him while he smokes the rest of his cigarette. His mind slowly wonders to his parents wondering if they are watching him from above. He closes his eyes while he thinks back deeply on times spent with his parents.
James watches his parents flirt from afar while he sits and plays with his toys on the floor in front of the TV. Though he was only six he knew his parents loved each other immensely. "I did not do that, and you know it!" Steve protest while Natasha drys the dishes.
"Don't try to convince me, I saw you with my own two eyes." Natasha laughs. Her laughter filled the house, it hit James in the chest causing him to giggle to himself.
Steve stands up with a mischevious flicker in his eyes, "Don't." Natasha laughs blissfully while backing up against the counter cornered. Steve lifts Natasha off of the ground causing both of them to laugh. James watched with such joy, he knew in that moment he wanted a love like his parents. Steve plants a hard kiss on Natasha's lips causing her squirm away from him with uncontrollable giggles.
James starts to run away from his father as his father turns his attention away from his mother over to his son. Steve lifts up James into the air causing child laughter to erupt into the living room. "Nat! Get him!" Steve hollers holding his son unable for him to move. Natasha quickly moves towards James tickling him ruthlessly. They all laugh as their son squirms away, and into his room shutting the door so they can't get him.
"You can't hide forever!" Natasha yells out to James with glee filling her voice. The house was filled with love that could not be replaced.
Author Notes: Hey guys! So this chapter is completed! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I have writing it! Also I am done with College for the year, and off to summer break! So I will have a lot more time to write! Thank you guys for the reveiws, it really encourages me to keep writing!
- C.R. :)