The silence continues to suffocate the area. Only Tony's muttering to JARVIS, and the AI's replies break the thick fog of tension. I hear JARVIS discussing the elementary components in his smoothie as well as scanning Steve for whatever the hell has weakened him.

Steve's breathing is finally evening out to a normal rate when I stumble out of my shocked stupor as James quick marches out of the lab without a word or a glance at any of us. I can feel Steve giving me that look, the look of a best friend afraid for his best friend but knowing he can't help right now. Only me. But how? How am I supposed to help James, my /fiancée/, if I can't even help myself enough to put one foot in front of the other?

"Pepper always said relationships were made up of mutual building blocks of pain. You put a block down, they put a block down, you both build it up together… I never liked Legos…" Tony seemingly reading minds, answers with an almost self-deprecating grunt.

I stride out of the lab, following my heart, knowing that it's still honest with me even if my mind is wary. I somehow wind up at our floor, opening the door and closing it like any other night. But it's not and I just know it'll never be the same again. Max is sat at our bedroom door crying and whimpering as though he knows exactly what's happened; it's almost painful seeing him without Clint by his side or in the same room. Clint didn't take him too? Not enough time?

"/S'mine. Keeps'me safe"/

Clint's words ring out like an empty echo through my rib cage. I push it back, continuing through the bedroom door, finding James by the wardrobe on the far side of the room. He's got his tactical gear on, weapons and go-bag prepped, fiddling with the pressure points and release pads of his arm. He showed me how to disarm it if… if I ever needed to. Clint as well.

"Got a briefing, sir. Can't be late." His voice sounds tinny and echoes through my seemingly hollow bones just as Clint's old words had. I almost don't recognise it through the shade of the room and the lies in my head.

"Barnes?" I answer, equalling his utilisation of 'sir'. In our bedroom. We never… not at home. Work is work and home is home.

"D'you remember Coulson?"

"I… What?"

"/Phil/… Do you remember what I showed you?" His voice breaks at my name, his hands glides over the crunching metal of his arm in the light of the skyline. I realise what he's asking.

"Yes."

"Good."

"Not going to need it, James."

"It's happening again… I- I read it wrong. The feelings aren't /feeling/ right. I… The mission… Cli-"

"/I'm not going to disable your arm. / I don't /need/ to disable your arm." I order softly with both my words and my shaking hold of his biceps, turning him to face me.

"But I- It… They made me think I was doing good things Phil… That Steve was bad. That /you/ were bad. That /children/were weak… I believed him Phil, I still believe in him…", a tear trickles down his face and I realise James is more broken right now than I am; luckily for him I always enjoyed Legos as a kid.

"/So do I. / He is our child and we love him. That is not weakness. You are James Buchanan Barnes, my fiancée and Clint's guardian. We are in this together and we /are/ bringing him home. He's a just a kid… He needs his guardians right now. You with me, Buck?" I hold his face gently in my hands pressing a reassuring kiss to the corner of his mouth as he loosens from his battle stance, resting his forehead against mine, wrapping his arms around my waist. He nods his head, kissing my cheek.

"What the fuck happened?" He whispers harshly, painful emotion causing his hands to clench around my waist bring us closer.

"Let's go find out. Together."

"Together." He squeezes my hand, my ring feeling like a solid reminder of hope and strength, more than a scar, more than a new weight; it's our future.

We are essentially the third people to enter the Tower's SHIELD protected briefing room. Tony was already hunched over, playing with a tablet and the touch screen table itself, unusually silent. Steve looked more like himself, no breathing issues or bleeding, standing with his back towards us, soldier stance, arms behind his back. Fury was sitting stock still and silent at the head of the table nearest to the door.

James and I took simultaneous breaths and walked hand in hand still, towards the opposite side of the table from Tony. As we sit, Natasha hauls in a very pale and wet Bruce collapsing in the nearest chairs, on Tony's side. I can feel James arm whirring; whether it's from his previous fiddling or sudden desire to clench his fist but not break my hand, I'm not sure, but it's silent enough for only me to feel rather than hear so I don't move.

"We were compromised." Nick's words rip through the quiet anger, causing a more stifling heat of emotions to swallow the oxygen in the room. Steve finally sits at the other end of table.

"Here's everything we've compiled. I expect you all to add to this file. This is a SHIELD led operation now. Led by me. Ordered by me. No one else. Clinton Francis Barton… Age six. Orphan. Brother, Charles Bernard Barton. Age fifteen. Affiliations with the criminal group of Carson's Travelling Circus. Approximately seven months ago, Carson's was due to perform for one week in the city. Somehow they left Barton Jr. behind where Level 9 Agent Coulson found him and took him to his home. Following the discovery of Barton Jr, he gathered information on the family which is in your dockets. Since reading this, Agent Coulson used his SHIELD resources to secure Barton Jr in the Avengers' Tower and set up surveillance at the local school. Approximately five months ago, we apprehended the Carson's Circus but Barton Sr. and leading criminal, Jacques Duquesne, escaped.

After reviewing footage of this surveillance, our SHIELD techs found footage of the Barton brothers meeting at different times throughout the school day for the past four months. The footage is unreadable, even by your standards, Stark. Reviewing footage around the Tower and SHIELD found Barton Jr to be proficient with SHIELD and Avenger's codes, mainframes and security…

Cl- Barton Jr, compromised us from the inside, from day one. We presume it was to steal Stark's weaponry or blueprints, infiltrate Avengers and find the weak points. Well, they did it!

Last night by twenty one hundred, Barton Jr incapacitated Stark, overriding JARVIS with his knowledge on the AI and Stark security, allowing him to remove JARVIS from the tower main frame and allow Barton Sr., Duquesne and forty six accomplices into the vacant and vulnerable tower. The alert signal was sent out but Barton Jr. was able to send a message to myself and Romanoff to keep us behind, he was not able to do the same to the Captain who had already reached the Tower and was shot with bullets made from an unknown substance causing his weakened abilities. Agent Coulson and Sergeant Barnes had also reached the Tower, helping Rogers and trying to apprehend the intruders. At this stage, Dr Banner had been lured by Barton Jr into the safety area built specifically for the Hulk, which he was then trapped in throughout the fight. Romanoff and I arrived in a Quinjet to this mess…

Stark has checked, they took all available blueprints, codes and armour they could carry, the arrows and shrapnel match Sergeant Barnes' wounds from four months ago, fired by Barton Sr. AKA Trickshot, our techs were able to match these wounds and shrapnel to at least a dozen other kills. Captain Rogers has identified some of the weaponry and goons, JARVIS is hoping to gather the rest. We pinged three of the twelve SUVs which fled the tower after the intrusion. None have given us any inside to their overall goal or Duquesne and the Bartons.

SHIELD has decided to track these goons but the Avengers and their handler are to proceed /no further/ in investigating this incident…

Learn from it and fix the problems as soon as possible people. This was a big fuck-up that could have gone so much worse. Only Stark can build Stark shit, weaknesses can be strengthened and these idiots will slip up."

Fury kept slamming images and clips and stills and documents onto the table, both electronic and paper. Every sentence rattled me and James' hand whirred tighter in my own, Fury couldn't even say Clint's name, not even my name. Removing himself from the situation emotionally seems to be his goal, that and removing us from the whole situation completely!? I fucking knew that shooting would be a real headache for me someday. Shit.

"Sir! You can't do that. This was on us. He's one of us. Clint is my child and you can't just tell me to leave him out there with those fucking murderers!"

"This is not up for discussion Coulson. Don't think I won't bench you!"

"This is not a goddamn mission Fury this is a kid! Our kid! We're bringing him home!" James stood, with all his wrath, next to me.

"He played us! /He played all of us/!" Nick roared. None of the rest of the team could look at any of the three of us.

"He's a six year old with a stupid brother, Marcus… Just like me and you… Where would we be if Peggy hadn't come after us?" With that I can feel Steve's gaze rip through the side of my face, even into James', almost betrayed. James knows, I told him the facts about that time in my life, the step brother I had and the terrible brother Marcus had and the needy little teenagers we once were.

James hand wraps softly around my forearm in reassurance, Marcus' eyes twinkle for just a moment before he rises, coat flapping in the wind of our torment, and exits the room without another word.

-03 Days : -14 Hours : -57 Minutes

"Phil. His tracker's been enabled… We found him…"