-03 Days : -14 Hours : -57 Minutes

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

My stomach dropped and twisted viciously. Tony's voice a mere echo as I try to keep from stumbling through the corridors towards the range where I instinctively know James is. I'll apologise later for hanging up, a very 'Fury' move, if I have anything to say about it, but it's time. We've been prepping for this, we know what we need to- have to do. I feel an almost unnerving sense of calm wash over me, numbing my heart and strengthening my bones, as baby agents scramble from my sight lines, they are as of yesterday aware of my alleged fuck up… my child's alleged betrayal. I see the sneers, the sad looks of pity and the utter shock at my supposed naivety. I haven't given up.

James hasn't either. We're in this together. He's been through the looks and pity and shock before; the Winter Soldier's legend was no longer a fable, the lives he ended no longer empty graves. He just pastes on his façade for the day and acts like nothing ever happened. They never saw him with Clint, my colleagues, they never saw what he was before we had a life to cherish and care for. They don't whisper about how much he changed, how sad his life is, was, they never respect him out of pity or sympathy. They see a soldier, a deadly assassin who would snap their necks without a second thought and that kid he lost is just another hit on the list.

I'm the lonely balding guy who got screwed over by a six year old because no one ever loved me before. And fuck that.

There's a reason why I only ever was in the field with Tasha. She was the only person I trusted and still do to this day. I may train these agents but I train what I'm told to train them in and without the experience in the real world to show you just where you are and where you belong on this planet, then you're just a cocky little shit who doesn't deserve my time. I never disagreed with Nick on that point and this situation has just proved it to me in full force. We have good agents, a good agency but as people they are selfish and naive to what true team work and family is.

This is why the only people who can save Clint is his family.

"Barnes…"

"Sir." James never takes his eyes off the targets as he addresses me. No one else dares to share a range with The Soldier.

"Romanoff is on route to Budapest…"

"I'll feel free to back her up, sir?"

"Always."

Code words. SHIELD may be where we work and how we help protect the world but they've proven too many times that they can't help us protect our families so why should we give them any reason to be suspicious about us. Tasha has never been allowed back in Budapest since ninety nine, and that certainly won't change, no matter her feelings on the subject. My amazing fiancée never even blinked as he realised fully what this meant, I couldn't be more grateful of him if I tried.

James nods, his eyes acknowledging the determination in my gait and the fierce love for our family in my eyes, as he sweeps his ways past me to the nearest exit. I am to follow and meet at our rendezvous point within the hour to withhold any other suspicion.

My face sets still even further as Hill enters the range with a bunch of ducklings at her heel, keeping up appearances I nod once more before exiting and readying myself to find my son. The time is now, I'm on my way Clint, and I've got a pinkie promise to keep.

I take the third longest possible route to the old diner, circling four times within a five mile radius to be sure I've not been followed. There would be no backup this time, no bystanders, no TV anchors and cameras, no super suits and pretty spandex. This was two deadly assassins, one super soldier, one heavily armed genius, one biochemically engineered rage monster, one not so mythical God and a very fucked off super-secret agent father whose family had been attacked and taken, no matter what the "evidence" said.

I entered through the front doors and was signalled the okay by Tony's friend, the owner of the establishment with the Stark-built panic/safe room in his basement. There was a protocol for this situation within the Avengers, not SHIELD-known but one within ourselves and, I fear, that after this fiasco SHIELD will begin to see and know a lot less about the Avengers and their business. The protocol is as follows; if one or more members of the team is taken and whereabouts unknown, we fight to find them until we no longer can, no longer allowed to or we find them. If we are held back from helping our teammate(s), this calls a Code D.T.929, 'Dark Team', where a select few of us unconnected to SHIELD, or the like, is constantly searching for this member until evidence or whereabouts are found. The protocol dictates the rest of the team are called in random and interspersed order, starting with the most important team member then team leader and so on. Each member arrives at the last decided safe zone within two and half hours of the call and the team decides on a plan of action before going full 'Dark Team' and completing the mission at hand.

I make my way through the three security measures before I finally enter the safe room, Tony's first there having set up information and detailed mission parameters as he called each of us to meet him here, Steve looks to have jogged here, only due to the sweat pants rather than any visible signs of sweat or strain and James sits with his back to me cleaning a Barrett M98B rifle, standard American military issue to keep suspicion from falling on our hands once the bodies are found. Thank you Colonel Rhodes, I think as I glance a casually calculating eye around the room filled with tech, weaponry and black ops gear that even Tony would find trouble stock piling.

"Just waiting on the others before I get into it…" Tony mumbles, fiddling with a camera of sorts.

"Don't wait on us," Tasha slants in return as she drags Bruce in, lipstick staining his cheeks.

"There's no time for nooky nooky Brucie…" Tony smirks smugly as Bruce's cheeks flare red.

"Cops gave us the jump as we were parking across the block, had to pretend we weren't taking drugs so making out was the next best option." Natasha explains without looking anyone but Tony in the eye.

"Classy," Tony mutters finally pulling away from Natasha unending stare.

Thor is last to arrive, twenty minutes later minus his robes with hair tied back and Mjolnir nowhere in sight.

"Let us begin my comrades…"

We leave as teams Alpha, Beta and Delta, supported by the dark of night. As a team we stand, as a family we fight. If this night doesn't produce a victory for this mischievous and troubled family of outcasts then the Avengers will be no more…