Here's the second half. Now with more exploding arrows and Clint being sneaky.

I don't really like the whole 'Bucky killed the Starks' thing but I think it's the way the MCU is going to go with this one.

Huge thanks go to MsBrooklyn my wonderful beta. December 3rd is my Birthday. Reviews would be a great gift #justsaying


The next time he makes the cross-country trek is only five days after they've returned Barnes to Steve's safe-keeping, and the trip's primarily made in response to a cry of distress from Wanda.

Turns out that she's been tuned into Radio Bucky since she tried to hone in on his location last week. She'd been hoping that the connection would have faded while he was away at Clint's but no such luck. Four days in and she's a sobbing mess in the corner of her quarters when Clint arrives and scoops her up into a firm hug. She's a good girl, he'd be proud if Lila ended up like her.

Neither she nor Clint blame Barnes for this. And he can't find out, whatever progress he's made from his four days as an honorary Barton - and he does seem to have made some - would vanish in an instant. The guy's as fond of Wanda as she is of him. Steve thinks she reminds Bucky of his sister Rebecca even though Bucky claims he can't remember her. Clearly she definitely reminds Steve of the long-lost pseudo sister he still remembers so fondly.

Clint wonders why no-one ever talks about what else these two (still) young guys have lost and sacrificed. And despite all this, the President (the one Stark saved no less) still won't issue a pardon for Barnes. Stark could probably do something about that if he was so inclined.

It's this that drives Clint to look up the three youngest of the Barnes brood - all successful in their own rights, a doctor, an author and a tax attorney - and send their files to Tony. Well to Pepper. She'll get it. Hydra might (or might not) have used Bucky to take Tony's parents but they'd also taken Bucky's family from him. Pepper would understand that and make sure Tony did too.

Clint takes Bucky out to the range - with a whole load of beer and a flask of Thor's special brew this time - to blow off some steam and give Wanda a bit of breathing room. He pulls out the boomerang arrows, he's sure Bucky is the type to appreciate just how awesome an idea they are. And he's right. The fact that Bucky's better at using them than he is - well no-one else needs to know that.

"Can we bring Steve next time?"

"OK." He'll just leave the boomerang arrows at home for that one. "You sure?"

He thought these outings were providing some much-needed breathing room from the well-meaning onslaught of Cap's trips down memory lane. Though maybe it's more of a wilderness trail in Barnes' case.

They're back to blowing the ever-loving crap out of things at this point.

Barnes draws back the bow string and makes a shot that would have Olympic-level archers crying into their quivers. Of course Clint only gets a fraction of a second to appreciate the beauty of the shot before both it and the target are wiped out of existence by an edifying fireball.

Barnes pauses for a moment before answering, as if working out what he actually feels about his own suggestion. "Yeah, we had a discussion. He promised to stop trying to hide difficult stuff from me and I promised to stop hacking the base computer for the information behind his back."

Clint can't help but chuckle. "Guess he didn't know you could do that?"

Barnes fires off another arrow.

"Nope." He pops the 'p' at the exact second the charge explodes.

Show-off.

He fires again. Clint's noticed that the kid tends to find it easier to talk about the hard stuff if his mind's somewhat occupied doing something else at the same time. Clearly he's working up to something here. Clint just hopes they don't run out of targets or arrows before he gets it off his chest. Clint switches back to regular arrows to make sure.

"He handed over the file that Stark sent him. About Howard and Maria. There's a mission report that says I was deployed in the States at that time. And an interview with a Hydra agent who claims it was me."

"There are 50 states and that agent could've just been trying to stick-it to Cap and Tony." Even Clint knows he's reaching but reasonable doubt is still the legal be all and end all after all.

Bucky stops and lowers the bow, arrow still nocked."It was before my identity was public knowledge and he wasn't high enough up the Hydra food chain to know. But thanks."

He re-draws and releases.

There's not much Clint can say to that so he simply gets back to the shooting.

They arrive back on base to find out that Pepper did get the message through to Stark, to the extent that Tony's actually there, in person, waiting for them. Along with Natasha. Though the second he and Bucky enter her body language screams the fact that she's about to make her exit. Oh she still manages to make it look casual. I mean no-one could blame her for wanting to avoid the probably awkward and potentially painful scene that's likely to play out between Stark Junior and the former Winter Soldier right? She even greets Barnes as she goes past and pauses to give Clint a hug.

"Nat whatever this is sort it out." It's whispered directly in her ear so that even Barnes' advanced hearing wouldn't be able to pick up on what he's said.

She shoots him a quizzical look and he can't tell if she's acting or if he's actually a step-ahead of her for potentially the first time ever. He'd almost doubt himself if she didn't stop on the way out to stare daggers at Bucky's back. Ah, young(ish) love.

Stark's doing that 'pay attention to me' thing he does. Though disturbingly without actually saying anything this once. It's freaky. Barnes looks ready to bolt, but he's holding himself together long enough to face whatever it is that Stark is clearly building up to throw his way. It's painful to watch. Hopefully Wanda isn't in the blast radius when this angst bomb goes off.

"So, Buckaroo. Turns out that the general consensus is that I live in a glass house - well a glass tower to be exact - and I shouldn't be throwing shit around. This doesn't mean we're good. All this means is I can't cope with Capsicle and Scarlett O'Hara giving me sad face 24/7. And you know, Pepper said - stuff. You do not get pool privileges. And I NEED to see that arm, up-close in a lab-type environment before we're even orbiting okay. You get me?"

Bucky looks thrown. Stark's still pacing. Clint starts to worry he's going to have to try something mature and adult-like here. He usually leaves that to Laura.

"All right." Barnes response is clearly unexpected - to him and Tony both. "The arm, I'll let you work on it."

Stark looks at him sceptically. "You'll need to come to New York, what will Cap think about that?"

Colonel Rhodes and Sam enter the room, well sort of half-enter - not that the other two seem to notice.

"He'll be fine with it."

It's the most self-assured Clint's heard Bucky in a while. He lets off a little internal cheer.

At times like this, the fact that this 'kid' was a WWII special ops Sergeant smacks him firmly between the eyes.

"Great. Glad we got that sorted. I'll try and make sure security doesn't shoot you on sight." Stark's idea of an apology is not most people's idea of an apology.

The two men are stood there awkwardly watching each other until Sam saves the day by telling Barnes that Steve needs him. Bucky gratefully makes for the exit and the tension levels finally drop to something just below mortifying. Rhodes and Wilson wander into the centre of the room to join Stark.

Clint wonders if there's anyway to avoid joining the Avenger huddle that wouldn't make him look like a complete dick. Sadly, he concludes there isn't. It's not that he doesn't like Tony. He just finds that a little of him goes a long way. Especially now that he's mostly responsible for Clint's home address being a matter of official record. Yeah, he's still not okay with that.

Well if Clint has to step up to the plate he's going to come in swinging.

"So you finally done torturing the PTSD-riddled war hero young enough to be your son?"

Rhodes flinches on his friend's behalf."Ouch. Hit to Hawkeye." He doesn't seem to be leaping to Stark's defence on this one though.

The billionaire industrialist doesn't take it too badly however. "Yeah well what can I say. Wouldn't want to become predictable you know. Been there, done that. Anyway looks like Natasha has tagged in. It's enough to make me almost feel sorry for the guy."

Clint snorts.

Sam raises an eyebrow "Why, do you know something we don't?"

"The answer to that is almost always going to be yes Sambo."

"Hey, nicknames are my thing. Clint's taking my things Rhodey, make him stop."

"Shut up Tony, I want to hear this. Hawkeye, you know what's going on there?"

He respects James Rhodes but his insistence on calling Clint by his codename is getting a little grating.

"Yeah, War Machine, I do."

Rhodes gives him a look that clearly shows he got the point there.

"And...? Come on Barton, time is money. A lot of money in my case." Tony's getting impatient, this could be fun.

"Yeah speaking of money, the security upgrades on the farm didn't come cheap, want to put your money where you motor-mouth is Stark?"

"Oooh, Legolas is getting feisty. OK Barton what's the bet?"

Clint smirks. "A grand says that Tasha jumps Barnes' bones within the month."

Various howls of derision follow.

Even a mutter of "No way is that likely" comes from Sam. Guess his inability to read those type of signals explains why a guy as all-around-awesome as Sam Wilson is still single.

"You are so on my friend." Stark holds out a hand to shake Barton's. "The guy might have had game back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but right now basic grooming seems beyond him so there's no way Romanoff is into that even if he hadn't tried to kill her multiple times."

Clint takes Tony's hand and seals the bargain.

He looks at Sam and Rhodes "Gents, you in?"

Rhodes gives Tony a searching look before nodding his agreement and holding out his hand to make it official. "Sure I'll take some of that action." The deal is sealed. "I don't know Natasha as well as you guys, but I'm pretty sure those looks she's been giving him aren't meant to say 'come take me'."

Clint rolls his eyes. He knows Natasha's been in Avengers co-leader mode for a while, but have they forgotten she's a spy? And an emotionally screwed-up one at that? Hell she's godmother to his kids and she'll barely admit to liking Clint most of the time.

"Wilson?" He feels a little bad about dragging Sam into this but clearly fly-boy needs a bit of a re-education.

"Honestly I think Cap jumping Barnes is more likely, but I'm going to choose discretion as the better part of valour on this one."

That gets laughs all round, but from the look on Wilson's face Clint thinks he may be more than half-serious. God he hopes he's around when Cap hears that, his reaction's going to be YouTube worthy. Best keep it away from Barnes though, he's a little too fragile still to have the rock of his and Steve's friendship de-stabilised in any way by a faulty gaydar.

Anyway, it's time for him to head back home. Wanda's promised to talk to someone else if this weird ultra-empathy thing with Barnes doesn't fade away in the next few days, and he has science projects to help build and some quality Daddy-daughter time owing to him. He'll leave this group of big kids to sort themselves out.

And he's back. Less than 72 hours later Clint's dumping his overnight bag on the Avengers 'guest-bed that's permanently on-hold for him' because he got a 911 from Fury that Tasha's mission has gone south thanks to the photostatic-veil, face-changer-thingy shorting out and allowing her to be recognised. She'd managed to get out thank god, and Clint had been able to sneak in during the confusion and grab the last of the intel she had been after.

The fact that she'd stayed in that long despite her disguise being compromised only made sense to Clint once he'd looked at what she was after. It was information on Lukin. Shit.

Clearly the whole Russian connection to the crap Barnes went through during the 'Civil War' shenanigans had hit her where she lived.

If he knew Nat - and boy did he know Nat - he had at least another hour of her shaking her tail and taking a few precautionary detours, despite the fact that a fair few people knew where the base was located now - watch-lists and all. Then she'd head straight for the kitchen.

He gives it a good 40 minutes during which he goes and places a sensor on Nat's most likely entry-point, and then he goes to hunt-down his target.

While it's sadly unsurprising to Clint that Barnes is awake, his location is a bit of a turn-up for the books. He's left the self-imposed isolation of his quarters and is for a change in plain view, sitting on the couch and staring out the main window of the common room. Sure he's unlikely to run into anyone at this time of night, but it's not impossible. For the kid that's practically being sociable.

"Hey Bucky-boy. You good to talk?" He has a way he'd like this to go but he's not going to force it if the kid is having a bad night.

"Yeah actually. Maybe you can give me some advice?"

Clint almost felt himself welling up. This was serious progress.

He took a seat in the armchair opposite. It put his back to the door but - unlike Cap and Barnes - he wasn't too worried about the base being attacked, not with FRIDAY, Stark-tech and Pym-tech guarding their six, but he knew it would make Bucky more comfortable. Even if the guy did trust him, it was still only so-far.

"How can I make things all right with Natasha?"

"Why do you think something's wrong?"

Bucky gives him an 'are you shitting me?' look that screams of the Brooklyn boy he used to be.

Clint sighs "OK you got me there. Look Tasha could model for the dictionary definition of evasive, just call her out before she has the chance to slip off again and apologise. Women always like that." Except Nat, Nat will hate it. He's kind of counting on that.

His phone vibrates letting him know she's on her way in. "Look why don't you go grab us a couple of drinks and I'll catch you up on happenings at Chez Barton. If that doesn't help you sleep, I don't know what will."

Well actually Clint hopes he does know. If he's got his meddling right. Laura would most definitely approve he thinks.

Bucky's a good kid so of course he nods and heads off to the kitchen and Clint quickly gets up and retreats to a safe distance.

He's sat in his own room wondering if he should send someone in to the kitchen to search for bodies when he hears a commotion in the corridor. And then a distinctly Natasha-like scream that simultaneously makes him give Bucky a mental high-five and feel slightly squicked-out - it is Tasha after all.

When he hears Cap arrive, he heads out to see if he needs to run interference. Sam's doing a decent job but he's trying to keep everything under wraps and it's a tad unfair in Clint's books if Steve is the only one who doesn't know what's going on with his best friends. Hell, the two of them are going to need all the support they can get. And, bonus points, it might show Sam the error of his 'Steve-hearts-Bucky'-thinkin' ways.

OK, so maybe Sam's a bit too tired to pick-up on the awesome truth and enlightenment that Clint is bringing forth, he concludes as the Falcon shuffles rather than soars back to his nest. And Steve's now relaxed enough to be doing the whole straight-man bit he knows Clint loves. He's done his job, and done it well, he thinks as he settles down for the few hours sleep the night still has left in it.

When he gets back to the farm his wife is going to be so proud. She might even let him re-paper the den. As much as he liked the colour, in retrospect the purple might have been a mistake.