A/N: I own nothing related to MARVEL, except my dvd's.
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"You're going to have to tell them Clint." Natasha said before their first official Avenger mission.
He finished packing his equipment, "I will."
"Soon, Hawk. They're smarter than you think, someone will figure it out." She pressured.
He smiled and started signing to her.
"I know we're smarter than them." She smirked. "Let's go meet the team."
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That was seven months ago and he still hadn't let his secret out. Natasha knew of course, and Fury and Hill assumed he had already told their new team his status. It was his secret to tell, and he didn't want them to know. He knew it was selfish on his part, but he didn't want to listen to the jokes Tony would make at his expense or see the pitying slash worrying looks Steve was sure to give him. Most of all, he didn't want the team to lose focus on a mission because they were worrying about him. He needed to prove he could do this before they found out.
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"There are no electrical fields detected." Tony reported after running another scan of the building they were fixing to search.
"Good," Steve said standing up. "We will start on the roof; once we get inside, Widow and I will head for the stairs and start clearing the lower levels; Stark, you and Barton clear the top floor first then head down. Stay in contact." He directed toward the spies, who had a habit of going silent and slipping away.
"Guys, we're here." Bruce said from where he was watching the readings from the ship's sensors. They landed on the roof three buildings over from their target.
"Okay, let's go." Steve said as Bruce opened the back hatch to let them out into the darkness that had befallen the city.
Tony grabbed Steve and flew him over to the next building while Clint used one of his grappling hook arrows to get him and Natasha across the space. The next building was close enough for them to jump the distance…well, Tony still flew of course. They made quick work of roof security, all three guys up there. Natasha grabbed a swipe card off one of the newly incapacitated guys and used it to open the door before tucking it into one of the pockets on her uniform.
One by one they ran into the building, Steve and Natasha moved down the left hand side as they had previously decided upon and the other two moved down the right. Natasha and Steve were clearing out their floor when Tony asked if they need help.
"We're good here, you two go to the next floor." Steve ordered.
"Stark, I think you need to see this." Came Clint's voice over the coms.
"Busy right now." Tony said, taking out two more guys with a repulser blast.
"Close your eyes, Stark."
It took them a while to get to reach this level of trust, but now Tony immediately closed his eyes knowing what was coming next.
Clint turned the corner where Tony had been returning fire and he shot off one of his arrows, that had a flashbang tip on it.
"Now." Clint said.
Once they had finished clearing the floor, Clint led him back over to the room he had discovered.
"Looks like Christmas came early this year." Tony said, looking at all the lab equipment in the room.
"Get what you need and get out." Steve said, "We'll try to hold them off as long as we can, but there are more of them than anticipated. Hawkeye, we could use you down here if everything is clear up there."
"I'm on my way." Clint said. "I'd hurry up Stark, we'll meet you on the roof."
"Yeah, yeah, go help Spidey." He said to the archer, before turning back to one of the computers he had connected to the suit and was perusing for information.
Clint ran back into the stairwell and made it down a flight of stairs before things changed.
"Guys, just to let you know, whatever they were doing here was not good."
"Knew that Tony." Clint said.
"What I mean is, they were making enhanced people."
"Of course they were." Steve replied. "Do you know if they were keeping the people here in the building?"
"I'm still pulling information, but it looks like maybe they were." Tony said.
"Ok everyone; keep an eye out for them." Steve cautioned.
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"Hawkeye, where are you?" Natasha asked.
"Met up with some people in the stairwell." They heard him grunt. "Had to provide a decoy for them, I'm—." he was cut off as something shook the building.
"Hawkeye!" there was no response. "Hawkeye!" Natasha tried again.
"Coms aren't working." Steve said, tapping his ear piece.
"Damn it!" Natasha said angrily, "Must have been an EMP."
"We need to get to Tony." Steve said, alarm in his eyes.
They took off for the stairs, Natasha providing cover fire. They ran up three flights of stairs before they came across Tony coming down the stairs.
"How-?" Steve was cut off.
"Please, I made sure an EMP wouldn't put me out of commission. If I get hit with one, it takes only a couple of minutes for the suit to restart."
"Of course." Steve said.
"Have you seen Clint?" Natasha asked, while reloading her weapons.
"Not since he went to help you." Tony said.
"Cap, get Tony back to the jet; I'm going after Clint." Natasha said.
"No, Tony can fly to the jet himself, and together we will find him."
"It isn't like this is the first time this has happened to him, he will be up shortly I'm sure." Tony said.
"It's not that simple Tony." Natasha said.
"What is it?" Steve asked.
She took a breath and muttered something in Russian before looking Steve in the eyes.
"He's deaf."
Confusion crossed Steve's features for a moment, but it was Tony that said it out loud.
"EMP probably knocked out his aides."
"I have to go after him." She turned and disappeared down the stairs.
"Get to Bruce, make sure the jet is okay to take off. We'll be up there soon." Steve directed Tony.
Tony nodded and made his way upstairs.
"Now where did you go Natasha?" he muttered to himself.
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"Where's everyone else?" Bruce asked after Tony made his way back onto the jet.
He watched Tony make his way right to the pilot's chair and start it up.
"Did you know Barton's deaf?"
"What?" Bruce questioned. "What happened?"
"Someone set off an EMP in the building, real glad to see it didn't reach this far by the way." He started explaining. "Barton was caught between floors when it happened and apparently he has hearing aids because he's deaf, so no one knows where he went. Cap and Widow are looking for him."
"He never said anything, neither of them did."
"Yeah, didn't tell Spangles either apparently. Guess we aren't trust worthy enough."
They sat in silence for a moment as Tony piloted them over to the target building to wait for the rest of their team.
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Natasha slipped in one of the previously cleared floors, glad at least that she and Clint had planned for this scenario years ago. All she had to do was search any area that had previously been cleared and look for the now locked room. She had to search two floors before she finally found a locked door. She quickly picked the lock and swung the door open, although she waited a moment before poking her head into the room. She signed in relief when she found an arrow being pointed at her from across the room.
She started signing to him while he lowered his weapon and returned the arrow to the quiver on his back. He didn't sign anything back to her, but he did offer her a weak smile before following her out of the room and back into the stairwell.
They had climbed almost to the top floor when Natasha heard a door swing open from a couple of floors below. She held out a hand to stop Clint and turned around. Leaning over the side of the stairs she saw it was Steve.
Rolling her eyes, she called out to him, "Captain, we're up here!"
He whipped his head out and started up the stairs, picking up speed to a sprint when his hearing picked up the sound of lots of feet coming up from below his position.
"Go!" he yelled up, "They're coming!"
Natasha needed to other prompting to grab Clint's arm and start tugging him up the remaining stairs.
They burst through the door to the roof and only paused a fraction of time before sprinting to the jet.
"We need to take off as soon as Caps on board." Natasha said to Tony.
"Good to see you safe Legolas, but I guess you can't hear me say that, can you?"
"I can read lips though." Clint said, causing Bruce to crack a smile and Natasha lips to twitch, than Capt was climbing in the jet and they were taking off and everyone was looking at Clint now that the jet was on auto pilot.
"Care to explain?" Steve asked.
"I forgot." Clint said.
Natasha smacked him in the back of the head.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, "I thought we agreed you wouldn't do that anymore?"
"I thought we agreed you would tell them." She deadpanned right back.
"Fine." He sighed. "I was young when it happened, well younger." He started. "Just a few years after I started with SHIELD, I got into a situation I couldn't get out of. I knew SHIELD really needed the information I had to retrieve, so I did what I had to. I used a sonic boom arrow in close quarters. It brought the already unstable building down on us and I wasn't unburied from the rubble until almost two full days had passed. I am completely deaf in both ears and had to undergo months of PT and become fluent in sign language before I was allowed back on restrictive duty. I was considered a liability for a team since I had to wear a hearing aid at all times, so I started doing solo missions only. I went on missions deemed impossible for other agents, one's that were dangerous enough not to have an extraction plan."
Clint looked around at his team. "I know it sounds crazy, but I hated being stuck at SHIELD HQ, with everyone looking on me with pity. I pushed Coulson and Fury to let me get back out there, I volunteered for those missions so I could get out and do something. It was while doing these missions that Natasha was brought to my attention, which means SHIELD's attention as well. She noticed the hearing aids right away, of course, and that helped led her into switching sides and joining the good guys." He smiled at his long term partner. "She eventually convinced me to have surgery for cochlear implants when they became a reality."
When it became apparent he wasn't going to add anything, Tony took it upon himself to comment first.
"That's the most I've ever heard you say at one time."
Clint just shrugged in response.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Steve asked, "You put everyone at risk when you keep secrets."
"I wanted to prove to you that I could do the job. I'm the only one without powers here, a mere mortal as Thor would say."
"That's stupid." Bruce said.
Clint shrugged.
"Stupid male pride." Natasha said.
"I can make better ones." Tony said. "I can make a pair that won't completely die when hit by an EMP."
"Thank you Tony." Clint said after sharing a glance with Natasha.
Natasha stood up, "So what did you get Stark?" she directed the conversation back to the mission.
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A/N: Thanks for reading, I am still working on my other two stories: Come What May and Pepperony but this thing popped into my head at work today so I had to come home and get it out.