A/N: As there is more interest in this story then I thought there might be, I have decided to do the new chapter earlier than I thought I would. Clint might seem a bit OOC in places during this story and I apologise for that and I will try to keep him in character as much as I can but there is a reason for the way he is behaving and as the story proceeds hopefully all will be revealed concerning his behaviour.

Clint groaned under his breath as he slipped on some rubble that he had been helping to clear. Unlike most of those helping to clear the rubble Clint was one of the few who was not wearing any safety clothing apart from a helmet, the powers that be determined that he had no rights to protective clothing of any kind, and if someone had not kindly pointed out to them that if he was not wearing a helmet and an accident occurred they no longer would have his free labour.

So they had grudgingly allowed him the hard hat and it was as well he had it, some citizens and some of those he laboured beside had a habit of throwing things, such rocks at him to show their disgust of his actions that had in their opinion caused much of the destruction on the city. The fact that he had been one of the people actually defending the city during the battle made little difference to most of them, as far as they were concerned they were unable to get their hands on the main one Loki, so Clint was the next best thing!

As he slipped again he felt his ankle give a little, the trainers he was wearing were not at all suitable for clearing rubble and so far he had been lucky that he had not ended up with any crushed toes or a crushed foot but as they were all he had, he had no choice.

The sound of the lunch siren ringing signalled the break period and he stopped sitting down on the nearest pile of rubble, he made no effort to join the others who were working in the same area as he was and there would have been no point joining them for even though they would have been eating whatever they had brought with them or sharing in the food provided, Clint knew there would have been no food for him.

He let his eyes drift over the rubble that still needed to be cleared and he tried to think what the building had been here before the attack, it took him a few minutes and remembered that the street where he was sitting had had a number of small business's here and a few of those business's had survived, one of them being the little cafe place that Stark had been insistent on visiting at the end of the battle to eat.

It had been such a long time since he had eaten anything half decent, the food that was given to him tended to be scraps that would have been heading for the bins, at the beginning of his sentence. It had been whatever had been left over from the food shared by all the workers but the others, had soon cottoned on that the left overs were being given to Clint at the end of the day, and so on most days they made sure there was not any left over either at all or what was left was spat on by some of them or contaminated in some other way.

Clint had lost a lot of weight in the last few months and though he knew he still had a good bit of muscle tone left, he was not as muscled as he had been before Loki.

The sound of a bird cawing off in the distance caught his attention and he looked to the heavens, spotting what looked to be a crow perched on top of a crumbling wall. He watched it for some time, his mind lost for the moment as he watched the bird take flight and disappear over the skyline. He envied that bird, it could go where he could not, out of the city and away from the rubble that had still to be cleared and people who might hate it.

Rocks tumbling down the rubble was the only thing that alerted him to the fact that he was no longer alone and he whipped around to see a shadow disappearing into part of a ruined building not far from where he was presently day dreaming. He did not know who the person was and part of him did not care, whoever it was most likely did not mean him well, he was friendless in a city that hated him, even his so called best friend Natasha had turned her back on him after he had been thrown out of Shield. Not that he blamed her, he knew she was doing what was best for her, for if she had been associated with him in any way, her own career would have been put in jeopardy but it had still hurt none the less, when she had not supported him in any way.

He heard the siren go signalling the end of the lunch break and he wearily stood and began clearing rubble again.

XxX

That had been close, Clint had almost spotted her as she had made her way over the rubble towards this small building that she had known had somehow miraculously survived the destruction, that had rained down on the street all around it during the battle.

She saw him looking towards where she had managed to jump the last few feet, normally her movements over rough ground were silent but some of the rubble had been looser than she thought it had been.

As she settled down to watch him, she observed that he had lost more weight, she noted that he did not seem to be eating whether through choice or otherwise she did not know. She had heard the lunch time siren go and had assumed that he would be moving towards where the other workers were presently eating but when he had not made an appearance, she had tried to make her way undetected towards the area that the microchip, that shield had placed inside him when they had terminated his contract and fed him to the proverbial wolves, had registered on her hand held device that he was working.

Also noting that he appeared to be limping, as she took out her camera and started to take snaps of him, the trainers he was wearing was not suitable but she knew as did all those in the know that the powers to be, had decided that he did not deserve any safety gear of any sort, they did not care if he got hurt or not. However, she did note the hard hat on his head, she was pleased that he at least had that, someone must have listened when she had sent her last report in on him.

As she continued to snap away, she noticed a small group of men approaching from the other side of the destroyed street, two separated from the group as if to keep watch while the other three continued towards Clint. They were up to no good she thought but she could not give her position away and warn Clint as they approached him, so she continued to snap away with her camera and observe as the three men finished crossing the derelict street and stopped in front of where he was working.

It was not long before she saw the three men attack Clint, two of them holding his arms as the other started to pummel mostly his torso and a few blows to his face.

A/N: So who is Clint's mystery watcher do you think, if you think you might have an idea leave a review (if you want) and let me know.