Fury marched down to the medical bay as soon as he heard they had arrived back. He was pissed. Three more agents been killed and Barton had been tortured by the Reaper and almost became the eighth SHIELD agent to die at the hands of the deadly assassin. He also found out that Lucas, the man from one of Barton's previous assignments had been tortured as well.

The doors to medical swished open and Fury was a blur of black leather as he made his way along the corridor to where he knew Phil would be made to wait. The director came to a halt at the sight of his lead Agent. The normally straight-faced, well-mannered, professional agent Fury had known for almost ten years was being man handled out of the double doors which led to surgery.

"Get your god damn hands off me!" Phil shouted at the burly men that had been charged with removing him from Clint's side.

Fury strode over and gripped Phil's arm and pulled him aside while glaring at the two men who decided it would be best to disappear. When Nick finally took in the state of his agent he was unprepared for the look of devastation in Coulson's eyes. The next thing he noticed was the blood that covered the distraught man; the usually pristine white shirt was now a dark red.

"Fuck Phil, you look like shit." Fury pushed the younger agent into the plastic chair.

Coulson just glared at his boss, he really didn't need him to state the obvious.

Fury's eyes softened. "How is he?"

Phil's silence spoke for itself. Fury sighed and took the seat next to him. It was going to be a long wait.

Coulson was grateful for his boss's company while he waited for news on his agent, his friend. Fury offered silent comfort knowing there was no point in offering false hopes. They both knew for a fact that Barton was as stubborn as they came and would fight with everything he had.

It was almost three hours before the doctor finally walked out of the double doors. Phil felt sick at the sight of blood covering the man's scrubs. But there was a glimmer of awe in the doctor's eyes that made the handler hope that the news of his charge's condition would be positive.

"How is he?" Phil asked while standing but was pulled back down by the director.

The doctor smiled and gave Phil a strange look that made the agent wonder what he was going to say. "I swear Phil, your boy has a guardian angel or something. He is going to be fine. The wound to his hand and arm will heal without lasting effects, the one to his shoulder and the numerous cuts to his back will take slightly longer but I don't foresee any problems. The main concern was the amount of blood he lost but we have given him a transfusion to bring his levels back up to normal."

Phil sighed and buried his face in his hands before looking up at the doctor and shaking his hand. "Thanks Doc."

The surgeon nodded and pointed through the double doors. "He is just about to be moved to his own room. You can go through in the next five minutes Phil." The doctor nodded to the director before walking back through the doors to get cleaned up.

"Come on Phil, go get cleaned up and then we can go see Barton." Fury gave him a look that meant no arguments. Coulson looked down at his stained clothes and frowned, he really did look like shit. Fury gave him a knowing smirk before making a shooing motion with his hand.

"Go Agent Coulson, before I make it an order."

Phil glared but started walking towards the toilets and grabbed himself a pair of scrubs on the way. They'd do for now, until he could get another suit brought to him. The handler froze in front of the mirror; he looked like he'd just came out of a horror movie. He started pulling off the clothes quickly, and tossed them in the bin, not wanting the reminder of almost losing Clint. He wasn't sure how he didn't have grey hair yet, the kid was seriously going to cause him a heart attack one day with all the worrying he did.

He cleaned himself up as best he could and changed into the blue scrubs and was headed back outside within five minutes. Fury arched an eyebrow at him but Phil just waved him off. He needed to see the kid with his own eyes before he would start to calm down. It was the same thing he did every time the archer got injured.

"Let's go see our boy then." Fury said, then followed Coulson into the small room.

Phil sat for the next two hours waiting, waiting for any sign that his charge was going to wake up. Fury had stayed for an hour before he was summoned away for important SHIELD business. The council wanted an update on what happened with the Reaper, the director had groaned and gave Phil a sympathetic look before leaving him alone.

Coulson ran a hand through his hair and sighed deeply as he watched the steady rise and fall of Clint's chest. He knew at some point they would have to talk about what happened, and he wasn't meaning what just took place with Reece. He had heard some of what the Reaper had said to Clint before he had stealthily made his way into the basement. The things that had happened to Clint while he stayed at the orphanage, Phil was aware that Barton had hated it there but that was as much as he knew. This Bradford better be dead already or Phil would be making him wish he was. He stopped that train of thought right there. That was how Reece had gotten started, a simple act of revenge against someone that probably did deserve it, but the boy had gone too far and gotten lost in a sea of blood. When innocent blood was spilled it brought SHIELD to his door, Phil just wished they hadn't suffered as many casualties as they had.

His eye's snapped up when he caught movement and reached forward taking Clint's uninjured hand in his.

"Clint? Can you hear me?" Phil spoke softly.

He got a brief nod but the archer's eyes were still closed. Coulson stood and turned the lights down before returning to his seat. Blue eyes watched him before turning to look at the ceiling.

"H-how l-long…?" Barton winced at how bad he sounded and shot Phil a grateful smile when a glass of water was brought to his lips.

"Take it nice and slow Clint, you know the drill." Phil smirked and set the glass down after the archer nodded that he'd had enough.

Clint raised an eyebrow at his handler causing the older agent to chuckle. "About seven hours. You're going to need a lot of rest Clint."

The younger man nodded and glanced at his shoulder. "How bad?"

"The Doc says you'll be fine, the shoulder and your back will take a bit longer to heal though."

Barton sighed in relief, he was glad it hadn't hit anything which would make him unable to fire his bow. "Thanks."

Phil frowned. "For what?"

"Saving my ass back there. How did you find me?" He had thought he was starting to hallucinate when he heard Phil's voice and promptly passed out. "Is Lucas okay?"

"He's doing fine, better than you anyway. But that's not unusual, is it?" Phil glared.

Clint smiled. "But apparently I've got an angel on my shoulder."

"Uh huh. I think that angel will start charging you soon." Phil smirked at the archer's less than heated glare. "We found you by following the trail of blood you left behind. Good idea by the way."

The Hawk glared at the sarcastic tone from his handler, he knew the man was worried and let it slide. He really couldn't get into an argument right now.

"I'm sorry Phil," Clint said quietly.

Coulson sighed and squeezed the young man's hand. "Don't apologise Clint, just try to stop getting injured. You're going to give me grey hair or a heart attack one of these days."

Laughing slightly the archer replied, "Is that a grey hair I see Phil?"

"Very funny. You get some rest, we'll talk later alright?"

The archer nodded. "Okay Phil."

Phil stayed until he was sure the young agent was asleep and pulled the covers over him. The handler knew he would sleep a bit better now after speaking to Clint. Deciding it would be better to stay in the room in case Barton had any nightmares, Phil pulled a spare blanket off the bed and made himself comfortable on the small couch in the corner of the room. He lay facing the bed and kept watch until his eyes would no longer stay open.

One more chapter to go...