Chapter 7

Coulson's Return

How could he tell them to keep him out of the Fucking loop! Coulson was furious. Stark said that it seems serious, what happened, he gripped on to the strap of his bag. He hated not knowing anything.

Stark was working on the Doctor's blood when Steve burst in "His heart stopped beating" he was so out of breath "Barton's heart stopped beating!" Stark ran with Steve towards the ICU. They stopped at the window of Clint's room, a team of doctors were huddled over him, working there magic.

"What the HELL did the Doctor do to him!" Stark couldn't help but stare "Now I need to work this out more than ever, and I have jobs for you too Cap" with that they headed back to the lab, hoping Clint would make it.

"Sir Agent Dipillo is on the line, should I patch her through?" JARVIS boomed

"Go for it" he replied

"Mr. Stark, Bruce is awake and he is requesting you" She seemed angry by this "Oh and Fury would like to talk to you about your disregard to orders with Agent Coulson" she laughed knowing he was in for a bad one.

"On my way" he turned to the Cap "When this chimes press the play button, got it?"

"I think so" Cap responded, he knew how bad he was with technology.

"Stark what happened! Last thing I remember was you fighting off the….the" he scratched his head, he couldn't remember, he felt so groggy "Bad thing and then I felt something go in my back and then it all goes black! That Agent said I killed people, that I killed Barton!" Sadness swept across his face "Was it me? Or the other guy?" he broke down and started crying.

Stark let out a massive sigh of relief, at least he back "Bruce that fight was 8 days ago, you disappeared, as for Barton last I heard he was just a little bruised" He thought it would be best to lie through his teeth. "As for who it was…it was both of you but you were infected, you didn't know" Stark was never good at dealing with these situations

"She said I beat Barton unconscious…why would I do that?" he sniffed "Wait…Infected with what"

"Stop thinking about Barton and lets try and work out why, who and what for, they have to have a goal overall" he said studying the Doctors face.

Coulson landed and got in the first car to the SHEILD base, he didn't care if Fury would be upset for all he knew his boyfriend was DEAD! Tears rolled down his cheeks. 'Clint's first mission alone and this happens!'. He put his foot down and sped to the entrance, Parking the care and jumping out heading to the ICU. 'please Clint be alive, please' he thought.

"Agent Coulson?!" the ICU doctor asked "I thought you weren't on this mission"

"I wasn't" He snapped "but he's responsibility" Phil knew not to drop the boyfriend card at SHIELD.

"Oh! I'm sorry sir, we have got his heart restarted but he technically did die for 5 minutes, we wont know if there is any damage until he wakes up" . She watched the color drain from the agents face as she continued "We re-located his shoulder and have put stitched in the wounds, would you like to see his file?"

Phil felt dizzy, wounds, being dead for 5 minutes, he had to sit down or else he would collapse.

"Sir, are you okay? Do you need anything" she helped him to the chair.

Fury understood why Stark told Agent Coulson after he heard the diagnosis, he headed to the ICU to check on the Agent. "Phil" he called over to the man slumped in the chair across from Hawkeye's room.

"Nick" Phil's voice cracked "He died for 5 minutes…did you know that? He was alone! What the FUCK happened? Who did this?" Phil started getting angry "If Clint dies I will personally kill whoever did this"

"Phil, its not that simple as who did it, let me explain everything" He tired leading him away but Phil was reluctant to move "He will be here for a while Phil, lets go talk"

Phil finally got out of the chair he had slumped into and followed Nick to his office. "I want to be alerted right away if anything changes Nick!" Phil kept trying to hide his emotions.

"Of course" Fury had to deal with this delicately.

"Barton was gathering needed Intel for us to get Doctor Banner back when he was jumped and taken hostage with his 3 man team" Fury sighed " He was hung up and tortured, how…I don't even know but when Captain Rogers found him he lost consciousness" Fury tried to read the Agents face.

"So what your telling me Nick is someone snuck up on a trained assassin and his team, took them hostage and then beat the life out of Clint. Who sent him out there? Do we know who?" Phil questioned.

Fury couldn't bring himself to say that it was Banners doing, last thing he wanted was Phil killing the Doctor. He was saved from that by a knock on the door.

Stark and Captain Rogers were standing in the doorway. "So that's were Coulson is" Start let out a half assed smile appear on his face "We have some news regarding the virus, we know where it came from" Stark focused on Fury.

"Virus?!" Phil's brow furrowed "What aren't you telling me Nick? Tony who did this?"

Cap stepped in "Phil, we both know that Barton is a strong man, why not focus on getting him better?" Phil's face lost all it's color as he realized that Steve's suit was covered in blood. He burst into tears, maybe it was the stress or the lack of sleep…perhaps both but he felt broken. In the years that he has worked for SHIELD he has never broken down like this.

Fury got up and left Phil in the Captain's care as he joined Stark in the hallway "Please tell me its good news, my best agent is breaking down in my office, Both my assassins are either in ICU or healing and Doctor Banner killed 3 SHIELD agents and has no memory of it!" Fury ran his hands across his face, he was exhausted!"

" Well its definitely foreign, I had to run it against everything we know and I know its origins" Stark started walking back to the lab "Barton was right when he said it was personal…these people want there weapons back. They gave the Doc a nerve gas that should of killed him, but they other guy wouldn't die and it mutated into a virus"

"Just tell me who Stark" Fury pushed

"Libyans" Stark paused to let Fury take that in "They needed Banner to access Stark Industries and get weapons, luckily after the last snafu" Stark tapped at his Arc Reactor "We no longer ship weapons as 'fully functional' from the box"

" Well we can breathe easy there then" Fury sarcastically replied still absorbing all the information.

Cap walked in to join them "Phil is bunking in Barton's room if you need him, Until Clint wakes up I doubt he will be any use" He sighed "so Director when can be get the Libyans"

Phil laid on the hospital bed next to Barton. " I wish I could help you find your way home in there" he said while stroking the archer's hair "Clint I'm sorry" Phil's exhaustion finally caught up to him and he drifted off to sleep to the noise of Clint's heart rate machine.

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP