Clint walked away from the office as fast as possible, but tried very hard not to be noticed. It was already late, so most of the corridors were abandoned, but now and then, he bumped into a HYDRA grunt. Fortunately for him, they all decided to ignore his presence. He was just an ordinary employee to them after all, and therefore not worthy of their attention - Clint was genuinely glad about that. For once, Clint was also happy that he was wearing a suit. His jacket was just long enough to hide Loki's scepter entirely underneath it.

So far, his escape had gone perfectly. When he nearly reached his car after only 10 minutes of walking, Clint felt like he was being too lucky. So when he was greeted by no one else than Baron Von Strucker himself when he opened the door to the underground garage, Clint felt anything but surprised.

"Good evening, sir," Clint attempted to sound calm, while praying that the Baron wouldn't notice that he was hiding the scepter. Apparently, he didn't, as the Baron simply nodded at him and asked: "Going home?" The suspicion in his voice didn't escape Clint. Of course, Clint couldn't admit that he was, as he was not supposed to leave the building before the security system was back on the rails/

"No, I wanted to grab my glasses. I left them in my car," Clint lied smoothly.

The Baron frowned slightly: "Do you wear glasses? I never noticed that…"

"I usually wear lenses, but I own some glasses because my eyes often get irritated," Clint told him. Luckily, he knew that inside the car he had been using – whuch was owned by one of his colleagues - was lying a pair of spare glasses.

"Ah, of course," the Baron laughed halfheartedly, "Anyway, now that you're here, I'll wait for you. There is something I want to discuss." Clint pretended to be curious, but inside, he was dying. 'Do they already know?' he wondered.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just grab my glasses first," Clint waved his hand in the direction of the car and walked away from the Baron. To his immense relief, the man did not follow him. Clint opened the door of the old Honda with a sigh, grabbed his colleagues glasses, readjusted Loki's scepter and reached for the gun that was hidden underneath the driver's seat. For a moment, Clint considered to kill the Baron, but he shook the idea away quickly. He wouldn't make it out alive if he did. Instead, he slid the gun in the holster hidden underneath his shirt and headed back to Von Strucker.

"You wanted to talk to me, sir?"

"Yes," Von Strucker said, "Walk with me, please?" He opened the door for Clint and indicated that they were heading back to the offices. Clint walked through the door, and when it closed behind him with a silent thud, Clint felt a twinge of regret because his chance at a peaceful escape was gone. Things probably weren't going to end well.

"So…" Clint looked at the Baron expectantly.

"I was wondering," the man said, "If you know this person?" The Baron reached for his pocket and revealed a picture. It was the same picture that the programmer had shown Clint earlier that night. Clint took it from the Baron and took a closer look at it.

"He seems familiar, but I don't know his name," Clint lied while he studied the picture, "Do I need to know him?"

"Perhaps you heard of him. He should be dead, or so I have heard. I wanted to ask you if you noticed him before. Someone saw him sneaking around the building a couple of days ago."

"I haven't left the building for more than a week, sir. So no, I haven't noticed him. Maybe he lives in the nearby town? I recognize his face, perhaps I crossed him on the street one day."

"Maybe," the Baron didn't sound convinced. The tension in the air rose and everything started to feel like one of those bad action movies to Clint. He more or less expected the Baron would shout 'I know thatyou are a traitor' at him after a couple of seconds, just like movie villains do at moments like these. But it didn't happen.

"Anyway, thank you for your time," the Baron said, "You should get back to work."

Clint nodded: "Yes, I do."

"Goodnight." The Baron saluted, turned around on his heels and walked away, leaving Clint behind. Clint had no other choice than to return to his office. If he turned around and headed for his car again, Von Strucker would notice. While Clint walked, it felt like Loki's scepter was gaining weight with every step it took. Somehow, that thing seemed to tell him that he made a bad choice when he decided to go back.

By the time he opened the door of his office again, it felt like his heart was working overtime. To his immense relief, everything seemed to be fine in there. The programmer was still sleeping and Pietro was bouncing around in his cell again. Wanda looked up when she heard him, but her face didn't show any sign of surprise. Maybe she already knew that he would return.

"Dham it," Clint cursed silently and he punched the wall in frustration. He had to figure out a new plan, and fast. If Wanda had told him the truth earlier, his time was running out. Clint looked around the room, desperately trying to find a way out, when he suddenly noticed something peculiar.

On his desk stood an undamaged laptop.

In order to make sure he wasn't dreaming, Clint blinked a couple of times. But when he looked again, the laptop was still there. Unwittingly, he shifted his gaze towards the programmers desk. The man's laptop was there as wall, it didn't have a scratch.

"This can't be real," Clint whispered to himself. For a split second, he believed that the influence of being so close to Loki's scepter made him go insane. But somehow, it felt like this was another kind of magic.

How all of this happened, would possible remain a mystery forever, but Clint figured it didn't matter at all. He would never get a second chance like this, so he had to take it and needed to act quickly. He decided that getting out with the scepter in his possession would not work out so well. So he shifted to plan B: hide it. Years of experience taught Clint that people tend to look for things everywhere, besides right under their noses. So that's where he'd hide the scepter – right here. Careful not to wake the programmer, Clint went to work. After he secured the scepters hiding place, Clint felt quite pleased with himself. He turned to Wanda, and to his surprise, she wasn't paying attention to him. She didn't even seem to be interested in him. Clint figured it was probably an act, to make her seem less suspicious. Just when he wanted to tell the twins goodbye once more, a loud bang suddenly echoed through the room, because the sleeping programmer had tumbled of his chair. The man was still drowsy, but when he looked at Clint, he clearly seemed taken aback.

"Boss! I am so sorry, I must have fallen asleep. All those hours behind that laptop… Can I take a break?" he demanded in bewilderment. While attempting to keep his heartbeat under control, Clint raised an eyebrow at the programmer and snarled: "No you can't, you've been doing nothing all day. Get back to work."

"That's not true, look," the programmer turned his laptop towards Clint and showed him a set of codes. Codes he couldn't have possible written in the short time that Clint was away. Clint started to believe that he really had become crazy. This wasn't possible. The past had somehow changed, but no one could do that. No one. Except.

Clint turned around to look at Wanda again, who was still not impressed by everything that was happening around her. But he almost swore that he saw her nod. Almost. Clint slowly started to panic because of that.

"Something wrong boss?" the programmer asked. Clint shook his head: "No, I, I got to … I need something in my car. I'll be right back."

The programmer yawned: "Alright, can I take a break while you're away?"

"Sure, but when I am back, you get your ass back to work."

"Thanks!"

Once again, Clint headed for the corridor. This time, he had a hard time trying not to run for it. While he walked back to his car, Clint couldn't think about anything else than what just happened. Time had changed, there was no doubt about that. But things like that only happened in fairytales, there was no doubt about that either.

"Going somewhere?" a familiar voice asked. Clint halted and looked around. Von Strucker was once again waiting for him at the garage door, just like he had been half an hour ago.

"This is insane," Clint thought by himself, "This is not happening."

"No, sir, just…" for the first time in many months, Clint didn't know what to say.

When the Baron ignored Clint and told him that he wanted to talk about something, Clint had a major feeling of déjà vu. It felt like their previous conversation had never happened. The Baron apparently didn't remember anything of it, but how – Clint wondered – was it possible that hé still did?

The rest of their conversation went almost the exact same way as before as well. Once again, Clint took the picture of the black man from the Baron and once again, he told Von Strucker he didn't know who that photographed person was. When the Baron opened his mouth to tell Clint that he had to get back to work, Clint decided that he'd had enough.

"Dham you, Wanda," he cried out before he pulled the gun from underneath his shirt and pointed it at the Baron, who clearly had no idea what he was talking about. "They will find out soon," Wanda's voice kept saying inside Clint's head. But how soon was soon at that moment? Clint didn't have a clue, all he knew was that the entire situation was more messed up. So he decided not to wait for 'soon' anymore.

Clint shot once, without blinking. The bullet hit the Baron straight between the eyes. Before the man hit the ground, Clint turned around and sprinted towards his car. He jumped in, started the engine and speeded away as fast as possible. The car made a terribly loud noise. "So far for the silent get away," Clint told himself.

The moment he drove through the gates, the windscreen of his car shattered to a thousand pieces: they were shooting at him. Clint laid eyes on his attackers, and took them out with 5 shots – one for each of them. He drove away, hitting the gas pedal real hard. In the distance, he could hear the roaring of motorcycles. They were on to him.

Clint figured he had only one option left – do what Fury always did in this kind of situation. With one jolt to the steering wheel, Clint steered his car sideways. It hit the guardrail at the side of the road and went upside down. Clint braced himself and for a moment, he felt weightless as the car tumbled down the hill, toward an ice cold river.

So, this was my first try at a more 'eventfull'chapter. I hope you liked it and that it wasn't boring. Please let me know if you like the story so far! Should I continue? What's bad about it? I accept criticism, as long as it isn't harsh or offensive.

Anyway ... Thanks for reading!

Love you all for following the story!

xxx Ellyn