Clint was fast asleep on the couch of the abandoned house. After he'd told the others his story, Natasha had given him some morphine and he'd passed out almost immediately afterwards, much to the others relief. He looked a bit too pale for Steve's liking, and the Captain figured he might need to recover as much strength as he could. After all, they had to go looking for that scepter, and only Clint knew his way around that HYDRA building. As much as Steve disliked the idea, they needed to bring the archer with them if they wanted to find that thing. He had told the other about his plan, and all of them reluctantly agreed to the fact that they did have to bring Clint. All except Tony, to nobody's surprise. The billionaire had a nick of always complaining about anything.

"You cannot bring him Cap, seriously, he will only slow us down!" Tony protested silently, so he would not wake Barton. "Besides, he can't walk all the way there. How are you going to do that? We can look without him!"

Natasha snorted: "I am afraid we aren't going to find it on our own. Have you seen the building? It is enormous. And above all, it is burning. I am not going to wander around in a burning building without knowing where I have to look!"

"Jezus, I believed you would go easier on your partner there, Romanof! You seriously consider dragging him inside a burning building?" Tony asked her.

"I am afraid we have no other choice. And it's not something I haven't done before," Natasha retorted.

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Tony spit back at her.

"Here we go again," Bruce whispered to no one in particular. Thor looked from Natasha to Tony and back, before he spoke: "Can't he just draw a map for us, we all know what Loki's scepter looks like. We will be able to find it without having to endanger the Hawks health any further."

"Thanks Thor!" Tony said as he made a bow towards the Asgardian Prince. "JARVIS can help as well, he might be able to locate that thing!" Tony said, "No need to bring Barton."

"We can't leave him on his own either," Steve argued.

"So you are siding with the red head?" Tony asked Steve, "If you want, I'll stay behind and babysit the Hawk! I am NOT bringing him!" Tony's voice sounded final. Steve sighed: "I don't like the idea of splitting up…"

"Argh!" Tony exclaimed. "What about you Bruce, what do you think about it?"

The doctor, who had been silent all the time, was staring at the sleeping form of their archer. He peered his eyes away from the man to look at Tony.

"I don't know. Clint clearly isn't up for a long walk, as Tony said, but I agree with Steve as well. We should not split up," Bruce said.

"That's not an opinion. You're just trying not to pick sides," Tony told him. Bruce shrugged: "If you want to interpret it that way. Maybe you should talk to JARVIS for a second, ask the AI if he can locate it. If he does, and if it will be easy to find, we'll split up. Otherwise, we will bring Clint with us to show the way."

"That's actually a great idea, thanks Bruce, always good to have you around," Tony said.

"There is also the possibility that it is no longer inside there anymore either," Thor remarked, "As Barton said, they might have found it after he fled."

"Thanks for pointing that out, Thor, but we will ignore that possibility now that we finally figured out an actual plan. I'll be at the car with JARVIS," Tony turned around at Steve, "The car is in the garage, only a few steps away from here, so that does not count as splitting up, does it?"

Steve nodded, clearly annoyed: "No, it doesn't."

"Fine," Tony turned on his heels, "I'll be right back." And he left the room.

"Why does he have to be such a pain in the ass," Natasha asked the others as soon as Tony was out of sight.

"He's just worried, in his own way. Pepper told me he does it all the time - she considers it kind of cute," Bruce told Natasha.

"I'm gonna puke," she said while rolling her eyes. Steve chuckled: "I can't see how anyone is able to consider Stark 'cute'."

"That makes two of us, Cap," Natasha agreed. The previous tension in the room slowly faded as the remaining Avengers started talking about all the things they did not associate Tony Stark with. Time flew by, and nobody actually noticed that it took Tony almost half an hour before he returned.

"Nice to know you were all worried about me while I was away," Tony said as he reentered the room, where he found his teammates talking to each other – all of them besides Clint, who was still asleep.

"We figured you needed some alone-time," Natasha replied, "What did JARVIS find?"

Tony grimaced: "Nothing…"

"Just like I said, it might not be there anymore," Thor said.

"Maybe, but isn't there a chance that JARVIS is not able to find it," Bruce asked Tony.

"JARVIS was able to locate it before," Tony sounded hesitant, "but…"

"But for all we know, he isn't able to do it since everything that happened here," Bruce finished his sentence. Tony nodded slowly: "I doubt it is there, though. It wasn't well hidden, as you might believe Barton, and it would really surprise me if they found a way to hide it from JARVIS' radar. But I still have the feeling we might want to take a look inside. You know, just to make sure."

"Yeah," Steve nodded, "You never know, don't you?"

"Uhu," Tony looked at Clint, "He's not going to like it to go back in there."

Natasha stood up and shook Clint by the shoulder, waking him up. Clint only groaned.

"He'll survive, but first, we'll have to wake him up. That's gonna take a while," she told the others. She poked Clint, which earned her another groan.

"Come on, Barton, wake up. I know you don't want to, but I'll kick your ass if you don't," Natasha whispered.

"That would probably get me killed," Clint groaned, while his eyes fluttered open, "What's your problem?"

"We need you," Natasha told him.

"You must be really desperate when you ask me for help," Clint remarked, while his eyes scanned the room.

"Well, we sort of are, as I just tried to crack the Da Vinci code, but I couldn't do it without you doctor Langdon," Tony said. Clint's eyes narrowed: "What?"

"You don't know the Da Vinci Code?" Tony remarked.

"I do, but spare me the humour. I don't get it. What can't you find?" Clint asked, whilst Thor silently whispered to Steve: "What is the Code of Da Vinci about? And what does he have to do with my brothers scepter?"

Clint heard Thor silent remark and immediately understood: "You went looking for it?"

"No, JARVIS scanned the area. But it's not there," Bruce explained.

"It must be," Clint said as he tried to sit up, but failed at his first attempt. "Auch, man, if it isn't there anymore, we are in big trouble."

"We know," Natasha sighed, "But we're not sure if it is truly gone. We want to take a look inside and we need you to show us around."

Clint looked like he wanted to slap her: "You're kiddin me, right?"

"You know that's not my kind of humour."

"Unfortunately I do. But listen, Tash, I can barely walk. How are we going to pull this off?"

"Just like we always do – you just do it and afterwards, you can blame me for every aching body part you have," Natasha said, looking a bit uncomfortable, "I am sorry Clint, but we have to look now, before anyone comes back for it."

"This is going to be fun," Clint said as he successfully tried to sit up a second time, "But you need to help me."

"Of course."