Chapter 14

He had joked about this moment with Natasha, the slow motion moment when the noise just dies out and the only thing visible is the target. It usually only happens in high danger situations, much like this one. The joke was that it should only happen in movies, but it happened to them every once in a while. If his life were a movie, then it would probably be a tragedy. This would be the part of the movie where he has flashbacks to when Barney was a good brother to him, when he protected him instead of hurt him. That's not the case though, all he sees is anger and hatred. He chooses to close his eyes because if he's going to die, the last thing he sees shouldn't be his brother's hateful glare.

Tony doesn't even have a chance to breathe before Barney shoots Clint and Clint throws his knife at him. Without even thinking, he throws himself at Clint protecting him with his body. He can't lose Clint, they were just getting together and they had many things to do. He still had to impress Clint with new arrows, or a new bow, better armor. He still needed to sit out on the rooftop with him as they watched the New York glare, stars would be more romantic, but eh cities and their lack of stars. Damnit, Clint.

"Tony, hey Tony. Come on, you have to let go of him, the medics need to check both of you out."

He looked up to see Steve looking at him, a worried expression on his face. "Whoa, you're too close for comfort there amber waves of grains."

Steve let out a sigh of relief as Tony snapped out of it, "I'm assuming by that nickname that you're perfectly fine."

Clint groaned as he attempted to lift his arm only for it to be in a sling. He attempted to open his eyes only to be hit with the worst headache he had ever felt in his life. He felt like he'd gone a round with hulk and lost. "I'm dead aren't I?" he rasped out, geez he sounded worse than he felt.

Tony snapped up and he heard Clint groan and moved a gentle hand over him trying to figure out where to touch him without causing pain. He placed a careful hand on his thigh and let out a strangled laugh. "I think being dead wouldn't feel like you had been smashed repeatedly." He shot a text to Bruce to let him know Clint had woken up. "Are you in too much pain? Do you need water?"

"Tony?" he forced himself to open his eyes, he had to make sure Tony was alright. If he had been hurt because of him, he would never forgive himself. "You're okay?"

"Are you—" Tony rolled his eyes and hit his forehead with his free hand. "You're the one that wouldn't wake up and you're asking me if I'm okay?!"

"What happened? Barney?" Clint closed his eyes as the headache increased; Tony looked to be in good shape.

Tony looked down at his hand still on Clint's thigh and gave it a light squeeze. "Barney didn't make it. Garrett's body was hauled off by SHIELD, I'm assuming he didn't make it as Fury marked the file as 'closed' and moved it into archives. You were out of it for two days, lost a bit of blood. Everyone else is in okay shape, Natasha had a minor scar on her forehead and Bruce tore another pair of perfectly good pair of pants…"

"How was I supposed to know the other guy would want to make an appearance?" Bruce asked as he walked into the med room. "How are you feeling Clint? Give me a number on the pain scale."

"3" Clint said immediately.

Brice raised an eyebrow as Tony rolled his eyes. "The actual number is?"

"About an 8," he admitted reluctantly, "Mainly it's my head. I can't see that well either" Clint muttered as Bruce moved to stare at the screens next to him.

"Ah, I can explain that one." Bruce said as he injected morphine into Clint's IV. "The mind intrusion by Garrett will have some effects on your vision and head for at least two weeks. The pain is manageable, but you will have to be patient with your sight, you don't want to over-exert yourself and delay your recovery. Aside from the migraines and vision problems, you were also shot in the arm hence the sling, add to that two broken ribs, and two bruised ribs"

Clint grimaced as he took in Bruce's list of injuries, not the worst he'd had but it was still pretty bad. "That's a lot."

Bruce rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Oh and you also have burns on your wrists from the rope and few scrapes from being thrown to the ground and landed on."

"Had I not done that, he wouldn't be here to lie about his pain levels." Tony said flinching at Bruce, he felt guilty about having caused those injuries to Clint, but it had actually saved his life, it made the bullet hit his arm and not his chest. "I'm sorry, Clint."

"Hey, no. You don't apologize for trying to save me okay? I would have done the same had the bullet been directed at you." Clint moved his available hand around trying to find Tony's hand, smiling when he felt a hand grab his.

Tony couldn't help but smile, it had been a rough few days and he had missed Clint's voice and his touch. "I'm going to go get you some Jello since it's probably all you'll be able to stomach for a bit."

"You complete and utter idiot."

Clint winced as he heard Natasha's voice, he had tried pretending to be asleep but she hadn't fallen for it. "Hey Tasha."

"Hey Tasha? The idiot leaves the tower on his own, gets tortured and shot and all he can say is 'Hey Tasha'. You are lucky Hulk likes you or I would be adding to your list of injuries." Natasha fumed as she paced back and forth in front of the bed where her best friend lay.

"Tasha, come here." He extended his arm out in her direction. "Please."

She shouldn't, he had scared her even if they'd had close calls before. However, her need to reassure both of them that they were both still there won out and she reached out and grabbed his hand. She intertwined their fingers and ran her free hand through his hair. "I thought it would be like last time."

Clint frowned and attempted to open his eyes to look her in the eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm here though, I'm here."

"When you no longer match Banner's pants I'm going to have you help me with my knife practice." She said with a smirk, he was going to pay for forgetting he had a team to back him up.

"I thought you wanted me safe." Clint said with a weary grin, he closed his eyes and sighed as Natasha ran her fingers through his hair.

Natasha let out a small laugh, "as if, I am going to use you as target practice, idiot."

"Well that's nothing new."

Clint froze as he heard the familiar voice of his handler, but Coulson was dead.