Clint drummed his fingers on the edge of the hard plastic chair; every so often Hill would glance at him and roll her eyes. The tapping wasn't helping him calm down but it was clearly getting on Hill's last nerve. He offered her a rather obviously fake smile every time they made eye contact.

After the battle, the Avengers had contacted Fury and sent him Coulson's evidence and the brief but enlightening conversations they had had with the councilman at the exchange and after the fight. As predicted the councilman hadn't informed the rest of the council about recapturing Barton; a quick check of the flight manifest had shown that there were no plans to bring Hawkeye back to the base either. The Director had immediately sent a team to collect the councilman and bring him back to SHIELD to face the rest of the council.

The team had been granted a temporary truce and freedom to return to New York while the council tried to piece everything together. They had reinstated the Avengers, and promised to review the case against Agent Barton. It had taken two days but the council had finally summoned Barton to the helicarrier to discuss his future with SHIELD.

Every second that ticked by on the clock was another knot that formed in his stomach. Fury had been called before the council to discuss recent events. The conclusion of the meeting would determine Barton's place at SHIELD, if he still had one. The council didn't so much care for the circumstances, so much as the fact that the Avengers went against the council because of Barton. The whispers so far had indicated that the council was willing to drop the death sentence, but they had many other equally unappealing punishments they could hand out in its place. There was also the fact that the charges did hold an ounce of truth that Clint still felt he needed to be punished for.

"You can go in now," announced Hill.

Clint got up with a shaky breath and marched into the meeting room.

"I feel like there should be cake," declared Stark as he surveyed the room.

Natasha and Steve walked into the living room which had just been decorated by the billionaire, Pepper and Thor. An insane amount of balloons and streamers hung from every possible point, party hats and noisemakers were staked next to the impressive spread of food and drink along the bar counter, and a stack of oversized presents with crisply folder wrapping paper and brightly colored ribbon dominated the couch.

"What is all of this Stark?" asked Romanoff surveying the scene with incredulous eyes.

"Our little birdy is getting his licence to kill back." Tony wiped away a fake tear. Resuming in his normal voice, "it's a party! Thor blow the horn."

The Asgardian did as instructed. He almost looked comical with his party hat and a paper party horn unrolling as he blew into it.

"See, Thor can get behind it," pointed out Tony.

"This is a little excessive, don't you think?" added Rogers.

Tony raised his hands in the air and triumphantly declared, "Girls could jump out of the cake!"

Pepper grabbed Stark's arm to get him to look at her "Tony, no."

"No?"

"No."

"But we really should have a cake. Jarvis, call that bakery that Barton buys those pastries he likes and have them send over a cake."

The AI dutifully responded. "Sir, it takes time for a cake order to be processed, created and delivered."

"Well, tell them to send the biggest cake they have there right now. I don't care what it's for and tell them I'll pay triple."

"Very well sir."

"What's all this?" asked Bruce as he joined the gathered Avengers.

Natasha spoke up first. "Stark's lost his mind."

"I think it was gone before this happened."

"Yes," interjected Tony, "but the problem is still the absence of cake!"

All debate was halted as the subject of the party walked in. His sudden discomfort at being the center of attention was evident. Romanoff locked eyes with him and asked, "Well?"

Clint just nodded and she let out a sigh of relief. Sure they had exposed the councilman's plot, but the council could be tricky sometimes. Barton was cleared of any wrongdoings, but it was impossible to tell if they were going to have their noses out of joint over the whole escaping custody part. It wouldn't have surprised either assassin if they decided to levy punishment against Hawkeye for surviving his own execution. Orders were orders and a death sentence was a death sentence, the fact that he escaped to prove his innocence was a mere technically; his orders were to die that day and so die he should've – plain and simple.

Stark's cell phone beeped and he began tapping buttons. A few minutes later two men entered the living room carrying a large cake. They set it down on the table and promptly exited, leaving the Avengers to gather around.

Tony clapped his hands. "Excellent!"

Barton took in the inscription on the rather extravagant cake. "Happy twenty-fifth anniversary Mary and Bob?"

"I wanted to get you a cake that naked girls jumped out of. Pepper said no, so we sort of stole this cake instead," defended Tony. He turned to look at Pepper who was snuggled up to his arm "this is all your fault."

"It's fine," assured Clint, "And probably much better without anyone jumping out of it." It was the thought that counted Barton told himself; over extravagance was just Stark's way.

Bruce was puttering away in his lab when Clint came in and quietly sat down at the desk. The archer opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to find the courage to speak. After a few moments he finally found his voice and said, "Bruce, can I ask you a question?"

He was surprised that the archer has come down to the lab, and could tell by his constant need to fiddle with the zipper on his pants pocket that Barton wanted to be anywhere else. Banner nodded and in his soft voice said, "go ahead." He was curious what would be so important that it would drive his teammate into his domain at such a late hour. It wasn't that he didn't want Clint in the lab, or that he wasn't allowed but, like the shooting range, the team tended to respect each other's sanctuary places.

Hesitating a few seconds, Clint took a deep breath. "Could I... I mean ... is it possible to suffer a relapse or be re-infected with Keres?"

The question threw Bruce for a moment. Taking in the dark circles under Barton's eyes and his rough appearance, he surmised that the young man was losing a fair bit of much needed sleep over pondering the possibility. The doctor found the question a rather frightening prospect himself, and strove to put his friend at ease.

"They'd have to re-engineer the serum. What we gave you during your incident acts like a vaccine; you're immune to the serum now. Why; do you feel the sudden urge to kill us all?" He assured with a slight chuckle. Seeing the serious expression grip Clint even more, he sobered and asked "do you?"

"Nothing like that Doc," replied Clint as he ran a shaky hand through his hair.

"Then what is it?"

Clint stared intently at his shoes. "I don't know how to explain it. I feel like I'm here but not really here; like I'm not me, you know?" He locked eyes with Bruce. "Am I going crazy Doc?"

Bruce sighed. Of all the team members the archer could have chosen for a heart to heart it was Banner. Feeling incredibly inadequate to offer anyone advice on how to be normal and balanced, he selfishly wished the worn out man before him had picked anyone else to catalogue his troubles to. Knowing that Clint would probably never speak to anyone else and probably only came to him out of desperation, he couldn't turn Barton away no matter how uncomfortable the situation could get. They were a team, and this was what he could do for Hawkeye.

"You went through a traumatic experience. You almost died Clint; I think it's going to take some time to work through something like that."

"I face death everyday and it doesn't leave me feeling like this."

"This time you were seconds away and you knew it. I can't imagine what it would be like to sit there and watch someone insert syringe after syringe, knowing that the last one was going to be the end. It will take time."

Barton shook his head. "I can't seem to get what Mason said out of my head." His voice was low and quiet. Evidence of those words haunting him flashed in his grey eyes.

"He was the bad guy; they tend to say things to get under your skin." Making sure he had eye contact with Clint, Banner continued with as much reassurance as he could muster. "Mason was wrong; you won't be the end of us Clint. But if it makes you feel better, we can run some tests and check for any signs of Keres in your system."

The tension in Barton's shoulders began to melt away; he looked at Bruce hopefully. "It would help me sleep better at night."

Grabbing a syringe out of the supply drawer, Bruce rolled his chair next to Barton. "Roll up your sleeve."

Watching the doctor get to work Barton could tell that Bruce thought the tests were unnecessary but the fact that the man was willing to do it and wait all night with him for the results, that Banner had no doubt would be negative, was uplifting. It felt good to know someone had his back despite everything and wasn't going to run at the first sign of trouble. It was good to finally have friends to rely on.

The end.

Part 3 of 5.

Thank-you so much to everyone who read this story.

A big thanks to anyone who added an alert, favourite or review (especially anyone those who reviewed many times) it is greatly appreciated and means a lot. Thank you to the few that reviewed the last chapter.

Huge thanks to Tracy137 for another terrific beta job!

I originally planned this to be a 3 part series but I had an idea for another story and this seemed like the best place to cut this story line off to accommodate the new fourth story in the series. The fifth story in this series will tie up everything from the Keres story line. The fourth story is called Between a Rock and a Hard Place and will be posted later today. It is complete and just undergoing final revisions. This story features Clint and Bruce. The fifth story (which is almost done being written) is The Devil Looks After his Own and it will feature Clint, Thor and the team. After that I have several other stories planned that fit in this missteps in team building universe.