Thanks for the wait and i hope all Americans had a good Thanksgiving!

This is the big reveal chapter!

That night after Clint had gone to change for bed she told the others about his newspaper and calendar discovery.

"And you're sure you played it off?" Bruce asked.

"I told him it was a joke."

"And he believed you?"

"I think so. He thought it was funny."

"This is troubling." Bruce said thoughtfully. "If Clint thought to check the date in the paper then he's bound to notice other things. That's very articulate for a child his age. Frankly I'm surprised. We may end up having to tell him. I'd prefer that to him finding it out on his own."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Tony asked, straddling a kitchen chair backwards. He rocked onto it's back legs. "I mean he'd start asking questions. Where his parents are, how he got here, what his adult self is like. There are a lot of things I'd rather him not know at this age. They'd probably just upset him. I mean he's deaf for Christ's sake. What little kid wants to find out he grows up to be deaf?"

Steve sighed and slouched in his seat. "I know what you mean but don't you think he'll be even more upset when he finally figures it out? I mean, we've gotten him to like us and I think he's starting to trust us too but if he finds out that we've been keeping such a big secret form him it's bound to set things back."

Natasha sat quietly. She was glad to have Cap on her side.

"I know what you're saying but there have got to be better ways we can keep the secret. I could print off old newspaper archives from the 70's and dig up some calendars."

"Is it really worth all that? I mean, we're going to get him back to normal eventually. When we do, it won't matter."

"That's true. Dr. Pym is pretty sure that only his older self will remember all of this stuff."

"But we don't know how long it will take to get him back to normal." Tony argued. "He could be stuck like this for months. Hell, at the rate Hank and Reed are going it could take a full year."

"That's unfair, they're doing their best." Steve interjected.

"Yeah, I know, you're right. It's barely been a week. Still, it's like I said before. This is no place for a kid. He could get hurt. The tower could get attacked. We've got super villains targeting us. Imagine what would happen if one of them found out Clint was a kid."

That doesn't have anything to do with telling Clint the truth." Natasha said, putting them back on topic. "I think we should tell him. He's going to figure it out eventually and it's better he gets it from us than finds out on his own and resents us."

Bruce nodded. "I think I'm gonna have to agree, Tony."

Tony's jaw twitched. "Alright, so we do tell him. He'll freak out."

"Not if we break it too him easy." Steve said. "He's a tough kid."

"I disagree."

"I think we should tell him now." Natasha said, rising from her seat. "It should be sooner than later and if we tell him now he can sleep off the shock."

"Or not sleep at all." Tony cut in.

She gave him a silencing look, understanding his view but not accepting any other way. "I'll go and get him." She exited the kitchen and left the rest of them to sit and wait. Knocking on Clint's door she found him putting away his toys. He was very good about that. "Clint, could you come to the kitchen for a moment, there's something the others and I would like to talk to you about."

He looked up and from his eyes she knew he expected the worst. "Come on." She said, taking his hand and leading the way. He was heavy behind her.

In the bright kitchen he stood against the wall, looking up at them. "Am I in trouble?" He asked.

"No." She said quietly.

"Clint, there's something we'd like to tell you." Steve said, kneeling down in front of the boy. "And we didn't know how to do so before."

Clint's eyebrows came together in worry. He held his arms against his chest and bit his lip.

"You know how you found that calender that said it was 2014 and how the newspaper said it too and had a bunch of pictures of things that can't exist?" Clint nodded, wondering wildly if he was not supposed to have found it. "Well, I know Natasha told you they were a joke but they're really not. It really is the year 2014."

Clint looked at their faces, trying to understand why they were all so serious. Natasha had said it was a joke.

"Do you understand? It's not 1976, it's 2014 right now."

The boy looked at him steadily, not understanding.

Steve rocked back on his heels. "You see, we're friends with you as an adult and there was an accident. We were fighting some bad guys and something went wrong. You got turned into a little kid again and there was nothing we could do."

"But I don't remember being grown up."

"No, you wouldn't your adult years got stolen."

"So I'm supposed to be a grown up?"

"Well, you're supposed to be."

Clint climbed into a kitchen chair. "How come you guys didn't tell me?" He looked around confusedly.

"We didn't know how. We were afraid to."

Clint made a face like he was thinking hard. "Why?"

"Well, we thought you'd get really scared. You know you're being really brave right now." Steve offered him a smile and then something strange came over Clint's face.

"Hang on. How come Barney's a kid then?"

"Well, he's not really. When you talked to him on the phone he sounded different, right?"

"He said he was sick."

"He wasn't. He's a grown up."

The little boy licked his lips. "So he lied to me?"

"No, it's not like that. He wanted to tell you the truth but we told hm not to."

The boy looked as though his head hurt. "Why?

"I told you, we were afraid to tell you."

"Are my mom and dad old now too?"

Natasha leaned forward and reached for his hand. He drew it back, looking at her face intently. "No Clint, they're not." He made an odd expression she couldn't read. "They're dead."

He looked down at his lap and then at all of them and then scooted his chair back and left the room. They heard his bedroom door close quietly from down the hall.

"Well. . ." Said Bruce, sitting back in his seat and rubbing his eyes. "That could have gone worse. Could have gone better too."

"What should we do?" Steve asked, sitting back defeatedly. "Do you think I should go and talk to him?"

"I think he wants to be alone." Natasha said.

"He's five and he feels alone. That's not a good mix." Bruce said softly.

"I think you should go and talk to him, Cap." Tony said.

Steve stood and nodded. "Yeah." He knocked quietly on Clint's door. "Clint, are you in there?"

There was a muffled noise. "Clint I'm gonna come in." He opened the door but found the room empty. A light however was shining from under the bathroom door. "Clint, it's me, Steve. Do you wanna come out and talk?" He tried the handle. It was locked. "C'mon buddy."

Inside the bathroom Clint listened to Captain America try and coax him out but didn't budge. He knew it wasn't Steve's fault that they'd kept it a secret. Adult's kept secrets. That was just what they did. But he thought it was a pretty big one to keep about his parents. All this time he had been afraid that his father would make him go home or that he would be sent home. And now he knew that the man was dead. That both his parents were dead. He was angry. He had been so afraid for nothing. Dead people couldn't hurt you.

He sat on the bathroom rug and hugged his knees, back pressed against the tub. He didn't understand what they had said. And stranger still, he wasn't crying. He didn't feel like crying for his parents. He sat silently, head on his arms and listened to Steve's attempts at drawing him out. He wondered suddenly if they had been telling the truth and horribly the idea came to him that maybe it was all a joke. Maybe they were his parents' friends and they were all making fun of him. He shook his head. That didn't seem likely. Captain America wouldn't do that and he wouldn't hang out with people who did that.

He tried to think of why he shouldn't leave the bathroom and go back to the kitchen but couldn't think of a reason. Still, he didn't want to. He didn't want to leave the bathroom. Everyone had kept a huge secret form him and fooled him. He felt dumb. He should have figured it out. They probably all thought he was stupid. He felt tears prick his eyes. Maybe he was stupid. Even Barney had tricked him. He missed Barney.

Outside Steve sighed and put his hands on his hips. He couldn't for the life of him get the boy out of the bathroom. He sat down on the bed. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We were afraid that it'd scare you." Clint didn't say anything. "I know this has been a lot of information so if you want to go to sleep, you can. I'll leave you to it. . .Good night." He left and closed the door, feeling there was nothing more he could do.

He was met in the hall by Tony who stood looked grave. "I'm gonna call his brother. Maybe he'll talk to him."

"Yeah." They returned to the kitchen and Tony placed a call to Barney Barton. A sleepy voice answered on the other end.

"Yeah? Waht's up?"

"This is Tony Stark. I'm sending someone to come and get you. Grab an overnight bag, it's gonna be a long one."

There was a pause. "What's wrong? Something happen to Clint?"

"We told him what year it is and he's a little upset. Cap's shaking his head. He's really upset. He won't talk to any of us."

Barney cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'll be ready. Just come and get me."

Tony hung up the phone and dialed Happy on his cell, giving him the address. "Damn it. I knew we shouldn't have told him. And why'd you have to go and tell him his parents are dead like that!?" He rounded on Natasha.

"Should I have told him another lie?" She gave him an icy look.

"That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm saying that there were better ways than to just go: Oh and by the way, your folks are dead."

She frowned angrily. "Well then maybe you should have been the one to do it."

"Don't even try that, I was against it from the beginning."

Steve put up his hand. "You two aren't helping." He said. They fell silent. "What's done is done and Clint's very upset right now. He doesn't need you two arguing and neither do I. When Barney Barton gets here we'll explain the situation and see if Clint will talk to him."

There was nothing but silence after that until Tony got a message that Barney had arrived.

Thanks for reading, Barney enters the story next chapter and just so every one knows I'm placing it kind of after Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye so Clint and barney are getting along now (though i think that's obvious!) Y'all already knew that.

Thanks for reading!