A/N this is the END!
Bagel Thursday
PeechTao
Chapter 15
It had been two days since the first hit man arrived to rob Clint from their lives. Now Sunday morning, Clint was getting house happy from his constant confinement indoors. Banner and Tony had received their awaited for computer chip shipment, allowing Clint to experience the latest and greatest of bilateral hi-def sound ricocheting around his cranium. Tony assured him he wasn't finished the modification and when Clint's eardrums finished healing they'd work on a new less visible method of dealing with his hearing loss.
In the meantime Clint spent his days under lock and key in the lab and sleeping with Steve outside his door (even though Steve never told him he was there, Clint figured it out eventually). The Avengers floor was pretty much his only available safe living space, leaving Clint to get creative and discover how enthralling the internet can be. He swiped a laptop from one of the lower offices and was often found often lazing around the living room with it. Candy crush was a new conquest he was determined to master. In the lag between regenerating his five lives in the candy saga, he flicked between e-mails, cat videos on YouTube, and internet television. This left Steve to wonder whether they risked more by keeping Clint cooped up like a neutered tom cat or letting him take his chances with potential assassins.
Tapping through his tenth e-mail check in so many minutes Clint was surprised to see that indeed something had come. It was flagged SHIELD and that got him slightly on edge. He anticipated a mission any day now, but if SHIELD was catching wind of his troubles then this might just be a courtesy warning. He opened it.
"That's weird." Clint said, "Hey, Tasha when did this come over? I didn't requisition it, did you? Did you get this message too?"
Natasha approached the screen and leaned over his arm to read.
/Mission file:
/Agent condition/
Clint Barton. AKA Hawkeye, File clearance level 5
Mission name: Bristol, AU Jan, 2003
Agent Condition: Deaf due to explosive impact
Recommended for further duty: Yes
Senior Agent to sign off: P.C.22435-84877329
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
/Personnel File:
/Agent Condition/
Clint Barton. AKA Hawkeye, File Clearance level 5
Annual Physical, Jul. 2004
Agent Condition: Prime physical performance on all measured tests, Agent suffers deafness: no hindrance to his working capacity
Recommendations: continue active duty
Senior agent to sign off: P.C.22435-84877329
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
/Personnel File Update:
/Agent Condition/
Etc. etc.
And on and on the updates went. Clint didn't get it. He didn't ask for the information, and at that the message had been sent to him from a Level 7 secure facility. He'd never even heard of a Level 7 facility. It bypassed all of SHIELD's normal views and was double encrypted to bypass Stark's server. Someone had literally gone into SHIELD records, readjusted all of his medical forms, and that was it.
"Tony!" Clint roared. "What the Hell did you do to my SHIELD file? I bet this was you, and I don't know what a Level 7 security clearance is but this has you written all over it!"
From the couch, Tony got up and walked over to stare to the file. After a minute he uprooted Clint and sat with the computer on his lap instead. He scanned the information diligently, double checking with the mission file originals that had been conveniently sent over beside them. What he saw developing was nothing short of a miniature miracle. A miracle started in 2003 and stretching right up to present day.
"Well, Loxley it seems someone hacked your file."
"No duh." Clint snapped.
"No, I mean that in a good way. These are concrete, this passcode I've seen before. Someone who knew you literally re-wrote your entire history. When Fury finds this, if he ever even looks for it, He's going to find out that you went deaf in Bristol Australia over ten years ago and that you've been working for SHIELD ever since, Clint someone just made you a scape goat. This has gift horse written all over it. I want to take credit but I can't. This is almost musical."
Clint pushed Tony out of the seat and relooked over the paper work. "P.C.? That's Coulson's sign off. But those numbers don't make any sense, he had a security code, but that wasn't it. They're all scrambled."
"Maybe Fury won't look that hard, he's only got one eye. Natasha, was this your guy?"
She shrugged innocently enough. "I don't know. Haven't heard from him at all."
Tony hacked into the SHIELD database and accessed Clint's files. Sure enough a carbon copy of what had been messaged to Clint was now fully integrated into his file. No one was going to be the wiser. Clint was free and clear. But there was a difference: The personnel code for Coulson was different. It had reverted to his original one.
Natasha enjoyed watching their little exchange. She was almost bursting inside to tell them exactly what she knew to be true, but how could she? She'd given her word as an agent and a friend. For all intents and purposes Phil Coulson was dead, and he was going to stay that way. But knowing that somewhere he was still out their keeping an eye out for them like always was a comfort that took difficulty to hide.
The other Avengers sat there for a long time, scratching their heads over the identity of the mystery Santa Claus. The E-mail literally came from nowhere. The minute Tony tried to take the sender; he was led into an internet black hole. They were left with nothing but the results right in from of their eyes. Clint was free, and their lives were finally able to keep going on.
Clint sat in his chair, not sure exactly how he should feel. Well, that's not quite right. He knew how he was feeling. He was overjoyed, overwhelmed, ecstatic, and so many other emotions rolled into one he could hardly breathe through them. Never, not in his wildest dreams, could he have imagined something like this happening. He looked over at Natasha, his face displaying all that emotion he bottled up. It was difficult to read him through the marred swellings all over his face.
"Thank you." He told her. "Nat, I don't know what you did, or what you're not telling me. But thank you."
She blinked in surprise. "How do you know I'm hiding something? I didn't say that."
He smiled at her, but his look was still a serious one. He wanted her to understand just how grateful he was. "Sometimes I just know. Thank you."
Natasha didn't want to look into that knowing face of his and somehow reveal everything. Clint had a way of pulling things out of her she'd rather keep buried. Instead she took the computer from him and looked at the new files. The sign off code Coulson used was different from his originals. She bet there was some come hidden in there for her. Given it was Coulson, usually it was relatively uncomplicated. It took her little time to realize it was a phone code.
P.C.22435-84877329
Phil Coulson, Bagel Thursday.
"I better grab my phone. SHIELD logistics won't take long to figure this out. When they do I expect Fury's going to be hounding after me." Clint stood, leaving the laptop on the center table as he made his way back to his room. He tried hard not to run. He wanted to leave so bad it was making him shake. He barely reached the hall before he began to heave. His knees quaked. He fell into his room door before numbly fussing the knob open. He hit the floor in a quivering heap.
Coulson. He knew it was Coulson before he even reached the bottom of the e-mail. Before he could finish the last rearranged doc. He knew it the moment he saw the Level 7 tag. The sign off code? That was just Phil's usual flare for icing. Bagel Thursday. Clint wasn't an idiot, he knew a phone code when he saw one and since joining the Avengers had grown better at reading them than his limited education typically allowed. Phil wouldn't know that since he'd been gone this whole time. He'd been dead this whole time.
"Clint!"
Barton felt a set of arms grab him and haul him to his feet. The person dropped him into a chair and looked up into his face. It was Natasha.
"I know it's a shock, but it's ok." Natasha told him. "Clint it's over. You've been worrying about this, but it's solved now. I can't tell you why, but just accept it—"
"You knew."
Natasha drew back a little.
"You knew it. How long have you known?" Clint demanded.
She stood, very slowly, and closed the door on them.
"How could you keep that from me?" Clint whispered. "Natasha . . . Coulson he was everything."
"It's how he wanted it." She said honestly. "He worried, and I did, that if you knew you'd take off. You'd give up on everything SHIELD's done and just leave. He saw how much you loved it here and didn't want to do anything to keep you from that."
Clint folded over, hanging his head in his hands.
"I'm sorry; I thought it was for the best. He took out Ward, not me. It was over before I even got there. He knew, Clint, he saw us in the bagel shop and he knew it right away. Ward is part of his new team."
"New team." Clint tasted the words like a poison. He shot out of the chair, unsure what to do with himself.
"Clint, I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to know. Coulson was working to fix your record. We can't tell the others. You know we can't. Tony will lose his mind. If Fury finds out that we know Coulson would be in serious hot water."
"I just can't believe it." Clint repeated.
"I know I felt the same as you."
"And you kept this back?"
"It was hard to, but I gave him my word. So yes."
"From me? You didn't tell me." Clint approached, cornering her against the door.
"I did what I had to, Clint. And don't try that guilt trip with me, you didn't tell me you were deaf."
"That's not the same thing."
"It's a lie, so it is the same."
They were close to each other now, their foreheads almost pressed together. Tension slowly eased out of them. The word partner meant everything. Lying to one another rarely was appropriate unless it meant saving each other's life. Situations like that came up, not often, but enough to make this moment a distinct familiarity. Natasha moved first, pressing a kiss against his neck.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm sorry about SHIELD, about lying, about finding out like this. This must have been one of the longest weeks in your life."
Clint sighed against her. "You have no idea."
"Can I ask you something?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"When we danced the other night, you let me lead."
He smiled. "I didn't have a choice. I couldn't exactly keep up with the music. And you are changing the subject."
"Maybe I am." She pirouetted around him and went to his desk. His iPod was still there where he'd left it the other day. She flipped through a few of the songs until she found one she liked. Or, rather she found one he liked. "You have the strangest music on here, Clint."
"You are still changing the subject."
"I'm not an idiot, I know I am. And I would really love to watch you groove to Single Ladies, but I have a little something else in mind."
"I'll have you know I can rock out to Single Ladies. I can put a ring on anything." He took the music player from her, flicked through a few cover arts, and played Vito Disalvo's Tango in the Park. "This doesn't mean I forgive you."
"Fine. We're even." She said, taking the iPod from his hand and dropped it to the desk again. She wrapped one hand gently around his neck.
"I want to see him." Clint laced his fingers around her waist.
"You know that can't happen." She said, tugging him against her.
"I'm a sniper; I can find him anywhere I want. Now that I know it's worth it to look." He pulled her off balance.
"Determined to lead this time?" She asked.
"Determined to fight about it?"
"And what were you going to do about that?"
"Can I ask you something?"
Natasha twisted him sideways. He twirled her in return and the two circled the bed with their bodies flowing together. The music crested and suddenly that battle of will they enjoyed those years ago on the mission to Dubai surfaced now. They found their rhythm again as if it never left. Even Clint's swollen face and stabbed chest held him back little from losing himself to her moves and the music.
"Can we not do this anymore? This lying thing?"
Natasha twirled, dipped, her bare foot pointing and dropping again as he drew her close and flicked her away.
"All right." She said. "Full disclosure. Even on covert ops." She tugged, pulling him off balance and into an embrace.
"This is a funny way to make up. In fact I think we look pretty ridiculous right now. And I still want Coulson."
"Then we'll find him. Next Thursday."
"Promise?"
Natasha twisted, tossing him across the room and onto the bed. "What, do you want me to seal it with a kiss?"
From the bed, Clint shrugged his shoulders a little. "Well, it's not a bad idea."
Natasha pulled the room door open with a smile. "Glad we could clear some things up. And no. That's not happening."
Clint was left alone on the bed, the cords of Tango in the Park filling his room with life. He listened to the beautiful notes amplified through his skull by Tony and Banner's pet projects. So much had happened. He started this week like all the rest. A mission to nowhere, defending the downtrodden, saving Steve and Tony's life, going deaf, a Senatorial Gala, a new friend in SHIELD, getting his hearing back, an attack by Agent Ward, and finding out Coulson was back from the dead. His life changed so much in so short a period of time. At least he had a family to back him now.
There was a knock on his door frame interrupting Clint from the glory of Neo singing Closer. Clint looked over.
"You ok?" Banner asked.
Clint sat up. "Yeah, what do you mean?"
Bruce chuckled. "Clint, I'm a scientist who spent the last year on this team working with Tony Stark on secret government projects. I think I can handle a number code."
"I guess Coulson wasn't being very careful about that." Clint said.
"I don't think he wanted to be." Bruce replied.
"I'm ok. You ok?"
"Given that everything I was brought here to do was based on a lie, and given I had little interaction with Agent Coulson, I suppose the news has hit me the least."
"Tony?"
"Tony is Tony. I think the entire team's a little emotionally disheveled this week. I suppose if he was ever going to be told, now was the perfect time to do it. He's been up for four days straight working with me. He's tired. He's been worried so much about making things up to you that hearing about Coulson was just one more brick to throw at him."
Clint got out of bed. He grabbed his cell phone and headed to the living room again. He was surprised to see Tony not sitting there on the couch, fawning over the laptop and sunk so deep into a depression he couldn't move. Steve appeared, holding a towel and dressed in nothing but a set of swim trunks.
"Hey, you guys coming or not?" he said, walking toward Tony's room.
Both Bruce and Clint had a bad feeling about this new development.
:(:):(:):
The penthouse suite could only be reached by a private elevator located in Tony's ordinary bedroom at the end of the hall. Few of the Avengers ever had the courage to traverse the passage and enjoy what the penthouse had to offer, leading them to enjoy "family" time in the living room and kitchen more than anything else. When Tony offered the use of the Penthouse, complete with Olympic pool, it was well worth it to drop what you were doing and go.
They found Stark behind the bar with Natasha lying out in her bikini pool side. It left Clint to imagine if she'd been wearing that bathing suit under her clothes the whole time given how fast she changed into it. Steve broke off to jump in the water. Bruce and Clint looked over at Tony.
"Pick your poison, gentleman." Stark said, pouring himself a scotch on the rocks. "If we're having a party, we're going to do it right."
"Party?" Clint asked, walking over. He grabbed the martini shaker for himself. "And can I ask what's the occasion?"
Bruce took up a seat on one of the stools. He was just as curious to find out if Tony was beginning to crack up under all the pressure he'd put himself under.
"The occasion, my friend, is to the untimely resurrection of one Phil Coulson, the removal of our own Clint Barton from SHIELD's top ten kill list, the technical genius of myself and Dr. Bruce Banner at restoring your hearing," Tony dropped a single malt in front of Bruce. It sported a little pink umbrella. "And to us. All of us. We deserve a little gratitude for keeping ourselves pulled together even in the face of one of Cyclops's most elaborate lies. And last, but not least, we'll need a little fortitude before going to track Coulson down."
Given that elaborate statement Clint switched his martini for a tall vodka. From across the pool deck Natasha shouted for one of her own with a lemon zest.
"Guess that means we know where we're going next." Clint said.
Bruce smiled. He saluted the two behind the bar and headed over to Natasha and Steve. The sun was still out, though it was beginning to dip behind the shade of the building spires. If the past was any indication of the present, Tony was expected to be black out drunk tonight. Dancing would be involved. Something was destined to explode. Drunken romps up and down the yet furnished levels of the Tower would ensue. Something would get thrown out a window, which floor was yet to be determined. To withstand all of that and not lose his cool, Bruce was going to need this part, the relaxation before the storm. He was determined to enjoy every afforded second of it.
"Hawk?"
Clint finished pouring the second vodka and looked over at Tony. Sometimes when they were alone Stark preferred to call him by his nick name. Usually it wasn't actually his nick name but an unabashedly insulting rendition of it.
"Anthony?"
"Phil meant a lot to you. He meant a lot to me, but nothing like you. I know he was like a father. I can't imagine what it's like to find out like this that SHIELD faked his death just to bring this weird little thing of ours together. I'm sorry."
Clint tapped his shoulder. Tony looked up at him to see Clint remove his hearing aids and place them on the bar. "What's that? I'm sorry. I'm deaf and I couldn't hear you trying to apologize for something that isn't your fault. What I should be listening to is you playing beer pong with Captain Spangle Shorts while I get my dance on with Red."
Situation diffused.
"You know Black Widows do eat their mates, right?" Tony replied, and then groaned when he realized Clint couldn't hear him. He grabbed the hearing aids, his drink, and headed for the pool. Tonight, they were going to celebrate and vent all at once. Tonight a new chapter was ending in their lives. One built on a single fundamental lie that was now crashing into the light. The team had changed. The dynamic was going to change too. But that didn't mean as friends their lives were any less important to each other as before.
Steve was still their leader. A man to look up to and wise beyond his seventy plus year existence. Bruce was like an uncle, perhaps even a father, bent on making sure everyone's happiness was maintained at the status quo. Natasha was a deadly Russian bombshell with intimate knowledge of everyone. To lose her meant blackmail for the rest of their natural lives and a woman was always handy in a tense situation made by men. Tony was a brother. Emotionally bankrupt in some respects but highly loyal and just. Thor visited like a crazy cousin bent on whirlwinds of trouble.
All of these lives assembled around him made Clint feel privileged to be an Avenger. If he had to reflect on his role in the team he would have to say it was simply this: glue. With him, Natasha stayed close to home. Bruce and Tony extracted themselves from their lab more than once a week and Steve had a dependable friend to rely on. None of this would have happened. None of this would have been part of Clint's life if he had not taken that leap of faith, so long ago, sitting in the booth of a Dunkin Doughnuts with the sharp dressed Phil Coulson sitting across from him. Everything he had now started way back on that day.
Clint raised his glass of Vodka to the others. "To Bagel Thursdays."
Well this has been a fantastic ride. This store has gone from being a very cut and dry Clint is deaf and dealing with it book to an absolute ride! Oh, and funny thought, I actually mentioned an Agent Morrissey in my Better Homes and Gardens book. I completely forgot! Silly me:)
Thank you so much for all the feedback and support. I hope you've enjoyed this as much as me and thank you for the great little plot points along the way. I don't think this is the absolute end either. What would it be like when Clint one day showed up on Coulson's door step? Oh the wonderful places I can go!
Again, thank you for sticking with this and I hope you liked it!
Please Review! Tell me what you think:)