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"Here…you wear this." I looked down at the necklace that held his lucky penny.

Shaking my head, I tried to give it back to him, "No…no. This is your good luck."

He glanced over at the room full of superheroes. Everyone was congregating in the doorway. The meeting was almost ready to start. I saw him swallow. I cocked my head to the side, "What is it? What are you not telling me?"

He met my eyes and gave a soft smirk as he reached for my hand. He brought it to his lips before he pressed it against his chest, "You are my good luck."

I stared at him for a moment and remembered his words from yesterday afternoon.

'…just have a feeling something is going to happen.' He kissed my forehead and squeezed my hand, "Just wear the chain, promise?"

I nodded slowly, searching his eyes for some clue as to what was going on, "I promise."

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Clint's eyebrows drew together as he dropped his grip from my neck. I fell to my knees in a second clutching my chest, coughing, fighting for air. My eyes met Clint's as he grabbed the arrow that was lodged in his stomach, just below his left rib. Stumbling back, he grunted as he gave a pained cry. He hit the edge of a cab that was parked by the fountain. He slid down the side of the car, back leaning against the tire, his breathing was shallow. I crawled on my hands and knees to him.

"Clint?" Oh my God…what did I do? Blood poured out of his wound into his hand. I grabbed nearest thing I could find, a tattered sweater someone had abandoned. He was trying to kill you, remember?

His eyes met mine as I placed the sweater against his stomach. His took in a sharp breath. The milky white haze was disappearing slowly. He was beginning to sober up. His blue eyes were pained as he held the sweater tighter to his stomach, he shook his head, "I'm…I'm so…"

"Shhh..." I brought my hands to his face. His eyes pooled with tears as he looked down at my leg. The light colored bandage now red. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

He lifted his right hand, fingers grazed my neck and I tried not flinch, but I failed. His eyes darkened. "You need….to get away. There's…a…tower on the other side," he hissed as he moved slightly. He looked over his left shoulder and gave a barely noticeable nod. "Over the hill. There's a call radio."

I turned my head swiftly upon hearing another explosion. Loud, unforgiving cries of pain. I scooted away from him and hovered behind the car that was blocking us from Crystal's view. He was burning people. You need to get out there. I swallowed dryly and licked my lips tasting dirt and blood. You can save those people Marcy. Crystal laughed broadly as shot fire from his fingers into the scattering crowd. I bit my lip hard and settled back down behind the car. Clint was watching me closely, his eyes slowly drooping. He was fighting hard to stay awake. I moved back to him quietly, I didn't want to draw any attention to our location. Reaching underneath the neckline of my suit, I brought out the lucky penny. His brows drew together as I took it off. He was trying to grab it shaking his head, "No…"

I forced it over his head, "You are a one superstitious bastard, you know that?"

"Marcy…" he warned. My eyes caught the flicker of something in the night sky and I smirked. I pressed my lips to his quickly. He responded weakly. "Don't."

Stark suddenly landed behind the cars, he crouched down as his mask flipping up, "Shot yourself Robin Hood? That takes talent."

I looked over at Crystal. Cap was fighting him. Natasha had landed the ship, she and Thor were standing at the body of the ramp fighting off the people who were still infected. I wondered for a moment where Bruce was. You need to get out there. I looked back at the men just as Clint glared at him, "Get…her out of…here."

Stark's eyes flickered over to me and then at my injuries. He made no move toward me. I nodded at him as I gave Clint another quick kiss, "I understand why you didn't tell me."

Stark gave me a nod as I looked at him. I placed my hand seven inches above the wound and melted the arrow until it broke off. "This should make it easier to carry him. Be careful with him Tony."

"Won't let 'cha down Fireball."

"Marc…don't go." I gave Clint one last look before Stark scooped him up. Clint kept protesting. I ignored him as I sprinted away toward Cap and Crystal. I raised my hand and threw out a ball of fire knocking Crystal off his feet. My leg was going numb…finally some relief. Cap kept his shield in front of him waiting for Crystal to move. He just laughed as he crawled to his knees.

"This is it Crystal! You have nowhere to go." Cap said sternly. Crystal waved him off and met my fiery gaze.

"Oh Marcia…what fun you are!" He kept laughing as I stepped toward him. "Hopefully you will be able to save him…unlike Deacon."

My steps faltered at the mention of his name. Crystal stood shakily, fire still sizzling at his fingers, "I know everything about you. You are my creation see?"

"Marcy, don't. He's just trying to get inside your head." Cap tried to distract me. I shook my head and tried to shove him out of the way, to no avail of course. The SHIELD agents moved in suddenly, guns loaded with tranquilizers. I met Crystal's eyes once more and he winked. I shuddered at his cool demeanor. Obviously, he no plans to make an escape.

I whispered harshly to Cap, "This is a trick."

"We've done our jobs. Let SHIELD do theirs."

"This is way too easy, do you remember what we had to go through? And all of a sudden, he's all smiles and lets them take him." I grumbled frustrated. Cap sighed at that moment.

"I'll go, make sure he doesn't wake up before he gets to holding." I looked back at Crystal. He was unconscious, in restraints, and smoking…water vapor…like he had just had water sprayed upon him. I started thinking about Stark's antidote to the Flame. I wondered if it would kill him like it almost had with me.

Steve squeezed my shoulder as he followed the agents to the secondary ship. Natasha was heading my way. I felt myself sway. She was cleaner now, I imagined she looked a lot better than me. "You should let medical examine you."

"Clint?" I whispered unsure of myself. I backed myself against the wall behind us. Leaning on it for support, I wrapped my fingers around the knife wound. I wasn't sure if she knew about me deliberately stabbing Clint or not. I'm not sure if I wanted her to know.

"You missed all the major organs. He's extremely weak from losing blood, the effects of the powder are somewhat present, but they are dissipating." She paused before grabbing my left arm and swinging it over her head. I hissed from the sudden movement. "He's a fighter…always has been."

I laughed bitterly, "I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to kill him. I just wanted him to stop."

"You did fine." She walked at a very slow pace allowing me to hobble, groan, and hiss as much as I wanted. I caught sight of the secondary ship taking off. Cap was standing about forty feet away from it. He was shaking his head when he turned. Natasha looked displeased. "What's going on?"

Steve shook his head, "They are taking him where…he won't be found or escape…according to them."

"They're going to experiment on him," I mumbled feeling dizzier by the second. Steve reached out to steady me before giving in and picking me up completely. My leg had long gone numb. My head was beginning to tingle. I had the sneaking suspicion I was about to pass out.

Steve spoke softly, but I could still feel the deep rumble in his chest. I was almost gone now. "How do you know that?"

"Because it's what they wanted to do to me…"

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Sitting in the middle of Clint's bed surrounded by his clothes, I felt horrible. Groggy, slightly in pain, but mostly horrible. I tossed my pain meds back into my backpack and then continued packing his clothes into his suitcase. I had already packed my room. My things already stacked neatly on the ship that was taking me home. The Helicarrier had been exceptionally quiet the last month, well, since the whole Crystal fiasco. Shortly after inclosing Crystal in his lifetime cell- he escaped with two tanks of the Flame component that they had drawn from him. SHIELD had no choice other than to terminate him immediately in fear that he would do something harmful to the country that they had stored him in…even if it was desert.

A knock filtered in and my eyes slowly rose to meet Tony's. He gave a swift nod, hands now in his pockets, black shirt with some unknown metal rock band plastered on his shirt. He had been here the past week going over new creations with Bruce. I haven't said much to anyone since everything that happened. Yes…I felt terrible about that. They all were my friends after all.

"Just passed the Captain. Heard he's shipping out to Maryland." I nodded slowly. Steve was dropped in an hour ago to say farewell until my leave was over. Then he went as far as to say that he would love for me to meet Kate. He thought I would like her. Truthfully, I had no qualms about that. I would love to meet her…one day. Tony watched me closely and I mumbled a 'yep'. "You seen Natasha lately?"

"Left yesterday…Barbados maybe? I don't know…she didn't really mention an exact place."

Tony just nodded, "I'll ask Banner. They've been buddy, buddy here lately."

I scrunched my eyebrows at that. I hadn't noticed, really, I hadn't. I sighed pushing myself up slowly. My left was still tender, my muscles were still putting themselves back together. The arrow and blood loss had done quite a bit of damage. "You wanna ask me something or you just wanna chit chat?"

I didn't mean to sound rude, but it came out that way. He gave a chuckle and smirked, "There's still an apartment available at the tower, you know."

"I just really want to get home…to my mom's. I kinda ran out on her before this whole Crystal thing happened."

Tony nodded, "Well, it's there. I'll see you in a month, yea?"

"Sure." Medical leave…one month left. I could make it. I sighed as I zipped up the last of the suit cases and buzzed personnel asking them to get the bags. I was so friggn' tired, but I couldn't rest until I got home to my mom's. I glanced over at the necklace sitting lonely on the desk. My fingers traced over the penny before I picked it up, sliding it over my head. Feels better wearing it.

I followed the men into the cargo loading and limped onto the ship. I was ready for the day that I wouldn't limp. This though…was nothing compared to my time in the desert…with Deacon.

"Sergeant James," an agent nodded. He smiled at me sweetly. He was young, probably around my sister's age. New…brand new. New faces to replace the ones that were lost. "Heading home for leave ma'am?"

"Yes. Ready to relax. I'm pretty sure I'll be ready for this place again after a week though."

"You sound like me…my wife tells me that I'm a workaholic."

"Just doing what we love though, right?"

He nodded, smiling broadly, "Yes ma'am."

I nestled myself down in a seat. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Was this really what I loved? Part of it anyways. Part of me wanted to know what it felt to come home to a family…a husband…children. I wanted that more than anything. Could a person as scarred and messed up as me have children? Raise them correctly? I opened my eyes and stared at my left arm. The exact place where Crystal had burned me. The one place my suit failed to protect. Ugly burns were now scarred over…tender, very tender scars. I tried to imagine Clint's smile as I leaned my head back. I fingered the lucky penny at the end of the chain slowly. I was trying to store every last single detail to memory. I needed to push past thoughts away. Move on, as my mother would say. I clutched my backpack closer and sniffed away tears. I needed home.

Mom sat the backpack on top of the table. By the large thump it made, I knew it was heavy. She grabbed my star gazing blanket and placed it gently beside it. I stared at it with unease. What was she expecting me to do?

"There's enough food in the cooler for two days. Your medications are in the front pouch and there's bug spray…matches…a crossword puzzle book. Toilet paper…I can't remember what else. I…I just threw some things in there."

"Mom…are you trying to tell me something here? Cause I'm not getting it." I said motioning to the backpack.

"You…are not my daughter. You are the shell of someone I once knew." She wrung her hands together for a few seconds longer before continuing. "It was horrible what happened to Deacon honey…but you need to move on. You need to find what little strength there is left and push that to the very top. You need to live…for him. Otherwise…"

She brushed away tears suddenly and I swallowed my own. I caught my reflection in the mirror…the stitches left a terrifying mark on my neck, my black eye was now yellows and browns. My arm didn't hurt so much….my leg ached constantly. My shrapnel wounds…I sighed mentally. Well, those were a different story.

She continued, looking me straight in the eye, "Otherwise everything he did for you…is completely pointless.

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Disclaimer:

I do not own anything.

Mary James is my own creation.