Chapter 2:

5 days later: The Funeral of Harold and Edith.
12:03 p.m.

The rain was very heavy. Clint's tears were lost in the rain, so at least Barney wouldn't notice he was crying.

It was only him, Barney, a priest (who was already leaving the cemetery) and the old police officer who had told the boys about their late parents.

They came to know him as Officer Bailey though.

Clint stood there looking at the two freshly filled graves, just tears running down his face and he really couldn't tell if they were out of sadness or the realisation that his parents being dead didn't make him feel much at all. He felt unnatural, like he was a monster. His own parents had been taken from him and buried in soil right below him and all he could do was stare. If he was sure he felt anything, then it was futility.

He didn't like it, this feeling of uselessness. I am so messed up, just like dad, what if mum could see me?

"Clint." Barney put his hand on Clint's shoulder. "Come on squirt, it's time to go." He said before walking towards officer Baileys car.

He sat in the back of Baileys car in complete silence, ignoring the rain drops that rolled off his hair and on to his face. Barney was talking, maybe to him or just anyone that would listen, but all Clint heard was muffled words. It was possible that Bailey said something as well, but Clint found it hard to care, about anything.

For the past few days the two Barton boys were staying with Bailey in his home, he had a wife but no kids of his own, so his wife was more than happy to have the two boys in their home.
Barney thought it was strange to live with a detective who was investigating the death of his parents, an investigation that wasn't going anywhere. He found it even more strange that Clint was so unfazed by everything.

Officer Bailey didn't live far away from the Barton's home, just over the Cedar river.
His house wasn't very large, but it was cosy, it had old style armchairs and a large cushiony sofa that Barney had to sleep on since there was only one bed. The walls were all painted or had light coloured wallpaper; some with small flowers on them. The house clearly wasn't decorated by Bailey, there was one room he had for work but the Barton brothers never looked inside.
The one thing that put them off the house was the smell, like mothballs, but the kitchen had a nice smell of different spices with every meal. Baileys wife was somewhat of a chef.

They knew Bailey couldn't let them stay forever though, and the most obvious answer to their predicament was a foster home. The last he'd heard was that their social worker was moving the two brothers out to Davenport, this way they could stay in Iowa, but while they were there Clint got himself into a fight with an older fat kid, something about if the kid ate his parents, but Clint swears he didn't start it.
So as it turned out the only place that would take the boys without an interview was in Chicago.

Bailey had already told Barney the reality and left it to him to tell Clint, but it was hard enough just getting a 'good morning' from Clint, so Barney thought it'd be easier to give Clint some time.

Later that day they were all gathered around the dinner table. Baileys wife Joan had cooked them a spaghetti and meatball dinner, she was telling them all how hard it was to get the sauce just right and that she wanted to make it special for the two boys. Clint never answered her whenever she asked if he liked spaghetti but Barney knew it was his favourite, although he'd never had it from scratch before, usually the best they could get was the canned stuff.

Barney put on a smile throughout the whole dinner, he was grateful that Baileys wife had taken them in no questions asked and was even more grateful that she'd make such a big dinner for him and Clint, but he wasn't happy, his brother was hurting and he wasn't sure he could help.

Joan asked Bailey about the ceremony, trying not to talk too loud in case Clint or Barney heard her, Bailey just gave her short mumbled answers, he looked to see if the boys were okay. He watched Clint play with his spaghetti for a minute and realised that the youngest Barton hadn't said a word all day.

"Clint?"

The 6 year old turned to him, still playing with his food, Barney watched on still enjoying every mouthful of the pasta.

"What do you think of the spaghetti? Joan worked really hard on it, just for you boys."

Clint nodded. "It's good."

Barney decided to jump in. "It's his favourite."

"Really? Well there might be some left after dinner, I could have some wrapped up for you before..."

"Before you send us away?" Clint butted in. "

The room went silent for a second.

"Look Clint I understand..."

"Understand? Did you parents die on you?" Clint asked sharply.

"Clint that's not fair" Barney calmly interjected.

"Its alright, your brother is just angry, he has a right to be."

"He is just a young child and it's obviously harder on him."Joan added.

"I know, I just wish he would talk to me."

"I'm not a child! You all just don't get it!"

"We do Clint, we just want to help you, you're too young to understand things right now." Barney said.

"I know what's going on and I don't need your pity."

"You're acting like a baby!"

"Screw you, Barney!"

"Clint that's enough. Your brother is just trying to help." Bailey chimed in.

"He thinks he's helping but he just likes treating me like some dumb kid."

"You're a dumb kid, you're not the only one who lost mum and dad you selfish twerp!" Barney said in anger. "Maybe if you treated dad with some respect then they'd both still be alive!"

"Barney!" Bailey said sounding almost shocked.

Clint had tears in his eyes. "All anyone can say is that they understand, but they don't, they don't understand and they never will... especially you ,Barney." With that Clint stormed out of the room and went straight to his bed for the last time. "Thank you for the Spaghetti Mrs Bailey." He muttered just before heading up stairs.

The three people left at the dinner table fell into an uneasy silence. Bailey sighed and looked to Barney. "You know that what you said was wrong, right Barney?"

Barney mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?"

Barney stood up and got ready to walk to the couch. "Its true." Barney closed the door after him.

Bailey and Joan sat at the table in silence for a while together and held each others hand. "Don't worry so much about them Jack, they're angry and they don't know how to feel right now. They just need some space."

"I know, but I can't have either of those kids thinking that they are responsible for the accident."

"It'll all be okay Jack, it's just how they feel right now. They don't really believe that."

"Yeah, yeah I guess so." He nodded and paused for a minute.

"What is it?"

He shook himself out of his own thoughts. "Nothing, just...nothing, let me help you with the dishes."

The next morning Bailey personally insisted that he should be the one to drop off the boys into Chicago, he didn't mind the drive, in fact he actually wanted some more time with the boys before they left, maybe for good.
He wanted to make sure that even though they shared some harsh words yesterday that things would still be fine, they only had each other now and Bailey needed them to understand that.

The drive was smooth, hardly a bump on the road, which was strange because it was Iowa. The two brothers didn't say a word to each other although they were both excited about living in a big city like Chicago, however they still didn't even think about looking at each other,choosing instead to gaze out the car windows.

"Ya know, I had a brother too." Bailey announced to anyone that was listening. "His name was George, 6 years older then me he was, always pushing me around."

Clint and Barney started paying attention.

"Our dad would take us hunting, up North, deer and the like, either of you boys ever been hunting?"

The two boys looked at each other, they'd never been fishing much less hunting. "No." Barney answered. "But Clint is a pretty good shot with a rock hitting a tree." He joked.

Clint smiled.

"Well its sorta the same I guess." He laughed "Anyway, George would always give me the crossbow and he always took the shotgun, Of course I always thought that was his way of treating me like a kid I guess, like I was inferior to him."
"So this happened with lots of things, he'd always push me around, tell me to stop hanging out with him and his friends or that I wasn't allowed to stay out as late as him because he was older than me."

Clint and Barney looked at each other and nodded.

"Then one day I found out that George wasn't doing this to be mean or to treat me like a child, but because he didn't want to see me get hurt, most of all he wanted me to be my own man and not grow up like him. All this time my big brother had just been looking out for me."

The tension in the car seemed to disappear after that.

The foster home wasn't as close to the city as Clint and Barney would have thought and the outside of the home wasn't the most inviting, but whenever they went inside things seemed to start picking up, the walls were colourful and it sure didn't smile like mothballs like Baileys house.

"Hello I'm Helen Gartner, you two must be Clint and Barney right?" a cheerful voice greeted them. Helen looked to be somewhere in her late 20s and had a very warm and welcoming smile. She seemed like a nice person with a good heart. She had shiny blonde hair and pretty green eyes.

The two boys nodded. "It's okay boys, Helen is going to look after you from here on out." Bailey reassured them.

"I'm sure after some time we'll become greats friends." She looked at Bailey. Thank you for bringing the boys with you, it must be very hard on them."

"It was no trouble at all, but I really should be on my way."

"Wait!" Clint called.

Bailey was shocked that he heard Clint speak finally. "Clint, It'll be alright. I promise I'll visit you two soon."

"No I know that but, can I talk to you for a second please?"

Bailey smiled. "Sure." He turned to Helen and Barney. "We'll just be a minute."

"No problem, I'll get one of the boys to take Barney to his room." She called over one of the other boys. "Jamie this is Barney. Would you mind showing him to his new room?"

"Sure." He took one of Barney's bags. "So where you from?" Jamie asked as he and Barney walked away down the corridor.

Bailey walked to the door with Clint. "Is there something wrong? I know its not a great place but it'll get better I promise."

"No its not that its just...I wanted to ask you something, about your brother."

Bailey breathed in a slow breath. "Alright, ask away."

Clint took a second before asking him. "You said you had a brother, had."

Bailey looked down, knowing in some way that he would catch that. "Well that's because George isn't with us any more Clint, he passed a long time ago."

Clint looked sorry to have asked the question and wanted to comfort his most recent guardian. "I'm really sorry."

"No its fine, I've accepted it and have moved on."

"But you still miss him right?"

Bailey smiled. "Every day."

Clint felt sad for the old detective.
His mother used to hug him when he felt bad so maybe it'd help out Bailey now, so that's what Clint did. Afterwards Bailey opened the door to leave the foster home. "I'll see you soon Clint."

"Bailey wait!" Clint said holding the door open. "I'm sorry I yelled at you last night, I didn't mean it, any of it."

Bailey smiled another big grin. "Go inside Clint, I promise I'll visit you and Barney soon, go on." He said before finally entering his car and driving off.

Clint closed the front door and absorbed his new surroundings. "Okay, new beginning."

Hope you guys enjoy the new chapter, I'm glad I got a few follows on this story, there'll be a lot more to come as it goes on, we really haven't even started yet haha.
Please drop a review if you have the time, its always appreciated and feel free to checkout my two other fics. :)