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Avenge Me

Chapter 3

Clint Barton had to fly the plane. He didn't see any other option. It was either that or continue to pace in the hull with every Avenger in spitting distance commanding him to sit down, relax, think about the positives, or convince him nothing at all was wrong. Everyone heard the recording. Even if it wasn't Clint's wife who'd contacted him in final desperation, Stacy was still nearly family. He didn't want to talk, or to explain, or even face their shocked expressions when it all came tumbling out.

Clint had a secret family. There. As far as he was concerned that was all they needed to know. Natasha understood better, and so he left the particulars to her. He wasn't feeling particularly talkative himself.

Stacy Belmont was the mother of Clint's son, Cooper's, school friend. She'd offered to drive the kids into school together numerous times in the past, especially seeing as Clint's wife was getting more pregnant by the day. Clint didn't exactly trust anyone, not even the Avengers team, with something as precious as his family. When Fury gave him the all clear on Stacy, it still took him four weeks of following the poor woman before he actually allowed Cooper to ride in the car with her. His wife called him paranoid, and she was perfectly right.

If any trouble befell the Barton home while Clint was away, they had procedures in place to manage it. A storm shelter in the barn served as safety from most natural disasters. He had four emergency phones hidden all over the house, each was programmed with his private line speed dialed in. Even his youngest knew where they were and how to use them.

He glanced at the silent cell phone sitting in his lap. Still nothing. No ring, vibrate, message tone, nothing. It was simply useless without some part of his family reaching out to him.

Jaw grinding, his eyes returned to the low visibility ahead of them. It took little more than an hour to reach his safe house via Aven-jet. He'd cut that time in half in what had become the most knuckle-whitening trip for Banner, Natasha, and Steve. Hill elected, given the information, to stay behind should someone again contact the Tower a second time. Thor and Tony were the fastest of the bunch. They could reach the farm first, scout the area, and report back before the jet ever hit the ground. The trouble was, neither of them decided to check in. Less than fifteen minutes out, and he constantly double checked the radio frequency to make sure he hadn't missed something. Either they'd flown into a war zone and an EMP was dropped on the place, or Tony had cut him out of the communication circuit. He wasn't sure whether to be broiling mad or grateful.

Clint's fingers tightened on the steering yoke. He could sense Steve's eyes on his back. The Captain questioned Natasha the most, loud enough for Clint to hear and offer his own replies if he'd been inclined to. There was little Natasha left out.

Laura was his wife. They'd met during his SHIELD days and when things got serious, Fury set them up a safe house. She wanted to switch careers, work from home as a clinical radiologist. She'd been Clint's doctor for long enough. Now the country at large sent her all their specialized images for her attuned eye to scrutinize. It gave her the time, and freedom, she wanted to have children. Cooper was their first. He was getting closer to ten every day. Lila, Clint's little doll, was five. She'd lost a tooth three days ago. Clint sent Laura a Hungarian coin to put under her pillow. Long ago they'd agreed their tooth fairy was a little more exotic than most.

The more Clint thought of his kids and heard the scream of Stacy Belmont echo in his mind, the harder he wanted to push the jet. He didn't know what he was going to do if his family was missing. Hopefully, this was all a big misunderstanding like Bruce insisted to Natasha. If Banner truly believed that, he would have stayed home and not risked letting the Hulk loose at Clint's private farmhouse. It was a testament to his sincerity and friendship that he'd decided to tag along. But even all of Bruce's optimism couldn't survive the minute the radio cackled to life and Tony finally decided to report in.

"Hey, it's Tony, someone pick up the line."

Clint's hand snapped out and hit the overhead before anyone else could move. "Tell me what's going on! Is Laura there? Are my kids ok?"

"Thor's holding your little girl right now. She's scared, and she wants you, but I think she's ok. I hope she's ok, 'cause if she's not, you've gotta get in line behind the big guy for tearing the perps in half. I'll be honest, he's scaring me a little."

Bruce strode up behind the archer and leaned on the back of his seat. "That's good news you found her! What about the others? Did you find Stacy?"

"No sign of her but something's screwing with my sensors. Is Clint flying right now?"

Bruce glanced down at Barton.

"Yeah, Stark I am. We're ten minutes out. Are you going to tell me about my wife and son, are not?!" Clint growled.

There was a pause. Steve and Natasha came up behind Bruce, waiting for the answer they were already beginning to anticipate. When Tony found the courage to admit that neither of the two could be found, Clint's entire body became as rigid as a marble statue. Bruce shifted away a little to let Natasha in closer. She knelt down beside him, fixing her hand over his bicep as he wordlessly piloted them closer and closer to home.

:(:):(:):

The plane was hardly on the ground before Clint ripped himself away from the controls and sprinted for the back hatch. No one tried to slow him down. The minute the ramp lowered, he shot out of the jet and rushed across the grassy hill for where Thor stood by his front gate. He could see Lila in the big Asgardian's grip. The minute she turned around, she began to scream for him.

"Daddy! Daddy!" She cried. Her face was swollen and red from her tears. Thor handed her off instantly and Clint squeezed her against his chest.

"Baby girl, oh my God! Are you ok? Lila, talk to me, honey, did anyone hurt you?" He whispered into her hair, unable to hold back the damp tears filling his eyelids. Clint's bruised knee offered a good enough excuse to simply collapse into the grass, dragging his little girl into his lap where he rocked her against his body.

Thor dropped down beside him in concern. Clint looked up into his face.

"Thank you," he said firmly, trying to show how much he meant it.

"No thanks is necessary, my friend. It was my honor." Thor shook his head a little. His arms felt strange and empty without the child clinging to him.

From behind them, Tony jogged over from the front porch. He waved a hand over his head to direct the other Avengers toward where they assembled. He looked down at Clint and the child.

"She's all right, isn't she?" He asked. "We checked, I mean, but she didn't want to talk to us. She just wanted you. I can understand why."

"She's just shy. She's like that. She needs her bunny," Clint replied, continuing to rock the girl against him. Her sobbing had lessened now that her father's arms held her but she still refused to look up or speak.

Thor smiled a little. "Her bunny? Might I ask where it may be found? I should like to retrieve it, I think."

"It's not actually a rabbit. She thought it was when she was younger and we just went with it. It's actually her stuffed dog. I don't know where—Lila? Lila, where's Bun Bun? It's Friday isn't it? Did you take Bun Bun to show and tell again today?"

Clint felt the girl's head nod into his chest.

"Did you leave Bun Bun at school?"

The pig tails swayed back and forth as she projected a sturdy "no".

Clint looked up from his inquisition to see Natasha and the others jogging up to them. To Lila he whispered, "Hey, look, Aunty Nat is here. Do you want to talk to Aunty Nat?"

Lila's fingers dug a little harder into his shirt. She wasn't moving, not even for her favorite grown up friend.

"She's ok," Clint told Natasha. "She wants Buns. It might be in her room, I'm not really sure. I should go look for him. She'll calm down if she has him."

Tony patted her back a little. "Don't worry about it, I'll go find him. I think I saw a picture of it inside. Long brown ears? Tan body?"

Clint nodded hollowly.

Tony curled a finger toward Steve and invited him along. The two cut off for the house, leaving the others behind. He was pretty sure the girl had been camped out under her bed when the Avengers combed through the house. He'd start there first. Mostly, though, he wanted Steve's opinion on how to show Clint the bloodstains on the Master Bedroom floor without the archer losing his mind. Steve was good at cushioning blows like that. Tony wasn't, and Thor most definitely was not. For better or worse, the large Asgardian was more enamored with the child than solving their missing person's case, leaving the opportunity for him to spill the beans as a relatively low risk.

Natasha watched them head off together, suspecting something deeper amiss than what Tony let on. She'd look into that personally. In the meantime, the toe of her boot connected with Thor's leg to gain his attention.

"Did anyone check the storm shelter in the barn?" She asked.

"I looked into the building myself, I knew of no shelter." He admitted, sheepishly. He rose to his feet and lifted his hammer. "Lead on, I will follow. Perchance the rest of this family will be safely harbored there."

"Has anyone found the woman?" Bruce asked before they headed out of earshot. Thor indicated they hadn't. "I'll take a poke around up the roadway and see what I can come across. I think we all agreed she was probably driving her car when, well, whatever it was happened."

The others agreed to the plan, and they separated. Before he walked toward the drive, Bruce paused at Clint's side. He touched the Avenger's shoulder gently.

"Hey, if you want me to take a look at her or anything. I mean, you know I'm not an actual medical doctor, but I can help if she needs it."

Clint looked as if he might just let the tears he'd restrained crest down his cheek. After having all but forced the team to do as he asked, or else, he hadn't expect this much enthusiasm out of them. Seeing Thor consoling his little girl, Tony and Captain searching his home for a stuffed dog, and Bruce eager and willing to walk a few miles on foot in search of a missing car pool driver affected him greatly. He thanked the scientist, and Bruce headed out to look around.

Clint sat on the ground with Lila in his arms, trusting that for once he didn't have to go instantly running around the entire property on his own. He had an entire team at his back. In fact, they'd covered so much of what he'd planned to do, that Clint was left with only one job. He was allowed to just be a father.

DaddyHawk at his finest.

Coming up: Where Tony claims his right to rule Asgard, and the investigation begins

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