THANK YOU TO:::

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AvengerOfFiction (i live on the tears of readers)

LeanneDaseyLover(relatively ok, LOL) Jessica xx

Liliththestormgoddess(i was so in shock the first time i saw it, that i had to see it again to absorb all the details of their home. I'm totally happy with it now:)

Barton-Lover (i had my own stuffed bun bun, total self-insert there)

.ROX (aw thank you!)

amy. .9, Niom Lamboise

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8839 (wait no longer!)

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Avenge Me

Chapter 4

Steve paused in the doorway with the screen door propped on his back, and surveyed the destruction in the home. Tony had already made off for the staircase, but paused when he noticed the captain wasn't following him. He turned a little.

"I know it's bad. Clint doesn't. I didn't want to try and describe it on the radio line." Tony looked dejectedly at the wanton wreckage. Despite having never been in the home before, it wasn't difficult to see that not one thing was left in its proper place.

The old captain took a few cautionary steps inside. He placed his boots carefully, attempting to avoid aiding to the destruction around them. Tony waited for him to catch up and lead the captain up to the second floor. Lila's room was the last in a line of doors on the right. The entry was still hanging as open as it could with the white chest of drawers tossed on its side behind it. Tony squeezed himself inside first. Steve was a more difficult fit, but he eventually pushed through.

"Not a lot of places for a girl to hide, but if she wanted to," Tony pointed a finger at the closet, then the off-kilter box spring. "I'd look there. If she likes the stuffed dog-rabbit enough, she was probably hiding with it."

Steve crossed the room for the bed first. He heard a crunch as his foot slipped over a pile of clothing, and regretfully lifted his foot again. Tony nudged the clothes aside.

"Bad news, Cap. That's seven years bad luck. Actually, fourteen seeing as it's a little kid's mirror. I hope you're ashamed," Tony jested.

"This entire place is a death trap now. Did you sweep for booby traps?" Steve asked.

"I wouldn't trust anything my tech's saying as far as perimeter scans. Something's interfering with a lot of my internal processes. I left the suit in stasis a few rooms down. It's analyzing something Thor found. I want you to look at it before we let Clint inside."

Steve leaned down and lifted the end of the child-sized bed straight up. As Tony suspected, the long-bodied, stuffed dog was sitting against the back wall. Just beside it, was a plastic replica of Thor's hammer and even a winged helmet. Tony gathered up all three while Steve held up the bed. Once he was clear, Steve lowered the frame back to the floor.

"I figured if Clint had any Avengers stuff, it would be bows and arrows," Steve remarked with a little smile.

"He might." Tony worked his way to the window and shuffled the glass back and forth a little to free up the frame. It slid upward harshly, giving just enough space for him to poke his head out at Thor and Natasha. They had just left the barn.

"Hey, catch these!" Tony called out.

Thor jogged over, opening his hands as Bun Bun and the miniature helmet came dropping toward him. He stared at the replica in surprise, and looked back up to see Tony holding the miniature Mjolnir.

"I pick up the hammer, then I'm worthy to rule Asgard, right?" Tony asked.

Thor gave him a wry look, but caught the child's toy as it fell toward him.

Tony retreated into the room again and closed the window. He indicated the hallway, and the Captain headed out ahead of him. "Ok, so Thor and I searched the house together. And then, once the girl found us, he went out, and I dug a little deeper. Didn't find anyone else. No bullet holes, no blood stains, no drag marks, nothing in particular on the surface, but I didn't want to start moving things until more of us were around. There are a bunch of tire marks kicked up out there that I got a good look at after I hovered over the roof for a while. The only physical evidence that anyone else was here, is this."

Tony cut in front of the Captain to indicate the correct room. He jostled the handle, and the door swung inward. He moved back to let Steve have an uninterrupted look around.

"Estimated height, according to my scans, is 5'9", maybe taller. Apparently Clint's wife's an Amazon. Single gunshot wound, as far as I can tell, to the skull. I dug the bullet out, scanned through it and the surrounding wall tissue. Scans show brain matter, skull fragments, and - "

"Basically, someone got shot in the head and didn't survive it," Steve cut him off. He kneeled down by the crescent of blood and hovered his hand just above it. His eyes went up to the bullet hole, then around to the rest of the space.

"Well, fine, yes."

"What can you tell me about the victim? Is it Stacy or Clint's wife?"

"I ruled out the babysitter. When Fury back-rounded her, he put her DNA on the internet, pretty much. She's not a match to this."

"What about Laura?"

Tony folded his arms. Steve could see the concern he had there. In Stark's mind, there was no doubt it belonged to Laura, but he attempted to convince himself out of it scientifically. "This is Fury and Clint we're talking about. According to life online, there is no such person as a Laura Barton. I have nothing to compare to until I find some sample from her here. You find a hair brush or toothbrush, you let me know."

Steve left the DNA things to the science twins. It was a simple concept to grasp, but he had a lot of "simple" concepts to grasp these days. Like the fifty-three different types of toilet paper, the lack of polio, and cell phones. He moved past the complication to analyze the room a little better.

Given the level of chaos, he expected more than one person had ransacked the house and took the family hostage. There were a few scuff marks on the floor on the outer rim of the blood stain. He rubbed his finger against one, and brought the scent up to his nose.

Rubber. Thick, heavy stuff, like he'd smelled all his life in military barracks. Work boots. A strange mark peaked out from beneath a flannel shirt on the floor. He moved it aside a little to look. There was a shoe print. It was small, and decidedly not a work boot. Laura's? Stacy's? Steve wondered.

He worked his way along the foot trail for two or three steps before the outline of the left shoe disappeared against the hardwood. The clothing piles and a dresser drawer had covered the trail. Not wanting to disturb anything, Tony had missed them.

"Shooting happened before they tossed the place. I don't know whose print this is, but they got the blood on their shoe before the guy finished bleeding out. Explains why there's no print in the pool," Steve said, glancing up. He might not completely understand DNA analysis, but tracking was a quality he had great expertise in.

"So they shot her first, is what you're saying?" Tony asked.

"I think so. Maybe she wouldn't talk."

"There's an upward angle on the bullet hole." Tony tapped the gauntlet to his independent Iron Man suit, and extracted a laser target from a metal clasp. He fit the blunt end by the hole, and the laser sight toward the hall door. The red light shone off the floor boards a considerable distance away.

Steve stood up, and crossed in front of the sight. He held out his hands as if they might be holding a weapon, and crouched down to line up with the bullet hole. "Did you find gun powder in here?"

"I smelled it when we walked in," Tony nodded. "Haven't had time to do any sampling. I wanted to wait for Bruce, or see if Clint wanted us to bring in the local P.D."

"If the shot happened in here, then the shooter had to have been shorter and firing up. Otherwise they were on their belly down the hall. What kind of bullet was it?"

"9mm." Tony picked the metal jacket up off the desk, and spanned the blood pool with his arm to pass it to the captain. Steve took it and moved the metal around in his palm. "Can you say what kind of gun it came from?"

"Mine."

Tony and Steve both turned to see Clint standing in the doorway. He had a look of murder on his face, which swiftly smoothed over the minute he realized he was in the company of others. He adjusted his shoulders, releasing a crackle from his joints. He took a deep breath, and stepped inside with them.

"It's too high," he said when he finally calmed. He sent a curt move to the blood spatter on the wall. "My wife's shorter than that, five-three actually. She was the shooter. She used my gun. She had time to get it out of my locked cabinet in the closet, find the bullets in the locked cabinet downstairs, then load it, cock it, and use it. She knew someone was coming. Someone warned her."

His piercing blue eyes fell on Tony. Though, on the surface, he seemed calm, Stark could see a fire burning behind his superficial show. Tony had been there once when Pepper was taken from him. Clint had the potential of flying off the handle and going rogue, if they didn't keep a close eye on him.

"How's your daughter?" Steve asked. Tony was happy the captain thought of it. Giving Clint someone in the present to focus on might curb any cowboy antics he'd internally planned.

Clint's guard dropped a little. "She's ok. She still didn't want to say anything to me, and I didn't want to push. Nat found something in the barn, but I wanted to come up here first."

"Does Natasha have her?"

"Thor, actually." A ghost of a smile found its way to Clint's face. For a brief moment, the grief he tried desperately to hide followed it. "He's her . . . you know, kids like to pick favorites sometimes. Laura said it's Thor's hair. Reminded her of this Barbie doll I bought her for her birthday last year. Hey, don't tell him that, though. So, he's her favorite Avenger. She's a daddy's girl, but for some reason she thinks I'm a firefighter." The smile came back again.

Preferring to keep Clint focused on more positive things, Steve kept him talking, hoping to ease the conversation to the very important matters at hand. Tony sat back and watched the Captain work. Clint was smart. He probably knew what they were trying to do, but for now he played along.

"A firefighter? How'd that even happen?"

"I drive a truck. Or drove a truck, until the storm hit and I flooded the engine trying to get home a couple years ago. I just haven't had the time to fix it. There's a lake on the main road, and it swelled. I thought I could make it. I wanted to make it. I did, and it was a good thing too. The entire first floor had three feet of water in it. We rode the rest of the storm out on the roof."

He sighed and leaned on the doorway. "Then Lila saw me on TV in New York during the attack. She was only three." He shrugged, looking around the room at the life, the family he'd built, and a single morning had destroyed. "She's my little girl, my only girl. Her bunny is really a dog, Thor's her favorite Avenger, her daddy is a fireman, and she only eats chicken on Tuesdays. It has to be fried, but you have to pick all the breading off. She doesn't like the breading. But you can't just grill chicken, either. It's different, and she'll call you out on it."

He batted his lashes, pushing the back of his hand across his eyes. "Cooper's too smart for me. He could build the Tower with legos. He loves legos, erector sets, anything he can build. He likes to build. He reminds me a lot of you, Tony, and I'm not sure if that terrifies me or not. We made a treehouse behind the barn. I thought he might be up there, hiding, but he wasn't there. He's not here. He would have come out."

Steve crossed the room and held Clint's shoulders in his hands. "Hey, look, we're going to find them. You have Lila, that's one for us. She could have overheard something. You said this bullet came from your gun, that the blood stain isn't Laura. Is it the carpool driver's?" He knew the answer already from Tony's analysis, but it helped bring Clint up to speed.

Refocused on the task at hand, Clint sniffed, shook himself back into action mode, and took in the room again. "There's a storm shelter in the barn. Fury uses it when he stays over, which isn't often. After SHIELD fell, he said he'd be dropping by. Natasha found one of his bags in the barn along with five bodies. Someone stashed them."

Tony and Steve exchanged a worried glance.

"Hydra. Same tech, uniforms, even comms. If Hydra knew their bodies were around, they would have taken them when they left. I think Fury came in. Maybe Hydra followed him. I don't know. He stashed the first few, but it could have been too much for him to take on alone."

Clint looked around, noticed the curtain over his bed, and moved its cord aside. He inspected the string, and held it up for them to see. "I taught Laura this. Gun stabilizer for a long range sniper rifle. I keep it in the storm shelter in case Fury ever needs extra munitions. She knows how to use it too."

Things were beginning to come together, albeit slowly. The more Clint explained his wife's resourcefulness, the more they understood what had occurred in the early hours of the day.

Nick Fury must have come by as he intended. More likely than not, he'd been tailed to the Barton property, and Hydra tried to make a move on him. He got the first wave, hid the bodies from the kids, and waited for what was surely going to be a second wave of attackers. He split the two available fighters up. Fury in one side of the house, Laura in the other window. Clint's bedroom gave a broad view of the south side property. She'd have a decent chance at defending them.

"I found a casing," Tony announced, brushing more family photos aside. He lifted the casing, and two others beside it. "Bolt action rifle. Yours?"

"Mine," Clint confirmed. Laura got a few rounds off, at least. Eight months pregnant and shooting a rifle. If it was possible, he loved her a little more.

"What room on this floor will cover the other half of the house if they tried to make a stand here?" Steve asked.

"Guest bedroom, end of the hall." Clint indicated the direction as he combed through a stack of clothes on the ground.

Steve left to inspect the place. His hand reached for the door, but paused before turning the knob. There was a strange black haze that scorched across the polished metal surface of the handle. The marks, like a burn, outlined five long fingers. He tapped the handle with his hand, but felt no ill effects. Edging the door open with the toe of his boot, he glanced at the door jamb.

A line of exposed wires from a lamp had been stripped down on one side, and lay just inside the doorway. The other end was still plugged into a socket. Fury was there all right, and he wanted to make sure no one was coming in behind him. He walked in carefully. If one wasn't mindful, they might spring a trap that hadn't already gone off in a Hydra goon's face.

The guest bedroom had already been searched by Stark, but he'd been looking for people, not bullets. It took a little time. Eventually, Steve found a few casings, then a splatter of blood beneath the overturned mattress, and lastly a gun. The mag was empty, and a knife stuck straight out of the wall a few feet away. The first, he recognized instantly as one of Nick's prized side arms. The second, he knew belonged to Barton.

Fury had made his last stand in that room. He tried to divide and conquer at first, but facing overwhelming opposition, he would have chosen to close ranks and defend from a single position. Clint's room was the larger of the two, and only had a single entry/exit. Fury must have chosen to join Laura.

Finished his inspection, Steve turned back to the door. Something caught him out of the corner of his eye. He stopped, turned, and tried to focus on what reflected at him. There was a piece of foil from a gum wrapper sticking out of the guest bathroom mirror. It caught the light from the window as Steve made his way by. It didn't make sense.

Steve approached the bathroom vanity and inspected the object. He gently opened the vanity, half expecting to find a bomb blow up in his face. Nothing happened. The cabinet was empty. Steve looked at the mirror again, and plucked the gum wrapper from between it and the wall. Surprisingly, an arrow had been drawn on it. It pointed at the mirror.

The Captain's eyes met his thirteen reflected faces. A spider-web crack, from either the butt of a gun or a fist, had pulverized the center, though the glass didn't come completely apart. It remained intact by its frame. On a whim, he set Fury's gun down with the slip of gum wrapper, and grabbed the edge of the frame. He lifted it up off the hook, and turned the mirror around.

"Hey, guys! You might want to come read this!"

I love how this is using all the best elements of each man's strength to solve a mystery. whoooodunit:) (Clint being a firefighter is actually based off an interview Mark Ruffalo did, where his kid thinks that he is a firefighter. too cute not to use.)

Coming up: A cowardly dwarf king, Lila tells her side, and Cooper takes after his father

Please review!