oh...so sorry for where we ended last time. But really, I'm not sorry. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

In response to the overwhelming feedback, I've responded to everyone!

Thank you to:::

wedobeamurican: oh, Claura is happening!

Guest "Jump Starting Stark": meaning his suit may have shorted out in the EMP blast, and Thor is their go-to for getting him back running

AvengerOfFiction:i read this review like fifteen times. NEVER gets old!

Ivy: no promises

Aini NuFire: Welcome back!

BlackxValentine: how could I? oh...oh I have done much, much worse.

newsyd: Your english is perfectly fine! wonderfully done! You should see some of the grammar I've screwed up, and I do speak english:)

a239: we are all sick in the head I think.

5mairer: welllll...cause I love getting reviews like yours

penguincrazy chapter 10 . Jun 15

love it but very mean/evil cliffhanger. I love hardcore Clint and really glad to see hm reunited with Laura and Cooper.

Ms. Hawkeye: HAHAHAHAHAHA...that's all i can say.

.ROX : Thank you!

khaitosfren: only a suspicion? I plan to make it fact.

TortoisetheStoryteller: Thank you! i'm having a lot of fun writing them now!

8839: I know! i was like, you go laura, you get his gun and shoot the guy!

brandibuckeye: no guarantees on survival!

m klindt: hahahahahah!

amy. .9 : she's such an awesome chick!

DatNatCatThoe: steel yourself!

tlyxor1:LOL!

lizarddbreath: here's your update!

casania: I love cliffhangers!

BookLuv: no guarantees. I'm a killer.

JRBarton: STILL my favorite review. Mostly because i can totally imagine what your face is doing when those final lines crossed the screen.

Death is inevitable: here's the update! let's stay friends!

Niom Lamboise: Clint need a rescue? oh, we can't have that:)

fezwearingjellybananas: LOL! Yeah, i was checking the state of Claura and there are still too few. that wound of losing Natasha's love interest is just too raw i guess:)

jensmit75: here you go!

CandyGirl999: oohhh, I can, and I will!

Pinkypop22: Awe, thank you! It may be hard watching your ship sink, but I really do love these possabilities!

Daughter of the North: there is something about that small moment with Steve, where he takes the lead, is commanding them in the fight, that is beautiful in a way. Like a slice of life, a glimpse of their lives.

Liliththestormgoddess: yes, yes it was.

ThePenguinApocalypse: here you go!

WestonFollower: I love that you were reading this on your phone. I can just imagine you curled up, poised over the screen, going no, no, no, no, no!

Chinagirl18: DAW! i loved that!

ShadowPhoenix22: MUHAHAHAHAHAHA. i live on the tears of others.

IWriteSinsOrTragedies: hahahaha.

discordchick: Oh, Fury... we will see what has become of that man.

Wonderwomanbatmanfan: But Clint's like a moth. He's directed toward the light.

Avenge Me

Chapter 10

Stand up, Barton. Stand up, now, or they're dead. You know they are.

On your feet.

Grab your gun.

Shoot him.

SHOOT HIM!

Clint fought against his own body's need to go into shock. He forced his hand down the length of him, grabbed the snap clip that held his sidearm in place, and flicked it off with his thumb. Keeping to small movements, not trusting he could make big ones, he tilted the gun out of its holster and angled it down the catwalk. Half a second later, the Hydra agent was dead along with the four man company he'd rounded the corner with.

Barton stayed on the floor, panting through the pain as he tried to understand exactly what happened. He remembered standing. His wife's arms around his, then a white hot nothing cut through him.

Shot. I think I got shot.

He glanced down at his side, finding the flow of blood leaking out of his chest onto the floor grate. Seeing it, remembering it was there, hurt. He pressed his arm a little tighter against his body and tried to simply forget again. Something tugged at his jacket. Someone. His wife.

"Lau—" he managed before his side squeezed like a vice. The pain shot through him and for a moment he went blind from it.

The hand jerked his collar, dragged him closer. He needed to get up. She was pregnant, she shouldn't be lifting heavy things, her husband included.

"Dad? DAD?!"

His son, Cooper. He must have been terrified watching his father get shot in front of him. The boy had been so strong. Clint couldn't let that spirit break now. He had to get up.

Get up.

Clint moved his hands first, reaching beside him to loop his fingers through the bars. Laura and Cooper both tried to help him. They were saying something, but his brain was too focused on standing to translate it. He brought one knee under him, the good one, and kicked the other leg out sideways. The blood flow dropped beneath his coat and down his waist. He tightened his arm against his side to try and stem it. He inched his hand up the rungs, tightened the grip, and pulled with everything he had. The bad leg dragged closer, got under him, and supported his weight enough for him to extend the second foot. Laura grabbed his belt loop and yanked him up.

The door was still locked. He had to get them out. Using his bow might not be the best idea, but he had an acid-tipped arrow just for this occasion. He leaned on the doorway, reached back and pulled an arrow down from his quiver.

"Back, back up. Back away from the door," he told his wife and son.

Without questioning him, Laura took Cooper aside and they moved deeper into the cell.

Clint jammed the arrow into the age-old, turnkey lock and moved slightly away. The room filled with the fizzling pop of the lock melting beneath the influence of hydrofluoric acid. When the lock gave way, the entire door swung inward under the weight of the archer it work to keep upright. Laura caught its swing and worked around the front to take him in her arms again.

"Clint, lay down, let me look at it. You have to stop, now, and let me—"

Clint kept his arm against his side, preventing that old doctor half of her from rearing its head. He tried to smile at her. "What are you going to do? Avenge me?" He tried to laugh, but it ended swiftly. "No time. Gotta get out of here. Comms down. I'll be all right." Telling her he was fine and showing her were two very different ideas. He found some reserve energy and used it to push away from the door frame. He stood in front of her. "Coop, come on, we need to go. The team's waiting."

Laura grabbed his arm, forcing his eyes to meet hers again. The fear, the worry that plagued her the entire time she'd been gone came to the surface. His hand pressed against her face, tracing a small circle beneath the curve of her jaw. The sensation against his skin was like pure electricity. It banished whatever pain he might have felt beneath that euphoria of having her back again.

"I need to get you safe," he whispered. If it was the last thing he could do, he was getting his family out of that dungeon. Laura seemed to accept it, though he could see her little bit of stubbornness peaking through. Switching his attention to Cooper, he brought his son closer.

"Dad, are you ok?" the child asked, shaking.

"I'm ok, Coop. Daddy's fine. Look, we aren't in a good spot. I'm not going to lie to you about that," Clint said gently, "You stay right behind me, understand? Right behind. If I move, you just hit the ground and don't get up until I say to. Can you do that?"

Cooper nodded. His eyes darted down to Clint's sleeve. He could see the red pooling around it.

"Coop," Clint reached forward and held his son's chin. "Don't look. I don't want you to look. Keep your eyes down. I'm going to have to do my job now, and I don't want you to be scared of that. I'm getting you and mom out of here and I'm doing everything I have to so you can be safe. So don't look."

Clint took his free arm and draped it over the boy's shoulder, trying not to use his own son as a crutch. He angled Cooper against his good side, Laura sidled up next to him, and as a unit they followed Clint's lead. Her hands circled the boy between them and grasped the tail of Clint's jacket. She pulled again away to see the ridges of her fingers stained in red.

Not bothering to stop, knowing they couldn't afford to, Clint led them around the outside edge of the catwalks. He scanned for any sign of Nick Fury but, finding none, took the first staircase he came across downward. The hanger had at least one exit to the surface that he knew about. The main one would be guarded, most likely, unless the Hulk or Cap had come across it. Taking the southern tunnel entrance should spill him out into Steve's position. The Captain was the closest to their escape, and he had the best chance of getting them out of harm's way, fast. Clint indicated the direction to Laura and they stuck to the shadows to reach it.

He whispered to Laura, "Nick?"

"They took him out days ago. I don't know where," she replied.

Clint scanned the area again. Truthfully, he had zero reserve left to go hunting down Fury after the shot he took. It was just as well the ex-SHIELD director wasn't around. Maybe he'd gotten himself free and was waiting for a chance to get back in for the family. Maybe he was in one of the upper rooms Clint overlooked. Either way, that was something for another Avenger to deal with. He had what he came for.

All of the underground exits were blocked, unsurprisingly. He counted at least twenty men on the North side with another thirty blocking the south. The largest cluster gathered around the various utility vehicles at the main entrance. It seemed Hydra was planning to abandon ship with as much tech as they could take. He couldn't blame them, but at the same time, he couldn't take all of them on himself either. Luckily, none of them seemed to be concerned with the earlier gunshots.

Laura could see the agents just as well as he could. "Your bow?" she asked.

"Not sure I can," he replied without expanding on the detail. He was out of exploding tips. He could send a volley of standards into them and hope the men scatter, but that would eventually attract every other group too, and some of those trucks they loaded had decent heavy artillery on them.

"Split up? I could take your gun—"

He shook his head. Not that he didn't have full confidence in her ability, but the idea of sending her away with Cooper in one direction and him in the other didn't seem right either. He eased forward, tucking them up between rows of supplies with one massive green trunk parked in front of them. He lifted the back canvas's edge, noted a few dozen armed men inside, and carefully dropped it down again before they had a chance to see him. Placing a finger against his lips, they moved forward again, rounded the front of the truck, and started down another aisle. The weaving way took them closer to the South entrance. Being close, and getting through the armed soldiers were two very different problems, though.

Diesel and gunpowder permeated the air along with an undertone of pure ozone. Advanced munitions must have been packaged up in the crates around them. He attempted to stretch up and pry something free, but it would take a jigsaw, or a hammer at the least, to wrestle one of the guns out. He abandoned the plan and continued to guide them onward.

"Hey! How'd you get in here?!" Someone shouted.

Barton looked left to see one of the side alleys between the supplies had filled with a group of faceless Hydra men. Clint shot up in place, grabbed his sidearm, and buried two slugs into the closest agent's forehead. Pushing his family out of the firing line, he closed the distance between himself and the others. Two more shots felled the furthest agent. He grabbed one by the shirt front and dragged him to the ground. As his boot connected with the guy's face, his fist intercepted another. Someone got their gun up and he dropped beneath the closest man to elicit a good course of friendly fire. Using the bullet-ridden body, he forced himself forward, grabbed the shooter, drove his elbow into the man's neck and turned the gun on him. He empty the chamber of his and the Hydra weapons. Six men down.

"Hawkeye!"

Clint spun around, grabbing his side as a wave of dizziness and nausea slammed into him. He looked up to see Laura fighting with someone clad in black. His son screamed, kicked one in the shin, and tore off toward his father. One of the Hydra agents raised his pistol, aiming for the child's back.

"No!" Clint screamed. "Drop! Coop, drop!"

As if they'd practiced it, the boy threw himself to the floor, pressing his hands over his head. Clint grabbed three arrows from his quiver and pierced all three into the agent's chest. The momentum threw him off balance, and he stumbled to the ground on his bad knee, eliciting a howl of pain. A few more of the endless sea of blackguards flooded the aisle. They tore Laura between them as she fought them off as best as she could. One hadn't secured his knife, so she stole it, jammed it into his flesh and twisted the handle in place. Unable to pull it out again, she groped for something else to use, found a pair of unprotected reproductive organs and twisted those too. As the two men went down, another three came up beside her. Clint tried to pull another arrow out, but they raised a gun against her temple. One move and she was dead.

Then, the unexpected happened.

Clint's radio cackled to life in his ear. The quality was poor at first, as if the speaker communicated through a granite throat. A few seconds later, it cleared.

"I'd ask if you wanted a hand, but I think you got this."

"That I have! Have at thee villains!"

Clint was forced to bury his face in the crook of his elbow as the world around them burst awake in the dawn of pure lightning. A crack of thunder followed the slam of Thor's hammer against the floor only inches away. When Clint could lift his head, his friend was already standing and extended his hand to help him up. The place was nearly unrecognizable from only a moment before. The aisles of crates ad exploded outward under the impact of the directed lightning. Cooper uncovered his ears and glanced around at the utter carnage. The Hydra agents unfortunate enough to suffer Thor's wrath were nowhere to be seen. Those with laser-targeted gunshot wounds courtesy of Tony Stark collapsed in a heap on either side of their former hostage, Laura, who stood between them, wondering whether it was safe to move or not.

"We were fortunate to have found your trail, my friend," Thor said, grinning widely.

Tony hovered close by, releasing a few blasts from his repulsers at the closest tunnel exit. He cleared the pathway for them. "Uh, yeah, reunion later, escape first. Am I the only one still on the clock?"

"You might not be "on the time" if I had not restarted your glowing heart!" Thor declared.

"Uh, yeah, I don't work that way anymore, remember? Suit just went into stasis. I didn't die." Tony flew a little lower. "Mrs. Hawkeye, nice to meet you. I think your daughter might own half my company by the time we get back."

"Lila! You have her!" Laura exclaimed.

"And how. I'm not sure you're getting her back." Tony directed a thumb toward the tunnel. "Might I suggest an exit stage right?"

"Yes," Clint said. He waved a hand toward Cooper who'd been struck still in starry-eyed merriment of the two heroes. "Cooper, go with Thor. Just hang on tight." Clint shot a glance at the Asgardian. "I'm trusting you with my son. Do not drop him."

Thor made a flourishing bow. "It is my honor to be so trusted. Come, lad! We fly!" He took the boy around the waist and within moments they were sailing down the south entrance together.

Clint directed Tony to his wife. "Stark, please, get her out of here."

Tony piloted himself closer and landed beside her. "Got it. Widow's bringing the jet around."

"No, wait!" Laura objected as Tony kindly, but firmly, cradled her in his arms. "Clint, what about you! You can't even—"

"Tony, hurry! I'll meet you at the entrance." Clint cut her off. It didn't matter if Stark knew he'd been shot. The man would make the same call every time. Women and children first. Avengers second. Clint signed up for this kind of life, they didn't, but that didn't mean it hurt any less watching her horrified face sail away in Iron Man's grasp.

He wasn't alone. The room was full of men still Hell bent on taking out any opposition they could muster. A limping, shot, bleeding Hawkeye made as a good a target as anyone else they happened to encounter.

"Ok, Clint, you got them back. Let's see if you actually get to see them ever again."

Ejecting the spent cartridge on his sidearm came first. He fed another mag into the weapon and snapped the slider back to feed in the first round. Making the final push for the tunnel was no easy task, and he spent the entire clip trying to make it there in one piece, but the minute he hit the rolling darkness and freezing winds, Hydra seemed to lose interest in him. A light heralded clear skies a quarter mile from where he stood. He only had to hang on a little longer and make it there. His side throbbed with the constant sheering pain. This one wasn't going to be an easy fix around the coffee table while the others poked fun at him.

The light ahead of him darkened for a moment as the outline of a man blocked his view. The shadow towered over him. The copious shadows with no light behind him worked in tandem to keep Clint shielded from view. He tried to make out the form, friendly or not, but raised his weapon just in case. The blurring edges of his vision overwhelmed what little good eyesight he had left. The radio cackled to life in his ear.

"Hawkeye, come in!"

Steve's voice hit him twice over, echoing in the cavern and through his comm. A sigh of relief washed over the archer.

"Cap, you're lucky I didn't actually shoot." Clint told him, making the final steps into the light of the snow-bathed day. He'd holstered his side arm in the cavern and stood panting beside the Avenger's leader. He reached his second hand against his side and tried to stifle the blood flow, though nothing seemed to work.

"Well if you did, I'd know it was you. You never miss. What took you so long? Stop for coffee?" Steve replied with a smile. He started off down a path. "Come on. Widow rounded up Fury at the North Entrance and he's at the jet now. Thor and Stark should be there already. I know you're ready to get back to your family." He turned a little to see what Clint might say. After all, this was one victory they could really bask in. The local authorities had already arrived on scene and planned to subvert whatever pieces of the Hydra base had been left intact. The Avengers had not only rescued all the hostages, they'd also developed a hard link to the base in Sokovia along the way. Most of the diverted heavy gunnery were heading in that locations. They'd found stacks of stamped passport books along with enough evidence to warrant a hard hit of that base the minute things calmed down.

Given all the good news they were walking away with, Steve was surprised to turn around and find Clint hadn't even left the mouth of the cavern. He slowed. "Hey, what's up? You forget your favorite duds down there or something?"

Clint didn't raise his head. He took a few steps forward, his legs crossing and stumbling down the gentle slope. He ran headlong into a birch with his shoulder and stood there, letting nature prop him up.

Steve took a few steps back to him. "Clint, look, they're ok. Everything's going to be—Clint!"

Clint pitched forward off of the tree, tried to walk again, but fell. He collapsed to his knees, offering a weak cry as they connected with the hard packed snow. His body sat back on his calves and wondered whether it might be better to just lie down in the snow or sit up. For now, he just sat.

"Hey? Hey, Hawk, can you hear me? What happened? Oh my G—Clint is this yours? Move your arm! Barton, please, listen to me, move your arm and let me look at this!" Steve fought against the sudden stupor his teammate fell into. He tugged at Clint's tucked in elbow, his eyes never leaving the expanding blood pool forming in Barton's lap. The Captain's own heart rate skipped forward half a dozen beats.

"I . . . Cap, my kids?"

"They're fine, but you're not," Steve told him, he found the fried edges of Clint's coat and saw the charred flesh wound bleeding beneath. "Clint, did you know you got shot? Hey, don't do that, keep looking at me!"

Clint's shoulders went slack and his head hung forward. All at once he seemed to deflate. Steve grabbed hold of him as the archer fell sideways against the beaten path. Clint took a single sharp breath and released it in a hiss. His eyes fought to focus but he couldn't seem to manage it.

"My kids," he whispered again, fighting to hang onto consciousness.

Steve pulled the zipper down on Clint's coat and yanked the fabric away from the wound, exposing a tidal wave of blood that had pooled around his waist. He took a few handfuls of snow and packed them in against Clint's wound. He could still feel the heat from the thermal/chemical blast charring the flesh.

"We've got them, Clint, but they're going to need you, which means you have to hang on for me," Steve told him, packing the snow a little tighter.

Clint gasped, arching his back where the two other deflected shots were already turning purple and raised. "It's bad."

"It's not good!" Steve affirmed. He switched to his comms. "I need that transport here ASAP. Hawkeye's down. Get the trauma kit pulled. He's gonna need it."

Clint clamped his hand around the Captain's bicep. Steve paused. He drew in close enough to hear his teammate's whisper.

"If . . . If I do—don't. Take care of—"

"Clint? Clint, stay with me!"

oops, i did it again.

made a cliffhanger

hahahahahahahaha

Coming up: Saving Clint. Green smoothies.

Please keep reviewing!