Authors Notes
Story Timeline: 1st Week of November 2013. Six weeks after the events of Getting to Know You Pt 3
Looking for answers sometimes ends up raising more questions.
A convalescing Ainsley starts recovering memories of his time under sedation after locking horns with Steve over the best course of action for Abel.
Tasha spreads the net wider as she searches for Barney Barton's contacts in SHIELD
Steve has a couple of questions of his own to answer after accidentally witnessing Thor and Clint 'sparring' and Barney must rely on his wits to keep out of everyone's reach.
I have no idea if the mind can recall things heard under heavy sedation but – plot convenience!
Some graphic homo-eroticism
Ainsley prodded the contents of his plate with the tip of his fork, an expression of mild disgust on his face. Dr Rosenbaum, the nutritionist, assured him that his diet had 'the exact balance of protein, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins to assist and optimise recovery.' Taste and presentation had not apparently been taken into account.
"Would it kill you to find out if Misaki's do a take-out menu, or even to bring a decent bottle of wine?"
Steve laughed. Dr Kerr complaining about the food was a sure sign he was feeling better. Once the doctor was awake and stable he had been moved to a SHIELD medical facility to complete his recovery in a secure environment. It made it safer for the team to visit but had the disadvantage of being outside New York which meant a lot more travelling.
"No, but it might kill you. Your insides are still healing up remember? Anyway, they tell me that diet was designed by NASA for astronauts returning from prolonged periods in space."
The doctor gave him a withering look
"Well, I'll remember to thank them next time I take the overnight to Venus. Did they at least allow you to bring the files I asked for?"
Steve placed them on the bed
"You're supposed to be resting, not working. It's going to be another week at least before they release you."
Ainsley pushed the tray to one side and picked up the first of the files.
"I rest better when my mind has something to do. Are these your final selections for the Project?"
Steve nodded; progress on the Academy Project had slowed while Dr Kerr was in hospital but he'd done some solid preliminary work and the soldier had been able to keep some of the momentum going, adding his own tactical evaluations and making some suggestions of their own.
"Just need your sign-off and Fury's approval then we're good to go to Phase 2."
He smiled at the expression on the doctor's face
"Don't worry, we won't be starting without you."
Ainsley hesitated, shuffling through the files
"Have you spoken to Fury about the other matter?"
Clint had told him who stabbed him. That had been a shock although not a great surprise in retrospect. It appeared Barney had a habit of not doing his own dirty work where his brother was concerned. From what Natasha and Tony told him it was clear he was getting the boy psyched up to kill his own father and had done a very amateur job of it, turning Abel into a dangerous loose cannon. He suspected whoever Barney answered to would not be overly happy with the attention this had attracted. It might be a bit of a race to see who got to him first.
Steve sighed, Dr Kerr was being annoyingly insistent. Stark was just as bad on the whole issue of Barton's son and he could see them both trying to push the archer into going along with their point of view; extra pressure Barton really didn't need just now.
"Dr Kerr, we've discussed this…"
"I know!" The doctor sounded exasperated and a bit petulant "But I've reviewed the Boot Camp protocols and there's nothing there that addresses the kind of psychological issues the boy's dealing with. He was building up a stockpile of resentments long before his uncle tried a ham-fisted attempt at conditioning; Abel needs specialised therapy and increased interaction with his father to release those resentments in a controlled fashion and build up a genuine bond. Tony agrees with me, neither of us think that a SHIELD environment is the best place for him in the present circumstances."
He glared Steve over the rims of his glasses.
"Steve, this isn't a personal view; I'm giving you my professional opinion on the matter."
Abel had been in Boot Camp for six weeks and Clint hadn't been to visit him once in that period despite having a legal right as his guardian. The boy would cease to be a minor in two months' time and from that point was under no obligation to have any contact with his father at all. It wasn't just his opinion, Tony and Natasha could both see the potential dangers in the situation. It was all very good and noble of Steve to back Clint's decision but surely, he had to see that it was the wrong one.
"You've already made your professional opinion perfectly clear several times, Dr Kerr!" Steve's tone was sharp and the doctor jumped slightly.
"But even you have to admit that the conflict of interest here means your opinion can only be one of the options that Director Fury and I have under advisement. In the meantime, I need you and Stark to stop trying to push Barton into one course of action just because it's what the two of you want. I want him to have all the options at hand when he makes his own decisions."
There was a shocked look on Dr Kerr's face. He wasn't used to the soldier speaking to him so abruptly. Steve softened his voice; reminding himself the doctor was still recovering from a life-threatening attack and the trauma that went with it, frustrated from being stuck in this hospital room and anxious about his friends.
"I know you mean well, but this has to be Barton's own choice. SHIELD worked for him and he's hoping it'll do the same for his son."
"SHIELD worked for Clint because he had Phil Coulson watching out for him the whole way, but Coulson…" the doctor seemed to go a bit vacant, as if his mind had wandered elsewhere "…Coulson's dead."
Steve was looking at him with concern.
"Are you all right, Dr Kerr? Should I call the nurse?"
Ainsley shook his head, pulling his thoughts back to the present
"No, thank you. I'm fine." He looked up at Steve with of mild bewilderment then he let out a rueful chuckle. "Just someone walking over my grave."
Why was I about to say 'Coulson didn't get to the boy in time'?
His expression became penitent
"I'm sorry, Steve. I can be a control freak at times, one of my less endearing characteristics. You've probably noticed this; I know Bruce has, he thinks I sometimes exercise a bit too much influence around the place"
He smiled at Steve's surprise
"Bruce isn't good at hiding his thoughts, very easy to read. I suspect that's why he often feels uncomfortable around me."
Steve put a friendly hand on the doctor's arm
"Bruce is just a bit paranoid about people getting in his head. If I wasn't happy about anything you're doing I'd be the first to say, but I am serious about you not putting undue pressure on Barton. I know you mean well and you're probably right but this is something he needs to decide for himself."
The pat he gave Ainsley's hand served as an emphatic full stop to that conversation.
He left shortly afterwards, yet another meeting with Maria, but with the promise that Thor and Clint would be over later and spending the night in the guest suite next to the doctor's room. Ainsley skimmed through the files. There one name he didn't recognize; Sam Wilson, regular military with no pre-existing SHIELD connection. Steve's notes spoke highly of him so Fury's approval shouldn't be a problem.
He added his signature to the last page of each file and buzzed the security guard to put them in the lock-box for Steve to pick up tomorrow.
Picking up the remote he surfed through one of the music channels until he found a decent recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17. As the sweep of violins filled the air he lay back and closed his eyes; clearing his mind and trying to reconstruct his memories.
Ainsley normally had excellent recall of his dreaming and waking lives so the current gaps were irritating. His only real memory of the attack was the notion the boy had punched him, then seeing the blood soaking his shirt and thinking
That'll stain
There were no 'out of body' experiences or looking down at himself of the operating table. There had been dreams which were vivid but hard to grasp, doubtless due to the heavy sedation he'd been under. Something about Granny Sophie and possibly Thor.
Thor had taken to calling him "Little Bug" which was sweet, but he couldn't remember ever telling anyone his childhood nickname. Possibly he'd been talking in his sleep although nobody had mentioned that.
He tried to concentrate on the image of Granny Sophie in the Great Hall at Wyndham House. It felt important, that she'd been telling him things he needed to know. All he could remember were fragments of the old stories she'd told him as a child and the memory of her grandmother's brooch. No, this was the wrong environment and the wrong time. He needed to be home; secure and well before he could properly deep-dredge his psyche.
Mozart alone wouldn't do the trick; he'd need to apply the Feldermann Method, or maybe get Bruce to read to him some more. He could recall bits of Isaak Walton being read in the scientist's pleasing baritone as his consciousness drifted up from its medicated depths to linger near the bright surface before submerging again. It was a pleasing memory that brought in its wake the recall of other, unfamiliar, voices. A hard-sounding woman who had probably grown up speaking Chinese, and an older man whose soft voice was tinged with sadness. What was it the woman had said '…saved him like you did his father'?
Interesting.
###
In a motel room, somewhere in Vermont, Natasha sat cross-legged on the bed eating chocolate-chip cookie dough. Photographs and scraps of paper lay around her in a wide semi-circle, every so often she re-arranged a few like cards in a Tarot spread looking for her own patterns of meaning.
Finding the cabin Barney and Abel had been living in over the summer proved to be easy and SHIELD had stripped it back to the beams looking for evidence. What they found mainly fell under the heading of larceny. Barney's normal modus operandi was to set up as a jobbing gardener. Houses where he and the boy worked had all reported robberies in the weeks following; mostly cash but some jewellery. The latter could be traceable if they were lucky.
Barney had cleared out with most of his stuff but had overlooked the boy's belongings and Abel had been secretly mining scraps of information from his uncle's collection of 'intelligence', stuck between the pages of comic books.
The earliest snippets were just under two years old, suggesting that the leaks began in the wake of New York and shortly after Clint became part of the Avengers. There had been a lot of bad feeling about that, plenty of people would rather have seen him dumped on the lowest level of the Raft and the key thrown overboard. The obvious suspect was someone who had lost friends or family during the time Clint was under Loki's control. That was not a short list, neither was the list of people who might want to undermine the Avengers by taking out one of their more vulnerable members.
She could feel her frustration rising, the picture was too big and too much was missing. She smiled thinly, remembering the time Thor had accidentally thrown out a whole bunch of pieces from Ainsley's favourite jigsaw puzzle, one that he'd had since childhood. She'd never seen the doctor so angry before; the big warrior had been in the doghouse until he and Clint spent a whole weekend scouring vintage toy retailers to find a replacement.
She swept the whole arrangement onto the floor with a snort of disgust. Too few pieces, not enough connections.
Connections
She picked up her phone and dialled Maria Hill, cursing inwardly. Looking for direct links had been a waste of time, nothing about this whole lethal game of was direct
"Maria? I've got a list of names for you; I need to know if any of them or their known associates have ever been used as assets in the last two years."
###
The fall knocked the breath out of Thor as he hit the mat. Clint landed heavily on top, hooking his arm under the Asgardian's knee and briefly pinning him. Thor gave him an impressed nod and then easily flipped the other man onto his back.
"This form of fighting is very effective; I am pleased you are teaching me"
Clint hooked his thumb into Thor's armpit and pushed hard, breaking his grip. He quickly spun around and had the big warrior in a neck hold.
"Speed and pressure points, Blondie. Even a big guy like you can get taken down by the right combination."
"So, are you telling me that size is not everything?" grinned Thor, twisting his head to lick at the archer's bicep.
Clint winked and pushed his hips forward in response. They'd been a bit shy of getting physical with each other for a while. Thor didn't feel it would be right to have sex while Ainsley was in a critical condition and the stress Clint was under had caused a few, thankfully temporary, 'performance' issues.
Now that Doc was well on the way to recovery he was feeling the itch again. He'd been introducing the Big Blond to the world of UFC and hinted at teaching him some grappling techniques; knowing that a good sparring session was the best way of getting them both in the mood.
"Sometimes you just gotta know where to hit." He nipped the back of the Asgardian's neck with his teeth, the way the Big Blond often did in foreplay. "Gonna let me take point on this mission?"
Thor hesitated, Clint had asked this before. The blond warrior had always been the dominant partner with Ainsley, as had Clint. Between the two of them they had always found other forms of pleasure; the thought of allowing himself to be taken in that manner was intimidating yet intriguing. The archer ran his tongue along the edge of his friend's ear, knowing it was one of his sensitive spots.
"I… I am not sure…"
"C'mon Big Blond, something new for you to try" he whispered, hooking his free thumb into the waistband of Thor's shorts and tugging gently downwards "I'll let you return the favour afterwards"
Thor looked round at Clint, his heart pounding with excitement and apprehension
"You wish us to do it here?" He glanced up at the door to the locker room "What if someone comes in, and the security cameras?"
Clint nipped the back of his neck again and began to nibble his way along Thor's spine. The Big Blond's shorts were halfway down his thighs by now.
"I told Jarvis… to engage privacy mode… Tash's out of town…. Steve's over at the Hub…" He was pulling his own shorts down, already fully aroused. The Big Blond was almost convinced. If they broke to head up to the apartment it would give him time to change his mind. Besides, the idea they might get caught just spiced it up.
No time like the present, Hawk!
"Tony… and Bruce… are busy in the lab… No-one… else… is… around…"
Thor groaned and arched his back as the archer's tongue found its mark and went to work, sending ripples of pleasure through his belly. He was still uncertain but if he was going to permit himself to be taken it could only be by a brother warrior like Clint; and what he was doing just now felt very good…
…He raised himself up on his elbows, looking round at Clint as he moved into position; feeling the pressure against him, warm and insistent.
"Clint…" a hungry, pleading look in the blond warrior's bright blue eyes. The archer grinned
"It's ok, Big Blond. I'll take it easy."
Thor gritted his teeth and tried to relax as the pressure increased. Clint leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his chest and pushing gently. Thor could not hold back a sharp cry as his friend entered him.
"Clint! Please… It is sore…"
Clint nipped the back of Thor's neck with his teeth again, harder this time, to give the warrior something else to focus on
"Just breathe and relax, Blondie, always hurts a bit at first. I'll hold still till you're ready"
Thor swallowed hard and nodded; biting his lip as he pushed his hips back slightly…
…his forehead rested on his clenched fists, short grunting breaths in time with Clint's steady thrusts. This felt… strange, uncomfortable but not unpleasant, hitting something inside that sent sparks of electricity through him.
"You okay Blondie? Need me to slow down?" He could see the muscles in the warrior's back twitching as his body adjusted to the unaccustomed sensations. Big Blond was taking it well for a first timer.
Thor shook his head emphatically, sweat running down his face.
"Harder…." He gasped. Clint grinned broadly
Damn, gonna make a power-bottom out of you yet!
He wasn't going to last much longer. What with it being so long since they'd messed around and the excitement of taking the Asgardian like this for the first time, he could feel his climax approaching. Big Blond wanted it harder? Time to ride the bull!
He grabbed Thor's long hair, twisting it around his fist and pulling his head up as he drove in deep and fast. Thor roared in pain and lust, forcing his hips back as Clint felt the mounting surge of orgasm
"Awwww Fuuuck!"
His whole body spasmed four, maybe five, times and he fell forward panting on Thor's back. The two of them collapsing into a sweaty heap on the sparring mats. Thor was breathing heavily, eyes wide, with a look of satisfied astonishment on his face. Clint rolled off him and grinned
"Ready for your turn?"
The other man nodded enthusiastically. A noise from the locker room had both on their feet, urgently pulling up their shorts.
###
Agent Hill had rescheduled their meeting, some unexpected business had come up, so he'd decided to return to the Penthouse and relax for a while. A couple of hours with weights and punchbag ought to do the trick.
He'd heard a noise from the gym as he finished getting changed. He'd thought no-one else was around, and none of the Stark Industries R&D or security staff normally used the place at this time. He moved quickly to the door and cracked it open a fraction of an inch. At first, he thought the two of them were sparring. Barton had been talking about teaching Thor some Brazilian martial art recently, then he began to realise what he was seeing.
Oh, God! They weren't, were they?
His hand was on the door, ready to march in and yell them both out. This was beyond inappropriate; this was public indecency. It was…
…kind of exciting.
This was worlds apart from the stuff Barton had tried to show him on the internet, brightly lit men and women in fanciful scenarios, going through the mechanics of sex – he had watched some of that in his quarters, even masturbated to it a couple of times, but it made him feel cheap and dirty – this was something different, animal and intense like watching two wild beasts mating on a nature show. It didn't even seem to matter that it was two guys. He could feel his own sense of arousal growing, breath becoming shallower and faster and his hand instinctively sliding towards the waistband of his shorts.
Steve's hand moved fast, his breath sharp and quick as he watched Barton's hips buck and his body tensing, heard Thor's thunderous roar. The moment of orgasm was visible, every muscle tightening and flexing as he cried out and slammed hard into the bigger man. Steve felt his own convulsion, the sudden release and the warm splash on his stomach and chest.
He hurriedly wiped himself off with a towel and made a show of banging about in the locker room before opening the door. Thor and Barton stood side by side, looking flushed and sweating. They'd covered themselves up but the Asgardian's erection remained obvious while the displaced mats still showed the evidence of their 'sparring session'
"Uh... good match, guys?"
Clint scratched the back of his head, Steve looked a bit red himself. Had he seen them? Nah, he would've gone ballistic.
"Yeah, not bad. Just gonna hit the shower and grab a rest before we head over to see Doc." He gave Thor a swat on the bicep.
"C'mon Big Blond. You still got some 'packing' to do"
Thor grinned and followed him to the showers.
Steve started strapping up his hands, prepping himself to work off some steam on the punchbag, still incredulous at what had happened in front of him and his own reaction to it. Despite Barton's jokes he wasn't naïve about sex or even particularly prudish. Even in the 1940s, people had sex and talked about having sex, but for most of his life Steve Rogers had been a skinny, frail, asthmatic wimp; the type of guy a woman was kind to at best. He had never learned to be easy around girls, to know the right things to say, to pick them up and discard them with the ease of the bigger, stronger, more confident men around him.
The Super-Soldier serum had given him size, strength and speed, but how to date girls hadn't been part of the training. Sure, they had thrown themselves at Captain America, he could have had a different one every night; heck, every hour if he'd wanted, but there was only girl that Steve Rogers wanted and that opportunity had knocked too late, lost when he went into the ice. So yeah, Barton was right, he was the Virgin Soldier. He knew he liked girls, so he wasn't gay; but this had just shown him that guys could get him excited as well so was he like Barton? Into both? That might not be too bad, although the archer's previous track record of casual promiscuity didn't sit well with him.
Maybe he should speak to someone about it, Natasha perhaps? That would be a fun conversation starter
Oh hey Natasha! I jerked off watching Barton have sex with Thor and now I'm a bit confused about my sexual identity
Steve sighed and threw another punch.
###
He'd been on the move for almost a month, running out of resources and ideas, ever since he heard that his associates wanted to talk to him about the 'complications' caused by the kid stabbing that faggy Brit.
He had the idea this talk wouldn't be round a barbeque with a few beers, unless of course he was hanging by his wrists over the coals. He'd seen what these guys did, helped a few times. Didn't fancy being on the receiving end.
There were a couple of his drop-boxes that could be still be safe to approach but the problem was getting there without being seen either by them or by SHIELD.
Travelling by bus mostly, getting on and off at rural stops where there wasn't likely to be anyone watching or any CCTV. Hotwiring a car would be easier but too big a risk of getting on some law enforcement radar, leading them right to him. Do that and he might as well just start ripping his own teeth out with pliers to save them all some time.
The kid had really fucked things up, running off like that and stirring up trouble. His associates wanted everything discreet until they were ready to move. The fuckup in the woods had been bad enough but he'd been able to smooth that over with a bit of effort. This had got too many people looking and asking awkward questions.
Taking down Clint had been part of some bigger plan. If that had gone without a hitch it didn't matter to them that he was just looking forward to the expression in little brother's eyes when his own baby boy stuck the knife in and twisted. Payback for all the time his smart fucking mouth brought down dad's fist or got them put on punishment at the county orphanage. Payback for trying to betray Uncle Jack and for spoiling things with Tina.
Finding out he was still alive and with SHIELD was a bad day until he figured it was his chance to get some real sharp closure.
Well, he may not have much now but he had that motivation at least. Using the boy had been a sweet idea, but nothing would beat gutting Clint with his own hands. As long has he kept that thought alive and moving him he had a chance to stay free and clear.