Chapter 49.

Bobbi picked them up a few minutes later in the S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet. Everyone but Sam had transferred to the Bus, in order to use the better medical facilities on board. Sam was flying the Avenjet back and would see them in New York. Bobbi docked them on the Bus a few minutes after that, and grabbed Clint's arm when he headed for the ladder to follow James and Natasha down.

"Clint?"

He flinched back from her instinctively, and then saw the look on her face. "What is it, Bobbi?"

"I'm sorry. For everything." She ducked her head. "I didn't understand. Natasha told me about – that you had to pretend to be Lance. Told us."

"Ah." He considered her for a minute. "Then you know why the very thought of a repeat performance made me feel sick."

"Yes, and I'm really sorry. I blamed you for my own stuff-ups. It was my own stupid mistake that got me into the situation in the first place, and I let Lance think – well, it doesn't matter, that's between me and him. The point is, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry I tried to mess with Jemma's head. She's a sweet girl and you deserve each other. I hope you'll be happy together, I truly do."

For a long moment they stared at each other, and then Clint said, "Don't fuck it up this time, Bobbi. Lance doesn't deserve that."

"I won't. I promise."

Clint found Jemma in the medical bay. Wearing the Iron Man helmet and apparently operating on Invisible Trip, Fitz acting as her anaesthetist. It was quite a sight, watching her carefully working with scalpel and forceps on apparently nothing. Tony was watching in fascination through the sealed door. He'd removed the rest of his armour.

And then Jemma dropped something into a metal tray beside her and Trip was suddenly back, blood smeared all over his stomach, but visible once again.

Clint knew better than to interrupt as Jemma took off the helmet and started sewing Trip up. He turned away and went to look for the rest of the team.

Sif was hovering over Coulson, who was at least conscious and appeared to have had all his wounds treated. And not to be in the least objecting to Sif's fussing, so Clint moved on.

The best news was that Mack was conscious. Hunter was sitting with him, filling in a very dazed-looking Mack on everything that had happened.

"He doesn't look like he'll remember any of what you're saying later," Clint gestured at Mack.

"So what else is new?" Hunter grinned at him. "Did you kill Ward?"

"Barnes did. And Nat got the freaky fake May."

"Good." Hunter nodded at Clint, both of them silently acknowledging that what had been done was ugly but necessary.

Bobbi came in then, stooping to hug Mack tightly before sitting down by Hunter, taking his hand and leaning her head against his shoulder. Mack looked at the pair of them, and then at Clint.

"Well," Mack said on a deep sigh, "it's about time."

That left only Steve and Skye to check on, since Clint assumed May was flying the Bus and Sif had told him Fandral had gone back to get Hogun and then directly to Asgard. The Koenigs, in the command centre, pointed him forward and he finally found them in Skye's sleeping cubicle. The door was open, Steve sitting on the bed, Skye's head in his lap as he stroked her hair.

Clint leaned in the doorway and looked at them, suddenly becoming aware of just how tired he felt. The adrenaline had been pumping ever since Trip's first call, and now it was over he could barely stand. All he wanted was to hold Jemma and sleep for a week. But first things first.

"How's the bullet wound?"

"Already healed over." Steve didn't even look up. "I dug it out, it's fine." There was nothing to see but a small, dark-edged hole in the shoulder of his uniform. Clint shook his head incredulously. A high-powered rifle round at that range would have left no shoulder behind at all on any other man. Incredible. He looked at Steve's hand caressing gently over Skye's hair.

"Is she all right?" Clint asked quietly.

Steve looked up. Clint didn't think he'd ever seen Rogers look so exhausted, not even after the Battle of New York, or the Triskelion – not ever.

"She woke up for a moment when we were transferring to the Bus, and the ground started shaking again."

"I wondered," Clint said with a sigh. "Something happened in that chamber. Something changed in all of them."

"I don't care," Steve said. "I don't. I'm not the same as I used to be. I'll stand by her. No matter what."

"That's good. But I think we should have a conversation with Coulson and May – and probably Tony – about keeping Skye off the ground until she's fully awake and has a handle on whatever this is."

"Can I leave that to you?" Steve looked up at him with pleading eyes. "I don't want to leave her."

Clint sighed, nodded, and pushed off the doorframe. "Yeah. I'll take care of it."

Just one more thing on this crazy fucking day…

… oh, it can wait.

Jemma came running towards him, her face alight with joy, and he stepped forward and swung her up into his arms, kissing her thoroughly, uncaring that Steve could see them, and that Barnes was walking along the passageway too, grinning. And then she pulled back, hauled off and slapped him.

"What the fuck?" Clint gasped, hand to his reddening cheek. Damn, Jemma had quite an arm on her.

"Twice!" she shouted at him. "Not once but twice today you've forced me to stay behind while you ran off into danger, don't you ever dare do that to me again, Clinton Francis Barton!" She glared at him, and then stormed into Skye's cubicle. "Steven. Show me your wound."

"You are so in the doghouse," James said, grinning at Clint.

"Shut up. Jemma," he would have entered the cubicle, but there really wasn't room for another person in there. "If anyone's got the right to be aggrieved, it's me. You promised to call me if you felt your team were out of their depth. Why was it Trip I had to hear it from? Don't you think Steve deserved to know that Ward had taken Skye?"

Jemma had taken one look at the already healed-wound on Steve's shoulder, shaken her head and bent over Skye, putting cool hands to her brow. Skye roused, her eyes opening, just as Clint mentioned Ward's name.

Everyone went rigid. Jemma turned to face Clint, staring him down. "Don't ever mention his name in front of Skye again."

"He's dead," it was James who said it bluntly, flatly. "I killed him."

"You what?" Steve blinked in astonishment.

"He tried to kill both you and Skye, punk. Leaving him alive risked your happiness, not to mention your lives. I wasn't prepared to let that happen."

"You did him a kindness," a calm voice said behind Clint and James, and they both whirled, reaching for weapons, unused to having people able sneak up on them. It was Sif, her stormy grey eyes cool and approving as she watched them. She looked into the cubicle, at Jemma staring white-faced, at Skye struggling to sit up. "I am sorry for your loss. I know Ward was once your friend, and I hoped it would be otherwise, but there is no man who has ever fully recovered from having their will stolen by Lorelei the Seductress, not for so long a time as she had Ward under her thrall."

A little stunned, Jemma and Skye took a moment to process that. "Fitz?" Jemma asked suddenly, remembering that Lorelei had taken his mind over as well.

"She held him only briefly, and did not use her touch to enthral him completely. He is free of her power." Sif gave her a reassuring smile, but her eyes slid back to Skye.

"Lorelei drove him mad?" Skye asked in a small voice.

"She did. Son of Coul has told me of Grant Ward's early life, his unstable background. What Lorelei did to him cracked his already-fragile mind like an eggshell. He could never have recovered. I regret deeply that his obsession focussed on you and led to such an end, little sister." Sif moved Jemma aside gently and faced Skye. "He will trouble you no more."

"He's really dead?" Jemma looked at James pleadingly. "You're sure? He's not going to come back like some horrible movie villain…"

"Jemma, he's really, definitely dead," Clint answered, not wanting to make James tell them what he'd done. That crunch would be reverberating in Clint's ears for a while yet.

For a long moment Jemma just stared. And then she threw her arms around James' neck and said;

"Thank you."

Clint's mouth dropped open and he glared jealously. A quite clearly horrified James hastily detached himself from Jemma's grip, said "I'm just gonna, uh, check on, uh – Tasha!" and fled.

Sif arched her eyebrows, a small smile touching her lips as she saw Clint's expression, the possessive way he reached for Jemma, pulling her into his arms. "You have won the heart of Eyes of Hawk, Doctor Jemma?" she placed one hand over her heart and bowed slightly. "Thor has told many tales of his courage. You are fortunate indeed to have the regard of such a warrior."

A little surprised at Sif's deeply respectful tone, Jemma smiled back at the Asgardian. "Yes. Yes, I am." She hugged Clint tightly before leaning back reluctantly. "I really need to check on Skye," she told him.

"That is why I am here. Heimdall saw that the Terrigen Device activated and affected the Lady Skye, the warrior called Trip and one other, who is beyond our help now."

Raina. Clint nodded, glancing at Steve. "As far as I know, she's still down in the tunnels."

"Trip died," Skye said softly. "He tried to help me and he died…"

"No, he didn't!" they all said in unison.

"What?"

Sif smiled, going to one knee beside Skye's bed. "He was fortunate, Lady Skye. He should have died, the mist released by the Device should have killed him, but when he struck the crystal to try and save you, a shard of it lodged in his skin and inflicted a change upon him."

"He turned invisible," Steve explained gently to Skye.

"Yes, he was wounded and invisible, but fortunately I was able to use the Iron Man helmet to find the shard in his stomach using a gamma radiation scanner – and I am going to have to have a conversation with Dr Banner about that," Jemma glanced at Clint, "and Trip turned visible again when I pulled it out."

"He will be able to control the ability at will, with practice," Sif informed them. "As you will your abilities, Lady Skye. Until then, I have a gift for you." From a pouch at her waist, she produced a silver chain, a tiny, glittering blue crystal dangling from it. Skye flinched away from the crystal, reminded too much of the Obelisk and what had been inside it.

"This is not one of the Kree crystals, Lady Skye," Sif reassured her. "It is an anti-crystal – Lady Frigga created them to aid those who were exposed. Warrior Trip does not need one, but I believe that you do, at least until you have your powers under your conscious control."

Steve took the chain from Sif's hand when Skye made no move to touch it. "Thank you, Lady Sif," he said, opening the catch on the chain and putting it around Skye's neck.

"There will always be help for you from Asgard if you need it, Lady Skye," Sif told her gently, before rising to her feet and leaving the cubicle, gesturing at Jemma and Clint to move back before closing the door.

"Oh – I need to check Skye over properly…" Jemma said.

Sif folded her arms. "Right now, Doctor Jemma, Lady Skye and her Captain need to be alone. Your job as a doctor is done for today." She cut her eyes significantly at Clint. "Although it is possible that Eyes of Hawk sustained wounds that we do not see. Thor has told me that he has a bad habit of concealing such, to avoid worrying his friends."

Clint threw Sif an extremely grateful look as Jemma turned to him with a cry of alarm. Sif gave him a wink before sauntering off down the corridor, grinning to herself. Perhaps she would go check in on Son of Coul again. He had seemed quite pleased to see her.

I love Sif. She's such a badass. And I love the idea of her and Coulson, of her seeing through his mild-mannered exterior and realising that he's just as badass as she is.

Next; the reunions…