I think tonight I may give you two chapters. You know, because it's saturday and I'm feeling generous:)
Fury-Natalia: hahahahaha, I am slowly closing the door on all the men potentially in her life. After all, Natasha isn't one to be owned. Even by her own baby...perhaps...
Batghost: I love how you put that. the "Lost" years. There might be a story hidden behind those words I may nee to look into one day... And it seems everyone has had a shotgun nuptial! It seems the only way to truly land that hero. Spring it on them!
amy. .9: oops. that is all.
discordchick: those little shimmers of hope peaking through her Widow ways. We shall see where this goes!
5mairer: LOL! That's ok. unlike most of my well established story lines, the "Henry" explanation has not yet arrived (you can find an excerpt of it under the up-coming story title "Stranded" on my author page). It will be released later when i have a chance to finish it. Anywho- it goes something like this: Clint has a brother Barney. The Barton boys were raised by their chain-smoking mother and alcoholic father until a drunk driving accident killed them. Clint has always hated his father. His grandparents, on his father's side, are Henry (Hank) Barton and Kitty Alice Jenkins. He met Kitty once, years prior, when Pepper decided to go crazy on . Kitty lived only miles from the Barton childhood home, but never knew what happened to her son after he left the Vietnam war. Hank, a paratrooper in World War II, had died not long before Clint met with Kitty for the first time. From her stories of Hank, Clint grew to really be inspired by that grandfather he never knew, the one who was so much like himself. The Avengers know the story, as they have already lived it, yet my readers do not, because I haven't yet finished writing it :P.
I Can Hear the Drums
Chapter 43
Clint stared directly into the camera, a wall of flashes erupting behind him. His mouth was opened in a wide-grinned smile while Tony's arms draped across his shoulders and gave a squeeze-cheeked fish mouth. The billionaire scientist's left hand disappeared just off the edge of the film where Thor and Steve stood laughing. He had been signing to them. Later the newspapers would analyze a string of shots in sequence. An ASL interpreter created the headline for the following day's news stands.
~"Brothers,"~ the sign read. It was the same one that Clint was caught half-way displaying over his chest.
Tony swallowed the lump in his throat as he gazed down into Clint's eyes.
"We were supposed to do this together, you know?" he said to the picture. "We married our girls, Clint. We were supposed to raise each other's kids. Spoil the hell out of them and live to be those couple of old guys in Central Park, telling everyone about our good old days. You weren't supposed to cut out early. You—"
He stopped. His hand moved the photo away, laying it face down on the bed beside him. The pain crushed him like a vice. He'd broken down into a well of despair more times than he could count. The only thing keeping him sober was the fact that he had a baby on the way, two actually, and he simply couldn't afford to be the liquor bottle tycoon he desperately wanted to be.
"Tony? I'm thinking about going to the memorial tomorrow with Natasha. She wants a chance to see it before she starts showing and word gets around." Pepper appeared from the bathroom, fixing an earring along her lobe. She caught the peculiar expression reddening across his face and her hands stopped.
"What is it?" her voice piqued. She padded over to him and dropped down by his knees. Her fingers searched up to his jawline and held him against her palms.
He wanted to speak, but couldn't. Instead he fell back to an old, trained habit. The fingers on his right hand curled, becoming a pair of talons. He then lifted his index and middle fingers to his eyes and pulled them away toward her. Tony created the sign for Clint's nickname years before when Clint decided to make one for Tony. When words failed, signs didn't. Pepper understood him instantly.
~"Hawkeye."~
She closed in, putting her arms around his waist and her head along his knee. "I miss him too," she whispered.
"I should go with you."
"You don't have to. It's not going anywhere. Not for a long time."
"I know, but I should still go. See it. Show support and…"
Pepper nodded.
After Steve's speech, an awe-inspired group of citizens banded together to do something for the underdog archer who had devoted his entire life to the world he loved. Working in secret, masons, welders, and metallurgist created an earthen replication of the famous Elven bow that was Barton's calling card. It stood on a base of onyx and granite fashioned in the now-famous landmark of Hawkeye's Keel. One of the bow limbs, formed from silver and black titanium attached to the granite keel on a 45-degree angle, with the upper limb rising off and to the right. A special designed elven arrow stretched between the spun metal string.
The donors completed the work in secret, then surprised the world when one day they delivered it to the front drive way of Clint's old training range. Kate Bishop, Hawkeye's protégé, came out as the sponsor of the entire project.
The world watched its unveiling. Equally surprised at the gesture of appreciation, the Avengers caught the news segment by chance. Thor, nearly recovered from his wounds, left at once to join the celebration. He stood at the podium someone brought along, waited as the crowd grew quiet, and tearfully echoed the Avengers' appreciation at the kindness showed to them.
Tony couldn't listen to the words Thor shared. He had to walk away, disappear to his room, sit on the bed, and grab the old picture of Clint. He'd been there ever since.
"Thor electrified the entire statue in some special way. It glows now. It's really quite beautiful. His signal brought others. Fehreh's been on Asgard, helping their kingdom's transition before she goes back to Alfheimr. She came through the Bifrost and somehow changed the lightning into orbs, like fireflies. They just circle it all over. Spinning in all sorts of colors," Pepper whispered.
"She's queen again, isn't she?" Tony chanced to ask, allowing his attention to change off of his pain.
"I think so. You weren't around for five years because of what that stupid Gauntlet did. As far as all of Alfheimr knew, the realm had just vanished, like all of you had. They sent ships and searched, and no one ever found it. It was just there one day and gone the next. The Elves almost gave up on us. Fehreh had faith, though. Faith in Rinon and faith in Clint. She kept everyone going. She was the only one left beside Arahaelel, the crowned queen. They sort of ruled together. Alfheimr lost almost all of its leaders during that last fight when Clint . . ."
Tony knew that too. Simply presiding over Clint's death and the deaths of so many of his nation, was all it took for the elder Doodle Bygrove to reach the bitter end of what his body might have suffer through. He was laid to rest in the forest of Woodrenkell, among the remnant of his kin, in the old great tree that had once been his home for four millennia. Many thought Fehreh hadn't returned home because she couldn't yet face it. Ruling alone without her soul mate, her ei-koh as the elves called it, was enough to destroy any heart. Tony could understand her delays. In many ways, he didn't want to come home either. He wanted to avoid walking by Clint's room every morning and evening, knowing that it would never be occupied again. He occasionally caught himself reaching for the door jamb, as if to knock before letting himself in.
"I'll go tomorrow," Tony whispered, trying to forget that empty room. "Clint would be there for me. It's my turn to be there for him."
;_;
poor Tony
Brothers forever.
please review!