amy. .9: I will forever cackle evilly! How very astute of you. he wouldn't be Clint anymore without his memories. In that case, who would he be?
Ms. Hawkeye: I will, and I shall, and there he goes!
discordchick: Poor, Poor Faraday. i do love him so. And this will explain why they have been apart for so long. But what a twist! The forgetfulness!
5mairer: More Postings! YAY! I hope you did eventually finish your essay:) Still holding your breath? yes? good! Here you go, and breathe again!
Fury-Natalia: HAHAHA, yes, that dastardly memory loss!
The Spoiled Duchess: DAW! Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it!
JRBarton: Nope, never gone through enough. I do love to torture him!
Quiet-raindrop: HAHAHAHAHA! I love it. So, Clint was alive and is forgetful, and deaf. Dear Lord, this is bad.
Chapter 54
Silence. It permeated like a living organism, stretching its back and letting tendrils search out to seal the mouths of those in the room. Early on, some sank down into the mattresses to better absorb the weight of what had been laid on them. None had moved since. The tale that Rinon had spun for the Avengers, filled them with a kind of fear, anger too, but mostly confusion.
They had felt Clint's death in their hearts. They experienced that tear, as fragile as paper, and as strong as a steel beam. Clint's influence in their lives, ripped away so suddenly. His strength, lost. His friendship, gone forever. They were beyond hope. How could they hold onto it in the wake of the evidence before them?
Thor himself dropped into those depths to find what might remain of Clint. He saw the walls painted in blood, the cascade of arrows, and torn flesh and bones. He'd been scarred by the experience of that violence. He returned to them, only after destroying that place. He refused to allow any others the same horrible vision that he must forever endure. Asgard buried Clint. Midgard celebrated his life and his sacrifice. He was a hero before, but now he was more than that. Clint Barton was a legend. Someone that the human race might achieve to be. He was a man, and yet not. If Clint Barton, orphan carnival boy, could leave his criminal past behind and become an Avenger, anyone could.
Rinon didn't know what his reveal might do to the team. Tony might wish to kill him while Pepper struck his face. Natasha may never forgive him. Thor would be hurt, perhaps sever their alliance. Bruce might Hulk out and destroy half the city in his rage. Steve – Rinon could go on imagining what they may do to him. He'd run through the scenario often enough.
"You saw him," Natasha whispered. Everyone shook out of their own shocked states when she spoke.
Rinon had grown weaker during his retelling of Barton's grand adventure. He sank against the back of the chair, holding his bleeding side. "Yes," he told her.
"Just now. In the vision of our daughter." At the mention of Alice, Natasha held the child a little closer. Natasha was desperate to know. Rinon came to them hoping that there was no baby. Then there might have been a chance that Clint returned to them and had a family. Coming, finding Alice born already, only meant that Barton was a father, not that he had anything to do with her life afterwards. Would he even live to see that life?
"You know why I have kept him hidden from you," Rinon began with.
Natasha stood again. Everyone seemed to move at once. Bruce had to pace. Tony stood by the window, solid as a statue, but with a quake of emotion rocking through him. Pepper stood beside him and leaned into his back. The tears streaming down her face, touched their baby's blanket. Steve's patience nearly shattered, waiting to hear the verdict, but Thor attempted to support him – or was it himself?
"I understand that," Natasha told him. She came closer, bending down by his knee. Rinon's strength was failing him. He'd been away too long from the Untamed Caves. He had to go back, or risk losing his life. "Please, tell me. I don't blame you, I can't. I might want to, I'm angry, but I could never have been in the position you wanted to hide from me. To know that he's alive, just so I could sit next to him while he forgot? While he died? I wouldn't have survived that. But you did tell us, you came all this way thinking you might have to tell us. Does that mean you saw a future for him? Please, Rinon, I have to know."
The elf reached a hand to her face, and dragged the tear that escaped her eye away. A faint smile upturned his lips. "Alice will know her father."
Natasha gasped. She closed her eyes, pulling her baby closer as if, somehow, the child might understand the future to come. Tony fell forward against the window. He pressed his forehead into the air-conditioned glass as his body fell weak with joy. He couldn't hold himself up. His knees buckled, sank out from under him, and before he knew it, he was braced against the radiator with Pepper clinging to his neck and Benjamin between them.
"I did not know at first. I saw your child, and I thought the worst. Alfheimr had the Tesseract. I could not risk its use. I feared, if Heimdall took us through the Bifrost, he might see why. He might know," Rinon went on to explain, as the team fell into a joyful, shocked, hysteric silence. "I thought I was wrong. I thought I had come all this way for nothing. I saw them together, dancing in the fields of Alfheimr. Her blond hair, bouncing on his shoulder as they walked through their home. I saw him in your arms in the coolness of a night beneath a cascade of stars. He will live, and I will bring you to him. He has been long enough out of the company of . . ." Rinon's voice weakened, grew small, and all at once, his body fell inward. He sank to the side, his head supported by his once-shattered arm.
In the midst of trying to control his emotions, Bruce watched the change. Natasha lifted her head, and grabbed Rinon's knee as if to rouse him, but the elf didn't move. Bruce sailed forward. He placed his hand along the elf's neck to find a pulse. Tony fought through his own introspection to watch. Had Rinon come all this way, only to die?
"No," Thor whispered, settling to his side. He delicately supported Rinon's head in his hands, and looked to Bruce for any signs of hope. At first, Bruce said nothing. His face was dark and grave. He retreated to his bag, found a stethoscope, and inserted the ends into his ears. He ran the bell over the bandages on Rinon's chest.
"Is he...?" Steve dared to ask.
Bruce removed the ear pieces and indicated the bed. "He isn't dead. We need to lay him down. Maybe I can do something for these." He meant the wounds. Facing them, dealing with those mortal injuries, was a much easier acceptance than the emotion that came with the news of Barton's survival. If he wasn't careful, the Hulk might want to celebrate too early, and destroy half the hospital. The big green had the same kinship with Barton, that every other living being they encountered, had. He might hold him in for now, but it wouldn't be for long.
Steve and Thor wordlessly attended the task. The unconscious Rinon was moved to the bed. Steve went for Dr. Castillo, and Bruce used Thor to help him undress the elf's wounds. Tony stayed by the window, still too overcome to imagine moving. Pepper left Benjamin in his arms, and approached the end of the bed with Natasha. When the wraps came off, Pepper wished that she hadn't been so curious. The long stripes of torn flesh remained, despite the layers of muscle attempting to fuse together. A paper-thin layer of something, separated the negative pressure in his chest from the outside world, but still they could see into him like a window. His lung was intact, at least, but two of his ribs were held together by little more that paste and prayer. The edges seeped occasionally in blood and red plasma.
Bruce took a step back. This was what 'healed' looked like? A full six, seven months in the healing air and careful attention of the superior elven race, and this was as far as his healing took him in that time. Castillo appeared, surprised but delighted to be at their service. Seeing an elf, though, brought her pause. Seeing Rinon's injuries, made her gasp.
"Heaven on earth!" she breathed, hovering her hands over him, but afraid to touch. The stripes circled around his back. The white sheets stained with the blood from there. She looked at Steve and Thor. "I want to see behind him. Turn him gently. Doctor, my side?" Bruce rounded the bed to come. They gave a sign to the Avengers, and Rinon was lifted.
"Right to his spine," Bruce remarked. "Alright, place him down. He said his arm was shattered. The right one. Can you feel anything?"
Castillo took Rinon's hand, and expertly ran over every one of his bones, calling out the injuries as she came across them. "Wrist was fractured. Three bones in his hands. Four – no – five fracture lines in his arm. His elbow. Oh God, Bruce, feel this."
Bruce replaced her hands with his own, and gently palpated Rinon's upper arm. He felt at least three distinct shards of bone resting in a swollen, fibrous jumble. He had more experience with elves than Castillo. Over time, those shards would move closer, fuse together, and return to the seamless bone they had once been. "This is years of work. He has a very long recovery still ahead."
Castillo took over again. "This will heal?"
"You'd be surprised the things I've heard. And I've tested the Untamed Caves personally. I don't know exactly what it does, besides act as a massive hyperbaric chamber. Elves heal the fastest when they stay there. Rinon's risked everything by leaving," Bruce told her.
Castillo looked up. "Why did he come?"
Bruce started to say, but stopped. He looked at Steve, wondering if it was safe to tell her. In the end, they did not. Castillo didn't take it as a slight. The Avengers had their secrets, even from her. It was something that reminded her that these individuals were a closed group. They were dynamic in a way that no other superhero team could compare with. They weren't together out of necessity, sick pleasure, or for justice alone. They were a family. They argued, fought, ran away, came back, married, had children. Their core and hearts were forever entwined like an eternal celtic cross. She didn't ask again.
"I'll wrap this, try and keep him stable. If the Untamed Caves are what you say, then he needs to get back there right away."
Thor took over in an instant. He threw his arm to the side, calling Mjolnir, who had no problem at all shattering the hospital window to make him an escape. Castillo opened her mouth to reprimand him, but closed it. It wasn't any use, she realized. "I will inform Heimdall. And I will comb the city for the ship that contains his queen and Reylano. We will make ready at once!"
I have been on call for seventy two hours. I think I might start licking wall paper.
please review!