The recruitment of Hawkeye

by JAZTEXTTEN

Summary:

The Avengers were formed slowly, , Natasha was sent to watch over Tony Stark making sure he didn't do anything stupid. Captain Rogers was thawed under the watchful eye of Shiled and then continued to serve his country in what ever way he could. Thor seemed rather captivated with human life in earth and found himself frequently here and using his godly powers to protect people. Doctor Bruce Banner while for a long time was hunted by Shiled until the leading agent of that team got close enough to him to realize he was more than a monster helped Shield on occasion mostly science related but sometimes as the hulk.

The five of them were often made to work together either by order of Fury and Coulson or because they were in the area and couldn't help themselves from assisting. So Tony being that man he is would invite them over for parties, or to show them upgrades he made or wants to make to their suits. While he is horrible at following orders he seems happy to be in a team, to be depended on and have someone to depend on.

———

How i imagine the Avengers coming together if the attack on New York never happened.

Chapter 1

   The Avengers were formed slowly, Natasha was sent to watch over Tony Stark making sure he didn't do anything stupid. Captain Rogers was thawed under the watchful eye of Shiled and then continued to serve his country in whatever way he could. Thor seemed rather captivated with human life on earth and found himself frequently here and using his godly powers to protect people. Doctor Bruce Banner while for a long time was hunted by Shield until the leading agent of that team got close enough to him to realize he was more than a monster helped Shield on occasion mostly science related but sometimes as the Hulk. 

   The five of them were often made to work together either by order of Fury and Coulson or because they were in the area and couldn't help themselves from assisting. So Tony being the man he is would invite them over for parties, or to show them upgrades he made or wants to make to their suits. While he is horrible at following orders he seems happy to be in a team, to be depended on, and have someone to depend on. 

   Tony heard about this one particular Shield agent in passing. He was hosting another party and several agents were there having a good time along with several celebrities and other super individuals. Tony didn't too think much of it (at least by Tony's standards) when he heard it,

   "Yeah, I got my ass kicked by Phil's boy in the ring last night." The agent explained when Maria asked about a bruise on his face. 

   Tony went looking for Phil, he didn't know Coulson had a kid! Or at the very least an agent he held as close as he did Natasha. Though he couldn't find the man. After that, it slipped his mind. He was drunk and didn't quite recall the overheard conversation.

---

   The next time he heard about this agent he was actually in the Shield Helicarrier. He was walking with Steve arguing about... he couldn't even remember now. 

   "The suites boy will be back soon." Said the male agent Tony didn't know the name of. 

   "Are we getting the usual med team or did he manage to not get blown up this time?" The other agent said with a chuckle yet the question was one he seriously had to ask. 

   "He said he's fine... so Coulson will probably have to call them in an hour." The first one replied with a little laugh. 

   "Tony!" Steve called from a few feet ahead. 

   "Yeah yeah, I'm coming Mom!" Tony replied sarcastically. 

---

   The third time Tony heard anything about him was from Pepper. They were getting ready for bed and she said, 

   "Coulson is coming for a visit in the morning." 

   Tony was a little confused as he hadn't heard about anything that would require a visit from Agent Agent, "why? Is the world ending or something?" 

   "No, not this time at least. He's bringing his boy over to return a book I lent him." Pepper answered with a smile and a kiss on Tony's cheek. 

   "OK, who is his boy? And why did you lown him a book?" Tony asked a little more confused as to how he hasn't heard much about this boy and that he is close enough with Pepper to be loaned a book. 

   Pepper rarely lets anyone else read her books, she doesn't trust them not to fold the pages or break the spines or something else along those lines. Hearing that she let this agent he hasn't met or even heard much of was odd and made him worry a little. 

   "His name is Clint, he's one of Phil's agents and is here somewhere every time Phil is. I'm not surprised you haven't met him Phil says he's rather shy." 

   "And how did you meet him?" Tony asked before he thought about what to say next. 

   "I saw him talking with Nat in the cafeteria. Natasha waved me over and introduced us, he's a sweet boy. We frequently talk while you are talking with Phil." She responded pulling Tony to the bed. 

   "How old is he? Everyone keeps calling him a boy." Tony asked a little concerned thinking that maybe Shield let a child get blown up enough times for it to be a funny question to ask. 

   "He's 27, only two years younger than Nat, Tony. No need to worry about him he's capable of handling himself." 

   So Tony did temporarily stop worrying about it. Finding out that it wasn't really a kid out there being an agent and that he was close with Natasha eased a lot of his fears. He trusts Natasha a lot. 

   In the morning after a relatively good sleep, Tony had decided to run out and go to the coffee shop down the road instead of getting coffee from the break rooms or cafeteria. He flew there in his suite as he normally would. Taking it off as he landed outside the building. As he turned to walk into the building he bumps into a man getting Ice coffee spilled on both of them. 

   "Oh, Shit! I'm so sorry, sir." The young blonde man Tony had bumped into said quickly. 

   "No, no. It's alright, my fault I wasn't paying attention" Tony said shaking his head a little, looking at the green-eyed man. 

   "Let me get some napkins, Mr.Stark." The man said turning in a way that shows the purple hearing aid that looks like it has seen better days. 

   Tony followed him inside and the two got cleaned up as much as they could. 

   "I'll buy you a new drink," Tony said not really an offer it was more a statement. 

   "No, I really shouldn't have bought it in the first place. That would have been my.." he paused to think for a moment. "Seventeenth cup of coffee." He cringed a little when he said it. 

   "Damn, I can't say I'm much better." Tony chuckled. 

   The man in front of him has a bright smile that could light up a room and laugh to match, "I'll see ya' later Mr.Stark." and with that, he left and Tony didn't think too much about it. 

   Tony ordered his drink, waited for his name to be called, and went back up to the counter to pay and take his drink. He reached into his pocket to find both his phone and wallet were gone. 

   God damn it. 

 That man had planned to bump into him to steal his things. He's damn good at it too Tony didn't realize they were gone and Jarvis didn't alert him to it either. 

Chapter 2

Summary:

THIS IS THE START OF A REWRITE! I SCRAPPED MOST OF WHAT HAD BEEN IN THIS CHAPTER ALONG WITH ALL PREVIOUS CHAPTERS! ⚠️

With that aside I hope you enjoy! 💛

   Tony got back with a coffee in hand after tipping the coffee shop a hundred dollars online. He walks into the lobby to find Coulson talking with Pepper and the blonde man walking away from them. He waved at both of them as he headed to the bathroom. Tony almost went to follow him when Pepper waved him over. 

   "Hey, who the hell is that blonde guy?" Tony asked a little bit pissed off. 

   "That's Clint, also here's your phone and wallet back," Coulson says holding it out to Tony before remembering he doesn't like being handed things and he just sets them down. 

   Tony picks them up and checks his wallet. Nothing is missing not a single dollar, not his license, not his credit cards how ever he does find a new card has been placed inside it. One with a little drawing with near to no detail. It has big eyes and ears, no mouth, but scribbled on blushy cheeks, the hair was also scribbled on but in a neatish way, the little guy was in a big hoodie and holding a bow with a little quiver of arrows on its back.

   "Ok?" Tony said a little confused, why take a rich guy's wallet and do nothing but put a silly little drawing in?

   "That is a goober, Clint's goober to be exact, and according to him, and I quote 'I goobed Tony Stark simply because I could.' So do with that what you will." Coulson said like this was a normal thing like this kind of thing happened all the time. 

   Pepper laughed a little while Tony just looked flabbergasted and very confused. The more he found out about this guy the weirder he seemed. 

   "OK. What the fuck is a goober and what the fuck is goobing?" Tony pressed. 

   "That's a goober and him taking your stuff to put him there was you getting goobed." The Agent responded with a sigh, "he's odd but damn good at his job and fairly good company." 

   "He's a sweetheart, but yeah very very strange. Though you can't say anything about that mister tin can." Pepper defended before Tony could make a bad and likely offensive joke or comment. 

   For some odd reason, perhaps it was the pure confusion of the moment the only thing Tony could force himself to say was, "he's deaf right? Hard of hearing at least. I saw his hearing aids while at the coffee shop." 

    "Yeah, lost his hearing in an accident. Anyway, I best get going before he gets bored of sitting in Lola." Coulson says getting a hug from Pepper and patting Tony's shoulder 

---

   After that, Tony was finding these goobers everywhere. In the files Coulson would bring for him the little goober could be found fighting ninja goobers or even just shooting random words on the pages with the little bow it had. Tony would find them drawn on sticky notes and stuck to his tablet, computer, and even one of his suites. 

   He has asked all the other Avengers about them and they have said that they also have been finding the little goober. Well other than Natasha who just laughed and said that it was just Clint being an idiot again. 

   So after three months of this, Tony decided to finally look into Clint properly. Logging into the Shield archives and finding his file. 

   Most of it was redacted though he found his full name, Clinton Francis Barton poor guy has a shitty name bet his parents hated him. What surprised him the most was he had direct contact with all of the Avengers before they were ever the Avengers. He recruited Natasha while on a mission in Budapest but he couldn't see much other than the name of the country and that it was the recruitment of Natasha. He watched Steve as he thawed alongside Maria and two other agents. He was the leader of the Shield team that was hunting the Hulk, he held an arrow to both him and Thor before deciding that shooting them would be a bad idea.

   He has been in hundreds of missions and very few of them have been failures. While his medical record is long enough to cover four football fields he's done a lot of good work. Tony spent several hours reading what he could on this Hawkeye guy before the code name clicked in his brain. 

   The Amazing Hawkeye was a name of a little boy in the circus, a trick shot alongside his older brother. Said brother had been killed in a shoot-out while the younger ended up hospitalized, no one has heard anything of the case since then. Tiny couldn't remember the boys' names and figured it had just been a coincidence. But he couldn't stop himself from digging deeper, he looked into the shooting case. Part of him wished he hadn't. It was a dark rabbit hole, pictures of a dead young boy shot to death and his younger brother Clinton Barton in a hospital bed scared out of his mind. 

   Tony couldn't imagine what it was like. He shook the thought from his mind and turned off his holograms, a sigh left his mouth. Red flashed around him along with the loud noise. The alarm telling him he is needed, he stood up and ran a hand through his hair he couldn't get the image of a sacred ten-year-old boy in a hospital room hooked up to so many things. Tony knows he didn't consent to those pictures being taken of him, even if he did he likely didn't understand what was going on around him. 

   Tony felt bad about it but it also reminded him of how he felt around his father. The pure terror, his suit builds around him, and flies out. 

   "Jarvis, what's going on?" Tony asked his voice shook a little. 

   "Hydra is attacking Harlem, sir." The AI informed. 

   "Alright, is the team there or...?" 

   "They are on their way, may I suggest taking a few breaths, sir? You seem a little distracted." Jarvis says. 

   "I'm alright, J." 

---

   The fight wasn't going well. They couldn't get the situation contained, and Natasha has take a bullet to the thigh. Though she wasn't walking when it happened and hasn't touched the ground since the fight started using her flying bike to get to the rooftops. 

   They were spread too thin, across the entire city. Things weren't going well. 

   Tony watched as a man dressed in black Shield uniform pants a once white T-shirt and a pair of purple Convers jump from a building bow in hand upside-down free falling. 

   He shoots the four men behind Tony before using a zip-line arrow the swing into a building across the street. He runs and jumps out the other side as Tony turns the corner. Tony catches him by his ankle. The blonde smiles up at him and waves. 

   Tony speaks the blonde doesn't acknowledge it. 

   "Sir. It appears agent Barton doesn't have his hearing aids." Jarvis informed. 

  "Ahh that makes sense," Tony says as he sets Clint on the ground and lands. His face plate opens. 

   "What are you doing here?" Tony asked he spoke a little slower just to make sure Clint understood but not slow enough to seem like a dick about it. 

   "I was in the city and you guys were getting your asses kicked. Thought you could use the help." He shrugged. 

   "Where's your aids? Fighting without one of your senses is dangerous you won't be able to hear what's beh-" Tony raised his hand to blast the guy behind Clint just to have the archer beat him to it. 

   "I haven't been able to hear since I was four. I've gone on several missions without my aids, I think I'll be fine. Thanks for the concern though." The smiles brightly and runs off to find a good perch. 

---

   After the fight, the blonde man said hi to all of them before picking Natasha up as she insisted she could walk and he just ignored her even though he knew what she was saying. He left with her taking her to Shield to get patched up. 

   The team all looked at each other, 

   "Who was that?" Steve asked the three men around him. 

   "His name is Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye. Natasha's mission partner." Jarvis explains. 

---

   Since that interaction, none of the Avengers aside from Natasha have seen Clint in person. Though Tony has found himself asking about the man's well-being every so often over the course of three months. 

   They have all started to find the little goobers in places and they all find it funny and cute. The little guy fighting things around the tower or their homes. Though at first, it worried them that the man had broken into their houses at first before remembering that Natasha trusts the man and they didn't need to worry. The only one of them that didn't find goobers in their home was Thor, considering Clint can't get to Asgard.

   So it was a surprise when Steve had actually seen the man again. Agent Barton walking around the SHIELD base with a purpose, and yet after watching the agent for a little while Rogers was able to determine the man wasn't doing anything but walking in circles. Wasting time, waiting more likely. 

   Steve debated on aproching the man but after about thirty minutes of watching him walk the same route none stop he was a little to intrigued. 

   "Watching the suits boy too?" A familiar voice spoke from behind him, it was Natasha. 

   "Yeah. What is he doing?" Rogers asked the woman. 

   "Waiting in Coulson to get out of a meeting. He probably has sensitive information, or gossip. No if it was gossip he would have told me or Pepper first... unless somes pregnant." She answered thoughtfully as Clint walked passed them again and down the corridor to the left. 

   "If it is intel isn't their protocol for this?" Steve asked knowing there was. 

   "Yeah, but Clints a special case. Well he gets special missions and thus often gets to bend or out right ignor most protocol." 

   Steve hums and nods, "so, why are you here?" He asked Nat who punched him in the arm. 

   "I work here." She responded, "waiting on my partner." 

   It took twice as long this time for Clint to circle back and find where Natasha was standing. He smiled brightly at her, too bright in Steve's opinion. You don't smile like that unless you're lying to yourself. 

   "Ready to run?" Nat asked, they stood a little too close to eachother. 

   "Yup, if you are." He stated and looked over at Steve for a moment. 

   He waves, studying the Captain. 

   "You look a lot better when you aren't a block of ice, Captain. It was good seeing you again." He said the same tone and body language as an old friend. 

   "Yeah, good seeing you, Agent." Steve said with a little nod. 

---

   Natasha was gone on this mission for the next week before the Avengers had been informed that things had gone wrong. A week, that SHIELD had known before they were told things had gone wrong. They were all a little pissed.

Notes:

I hope you all have enjoyed so far! I think this work is rather fun a goofy to write. Ps. If you don't know what a goober is go to Tic Toc's search bar and look up how to draw one. I think there fun to make and Clint definitely would draw them all the time.

Chapter 3

Notes:

Sooooo I really dont have an excuse for why this took so long to get done. I just didn't really want to write anything. But the brain worms are back and im in the mood to write.

Anyways, this chapter on is a rewrite of this fic, just wanted to remind everyone again.

   S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't been the one to tell the Avengers something went wrong. No, it was an anonymous phone call from a number Tony couldn't trace. It was a ransom call, 

   "Anthony Stark, pay us 2,000,000 dollars and we'll let your friend miss Romanoff go." 

   Was the bare bones of the call. Of course Tony had recorded the call and sent it to the rest of the team. Now they all sat in the war room of the tower listening to the call. Not so much the person that had been talking to them but the background of the call. Yelling, a familiar voice, Hawkeye. It had to be, he's Natasha's mission partner and who she had left with a week ago. 

   He was yelling, cursing but it couldn't be made out exactly what was being said. 

   "Tony, can you enhance the audio and cut out everything but the background noise?" Steve requested,

   "Yeah, its going to take a while 2 hours maybe. Go ahead and take a copy of the call to S.H.I.E.L.D see if they know anything about this." Tony said. 

   Bruce stays behind to assist Tony while Thor and Steve went to S.H.I.E.L.D. Thor had only gone because he had grown restless. The sky turned a nasty shade of gray that promised a storm. 

   The god and super soldier walked onto the S.H.I.E.L.D base with purpose, enough of it that anyone with half a brain moved out of their way. The pair had gone straight to Coulson's office in hopes the man knew anything. Phil doesnt even look up from his desk, 

   "I take it the Avengers found out the mission went bad?" He spoke calmly, the kind of calm the said he had everything under control. 

   "Yes we did." Steve answered speaking also calmly escalating any situation with S.H.I.E.L.D has never gone over smoothly. 

   Steve found things worked out best when he played into S.H.I.E.L.D rather than against them. Thor on the other hand was an angry god, he held the kind of fury no mortal man could stop. 

   "Where is lady Natasha!?" Thor demanded the answer immediately, the sky booming along with his voice. 

   "We don't know. We lost contact with them the moment they got to the mission area." Coulson explained finally looking up from whatever he had been working on. 

   "And exfil? Did they make it to the extraction point?" Steve pushed for more intel, he needed to know more. 

   If their exfil had been intercepted before they got there or if they had gotten to exfil but never made it home are two very telling things that explain two options. 

   "There was no exfil. There never is for the two of them, they find their own way out." Phil said with the confidence of a man who had seen the two of them get out of plenty of situations all on their own.

    This, this small detail is what gets Steve all fired up. Rogers knows he has to be level headed most of the time, to be a trusted leader he have to keep your cool. However sometimes, like now, he just couldn't.

   "What do you mean they didn't... they don't have a exfil?" Steve's voice took a low seething tone. Like he genuinely might pop a blood vessel out of rage. 

   "They work black sites, exfil is to dangerous most times. They will be fine. They'll come home." Coulson says, a vague answer that tells bother the god and the captain that S.H.I.E.L.D will be of no help to them.

   Steve left Thor following in toe. The two were both fuming, barely confined rage Steve wanted to beat the living hell out of both Fury and Coulson for this but he knew he couldn't. Not right now at least. 

---

   Natasha could handle torture, physical and emotional and whatever else the twisted men of the world could think up. She knows this, she also knows that her partner, Clint couldn't handle it. 

   The physical torture was all fine and dandy by Clint, pain was normal for him and has been his entire life, its the mental part he couldn't handle. Nat she knows this, she know that is exactly why Clint took the beatings for her, not because she couldn't handle it but because he couldn't. Seeing her get hurt would hurt him worse than any physical blow, Natasha can handle seeing him hurt, seeing him get tortured while she wasn't able to help him. 

   That's why, he knows that she can take what he can't, so he takes the beatings, the water boarding, the nail pulling, threats of cutting fingers and toes off. The promise of S.H.I.E.L.D intelligence kept the men intrigued and focused on Clint, the only use Natasha seemed to serve them was money from Tony. She had heard the call, the demand for ransom. She knew she couldnt get out of this, not alone, not with Clint in the condition he's in. Not with the weather early winter in Siberia promised. So she does the only thing she could think to do and just hope it could be heard over Clint's screams of pain and shouted taunts at these men.

---

   Tony and Bruce worked their asses off, cutting and splicing and amplifying the audio the call gave them. Clint sounded pissed and in pain but it was resistant, stubborn. Tony knew just from his voice that the suits boy wouldn't break. 

   It took 2 hours as promised, well technically 1 hour and 57 minutes but really the only one who noticed was Tony himself. But the background of the call revealed some rhythmic banging, obviously it was morse code Tony and Bruce while not actually knowing morse code could tell this. 

   "Steve, we've got something." Bruce said finding Steve trying to cool off in the gym. 

   Several poor innocent punching bags lay on the floor, the victims of America's golden boy.

   "What is it?" Steve asked, all that anger he felt, he kept it from his voice. He couldn't... no he wouldn't let them see him break l, not until this was all over with. 

   Not until Natasha was back at home.

   Tony plays the recoding for Steve knowing that Rogers knows morse code. Most messages during the man's time were sent coded after all. The captain listened three times, his decoding skills were rusty since Nat typically did this for them now. To be fair Jarvis could have done it too, probably would have been quicker but this gave Steve something to do to be useful.

   "Siberia, they're coordinates to Siberia." Steve said pensively.

   Within minutes they were all geared up and ready to go. They were in one of the quin jets the coordinates typed into the GPS. Steve was hardly holding himself together, the last time he lost anyone it had been Bucky, the last close call to loosing anyone had also been Bucky. This wasn't exactly an easy situation for anyone but the memories it evoked in Steve made it worse, harder to focus. 

   If Steve saw someone acting the way he felt he never would have cleared them for this mission. To be fair though, this wasnt exactly sanctioned so there was no being cleared for it anyways. 

   It was the beginnings of winter, winter in Russia has never been a pleasant thing, its common knowledge. Now was no exception, thick fresh snow already on the ground, wind howling around them. The graying clouds promised more snow, it would be best if they got in and out before it started to fall. 

   The Avengers stood outside a small bunker that was in the middle of a Siberia woodland. The three men left Doctor Banner in the jet in hopes they wouldn't need him but he's there just in case. 

---

   Natasha could handle this, that doesn't mean she enjoyed it. Watching her closest friend take a beating, of course he's had much worse than this before. These are a bunch of mercenaries that at some point Clint or Natasha (possibly both) have pissed off, well pissed off whom ever was paying them.

   "Fuck you! I've met toddlers that hit harder than you!" Clint yelled, aggravating the men keeping them focused on him. 

   Natasha knows why, the moment he sees these men lay their hands on her he'd break. This wasnt the plan, the information they were sent to get wasnt something these highered guns would know. They weren't even involved, there had to be some kind of leak, they knew were they would be for this mission. 

   They lost contact with S.H.I.E.L.D right when they were dropped off, normal for these kinds of shadow operations. No contact, no uniforms, no tracing them back to S.H.I.E.L.D. So to everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D's knowledge they got caught by their target, this had been a move they made on purpose, or perhaps they think the bad weather made getting back to base harder. No one would ever suspect third party involvement. 

   They have been here for three days, the first day they were just tied up and watched closely. Chairs bolted to the floor, metal so they wouldn't break, rope that was checked every 10 to fifteen minutes and tightened every time they struggled. These men were given very specific instructions. Of course Natasha could still easily have escaped the bonds but the heavy snow fall that night would make getting anywhere after that impossible she chose to stay. 

   The second night the men decided they could get information or at the very least have some fun with them. Clint engaged with them, antagonizing them, playing into their egos and fragile masculinity to keep their minds and hands on him. Natasha is a strong woman but carrying a 6'3 man through thick snow with low visibility through unknown terrain would be nearly impossible. The employer wanted them alive so there was no worry of being killed here. Natasha was just going to wait it out, wait until the transport then make the escape, steal what ever vehicle they were being moved in. 

   That would have taken time, she knows Clint can hold out, he's had worse, endured worse than this for much longer, but being water borded in such a cold bunker wasnt pleasant she knew this, she also knew broken ribs and dislocated fingers hurt like a bitch. They could handle this but they wouldn't like it. Clint knew he didn't have to worry about coming up with an escape plan because she had that covered, he could focus on just enduring the physical torture. 

   The call, these mercenaries were dumb enough to think they could make an extra thousand or so amongst each other if they called Tony Stark, if they tried to ransom here. As if Tony would ever pay, as if he wouldn't trace the call and come here himself to get her. With what little mobility she currently had she kicked the leg of the chair into their coordinates, well as closely as she could figure out with what little information these men knew. 

   She knew they were coming, the Avengers would come and they would get them out. Sure it wasnt necessary, they could have gotten out on their own but this would be much quicker, much more reliable that the bare bones of a plan she could make with such little information. 

   That was four hours ago, she could hear noises down the hall, a fight. They were here, and just based on the sound of near constant thunder, they were pissed. 

   Clint was slumped over in his chair, they had beaten him pretty good this time, brass knuckles the the ribs and stomach, water boarding. He was exhausted, they hardly let him sleep, she was also exhausted couldnt sleep in this environment. She knew she should but she couldn't not while she could hear his pain filled yells. 

   When Steve rushed in it wasn't the instant relief that he saw on Natasha's face like he had expected. No it was something else entirely, concern and worry. 

   "Get him first, get him first." She said almost pleadingly. 

   Steve cared for Clint, but only as much as he cared for any other agent he doesn't know, he went to Natasha first. Zero hesitation in his action, he hadn't even glanced at Clint yet. 

    Captain America rips the rope off of BlackWidow and before he has the chance to look her over Nat is pushing him away slight as she rushed to the chair across the room from her. 

   She could handle what she saw, she didn't like it but she could take it, she did take it. She would for the rest of their lives, she would take what ever he couldn't and he would take what ever she couldn't. Neither of them would ever enjoy it but they trusted each other, relied on each other in a way that the red room would never approve of. It was a weakness and she knew why she Natasha just didn't care. Not when her shoulder didn't have to bare her own weight all the time. 

   She was on her knees in front of Cint within the very second of being freed from the ropes. She lifted his face up, 

   "Clint? Hey, hey come on sit up." She spoke normally, not soft or loud, just how she would speak to him any other day at any other time. 

   Clint wasn't conscious, that was perhaps a good thing. Natasha pushed him to sit back against the chair as she untied the knots on his wrists and ankles. Steve had stepped closer to help but Natasha just shook her head. 

   "I've got him." Her voice was firm, sure of this one fact.

   She has him.

   There was no doubt, not now, not anytime before now, and never will there ever be a time where she doesn't have him so long as she lives.

   Natasha doesn't accept help carrying him even when they got outside to see fresh snow falling. No, he doesn't trust them yet. Even though Natasha might trust them with Clint she knows that he doesn't trust them. She would never put him in hands he doesn't trust. 

   Natasha sat on the jet, Clint's head pillowed in her lap, Bruce came over with the first aid kit he might not be that kind of doctor but he does spend enough time with Cho to know a few things. 

   "Don't touch him." Natasha snapped, she hadn't ment to sound so harsh, her friends were just trying to help, "please." Shd said much softer just a second later. 

   "Nat, he needs-" Bruce didn't even get the chance to finish before Natasha shook her head, 

   "I know, I know. He'll be fine though, just get us back to S.H.I.E.L.D." she spoke calmly, softly, but calmly. 

   Natasha wasnt worried about Clint's physical well-being but more so his mental well-being. She knew letting anyone treat his wounds if he didn't trust them wouldn't go over well, he'd freak out. He has a singular medical team he trusts that was all. 

   The two hour flight back to New York was quite. No one knew what to say, there was nothing. The Avengers have never seen Natasha like this before, they dont know if she's hurt or not. There wasnt much they could do even if she was. She seemed ok though.

   Clint on the other hand, he was visibly hurt. Bruises and busted lips, blood on his shirt, broken nose. More hidden under said blood stained shirt but Nat wouldn't let them help. 

    When the jet landed Natasha picked Clint up, a slight struggle due to him being larger than her by quite a bit, it wasnt really how much he weighed that made it difficult. 

   "I'll be by the tower for dinner." She said without looking back at them as she stepped off the jet.

Notes:

I hope you all enjoy stay safe and drink water!!💛💛