Rumor Has It: Avengers Fanfiction

By: Katerinaki

Published: December 27, 2014

Beta'ed: No

Notes: It's a pittance, I know. Especially after almost a year and a half without. I'm desperately trying to push through the end of this story and finish it out. Any words in support or critic would be welcome. And if you've stuck with me this long, I'm truly grateful.

-Katerinaki

Part 10:

He'd felt worse, but not by much. His whole body felt like it'd been run over by a few semis and then tossed around by the Hulk. His legs in particular felt stiff and as he tried to move them, they barely responded. He thought maybe he could wiggle his toes.

"Well, look who's finally up." Nick Fury stepped into Clint's line of sight and he did not look happy. Of course, Nick Fury rarely looked happy, but over the years Clint had come to distinguish his normal scowl from true anger or annoyance.

"Have a nice field trip?"

" W'happened?" Clint slurred.

"You damn near died! No, you did die, three times; all because you disobeyed a direct order to remain at the tower so you could go see a girl!"

"Sure beats looking at your ugly mug." And there was Stark. Clint was beginning to wonder when he would make his appearance. He had little doubt that he was back at Stark Tower. He vaguely recalled being carried off by Stark in the Iron Man suit after an emergency pick-up in the middle of Soho. Stark had taken him right out of Natasha's hands, and then it all became unclear.

"Natasha?" he asked.

"Missing," Fury retorted. "For all we know, she could be dead."

Clint highly doubted that. Natasha was very hard to kill. They'd survived magic and a full-scale alien invasion, not to mention countless other life-threatening missions before that. If she hadn't checked in, it probably meant she was close to the target. Maybe too close to risk calling SHIELD. It had happened before, and every time Natasha had returned, maybe a little worse for wear but still snappish as ever.

Whether this was the case or she truly was missing, Clint knew what his job was. He needed to get out of this damned bed and go after her. They were partners. The only problem was he couldn't seem to get his legs to move.

"Why can't I move my feet?" he demanded.

"Uh, because you had about 500 micrograms of water mixed with our mystery agent injected into your thigh. It might take a few days for the contractions to wear off." As soon as Stark spoke, Clint's leg seized and Clint groaned in pain. On the plus side, his foot moved, snapping to attention. But it took a good minute and a half of kneading on Clint and Stark's part to get the contraction to wear off. He wouldn't be able to go anywhere so long as they continued.

"I'm instituting a Code Alpha," Fury said at last. "You're on lockdown and won't be allowed out of the medical bay until this situation is resolved."

"Can't...do...that," Clint growled through gritted teeth, still trying to get his upper thigh to relax.

"Stark."

"Brace yourself, Bird boy," was Stark's only warning before he injected Clint. Coldness spread through his veins and where it went Clint's muscles slowly began to relax until Clint could finally sit back in relief.

"Agent Romanoff has been disavowed. You are ordered not to go after her or I will hang your ass out to dry. Don't try to leave again," Fury warned before leaving Clint with just Stark for company, feeling very much like his muscles had been turned into Jell-o. Disavowed, left out in the cold. SHIELD disavowed agents that went rogue. It meant you were cut off from all SHIELD resources. There was no network and no cavalry was coming to break down the doors if you were captured. If you bit off more than you could chew, you were as good as dead, and although Clint knew Natasha could fully take care of herself, she was taking on HYDRA alone. Even Natasha wasn't that good.

Stark tossed the syringe in a bio-hazard bin nonchalantly before taking a seat and kicking his feet up on Clint's bed.

"So what's the plan?"

Clint turned his eyes away from the plain white ceiling and his worrying to his expectant teammate. "What'd you mean?" he asked, his words lightly slurred.

"You and Spidey-girl might think you're 'covert', but you and I both know that you have no intention of following Fury's orders. So you could either try to go it alone again and see how well that works out, or you can tell me your plan and maybe we'll get Agent Romanoff back in one piece."

He didn't have a plan. That wasn't his job. He perched up high and took out bad guys, called out targets for the others. Rogers was the general, the strategist. But Clint doubted the by-the-book Captain America would go against Fury's direct orders.

"Don't have one," Clint replied.

"But I do." Clint was surprised to see not only Rogers, but also Thor and Banner as they marched into the medical bay, looking determined to break some rules. Of the entire Avengers team, Clint thought Rogers was going to be the one to convince. According to Natasha, he had been insisting that they follow Fury's orders to the letter during the whole Loki incident. Clint had seen the same unflagging discipline since then.

"You do?"

Rogers seemed to understand there was more to Clint's question.

"Agent Ro—Natasha is one of us, and if there's one thing I learned in the Army it's that we don't leave men, or women, behind. You and Natasha worked closest together even before the Avengers. You know how she operates and what her instincts are. If we're going to get her back, we need you. Dr. Banner?"

Banner stepped forward with another needle and Clint grimaced. He felt like a pin-cushion with how many times he'd been stuck already.

"We've already flushed the Novichok from your system. This is the temporary solution Stark and I have come up with. It should counteract the effects of the agent long enough for us to get to medical help, just in case HYDRA tries again. Right now the lingering contractions are going to be your biggest problem." He stuck Clint again and the coolness that had spread over his body began to recede.

"I can handle them," Clint replied. Slowly he started to get function back in his arms and then his legs. He sat up, still feeling sore and weak, but at least he could move. Slowly he pulled his legs over the side of the bed and set them on the floor. But as soon as he tried to put weight on his feet, the muscles went into spasm and he would've face-planted if it wasn't for Rogers.

"Perhaps this is not such a good idea," Thor commented. "I do not mean to challenge your strength, but you are hardly able to stand, much less fight."

"Maybe Fury's right and it would be better if Clint stayed back," Banner agreed. "You really shouldn't be moving around..."

"We need our eyes," Rogers insisted.

"I'll be fine," Clint reassured them as he finally stood on his own feet. "I've had worse."

"I seriously doubt that," Stark said.

Through sheer force of will Clint stayed standing and everyone in the room held his breath, waiting for the collapse again. But even as Clint swayed and his legs shook, he stayed upright. When he felt he had things under control again he looked up and found the rest of the Avengers staring at him.

"We doing this or what?"

That seemed to be enough for Rogers. "Alright, Fury has disavowed Natasha. That means if we're going to get her back, we can't use any SHIELD resources. He's going to be looking for that."

"Then I guess it's a good thing you live in my tower and not SHIELD's. I've got some things downstairs we can use."

"Okay. Where was she last seen?"

"JARVIS had eyes on her in SoHo about an hour ago. Find anything new?"

"Negative, sir," JARVIS replied.

"Clint, that's where you come in; you know her movements best, you know how she operates. You're the only one who has a chance of tracking her."

Clint nodded, though privately he thought that if Natasha didn't want to be found, he wasn't going to find her, no matter how well he knew her. "Alright. She probably went back to the place where I was...hit. That would be where the trail starts. That's in SoHo."

"Then we'll start there," Stark declared. "Wheels up in five minutes?" He didn't wait for any of the others to agree before leaving, no doubt to don his latest Iron Man suit.

"Are you okay to fly?" Rogers asked him.

"Let's go." For Natasha, he'd be okay to fly, fight, or run to the end of the Earth. His legs ached with the exertion of just going down to the tactical level where he stored his suit and bow. He got a cramp and had to kneed it out and pray it didn't happen in the middle of a fight. In truth, Fury was probably right. He should be on medical lockdown. It was stupid to go up against a relatively unknown enemy in anything less than peak condition. Clint was barely able to stand most of the time. As he slung his quiver over his shoulder he stumbled and was caught by a strong hand.

"You're a mess," Banner said simply.

"Thanks," Clint replied gruffly.

"Between your 'practice' with Natasha and your crazy girlfriend, I'm not sure how you're still standing."

"I'll let you know when I find out myself. I sure do know how to pick 'em."

"Don't beat yourself up over it."

"Natasha will do that for me when we get back. You should be ready, Doc."

"I already am, don't worry."

"But you're worried."

"How do you figure that?"

"You wouldn't be standing here if you weren't."

Banner chuckled in his own self-deprecating way that had become familiar during their time as Avengers. Clint had quickly learned that Banner's biggest critic was himself and he had a tumultuous and not entirely healthy relationship with his green alter-ego, the Hulk. But then again none of them really had healthy relationships. Stark and Pepper were always at each other's throats, Thor pined for a girl he hadn't seen in over a year, all of Rogers' love interests were dead and had been for some time, and Clint and Natasha...well they'd been doing this same dance for a long time.

"I guess I don't really need to 'suit up', do I? I guess I just wanted to say, try to focus. This one is a little more personal to you than it is to the rest of us."

"Because of my 'crazy girlfriend'?"

"Not entirely."

"Sir, I have a message from Mr. Stark. 'Come on, Bird-brains, we're burning daylight!'"

"Thanks JARVIS," Clint replied, grabbing his bow and heading for the door. Banner was just behind him, all business once more. Any thoughts of relationships and complications would have to be left behind. Natasha was out there alone and cut off, without back-up and without eyes-on. Clint was her eyes, and he'd be damned if something happened when he was supposed to be watching her back.