Tony and Natasha's plans were spoiled when Phil locked them all in one of SHIELD's conference rooms. Ironically, the only one who could have helped them bust out of there was Clint. Tony kept saying the avengers needed to do something to get Clint back. Natasha, who was usually against any plan Tony thought of was on board with just about every single plan he had come up with, anything to get her best friend back.

"Phil will bring him back, guys." Steve stated for what he believed to be the hundredth time.

"We're not saying he won't, we just want to make sure he does." Tony responded while rolling his eyes, Steve would be mr. goody-two-shoes.

Loki hadn't spoken since he had given Phil all the information he could recall from Clint's dad. He felt it was his fault that Clint had been taken because he was unable to do anything to help him. Had Thor been there he would have attempted to fight Barney or something. Even Tony would have come up with something to do in order to keep them from taking Clint. "This wouldn't be happening if I had done something."

Natasha glared at Tony who was probably about to say something insensitive and moved over to where Loki sat. "It was Barney and his dad against you, there was nothing you could have done to help. You were able to give Phil and Mr. Fury information to help them find Clint."

"Yes, my brother. You have done a good job in aiding the search for Clint." Thor added.

Everyone's attention shifted to Tony as he squeaked. He had been trying to override the lock on the electronic door for a while now, a small spark had just shocked him. "When we get out of here, I'm reading up on how to override electronic door locks."

"Is there such a book or document?" Bruce arched an eyebrow and continued staring at what Tony was doing.

Tony was about to respond when he saw Agent Hill approaching the door with Fury. He tried to put all the cables back into the little box and make it seem like it hadn't been tampered. Failing to do that, he stepped away and gave his most innocent smile to the two adults who were now entering the room.

Fury looked to the side as they entered the room, he would have been mad but they had just gotten Clint back and it would take something huge to actually piss him off today. He turned and shrugged at Hill who looked as if she wanted to say something about it. "We found Clint, he's fine. He will be home in a few hours. I called your parents and they agreed to let you sleep over Clint and Natasha's house, I'm sure he would be more than happy to see you guys when he gets home from the hospital."

"Why did he have to go to the hospital?" Natasha crossed her arms in front of her chest and walked over to stand in front of Fury.

"He had a broken arm, they put a cast on it. He'll be out of it in a few weeks." Fury arched an eyebrow at Natasha who seemed to calm down.

Natasha wasn't happy, but if all it was, was a broken arm then it was better than she thought. He would be cranky though, a broken arm meant no practice and no practice meant an irritable Clint.

"Are we leaving sometime today?" Tony asked standing next to Natasha, he wanted to see his best friend now.

Hill looked at both Natasha and Tony and rolled her eyes. "If you stop asking questions, we can start loading you into the cars."

They arrived at the house before Phil and Clint, which gave them time to prep. Steve made a 'welcome home' sign, while Tony and Bruce tried to make small sparklers to give everything a 'more festive look' as Tony said. Natasha, Thor, and Loki had decided to make decorations out of construction paper and other things they found around the house. After much whining and complaining, they convinced Fury to order some pizza and Hill to go buy some junk food.

Clint was happy to be going back home, he couldn't wait to see Nat and everyone else. Phil had already told him about how they had to keep his friends from tagging along with them for the rescue; it was nice to know that there were people that cared enough about him to want to save him. "Dad, can't you drive faster?"

"We're almost home, Clint." Phil smirked as he saw Clint fidgeting through the rearview mirror. He had dragged him towards the car as soon as the hospital released him, and kept asking how long it would be until they got home since they left the hospital parking lot. He was happy though, he had been so worried, now Clint was back with them, and there was no major threat to him.

"You said that hours ago, dad." Clint may have been exaggerating a bit, all right a whole lot but he couldn't wait to get home. His smile grew as he spotted their house; he already had his seatbelt off as soon as Phil had parked the car.

Walking into the house was the best thing ever. His eyes went straight to the banner he figured Steve had made; it was decorated with small bows and arrows. He didn't have much time to register everything else as Natasha ran over to him and almost tackled him. "I missed you too, Tash." he whispered in her ear.

"Come on Natasha, you live with him you can see him all you want after this." Tony was pushing Natasha out of the way and pulling Clint by his right arm. He eyed the purple cast and arched an eyebrow as if asking 'purple, really?'

Thor walked over to him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I am very glad to have you back with us my friend."

Clint stifled a laugh; he had missed all of this. Sure, he had only been gone for two days, but it had been the longest two days of his life. Steve was next to greet him, he didn't really say anything just patted him on the back and smiled.

"Glad to have you back." Bruce gave him a goofy grin.

"Thanks guys." There hadn't been another time when he'd been this genuinely happy, well except for his first Christmas with Phil and Natasha. He looked over to the side where Loki was standing quietly behind Steve, avoiding him. He waited until everyone had settled down before making his way over to him. "Hey Loki."

Loki had hidden behind Steve the minute Clint walked in, despite Thor and Natasha's words he still felt horribly guilty. He jumped up as he heard Clint's voice right next to him. He looked over to the rest of the group, which was busy eating pizza and talking; only Phil paid them any attention. "Hey."

Clint shook his head; Loki was definitely blaming himself over everything that had happened. "It's not your fault you know."

"I could have…"

"Could have what? Loki, it was you against Barney and my dad. You tried, I saw you try to follow us." Clint looked over at Phil who pretended to be looking at Natasha and the others. He knew he was staring at them, he had mentioned in the car that Loki was feeling guilty over what had happened.

He sighed and looked at Clint. "I tried, but I wasn't able to after Barney pushed me. Let's face it; you would have been safer with Thor or someone else."

"Thor is strong, but what's to say he could have stopped Barney AND my dad. You need to stop blaming yourself, I'm back and everything is good." Clint grabbed Loki's arm and led him to the rest of the group to get his mind off everything that had happened.

Loki allowed himself to be dragged over to where everyone else was eating pizza and watching a movie. His eyes wandered over to Phil who merely smiled at him. It was a reassuring smile and he felt a bit of the weight he felt lift. He looked at Clint who was currently stealing the pepperoni from Natasha's pizza, he couldn't help the smile that formed on his face, his best friend was back.

Clint woke up sweating and trembling. He looked to his side and saw Loki still asleep. Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Tony were also sleeping in the living room floor with him. They had made a giant nest with blankets and pillows along with some couch cushions; Natasha had mentioned something about stinky boys and gone off to her room. He pushed the blanket off himself and got up.

He made his way to Phil's room and opened the door. The sight of Phil sleeping instantly calmed him down. He stood there for a moment wondering whether the others would tease him when they realized he'd had a nightmare and had needed to sleep with Phil. Tony never mentioned it and actually never teased him over it, that was enough to make him walk over to the bed and climb onto it.

"Is everything alright?" Phil sat up as he felt the movement on his bed; he worried as soon as he saw it was Clint. Maybe his arm hurt and he needed some pain meds.

"Yeah, just had a nightmare." Clint snuggled under the blankets and rubbed his face on the pillow.

Phil frowned at the mention of a nightmare. "Want to talk about it?"

Clint wanted to shake his head and say no, but he had realized that sometimes just talking about it actually helped. "I dreamt that you didn't find me and I was stuck with them."

If there was a way he could bring that man back from the dead just to kill him again, he would. "Well, I did find you. You're home and this is where you're staying."

"I know." he yawned and rubbed his eyes with his good hand. "Night dad"

"Goodnight Clint."

It would take a few more days of nightmares and climbing into his dad's bed before the nightmares went away. Everything was good, he had friends who were like his family and he had a real dad. His life was perfect.

AN: Alright guys, i'm sorry that the epilogue took a while, school just likes to kill everything in me that loves to write. I have already started working on the sequel, it will follow this AU but focus more on Tony. Thanks for sticking around for this story, you guys are amazing.