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Natasha woke up and looked at Clint curled up in the far corner of the room. She remembered waking up when he had come in, and then she had gone back to sleep after he’d settled down into the corner. Sitting up, Natasha secured her closest weapons and picked up her tablet.
Checking the messages she tilted her head as she read the memo for Clint’s reinstatement. It read oddly. She glanced over at Clint, sitting upright, his head leaned back, barely snoring and frowned.
She needed to find Stark.
****
Tony sighed and he shoved away the wireframe for a new weapon for Natasha. He’d need her input before he could be sure enough for a production run. And she’d give him crap about it, he was certain. He checked the clock because Tony knew today was the memorials and if he was late everyone would be riding his ass about it.
Natasha appeared at his elbow, he could swear right out of thin air.
“Dammit! Noise! Just a little. Something, anything, I beg of you.” He sucked on the finger he’d smashed when he’d flinched away from her.
“I need you to check on something.”
He blinked. “What? Why?” He looked at her carefully. “You look worried. That can’t be good. Is it the end of the world? Again?”
She sat a tablet down next to him. “You program this to do anything I would disapprove of at all and I will kill you, Stark.”
He poked at the edge of the tablet without picking it up. “What are you so...” He stopped talking as he read the memo on the screen. “So? This is good isn’t it?”
“Read it again.”
He squinted at her and mentally shrugged as he read it over again. “Okay. I’m missing something. Completely over my head. It is a simple restatement memo. Boring.” He looked at her frowning at him. “Okay. Enlighten me, Agent Romanoff.”
“It isn’t Fury’s writing. Or Hill’s for that matter.” She made a face. “If I had to say I’d tell you it was the way Agent Coulson would word it.”
Tony blinked. “Okay.” He looked at her and tilted his head. “You do know he died, right? We did get around to telling you that, didn’t we?”
Natasha rolled her eyes. “Yes, you asshole.” She put her hands on the edge of his table and leaned on them for a moment. “Just check for a death certificate for me. And see that the person who signed it exists and is real. Alright?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Sure, sure. No problem.” He flicked a control to get JARVIS to start checking it for him. “I’ll get right on it.” He picked up a pen to tap and used it to very lightly poke the back of her closer forearm. “You okay?”
“Yes.” She batted the pen away and pointed at him. “Get cleaned up. You had better be ready in two hours.”
He mock saluted just to give her something to be annoyed about. “Yes, ma’am.”
She shook her head as she silently faded away.
He stared down at the memo until the tablet shut its screen off. “Wishful thinking.”
****
Bruce stared at Tony. “You have to be kidding me.”
Tony shrugged. “No. Just figured it’d be easier.”
He stroked the sleeve of the suit in front of him. “Tony this has to be expensive.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Tony flung his arms wide. “Rich, remember?” He pointed at the shirts. “I suggest the gray one with the blue undertone.” He headed for the door. “Hurry up or Natasha will kill me for both of us being late.”
Bruce frowned and glanced up at the air vents. “Right. Okay then.”
****
Steve frowned as Tony pulled the shirt he’d be about to put on right out of his hands. “Tony.”
“No, no. Not that. Horrible.” Tony dropped a bag to sit on the end of the bed. “Wear this and don’t argue.” He headed for the door and then stopped abruptly. “Did anyone silence your phone?”
Steve looked up from the bag. “It can be silent?”
Tony sighed. “We need to start teaching you this stuff. Where’s your phone?”
He got it and held it out to Tony.
“Okay, see this button? This will make it silent, except for any alarms you’ve got set.”
Steve bit his tongue so he would not mention he hadn’t known it could make alarms. “Okay, so it’ll be silent now?”
“Until you change it.”
With a nod, Steve took the phone from Tony’s hand. “Thanks, Tony.”
Tony looked at him from the corner of his eye and then lifted his head with a fake smile. “Hurry up and get dressed, Cap.”
Steve looked down at the phone once Tony was gone. “I wonder if he realizes how much like Howard he sometimes is.”
****
Clint tried to relax his shoulders as people filled the church. His perch was secure, the cloaking panel under and in front of him kept him out of sight. He listened to Stark bitch about the hour it had taken them to make it all of six blocks from the Tower to the church.
He sent a text to ask who had leaked it to the public.
“The open comm is on Steve.” Natasha sounded annoyed. “No one. Fury wanted people to know who was lost to save them.”
Clint silently applauded the move. Everyone he’d caused the death of should be remembered. Especially by people that didn’t have a clue. He could tell when they got out of Tony’s limo because the crowds went nuts. He peeked out the broken window behind him and watched as they started to come up the steps.
There was a thunderclap and everyone flinched as a huge bolt of light smacked into the pavement. Thor stepped from the newly engraved knotwork circle to embrace Tony and clap Steve on the shoulder.
“Oh, and Thor decided to show up.” Tony sounded like he’d been expecting it.
“Where is our shield brother?” Thor glanced around and then up and Clint thought he could tell when Thor spotted him.
Natasha went up on her tiptoes and said something low enough to not be picked up by the comm Steve had. Thor frowned, nodded, and then dropped his eyes from Clint’s window.
Tony ushered them forward and Clint turned to watch them take their seats inside.
The services were solemn and Clint said silent apologies to each one as their names were read. Clint stared out over the crowd as the list went on. He saw a flinch on the next to the last row and frowned because that was weird.
Now that his attention was caught he leaned forward a little to get a better view of the person. Only the guy stood up and moved down the row. Clint could tell he was excusing himself, but couldn’t hear from where he was. Steve’s comms were picking up Tony’s button pushing, though. Clint started to look back to the front when the man turned at the end of the pew.
Clint gasped and fumbled his phone. He scrambled up and out through his broken window and around the corner to the nearest drainpipe. People on the ground didn’t seem to notice him, which was just as well. He hit the ground and typed out a text. The guy was moving stiffly, but purposefully through the crowd.
With a flick of his hand, Clint borrowed a ball cap and pulled into his head as he followed.
“What do you mean you think you saw who?” It was a harsh whisper of Natasha’s voice over the comms.
“I said it already today, I’ll say it again: Dead.” Tony’s voice was slightly louder.
They were moving, he could hear footsteps, Tony’s and Bruce’s from the sound of it. Clint flipped his side of the comm from mute as the guy started down the stairs into a subway station.
“I’m going to have to go underground.” He rattled off the station and then pushed past people suddenly coming up and out. Stupid trains, always just at the wrong damn time. He heard screaming behind him and Clint hit the platform just in time to see the guy drop down onto the tracks. Then there was a flash of color as the Hulk slid past him on the tile. “Fuck.”
****
Phil slipped into an emergency door alcove just past the end of the platform and hoped to hell he’d lost Barton. He’d not been cleared to tell them yet. He breathed heavily as his chest protested all the sudden moving around. Jumping had probably been really stupid.
There was a roar and then a loud crunch on the tracks. Phil thumped his head back against the door behind him as he closed his eyes.
When he opened them he was being stared at by the Hulk.
“Oh.” He smiled weakly. “Hello.”
The Hulk frowned and looked him over. “Broken?”
“Right now, just a little bit. Yes.” Phil could hear the scramble on the platform.
So could the Hulk, he turned his head and roared back up the tracks. Phil winced. He was going to have to remember ear plugs in the future.
“He’s my friend!” Clint was scrambling down the side of the platform. “Don’t hurt him, please!”
Phil’s world went wonky and he closed his eyes against the sudden onslaught of moving lights and air rushing past his face.
****
Tony dug in his pocket for his phone as he followed in the wake of everyone else’s running. He got the phone up to his ear as he hit the stairs for the subway. “JARVIS, turn on the Hulk’s homing beacon...Yes, yes. I know we haven’t tested it, but we’re testing it now. Hurry up.”
He slipped the phone back into his pocket as he hit the bottom of the stairs and everyone was gathered at the edge of the platform. “Really, are you sure, Clint?”
Clint’s worried face popped up over the edge of the platform. “Maybe. I didn’t get a look at his face. He moved right though. And then...” He flapped a hand down the tunnel. “Hulk took him and went that way.”
Tony nodded. “Okay. Everyone back home.” He clapped his hands together and then made shooing motions at them. “Come on, hurry up.”
They all stared at him.
Steve tilted his head towards the tunnel. “Tony, we need to go after them.”
Tony gave his I-think-you-are-being-purposefully-slow smile. “Yeah. And they are back home by now. It’s only a few blocks.” He gestured to the subway. “There’s no way in hell I’m walking all the way there through the tunnels.” He looked down at his rumpled suit. “I ruin another suit and Pepper will kill me.”
Natasha glared at him as she came to a stop in front of him. “Explain what you mean.” She poked him in the only sore spot he still had on his ribs. “Now.”
“Let’s walk and talk.” He turned and headed up the stairs. They scrambled after him in a rush of arguments and questions.
****
The Hulk found the good hallway and the humming sound died away. There was an open doorway there hadn’t been last time he’d been there and he looked it over carefully.
“Oh, pillows. That’d be nice.”
He looked down at the small man in his hold. He wasn’t breathing right. The Hulk cautiously stepped into the room. Everything was the right size. He settled the small man onto a pile of pillows and watched him to see if it would fix the breathing.
“Hey there...Hulk. I’m...Agent Coulson.”
He narrowed his eyes as the Agent held out his tiny hand. He thought for a while. “Army?”
Coulson’s eyebrows shot up. “No.” He smiled and eased down into the pillows more. “Marines.”
The Hulk didn’t remember Marines. He gently took the small hand in between his finger and thumb and they shook. “Friend.”
“Yes.” Coulson pressed his hand to his chest. “I think I should have stayed in bed today.”
There was a whirring noise and he spun around to find a moving picture of the Spaceman in front of him.
“Okay. Hi, Big Guy!” The screen brightened. “Don’t worry, I’m not trapped in the screen. Or maybe that isn’t something that’d confuse you. I should ask Bruce...” The Spaceman’s attention snapped back to him. “Nevermind. Hello, again. This is your room.”
He blinked and sat down next to Coulson to watch the Spaceman talk.
“Not anyone else’s. And certainly not a cage. This room has a door you can control, Big Guy. There should be a panel that just started to pulse green. Like your skin! Find it for me and tap it. You don’t have to hit it, just touch it.”
Coulson nudged his arm and the Hulk turned to see the green panel. He shifted so he wouldn’t break Coulson and touched the panel. The doorway closed up. He backed away and started to look around.
“Oh, Stark, I’m going to tase you so much for this.”
The Spaceman on the screen smiled and clapped. “Great! Now before you panic touch it again.”
Hulk looked at the Spaceman and then at the green panel. The Spaceman made go-go motions with his hands.
“Go on, you know you want to.”
He touched the panel and the doorway came back. He stuck his head out into the hallway and pulled it back in. He touched the panel several times in a row and grinned as each time the door came and went for him.
“See, there? Hulk-triggered door. It won’t open unless you want it to. People can get out a human-sized hatch in the bathroom, but they can’t get back in. One way. You have to let them in.” The Spaceman smiled. “You want to watch some kittens? Or hummingbirds? I have this one nest I put up on a side screen sometimes. Little hummingbirds babies are the greatest.”
The screen changed to fluffy kittens and the Hulk sat back down next to Coulson.
“Dumb.” The screen flipped to hummingbirds. He cocked his head as the baby fluttered little wings. “Small.”
Coulson snorted. “Stark is just pulling your chain.”
“Stark?”
Coulson looked at him. “The man that was just talking. What do you call him?”
Hulk smiled. “Spaceman.” He showed Coulson his fist and then acted out catching it with his other hand. “Saved Spaceman.”
“You did.” Coulson smiled and his breathing seemed better now. “You did a very good job.”
“Yes.” Hulk gently stroked Coulson’s head. “Rest.”
Coulson blinked slowly. “Sounds good.”
****
Bruce punched Tony’s arm for the fourth time. “I can’t believe you can be so damn stupid when you are a genius.”
“What?” Tony frowned and pulled further away. “Damn it. Stop hitting me. I’m going to bruise again.” He rubbed his arm and turned to the rest of them. “What are you all glaring at me for? I didn’t lie to us.”
Natasha ran her fingers around the edge of the fresh bandage on Coulson’s chest. “I knew that memo wasn’t Hill’s writing.”
Tony edged away from Bruce. “I did find a death certificate for him though. All proper and shit.”
Clint poked the bottom of Coulson’s left foot. “Why did the Hulk come back to the Tower?”
Tony shrugged. “I might have set a low frequency beacon that’s near the bottom of his range on his roar. It sounds nice to his ears.”
Bruce reached out to hit him again and Steve slid quickly between them.
“So, the Hulk knows this is his home?”
“Got him his own room and everything.” Stark smiled.
****
Phil clawed his way back up to wakefulness. It sucked. His chest was vaguely aching, like he’d overdone...Oh, right. He listened to the bickering around him as he tried not to react to Clint poking him in the foot with a fingernail.
“Got him his own room and everything.”
Phil cracked his eyes open. “I am going to tase you, Stark.” He let his eyes drift closed. “Just as soon as I found out what happened to my good taser.”
“Nat has it.” Clint’s hand cupped the bottom of his foot. “You know about what Fury did to your trading cards?”
Phil grimaced. “I punched him and tore some stitches.”
“Good for you.” Stark’s voice was closer now. “On the good pain killers when you did that, huh?”
Natasha’s hands disappeared and there was a general shuffling of people noises. Then Natasha was back. “You alright?”
“Sure.”
“Fury said you were dead.”
Phil nodded. “I was, so he wasn’t lying.”
Clint’s hand shifted. “Sir?”
“I closed my eyes on Fury telling me to do something and woke up in a morgue drawer.”
The door came open. “Did I hear that right?”
“Cap, seriously, go away.” Clint’s hand tightened a bit as he spoke.
“Wait.” Phil opened one eye. “What’s wrong, Captain?”
Steve moved into the room. “You got stabbed by Loki’s staff, right?”
Phil nodded.
Steve made a cube shape with his hands. “It is linked to the cube, right?”
“We think so, yes.”
“Oh, uhm.” Steve moved closer. “Schmidt held the cube and ended up gone.” He made a gesture towards the ceiling.
Phil blinked and pushed himself up straighter in the bed. “Explain.”
****
Tony sat down next to Bruce. “JARVIS start looking for Captain America trading cards. Find Coulson’s buying histories and match or better everything he got.”
“Yes, sir. Shall I attempt to complete any series he did not?”
“Yes, all of them. The faster the better.”
“Very well, sir.”
Bruce sighed. “You can’t fix everything, Tony.”
“I can damn well try.” Tony rubbed his hand across his face. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your room downstairs.”
“No.” Bruce propped his head on his hand. “It was good. The other guy obviously liked it since it isn’t in little pieces.” Bruce sighed. “The suit you gave me is ruined.”
Tony made a rude noise. “So what? It can be replaced.” He checked on Coulson’s vitals. “Nice to have the whole gang here.”
“You knew.”
Tony frowned. “No.” He brought up the Tower’s layout. “What’s this floor? Between Clint’s and the common floor?”
“It was locked until a couple of hours ago, so I don’t know. I do know that is where we put Coulson after the medics said he was alright.”
“Coulson’s floor.” Tony’s expression suggested indifference. “I planned it all out before...everything. Before Natasha made you mad. Before...” He looked up at the ceiling. “I nuked a bunch of aliens in the face.” He got up to get another cup of coffee. “Want one?”
Bruce pushed his cup towards Tony and let Tony pick it up without holding it out to the man. “I scared the crap out of her.”
“Yeah? While you are green you do outweigh and out-reach her.”
“While I was me, not the other guy.”
Tony came back over with their cups and set Bruce's down near him. “Wow. I don’t even think Fury could do that. Way to go.”
He frowned at Tony. “It was a bad idea. She’ll never trust me now.”
“She already does.” Tony smiled. “She let you in the same room as Clint and Agent Coulson while they were both hurt or hurting.”
“Oh.” Bruce looked confused. He brightened. “You think she is worried about what she’ll do.”
“Close enough.” Tony snapped his fingers. “Oh! Just thought of something. Gotta go.”
****
Bruce slipped into Coulson’s room after everyone had left and Clint had fallen asleep in his corner nest. “Need anything?”
“Dr. Banner.” Phil smiled slightly and made come here motions with his hand.
Moving carefully so he wouldn’t set off Clint, Bruce came up to Coulson’s bed. “Yes?”
“Thank you for coming in.” Phil laid his hand over the bandages. “Stark is an ass, but losing him would have been bad.”
“Thor could have caught him.”
“And probably would have caused Stark to break bones with the impact.” Phil blinked slow. “Stark gets more injured than people think even inside the suit.”
Bruce pushed his glasses up his nose. “We’ll just have to watch out for him.”
“Yeah...” Phil’s eyes drooped closed and Bruce turned from the bed, nodded to a silently watching Clint, and quietly left.
He headed down the hall to the elevator and stopped. “You could just talk to me.”
Natasha eased away from the wall. “Would we talk about the weather?”
He smiled. “Only if you let me show Steve RED as the next movie we make him watch.”
She laughed. “I like that one.”
They walked down the hallway towards the elevator. Bruce went into the elevator first. “I’ll try not to startle you in the furture.”
She smiled as she hit the buttons for their seperate floors. “I’ll try not to have to lie.”
He nodded. “We’ll see how long we can make that last.”
She got off on her floor and turned to face him. “Fairly long, I’m sure.”
He hit the hold button. “Why is your floor the bottom one of all our living floors?”
She smiled and waved as she headed down the hallway. “You’ll have to ask Stark.”
Bruce nodded as he let the button go and the door slid closed. “I’ll do that.”
****