Chapter Text
****
It didn’t take long for Bruce to get used to Clint in the ceiling somewhere and Tony strolling through any time he felt like it, but Captain Rogers showing up and planting himself in the corner was something fairly new and different. Bruce wrote up half an equation on the screen that’d be in front of Tony when he came by later.
“You okay, Cap?”
Steve glanced up from whatever picture he was drawing. “Hhm? Oh, yeah.” He frowned and thumbed his drawing. “I’m just having trouble with this. I needed the quiet to work on it.”
“Ah. Sorry.” Bruce put another partial equation on a different screen, the one Tony would mess with when he got fidgety and moved around the lab.
“No, no. It is alright.” Steve sighed and tossed down his sketchbook. “I’m just mad I’m losing details of the people I knew.”
“If you draw Tony’s father, please make certain Tony won’t see it.” Bruce closed out his files. “Isn’t it time for lunch, Cap?”
“Yes, it is.” Steve stood up. “I have a different book for anything I don’t want seen.”
“That’s a good idea.” Futile, but a good idea. Bruce let Steve go ahead of him. “What details are you missing?”
Steve pushed the button for the elevator. “Different little things. I can’t remember how Morita’s chin looked. Or Dum Dum without his bowler hat.”
Bruce nodded. “Our minds do odd things with memory.”
“It feels like a few months ago to me, you know?” Steve crossed his arms as the elevator doors slid open. “I keep looking at the Military Channel and wondering when we got such reliable weapons.”
“Yours weren’t reliable?”
Steve shrugged. “We did pretty well, but some of the standard issue stuff was for crap. The BAR was hard to deal with. Heavy and needed two or three guys to carry haul it around. The SAW they have now is so much lighter and still able to do the job.”
“Two or three guys?”
“Two for the paratroopers. The gun was under the guy on a line so it wouldn’t tangle him worse. At least that was the idea. And another guy for the mount and ammo. Infantry usually managed it with three guys. It was good once you got it setup, but getting it there...” Steve shook his head.
“Ah.” Bruce adjusted his glasses. “I’d think the paratroopers would have had problems given how many of them didn’t make it through the jumps.”
The elevator stopped and the doors opened.
Steve stepped out and turned partway back towards Bruce as they went into the kitchen. “The Ronsons were the worse though.”
“The what?”
Tony moved past them along the counter. “M4 Sherman Tank from World War II. It weighed 30.3 metric tons, had 76 mm armor at the thickest, usually with a 75 mm main armament. They caught fire nearly every time they got hit because their armor was too thin and the ammo was right in the wrong place.”
Steve nodded and got down the cup Tony was trying to reach. “Falsworth called them Ronsons after the cigarette lighter.” Steve sat the cup down near Tony’s elbow.
Bruce glanced at Tony who made a face.
“Lights the first time, every time.” Tony wrinkled his nose, snatched up the cup, and moved to the coffeemaker.
Natasha settled at the table. “The Germans called them Tommycookers.”
Steve grimaced and sat down next to her. “I hadn’t heard that. We were usually fighting HYDRA which wasn’t the standard luckily.”
Clint slipped in and settled on the other side of Natasha. “What’s for lunch?”
****
Bruce frowned at the finished equation on the screen as Tony strolled past him.
“What are you working on?” Tony tapped the second screen Bruce had set up and absentmindedly finished that equation before looking up and grinning at Bruce. “You look worried.”
Bruce glanced up at Tony and then back at the equation. “Me? Never.” He cocked his head and pointed at the screen. “What do you make of this?”
Tony slid over and looked where Bruce was pointing. “Nice solution.”
“You didn’t do it.” Bruce took his glasses off and rubbed the lenses on his shirt. “And I didn’t. So, who else do we have that could solve it?”
“Probably Natasha.” Tony flicked the equation away and pulled on Bruce’s arm. “Come on. I need someone to tell me if the nanofabric I’m working on makes them itch.”
Bruce blinked. “Nanofabric?”
****
The third time Bruce found equations meant for Tony solved in someone else’s handwriting, Bruce resorted to asking JARVIS about it. Which felt a bit like cheating, but Bruce hadn’t been successful at catching the person on his own. Turned out JARVIS wasn’t all that helpful.
“I am only allowed to report on the presence of the Hulk or intruders in your laboratory, Dr. Banner.”
“Huh.” That meant it had to be one of them because Bruce knew of no one else expect Pepper who ever got near him or his lab. “Tell Tony I’m asking you to show me who finishes either of these equations, please, JARVIS.” He wrote more equations to finish on a screen.
“Very well, Dr. Banner.”
****
Fury called them to suppress a threat that afternoon. Bruce frowned as they read the situational briefs.
“Terrorists that insist they can de-age people. Lovely. Sounds like a comic book plot.” Bruce took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Tony threw down his folder. “So? Can we go blow up stuff now?”
Steve frowned at Tony and started to say something, but Bruce nudged Steve under the table.
Clint leaned forward and smiled at Steve’s affronted expression. “Please tell me there will be somebody I can shoot.”
Coulson smirked. “I’ll be sure to find you someone, Agent Barton.”
Steve got up and in all seriousness told them to assemble.
Natasha kicked Tony so he wouldn’t make a snide remark about them all being in the same room, thanks. Instead he complained about being injured before there was even any fighting. Bruce didn’t see that as much improvement, but it seemed to make Natasha happy.
****
Bruce wasn’t allowed to help because someone was worried the Hulk and de-aging agents would be a nasty combination. Which, while, Bruce understood the worry, that didn’t mean he had to like it. “Are they okay?”
Coulson looked up from the radar screen he was watching. “You have a comm, Dr. Banner.”
“I don’t want to be startled or suddenly pissed off.”
“Ah, of course.” Coulson motioned him closer. “The dot streaking around in ovals is Iron Man.” Coulson went on to explain the positions of each person and the search pattern for the bombs.
“Do you really think these people can cause de-aging?”
Coulson shrugged. “Bombs of any sort are worth the effort to find and disarm.”
“Right.” Bruce watched the feeds of his teammates’ efforts. “You don’t believe a word of it.”
“Not about the de-aging, no.” Coulson touched his comm. “Hawkeye, wait for Thor.”
“Bit busy here. I found one.” Barton’s voice sounded stressed.
Coulson frowned and peered at the screens. Then there was a deafening boom.
Bruce was up and out of the truck just a bit faster than Coulson. He could see the dust cloud in the distance and Iron Man streaking in from one side.
“Does anyone have eyes on Hawkeye?” Coulson started up the street and Bruce went with him.
There were several negatives and Iron Man saying maybe.
“Shit!” Tony sounded panicked. “Get here now, people!”
Bruce took out off at a run.
****
Tony flipped up the face plate because he hadn’t gotten a single reading that said anything other than dust and debris. It looked like de-aging compounds had a fast half-life. “Hey, there.” He moved a fallen beam and pulled the tiny arm from under Clint’s quiver. “Please be a random kid. Please be a random bystander that Hawkeye has tucked into...Damn it.”
The boy was in Clint’s uniform and his hair was lighter than Clint’s was. He looked like he was covered in some sort of goop. It was dripping everywhere. Tony asked JARVIS to give him a DNA analysis. The kid stirred. He blinked at Tony and then started scrambling backwards.
“Clint...”
The boy froze at the sound of Tony’s voice and he cocked his head.
Tony clicked his tongue. “The world just keeps getting weirder.” He held his hand out towards the mini-Clint. “Clint, do you remember me?”
A shake, then a nod of the boy’s head. He looked down at himself drowning in Barton’s uniform and getting possible contaminants everywhere. “What...” The kid’s eyes went impossibly wide and then he was clinging to Tony’s armor and trying to hide from Natasha.
“Where’s Barton, Stark?”
Tony very carefully settled his armored hand on mini-Clint’s back. “De-aged it looks like.”
****
Bruce frowned at the analysis. “This isn’t good. There’s abnormalities in the DNA. I mean, yeah, it is Barton, but I’m not sure how stable this form is.” He fidgeted as the rest of them frowned. “Sorry.”
Steve shook his head. “Not your fault, Bruce.” He looked over at the little blanket lump on the couch. “He was a really small child.”
“Is.” Tony flicked the blanket over so it covered both of Clint’s feet. “I’m calling Pepper.”
Bruce frowned at Tony’s retreating back. “And everyone thinks I have the biggest self-esteem issues.”
Natasha glanced up from Barton. “Not everyone.” She eased herself off the couch. “He crashed fast.”
“Decontamination showers can really take it out of you.” Everyone looked at him. “What? Before I was...green. I worked with radiation. It isn’t always as fun as you’d think.”
Coulson came in with a bag in his hand. “I have clothing for Barton.” He dropped the bag by the couch. “Do we know anything new?”
Bruce shrugged. “Nothing useful yet.” He made shooing motions. “Everyone go away so I can work.”
****
Bruce waited until they were all gone, the still sleeping boy gathered up with them, and only then did Bruce finally get a chance to check the equations. “Well, crap.”
They were unfinished. He huffed as he powered down everything that wasn’t busy running hypothetical scenarios. It’d be hours before the new tests were complete. Plenty of time to figure out what was wrong with Tony. He headed to Tony’s workshop.
He watched Tony sullenly flick bits of wireframe weapon parts around before finally going inside Tony’s workshop. “Why did you know the armament for a tank from WWII?”
Tony cocked his head and flicked another piece of design. “It was a weapon in a war.”
“Okay?”
“I grew up the son of a warmonger. What do you think I needed to know?”
Bruce raised his eyebrows at the flat tone. “Uh huh. Now you want to tell me the real reason?”
Tony froze. He took a slow, deep breath. “I’ve been a target my whole life. You get that, right?” Tony looked at him carefully and then back down at his countertop. “I was kidnapped for the first time when I was five. I made them cry and they gratefully gave me back.”
Bruce sat down and started breathing slower so he’d be able to keep listening.
“You’d think my security would get better or something, but I suppose it didn’t matter until I was ten and Dad wouldn’t pay the ransom. They weren’t happy about that.” Tony took a drink of his protein shake. “They wanted me to make them a weapon like my Dad had just announced.”
“That’s just stupid.”
Tony smiled thinly. “Not really. I invited it.” He waved a hand. “I wouldn’t. Dad wouldn’t. And they expressed their displeasure on my ribs.”
Bruce thought Tony didn’t even realize he was rubbing his fingers along his floating ribs.
“I learned every weapon after that. Learned them, made them better, made them mine so I could make it look like I was doing whatever it was they wanted while I made them lose.” Tony hung his head for a moment and then straightened up. “And that’s when I got shipped to boarding school.”
Bruce bit his lip. “You know we’ll get Clint back to his proper size, right?”
Tony shoved his coffee cup off the table to crash on the floor. “He clung to me.” Tony covered the arc reactor in his chest. “I’m not...”
“Yes, you are.”
Tony frowned at him.
Bruce nudged Tony’s leg with his foot. “Yes, you are safe for him to be around. You can get near him without hurting him.” He pressed his foot against Tony’s calf a little with each word. “You are more than your father. Better. And I know you aren’t him because you are Tony. Don’t let a miniature version of Clint terrify you.”
Tony snorted. “I’m not terrified. Who said I was terrified...That is just hearsay of the worst sort.”
“Pepper said she’s not helping, didn’t she?”
With a quick gesture, Tony pulled up a wireframe of something complex. “She said she’d wait for the pictures and video with commentary. And there might have been some cackling on her part.” He started working and ignored Bruce like he wasn’t there.
Bruce slipped out and headed down to the other guy’s level. He settled against the door to the refuge room and concentrated on his control. “JARVIS are you down here too?”
“Yes, Dr. Banner. Do you require assistance to be directed to you?”
“No. I just...wanted to know.”
“Very well, sir. If you would like there is a room to your left that is human accessible.”
“Thanks, JARVIS.” Bruce found it. The door was sized for the other guy, which made Bruce shake his head. He found a nice looking chair and he settled in to think.
****
Natasha huffed as she disarmed the last trap in her air duct. “Do you even think he would get this far?”
Coulson took the claymore as she handed it down to him. “I think I don’t want to test the theory that he couldn’t.”
She didn’t blame him on that. It was Barton after all. “He gets hot while he’s asleep.”
“Most children do.” Coulson took the blasting caps from her and she dropped down beside him.
“How is your scar coming?” She took the claymore back and rechecked that it was properly secured.
Coulson’s face never changed, but Natasha got the impression of astonishment. “It itches.”
She nodded. “The good scars always do.” She put the claymore into the case with the rest of them and hefted it. She could see Coulson consider and discard the urge to take the case from her.
He picked up the small bag of blasting caps instead and kept pace with her. “You appear to be more at ease with Dr. Banner.”
She took a breathe. “He’s hard not to like.”
Coulson smiled a little at that. “Very true.”
They arrived at one of the small armories Stark had installed on Natasha’s floor. There were also ones on Coulson’s, Barton’s, and Steve’s floors. She tapped in her code and they stowed the claymores and blasting caps.
****
It didn’t take Steve long to decide that it wasn’t just that Clint had been made smaller. He was a child. And it was really disconcerting how much touching of, well, everything, that a child did.
Clint put down the TV remote with a look of wonder that Steve recognized from watching the video of himself finding out there were televisions in color and so big.
“Could I stay here forever, please?”
Steve blinked. “Uhm.”
Tony breezed in. “Sure, kid.” He handed Clint a tablet. “Give this a try.”
Clint peered at the tablet and started turning it over and over. “Is this battery powered?”
Steve watched Tony as he gave Clint a weird look. Tony glanced at him and shrugged.
“Yeah, lithium-ion.”
“Oh.” Clint considered that for a moment before climbing up onto the couch beside Steve. “Why are you so confused?” He gave Steve a wide-eyed stare.
Steve rubbed his forehead. “I’m not confused.”
Tony snorted and turned the tablet back over. He tapped the screen and Clint was quickly lost to the joys of Rune Raiders.
With a frown, Steve stood and pulled Tony with him until they were across the room from Clint. “Do you really think he should be playing a game with killing in it?”
Tony eyed him. “Remember the video games Barton likes to beat Thor at?”
Steve nodded.
“Those are kids’ games.”
“Oh.” Steve let it go. He looked at Tony’s body language. “Are you okay?”
“What?” Tony looked up and then over at Clint grinning down at his tablet. “Yeah, yeah. Fine. Aren’t I always?”
“Tony.”
Tony seemed to shake himself. “You might want to check that Natasha has cleared all the explosives from Clint’s floor.”
Clint’s head popped up. “A floor?” He slipped off the couch and backed away around to the other side of it. “I don’t want to do sims.”
“What?” Tony looked at Steve who shrugged. Tony turned back to Clint peering at them over the back of the couch. “What the hell are sims?”
Clint blinked. “Is this another test?”
Steve frowned and went to get Coulson.
****
Tony made a face at Steve’s retreating back. Clint had moved to the end of the couch and was watching him carefully. “No tests, Clint. As an adult you have a floor here that belongs to you.”
Clint blinked. “Adult?”
“Nevermind that right now.” Tony sat down and restart the level of Rune Raiders Clint had been on. “Here, go back to playing.”
With a worried look, Clint climbed over the end of the couch to sit and he took the tablet. “I’m hungry.”
“Oh, uh. Okay.” Tony looked down at Clint’s bent head. “Do you know what you want to eat?”
“Today should be asparagus...”
“What?” Tony narrowed his eyes at Clint’s innocent expression. “You want vegetables?”
Clint gave him a weird look. “What else am I allowed?”
****
Natasha stepped between Coulson and the elevator automatically. She really needed to work on not having that reaction, but she kept putting it off.
Steve stuck his out of the elevator. “Something is weird with Clint.”
Coulson pushed past Natasha and she followed him into the elevator.
They rode up in silence. Natasha stood just inside the door.
“What are you feeding him?”
Tony looked like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. “Uhm. Food?”
Clint held up a forkful of what looked like mustard potato salad. “I like it!”
Tony patted him on the head and herded everyone out into the hallway. He grabbed Natasha’s arm as he did. Which she allowed because Stark looked like he was about to have a conniption fit at any moment.
They got into another room and Tony leaned against the wall next to the door.
“Something is wrong with that boy.”
Natasha repressed the urge to roll her eyes. “He’s supposed to be an adult for one.”
Tony glared at her. “No shit.” He pushed off the wall and flopped into the nearest arm chair. “He has never had potato salad. Seriously? I mean, okay, so I was like eleven the first time I got any, but different standards, you know? I knew what overpriced finger foods were by the time I was four. Barton was normal-ish until his parents died, wasn’t he? He grew up in America. How the hell doesn’t he know what potato salad even is?”
Steve crouched in front of Tony. “Why did you feed him potato salad?”
“He wanted vegetables. Potatoes are a vegetable.” Tony looked past Steve to Coulson. “That’s not normal, right?”
Coulson moved to stand next to Steve. “It depends on the child. Has he asked about family?”
Steve turned his head and looked up at Coulson as Tony shook his head.
Natasha eased closer. “He’s an orphan by now.”
“He hasn’t said anything about his brother?”
They all stared at Coulson. Tony blinked. “What brother?”
****
Bruce looked up as the miniature Clint came into his lab. JARVIS had been kind enough to tell Bruce when the results were ready to view, so Bruce had come back up to his lab.
“Hey there.”
Clint froze and watched him over the top of the table. “Can I stay here?”
Bruce rubbed his hands together. “Sure.”
With a wide grin, Clint scrambled up onto the stool Tony usually used. “I upset Mr. Stark somehow.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Bruce flipped to the next report. “It is easy to upset Tony sometimes.”
“Okay.”
A few minutes went by in silence and then it occurred to Bruce a quiet Clint was dangerous thing, so he looked up only to find Clint in the far corner, huddled down to a little heap, sleeping.
As Bruce got up to move the child to the couch, he noticed the screen was on where Clint had been sitting. An alert popped up on his phone with a beep. Burce found it was a message saying one his equations had been solved.
Bruce looked from the boy to the screen and back again. Then he gently picked up Clint, who muttered about not wanting to in his sleep, and Bruce settled him on the couch. He covered him with a blanket.
****
Bruce came into the small living room closest to the elevator on the common floor. “Something is weird with Clint. Other than the being a child problem.”
Everyone nodded, which he’d not expected.
“Tell us something we don’t know.” Tony tapped on his tablet.
“Clint can solve math equations like you can.”
Tony’s head came up fast. “What?”
Bruce pulled up the footage from his lab on the closest wall screen. “Watch.”
They all watched as little Clint got bored and solved the equation while keeping an eye on Bruce, who was oblivious.
Coulson cursed. They all jumped because he never cursed. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Natasha. “Call Thor and tell him we need him to come back from his date. He can bring Dr. Foster with him if he wants.”
Bruce followed Coulson as he left the room.
****
Tony hurried after Bruce and Coulson with Steve bringing up the rear. They stood back as Coulson started to approach Clint and the boy started to scream.
“Fuck.” Tony pulled on Coulson and shoved them all out into the hallway. Bruce came back in a few moments later. Tony held his hands out so that Clint could see them. “Hey, hey, calm down.”
“No!” Clint climbed onto the back of the couch. “NO! I won’t go back! I like it here.” He started to cry.
Coulson eased past Tony, now in his undershirt without his tie, dress shirt, or jacket. “Clint. I’m not going to take you anywhere.”
Clint shook his head. “I don’t want to go!”
Coulson sat down on the floor in front of the couch and looked up at Clint. “You don’t have to, but this is important. Please.” He pointed at Tony. “Before Mr. Stark called you Clint what was your name?”
“They said if I was good I’d get to stay.” Clint curled his legs up and put his chin on his knees. “I’ve been good. I have.”
With a nod, Coulson scooted closer. “You’ve been very good. You get to stay, but it is very important right now that you tell me your name.”
Clint sniffled. “I had a number. I don’t want to be called 294.”
Tony grabbed Bruce’s arm. “What?”
Coulson held a hand out to indicate for them to shut up. “We can’t call you Clint, because my agent who is missing is called that, but how about we call you his middle name, Francis? It’ll annoy him to no end.”
The boy rubbed his eyes. “I don’t have to go back?”
“No.” Coulson stood up. “If you draw me the layout of the place you were before, I’ll make certain they’ll never be able to recover enough to even think about looking for you.”
****
They were all gathered around the very detailed layout of the floor the child they were now calling Francis, had drawn. Coulson, back in his customary suit and tie, pointed at the wireframe. “This is the Centre.”
Tony cocked his head. “And what is that, exactly?”
“It is a corporation funded by the Council, but not normally claimed to actually exist. I only know about it because I was undercover as a Cleaner for less than a week.” Coulson swept his hand down his tie. “They aren’t very nice to work for.”
Thor put his fists on the edge of the table and leaned forward. “How long until we can begin the raid to retrieve our shield brother?”
“The sooner, the better.” Coulson looked at each of them in turn. “We will not be able to get SHIELD support for this.”
Steve shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We need to retrieve Agent Barton.” Steve reached out towards the wireframe. “Are we sure he’ll be held here?”
Coulson frowned. “Not entirely certain, but a review of the satellite imaging from the abduction leads me to believe that the Centre has taken him, yes.”
“Then let’s go get him.” Tony looked the layout over again as everyone left the room except Bruce. “I really thought it was him. A fucking clone, Bruce.”
Bruce nodded. “You had every reason to think it really was a de-aging bomb. We’ll get Barton back.”
“Yeah. In how many pieces?” Tony flicked the wireframe into a spin. “He was just starting to not worry Natasha and Coulson. They had just quit watching every little move he made. Now this.”
“We’ll worry about that when we have him back.” Bruce stuck his finger out to stop the wireframe from moving. “If the other guy hits too many of the support pillars the whole structure falls in.”
“I’ve thought about that.”
“Tony. I’m really mad about this whole thing. The more I learn the madder I’m getting.” Bruce grimaced. “The other guy won’t be listening to anyone.”
Tony nodded. “We’ll see.”
****
They used a personal jet of Tony’s to get to Delaware. They touched down and Tony pulled Natasha away from the rest of the team as they got ready.
“I need you to kidnap someone.”
Natasha glared at him. “Not now, Stark.”
“I’m serious.” Tony held out a piece of paper to her. “We’re going to need her.”
Natasha read the paper. “Oh.” She looked at the team and then back at Tony. “You had better get him out alive, Stark.”
Tony nodded. “We will.”
****
Clint hadn’t slept. He couldn’t remember how long he’d been in the heat and light, the noise was piercing and kept him awake. The only thing that made it bearable was that it wasn’t Loki in his head. Clint tried to move, but he was strapped down again. He could vaguely remember having broken someone’s nose in an attempt to escape.
The noise changed. There was suddenly a low rumble to go with the high pitched noise. Clint tried to focus, but then there was a roaring thing blocking the bright lights.
Clint licked his split lip. “Hey.”
His restraints were ripped loose and Clint smiled as the Hulk picked him up.
****
Natasha knocked on the house’s front door. She glanced around to see if there was more Army surveillance she needed to knock out.
“Coming!”
She turned back just as the door opened slightly.
“Yes?”
“Betty Ross?”
Betty narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?”
Natasha smiled softly. “I’m Agent Romanoff from the Avengers Initiative. I work with Dr. Banner.” She nearly snapped Betty’s wrist as the woman grabbed her.
“Where is he?” She was fierce and mad.
“I can see why he likes you.”
Betty blinked. “What?”
Natasha gently disengaged Betty’s hand from her shirt. “Bruce needs your help.”
****
Tony stayed high and helped contain the flood of people coming out of the Centre as the Hulk rampaged below. He had JARVIS sorting them into groups. The children, most seemingly having never been outside from the couple of panic attacks about the sky he’d seen, were being herded by Coulson.
The “Cleaners’ were mostly being knocked out as they kept trying to kill people. Thor kicked a few of them harder than Tony had ever see him be towards mere mortals.
One older man had just stood and smiled creepily the whole time. Tony tagged his image to make sure someone figured out who the hell he was.
The Hulk emerged from the smoldering rubble with a human in his arms. Tony swooped in and landed near him. He faced a deafening roar and then he was being handed Barton. Who was alive. Which meant Tony wasn’t going to have to be killed by Natasha any time soon.
“Thanks.”
The Hulk looked down at them for a few moments before he turned and dropped back into the hole he’d climbed from. Tony turned with Barton in his arms and yelled for Thor.
The ground beneath them trembled and Captain America appeared at Tony’s elbow.
“Give him here, Iron Man. Get the Hulk out of there.”
They passed Barton from his arms to Steve’s.
“Will do.” Tony grimaced since no one, but JARVIS could see it. “How bad is the structural integrity, JARVIS?”
“It appears to be severely compromised, sir.”
“Great.” Tony dropped further down as the scans showed no people and no Hulk. “Damn it.”
Finally at the bottom level, three further down than any plans JARVIS had been able to hack had even shown, Tony found the Hulk ripping out a main support pillar.
“Hey, Hulk!”
The Hulk just ignored him and kept pulling pieces from the pillar.
Tony cursed and opened his comm channel. “Cap, I’m going to have to piss the Hulk off to get him out of here. Be ready.” Tony clicked off before he had to hear Steve yell at him. “Hulk, I’m really, really sorry.” He readied his repulsors. “JARVIS as soon as I hit him, kick it.”
“We are ready, sir.”
Tony took one last breath and hit the Hulk with his repulsors on full. The Hulk staggered and turned to roar at him. Tony’s thrusters fired and he could hear the Hulk following him up and out.
Tony almost made it out of range, but evidently the Hulk could jump better than he’d ever shown around anyone with a video camera. He caught Tony’s right foot and the HUD screamed at Tony about it as they fell to the ground.
“Fuck!” Tony curled into a ball and waited. The Hulk held him down with a foot and roared. Tony tried to stay still as another roar reverberated through the suit.
“Bruce!”
“Thank fuck.” Tony turned his head to see Betty standing with Natasha just in front of her.
The Hulk stopped mid-roar and stood with most of his weight still on Tony. He panted.
“Bruce!” Betty didn’t try to get closer and the Hulk stepped off Tony’s suit to turn fully towards Betty.
The ground rumbled again as what was left of the Centre collapsed completely.
****
Bruce woke up with a groan. He was in the refuge room. Tony was asleep in a pile of pillows and Clint was beside him, awake and shaking. “Hi.”
Clint closed his eyes. “Hey. Can you keep watch now? I want to sleep, but no one else can get in.” He leaned forward. “They might come for me and I don’t want them to get any of you.”
Betty came from the bathroom. “Tony said the hatch is one way and you fell asleep before we could convince you to open the door back up.” She nodded her head at Clint. “He won’t let me keep watch. He keeps saying I’m too important to you to lose.”
Bruce grabbed Betty into a hug. “You are completely crazy.”
She laughed as she hugged him back. “Agent Romanoff seemed to think that’s why you like me.”
He turned his head to rest it on top of Betty’s head and looked at Clint. “I’ll keep watch, Clint. Go to sleep.”
Clint relaxed between breaths and was asleep in seconds.
“They just let the other guy trap you all in here?”
Betty smiled. “We weren’t trapped. Tony did something to that suit of his and it sort of fell off in a pile. We put the parts in a cupboard in the bathroom. Which has that clever human sized hatch.” She looked around. “You seemed to like it in here.”
He rubbed his hand through his hair. Clint was twitching and whimpering in his sleep. Tony was frowning and Betty was just smiling serenely. “How much damage was there?”
“Well, you collapsed a building with 27 sublevels and rescued about a hundred children and adults of various ages.” She gestured at Tony. “He made you mad at him so you didn’t end up under all the rubble.”
Bruce knelt down and checked Tony over. “Did I hurt him?”
“We had a little trouble getting his foot out of the suit where it had crumpled, but he kept saying it could have been much worse.”
Bruce frowned. He was going to have words with Tony about aggravating the other guy.
****
Natasha didn’t relax until they’d gotten Barton settled in his own bed on his own floor and the medical scans said his blood was clear of any drugs.
She watched Tony hover for a while before pulling him down to sit beside her. “You made the right call.”
“Wow, coming from you that’s high praise. Well, you know that, I’m sure.” He flexed his right foot. “Think he’ll be okay?”
She looked at the pale, still, form of Clint and lifted her chin. “We’ll make sure he gets there. And we’re not letting him be taken again.”
Tony leaned his head back. “Good. I’d hate to have to piss off the Hulk on another rescue mission.”
“How did you know we would need Dr. Ross?”
Tony shrugged one shoulder and he let his eyes close. “He said he was getting madder with everything we learned about the place. I figured if they had more people he was going to get mad enough he’d quit listening completely.”
“Why send me?”
“I figured she might listen to you without having to resort to actual kidnapping.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
****
Coulson quietly stepped past Natasha and Stark sleeping on the couch and stepped over Rogers sleeping on the floor. Clint was shaking in his sleep, the covers thrown off down to his knees.
He carefully untangled Barton’s foot from the covers and rearranged the blankets until Clint quit shivering. Suddenly, Clint’s eyes snapped open.
He bolted upright. “Coulson?”
Coulson tried not to cringe where his scar had pulled as he’d flinched from Clint’s sudden movement. “Yes, Barton.”
Clint looked around vaguely. “Is this a hallucination, sir? I was told I’d killed you.”
“No hallucination, Agent Barton. You just caused me a lot of paperwork.”
Clint fell back on the bed. “Oh. You like paperwork, don’t you?” He blinked slow and Coulson soothed him as muscles tremors tore through his arms. “I didn’t like it.”
“I know, Barton. You won’t be going back there.”
He turned his head and made a noise in his throat as Coulson tucked the blankets tighter. “Hulk.”
Coulson patted Clint’s chest. “Yes, the Hulk tore apart the building you were being held in and proceeded to insist you stay with him in his room downstairs.”
Barton’s eyes popped open and then slid back closed. “Huh. Must be real. I didn’t tell them about Hulk’s room.”
Coulson thought for a moment. “Did you tell them about teaching the Hulk yoga?”
“Hmmm. No.” Barton smiled. “I’m home.”
“Yes.” Coulson looked down at Steve watching them and nodded. Steve nodded back. “And we’ll keep it that way, Agent Barton.”
****