Chapter 11
Clint sighed, rubbed the back of his head. Once this was over, he was going to have some strong words with Sam Wilson. The situation in this apartment was getting steadily out of control, and it’s not like they hadn’t enough on their plates when they arrived here. But hey, what kind of circus performer would he be if he couldn’t spin a few more plates?
“Clint?”
Kate was clearly shaken (and who could blame her, the kid was nearly strangled to death by the Winter Soldier less than an hour ago) and looking for answers. And hell, maybe it’d give Clint some time to think through their next move. Story time it was.
He kept an eye on Barnes as he moved to the kitchen and started making some tea. Between the tracksuit tied up in the other room, and the speed at which Barnes had gone from zero to murder Kate, he was starting to think she may be on to something re: Barnes being in league with the Russian gang. At the very least, he was off the list of “people Clint thought he could probably trust”. Damn but that list was getting short.
“So,” he started.
“So,” she said.
“I guess you have some questions.”
“Mm, yeah a few,” she croaked, “Such as “Who the heck is this guy”, “who the heck is that other guy”, “what the hell is going on”, and “what are we going to do about it”,”.
“Yeah that about covers it.” He sighed. He pushed a mug of tea towards her, took a sip of his coffee, “Have you ever heard of someone called the Winter Soldier?”
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The Winter Soldier. Yeah Kate had heard of him. As someone who considered herself fairly well up on current affairs, and, as some might call it, a little obsessed with the Avengers, she remembered seeing him on the news a few years ago like everybody else.
“You mean the terrorist guy who blew up the UN over the Sokovia Accords, broke up the Avengers and disappeared without a trace?” See Kate knew what she was talking about.
“That’s the one.”
Kate waited for Clint to keep going. He didn’t. “And?” she asked impatiently. Clint just raised his eyebrows at her. She looked at Clint. She looked at Barnes. Back at Clint. “No way. No...no way”.
“I know. You gotta hand it to him, he cleans up...well maybe not well but I’m sure if he washed his hair -”
“Clint what the hell?” Kate hissed at him, pushing up off her stool and backing away against the wall. Not only had this guy just tried to kill her (kill her!), but he was a wanted terrorist and murderer, and Clint had known this whole time??
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Clint said, as if what he’d just told her wasn’t absolutely insane.
“Okay?! Exactly what part of all of this is okay Clint??”
“What you’ve heard on the news isn’t the whole story alright. Just, sit down and let me explain? Please?”
Kate hesitated, looking between Clint and the wanted terrorist tied up on the floor. For a second, she felt like she had back at that auction – in her head, she knew the sensible thing was to get the hell out of there, just walk away and leave this fight for someone else. But for whatever reason no part of her actually wanted to do that.
“Only because you said please.” She conceded and sat back down. She’d trusted Clint this far, and anyway, sitting and drinking tea seemed just as reasonable as anything else she could think to do right now.
“So yeah, he’s the Winter Soldier. And the Winter Soldier was a terrorist, or more accurately an assassin. One of the best. He spent a lot of time doing a lot of terrible things. So the news got that much right.”
“So far this explanation isn’t reassuring me Clint,” she croaked.
“I’m getting there.”
So Clint told her the rest, what he knew of it. Who the Winter Soldier really was, the Hydra of it all, and how Steve Rogers had come to find his old war buddy knocking around in the 21st century.
“DC? He was there?” Kate still remembered that day. It was only two years after her world had fallen apart in New York, but even then she remembered the shock that had gone through the country that week. The knowledge that this wasn’t some external attack from mindless aliens, but something that had come from within themselves had shaken the adults around her, even as she struggled to understand how the sky could be falling down again, already.
“Yes, he was. Steve recognised him, and by the sounds of things managed to break through some of the brainwashing. Steve thought the Winter Soldier saved his life that day. Well, after he tried to kill him in the first place, but hey.”
“He disappeared after that, no idea where or what he was doing, until Berlin and the UN. Oh and technically he didn’t do that one by the way, he was framed, though not sure how much of a difference it makes in the grand scheme. And then...a lot of shit happened, which ultimately ended up with the Avengers breaking up, a bunch of us getting arrested, Steve going on the run and his good buddy Barnes getting sent to Wakanda for de-brainwashing. Actually pretend I didn’t say that part, I’m pretty sure that’s classified.”
“Anyway it’s been kept pretty quiet, but from what I hear he got a government pardon this year. And apparently, has been spending his time hanging out with the tracksuit mafia since then.”
It’s a lot of information for Kate to take in. She’s still a little hung up on the fact that this guy tried to kill her less than two hours ago.
“So who’s the closet guy?”
Clint cleared his throat, sipped at his coffee, wishing it was stronger. “That,” he said between sips, “is a guy named Jack Rollins. He was one of the Hydra double agents trying to take over the world in DC. I actually used to work with him a little. Kind of a dick.”
He paused, thoughtful “I’d assumed all of those Hydra guys were dead honestly. I guess that was just wishful thinking.”
“I don’t even...so what the hell is he doing in the Winter Soldier’s closet? And what do the tracksuits have to do with all this?”
“And those,” Clint said, draining his cup, “are the million dollar questions.”