Chapter 23
She doesn’t move.
He’s reminded of the time in the vent when they thought they had killed Dreykov the first time, when they killed his daughter.
This is not like that.
His body is still and face down as she moves to it, kicking it viciously.
Blood trickles to where Clint stands as she starts to punch him, anger, grief and pain in all her actions as animalistic sounds come from her body.
He’s torn between letting her go and getting help, and in the end, she stops herself turning to look for Jace who is still unconscious.
She’s covered in blood.
Her arm hangs loosely by her body, and he knows it’s broken.
Blood on her face.
She looks feral.
“She’s coming with us.”
Clint nods, picking up Jace as the other three widows, one dead; two alive lie nearby.
“And them?”
Natasha shrugs.
“I don’t know.”
Glassy eyes stare at Dreykov’s body as she starts in on him again, kicking him in the head.
This time, he does pull her away, standing between her and the body.
“We need to go now,” he tells her, Jace still in his arms.
There’s an initial hesitance, but then a nod as she looks around, picking up the guns and widow bites.
“Tell Tony to send Shield?” she suggests.
It tells him she does not want the others involvement, keep it in the family.
She looks to Jace.
“I want her to have the option. She can stay, be debriefed, but she can leave too. I want her to be free,” she swallows looking to Clint.
“I want her to have the choice.”
Clint understands the decision. Being on the side of the American government is not for everyone.
It’s likely the two girls will be debriefed and kept in holding for years, until they can figure out what to do with them.
It’s also likely, given Jace’s history that they would never let her go.
They walk to the car Clint arrived in, covered by darkness, even though he can see the peak of sunrise on the horizon.
He feels light headed but pushes it back, pushing through the intensity of a headache.
She sits in the back with her friend, head positioned gently in her lap.
Clint puts his hands on the steering wheel, knuckles bruised, hands bloody.
In the safety of the car, he feels he can finally breathe.
They’ve been gone less than twenty four hours but it feels like a lifetime.
“Do you want to go back to the tower?” he asks her, licking his split lip.
Natasha nods, eyes still glazed.
“I think,” she pauses, “I think we might need some help.”
.
Jarvis alerts Tony as soon as Clint leaves, Tony hopes he’s doing the right thing in leaving them to deal with it.
He heads down to the workshop and sighs.
He should be helping them, but Iron Man would just draw more attention.
If Ross is involved, then he doesn’t want to be drawn into the political drama.
If Clint and Natasha can handle it, then it’s Shield’s problem, and likely that would work out better for all of them.
He loses time fixing his armor, Natasha’s nanobites giving him an idea around how to make his armor appear and swarm rather than for it to be metal, but the components proving too complex to manipulate until he understands them better.
Jarvis tells him that Natasha and Clint have returned, and he glances at the time, 5am is ridiculous.
He should have gone to bed.
“They have another person with them, and they should all go to medical,” Jarvis continues to inform him.
Tony sighs, picks up his tablet and heads for Medical which is where he is sure Clint would be dragging Natasha.
The reality is a bit different.
The woman Clint carries is dressed in the widow’s outfit, she doesn’t look injured, just unconscious, but they treat her as fragile.
Clint’s face is bruised, swollen and cut. His clothing looks slightly damp.
Tony wants to ask what happened.
“Do we have a space where she’ll be secure, but doesn’t have to be handcuffed?” Natasha asks from the corner.
She holds a washcloth, wiping her face smudging blood away from a still weeping wound. Tony notices she favours one arm.
“Uhh,” Tony nods and frowns, “- she can go into the basement holding cells? They’re decked out for um, I’m sorry, who is she? What happened?”
Clint washes his hands and then sits heavily on the bed. He has gauze in his hands and starts to wrap his hands neatly, focusing on splinting two fingers.
“She’s someone we need to protect,” Natasha says curtly. “For now at least.”
She spits into the sink, and Tony notices how bruised her face is too.
Tony sighs.
“I’ll take her down, whilst you… clean yourselves up,” he offers.
Waiting until Natasha nods, he picks up the girl and leaves them to it, watching as Clint approaches Natasha tucking stray hairs away from her face.
.
Jace awakens in a clear glass room, the bed neatly made, a bathroom and sink to her left.
Fear encompasses her. She remembers being choked, passing out. She remembers Dreykov dead.
Happiness bubbles inside her at the thought.
She’s free.
Her reflection stares back at her as she touches the glass.
Dread settling in.
She’s free.