Protective Custody

Chapter 13: A Knife Returned

Blanca-

In one of the computer rooms of the New York Public Library, Blanca was hunting with a computer. One had to keep up with modern technology, after all. Gregory Dufort was proving to be a very good opponent, but he was not perfect. Security cameras were wonderful things, when taken advantage of. There were so many cameras in the city that it would have been unlikely if none of them had caught sight of Gregory. The trick was to find the right camera at the right time and that was exactly what Blanca had done. He was quite competent with computers and managed to hack into several systems around the area where Ash’s gang had ambushed Dino Golzine’s car. He found one camera that had recorded Gregory waking up and sneaking away before Blanca could deal with him. From there, Blanca was able to watch Gregory’s progress all around the city from here to there by using various business’ security cameras watching the areas just outside their establishments. He’d even managed to catch the moment he’d earlier called Gregory when he’d wanted to assure himself that his target was alive before he began the hunt. He followed Gregory as easily as if Gregory had left a trail of purple confetti behind him. It was all very simple, even working from one of the computers at the local library.

He’d heard the librarians gossiping earlier.

“I swear - it was him! I just thought I’d faint right then.” She was very young, likely a college student working a part-time job, and she grinned at her co-worker when she spoke. “Captain America, right here in our library. I only caught a glimpse of him, but oh! He was just as dreamy as he is in the news. That poor boy, though... gosh, there was blood all over the table he’d been sitting at. I saw him, too. He wasn’t too bad looking, either. Blonde and fair, but he wasn’t all beefy like Captain America. He was... well... pretty. You’d almost think he was a girl he was so pretty.”

Blanca heard blond, pretty, and boy and his thoughts flew immediately to his precious student. He closed down the computer he was working on after he erased all evidence of what he’d been doing and his mind turned to the first time he’d ever brought Ash to that very library.

Memory-

“Do I look normal?” Ash asked the moment Blanca had walked into his bedroom. He wore a t-shirt and blue jeans. “This is normal, right? All the guys on the street look like this. Is it too poor? Do you have to wear good clothes to get into a library?”

“They won’t care what you dress like,” Blanca reassured him.

Ash was fourteen and trying not to act excited about going on his first trip to a library. Blanca didn’t question Ash’s worry about looking the right away; he knew very well that there was a ‘right’ look for every situation and it was always best to look as if one belonged. In that situation, Ash needed to look like a teenager being taken to a library and that was exactly what he did look like. Blanca had not waited for Ash to heal from his injuries, but rather kept his promise. The very next Thursday - two days after the party where Ash had entirely failed to entice a guest and then been punished by being lent out to a man who’d whipped him - Blanca took Ash to the library. They’d had to ask permission, of course, and Ash had stood next to Blanca when Blanca had asked Golzine for a day out.

“The library?” Golzine had puffed on his cigar and put his newspaper down on the table. “I can have any book you need for the boy’s training brought in.”

“This isn’t so much for a particular book, but for a lesson in information gathering. It’s an important skill he ought to master.” Blanca smiled at Golzine, but it was no more than a mask. Emotions were useful and it suited Blanca to have Golzine think he was friendly. “Of course we will also get a few books for his education while we’re there. I thought something on Alexander the Great might be productive.”

Golzine looked at Ash, who had deliberately made himself look as cool and impassive as possible, to give the impression that he really didn’t care one way or the other what Golzine decided. Golzine had finally nodded. “Very well. Spend the day out, if you like. I’ll have Gregory drive you.”

Ash tensed at Blanca’s side.

“No need,” Blanca refused with a smile. “Ash can practice his people observation skills if we take the train into the city.”

And so they ended up at the doors of the New York Public Library. Ash openly gawked at the stone lions at the entrance and was silent when they walked in. Ash stared at the huge room full of reading tables. They took nearly an hour to simply wander around and look at the stacks. Ash dragged his fingers over the bindings of books here and there, but he made no move to take any book off the shelves. He didn’t say a word. For a short time, they just watched the people in the large reading room with Ash half-way hiding behind Blanca in a an extremely rare show of nerves.

“Ash?”

“It’s really quiet in here,” Ash noted.

“It is. Do you want to stay? We have a whole day.”

Ash nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I wanna stay. Lemme go get a book or something.” But he didn’t move. He looked around at the books lining the room and then back into the main stacks of the library. “What can I get? Can I just take something?”

So Blanca spent some time explaining how a library worked and then took Ash to pick a book. Ash went straight to a history book, a large book about the Crimean War, and while Blanca appreciated the topic, he had earlier noticed Ash looking at the section of children’s books. Those books were far below Ash’s reading level, but Blanca had promised Ash a fun day, not an intellectually stimulating one. “Do you want to go in there?” He asked, pointing at the children’s section.

“It’s for kids.” It wasn’t really a refusal.

“You can go in, if you like. No one’s here but you and I.”

Ash slowly put down the history book and began to walk towards the children’s section. He paused before going in. There were other children in there. Small children with their parents and older kids looking at novels. Ash looked up at Blanca. “If Gregory had come, he’d have told Dino I wasn’t studying.”

“And that’s why you tensed when the Monsieur said Gregory would drive us.”

Ash nodded. “He’s like a spy. He tells Dino everything.” Then Ash walked in and stared all around until his eyes fell on an old copy of “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood” and he looked at Blanca. “You’re sure it’s alright? I don’t need kid’s books, ya know.”

“I know, but today you can.”

Ash took the book and spent several hours reading, sitting at Blanca’s side at one of the long tables in the reading room. Every now and again, he would look around, as if he expected some unpleasant surprise to pop out of thin air. Nothing happened. The day was quiet and peaceful. At one point, when Ash looked around the room, again, Blanca whispered,

“Nothing’s going to happen, Kitten. I’m watching the area and I’ll tell you if anything happens.”

“Why do you call me ‘Kitten’?”

“Because I have heard many people call you everything from a wild cat to a demon. To me you are an adorable kitten testing out his tiny claws. Someday, you may be the most fearsome predator in the jungle, but for now, you are a little kitten.”

Ash frowned. “You’re being weird, again.”

“You’ll have to forgive my weirdness, Kitten. Now, quiet down and read before the librarian yells at us.”

End Memory-

All-in-all, it had been a very enjoyable day. But, there was business to be done. Blanca pulled himself away from happy memories and focused on his hunt. He left the library and went to the last location he’d been able to track Gregory to, a honky-tonk bar named The Salty Bear. It wasn’t a place Gregory would customarily go to, which only made sense about why he was hiding there. He saw Gregory almost at once, despite the bleached blonde hair and clean shaven face. Gregory sat in a dark corner with a drink in front of him that he didn’t even taste. Blanca took a seat at the bar and considered his options. He was going to kill Gregory, there was no question about that, but he couldn’t simply shoot him in the middle of a crowded bar. Well... he could. He’d done it before. It lacked subtly, but it was an option. His preferred option would be to get Gregory away from witnesses and then do what needed to be done. He didn’t even need to torture Gregory as there weren’t any questions he needed answers, though he was curious about how long Gregory would last under torture. He suspected Gregory would last longer than Angie had, but he wasn’t sure how much longer. If he approached Gregory in the bar, it would surely turn into a scene and that wouldn’t do. One didn’t attract attention if one could help it - his trainers had always been strict about that rule, as Blanca had been strict in teaching Ash. Ash hadn’t always remembered that rule. When his emotions got the better of him, he could be as tactful as a jack-hammer, but when he did remember the rule, he could carry it out beautifully.

“What do you want?” The bartender strolled up to stand in front of Blanca and put a hand on her hip when she spoke, eying him with clear appreciation.

Her appreciation didn’t surprise Blanca. He knew that, subjectively speaking, he was attractive. He’d been designed to be attractive. In his youth, his trainers had put him through cosmetic surgery to ensure that he was as attractive as possible and his own hard work at fine-tuning his body had finished the job. So he smiled at the woman and leaned forward a little. “I confess, looking at you has made all thoughts of drinking fade from my mind.”

She turned red. “I’m married.”

“Married women are beautiful, too.”

She laughed, then, and went to serve another customer.

For less than ten minutes, he turned his thoughts back to Gregory and what to do about him. He took note of the plastic bag on Gregory’s lap, the one Yut-Lung had told him about that held the metal suitcase. He’d have to take that as soon as he killed Gregory. An execution might work. Simple, quick, and clean. An accident would be better if he could just find the right opportunity or, better still, manufacture the right opportunity.

The problem of how to get Gregory out of the bar was solved when Gregory answered his phone. He spoke for just a few seconds, then got up and quietly walked out of the bar. Blanca left a generous tip on the bar simply because he’d liked the bartender and followed Gregory. He had to keep his distance. Gregory had no instincts to speak of, but he wasn’t entirely stupid and kept pausing to check his surroundings and there was the chance that he might spot Blanca. In the end, Gregory went to Chinatown to an all night diner where he took a seat by the window and stared out at the street. Again, Blanca was forced to wait. He needed Gregory to be alone. So, Blanca slipped into the alley across the street from the diner and waited. It was good that Blanca was a patient man as he ended up watching Gregory all night. Gregory didn’t do anything, he just settled down in his spot and stayed there.

The next morning, as the sun was rising, Ash came strolling down the sidewalk with a man walking just behind him. While Gregory stared intently at Ash, he made no move to pull out a gun or knife or any other kind of weapon. He didn’t even leave the diner. Blanca looked back at Ash and saw him step into a restaurant called The Chang Dai. He remembered, then.

Memory-

Ash had said, “He was good.”

“High praise.” It hadn’t been sarcasm. Ash rarely ever had anything nice to say about anyone, so the fact that he would praise a boy he’d met in juvenile detention was memorable.

“Yeah, you’d have liked him; he was really tough.” Ash raised the rifle up to his shoulder and looked down the sight to the target. He squeezed off three shots, all acceptable shots, though one had landed just on the edge of the red bulls-eye and earned Ash a light smack on the back of his hand. He took his discipline without a word then smiled at Blanca. “His head was totally bald and he stuck up for me. Everyone there was scared of him.” He had real admiration in his voice and Blanca treasured the easy smile Ash showed him. No one else ever got that smile and even Blanca didn’t get it when there was any chance that other people might see. So it was only on the shooting range, located far at the back of Dino Golzine’s property, surrounded on all sides by a thick barrier of trees, that Ash showed his true smile. Ash took another shot with the rifle and hit the target, a perfect bulls-eye, and that earned him a pat on the head. “He said he’s got a sister he lives with and she’s super nice. They’re not far, not really. You could get to his place from here in no time.”

“Subtly, Ash. You’re being too obvious that you want to have a play date.”

“It’s not a play date! I’m not four!” His ire burned off as quickly as it had flared up. “I just... I could visit. Dino wouldn’t have to know. Shorter lives at his family’s restaurant in Chinatown. The Chang Dai.”

End Memory-

Blanca watched with a frown while Gregory stared at the restaurant Ash had gone into. A sharp glint of light from a high building nearby caught Blanca’s attention. Blanca looked back at Gregory, eager and tense. He thought about what he knew of Ash and the whole situation in general and realized that Gregory had set a trap and Ash had stepped into it.

He left his hiding spot and raced to the building he’d seen the light from. He knew what the light had been- sunlight reflected off glass, possibly glass in the scope of a rifle. He didn’t bother going inside the building, but went to the back where a fire escape went right from the ground to the roof. He started climbing and, half-way up the building he heard a shot. Blanca had images of Ash jerking from being hit and falling to the floor. That image roused angry fire in Blanca’s gut, which he had to push away, least it cause him to act without thinking. He climbed faster. When he was just at the top of the building, he heard another shot. The air was filled with noise as people on the streets were yelling and running. As soon as Blanca’s hand landed on the top of the fire escape he peered over the edge and saw three men. Two of them were dead. One stood over them. He wore a decent suit and held a handgun with a silencer on the barrel. The dead men were sprawled on the roof, a rifle lay on the ground between them. Blanca watched when the unknown man turned and left the rooftop.

The stranger had just left the bodies behind and Blanca contemptuously thought, ‘Sloppy and unprofessional.’

Seconds later, someone else arrived, but that man Blanca recognized. Clint Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye of The Avengers. Blanca made a point to know his competitors and Hawkeye had been well-known and highly respected in certain circles for years. An admirable shot, even by Blanca’s high standards. Hawkeye stayed only a moment before he, too, left.

Blanca had much to consider about the situation, but Gregory was still on the streets below and needed to be dead. Gregory was gone by the time Blanca got down to the street. A shame, but not the end of the world. Blanca knew Ash was staying with The Avengers and, now, so did Gregory. A smile itched at Blanca’s lips as he thought about the coming hunt.

His cell phone vibrated silently in his pocket and Blanca answered. “Hello?”

“Blanca, you need to come here.”

“Good morning, Mister Yut-Lung. How are you?”

“Miserable! Someone just told me everything is in chaos on the streets, everyone’s in a panic. Someone just shot at The Chang Dai and Sing nearly had a fit. He took off on his motorcycle. If he gets shot I won’t have my best minion!”

Blanca grinned. Moody, bratty Yut-Lung was just as adorable as precious Ash. And Sing, trying so hard to be more grown-up than he really was, never failed to make Blanca smile. Such cute children. “If you’re worried about Sing, it’s alright to say that.”

Yut-Lung spluttered. “I am NOT worried! Oh, this is just too much.” Blanca could almost see Yut-Lung being dramatic all over the the place, waving his arm and stomping about as he spoke. “First Sing gets drunk because his brother died and I really don’t know why he’s upset about that, then I get some bothersome visit because someone saw that Gregory sneaking around and being suspicious, then I get a phone call from some woman who wants to do business with my vegetable of a brother and I’ve never even heard of her. Fan said she’s called Thema Shehata and she did business with Wang-Lung and with Golzine, so she’s probably a bit unsavory.”

Blanca’s eyebrows rose at the name. Of course he knew the names of the Council members of the World Security Council. And one of them had been doing business with the Lee family and Golzine? The World Security Council controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. who worked very closely with The Avengers who were keeping Ash safe. Interesting.

Yut-Lung continued with his despair, “And now we’ve run out of tea! There isn’t a single tea leaf in the house and Fan went to get tea bags at a store. Do tea leaves come in bags? And now Sing went and ran off into the middle of a riot or something and if Nadia Wong gets hurt Sing’s going to cry, again!”

It almost made Blanca laugh. “Now, now. Calm down. Sing is upset because he loved his brother - some people do, even if you didn’t. Learning that Gregory was around with that metal suitcase was very good information. Miss Wong is fine, I’m in Chinatown right now and I’m looking at her restaurant. She isn’t hurt, just a little shaken. Why don’t I come over and you can have Fan tell me all about Thema Shehata?”

Clint-

From the angle the bullets had come into the Chang Dai, Clint could easily tell where the shooter must have been. The trajectory could be followed back to only one logical source and Clint followed that with his eyes until he found the correct rooftop. It only took a minute or so for Clint to get to the spot where he knew the shots had come from and when he arrived, there were bodies. Two freshly killed men, blood still oozing from gunshot wounds to their heads, lay on the flat rooftop. He didn’t recognize them, but the rifle on the ground near them was enough proof of what they’d been up to. He looked around cautiously, but didn’t see anyone else and didn’t see any other clues about who’d killed the two men.

Two dead men. Assassins. It was somehow offensive to Clint, a professional assassin, that two men had been attempting to kill Ash. Two of them. They couldn’t have been professions or there would have only been one. Clint stared down at the corpses for a time, studying every detail. Suits and ties, polished shoes. They were finely dressed assassins, but to have missed such an easy shot... they were certainly not professionals. He turned from the bodies and looked down at the Chang Dai. From the rooftop, he could see it easily. He saw people from the street rush in and he saw the shattered window the assassins had shot through. His excellent vision was able to easily see where Ash and Miss Wong had been sitting. He wouldn’t have missed the shot.

He knelt next to the assassins and, with his gloves on, hunted through their pockets. They had driver’s licenses in their wallets and I.D. badges that identified them as C.I.A. agents. It all looked legit.

Clint tapped the small transceiver in his ear. “Hey, J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“Yes, Clint?”

“I’ve got a situation. Is Phil available?”

“Yes. Please hold.”

A moment passed before Phil’s voice sounded in his ear. “Clint. Status?”

“Hey, Phil. Everything’s calm, now. Just had a couple of men shooting at Ash. They went and damaged the restaurant Ash was in and almost hit the owner, but she and Ash are both fine. The owner’s a little shaken up. I went to where the shooters were and I found them both dead. They have I.D. that says they’re both C.I.A. agents. I don’t like this. Someone else shot them - one bullet in each head.”

“I’ll send a team from S.H.I.E.L.D. over there right away to get clean up done. Any idea who the third shooter was?”

“Nope. No sign of them here that I can find. Might want to send over a forensic investigator, too, in case I missed something. I’ve got to get back to the kid. I don’t like this.” His nerves felt as if they were on fire, he felt jumpy and on edge. There was a third person willing to kill and he had no idea whether or not that third person was aiming for Ash or trying to help.

“I’ll send someone else to help. Stay where you are.”

“Yes, sir.”

Satisfied that the immediate threat had been dealt with, though not satisfied with how it had been dealt with, he left the rooftop and headed back to where he’d left Ash and Nadia. Clint walked in just in time to hear Ash say,

“I’ll be okay. I think they’re gone, anyway. Just stay down.” Ash peered over the edge of the table and spotted Clint at once. He stood up. “It’s okay, Nadia. It’s safe, now.” He gave Nadia hand to help her up. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes. Just... no one’s ever attacked my home.” She was pale and, for a moment, held onto Ash’s hand. She looked at the shattered glass on the floor and then at what used to be the window. “Oh, dear. Shorter would be so upset.”

Ash snorted. “Shorter would have been swearing blue thunder and gone hunting for whoever thought it would be a good idea to shoot anywhere near you.” He, too, looked around at the mess on the floor and the destroyed window. His shoulders were tensed. “Damn it. Sorry about this, Nadia. I shouldn’t have come here. Of all the stupid times for me to be without a weapon. Sorry I pushed you.”

“I’d rather get a few bruises than a bullet in the back of my head.” She patted his hand and gave him a little smile. Then, she looked at Clint and bowed her head. “Thank you for your help.”

Clint might have said something in reply, but at that moment people began to rush into the Chang Dai demanding to know if Nadia was alright. Ash put a hand to his side, but his expression remained still enough that Clint wasn’t entirely sure if Ash’s wound was troubling him or not. It seemed impossible that he wasn’t in pain as he was refusing pain medication, but Clint couldn’t tell that from Ash’s expression.

When the noise grew to uncomfortable levels, Nadia put both hands up in the air and raised her voice a little as she said, “Please, everyone, I’m fine. No one got hurt, thankfully. I just need to sweep the floor and put some plastic over the window. Don’t worry.” And she gently shepherded everyone out and closed the door behind them.

When all was quiet, again, Ash righted the table Clint had earlier turned over and picked up the photo album from where it had fallen on the floor. He put it on the table and said to Nadia, “Someone took the photo and used it to doctor Club Cod’s roster. They wanted me to find it.”

“That seems like a lot of effort.”

“Yeah.” Ash looked outside, again. “It sure does. They added his picture to the roster and then put it in Dino’s database so the cops could find it. Someone who’s very good with computers is trying to get my attention. It’s someone who knows me, who knows I was tight with Shorter. They’d have known I’d come here and they staked out the place, waiting. Shorter’s picture was the bait and I took it. They lured me here and waited nearby to take those shots. Damn bold. Whoever it was didn’t care about pissing off everyone in Chinatown. Who? Who’d do this?”

‘It’s too much intrigue for a kid,’ Clint thought. But he thought back to his own life and what he knew of Natasha’s early life. He thought about what all his team mates had lived through, or what he knew about - he strongly suspected that most of his team mates weren’t entirely forthcoming with everything that had happened to them - and sadly thought there was too much danger all around.

Clint said to Ash, “I need to get you back to the Tower, but we’re waiting for reinforcements. I found two people who were shooting on the top of a building. They’re both dead, but it’s possible that more danger may be around as someone else had shot the both of them.” He shook his head, ruefully. “Kid, you seem to be neck deep in a conspiracy.” It was exactly what Phil had feared and Clint wasn’t surprised. Phil always seemed to know the way of things.

The roar of a motorcycle grabbed everyone’s attention and they all turned to look out at the street. The crowd made way just before a red motorcycle pulled up in front of the restaurant. Clint recognized the rider. Ash had called him Sing, the brother of a man Ash had killed, the man who’d tried to kill Ash. Sing was even younger and smaller than Ash. His face was twisted with anger when he glanced at Chang Dai’s window.

“Oh, dear,” Nadia said, softly. “He shouldn’t be out, he should be resting. I’m sure he’s still upset about his brother.”

Sing marched into the restaurant. “What happened?!” Sing looked unhappy and tired and... he looked hung over. “You alright, Sissy?”

Nadia answered, “I’m fine. No one’s hurt.” All the same, she went to Sing and wrapped him in a hug. He returned it without hesitation. “Thank you for thinking of me.”

“Thinking of you? It’s all over town that someone took a couple of pot-shots at Chang Dai.”

Clint winced. He disliked things going badly on his watch and this little outing had not gone at all well. “I am sorry for the trouble, Miss Nadia. We’ll see that your place gets fixed up just like new.”

“She already has help,” Sing grumbled while he looked around at the mess. “I’ve got this. I’ll have it taken care of.” Then he looked at Ash. “I’ll have some of my guys hang around for the next few days, just in case. Look, we need to talk, Ash.” He didn’t look happy about it, but Clint didn’t think he’d have to worry about Sing hitting Ash, like he had at the hospital. The kid looked pretty in control of himself.

“Agreed.” Ash motioned to one of the tables, apparently completely calm at sitting down for a chat in the same seat he’d almost been killed in only moments ago.

“No,” Sing waved his hand. “Not there. Too many people around.” He gave Clint a suspicious look. “Outsiders don’t need to hear.”

“Right.” Ash went to Nadia and, instead of hugging her as Sing had done, he put a hand on her forearm and gave it a squeeze. “I really am sorry about this.” He turned and headed for the door, but stopped when Nadia caught his arm. “What is it?”

She smiled, rather sadly. “Wait here. Just a minute. Please.” Then she left the room.

“So, Sing,” Ash stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned against a table. “Does Nadia know who you’re hanging with? What he did?”

“She knows I’m helping out the new guy in charge and unless you want to hurt her, that’s all she’ll know!”

Clint wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but it sounded like a real soap opera. He didn’t have time for that kind of drama - he needed to get Ash somewhere safe so they could look for whoever had shot the two assassins. He kept looking out the window, looking for his backup and wasn’t sure he wanted to leave the shelter of the Chang Dai without someone else to keep an eye on Ash.

When Nadia returned, she brought with her a small bundle wrapped in white cloth. She went to stand in front of Ash and, for a moment, was silent. She looked at the white bundle in her hands, then held it out to Ash. “Shorter would want you to have this.”

Ash took it and pulled the white fabric away to reveal a knife. It was very plain - a straight blade, perhaps eight inches long, with an unadorned handle. It meant something, to all three of them. Ash, Sing, and Nadia all stared at the knife with grief, anger, and love.

“How did you get it?” Sing asked. His voice cracked.

“It was delivered. I don’t know by who, but I found it like that - wrapped in white and sitting on Shorter’s bed.”

Both Ash and Sing looked alarmed and Clint, too, was shocked by Nadia’s calm answer. Ash said, “Someone broke in and you didn’t tell anyone? Damn it, they could have hurt you!”

“They returned Shorter’s knife. They brought part of him home. I don’t think they had any intention of hurting me.” She met Ash’s eyes. “Will you take it? He wouldn’t have wanted you to be unarmed.”

“Yeah. Sure. I’ll take care of it. But you call someone if you think people have been creeping around in here!”

“I will.”

Nadia produced a sheath for the knife attacked to a shoulder holster which Ash hung on himself over his sweatshirt. He looked entirely too comfortable with being armed, but Clint could understand it. He sure never felt quite right if he didn’t have some kind of a weapon on him at all times. Again, Ash gave Nadia’s forearm a squeeze and, though she looked like she would rather hug him, Nadia returned the gesture.

He would mention it to Phil. The gesture reminded him of Natasha. She wouldn’t hug or even touch people unless it was in the pursuit of a mission. Instead, she stuck to verbal greetings and, if she especially liked someone, handshakes. She didn’t seem to mind touching Clint and she was getting used to the rest of the team, but other than that, she much preferred not touching people. He knew about her past, she spoke about the stuff she’d gone through from time-to-time, but it still surprised him to see similarities between Ash and Natasha. He also appreciated that Nadia actively tried to make Ash comfortable.

It was with a troubled expression that Ash said, “I really am sorry about this and about leaving you with the mess, but I don’t want to make more trouble by hanging around too long. You really shouldn’t be alone for a while, though. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Why don’t you come with me? I’ve already blackmailed these guys,” he jerked an unrepentant thumb towards Clint. “Into letting Max’s family go into protection. I can do it for you, too.”

“I told you,” Sing said. “She’s not going to be alone. I’ll leave some of my guys here and- ”

The door slammed open and, to Clint’s surprise, Detective Charlie Dickinson rushed in. He didn’t say a word before he ran to Nadia and gathered her up in a tight embrace. “Are you alright? I heard... and... I thought...” Detective Dickinson broke off and pulled away long enough to look at Nadia. He gently touched her face. “I got here as fast as I could. God... if anything had happened to you...”

“I’m fine,” Nadia assured him. “I promise. Everyone’s fine. Thank you for coming.” The smile she gave him was as warm as a summer morning.

Ash looked back and forth between the two, a completely baffled expression on his face. “What...?”

“They’ve been dating for months,” Sing told him. “Come on, genius, you didn’t know?”

Detective Dickinson blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I was meaning to tell you, Ash, but you’ve been stressed and I didn’t want to complicate things for you.”

Ash’s shoulders slumped. “How did I miss this?” He stepped up close to Detective Dickinson, until they were almost nose-to-nose, and grumbled, “Be nice!” It was a threat if Clint had ever heard one. Ash then turned and headed for the door, until Clint stepped in his path. “What?”

“Did you forget about the back up?”

“I’m not making Nadia more of a target by hanging around waiting for your backup. ‘Sides, those guys are dead.”

“It’s the one who shot those guys I’m worried about.”

“Why? They did me a favor.”

Clint prided himself on his professionalism, almost as much as Natasha did. He was very good at his job. So rankled him when he couldn’t do his job to the best of his ability, as in that moment when Ash refused to do what Clint thought was best and, really, there was nothing Clint could do about it. Ash left the Chang Dai and Sing went with him. They walked together and, as Clint observed from behind, the people on the sidewalk parted before them, respectfully giving them a wide berth.

Sing cast a suspicious look at Clint over his shoulder but spoke to Ash. “Maybe your babysitter can go take a break, Ash. We got business to talk about.”

Clint laughed. “Sorry, short-stack, but I’m on guard duty today and I don’t leave my post.”

Sing didn’t look happy. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and, for a few moments, just walked. “You know who did this?”

“Yup,” Ash answered. “The babysitter found them on top of a building. Like I said, they’re dead. Now I just gotta find out if someone was pulling the strings or if they were acting alone.” Ash gave Sing a stern look out of the corner of his eye. “Your new boss wouldn’t have anything to do with this?”

Sing snorted. “Yut-Lung has enough problems without getting the whole neighborhood in an uproar by targeting Nadia. He’s not that stupid. Look, he told me he had a visitor earlier. I was drunk off my butt, so I don’t remember anything, but he said there was this old man from the neighborhood who said he saw Dino’s guy, Gregory, picking up a package in the park left by some cop. Fan - that’s Yut-Lung’s assistant - said the cop’s dirty and has been for ages. According to the guy who saw Gregory in the park, what Gregory picked up was a metal suitcase.”

Ash stopped walking. He closed his eyes and Clint could almost swear he heard the gears turning in Ash’s head. “You sure?”

“The old man was Feng Gao. I know him; he’s honest. You think...?”

“I’ll look into it and get back to you. Go look after Nadia. Oh,” He pulled another envelope, identical to the one he’d given Nadia, earlier, and handed it to Sing. “That’s for you and your guys. Divide it evenly and give everyone who fought an equal share.” He gave Sing a flat stare. “A good Boss would also give an equal share to the families of the guys who got killed.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it.” He opened the envelope and froze. He swallowed hard. “What...?”

“Ask Nadia. Just take it, will ya?” He put a hand on the knife Nadia had given him. “I already took care of Nadia. She’ll be set for the rest of her life.”

“Good.” Sing stuck the envelope in his pocket. “You gonna give something to Cain, too?”

“Of course.”

The two boys stood there for a moment, quiet, and let the other people on the sidewalk move around them - two stones in the middle of a river. Finally, Sing said, “Look, never mind any beef between you and me. If that suitcase has in it what I think it does, then we got a problem. I don’t want that stuff being brought back; that stuff killed Shorter. How much do they know?” He looked significantly at Clint, before asked Ash, “You gonna talk about it in court?”

Ash sullenly looked at his feet. “Max thinks I should.”

“Right. I got stuff to take care of. If I hear anything else about IT, I’ll get word to you.”

Ash gave Sing his new cell phone’s number and they parted ways.

Ash and Clint hadn’t gone more than a dozen steps before a car pulled up beside them and parked. Natasha, with a cheery smile, got out of the car. “Phil said you needed backup.”

“Thanks.” Clint felt such relief to have her around. “I’m going to get a bigger perspective. Take him back to the Tower, will you?”

“I can take myself back,” Ash groused.

“Don’t fuss,” Natasha grinned at him, as if she would laugh. It was all fake, of course. Clint knew very well that she didn’t display real emotions so openly. “I think your friends are worried about you. Perhaps you should have waited for them before you went out.”

“I don’t need an escort around my city. Bad enough you lot are taking this whole ‘protective custody’ job too seriously.”

Natasha kept smiling, but said, rather severely, “I take ALL my jobs seriously.”

“And what is your job, exactly? Being a hero? Saving the day?”

“No. I kill people.”

Ash regarded her somberly, then nodded. “Yeah. I can see that.” There was no insult in his voice, no disbelief, just acceptance. Clint wondered what Natasha thought of that. Few people except Phil had accepted her so readily. Ash said to her, “So, wanna go see some dead bodies?”

“Sure.”

“Now wait just a minute!” Clint protested. He pointed a finger at Ash, “There are people trying to kill you!”

“Yeah. And? Happens all the time. I wanna see who they were. I might know them. In fact, I probably know them. Besides,” he pointed at himself. “Not a prisoner, remember? I can go where I please.” Without waiting further, he started walking in the direction Clint had left the shooters in. Natasha followed him and Clint, not quite sure how to keep Ash safe when he wouldn’t listen, hurried to catch up.

“Nat, you can’t go along with this.”

“I can’t?”

“Well, you shouldn’t. He’ll be safer at the Tower.”

Natasha stopped walking and looked at Clint seriously. “Are we going to kidnap him? I have handcuffs but I didn’t bring chloroform, today. Will a blow on the head do too much damage? Bruce might get upset if I aggravate the wounds.”

He didn’t really want to know why she was carrying around handcuffs. “No, but... Look, we’re supposed to be keeping him safe.”

With a raised eyebrow, Natasha said, “He is safe. You and I are with him.”

And Clint really couldn’t argue with that.

Ash found the building with the shooters on it without any help and Clint was impressed. There they found the shooters, just as Clint had left them. Ash looked them over carefully, but was sensible enough not to touch anything. “Yeah. I know these jokers. They said they were F.B.I. the last time I saw them.”

“Their badges say C.I.A. and they look real to me.”

Ash didn’t seem at all surprised. “Well, this couldn’t have happened to more deserving people. Those guys lied to the cops and made Max sit through an autopsy he thought was me.” Then Ash wrinkled his nose. “Whoever shot them just left them laying around here?”

“Looks like it,” Clint said.

“Sloppy and unprofessional,” Ash and Natasha said in unison. They looked at each other with surprise. Ash narrowed his eyes at her. Ash said, “I knew someone who used to say that. Leaving evidence just laying around is sloppy and unprofessional.”

“It is something I was taught. A useful rule.”

Ash nodded his agreement. There was nothing else to it and they all headed back to the Tower. Clint went with them back down to the street and they went to Natasha’s car, but he left them there. “I’m going to take the high road.” He gave Natasha a nod and headed for a building where he could climb to the top and watch their progress.

He slipped into an alley and used a building’s fire escape to climb. He used a few window sills as toe holes and shimmied up part of a gutter’s downspout, before he finally reached the top of the building. It was quieter up top, far above the streets of New York. There were birds flying around - a falcon, a small flock of pigeons, two noisy crows. The noise from people and cars and everything else that was apart of the city faded, it didn’t disappear, but it did fade. The higher vantage point gave Clint the opportunity to watch the area around the car for any dangers and, considering traffic and the traffic lights, he was easily able to keep pace with Natasha’s car. He followed their progress, moving from building-to-building as they went along until, at last, they arrived home.

Home. Sometimes, it struck Clint with a profound joy that he had a home. A real home. A small, shy voice in his head, whispered that he also had a family. A real, loving family and that, too, was something new and powerful and just a little frightening. He wondered if Ash would ever have a place he could call home, but, judging from what he’d seen of their guests, he was fairly certain Ash had found a family, even if Ash hadn’t realized it, yet.

Of course, everyone was told what had happened and Max made a phone call to the police to tell them. Ash was roundly scolded by Jessica for leaving the Tower.

“I had a freakin’ Avenger with me!” Ash pointed at Clint. “How much safer do want me, Old Woman?”

“I want you to not get shot at! You almost got killed just because you went outside and that’s wrong!”

Something about that shocked Ash. He awkwardly scuffed his sneaker on the floor. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Yeah.” Jessica let out a tired sigh and rubbed her face with both hands. “I know. I’m sorry.”

Bruce worried until Ash let him take a look at the wounds to prove he hadn’t started bleeding. “I know how to take care of myself. Relax a little, will ya?” When Bruce pointed out that Ash had, in fact, started to bleeding, again, Ash had looked surprised, but shrugged. “It’s only bleeding a little. It’s not important. Jeeze, I bled more the last time I got a paper cut.”

In the meantime, Phil crossed his arms and was silent. He listened to everything that had happened, his ears perked up at the mention of C.I.A. badges and again when Clint mentioned Sing talking about a metal suitcase delivered to someone who’d worked for Dino Golzine by a supposedly corrupt cop. The mention of a metal suitcase made Max scowl furiously.

After Clint distinctly noticed that Ash didn’t mention a few tiny details to the group he took Phil aside into another room. “Ash is holding back something. That kid, Sing, seemed to think there was something in that mysterious suitcase and the way he was talking, it sounded dangerous. Sing asked if Ash was going to talk about it in court and Ash didn’t look at all happy. He said Max wanted him to talk about it. You ask my opinion and I’d guess Ash was afraid of whatever was in that suitcase. He didn’t say so, but he was afraid the minute that metal suitcase was mentioned. It’s possible Gregory has some kind of weapon in that suitcase or something else that could make our job harder.” He crossed his arms. “I feel like we’re missing information and I don’t like it.”

Phil patted Clint on the arm. “I’ll talk to Max.”

To be continued...