Chapter Ten ~ Circus
Chapter Ten
Circus
“Professor, you sent for me?” Wanda asked poking her head into the office. She felt as if she was intruding because when she looked into the room, she saw Hank, Logan, Storm, Jean Grey and Scott Summers all assembled. “I’m sorry, you are in a staff meeting. I can come back later.”
“Wanda.” Storm called out. When the woman looked back, Storm continued, “Come on in, its fine.”
“We need you to do something. Is Vision here?” Scott asked sounding very authoritarian. He was probably the person Wanda had spent the least amount of time with. If he was speaking to her, Wanda knew it was about something very important. The man barely acknowledged her presence in the school unless Kate was around her. When Wanda had asked Kate about it, she just waved it off saying that Scott slowly warms up to people and not to worry about it. The optimist in Wanda hoped that Cyclops’ sudden interest in her was Kate’s prophecy coming true, but the ‘feel’ of the room shouted differently. “Could you please go to your home and collect items that Charlotte would need to stay here for a while?”
Wanda tried with all her might not to allow herself to acknowledge the wave of fear, anger and anxiety that cascaded off everyone in the room. “What do you mean stay here for a while?”
“I have had a discussion with her mother, and she feels,” Professor Xavier informed and scanned the room to his associates, “actually, we all feel, it would be best for Charlotte to move back into the school for a short time.”
“Why?” Wanda didn’t mean to say it out loud, the question just seemed to fall out of her mouth.
“Because it was stupid to let her move out of here to begin with. Hasn’t even been a year and this shit happens.” Logan dryly commented with animosity heavy in his voice. “Will you go over there with your boyfriend and get the pup’s stuff, or will I?”
Unlike Scott, Wanda had numerous run ins with Logan. She didn’t have anything against the guy. He was actually nice. Kate had warned her in the beginning that Logan would test her, see what Wanda was all about. The hint Kate provided to be successful in this was to be straightforward and honest with the Wolverine. It had worked and now they shared a mutual respect for one another. “I can do it. I know what she needs.” Looking back over to the Professor she hesitantly asked, “And Kate approved this?”
Professor Xavier couldn’t tell the woman too much information, if for no other reason than they didn’t have enough information to freely share. “She is concerned for her daughter’s safety. We are unsure currently how certain details were obtained that put said child’s safety at risk, so until we can accomplish some extent of containment, the particulars are highly confidential. We would all greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter of collecting the items you feel Charlotte would need to reside here.”
“Vision and I will leave right now to go put a bag together for her. If I may ask, is this because of the Hulk yesterday? Because how I understand it, Tony knows why it happened and is taking measures to ensure it won’t again. It was because Charlie has gamma radiation in her and it set the Hulk free.”
Simultaneously, Hank and Logan questioned in a loud and concerned voice, “What?”
The Professor glanced down to the floor then to the two questioning men, “There was another ‘incident’ yesterday at the Avengers’ compound where it is believed that the Hulk identified Banner’s serum within Charlotte and surfaced out of surprise of coming into contact with his own chemical makeup. That ‘surprise’ caused him to chase down Charlotte until the Avengers were able to overpower the creature and bring Dr. Banner back.”
“Why am I now just hearing about this?” Hank enquired.
Logan added, “Or me.”
Being sure to have control over his temper before he spoke, Charles Xavier inhaled and slowly released it. “Because yesterday was apparently a very busy day for the Barton household, especially Charlotte. The goal now is protection.” Once again speaking to Wanda, “Please go and get what is needed.”
Wanda didn’t say anything else, just slowly backed herself towards the door. Feeling the doorknob behind her, she turned and left the room. Pulling the door shut, Wanda pulled out her cell phone. Scrolling through her contact list, she found the person she needed and tapped on the icon to send the call.
~~~
“Alright everyone.” Rhodes announced walking into the sitting room where all the Avengers were together. “You have approval. The Committee didn’t add anything more as long as you stay within the sixty hours window.”
“That’s a ‘go’ for us then.” Clint remarked pushing himself up out of the chair he was sitting in. Natasha followed suit and the pair started to leave the room.
“Remember,” Rhodes called after them, “You are not to engage with them. However, if they attack first, kick their asses.”
Throwing a salute to the man Clint didn’t argue with the command, “Yes sir, Deputy Secretary. Kicking their asses sir.”
“I said IF they attacked first.” Rhodes corrected but the agents were gone by that point. Turning back around to where Tony, Steve, Thor, Bruce, and Sam were, Rhodes predicted how the mission would probably end. “I am going to have to make so many calls for whatever they do over there, aren’t I?”
Tony got up and slapped his friend on the back as he passed him to get to the coffee maker. “You accepted the job, you knew you would be the ring master of this circus.”
“No I didn’t.” The Deputy Secretary clarified. “I accepted to be second in command to the ring master. Speaking of which, I should give Kate a call and fill her in.”
Once in the kitchenette Tony decided against another cup of coffee and opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of water. “Clint said she was at the doctors. She was supposed to text him afterwards a brief synopsis or something. I was watching him. He never touched his phone. I would take that to mean she is still at her appointment.”
“It doesn’t really matter, I’ll see her later anyways. I still have to drive Jade over to the house.”
“Where is the nurse?” Tony directed the inquiry to Bruce.
Bruce had to think for a minute where he left the newly hired woman. “Um, she is in medical finishing up the clearance process for her to be officially hired.”
“While now that I have you two here with nothing to do,” Rhodes started speaking to Thor and Bruce, “why don’t we go on up to my office and I can tell you a wonderful story called the ‘Sokovia Accords’?”
Sam, Steve and Tony all had a good laugh at that one. It would be very humorous to be in the room while Rhodey explained to the two absent Avengers how the team broke up over an international law. Less humorous when Rhodes got to the German airport fight and Raft prison part of the story. All three men wondered what their friends would think of them after the tale. They shared glances with each other, knowing judgment was coming. Steve was the one to break the awkward silence, “Sam, you should go get ready as well. Tony do you want to do a pre-flight check list on the quinjet before they take off. You know, make sure everything works and they have all the supplies they need?’
~~~
Tony and Steve were working within the quinjet, Steve was making sure that everything that was needed was stocked and in working condition. Tony was there doing a safety check on the flight’s navigation system. Rhodes was in his office explaining to Bruce and Thor what they missed with the excitement of the Accords. Both men would be expected to sign it. While Thor could refuse and take off, Bruce’s hands were tied on the matter.
Clint was standing by the opening of the quinjet, watching supplies being wheeled in. They were still waiting on Natasha and Sam. Wilson was assigned to stay on the quinjet while Nat and Clint were doing surveillance and be the backup if they needed it. He would also be responsible for sorting through any data the recon team obtained during the stake out and sending the vital intel back to the compound. Clint was about to go searching for his two teammates when he felt the vibration of his cellphone concealed in his front jacket pocket. Unzipping the jacket, he reached in for it, hoping it was his wife calling instead of texting as agreed to earlier since he had time currently to speak.
The worry was clear in his voice from seeing Wanda’s caller ID appear instead of Kate’s. “Wanda? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, but something is.” She reported as she found Vision in the school’s library discussing something with some of the older students. Waving at him to come over and meet her, she informed Clint as to the reason for her call. In a stern but soft voice she said, “Charlie is moving back into the school, today.”
“What?” Clint asked, quickly thinking that maybe Kate is allowing for some reason for Charlie to spend the night in the girls’ dorms. The only problem with that theory was that it was a Wednesday and children usually don’t have sleep overs during the week.
Wanda had heard what happened last night between him and Kate outside. Kate panicking about the Hulk’s reappearance and targeting her daughter. It turned out that the mother was more upset about not being told about it until the child spoke up at dinner. Wanda remembered hearing Clint coolly attempting to reassure his wife that everything was fine. She didn’t want to listen in, but after sending the kids upstairs to get ready for bed, she thought it was best for someone to be ready to call for an ambulance if Kate needed medical attention. By the sounds of the one-way argument the Bartons were having, an emergency call could have very well been necessary. Clint was about to go out on a mission and already was on edge about leaving his family. Even if it was only for a short time. Telling him that the X-Men had stepped in to handle his daughter could be enough to push him over the line of what he was able to deal with. Closing her eyes, Wanda informed her surrogate father of the decision made for his family without his consent or even consultation. “Xavier is sending me to the house to collect her things. He said that the X-Men feel Charlie should move back in. I was told she will be staying for a while.”
“Why is Xavier removing my child from my home?” Clint yelled into the phone, apparently loud enough to catch the attention of Tony and Steve. Resuming his normal volume, “Where is Kate, put her on the phone Wanda.”
Anxiety obvious in Wanda’s speech at not being able to do what Clint had requested from her, “I have no idea where she is. I haven’t seen her since this morning when we all left. She wasn’t in the Professor’s office with the X-Men.”
“Could she still be with Hank?’ Clint asked as he looked at his watch. It was almost eleven thirty, so it was possible she was still at her appointment.
Wanda dashed any hope Clint had of a simple explanation for Kate’s absence. “Hank was in with the Professor.”
Panic gripped his heart. The X-Men were keeping Charlie for some unknown reason and Kate was missing. What if something had happened to Kate and they were protecting Charlie from the same fate as her mother? He demanded of his brain to form some conclusion against that fear. Someone would have called him, right? The Professor or Rhodes would have spoken to him by now if something had happened to Kate. Pushing the feeling deep down and pulling up Agent Barton, a cool and rational man, Clint tried to reason through it all. “So where the hell is she now?”
“I don’t know.” Wanda repeated as she felt Vision’s hand on her back in a comforting gesture. He didn’t know what was going on, but it was clear that Wanda was upset. Remembering part of the conversation she had in the office, Wanda was able to give Clint what she had about Kate’s involvement in the affair. “The Professor did say to me that Kate approved this move.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Clint exclaimed, throwing his head back, that was when he saw Steve and Tony had moved nearby him, listening into his side of the conversation with worried expressions on both of their faces due to what they heard from him. At least Kate was safe. She would have to be if she approved what Xavier wanted to do. He had that knowledge if nothing else. That wasn’t all he had now, he had a wife making decisions without speaking to him regarding their daughter. Trying to make some sense of all this, Clint tried his best to make this whole thing innocent in his brain. Perhaps Charlie started her ‘human versus mutant’ talk again at school and knowing that Clint would be gone, Xavier offered to keep Charlie at the school to reduce the stress on the mother. That had to be it he told himself. Kate wouldn’t see a reason to call him for something like that. The X-Men all cared for Kate. If they felt Charlie’s acting out was detrimental to her mother’s health, they would step in to help.
“Where’s Kate.” Tony asked. Clint just stared at him dumbfounded. Didn’t the man hear him ask the same damn question at least twice by now?
“I’m trying to figure that out now.” Clint told him, having convinced himself that it was all nothing. However, he did need proof of the ‘fairy tale’ he was telling himself. “Do me a favor will ya? Try to get her on the phone.” Tony immediately obeyed and called his daughter. Clint watched as the Ironman paced the tarmac waiting for Kate to pick up. Returning to his own call, Clint asked for the details, “What happened?”
“Something about Charlie’s safety being a concern of everyone’s.” It was really the only bit of information the X-Men had given Wanda about the reason for the child’s alternative placement.
“Her ‘safety being a concern’?” Clint was now back at his original thought, they were holding Charlie for protection. The feeling he had earlier pushed down had fired up and consumed his entire body. “And no one called me?”
“Is this about the Hulk?’ Tony asked returning to Clint and Steve not having any luck reaching Kate on her phone.
Wanda heard the question over the line from Stark and answered before Clint could relay it. “No, in fact I directly ask the Professor about it and he said it wasn’t. There is something else going on. They don’t trust me enough yet to tell me. Doesn’t really make me feel good knowing that they don’t trust me with information about Charlotte.”
Bringing his hand up to his forehead in disbelief over what was going on, Clint had no other option then to agree. “Yeah, I think I completely understand how you are feeling.”
“What is going on?” Tony pointed to Clint’s cell phone pressed firmly against his ear, “Put it on speaker.”
Taking the phone away from his head, Clint pressed the command, changing it to a speaker setting. With that task done, Clint reported on what he had, “I really don’t know Tony. From what Wanda has gathered, there is something that has caused Kate and the X-Men to believe it would be safer for Charlie to move back into the school.” Putting his hand up to stop Stark’s interruption. “No, it’s not because of what Banner did yesterday, it’s something else.”
“What is this ‘something’ that caused this type of reaction from the X-Men?” Steve asked finally being able to enter the conversation. Clint answered with a shoulder shrug. “Could it be our HYDRA mission?”
“I think we would have heard something about that from Rhodes when he gave us the approval.” Turning around to find one of his employees, Tony called over to the closest one, “Hey, go get Deputy Secretary Rhodes, tell him it’s an emergency.” The worker nodded his understanding and ran off.
There were too many ‘what ifs’ for Clint to sort through, what they needed was Kate to explain it to them. In lieu of his wife, one of the X-Men, who were arranging everything would suffice. “Whatever it is, the X-Men are taking it seriously. They are asking Wanda to go over to the house and collect Charlottes stuff.”
Tony shook his head slightly at the information then spoke in a matter of fact manner. “Well, don’t do it. She isn’t leaving her home and family without a God damn good reason. Putting her back in residence there negates everything this last year has been about.” Clint had to admit Tony was right, they had come too far with integrating their family to go back to square one.
A deep sigh could be heard on the line as Wanda explained the dilemma, “If I don’t do it, Logan will.”
“That’s just wonderful!” Clint screamed the word ‘wonderful’ to show to his audience, in person and on the phone, just how frustrated he was with what had transpired. He was minutes away from leaving the country and now this was happening. Some type of threat to his daughter and his wife was missing. Calming himself down, Clint quickly came up with a game plan. “Listen to me Wanda, do as the Professor says. Go home, get Charlie’s stuff, take it back to the school. I need you to be my eyes and ears on this until I have a good handle on it.”
“Not a problem. Vision and I are leaving now.” At the end of that, Wanda disconnected the call. Seeing that the call had ended, Clint just stared at the phone. There was a quick second where he wanted to throw it as far as he could over the compound’s grounds, then realized he was a mature adult and that would not be wise.
“Everything alright out here?” Natasha asked walking down the tarmac. She didn’t hear any of the conversation taking place between the guys but saw enough to know that Clint was upset by something he was hearing on his phone.
“Did Kate withdraw her approval for this mission?” Sam asked having also seen how animated Barton was during his phone conversation. It was always fun to bust Clint and Tony’s chops that Kate was technically their boss.
Any retort by Clint, Tony or Steve was postpone by the appearance of Rhodes running out to meet them. Before Rhodey even stepped one foot onto the tarmac, Thor appeared from nowhere coming downward from the sky to them. “I was notified of your emergency. How may I assist?”
Tony held out a finger towards the god of thunder as he searched for the words he needed after witnessing that entrance. “We will talk about…” he pointed up then down, “that later.” By then Rhodes had gotten to them. To the deputy, Tony asked, “Where is Kate?”
Catching his breath, “That is why you sent for me? You can’t find your daughter?”
Steve spoke up then as he looked around them and saw that they had accumulated a small audience of the compound workers in the last five minutes. “We should talk inside.”
In silent agreement, Clint led the group back to the residential area of the compound. Tony was talking to Sam, Rhodes and Nat about the phone call from Wanda. Natasha called up to Clint who was still quite a bit ahead of everyone else. “And no one knows where Kate is?”
Clint, who had just stepped through the entrance into the compound still had his hand on the handle and was just about to turn around and answer Natasha. The only reason he didn’t immediately respond was that suddenly every cell in his body was telling him to duck. Following the instinct that had never wronged him before, Clint ducked just in time to see a dark purple bag fly over his head and through the glass door behind him, shattering it into pieces. Grabbing the most accessible weapon he had on his body in the crouched position, a knife in his boot, Clint jumped up ready on the defense. Focusing in on the attacker, he had a mixed feeling of relief and shock seeing that Kate was standing right in front of him.
Putting the knife back, Clint yelled over his shoulder to the quickly approaching group, “Found her.” Looking at the broken door, he saw the bag Charlie was given yesterday at the park. Pointing to the scattered gold and silver pieces all over the floor and out onto the patio, “Those were Charlie’s, and she is going to be pissed.”
Very cool and collected Kate walked up to her husband and explained who the true owner was. “Those aren’t Charlotte’s Clint; those chess pieces would belong to Magneto.”
Refusing to move as everyone else entered the room by sliding pass him, Clint tried to place the name. “Magneto? Who?”
Kate maintained a cold stare trained on her husband. Everyone stood around the couple, not sure what was going on. Then, after what seemed to be an eternity, Kate released the storm that was brewing within her. “Magneto!” She screamed at him, then repeated the name, “Magneto! Magneto had my daughter and you just stood there!”
Rhodes, apparently the only other person in the room who knew who Kate was speaking about looked at his boss. “Magneto? Are you sure?”
Pointing to the chess pieces Kate confirmed it all. “Those, they belonged to him. He used to play chess with Xavier using them. He gave them to Charlie knowing that she would bring them to the Professor.” Returning to Clint, “He used Charlie to send a message to the X-Men, and to me! And you allowed it!”
“The old man at the park yesterday?” It felt as if a lightening bolt went down his spine. Clint knew that name. Kate had mentioned that man before. It was shortly after the wipe was reversed. She had explained to him that Magneto was an adversary of the X-Men who could possibly be a danger to Charlie when she got older. “That was him?”
“Yes, the ‘old man’ that you allowed Charlie to converse with. You also allowed him to hand something to her. Charlie said that she was by herself with him before you ran up to get her. Clint, do you have any idea what Magneto could have done in that minute before you knew that she had walked away?” Kate relaxed her stiff stance, and Clint could see how worried she was. Meeting his eyes, Kate asked in a sad voice that showed everything that she was fighting internally, “Why weren’t you watching her?”
Anything that started with ‘Charlie said’ was never beneficial. Though in this instance, the girl was correct with her recount. It was never a matter of Charlotte remembering the details wrong, that was impossible due to her abilities, but once and a while, the girl would throw in some ‘dramatic flair’ in her storytelling. “I was watching her Kate, that is how I knew a stranger was talking to her.” Clint defended what he knew to be the undefendable. It happened on his watch, and it was his fault. “She was told to stay where she could see me and on the sidewalk with her bike. When I saw her bike was laying down on the grass, I looked up the hill and saw her with that guy. I ran as fast as I could with Debbie right behind me.”
“Xavier ‘read’ her and saw it.” Kate told him, which informed Clint just how serious the event was. If Xavier had looked into the child’s mind, a method Clint had been told was a ‘last resort’ measure for the Professor regarding children, then there was cause to be worried. The Professor didn’t act on impulse. “Charlotte was by herself with Magneto for one minute and seven seconds before you called her name. One minute and seven seconds!”
There was no way that time was correct, Clint pondered to himself. There was no way in hell he didn’t have eyes on Charlie for over a minute, then took into consideration the child had her own agent whose sole responsibility was to watch the girl and none of it made any sense. However the timer Kate had on it was so exact, he couldn’t help but doubt himself. Forcing himself to recall the seconds before he saw Charlie talking to who he now knew to be Magneto, Clint said out loud the events that led to the encounter. “I swear Kate, I was watching her.” Then it hit him. Charlie wasn’t the only child on the playground, he also had Lila and Nate with him. In a defeated tone, he admitted that there was indeed a lapse in supervision for his eldest daughter. “I had Nate in a swing. He was doing alright on his own then he started going a little too fast and high. It scared him, and he started to cry. Debbie was the closest because she was tracking Charlie. She was riding her bike and it is just one big circle, so standing in the middle of the playground gives Debbie the best location to keep eyes on Charlie as she rides around. Nate was crying so Debbie grabbed the chain to stop him. I went over and took him out of it and he walked away to do something else. That was when I saw Charlie up on the hill.”
“He could have taken her. Magneto knows how to hide from the Professor. We would have never seen Charlie again!” Kate explained in more terror then anger to her husband. Clint understood that she was looking for someone to be angry at but couldn’t pull it off when it was directed at him. She knew he didn’t know who Magneto was. Clint would accept all the yelling, screaming, and eventually crying from her. It didn’t matter who the man was, mutant or human, the opportunity presented itself for someone to potentially take and run off with one of his children. Clint took his eyes off his child for longer than he should have, and anything could have happened to her. Really, anything could have happened to Lila or Charlie. It was for only a minute, a minute and seven seconds, but children have gone missing with less time than that.
“But he didn’t, that is what is important here Kate.” Rhodes spoke up with. While this was an awful incident, some perception was needed, and Kate was too close to see it. “Magneto didn’t do anything but use her as the means to send a message.”
Kate put a hand out at Rhodes to stop his attempt of defusing the situation. “Oh, don’t worry about that. The message was very clear.” Turning her attention from Rhodes to Clint, Kate decoded the message for him. “He can get to Charlie.”
“That is clear, yes.” Rhodes agreed taking on the role of the deescalater and at the same time try to understand what happened. “Is that why she is staying at the school?”
Kate looked to Clint at the question, to which he merely replied, “Wanda called.”
“Wait a minute, a chain?” Everyone’s eyebrows went up in confusion of Rhodes’ remark that sounded more like an epiphany. Expanding on the concept, Rhodey pointed out that Clint may not be as much at fault as originally thought. “Debbie grabbed the chain on the swing?”
“Yeah.” Clint confirmed wondering where Rhodes was going with that information. “It’s a chain link covered in a plastic sleeve, so the kids don’t get their fingers stuck. Debbie grabbed it to slow Nate down.”
Rhodes and Kate locked eyes, then Kate closed hers at the revelation of how detailed this plan was to get to her daughter. “Damn it!” She yelled and walked away from the group. Putting her hands behind her against the small of her back, obviously uncomfortable in her condition, Kate understood exactly what Rhodey was implying. “He increased the height and speed on the swing to cause a distraction, so he could speak to Charlie.”
“What?” Steve asked not understanding how a swing played into this whole thing. “How?”
“Magneto can control magnetic fields.” James Rhodes informed the group, then straightforwardly spoke to Clint, “He got you and Debbie to look away, so he could initiate contact with Charlotte.”
Natasha had a soft spot for the Barton children. She didn’t have as great of a relationship with Charlie as she did with the other three, but the girl was still dear to her. Hearing that an intricate plan was orchestrated for an older man to be alone with a young girl by possibly causing harm to Nathaniel, all so Clint would look away was causing her blood to boil. It hit a little too close to home for Natasha, thinking about the variety of methods that were used to procure girls for the Red Room. “Back to Rhodey’s question, is this why she is staying at the school?”
Kate appeared to be lost in thought, only coming out of it when she understood Natasha’s question was to her. Still distracted by the wheels in her head turning at high speed she answered in a monotone voice. “It’s the only place she can be safe. Magneto would never attack the school. It’s sacred ground to the mutants.”
“Kate, why don’t you sit down?” Steve offered, she looked pale. He wasn’t sure if it was her condition or having her daughter becoming a target of what sounded to him as some kind of evil mutant. Either way it went, she didn’t look well.
“I’m fine.” She dismissed the concern and returned to attacking Clint’s parenting skills. “Why would you let her take something from him?”
“I don’t know Kate; the whole thing was strange. He seemed nice enough and I didn’t see the harm in it at the time. I had Debbie run the stuff and she told me it was clean. Charlie was really excited about the pieces and the guy was excited to give them to her. Again, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. He gave them to me to give to her. The guy never touched her. She knows better than to accept anything from a stranger on her own.” Clint moved over to where Kate was, “Come on, Steve’s right, you need to sit down.”
Clint put a hand on each side of Kate and attempted to guide her to the couch. As soon as hands were on her, Kate pushed them off. “Please don’t touch me right now.”
Instantly Clint pulled his hands off at the request. He stepped back slightly but could hear her breathing. It was loud and fast. Like Steve, Clint also noticed the change in skin color on his wife. “Katie, please sit down.” Looking over to Sam who was the closest to the kitchenette, “Can you get some water please.”
Tony was progressing closer to the couple upon hearing Clint refer to her as ‘Katie’. It was a name reserved for only particular circumstances, when Clint really needed her to pay attention to him. It seemed to work because Kate was on her own walking towards the sitting area. Tony diverted from his path of going to Kate and walked away from the group. All the attention was on Kate right now, so she wouldn’t notice or even hear Tony from where he was. “FRIDAY do not respond, just send for Nurse Conner to come down here. Tell her that she is on the clock.”
Clint was walking behind Kate as she turned into the sitting area in the communal room. She was only about three steps away from the nearest piece of furniture to sit in when without warning, bent over, grabbed her mid-section and took a sharp intake of air. “Shit!” Clint called out as he was by her side in an instant and supporting her, so she could take the weight off her lower body and lean into him. “Kate, what’s wrong?” She didn’t say anything, still bent over. “We need medical!” He yelled as he was trying to move her to the couch, but she wouldn’t budge, paralyzed into her position by pain. “Kate, come on, I got you.” He calmly told her while he was internally freaking out. He hid the panic in his own voice, because that wouldn’t help the situation at all right now and took control. “Let’s sit down.” Wordlessly, Kate nodded her head and allowed Clint to lead her to the couch.