Chapter 17
“We gotta go. That guy's probably in Siberia by now.” Bucky said as he crouched beside you on the airport pavement.
“As long as they keep cutting off our path to the jet, they’ve won. We’ll never make it out of here,” you said, breathing hard and trying to catch your breath.
“We need to draw out the flyers... I'll take Vision. You get to the jet,” Steve said.
In your ear, you heard Sam yell, “No, you get to the jet! The rest of us aren't getting out of here!”
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Clint said in your earpiece, “if we're gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it.”
“Alright, Sam,” Steve said. “What’s the plan?”
“We need a diversion. Something big!”
“I got something kinda big,” Lang piped in, “but I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell, and if I tear myself in half, don't come back for me.”
“He's gonna tear himself in half?” Bucky asked you uncertainly.
“Don’t ask me. I just met the guy,” you replied.
“You sure about this, Scott?” Steve asked.
“I do it all the time. I mean, once... In a lab. And I passed out.”
“Oh, well, then this ought to go great,” you whispered to Bucky.
“I’m the boss, I’m the boss, I’m the boss,” Lang muttered to himself before instantly growing to the size of a building.
“Shit,” you said to yourself, staring straight up at Giant-Man.
“Guess that’s the signal,” Steve said. “Let’s go!”
As your eyes wandered over to Clint where he stood several yards away, you replied, “You two go. I’m gonna stay.”
“What?” Bucky asked, grabbing you by the arm. “Come on! We need you.”
“No, you don’t. I’ll just slow you down.”
“You know what’s going to happen if you stay?” Steve asked with a sad tone to his voice.
“Yeah, that’s why I have to.”
Turning your attention to Bucky, you said, “Take care of the pip-squeak for me. He’s gotten used to having me around to babysit him.”
Bucky gave you a soft smile and said, “I will. Don’t forget, it was my job before it was yours.”
Then you watched as the two of them took off in a sprint towards the jet. You reminded yourself that they would be alright and you would see them again. Picking yourself up off the ground, you ran to where Clint was fighting and joined him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He asked. “You should have gone with Steve and Barnes!”
“Trying to get rid of me, Hawkeye?” You replied with a smirk.
“You know this isn’t going to end well for us!”
“Yeah, I know.”
When you turned to look at him, you found him giving you a strange look that you couldn’t decipher. You didn’t have time to think about it, though, because you both had to face off against, and lose to, King T’Challa.
Lying on your back and staring up at the sky, you became aware of Clint crawling over and flopping down on his back beside you.
“I’ll say it again,” Clint groaned, “you should have gone with Steve and Barnes.”
“Probably, but I wasn’t going to leave you behind to face this thing without me.”
“And if they put us in jail?”
“Then they put us both in jail.”
You reached over to take his hand, and for the first time, you felt him tense at the contact. It was so slight that you weren’t sure you hadn’t imagined it. Before you could pull back in response, however, he relaxed and took ahold of your fingers, stroking them gently. You didn’t say anything else to each other throughout the process of your arrest and transport to the Raft. They placed you in the cell across from his. When Tony showed up, you stared at the wall in front of you and simply listened to their conversation. You didn’t look his way until you heard Tony ask why Clint didn’t think about his wife and kids before choosing the wrong side. You glanced his way to find him staring past Tony directly at you. When you locked eyes with him, he quickly averted his gaze.
“You wouldn’t understand,” was his only response.
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“I knew you’d come,” you said as Steve opened the door to your cell and you threw your arms around him.
“I’m glad you have so much faith in me,” he replied with a chuckle.
“Where’s Bucky?” You asked. “He didn’t come with you to help?”
“I’ll tell you about it later,” he said as he started opening the other cell doors. “Right now, we gotta go.”
Once all of you were on the Quinjet, you went to stand beside Steve at his spot in the pilot’s seat.
“Bucky lost his arm,” Steve said. Before you could ask, he volunteered, “The metal one, thankfully. After what happened in Germany, he’s worried that he’s still too much of a threat to everyone. He voluntarily put himself into cryofreeze in Wakanda until someone can figure out how to get that stuff out of his head. He wanted me to thank you for helping him, and for caring. He said it meant a lot to him, and you can always consider him your friend.”
You placed your hand on Steve’s shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. You hated that after finally getting his childhood friend back, he had to lose him all over again.
“So, where are we going, Captain?” You asked, trying to change the subject.
“I don’t know yet. It’ll be harder to hide if we all stick together, but I’m not going to ask anybody to leave either. Guess we’ll just have to play it by ear.”
Apparently overhearing your conversation, Lang came over to you and said, “I’d appreciate it if you could take me as close as possible to San Francisco. I’ve got a daughter there.”
“That’ll be the first place they look for you,” Steve said.
“I know, but I’ve got some friends who can help me. I’d like to at least give that a try before I take off for some far corner of the world.”
You looked over at Clint to find him sitting on the bench with his elbows propped on his knees, staring down at the floor. Walking over and sitting beside him, you said, “We’re taking Lang to San Francisco, you want us to drop you off at home on the way?”
“So that they can pick me up in the front yard? No, thanks.”
“No one knows about your house and your family, Clint. They won’t find you.”
“Stark does. He already put us in prison once. Do you really think he wouldn’t do it again?”
“No, I don’t think he would.”
He gave a dry, insincere laugh and said, “Then you’ve got more faith in him than I do.”
“Go home to your family, Clint.”
“I can’t. I wasn’t completely honest with you before. That fight I had with Laura…she told me that if I left, I shouldn’t bother coming back.”
“Oh, Clint, I’m sure she was just angry. If you go—“
“Yeah, if I go home, break my bow on the front porch, beg her for forgiveness, and promise to never get involved again she might take me back. But I can’t do that unless I’m one hundred percent sure that I’m going to mean what I say. Right now I can’t be.”
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The rest of the flight to California was silent. Steve landed the plane in a clearing out in an extremely rural area.
“I’m going to go part of the way with Scott. There’s something I’ve got to do. The rest of you stay with the jet. If there’s a threat, don’t wait for me,” Steve said while lowering the door.
“I want to go with you,” you said.
“Then I’m going too,” Clint said.
“No,” Steve said. “That’s too many of us out at one time. We might draw attention. Anything you need, just let me know. I’ll take care of it.”
“A couple of cell phones,” you said.
“Actually, I could use one too,” Clint added.
“Alright. You ready Lang?” Steve asked.
“Yeah! Bye, guys! It was great meeting you. If you ever need me, let me know.”
“Bye, Lang,” you said, offering him your hand. “Take care of yourself.”
“That’s not going to cut it,” he said, stretching out his arms like he was going to hug you. “We’ve served time together now.”
“We were in jail like two days,” you said with a laugh but giving him a hug anyway.
“Still counts, and you should call me Scott now. Maybe even Scottie.”
“Okay, Scottie. Thanks for the help. I’ll see you around.”
After they were gone, there was nothing left to do but wait for Steve to come back.
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“I’m back,” Steve said, walking up the ramp of the jet. “Here’s your stuff.” He added, handing you and Clint a package each. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where are we going?” Sam asked.
“Hopefully to find a corner of this world where they won’t know us.”
You opened your package to find two prepaid cell phones inside. Flipping through one of them, you found its number and programmed it into the other. When you got a free moment, you’d pay to have it delivered to its intended recipient. Clint reached over and took one of them out of your hand and did the same thing.
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After a rough night of trying to sleep on the jet, you awoke to find that it was no longer moving.
“Where are we?” You asked, rubbing your eyes.
“In the middle of nowhere,” Sam answered.
“We’re home, or what counts for home right now,” Steve said.
“You haven’t forgotten what we talked about, have you, Cap?” Clint asked.
“No, I just thought I should bring the rest of them here first.”
“What are you talking about?” You asked.
Clint took you by the arm and led you away from the group.
“I’m taking off,” he said.
“We’re splitting from the rest of the team?”
“No, we’re not. I am.”
At first you weren’t sure you had heard him right. The pair of you had always been a team. You couldn’t believe that he’d really want to leave and go off on his own…and that he’d want to leave you behind.
“Clint, what is going on? What’s wrong between us? You’ve always been honest with me before.”
“There’s nothing wrong between us, baby,” he said, lifting his hand up to cup your cheek. “But something has come up that I’ve got to figure out, and I can’t do it here. I need to be by myself. Believe me, if I could take you with me, I would.”
He rubbed his thumb gently across your cheek and it made your eyes involuntarily flutter shut. When you opened them, you found him staring at you intently in a way that put butterflies in your stomach and caused your chest to ache.
“Do you remember when we used to go undercover together?” He asked, still staring at you.
You smiled fondly at the memories that his question brought to your mind. The days when it was just the two of you, and you could hold him and kiss him without any fear of what it meant or what damage it might do. Back when you hadn’t yet realized how much you truly loved him.
“Yes, I remember,” you whispered.
He pulled you to him and placed a soft, tender kiss on the corner of your mouth…not on the cheek, but not quite on the lips either.
“I’ll miss you,” he said. “You call me if you need me.”
“Just promise me you’ll come back.”
“I’d always come back for you, baby. I promise.”