Evil Santa Elves and Playing Catcher
Steve rubbed his hand over his face and then cursed silently when he realized that he had smeared the dirt from his hands all over himself. The fight had been a long one and unusually stressful as it had been the first time that his team had fought with Ironman since they had come back. It hadn’t even been planned out; they got the call and they needed Ironman as an additional heavy hitter to deal with the threat. They didn’t even have time to talk before they were all deployed and, while the rest of them were on the quinjet, Ironman was flying in from the city, so Steve had just called out an objective for everyone and they had landed at the chemical plant to battle someone who was trying to…do something bad? Steve huffed; they hadn’t even had information on what was going on other than “people are trying to blow up a chemical plant in Delaware.” What a mess.
He had arranged their roles on the coms when going in and everyone had pretty much told him where they were. He, Natasha and Wanda had gone in on the ground while Clint had been dropped on the roof by a silent Ironman and was moving over the rafters that gave him a wide view. Sam was hovering outside near the roof until he figured out that the main floor of the chemical plant was over three stories tall which gave him scope to move indoors. Ironman had blasted a hole in the roof to let himself in and confuse the enemy; he had also been giving the team information from (Steve assumed) FRIDAY and the plant management on the physical environment and possible goals of the attack.
The group (who had been dressed in ludicrous red and green outfits that Clint had commented looked like they were out of a1960s Batman TV show) had turned out to be better armed and organized than their appearance indicated. They had already seeded snipers in the roof (so Ironman’s big hole was more useful than Steve had initially thought as it had dislodged a significant number of the snipers) and that had made it more difficult for Sam to help them on the ground. The holiday-themed villains had started destabilizing the whole plant when they realized that the Avengers had appeared. They had some sort of weapon that could blast straight through steel and concrete. Which had escalated into a major problem when Clint ran out of rafter thirty feet up. He had called out for assistance. Generally Steve’s options for Clint catching were Sam and Wanda. The problem with Sam is that he couldn’t really carry anyone too far and they would have landed in a shooting gallery at the center of the room. Wanda was still having problems dividing her attention between catching something and situational awareness. So Steve had called Tony and Tony had answered that he would get there as soon as he could…
In the end, Tony had managed to catch Clint before he hit the floor, but only at the cost of wrenching the archer’s shoulder as Tony caught him just before he hit the ground. So Clint was probably out of commission for 2-3 weeks. Tony had flown off once they had successfully apprehended the villains and prevented their plan to release poisonous gas all over Delaware, thus distracting the Avengers from the planned heist in New York (and really, there was more than one team now – did they not know that?).
Clint was bitching before they were wheels up. Not that Steve could blame him; a shoulder injury was always frightening for the archer. At the best, it would mean he would be out of action for weeks; at the worst, it could be career ending. But Clint was specifically blaming Tony for his injury and that didn’t seem fair to Steve. It was true that Ironman had been delayed in reaching Clint, but it wasn’t as if any of the rest of them had been available either. He noticed, with the now usual discomfort, that most of the team seemed to agree with Clint. When the bitching got to a level of vitriol that Steve could see was making the Accords-assigned pilot uncomfortable, he told everyone to save it until they got to the debrief.
*********
Tony was talking to Rhodey, “Honeybear! I am perfectly capable of getting through a debrief with them! We got to the chemical plant. We got rid of the weirdly dressed people – seriously, what are they evil Santa elves? And only minor injuries. Meanwhile, you brilliantly headed off their attack in New York. Joy to the world.”
“I heard that Barton got hurt and may be out for a while.” Was the non-committal reply.
“His shoulder got wrenched. The medic on-site didn’t think it was more than a muscle strain, so I am counting that as minor. We can always bring Kate in to cover if they need someone else.”
“Well, Falls is going to be conducting the briefing.”
“Why in heaven is the Director of the Avengers Program attending a debrief for a minor action? Seriously, Platypus, I’m Ironman. I can deal with cranky superheroes.”
“No one said you couldn’t. But Falls is concerned about the coordination behind the attacks and he wants to be in on both debriefs. That means you have time to come to medical and get checked out since your debrief has been pushed back by six hours. Also,” Rhodey voice was more serious now, “the pilot from the quinjet apparently sent a recording of all of them blaming you for Barton’s injury. It was pretty vicious, Tones.”
Once, Tony reflected, he would have been feeling pretty guilty about the delay in catching Barton and hearing them blaming him would have cemented the idea that he was responsible for the damage. Now, however, “I was rescuing civilians who take priority over Barton’s recklessness. Besides, I wasn’t on the team to be his catcher.”
“I know!” Rhodey answered, “Have you been watching the video of their last few missions? The man has a death wish or something. If Steve doesn’t do something (“Which he won’t” interrupted Tony, Rhodey continued without pausing), I’m going to have to pull Barton and put him in counseling.”
*********
Although he didn’t say it out loud, Steve was glad the debrief was delayed. He wanted some time to look over what had happened. After his shower, he settled into his desk chair in his suite and asked the new Compound AI, JOCASTA, for information. “JOCASTA, could you please show me all the footage from the body cams, any surveillance footage and…” he thought for a moment, “if FRIDAY can share it, any footage from Ironman’s recordings.” He knew that the suit had integrated cameras; had had them long before it became mandatory for all Avengers to wear them in battle. JOCASTA was nowhere near as talkative as JARVIS or FRIDAY (Steve didn’t want to really think on why this AI from Tony was so taciturn or if that was only when she dealt with him), so his only answer were the holographic screens that sprang to life showing him the battle from multiple angles.
He carefully went through the battle footage, layering the information that FRIDAY had fed Ironman since the armor had far more sensors than anything else in the battle. Gradually, a clear picture of the mission emerged and Steve contemplated the actions of everyone involved. His instinct was that Ironman had moved out of position because he was not paying attention to the rest of the team. And that had led to Hawkeye being injured as there had been no one to catch him when he was thrown from the ceiling. But over the last two years, Steve had learned that feeling things in his gut was not the lodestone that he had previously thought. Relying on how he felt about something meant that what he wanted to believe could become easily confused with what was right. The reframing exercise he had been working on with Dr. Bortich had shown him another example of how his gut could be very off track so he decided he needed another opinion. After some thought, he called Sam and Vision. Sam, because Steve trusted him and Vision because of all of them, he was the least likely to be biased by personal opinions and he hadn’t been on the mission.
Once they arrived, he had them run through all the information that he had collected. By that time, he had been through it again and was feeling even more uneasy about the little voice that was saying that Tony had been irresponsible for not being there to catch Clint (See, he told himself, you stopped using their call signs. So you are definitely compromised). Vision and Sam were conscientious in going through the multiple films, reviewing the com traffic and sensor data. It took over two hours before they both were finished which meant that they had little more than an hour before the debrief.
“Well?” Steve started the conversation without indicating his thoughts.
“Ironman did save those three people who were trapped in the control room,” offered Sam, “the ones we didn’t know about. But he didn’t say he was doing that on the coms which is why you thought he was in position to catch Hawkeye.”
“However,” Vision spoke with his usual cool precision, “Hawkeye was being unduly reckless by moving as he was. If he had remained on the perimeter of the room, he would have been able to give you information, take aim at the opponents, and not risk falling. Also, I must point out that both yourself” (indicating Steve) “and Ms. Romanoff also moved significantly and did not relay your positions regularly.”
“So, everyone is kind of wrong here.” Sam summed up.
Vision replied thoughtfully, “I am not sure that I agree. While some of the members were not updating over the coms, they were fulfilling their responsibilities as outlined by Captain Rogers before the battle. I would say that communication was poor but I don’t think it was the deciding factor in Hawkeye’s injury. I would say that was Hawkeye’s recklessness.”
There was a pause and then, “Gotta say, I agree with Viz.” Steve was surprised to hear Sam be so positive, “Clint was way reckless and has been for a while. It was in the back of my mind that I was doing a lot of catches, but seeing it like this. Yeah, neither Ironman nor me are there to be his pickup. And Ironman was right to prioritize the civilians. Most I can say for everyone, we need to practice our communications. But Clint – you have to talk to him.”
Well, there was the confirmation that Steve was looking for – the contradiction to that instinct (and he remembered Dr. Bortich calling it a habitual response). Because now he could confirm what they saw. Hawkeye had ventured into the center rafters, rather than remaining in the corners where he had some shelter and yet was able to oversee the battlefield and give them valuable intel. And now memories were flashing through his mind of Clint in action in the last 6 months as the archer tried to put his life back together and heal the rift with his family. Clint had been more reckless in battle, throwing himself (sometimes literally) into the worst of the fray. So what was he going to do about this? He needed to make a decision quickly; the debrief was less than 30 minutes away.