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Clint’s eyes popped open as he woke, instant and complete. Just a dream, he told himself over and over again as he tried to calm his racing heart. Dream, just a dream. Barney was already dead, long since dead, not just minutes ago; so long dead that in the waking world, his absence was a dull ache, a null spot in Clint’s heart and brain rather than a gaping, raw wound yet to fester and poison him. Barney wasn’t even the worst part of these dreams; no, the worst part was the feeling of belonging--to his brother, and to Target Hawkeye, their Mark-4--they’d all had right up until the moment the Kaiju had ripped open their casing and thrown them hundreds of feet across the water and into the harbor. Barney’s harness had been shredded and he’d been reaching for Clint’s hand, but they’d been nowhere near close enough for that to work. Clint’s hand had automatically reached for his buckles, and Barney’s eyes had widened. “Don’t you fuckin’ dare, Barton,” he’d said on the intercom, though Clint knew--had felt--the fear meet and surpass the anger that had been clear on the wire. No one wanted to die, even though in this job it was expected; in fact, the only thing Barney hadn’t wanted more than to die was to take his brother along with him, so he let go, let himself fall away, left Clint screaming and swearing and reaching for nothing. Barney had wanted Clint to live, to fight on in his absence. Clint sighed, sat up, and scrubbed his fingers through his shaggy hair. It wouldn’t be the first nor anywhere near the last time he would let his brother down.
*
“Sir, we’ve got to find Romanov a co-pilot or else give Black Widow to another pair,” LOCCENT Officer Maria Hill said, low and worried, to Marshall Nick Fury, as they watched Romanov prove another set of Ranger hopefuls unequal to the task. “We can’t have a perfectly good Mark-6 indefinitely grounded because of drift incompatibility.”
Fury sighed. “She deliberately went easy on this group and still no joy. Coulson’s looking into another option, but it’s far from a sure thing, even should he be successful in the initial track down.”
“Coulson’s been out of the Shatterdome for two months, sir. What’s important enough to have him set aside his duties for this amount of time or longer?”
“Not what, who. Clint Barton.”
“Sir…”
“I am aware of the objections against him, Hill, I just think the fact that they drifted together successfully before he left the service trumps them. We need Romanov in the Conn-Pod, and Barton can get her there.”
“If he’ll even agree to come.”
“A very big if, yes, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
"I hope this works, sir, and, more importantly, soon. We’re running out of time."
Fury looked down to see Romanov looking up at them, and met her eyes, grimacing as she shook her head. “If anyone can get him here it’ll be Coulson.”
"I wish him all the luck, he’s going to need it."