Chapter Text
Clint shot another glance at a practically drooling Sutton and frowned further. She was obviously afraid of falling asleep, for whatever reason, and he was fairly certain it had something to do with Loki. Whatever she was keeping from all of them had her shaken and jittery, even if she didn't think she was acting that way, and he was determined to figure out what it was. There was no way he was going to let Loki get the upper hand again. Especially not when he knew what being under the villains control felt like. (If not to a much higher and more violating degree then she probably was.)
And the fact that she had reacted so strongly to his questioning told him a lot about how serious the situation probably was. Not that it took a lot to fluster Sutton, that she was quickly prone to panicking was clear from their time here, but she hadn't openly broken down in such a way before.
They would have to get her away from Loki in order to get any answers from her.
The door to the hotel room creaked open and Clint diverted his attention to watch the team file back into the room. From the corner of his eye he saw Sutton blink lethargically.
"Breaking curfew, you guys."
She continued to display her level of exhaustion even as she denied it, and Clint locked eyes with Natasha across the room. She lifted one brow and he let his face go flat. Springing up to his feet Clint exited the hotel room and Natasha followed closely behind. As she closed the door he could hear a pathetic, "noooo," follow them out.
"She's hiding something. Loki's been threatening her and her family, and whatever he's planning frightens her. She's too afraid of him to talk."
Natasha frowned.
"The only way she would be useful to him is for information about our universe. Even then, he could easily access other, more thorough, sources."
Clint shrugged.
"Whatever it is, she's involved and she wouldn't say anything to me even while across the street from the hotel."
"Sutton values loyalty and justice," Natasha pointed out. "If we want to gain her cooperation we have to make her feel more included in this. If she sees us as superheroes, then she'll already be putting a lot of trust and faith in us. We just have to make her feel like she's part of all this and that we can protect her."
Clint nodded in agreement and rested his hands on his hips.
"It's clear she already feels partially responsible for us. If we make her feel part of the team, she'd feel held even more responsible to help protect us and our world. So, how do we go about making her feel like she is one of us?"
Natasha cracked a small smile.
"With Sutton? It's easy; you just tell her that she is."
The next morning Clint could hear Natasha from the other room plant the idea in the girl's head right out of the gates.
"As part of this team, you have to pull your own weight."
"Wait. You all consider me part of the team? But, I'm not a-a superhero."
"Well, you're doing pretty well so far."
"Consider him woken up!"
He sat back in his chair in the other room and crossed his arms over his chest. The enthusiastic lilt in Sutton's voice told him that the interaction had served its purpose. Now all they had to do was keep the poor kid away from Loki. He and Natasha had already told the rest of the team to help make sure there was a buffer between the girl and the alien at all times from now on. It would be best for both parties. Besides, Sutton might be a bit out of her mind at times, but she'd still done a lot to try and help a group of people she'd grown up thinking were fictional. He wasn't so cold as to not appreciate the sort of sacrifices she'd had to make these last few weeks.
He could only hope that it was the motivation she needed to come clean and let them in on Loki's plan. Before it was too late.