Chapter Text
Above all else, Natasha believes in keeping up appearances.
So when Director Fury comes by Stark Tower and tells them that Clint has been missing for two weeks while on a mission (and has not attempted to contact S.H.I.E.L.D.), Natasha's eyes don't even flicker.
For one thing, Clint has gone missing for much longer before. Sometimes it is necessary that he disappears for a while.
For another, she does not fully trust Nick Fury. Nick Fury is a strong leader and a (mostly) good man, but he is manipulative. He has been known to fake people's deaths before. She will check with Tony before she decides what to do. Tony has hacked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. database so often now that Fury has stopped trying to prevent him from doing so.
One thing does concern her. Clint, even when he "disappears," always gives the Avengers a heads up. And even when he keeps it from the rest of the Avengers, he always finds a way to keep in contact with Natasha. It is easier this way for both of them.
And she has not heard from Clint in exactly 18 days.
But Natasha only nods when Fury tells the Avengers about Clint. She gives nothing away when he warns them all not to get involved without S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s permission. The others all glance at her when he does. Steve, always an open book, looks at her with his understanding eyes with slight worry. Tony doesn't seem as concerned, but his sharp eyes seem to pierce through her. Bruce is calm as always, but there is tension simmering under the surface. Thor actually opens his mouth to speak but a glare from Tasha stops him.
After all, she must keep up appearances.
In any case, she does not want them to worry about her. She can handle herself without any help. And anyway, why do they assume that she will be the one worst worried?
Admittedly, Clint is her partner in arms and the closest thing to a friend that she has. (She would say closest thing to a lover, but she has had many before and will have many after.) He is the one that understands her best, the one that understands when she needs to spar furiously until she can no longer think, the one that will calmly sit beside her in silence without questions as she regains control over herself after difficult missions.
So perhaps she is worried. But the others don’t need to know how worried she is. The Black Widow does not worry for anyone but herself. And she will keep up appearances.
She does need Tony’s help though. And oddly enough, she doesn’t mind asking him. Tony is a good man to have on your side. He is flippant and sarcastic and cynical. A seemingly self-absorbed bastard, but he also has a bigger heart than he knows what to do with. And he knows how to be discreet.
And late that night, before she can talk herself out of it, she stalks into Tony’s lab.
“I am working, Banner. What do you want now?” he snaps without turning around. He is bent over something metallic with instruments that Natasha has never even seen before.
“It’s me,” Natasha says.
And Tony slowly straightens. He looks over his shoulder at her. “Fury get in your head after all?”
She narrows her eyes. “I just want to make sure.”
Tony, to his credit, doesn’t make any crude remarks. He studies her for a moment, then says, “J.A.R.V.I.S. Go to the S.H.I.E.L.D. database and find me the latest records of Agent Clint Barton.”
“Yes, sir.” says a disembodied voice.
Natasha is not surprised when J.A.R.V.I.S. cannot tell her the current whereabouts of Clint. Disappointed, but not surprised. Fury was telling the truth then.
She thanks Tony (and J.A.R.V.I.S.) and turns away, walking out of the lab. Away from Tony. Pretending not to see the look in his steely eyes.
As soon as Natasha leaves the room, Tony speaks to J.A.R.V.I.S. “Monitor Natasha Romanov. Let me know when she leaves the building. Let me know immediately. And where is Bruce?”
****************************************
Tony hadn’t been worried before.
He is worried now. Whether intentionally or not, Natasha has set all of his senses on edge. He is a naturally suspicious person (Pepper often has to remind him to at least pretend to trust people), and now he wonders where Clint is.
Because J.A.R.V.I.S. omitted a crucial piece of information when Natasha was in the lab.
Clint had successfully completed his mission. He had boarded the flight back to America.
Somewhere between the location of his mission (classified information) and Washington D.C., where the plane landed, Clint had vanished.
People are not supposed to vanish during transatlantic flights. Particularly when the plane that they are on makes it to the planned destination.
Understandably, Tony is nervous.
Memories of his own capture and subsequent imprisonment still keep him up on some nights. He wouldn’t wish it on anybody (well, maybe a few people), but especially not on a friend and fellow Avenger.
He says, “J.A.R.V.I.S., please ask Steve to come see me.”
J.A.R.V.I.S. promptly replies, “Steve Rogers is currently sleeping.”
“Then wake him up. Please.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you for being polite.”
Moments later, a drowsy Steve is standing in front of Tony.
Tony has to fight back a smirk at Steve’s disheveled hair and slight scowl. Sometimes he forgets that some people actually sleep at night.
When he begins to explain, though, Steve’s demeanor changes. His stance goes from relaxed to something approaching tension. And he runs his hand through his hair- something he does only when he is thinking hard or extremely concerned.
While Tony isn’t sure that this is yet a cause for extreme concern, he isn’t sure that it isn’t yet either.
At some point, Bruce comes into the lab. (“Tony, you talk loudly. I was asleep in the side room.”)
He asks a few questions (“What do you mean he disappeared? Did he actually get onto the plane? Do we have footage?”). Two of those questions can be easily answered, and Tony immediately gets to work.
He wonders a little absentmindedly if Thor can do some god-magic and find Clint, but Thor has been visiting Jane for the past few months and they aren’t sure when he’ll be back. The important thing is that whenever they need him, he shows up.
So Tony doesn’t waste any more time thinking about Thor. If they need him, the god will come. And he trusts in that.
Presently, with a little help from J.A.R.V.I.S. and some persistence (and ingenuity, if Tony does say so himself), they have access to all footage from both Jomo Kenyatta International and Ronald Reagan Washington National.
Tony shares a look with Bruce and Steve. Then Tony pulls up some screens and they each choose a time period and begin watching. J.A.R.V.I.S. begins running profile recognition software.
Ironically, Clint would have been far better at this than any of them.
Tony actually nearly asks J.A.R.V.I.S. to get Clint before he remembers what they’re doing.
After several hours of viewing, Tony realizes they need help, even with J.A.R.V.I.S. running a scan. His own eyes are beginning to swim, and he is used to staring at computer screens for extended periods of time. He can’t imagine that Bruce and Steve are doing much better.
Natasha’s eyes are sharp and practiced at picking out targets. But he honestly isn’t sure he wants to involve her.
He trusts her with his life when they are battling a common enemy and have a common goal. Hell, he trusts her with his life most times.
The fact remains, though, that Natasha is unpredictable. He never knows what she is thinking and only rarely can guess what she will do. She makes him nervous.
The others, Steve and Bruce (and Thor), he can practically map out their courses of action in nearly any scenario.
Steve is steady and dependable. And determined. He will find Clint if he has to watch grainy videos for days. He rarely acts without weighing possible outcomes, and while this occasionally irritates Tony, who is more an act-spontaneously-and-deal-with-consequences-later sort of guy, Steve is exactly the sort of point man the Avengers need. And Tony knows it.
Bruce is perhaps the quietest of all of them. He isn’t much of a talker under regular circumstances, but he rarely talks when he is working on anything. The more focused he is, the quieter he gets. And right now, he is completely silent. Bruce is just as brilliant as Tony is, but less flamboyant. And very methodical. Tony knows better than to interrupt him when he is working.
Determined and methodical may be well enough, but there is no point in wasting Natasha’s skill. Tony makes a decision and rises as quietly as he can, pausing his own screen.
Bruce doesn’t even react to Tony leaving the room, although Tony is sure that he noticed. Bruce notices everything.
Steve pauses his video, asking Tony if he wants company.
Tony agrees. (Mostly because Natasha scares him.)
He and Steve leave the lab together.
Natasha isn’t in her room. Tony is briefly puzzled, then realizes that she has to be in the building.
No one, not even Natasha, has ever been able to disable J.A.R.V.I.S.’s security system.
Sure enough, they find her grimly suiting up in the archery range on the eleventh floor- Clint’s floor. She barely even spares them a glance. “Don’t try and stop me,” she says, and Tony can practically hear the venom dripping from her voice. He nearly takes a step back.
Natasha is scary.
Luckily, Steve is not so intimidated by Natasha (or maybe he just hides it better) and he says simply, “We’re not trying to. But maybe we can help.”
****************************************
When Clint begins to wake up (slowly and painfully), with his hands cuffed together and to the wall he knows at once that he’s been compromised. And by the dull headache pressing against his temples, drugged. There is nothing he hates more than not being in full control of himself, so he has to fight back some panic.
But he is Clint Barton, and more importantly, he is Hawkeye. And Hawkeye does not panic.
Until a tall figure with dark hair and is that a scepter steps into his field of vision. Clint’s stomach sinks and he is overcome by a sudden feeling of terror.
And when that oh-so-smooth voice says, “Miss me?” Clint knows that he cannot handle this oh please god this can’t be happening because Loki was defeated they sent him back in chains to Asgard and there is no way that this is actually happening.
Loki is practically purring when he says, “They will come after you, of course. And I will destroy them. But first I will destroy you.”
Clint has never wanted anything so desperately as he wants Natasha right now. And he has never wanted anything so desperately as he doesn’t want Natasha (or any of them) to show up and walk into Loki’s clutches because he is not that selfish.
But then Loki touches the tip of that horrible scepter to his head- and that’s another thing, didn’t Fury keep the damned scepter- and his entire body explodes with pain.
For the love of god, everything hurts and Clint is used to being hurt he’s been beaten before and he’s fallen off of buildings and he’s taken bullets in nearly every area of his body and he’s had cracked ribs but nothing, nothing has ever hurt as badly as this and fuck being selfless, just fuck it he wants Natasha with her cold eyes and perfect hair and he wants a giant fucking green rage monster and Captain fucking America and he wants Thor with his fucking magic hammer and god damn he wants fucking Tony Stark in his suit to come save his sorry ass and fuck fuck fuck.
****************************************
“So he definitely made it onto the plane.” Tony sounds frustrated.
Frankly, Natasha doesn’t blame him. It doesn’t make any sense if he definitely made it onto the plane. At least if he had been snatched at either airport it would have made sense. She would have had some sort of lead.
But she doesn’t. All she has is, well, yeah, Iron Man and Captain America and Bruce Banner, and yeah, the Hulk if he’s needed. The point is, though, she doesn’t have Hawkeye.
Bruce says suddenly, “I had an idea, and I’m tracking traces of radiation during the flight and right over here,” he indicates a point on the screen over the ocean, “there’s a sudden flare. Like, too much to be natural. Way too much.”
Tony is immediately at his side. “Yes. Okay. Good. That’s good. A spike in radiation. That’s irregular and pretty random and that’s what we need. God, that is an odd signature. I think I’ve seen that before. It is definitely familiar. It is so familiar. It is on the tip of my tongue-”
Steve reaches over and puts a hand on Tony’s knee. “You’re babbling again,” he says.
Tony shuts up, but looks distressed, nearly manic as he tries to figure out what he’s missing, Bruce muttering quietly to the other man.
It’s then that there is a sudden flash of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder and Thor crashes through a window (Tony is really beginning to wish that Thor would try to use doors) and is standing in their midst.
“Friends,” he booms, “I regret to inform you that my brother has escaped from the prison my father devised for him,” at the same time that Steve says, “Thank God, Thor, we were wondering when you would show, Clint’s been abducted.”
The silence that ensues lasts for a few seconds as they all let the information sink in.
Natasha feels a little unsteady, though she doesn’t let the others see. And she feels like cursing.
Voice small, Tony says, “I remember the signature now. It was from Loki’s scepter.”
Bruce, surprisingly, is the one to speak for all of them. “Fuck,” he says, cradling his head in his hands.
To the Avengers’ credit, they allow themselves to wallow in horror for less than ten seconds before Steve snarls, “Avengers, assemble,” because nobody, not even a trickster god from another world, messes with one of their own and gets away with it.
Natasha feels a sense of relief as everyone springs into action, while Thor waits nervously for them to get ready, switching Mjolnir from hand to hand. She herself is already dressed for a mission and so she just watches everyone settle into the familiar movements of preparing for a fight.
Steve is controlled, as always, as he puts on his Captain America suit. But there is a tautness to his shoulders and a smoldering fury in his eyes that Natasha is a little surprised to see.
And when she looks over at Bruce, she sees that he is fighting back rage with his eyes closed and sitting with his back pressed against a wall. Breathing deeply and staying calm.
Tony, bless him, stalking to put on his armor with a savage sort of glee, brown eyes wild and furious. And concerned. For Clint.
She shouldn’t be so pleased about this, but she is. She’s pleased that Clint has found people who care about him and will go rescue his sorry ass. She’s pleased that they genuinely like him (most of the time) and that she isn’t the only one watching his back.
Probably most of all, she’s pleased that she has arguably the most destructive group of people ever (seriously, no one is more destructive than the Hulk, although Tony gives him a run for his money) with her as she goes and gets Clint. Again.
Because there is no mistake about it. She is going to get Clint if it is the last thing she ever does. Because he is at the top of a very short list of people that she trusts without reservations. And she will not let him down.