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Clint had been assigned to an op a month into Pepper's protection detail. Coulson had offered him a chance at field work and he jumped on it. They were going back to do recon on the mission that cost Natasha her life and he wasn't going to sit out on that. He was on board from the moment Coulson came to him. He told Pepper that someone else would be filling in on her detail for him for a few weeks. He did feel a bit bad about leaving her, but he had go to figure this out. He had to get a look at the people that killed Tasha. They couldn't just slide by unpunished. He still felt like he was abandoning Pepper though. She had been nice to him. She made him feel comfortable even when he protested quite vocally to hating that assignment at first.
He wound up getting himself into some trouble while he was out on the job. Actually the group did. It was him and two other agents that went. Clint got a rather nasty gunshot wound along his ribs. He could ignore that, but it got a little personal when they took some well placed shots at their exit chopper. Their recon had gone a little sideways and they had been forced to engage. They were ordered to make a quick exit, but that was difficult with their chopper losing control. Clint lost his grip on one of the hand holds and he toppled out of the chopper. His bow was still in his hands and his quiver had a few arrows left. He fired one of the grappling ones at the side of the chopper. The line went tight thankfully, but without gloves his grip on the line was bad. By the time they were able to get clear and get him up his hands were bloody.
Medical cleared him to return to his routine and Coulson reluctantly told him to get back on duty with Miss Potts. The bullet was through and through thankfully. He could still do better than most of the non-injured agents on her watch. He wasn't going to let them stop him from coming back to this anyways. Apparently somewhere down the line he had grown used to being in Pepper's presence. She was someone he actually liked and found interesting. It was a mystery to him how any of that even happened.
The detail was back at her apartment with her which meant that was where he was going. He greeted one of the agents in the hallway and found her door. He twisted the knob and found it unlocked. Apparently whoever was on detail inside just really sucked at it. He couldn't much hide the bandages on his hands or the bruises on his face, but he could do his best to mask the pain in his ribs. "I see you kids have been busy."
There was actually a good reason for the door being unlocked: Pepper left it that way. There wasn't any agent posted inside, either. Again, because of Pepper. She had sent them out. Surprisingly, they listened. Pepper had made a good argument in order to keep SHIELD out of her hair. With agents posted outside her door and outside her window, there wasn't anyone to be getting in with anyone knowing about it. And truthfully, with Vanko killed Pepper didn't see much use in having someone around at all--but it seemed to give Tony reassurance. Because who knows when someone might go after him again.
She told him that she was through and she meant it this time. Worrying about if Tony was going to die whenever he went out, worrying about what might happen to herself if someone caught them by surprise again, running the company, and Tony not telling her that he was dying. And he had told her that when she was already at her wit's end and he was trying not to die for other reasons. Her health couldn't take this life anymore.
Pepper had told Tony that she needed a long weekend, and one that was away from him. One where she didn't have to worry about a damn thing. He had agreed with her about that, but she had seen his expression before he agreed; he was pained by her desire to get away from him. And Pepper was too tired to care about how he felt just then.
Now, nearly twenty-four hours since she left Flushing Meadows, she was in her apartment in LA, dressed in her ratty UCLA shirt, black bicycle shorts, and she was barefoot. She was curled up on her couch with a Karen Joy Fowler book that she was only partly reading.
"You don't even know the half of it," she answered, not looking up. But when she does she sighed deeply. The last thing she needed was another destructive man in her life. "And what happened to you?"
Coulson had briefed him slightly about the stuff he had missed on his mission. It seemed like things had gone a little sideways at the Stark Expo. Clint was supposed to be working that and he did kick himself a few times on the way over to the apartment. He was supposed to be there, but he ran off to another country. He had a very good reason, but he still felt responsible. It would have been just as easy for him to blame Tony for all that trouble, but he didn't think the Tin Man actively sought out that crap. It came to his doorstep and he was battling it. He was still pompous and super obnoxious, but he could pretend that didn't exist through sheer power of will. It just took a little concentration.
Clint was a little worried about the lack of bodyguard inside the apartment. This wasn't good. Even if she had a guard in the hallway and outside this wasn't safe for her. The guys who did this were supposed to follow orders and apparently this one had been stupid enough to let her give him orders. A lot of times the primary didn't understand just how easy it'd be for someone to get in undetected even with this much security. Clint could take her out with four times the security she had here. If you had the means and the will then you got the job done. He would have to inform her of that. Tony Stark had made a lot of enemies in that Iron Man suit. Any one of them could come knocking one day.
"I fell out of a helicopter. Where's your guard detail for inside?" He quickly bypassed the questions about him. He wanted to know why her detail was gone. He was going to chew these idiots out the next time he saw them. He was going to then turn around and have Coulson chew out their asses for being this fucking stupid. They had jobs to do. It wasn't glamorous, but they needed to stick to the primary. This was unacceptable. He was going to crack some heads. "Please tell me he's taking a leak because if you tell me he's gone, Potts--"
"Fell out or jumped out?" Another destructive man who could be cocky and not see his own limitations. "You know you weren't ready for whatever you were doing. Probably weren't yet thinking straight." She was getting a little haughty and letting her anger come through. There was so much anger, not all directed at Clint, though. Most of it she was holding back. Clint just proved to be as good as person as any to direct her anger toward. She had given Tony an earful too, and some members of her detail, before she turned the conversation to a thorough explanation as to why their services would be no longer required inside of her apartment. They were allowed to be anywhere else, just not inside. She didn't even have to threaten to yell at them, though her voice was already raised.
"I kicked him out." And if he wasn't going to answer her questions, she wasn't going to give him the courtesy of telling him what he wanted to know.
He wasn't entirely certain why, but he got just a touch defensive when she accused him of jumping out of a perfectly good helicopter. He wasn't Tony. He didn't have the Iron Man suit that let him fly. He was still very much a normal guy. "If you must know they opened fire on us during our extraction. Helicopter became unstable and I lost my hold. Had to use one of my grappling arrows. Complete with a steel cable." He held up his bandaged hands which basically told her that he had torn them up holding on for dear life so he didn't fall and pretty much die. If the fall didn't kill him then the guys down below would have.
She was hinting at things that Clint was still very touchy about. It wasn't that he didn't trust her judgment, but when it came avenging Natasha he didn't think it was her business. How he handled that situation was all on him. He was the one who wasn't there and he was going to be the one to kill all of those assholes. He wasn't reckless or destructive, but he sure as shit wasn't going to sit on his hands when he had intel and an opportunity to go after them. He was just going to ignore those comments because he was pretty sure he would have opened his mouth and said something rude.
"You can't just kick him out, Potts." He let out a frustrated sigh and pointed to her balcony. "You see that? I could kill you with the window covered from across the street without breaking a sweat. I could break into here with the security you have now and take you out before they even heard a peep. Why aren't you being more serious about this?" It didn't matter what happened at the Expo or who was taken out. Enemies existed in this world. They preyed on vulnerabilities. She was one.
"Who was opening fire on you?" One of the quickest ways to stop her anger in its tracks is to tell her or show her the dangers that you've faced. Bullets. She hated bullets. She gasped and pulled back when she saw his bandaged hands. "Well." She swallowed hard and bit on her lower lip. "I'm glad you're alive. Why are you here when you're still recovering? Did you make Coulson send you back out?" She knew Barton was using work as a way to avoid things. It was pretty easy for her to see that. He needed some kind of activity to keep him from going bored, or probably from going super depressed. She wasn't sure what a super depressed Barton would be like. Would he shut himself on the range? In some ways, she felt like she knew him well, but there was still a great deal that he kept at arm's length.
"I not only can, but I did kick him out." She glanced at the window and looked back at him, her lips pursed. "Then it's good that you're here and not trying to kill me." She let out a soft sigh and rubbed the back of her neck. "Because. I'm tired and I don't really care what happens anymore."
"Classified, but they weren't good guys. They weren't looking to be my friend." He probably wouldn't have told her if he could though. It wasn't information he really wanted her to have. She was like a head shrink sometimes. This is why hanging out with SHIELD agents was the better option. They understood that need to compartmentalize everything if they had to. They didn't click their tongue at you for holding in your feelings concerning a death or shake their hand at your need to get vengeance. They understood because they would do the same thing. Spending time around civilians earned you a lot of pathetic looks that made Clint's stomach to flip flops.
Clint shook his head and looked around the room. He was checking for anything out of the ordinary in case her little power trip had compromised her security. "He cleared me. The bullet was through and through my ribs. My hands are basically functional. I can still shoot. Hand to hand as well. I'm a a better asset at half my strength than most of the guys on your detail. Trust me." It was the truth. He was also itching to get back to make sure she was okay. He had grown just a touch attached to his primary.
"There are lots of guys with my Beret training that could make the shot. Our enemies are bad guys. They won't hesitate to take you out to weaken Tony." No one was quite aware of just how attached he was to Ms. Pepper Potts. Clint included. "We care what happens." Which was pretty much code for Clint cared what happened. Because he did. "What's wrong? You're openly hostile. Something happened." Other than the Stark Expo problems. Flying machines and lots of gun fire.
"People who shoot at you are never good guys." She stopped herself from rolling her eyes this time. Barton could be a bit dense. Her eyes went to his chest. Fully dressed, except for his wrapped hands and the bruises on his face, he looked fine enough. She couldn't tell there was anything going on with his ribs.
"Cleared and came back to me. I thought you would have asked for a different assignment, even though you're right. I thought you wanted to do something else besides watching over me?" The truth was she missed him too. She had grown used to him being around her all of the time.
Pepper began to zone out when he started talking about what the bad guys could do to her, but she did hear the very last part. "Good thing I'm through with all of it," she muttered and crossed her arms. "I told him that. Life's been crazy for two years. I'm done."
"You'd be surprised how many people shoot at me and still manage to stay on my good side." Being a SHIELD agent kind of put you in strange positions. Clint didn't hate his job though. It got messy and violent, but that was all Clint was good at. He was good with violence and catastrophes. They kind of were his area. He could cause a panic in a crowd from a long ways away with just his sniper rifle. He wasn't scared of falling out of a helicopter. It hurt like a motherfucker, but that could all be sorted out with pain pills and a lot of napping. Also booze. It really did help make things a lot better when you got off a mission.
He thought he would have asked for a different one too. Being the babysitter of Pepper Potts wasn't exactly his idea of a good time when he started. Plus he was still coming to terms with what happened to Natasha. Sometimes just seeing Pepper's flash of red hair made his gut twist and his chest ache. He had learned to adjust though. "Well, no one else does a good enough job looking after you. They let you boss them around and kick them out of your apartment. They suck. Clearly someone has to know what they're doing." He also did enjoy her company. Her smile too, but he wasn't going to go shouting that on rooftops. That was stupid.
"Through with Tony?" He could understand how someone would finally quit Tony Stark. He couldn't stand the guy. He was way too obnoxious for him. Clint wasn't perfect either, but he wasn't as ridiculous as Tony Stark. He took a step toward her and nodded his head. "Are you okay?" There was something about the tone she was using. It screamed frustration and fear.
He wound up getting himself into some trouble while he was out on the job. Actually the group did. It was him and two other agents that went. Clint got a rather nasty gunshot wound along his ribs. He could ignore that, but it got a little personal when they took some well placed shots at their exit chopper. Their recon had gone a little sideways and they had been forced to engage. They were ordered to make a quick exit, but that was difficult with their chopper losing control. Clint lost his grip on one of the hand holds and he toppled out of the chopper. His bow was still in his hands and his quiver had a few arrows left. He fired one of the grappling ones at the side of the chopper. The line went tight thankfully, but without gloves his grip on the line was bad. By the time they were able to get clear and get him up his hands were bloody.
Medical cleared him to return to his routine and Coulson reluctantly told him to get back on duty with Miss Potts. The bullet was through and through thankfully. He could still do better than most of the non-injured agents on her watch. He wasn't going to let them stop him from coming back to this anyways. Apparently somewhere down the line he had grown used to being in Pepper's presence. She was someone he actually liked and found interesting. It was a mystery to him how any of that even happened.
The detail was back at her apartment with her which meant that was where he was going. He greeted one of the agents in the hallway and found her door. He twisted the knob and found it unlocked. Apparently whoever was on detail inside just really sucked at it. He couldn't much hide the bandages on his hands or the bruises on his face, but he could do his best to mask the pain in his ribs. "I see you kids have been busy."
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She told him that she was through and she meant it this time. Worrying about if Tony was going to die whenever he went out, worrying about what might happen to herself if someone caught them by surprise again, running the company, and Tony not telling her that he was dying. And he had told her that when she was already at her wit's end and he was trying not to die for other reasons. Her health couldn't take this life anymore.
Pepper had told Tony that she needed a long weekend, and one that was away from him. One where she didn't have to worry about a damn thing. He had agreed with her about that, but she had seen his expression before he agreed; he was pained by her desire to get away from him. And Pepper was too tired to care about how he felt just then.
Now, nearly twenty-four hours since she left Flushing Meadows, she was in her apartment in LA, dressed in her ratty UCLA shirt, black bicycle shorts, and she was barefoot. She was curled up on her couch with a Karen Joy Fowler book that she was only partly reading.
"You don't even know the half of it," she answered, not looking up. But when she does she sighed deeply. The last thing she needed was another destructive man in her life. "And what happened to you?"
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Clint was a little worried about the lack of bodyguard inside the apartment. This wasn't good. Even if she had a guard in the hallway and outside this wasn't safe for her. The guys who did this were supposed to follow orders and apparently this one had been stupid enough to let her give him orders. A lot of times the primary didn't understand just how easy it'd be for someone to get in undetected even with this much security. Clint could take her out with four times the security she had here. If you had the means and the will then you got the job done. He would have to inform her of that. Tony Stark had made a lot of enemies in that Iron Man suit. Any one of them could come knocking one day.
"I fell out of a helicopter. Where's your guard detail for inside?" He quickly bypassed the questions about him. He wanted to know why her detail was gone. He was going to chew these idiots out the next time he saw them. He was going to then turn around and have Coulson chew out their asses for being this fucking stupid. They had jobs to do. It wasn't glamorous, but they needed to stick to the primary. This was unacceptable. He was going to crack some heads. "Please tell me he's taking a leak because if you tell me he's gone, Potts--"
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"I kicked him out." And if he wasn't going to answer her questions, she wasn't going to give him the courtesy of telling him what he wanted to know.
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She was hinting at things that Clint was still very touchy about. It wasn't that he didn't trust her judgment, but when it came avenging Natasha he didn't think it was her business. How he handled that situation was all on him. He was the one who wasn't there and he was going to be the one to kill all of those assholes. He wasn't reckless or destructive, but he sure as shit wasn't going to sit on his hands when he had intel and an opportunity to go after them. He was just going to ignore those comments because he was pretty sure he would have opened his mouth and said something rude.
"You can't just kick him out, Potts." He let out a frustrated sigh and pointed to her balcony. "You see that? I could kill you with the window covered from across the street without breaking a sweat. I could break into here with the security you have now and take you out before they even heard a peep. Why aren't you being more serious about this?" It didn't matter what happened at the Expo or who was taken out. Enemies existed in this world. They preyed on vulnerabilities. She was one.
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"I not only can, but I did kick him out." She glanced at the window and looked back at him, her lips pursed. "Then it's good that you're here and not trying to kill me." She let out a soft sigh and rubbed the back of her neck. "Because. I'm tired and I don't really care what happens anymore."
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Clint shook his head and looked around the room. He was checking for anything out of the ordinary in case her little power trip had compromised her security. "He cleared me. The bullet was through and through my ribs. My hands are basically functional. I can still shoot. Hand to hand as well. I'm a a better asset at half my strength than most of the guys on your detail. Trust me." It was the truth. He was also itching to get back to make sure she was okay. He had grown just a touch attached to his primary.
"There are lots of guys with my Beret training that could make the shot. Our enemies are bad guys. They won't hesitate to take you out to weaken Tony." No one was quite aware of just how attached he was to Ms. Pepper Potts. Clint included. "We care what happens." Which was pretty much code for Clint cared what happened. Because he did. "What's wrong? You're openly hostile. Something happened." Other than the Stark Expo problems. Flying machines and lots of gun fire.
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"Cleared and came back to me. I thought you would have asked for a different assignment, even though you're right. I thought you wanted to do something else besides watching over me?" The truth was she missed him too. She had grown used to him being around her all of the time.
Pepper began to zone out when he started talking about what the bad guys could do to her, but she did hear the very last part. "Good thing I'm through with all of it," she muttered and crossed her arms. "I told him that. Life's been crazy for two years. I'm done."
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He thought he would have asked for a different one too. Being the babysitter of Pepper Potts wasn't exactly his idea of a good time when he started. Plus he was still coming to terms with what happened to Natasha. Sometimes just seeing Pepper's flash of red hair made his gut twist and his chest ache. He had learned to adjust though. "Well, no one else does a good enough job looking after you. They let you boss them around and kick them out of your apartment. They suck. Clearly someone has to know what they're doing." He also did enjoy her company. Her smile too, but he wasn't going to go shouting that on rooftops. That was stupid.
"Through with Tony?" He could understand how someone would finally quit Tony Stark. He couldn't stand the guy. He was way too obnoxious for him. Clint wasn't perfect either, but he wasn't as ridiculous as Tony Stark. He took a step toward her and nodded his head. "Are you okay?" There was something about the tone she was using. It screamed frustration and fear.
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