Hermione's Uncle

Chapter 2

New York, 48 hours earlier...

"Barton, you are expected in debrief room number 3."

The archer blinked and turned around to see Maria waiting for him on the other side of the shooting range.

"I am?" he repeated. Last news, he hadn't been convicted for anything.'

"You are. Something came up and a D-team was requested."

"Seriously?"

Clint hesitated, then shrugged.

Maria rolled her eyes and made a 'come on' gesture with her hand. He put down his bow, folded it in its case and followed her. After the huge mess they've left in Budapest, Delta Strike team was wisely given some time off to let them recover. That was the official reason. In truth, they were asked to lay low for a while, because the WSC was not happy with them. So that Maria of all people came for him left him perplexed. They entered the debrief room where Natasha was already waiting. Coulson wasn't there, which surprised him.

"Phil is late?" he asked, glancing at his partner. Natasha shrugged.

"I am your handler on this one." Maria interrupted and added before either could comment. "It's not a high risk mission, just an infiltration and information withdrawal. You are expected to find names of the leaders of a rising drug ring in England, the Nirvens, and forward this intel to another team who will dismantle them."

"Are you serious?" Clint blurted, annoyed. He had vaguely heard about the Nirvens from a colleague the previous month. Considering what Delta Strike team faced on their usual mission, this was way below their standards. "They're sending us on rookie missions now? Are they that scared of us being bored?"

Natasha didn't comment, but given her barely noticeable scowl, she agreed with him. Maria didn't take the bait and slid two files in their direction.

"You weren't chosen by chance," she added dryly. "Some members of this ring work in a small notary cabinet, and we were given the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the building. A man suspected to belong to the Nirvens died in a car accident recently." She turned towards Clint. "Does the name Bernard Granger ring a bell?"

The archer frowned and picked up the folder.

"Not a th-"

He paused when he opened the first page and fell on familiar blue-grey eyes staring back at him. Blue-grey eyes he hadn't seen in years.

"Then maybe you have heard about his real name." Maria went on imperturbable, in spite of Clint's uncompleted sentence and Natasha's state of disbelief. "Meet Bernard Granger, a.k.a Barney Barton."

Present time.

"Hello Hermione, nice of you to join us." Clint said

"Been here the whole time." Hermione said

Clint took in how exhausted she looked. Her parents' death must have hit her hard, she was only fourteen after all and from what he had read from SHIELD's report and her profile, her mother was a trained spy and Barney was a trained assassin.

Johnson's mouth thinned into a hard line.

"You have a very debatable past, Mr. Barton," he said eventually. "And like I said, Mr. Granger was a good friend of mine, I wanted to protect his daughter." Johnson said

"Please tell me you're not believing this for a single second." Hermione said

Clint looked at Natasha and said...

"Hey Rushman, how high is your bullshit meter right now?"

His partner gave him a sweet smile. So she had smelt something fishy too. He turned around and faced Hermione once again. According to the files they had read, Barney and his wife had Hermione kept out of iout of the business. Reather that was true or not he didn't know. Barton was in charge of pulling her out of harm if she happened to be there and let Natasha handle the interrogation. If anything turned sour, Maria was just around the bloke. Clint suspected the Deputy Director had brought her trustful tablet with her, not expecting to be called in. And Clint suspected she was probably right to do so.