Time to go

Hell or High Water

The image was grainy and unfocused but Natasha could've recognized that man on her death bed. No matter how many years, miles or walls separated her from him, she knew who he was in her bones.

Those were the arms that cradled her after nightmares and the arms that she stitched and cleaned after a nasty fight.

Those legs were the same ones that she blocked kicks from in training and raced her down the stairs in the tower.

Those were the same calloused hands that dusted over her own many times that she had them mapped out in her mind.

That was the same back she pressed against in a fight, trusting him to protect her blindside and him trusting her to do the same.

Even as her eyes blurred with horrible, amazed, grieving and happy tears she knew who it was.

"Clint..."

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On the other hand Steve, Bruce and Tony didn't have the foggiest of who the figure was.

Though you couldn't blame them, they hadn't known Clint anywhere near as well as Natasha and Clint was pretty hard to recognize if you didn't know he was there. It was what made him a good SHIELD agent.

Sandy-blonde hair, blue eyes, sharp nose, slightly taller than 6"0'and with a muscular build. That describes at least a quarter of North American males. It made it easier to get into places and hide in crowds when you looked like everyone else.

But this didn't stop them from staring into the screen as hard as they could, wracking their brains to try and connect features the second Natasha murmured Clint.

"Tony remaster the image and enlarge it then brighten it." Bruce instructed while still squinting at the screen.

Tony did as Bruce said and what they were left with was a clear and lightened image of Clint dressed in a black suit like outfit hugging Barney tightly.

"I don't believe it..." Steve breathed. "It's him, Clint's been alive all this time,"

With Steve's words Natasha's face hardened.

"I need to go." She said, her voice devoid of all emotion. Then she turned on her heel, leaving the room still dressed in sweatpants, a sweater and a pair of ridiculous bunny slippers.

Tony shut off the Stark pad and turned to the others, "Someone has to go after her, she's definitely not going to be fine after that."

"Tony, none of us are fine," He motioned himself the to Steve and Tony. " We literally just saw a man we saw die hug his brother! A brother who died five years ago! We are all screwed up right now!"

Sighing Tony nodded, "I know, but that was Natasha's best friend. We hardly knew him, if we feel like this we can be damn sure she feels a hundred times worse. Steve, you understand right? Natasha shouldn't be alone right now or she's going to rip herself to shreds."

"Your right, let's split up and find her. I'll start at the top and work my way down, Bruce you start at the bottom and Tony you do the basement and gyms." Steve instructed.

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Tony never would of found Natasha if it wasn't for a dirty and mangled bunny slipper.

He hadn't found anything in the basement yet,which wasn't all that surprising. The tower's basement was a network of tunnels spanning five floors below the city. It was mostly just storage, save for a few steel reinforced bunkers stocked with a months worth of food for the tower's occupants. He had designed them mostly for air strikes, bomb threats, earthquakes and the apocalypse, both with and without zombies. It was almost like a tower beneath the tower.

Sadly Tony didn't know the basement half as well as he knew the above ground part of his beloved tower and he was about as lost as lost can be. As he wondered the cement halls opening each door only to be greeted by either boxes of stuff, an empty room or a stockpile of nonperishables he began to get disheartened.

Maybe Bruce or Steve found her? He thought, opening another empty room to be met by a strange sight.

There was nothing different about the room itself, it was like lots of his storage rooms, high ceilings with exposed beams and metal shelves lining the walls. What was different was that this room wasn't completely empty, in the far corner there was a beat up bunny slipper.

Tony entered the room carefully, he couldn't see anyone in the room but with Natasha you could never be too careful. They didn't call her the Black Widow for nothing. As he got closer to the bunny slipper he noticed it wasn't alone, crudely attached to the wall with some bolts was a ladder that had went missing from the lab two years ago leading up to the rafters.

What's that doing down here?

Then Tony looked up and answered his own question. About ten feet above him he could make out two small feet, one with a slipper and one without. Natasha had found herself a spot in the rafters to hide.

Why can't you just sulk on the couch like a normal person?

Eying up the ladder Tony sighed inwardly, the things I do for you people, he thought but started climbing anyway.

Natasha was swinging her feet lightly over the edge when Tony finally huffed his way to the top. Sitting down next to her he coughed lightly and not surprisingly Natasha ignored him, preferring to stare at the ground instead of looking at him.

"Natasha..." He sighed, scooting closer to her. "Look I know y-"

Natasha cut him off.

"Clint used to come down here during the night sometimes when he had nightmares. He didn't know I knew he came down here."

She shifted uncomfortably in her spot.

"Before the battle of New York he used to come to me and sleep with me after nightmares. But after, something changed. Clint built his walls up again, he sunk into himself. He stopped coming to me for nightmares. I came down here the morning he went missing, I thought that he had a nightmare, fell asleep down here and was just hiding out till everyone left the tower so no one saw him come out of the basement. He did that sometimes, he didn't want anyone to know that he was scared,that Loki had really messed him up. But then he wasn't here,"

That's when Natasha looked up and met Tony's gaze, Tony almost reeled back at how broken she looked. Her skin looked like it had been stretched to tight across her face and her eyes were bloodshot.

"Oh Tasha..." Tony murmured and pulled her into an embrace.

"How could he? How could he just let me believe he was dead?" She cried openly now, "I was his partner, his friend, why would he do this to me?"

"I don't know Natasha, I don't know." Tony tried to soothe, brushing down Natasha's red hair with his palm.

Suddenly Natasha stiffened. "He's still alive... Clint is still alive!"

Pulling out of Tony's embrace she looked at him with a look no longer filled with sorrow, but with determination.

"Go start the coffee pot and find the boys. If Clint is alive we are going to bring him home, hell or high water!"