Worth (Sequel to Games of Deception)

-Clint-

So, before this whole thing gets started, I guess I should make some things clear.

First of all, I'm a damn human being, and despite the name "Hawkeye," I am zero percent bird. I don't sleep in a nest. Don't know where those rumors got started. Stark.

Secondly, the Avengers don't hang out all the time and go to parties and have sleepovers like teenage girls. In fact, if there's not some sort of circle of hell breaking loose in the world, we probably aren't together at all. Sorry to disappoint.

Thirdly, well, this is where it gets complicated. You see, there's this woman. Jacqueline Adams. If you watched the news, or listened to the radio, read the newspapers, or had any sort of human contact since the attack on Manhattan, you've probably heard of her. And me, and the rest of The Breakfast Club.

Yeah, I don't know.

But, I do know that she's pretty much the reason my life doesn't suck. I love her, okay. I have no shame in saying that. She's basically the most important thing in my life.

I could go back to the beginning and give you my sob story of childhood and adolescence until the day that this guy with an eye patch approached me at the circus and asked me to join SHIELD, but let's face it, you probably don't care.

I could talk about how I got to be one of the most advanced, skilled, and highest-ranking agents of SHIELD, but you don't care about that either.

I could tell you about my many missions with my partner Natasha Romanoff and how I almost died on multiple occasions, and although you probably do want to hear about that, it's nothing that you've probably assumed. And really, not that interesting.

No, let me tell you where it all really started: When I was sent on a mission to a club in New York on some ordinary night, to watch some half-drunken girl sing her heart out with her band so she'd have enough cash to get by.

Jacqueline Adams was one of SHIELD's personal most-wanted. Responsible for the murders of many agents throughout the years, she was your top-notch assassin hell-bent on revenge; several years before, SHIELD agents had killed her parents for their work with the terrorist group Hydra. That is, the same group that the guy you know as Captain America ending up having it out against during World War II.

Bastards.

At any rate, this girl was meant to be captured after a few weeks of monitoring, interrogation, you know the deal. Execution was also high on demand, but that didn't really make a difference to me.

At least, not at first. It had happened before. Then, the weeks turned into a couple months, and I began to fall into what I had always tried to keep myself from; emotion.

See, I'm not exactly what you'd call a "people person." Partly because of my own personality and past, but also because it was how I'd been trained to be. Stone-cold.

And I do it well. I'm only being honest when I say I'm one of SHIELD's best. Well, maybe just a little bit of bragging going on there...

I could get into the mushy details, but I'm sure you've figured out that I'm not really that kind of guy. Most of the time.

Long story short, I quickly realized that Jacqueline Adams was something different. She began to hold importance in my own mind, and I knew there was more behind her than what SHIELD saw. I realized, once I saw the truth in her, that I wanted to save her from the turmoil she was living in, and despite everything she'd done, I knew there was something valuable in her that needed to be known and put to the test.

So, this lone girl managed to reduce me to love. And I was going to stop at nothing to ensure her life. And even when a massive threat came to Earth soon after in the form of that guy Loki and his army of Chitauri soldiers, I fought for her.

Luckily, director Fury and the rest of the team now known as the Avengers saw her worth and how hard she had fought on her own to redeem her actions after she'd come to realize the truth of her past.

Did I mention I hate titles? The Avengers...are we kids playing games in the sandbox? Although, I guess I shouldn't complain; we could be called the Justice League or something ridiculous like that.

Once we'd managed to learn to deal with each other (and that took longer than we'd like to admit), and managed to "save the world from total destruction" and all that, Loki was sent back to his home on Asgard with his brother Thor. Yes, Thor. The god of thunder who women are obsessed with now. Whatever.

It took some slight bribery, but I managed to convince the others on the SHIELD side of things, agents Romanoff and Scagilla, to bring before Fury the option of allowing Jacqueline to become a permanent member of the team. Defending the world from obliteration by an alien army and a psychotic sibling war was cause enough for a pardon, wouldn't you think?

Well apparently, either Fury agreed or I'm prettier than I thought, because soon afterwards Jacqueline Adams was not only an Avenger but an official agent of SHIELD. Which, in defense, is pretty awesome when you're not about to die via falling off a mountain in the Himalayas or by drowning in the Indian Ocean.

Both of which have almost happened to me, by the way.

Why do I tell you all of this? Put simply, to lead you into the story of the next chapter in our lives. And, honestly, to provide a bit of comic relief because you don't even know a fraction of the shit that's going to hit the fan soon.

But, as they always say (whoever "they" are), things always have a way of working themselves out.

...Almost always.

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Hello my lovely readers! Thanks deciding to check out the sequel to Games of Deception. Clint's quite the character, isn't he? Since the last time we've seen things from his point of view, I've read several of the new Hawkeye comics and learned a little more about our favorite archer; I never realized how wonderfully hilarious he is. So expect a lot more sass from Agent Barton this time around. This little intro was just for your own reading pleasure, but the action begins soon. Hope you'll enjoy 'Worth'!