Mine Would Be Him (Clint Barton x reader x Everett Ross)

Chapter 13

"Y/n, baby, are you okay? Come back to me," you heard a familiar voice say.

Through the haziness, you became aware of a pair of strong hands cradling your head. Blinking your eyes repeatedly, the blur of Clint's face started to come into focus. But was he real this time or was he still part of the witch's illusion?

"Clint," you muttered. "Are you real?"

"Of course I'm real. Let's get you up."

He pulled you up off the ground and wrapped an arm around you to help support your weight. Your knees felt weak and you weren't sure you would have been able to stay upright without him.

"Here, sit down," he said, gently pushing you down. You slowly became aware of the fact that you were back on the Quinjet.

"I've got to go back for the rest of them. Stay here."

Once he was gone, you lay down on the seat, curled up in a ball, and slowly drifted out of consciousness.

When you awoke, you looked around at the other members of the team and saw that she had gotten more of them than she had missed. Your eyes fell on Steve to find him intently staring at you in a way that made you feel uncomfortable. You didn't know if it was a side effect of her magic or not, but you felt like he could see straight through you and knew all of your most personal secrets. The rest of the flight was spent looking at your knees in an effort to avoid his gaze.

After the plane landed, Clint came over to you and helped you up.

"Where are we?" You asked.

"It's okay. We're home."

You felt a rush of panic shoot through your body. You couldn't go in there, not yet. He must have felt your resistance because he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I can't," you muttered. From the expression on his face, you realized that you probably sounded crazy so you added, "I don't want the kids seeing me like this. Give me a minute to calm down. Please."

"I'll stay with her," Steve said. "You can help Romanoff get inside. She looks like she needs a hand."

Clint lingered for a moment looking at Steve, but then he nodded and moved over to Natasha and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

You sat back down on the bench and Steve joined you. Once everyone else was gone, you thanked him.

"You're welcome."

The two of you sat in silence for a long time before he finally said, "It was 1945 and I was with Peggy again. She told me the war was over and we could go home. We were going to have that dance I promised her, but she vanished into thin air. I lost her all over again."

You looked at Steve to find him staring at the opposite wall of the Quinjet, although you were pretty sure he was really looking a lot farther off than that.

"I wouldn't tell anybody else on the team that, but I had a feeling you'd get it. I think you and I both know a lot about longing for something out of reach."

He turned to you and the previous feeling of discomfort was gone. His eyes were gentle and full of understanding as he studied your face.

"What are we going to find in there that you aren't up to facing?"

Instead of answering him directly, you said, "I've always assumed my life turned out the way it has because that's how it was meant to be. That all the things I've wanted just weren't in the cards for me. She showed me I was wrong. I could have had it all, if I'd only fought for it when I had the chance."