Unexpected

Reunion

Another visitor? Could it be my grandparents? No, Agent Romanoff had said 'he', not 'they'. Taking a deep draught of water, I moved my bed up a bit further until my side simply wouldn't allow it anymore and I waited until I heard a little beat on the wood of the door.

"Enter!" I called, and a moment later, to my surprise, came the familiar face of none other than Agent Clint Barton peeking into my room.

"Clint?" A smile broke across my face as the man stepped in with one arm behind his back wearing a grey t-shirt, jeans, and a grin.

"Hey, Penny!" he walked up to me, "Permission to hug?"

"You're in a good mood! Never put you down as a hugger." I said playfully, looking up at him with fake skepticism, "What happened to the Clint Barton I knew?"

He rapped his head with his knuckles a few times, "He's cleared up again, that's what happened to him."

"Well, considering all we went through together even if you don't remember as much of it as I do, I suppose I can let a hug pass. Permission granted." I said and allowed him to gingerly hug me, my arms still looked like I'd gone through a meat grinder and were still tender to the touch. I was surprised by Barton's affection. He'd been sarcastic and almost playful during his time being mind controlled, but there had been a stoicness to him that never moved for much affection. "You were cleared by S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Yep. I'm back on active duty." Pulling back from the quick, one armed hug, he moved his hidden hand from behind his back to reveal a little stuffed bird that looked like a golden canary, "Now, I was told by a little birdie that you had finally woken up, and I wanted to see how you were holding up."

I shrugged, accepting the sweet little toy, "Not as well as you it seems." Now that he was sitting in the same chair Natasha had been sitting I could see the extent of his damage, and all I could see besides some bruising was that his exposed arms were covered in small deep cuts, like he'd been hit with glass shards.

He shook his head, leaning down with his elbows on his knees and his hands folded together, "I'm sorry, Penny. When we met on the roof I should have sent you down to hide straight away. You were already pretty beaten up and now look at you. You could have died."

"Clint, from where in your messed up memories of me did you get the idea I would've obeyed that order anyways?" I said, "You can't blame yourself and I would have blamed myself if I hadn't done what I could to help!"

He nodded then started shaking his head from side to side, "Honestly everything that happened since Loki came through the portal in the underground S.H.I.E.L.D. location to when Natasha knocked me hard on the head in the hellicarrier is all jumbled up, like a dream, you know, like you're not quite there and you only remember chunks then it's gone again."

"Well, what do you remember?"

The next hour was spent with Clint and me going over what he remembered and matching it to reality. He remembered our first encounter in the cell, him stealing cookies from me, and the hullabaloo when Ben's rape attempt had been discovered. He remembered chunks of our conversations, gathering up enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. he had known about through his previous missions, and the plan he had devised to steal the iridium.

"It was strange, like I wasn't really thinking, but all I wanted to do was bend to the will of Loki and his scepter. I wanted to accomplish whatever was put to me, I was me, but I wasn't, like something else was controlling all I did and thought and having me watch." He chuckled at himself and glanced up at me, "I guess that doesn't make much sense."