Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 1: Who Needs Powers?

The last few days that Barney was in Westchester, he and Clint made it a point to play hard. They worked together to finish up Barney's homework assignments so that he was all squared away long before he needed to be packed, and that meant they could steal away to the lake, even if the water was still pretty cold in the spring.

It was all in good fun until they started to play tag, and a misplaced step later, Clint had gone down, and his ankle buckled underneath him.

Barney froze when he heard Clint cry out, and for just a second, the blood drained from his face. He didn't say anything — for Clint's sake — but he still couldn't help but panic when he thought his brother was in trouble, and that sort of scream had Barney right back to a few months ago, hiding in the tree and hoping hard that his brother wasn't dead when Sabretooth had grabbed him.

So he was honestly panicked until he got to where Clint was and could see for himself that Clint was fine, except for the fact that he couldn't put any weight on his foot. "Okay, okay," Barney said, biting his lip. "Okay, you just ... stay right there and I'll find help."

"I just slipped, Barn," Clint said. "I ain't broke."

"Yeah, well, you want me to carry you?"

"I just need help with the one foot."

Barney nodded at that and helped Clint up, putting Clint's arm around his shoulders as they hobbled like a three-legged race back to the lawn — though Arrow had run ahead of them and had started tugging on Logan's jeans with his teeth to get his attention. The dog already had an excellent sense of who he needed to get when Clint was in trouble.

Logan didn't argue with the way the pup was tugging at him and instead followed along, though when he caught up to where Barney and Clint were, he swore under his breath and rushed the last bit to the two of them. He didn't even ask what happened before he scooped Clint up and started back toward the house, with Barney on his heels.

"We were just playing and he fell," Barney panted as he tried to keep up with Logan's longer strides — the Barton boys were still a little bit short.

"That happens," Logan said, shaking his head to himself.

"I'm fine," Clint muttered. "I'm not broke or nothin'."

"Yeah, well you can't stand on it too good, so I'm gonna wait to see what Hank says about that, eh?" Logan said.

"I hate going to the doctor," Clint muttered, falling into an honest pout. "Even if it's Hank."

"Me too," Logan agreed. "But if he gives you any trouble, I'll knock him out."

"Can I help?" Barney asked.

"Sure," he replied. "Just grab the elevator — kick anyone out that's in your way."

Barney snickered at that but rushed ahead to get the elevator, sticking close to Logan and Clint all the way down to Hank's lab, where Hank rushed over when he saw the state of affairs. "What have we here?"

"I fell," Clint said, and it was clear to see that he was more than a little embarrassed by the attention — and his own clumsiness.

"Well, that's an easy enough thing to address," Hank told him gently, directing Logan on where he could set Clint down to get him set up so they could take a look at his ankle.

When Clint tried to sit up, Logan put his hand in the center of his chest to keep him down. "Wait. Everyone knows you don't want to be in the med bay. Make it go by quicker by just relaxing a little bit."

Clint let out a little noise, but he stayed where he was, if for no other reason than that he knew Logan was right and that Hank wasn't going to let him out until he could prove he could walk out on his own. Which he knew he couldn't do without help. So that was also a small problem for his escape plans.