Time to go

A Story of young years

Once Bruce, Tony and Steve had managed to awkwardly fumble into the crawl space Natasha grabbed the edge and swung herself in, landing gracefully on Clint's bed roll which all the boys had taken great care in not sitting on. Apparently sitting in a dead man's bed didn't appeal to them.

As Natasha wiggled down more comfortably on the bed roll, she looked over to Steve who if possible looked more uncomfortable in here than he did in Tony's lab with all of the tech.

"Where do you want me to start Cap?" She asked.

"The beginning. Tell us everything," He said firmly. "No tricks, no loop-holes."

Natasha closed her eyes, leaning back and began talking monotonously, like she had memorized everything she was saying.

" Clint was born in Waverley Iowa. He was their second child, his only sibling being his older brother Bernard. Clint called him Barney. Both His father and mother had drinking problems and were constantly drinking."

Her voice cracked and began to seep emotion.

"One night...when Clint was about five he begged their mom to take Barney and him to the toy store so they could get a new set of marbles. His mother said yes, but while the boys were inside picking their marbles she managed to sneak a half bottle of vodka. "

Natasha didn't need to explain that. Tony could already feel his own memories resurfacing of a similar event except instead of a doe eyed tiny Clint Barton, it was a young Tony Stark. He pushed the memories back down, it will only hurt more now.

"They got in a head on collision with a semi. His mom died instantly. Barney broke a few bones. Clint was thrown from the vehicle and hit his head, this caused permanent hearing damage." Natasha was starting to sound robotic again , like she was retreating back into herself.

"Whoa,whoa, whoa!" Tony put up his hands making a 'T' sign " Time out, Legolas was deaf?'

"80% in one ear and 50% in the other." Natasha replied.

"Hearing aids?" He inquired.

"Only on missions or when he knows people will be talking to him and he won't be able to read lips."

"Reading lips?" Steve seemed dubious.

Natasha nodded " Clint survived almost fifteen years without hardly any hearing. Coulson said that Clint had been hiding his deafness so well that it took Shield a month to figure out he couldn't hardly hear a word they were saying."

She stifled a laugh, remembering Clint telling her about Fury's face the moment he found out that one of his most promising agents was deaf.

"Anyway.That left Clint and Barney in the care of their father, who after losing his wife became an even heavier drinker and fell into a deep depression. He stopped caring about Clint or his brother and one day while the boys were at school he hung himself in the living room. Clint told me the story once during the night when we were on the Quinn-jet after a mission in Thailand. He said that Barney had detention and sent him home by himself. Clint found his dad hanging from the living room ceiling and the note telling him it was his fault that this had all happened, that he was a failure of a son."

Natasha eyes were starting to glisten again.

" Two hours later Barney found him sitting under his father's body, clutching the note and whispering "I'm sorry ,papa. I'll do better ,papa. I'll never fail again, papa. Just come back,please."

Steve clenched his fists. " That's not fair! How could a father blame his sons for the death of their own mother?!"

Tony looked like he was of somewhere else in his brain, " He loved his wife. He needed someone to blame, he didn't want to hurt Clint. He was in a dark place, he wanted his wife back." He whispered.

"You're actually siding with the crazy one in this?" Bruce threw his hands up in the air. " Do you realize how much something like this can screw up a person? Much less a little kid? That man let his kid find his dead body hanging from the roof and blamed him in the note."

Tony was about to retort when Natasha cut him off.

"Do you want to me to continue or do you like arguing?"

"There's more?" Tony groaned. " What else can possibly happen to him?"

Natasha picked at the edge of the blanket and murmured "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."