Time to go

Dead man calling

Steve's pov

Mornings in the Avengers tower went generally the same way every morning.

Tony was usually awake first but he hardly ever slept anymore, just passing out in the lab from sheer exhaustion and waking up after falling out of his chair. So that meant he was up and about making coffee by around six.

Then one by one the others woke up and made their way to the coffee. Steve,Natasha, Clint and finally Bruce. They all sat in silence around Tony's table, Steve at one end, Tony at the other, Natasha and Clint on one side and finally Bruce and sometimes Thor on the other. Sometimes they would talk, sometimes they would sit in comfortable silence till they went about the rest of their day.

At least that was how it used to be. Now they rarely saw each other in the morning other than at the coffee machine.

This morning was an exception.

When Steve got up everyone was already sitting at the table except there was no coffee or breakfast in front of anyone. Instead they were all staring at a beat up mobile phone sat in the middle of the table.

Trying to break the silence Steve looked across the table at Tony.

"When did you say that we were going to meet that SHIELD sniper, what was his name Marcus?" He asked in the lightest tone he could muster.

" Matthew, his name was Matthew and he'll be moving in, in about a week." Tony muttered.

Well at least he answered, Steve mused. Then decided that he was going to learn nothing by shying around the subject.

"What's with the phone?" Steve asked sitting down in his spot at the head of the table.

No one pulled their eyes away from the scratched cell phone, instead Bruce answered without even blinking.

"It's the Hawk's, Natasha found it wedged between the wall and a stack of mats in the gym." He said.

"So why are we staring at it?" Steve sincerely didn't understand what was so important about it.
"It looks like it's been behind the mats for a long time, it's probably long dead."

Tony rose his eyes slightly to look at Steve "That's the thing. The battery is half full and it's been vibrating every couple minutes like someone's phoning it."

"Seriously? That can't be right,Clint's dead. Anyone who would be phoning him so consistently must be close enough to him to know he's not going to answer." Steve tried to reason.

Natasha answered him without even looking.

"Steve do you know that the only reason that we know Clint is dead is because we found the tape first? If he had died on a SHIELD mission it would've been weeks before Fury told us anything other than MIA. Once an agent died in SHIELD and it was three months till her family knew, four for the public to hear that a 'policewoman' has died in the line of duty. Heck Most of the time the agent's family can't even try to find out what's happened because their phone is taken and destroyed incase there is Any important documents on it. There is a good chance that whoever is phoning are clueless that Clint is gone." Natasha finished.

Steve was silenced after Natasha's little speech. What if Clint had decided to disappear and go somewhere to commit his suicide. SHIELD would be the only one that could have pieced together what happened thanks to their trackers. Would they have ever found out what happened or would they be told that Barton was MIA or KIA.

With that thought in mind he lean his chin on his hand and joined the others in staring at the phone.

It was silent for about a minute and then the phone began buzzing.

Steve leaned forward to grab it but Tony basically leap across the table to knock it out of his hands, sending the cell clattering to the floor.

"What'd you do that for?!" Steve glared at Tony who just gave Steve a look of almost pity.

"Would you want to hear that someone important to you died over the phone?"

Steve looked down at the phone that now lay silent on the floor. I wish I could've have heard that Bucky died over the phone, Steve thought wearily. Then maybe I wouldn't see him dying alone at the bottom of a snowy gorge every time I close my eyes.

Bruce brushed past Steve and picked up the phone, turning it over and over in his palm like he was deep in thought.

"Tony how hard would it be to break the lock on a mobile phone?" He continued to turn it between his hands.

"Not hard. I could probably do it in fifteen minutes tops, why?" Tony asked walking over to the coffee pot.

Bruce stopped turning the phone over. "If this girl really wanted to get ahold of Clint wouldn't she leave at least one message?"

Tony's eyes widened and he set his coffee cup down with a clatter,

"Bruce you're brilliant! Come on, if we hurry we can have it opened before SHIELD happens across the phone records and finds out that it hasn't been destroyed yet!" Tony started walking swiftly to the lab. " Bruce move your but! We've got a phone to crack!" He yelled.

Bruce rushed after Tony, Natasha and Steve close behind.