Time to go

Barney's truth

Why can't they ever wake up quietly? Natasha thought as she rubbed her temple achingly.

Barney had done a good deal of moaning before his eyes flickered around the room at the other occupants and then putting two and two together began to freak out like any normal person would.

"What's going on?" He tried to get out of his chair but Natasha gave him a pointed look and he dropped back down. "Where am I? Who are you people? What do you want?!"

Steve turned his chair so he was directly facing Barney and tried to look as nonthreatening as possible. It wasn't easy,but he tried.

"Calm down, you are at Stark tower. My name's Steve Rodgers. Over there is Dr.Banner. That is Tony Stark and, well you've already met Agent Romanov." Steve pointed to each of the other Avengers. "We'd like to ask you some questions, do think you can answer them for us?"

Barney gave Natasha a sideways glance and shifted in his chair, "I have a feeling that I don't really have a choice, so shoot."

"Don't tempt me," Natasha muttered not so quietly under her breath, earning herself a glare from Steve.

But other than a glare, Steve ignored her and focused his attention back on Barney.

"Do you happen to know any people named Clint?" Steve asked.

Barney shifted in his chair again before answering no.

Natasha was done playing games.

She was across the room in seconds,pushing Cap out of the way and pulling Barney up by his collar till they were eye to eye inches apart.

"Don't you lie to me!" Natasha all but screamed, "I know the truth, so you spit it out or I'll make you!" She let go of his collar and pushed him back into his chair roughly.

Barney looked up at Natasha,

"I don't know anyone named Clint anymore." He said quietly, "I had a brother named Clint,once. He died when I was around twenty."

Natasha stared down at Barney,his eyes were filled with a weird kind of sadness and grief that he was desperately trying to hide. Like it had been there for so long but this was the first time she had seen it. It was so familiar to her she almost felt like she had known this man for years, not hours.

They're Clint's eyes. She thought hollowly.This is his brother, the same brother who beat him into a bloody pulp and left him in a ditch to die. The same one who helped him run away from the foster home,the same one that pushed him away when they made it to the circus.

Barney had done so many horrible things to Clint, so many things that made Natasha want to hurt him a lot more. To push the knife in and twist, to shatter his reality and make him break. But she couldn't do it.

Whenever she looked into his eyes all she could see was Clint.

Clint on the roof in Tallinn. Clint dragging her bloody and half-conscious out of the street in Budapest. Clint helping her escape the medical staff when she broke her leg and was put on bed rest. Clint tumbling off the side of the tower with a bullet wound in his chest.

Forcing herself to look Barney in the eyes again she instantly felt dread curl around in her stomach.

His eyes weren't the eyes of a liar, of someone who didn't regret his actions. They were the eyes of someone who was swimming, no,drowning in a pool of grief. Barney genuinely believed that his brother died in a ditch bank he put him in when he was younger.

Now I have to tell him his brother didn't die in that ditch outside of town, just to tell him Clint committed suicide a year ago. She thought bitterly. I can't do it.