It's a Spider Family. {Sequel to 'It's a Spider Thing'.}

{27} no one tracks my kid but me

SMOKE BILLOWED UP FROM THE FARMHOUSE. It would have been visible for miles if it wasn't for the night sky; the flames flickered and crept steadily higher as they engulfed the building.

The car had barely halted to a stop before Clint barrelled out, leaving the door wide open in his haste. His eyes were scouring every inch of the blackened farmhouse; he winced at the heat and stumbled his way around towards the porch where a lone body laid out across the ground. Beside it, Lucky barked madly at the flames as he stood guard over his owner.

"Barney?!" Clint shouted before he practically collapsed at his brother's side.

He leaned over and pressed his ear to Barney's chest. The relief he felt at hearing his brother's strong heartbeat was enough to knock the air from his lungs. For all their differences and their constant arguing and the ridiculous fights- Clint knew he'd lose something of himself if he lost Barney.

"Come on you asshole." He grunted, shaking his brother's shoulder when Natasha appeared behind him, ominous and silent. She stared at the building.

Unbridled fear was mounting in her throat as she looked at the shell of the farmhouse and the still raging fire with wide eyes. The terrible, horrifying, possibility of Peter still being inside ran through her mind on a continuous, taunting loop making her muscles tense. The brief thought of running inside kept jumping to the forefront of Natasha's mind only to be confronted by the potential and reasonable argument that it would be useless.

"No one would be able to survive in there." Her voice didn't sound like her own. Clint swallowed hard he looked up at her; her features were indiscernible in the light of the flames.

Natasha had thought that she knew all of her fears- how to face them and how to run from them. But she had no idea that the terror of losing Peter would slam so hard into her body that it would snatch the air straight from her lungs. Not only shattering her heart but every damn bone in her body and somehow manage to still leave her standing.

She felt like crumbling to the ground and never moving again.

"No sign of the kids?" Clint asked uselessly as his brain failed to work.

All pretences of his lack of care about the three teenagers suddenly vanished when confronted with the idea of Wanda being trapped under a beam- or Harley coughing up a lung from the smoke- or Peter being burned to a crisp from the flames. His heart ran a mile a minute with the haunting imagery as he stared at his best friend; Natasha looked sick.

He shook Barney harder, growing even more frantic by the second.

"'Er off." Barney coughed up, opening his eyes briefly. He frowned as Clint's head swam into view and groaned again. "Five, five more minutes..."

Natasha's head snapped to Barney when she heard his croaky voice and she dropped to the ground, promptly slapping his cheek in one sharp fluid motion. Clint grimaced at the red mark if left behind and would have been more concerned about his brother if his worry for the teenagers didn't outweigh his worry for Barney being able to take a single hit.

"Where's Peter?" She demanded, her fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. She pulled him closer so they were nose to nose, her eyes glinting. "Where the hell are the kids?"

Barney pushed off the assassin with a scowl before he announced, "Gone. Left."

Immediately, both agents eased and the looming idea that any of the teenagers were trapped inside seemed to dissipate. Clint watched Natasha practically sag from the relief as she dropped to the ground, kicking Barney's foot as she did so paired with a pointed glare. Any worry that she had for him was long gone despite his pitiful attempt at sitting up- Lucky paced above his head, whining.

"What do you mean gone?" Clint articulated at Barney's irritated expression.

"Hydra got here before you guys. I sent Peter with the others. They drove off, probably still driving. I don't know where they'd go." He explained while Lucky wormed his way under Barney's arm impatiently; his fur was covered in soot but otherwise unharmed. Clint smiled sadly at the animal.

For a moment, Natasha simply stared at the ground before her eyes flickered back to Barney.

"And you?" she tilted her head expectantly.

He frowned. "And me what?"

"Any more bullet holes? Bleeding to death?" She begrudgingly asked with a slight huff, eyeing the crude bandage on his thigh. She muttered under her breath, "I can oblige if not."

Clint rolled his eyes at the pair.

A hoarse laugh escaped Barney as he grinned at the assassin beside him.

"Didn't know you cared so much Romanoff." He sniffed dramatically.

"I don't, you piece of-"

"So, what's the plan now?" Clint intervened.

Smoothing out her scowl, though with a lot of effort, Natasha turned back to her partner and shrugged half-heartedly as if that lone action took the last of her energy. She regarded the still burning building in front of her, distractedly noting that the flames seemed to be shrinking now that it had run out of building to burn and that she was going to have Barton as a housemate for a while- she drew the line at Barney too. One Barton was bad enough.

"I don't know." She admitted, pinching the bridge of her nose. "But I'm going to stick a tracking device on the kid if he keeps disappearing-"

"He already has one." Clint commented, flopping onto the floor.

Natasha's whole body froze up as her gaze narrowed dangerously. "Excuse you?"

On instinct Clint stiffened; he knew that tone of voice. "You, you didn't know?" He squeaked out.

He risked a look at her, already curling in on himself as she continued to glare.

Barney huffed out a laugh and received a swift punch to the arm for his efforts by the redhead; he quickly shut his mouth. "The hearing aids Nat." Clint began, raising his hands in a gesture of 'peace' that looked ridiculous to an outside perspective- Barney knew that it was warranted. "We both have tracking devices embedded in them, but they only work if they're broken. I don't even know if he knows- Stark put them into the design after like, the fifth time I wandered off on mission."

There was a brief silence before Natasha nodded solemnly. "I'm going to kill Stark. No one tracks my kid but me." Clint shot a concerned look to Barney who shrugged and turned back to Lucky.

"Anyway," he sang, albeit uncertainly, "where will he even go now?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." 

A/N

Clint being panicked and genuinely distraught over Barney being possibly dead will forever give me serotonin because I like to think that even though they'd shoot one another it would never be to kill, even if they were on opposite sides.

Also yes Peter had a tracking device, but it can only be accessed once it's broken! No, Tony cannot hack it or anybody else- he made it so not even he could. :)

Anywho! Let me know of any spelling mistakes! xoxo.