A Second [Clint Barton x Reader]

I Know a Guy

"It's not him." You say quickly, glaring at Rhodey. "Clint wouldn't- there are other people who can shoot a damn bow." You defend, trying not to think about how that morning you left, his bow and quiver had been gone.

"(Y/n), I'm not claiming it's him for sure, but I think it's a really good possibility considering the weapon choice-"

"It's not him!" You shout, standing up from your spot on the couch. Your fists were clenched at your sides, nails digging into your palms. Tears were forming in your eyes, both angry tears and heart broken ones. "It's not... anyone can shoot a bow."

"Not like him though." Rhodey says in a soft voice. He wasn't trying to hurt you. He was simply reviewing all the possible options. You couldn't take it though.

Clint. Loving father, caring husband, kind of a dick at times, but always sweet to everyone he meets. Kind hearted enough to take in a one eyed stray dog without second though. Not a murder. Not someone who would kill just to kill. That wasn't him...

You stormed from the room, not able to say another word to Rhodey. Hot tears ran down your face. Steve called after you, but Natasha had stopped him. You needed time to process this.

You still didn't want to believe it, but deep down, you knew it was him. That still didn't make accepting it any easier though.

Now whenever Rhodey came back with news on the Ronin case, he never did it when you were around. You weren't sure how often he'd spoken with Natasha when you weren't there, but you occasionally could hear them talking about it. Like today.

Rhodey was gone now, the light blue rays that were his hologram no longer there. You heard Natasha sniffle, and you knew she was falling apart. She missed Clint too. How could she not? She didn't want to believe that her best friend, the one who choose to save her life instead of ending it, was out there ending so many other people's lives. 

You hear footsteps, who you can only guess is Steve, him being the only other person who was really in the tower, and hear Natasha take a deep breath. She was probably trying to stop her tears before Steve saw them. You don't pay too much attention to them though, your thoughts now swamped with Clint again.

The more you thought about it, and the more Rhodey came back to report, the more you knew it was Clint. You knew Natasha wanted to find him and bring him back. Take him away from all he'd been doing and try to save him. But deep down, you knew the truth. They'd never find him. He didn't want to be found. And if Clint didn't want to be found, then no one would be able to find him. That didn't mean though that you never thought of seeing him again. There was always that part of you that would want to go out and get him. To see if you could calm the raging storm of pure hatred within him and finally give him peace. But the other part of you, the same part of you that lived with him for two years and never asked if he still loved you because you were afraid of his answer, was holding you back. Your heart couldn't take finding him and reliving that night where he rejected you. You couldn't watch him leave you again. The thought of seeing him again was terrifying.

"How's she doing?" You heard Steve mumble after a few minutes of them talking. That question caught your attention. You knew your teammates were worried about you, especially Steve. He tried hard to help you move on with your life, but you just couldn't, and he respected that for the most part. That didn't mean that he didn't occasionally drop some hints of wanting you to go with him to his therapy group. You still hadn't taken him up on that offer.

"Like everyone else in the world." Was Natasha's reply. "I'd say she's managing though."

Steve sighs and there's a moment of silence before he's speaking up again. "You know the only way to move forward-" At this point though, you could care less about what Steve had to say. Not even one of his famous pep talks could bring you out of pit of depression you'd fallen into. Plus, they surprisingly lost meaning when they all seemed to be exactly the same.

You tucked your knees up closer to yourself and let a hand slipped under your shirt. It faintly touched where your baby had been and caused another spike of pain to run through you. You'd tried so hard and for long to get that baby, and they were gone before you'd even gotten the chance to see them. It always used to make you wonder if your baby had survived, and was still with you, if Clint would have been too. The idea of Clint leaving you with a baby to raise though was too much to bear. They would have been almost 5 years old today.

"Oh.. h-hi? Hi! Ah.. is anyone home? This is Scott Lang! We met a few years ago at the airport... Germany. I, Uh, I was the guy that got really big?"

That voice. It sounded familiar. And so did that name. It was enough to pull your attention up to whatever recording was now playing. You took your earbuds out and stood up slowly, walking over to the others to watch the video. Natasha glances at you, and by the brief look of surprise on her face, you figured that she had, in fact, not known you were in the other room.

"Is this an old message?" Steve asks, not really too surprised by your sudden appearance. There was no way that it could have been old though. Scott had never been to the tower before. 

"No." You shake your head. "It's not a recording."

"It's the front gate." Natasha finishes for you.

***

The next few moments were unexplainable. Natasha, you and Steve all rushed down to let him in. Scott was pacing, looking very anxious and distraught as you led him back up into the tower. You wanted to make him stop pacing, as it was starting to make you anxious too. But you didn't. You couldn't blame him for looking and acting so strangely. He'd just found out that his girlfriend was dead, along with half the universe, and that he'd missed 5 years of his remaining family's lives.

He explained that he'd been stuck in a different dimension, something called the quantum realm, and that he'd been there for 5 years, yet it only felt like hours to him. He explained some other things about the quantum realm, but it was honestly starting to just get confusing. You were smart, but you had always left the sciency stuff to Bruce and Tony. Luckily Steve stops him after a moment.

"Scott. What exactly are you talking about?"

You'd been sitting on Nat's desk the whole time, trying to keep up with everything Scott was talking about. You really didn't quite know what connection he was trying to make.

"What I'm saying is that time works differently in the quantum realm. The only problem is, is that right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it." He explains, getting more and more excited the longer he spoke. "What if we could navigate the chaos though? And enter at one point in time and exit at another... like... like before Thanos..."

"So like time travel?" You elaborate for him, raising an eyebrow. He shakes his head though. "No, no. Not like time travel. Like..."

"A time machine?" You continue, glancing toward Natasha and Steve to see what both of them thought about this. Steve looked a little confused and deep in thought, and Natasha was unreadable as always.

Scott eventually sighs a little and nods, almost in defeat. "Yeah, ok. Kinda like time travel or a time machine. Look I know, it's crazy. Absolutely crazy-"

"Scott," Natasha interrupts him. "I get emails from a raccoon. So nothing is crazy anymore." She shrugs, and you notice something. There's a glint in her eyes, almost like she's feeling hopeful. And for a moment, you feel hope rising in you too. Time travel didn't seem realistic, but Natasha was right. With everything you had seen and experienced in your life, why wouldn't time travel be a thing too? And if there was a way you could bring back Clint's kids... bring back your baby... then maybe he'd come back. Maybe he'd be happy again, maybe he'd love-

The hope dies there though. Even if Clint could get everything back, that might not mean he'd still want you too. It couldn't be that easy. He wasn't magically gonna love you again and have everything go back to the way things were. There was still the two years of yelling at each other and living like you were walking on eggshells. Still... if it meant Clint could find peace. If it meant he could have something to love again, even if it wasn't you, then maybe it was worth trying to get.

"So who do we talk to about this?" Scott asks, looking at the three of you. Steve sighs a little and looks down at the floor, and you and Natasha already knew what he was thinking.

"I know a guy." He says simply with a nod.