The next morning, I woke up in an unfamiliar room. Sunlight was shining through a chink in the curtains, casting a triangle of light onto the dark wall at the far end of the room. Behind me, I heard Clint murmur in his sleep, and relaxed back against him.

"Morning." He mumbled.

"Morning."

"How'd you sleep?" His voice was a little muffled by my hair.

"Pretty good." I rolled over to look at him. His eyes were still closed, and his face was a little scrunched up, but other than that, he looked just like he always did. "What's the plan for today?"

He opened his mouth to reply, when we heard the phone ring in the living room. He groaned and rolled out of bed, pulling on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers and stumbling out into the living room to answer it. I heard him pick up the phone and start talking, and dropped my head back against the pillow, smiling to myself.

"Yeah... Yes of course sir." I heard Clint's voice get a little clearer, and opened one eye to see him stood in the doorway. "Yeah, right away sir. I'll wake her up and we'll head out now."

He hung up and groaned, walking back over to me.

I sat up. "What's wrong?"

He smiled sadly and perched on the edge of the bed, nestling one hand in my dark curls. "Fury says we've got to do some actual work, I'm afraid. Looks like Tuscane is the guy we're after. He seems to be manipulating an energy pulse that looks like it's from space. We've got to go there and stop him."

I gulped, and nodded. Clint smiled sympathetically, and gave me a quick kiss on the lips, before standing and telling me to 'suit up.'

---

I glanced across at Clint. The two of us were stood outside a derelict warehouse, where Fury had informed us Tuscane was monitoring the energy pulse. Apparently we were to stop him, and destroy the pulse. I gave the warehouse an apprehensive glance - for a place that was supposed to be already crawling with Agents who were working to take Tuscane down, it seemed pretty quiet.

"You ready?" Clint asked, and I nodded. The plan was for the two of us to wait up in the rafters, until the other Agents had Tuscane distracted, (or disabled), and then destroy whatever was creating the energy pulse.

"Not really." I grinned at him and shrugged. "But I guess I'll just have to roll with it."

He smiled gently, and the two of us took the back entrance to get up to the catwalks that ran around the top of the warehouse. From this height, we could see Tuscane, facing off three Agents clearly dressed in SHIELD uniforms. His back was to a glowing blue orb of light, but he was too close to it for us to try and destroy it.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked Clint, who frowned, his eyes flickering around the warehouse. He opened his mouth, and then gave a tiny head shake.

"Clint?"

He shook his head again. "Don't worry. It was... No, don't worry. I'll think of something-"

Below us, two of the Agents were thrown backwards, and landed in crumpled piles at the far end of the warehouse. I jumped, shocked, and watched as the third Agent flew backwards as well, slamming into the far wall. I realised he was holding something in his left hand, similar to the spear that Loki had wielded during the battle on New York.
"Clint, we've got to do something, now." I hissed.

"I know, I know!" He sighed, and looked at me. "Could you... Fly down there? Keep him busy so I can destroy that energy with an EMP arrow?"

I nodded, and felt my wings stretch out, breaking the fabric of my SHIELD uniform. Then I was flying, gliding down to the ground. As my feet hit the floor, I turned to face Tuscane. He was still holding the spear, and still quite close to the energy.

"Ah... Agent Kane." He smirked. "I had a feeling you'd be back. What was it you and Barton were calling yourselves? Mr and Mrs Emmett Brown. I've got t say Lucy, those wings are a bit of a surprise."

"As is that." I pointed towards the spear. Above us, on the catwalk, I could just make out Clint priming his EMP arrow.

"Well, you know how it is." Tuscane drawled, waving the spear around lazily. I nodded, pretending to understand.

Come on Clint. I willed.

"Of course," Tuscane grinned at me, "I hope SHIELD provides its Agents with Health Insurance."

"Oh really?" I tensed my wings, just in case he fired.

"Mmh... Because Agent Barton is really going to need it."

It took me a moment to realise what he was talking about.

It took me moment too long.

Tuscane turned, and fired the spear towards Clint, who was still perched in the rafters. The energy bolt from the spear hit Clint in the chest, and he flew backwards, tumbling from the rafters and falling.

"Clint!" I screamed, ducking as Tuscane sent an energy bolt my way. When I looked back around, he'd disappeared.

"Agents down, I repeat, Agents down!" I called into my headset, running across the warehouse floor and dropping to my knees by Clint, who was gasping for breath, his uniform smoking slightly.

"Oh Clint, Clint..." I whispered, trying to control my shaking.

"Hey Bailey..." He whispered, shooting me a pained smile. "Looks like I drew the short straw. You've got to get out of here. Find Tuscane."

I shook my head, tears welling in my eyes. "No, I'm not leaving you."

He groaned, "I thought... You'd say that."

"Clint, look at me." I ordered, trying to control my voice. "Keep your eyes on me, okay? You're gonna be alright."

"I realised... I never told you why I acted... The way I did."

"What?"

He smiled gently up at me, raising one hand to touch my face and wipe away the tears.

"I didn't trust you... Knew you had something... To hide."

"Well, congratulations Clint, you figured me out." I managed a shaky smile, and he laughed.

"I was... Annoyed." He managed to get out. His voice was strained, like every word was effort. "That you got here so quickly. I couldn't see... Why."

I sighed. "Clint, you don't have to tell me all this."

He shook his head, "No. I wanted to tell you..." He broke off, coughing. "Tell you that I was wrong."

I stared at him for a few seconds, my heart in my throat. Behind us, Agents and medical officers burst into the warehouse. All of a sudden, the two of us were crowded, and he was put on a stretcher and taken away, and I was left kneeling on the warehouse floor with tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Please, Clint." I whispered, my voice clogged with tears, "Please don't die."

Notes