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“I don’t even know who you are anymore!” Laura screamed at Clint, tears running down her cheeks. Their ‘civil discussion’ had rapidly devolved into a shouting match. “I don’t recognise you anymore Clint. The man I married wouldn’t have abandoned his family for a man on a selfish crusade and a Hydra terrorist bitch!”
“Don’t talk about her like that Laura! And Steve was doing the right thing!” He was so angry, why couldn’t she understand?! “This is Stark’s fault isn’t it? He’s filled your head up with lies and turned you against me!”
She gave a slightly hysterical laugh. “You idiot! Tony is the only reason I haven’t divorced you yet!” the words hit him like a bucket of ice water. “He begged me to give you another chance when everyone else was telling me to dump your ass and get a divorce filed in abstentia. I could have had it all done before you got back since you were a fugitive! I would have had full custody of the kids and I would NEVER have let you near them again.” She took a shaky breath. “But Tony convinced me not to. He said it wasn’t right to do that without hearing your side of the story.” She wiped her eyes and smiled bitterly. “And the story turns out to be that you followed Captain America because he’s Captain America and can’t make mistakes. That you abandoned your family for a Hydra bitch. And don’t argue with me! She joined them willingly! And she never got punished!”
“She lost her brother Laura.”
“That sounds more like his punishment than hers,” she replied coldly.
Laura stood up abruptly. “I can’t do this. I-I can’t talk to you when you’re being this blind.” That hysterical laugh made a reappearance. “Isn’t that ironic? Hawkeye being blind.” She covered her mouth and Clint finally noticed that she was shaking. She was thinner than he remembered with dark bags under her eyes. “You haven’t even asked how the kids are,” she whispered. “You didn’t even ask if we were okay after Ross found us.”
His blood turned to ice. “What?” he croaked.
“What did you think would happen? You broke the law and made dangerous enemies. And then you hid. They couldn’t get to you so they went after your family instead.”
“They shouldn’t have been able to find you!” he argued desperately. Did Stark…
She looked at him incredulously. “Romanoff dumped our fucking address onto the internet during the DC disaster Clint. It didn’t take them much digging to find it. And then they came for us. The only reason Ross didn’t get us, was because Tony got to us first. He got us out of there and to the Compound, and the kids and I watched as that bastard bombed the house we’d been in minutes before.” She choked on a sob. “Lila and Cooper still have nightmares.”
Clint stared at her in numb shock. Natasha did what?
“And now you’re back and you don’t even call us. You don’t ask about us. And every time I call you that bitch of a witch hangs up on me with a smug ‘Clint is busy’.” She clenched her hands into fists.
What was she talking about? He called her.
Didn’t he?
And what was that about Wanda hanging up on her? Stark had mentioned it but he hadn’t believed him…
“I can’t do this,” Laura whispered, turning to leave.
“Wait, Laura!” he jumped up in a panic but she ignored him.
“No Clint. Until you figure out your priorities, I can’t handle seeing you. And if you take too long…” she stared straight ahead, her back to him. “I don’t think Tony would be able to talk me out of it again.”
Clint was left alone, thoughts a confused and jumbled mess.
What just happened?
For the first time in far too long, Clint took a step back and did what Hawkeye was most well known for.
He watched.
And once he took that step back, once he removed his emotions and opinions from the situation?
He found himself pretty disturbed.
Natasha and Steve were obsessed with getting to Stark. Natasha always talking about how they needed to get him and his ego under control and Steve going on about family.
Sam didn’t seem to care about Stark. He had actually somewhat removed himself from the group and Clint realised he was doing his own watching.
It took him a few days to figure out why.
This is a restraining order barring you, Miss. Maximoff and Mr. Barnes from interacting with Mr. Stark. The courts granted it after seeing the ferocity of Miss. Maximoff’s attack in the airport and the video from Siberia.
What video? Steve said that Stark turned on them instead of helping them with the Winter Soldiers. And yet Potts had managed to get a restraining order against Steve using footage from that whole thing.
And Steve had turned white as a sheet.
Clint hadn’t noticed in the moment, but apparently Sam did. He was watching Steve and his conversations were always careful now.
Sam thought something was wrong there and… well Clint had to agree.
From a purely objective standpoint, Stark wasn’t the type to randomly attack someone. He was too smart for that. He goaded them into throwing the first punch.
Clint’s stomach twisted with dread but he forced himself to keep watching. Laura had called him blind and she had yet to be wrong the entire time he’d known her. If she thought something was wrong, then there was something wrong.
It was time he fixed that.
Lang was practically a non-entity in the group. He was lost and clearly regretted his decisions that were keeping him from his daughter and (now ex) girlfriend.
Bucky was practically a ghost. Silent and never interacting with them no matter how much Steve pleaded.
Then… then there was Wanda.
Wanda was a sweet, misunderstood girl.
Wanda needed to be protected.
Wanda kept him from talking to Laura.
Wanda kept going on screaming rants about how Stark ruined everything.
When Wanda’s anger spiked, Clint felt himself get irrationally angry. When she got afraid he felt the urge to comfort her. He thought about Wanda more than his family.
Clint may act like a joker, but he was spy. And he was a damn good one.
You didn’t survive as a spy if you were stupid.
Cold hard facts.
Steve was lying to them.
Wanda was manipulating his mind.
Everything in him rebelled at the thought but he kept Laura’s tears and accusation-filled voice in mind.
He hurt his wife.
He abandoned his kids.
He ran off after Steve without finding out the details like he always had before.
And Wanda was at the centre of it.
Before he met Wanda he was perfectly content at home. After meeting her the farm started feeling like a prison.
Before he met Wanda he could tell when Steve was spouting bullshit. After meeting her he followed Steve without question.
Before…
Before he met Wanda he was friends with Tony. After he met Wanda he hated Stark’s guts.
He created Ultron.
Did he? The Mind Stone hijacked an unfinished program he was working on because Wanda had triggered his PTSD.
She got into his head, made him see things, made him do things, just like Loki did to Clint.
Stark killed her parents, killed Pietro.
The chances of the bomb that hit her house being Stark tech were very low. Stark tech didn’t fail. And on the off chance it was a Stark bomb, Tony never sold outside the US. That was Stane.
Who Tony killed.
So if anything Tony avenged her parents.
And Pietro died to Ultron. Who she helped create. Who she helped until she realised he would kill her too.
Clint slid down the wall in his room, hand over his mouth.
What the fuck did he do?
Wanda needs to be protected. He needed to protect her from Stark.
Tony was terrified of Wanda. He couldn’t even handle being in the same room as her.
He gripped his hair and let out a hysterical laugh, tears sliding down his face.
Laura was right.
He wasn’t the man she married. He was some fucked up puppet for a Hydra witch.
And he hadn’t noticed.
He was so fucking blind.