Ruthless and Mockingbird

The next five days passed quickly. Ruth, whose hand was only scabbed now, had caught Steve up to the mid-sixties, Bobbi and Bruce have spent most of their time in the lab together, Clint was actively trying to avoid both Natasha and Bobbi, all while Tony was away on business.

But, finally, the man behind the iron mask was back. Tony decided to check in on Ruth before making his way down to the lab. He wondered how much more of the house had been destroyed thanks to her strength.

Iron Man made his way to the kitchen to find Ruth and Steve in a debate about something. He leaned by the doorway, silently watching them argue.

"Jim Morrison was one of the greatest musicians of all time!" Ruth exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "How can you not like The Doors?! He was called the Great American Poet, Steve!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Steve.

"You're Captain America, he's the Great American Poet... DUH!" Steve rolled his eye at the young woman's argument. "Don't roll your eyes at me, Captain! It's Jim Morrison we are talking about. Your argument is invalid!"

Tony rolled his own eyes and decided to leave the two in their stupid argument and turned to make his way to the laboratory.

**

Inside the lab, Tony found Bruce and Bobbi sitting at a counter with their faces buried in books. There were several cups of what Tony assumed to be coffee on the counter.

"Have I missed any ground-breaking discoveries?" asked Tony as he took a seat in front of them.

"Not yet, Tony" said Bobbi, her eyes not moving from the page.

"What are you working on?" inquired Tony as he pulled the book away from the blonde woman. "A Study of Ocular Sensitivity to Ultraviolet Light?"

"It's for Ruth," Bobbi said, grabbing the book back from him.

"Bobbi thinks we can create some type of contacts that Ruth can wear to protect her eyes instead of her sunglasses." Bruce sounded exhausted. He rubbed his eyes and then went back to reading.

"Maybe you should get some sleep, Bruce," said Bobbi. "You haven't slept in over 24 hours."

"Neither have you," Bruce pointed out.

"I'll probably go up in an hour or so anyway. I just want to finish this book, I'm almost done," she said.

"Okay," said Bruce. He stood up and brought the book and coffee cups with him. "Tony, you're an inventor, maybe you can help while I'm gone," he said while on his way out.

"Sure," Tony shrugged. "So, what exactly are we going for?"

"Well, I was thinking of some type of contact lens that she can wear that will function as sunglasses when she needs them, but not distort her vision. Think you can do it?"

"I don't know if you've ever heard the story, but I built the prototype to my Iron Man suit in a cave in the middle of Afghanistan with limited resources in under three months. So your answer is yes, I think I can do it," said Tony.

**

Another flying arrow stuck itself into the target at the other end of the archery range. Clint reached back for another, but found his quiver to be empty. With an annoyed sigh, he walked all the way down the range to where his target was.

One by one, Hawkeye pulled the arrows out of the target. He'd used a human-shaped one this time, each of his arrows representing an instant kill. Three made a perfect line across the neck, one in each eye, and four in the heart.

The walk back to the white line was a long one. He'd been at this for a few hours now. The range was the one place in the Avengers mansion Clint could come to think, and he'd been doing a lot of that lately.

Mostly, he thought about Bobbi. When Clint left her, he missed her more than he thought he would after so much fighting, and more than once he caught himself wondering if her crime was really worth what he was doing. In the end though, he just couldn't accept it. As the months went on, his desire to go running back lessened and he thought his heart had healed. He just got used to living without her.

Thinking back on it now, he felt ashamed. When he married Bobbi, he'd sworn an oath to stay with her for better, or for worse, and he'd gone back on that. What happened wasn't even her fault. His experience under Loki's influence gave him the perspective he'd lacked back then. He'd overreacted and he was paying for it now.

And lying to Natasha about the whole thing just screwed him over more. Clint had no idea why he hadn't just told her the truth from the beginning, but once you start lying, it's hard to stop. Maybe he'd been hoping he could start something with Natasha so he could forget all about Bobbi Morse. Clearly, that was easier said than done.

Mealtimes were especially difficult. The rest of the day, Clint could manage to avoid her successfully enough; however, when the Avengers sat down to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he had no choice but to see her. Try as he might, he never knew what to say, which was why he had been avoiding her. Clint knew that if he really spoke to her again before he got his head straight, he'd end up saying something that would mess things up even more than they already were. And how do you even talk to someone normally after you've walked out on them?

Over the past few days, Clint came to terms with the fact that he still loves his wife. He didn't think he'd ever really stop. The question he had to answer now was whether or not he loved her enough to stay with her, and, if he did, how the hell was he going to convince her to take him back?

**

Steve Rogers and Ruth Conners sat quietly in the private library after their argument over music. The Captain was reading up on Vietnam and the 'Police Action' that took place there, while Ruth read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They sat in silence; Ruth was stretched out until her feet were brushing Steve's thigh, but both were comfortable in their positions. Every now and then Steve would ask the woman a question pertaining to his study, but she would vaguely answer and he finally let her suck herself completely into the Wizarding World that the pages in her hand provided.

Suddenly, Ruth choked out a sob and covered her face with the hardcover. Cap turned to the girl, his eyes growing wide as he prayed silently that she wouldn't start sobbing. He had no idea what he would do in that situation! But he knew his prayers were ignored as Ruth began to draw shaky breaths.

Steve scooted away an inch by instinct, and asked, "Are... are you okay? What's wrong?"

Ruth shook her head and sniffled, willing her tears away. When she did speak, her voice cracked slightly. "It's just.. Dobby.." The name brought with it a fresh bout of tears.

Steve reached out and placed an unsure hand on her shoulder, saying, "What happened to him?"

"H-he died.." she said, wiping away the tears on her face.

"Is... is it too rude to ask how?" asked Cap. "Sometimes talking about it makes you feel better."

"Bellatrix stabbed him to death and he died in Harry's arms," she sniffled.

"Who are Bellatrix and Harry? And why would Bellatrix stab him?"

"Harry Potter is the Chosen One, and Bellatrix is Voldemort's crazy lieutenant. She stabbed him because he was helping Harry."

Steve sat very confused for a second before reading the title of the book in her hands, "You're crying over a... fictional character?"

"How dare you call Harry Potter 'fiction'," she said, putting the book down in her lap and looking at him accusingly.

Not fiction?, Steve thought before saying, "When did this take place? Was it some sort of war?"

Seeing Steve's genuine confusion, Ruth couldn't help but screw with him. "Yeah, it was. It was called the Second Wizarding War. It took place in 1998."

"Wizards?" Steve became even more confused. "But I thought wizards were just in stories?"

"No, they're real. You didn't know?" said Ruth with a completely straight face. "Well, I guess you wouldn't because the Statute of Secrecy was still in place when you were frozen."

"Statute of Secrecy? Why would they hide from us?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but humans tend to kill and fear what they don't understand. Just look at what's happening with the mutants right now. Professor X has his hands full with the M.R.D. and the Mutant Registration Act."

Steve thought for a second, before he spoke, "I guess I owe Fury another $10..."

"What for?"

"He bet me $10 that something could still surprise me," he said. "I never thought wizards would actually exsist."

"We learn something new every day," said Ruth, a deviant smile on her face.

**
Back in the lab, Tony and Bobbi were continuing their discussion on the contact lenses.

"I'm a little rusty on my nanotechnology. You're gonna have to run that by me again," said Bobbi.

"Basically, we're gonna put a tiny computer into the lenses that will respond to the amount of light in the area around Ruth, adjusting its light filter accordingly. She'll be able to see in normal lighting conditions like the rest of us, but it wont compromise visibility. I can also program it to sync up to the computer system here so we'll be able to send her messages when she's out in the field." Tony leaned back in his chair, a self-satisfied grin on his face. "There's just one problem."

"And what's that?"

"I need to send out for some parts. I can have them here in as early as five hours."

"And what are we going to do for five hours?"

"I can think of a few things," said Tony, a suggestive glance punctuating his sentence.

"Gross," she said, and he laughed.

"Only joking," he held his hands up in surrender. "You want a drink? I've got a bottle of Scotch upstairs that I've been dying to open."

"Sure, why not?" Bobbi shrugged.

Together they hopped on the elevator and ascended to the second floor. Tony called someone on the way up and ordered the materials they would need. They walked down a corridor and opened the door to Tony's civilian quarters. There was a study built off of it, inside it a small library, a private bar, a fireplace, a couch, and a desk with a state-of-the-art laptop sitting on it.

"Make yourself at home," he said as he busied himself at the bar. "Well, not too at home. That's a $10,000 coffee table."

Bobbi made a mental note not to put her drink down on it, and sat down on the couch. Tony poured the Johnny Walker Black Label into two glasses with ice and handed one to Mockingbird.

"Here it is, the Breakfast of Champions," said Tony before he took a sip.

An hour later, they'd finished more than half the bottle. Noticing that she was loosened up a bit, Tony decided to come out and say what had been on his mind. "So what's the story behind you and the bird man?"

"It's complicated," she said, running a hand through her hair. She balanced her empty glass on her knee and looked at her companion through unfocused eyes.

"It's never complicated," he said. "What happened?"

Bobbi sighed, "We met while I was working freelance. He was head of security at the place I was investigating. We got the bad guy, fell in love, and I proposed."

"Yes, I figured you were the one who wore the pants in the relationship," said Tony referring to Bobbi's proposal.

"Pretty much," Bobbi laughed. "Well, after we eloped to the Pocono Mountains, life was great. We got our own place and started our new lives together. We had our fights, sure, but what couple doesn't? Everything was more or less perfect. About six months into our marriage, I found out I was pregnant."

"Oh god, there is another Hawkeye running around?"

"No," Bobbi said, looking down as she ran her finger slowly around the edge of her glass. "There's not." She brought the glass to her lips, trying for any remaining alcohol there might be.

Unfortunately there was nothing but some melted ice left. She raised it at Tony. "Can I get another? I don't really care what it is."

Tony grabbed her glass and made his way to the bar. He sat the glass on the table and grabbed a bottle of Jose Cuervo and made his way back, feeling that she may need something a bit stronger.

"Here," he said handing Bobbi the bottle after he opened it. "Go ahead whenever you're ready."

"Thanks," she said, and brought the bottle to her lips. She made a face as the liquid burned down her throat, but she didn't stop right away. She wiped her lips on her sleeve when she was done and continued her story. "I can't believe I'm telling you this.. I had a miscarriage when I was three months along. We were devastated. It felt like since then things just started going downhill. We'd been fighting a lot more, and when I did something Clint just couldn't wrap his head around, he left me."

"Which was...?" Tony asked bluntly.

"I killed someone," she said. "Well, technically, I just let him fall off a cliff, but that was just as bad to Clint. Nevermind what the bastard had done to me to deserve it."

"Again: which was..."

"He was the Phantom Rider. He abducted, drugged and brainwashed me into thinking I was in love with him. He... took advantage of me. When I finally came out of it, I went after him. We fought and I didn't try to save him when he fell off a cliff. No one but Clint knows what really happened that day. He disapproved of the way I handled it, and he said he needed time to think about us and I let him go. I hadn't seen him again until I showed up here."

"Do you regret it?" the man next to her asked. "Take Barton out of the equation when you answer me, I want the honest truth."

"No. As hard as I try, I can't say I do. He raped me, Tony. I can't forgive that," she said, taking another drink.

"You want my opinion on the matter?"

"You're just gonna tell me anyway."

"You're right," said Tony. "You didn't kill him, so his death is at no fault to you. And if he is willing to do all that to you, not saving him-even for your personal reasons- ended up helping the world from dealing with one more psychopath. Whether he lived or died that night never was your responsibility."

"Explain that to my husband," she said, almost jokingly.

"Maybe you should ask him what he did nearly the whole time Loki was here," he replied. "He may be a bit more sympathetic to your situation."

Bobbi looked at him curiously. "If you say so."

Before Tony could speak, JARVIS spoke through out the room. "Sir? Dinner is ready."

Tony took the bottle of tequila away from Bobbi, saying, "You heard the man-well, robot. Let's go eat."

Bobbi stood up and braced herself against the couch so she wouldn't fall. She stood there a moment and then started walking toward the door. She was a little unbalanced, but otherwise okay.

Soon enough, they were all in the dining hall together. There were massive plates of spaghetti and meatballs on the table. A basket of fresh garlic bread was on either end of the table, and a bowl of Caesar Salad sat at each person's plate. Everyone chatted comfortably with each other as they ate, save for Clint, who was still afraid to piss off either woman he had successfully emotionally screwed over. Tony was even pleased to see that Ruth still had her Solo cup.

"So, Cap, how're you liking your lessons?" asked Natasha trying to break the little bit of tension around her.

"Oh they're going great!" he said with a smile. "Ruth is an amazing teacher. By the way, why did no one tell me about the Second Wizarding War?" Ruth, who was drinking at that moment, nearly choked on her fruit punch, as the rest of the table went silent and looked questioningly at Steve. "What? The Statute of Secrecy has been lifted."

"Did.. did he just say wizard?" Bobbi leaned in to ask Tony, her whisper not very successful.

Steve looked thoroughly confused by everyone's reaction, and answered Bobbi's question, "Yeah, Ruth said-"

"Wait, wait," Tony said waving his hands. He turned to Ruth, who was shaking with silent laughter.

"You did this? Oh this is priceless!"

"Oh God," said Bruce, putting his head in his hands.

"Did what?" asked Steve, before turning to Ruth. "What did you do?" But Ruth just shook her head, still trying to contain her laughter. "What's going on?"

"Steve, wizards aren't real..." Bruce said slowly. Suddenly Bobbi started laughing loudly, Clint giving her an odd look. Tony held his finger to his mouth in a gesture to silence her a little, so she quickly shut her mouth, a few giggles escaping regardless.

"But..." he turned back to Ruth. "You said Harry Potter was real."

Ruth suddenly got serious, "Harry Potter is real, and Hogwarts will always be there to welcome me home."

Steve looked to everyone else for answers, but the whole table was laughing by this point, save himself and Ruth.

"Ruth," said Bruce with a disapproving look.

"Okay, okay, fine, I'm sorry," Ruth surrendered, looking to Steve. "I was just screwing with you. I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter series, and Potterheads like me like to think that he was real. When you thought I was talking about a real person earlier, I couldn't help but mess with you a bit." Ruth's eyes fell on Bobbi and her face pulled in thought. Finally she asked, "Hey, you're a biologist, right?"

"Yes, I am," she said, her giggles having died down. "Why do you ask?"

"I want an explanation of the platypus!"

"...What?" asked Bobbi, her head tilting to the side.

"What the fuck is it?" she ranted. "Is it a beaver? A duck? Well, it's also a snake and a fucking alligator! I demand explanations! Was there a giant animal orgy or something?"

Bobbi started laughing again, but it ended much swiftly than her previous bout. "I'm a biologist and biochemist, not a zoologist. I honestly couldn't tell you."

"Do you know someone who can? 'Cause if not I'm going with the theory that they are the origin of life."

"I can send an email to some old contacts at Georgia Tech if you really want me to. I don't know how much help they'll be though."

Tony sat staring at the brunette in amazement before saying, "Cap, did you give her sugar today? Or crack?"

**

The rest of dinner was filled with individual conversation before ending with everyone going their separate ways. As Bobbi walked out, however, Clint caught her by her upper arm. The blonde stopped immediately and turned to her husband, looking at him with questioning eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked sharply. "Let go of me."

Clint immediately let go and mumbled, "Sorry." He sighed and said, "I saw you walk in with Stark. You looked a bit tipsy."

"Yeah, we were drinking some Johnny Walker Black in his study before," she said.

Clint nodded, "Well, just be careful. Tony Stark doesn't have the greatest track record with women."

"Oh my god..." said Bobbi as a sudden realization hit her. "Clint, are you... jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous of Stark?"

"Because he's a man who's been paying more attention to me than you have."

"Yeah, I was hopin' we could talk about that," said Clint.

"Talk about what? About the fact that you've been pretending that I don't exist for days?" Bobbi looked ready for a fight.

Hawkeye started to argue with her, but he knew Bobbi was right. So instead he said, "I've been clearin' my head."

"Oh, okay," she said with sarcasm evident in her voice. She was nodding her head, but it was clear she was still annoyed. "And what exactly has clearing your head done?"

"Look, I'm trying to talk to you like an adult, but you can just forget it if you are going to act like a teenager," Clint began walking away.

"Wait," she said, reaching out to grab his arm. He stopped when she touched him, and without really thinking she moved her fingers down his forearm until they gripped his hand. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'll stop, just.. don't leave." The vulnerability in her voice surprised him.

Clint ran his free hand through his hair, looking around. "Let's go somewhere private." He pulled her towards the elevator. Once in, Clint pressed the button, the doors closed, and they made their way up to the third corridor. They stood in silence, palm to palm, with tension and relief lingering in the air.

Finally the doors opened up and Clint began leading Bobbi down the hall. Reaching his room, they quickly made their way inside and shut the rest of the world out. It was then that they begrudgingly released their physical grasp and Bobbi made her way to the bed.

Clint started pacing before speaking at last, "I want to apologize, I was acting like a child and I should have spoken to you sooner. I just want you to know that I have never cheated on you, but I wasn't all too faithful either. Natasha and I have something... well for lack of a better word, special, and I was hoping I could use that to move on with my life." He stopped and looked at Mockingbird, waiting for what she had to say.

"Did it work?" she met his eyes, despite being afraid of what she might see. She needed to know what he was thinking. Her heart was pounding in her chest with the anticipation of his rejection, and her stomach felt like it was upside down.

"I thought it was starting to," he said after thinking about it. "It got easier to live without you, but it never really made everything go away. It just... covered it all up."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I still love you, Birdie," he said simply.

Tears instantly welled up in her eyes and she raised her hand to her mouth. She hadn't realized just how much she'd wanted to hear those words. She fought back a sob and wiped at her eyes.

Clint sat down beside her and said, "Talk to me." Bobbi shook her head, as she tried to will herself to calm down. Clint placed a hand on her back as her body began to shake with unstoppable sobs. "Birdie," he said lovingly with conviction before he pulled her into his toned arms.

Bobbi clung to him as if she thought he'd be ripped away at any moment, her sobs coming harder now that she was finally in his embrace. It took a minute for her to calm down and even then he kept his arms around her, her head resting on his shoulder.

"I love you too," she said softly, her voice hoarse from crying. "So what now?"

Clint really didn't want to think about that during this moment, yet he knew it wasn't something he could avoid. Taking a deep breath, one that had Bobbi's scent imprinting itself on his sense of smell, Clint pulled away and said, "I don't know if we should get back together. At least not yet."

"What do you mean?" she asked, straightening up to look at him. "Why not?"

"We've been through too much," he said, calmly. "I'm not sure if we can mend what's been broken. I think we should just start over, be friends and then see where that takes us."

Bobbi wanted to argue, to yell at him for playing with her, but she knew that what he was saying made sense. As much as she wanted to pick up where they'd left off, they had a better chance of making their marriage last if they took it slow.

"Okay," she said. "We'll start over as friends." After a moment of thought, she said "You know, we never actually were friends. We kind of skipped that part."

Clint smiled and said in a joking tone, "Well, with a body like mine, how could you even think of putting me in the friend-zone?"

With the mention of Clint's body, Bobbi instantly regretted the decision to start their relationship over as friends. She couldn't help but mentally curse herself when she pictured what was underneath his clothes.

"Well, now that we're starting over as friends, it looks like I'm going to have to find someone else to satisfy me," she said, giving him a look so he knew exactly what she meant by that. "Maybe I'll ask Tony if he's available..."

Clint rolled his eyes, his face twisted in disgust as he said, "I'd appreciate it if you keep your hormones in check around other men... and Stark."

"I haven't had sex in over a year. What's another few months?" she said, sighing.

"Months?" Clint asked a little worried, as the past week had been hard for him not to run across the hall to ravage the woman who now sat beside him. "Months?"

"You're the one who wants us to be friends," she said, giving him one of her looks that said he'd just dug his own grave.

"Yeah, you're right," he said, before something clicked in his head, "But you know, we could always be friends with benefits."

Bobbi leaned forward to press her lips to his, her hand moving to his thigh. She began rubbing circles into his flesh, moving higher with each one. Clint shuddered under her spell, a moan escaping his lips. He reached up and grabbed the back of her hair, twisting his fingers in her sun-like locks, deepening the kiss. Before it could get too far, however, Bobbi pulled away, making Clint groan at the loss of her.

Clint tried to pull her back, but she just laughed and stood up. "You know the friends with benefits thing never works," she said breathlessly, smiling.

"Aw, come on! You're gonna leave me like this?" Clint pleaded.

"I'm sure you can take matters into your own hands, so to speak," Bobbi said, walking backward toward the door. "I have to go now, Tony and I are working on something for Ruth."

"You're an evil, evil woman."

"You love me anyway."

"I do," Clint agreed, turning serious.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said with a smile, and walked out the door. A second later, she opened it again and said, "And don't sneak into my room at midnight to wake me up for make-up sex because I said I'll see you tomorrow."

Clint laughed and threw a pillow at her. "Go to the lab before I drag you back here to finish what you started."

"Ooh, is that a promise?"

"You're testing me."

"Okay, okay, I'm gone!" she grinned. "Goodnight, Hawk."

"Night, Birdie."