Status: in progress and will be finished this year wohoo and will probably get a sequel

Unravel

XX

"Tell me again why we can't arrest the maid?" Elizabeth groaned into the crook of her arm as she was sitting in a conference room with the team assigned to their quite literal manhunt.

"Complete lack of evidence, alibi and everyone's convinced a 5'4 woman couldn't hang someone with their own intestines, let alone a 250 pound man . It's just… logic and a little bit of physics," came Ewan's reply, just as tired as the rest of the agents sitting by the table in the small room. The look he directed at Elizabeth made her sigh in exhaustion.

The search they had been assigned to, and the lack of participation on Elizabeth's part, had been going on for close to four days, full to the brim with extra hours that had cost them hours upon hours of sleep. But still they were nowhere near finding James, much to Elizabeth's relief. She didn't know where Steve had taken him but as far as she could tell he was out of New York. At least she hoped so since the number of neighbourhoods in New York they hadn't searched or observed yet kept decreasing drastically.

On top of that, questioning people had never seemed so tedious to Elizabeth. The questions she asked were to the point but especially the older folks still found a way to incorporate their whole life story. But if it meant more time spent not getting any closer to finding James, then she would take it.

"I don't believe it was him, either," Agent Clarke spoke up, rubbing her face. "Except for the one eyewitness who we're not even sure is being honest, there's no motive and no recognizable pattern. The deaths he was linked to were either suicide through cyanide or very precise kills, never torturous. It doesn't add up."

"Yeah, but that's gonna bring us nowhere. The higher-ups are convinced it was him, so either way we're going to have to continue searching," Agent Wu added, yawning as he did so.

They were all exhausted but the assignment had been clear: solve it as fast as possible. The only problem was that none of them would be able to work on four hours of sleep.

"As much as I'd like to keep playing Criminal Minds with you guys, this sucks and I really need to lie down," Ewan complained with a look at the clock. "It's almost midnight, we better get going anyway."

"Good idea," Elizabeth groaned and stood up from where she was sitting to stretch. "If I have to listen to one more person telling me about their life even though I asked for something completely different, I'm going to scream."

One after the other, her co-workers filed out of the room with a chorus of Good-Bye's and See-You's, until only Elizabeth and Ewan were left, both packing up their things to finally be able to fall into their respective beds.

"Hey, Liz?" Ewan suddenly asked, pausing for just a second.

"You heard that thing about me screaming? Because I meant it," Elizabeth replied, trying to smother a yawn and grabbing her phone that just vibrated with a notification of a text message.

"I know, it's just…," he grimaced before continuing, "You know where he is, don't you?"

Elizabeth froze but looked up to meet Ewan's eyes, keeping her face blank, the text message forgotten. "Why do you think that?"

Ewan let out a breath and shook his head. "Relax, kid. You're just a lot more obvious than you think, is all. Also, you would have been the first one to jump down someone's throat if they admitted that they thought a vigilante was innocent. "

Elizabeth let out shuddering breath, the gears in her head turning. How was she supposed to respond to that, especially if she was that obvious anyway? Especially Ewan could probably read her like a book.

"I don't. I swear, I really don't. The only thing I know for sure is that he didn't kill them," she rushed out.

"It's alright, I was just curious," Ewan replied with a small smile. "Go home, kid. Get some rest."

"Will do," Elizabeth murmured, threw the last of her belongings into her bag and made her way towards the door.

She had always thought that she was a good actress, being able to fool others. But was that only true for people that didn't really know her? Ewan wasn't a regular person after all but just the thought of others being able to read her like that made her nauseous. No wonder she had been suspected of working for another organization.

No matter the case, all she wanted to do was to go home to her best friend.

/

The moment Elizabeth was stood in front of her apartment door she knew something wasn't right. And it wasn't just because the door to her apartment was ajar - even though that was a big indicator.

Her apartment building was usually a lively house, dogs barking and kids yelling and running through their apartments. But right then it seemed as if she was the only person in the whole building and the only thing she could hear was the way her heart hammered against her chest.

Most of her furniture was knocked over, any knick-knack she had was lying on the floor. Picture frames were knocked to the floor, cracked and broken. Whoever had turned her apartment upside down, it seemed they had done a good job.
Tentatively and with her hand on her gun, Elizabeth stepped into the apartment, trying hard not to step on any shards of glass or other things strewn on the floor.

She had not wanted to think about it but now she was presented with that what-if she had always tried to avoid thinking about. She had known that there was a very real possibility of someone connecting the dots, be it the FBI or Hydra or even someone else. But now that she was standing in her destroyed apartment, she didn't know whether to just grab her stuff and run or to call the police. But the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to involve any authorities in this mess.

Sitting down onto her sofa, she put her head in her hands. Tired, shocked and nauseous, Elizabeth was caught between throwing up and crying. That is until she heard soft whimpering coming from the direction of her kitchen.

The horrified 'oh god' had not even left her lips before she was crying and scrambling to get towards the source of the sound.

She knew the apartment had been too silent but what kind of person was she to just forget the one thing she had looked forward to seeing at the end of the day?

"No, oh god," Elizabeth pressed out through a strangled sob as she came to kneel besides Vito. "Come on, boy, you're okay," she kept saying, more to herself than anyone else, while she tried to look for any visible injuries. But apart from Vito's constant whining and flinching at her prodding, she couldn't find anything visible. But right then, in this situation, she had no idea what to do anymore.

/

It had taken Elizabeth longer than she liked to admit to get help. The last time she had experienced anything close to this, she had shut down completely and refused to talk for weeks. But then she had still been a child and her grandfather had been more of a parent to her than her father ever was.

But now, sitting in the busy vet clinic at 2 in the morning, waiting for any news at all, Elizabeth wished she could just shut down in the same way again.

Vito had been her only constant since she had come to New York. He depended on her just as much as she depended on him. So how could she just forget him? It's not like she had other things to worry about. James was safe, as far as she knew. At least he was around someone she knew would die trying to keep him safe. Her family was safe, being on the other side of the country. And Elizabeth herself, well, she could handle herself. She always did.

But whatever thoughts ran through her mind, none were anywhere near an acceptable excuse for what had happened and the tears streaking down her face got more with each minute that passed.

She had been sitting in the same chair for over an hour already and still hadn't been told any news. Hiccupping, Elizabeth decided to at least ask for any information they could give her and made her way towards the reception desk at the other end of the room, weaving through the people standing around.

"Sorry," she started, addressing the young black woman at the reception desk. "Could you please tell me anything about the dog I brought in? Vito? The name's Elizabeth More."

"Sure thing, sweetheart," the woman replied with a kind smile that only seemed to dwindle when she looked up her dog in their system, which made Elizabeth's tears roll down her face even harder. "It's gonna take a while. There seems to have been a lot of internal bleeding and they're… they're trying to take care of it. I'm very sorry. What happened?"

"He.. uhm," Was she really about to tell a stranger about the assholes that had harmed her dog like this? "He was hit by a car."

"I'm very sorry. Did you file charges already or would you like us to inform the police?" the woman continued.

"No, I.. it was a hit and run. I found him like that," Elizabeth whispered, hoping this time her lying wasn't too obvious. However, she found that she didn't care about that too much anyway.

Turning around to claim her place on one of the hard blue plastic chairs once again, the woman called after her. "I'll let you know if there's something new. Maybe try to get some sleep."

Softly plopping onto the chair, Elizabeth closed her eyes, willing herself to think of anything else but the consequences of what she had found today, when she suddenly felt someone sit down next to her.

Peeking up through the hair that had fallen into her face, all she could see was dark blond hair on what she was definitely sure was a strange man. But it seemed familiar to her nevertheless. "I know you," she told him bluntly while sniffling.

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't," he told her just as bluntly, grabbing her shoulder in what he probably intended to be a gesture of comfort. "How are you holding up?"

"I'd rather know your name first. You know, manners and all that," Elizabeth snapped.

"Hawkeye," he replied.

"Well, I know that."

The man hesitated for a moment before sticking his hand out towards her, "Clint." When she didn't react except for a look directed towards his hand, he slowly put it back onto his thigh. "Now. How are you holding up?"

"What are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked, wiping at her eyes.

"You really believe someone wouldn't have kept their eyes on you? You meddled with Hydra, kid," Clint replied, looking at her with his eyebrows raised high. But Elizabeth was only able to return a confused expression that was followed by more tears.

"What?"

"Look at your phone," he told her and motioned towards her bag. When she tried to reply, he only shook his head and repeated himself, "Just look."

Reluctantly grabbing for her phone in her bag, she saw that there was indeed a text message on it. Probably the one she had gotten while she had still been at work.

Don't go home, they found you. Lose your phone and check in at a hotel out of town with a fake name. We've got the rest covered. -J

As soon as Elizabeth reached the last letter she let out a bitter laugh before she started sobbing again. She didn't even care that this Clint had to put up with it.

Putting her head in her hands, she tried to tune out everything around her, the constant chatter of the other people that had brought in their pets at this time of the day, her own thoughts, the traffic outside, but Clint's voice disturbed her attempt at peace.

"By the way, checking into a clinic with your real name was quite the foolish move," he told her with a click of his tongue. "Especially you should know better."

"I don't care," came Elizabeth's muffled reply. "I can handle myself."

"Well, I'm not so sur-," Clint started but didn't get to finish.

"Do you have a dog, Clint? Or even just someone that you care about?" Elizabeth snapped. "Because that dog is quite literally all I have in New York, so you don't get to reprimand me on putting myself at risk. I'm to blame he got hurt! I can handle myself getting hurt but not others getting hurt because of me. Even if it's just the fucking dog."

Elizabeth pinched her eyes closed at her outbreak but couldn't keep herself from crying. She hadn't even wanted to admit these things to herself but now she had done so either way, to a stranger out of all things.

After a pregnant pause came Clint's reply, quietly but forcefully. "I do have one, actually. And I have a family. I know which one I'd want to make sure are safe first."

"What are you trying to say?" Elizabeth asked confused, grabbing her bag to look for a tissue.

"Someone wanted to keep you safe over the dog, as shitty as it sounds."

"I-," Elizabeth started but shook her head. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Clint replied, taking in the waiting room of the vet. "But you should get out of here."

"What? I'm not-."

"Listen," Clint cut her off, moving to kneel in front of her. "There's a bunch of criminals on your ass for your affiliation with one of their former assets. They don't care about who or what they hurt or kill and you've just given a public institution your name and phone number. You don't honestly think you'll be able to take care of a fucking dog in the middle of this mess, do you?"

"I-," Elizabeth cut herself off as she realized he was right. She hadn't thought this through yet. "So what do I do, just leave him here?"

"Leave them a nice sum of cash and he'll be safer here than anywhere else, kid."

"I really don't like this," Elizabeth told him, sniffling.

"No one would, kid. No one would."
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