Laurie & Clint | Saturday Afternoon (backdated)

[x-hawkeye.livejournal.com]

Clint stops by to see Laurie and talks to her about several different things in an effort to distract her.


Laurie heard the sound of a heel scraping lightly against polished wooden floor as she watched several of the residents of the mansion enjoying the sunny day outside. She'd ensconced herself in the daybed that lay in the glass conservatory, with pillows propping her back up and a blanket spread across her lap to keep her warm. She felt something of an old lady since she'd woken from the catatonia but she knew it was simply the recovery period from the sleep deprivation.

It didn't make it any easier to deal with the attack naps, or the feeling of being exhausted and sad, and when she wasn't watching herself or being careful, just a little bit entirely defeated by the world. She'd mentioned to Doug about getting a referral from his own psychologist to someone who had dealt with torture and PTSD, she hoped that that would help.

"Clint, I would have thought you'd be out practicing at the range."

Shrugging the old bookbag he'd carried in over his shoulder off, Clint sat it on the end of the daybed and gave Laurie a smile. "Eh, I've done a lot of practicing in trees lately. And in the Danger Room. I figure an afternoon inside instead of out won't hurt my draw." Then he undid the plastic buckle holding the bookbag's opening closed and started pulling things out of it. "But, I figured you might be kind of bored. So I brought you a bunch of books and sudoku and gossip magazines - please ignore the ones with me on the cover, there's a story there but well."

"Clint Barton, what were you doing that got you onto the cover of a gossip mag?"

Laurie pulled the books toward her and went over several of the covers, some sci-fi and fantasy, much like she would have picked herself, and a book on biomedical that she'd been talking to Jean and Clarice about before she'd been taken. The sudoku and gossip magazines she could go over a bit later, when she needed soothing rather then simple entertainment.

"I didn't do anything," Clint said, sounding aggrieved. "Julian Keller and Tandy decided they'd play with the paparazzi and then Sue got involved and then I got involved because I had lunch with Sue at Columbia. And then all of a sudden I'm all over the news sites like some unknown who's wrecking all kinds of relationships that don't even exist."

"Did you talk to them about it?"

Laurie pulled herself a little more upright on the daybed, and patted the extra space beside her in invitation for Clint to sit down. She wasn't about to get a crick in her neck during what sounded like a long story.

"Sue was all 'smile, you're on candid camera' and Keller was a jerk, but that's like par for the course," Clint said, sitting next to Laurie with a frown. "Tandy's like, upset with me and probably Keller but I haven't talked to her much. And then." He paused dramatically, though he'd never admit to having a dramatic bone in his body. "There's Gabriel. I don't know if you've met him or not. But I have no idea what's actually going on there except that it's nice and I like it and it was totally accidental."

Laurie would never say it out loud, especially not with Clint obviously feeling exceedingly serious about the whole thing, but Laurie found the slings and arrows of interpersonal relationships within the mansion strangely soothing. Especially after spending what had felt like months in a small room with only Goose's presence and the person who had brought her the food. They hadn't talked to her much, but she suspected that had been Goose's plan to keep her isolated and confused.

"I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting your Gabriel, no. But if you like him enough for that, I'm sure he's very nice. Sounds like you and Julian have had words? Nothing too serious, I hope."

"I dunno," Clint said, shrugging. "I kinda told him if he hurt Tandy, he'd regret it. And he sort of laughed cause I'm pretty sure he thought I was joking. But I mean, he's a TK. So it's not like I'd use conventional methods to make him regret it, y'know?" Then he smiled. "But no, Gabriel's kind of awesome. In an 'I'm not sure I should be saying that out loud' kind of way. Since I still have literally no clue what's going on there."

"So, what exactly is the thing with Gabriel you don't understand?"

Laurie wasn't going to give Clint a lecture about vengeance, not when she's killed a man only a short time ago for the very same.

Maybe she should surrender herself to Garrison. Would it be considered self defense in that he'd been about to hurt Hope? God, how did anyone deal with this?

"I assume you and he are attracted to each other?"

Clint coughed a little, an uncharacteristic blush creeping onto his cheeks. "Ah, yeah." Then he grinned. "That's... definitely one way to put it." He cleared his throat - talking to Billy was one thing. Talking to Laurie was kind of different. "I mean, but like. It's not like we've talked about anything, if that makes sense. It's kind of nice, just playing things out as they happen rather than worrying about plans and stuff, though."

"If I promise not to ask for details, think you could stay here while I sleep?"

Laurie's ability to stay awake was hampered by how desperately her body needed sleep, but that didn't mean that the nightmare Goose had obviously helped gift her with didn't make getting that sleep difficult.

"And seeing how things go is perfectly okay. You do whatever feels most comfortable."

"I can hang out," Clint said, nodding. He pulled his Mechanical Engineering textbook and a notebook out of his bookbag. "Got some stuff I could do. Did my shift at the deli early, so it's just me and some homework for the rest of the day."