Sue & Clint | Wednesday Morning (backdtated)

[x-hawkeye.livejournal.com]

Sue and Clint run into one another at the mansion and... things are not really pleasant.


Spring. The greenery and flowers were nice and the little baby animals that seemed to just appear out of no-where were most assuredly cute. If there was one thing Sue hated about this time of the year, though, it was the weather. It couldn't make up it's mind, one minute it flirted with glorious, sunny summer, the next it ran back to the arms of deep and chilly winter. The constant ping pong back and forth was enough to do her head in. In fact, she had woken up with the sun pouring through her window, but by the time she stepped outside not an hour later, Sue had walked out into a monsoon. So there was no way she was going to get out for a run or even down to the beach to get in some surfing. Which is why she was here, outside the gym, dripping on the floor and wishing desperately she could just go back to bed.

A towel draped over his shoulders, his water bottle in hand, Clint glanced back over his shoulder toward the equipment he'd just finished using and then headed for the door. The weather was wrecking havoc on his allergies, but it always did this time of year. At least here, at the mansion, he wasn't fighting with other people for a place in the gym. It'd been remarkably quiet when he got up that morning, so he'd started at the beginning of his regime and powered through to the very end.

Sweaty and pleasantly tired, he caught the door handle, swung it inward, and took a step out into the hallway - only to pause. "Susan Storm," he said, a frown darkening his previously pleased expression. "What the hell."

Sue's face fell into a neutral mask. "Doctor Barton. You're the last person I expected to see here. I know that they say it's a small world, but this is getting ridiculous. We really need to stop meeting like this," the blond quipped as she moved out of the doorway towards one of the treadmills. Seriously, how was it that everyone seemed to end up at this place, it was like the mansion was a magnet for unusual circumstances.

"What, are you going to rob Professor Xavier, too? A government agency's not enough of a thrill? Old dudes running safe houses more your style?" Clint's voice was flat as he crossed his arms, frown turning into a scowl.

"Yes, because it's such a good idea to steal from where I live, a house full of psychics. What a brilliant idea," Sue shot back. "And while I'm at it, I think I saw a hospital down the road. I should probably hit them too, you know just for good measure."

"Best to be thorough," Clint said acidly. "Maybe they have some kind of medical breakthrough you can sell to the highest bidder."

"Better than letting you have it so you can lock it away up in the arctic where the people who can best use it and expand on it can't even get their hands on it. If they even know it exists in the first place."

"Because we really want artifacts, God only knows how old they are, out there in the world where they can spit hostile and very dangerous people into the general populace. Really intelligent there, Storm. I'd be disappointed in your reasoning, but we've already got abundant evidence that you're more interested in profit than logic."

The blonde span around to face Clint. "You want to talk about logic?" She asked coldly. "Okay, lets follow that through. You had no idea what it was or who was inside." She pointed out, marking the points on her fingers. "Or even, for that matter, what it was. So instead of going to the people who could have figured it out, you squirreled it away in a warehouse in the middle of no-where. That's great logic, I am sooo impressed by that. Besides, science for the sake of science, collaborative research to better humanity. That's what they taught us at MiT remember Professor Barton? I didn't get a penny for it, and I would never have taken it if it had been offered." Especially by her mother... who had just run off with it anyway.

"Bullshit," Clint said. "That is such complete bullshit. Do you know where that was found? Do you have any idea the resources SHIELD and SWORD were bringing to bear on that tube? Of course not. You just snatched it at the first convenient moment, everything - everyone - else be damned. Did you take the files that went with it to keep your collaborators from going over ground that'd already been covered. No. I've still got all of that information. SWORD still has all of that information.

"You took the tube with its symbols and glyphs, its unknown minerals and alloys, and you left the person who could've given you answers beating the shit out of me. I covered your tracks. I didn't tell either of the Directors that you were involved. Fuck this, I should have. I should call Coulson now. I don't even know why I bothered with not telling him. Maybe I should tell him. Maybe I should mention the fascinating coincidence that you just so happen to be in every city where the Ghost strikes and that you just so happen to be able to create some sort of invisibility... thing." He waved his hand a little in the air. "Shield. Jesus, do you even have any idea what you've done? Do you care?"

"Well if SHIELD and SWORD brought so much to bear on it you guys did a bang up job since you didn't really know anything about it. Did you guys ever even consider letting civilian scientists have a crack at it? I know you guys have the secrecy thing and the discipline thing but there is a lot to be said for not being so secretive about what you find. It opens you up to a wealth of knowledge and ideas you normally wouldn't consider. And I know that SHIELD recruits some of the best, but not all of them. Besides some of the best ideas in the world came from the unlikeliest places. But the first reaction was to hide it away so we can work on it, wasn't it?" She asked in a reasonable tone of voice.

"You could go to Coulson if you want, I'm not gonna stop you from turning someone in to SHIELD. It is a rather strange coincidence that the Ghost seems to be following me around. But then from what I've heard he's rarely if ever stolen anything. Just left bobbleheads, so I can just see how that would go over." The blonde gave a genuinely amused laugh. "Might be worth it just to see how the public reacts. But since you apparently know something I don't why don't you tell me what I did that I don't seem to realize? You know, apart from do a favour for... someone that ended up with me getting knocked out. And then dripping on the gym floor arguing with you." Which was pretty ridiculous now she thought about it, though Doctor Barton probably wouldn't really take it well if she showed any more amusement so the blonde kept it bottled up tightly inside.

"The Ghost," Clint said, his voice quiet, "has done more than that. Don't bother trying to deny it. And you're responsible for closing an entire facility. I quit SWORD immediately, but three other people lost their jobs. Everything in that warehouse, everything I was trying to push them toward for research and development - gone. All the ridiculously dangerous items in there have either been moved to top secret locations or destroyed. Destroyed. All so you could stand here, acting so goddamn cavalier about the whole thing. You think it's funny, but SHIELD would bury you, bobbleheads or break-ins, it doesn't matter. You're enhanced, a mutant. What they might've seen as potentially useful you've made a threat. Your family, your lawyers, your looks or charm or... whatever the hell it is you think you can skate through life on - none of that will matter. You'll be gone. What the hell did you do with the tube?"

"So you work, worked for an agency that would rather destroy knowledge than research it? And fires people for no fault of their own?" Sue asked. "As well as, you know, think that pretty much all mutants are a threat if the news coming out of Rykers is any kind of indication. SHIELD, the government, the public they all want to bury all mutants, and politics has to yield to the weight of public opinion so as far as they're concerned we're all threats. Besides you and I both know the only reason SHIELD would want to do any research like this is if they thought it could weaponize it or use it to help their troopers. They're not interested in curing disease in Africa or building better bridges, they're interested in power and how to get more of it. Nothing more and nothing less.

"And if you want to talk about cavalier," the blonde poked a finger in Clint's direction her eye's like chips of frozen ice. "What the hell do you know about my life anyway? Skate? Don't make me laugh, every step I've taken I've had to work twice as hard to earn precisely because people think the same as you. You think you know anything about me or anything else? You know what, you're just as bad as her. You want that cryotube back so badly, you can have it. You and she are welcome to one another. She took it to Latveria without so much as a word or explanation, so you want it, go get it. And tell her I said hi."

Jesus, at the rate they were going, the two of them would need a blackboard with a flowchart just to keep track of everything they were arguing about. "Okay, deconstructing half of the gibberish you just spouted at me," Clint said, stepping back so as to avoid Sue's poking finger. "One, do you not understand the part you played in those people being fired? Stop shoving blame elsewhere and own up to the fact that your actions have consequences. They always have, they always will. Action A equals consequence B. Cause and effect. That's just basic. Two, SHIELD and SWORD are all about utilizing technology, wherever it might come from, for the benefit of mankind. Do you know how much technology they've funded, how much R&D, actually makes it to the public? They can't attach their names to it, but Christ.

"The idea behind the whole damn project, from its start after World War II when Captain America defeated HYDRA, was that some things are too dangerous for the general public. They distill it, make it safer, and yes, sometimes they keep the more dangerous versions to themselves in case something like HYDRA comes up again. But SHIELD has never shied away from asking people with more knowledge and better capabilities to help them figure things out, make better developments. Never. Howard Stark helped found SHIELD. A civilian with more brains than he knew what to do with. SWORD brought in Doctor Jane Foster to consult on the Bifrost Bridge. They brought me in, a new PhD graduate who might've been able to help. It takes people like me and Doc Foster to reverse the angles people like Stark put the organization into, and we were trying. We were slowly, slowly accomplishing things. Undoing seventy years of thinking and development isn't easy." Clint made himself stop for a moment, his anger a quiet thing as he glared right back at Sue.

"Did you ever pause to think, maybe for just a second, that your family might be involved? Have you asked your grandfather? And did you maybe consider that there was a reason you weren't? You're what? Twenty-two? You still think putting bobbleheads on the desks of warlords and dictators is funny just because you can get past their security. You don't have what it takes, not yet, to work with an entity like SHIELD. Yet you'll sit there and judge it, get on your poor little rich girl high horse about how you've had to work for things. Fine. You've had to work. Awesome. This isn't a class debate, it's not about how rich you are or what you've had to do to get to where you are right now. It's about the fact that you did something without thinking, without investigating, without doing any actual research. And what you did effected other people. Lots of other people. And not for the best. So use that massive brain of yours, because I know it works at least sometimes, and follow the logic trail. Maybe figure out what you can do to help the people you screwed over, if you're really feeling like helping people." With that, Clint turned to leave.

Sue shook her head, "Did you ever think that the SHIELD you're dreaming of is just that? A dream and it'll never be anything more?" She asked Clint quietly. "You think I don't know my family supplies SHIELD with some of their technology? The Starks, The Frosts, The Shaws, All of us, we're merchants of death. You want to know what I did yesterday? I helped fix a missile control system for SHIELD. They take the best and smartest people they can and use them to help further their goals. But to change the direction of SHIELD? That's not something you can do from the inside, the organization is too big and has too many masters. It's a military organization, that's what it has to be to complete it's mission. Reversing the angles, that's not something they can do, not without compromising their very mission. And that's not something they're willing to do, not the way things are now in the world."

The blonde sighed and shook her head. "Besides, you're argument has one big weakness, I went out of my way not to involve any of your co-workers. No-one else was present and the security system was beaten through skill not any particular weakness. So I did everything I could, but I can't be held accountable for the decisions made by your superiors. If one of our facilities is broken into I certainly wouldn't blame the researchers there, or any of the security staff who were not on duty. I just can't follow that line of reasoning. I'm sorry that they lost their jobs, but I don't understand how you think that I should be held responsible for that."

"Y'know," Clint said, pausing so he could just around halfway and look at Sue. "It might sound trite, but it really does only take one person to make a change. SHIELD isn't perfect, neither is SWORD. But if good people don't do everything they can to try and change the courses of these types of organizations, we're just as bad as the people out there actively pressing the red buttons to launch the missiles. I wish we were on the same page there and I wish we were on the same page so far as actions and consequences go. Since we're not, I don't see any use standing here arguing. Enjoy your workout."