Who: Rhodey and Nat What: Talking about their worries about Clint When: Not long after Rhodey's arrival (backdated to late September) Where: Ferrara's Cafe in Little Italy Warnings: None
Rhodey was on a healthy diet and all but he was allowed to indulge a little, and his favorite bakery in Little Italy was a good place to do it. Three mini cannolis filled his plate as he carefully maneuvered through the crowd and up the stairs to somewhere he and Nat could get a little privacy. He'd greeted Nat with a hug because that's what you did when someone who meant a lot to you showed up in your life after being dead, but other than that he kept his hands to himself. Though pulling out her chair when they got to their table was just being a proper gentleman.
"How are you holding up?" he asked once they'd settled in and had a sip of coffee and a bit of their food. Remembering a crash that had cost him his legs was hard enough. Nat had to remember sacrificing herself and dying, which seemed infinitely worse.
When Natasha had walked into the store, she’d been delighted by the sheer number of choices presented to her. Her plate was loaded with chocolate cannolis, pignoli cookies, and lobster tail pastries. She still needed to come back and try the gelato when she wouldn’t mind the chill. As it stood, she was likely walking out of this place with a biscotti tray when they were done here. She’d returned Rhodey’s hug with one of her own. It was good to have more familiar faces around.
Her hands were cupped around her coffee mug and she tilted her head at the question. “Mmm, not too bad. Keeping busy and distracted, you know me.” She smiled. “What about you? How’re you adjusting to the new tilt on things?”
"It's been a lot to take in. But I'm liking it. Better for having so many people I thought I'd lost. But the amount of juggling I'm having to do to keep DC out of our hair is really keeping me on my toes. I feel like I'm in Harry Potter trying to keep the Muggles from finding out about Hogwarts." Rhodey cracked a grin to show he was joking. Mostly. "It's good, though. It's really good."
Rhodey hesitated a moment before adding, "There are some things I'm seeing that worry me a little, though." Natasha had to know what, and who, he was talking about.
“I’m surprised Tony doesn’t have that all in hand already.” Natasha wondered if boundaries had started to be pressed again and plans laid to interfere with the superhero world after the recent chaos. It wasn’t like they could easily hide their actions what with most of the team being highly recognizable. They were lucky SHIELD was still as small as it was. Leaks and double agents weren’t going to happen.
She grimaced as Rhodey brought up the big, purple elephant in the room. “Yes, there are. Despite my efforts to reach out, I’m not going to be able to break through that emotional wall. Things are precarious and I hope we don’t hear about something disastrous down the line.” She paused. “The big issue is that everyone else in the world seems to have gotten back everyone they lost in the Snap. There’s no rhyme or reason why he hasn’t.”
Rhodey frowned. Laura going missing would be enough to drive Clint over the edge: it had in the universe or timeline or whatever that Rhodey remembered. That she hadn't reappeared, and the kids hadn't, must have been a special kind of heartbreak. "Have you gone looking? Any of you? Because we can't let him run off and pop arrows into every thug he doesn't like the look of. It didn't work during the Snap and it for sure won't work now."
“I keep meaning to but then something else pops up. Reforming SHIELD, memories from the other universe, water tridents, etc. I was talking to Christine about this a little while ago. We’ve had an intense period lately where it’s just one thing after the other and we barely catch our breath before the next thing happens.” Natasha shrugged. “I also keep meaning to ask Tony to put Friday on it, but he and Clint had a falling out way before I arrived on the scene. I also haven’t caught up with him in ages with him being busy with Morgan.”
Morgan was a handful. Natasha had a point on that.
"If you need me to run interference and liaise with Tony, I'll do it," Rhodey told her. At the part about people being busy with crises, he frowned. "How's Clint handling Avengers work? Is he showing up sober and ready to do his share, at least? He must be or someone would have gotten after him by now."
“Please feel free to snag him and get Friday working on things. The sooner we start mitigating some of the damage the better.” Natasha took a long sip of her coffee. She’d assumed Rhodey had gotten the full run down on things. Evidently someone had conveniently left out a very pertinent detail.
“Well...about that. Clint’s not currently an Avenger. He’ll jump in on missions to help if he can, but as himself. Not in an official capacity. He wants nothing to do with the business and I don’t blame him. It essentially cost him his family. There was also a bit of an incident with Tony when he first arrived in this dimension. Neither of them were in a good place and things blew up.”
She shrugged. She didn’t think that blowup had been necessarily Tony’s fault. It was just his tendency to rub people the wrong way with his brand of helping.
"Tony," Rhodey said in a tone indicating he was aware it was a serious understatement, "can be a lot." He let that stand for a moment before continuing, "So Clint has no official responsibilities, his wife and kids are missing, he's drunk as a skunk, and he's not talking to anyone about it." He picked up another mini cannoli and looked at it as if it had some relevance to the discussion, or maybe it was supposed to come up with an answer to the next question: "That's the size of the problem?"
When laid out like that, Natasha tried not to wince. It wasn’t a pretty picture and it hadn’t been ever since she’d stepped into this world with her moth eaten memory holes. She picked up another delicious pastry off her plate and nibbled on it.”Yes, that’s the whole web of it. He talks to people, but usually about their problems or as people that will come drink with him. I haven’t been the best at wrangling things as I’m accustomed to.”
"You don't have to go it alone, Nat. We're with you," Rhodey reminded her. "Whatever needs to be done, we'll do it together." He put his hand on the table: a physical offer of support to accompany the words.
She reached out and squeezed Rhodey’s hand with gratitude and gave him a smile. “I forget that being on this team usually entails things I’m not used to having.” Even having been with SHIELD as long as she had, working with anyone besides Clint and Coulson as her main backups and resources was still new. “Thank you.” She sat forward with a determined look. “Let’s get a battle plan going and fix this before it gets any worse.”