InsaneJournal

Who: Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Kate Bishop (Hawkeye)
When: Shattered Plot, after Kate and Veronica had their tiff
Where: Jail, Clint’s car
What: Clint was Kate’s phone call
Rating/Warnings: Some swearing, but otherwise low
Status: Complete



Well, this was embarrassing. At least she hadn’t wet herself. Kate had been poked and prodded by emergency medical staff, then given leave to phone someone to pick her up from the jail. Of course, she’d been the victim in the eyes of the law, especially after she’d described what had happened. They were sparring, they argued, one of Kate’s punches landed on Veronica’s face, and Kate got tasered.

She now knew what it felt like to be electrocuted. And it wasn’t pleasant. Thankfully, Kate didn’t have any underlying heart conditions or anything, so she was mostly fine. Just a few hours rest and some water, and she was back to normal. But they’d taken her to the medical room at the jail, so she needed a ride home.

The cops wouldn’t let her wait outside, either. Clint had to come in to sign her out. Even though she felt fine, the doctor’s orders were for her to sit in a chair to wait. Her phone’s battery had gone dead, so she had nothing to do but stare at the walls until Clint came to pick her up.

Clint wasn’t really in the best of moods after Kate’s call, least of all when he found out he needed to pick her up from jail -seriously, what the hell? But he went none the less, because she’d picked his ass up at ridiculous o’clock the other week there, so he’d bail her ass out if he needed to. Apparently, it was just ‘supervision’ she needed, but he wasn’t entirely sure what for.

Arriving at the desk, indicating that he was here for Kate Bishop and answering a few run of the mill questions, Clint was asked to just wait there while someone dealt with things. He could really do without this today, but he wasn’t a total asshole that he wouldn’t stop by.

Kate wasn’t really grumpy, surprisingly. She was angry at Veronica (that bitch, right?) but the cops had been fine. Downright pleasant, actually. And then there was… Clint. She’d called him for the ride, and everything he’d said--even the tone of his voice--was grating. He was the logical choice, though, she’d just done him a favor. And she’d been hoping that some time with Clint would soothe her nerves.

She was wrong.

Seeing him standing there made her even more irritated. She came around the desk, hands shoved in her back pockets, looking slightly worse for wear. (That’s what being tased did to a person, right?)

“Hey,” she said, just looking at him made her angry. Her body went tense. “Thanks for coming.”

She looked like crap, and usually, Clint’d be ready to take her home and see if he could help her feel better, but right now? “Yeah, c’mon. I’m double parked.” Right now that just wasn’t happening it seemed. It was fairly nice outside, not a massive inconvenience to come out and get Kate, but he could not shake the irritation from it all.

“You need anything?” Although it was asked in a tone the stated he really couldn’t care if she did.

While Clint was going through the motions of what he was supposed to be doing--as a friend, as a friend-with-benefits, or … even as something more than that--Kate could tell that he wasn’t really into it. His heart wasn’t in it. And that really, really irritated her. She grew more and more angry the more he talked with his ‘couldn’t care less’ tone of voice.

She scowled as they made their way outside to his car. “No.” She said, and climbed into the passenger seat. After buckling angrily, she snapped, “Don’t even ask how I’m feeling. Be that stereotypical male and ignore the fact that I was tased and brought to the police station.”

“Really? Call me to pick you up from jail and bitch that I’m not being sensitive enough?” It was one thing to get hammered, hell, if he’d been picking her up from the hospital, that’d be another thing entirely -he thought- but jail? Not really what he’d have expected and not something to put someone in a terribly good mood either.

“Just as well it wasn’t to pay bail, or you’d be on your own.” Whereas that wouldn’t really be an issue most of the time, he definitely wasn’t posting bail on her for this bullshit. “What the fuck did you get into? Spat over a new pair of designer shoes to put on Daddy’s card?”

“Great. Good to know where I sit on your list of priorities.” Kate snapped, folding her arms across her chest and staring angrily out the window. She didn’t want to get into another fight, really, but Jesus fuck if Clint wasn’t pissing her off.

And then he brought up her Daddy’s card. Kate’s hands balled into fists under her armpits and she closed her eyes. “Will you just take me home? I can’t stand to be in this car anymore. It smells like wet dog and shit in here.”

Clint knew that they were at least ten minutes away from Kate’s apartment, even speeding it’d be a good seven minutes to simmer and just fume quietly, and he was not in the mood for it in the least at all. The fact that he’d hauled his ass out to get her was bad enough, but he was definitely not ready to put up with pissy little princesses and their attitudes right now. “Nope, okay.” Finding a spot to pull over, Clint put the car in park and fished out his wallet -he wasn’t being a complete dick, but he wasn’t gonna deal with this today. “Here’s a twenty, flag a cab.” She didn’t seem to have anything on her, and that was the only reason he was offering her the twenty, but he absolutely wasn’t dealing with this bullshit in his car.

“Get out.”

Kate turned to gawk at him for a moment. About a thousand nasty comments were on the tip of her tongue at that, but none of them seemed nasty enough. None of them seemed like they’d cut in the way that he so obviously deserved to be cut. She reached forward and wrenched the twenty from his hand, then unbuckled to let herself out.

“Good riddance,” she muttered, and climbed up to get out of the car. It was fight or flight. She wanted to deck him. It was taking all she had not to--after all, she didn’t want to end up in jail again for assault. At least now she wouldn’t have to deal with the Old Man and his Smelly Dog anymore.

She slammed the door shut behind her, and started off down the sidewalk.