The clock is ticking.

9 days.

23 hours.

52 minutes.

Supposed time of death: the 21st day

Clint stared up at the dark ceiling for a moment before forcing himself to get out of bed and stand next to Natasha. He was shaky on his feet and felt lightheaded. Natasha immediately turned her head toward him, her short red hair hitting her cheek as she moved. The assassin placed her hand on Clint's shoulder and gently, yet forcedly, attempted to push him back down on the hospital bed. 

Fury, accompanied by three Shield agents with guns trained on the two-person Strike team, walked into the dark room. Fury sighed heavily, "Agent Romanoff, step away from Agent Barton. This isn't your problem."

"If you haven't noticed, Clint has always been my problem. I'm not leaving him. He was a hostage..."

"We're taking Barton back to the Underground. Simmons and Campbell will oversee his recovery. Campbell is one of those inhuman types, and he'll fry Barton's insides if he doesn't show any cooperation. Those two will be participating in getting Barton back to his old self, so hand him over, Natasha."

Natasha turned her head and looked at Clint, who gave her one look of dissatisfaction before forcing himself to walk to the middle of the room. Once his eyes fell back on to Fury, the operatives accompanying him switched the safety off their guns. 

"It would be the perfect time for them to kill me for you." Clint swallowed a lump in his throat as he tried to keep from screaming and attacking them. 

"Give up, Barton." An agent approached him, but Clint, being a highly trained assassin, knocked the gun out of his hands, broke his right arm, and threw him against the wall  all within a matter of seconds. Hawkeye then straightened up and faced Fury. "Try again." he slowly smirked at the director and glared.

21 Days

The facility's programmer watched their target through the Avenger Med Bay security cameras, and one of the doctor's stood behind him, watching over his shoulder.

"We're speeding up the program. Activate the chip again and kill Director Fury." Clint's Dominion surgeon ordered the programmer. "It's now or never, then bring him back here. I need to do a tune up. I'll be prepping for surgery." The doctor walked away, hands behind his back.

The programmer  sighed and typed in the commands for the microchip inside of Clint's head. "Why are we wasting our time with this Avenger? Couldn't we get like Iron Man or someone who doesn't launch arrows for a living?" he mumbled to himself as he typed away.

21 Days

As Clint stalled Fury and the other Shield agents, his brain rushed to find an escape situation that would result in as few deaths as possible. An agent shot at his shoulder, but a sudden sharp pain in the archer's head forced him down on the floor before the bullet could graze him. 

"Clint!" Natasha got down by her friend in a hurry, drawing out her own gun and firing a bullet into the same agent's arm as she did. 

"What's going on with Barton, Romanoff!?" Fury demanded, sending two of his other agents in to take Clint away from her and lay him down on the bed. 

"T-The facility! They're trying to shut him down!" She figured, stumbling to conclusions. "There's a microchip in his head..." Fury cut her off.

"Natasha, there is no technology available for that kind of experimentation. Clint passed out because he's not supposed to be out of bed!" A pause and a sigh. "I'm calling medical evac. to come pick him up. He'll be our secure observation room. Simmons and Campbell will do X-rays on him to see if you are telling the truth."

21 Days

Natasha couldn't stop Fury from taking Clint away from her, but she could force him to take her with him. It was several hours after they arrived that Natasha could see her best friend. 

Clint was unconscious on the white bed in the center of the room. He looked comfortable and at peace for once, but Natasha knew he was terrified of what was going to happen. At least he wasn't in a cold cell on the Raft in the middle of the ocean. 

"Clint?" she calmly called out, wondering why he hadn't turned to face her yet. Did they take his hearing aids? She then wondered if he was still unconscious instead of a regular sleep.

Natasha noticed that there was a neatly folded pile of grey hospital scrubs on the end corner of the bed. A white Shield symbol was on the left breast. They planned on keeping him here for a while, but that's good news, right? Natasha didn't notice when Simmons came walking through the observation room door. 

"We've sedated him, hence the reason why you weren't allowed to see him for a while," she said flatly. "Not long after he was first brought in, Agent Barton first started mumbling about his hostage situation and about someone he called 'Red Nails,' and then started fighting against his own Shield comrades. He had to be sedated in order for us to get the scans we needed. Anyway, Bruce Banner was brought in to assist us in surgery. It will be extensive and we're not certain on his survival chances. Dr. Banner gives him a forty percent chance of survival as of right now."

Natasha turned her head toward her. "What's going on with him?" 

"He'll be going into surgery at 7:30 tonight, so you have a few hours until then. He's under a light sedative, so I don't expect him to be asleep for much longer." She took a capped syringe out of her standard Shield lab coat pocket, walked over to the small table and chair near the bed,  and put down the syringe. In case Clint woke up and acted up again, Natasha figured. "Lincoln will be in here at seven to start his anesthetic IV." Simmons wouldn't tell her much about what they were going to do to Hawkeye. 

"Clint isn't a bad guy, but everyone is treating him like one. Tony wants him in prison, Bruce wants to help with an operation that might kill him...am I the only sane one here?" Natasha panicked before forcing herself to calm down, "He has a wife and three kids. Should I call Laura?" 

"Director Coulson has already called her. He asked her not to bring the kids for classified reasons." Simmons sighed. "She's on her way here. One of our agents is bringing her here." The biologist stood up and walked out of the room without saying anything else. 

It was roughly a half hour later before Clint woke up. He rolled over on his side and covered his eyes with his arm, shielding them from the light. "F-five more minutes, Steve. I'm not running today...coffee..."he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed. 

Natasha shook his shoulder with one hand while the other hand now clutched the Shield standard scrubs. "Five more minutes and I'll throw boiling water on your head." She gently ran her hand through his hair, which was now nearly the length it was when she first lost him, then stopped back at his shoulder and roughly pulled him up into a sitting position. "Laura's coming, you're having surgery soon, and you need to get dressed...and probably shower."

As soon as she let go of his arm, Clint fell right back down against the mattress. "Can I just get married tomorrow?" he trailed off, eyes still shut. "Don't feel like showering today... I'm starving..."

"Idiot." Natasha growled, went quiet for a moment, then spoke up again, "And they're not letting you eat this close to surgery."

Hawkeye's eyes flickered open and then looked at Natasha, feeling drained of energy and a slight headache. "N-Nat, why are you here? W-where are we?" He had no memory of the pointless things he had just told his best friend.

Natasha sighed and glared at the blank wall. "You've been compromised."

How was that? I'm super excited for the next chapter. It's most likely not like anyone thinks. It'll be different and Clint will be a badass. 

And I'd like to thank all of those who read this and support this story!  I may be bringing back dedications to the story supporters soon. I felt like I was including people that way. 

Yes, Clint just all of a sudden passed out in this because of the facility, then woke up and was fine, but why? You'll find out. 

In fact, here's the music for a part in the next chapter:

https://youtu.be/TZfYoFn8RZ4

I've never been more excited for a chapter than for the next one on here, so I hope you guys enjoy that one too!

No flames, please. Thank you!