Second chapter already? Whaaaaaaaat? Haha, I tried uploading this all to one thing for a oneshot, but my computer did NOT like that. Anyway, that is the end of the fic, but I may write a sequel someday. Enjoy.

1997

Laura was an incredible woman, Clint thought to himself with a giddy smile on his face.

He was currently on his way to Bobby's with his girlfriend of almost a year (and fiancée of three months) in the passenger's seat beside him. She'd taken the news that he was an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. pretty well, but he wasn't sure how he was going to let her know about the other part of his life. Hopefully, her meeting his family would make it a bit easier to break the news.

He had gotten a hold of John a few days ago, and he agreed to meet him at Bobby's house in Sioux Falls with Sam and Dean in tow.

It had been a while since Clint had seen his father and brothers, or even Bobby. He'd seen them only twice since he'd left, six years ago.

He felt Laura place a warm, slender hand on his arm.

"Don't be so nervous," she said in a soothing tone. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

Clint took his eyes off of the road for the briefest of seconds to give her an appreciative look.

"You're amazing, you know that?"

She laughed in response.

It was evening by the time the two reached Sioux Falls, and Clint's anxiety had risen again. He exited the car and walked to Bobby's front door, and Laura entwined her arm with his.

"It's going to be fine," she whispered, kissing his cheek.

Clint gave her a brief smile and knocked on the door of the older Hunter.

It took him a few minutes – he was probably in the middle of researching something – but Bobby opened the door with a smile on his face.

"Clint," he greeted. "Good to see ya, boy." He turned to the pretty brunette at Clint's side. "And I'm guessing you're Laura. Come on in, John and the boys are already here."

Clint gave Laura a nervous smile, to which she rolled her eyes, and the couple made their way into the kitchen to talk to the other Winchesters.

"Oomph!" Clint grunted as Sam tackled him into a hug. "Heya, Sammy."

The fourteen-year-old boy rolled his eyes.

"It's just Sam," he complained, but he was smiling all the same. John walked over and hugged his son, and shook Laura's outstretched hand. Dean gave her an awkward nod of acknowledgement.

"So, um," Clint began, once everyone had exchanged their greetings and Bobby had made coffee for his guests. "I'm guessing you're wondering why I've brought Laura here tonight."

John exchanged a small smile with Dean. Sam looked at his oldest brother, his eyes wide in interest.

Laura moved her hand into her fiancé's.

"Well, I've asked her to marry me," he said. "She, uh, she knows about the work I do, but not about the family business, so I thought this would probably be the best time to tell her?"

Bobby groaned.

"And you're springing this on us now, kid? Ya idjit." His voice was teasing and full of affection for the man.

Dean gave his soon-to-be sister a smirk.

"Well," he said. "Get ready to pull out the mace, 'cause we're gonna sound like a bunch of crazy people." He turned to John. "You wanna tell her?"

John nodded and fixed Laura with an unwavering stare.

"We hunt the supernatural. Demons, werewolves, ghosts, all of it."

Laura gave a short laugh, looking to Clint and faltering when she caught sight of his serious expression.

"Wait, seriously?" she said, her tone indicating her disbelief. "Please tell me this is a joke."

Bobby shook his head.

"Sorry, sweetie," he said apologetically. "But if you're gonna be a part of the family, you have to know the basics of protecting yourself, even if it all sounds crazy."

Laura blinked, her face unreadable. Finally, she sighed.

"Okay." She said. "I know Clint wouldn't make this up, and there's no way he'd get you all to agree to this. Besides, he was able to convince me what his job really was, anyway."

Sam perked up.

"What even is your job, Clint?" he asked. "You said you couldn't tell us over the phone because people could be listening, and you never stuck around long enough to give us an answer the last time we saw you."

Clint exchanged a small smile with Laura before answering.

"Well, I'm actually an Agent in a secret government organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D."

He proceeded to tell them of his career, and they talked until the sun rose.

2003

"Barton,"

Clint looked up from the arrow that he was polishing to find Agent Phil Coulson standing over him, holding a thick manila folder. He nodded in acknowledgement before going back to his task. Coulson cleared his throat, shooting Clint an expectant look when he looked up again. The archer sighed.

"Yeah?"

Coulson handed him the folder, and Clint opened it.

"Aw, come on, Coulson," he complained. "I was hoping for a break!" He pouted a bit as he read the file that S.H.I.E.L.D. provided him with. Inside was information on a young woman, only nineteen years old, with a head of startling red curls and a lovely face. Natalia Alianovna Romanoff, codename Black Widow. Clint felt a pang in his chest as he read about the girl – just a kid, really – who was only a year younger than Sammy. How was he supposed to kill this girl?

Simple answer. He wouldn't.

"I'll get on it right away," he said with a groan as he stood up. Gosh, was he really thirty-two already? Man, he felt old

He took an airplane to Italy, where he was told he would find his target. Even though he was supposed to just do away with her, there was no way he could kill a kid who was younger than Sam without giving her at least the chance to deflect the KGB. Hopefully, it wouldn't end with either of their deaths.

And it didn't. Natalia Alianovna Romanoff actually listened to Hawkeye, and agreed to come with him to S.H.I.E.L.D. to be questioned.

"Why didn't you kill me?" she asked Hawkeye quietly as the two of them were sitting in the belly of a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet.

Clint was quiet for a moment, considering what he should say to this girl, this girl who was little more than a child, even if her chance for childhood was stripped away. Just like his. Just like Dean's. Just like Sammy's.

"You're only a little bit younger than my brother," he said finally. "And he's just a kid. I haven't really had the chance to see him since he was seventeen."

The red-haired girl looked at him with curious bottle-green eyes, but said nothing more about the subject.

October 29th, 2005

It was possibly the happiest day of his life, right up next to the births of his brothers and his wedding to Laura.

"It's a boy!" A nurse informed him once the squalling infant had been removed from his mother. He was tiny and red, and utterly wrinkled.

He was the most beautiful thing that Clint had ever seen.

He'd tried calling his dad to let him know about the birth of his son, whom he and Laura had decided to call Cooper, but John was not answering his cell phone. Clint shrugged it off as him just being on yet another hunt, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was not quite right.

His feelings were confirmed when Dean called him, two days later.

"Barton," Clint said automatically as he answered his cell.

"Wow, so professional," his younger brother said with humor in his voice.

"Dean," the archer said with a smile. "Haven't heard from you in a while. Laura had the baby, we named him Cooper."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone before Dean spoke again.

"That's great, Clint. Real happy for ya."

Clint frowned; he could hear that while the younger boy did seem to be pleased at the announcement, he was also worried about something. This did not bode well.

"What's wrong?" he asked with trepidation.

"Dad's missing. He went on a hunt in Jericho and never came back. I went and got Sammy, we're going after him."

Clint raised an eyebrow. He knew that neither Dean nor their father had had much contact with the youngest Winchester, not since he'd left for college and John had told him to never come back.

"Be safe."

"Aren't we always?" Dean laughed, and the call was ended.