This chapter is dedicated to amazing germpatriot
Thank you.

Clint entered the small office with a glass wall, holding his tablet under his arm securely all the while sipping his black coffee.

He hadn't gotten an ounce of sleep last night, trying to find something, anything on their mysterious runaway. And well, assassins mind was a scary place when it got dark.  

Clint leaned against the table, glassy eyes stuck on the horizon as he took another sip of his burnt coffee.

Yeah, he should have ordered it instead of making it himself.

He heard the doors open quietly. He turned around, a wide smile stretching over his face, all traces of tiredness gone in an instant.

“Good morning!”

Sam grunted, wiping sweat from his forehead as he sat heavily on one of the chairs closest to Clint. The man had obviously been working out, intensely at that.

“Yeah, morning was when I woke up, Barton. It's noon.” he grumbled, uncapping his water bottle to gulp down gallons of it.

“By the looks of it, you haven't even slept yet have you.” Sam blinked and turned towards Clint, inspecting him closely.

The archer laughed, placing his ipad in front of Natasha so the woman would be occupied with something else and for once stop analysing Clint. He crossed his arms and leaned against the black table, curling his hands around the warm coffee cup all the while keeping an easy going smile on his face.

“So what's there?” Sam asked, inching closer as if he could somehow see over the table.

“Well, the good thing is we have found the person whose car we saw speeding off from the base.”

Natasha said nonchalanlty, opening the persons file.

“I have a feeling there's a but coming.” Sam said, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

“It belongs to a blind person who is a hundred years old.” Sam slumped against the chair at Clints answer, frowning at the news.

“It was expected, but we could go on from there, get the footage that's near his home, have eyes searching for that specific vehicle in the city. There has to be something.” Clint said, raising the almost empty cup to his lips.

“He is a veteran.” Natasha, sounding intrigued. Sam perked up slightly.

“Do we question him?”

“We should, at least tell him what's going on.”

“Why does a blind person have a car?” Clint suddenly asked, frowning at the fact the longer he thought about it.

“Its an old car, and it seems like his wife has died recently so I suppose she drove it. As an invalid, writing the car on his name gave the driver a chance to Park on invalid parking places. It's tactical thinking, really.”

“Oh, never thought of that. Hey Clint, are you considered invalid on paper considering your hearing disability?” the archers smile seemed to be wiped away suddenly as he glared at Sam. He usually would have came up with a sarcastic remark, but today he didn't feel like it.

He hadnt slept for awhile, but it was fine, there was work to to be done.

William wrote down a location into his leather jounral. His writing was messy, but he hardly cared.

Malibu, California.
Ward Johannes.

That's where Ward was, his next target. He knew Johannes well, or at least, he thought he did.

His mind was playing tricks on him, it kept shouting and screaming and whimpering. William would sometimes hum quietly just to drown out the silent screams that kept replaying in his head over and over and over again.

He opened the car door, sliding into the driver seat. He turned the key and started the car, turning the radio off because the upbeat song and off key singing wasn't helping with his aching head.

He left the old flat behind, his muscles tense as he entered the heavy traffic to move towards the highway that led out of the city. Thankfully, not many cars were heading out of the buzzing place so it can't long until he left the noise filled city behind.

He pushed the gas pedal, feeling some kind of high as the car kept going faster and faster in the almost deserted highway. He squinted his eyes at the sun that kept falling lower and lower on the horizon, making his ice blue eyes sting at the harsh light.

He reached out to the next seat, searching at the clove compartment until he found a pair of dark sunglasses.

They din't help much, but at least he could see where he was going.

He drove until the sun had disappeared and the forests on either side of the road were nothing but masses of darkness.

He slammed the breaks, coiling his muscles to ready himself for the impact should the car slide off the main road and end up in a wreck.
It slid over the black road, the lights flashing over the thick forest as something bumped against the car, rolling off the road into the tall grass on the side of the road.

The old car became to a halt, still remaining on the road. William grabbed his gun and slammed the car door open, feeling his eyes flash red in excitement and adrenaline as he shot out of the car, ready to face whatever had disturbed his drive.

A whine made him point his gun towards a ball of black fur.

He scanned his surroundings, the road was void of any cars, and the only sounds he heard was the still running car engine and the panting of the animal who kept itself curled up.

He inched closer after scenting the air for any hidden enemies. A frown pulled on his brows as he realised there was no smell of gunpowder in the air, no agents.

He lowered his gun hesitantly, looking down at the animal who had darted across the road and gotten itself injured. William walked around it, circling it slowly. The thing raised its head, a tongue lolling out of its mouth at the sight of him.

It jumped up, making William step back as it tried to rush over to him but ended up whining in pain as it fell down again.

It was a dog.

Injured one at that. He raised his unwavering hand, gripping the gun as he pointed it at the dog.

What does one do with an injured animal? Puts it down. It is only a humane act to rid one of its pain.

As he was about to pull the trigger, the dog raised its head again, dark eyes staring up at him expectedly as he stopped whimpering in pain.

Instead, the dog pushed itself up on three legs, fluffy tail wagging in joy as it tried to limp closer to William who still had his gun pointed. The dog sat down, almost falling over Williams feet as he stared up, trying to jump to lick the mans face.

Williams hand trembled as he adjusted the grip on the gun.

There was no sound of painful whimper anymore, only the joy of finding a human. The dog kept trying to gain his attention, trying to make him pet it. Trying to show him that no matter how much pain it was in, a face in the utter darkness of the forest was a welcomed sight.

He studied the creature, taking in its massive paws and too thin body. It had floppy ears, dark fur that was covered in dirt, wet grass and most certainly some unwanted fleas. Some tuffs of fur were missing. The tip of its tail was white, like the thin stripe on it's snout. It's paws were brown and the toes were white as if it had tap danced on a painted floor. Despite its mangled fur, thin body and a trickle of blood that kept running down its nose, the large starry eyes were looking up at William as if he was the God himself.

Reluctantly, William lowered the gun and put it back in it's holder. He bent his knee, sinking his large hand into the dogs ink black fur to make it stop wiggling around so much.

“Calm down.” he said, his voice raspy of it's lack of use. The dog seemed to be gaining only more energy from the sound as it threw itself on its back and demanded belly rubs, ears perked. He hesitantly skimmed his hands through it's black and brown fur, hearing the sound of it's massive tail dragging across the grass.

His fingers curled around the rope that was around the dogs neck, studying it. The dog stilled. William scoffed at the rope, it was weak, probably the cheapest one someone could find in a hardware store.

Without much of an effort, he hauled the dog up in his hands, taking long strides around the car to place it in the back seat.

“stop wiggling.” he muttered as he placed the large dog in the car, slamming the door shut before she could follow him back out. Turning around, Williams eyes caught a broken rope that was tied around a tree not far from where the car was. He assessed it, immediately connecting the dots between the two ropes and the matted grass near it.

He knew the animal was underweight, heavily so. Its fur was tangled and probably filled with fleas. It seemed a though someone had tied their dog there, in the middle of nowhere. The dog must have gotten free not long after  and decided to remain on the spot, waiting and waiting for the people to return.

But William knew people like that would never come, and if they did, they'd look the other way.

He growled under his breath, turning his back on the broken rope as he slid into the drivers seat, shuddering at the warmth of the chair. He glanced over, realising the wet and dirty animal had crawled over the seat and planted its arse on the front, refusing to sit in the back.

William didn't like it, but decided he had wasted enough time on the animal. To his realization, he was going to waste more time by going to search a clinic of some kind...

If only he had had the strength to put it down on the spot. But for the first time in years, he allowed sympathy to sweep through his cold heart and take pity on the abandoned mongrel.

***
Yep. I updated folks.

And yes, I did bring a dog into it because I can.

So a lot of you suggested breeds like chihuahua, husky, labrador, doberman or German shepherd. I did consider them all very carefully (I'm a dog lover, what can I say)

But I ended up choosing the one dog who I miss the most. I've even featured her a little bit in Final Experiment.

But look, I just miss her so so much. What I'm imagining, is a Bernese mountain dog because my heart still bleeds for my Bella. You can imagine any dog you want though, I just felt the need to communicate with her through my writing if that even makes sense?? (Meh maybe I'm a psycho lol)

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

QOTD: What do you think Will should name the dog? (Imagining that he's gonna keep it of course...)

Anyways.

STAY SAFE FOLKS

Love you all
- K