Clint snickered, and then lapsed into momentary silence.

"So what happened?" he asked after a few minutes of quiet.

"I don't even know." Alexis sighed. "One minute everything's fine. The next I hear something, this word or something, and everything just... stops. I had no idea what was going on or what I was doing."

"A word?" Clint asked, zeroing in on that. That was a detail none of the others had been able to put forth. "Do you remember what it was?"

Alexis tried to remember and immediately winced. "Ow, shit, no, icepick in my brain." She shut her eyes tightly.

"Okay, yeah, no, don't do that again," Clint said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You alright?"

"It feels like they put an ice pick in my brain," Alexis said, squinting up at him before deciding that hurt too and shutting her eyes again. "Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll go away."

"Yeah, that's psych conditioning if I've ever seen it," Clint said. "Here just focus on me, okay?" He thought for a moment about a way to distract her so that the word faded out of her mind. "Ever heard of a game that's pretty much dodgeball, but with arrows?"

"You just made that up," Alexis said, frowning a little but trying to focus on him. "Maybe not just now but you did."

"I swear to you I did not," Clint said, grinning. "It's a real thing. Foam-tipped arrows, so the balance is shit, but it's still fun."

"It sounds like something you would enjoy. Any chance you get to shoot arrows at people." Alexis grinned a bit.

"Yup," Clint replied, unashamed. "You should see it when people break out the Nerf gear. It's a massacre."

"I've seen some video footage of it," Alexis said. "I've also seen the one training exercise of Tony going supervillain on all your asses."

"That is never to be spoken of again," Clint said. "Never. That incident never happened. It was an embarrassment."

"It really was," Alexis agreed. "Although he was smart to get rid of Coulson first. I can definitely see his reasoning there."

"Can't fault the guy for that one," Clint agreed. "It was a smart move."

"Mmhm." Alexis finally relaxed as her head stopped aching quite so much. "Oh that's better. Not great, but better."

"Good," Clint said. He grinned. "I wasn't kidding about the archery game. I know a place. I'll take you there sometime."

"Done," Alexis agreed. "Sounds like it would be a fun sort of team bonding game too, if we could convince everyone else."

Clint snorted.

"Nah, nobody else'd be interested," he said. "I already tried."

"Huh." Alexis grinned a bit. "Probably figured they don't need to encourage you to shoot them."

"And that's why I keep a slingshot and marshmallows stashed away," Clint said cheerfully, grinning.

Alexis snorted at that. Yeah, she was definitely less miserable now.

"Thanks," she said quietly after a few moments.

"Any time," Clint replied, sitting down next to her. "You know I'm here for whatever you need."

"Yeah." Alexis didn't reach over to him, because she didn't trust herself to temper her strength right now. "Thankfully."

"Always," Clint said. Reaching over, he put an arm around her shoulders, gently pulling her closer.