Black Hawk Down

Chapter Twenty Two

February 13 - 1322 hours - Natasha's room - Stark Tower

Clint stirred slowly waking up. He could see it must be later in the day by the light in the room. It took him a few minutes to realise he was not in his own room. He rolled over to face where Natasha had been lying only hours before. He was slightly startled to find she wasn't there. He took a minute to stretch and straighten his rumpled clothes before heading down to the kitchen in hopes of finding either Natasha or someone who might know where she was. The kitchen was empty when he arrived but he was soon joined by Phil who looked almost as tired and stressed as Clint felt.

"Do you know where Natasha is?" Clint asked.

"No, I haven't seen her yet today," Coulson replied. "Is that a worry?"

"I don't know," Clint replied. "It depends on how the stuff Stark gave her is working."

"Jarvis where is she?" Coulson asked.

"Agent Romanoff has asked me to tell you that she is fine, she just needed to go out for something," Jarvis replied.

"So she has left the building?" Clint asked.

"I cannot say, Agent Barton," Jarvis replied.

"So I'm guessing you are now worried?" Coulson asked.

"I'll just check a few of the other places she could be first." Clint said heading out of the kitchen.

"Hey, how's Natasha?" Tony asked exiting the lift to head to the kitchen.

"No idea, I haven't seen her this morning," Clint replied trying to pretend he wasn't worried.

"Oh ok," Tony replied heading towards the kitchen.

Clint headed to the gym then to the roof, knowing all the places Natasha would usually hide when she wanted to be alone. He checked the kitchen again when he still hadn't found her.

February 13 - about 1305 hours - Natasha's room - Stark Tower

Natasha woke up quickly feeling the presence of another person in the room. She quickly realised that it was Clint and rolled over to face him wondering if he would be awake. Having found his back was towards her she decided to let him be. Natasha got up and quickly showered and changed into clean clothes. The lock clicked gently as she left the room and she waited to see if she could hear Clint stir. She heard him roll over and knew she wouldn't have long to get her answers before he would be looking for her. She quickly hurried down the hall to the elevator.

"Jarvis, if Clint asks where I am please let him know that I just needed to go out for something." She said quietly as the elevator doors closed. "Don't tell him anything more than that."

She quickly headed down to Tony's lab hoping he would be there. She got to the lab she expected him to be in only to find it empty. She went to stand by one of the floor to celling windows to wait for Tony to arrive.

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked seeing her as he entered the lab obviously having just been to the kitchen.

"I need you to check if that stuff you gave me worked," Natasha said quietly. "I can't tell if it's working." She carefully hid her desperation.

"Barton's looking for you," Tony replied taking a tiny blood sample. "Jarvis you know what to do." Jarvis commenced the scan and the blood test.

"I'm sure sure he is," Natasha replied seeming indifferent. "And I would really like to get this over with before he does find me."