"A heart to love, and in that heart, Courage,"

A Stab in the Dark

Fury POV

It wasn't long before I had communications back up with Barton and Romanoff. They actually seemed confused about what to do. I wish I had better news for them. 

"Agents, this is what we know. We know that this group is a very well trained terrorist organization, who has taken on the name HYDRA. I don't have to tell you what that name means, or what it means that they're back. They have taken one of our agents, and a very vaulable civillian, and they are gunning for the two of you. They said they have history with you two, anything you're not telling me?" 

I sounded as threatening as I could with the last question.

"No Sir," Romanoff replied. 

"We don't know what they're talking about." Barton had a frown on his face. "I mean, they've been gone for over seventy years, how could we have had history with them?"

"Sir, what is the plan. If we do nothing then they will kill two civilians for sure, and they will detonate an explosive."

"An explosive charge from somewhere that is important to both of you." I thought out loud. "Any Idea where that could be?" 

"We have no idea, sir." She was lying. And Barton was silent. 

"Director, we have to do something." 

"You're right Barton, you are both ordered to stay in Monaco. You will wait until they send you the coordinates for the meeting, and we'll take it from there."

They both looked at me like I had told them to kill their first born. 

"Sir, you cannot seriously expect us to sit this out." 

"I expect you to follow your orders Agent Romanoff."

"Sir, we both know that you don't have good enough men to spare on this, not since New York. We would be the quickest and most effecient response team you have. Just send us Rogers and we'll take care of them." 

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow at what Barton had said. Did they not know what had happened? They didn't have their earpieces with them, and this is a private terminal between the three of us. They hadn't been told. Without even knowing, my face became more solemn. 

"Rogers was shot twice in the chest with a rifle this morning. The shooter was seven hundred yards away. He is in clinical care right now, and hasn't regained consciousness since it happened two days ago. We cannot rely on him, or his past knowledge on HYDRA. I've lost one of my top three agents already, I'm not going to risk my other two. You have your orders."

I broke the transmission and the screen turned black. 

Clint POV

We were both stunned. Rogers was down? A shot from seven hundred yards would require a sniper rifle, two shots into the same target was strange. They knew who they were dealing with. One shot was enough for the normal guy, two shots for a super soldier that brought your organization to its knees seventy years ago. Hell of a thing, to shoot a moving target twice from seven hundred yards. 

"What are we going to do Nat?"

"Fury told us to leave it to him." She said with a sigh. I knew that sigh. 

"Yeah, I know our orders, but what are we going to do?" 

She looked at me, with her beautiful green eyes staring straight into me. I let her see exactly what I was thinking. 

"Clint, we just survived a battle, but we both almost died. I- I almost lost you." 

My mouth got dry, and my heart almost burst when she said that.

"I know Nat, I know." I wrapped my hands around her. 

"But we can't just do nothing, and let innocent people die for us." 

"I know Clint, it's just, they seem to be three steps ahead of us." 

I pulled her away so I could look her in the eye. 

"That's because we haven't had a target yet. Now we do. They've underestimated us Nat." 

She smiled an imperceptilble, but challeging smile. The ones that I loved to see. The ones that only I could see.

At that moment, we both recieved the same text message on our phones. It was the location for the meeting. We both looked at each other with dread. How could HYDRA have known about this. We both realized what they meant about "a place you both hold dear." 

 We both got up, and headed to the door. 

"Hey, where are you two going?"

"We're going to Budapest." I said, ignoring any emotional conotation that the name of that city carries. 

"What are you going to do?" He was serious. Stark was actually serious for the first time in his life. Maybe he did actually care for another human being besides himself?

Before I could answer, Natasha spoke while opening the door. 

"We're going to disobey orders." 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for how short the chapter is. It's basically expostition, but I needed that for this chapter. That's also why it is so short. I didn't want to dump nine tons of exposition, then go on to emotional and physical stuff. That comes next I promise! Anyway, I know it's short, and I know it's kind of contrived, but I think it's a necessary evil. I had to explain why it wouldn't be Captain America who wan't fighting HYDRA, and I had written myself into a corner. So, I apologize again. If you have any ideas, complaints, or quippy remarks, comment below and let me know!