Natasha slowly let her eyes flutter open. She could feel Clint's steady breath against her neck. His arms were tight around her, holding her close, as if afraid she would disappear if he let her go for a moment. She allowed herself a small smile relaxing into his embrace for a few moments. Light filtered through the curtains, letting her know Phil would already be up and about waiting for them. Sighing, she carefully extracted herself from Clint's arms. He barely acknowledged her movement, he still hadn't slept well despite knowing she was ok.
"Sleep, Clint," Natasha whispered softly as he rolled over. Digging through the bag she assumed Clint had packed she found a clean change of clothes and headed for the shower.
"Morning, Phil," Natasha joined Phil on the porch, coffee in hand.
"How are you, Natasha?" He matched her soft tone, looking up from where he had been staring down at the ground.
"Much better this morning," she sat down on the porch steps, gazing across the fields. "Everything seems to be all healed up."
"Good," Phil paused apprehensively. "And Clint?"
"He barely slept but he'll get there," Natasha shook her head. "Never, never let Fury do anything like that again."
"I won't," Phil promised.
"I mean it, Phil," Natasha hardened her tone. "You nearly lost both of us." She paused, "If you hadn't given him that shred of hope when you did..." She trailed off, unable to say the words.
"Natasha," He waited for her to meet his eyes, "I promise." She held his gaze as she nodded sharply.
"Do we know if the charade worked?" Natasha changed the subject.
"Not yet, Clint took off without any way to contact him," Phil sighed. "We presume Medvedev has been informed and he will want to confirm your death for himself. I spoke to Fury, he told me there are several missed calls on your cell phone."
"That will be Medvedev trying to confirm it," Natasha shook her head. "Everyone on base saw me dead right?" At Phil's nod she continued, "And the machines confirmed it?" Another nod, "Is there any reason for anyone to believe anything different?"
"I don't believe so," Phil shook his head. "As long as Clint continues to play his part, there will be no reason to suspect otherwise."
"He'll do what needs to be done," Natasha insisted. "Have you found the leak yet?"
"We're investigating several leads," Phil sighed.
"Phil?"
"I have a suspect, it's someone on my team," Phil's face fell. "Natasha, I'm so sorry. It's my fault you've been in danger again."
"Phil, look at me. Look at me," Natasha waited for him to meet her gaze. "You couldn't have known. Even Fury didn't know that SHIELD was compromised until recently. You are allowed to feel betrayed, Phil. That person has chosen to hide their true intentions in order to betray you over and over."
"I used to be better than this," Phil shook his head. "I used to see it coming a mile off."
"You were assigned a team vetted by Fury and Hill," Natasha reminded him. "They didn't suspect anything, so why would you?"
"The evidence is very well hidden," Clint joined them, slumping down to sit next to Natasha. "Even we missed it multiple times." He leaned his head down on her shoulder. "We won't hold it against you, Phil."
"Thank you," Phil sighed.
"Sleep well?" Natasha asked Clint softly.
"A little better than I expected," He replied equally softly.
"What's the plan now?" Natasha turned back to Phil.
"We'll need to head back to base soon. The next part of the plan depends on it," Phil announced. "From there, it depends on the mole and what they do next."
"I'm dead, so I can't exactly arrive back to base with you," Natasha held back a chuckle.
"I know you've both found ways to get into and out of every base without detection," Phil rolled his eyes. "We'll drop you off close by and you can make your own way in."
"Well isn't it useful that we've already done the groundwork?" Natasha laughed at his annoyed tone.
"In this circumstance, yes, but I don't like that our enemies could use those ways too."
"They'd find it pretty difficult without our particular skill sets," Natasha shrugged.
"You two aren't the only ones with your skill sets," Phil reminded them.
"It'll take both of us. You'll see why when we head back, Phil."
"Do we have to go back?" Clint asked softly.
"Unfortunately, yes we do, Clint," Natasha leaned her head on his. "We can't know if this has worked until we go back. We need Medvedev to get in contact, we need you to make sure he's convinced."
"And I ran off without a way to contact me," Clint muttered.
"Fair enough too," Phil reminded him. "Actually, your reaction was very good. Exactly the kind of stunt you would pull. Fury gave me 48 hours to bring you back."
"Tomorrow then," Natasha gave Phil a look. "Who wants breakfast?"
"Not if you're cooking, Nat," Clint got up quickly heading for the door.
"Thanks, Clint," Natasha smirked.
"I seem to remember you two fighting over a comment like that more than once," Phil shook his head with a smile.
"Things changed, Phil," Natasha sighed. "Things changed a lot." She got up heading back inside.
Just before the door closed, Natasha heard him mutter, "I think I'm beginning to see just how much."
"So what's your entry point?" Clint asked as they boarded the quinjet. The two days they'd spent at the cabin had flown by. They'd decided to wait until dark to take off, preferring to take extra precautions.
"The owls hideout?" Natasha asked. "We'll have to take Lola to get close enough."
"What about the ground based motion sensors?" Clint reminded her.
"Zip line." was her reply. "If I go fast enough over them, anyone on base will assume it's another owl and won't look any closer. And your arrival will distract them."
"There's a camera up there."
"That's the one the rats keep chewing," Natasha laughed. "It's chewed again. I checked just after we arrived."
"And the owls?" Clint asked, firing up the engines.
"It's not nesting time, they should be out hunting."
"Right," Clint nodded. "Phil, you better get that camera fixed again, it is quite important for the security of that entrance."
"I'll get it sorted," Phil nodded.
"Get some sleep, Phil, we'll wake you when we get close," Natasha offered.
"I think I will," Phil agreed, heading back to the cargo bay.
"Tasha, be careful, yeah," Clint whispered. He'd shot the zip line into the cave for her to slip down.
"Clint," Natasha gave him a look.
"I know, I know," He sighed.
"See you in a bit," Natasha told him softly, allowing herself to fall from the side of the hovering car. She flew the 25 or so metres horizontally down the zip line into the cave, gracefully flipping off and landing softly. She waited as Phil began to manoeuvre the car upwards before disconnecting the line. Pulling the arrowhead from the cave wall she inspected it for damage before slotting it into her pocket. The camera was still clearly down, the chewed wire hanging out in full view. Pulling off the vent cover she crawled in, replacing it behind her before making her way towards her room. Clint had said he'd meet her there as soon as he and Phil made it back onto the base. She kept quiet as she made her way through the base, pausing at the kitchen she saw the youngest of Coulson's team gathered around on the couches. Hill and the Captain were training together in the gym when she came past, and May was in the training room next door practising Tai Chi. Fury would be in his office, and Koenig could be anywhere, he had a knack for being invisible.
Natasha stopped just before she reached the grate to her room. She heard a slight shuffling. Moving forward just enough that she could see into the room she waited. Ward came into view after a few moments. He was searching the room for something. Natasha raised an eyebrow at how agitated he seemed.
A phone began to ring, "Ward," He answered it shortly. "They've cleaned out the room, there's nothing here." He paused, "Yes, I'm certain about that, Simmons said she had a ring on a chain around her neck. She had to remove it to use the defibrillator." Another, longer, pause, "Yes, Sir. Barton was distraught. He took off and Coulson disappeared to bring him back to base. They're due back any time." He stopped to listen to the person on the other end. "Yes, Medvedev, Sir, she flat lined, her heart wasn't beating. There's no way to fake that. I'll let you know as soon as he's back." He hung up the phone. "I have to find it," He muttered to himself.
"Find what?" Clint asked from the doorway, startling Ward.
"I didn't know you were back, Agent Barton. Coulson asked me to find something in here for him," Ward's excuse was feeble.
"Coulson asked you to find something, huh?" Clint mocked him. "Coulson was the one who cleaned the room out."
"He said there was something he couldn't find and sent me to look for it," Ward maintained his excuse. "He didn't want you to find it."
"Let me guess, you're looking for a ring on a chain," Clint chuckled.
"Coulson didn't want you to know," Ward repeated.
"Coulson has it, it was part of the cover he assigned her when we left the bus," Clint spat the explanation. "She was holding on to it until she could return it to him, nothing more. Now get out of her room."
Ward spun around, leaving the room quickly, unwilling to fight with Clint. Clint slammed the door behind him.
'Wait,' Natasha signed, stopping him from speaking. 'Meet you across the hall.'
Clint nodded. Natasha returned his nod before heading through the vents into his room.
Clint sighed looking around the empty room. He quickly straightened everything Ward had messed up. He was glad Coulson had cleaned the last few bits out of the room before coming after him. Once the room looked untouched again, he locked the door behind him. Slamming and locking his own door, "Tasha," He called softly. Natasha appeared silently in the bathroom doorway. "Tasha," He sighed.
"Ястреб (Hawk)," Natasha stepped forward. "You can do this," She wrapped her arms around him. Clint reciprocated, laying his head on her shoulder.
"Don't ever leave me, Tasha," Clint sighed again. "I can't live with that."
"You must Clint, I cannot be your reason to live," Natasha whispered. "You must live on, with or without me, honour our partnership by carrying on fighting for good. The same as you would want me to."
"I know." A knock on the door interrupted them. Natasha drew back, however, Clint didn't let her go.
"Clint," Natasha paused. "Ward, he was talking to Medvedev."
"I heard," Clint frowned. "Stay here, I don't think you'll be safe in your room."
"Barton," Phil knocked on the door again. Natasha moved out of the line of sight as Clint went to answer.
"What?" Clint's tone was surly as he answered the door.
"Fury's office, now," Phil ordered.
"What does he want now?" Clint spat.
"To speak to you," Phil sighed. "And I suggest you rein in your tone. Move."
"Fine," Clint rolled his eyes.
"Son, I know you lost your partner but you need to get it together so we can fight the ones who took her from you." Phil shooed him out the door pulling it shut behind them.
Avoiding the last trip wire Natasha crawled up next to the vent where she could hear Phil's voice.
"-attitude is exactly what I had to deal with for your first two years at SHIELD."
"How else am I supposed to respond when my partner just got killed?" Clint snipped back, a smirk clear in his tone.
"Any other way," Phil groaned. "It was bad enough battling through it once."
"Well this time Nat'll kick my ass if she needs to," Clint's tone was a lot less happy.
"You bet I will," Natasha pushed open the vent cover. "Only if I need to of course."
"Let's hope it doesn't get to that point." Fury frowned, gesturing for Natasha to sit in one of the arm chairs in front of his desk.
"Yeah well I'm in line after you at this point, Sir," Clint's smirk returned.
"Why am I not surprised?" Fury sighed. "I hid the real effects to make sure your reaction would be as genuine as possible. I admit I didn't think your reaction would be so strong." He paused, "The two of you are compromised and I should split up your partnership."
"Sir, you can't," Clint panicked. "We're the most successful team out there. Nat, tell him they can't." Natasha refused to react, staring Fury down.
"You two also work well individually," Fury reminded him. "But I said I should, not that I would. However, should the two of you ever give me reason to, I will not hesitate."
"With all due respect, Sir," Clint muttered. "I would rather quit."
"The both of you realise the Council would want you crossed off immediately?" Fury asked. "The Council cannot afford for the two of you to be used against them."
"Of course we're aware," Clint sighed, speaking for both of them. "The only retirement we'll ever get will be a bullet in the brain. We're too valuable and dangerous to be allowed to go our own way."
"Unfortunately yes," Fury shook his head. "Neither of you will get to lead normal lives."
"Not like either of us really remember what a normal life was," Clint muttered, glancing across at Natasha. "Nat, never really had one and mine was destroyed when I was too young to remember much."
"That's part of what makes you as good as you are," Phil rubbed his forehead tiredly. "You want to stop the people who would do to others what you were forced to live through."
"No one should be forced to live through what Nat faced," Clint scowled. "It would break most people."
"Clint, it did break me," Natasha reminded him. "You would never have found me if it hadn't."
"And your childhood wasn't much better, Clint," Phil reminded him gently. "Betrayal-"
Clint held a hand up to stop him from going any further, "I'm aware, Phil. Neither of us should have survived what we went through. But because we did, we can never be allowed to leave SHIELD. We can never have a 'normal' future." He paused, "We wouldn't know what normal was, even if we could leave."
"You two get bored taking holidays," Phil sighed. "You wouldn't know what to do with yourselves."
"We'll never know," Clint shrugged.
"What I wanted to see you for," Fury cut in. "Has Medvedev contacted you?"
"No," Clint snapped. "It's not like I took a phone or anything when I left."
"We noticed," Fury frowned. "Natasha, how are you after the drug?"
"I'm fine," Natasha shook her head. "All healed up and ready to get back on the mission."
"Not even a scar?" Clint asked.
"Nothing," Natasha smiled. "The enhancers kicked into overdrive, I was completely healed within the day."
"That's fast even for you," Fury raised his eyebrow.
"It is," Natasha agreed. "Something in the drug must have kick-started the enhancers. Whatever was on the bullet seems to have been neutralised."
"So you are mission ready if needed?"
"Yes, Sir," Natasha nodded firmly.
"Medvedev has hacked the medical files, so he has paper confirmation that you're dead." Fury informed her. "He's probably been in contact with his mole as well. He hasn't done anything more yet that we know of. I believe he may be waiting to get in contact with Barton hoping he'll give away the truth."
"Which I won't do," Clint stared Fury down. "I'm not putting my partner in Medvedev's cross hairs again, not if we've taken her out."
"We know you won't, Clint," Phil assured him. "We don't want her there either."
"Unfortunately, at this stage it hasn't flushed the leak into the open," Fury sighed.
"Do we have any suspects yet?" Phil asked.
"About that," Natasha spoke up. "Phil, as you know, we've been investigating your team, everyone that was on your plane," Natasha started. "Nick."
"Phil, we do have a suspect," Fury admitted. "We found confirmation the morning we began this whole drama."
"And you've waited this long to tell me, Nick?" Phil asked, narrowing his eyes.
"A lot has happened in the last few days," Fury tried to excuse himself.
"If you know who it is, Nick, you should have told me straight away," Phil snapped. "And you two knew, and you didn't tell me?"
"Phil," Natasha stood, moving to kneel in front of him.
"Agent Romanoff," Fury snapped.
"Phil, we have evidence that points to Ward being behind the leaks."
"Ward?" Phil could barely speak.
"Agent Romanoff," Fury snapped again.
"No Fury," Natasha whirled to face the Director as she stood. "Phil deserves to know, there's already far too many secrets around here."
"It's not your place to decide," Fury hissed.
"It's not our place to hide this from Coulson," Natasha hissed in return. "Unless you're saying you don't trust him."
"Natasha you know-" Fury began.
"No, Nick I don't know," Natasha snapped.
"He wouldn't, he couldn't have," Phil muttered softly.
"Phil," Natasha turned her back on Fury. "Phil, look at me," She whispered, waiting until he met her steady gaze. "Garrett is Hydra, we confirmed it. Maria found the connection to Ward, and the evidence to confirm he's Hydra."
"Garrett can't be Hydra, I would have known." Phil denied.
"Phil," It was Clint's turn to ask for his attention. "The proof is undeniable. Ward was in Natasha's room when we arrived back to base. He said you sent him there."
"I never-" Phil couldn't finish.
"We know you didn't, Phil," Natasha assured him. "He was on the phone with Medvedev."
"Did he see you?" Fury snapped.
"He didn't see me," Natasha answered. "He was searching the room."
"Nick, you promised to tell Phil all of this. Why haven't you?" Clint snapped.
"You know how much has happened in the last few days," Nick let out a huge sigh. "I'm sorry, Phil, it just wasn't as important in the face of what else was happening."
"I understand, Nick," Phil murmured. "I just wish you'd thought to share that you were investigating my team in the first place."
"I didn't know who to trust," Fury groaned. "I'm sorry I doubted you, Phil."
"I'm not surprised you did," Phil shrugged, resigned. "Especially seeing as you must have narrowed it down to my team pretty quickly."
"Don't excuse me, Phil," Fury shook his head. "I've always been able to trust you. Why should it be any different now?"
"So what's the plan going forward?" Phil changed the subject.
"Gather more evidence," Fury sighed.
"Sir, Ward being in direct contact with Medvedev should be enough?" Clint queried.
"Tell me everything," Fury demanded.
"Ward was searching my room as I arrived," Natasha began. "He was very agitated. Medvedev called a moment later."
"I arrived as he was answering the phone," Clint took over. "He mentioned the room had been cleaned out. He seemed to be looking for a specific item but told Medvedev he had been unable to find it."
"He told Medvedev Clint was distraught at my 'death' and took off from the base. Ward seemed convinced I was dead and was assuring Medvedev that it couldn't have been faked." She paused, "He said Phil had gone to bring Clint back, and he would let Medvedev know when they arrived."
"That's when I entered the room to ask him what he was doing," Clint spoke up. "He tried to tell me Coulson had sent him, Phil knew I had it. He left very soon after."
"What was he trying to find?" Fury narrowed his eyes.
"This," Natasha pulled the chain of the necklace out to show Nick. "He was going to keep looking until he found it."
"Why would Medvedev care about a chain?" Fury asked, glaring at Natasha.
"Because it's not just a chain," Natasha pulled out the ring, showing Fury.
"Are you two-?" Fury stopped himself.
"It was part of my cover getting to Vancouver," Natasha sighed. "Ward obviously believed it was more than that and told Medvedev. He's always looking for a way to exploit Clint and I's partnership."
Fury narrowed his eye further, looking between them, "I'm not stupid you two. I know it's more than that, or you wouldn't be wearing it now."
"It's no one's business but our own," Clint snapped.
"You two need to figure this out," Fury rolled his eye. "You two have gotten really close. I'm not saying that's a problem, but if you don't want people to use it against you, you're going to have to get better at hiding it."
"There's nothing to hide now I'm dead," Natasha sighed. "Sir, I really think Medvedev contacting Ward is what we should be focusing on right now."
"You're certain?" Coulson asked softly. "That it was Medvedev?"
"Phil, I know he's part of your team," Clint matched his tone. "But I really think we need to investigate."
"I guess we do," Coulson lowered his gaze. "I've been watching everyone, I've seen no definitive signs."
"We'll have to keep looking for more evidence," Fury spoke.
"Well, if there was nothing else, Sir?" Natasha asked.
"Until Medvedev gets in contact anyway," Fury replied.
"Then I'll be off," Natasha sighed. "Let me know when there's something I can do."
"Will do, Natasha," Fury agreed.