When S.H.I.E.L.D. had been exposed as HYDRA two months ago, Natasha Romanoff had disappeared off the grid for a few weeks after her spat on Capitol Hill. Eventually, somehow Tony Stark had tracked her down in the rundown shack she had taken refuge in in Siberia and offered her a home in Avengers Tower in addition to a discreet and secure transport to the tower. She accepted.
Natasha would never admit it out loud, but she was growing tired of her loner lifestyle. She had gotten comfortable in D.C. working alongside Steve and despised herself for letting herself for feeling sentimental and missing it. Logically, she knew she was better off on her own. Things were safer that way, for her and for those closest to her. But she missed companionship.
So she had been living in Avengers Tower for a few months now. Tony had kept his word and the US Government still had no idea of her whereabouts—though it wasn't for lack of trying. Apart from his eccentric attitude Tony was proving to be a somewhat reasonable housemate. Bruce Banner had been living in the tower since the Battle of New York; he and Tony spent most of their time in the R&D labs working on projects and what Natasha assumed was other science experiments. There were days she would go down and chat with them as they worked, in fact Tony had had a sudden inspiration recently and developed some extensions for her Widow Bites. She had tried not to look too pleased when he showed her the finished model.
Steve Rogers had dropped by a few times with Sam Wilson, but for the most part he was still chasing after Bucky. Whenever the topic of the Winter Soldier came up in conversation Natasha felt a prickling in the back of her mind like she knew more about him, but she never put much effort into trying to connect the dots. Steve was on a mission to find his best friend, and she had helped as much as she could with her contact in Kiev. There was nothing else that could be done.
Clint Barton was spending time with his family, but had promised to visit sometime soon. She didn't pressue him or hold her breath. As much as she missed him she knew that he cherished the time he spent with his family and knew that the more time he spent with them would be for the better. She wasn't the only one affected by the S.H.I.E.L.D. fallout; although she had made sure nothing about his family was in the data dump when she spilled the organizations secrets onto the internet.
Today she was sitting in the R&D lab on a stool by the glass door reading a book. Some loud obnoxious song was playing and Bruce and Tony were talking back and forth about working on something they kept calling "Veronica", Natasha had decided not to ask. The book was a "thrilling" spy tale that she found extremely dull so when her cell phone went off she was glad for the excuse to put it down. She looked down at the contact and recognized the number. She didn't assign Laura Barton a contact in case anyone else ever saw her phone, but she had memorized the number and knew it was her calling. Figuring she wouldn't be missed she stepped outside of the lab and put the phone to her ear.
"Hey." Said Natasha.
"Hey Nat," said Laura wearily. "Is this a bad time?"
"Not at all," she responded grinning "you're actually saving me from a great bout of boredom. What's up?" Laura hesitated before answering, and Natasha had alarms going off in her head. "What's wrong?"
"It could be nothing," Laura started to say "Clint left the farm about 3 days ago for New York. He promised he'd call or text when he got there and I haven't heard anything. After everything with S.H.I.E.L.D. he knows that he's supposed to stay in touch… I was wondering if you had heard anything?"
Natasha knew something was wrong, there was no way Clint would leave his wife in this hellish limbo. But she would be damned if she were going to let Laura worry.
"I'm sure it's nothing. I'll go ahead and find out where he is. Simple trace work."
Laura blew out a sigh of relief "Thanks Nat. Do me a favor and give him a slap upside the head when you find him. My blood pressure is shooting through the roof." There was then muffled conversation as Laura spoke to someone off of the phone, then she was back "Lila and Cooper send their love. They're both covered in paint or I'd let them talk with you."
Natasha kept up her front of "Auntie Nat" for the meantime "No worries, tell them I love them and I'll see them soon. I'll let you know when I find him."
"Thanks so much. I'll talk to you soon."
"Bye." Natasha ended the call and headed straight for her bedroom. Clint had only ever gone off the reservation one time, and it was after New York. Riddled with guilt and sadness about Coulson he hadn't felt safe to return home until Natasha had tracked him down and talked some sense into him. She had made him promise he would never do anything like that again. Something was definitely wrong. She didn't let her emotions cloud her judgment, heading straight for her laptop she logged on and ran a trace on Clint's phone only to find out it had been disconnected.
"Jarvis," she said to the AI.
"Yes Miss Romanoff?" replied the bodiless voice.
"I need your help, and I need to not let Tony know what's going on. You think you could manage that?"
"Of course, this is a secure connection and whatever we discuss from this point further will not be known to anyone else."
"I need to find Clint Barton, he left his home in Iowa 3 days ago and hasn't been seen since. Can you search traffic cams, flights, anything that has his name attached to it?"
"Of course. One moment." Natasha ran her hands through her hair as she waited for the AI to run it's data. "Mr. Barton flew out of Iowa City 3 days ago, he had a ticket for a connecting flight in Columbus Ohio, but never boarded."
"I need all the security camera footage for the gate he was flying into 3 days ago in Columbus. Pull it up on screen." A holographic screen appeared in front of Natasha showing flights boarding and unboarding. "Search facial recognition for Barton."
"Searching." The AI was working through hundreds of photos at the speed of light until finally "Mr. Barton departed the flight once it landed."
She could see Clint with his luggage. He was fine, looked perfectly normal. "Follow him through the airport Jarvis."
"Yes Miss Romanoff." The other security cameras showed him making his way through the airport until—"My apologies Miss Romanoff, but Mr. Barton seems to have vanished."
Natasha felt her heart drop "What do you mean vanished?" she said "Can you check any other cameras? He can't have just disappeared."
"One moment please." The AI scanned through some more cameras before suddenly,
"Jarvis stop it right there." The images froze. She stepped closer, hoping she was wrong. "Zoom in right here," she said pointing to the upper right hand corner. The AI obliged and Natasha cursed herself as she found herself looking at a familiar face. Her past couldn't seem to stay buried, and now Clint was going to pay the price.