Downtime is something that returns their sense of normality; a ridiculous, bizarre mundane routine seems to deliver the members of Strike Team Delta from the brink of insanity.
It occurs either when the Director catches sight of Agent Barton, solo or accompanied by the red-headed ex-Russian, staggering down the hallways of the Hell Carrier, either half dead from exhaustion or just plain half dead, although, it is also authorized if he spies Agent Romanoff with that particularly disturbing expression on her face which makes him think that any member of the population of the SHIELD base could wake up sometime during the night with a rather angry assassin with a garrotte around their neck if they pissed her off enough. In fact, screw that, if Romanoff wanted to off someone in their sleep the next time said person wakes up would either be at the pearly gates or the fiery pits of hell itself.
Thus, downtime is ordered. Mandatory leave from all SHIELD premises. When he tells them he can see the aching relief in their eyes, even if they are all business with curt nods and polite tones. Romanoff hauls Barton from the chair and lets him balance a third of his body weight on her deceptively small frame as he stumbles after her. He doesn't miss the way her green eyes soften slightly as she glimpses not-so-discreetly at the archer and his possible worrying amount of injuries because the all-American sniper is as tough as they come and if he is limping then something is wrong. He also dismisses the thought that she would do that for anyone else, allow anyone close enough to slip their arm around her shoulders and tiredly lean their weary head on the crook of her neck but he lets Clint Barton do that. They slip quietly from his office and he can see them in the corridor outside speaking in hushed tones or maybe they're just reading one another's body language but it's far too intimate, even for partners, and if Fury was anyone other than a super-spy in charge of an organisation of super-spies-that-don't-quite-beat-him-yet he would have looked away because there is nothing professional or platonic about the searing gaze the sniper is unleashing on the ex-Russian or the way they pause round the corner when they think that they're out of sight and he brushes the matted red hair out of her eyes and cups her face tenderly with so much emotion in his eyes it looks like it hurts. Technically, he should be hauling their asses back in right now to demand an explanation for the way Barton murmurs against her pale neck and her lips quirk upward into what he imagines what must be her version of a smile, he should give them a forty minute rant about frat regulations and why they are there, he should stick their asses on probation and send them to the council or other sides of the globe on solo missions but damn it, this is Barton and Romanoff and they have the highest success rate than the rest of SHIELD put together and let no one say that the Director doesn't care for his agents and besides, he has a soft spot for the hard Russian and easy-going American so he lets it be with a shake of his head and the thought that they better not get themselves killed or worse, compromised and if they ever did, damn he would miss those pains in his ass.