Part I

The young mother held tightly to the small boy in her arms as one of the monsters began to back her into the wall. She knelt down slowly and placed her child on the floor. "Bentley, mommy needs you run to that door, okay?" She commanded gently. "I promise the monster won't get you. Mommy will protect you."

Tears cut pathways in the little boy's dirt caked cheeks. He nodded at his mother's words and took off towards the door. The monster looked at the child and made moves towards him but the mother screamed. The monster turned his attention back to the woman who had become the one and only annoyance he had. He stepped towards her and she closed her eyes, accepting her imminent death. Though the pain never came, she opened her eyes to see if the monster intended to play with her before killing her.

The monster lay in a crumpled heap at her feet with a blinking red arrow in its chest. She looked around to see who had saved her. Her hero was already barreling towards her. "IT EXPLODES. THE ARROW EXPLODES." He was yelling. He had reached her before she had a chance to respond and scooped her up into his arms. Mere seconds afterwards, the arrow exploded as he had predicted and they were thrown to the ground in the blast.

She lay for a moment on the ground, attempting to grasp what had just happened. She rolled over to the man and placed a soft hand on his arm and gently shook him. "Are you okay?" She asked in a frightened tone. It would be awful for him to have died for her. She was not that important. She was a nobody, to everyone but her son. "Please be alive."

The man groaned and pushed himself up to his knees. "I'm alive." He said gently as he helped her to a sitting position as well. "Are you okay?" His fingers ran gently across her cheek where a small cut had formed.

"I am, because of you." She said. "Thank you for saving me. How can I repay you?"

The man smiled and she took in how handsome he was, short brunette hair and dark green eyes caught hers. "You could give me your name." He said. "I will give you mine first, Clint Barton."

She smiled at him as she stood up. "Zarah. My name is Zarah." She said and turned away from him to rush towards her son waiting on the other side of the doors. She gathered the little boy into her arms and closed her eyes as tears escaped them.

Zarah, Zarah, Zarah

She had long brunette hair that even after whatever horrors she and her child had been through fell in near perfect ringlets around her face. Her skin was lightly tanned. Her eyes were an electric blue. Clint remembered. They were such a unique color that he had never seen before. He could have lost himself in them for hours. Everything about her had been perfect, her hourglass shape, her sugar sweet voice, and the freckles across her nose. Her face replayed again and again before a loud buzzing sound jolted him from his slumber.

Clint sat up abruptly in his bed and rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. This was the third night in a row that he had dreamt of that woman. Why didn't she give him her damn last name? What was he supposed to do with a first name only, even if it was truly unique one?

He had been in trouble from the moment he looked into those baby blue eyes. He had to find this woman. This could no longer be a coincidence. This was moving into 'fate' status. "Zarah," He breathed the name. He even liked the way it rolled off his lips. Why hadn't he followed her? Why hadn't he demanded she give him her last name? Why hadn't he done most of the things he hadn't done?

In four words?

He was an idiot.