OK Folks, here is the third installment to this series at long last! I do apologize for taking so long but I've been extremely busy with home life. I do hope that you enjoy this story as much as I have writing it for you.

Chapter: 1

The roar of wind whipped through his ears. Heat from the blazing sun made sweat slide down his face and made his clothing cling uncomfortably to his skin. The busy streets of the city were full of bystanders jumping out of the speeding motorcycle's way. Clint winced every time his partner had to swerve to avoid hitting one of the many market stands that were stretched out along the makeshift road. He had lost count of the people who had narrowly escaped being turned into a pancake.

"Nat this entire mission is pointless if we get killed on our way to extraction!" He yelled to her over the noise.

"I can slow down if you think you could outnumber them!" She yelled back to him and right as the words left her mouth, Clint looked back to see that their pursuers had caught up to them once again, bullets started flying in their direction and Clint groaned.

"At least get away from the civilians!"

"In case you haven't noticed its noon and civilians are everywhere! It's not like there are a ton of road options here!" She swerved again and Clint nearly fell off the back of the cycle.

"Jesus Nat!" More bullets whizzed by and Clint turned so that he could return fire. Two out of the five other motorcycles went down. "Just get us somewhere!"

"Next time you can drive and I'll provide cover!" She yelled back at him. A side road came into view and she felt her partner grab her tightly as she banked a hard left.

"Can you please give me some warning before you do that?!"

"Can you please stop whining and start shooting?!" She shot back at him and he fired a few more rounds which took out another cycle. "This is your fault you know!"

"My fault?!" He pulled the trigger again and nothing happened. Cursing to himself he threw the gun to the side, he had stolen it from one of their pursuers anyways. He turned and grabbed one of Natasha's out of the holster on her hip and continued to fire at the men behind them. "How exactly was this my fault?!"

"You're the one who insisted that you be the one to talk to Marrow!" She yelled referring to the man they had been sent to get information from.

"Fine next time you talk to the target and we'll just see how it works out!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" He yelled back to her as another cycle went down. It wasn't long before two more took its place and Clint groaned again. "How many men did this guy have?!"

"Enough," came Natasha's reply and Clint rolled his eyes. "There's the chopper!" She said and Clint turned forward to see that she was right.

"Finally! You ready?"

"Sure, it'll be fun!" She replied and Clint slipped her gun back into her holster. He watched in the distance as a ladder was lowered from the chopper and waited.

"Now!" Clint yelled and everything seemed to slow down for the moment as he focused. He jumped up on the back of the motorcycle and grabbed the hand that Romanoff reached upwards for him. With his free hand he grabbed the ladder. The bike spun away as he lifted his partner towards him so that she could grab the ladder with her free hand as well. He let go of her hand when he was sure that she had a good grip.

Everything burst back into regular time as he started climbing up and into the chopper. He breathed out a sigh of relief as he collapsed into one of the empty seats. Natasha followed a second later, choosing the seat beside of him.

"Ok," he said after catching his breath. "That one was on me." Natasha nodded then handed him a helmet that had the earpiece in it that would allow them to communicate with the pilot and whoever was monitoring the communications back at SHEILD.

"Would one of you like to explain what the hell happened out there!?" Coulson's voice filled his ear the second Clint put the helmet on.

"It was a bit of a miscommunication." Clint replied and he heard Romanoff scoff at that.

"Did you at least get the information?" Coulson asked and Clint could just picture their handler massaging the area between his eyes like he always did when he was frustrated.

"Yes sir," Natasha replied "there was a computer in Marrow's office. He had files with just about all the details of his operation."

"So the mission was not a complete waste."

"Nope, and we even managed to get more information than expected on some of his buyers." Clint chimed in.

"Hmm, well that may save you from being grounded for a week," Coulson replied.

"Hey, thanks mom," Clint replied and heard the exasperated sigh from their handler in return.

"I'll see the two of you back at base for debrief." Coulson said and the two agents echoed affirmatives. Clint sighed and then looked over to his partner. He lifted his hands and signed to her to switch their communications to private. It would allow the two of them to only be heard by each other over the massive sound of the chopper. She nodded and switched the channel as he did the same.

"Are you good," he asked.

"Yeah, just a scratch or two. How about you?"

"Think I may have gotten grazed by one of those bullets."

"Need a medic?"

"Nah, I don't think it's that bad. I'll patch it up after debrief."

"Alright." Natasha said and then sat back in her seat. Clint followed suit and stared down at the water that was below them.

The mission had taken one day to prep, eight hours to put into action, and exactly one hour and twenty-eight second to go to hell. Something Clint had said to the arms dealer they were trying to get information out of had set him off. Honestly Clint wasn't happy that he had been the main cause of the firefight and he would have felt worse if his partner had gotten hurt in the process.

"Hey," Natasha's voice in his ear snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned and met her eyes. "Honestly, Marrow was jumpy from the start." She said reassuringly. "In my opinion he was going to go off no matter what you may have said. He was the shoot first and ask questions later type."

It was true. Marrow had once shot a pizza delivery man simply because he hadn't been the one to order a pizza. The delivery guy had just gotten the address wrong but Morrow was convinced that he was a spy of some sort and the kid had ended up with a bullet between his eyes.

"Guess you're right." Clint said back to her and she nodded slightly.

"Don't beat yourself up too bad about it," She replied then shot him a smirk "that's Coulson's job." Clint laughed in response.

"And he damn well knows it." He shook his head then looked back at Natasha. "Lunch after debrief?"

"Not pizza," she replied and Clint rolled his eyes.

"You haven't tried my favorite yet," he almost wined and Natasha arched a brow at him.

"You sad that last one was your favorite." She reminded him and he shrugged.

"Hawaiian is good but replacing the ham with pepperoni will blow your mind."

"We've had pizza every day this week."

"So, pizza is one of America's favorite pass times." Clint said with a smile and Natasha rolled her eyes. "Fine, pizza for lunch and something new for dinner," he offered and Natasha shrugged.

"What makes you think I want to join you for dinner?" Clint scoffed at that.

"Please Romanoff, like you would have a life without me."