2000 – Monaco

"Are you sure about this Barton?" Coulson asked from the other side of the room. His agent had just returned from a 6 month deep cover mission in Uzbekistan and looked as if he should be taking a well-earned and very overdue shower and then at least 6 weeks off. "You sure you don't want some down time? Take a few weeks go somewhere nice, Cuba maybe or Tahiti?" he prompted, cause if Clint took a few weeks off then he'd get a few weeks off due to being his handler and all.

"I'm fine Coulson, nothing a shower and a good night sleep won't cure. Besides how long have SHIELD been tracking her? Weeks? Months?" at the look on Coulson's face he knew he'd won SHIELD had been tracking the Black Widow for close to 2 years now and no one had been able to get even remotely close to her and had returned to SHIELD looking extremely put out having wanted to be the one to take out the famous assassin. The few who had however, hadn't been so lucky they'd either been found down some dark damp alley almost unrecognizable or a body was yet to be discovered.

"Coulson, you and Fury both know I was the only one who even came close last year to cornering her and if it hadn't been for that rookie almost falling off the roof we wouldn't be having this conversation cause she'd already be dead. Besides these are Fury's orders, probably couldn't get out of them unless I was unconscious in the Med Bay." "That could be arranged you know" Coulson said with a smirk, but he did know that once an order was given by the Director there was no getting out of it. So the next thing they knew they were on a quinjet half way to Monaco in the dead of winter.

"Staring at that folder won't make this any easier Coulson." Coulson's head snapped up at the sound of Clint's approaching footsteps. "I know I'm just making sure we didn't miss anything important."

"You have noticed that this is one of the smallest folders we've ever worked from right? It's got like 3 pages and one of them is a picture, and a shitty one at that, can't even tell it's even her or not." Snatching the picture from the top of the small pile of paper he flipped it around to try and get some sense of who and what this woman really was. He'd been hearing stories about the Black Widow since he's been brought into SHIELD but she's never been on their radar until 2 years ago when she'd managed to take out the ambassador from some small ass country that Clint couldn't both to remember but whoever it had been had cause her to go from the "Low Level Risk-Monitoring" to "Top Priority" within the matter of hours. Fury especially had been getting more and more pissed as the months dragged on and the Widow was still out there causing havoc in the shadows.

"Okay let's go over the basics again." All Coulson got was a groan but continued on anyways.

Alias: Black Widow

Name: Unknown

Born: Russia

Age: Approx. 25 years of age (ends up being wrong)

Sex: Female

Appearance: Unknown. All that is known about the Black Widows physical appearance is that she has Red hair (What she had been seen as having most of the time)

Affiliations: Ex: Red Room: Black Widow Training Program

Ex: KGB

Last Know Sighting: Monte Carlo, Monaco

Skills: Unknown what extent; operating since teenager

"I still can't believe that after 2years on the Top Priority List and the number of year prior of being monitored this is all we have to go on." Clint said flicking the picture back at Coulson, landing in the folder.

Coulson closed the file and put it aside and turned back looking at Clint. "She is one if not the best spy/assassin since the Cold War. Rumors are that she's been training since she was just a teenager and probably has a higher kill list than most of SHIELDS top agents put together."

"Come on Coulson, you know half of those agents don't have the skills that I have. Now that I don't have a rookie to babysit I'll have a good chance at getting her. Fifty bucks says I have her by the end of the month."

"You are so on."

Turns out that Coulson ended up winning that fifty bucks and by the rate it was taking Clint to keep tabs on the Widow he just wished they'd made a bet for each month it took until Barton finally caught up to her.

By March both men were getting tired of chasing the assassin all across Europe. They'd been close on Monaco but her assumed target never ended up showing. Next was a Gala in Greece, then a drug cartel in Rome (she was supposedly hired by a rival of the cartel), then there was the assassination of a royal member of a family from France and it kept going on like this until they caught a break in May in Northern Ireland. Clint was scouting rooftops in Dublin, they'd been given a quick mission whilst they were in the area. Quick kill of a politician that was selling trade secrets of Britain to some people SHIELD knew would eventually cause trouble for a lot of people.

Once he was done setting up his nest he lay in wait occasionally checking in with Coulson to give updates or if he was getting bored. After a few hours the Politician came home and was getting ready for his meeting later that night when the side of his head was met with a single bullet instead of an arrow. Clint's head shot up and looked around for the shooter but couldn't see anyone on any rooftop around him and that shot defiantly hadn't come from the ground. A minute later he saw a figure moving from the inside of the apartment. They were small and lean but the bulky clothes they were wearing made it hard to tell if they were male or female. After cleaning up the casings from the shot the shooter turned ever so slightly and Clint was able to catch a look at the woman's face slightly covered by long red hair.

"Coulson do you copy?"

"Barton please tell me you've actually got him this time and not just calling to tell me you're bored" Coulson sounded tired and ready to fall asleep.

"Well I can tell you that he's dead but I had nothing to do with it."

"What do you mean?" he sounded a lot more awake than he did a minute ago.

"I was lining up the shot when a woman from inside the apartment decided to surprise the guy with a bullet to the head. But that's not all. She's got read hair and matches at least the description that we have on the Widow." Clint said as he climbed down the side of the building he'd been perched on for the better part of 6 hours.

"Whatever you do don't follow her, we aren't ready, you aren't in the right mind set."

"Coulson this is the closest we've been to her in weeks. After we lost her in Belarus we had no leads no nothing. If I don't follow her now who knows when we'll get another shot at her. No pun intended." He could tell Coulson was trying to find a comeback that would convince him to go back to the safe house but they both knew he was right.

"Alright, follow her, but keep to a distance. We don't want her spooked and you ending up dead, you still owe me that fifty dollars." Coulson replied.

"Funny. She's leaving now heading north towards the centre of town. Don't think she's spotted me yet." He continued to follow her until she slipped down an alley that anyone would normally have missed if they weren't looking. As he rounded the corner he saw the woman bending down next to a pair of little girls that looked to be homeless.

"Seo dhuit," she said in Irish handing what looked like a big wallet crammed with as much money as the thing could hold. The girls looked up at the woman and smiled at her. Clint was shocked when he saw her simply smile back and stand up. As the girls turned and ran away the Widow with her back still turned called out.

"So you've finally caught up. I was wondering how much longer it was going to take you." She said and while her Irish has been perfect her English held a slight Russian accent to it. He could here amusement and sorrow in her words.

"This was just by chance. You taking out my mark was an added bonus. Didn't have to waste a single arrow on that bastard." Clint quipped as he held his bow steady ready to take the shot. At that she turned and faced him curiosity gleaming in her piercing green eyes. He stood there observing her, her file (or the lack there of) said she was about his age but close up she looked to be no older than 20 at this observation he lowered the box slightly.

"Arrows? You're Hawkeye." It wasn't a question, it was a statement; she knew who he was. "I'd heard about you a few years back. The vigilante or mercenary depends on who you asked. You were big news and then all of a sudden you disappeared from everyone's radar. Then all of a sudden some months later your signature; the arrows started cropping up all over the place but the kills didn't match up to your M.O. So naturally I thought it was some copycat trying to get noticed, but it turns out you went straight, straight to SHIELD."

"I didn't realize I had fans let alone someone like you would know who I am. I'm almost flattered" Clint retorted. He could feel that something was off, she hadn't made a move to kill him let alone even try to escape the situation.

"So what did the guy ever do to you?" he decided to ask instead.

"Why do you care?"

"Call me curious"

"Pissed too many people off, he needed to go." She said simply, he could tell he wasn't going to get anything else out of her even though he could tell she was lying but he decided not to press his luck. "Any more questions or are you going to kill me now?" she asked it as if she were simply asking about the weather.

Fear, and defeat that was all he could see in her eyes now. She wanted this, she wanted out but something stopped him.

"What are you waiting for? Just do it!" After another few seconds of waiting for him to release the arrow she'd had enough and leapt. Side stepping her attack he went on defense. Dodging blows, using his bow like a shield against her on slaughter of attacks. After a while he could see her slipping up, whether by accident or on purpose it didn't matter. She wanted him to kill her. He saw her going for another swing and he decided to end this. He grabbed her arm and locked them behind her back, she struggled but they both knew she could get out of it if she really wanted to.

"Why did you give those girls the money you took from the politician's room? I don't know why you did it, I have some ideas but at the moment they don't matter, what does is this. A cold hearted killer wouldn't just take money and give it to a couple of homeless kids. They'd either take it for themselves as some extra cash or leave it, but charity never. You want out and the only way you know how is by getting yourself killed, but you're too afraid to do it yourself. Am I right?" she didn't answer so he kept going "you remind me of someone a long time ago and like him I'm going to do the same thing someone else did for him."

"Ya and what's that?" she snapped, going still for a moment as if she actually wanted to know what he had to say.

"Give you a second chance."