"Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call."
The cell was dark and cold. They had her strapped in like a patient in a psych ward; cuffs on ankles and wrists to attached to the corners of the beds. The woman in question was captured a month prior. She was found unconscious in a snowy alley in Russia. The reason she was unconscious was because a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had been sent to capture her for questioning and eventual arrest. The agent had brought her to this prison in hopes of getting some information from her. But a month has past and the prisoner hasn't said anything. Dozens of interrogators and many strategies have resulted in no information. The only result was when the last agent went to went to 'visit' her; she attacked him, after escaping her restraints, and put him in the hospital.
This time the director sent in a new agent, but decided enough money has been spent on keeping her alive, so this strategy should have only taken agent Barton a minute of his time.
Agent Barton entered the cell quietly as he could. It was dark and cold. The woman seemed to be asleep, so Barton raised his weapon: a bow and arrow. He aimed the arrow at the woman's slowly raising chest. A couple more seconds and his task would be over. But, all of a sudden, the woman's breaths are no longer slow, but quick and unsteady. At first murmurs could be heard, then suddenly, screaming and thrashing started. Dropping his bow the agent ran forward. Without touching the captive, he tried to wake her by calling her name, but she continues. Agent Barton had been warned about the woman – girl now that he was closer, she's couldn't have been very old, a few years younger than himself– and what she is capable of.
But he couldn't let her go on like this. He turned his back to her and headed back to where his bow was lying on the floor. He slowly bent to reach it when she began to speak, whimper.
"No, no, no, please, no, don't..."
Agent Barton quickly thought back to what he has heard about S.H.I.E.L.D.s interactions with this woman. He cannot remember torture being a strategy used. Brows furrowed, his eyes dart around his eye sockets fast. While trying to imagine who she is screaming at, who is torturing her, she begins screaming again. This time the screams were intertwined with sobs.
Returning back to the woman, this time bow and arrow drawn, Barton debates: empathy versus mission. The debate carries on in his head for minutes but is interrupted by a loud bang at the door. Someone was knocking. The agent knew the knock was a question and he knew the question already: What was taking so long?
What was taking him so long? This girl-woman was not the first person Agent Barton had been asked to put down, and she was not going to be the last. He knew nothing about the girl-woman besides the fact that she was lethal.
Once the agent snapped out of his head he noticed the girl had woken from her nightmares. Agent Barton had his bow drawn quickly and pointed at her heart. When his gaze shifted slightly and their eyes met; his whiskey ones to her emerald pair. Her eyes were wide with fear, but her lips told a different tale.
"Let it go. Please. Do it."
Barton did let go, but not in the way that she had asked him to. There was no way this woman deserved to die, he decided. Agent Barton slid the arrow back into his quiver and reached down slowly. The woman flinched, but the agent just brushed the woman's red hair off of her forehead.
"I am going to get you out of here, Ms. Romanova." was all agent Barton said before offering a kind smile and marching out of the cell. He didn't stop until he was standing in front of the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.s desk.