The assignment was given to Agent Barton. He paged carefully through the file as he listened to Fury's briefing. He made no judgement. The conclusion was trustworthy. She had to go. That was his job and he would do it.
But Agent Barton saw better from a distance, and from a distance he saw her. So he watched. He determined and he decided. This was a person who needed a chance, not an arrow through her heart.
He would hear it for this. SHIELD wasn't likely to take it well, and everything he knew told him it wouldn't work. It was a fool's hope, the act of a sentimental rookie. He was a seasoned Agent of SHIELD and he knew the job. He had no business reassessing his target this way.
But this Natasha Romanoff was not what they said. He could see it. More than his superiors, Agent Barton trusted his own eyes.
When he stood before her she saw something as well. His were eyes were different. So often in her life she had been watched. Her superiors at the Red Room watched her. Her employers watched her. Always with appraisal, always with calculation. She had been watched more times that she could count by men who wanted to possess her. Natasha Romanoff was far too familiar with eyes that expected.
This man did not appraise her. This man did not want her. This man wanted something for her. She could see that and, ignoring all the things The Black Widow knew to be true, she chose to trust him. Miss Romanoff, as he had called her, agreed to go with him.
So, Agent Barton took the heat for what he had done and did not see her again until they let her out. She was put through days, weeks of rigorous evaluation, of appraisal. She was observed and she was interrogated. In the end they cleared her for probationary status at SHIELD. It was Agent Barton who she was to shadow and train with.
She waited for the questions, but they never came. She waited for his advances, but they never came. She waited for his judgement, but it never came. Agent Barton never got too close, never touched her. He listened to her silence and his grey-blue eyes continued to watch her.
Natasha Romanoff had felt so many crushing grazes before, but his gaze was light. She could feel it like sunshine on her neck. She knew when he was watching her, trying to learn who she was.
She never asked what he was doing, never asked him a thing about himself. But, in all his silences, in all the space he left between them, he became clearer to her.
Then the time came. Agent Barton was debriefed, her performance was assessed, and she was cleared. Agent Romanoff was to be partnered with Agent Barton.
She stopped in the hallway as they walked from that office. He stopped as well.
"Agent Barton."
He looked at her.
"I'm in your debt." She said.
"For what?"
"For not taking the shot."
"You can call me Clint." was his only reply.
A ghost of a smile passed across his face before he stepped away, leaving her to herself. Agent Romanoff watched him go, then looked around. It was the first moment, outside of her sleeping quarters, that she had been alone since accepting Agent Barton's offer. She felt for the first time what she had once imagined freedom to feel like. Natasha looked again to where Agent Barton had disappeared around a corner. She owed her life for the first time. She owed it to Clint.
.
Happy New Year, readers! I hope you enjoyed this little one shot.