Authors Note: I love Natasha and Clint's friendship, and I thought to myself... what about an almost parallel scenario, where one rescues the other? How would they differ? And thus here is Partners in Peril. The first version is of Natasha rescuing Clint. Both stories take place after Avengers, but before CA: TWS.

Okay... This looks bad. Scratch that. Things couldn't be worse.

Clint Barton had been sent on a solo S.H.I.E.L.D. assignment, to protect the transportation of an 084 from a point A to a point B. While flying the quinjet back to HQ, he'd been shot out of the sky by pirates (yes, real, freaking, bloody pirates) and they'd captured him when they discovered him in the remains of the quinjet in the ocean. Said pirates had just learned about the bounty on his right arm, and they were discussing ways they could collect the reward.

Clint was working on escaping his bonds as he overheard the conversation in the next room. He was slowly but surely wriggling his wrists free from the rope that was binding them.

"Let's just kill him and cut the arm off!" said one pirate.

"Why go through the trouble of killing him? Let's just take the arm!"

"That arm is going to get us a huge score, we need to do this soon. He'll have people looking for him!"

Clint had gotten his wrists free and he quickly went to work on his ankles. As soon as he was free he stood up and headed to the stairs that would take him above deck of the pirate's ship. He looked around the corner to make sure no one was looking, and then he bolted.

He made it out onto the deck only to run into a muscular 6ft 7 pirate who was not happy at all with the archer. Clint threw a punch only to have it blocked, the pirate grabbed his arm and twisted until a loud crack was heard and Clint couldn't help the yell of pain from escaping from his lips. The pirate didn't let go of his arm, he held onto it while also securing Clint's other arm. Thundering footsteps as the pirates ran upstairs to investigate the noise. When they saw Clint's broken arm they were furious.

"He's worthless! Throw him overboard!"

Clint, in an understandable amount of pain tried to say "C'mon guys…" through gasps of pain "We can… talk about this." His pleas went unheard as he was tossed into the ocean. His body already tired and exhausted from being shot out of the quinjet, Clint couldn't bring himself to the surface with a broken arm. The waves repeatedly swept him under and after a while he couldn't help but think he was never going to see Laura or the kids again… He wished there was a way for them to find his body. He knew Laura would be devastated if he was never found. But the ocean is a vast land, and the odds of him being found were slim to none.

He took a small comfort in knowing Natasha would protect his family at all costs. Then he realized she too would be devastated. They had been through so much together, and he had convinced her all those years ago to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. Clint's vision was darkening, his lungs burned for oxygen, and in absolute agony he finally lost consciousness.

The moment Natasha learned Clint's quinjet had been shot down, she had taken a quinjet of her own and gone to the crash site. She didn't find him, and knowing he was somehow alive she used a radar search and saw a ship sailing 5 miles away. Using the clouds as cover, she looked on as her partner was tossed into the abyss. She wasn't worried at first, she knew he could swim. She had to wait for the ship to be further away before she could get him on board.

Why wasn't he surfacing? Something was wrong. Natasha found herself in a rare moment of panic. The ship be damned, she took the quinjet down to the ocean level and kept it running as she dove out of it. She couldn't see him at first there was no sign of him.

But wait, something was sinking deeper and deeper… she swam further down, trying to catch up with it. Then she saw it was him. Her lungs burned for oxygen but she couldn't just go back to the surface. What felt like 10 excruciating minutes of swimming downward finally ended, she caught up with his body, and wrapped her arm around his waist. She kept swimming to the surface, but they had been so deep down at this point she figured there was a chance she wouldn't make it. She pressed the emergency evacuation button on her utlity belt, but kept trying to swim to the surface.

By something short of a miracle she made it, lugging an unconscious Clint with her. She used her remaining strength to get him on the quinjet, and collapsed next to his body. She needed to move though, she had to give him CPR he wasn't breathing.

Still gasping for air herself, she crawled over to his body, pinched his nose and forced air into his lungs by mouth to mouth. As she gave him air she felt more lightheaded, but she didn't care. She pressed down on his chest three times before repeating the action. She did this 6 more times to no avail "Don't do this to me Clint…" she found herself pleading. Clint jerked and coughed up water, gasping and choking. Natasha felt immediate relief, and she fell into unconsciousness.

When Natasha came to, she was lying in a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital bed. She turned to her side to see Captain Steve Rogers sitting in a platic chair between her bed and the next. There was someone else in the other bed and she quickly sat up to see if it was Clint.

"Whoa Agent Romanoff," Rogers said cautiously putting his hands on her shoulders "Take it easy."

"Where is…? Is that…?" she tried speaking.

"Agent Barton is going to be fine. He's in the bed right next to you, but I'm sorry you can't get up yet."

She sank back into her pillow. Then she realized, "What are you doing here?"

"I got the alert about an agent in distress… when I heard it was you I volunteered to fly out. I knew you were going after Agent Barton, I wanted to help."

She was shocked and yet warmed by his response. "Thank-you Captain."

"Please, call me Steve."

"Natasha." She said in return and he nodded. After a moment of silence he said,

"I can't believe you were able to get him out of the water and onto the quinjet. It's incredible that you were able to stay conscious for so long to give him CPR."

She looked over at the other bed, "Yeah… well he'd do the same for me."