Hey everyone! I have the next chapter here for you. It's the big reveal. Even though we know where Clint and Natasha are headed, they don't so they're going to find out in this chapter. Enjoy!
It was only a couple hours later – once Natasha finally got Clint to fall back asleep – when their phones rang from their respective bedside tables. At first, the assassins weren't stirred from their slumber but they woke up – slowly and sluggishly – to answer their phones. Natasha pried herself from Clint's grip and rolled away from him as she swiped her phone off of the bedside table. She squinted at the screen to read the caller ID. The screen flashed the New York SHIELD base's number and she groaned internally.
"What'd I tell you?" Clint groaned as he rolled onto his back, causing the bed to shake. "Bets it's a mission?"
"Twenty bucks," Natasha mumbled with a smirk on her face. She slid her finger across the screen and pressed the phone against her ear as she fell back against the pillows. "Romanoff," she answered.
"Agent Romanoff," Agent Maria Hill said from the other end. "We need you on the base in an hour. There will be a car for you at Avengers Tower in 45 minutes. Relay the message to Agent Barton since – by the look on Fury's face – he didn't answer his phone."
"I'll let him know," Natasha said and then disconnected the call.
"Mission?" Clint asked as he slid down the headboard and snuggled back into bed.
"Didn't say," Natasha said as she whipped the covers off of her body. "But there will be a car here to take us to base in 45 minutes so get your ass out of bed
"Oh come on, Nat," Clint whined, muffled from his face being pressed into the pillows.
"Up, Bird Boy!" she ordered. "And get your ass in the shower. You smell like sweat and shame."
"Alright fine," the archer whined as he sluggishly pulled himself out of bed. He padded across the room to the attached bathroom and shut himself into the tiny room. At first, he moved around the bathroom slowly, grabbing a fresh towel and washcloth from the basket by the tub before turning on the shower head. He tested the water out before stepping in and letting the warm water loosen his muscles and wake him up.
He stood in the shower for several minutes before he actually started to wash himself. He knew that if he didn't do something productive soon, Natasha would storm into the bathroom and hold him down while she scrubbed him. And no, he knew it wouldn't be kinky.
He quickly scrubbed his body before rinsing off and turning off the water. He stepped out of the tub and onto the bath mat to dry off. When he was finished, he tied the towel around his waist and quickly stepped up to the sink to brush his teeth.
Just as he was about to squirt some toothpaste onto his toothbrush, Natasha barged into the room and lightly shoved him out of the way to grab something from underneath the sink.
"You could've knocked," he mumbled with a mouthful of toothpaste.
"Shut up Barton," Natasha said as she retrieved a bottle of lotion and then sat down on the edge of the tub to slather some of the floral smelling lotion onto her hands.
The two assassins finished up in the bathroom in silence. When Clint was finished, he exited the room to quickly pull on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. By the time he was dressed, Natasha had reentered the bedroom with her red curls pulled up into a chignon and her face showing a hint of makeup.
"Ready?" he asked as he slipped on a pair of sneakers and stood up from the edge of the bed.
With a simple nod, Natasha reached for her jacket hanging off of the hook on the back of the door and then headed out into the hallway. Clint did the same and followed Natasha out into the hallway. Together, they waited for the elevator and then rode it down to the lobby to head to the SHIELD base.
Even though both Clint and Natasha had been on the SHIELD base since they'd been debriefed on the Monaco mission, the place felt like an alien planet to them. When they climbed out of the car, they received some strange looks from SHIELD employees. With a scowl, Natasha sent them running in the opposite direction as they cut through the base and headed to Fury's office.
The hallway that was home to Fury's office was eerily silent. Clint and Natasha wondered if the director was even on base. But they stood outside the door to his office for a couple seconds before Clint rapped his knuckles on the door three times.
From the other side of the door, they heard Fury's deep voice invite them in and Clint stepped forward to open the door. With an eerie creak, the door swung open to reveal Fury's office. The one-eyed director was seated behind his desk, hunched over a pile of papers and folders. There was very little light in the room, casting a ghostly ambience among the SHIELD employees.
"Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton, have a seat," the director said as he lifted his head and gestured to the two chairs in front of his desk.
The two SHIELD agents stepped forward and fell into the seats in front of Fury's desk. They sat in silence and watched with trepidation as Fury gathered all the papers on his desk and shoved them into folders. He straightened out his pile before glancing at each folder's tab.
"Agent Barton," Fury said as he handed Clint one of the folders. "Agent Romanoff." Clint and Natasha took their respective folders as flipped them open to see the breakdown of their next mission. "Your next mission," Fury stated bluntly as he rose from his chair. He clasped his hands behind his back as he started to pace around the room. "I know you've just been cleared by medical, Barton, but this takes precedence."
"You didn't seem to care when I was cleared by medical before sending me to Monaco," Natasha grumbled as she flipped through the folder.
"Easy, Agent Romanoff," Fury said. "I only did that because I figured you'd been punished enough and you must've been going stir crazy."
Natasha had to admit Fury was right. She had been going absolutely bonkers without a mission. She had been glad that Fury sent her on the mission in Monaco, but it was clearly a mistake.
"Anyways," Fury continued. "András Varga, an infamous drug dealer in Europe, has made it onto SHIELD's radar for embezzling money from corporate business owners throughout Europe."
"Okay," Clint said as he lifted a page to stare at the one behind it. "Why is this SHIELD's problem?"
"Two agents from the SHIELD base in London were assigned to this mission," Fury said as he paced around the room. His hands were still clasped behind his back and he was gazing anywhere but at his two agents. "They were asked to go undercover in one of the businesses Varga had been embezzling money from. The mission was a failure and Varga ended up getting away with five million."
"From which company?" Natasha asked, raising her head from the folder.
"Not from a company," Fury said as he stopped in his tracks and turned to face Clint and Natasha. "From SHIELD."
Both Clint and Natasha felt their jaws drop. Whoever this guy was, he was good. And whoever the SHIELD agents were that let him do this, they were idiots. It was clearly their fault that Varga got away with the money. But how, Clint and Natasha could tell that Fury wasn't quite sure.
"And we don't know how," Natasha said.
"Not a clue," Fury said as he shook his head. "The SHIELD agents that were assigned to the mission have been suspended indefinitely from the field until they are properly interrogated. It's quite possible they let something slip."
"But you're not letting this go," Clint stated.
"Of course not, Agent Barton," Fury said as he clasped his hands behind his back again and strode towards the archer. "Not only are we not going to let Varga get away with our money, but we're not going to let him get away with other corporate businesses' money."
"And what about the drug business?" Natasha chimed in. "Shouldn't we stop him?"
"One step at a time, Agent Romanoff," Fury said. "Varga is most likely using the embezzled money to fund his drug business. We've got to stop him from embezzling money and then we'll take down his drug business."
Natasha nodded and then turned her attention back to the folder in her lap. She'd managed to skim and scan the folder's files while Fury had been talking but not once did she notice the mission's destination. She'd noticed many different locations that noted where Varga had been when he'd embezzled money, but not once did she notice the destination for the mission.
Maybe it was undecided at the moment. Varga had embezzled money from several different places across Europe so Natasha figured they'd most likely get sent to wherever Varga popped up next. Maybe they just had to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. But she couldn't make these assumptions. She had to ask.
"Director, is there a destination for this mission?" Natasha asked. "I don't see one in these files."
With a sigh, Fury walked back to his desk and fell into his chair. He clasped his hands together and rested his arms on top of his desk. Even though the man only had one eye, his gaze was still intense. But there was still softness in there. It almost seemed like he felt…guilty.
"I trust you two," the director said. "You've been through a lot. New York wasn't easy on either of you and Romanoff going rogue in Rome didn't make things easier. Missions from your past haven't made this easy either. But I trust that you guys can do this despite your past."
"What are you saying?" Clint asked as he furrowed his brow in confusion.
With another sigh, Fury hung his head. His shoulders were hunched over and he looked genuinely sorry for whatever he was about to say. He lifted his head and stared intensely at the two agents in front of him. With one last sympathetic look, he took a deep breath and said, "Budapest. You're going back to Budapest."
Natasha heard a loud ringing in her ears and Clint felt his heart skip a beat. Both of them felt like they were suddenly welded to their seats and it was quite possible that their blood had turned to ice. Neither one of them could move. They were paralyzed with fear. There was no way this was happening. They couldn't be heading back to Budapest. Not after what happened the last time…
Suddenly, Natasha saw Clint rise from his chair out of the corner of her eye. She looked over at him to see him standing in front of Fury's desk. His hands were clenched into fists and his eyes were filled with rage. If Clint didn't know better, Natasha figured he would have punched Fury right then and there. Instead, he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, leaving Natasha to deal with the tragic news that they would heading back to the one place they both feared the most.
Angst! Drama! Oh my! Hope you guys liked it. Things are just getting started! Stay tuned!
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