PRESENT DAY: KENNEDY CENTER
The double date was going about as well as Katherine had expected. Her and Drew, Jensen's brother, had run out of things to talk about by the time the appetizers came. It wasn't that she hadn't tried. She'd even worn her favorite maroon cocktail dress and heels for this. And she'd tried small talk, but their interests differed vastly to say the least.
At least now they didn't have to force conversation. They were free to sit silent in the theater and pretend the other wasn't there. Except Drew didn't pretend like she wasn't there. Despite their disastrous attempt at communicating, his hand found its way to her knee halfway through the first act.
She almost jumped at the contact and was trying to figure out how to remove his hand without disturbing the people around them when her work phone buzzed in her bag. Saved by SHIELD. She'd silenced her personal cell but kept her SHIELD phone on in case they needed her. She was never happier to get a call from work while off duty.
"I've got to take a call," Katherine whispered, standing and letting Drew's hand fall from her leg.
An usher led her to the nearest woman's restroom, which was miraculously empty. Sliding the lock on the door, Katherine slipped on the earpiece connected to her phone and answered the call.
"Agent Lee," Katherine answered, pulling a small tablet from her handbag and setting it on the table in front of the sofa. With a touch of a button a light atop the tablet projected a keyboard on the table.
"KitKat," Clint responded, causing Katherine to smile at his absurd nickname for her. "There's my favorite tech genius. I've got something for you."
"Give me a minute, I'm working on a tablet in the woman's bathroom at the Kennedy Center," Katherine said as she attempted to access her desktop from the tablet so she could access whatever Clint needed her to see.
"Fancy," Clint said, glancing around the hovel of a hotel he was currently sitting in.
"Yeah. There's a lounge area with a sofa and a crystal chandelier. It's nicer than my living room." Katherine glanced up at the chandelier above her.
"So, what are you doing at the Kennedy Center?" He asked, leaning back against the wall.
"Angie roped me into a double date," Katherine admitted, typing in her passcode.
"Oh, sorry to interrupt." Clint sat up straighter at the mention of a date.
"Don't be," she muttered. Clint had saved her from making a scene and interrupting the production just because Drew wanted to use her leg as an armrest.
"Going that well," Clint smiled at Katherine's tone.
"It's with Jensen's brother."
"Enough said," Clint chuckled. Jensen didn't hold the most intellectually stimulating conversations. He could only imagine how his brother was.
"I'm in," Katherine announced when she finally connected with SHIELD's server. "What do you have for me?"
"What's supposed to be the coordinates to the next drop off location for a weapons trade, but it's encrypted. Nat couldn't even break it. I was hoping you could take a look at it."
"You called Nat before me. I'm a little offended," Katherine joked as she clicked on the file Clint shared with her. It pulled up a blue screen with a jumble of code.
"Actually, Nat and I are tag teaming this mission so she had access to it already." He'd never call anyone before Katherine. "So, what do you think?"
"I think you never make it easy for me," Katherine teased as she shifted through the data.
"What can I say, I like making you work for it." Clint's innuendo had her fingers hesitating over the table. She should be used to his flirtatious joking by now.
"Good thing I never back down from a challenge," Katherine shot back, her fingers flying across the projected keyboard, typing in her second language. The code kept changing right when she started understanding it, which should have been frustrating, but Katherine just found it exhilarating.
"Let's see if you can beat your record," Clint said, glancing at his watch.
"Do I get a handicap for working on a tablet in a bathroom?" Katherine asked, her eyes scanning the text.
"Don't insult yourself," Clint said.
PRESENT DAY: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
"There's no way you cracked this on your own," Nat said, handing the tablet back to him. "You called Katherine didn't you?"
Clint always called Katherine. There were at least two dozen data analysts working for SHIELD at the Triskelion alone and he always called Katherine. The girl was good, very good, but Natasha had a feeling he wasn't just calling for the tech support.
"Why do you think I couldn't crack it?" Clint feigned insult.
"Because I know you. And you've called Katherine over more mediocre things than this. So how is the illustrious Agent Lee today…or tonight in her time zone?"
"She was on a double date at the Kennedy Center with Jensen's idiot brother," he muttered, keeping his eyes on the tablet.
So he'd even called her when she was off the clock. And Katherine answered. Interesting.
"You've never even met Jensen's brother. How do you know he's an idiot?" Nat pointed out, playing devil's advocate.
"Look at him," Clint said, using a split screen he pulled up the picture he'd looked up when he'd talked to Kat alongside the file she'd cracked.
"Impressive," Nat murmured.
"What?" Clint said, glancing from the tablet to Nat.
"Not him, the fact she broke this code at the Kennedy Center probably only using a tablet and holographic keyboard." Nat said her eyes on the right half of the screen where the file was.
"Oh," Clint murmured, feeling a little better.
"Although he's not half bad," Nat added, mostly to ruffle Clint's feathers, turning her attention towards the picture.
"Okay, let's forget about the Mighty Duck wannabe," he said, canceling out of the picture. "What's the plan now that we know where the deal is taking place?"
"I was thinking we could go with 'fish in a barrel'," Nat suggested, laying back across the bed.
"Dibs on shooter. I was the bait last time," Clint agreed, sending Nat the coordinates before closing out of the file.
(SIX MONTHS AGO) SEPTEMBER 2010: TRISKELION
Agent Johnson wanted to see Katherine in his office. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been summoned to an unscheduled private meeting with her supervisor. The notice popping up in her email alerts that morning had her on edge, trying to recall anything she might have done wrong in the last 24 hours. She'd filed the paperwork for all her case files; she hadn't left any open. She had to use overtime to work on Agent Barton's file last night, but she'd gotten that approved. The only thing she could think of was someone had filed a complaint against her.
"Shit," Katherine murmured under her breath. She'd called Agent Barton an ass, while on the job. That was the definition of unprofessionalism. Not that he hadn't cursed as well. But she didn't file a complaint for it. Apparently Agent Barton had.
"What?" Angie asked, glancing at Katherine as she muted the com she was on.
"I have a meeting with Johnson," Katherine whispered back. Pulling her card from her computer, she straightened her blouse.
"Good Luck," Angie told her.
Katherine dragged her feet as she made her way towards Agent Johnson's office. Maybe if she apologized he'd go easy on her. Knocking softly on his door, she entered reluctantly when told to.
"Ah, Lee, come in, have a seat," Agent Johnson said, shoving some files into a cabinet before sitting at the desk across from her.
"I'm sorry sir," Katherine blurted out as she took a seat.
"You're sorry?" Agent Johnson asked, his eyebrows pulling together. "For what?"
"I didn't mean to call Agent Barton an ass. I know it was unprofessional—" Katherine stopped talking when Agent Johnson interrupted her.
"Lee, I brought you in here to talk about your application for Level 7."
"You mean I'm not in trouble for using profanity on the job?" Great, yet another 'foot in mouth' moment. Except this time it was in front of her boss.
"Apparently he didn't care. He didn't report you and I'm going to pretend you didn't tell me any of that," he said, sending her a conspiratorial look before shuffling through his papers. "I'm sure you're aware applications have been reviewed for promotion these past few weeks."
"I forgot, actually," Katherine admitted. She'd been so focused on her workload, she hadn't realized it was already review season.
"You've been doing great work Agent Lee, taking on more case-loads, putting in the overtime needed, and you close your files in a timely fashion, which is more than I can say for some of your fellow analysts," Agent Johnson pressed on.
"What are you saying sir?" Katherine asked. She didn't want to assume anything and go through the whole 'foot in mouth' thing again. It was embarrassing enough the first time.
"Welcome to level 7," Agent Johnson smiled, handing her an official document dated, stamped, and signed. "Take this to Marge in HR and she'll set up your new clearance level and ID."
…
"I can't believe I'm level 7," Katherine said, leaning back on her forearms, soaking in the sun on their lunch break. Angie drove them to the Mall and they were laying on the grass on one side of the reflection pool eating hot dogs from one of the many food carts.
"I can, you're a rock star," Angie said laying back to stare up at the sky through the trees.
"So are you," Katherine insisted, knocking Angie's leg with her foot.
"Yes, but I'm perfectly happy staying a level 5. Less responsibility. Less overtime. More fun."
"More time to stare at Jensen's butt when he trains?" Katherine asked with a cheeky smile.
"That's not the only reason I go to the gym," Angie defended.
"The other being I force you to go with me," Katherine said. "Speaking of, want to hit the gym tonight? I'm thinking yoga today."
"No. It may surprise you, but we aren't required to pass physical fitness tests to keep our jobs." Angie would never understand Katherine's desire to train when their jobs were far from physical and they weren't required to.
"I like working out. Besides, I'm thinking about getting field training," Katherine admitted, stretching out on the grass.
"This is the perfect example of why you're a Level 7 and I'm not. Why would you want to get field training?" Angie asked, turning her head so she could see Katherine's face. Being in the field would be terrifying, mainly because there would probably be people shooting at her with the intent to kill while she would have to remain composed and work on whatever technological thing needed solved.
"It sets me apart from other data analysts and will bump my application up whenever I go for Level 8 in the next 10 years."
"Ah yes, your big 10 year plan. Aren't you three years ahead of your 5 year plan?"
Katherine stuck her tongue out at Angie's comment and they both started giggling.
"So, gym after work?" Katherine tried again.
"Fine," Angie relented. "As long as we get drinks after. We need to celebrate the fact that you finally have a higher clearance level than most of the meatheads in Black-ops. I can't wait to see Rollins and Rumlow's face when I rub it in."
"It's a plan: gym, gloat, and drinks."
A/N I did not expect the response I got with the last chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who read the chapter, favorited/followed and reviewed. It means so much to know you really liked the story. Here's to hoping the second chapter goes over as well. I'm having fun writing this story, it's format is a lot different than what I usually write which is refreshing.
ALSO I HAVE AN INSTAGRAM FOR MY FANFICTIONS NOW WITH AESTHETICS: Gracelesslyfalling
Rach
xoxo