Natasha lied when she was asked how she spent the night. She didn't sleep at all, but kept her eyes shut the entire time. She had been haunted by memories that were slowly crawling back into her mind. All she could listen to was Russian dialect, gunshots and the voice of that man who was with her the whole time as they were doing experiments on her brain. Clint slept on the chair right next to her, awaking up in the morning with a back ache for sleeping in such uncomfortable position.

A nurse had come by and had freed one of Natasha's hands as she brought her breakfast- scrambled eggs, a glass of juice and an apple. Natasha was stirring the eggs in her plate. Clint's stomach growled, proclaiming his hunger, but he didn't want to leave the room, not until Natasha would at least take a bite of the breakfast.

"Stop looking at me like that." She asked him, not lifting the eyes from the plate.

"Then stop stirring the food and eat." He answered back. "I think the eggs are scrambled enough." Clint sighed. "Want me to free your other hand too?"

"No, it's not necessary."

"Then eat, Tasha. It'll only help you getting better."

She winced and took a forkful of eggs to her mouth, eating it very reluctantly. Clint rested back on the chair, holding his head with the tip of his fingers, watching her eating. They heard a knock and when Clint looked back, Tony and Pepper were walking in.

"It's the human-shaped asshole and Pepper." Natasha spoke, offering a mocking grin at Tony.

"You still remember me!" He answered back in the same mocking tone.

Natasha took another bite of the food and murmured. "Don't know for how much long, though…"

"Well," Clint said as he got up. "do you mind keeping her company while I go eat something too?"

"No, of course not, Clint." Pepper told him as she patted his shoulder.

He leaned over Pepper's ear and whispered. "She had her brain messed with again; be careful with what you say."

The woman nodded her head and watched Clint walk out the door.

"Good morning, Agent Barton."

Clint breathed thoroughly and looked at the man. "Morning, Duncan. I though you have gathered all the information to tell Fury."

"Yes, I've briefed in Director Fury and we've came up with some solutions we believe it'd be appropriate to tell you about. Can I join you for a coffee?"

He started walking to the hospital's cafeteria. "Do I have a choice?"

Once the two settled on a table in the cafeteria, Clint waited for Duncan to speak, but he didn't even say a word. "Can I know now about your solutions?"

"Two doctors that work for us are on their way here. We're going to submit Agent Romanoff to some MRIs and brain scans and we'll compare her brain activity with other exams we've submitted her in the past when we recruited her."

"Seems fine." He said. "What else?"

"I'll tell you about the further decisions once I know the results of today's exams."

"What a crappy cup of coffee…" Clint got up and told him. "A bit useless this conversation. I'm gonna get going."

When Clint returned to Natasha's room, she was alone. "They've left already?" She only nodded her head and looked down at her wrists, strapped to the bed again.

He took a seat at the edge of her bed, unstrapping her. "Two doctors from SHIELD are on their way here; they want to do you some MRIs and brain scans to know how your brain activity is. Try to collaborate with them, ok?"

"You know I'll do my best, Clint, but I can't make promises I'm not sure I'll keep."

He cleared his throat, finding no strength to comment on her remark. "When the doctors arrive, I'll go home and bring you some clothes. I'm pretty sure the doctor can discharge you by today; I really want to take you home, so you can be more comfortable. Besides, there's someone I want to introduce to you."

"Who?"

"My dog, Lucky…"

Natasha smiled. "You got a dog?"

Clint couldn't help but to smile too; after all, he was expecting some difficult times and seeing her smiling was something positive, not to mention something beautiful since he had not seen her smile in over a year. "I adopted him from the streets, almost blinded of an eye. I fed him some pizza, which wasn't that good, and he liked me."

"I bet you are as sloppy as the dog."

"It's a men's house!" The two laughed softly. A little knock interrupted their conversation. Agent Duncan stuck his head and signaled Clint that the doctors had arrived. The archer requested him a minute before leaving the room. "Well, I guess this is my cue to leave. I'll be back in no time." He leaned over her lips, giving her a slow kiss. "Behave, alright?"

Slowly the smile started to fade away from Natasha's features. She called him when he was about to leave the room, his hand already twisting the doorknob. "Clint?" He turned to face her; his eyes mirroring extreme patience. "Thank you for not giving up on me."

"You'd have done the same for me."

She only answered with a whisper when he left the room. "Yeah, I would."

The doctors entered, one of them carrying a clipboard. "Hello Agent Romanoff."

"Hello…" She answered, apprehensive.

"I'm sure Agent Barton has told you about we're going to do. First, we'd just like to ask you a question." One of the doctors began. "During this year, did you have conscious moments?"

"Yes. Not many, and they never lasted for much long, but I did had some."

The other doctor continued. "How did you manage to have those moments?"

"Eating little, sleeping even less… Whenever I ran my body to an exhaustion point, I'd break and I could barely have memories."

The two nodded as one of them scribbled her answer. Then they wheeled her bed along the aisles, taking her to the exam's room.


Clint didn't really take much long at home. He just fed Lucky, grabbed some clean clothes for Natasha and left right away. When he got back to the hospital, Natasha was still being examined by the SHIELD doctors. Steve was there at the waiting room. He explained to him about Natasha's current situation, the two chatted for a while more and then Steve left, feeling he was no use around Clint at the moment. And so he left the Agent waiting for two hours more until Natasha was brought back to her room.

Her eyes were closed and he wondered if they had to put her to sleep, but he soon noticed her eyes trembling and realized she was tired. He let her take her rest, all alone in the room when he came to meet with the SHIELD doctors. Agent Duncan didn't take his time in joining them too.

"So, what's the prognosis?"

"Her brain was messed very carelessly. Whoever did this was certainly not HYDRA." One of the doctors spoke. "They expected her to tell SHIELD secrets, instead they did much worst."

"How worst are we talking about?" Clint asked concerned.

"In a matter of one or two days she can remember only this past year, whatever they done to her. We've injected some radioactive markers to know-"

"Speak quickly and in English."

The doctor sighed; there no right words to tell him their conclusions. "If she receives certain stimulus, her brain can regress too much. It can deteriorate and only remember the time before she was recruited by SHIELD."

"You," Clint sighed and pointed his finger at Duncan. "what are the other further decisions?"

Duncan dismissed the doctors to speak privately with Clint. "The doctors have said it; in two days, she'll be raged and won't obey to any of our rules. If until then you don't manage to hold her on, SHIELD is forced to… put her down…"

Clint raised his fist and punched him right in the face. "Yesterday you wanted to wipe clean her brain and now you're already talking about putting a bullet in her head!?"

Duncan got up, squeezing his bleeding nose. "SHIELD will have no other choice. Everyone is well aware that if her brain deteriorates, you'll run off with her. We can't risk having her exposing information-"

The Agent was down on the floor as Clint, furiously and out of his mind, punched him again. "You're damn right I'd run off with her! Dare any of you to lay a finger on her." He started walking to the room. "I thought Fury trusted me."

When he opened the door, a doctor and a nurse were examining her. If he was tired of seeing doctors around her, he couldn't imagine how stressed she may be. "Doctor, can I take her home right now?"

"I don't see why not. Agent Romanoff is recovering very favorably. She just need to take the medication I'll prescribe her and then come in in about two or three days to change the bandages."

Clint dragged the doctor out of the room by the collar of the lab coat. "Prescribe her those meds, and you" He said pointing back at the nurse. "help her getting dressed."

"What the hell are you doing, Barton?" Natasha mumbled.

"The doctor said you're good to go home, so we're going home."


If anyone wants to punch Agent Duncan in the face, I'll make an arrangement. xD

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