"You need to get up!" he said to her seriously.
"Well that's just inspirational," she retorted.
"They're coming and you need to-" he started, almost shouting now.
"It's not like I'm crouching on the floor for kicks!" she replied, shaking her head with a duh kind of feel to it.
"Natalia-"
"Yeah not the best way to start the motivation."
"You need to move!" he shouted.
"Fine," she scoffed, and pressed her hands against the ground, trying to lift herself up. But moaned at any movement at all.
"Slowly," he told her, gentler this time.
She took two short breaths, closed her eyes, and pressed. She pushed herself up in one rapid movement, leaning on the soldier who was either dead or unconscious. She gasped, and tensed her whole body once standing, and let out a series of loud whines.
"Well done," he said to her sincerely, as she hobbled her way over with the shady looking crowbar thing.
"Just call me batman," she said with a smirk, while attempting to free him by twisting different parts of the locks on his chains.
"How are you going to walk with that?" he gestured to her injury. "Let alone fight with it."
"I was kinda hoping you would carry me bridal style," she chuckled.
He smiled at that too.
"Well one thing you must know about me by now, Agent Barton. Is that I'm a brave girl. And I don't go down without one hell of a fight."
The locks suddenly clicked loose, and Barton brushed the chain off his shoulders.
He grabbed his shirt from the floor where the soldiers had thrown it, and put it on again.
"Well let's go get them then," he said.
She hooked an arm around his the back of his neck, and they made their way over to the door to check for soldiers.
She positioned herself behind him, and he craned his head around the doorway.
"See anything?" she asked him in a whisper.
"No," he told her. "And I can't hear them anymore either."
"We gonna chance it?"
"I don't see what else there is to do," he said to her, apprehensively.
He gave the hallway one more look, and then pushed her along beside him.
And they made their way, stumbling quickly, down through the darkened passage.
"How far is the entrance?" she asked him, finding it slightly hard to keep her composure as their stealthy pace made her wound throb angrily.
He sighed heavily, always making sure to look around as they shuffled through the building. "Far," he added. "We're on the third floor."
Eyes like a hawk, she thought to herself amusedly.
"I'm flattered, Agent Barton."
"About what?" he asked, confused.
"You felt that it was necessary to take me all the way up to the top floor, just to keep me from kicking your ass and escaping," she explained, raising an eyebrow.
He snorted. "Yes, you're-"
There was a muffled sound of mumbling and the ringing of footsteps nearby.
"Damn it!" he said, looking around the place desperately.
But there was nowhere to hide.
"Okay," he breathed, suddenly taking her into his arms. She yelped at the unexpected movement.
And then he went on, but in the direction they had come from, hoping and hoping that they might have missed some door or something.
"You know, when I said bridal style, I didn't think you'd actually do it," she told him with a laugh, while she shook in his arms as his legs got faster.
"You're not the slightest bit worried?" he asked her curiously, almost feeling his own arms shake, with adrenaline and fear underneath her.
"Not necessarily. I'm a good actress," she explained.
"There!" he said suddenly, racing over to a narrow little staircase which seemed to lead up to a balcony overhead.
He climbed the stairs, incredibly wary of anything coming behind him.
He saw that it was nearly demolished when they got to the top. Half the bannisters at the edge were missing, and the wooden boards creaked alarmingly underfoot. Falling through the floor was about the last thing they needed right now.
There were crates in the corner, containing hell knows what, but at least they'd be safer than being out in the open.
He laid her down gently, but noticed that her breathing had quickened, and that even in the blackness, he could see her skin had gone paler.
"You okay?" he whispered as quietly as he could.
"Tough girl, remember?" she told him; even though sweat was dripping down her face, and the bleeding round her middle had gotten worse.
She tried to straighten herself up, to lean closer to the wall, but hurt herself more in the process and couldn't suppress the moans.
Barton nodded at her sympathetically, and placed a hand carefully over her mouth because all of a sudden he could hear the echo of soldiers again beneath them.
"есть пошел," he heard, and really hoped that she could hear it to, because no doubt the translation would be helpful to them.
"как?" he heard, like someone in a temper.
"они все мертвы, и заключенные как-то сбежал."
"блин!" someone shouted. "вне сейчас."
And then a sigh, and then the footsteps moved away.
Both Clint and the Black Widow waited some moments, before the silence was so deafening that they had to be gone.
He took his hand away from her mouth, and asked: "you get any of that?"
"The general jist," she told him, slumping back, and breathing heavily.
He pulled himself up to a standing position.
"What did they say?"
"That those guys I beat the crap out of are dead, that we've escaped and-"
She coughed.
"That they're all meeting outside."
Barton nodded, and offered her his hand.
"What's our next move?" she asked him, struggling to get up.
"We get the hell out," he stated.
"Right, genius. But how?"
He looked around.
"Does that corner over there seem infinitely brighter than the rest of this place to you?" he asked, pointing to the other end of the balcony.
She glanced at him, confused.
He walked over to it, and pulled back a yellowed sheet of paper sticking to the wall.
"A window," he said to her, gesturing.
She joined him.
"So that's how much scumbags we're dealing with," she stated, looking out at about twenty men on the doorstep.
"I sure like those odds," Barton said.
"Definitely," she agreed.
"Well since they're all outside, there's nothing stopping us from bringing the fight to them. You got any weapons left, other than your necklace?" he said jokingly.
"Well I would have, if you hadn't taken it from my underwear," she smirked.
"I've got a couple things outside."
"Hold on a second," she started, shaking her hands in front of him. "You felt that it was necessary to take me all the way up to the top floor, give me a full body pat down, and hide just-in-case-she-kicks-my-ass-and-escapes weapons outside?"
He smirked.
"Low self esteem much?"
"Maybe I just overestimated you," he said playfully.
"Oh I highly doubt that," she retorted.
"What do you think they're all doing outside anyway?" he asked her, seriously.
"Probably calling for backup. These guys may be powerful, but they're easily intimidated."
"Is that another one of your 'I read people' strategies then?"
"Careful, Barton," she said pouting her lips and raising her eyebrows. "You don't want to get on my bad side."
And even then she was irresistible.
They headed towards the exit, the Widow still supporting herself on Barton.
"What kind of weapons?" she asked him.
"Bow and arrow," he replied.
"What are we, in Middle Earth?"
"Hawk. Eye. The name kind of implies."
He laughed.
"Relax, I've got your precious underwear knife out there too," he said with a smile. "And I've also got a gun."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. model?"
"Yeah."
"I'll be better off with a stick to defend myself."
They came to a corner where they could just about see some traces of moonlight streaming through the open door. And they could hear the soldiers talking, and lighting cigarettes together.
"Where did you put them exactly," she asked him.
"Around the back, behind some bushes."
"Great," she said sarcastically. "Someone's gotta be bait. And since I'm not going to get very far with the whole I'm an archer thing, I'll distract them."
"What? No. You're the one who's injured."
"Awww, you really care that much about me? S.H.I.E.L.D. really needs to work on making its agents just a teeny bit tougher."
"Fine. You go. But it's a stupid plan."
"Relax," she said, over emphasising it. I'll run around in circles until you find your Robin Hood toys. Then you go all macho on them. Or as macho as a guy can be doing a Katniss Everdeen impression."
She raised her eyebrows at him, and he looked down at the bleeding from her wound.
"Plan?"
"I think that we should-"
"Show time!"
And just like that she was gone.
"суки!" she shouted, strutting right down the middle of the doorway. Holding herself upright as best she could. Catching them completely by surprise.
And as always, that's exactly what the Black Widow wants.
Barton stared at her for a few moments, just in surprise, as she beat the living daylights out of these 'trained killers', despite her wound, which he she was managing unbelievably well.
He found that not many people could surprise him. And she had done it twice now.
Not bad, he thought to himself. Not bad at all.
And then of course he remembered what he was actually supposed to be doing.
He slithered from the corridor, past the front door, to the walls along the outside of the building, watching her fighting them from the corner of his eye.
It was harder to see because it was darker now, but he soon made out the hiding spot, and bent over in the blackness to collect up all the weapons.
He slid Black Widow's knife into the pocket where his had been, and attached the gun to the strap at his waist. Then took his beloved bow into his arms.
Black Widow had knocked down ten of the soldiers at least by this point, but they were past the initial surprise by now, and had gathered up guns and other weapons from their trucks.
But the Widow still fought on, the world getting a little dizzier and less clear every time she got hit. The wound on her stomach oozing a little more red.
And she didn't know how much longer she could-
"Need some help, Miss Romanova?" a familiar voice asked, his form just a shadow atop one of the soldiers' trucks.
"Don't get cocky, Barton," she called to him, but she suddenly felt so much more... She didn't know what.
All joking aside, Black Widow had never seen a better archer in her entire life.
His arrows rained down on the remaining soldiers until all there was left but two.
She smiled up at him for a moment, as he leaped down from the vehicle and-
Thud.
And she was on the ground-
And she couldn't move-
And they were coming for her-
And-
Clint ran over to the Widow as she collapsed onto the ground, and fired two last arrows to finish off the soldiers.
He knelt down by her side, and she was still breathing.
And what do I do?
And what do I do?
He scooped her up into his arms and placed her in the truck.
And the only thing he could think about was her.
Author's Note: I promise, guys, chapter 4 will be the holy grail of answers! If anyone has any suggestions or opinions about the story so far, or anything you feel I should include, I would love to hear them. Thank you so much to all the people who have favourited/followed this story so far, and a very special thank you to all of the reviewers:
Widow306: I'm really glad you're still enjoying it, it's been such a pleasure to write, and to hear opinions from all you guys, and I'll update A.S.A.P.!
AthenaMay24: That is really uplifting to hear, thank you! I was kind of unsure about chapter two because I was stepping out of the existing Marvel universe a bit, and doing my own thing. Natasha is such a badass, and I think its pretty much a crime not to put your all into her as a character, so it's really nice to hear that you think I'm doing her justice.
Marvel-comic-girl: Thank you so much! Hopefully updating will never take too long.
Lelylith: I'm so glad you liked it! As I said above I was kind of unsure about chapter 2, so the positive feedback is incredibly inspiring.
FunkyBubble14: That's the fun for me really, getting to decide why Clint and Natasha are the way they are. It's like getting to write the equation for their characters in Avengers. I'm really glad that you like it so far, and I hope I don't disappoint!
Liz: So sorry I didn't add you to this list in the first place. I think you sent your review in just as I published chapter 3! But thank you for your lovely comments, and I hope the story continues to be to your liking!
See you soon for chapter 4! (Spoiler: it's the let's share our pasts chapter!)
Imagine88 :)
