Natasha shifted on the bed and looked up at him, one eyebrow raised. "Is everything okay with you two? Did something happen? Are they all okay?" she asked quickly.

Clint sighed softly. "Yeah, Nat. They're all fine. I promise. And nothing happened with Laura and me per se…" He rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how to put it into words.

"Clint, I don't understand what you're saying," she said gently.

"I know. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to say this so that it all makes sense. I was planning on talking to you about it after I'd planned what I was going to say," he admitted. He paused for a moment and thought before speaking again. "They aren't mine. I mean, Laura isn't actually my wife," he finally said.

Nat blinked once at him, her mind immediately going blank. She had to have heard him wrong. Clint had introduced her to Laura years ago. Of course she was his wife.

"Okay listen, back when I joined S.H.I.E.L.D, I took some time off to go looking for Barney. Coulson excused the time off and even let me use some of the division's resources. I didn't find Barney. Instead I found that farmhouse with his family: Laura, Cooper, and Lila. They hadn't seen Barney in over a year. Lila had never even met him. She was just a baby at the time. Laura didn't know where he had gone or if he was coming back. She hadn't gotten any word from him since he disappeared. I came back and told Phil I was going to help them and stay in contact with them whether he approved or not. So we sat down and he agreed to set up their house as a safe house that would allow me to go out and visit whenever I got the chance to. The problem is that S.H.I.E.L.D safe houses are only for use by agents and/or their immediate family. So Coulson fudged some paperwork, Fury approved it, and nobody ever asked any questions since it mostly stayed out of files. I wanted them as far away from all of this shit as possible and they respected that. When I took you to meet them, it was all still new and S.H.I.E.L.D didn't exactly trust you quite yet so I was under orders to keep the story up. But I wanted to take you anyways because you needed family. You needed another woman in your life. You were in a low spot and needed to see some kids that would love you and never ask where you came from. After that…" he shrugged a little, "I kept the story going. Fury was very clear that the more people that knew about them, the less sure we could be that they would be safe. So I kept it a secret. Then I took everyone back there after we took that hit from the twins and you know I couldn't tell this whole story to everyone. At least not right then and there. Fury would have had my head. It took me this long just to convince him that you should know." He sighed softly and ran a hand through his hair tiredly before looking at her. "Sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

She looked at him blankly. Her mind was moving a mile a minute trying to catch up. She had so many questions she didn't know where to start. "Okay. Okay but what about Nathaniel?" she finally asked after a long minute of silence.

He nodded a little. "Nathaniel… Nathaniel is the best possible outcome of a mistake I shouldn't have made." He tried to put it delicately.

"So he is your son." It wasn't really phrased like a question. Just a confirmation of what he'd said.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "He's my son. None of us has seen Barney still since he left all those years ago."

She nodded slowly as she processed. "So you're not married, you have a son, and you still don't know where your brother is."

He nodded back. "That's about it. Do you have any other questions you want me to answer?"

"Yeah. Nate… what, I mean, how-" she tripped over her words, unsure of how to phrase the question without coming off as too nosy.

"What made me decide to sleep with my sister-in-law?" He interjected, saving her from asking the question.

"Sorry," she cringed a little as he said it out loud. "That's none of my business. You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"No, no its okay. It's a fair question. Vodka. Vodka made me sleep with Laura," he said softly, running a hand through his hair, his face tired. "Look, the truth is I was having a rough time of it. We both were. Coop was having a hard time at school, Lila had been sick, and Laura was feeling like she was failing her kids. Meanwhile, you were on that mission in Turkey that Fury wouldn't let you tell me anything about. I was worried sick. We put the kids to bed and sat on the porch with a bottle of wine, just talking. The wine turned into vodka, the night got blurrier, and the next morning…" he shrugged a little. "The rest is history I guess."

She listened to him explain, nodding slowly. "I remember that mission. You were acting weird when I got home."

He nodded. "Yeah. After that whole ordeal, I decided I wasn't going back there. I would keep sending money, but I couldn't keep going there and staying, pretending like I had a family, playing house with Laura. That is, until she called to say she was pregnant. I wasn't going to leave my baby without a father. I've seen what that did to Cooper and Lila and I know what it did to Barney and me. Laura and I had a long hard conversation where we decided what to do. She wanted me to keep coming for the kids too. She wanted them to have a male presence in their life. So I kept going. It's been hard to explain to the kids, but I think we're past it now. And I've got a son." He shrugged with a smile. "So it's not all bad."

She smiled back a little. "So Cooper and Lila know then? That you're their uncle and not their dad, but that you're Nathaniel's dad?"

"Yeah. Cooper's old enough to remember Barney before he left, and Laura and I never wanted to lie to Lila. Lying to your kids never works out well in the long run. They know Nate's their brother and they love him. The 'half' doesn't seem to matter to them."

She let out a low sigh and shifted in her position on the bed, relaxing a little as she soaked in everything she'd just learned. "That's a lot to take in," she said softly.

"I know. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier," he murmured lowly as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm not mad, Clint. I would have done the same thing. You have to protect your family. They come first. Always," she said, reaching over and taking his hand gently.

He smiled a little and closed his hand around hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Thanks, Tasha. For being so understanding," he said genuinely. "Laura said you would be, but I've seen you angry before. Been on the receiving end of it more than once. I wasn't looking forward to the possibility of being in that position again."

"You talked to Laura about telling me?" she asked, looking up at him a little.

"Of course. I wanted to warn her. Besides, she'd the one I talk to about things when I can't talk to you." He shrugged slightly. "She wants you to come visit, by the way," he added, looking down at their hands, still intertwined, resting on Nat's knee.

"She does?" Nat sounded surprised as she looked up at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Of course she does. You're part of the crazy, messed-up, Barton family, Tasha, whether you like it or not. Laura loves having another girl to talk to, Lila needs an aunt like you to teach her how to handle herself, and Coop tells me every time I show up there without you, that you're way cooler than me. And he's right." He smiled softly. "They love it when you come around."

Nat looked away from his eyes and blinked quickly against the unbidden tears glistening in her eyes. "Thank you," she murmured softly a minute later. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt like she had a family. Sure, she considered the team to be her family. They were the closest thing she had. But having a home she could go to and be welcomed with open arms by a couple of kids calling her "Auntie Nat"? That was priceless and Clint had given her that.

He smiled softly, rolling his eyes a little as he let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into his chest. "Oh hush, you." He chuckled a little. "Don't go getting all sappy on me now. Just a couple of hours ago you were yelling at me, remember?" he teased gently.

She let out a watery chuckle into the soft fabric of his t-shirt and sniffed a little before pulling back, wiping quickly at her eyes. She hit his chest with a closed fist, no real heat behind the hit. "You can't say something like that and expect me not to react."

He chuckled a little, rubbing at his chest as if he was deeply wounded. "I'm going out there tomorrow for Coop's birthday on Saturday. I told them I'd bring you so you'd better get some sleep tonight or you'll be exhausted all weekend."

"I'd love to sleep, but I've got this annoying partner that likes to sit on my bed and talk for hours on end." She smiled, her green eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Alright, alright. I can take a hint." He grinned, holding his hands up in mock surrender as he stood up off the bed. "Get some sleep. We roll out tomorrow morning."

She nodded a little, still smiling softly. "Goodnight Clint," she said quietly.

"'Night Tasha," he said, one foot out the door, "love you." With that, the door closed behind him and he was gone.