Set after 2x15 – "One Door Closes"


Bobbi helped Agent Calderon down the hall of The Playground's entrance from the hanger, his right arm around her shoulders, his left hanging limply at his side. She'd been able to triage his wound on the Quinjet they took back to base, but there were almost definitely splinters of wood left in the gash and it was likely to be infected if he didn't get proper treatment soon.

They walked together past the lab, where everything was much busier than it had been in weeks, and continued on to the medical area where Mack was still being monitored for his concussion. They came through the doors, Jemma spinning around as they did. Bobbi kept her eyes averted from the scientist's face as she detailed the extent of his injuries and the cause. Her eyes only flickered up when she mentioned Skye's involvement and Jemma gasped softly, her eyes widening before her professional façade returned.

"Don't worry, Agent Calderon, we'll get you all fixed up," she said in a mockery of a relaxed tone; it was over-bright and far too cheery.

Bobbi walked over to Mack's bed as Jemma took the man over to an empty cot. The man was simply lying, staring at the ceiling, though he glanced over at her as she came up to his bedside.

"How are you?" she asked, struggling to keep her voice from sounding strained.

"Been better," he grumbled. "You seen Fitz around?"

She shook her head. "Not since I came in. We only just got back."

"Did you get Skye?" he asked, and Bobbi had a hard time deciphering his tone. It could have been eager or wary or apprehensive, or any combination of the three.

She shook her head again. "She got away, the same as her father – with the man who can teleport." Bobbi neglected to mention Skye's use of her powers. She really wasn't in the mood to debate with Mack and was very sure that if she said anything about the girl's (seemingly unintentional) attack on them she wouldn't hear the end of it until she left. Besides, the shockwave might have thrown her back, but the bruises wouldn't be anything more than would have come about from a usual fight.

"Shame. We could have used her ability."

Tired and overwrought, Bobbi fought her instinct to flinch at his callous tone and nodded silently. She was loathe to debate semantics with the man, but Skye was far more than just her newfound ability to shake the ground – or the air, apparently.

They were silent together for a few moments, Bobbi's gaze drifting over to where Jemma was cleaning out the gash on Calderon's shoulder. Her body still ached slightly from the electric shock Jemma had sent through her, but at the same time Bobbi couldn't help but feel proud of the younger agent. Jemma Simmons had come a long way since going undercover at HYDRA.

"You look exhausted," Mack said, interrupting her thoughts. Her eyes flicked back to him and she saw he was smirking.

"I feel a bit worse than that," she replied, forcibly drawing her lips into a smile. "Nearly forty hours awake with no rest will do that to you."

"You should go to bed."

Bobbi opened her mouth to argue, but no words came to mind and she was left staring dumbly at him.

"You got debrief?" he asked when she didn't answer.

"Did it on the plane," she replied. "Video link."

"Then get your sorry ass in bed, Bobbi," Mack advised. "No one's gonna need you for a while now Gonzales has taken over operations. They're still sorting out all the equipment and transportation, and nobody's going out on missions of any sort for a time. Take a nap, and I'll let anyone know where you are if they need you. Good?"

Bobbi shook her head to get her mind back in gear and nodded to Mack. "That sounds like a really good idea."

"I've been known to have them at times," he replied.

She laughed, a grin forming on her face. It was almost like old times.

"You'll send someone to get me if I'm needed?"

"Cross my heart," Mack said, drawing an invisible "X" over his heart with a finger. "Now go get some rest. You're dead on your feet."

And sweaty, and starved... She added in her head, but outwardly she just nodded again, whispering a quiet "Thanks" to the mechanic before exiting the medical area and going to her room.

After a lengthy shower in the adjoined bathroom during which she probably used all the hot water in the base, Bobbi was feeling much more like herself. Her mind was busy and various thoughts swirled around behind her eyelids when she let them close, the activity keeping her from relaxing fully into sleep.

Instead she grabbed a protein bar from her stash in the bedside table drawer and pulled out her phone, contemplating it for a moment. On one hand it would be nice to talk to Clint, and he would want to know she was okay after her last call, but at the same time she wasn't sure she was ready to bare her soul as she knew would happen if she called him up. Had Hunter been there she would have invited him over for the night and locked up her other emotions behind passion and lust as she usually did, but that wasn't an option, not with Hunter MIA. Or AWOL, she wasn't sure what escaping from a joint organization of an organization one didn't even work for qualified as.

She slid her finger over the screen where Clint's number was displayed proudly and hit the green "call" button before she changed her mind.


Clint picked up the phone on its second ring, sending an apologetic look to Natahsa, who waved him off.

"Talk to her," she said, taking a sip of alcohol most people would agree was far too strong for six-in-the-morning shots. "She probably needs you more than I do right now."

The archer had told her the extremely rough outline of what his quasi-sister was going through, and it was obvious she would need his support, especially after the call she'd shared with him earlier that day, in the early hours of the morning. The Widow might have been scoping out potential hideouts for the Winter Soldier, aka Bucky Barnes, in Vermont and New Hampshire alongside Captain America and the Falcon, and old, unpleasant memories might have resurfaced, but she was Russian she told herself, and she could handle waiting a few minutes longer to share her tales of woe.

"Calling me again, so soon?" he asked, trying and ultimately failing to put a light tone in his voice. Her last call had been less than six hours earlier, and he knew sometime in the last six hours shit had hit the proverbial fan. He was partially grateful she was calling him back so soon – she had to know he was worried about her – but he suspected she would be utterly exhausted.

"Need an outlet," she murmured, and it was obvious she was bone-tired.

"Sounds to me like you need a nap."

"That would be nice, too," she agreed, "But my mind won't let me do that for a while longer."

Clint understood. There had been many times he had returned from an undercover op, too tired to move, but unable to relax fully, his senses still alert for any sign of movement, any trace of a sound, any hint of deception apart from his own.

"Anything you've been cleared for that you can get off your chest?"

"Not as such," she said with a sigh. "But I know how to complain about coworkers without giving out names."

He laughed along with her and the tension was lifted for just a moment. "You've certainly had enough practice."

"Not my fault," she shot back, though not with her usual sharpness. "I'm just the one who gets stuck with all the assholes."

"Have you met Tony Stark?" he asked, and he heard Natasha's laugh from the other room.

"Are we talking about how he's a jackass?" she called over, her voice steady despite the amount of alcohol she'd consumed.

"We are!" he shouted back, and he heard Bobbi's chuckle on the other end of the line. "Anything to add?"

"Meh, that pretty much covers it," she said, entering the room with her glass held between two fingers. "Though I'm always happy to insult the man of iron. How did you and Bobbi get on this topic?"

Clint put the phone on speaker and set in on the coffee table. "Frustrating assholes of colleagues."

"Ugh. Don't even get me started," Natasha moaned, knocking back another swig of the vodka.

Bobbi chuckled again, and Clint smiled.

"Anyway, who's the jerk of a coworker, Bobs?" he asked.

Bobbi groaned. "He thinks he's the only one who knows how to get anything done, and questions every single instruction. He's a bigot and, for some reason, thinks he's above everyone else in our group. And he tried to take out a target instead of bringing her in."

Clint met Natasha's eyes and nodded shortly at the same time she did – both of them heard the vernacular of a SHIELD agent slip into Bobbi's words, and he wondered just who she was working for.

"Did he compromise the assignment?" Natasha asked, looking interested.

Bobbi was silent until she took a deep, shuddering breath. "Well, she got away…"

"But," Clint prompted.

"But there was a part of me that wanted her to escape. She- we were friends until we- I-"

"Until you betrayed her," Natasha threw in, not knowing all the details, but easily connecting the dots. "You still felt a responsibility to her."

"Yeah," Bobbi affirmed, "She was like a younger sister- I'm still not sure how to feel."

Her voice broke and though Clint noted the past tense and wanted to ask about this "adopted member" of their little family, he knew it wasn't the right time to ask.

"Sometimes you never figure it out," Clint said, sinking back into the couch slightly, his arms crossed over his chest. He shot a glance at Natasha, but the redhead had her eyes fixed on the phone on the table.

"And sometimes you never need to," she said, draining the rest of her glass. "Which makes the whole situation either simpler or infinitely more complicated. Good luck, Bobbi."


"Thanks," Bobbi replied, feeling awkward. She hadn't expected Clint to keep her situation from Natasha, but that didn't mean it wasn't strange to hear the older woman's remarks. Her tone of voice spoke of experience and lots of it – more than Bobbi could ever hope to have, not that she wasn't experienced in her own way.

"Anything else bothering you, little bird?" Clint asked, his voice distant due to the fact the phone had been put on speaker.

She had no idea how to answer that question. There were so many things running through her head, not least the events that had led up to her joining and founding the "Real SHIELD". Fury's mission for her, Hartley's gung-ho attitude about killing HYDRA agents, the debate between herself and Gonzales about whether to sink the boat or not – the memories of SHIELD's fall were coming back in waves, nearly (but not quite) drowning out the betrayed looks of Coulson's team, the disappointment expressed by May, and the brief shot of fear that had filled her when she had seen Calderon's loaded pistol that most certainly wasn't an ICER.

"I've been thinking about the fall," she finally said. It was a relief to know neither of the people she was talking with needed that explained. "About Fury, about SHIELD."

"Fury gave you a mission too, did he?" Natasha asked, sounding unsurprised. "Good to know he trusted you, Bobbi. Though you didn't have to chase the "Star-Spangled Man With a Plan" all around the East Coast, did you?"

"Not quite," Bobbi said, feeling a smile pull at her lips. "It was more of a suicide operation, really. Rescue Commander Gonzales before HYDRA could get their hands on him and take out the Iliad, the cargo ship he was commanding, before HYDRA could get their hands on SHIELD's weapons. Thankfully, the op didn't go quite as planned."

"Thank god," she heard Clint mutter.

"Gonzales was good," Natasha affirmed. "He rose to Commander relatively quickly. He was determined and driven. It's nice to know he's still alive."

Bobbi murmured her assent, not wanting to give too much away. She wasn't sure how Clint and Natasha would respond if they knew about what was going on, but she knew both of them had strong ties to Coulson in the past, not that they knew he was alive again.

"Has it calmed down on your end?" Clint asked, a hint of his concern leaking into the question.

"For the most part," Bobbi said, running a hand through her hair and wincing at the aches in her muscles. "It's bottomed-out for the most part, but at least things are looking up from here on out."

She deeply.

"Bobs, you sound exhausted," Clint noted with a stern edge to his voice. "It's still early – get some rest."

"How would you know what time it is where I am, birdbrain?" she asked.

"I have my ways," he joked, though the seriousness returned when he spoke again. "Seriously, little bird. You sound beat. Take a nap or something."

"You're the second person to tell me that today," she murmured, eyes sliding despite her blinking to keep them open.

"Then maybe you should follow my advice."

"Mhmm."

"I'm hanging up now, Bobbi-" he started, before he was cut off by Natasha.

"Bobbi, I might not know exactly what's eating at you, but I can definitely empathize. If Hunter's out of the picture, find someone else to believe in you. It'll make all the difference."

She thought of the news articles released shortly before HYDRA's takeover – rumors of the Black Widow and Captain America as fugitives from justice – and of Natasha's defense of SHIELD at Capitol Hill before she disappeared off the map, apparently to live with Clint. Bobbi smiled, realizing just what Natasha was saying.

"Thanks Natasha," she said, fighting another yawn. "I'll be sure to get on that."

Farewells were said, and Bobbi stared at the phone for a couple of long minutes, her eyes unfocused and her eyelids weighing heavy as her arms and legs felt. She yawned again, deeply, and forced herself to get off the bed and turn out the lights, easily making her way back to bed in the dark. She placed the phone on the bedside table and pulled the duvet up over her chest. Relaxing into the bed, it only took her a minute or so to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.


You guys asked for more Natasha, so she showed up! ;) This chapter was a bit darker, mostly because the episode was a bit darker, so there wasn't as much banter between Clint and Bobbi, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. These three all have a similar foundation in my opinion, and I loved writing them together, even if it was kind of difficult for me to get Natasha's voice/words right in my head. Here's hoping she sounds "in character"! There was a bit less phone conversation, too, but the first part of this fic couldn't be taken out no matter how hard I tried. Lol. My brain sometimes...

And I threw in the bit with Jemma and Mack in an effort to keep myself from writing a meeting between Bobbi and Jemma when she returns, but I could easily write another. Would any of you be interested? I'm always full of ideas... I'll also be posting a oneshot based on the promo for tonight's episode ("Afterlife") where Skye meets Lincoln, so if you're interested, just pop on over there!

Also (slightly shameless plug), if any of you have a tumblr and want to join in my liveblog of tonight's episode, I'm "dancer4813" on tumblr, and at 9/8 central I'll be starting a liveblog of the episode - hope to see you there!

Keep giving me ideas for future oneshots, and I'll keep compiling a list to write!

Thanks, as always for reading.

Until next week,

~Dancer