Sorry for the delay but this is the longest chapter yet and the action is hard to write hence why it's so long! Thanks so much for your reviews…
Natasha took several plates over to the sink as Clint brought the empty coffee cups leaving the rest of their party to their lively debate as to what was better, guitar hero or Mario Cart.
As he came up behind her he noticed her dumping the full contents of her wine glass down the sink quickly as she rinsed the plates.
"Why aren't you drinking?" He whispered to her as she jumped slightly glancing at him in a little annoyance.
"I don't feel like it ok alcohol police?" She said defensively and he rolled his eyes taking a step back from her, recognising a 'step away from me' when he saw it.
"Okay guys you want the full tour now?" He said clapping his hands together.
Natasha loaded the dishwasher as Clint took the avengers on a tour of their new home. It had several levels accessible by stairs or an elevator, it had a fully equipped gym, complete with sparring ring (of course) and a large swimming pool which had been installed especially for Natasha who loved to swim after missions.
Pepper sat up on the counter as she watched Natasha fuss around the kitchen.
"This place is incredible, I cannot believe that Clint managed to make sure Tony kept his mouth shut about it for so long." Pepper said, amused.
"Yeah well the threat of an arrow will always do that I guess!" Natasha said as she closed the door of the dishwasher and it gently whirred into life.
"It's pretty cool how all the power and such is self contained." Pepper thought out loud
"I think if Clint had really gotten his way there would have been a moat of hot lava around the place too." Natasha said smiling as the guys returned from their tour.
"This is really great Clint, really," said Bruce ringing his hands together.
As Clint began to speak Tony cut in saying "well yeah thanks I do believe that my ideas where…" he stopped looking at Clint's narrowed eyes.
"I'm sorry, I have issues…" Tony said looking at the floor.
"Thanks for coming all of you really, and you're welcome here anytime obviously." Clint said being the gracious host as they made a move to leave.
Then there was the usual procession of manly hugs, handshakes, kisses for Pepper and Natasha and of course a gentlemanly bow from Thor just for good measure as they all left. Natasha went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. Clint was silently watching her until Jasper confirmed they had left the perimeter which he then armed for intruders.
"So…you're pregnant?" Clint said as Natasha stopped what she was doing and spun around to face him.
She nodded at him and hung her head. "I'm sorry.." she said softly. His expression changed at her words and he went to her putting his arms around her. She struggled at little bit but eventually let him hold her.
"Why would you be sorry?" he said holding her tightly.
"Well it's not exactly something we planned is it?" She said into his chest.
"No.. but it's definitely something I want." Clint said firmly pulling back from her slightly to look into her eyes.
"Really?" She said incredulously as if she couldn't believe anyone would want her even after everything.
"Of course - in fact, I think we should get married." He said impulsively and she threw her head back with laughter.
"Oh sure, yeah." She said slightly mocking him until he dropped to one knee taking her hand as if to prove just how serious he actually was.
She looked at him with soft eyes and said, "Clint you don't have to do this just because I'm pregnant you know, it's not the 50s." she reassured him.
"I know that - if this was just an impulse then I guess I wouldn't have one of these.." he said pulling a small red velvet pouch from his pocket and offering it to her.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the beautiful diamond solitaire ring inside of the pouch.
"If I was going to show you the receipt I have for this ring you would realise I bought it a few months ago." He said triumphantly as she stared at him open-mouthed.
"I was trying to find the right time, right moment and plan this whole elaborate thing but you know looking at you now, knowing you're carrying my child - none of that really seems important. I feel like I should just tell you what's in my heart. You are the only person I have ever loved and I will love you forever - now our love has made this little person," (he said placing his hands on her still flat stomach) "and I know that my love for you is only going to grow stronger." He said, his heartfelt words bringing tears to her eyes once again.
"That was so beautiful - my answer is yes." She said kneeling down to his level and kissing him urgently before pulling back to look at him seriously.
"There's something else I need to say. I refuse to fail as a mother Clint, I won't let this child think for one second that I neglected it or doubt my love. So I have to leave SHIELD - if Fury will let me. The Avengers, obviously, are different but this life isn't something I want our child to be caught up in or become a victim of." She said firmly. She wanted everything to be different now, as normal as it could be for their child - the most precious child in the world.
Clint nodded acknowledging her and then he said something she never expected. "I feel the same Tasha, I can't be away from you and our baby knowing how much is at stake. We'll talk to him together ok?"
She kissed him again as he picked her up, her legs locking around his waist as he carried her away.
She woke later to see him packing his mission bag. She sat up in their bed and watched him for a second,
"What's going on?" She asked.
"I'm sorry baby I've been called in. Not sure what it is yet but it's come directly from Fury apparently, highest priority." He said as he stuffed the last item into his bag before zipping it up.
He moved around the bed to her and sat down, taking her hand.
"While I'm gone I want you to go back to the tower and stay alright? I need to know you're safe while I'm gone, especially since I don't know how long I'll be away." She rolled her eyes and looked away but he cupped her cheek with his hand gently bringing her face back to look at him.
"Hey, I know we need to talk to Fury but I promise we'll do it once I'm back ok?"
"That's not why I'm pissed, don't treat me differently now that I'm knocked up." She said frowning.
He chuckled softly, "Well I'm sorry but I'm afraid I have to. You are the most precious thing in my life and I have to know you're safe if I'm going to concentrate on this mission. Now don't make it a thing, for once let me be the guy and worry about you?" He said looking into her eyes.
She softened and reached out to hug him, needing that contact with him to say what she was feeling. He rubbed her back soothingly before laying her back down and tucking her in as she smiled at him.
"Now go back to sleep and promise me you'll drive back to the city first thing in the morning." He said as he kissed her hand.
"I promise you." She said reluctantly. Her reward was a warm kiss from Clint before he left the room gazing at her longingly before closing the door. As he drove away he hoped it wouldn't be too long before he saw her again.
Natasha rode the elevator to her floor and got off to silence. It was still pretty early in the morning so she planned to stow her gear and join the others for breakfast.
She entered the code to her room and opened the door.
"Lights please Jarvis" She requested as her eyes came to rest on her bed. She smiled and blinked furiously to avoid letting any tears fall as there, on the bed, was a single rose and a faded T-Shirt belonging to Clint.
She shook her head at his sentimental gesture - he really was the girl of the relationship…
That night she slipped into his t-shirt breathing in his scent as she lay down to sleep. Her hands came to her stomach still not quite able to believe there was a baby in there and so instead of her customary tears she went to sleep thinking about what their future might be together.
"Hill, be straight with me, how bad is it?"
The brunette sighed and looked up from her screen, "Basically it's turned into a complete and utter clusterfuck." Hill said plainly.
Natasha stood in SHEILD's Command Centre with Hill and Nick Fury as news filtered in regarding Clint's mission. Natasha had been summoned there in the middle of the night to be told that some intel had been leaked and the supposedly friendly contact Clint was hooking up with was actually working for the enemy.
They'd received no radio contact from him in some time and it was safe to assume he'd been captured by the person he was trying to take out. A German arms dealer named Geiger. Clint's mission brief had been to take him out as he left a meeting in Berlin but now they had satellite photos showing an unconscious Barton being shoved into a car and taken to a high security compound outside the city.
Hill had shown the photos to Natasha as part of the briefing and she had never had such a strong urge to be sick in her life.
She had waited patiently to speak to Fury who had been talking with two other agents and now she was through being patient.
"Sir? When am I going in?" She said to him plainly.
"You're not just yet Agent Romanoff - the best thing would be to go back to the tower and wait for further intel.."
"Excuse me sir but are you referring to the intel which placed Agent Barton in harm's way? Because if it's all the same to you I'd rather go in blind than on bad intelligence." She said coolly.
"You are way out of line Agent. I know he's your partner but I cannot risk putting another Agent in the field without having an idea of what they're going into. We don't know anything about this compound or what's in there. How can I send you in there for Barton when for all we know he could already be dead."
Natasha shoved all of her emotion away as hard as she could. She was not even going to entertain that notion even though she had to admit it was viable.
"Then I will return to the tower and await further instruction, thank you Sir. Agent Hill." She nodded an acknowledgement at her fellow agent and did not wait to be dismissed before leaving the room.
Fury gave Hill a look that said uh oh as he watched the door close behind her. Natasha hurried to the elevator and brought out her cell phone. Pressing one button she was connected to the tower immediately.
"Jarvis, please have everyone assemble in the common area immediately, Agent Barton's in trouble."
After Natasha had explained what had happened to her assembled colleagues she was met with a flurry of questions and hushed them with her hands.
"Ok guys that's literally all SHIELD knows. Stark, do you have any leads on this Geiger?" She turned to Tony who was perched on the edge of the sofa.
"Yeah I know the guy, outbid him on a few defence contracts back in the day and he was not greatly impressed. He's a little bit of a psycho and then some."
"That's good, we can work with that." She said pacing back and forth in front of them.
"Uh, how's that good?" Bruce said nervously after raising his hand.
"Because the good thing about psycho's is that their weakness is generally…that they are psycho's." She said plainly.
"Listen, I'm going to Germany to get him back thus pretty much marking my card with Fury this time. If any of you want to sit this one out I would completely understand." She said waiting for any further comments from the team.
Thor stood up, "if Barton was here, I doubt very much he'd be afraid of the task ahead. I'm in, of course."
Bruce and Steve nodded their approval as Stark stood up. "Well I guess I'm in because, let's face it you need my intel, my toys and the awesome lethality that is.. Iron Man. Let's suit up, meet back here in 30 minutes for wheels up, we'll formulate a plan on the way."
Everyone nodded and went to disperse.
"Guys…thank you." Natasha said sincerely as they all nodded at her.
"Come on Agent Barton, all I want are a few names. I know you are conditioned to withstand this pain but you know I might keep going indefinitely just for the hell of it. Sooner or later everyone talks."
Clint was groggy and disorientated. He had smelt a rat in this mission from the start and had resolved to kill the mark and get out of there by his own means as he felt SHIELD's had been compromised.
As he waited on the opposite rooftop to wait for his mark, crouched in readiness with his bow drawn he felt a sharp pain in his neck. As he blacked out he realised he'd been shot by a tranquiliser dart.
The next hour or so were blurs of him being bundled into a car, where he drifted in an out of consciousness, and was finally transported to what seemed like some kind of military compound, heavily fortified on the outskirts of town.
In his current condition he had no chance of overpowering his guards and particularly as he appeared to have a large metal spike lodged in his side which the guard took great delight in twisting periodically in an attempt to extract information about the rest of the Avenger's whereabouts. The whole operation had been a ruse by this Geiger to gain information about this unique group to be used to his advantage.
"I told you, I don't know who they are, I only met them the once and you can kiss my ass if you think I'm telling you anything." He said laughing knowing for the most part he held all the cards, except for the torture thing.
The guard left muttering something in German giving Clint a chance to lie back and assess his current situation. The wound in his side was oozing, although he didn't think it had hit any major arteries or organs he was sure loosing a lot of blood which he thought to himself could be a problem if he wanted to, you know, not die.
He closed his eyes and pictured her face looking up at him as he felt unconsciousness coming over him again. Man was she going to be pissed….
On the plane, a few minutes out from their destination the rest of the Avengers had formulated a plan, it wasn't very scientific but it was pretty much just shock and awe, grab Clint, more shock and awe.
Natasha sat alone and tapped her foot impatiently clad in her black mission suit. Tony slid over to speak to Bruce in a hushed tone of voice.
"Listen man, she looks a little unglued. I need you to promise me something. If things go bad in there, I mean if it's already too late for Barton, we can't let her go loco. One of us has to get her up and out of there. We can deal with the fall out later."
Bruce nodded understanding what he was driving at, "I think the 'Other Guy' should be able to handle that."
The pilot announced that they were about to reach the drop zone. The helicopter flew in a few feet off the ground as they all jumped off about a mile away from the compound.
They made their way silently through to the woods to the perimeter fence before separating. Natasha crouched down and cut a small enough hole in the fence for herself to slide through. Then she slithered across the ground and put her back to the wall, drawing her gun.
"Ok everyone, all kinds of hell about to break loose in 10 seconds…" Tony announced over comms.
Natasha took a deep breath as her thoughts turned to her baby. She closed her eyes momentarily apologising to it for any harm she was causing it. "I have to get your Daddy back…trust me."
"1..." BOOOM! Natasha ducked as bits of wall flew past her and the guards started to go bat shit around her. When the dust cleared Stark had blown her a nice sized hole in the wall for her to crawl through and she did just that into a storage room. She opened the door the tiniest bit to peer outside and observed guards running up and down shouting commands.
She wasn't great at German but it seemed to be something along the lines of intruders, perimeter breach etc.
"Alright Black Widow, our guy is being held 4 rooms down on your left, 2 guards with him, one outside the room all armed with what look to be nothing bigger than 9mm.
"Copy that Stark, on my way. Captain?" Steve was making his way through the guards in an adjacent part of the building with Thor and the Hulk pretty much laying the place to waste.
"Rolling to you Black Widow, we've got you covered." Steve confirmed.
Natasha threw open the door and took off running towards Clint's room.
The guard outside saw her coming and drew his gun but before he could fire she threw a small knife at him hitting him in the knee, then she leaped onto him and broke his neck with her bare hands.
There was a commotion inside the room and the door flew open along with a hail of gunfire aimed at her. She stood to the side letting them run out of ammo and then one came out only to be thrown to the ground by Natasha who shot him in the head for good measure.
She peered into the room and saw the other guard holding a knife to a still unconscious Clint's throat.
"Move and he's dead," the guard threatened.
"I don't think so." said Natasha shooting the guard in the knee who cried out in agony dripping Clint back onto the table he was tied to.
Natasha holstered her gun and kicked the guard's weapon away. Then she took up his knife and stood behind him holding it to his throat.
"Look at him.." She commanded as he struggled. "That man is going home with us and he is going to be the last thing you ever see." She said venomously as she slowly slit his throat and pushed him to the floor.
She dropped the knife and breathed heavily. "I have Barton, I need some help to get him out." She said into her comms.
"On our way." Steve said back.
"Clint!" His eyes opened and shut as he came to and there was the Black Widow. He mumbled incoherently as she impatiently shook him. Giving in she slapped him hard across the face.
"Ahh, ok, ok." He said waking up a little more and coming to his senses. "What are you doing here? Are you nuts?" He said totally relieved to see her yet really pissed at her.
"You're welcome by the way, oh jeez is this bad?" She said gesturing to his side as she untied him.
"I don't think so." He said wincing as he pulled the spike out slowly, throwing it to the ground. As she watched him do it she wanted so badly for him to hold her, to kiss her but they weren't safe yet. They still had to get out of there.
She helped him up to stand as he breathed through the pain and slung an arm around her shoulders. She took the dead guard's gun and extra ammo giving it to Clint as she left him against the wall to check the hallway. He heard a lot of commotion outside and wondered if he could summon the strength to shoot his way out of there.
"How are we gonna get out of here?" He said to her, she turned to him with a smile.
"I brought some friends…" she said. He smiled knowing who she meant and heard crashing coming in their direction.
"In here!" she shouted into the hallway and stood in front of Clint to shield him. Suddenly he saw a flash of green as the Hulk made a new exit for them in the wall.
"Nice.." Thor and Captain Rodgers followed taking Clint by each arm. He was reluctant to go with them as now he couldn't see Natasha.
"She is right behind us my friend, Stark is still in there as well. I will return to help her but now we must get you to safety." Said Thor in a commanding voice.
Still somewhat reluctant to leave her in there but unable to struggle against them Clint found himself being dragged out through the whole left by the Hulk towards a waiting plane. All the while he heard shouting, gunfire and the sound of explosions coming from the compound.
Steve laid him back against the bunk covering him with a blanket and restraining him as he tried to get up.
"You have to let me go back there for her you don't understand.." he said weakly.
Thor jumped back out of the plane and ran back to help the others. Steve shielded his eyes after a somewhat naked Bruce Banner had just boarded the plane looking a little dirty.
"You are no use to her like this, let her deal with it, she'll be ok. She can handle it" Steve said soothingly.
"No Cap please, you don't understand…she's pregnant. Please go and get her." The Captain and Bruce's astonished faces watched Clint's anguish as he finally passed out from the pain and blood loss.
Bruce had shrugged into a flight jumpsuit and was now setting out medical supplies, he looked up at a still stunned Steve and said, "Go and get her, I'll see to him.."
The Captain had jumped from the plane before Bruce had even finished his sentence. He went to work setting up an IV for Clint trying to process the magnitude and possible repercussions of Natasha's decision to come after him.
His thoughts turned back to the one woman that he would have moved heaven and earth for her, now lost to him forever.
The Captain found Natasha battling with several armed guards that he helped her take out, "Come on, we're out of here right now." he said taking his life in his hands by grabbing her arm.
"No I have to get Clint's bow back, " She said forging ahead and shaking out of his grasp.
"You are kidding me, forget the bow and let's go!" Thor slid into the room breathlessly, "We must flee this place, there are too many of them. Stark has ordered an air strike and it will be here any moment."
Still Natasha tried to surge forward and Steve couldn't take it anymore. Knowing that Thor was a lot stronger than even he was he ordered, "Thor, throw Natasha over your shoulder and put her on that plane right now!"
"Wha…" Natasha stared at him in disbelief when she was suddenly turned up side down and found herself looking at Thor's ass as he sprinted towards the plane with the Captain following close behind.
"Missiles in bound, is everyone clear?" Stark said over comms.
"All clear and on board, we'll see you back at the ground station Stark." the Captain replied as the back door of the aeroplane shut behind him.
Thor put Natasha down only to be thanked by a strong right hook.
"Don't you EVER do that again." she said, eyes flashing with rage.
"That's what happens when you're not straight with us Natasha, Clint told us about the baby and he asked us to get you out of there." Steve said a little more harshly than he had intended as her mouth fell open at his revelation.
"We'll be at the field hospital in 20 minutes." He said a little more quietly sitting down beside Thor who was rubbing his jaw.
Natasha knelt beside Clint taking up his hand as Bruce took his blood pressure. She looked up at him silently asking how he was.
"He's ok for now, everything's holding steady. I've given him some morphine for the journey and then we'll get a better look when we reach the hospital. I don't think any of his organs were damaged but he's lost a lot of blood. He needs a transfusion sooner than later, do you know his blood type?
"It's A positive," she said quietly. Bruce nodded and got up to speak to the pilot. They needed to call ahead and make sure the blood was ready as soon as they arrived.
Natasha lifted his bruised knuckles to her lips and kissed them softly. "You better not leave me now Barton, not now…" she buried her head on his chest and began to sob quietly letting all of the emotions of the past 24 hours soak the front of his suit.
Thor nudged the Captain, having missed an important part of the conversation and whispered, "She is with child?"
The Captain nodded and looked back at her with pity.
"She is a strong warrior indeed." Thor said with admiration.
Hope you like it and that I did ok with the action scenes….I think one or two more chapters will bring us to a good conclusion.