I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

Not good. The Russians must have found out about Natasha already.

Clint pondered that thought as he watched the men enter the hotel suite. How did they find out about her so quickly? And how did they know she was here?

The mole. It had to be.

This was worrying. If they knew about this, they knew about everything. That made Clint's job a tad harder, but hey. He was always up for a challenge. He would protect Natasha at all costs, no matter what.

When the men were inside the room he remained silent, trying to listen out for others. When he heard none, he looked around the hallway.

There.

A supply closet.

She was not going to like this.

He turned around to talk to her and saw the fear on her face. It was gone in a second, but he still saw it.

"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly. Natasha looked at him as if he were stupid.

Ridiculous question.

"Alright, do you trust in my ability to keep you safe?" This time she looked at him differently. Hesitantly. Finally she nodded.

He smiled reassuringly. "Okay. Everything is going to be fine. I'm going to take care of these guys and then we're going to check out the rest of the hotel, but for now I need you to hide in that supply closet."

He pointed over to the door and Natasha glared at him. "Are you kidding me?" she growled quietly. "I can help you. I don't want to be a sitting duck."

"You won't be a sitting duck. And though I can admit you have skills, I don't know just how skilled these guys are, and I don't want to worry about you getting hurt. Please, just stay here for now. I'll come back when the coast is clear."

Natasha furrowed her eyebrows. "What do I do if they beat you?"

This time it was Clint who looked at Natasha like she was stupid. She shrugged her shoulders.

"They could be better than you."

He looked at her and grinned. "In the extremely unlikely event that I'm beaten, I want you to stay here until you hear agents coming to check it out. Now get in the closet."

He opened the door and Natasha glowered at him before walking in. He shut the door behind her and locked it from the outside. Then he went to check out the suite.

The men were efficient. They didn't speak, just methodically searched each area of a room, and then moved on to the next. Right now, they were searching the lounge and dining area. He had to act now. While two of the men were on the far side of the room, Clint ran up behind the third man, wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him to the ground where the shadows hid them. He used his free hand to muffle his yelling so he couldn't alert the other two of Clint's presence. After a moment the man stopped moving and Clint gently laid him down. The men started speaking as he was about to stand up.

"She's not here," one of the men spoke in Russian. Clint crouched down next to the unconscious man and listened.

"She has to be," the other man replied. "He said she was."

The mole, Clint thought to himself.

He needed to neutralise the threat and then find out what the hell was going on. Natasha needed to be taken somewhere else, somewhere secure.

He stood up and walked over to the dining table, positioning himself behind the men who were turned away from him.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked in Russian. The men turned around to face him, but didn't say anything. Instead they moved around the table in front of Clint and positioned themselves on either side of him. One pulled out a gun.

"You can tell us where Natasha Romanoff is," the man with the gun replied. Clint smiled.

"I can't do that. Orders," he said, shrugging.

The man with the gun moved forward – close enough for Clint to grab his arm and point it at the other man. He pulled the trigger and the man screamed, the bullet hitting his shoulder. While he was down, Clint focused on the other man who was trying to free himself from Clint's grip. Still holding on, Clint slammed the man's hand against the table and the man lost grip of the gun. Clint then elbowed him in the chest, causing the man to lose his breath. Clint added to the man's chest pain by kicking him in the ribs. The man fell to the ground and Clint grabbed the gun off the table, knocking the Russian and the base off the neck and causing him to lose consciousness.

While Clint was focused on the man in front of him, two other men had silently entered the room. Clint turned around and was hit across the face with the hand of a gun. He stumbled back, and the man who hit him used his foot to push the back of Clint's legs. Clint fell to his knees.

"Hands on your head," the man with the gun yelled in Russian. The other man came forward, pointing a gun at him as well. Clint slowly raised his hands, feigning defeat.

I could deal with them now and get Natasha to safety, but… If I stay down here and keep these guys talking, maybe I can get some information on who the mole is. I mean, seriously, they don't look too bright. Maybe something will slip.

By delaying his attack, he could get valuable information. He decided to wait a while before knocking these assholes out.

Natasha was frustrated. She'd picked the hand cuffs as soon as Clint had shut the door. Now she just needed a way to get out of this stupid closet. There was no way she was staying in here like some damsel. Hell no. She needed to be in on the action, show she was able to take care of herself.

She needed something to fit in the door lock and jimmy it around until the lock clicked. Shouldn't be too hard considering where she was. Surely there would be something in here that could-

Ah. Maybe that could do the trick.

"Where is Natasha Romanoff?" the man in front of Clint asked irritably.

"How did you find out about her?" Clint asked, and the man who hit him touched his gun to the back of his head.

"Do you not understand? You are not in a position to be asking questions, fool. Where is she?"

Clint almost giggled. These guys were asking for a whooping. He just loved it when people underestimated his skills. But he needed to hold on until he was sure that they wouldn't give up any information. So he buried the urge to spin around and beat the man senseless until the time was right.

"How do you know about her? How did you find her?" he asked again. The men both laughed.

"You think we're stupid?" the other man asked sardonically.

"Well, honestly-" Clint started, but was interrupted when the man he was facing toward was pushed to the ground from behind.

While the man holding the gun to his head was distracted, Clint swung his leg around and knocked him off his feet. He could hear the other man grunting, but was too focused on the man with the gun to see who had come in. Clint stood up, and so did his opponent, ready to fight. The Russian had brute strength, but that was nothing compared to Clint's skill. Clint easily beat the man with a few well-placed punches, dislocating the man's shoulder and jaw, and breaking a few ribs. He didn't want to kill him; he wanted these men to send a message to the mole that he was coming after him. He would do whatever it took to take the son of a bitch down.

While thinking this, he momentarily forgot about the other man until her heard someone slump on the ground behind him. When he turned around, he couldn't believe it.

"I told you I could help," Natasha said smugly. Her opponent was unconscious on the ground. It looked like his face had been thrown into a wall a few times. He wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

"What the hell… how did you get out? I locked the door!" he exclaimed.

Natasha smiled. "You left me in a supply closet. Luckily there was a clothes hanger handy. A little jimmying was all it took."

"Jesus Christ, Natasha. I told you to stay in there," Clint said quietly. Natasha glared at him.

"What, no thank you? If it wasn't for me, you'd be dead right now. Those guys were about to shoot you!"

Clint snorted. "Give me some credit. These men are idiots; they couldn't have killed me if I was tied upside down and hanging right in front of them. I was letting the bastards think they had me so I could try and get some information out of them!"

"How was I supposed to know it was all part of some stupid plan? You should have told me!" she shouted.

"Are you joking right now? You were supposed to stay in the damn closet so you were safe!" he shouted.

Natasha looked like she was ready to kill him. "Safe? What would I have done if they'd looked in the closet? I would have been easy picking. Let me remind you that I don't need you to look after me, I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself!"

Clint raised his eyebrows. "Oh really? Is that why I've bested you not once, but twice already?"

He saw Natasha's bunched fist fly towards his face, but he grabbed it in his hand before she made contact. "Case in point."

Natasha pulled back her hand and turned on her heel, her red hair flying. Clint followed her out of the room. "You, and this whole situation, are ridiculous. If you'd let me go, I would have been safe by now. Not here, left hiding away like some poor princess in a locked room."

Clint snorted. "In case you haven't realised, there are very, very few places you can hide where these people won't find you. You need me and the CIA to protect you."

Natasha laughed bitterly. "Are you serious? I was here a few hours and your mole put up a freaking homing beacon for those guys. You're putting me in more danger than anyone!"

Clint started to reply, but one second he heard the elevator doors open and the next, gunfire was upon them. He heard Natasha shriek and he tackled her, placing himself over her so she wouldn't be hit.

"What do we do?" she screamed, and Clint grabbed her. "You need to trust me," he yelled. She didn't look convinced, but Clint didn't give her time to argue.

Crawling to the closest room, Clint reached up and opened the door. He let Natasha crawl inside and then followed. Reaching to his belt, he pulled out a gun and started shooting the approaching men from the door entrance. From what he could count, there were at least eight of them. And that was probably just on this floor. He had no idea where all the agents were, but he couldn't dwell on that now. He needed to get Natasha to safety. First, they had to make it out of this hotel and to the car park.

The balcony.

"Go over to the balcony, see if there are any men outside," Clint instructed, and Natasha nodded. Clint took out a few shooters, but he was running out of ammo and there seemed to be more coming.

"There's no one out there," Natasha yelled from across the room. "Now what?"

Clint turned to her and smiled. "Time to make another escape, Romanoff!"

Natasha looked at him for a second. "Are… are you coming with me?"

She's frightened, Clint observed. And for good reason. These men were killers. And they were all after her.

He nodded, and relief washed over Natasha's face. He smiled. "Hold on."

He grabbed the side table that was next to the entrance and jammed it up against the door. That should give them a couple of seconds to get out. Clint heard the men approaching the door and ran over to Natasha, who was waiting on the balcony. He looked down. A couple of floors below, Paris looked as normal as ever. There was no evidence of what was going on inside the hotel.

Clint turned Natasha toward him and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'm going to jump down, and then you're going to hang off the ledge and drop, okay? I'll be right there to catch you."

Natasha simply nodded, and Clint smiled again. She was absolutely terrified, he could tell, but she would be safe to break down after they got out of the city. Clint climbed over the ledge and jumped to the ground floor, landing on his side in the bushes below. He had been taught in training how to jump from a distance, and this was as easy as it got. However, Natasha looked a little worried.

"I'm right here," Clint called. "You can do this."

He could hear banging on the door, and he started to panic. It looked like Natasha had frozen up. But she climbed over the ledge and worked her way down so she was hanging by her fingers. Gun shots rang out and she lost her grip, falling for the ground. Luckily, Clint was there as promised, and caught her perfectly. He stood her up and grabbed her hand, leading her towards the car park.

The car was right where he parked it, and the spare key was hidden under the muffler. Getting in, Clint and Natasha tore out of the park and into the Paris night.

So although these do don't get along too well, Clint can understand that though Natasha is this strong, brave woman, this is something she has never had to go through before, so we'll be seeing a little more compassion from him soon.

Also, Natasha is beginning to realise that yeah, maybe she does need a bit of help. And yeah, maybe she should give Clint a chance. He did after all just save her life.

I'm going to start working on a steady camaraderie, because in order for these two to get along and work together, they need to be able to trust each other.

The next chapter shouldn't be too far away i hope. Anyway, read and review, tell me what you think!