A knock on the door drew her attention from the file she was reading, she looked up to see Steve poking his head in the door, a smile gracing his extremely kissable lips.

She shook her head, she hadn't kissed him like that…it had been Loki. Damn him!

"Hey there. How are you doing?"

She smiled warmly at him,

"I'm just fine thank you. How are you? Up for some late lunch? I'm tired of being cooped up in here."

He nodded and held his arm out, she took it and together they left her work behind.


She was unable to keep from laughing. Though her morning had been so bipolar, just sitting here joking around with Steve had cheered her up immensely.

He smiled at her over his glass of iced tea, and she melted again.

"Maybe we could go see a movie sometime? You've got a ton of pop culture to catch up on you know." She winked at him and he blushed.

"I don't suppose people go see movies on dates just to hold hands in the dark? Erm, I mean..." he broke off but she thought it was sweet.

"I bet they still do." She reached across the table to set her hand over his,

"But it's ok to hold hands in broad daylight too."

His fingers laced through hers, and as he set his glass down, and caught her eye, he said,

"You're truly something like I've never met before. So completely modern, yet willing to sit and listen to me reminisce. Do I ever become boring or tiresome?"

His eyes were sad, and they seemed to beg her not to say yes.

The truth was, she found his childlike innocence endearing, and refreshing.

She had no difficulty shaking her head.

"You're the amazing one. To be thrust into a world that has completely changed some would say, for the worse, but you seem to take every punch in stride."

There was that stellar grin again, and as he reached for his wallet to get the check, she didn't fight him. It was nice to be taken care of sometimes.


Her dreams however tended not to be quite as cheerful as her days. She constantly relived the battle with Loki, all the close calls with the Chithari, she re-imagined the way Steve and Bruce had found Iron Man, as she and Clint finding Steve unconscious, near death, underneath rubble downtown, his shield discarded who knew where. She knelt beside him, unable to find a pulse, and she looked up to see Loki grinning down at her, his voice echoing in her mind,

"Just me now. Looks like your precious Captain couldn't compete.

"Wake up, it's over." His voice changed, growing deeper,

"Wake UP!"

She sat up straight, the bed-covers whooshing back with the force from her awakening, and she turned to see Clint beside her, for real, in full uniform.

"Wha? What happened?"

"You were screaming 'No, Not him!'and thrashing around." He stepped back, glancing her over,

"You ok Tash?"

Her head fell into her hands, and he set one of his onto her shoulder.

"You were scaring your neighbors, and my knocking down your front door didn't even wake you? Maybe you need some sort of medication, dreamless sleep? Does Nyquil work for you?"

She looked up at him, her eyes bright through her mussed red curls.

"Seriously? You think doping me up is going to rid my brain of the nightmares?"

He cracked a smile,

"Worth a shot."

"Surely you're not just here to comfort my damsel in distress problems."

"We have a new assignment. We're escorting Tony to his L.A. branch of the Stark Expo. Fury wants to keep a semblance of a team, and make sure Tony doesn't cause too much trouble. We're more like assisting him." Clint shrugged, and he grinned again, as she groaned in frustration.

"Can't Pepper handle that?"

"Apparently he distracts her too easily." He smirked a bit.

She rolled her eyes.

"Alright, let me just pack a few things."

"Meet cha downstairs Tash, in say 20 minutes?"

She nodded and ran a hand through her haphazard red curls, her mind rapidly running through her meager wardrobe.


A/N: The quality of the story and plot may take a turn for the worse as this last half of the story was written during a dry spell. Rather forced if you will. But I just had to finish it.