Clint was starting to think they were in trouble.

They had been following Bucky's trail for days, and someone had obviously noticed, because everywhere they stepped there was an ambush waiting for them. Hydra was apparently pretty intent on getting rid of the assassins on their tail, and they had come pretty damned close a couple of times. "Are you hurt?" he panted out as soon as they were back in their car.

"Not bad," Natasha hissed in response, which had definitely not been the answer he was looking for. "Bastards grazed me, that's all. You drive." She was already grabbing one of her spare shirts and tying it around her bleeding leg.

"You're sure you're all right?" It was a useless question, since there wasn't really anything he could do but drive. "I'm going to call Steve, tell him we can't risk following the trail directly any longer. We're pulling out."

He knew she would shake her head before she did it. "We can't leave Hydra chasing the Winter Soldier around the world, dammit! You know what might happen if they get their hands on him!" She sighed and wiped her bloodstained hands on her shirt. "We can't let this trail run cold."

"It's already cold," he responded, and caught the flash of understanding in her eyes.

"You think they're the ones leading us on," she breathed, tossing him a bottle of water and checking behind them for suspicious cars. "You think they're laying this trail."

Clint sighed. He wanted to find Bucky as much as she did, he knew how dangerous it was to have someone that dangerous at the mercy of Hydra, he knew what could happen if the Winter Soldier took control again. At the same time, though… "If it were me, I would have started laying a false trail as soon as I noticed someone was following me. We lost the trail back in Virginia, and we both know it. It's time to cut our losses and stop walking into traps."

"We did lose the trail in Virginia," Natasha admitted. "Maybe we can go back there, and find it again?"

Her face showed the chances of that idea succeeding, but Clint felt like he had to shoot down what little hope she had, and do it quickly before they got themselves killed for nothing. "They'll have wiped out the original trail, too. You know you would have done the same thing. They're leading us on a wild goose ch-"

The car hit something hard and unyielding, something that had loomed up out of the darkness with no warning. The windshield shattered immediately as their car and the black van that had cut them off careened off the road. Clint heard Natasha calmly call out for him to cover his face, and as he did he felt metal shards dig into his hands. Shit. Fuck and shit. Hydra had found them somehow. The trap they had been walking into since Virginia was snapping shut, now they just had to try to survive it.

The car rolled, something slammed into Clint's head, and all thoughts of false trails and the Winter Soldier were immediately replaced by surprise, pain, and welcome unconsciousness.