Chapter 9:

To say that Director Phil Coulson was angry was an understatement. He was furious that Clint Barton had gone behind his back and had given Ward a photo of a pregnant Skye. Hell, he'd have been furious if it had been an old picture of Skye. Sure, Hydra had known Ward's infatuation with Skye. This was just giving the group something else to worry about Hydra finding out about.

"What were you thinking?" Coulson asked during the debriefing.

"I was thinking that he deserved to at least see that she was all right." Barton stands up for himself. "If that had been me out there with everyone thinking that I'm a traitor including the woman that I love, and Natasha had been in Skye's shoes, I would have at least wanted a photo to prove that she was all right."

"Don't bring me into this," Natasha Romanoff pipes up from her position leaning against the wall. She wanted to stay as far away from this. In fact, she wasn't sure she wanted to be here when the smoke cleared.

Coulson looks between both agents. "If it had been you two it would've been different. I would've known for sure that I can trust you two. How do I know that Ward isn't going to turn around and give this to Hydra?"

Natasha moves towards Coulson. "Hold on now, you are not going to accuse him of that. This is where I draw the line. Sure he's fucked up and he has emotional issues, but that doesn't mean that he's going to turn around and put the woman he loves in danger. If I trust him then that better damn well be good enough for you."

"That girl, Simmons, she trusts him. You can see it the way she acts. She's more comfortable around him." Barton adds.

Coulson thinks for a minute. Fitz-Simmons had taken Ward's betrayal hard, especially Fitz. Fitz still believed that Ward was one of the good guys, despite the evidence that was piled on top of him. Simmons on the other hand had instantly condemned Ward after hearing the news that he was Hydra. For her to trust him after everything was a big step.

"Simmons is young and naïve." Coulson tries.

"Don't play that card," Barton groans. "You said the exact same thing to me when I brought in the infamous Black Widow. Now she's considered to be a hero."

"Romanoff is a special case."

"Yeah well so is Ward," Natasha scoffs. "This is exactly the same problem that the old Shield had. There was no trust system what so ever. If this is what the new face of Shield looks like then I'm out. As soon as Ward is back and safe, I'm taking him and myself out of here."

Natasha walks out of the room, slamming the door behind her. The two agents left behind didn't say a word for a couple of minutes. For Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, to have an emotional outburst such as that was unheard of to everyone except Clint Barton. Both men knew that she meant every word that she had said.

"I'm going where ever she goes," Clint says after the pregnant pause. "If she says that being apart of this new Shield isn't in her best interests, then I'm going to say it's not for mine either."

"Where will you two go?" Coulson asks. "You two are fugitives from every government after your Shield files were leaked. Shield is the only place that can offer you complete protection."

"Yeah, but how long will that last? How long will it be before you begin to question our loyalty to Shield?" Clint stands up, sighing heavily. "We've known each other for a long time, Phil. I just hope that when the dust settles, you are happy with the decisions you've made."

Clint walks out of the office in search of Natasha. He finds her in the gym, furiously punching one of the punching bags. Instead of bothering her, he lets her get out her anger. When she is like this it's better to leave her alone rather than confront her.

Heading to the rec room, he spots Skye asleep on the couch. Her head is resting on the young Fitz. Both look as if they had been crying heavily. Clint looks at the TV where the menu for Pitch Perfect is playing. Though he hadn't seen it, he knew that this wasn't a sad movie. Searching further into the situation, Clint spots a framed photo in Skye's hand. The picture was of Skye, May, Coulson, Ward, and Fitz-Simmons.

He knew how hard it was when your team was separated. For years he had been apart of Strike Team Delta. He loved being apart of it. The team was made up of Clint, Natasha, as well as Jordan Levitt- a brilliant tech who was promoted to be the head of Shield's tech department before it's collapse- and Colin Brenner- an agent that was Clint's old partner before Natasha. The four of them worked on several missions together up until the Battle of New York. Ever since Shield's collapse, he hadn't gotten in touch with either of them.

"Wake up," Clint said, gently waking the two.

"Whaaaa?" Fitz asks, sleepily rubbing his eyes. "I'm awake."

"You two should head to your beds. Sleeping on the couch will just give you a back ache in the morning." Clint says.

Fitz nods before turning to the still sleeping Skye. "Skye, wake up."

She slowly rises up. Her eyes open, blinking rapidly. "What's going on?"

"We fell asleep on the couch," Fitz tells her. "We need to go to bed now."

"All right," she gets up only to fall from drowsiness.

Clint catches her, holding her pregnant form to his body. He turns to the young scientist. "I've got her, you head on to bed."

Fitz nods before heading off towards his room, leaving Skye with Hawkeye. Clint wraps an arm around her waist, leading her towards her bedroom. Skye leans into him, enjoying the warmth radiated by his body.

"The shitty thing about being pregnant is you get hot then you get cold." she tells him. Every few words are broken up by yawns.

"Wouldn't know, being a male and all, I don't have to worry about getting pregnant." Clint said.

"Yeah but if you get Black Widow pregnant..." her voice trails off as she realizes that she might've gone too far.

Clint pauses for a moment before sighing. "Nat and I aren't like that. Even if we were...kids aren't in our future."

Skye shrugs. "You never know. I never planned on having kids, but look at me now."

"You didn't plan for it though," Clint reminds her.

He kicks open the door to her room. Carefully he tries to move them around to where they don't step on any of the clothes and other items that were in piles on the floor. Her room was a mess. Clint's OCD itched at him to at least figure out some system of organization for this mess. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he laid Skye down on the bed.

"Doesn't matter, if it happens then it happens. There isn't anything you can do to change that." She turns over on her side, falling fast asleep immediately.