Author's Notes: Wow, family can be exhausting...and cumbersome. I squeezed this out while having a rainy day at the beach...oh well.

Very minor spoilers for The Bourne Ultimatum which I am now obsessed with and I can't wait till Bourne Legacy comes out...oh gosh.

Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, not much maybe just a small filler chapter.

Enjoy!

Later that night, Clint had left Natasha in her room to go pick up some food for her down in the cafeteria. Everyone was in charge of acquiring their own meals, so Clint figured that he would pick up some food for Natasha and him.

The food choice was limited. Tonight's choices were hamburgers and/or pasta with a few different sides. He took his phone out of his back pocket and sent Natasha a quick text.

To: Tasha

Pasta or Burger w/ a side of vegetables and fries.

-CB

Clint waited a few moments off to the side of the line and waited for Natasha's reply. The buzz a few minutes later confirmed his question.

From: Tasha

Pasta with a light sprinkling of parm. Cheese.

-Nat

Having Clint's suspicions being confirmed, he took his place in line and waited till he arrived at the front. He picked out a cheese burger for himself and Natasha's request of pasta. The desired side dishes were on his tray and he was almost out in the clear until Bruce stopped him from about halfway across the room.

"Clint! Hey wait up!" Clint froze in his spot and cursed silently to himself. Sure, he liked Bruce, he just didn't want anyone questioning him about what happened earlier, and he knew Bruce would be one to ask.

Clint turned around in his spot and met Bruce with a friendly smile. "Dr. Banner, fancy meeting you here…" he gestured to the cafeteria and continued to stand in his spot.

Bruce folded his hands together and looked at Clint with a curious face. "Hey, is Natasha okay? I…I heard what happened earlier. I read up on the situation and it was said the Deimos would kill its enemies by showing them their greatest fears." Clint sighed and looked at his tray of food.

"She's uh…she's fine. What did you hear exactly?" Clint was curious what type of story was circulating around the base.

"Oh," Bruce fiddled with his hands and thought. "Well, I heard that Natasha was interrogating Deimos—the one who tried to invade the base—and Deimos attacked her. Natasha collapsed or something and then you busted into the room and shot Deimos and then they tried to take Natasha but you stopped them." Clint reviewed the story in his head and nodded slightly confirming the story.

"Thanks for the concern. She's fine; I'm just bringing her some dinner." Clint gestured to his plate and nodded a farewell. He turned on his heel and walked back towards Natasha's room. As he was walking back, a few agents passed him in the hall and spoke simple 'hellos' to him. He tried to be as polite as possible, but the fact that they were already talking about the attack frustrated him. He shouldn't have expected anything less, but Clint knew that they were talking about what had happened more in depth.

Clint had stormed out of the booth as soon as Natasha had fallen to the floor. For all they had known she had been faking, but Clint had been up and out racing to try and get her out of that room. When they had gotten the door open he shot Deimos and then instead of rushing over to the monster to detain it, he ran over to Natasha to make sure she was okay, and when she wouldn't answer him he recalled the tightness in his throat from possible tears. He mentally scolded himself for not being more professional. And those were only half of his concerns.

What were they saying about Natasha was no doubt ten times worse than their relationship status and how Clint acted. Natasha Romanoff—the Black Widow—was supposed to be fearless, strong, and having been attacked by Deimos, the god/goddess of fear meant that she did in fact have fears and worries. Clint figured that all of the employees and agents were conversing among themselves what those fears very well could be. Any agent could pull her file and see information on Dreykov or her past—hell, they could find information on the two's partnership and info on the Loki interrogation.

Clint found himself walking faster until he practically passed their rooms. He back tracked and fished the key out of his pocket, balancing the tray of food in his other arm. The lock clicked and he turned the handle, pushing open the door.

Natasha was sitting up in bed watching a movie when Clint entered. "Whatcha watching?" Clint asked as he set the food down on the side table.

Natasha paused the television, smiled and looked at him. "The Bourne Ultimatum. It's my favorite one out of the three."

Clint climbed onto the bed and sat cross legged passing out food. "I didn't know you liked the trilogy. Have you read the books?" Natasha nodded as she put a French fry in her mouth. She swallowed and began to speak.

"Now Shhhh… I wanna watch this. Things are about to get tense. Bourne's trailing this guy with the last name 'Ross' and shit is about to go down. Get ready."

"Shit goes down this whole movie. I actually don't think there's a dull moment in this one." Natasha rolled her eyes as she reached for the remote and pressed play.

"Bourne should come work for S.H.I.E.L.D. They'd love him…" Clint stated after Bourne swam away through the water at the end of the movie as the credits began to roll.

"Too bad he's a fictional character Mr. Cross." Natasha stated nonchalantly.

Clint looked over at her in mock surprise. "Um, excuse me? Are you mixing me up with someone else here? My name is Clint Barton." Natasha giggled and playfully punched Clint in the arm.

"I know your name stupid! There's a new Bourne movie coming out called The Bourne Legacy with an actor that looks like you and his name in the movie is called Aaron Cross. Stop being a smart ass."

"Well how was I supposed to know who that was? I'm not psychic. Besides, I kinda like the ring that name has. Aaron Cross…I may have to use that one day as a cover name while I'm on a mission. Remind me of that okay?" He looked at Natasha and smiled. Clint reached over to Natasha and took her hand in his. All of a sudden, Clint startled like he had been in a dream and was just woken up. "Shit."

Natasha looked up at him with a concerned face. "Clint, is everything okay?"

Reeling back in his mind Clint searched for what he meant to tell Natasha hours earlier. "I meant to tell you. I ran into Banner…he heard what had happened."

Natasha paled at Clint's message. "How accurate?"

"Almost dead on. Tasha, I'm not worried about the whole thing, I'm worried that they'll read into this. People are nosy, what if they get their hands on your file? What if they start learning more about you so that they can play you… use your weaknesses against you?" Natasha was shaking her head in denial.

"They wouldn't do that. That kind of stuff is secret, it's protected."

"But what if Tasha? I need to know. Am I at risk of possibly being manipulated by some possible double agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D. who's gonna get me to kill you or hurt you?" Clint realized his voice was rising and looked at Natasha. She was shaking like she had been when she was talking to Loki.

"I—I—the Loki tape…that's where you come in…" She looked down at her hands in shame. Clint could tell she was trying not to cry. He brushed a piece of hair from her eyes.

"You do realize that nothing anyone could ever try and persuade me with—be it info about you or the best bribe I could think of—I would never kill you in any of those ways?"

Natasha looked up at him quickly. "But what if? What is Deimos has part of the Tesseract's energy in her weapon or something like Loki did? I mean—I know it's improbable, but after Loki, I have yet to rule out the impossible."

Placing his hands on each side of Natasha's face, he spoke firmly and caringly. "If she starts coming at me with a weapon of any kind, whether it be glowing blue of not, I'm going to get away. Ok?"

Natasha nodded her head. Clint reached up and kissed Natasha on the forehead. Clint pulled away and made to get off of the bed.

Before Clint could get more than a foot though, Natasha grabbed his wrist. "Wait!" Clint looked up at Natasha. "Will you stay with me tonight?" Clint started to object but Natasha continued on before Clint could say anything. "I know it isn't professional, and last night was purely accidental, but I don't want to be alone…at least not with Deimos in the vicinity or near the base."

Clint sighed and climbed back to where he was sitting before. He looked down at what he was wearing and sighed, looking back up at Natasha. He was still wearing his S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform with his S.H.I.E.L.D. issued jacket thrown over his shirt and vest. "Have you seen what I'm wearing? Let me at least go and change into some more comfortable clothes."

Natasha sighed and released his arm. "Hurry back though." Clint nodded and slipped out of her room to go and change.

Slipping back into his room, he dug in his drawers and brought out a pair of grey sweat pants and a loose fitting black tee shirt. He threw his gear on the bed and grabbed his key along with Natasha's that he had picked up from her room, and left his room for the night.

When he stepped back into Natasha's room though, he found her all cuddled up in the blankets sleeping. A small smile spread onto his lips as he pulled back the covers and climbed in next to her. He adjusted the pillow under his head and lay facing Natasha.

He sighed, taking in Natasha's breathtaking beauty. Her red hair fell across her eyes; her nose twitched from one of her ringlets tickling her it. All of a sudden though her eyes squeezed together tighter than they had been and her whole body tensed up. One of her hands was clasped to the edge of the blankets and was now balled up into a tight fist.

Clint reached up to touch her rub her shoulder in comfort, but her eyes shot open at the slightest shift in the mattress. A hand slid out from under her pillow with a small knife clasped in her fist. Clint jerked back with sudden alertness. He caught her hand as it swiped down towards his chest. Subconsciously he registered that Natasha must not be fully awake yet.

Adrenaline pumping, he rolled onto her and straddled her holding both of her hands to the bed above her head. She struggled and kicked but he had her held down. "Natasha! It's me! It's Clint! Wake up!"

Natasha struggled still. Clint bent her wrist with the knife in it causing her to cry out in pain. The knife skidded onto the floor hitting the metal air vent. This small action seemed to bring her to her senses. She stopped struggling and looked up at the man straddling her abdomen. She was breathing hard and it appeared that Clint was as well.

"Clint?" Suddenly she seemed very weak and her fists unclenched. Clint let her hands go and shifted his weight off of her. "What—what happened?"

"You tried to attack me while you were sleeping with the dagger under your pillow." His voice was laced with malice as he readjusted the shirt on his body.

Natasha's face was horror stricken. She had been known to occasionally attack people in her sleep, but she never had dreamed it would ever be Clint. She jumped out of the bed and picked up the knife from the floor. She studied it in her hand with the same horror stricken face. She looked up at Clint practically speechless. "I—I don't…not at a base….what?"

Clint, sensing something was terribly wrong, got off the bed and walked over to her. "Natasha? You're not speaking in whole sentences. What don't you do at a base? Natasha, what's wrong, you have to tell me." He spoke firmly looking at her in the eyes.

"A knife." She uttered. She held up the slim blade in her pale white shaking fingers. "I—I don't sleep with a knife under my pillow while I'm at S.H.I.E.L.D…Clint…Someone's been into my room…"

Author's Note: Not much in this chapter...more of just a filler really...oh well. Things pick up in the next chapter so...yeah.

I threw in a little Bourne Legacy/Jeremy Renner reference, was it too cheesy or tacky? I don't know, maybe...oh well...

Whenever you review it helps me as a writer and helps move the story along. Thanks so much for reading!