Chapter 10: Is she Back

Natasha's eyes grew wide when the Avenger said those words to her, but then the bullet went into his chest. "CLINT!" she shouted before she could stop herself. Alexei looked at her, her eyes narrowed and she swung out her fist connecting to his jaw, sending him flying back. She took out her gun firing several shots at the agents who all jumped back.

"Natalia, what the…" Alexei started to say.

Natasha swung around, kicking him in the chest and fired a shot at him which he dodged quickly. She watched as Alexei took off running and fired another shot at him. Swinging around, she ran over to Clint and dropped down beside him. "Clint, Clint, talk to me," she told him, "Come on, please!" He coughed and let out a groan.

"I thought he would've taken the headshot," he muttered, holding his chest as he sat up.

She let out a sigh of relief, seeing that he was alive. "How…" she started to say when he reached into his shirt.

"Guess this thing still has its use than just getting me in this damn place," he muttered, showing her his Avengers Scan card that now had a bullet in the middle of it, "Here I laughed at Stark for making them bulletproof."

Natasha smiled a little when he reached up and cupped her face. "Hi," he finally said with a smile. She reached up and gripped his hands.

"Hi," she answered.

"You remembered," he murmured.

"I remembered you," she answered, resting her forehead against his, "Well I remember who you are. Everything else is still dark."

"As long as you know who I am, the rest will come later," he murmured as she hugged him tightly.

She hugged him back, resting her forehead against his shoulder when she heard footsteps running in their direction. Thinking quickly, she grabbed her gun and held it up. "Whoa!" Tony exclaimed. The rest of the team got in their defensive stances when Clint stood up.

"No, no, don't," he told them, "She knows who I am!"

He stood in front of her with his arms raised. "No one touch her, she saved my life," he told them.

"She saved you? She attacked the rest of us," Steve answered.

"Alexei was here, he and Ivan brainwashed her," he insisted.

The rest of the team looked at each other and Bobbi watched as Clint stood in front of his wife before he turned around and whispered something to her. She was frowning, but then she handed him her gun after disarming it. Clint touched her cheek, kissing her forehead before he tossed the disarmed gun to Steve who easily caught it. "She needs medical attention, we need to know how extensive the damage is," he told them.

Natasha held her head, it was beginning to throb. Her knees were starting to shake, this happened every time she remembered Clint. It was as if the memory made her physically ill. "Nat?" Clint murmured. Natasha collapsed to the floor, but he caught her arms before she hit the floor. "Stark! Banner!" he called out. Banner rushed over and he looked at Natasha's face.

"Get her to the lab," he told Clint.

The archer lifted his physically ill wife and they hurried down the stairs to the lab.

Placing her on the examining table, Banner attached electrodes to her head. "Clint, open her shirt," he instructed. Clint couldn't find the zipper on the back of the cat suit so he just tore open the front, just as Natasha's brainwaves began to drop.

"Banner what's happening?" he demanded as Banner attached the electrodes to her chest.

"Her heart rate's dropping," Banner replied.

"Why is this happening?" Clint demanded.

Tony rushed into the room to see Bruce doing whatever he could to save her. "Check her neck," he ordered.

"What?" Clint asked.

"Look at her neck behind her ear something!" Tony answered.

He turned Natasha's head to the right, looking behind her ear, but didn't see anything. Clint looked at the ear on the left and he saw what looked like a small piece of dirt. Tony removed it and looked at it. "Banner, get the syringe marked "MLSA"," he ordered.

"What is it?" Clint asked.

"Questions later," Tony answered, "She's not allergic to anything is she?"

"No," Clint told him.

Tony stood over Natasha. "She's crashing, Tony," Bruce told him.

"Move out of the way, Barton if you want her to live," Tony answered.

Clint stood back before Tony thrust the syringe into Natasha's chest, right into her heart. Natasha's back arched and she let out a cough as if someone had just released a chokehold on her throat. Tony removed the syringe and looked at the monitors. "Her heart rate's climbing," he murmured.

"What the fuck was that?!" Clint demanded.

"Memory Loss Saving Antidote," Tony replied.

"What?" Clint asked.

Tony checked Natasha's eyes. "Her eyes are dilated, well that should dissipate in a few hours," he murmured, "If she lives in the next three hours."

"What the hell is going on?" Clint demanded.

"What they put on her was basically a little syringe in her ear. If she remembered her old life at all and she left Alexei's side it would inject a poison in her system to stop everything," Tony explained.

Tony continued to examine Natasha. "The problem is, it's a fast acting poison. You're dead in two minutes," he answered.

"She started crashing in five," Clint answered.

"That's what scares me, I don't know the affects that it will do to her body since she was exposed for so long," Tony told him, "If she lives in the next three hours or even during the night, she's going to be fine."

Clint stared at his now unconscious wife and felt sick to his stomach. "Did you seriously think Alexei would've just let her go with no problem if she went back to you?" Tony asked.

"She's going to be okay," Clint answered, resting his hand on her cheek.

He rested his forehead against Natasha's feeling his stomach twist in a thousand knots. "She's going to be okay," he repeated, resting his forehead against his wife's temple as he held her in his arms without dislodging any of the electrodes on her body. "You're going to be okay," he whispered to his wife before leaving the room.

Walking down the hall, he saw Sasha standing at the end of the hall. "When did you guys get…" he started to say when his thirteen-year-old son suddenly hugged him as tight as he could. Clint stood there in disbelief, hugging his son back.

"Dad, I'm sorry," Sasha told him, "For everything."

Clint rubbed his back, letting out a deep breath, feeling so relieved. "I love you, kiddo, always have," he murmured as Sasha gripped him even tighter, "I always will until the universe crumbles down on top of my head." Sasha had tears in his eyes, swallowing hard. Having his father protect him like he had, knowing that any minute a bullet could've struck him in the head he kept his body over his like a shield. It made him respect his father even more knowing that his father loved him that much he was willing to die for him. "Don't you ever forget how much I love you and your sister, okay?" Clint told him. Sasha nodded his head slowly. He pressed a kiss to the top of Sasha's head before letting him go. "Are you okay?" he asked, "Did any of those bullets get you?"

"No," Sasha replied.

Clint pushed the hair from Sasha's eyes, making sure he wasn't hurt in any way. "Dad, what's going on?" Sasha asked, "And please don't lie, what's happening?" Sasha saw his father's demeanor change and sigh.

"What I am going to tell you, you can't tell your sister because she won't understand," he answered.

Sasha nodded his head slowly and Clint let out a deep breath. "Your mom's been brainwashed by the same people who took her as a child," he stated, "We got her back, but they used a defense mechanism so we couldn't get her back."

"Where is she?" Sasha asked.

"She's in the lab, but Sash…" Clint started to say when his son ran down the hall, "SASHA!"

The teenager ran into the lab and saw his mother covered in a sheet, the torn cat suit now lying on a stool. "Mom?" he called out, going over to the table. He held his mother's hand. Clint stood beside his son, his hand on his shoulder. "She's going to be okay right? Mom, it's me, it's Sasha," he insisted. He touched his mother's face. "Why isn't she waking up?" he asked.

"I told you they put a defense mechanism in her, if we somehow got her back, this device was designed to poison and kill her," Clint explained.

"Mom's tough, nothing can beat mom," the teenager insisted.

Clint gripped his son's shoulder as they stared at the unconscious woman on the examining table. "Dad…" Sasha said slowly.

"Yes, son," Clint answered.

His son looked at him. "Kill the son of a bitch who did this to us," he told his father.