Chapter 11: What This World Is About

Coulson watched through the window of the observation section of the room that they had prepared for Natalia. He watched as Natasha carried the young girl, who was still unconscious, in and laid her down on the bed ever so gently. Anastasia wrapped a heavy blanket around her sister's shoulders. Barton pushed a chair forward and Stasia sat down in it, took one of Talia's hands in her own, and stared into her sister's dull eyes. The shock had fully set in and Natalia had remained unresponsive for the remainder of their flight back. Natasha settled herself on the end of Natalia's bed and was alternating her gaze between the two twins, watching them both with immense worry. Clint shot a glance toward the one-way glass and, even though he couldn't see him, he knew that Coulson was out there watching. He turned and slipped out of the room to join his handler in the observation room. For a moment, neither of them said anything while they watched the three Russians. Finally, Coulson sighed and grimaced, thinking about the news he was going to have to deliver to these already devastated agents.

Well, that can wait a little bit.

"What happened this time, Barton?"

Clint just shook his head, his concerned eyes never leaving Natasha, who was wearing a dangerously stoic mask.

"We don't know. She saw something down there and…this happened. Tasha had to pull both of them out. Talia's been unresponsive since."

Coulson nodded once in acknowledgement. "How is Anastasia handling it?"

For a half a second, Clint's eyes flicked to his protégé and a glimmer of pride echoed in his gaze.

"As well as could be expected, I guess. But she's tough as nails, that one. She'll be alright, although I expect she won't leave Natalia's side until she wakes up."

"About that…" Coulson hesitated and Barton looked over at his handler. Coulson looked nervous and he kept running his hand over his forehead, which he only did when something was bothering him or he was really stressed.

"Just spit it out, Phil."

"We had to very temporarily reassign Anastasia to a different team." Coulson let the words out in a huff and cringed, waiting for the livid reaction from the agent in front of him.

Barton certainly didn't disappoint.

"What do you mean temporarily reassign?!" Clint spat the words through gritted teeth, just barely managing to keep his volume under control. His eyes were turning forebodingly dark and stormy. Coulson winced, but straightened his spine a little. He had withstood Barton's fury before and he could do it again. After all, he supposedly had the authority in this relationship.

"I mean that she has been, for a short time, moved from your care into the care of another agent."

Barton clenched his hands into fists and stepped forward, invading Coulson's personal space a bit.

"What the hell, Coulson?! Why was that necessary?!"

"There's another vital mission in the works and it requires someone with Anastasia's skill set. Director Fury saw fit to temporarily transfer her. The switch is not permanent. As soon as she returns from the mission she will resume her training under your supervision."

"And what if she doesn't return, what then? What if she doesn't come back because I'm not there to watch her back and some idiot messes up their job?"

Coulson felt a flash of annoyance, but he was careful to hide it from the seething agent he was speaking to. "All S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are more than qualified, Barton. The chances of anything happening to her are very low."

For a few heartbeats, only the sound of Clint's heavy breathing broke the silence.

"Who's she been assigned to?"

"Anastasia's been assigned to Agent Camilla Roberts, who is co-leading the mission with Agent Troy Rucker. Both the leaders have their own junior agents who will also be on the mission team. And of course there's a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. backup and extraction team."

"Why do they need Stasia?"

"They're going to be posing as a family and the family has a daughter. Stasia's physical attributes match Agents Roberts and Rucker almost perfectly. Since she was the best match and we know that she can play out a cover fairly well, she was the obvious choice."

Clint ground his teeth together and turned away from Coulson. He drummed his fingers against the wall in frustration, just staring at his trainee through the observation window. Tension ran up and down his muscles.

"You're just going to yank her away from her sister at a time like this?"

"We didn't know about Natalia yet when we set the mission team, Barton." Coulson moved so that he was standing next to Barton again, "She is technically allowed to opt out if she wants. She can plead a family emergency and since she's only a junior agent Fury can't technically order her out on a mission."

Clint visibly relaxed. "Okay. How soon do you need to know?"

"Can you just bring her out here now? It'll be the simplest way."

A quick nod to Coulson and Barton slipped back through the door into Natalia's room. He stepped over so that he was standing next to Stasia. Very gently he set his hands on her shoulders and rubbed circles into her back with his thumbs to help work out the knots that he could see forming in her back muscles. Stasia tensed at his touch, but slowly relaxed when she realized what he was doing.

"Stasia, Coulson's outside and he'd like a word, if that's alright."

Anastasia looked surprised, but she nodded. "Of course." She released Natalia's hand that she had been holding and stood up. Clint ushered her from the room. Natasha shot him a look full of questions but he just shook his head at her. Natasha shrugged; she could get answers later. As the two archers left the room she slid over into Stasia's seat and took Natalia's hand in her own, not saying a word, but rubbing soothing circles over the back of Talia's hand.

Anastasia didn't smile when she entered the observation room where Coulson was waiting for her.

"Hello Anastasia."

"Agent Coulson."

"How are you doing?"

Stasia shot him a please-don't-insult-me look. "My sister is in shock over I-don't-know-what. How do you think I'm doing?"

Coulson inclined his head, conceding the point. "I have something to tell you."

"Well then get on with it and tell me so I can go back to my sister."

Coulson let out a soft sigh. "We've had to temporarily reassign you."

At first, Anastasia thought that she had heard him wrong. "Excuse me?"

Pursing his lips, Coulson repeated his message. "We've had to temporarily reassign you to a different team."

Anastasia frowned. "I don't understand. Why? And what does that mean exactly?"

"You've been reassigned because you met all the parameters for the person that this team needed for their current mission. All that it means is that you'll go on the mission with the other team and when you return you'll resume your usual activities with your SO."

"Oh." Stasia shrugged. "That's not so bad. When is the other team's mission?"

Pausing, Coulson glanced at Natalia for half a second through the window. "They leave tomorrow."

Anastasia froze and her gaze turned from Coulson to her catatonic sister. A bit of panic was running through her at the thought of leaving her sister while she was weak and vulnerable, but then she saw Natasha and she realized what the older agent was doing.

She's doing all of the things that I would normally do in this situation.

"You don't have to do it, Stasia." Clint could read the panic that was flying through the young girl easily. "You are allowed to opt out of emergency transfers because of a family emergency."

"No." Anastasia shook her head at her SO and turned to face Coulson. "I'll do the other mission."

Both Coulson and Barton looked surprised at the firmness of her statement.

"Are you sure?" Barton watched her face closely as she answered.

"Yeah." Stasia glanced back through the window, unwavering. "I think that, maybe, Natalia doesn't need me all the time anymore."

Neither of the senior agents responded to that; they weren't quite sure what to say. Finally, Clint cleared his throat, nodded and stepped back a little. Coulson gestured toward the door and Stasia followed him out, leaving her SO to return to his partner and the vigil they would keep at Natalia's bedside.

"So this is a fairly simple mission. It's you, the two senior agents, and their respective junior agents. I'll let them explain in more detail."

Anastasia nodded in acknowledgement as Coulson guided her through the halls. They came to a stop outside the door to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s numerous conference rooms and, after sending a quick glance in Stasia's direction, Coulson opened the door and the pair entered. Automatically, Anastasia scanned the room and catalogued every little detail, including the people that were sitting at the table. The first was a woman, a little over average height with shoulder-length ginger hair. She had a smattering of freckles across her nose and a pair of bright green eyes sparkled when Anastasia and Coulson came in. Directly to her left was a tall (as best as Stasia could tell with him sitting down) man with friendly blue eyes. His blond hair was trimmed very short and when he smiled two rows of perfect teeth gleamed out at Stasia. A few chairs to the left of the woman, two younger boys were sitting with their heads together. They stopped talking when the door opened and both turned to look at the newcomers. The boy on the left had messy blonde hair with a few stray strands over his eyes. He was about Stasia's height and, like the woman, had spectacular green eyes. His ears stuck out slightly from the sides of his oval-shaped face. Next to him was the only dark-haired person in the room. This boy was a bit taller than his comrade and was sporting a nice tan. His black hair was also on the longer side, although not quite so much as the other boy's, and the ends of it lay flat against the edge of his forehead. He had warm brown eyes and Stasia thought that she could just make out the shape of contact lenses. All four of the people smiled when Coulson and Stasia stepped through the door and the woman rose out of her chair to greet them.

"Hello! You must be Anastasia. I'm Camilla Roberts and this is my partner Troy Rucker."

Anastasia took Camilla's offered hand firmly in her own. Troy gave her a friendly wave and she nodded and smiled in his direction as well. Stasia looked back at Coulson. He raised his eyebrows at her, as if to question her decision, but Stasia shrugged and smiled at him. He clasped her shoulder lightly before nodding at the two senior agents.

"I guess I'll leave you all to get better acquainted." Coulson shot one last glance at Stasia. "Make sure you stop in and say goodbye to them before you go."

"Of course." Stasia was surprised that Coulson thought he had to remind her. Satisfied, Coulson gave the room one last sweeping glance and headed back out the door.

"Why don't you have a seat?"

Camilla gestured to the empty chair between her seat and the dark haired boy and Stasia stepped over and sat down. She shot a glance at the two boys, who were both watching her curiously but quickly looked away when she caught them staring. Troy watched the exchange with amusement and smirked at the blushes that rose up on the two boys.

"These are our junior trainee agents, Ethan and Dylan." Troy gestured respectively to the blonde and the black haired boys. "Technically, Ethan is assigned to me and Dylan to Camilla, but we all work together all the time anyway so we don't worry about that too much." Dylan smiled shyly and ducked his head.

"Hey." Ethan grinned, obviously more comfortable with strangers.

"Hello." Stasia eyed both boys warily. She hadn't exactly had the best experience with members of the opposite sex; growing up in Russia would do that to you, especially with insurgents for parents. Camilla watched all three kids.

"Well, we're certainly going to have to work on that," she said matter-of-factly, "You guys-" she pointed to Ethan and Anastasia, "-are supposed to be related and you two-" this time she gestured between Anastasia and Dylan, "are supposed to have known each other pretty much since birth." Camilla's green eyes pierced Stasia and the latter fought the sudden urge to sit up straighter and fix her shirt.

"How much of the mission did Coulson explain to you?"

"Not much," replied Stasia, "just that I would be working with the four of you."

"Well then, we've got a lot of ground to cover." Troy flashed a comforting look at Anastasia; he could see that she felt a bit tense in the unfamiliar environment. "The gist of it is this: the four of us-" he made a small circle with his hand to indicate himself, Camilla, Ethan, and Anastasia, "are posing as a family vacationing at our beach cottage in Florida. Dylan is supposed to be Ethan's best friend."

"We would have used both the boys as the kids but we figured that Dylan's traits didn't quite match up with the rest of the 'family'," Camilla sounded slightly apologetic, "I am sorry that we had to pull you away from your team at this particular moment."

Stasia swallowed and pushed away thoughts of Talia lying motionless in her bed.

She's not alone.

"It's okay," she responded quietly, "I understand that this is how S.H.I.E.L.D. works." Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a quizzical look that passed between Ethan and Dylan.

Apparently Camilla and Troy didn't share with their junior agents.

Shifting slightly in her chair, Anastasia looked at the two boys. There was no mistaking the confusion in their eyes, but they both seemed to be too polite, or at least tactful, to ask. Stasia knew that she would have to explain eventually, and now seemed a good enough time.

"My team just returned from a mission in Zimbabwe." She paused and took a breath. "My twin sister Natalia came back from that mission in catatonic shock and is currently in an unresponsive state and under medical observation."

Dylan and Ethan's eyes grew wider with every word that Anastasia said and for half a second she allowed the pain that she was truly feeling to show through on her face. She stomped on that just as quickly though, pushing those feelings back down under lock and key with as much force as she could muster.

Talia will be fine. Clint and Natasha are with her.

That particular thought slowed Stasia's racing heart and melted the lump that had formed in her throat.

"Oh." Ethan broke the silence that had fallen in the few seconds after Stasia stopped speaking.

"Yeah." Stasia looked away from the two boys, back at the senior agents. "So what're the rest of the mission details?"

Troy cleared his throat and leaned forward. "There is a family, the Drakes, that lives across the street from the beach cottage we'll be staying in. S.H.I.E.L.D. believes that they're a part of a smuggling ring, bringing drugs in off of ships and distributing them across the country."

"How many in the family?" inquired Anastasia.

"Our sources tell us that there's four of them," answered Camilla, "two parents, Sarah and Brendan, and two daughters, Kelsey and Cara. Kelsey is seventeen and Cara is sixteen."

Stasia nodded thoughtfully. "And who are we?"

Camilla smiled; Anastasia was asking all of the right questions. "We are the Morgans. Troy and I are the parents, obviously, Anthony and Catherine. You, Anastasia, are our oldest at 16 and your name is Hannah. Ethan is your brother, younger by one year, named Nathaniel. Dylan is his best friend, same age, named Brandon Stewart."

"Sounds good." Stasia tilted her head to the side slightly. "How old are you guys actually?"

"Sixteen," replied Dylan and Ethan in unison. A blush rose up Dylan's neck again and Stasia couldn't help the small smile that crept across her face.

"Alright!" Camilla clapped her hands together. "We should probably get to packing. Any last questions?"

Ethan and Dylan both shook their heads but Stasia hesitated.

"What is it?" asked Troy. Anastasia bit her lip, and then decided to just go for it.

"Just tell me that Hannah Morgan doesn't have to wear any make up."

The two boys doubled over with laughter and Camilla and Troy beamed at Anastasia.

"She can do whatever you like, dear," said Camilla. Stasia grinned with relief and stood to head back to her room.

"Stasia?" Anastasia stopped and turned back when Troy called her name. "It's good to have you on board."

Stasia looked at him for a moment and nodded slightly. "Thank you. I think I made the right choice." She turned then and left the four friends to themselves.

Natasha looked up when Clint reentered the observation room, frowning when she saw that he was alone.

"Where's Stasia?"

Clint's nostrils flared a little bit. "She's with Coulson. They just left."

"Left? Why?" Natasha looked alarmed.

"She's been temporarily reassigned. They needed her on another mission."

"And she just went along with that?"

Only Natasha could make a whisper sound angry. Clint nodded. Natasha looked back at the unmoving blonde on the bed.

"Why would she just leave Natalia? Especially now?"

"Well, you should know…" Clint hesitated, but Natasha raised her eyebrows at him and he knew that he had no choice but to tell her now. "The last thing she said was she thought that, maybe, Natalia didn't need her all the time anymore." Clint paused again, gauging Natasha's reaction. "She was looking at you, Nat."

Natasha froze with the exception of her hand, which was still drawing light circles on Natalia's palm.

"Where is she now?"

Clint glanced at his watch. "She has a meeting with the senior agents in charge of the mission and then she'll be back in her room, packing. Natasha?"

Natasha had stood up abruptly. "Stay with Natalia, Barton."

"Natasha-"

But before Clint could get in another word his partner was out the door. Sighing, he sat down in Natasha's vacated seat, still warm from her body heat, to wait on her return. He rested his cheek on his hand, comtemplating Natalia's motionless form. Clint didn't hold her hand or anything-that would have been a little awkward. As he watched the shallow rise and fall of her chest, Clint realized that he didn't know Natalia nearly as well as he knew her sister.

"I'll fix that Natalia. Just as soon as you wake up." He leaned forward, setting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands.

"You have to know that it's killing Anastasia. I know it is, even if she's not here. I guess sometimes you have to run from your problems to solve them." Clint stared down at the floor and let a few heartbeats pass before he spoke again.

"It's killing Natasha too."

He let the words hang in the silence. Natalia wouldn't know their significance, but Clint understood. Natasha didn't let herself care; not about anyone or anything. She said it was a weakness. Clint exhaled slowly.

"You're a weakness for her Natalia. Please, please, don't hurt her. Come back to us Natalia. Whatever it is, we can help you. Trust me, we've been there before, so many times. Just…come home Natalia."

Clint dropped his face into his hands and his shoulders slumped with exhaustion and worry.

"Just come home."

Natasha flitted through the halls along a path that she had come to know very well. She paused for half a second outside Anastasia's door and tilted her head to the side. After a moment she heard the sounds of a suitcase being packed coming from inside the room and she knocked lightly. The door cracked open and Stasia's face appeared.

"Natasha?" Surprised, the girl stepped back and swung the door open wide enough for Natasha to enter. Natasha slipped in and Stasia shut the door behind her.

"What is it? Is Talia-?"

"It's not that, she's the same." Natasha shook her head, quickly putting the panic in Anastasia's eyes to rest.

"Then what?" Anastasia grabbed a stack of clothes off of her dresser and began setting them inside the suitcase that was on her bed. "Why did you leave her?"

"I needed to know…" Natasha hesitated, biting her lip. Stasia looked up from her packing and her face softened.

"You needed to know why I'm leaving, how I could possibly leave her now," she said quietly. Natasha nodded. Anastasia sighed and forced herself to resume packing.

"How many times has Clint been severely injured on a mission, Natasha?"

Natasha was taken aback. "Quite a few, I suppose."

"And did you stay with him, all the time, every time?"

Natasha wanted nothing more than to say that she had, that she had faithfully guarded her partner's bedside all those times, but she knew that she couldn't do so honestly.

"You didn't, did you? Then you already know the answer to your question." Anastasia picked up her toiletry bag and settled it in among her clothes. "You know why I can't stay."

Natasha shook head. "This is different. Clint always knew when I wasn't there. Has Natalia ever woken up from an injury without you there?"

"No, but it doesn't matter. I already told her that I'm leav-" Stasia smacked a hand over her mouth. Natasha raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes, Stasia?"

"Never mind," muttered the blonde, turning away from Natasha. Less than two seconds later Stasia found herself pinned against the wall with a face full of red hair.

"Tell me, Anastasia."

"I can't, Natasha." Stasia strained against the iron grip that Natasha had on her wrists.

"Well you aren't going anywhere until you do."

"I promised, Natasha. I can't tell you."

"Promised who?" Natasha's breath was hot against Anastasia's ear.

"Natalia."

The pressure on Stasia's wrists relaxed and she pushed off the wall, eyeing Natasha warily. Natasha held up her hands in defense of herself.

"I don't do well with secrets, Stasia."

"Could've fooled me." Natasha shot her a puzzled look but Stasia simply zipped up her suitcase and started toward the door.

"Stasia?"

"Yes?"

"Why haven't you ever left her before?" Anastasia stopped with one foot out the door and looked back.

"Because I never had anyone I could trust to protect her." She turned and walked out without giving Natasha a chance to respond. The redhead was left staring at the empty doorway, wondering when and how they all ended up so damn compromised.

A/N: Soooooooo mission for Anastasia next chapter:-) There will be some action, no worries. I realize there was a lot of talking this chapter. As always, thank you to anyone who reads/reviews/follows/favorites!