Natasha started when the phone buzzed in her pocket. A little high strung there, Romanoff? She thought wryly. Just because everyone you know is trying to kill you is no reason to start jumping at your own shadow.

It wasn't like this was the first time, after all.

She pulled the phone out and looked at the number and a tightness in her chest that she hadn't realized was there eased slightly. "Sorry," she said aloud to her companion, "I need to take this call."

Steve Rogers nodded, "Sure."

Natasha hurried into the other room and pressed the button to answer the call. Clint Barton's craggy face appeared on her screen. Behind him, she could see a thin slice of a sunlit, rustic kitchen that made her heart twist with longing to be there instead of here, with the life she had rested from the gears of destiny falling down around her ears.

"Nat!" He exclaimed "Are you ok? I've been trying to track you down for three days. No one seemed to know where you were."

"I've been lying low. A lot of people have been looking for me and most of them come with guns."

"I don't have a gun," Clint said, straight-faced. "They attract too much attention."

There had been a time, once, when Clint Barton and his bow had hunted her. But, for reasons she had never understood, Clint had chosen not to take the shot. Instead, he had offered her another choice. A chance to put her training to better use. A chance to be one of the good guys.

Or so she had thought.

Hydra has taken that from her. And for that she would see it burn. Down to the last head.

Natasha was what she was made to be. A weapon. And a good one. Nothing more. Nothing less. But she liked knowing whose weapon she was.

"Is it true?" Clint asked, but his voice told her he knew it was. "About S.H.I.E.L.D? About Director Fury?"

"It's true." Natasha dropped her eyes. "Fury's dead."

Regimes fall every day, She'd told Loki once, I tend not to weep over that.

But she'd wept for Nick Fury.

She had liked working for Fury even if she hadn't trusted him, exactly. Nick Fury was not a trust-worthy man and she was not a trusting woman. It had worked out. She had respected him. And that was more than she'd ever had before.

"God help us." Clint rubbed a hand over his face. "Where are you? I can be at the airport in…" He paused, doing some calculation in his mind, "Two hours."

"No!" She said, more sharply than she'd intended. She softened her voice and went on "No. If you leave now, someone might track you back to where you came from. You stay where you are. We've got this."

"We?"

"Cap is here with me. He has a plan."

"Is it a good plan?"

Natasha gave a little shrug. "I've heard worse."

A wicked little gleam came into Clint's eyes. Uh-oh. "So… You and Steve Rogers, huh?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Don't make it weird, Clint. Rogers and me? Really? It would never work! We're just fighting on the same side."

Whatever side that is.

Clint's expression sobered again. "He's a good man, Nat."

"Yeah," Natasha said with a twisted smile, "Like I said, it would never work out."

"Fine," Clint relented. Then added "Are you sure you don't need backup?"

"I'll be fine. You just keep those kids safe."

Clint glanced aside at something out of the camera's view. Out the kitchen window, based on where he was sitting. He sighed. "You're right."

Natasha smiled. "Of course I'm right. Tell Laura I miss her and hug Lila and Cooper for me."

"I will. Watch your back, Nat."

"I always do."

His picture vanished, replaced by the message Call Ended.

As much as she would have liked to have Clint's cover fire at her back, it was a relief to know that he was safe, on the Farm, watching over his family. Even if that left Natasha alone on the front lines to fight for a world in which a little girl like Lila Barton could grow up safe, allowed to be simply a child and no one's weapon.

Not completely alone, she amended the thought as she returned the phone to her pocket and opened the door. Rogers looked up as she came into the room. "Anything I should know about?"

Surely if there was anyone she could trust with the knowledge that Clint Barton had a wife and two children hidden away on a secret homestead, it was Captain America. Clint was right. He was a good man. He was probably the most trustworthy person she'd ever met.

Natasha smiled and lied. "Apparently the warranty on my car is about to expire."