I took in a deep breath, closing my eyes. It did nothing to tamper down the butterflies dancing in my stomach. Breathing in the pure oxygen was giving me a bit of a head spin.

"Five minutes."

I acknowledged the spoken words from the pilots with a raise of my hand. Sitting across from me in the back of the Quinjet, Clint did the same. I caught his eye and gave him a quick smile. Clint sent me a thumbs up. I rolled my neck from side to side to try and relieve some of the tension. It didn't really work but it gave me something to do.

I was doing my first real HALO jump. Clint and I were going to drop into Dikson in far northern Russia. We were tracking a man by the name of Pavel Ivanovich. He was your standard scum dealing with drugs and weapons. Intel put him at his base 7 miles out of Dikson. He used the furthermost northern port as a logistics base. SHIELD hadn't had any success in getting eyes on him beyond drone footage. It was a tiny town and very remote. Outsides would stick out like a sore thumb. Which is why it was decided for Clint and me to HALO in. There was a small deserted farm halfway between Pavel suspected base of operations and the town. It would make do for our own base for the time being. SHIELD had been dropping supplies there under the cover of darkness, but we had no real idea of what we had to work with.

Not to mention the problem of the weather. It was the end of October now. The temperatures in Dikson were struggling to get into double digits. The area was known for vicious snow storms as well. In a week, the area would go into a polar winter which was going to make things even more difficult. It was going to be a miserable and cold few weeks.

"Two minutes."

The pilot interrupted my thoughts about how cold it was going to be. I was already bundled in as many layers as I possibly could. Jumping from a high altitude was cold enough without adding the frigid temperature outside. I was already strapped into my parachute and ready to go. Clint got to his feet first and went to the back of the Quinjet, opening the ramp. If I wasn't covered in head to toe protection, I could have froze immediately as the Quinjet ramp opened. Fuck me, cold didn't even begin to describe it.

"Ready for it?" Clint's voice sounded tinny and far away. The helmet I was wearing blocked out a lot of outside sounds, making our radios sound weird.

"More than ready." Despite my nerves, I was very excited. The training I'd done for this HALO jump had been intense. It was time consuming and expensive for SHIELD to train people for HALO, so they'd gotten as many people through it as possible. I wasn't the only one doing the course. A lot of the newer STRIKE guys had been there as well. We'd spent the week at a training facility in Lumberton, Mississippi. Clint and Natasha were already both qualified so it was only me there. It had been surprisingly fun. Outside of training, all of us STRIKE hung out together. I got to know a lot of the guys personally. It was also good for me because it took my mind off Gareth leaving. Natasha, Clint and Jared had all been good at keeping me busy in that regard. I'd been extremely relieved to be given a mission to be honest. As much as I tried not to, I had been sulking about Gareth leaving. Our weekend away before he left had done nothing to make it easier. I missed him a lot right now. We were still talking but he was so busy.

"Five." Clint held his hand up and started to count down. "Four. Three. Two."

I didn't hear him say one. My heart was pounding so loud, I could barely hear myself think. Remembering every little bit of technique I had drilled into me, I jumped first. There was a very specific roll you had to do so didn't fuck up the freefall. I tucked myself up nearly and then I was falling from 30,000 feet.

It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. All I could hear was my own noisy breathing inside the helmet. Despite my protective clothing, I was freezing. Freefall from a normal jump seemed to only last for seconds. In a HALO jump, I had three and a half minutes before my chute would open. Thankfully, there was an inbuilt redundant system that opened my chute automatically at 1000 feet in case I blacked out. I could barely see anything. The night vision goggles did little once I got below cloud level and was blasted with snow. I sucked in a few deep breaths, ignoring the dizzying feeling the oxygen gave me. It was enough to keep my wits about me until the alarm started going off that I needed to deploy my chute. Despite feeling frozen solid, my fingers managed to pull on the cord and I was yanked upwards. Hard. Every bone and muscle in my body protested at the movement. I didn't have much time to ponder over my aching body. The ground was coming up fast and just as predicted, the visibility was complete shit thanks to the snow.

I hit the ground a lot harder than I should have. I was going to ache so badly later on from all of this. Breathing heavily, I managed to get my pack from between my legs without falling over. Clint and I had to carry as many supplies as possible with us just in case SHIELD couldn't drop any further supplies to us over however long this was going to take us. As I got my pack undone from the weird position, Clint landed a few feet away from me.

It was a rush to get ourselves packed up and out of the snow. I let Clint take the lead and we trudged through the ankle high snow. It was the middle of the night here. There was no moon or stars out making everything pitch black. We didn't find our accommodation until we were nearly on top of it. I breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the solid looking building in front of us. It had a roof, walls and none of the windows were broken. There were worse places to stay.

There wasn't any time to relax. After dumping our personal supplies in the first room we came to, we had to go back outside and drag all the other supplies inside SHIELD had done via drone drop. Then came the few hours of unpacking. At least we were well supplied. The electricity wasn't working in the house so I was very grateful to find a generator in the supply drop. It was a very fancy new one with a great big Stark Industries logo on the side of it. The miniaturised arc reactor technology was really coming ahead in leaps and bounds. This generator was going to be a lifesaver considering we didn't have a source of fuel or enough daylight to run a solar one. Clint left me to hook it up while he did the last of the heavy lifting. At least it was sent with a good instruction manual. While it was fiddly to wire into the main electrical switchboard, it didn't give me too many problems. I had the power on as Clint was dragging the last box into the main room.

"Ready?" I asked with a grin as I went to the light switch. I was so damn proud of myself as I flicked the lights on and they blazed on overhead. "I am amazing."

"You are if you can get the heat to work," Clint said, laughing at my theatrics. "I'll put the curtains up and we can relax for a few minutes."

The curtains Clint was talking about was the technology that blocked out all the internal light and made the house still look abandoned. Considering how cold it was in here, I took his suggestion to heart. Luck was on our side. The house had an older, but still serviceable and working electric heating system. It wasn't going to make things toasty warm, but at least we wouldn't freeze to death. The water heater kicked over but I wasn't too sure it would help much. Everything would have bee frozen solid for months. Clint and I were going to be having deodorant showers if it didn't work.

"I'm done." Clint flopped down on the floor as I came back into the main room. The house was small. The kitchen was up against the wall in the main room. It had two rooms and a bathroom off to the side of it. There was no furniture, all of our monitoring equipment was sitting on the floor or on the storage trunks.

"Me too." I sat down beside Clint with a groan. Now I had stopped, every little bit of adrenaline that was keeping me going had left me. I could sleep for a week with the way I felt. "We still have to go and set up the security cameras."

That was going to be cold and miserable. SHIELD gave us surveillance camera to set up outside the compound. They could be cloaked with similar technology to the Quinjet.

"You have to go in and do the cameras," Clint said with a grumble. "I have to sit here like a level 1 tech and make sure it all works."

I gave Clint a sympathetic look. While the actual takedown of Pavel was going to be interesting, the actual surveillance was going to be boring as fuck. There was going to be a lot of hours spent in front of the computer screens watching for our guy. If he wasn't there, it was going to be a very long few weeks of watching for him. I was going in under the cover of darkness and hoping my footprints in the snow weren't going to give me away.

"For once I wish Jared was here." I began unlacing my boots. "He comes in handy in these situations."

"Yeah, but he's on a tropical island somewhere with Natasha," Clint said, snorting in disbelief. "We all know how that's going to go. Minimal work, maximum fucking."

I snorted with laughter. Clint wasn't wrong there. While we got stuck with this mission in one the coldest places on the planet, Jared and Natasha were in Bora Bora. At least their mission was similar to ours so they wouldn't get all the fun. They were going to be just as bored as me and Clint.

"That's so gross." I kicked my boots off, wiggling my toes. Even with the thick socks on, my feet were freezing. It still felt good to get them out of the confines of my heavy boots though.

As I spoke, I inched closer to Clint. He'd thrown his arm over his eyes while I was taking my boots off. If I was quick, I could get my cold feet in under his jacket to warm them up. I'd probably get punched in the head for doing it, but my feet were really cold.

"Don't even think about it, Kari," Clint warned as I moved. "I swear you use your power to make your feet cold when you put them on me."

"Never." I grinned as I went for the kill. I slid my feet straight under Clint's jacket and onto his t-shirt. He was sweaty enough that my feet would have made it very uncomfortable. The undignified yelp that came from him was worth every bit of punishment I was about to receive.

"You're dead."

I didn't have time to get up and flee. Clint had me pinned down in a second and was tickling me mercilessly. I regretted shedding my outer layers as Clint's fingers dug into me, making me shriek with laughter. He had me firmly pinned down and there was nothing I could do to escape. I had tears running down my face from both laughter and being tickled once he finally stopped.

"I hate you." I was gasping for air like I'd run a marathon. Clint was the worst for tickling. He knew all the right spots to hit to get the ultimate reaction out of me.

"I know," Clint said with a laugh. He got off my back and helped me to my feet. "Come on, let's get some food and sleep before the boredom really kicks in."

Food and sleep sounded magical. Clint went to the small kitchen and grabbed two MRE packets from the pile on the bench. I grabbed our sleeping bags from the pile in the corner and went to the bedrooms. Both of them were freezing cold despite the heater somewhat working. Unless we wanted to freeze to death on the first night, we were going to have to camp in the main room. I came back with a sigh of defeat and dropped the sleeping bags on the ground.

"No luck?" Clint asked at my reappearance and dramatic sigh.

"I don't think the heating is working in those rooms." I shrugged. "Maybe it's just slow. I don't want to try and crank the power up though. We'd freeze to death if I blow the generator."

Clint pulled a face of disgust, however, there was no argument from him. I set up our sleeping bags out of the way as much as possible while the smell of MRE beef stew filled the tiny house. It was the only thing filling the house. While the heating took some of the chill out of the air, it was still cold. I unzipped my sleeping bag and huddled into it while waiting for the MRE's. Clint was warming his hands over MRE's while the flameless heating pack did its thing.

Now I had sat down, I could feel my eyelids tugging downwards. It had been a long ass flight which was made worse by having to hand the controls over an hour before we jumped. I had a lot of time to think of all the ways we could die. Thankfully the pilot was competent but it still didn't help my nerves.

"Here." Clint interrupted my heavy eyelids from shutting.

I took the offered MRE from him. It was warm and smelt about as acceptable as an MRE was going to get. I stupidly hadn't eaten before we left and my stomach made itself known about the fact. It didn't take long for me to inhale the food. Once I was done, I stripped down and huddled into the sleeping blanket. I was so tired. Clint wasn't far behind me. I'd just settled down on the ground when he was doing the same. We both murmured a sleepy good night to each other.

The only problem was, sleep never really came. I'd drift off only to be woken up by being cold. I wasn't freezing but I was uncomfortable. It was enough to keep me from truly falling asleep. I curled up into a ball, pulling the sleeping bag over my head to try and trap in some warmth.

"Hawk," I grumbled as I shivered in my little nest.

"Yeah, I'm cold too," Clint said before I could finish. "Come over here."

I didn't need to be told twice. I unzipped my sleeping bag fully and scooted over to Clint who was doing the same. In less than a minute, we had them zipped together and we were huddled together.

With the combined body heat, things warmed up to a much more comfortable level. Clint was laying on his side so I scooted back into his body to get even warmer. He wrapped an arm around me and cuddled in close.

"I'm glad I got you for this mission," Clint said, his voice muffled in my shoulder. "Natasha would stab me for even suggesting this."

"This is the real reason you kept me, isn't it?" I said sleepily. "So you'd have someone to spoon with on cold missions."

Clint laughed and gave me a gentle squeeze. I closed my eyes and this time I was comfortable enough to fall asleep.

I woke up after a few hours of dreamless sleep. It was hard to open my eyes at first. I was so warm and comfortable. It would have been very easy to go back to sleep. We had things to do and the longer we put them off, the longer we were stuck here.

"You awake?" I asked, nudging Clint. He was wrapped around me and there was no way I could get out of his grip.

"I really don't want to be," Clint said with a grumble. "I just got comfortable. You're finally in the right spot where your bony ass isn't digging into my crotch."

If I wasn't so comfortable I'd elbow him. Instead, I tried to huff out an aggravated sigh. Tried. I snorted with laughed instead. Behind me, Clint was laughing under his breath as well. We both went quiet and it was long enough I could have easily drifted back to sleep. I may have been on the edge of it when Clint nudged me.

"We really need to get up."

"I need you to be my motivation to get up," I said, burrowing further into our little warm nest.

"You need to be my inspiration," Clint countered. "I can't be inspired to get up until you do."

"But you need to get up first to motivate me to get up."

"But you are my inspiration."

"My motivation."

"Inspiration."

"Motivation."

We both started laughing before we could keep going with our bullshit. We untangled from each other and I reluctantly came out from the warmth. The heating in the house was struggling and it was freezing. I yanked on my layers of clothing as quickly as I could. It was cold enough in the house but what I had to do was about to be even worse. I had to go set up our surveillance cameras outside of the compound.

While I bundled up for my trip outside, Clint put on a pot of coffee and got the equipment booted up. At least SHIELD had prepared us well with tech. We had everything we could possibly need here. It's just a shame we didn't have a reliable internet connection. The satellite would only come within our sphere every three to five hours. It was enough to send our reports back to SHIELD and get a brief uplink with Coulson, but not much more. We were very much on our own.

"You look like a giant marshmallow," Clint snickered as I zipped up my snow jacket.

The snow camouflage gear was redundant for me. I was going invisible for the entire thing. But it was the only serious weather gear we had and I'd prefer not to die of hypothermia in the twenty minutes it would take me to walk to where I needed to go.

"Thanks, Barton," I said sarcastically. "If you didn't make coffee, I'd punch you for that."

"If you can move quick enough to punch me in all of those layers, I would be extremely impressed." Clint was saved by holding out a mug of coffee to me. "And you'd spill your coffee."

He was right. I wouldn't risk losing my caffeine hit just to smack him for being a shithead. Our coffee supply was very limited and I wasn't going to waste a precious drop. It was horrid instant coffee that tasted like ground dirt. But it was hot and somewhat caffeinated. Life could have been worse. I drained the cup in a few long swallows.

"Comms." Clint handed me an earpiece once I set my cup down.

I fitted the earpiece in and pulled my beanie down over my ears. It crackled to life.

"Comms are up and running." I lifted up the bag of equipment I needed to take. Slinging it over one shoulder, I picked up my sniper rifle as well.

"GPS tracker is online." Clint turned to the computer. Over his shoulder, I could see my GPS tracker on the map. "We're good to go. Have fun out there."

I pulled a face at Clint's turned back. This was going to be very uncomfortable. It was dark and cold. Not to mention I'm sure I could hear snow sliding off the room. I pulled my balaclava down over my face along with the goggles I used for sky diving. They doubled as keeping the wind out of my eyes as well as giving me night vision. With a deep breath, I opened the front door and stepped into the frigid air.

It was so fucking cold. I couldn't believe how fucking freezing it really was. I was really glad SHIELD made this surveillance done via remote camera. We only had to come out here twice a day to replace the batteries in them. The cold would drain them quickly so it was a case of constantly swapping them out and recharging them. It took me half an hour to walk to the compound. It was a boring and hard walk. The snow around me was ankle deep and my legs were aching by the time I got there.

The compound looked deserted. The only thing giving it away that it had been used recently was the lack of snow on the roof, meaning the building was being heated. I'd gone invisible long before it came up. It wasn't anything exciting from the outside. An old looking factory made of concrete. The perimeter fencing was falling down. There were a few dead trees surrounding which is where I'd be placing our cameras. I didn't waste any time once I got there. I took off my outer gloves and got to work. I had thirty minutes before frostbite would start to become a factor. The thin leather gloves I had on underneath were great for dexterity but horrible for the cold.

I managed to get all the cameras up and not die while climbing the trees. The comms reception was extremely patchy. I was getting a running commentary from Clint, but only managing to catch every third word. It was amusing to try and fill in the gaps with my own words. I had to keep quiet but a few muffled snickers snuck out. In the dead quiet of the landscape, it sounded far too loud even though I knew it wasn't. By the time I got back to the house, Clint had a cup of coffee waiting for me and a hot meal. I was so thoroughly frozen it was a godsend. I even hugged him for it.

So began the next three weeks of soul crushing boredom. Clint took the first battery change every morning and I took the evening one. As predicted our interactions with the outside world were very limited. SHIELD would send through bursts of data once a day. On Thanksgiving, Coulson managed to get on the radio for a whole minute. It didn't really help with the feeling of complete and utter isolation but it was better than nothing. People came and went in the compound but there was no proof of what we needed. It was the same rotation of people coming in and out all the time. Clint and I made nicknames up for the day and evening shift people, giving them ridiculous backstories to pass the time. There was a period of a few hours in the early morning where the compound was deserted which was Clint's window for his battery changes. The heating never really worked in the house so we kept our sleeping bags together for warmth.

It was a good thing Clint and I were roomies to begin with. We knew each other's annoying habits and managed to get through the cramping living space together without killing each other. SHIELD managed to give us another supply drop so we were well fed. They even included a turkey dinner for us for Thanksgiving. It was a dehydrated meal that was surprisingly good. Overall, it was cold, boring and miserable. The company could have been much worse though.

The weather got worse the longer we stayed. The little bit of daylight we were getting each day was getting shorter every day. If it wasn't for our clocks inside I would have lost track of time within the first week. The only bright side to it was on the clear nights. The Northern Lights were an incredible sight out here. A few times Clint and I had laid outside for as long as we could tolerate the cold to watch them. The stars were incredible out here too.

Unluckily for me, tonight was not one of those incredible clear nights. When I started my trek out here, it had been a little cloudy but nothing too sinister. That had changed in a heartbeat and the sinister looking clouds above me were starting to be a concern. I was working as fast as I possibly could to get the batteries changed so I could get back in time.

"How are you doing out there, Kari?" The concern was clear in Clint's voice even with the distortion coming through the radio.

"Same as I was a minute ago when you asked," I said breathlessly. My hands were frozen more than usual making it hard to do the normally simple job. "Stop asking Hawk. I'll be fine."

My voice lacked any conviction. The weather was starting to worry me as well. Our electronics hated the cold. If anything decided to crap out while I was out here, I'd freeze to death pretty quickly.

"Just leave the south side ones." Clint's tone left no room for arguments. "Nothing has been happening anyway."

Clint wasn't wrong. Over the last week, things had been dead. There had been no night shift and the day shift had thinned out considerably. SHIELD was considering wrapping us up if nothing else was happening for the next week. At least it would mean we'd be home for Christmas.

"Knowing our luck something would," I grumbled. My fingers were shaking as I finally got the screw undone. I made a little noise of triumphant as I got the old battery out and swiftly changed it over. "It will be fine. I'll be quick."

A noise to my left caught my attention. I was invisible so I didn't have to worry about sudden movements. There was someone coming outside, a cloud of smoke was not just from the cold. Someone had obviously snuck out for a cigarette. This guy must have been new. No one on the night shift had ever snuck out for a smoke.

"Just leave it until the morning," Clint sounded mildly exasperated. "There's a blizzard coming."

It was far too quiet out here for me to reply to Clint. The sound echoed for miles around here. I'd broken a branch a week ago and it had sounded like a gunshot echoing around the silent landscape. Thankfully no one had noticed it within the compound. It had made me nervous for the next few battery changes though. The guy who was sneaking a smoke didn't seem to be in a hurry. He wandered around kicking at the snow.

"Kari?" Clint prompted. "What's happening?"

I couldn't even breath heavily because you could see my breath misting in the air. I covered my mouth and sat as still as possible. This guy was the world's slowest smoker. The minutes ticked by slowly as he meandered around. Clint tried to get my attention several times, sounding more worried with every passing moment.

"Shush." I hissed through my teeth. I didn't want Clint to shut up but it was the only word I could think of to let him know I was still alive. Clint instantly shut up in my ear.

Though I did it as quietly as possible, the noise was enough the smoking man to look in my direction. I instantly froze every muscle in my body as he started walking in my direction. This was going to be bad. I slowly reached down and slid my P30 out of the holster. I had a silencer on it but nothing was going to stop people noticing a dead body in the snow. The smoker came to stand on his side of the fence near the tree I was sitting in. It was too dark to see his face but he was bundled up as much as me. It seemed like an eternity before the man turned around. His cigarette dropped in the snow with a quiet hiss. The man shoved his hands in his pockets and walked back inside.

My breath came out as a shudder once I was alone again. The precious few minutes had cost me dearly in terms of the weather. Snow had started to fall thick and fast in the short delay.

"You need to get back right now." Clint's voice was laced with worry. "That storm is nasty."

"No shit, Barton." I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my tone. "I'm on my way back."

I scuttled down the tree as fast as possible. By the time I hit the ground, I could barely see in front of me the snow was coming down so fast. Clint wasn't wrong about the blizzard being nasty. I'd never seen one come in this fast before. I walked as fast as I could in the increasing snow. As soon as I was away far enough from the compound, I pulled my GPS out. This blizzard was going to be a whiteout and there's no way I was going to make it back to our house without it.

The GPS screen glowed to life and I sighed in relief. No sooner than the breath had left my body the screen died.

"Motherfucker," I swore. The little red light that meant I had power faded into nothing another second later.

I expected Clint to have a snappy reply to my curse. But there was nothing in my ear. I reached a hand up and tapped on the earpiece.

"Barton?" I asked, my voice swallowed up by the wind. There was no reply, not even a crackle of static. "Clint?"

I was met with nothing but silence. Of all the fucking times for our equipment had to fail, it had to be now. I was in so much trouble.

I had two options. I could either sit here and try and build some shelter against the snow or try and make my way back. Either way could be a disaster. Even with my heavy duty SHIELD winter gear, I could still freeze to death in a short amount of time. I had no supplies on me except for the weapons. As the snow got heavier, I quickly made my mind up. I stopped where I was dropped to the ground. I put my hands up, feeling my power tingling on them instantly. At least conditions like this made it extremely easy for the ice walls to build around me. Within a minute, I had my own little igloo built around me. It was still freezing but at least I was sheltered from the snow. I poked a hole in the roof so I'd have enough oxygen.

There was nothing to do now but wait. I pulled my knees to my chest hoping it would keep some heat in. Even if it was just for a few minutes. As soon as the snow stopped, I had no doubt Clint would be out to find me. I just had to wait this out.

It was so cold. There was no other way to describe it. I couldn't believe how fucking cold I was. I rocked back and forth to try and create some heat. Outside the wind howled around my tiny shelter. Snow leaked through the hole I had left in the top for air, gathering around my body. I kicked it off to the side as much as I could. It was something to keep me occupied while I waited. Sitting on the cold and wet ground wasn't helping me feel much better. The cold was seeping into my legs quickly and there wasn't much I could do about it.

As time wore on, I got drowsier. I knew that was a bad sign. It was one of the first signs of hypothermia. I huddled my knees to my chest tighter, burying my face into my knees. My teeth wouldn't stop chattering. I could feel my entire body shaking from how cold I was. Every time I had to move to try and clear the snow my limbs felt heavier and heavier. Every movement was exhausting and took a lot of concentration to make it happen. I rubbed my face in an attempt to stop the feeling of wanting to drift off to sleep. I had to stay awake.

I had to stay awake. I kept repeating that to myself. Over and over again. There's no way I was going to drift off here in the snow. Not after all I had been through. Drifting off to sleep and never waking up again was a really shitty way to go. Besides, if died from hypothermia, Natasha would kill me for dying in such a stupid way.

That thought jarred me into awareness again. I laughed to myself, probably a little too manically for the circumstances. How shitty would that be? After all the missions I'd been through over the last year, the things I'd survived, how unlucky would it be to go like this? To have my eyes slide shut and never open again. To simply drift off to sleep. It was certainly a lot more peaceful than a lot of other scenarios I'd been in. No staring down the barrel of a gun. No getting into a fight and wondering if the move I had just made was going to be my last. No free falling from whatever height in an aircraft without ejection seats and knowing there was a sudden stop at the end. Just, nothing but drifting off to sleep.

I couldn't hold back the temptation of closing my eyes any longer. They were too heavy now. As soon as my eyes slid shut. I wasn't cold anymore.

"Kari!"

Clint's voice was so far away. He couldn't be close. There was no reason for me to fight off the sleep. Surely he'd wake me up when he got closer. I had no idea how much time had passed either. The wind was still howling outside. Clint wouldn't have come out in the blizzard. Besides, I'd found a warm spot now. I was curled up in a ball and feeling cozy.

Cozy was bad. Really bad. The sudden thought snapped into my brain, jolting me back into awareness. I was lying on the ground curled up in a ball. All of my limbs felt too heavy to move. I couldn't even sit up I was feeling so weak.

"KARI!"

Clint's voice sounded so close now. It wasn't coming from my earpiece. Clint was actually here.

"Clint." I tried to yell out. My voice was nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

I desperately tried to get my limbs to work. Nothing was obeying my commands though. All I wanted to do if drift back to sleep. I coughed as I tried to take in a deep breath. Even breathing felt like it was an enormous effort. Everything was so much effort. There was no way I could keep my eyes open any longer. They slid back down and I drifted back into oblivion.

A movement made me crack my eyes open. I was swaying and it was nauseating. My eyelids fluttered open with a great effort. The world around me was so bright, I shut my eyes again instantly.

"Hey, come on." Clint's voice sounded so loud. "Eyes open. I've got you."

I couldn't get my eyes to work. Nothing wanted to work. It took a few more moments to realise my clothes were being pulled off. My brain was telling me I should be making some wisecrack statement about Clint getting into my pants. My mouth didn't want to work though. My body slumped forward as Clint got my jacket off and was busy yanking off my thermals as well.

"You found me," I managed to slur out after Clint tugged my thermal shirt off.

"Of course I found you," Clint said, his voice tight with worry. "There's no way I'd leave you behind. I need to get you out of all of these wet clothes though."

I only had the mental capacity and energy to nod at his statement. He was so warm too. I could feel the heat radiating off him as I slumped against him. Clint stopped working on the laces on my pants to hug me tightly.

"I got you." He sounded suspiciously choked up. "Don't ever scare me like that again. Can you stay awake?"

I nodded again. I didn't have the energy to hug him back and Clint seemed to sense it. He lay me down so I was on my back and went back to pulling my soaking wet clothes off. It was like a switch hitting my body at the sudden realisation I was in very wet and cold clothes. I began to shiver uncontrollably right away.

"I know, I'm sorry." Clint apologised. "I'm working as fast as I can to get you out of it all."

I was soaked through to my base layer. I hadn't realised that until now. I was so cold there wasn't a shred of embarrassment at laying here naked from the waist it. At least Clint had seen it all before. We'd both seen each other in all stages of undress by accident while living together.

Clint got my boots and pants off quickly. As I shivered, I felt a little more awake than before. I was still groggy as hell and feeling very disorientated. Clint had put me down on our zipped open sleeping bags. Once I was free from my wet clothes, Clint pulled the sleeping bag over me and began to strip down as well.

"So many women in SHIELD." I had to pause because my chattering teeth were making it hard to talk. "Would pay good money to be in my shoes right now."

"I'm sure they'd skip the whole moderate hypothermia part though," Clint said, laughing as he got into the sleeping bag with me. He was down to his boxers and even I had to admit, it was a nice sight. He gently rolled me on my side and cuddled up as close as we could possibly get. "Cross your arms over your chest, it will help retain some body heat."

I did as I was told. Once my arms were crossed, Clint put an arm over them to hold me closer. Despite being in the warmth of the sleeping bag with Clint close to me, I still couldn't stop shivering. Despite the radiant warmth from the sleeping bag and Clint, I wasn't feeling much warmer. The only difference was my fingers and toes were really starting to hurt.

"Fingers hurt," I murmured. I was too tightly wrapped up in Clint's arms to check.

"You've got some frostbite," Clint explained. He shifted and laced his fingers through mine. "It doesn't look too bad but it's going to hurt like a bitch when rewarming."

"Wouldn't be a STRIKE Team Delta mission without getting some sort of injury." I wiggled so I was closer to Clint. "I would have been really mad if I'd died of something as dumb as hypothermia because some asshole decided to sneak out for a cigarette."

I yawned as soon as I finished speaking. I was so tired. I could have easily gone back to sleep right now despite being cold and uncomfortable.

"You would have been mad?" Clint asked with a chuckle. "I would have dragged you back from death myself. It was shitty timing for everything. Fucking newbie sneaking out for a smoke."

As he spoke, Clint was gently moving my body. The motion was enough to stop me from drifting off. I knew he was doing it on purpose. Right now going to sleep would be a very bad idea for me.

"Asshole." I chuckled with Clint. "It's a gross habit anyway. I should have shot him for it."

"And let him have the joy of dying from lung cancer? That's no fun. Let him suffer for his mistakes." Clint countered. "Guess who I saw today? The Michelin Man is back."

There was a really large guy who we dubbed the Michelin Man because of his white coat. He had been gone for a week. Clint and I had a running bet on whether he'd be back or he'd dropped dead of a heart attack because he was a really big guy. He could barely fit through the doorway and having bulky winter clothing on didn't help.

"You owe me $20," I said with a breathless laugh. "I told you he'd be back."

A violent bout of shivering stopped any further talking. Clint held onto me tightly while my teeth chattered so hard I was sure I might break some of them.

"Shivering is good," Clint said reassuringly after a few minutes of silence. "It means your body is trying to warm itself up. It's when you stop shivering things are bad."

"I stopped shivering out in the cold," I admitted. I held onto Clint's hands a little tighter. "It was scary."

"You were looking blue when I found you," Clint said, his voice going quiet. "At least you aren't double my weight. Carrying you back was easy."

I laughed quietly and wiggled again trying to get comfortable. Everywhere was starting to get feeling back in it. I could ignore the tingling but the burning sensation was very uncomfortable. I squirmed and Clint very quickly wrapped a leg over mine.

"You need to stop wiggling," Clint said firmly. "Just stay still."

I was about to ask why and I got my answer. There was silence in the room before I burst out laughing as I felt exactly why digging into my ass. Clint groaned, burying his head into my shoulder. A few moments later he joined in the laughter.

"That is a super inappropriate boner." Laughing felt good. This could have been a really bad situation. At least I was safe, warming up and laughing about it now. "Can you get that thing out of my ass?"

"I'm sorry," Clint apologised through his laughter. He scooted back a fraction so I wasn't dealing with a hard cock pressed into my ass. "It's been a long few weeks with no privacy and you are naked."

"I didn't think you thought that way about me, Hawk." I teased. This was at least taking my mind off all the feeling coming back into my limbs.

"You are the only woman in a 50 mile radius, it's your ass or my imagination when I tell you I'm having a pee break." Clint tried to sound huffy but it was hard to take him seriously when he was still laughing.

"Oh good, I get off on my so called pee breaks too." I shivered again. "Get rid of that arrow in your boxers. It's cold without you all over me."

"Here." Clint rolled over away from me. "You can be the big spoon while I get this misbehaving thing under control again."

It was still hard to move with my heavy limbs. I managed to move and switch places so I was cuddling into Clint. It was an acceptable arrangement. I could squirm around as much as I wanted without a boner pressing into my ass. Feeling slowly returned to my limbs painfully and slowly. Even though Clint was warm, I felt like the chill had seeped into my bones and it would never go away.

"We should be manning the surveillance," I said, feeling sleepy again. It was getting harder to fight it off the longer I lay here. I had no idea how much time had passed in here.

"I sent a transmission that you'd gone missing in a blizzard and we needed someone to watch." Clint sounded as sleepy as I was feeling. "It's the night shift. Nothing ever happens on the night shift. How are you feeling?"

"Everything burns," I said honestly. "I don't think I'll ever feel warm again but I'm alive. Thanks for coming out and getting me."

"As if I'd leave you out there." Clint almost sounded insulted as he brushed off my thanks. "By the way, your powers suck ass for not protecting you from the cold."

"Tell me about it," I said dryly. I smothered back a yawn. Despite still being cold, I was dead tired. "I need to sleep."

"Then go to sleep for a bit, you should be okay," Clint took my hand and laced my fingers through it. "Don't hump my ass or I might make a mess of my boxers the way this boner is feeling."

Clint was such a shit. I didn't have the energy to reply though. I was asleep within seconds despite still being uncomfortable.

I woke up what felt like seconds later with Clint shaking me. I blinked up at him blearily, trying to get my foggy brain to wake up.

"Ivanovich is here."

Those three words were enough to jolt me awake. Clint held out a bundle of clothes for me while I got up. I nearly fall on my face as I pulled up my pants. Clint had turned back to the computer monitors so he didn't see my clumsiness. There was a fresh cup of coffee sitting next to Clint which I happily snatched up as I stared at the monitor.

"I woke up to get something to eat and right as I walked past, Ivanovich was walking inside." Clint pointed at the monitor. There were several cars parked around the compound. "We need to get out there now. You take the back and I'll take the front."

A small part of me wanted to make a snarky remark about how the batteries on the security cameras I didn't replace were still working. Clint was in full mission mode now so I'm sure it wouldn't be appreciated. Instead, I quickly got dressed in my outer layers, which were still cold and slightly damp, and armed myself. We were both out the door in less than two minutes. It was a painful jog back to the compound. The snow was knee deep and my already aching body was feeling it three steps into the trip there. I pushed through the discomfort and kept up with Clint. We split off silently as I went to the back of the compound.

It was pitch black. The night sky was still cloudy so there was nothing to give away my approach even without going invisible. I climbed one of the studier trees that held one of our security cameras. I'd thought this one would make a good perch a few times for shooting people. I was at the back entrance, something that we had only seen being used a handful of times. I knew exactly why Clint had sent me back here. I was feeling extremely winded by the run here, not to mention all my still sore body. I wasn't in any condition to get into a firefight.

I very reluctantly peeled off my bulkier gloves when I was finished setting up my sniper rifle. While I adored the deerskin leather gloves I had on underneath, they were not warm at all. After the blizzard, everything felt ten times colder than before. Or that could just be my lingering effects of nearly freezing to death.

To my surprise, the back door swung open not long after I was set up. I yanked my goggles up and peered through the scope.

Pavel Ivanovich was walking out of the door.

Fuck.

Training kicked in and all thoughts left my mind as I lined the shot up. It couldn't get much easier than this shot I was about to take. I quickly wiped my running nose on my jacket before I pulled the trigger. As I glanced back through the scope, I took the shot.

I regretted it instantly.

In that half a second I took to wipe my nose, the wind had picked up ever so slightly. With the denser air in the cold, shooting was a bit different. While I'd factored in the denser air, I hadn't noticed the tiny shift in the wind.

The bullet sailed past Ivanovich's air and embedded into the building behind him.

I missed.

I completely and utterly fucking missed the easiest shot I could ever take in my life.

Authors Note

I'm aliiiiiiiive!

First, apologise for the long delay. I did hope to get this out earlier but real life wasn't cooperating with allowing me to write. But it's here before Feburary finished which was my goal.

Second, you are all amazing. I can't put into words the amount of gratitude I feel when my readers take time out of their day to review. It makes my day and breaths a lot of motivation and life into my writing. I know it's a huge story to get through and the fact people are going back and re-reading it is always amazing.

Again, I'll be trying to make one update a month for the moment. I see Captain Marvel next Wednesday, so I'm sure the hype from that will kick me into overdrive again. Not to mention we're two months out from Endgame! Two months. Where has the time gone?

Until next time.