Sorry it's been so long, but here is a little something I just came up with until i can figure out where I"m going with the next part of the story.

2002 Trust

Almost a year after the Ecuador mission and several other successful missions, one in which Natasha had saved her partners life Natasha was in one of the more advanced training rooms with May. They were running through one of the new obstacle course simulations the SHIELD techs had come up with and had requested the two agents to run through it so they could evaluate their simulation and to work out the kinks before it was made available to all agents and the other SHIELD facilities around the world.

Over the past 2 years at SHIELD, the agents had become more accustomed to the Black Widow roaming the halls, but there were still a few among them that were waiting for the day that she snapped and turned on them. Fortunately for her she had made some friends that she could actually see herself trusting.

"Romanoff, ready to see what this thing has?" May called from her position on the other side of the room. Smirking, Natasha tossed her one of the special stun guns the techs had created to go along with the simulation. It worked with the holograms and made sure that any missed shots didn't harm/kill other agents.

"Let's do this." She turned to look up at the observation room where the techs were stationed, giving them a thumbs up, she turned back to the course. The course started up and the two agents started making their way through the course. Hologram enemy agents started beaming up from the floors, obstacle walls started to rise from the ground and lasers crisscrossed the room. The techs had told them it should take them about 30 minutes to complete the course, however for the Cavalry and Black Widow they were done in half the time with perfect scores. When they were finished they heard someone clapping from the door. They turned to see Barton standing there with an amused look on his face as he watch the techs emerge from the room they had been watching from, all their faces covered with a mixture of frowns, scowls and impressed looks. They began to run around to all the different areas to get specs and information that the sensors had gathered throughout the simulations.

"You two just won me $75 from those guys, bet them that you'd finish it before the time was up. They on the other hand thought they had finally created a test hard enough for you two, but they don't know you like I do." With a laugh he walked over two the women. "By the way May, Fury was looking for you, said he'd be in his office and wanted you to go see him when you got the chance."

"Thanks Barton. Good work today Romanoff, see you later." And with that May picked up her training bag and left the room.

"See guys!" Clint called over to the techs who were still trying to figure out where their simulation had gone wrong. "This is why I trust her in and out in the field, she's the best of the best and thanks again for the cash." The techs scowled at him but Natasha had stilled at his words, "I trust her…" no one had ever trusted her before, outside of the marks she worked, but they tended to end up dead so they didn't really count. "Hey you okay? You kinda zoned out there for a second."

Natasha looked back at her partner, a concerned frown crossed his face. She took a sip of her water before speaking, still trying to get her mind around the fact that someone trusted her. "You're an idiot for trusting me Barton, I've been in this field for most of my life and all I've ever been taught was trusting someone in our jobs is one of the most idiotic things that you can do. All I've done in my life is lie and kill and destroy others people lives, including some of the lives of agents of this agency. We've only known each other for two years and have been working together for even less time. I know we work well together but that's a whole other thing all together. So tell me what on earth could I have done to earn your trust?" She finished, placing her hands on her hips glaring at him slightly.

"You're kidding me right?" he looked at her with an exasperated look on his face. "You've been here for two years, you haven't betrayed SHIELD, you haven't run off with any information, killed anyone, you haven't betrayed me. Everyone thought that by now you would have done at least one of those things and you proved them wrong time and time again. And let's not forget you saved my life 5 months ago down in Peru, I find it hard not to trust someone who took the risks you did to make sure I made it back alive."

"You do realize that could have been self-preservation right? If I had let you die out there Coulson and Fury would have killed me and my plan to take all the most important information SHIELD has and auction it off to the highest bidder would have been ruined." She stared him down, not showing the slightest amount of emotion.

Clint looked at her for a moment before bursting out laughing, "Ya, no. But it's good to know you have a sense of humor after all this time." Natasha looked at him and for the first time in since probably before she had been taken by the Red Room, she smiled.

"I'm not kidding about the trust part, Barton. The lives we lead and what you know about my past I honestly don't know how you can trust me so easily."

"I was where you were once. When Coulson brought me in I had been betrayed by basically everyone I knew. My father abused me, my mother let him, my own brother tried to kill me, and the list goes on, so basically before I met Coulson I never trusted anyone. So I understand where you're coming from and I know you aren't gonna run because I've seen how you've changed since I brought you in and you haven't done anything to make me even think of not trusting you with my life. Plus the fact that you just smiled, in what I think is the first time ever and didn't just beat the crap out of me for laughing at you helps to. Now don't kill me." He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hugged her. Frozen, she stood there until she slowly raised her arms and returned the hug. And for the first time in her life, she knew what it felt like to have someone actually care about her.