Authors Note.

I decided this chapter needed the authors note at the start as I have a few things to say.

First of all, thank you SO SO SO much to everyone to the response to the last chapter. Good or Bad. Negative feedback is one thing everyone has to deal with in life and it's my job as an author to elicit a strong emotional response in my writing. Sometimes that emotional response isn't one that you particularly want to hear. I'm not going to lie, sometimes negative feedback stings. A lot. And this is coming from me who pays someone to judge me and tell me what I'm doing wrong most weekends for fun. Obviously, not everyone is going to like the change in direction and I'm sad if I lose readers. But if I tried to cater to everyone's wishes and the direction they want the story to go in, it would end up being at least 15 different versions of the story. But I'd also like people to stick with it and me do my job as a writer to change your mind about how the way this is going will work.

I did start writing this story just after Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out and during the first season of Agents of SHIELD. The very first original idea I had was to make it an Agents of SHIELD story but then it got expanded on. A lot. It also went through so many changes I've lost track of some of them. There's been a lot of different versions of Kari. Some had her just as a pilot who ended up hanging out with Clint and Natasha a lot and getting dragged into their messes. One version of Kari and Jared was both of them as Specialists. For a while, I wasn't going to do a backstory on Kari, I just wanted to drop her in for the first Avengers movie and have her backstory told in bits and pieces, one version of her just as the pilot and the other her as part of STRIKE Team Delta. I briefly had this very horrid love triangle between Clint, Steve and Kari going on as well.

I love what my own little universe has become. I'm glad I've done everything in the story the way it's turned out. I write this story because I had this idea of Kari and no other story came really close to what I wanted. So I began to write it for myself. I'm ever so grateful for you guys to be on the journey with me. But I also understand if you put it down and go "Nope, not for me," with these new events. I've done it with books and fanfics before. It's a really hard job to please everyone.

Secondly, updates are going to be sporadic until the end of November. My husband is on his last placements for his Uni degree and can't work during them. I'm the sole breadwinner and I've been putting my hand up for every single shift I possibly can right now. Australia is in an awful drought right now and most of my pay goes on feeding our horses, so being down to one income is stretching us a little thin unless I pick up extra work. But after November but husband will (finally) be a Registered Nurse and have a real adult job. Then it's my turn to get stuck back into full time Uni as well.

I will never abandon this story. Updates will be stretched out for a bit though.

Again, thank you, everyone, for believing in this story and sticking with me. Your reviews get me through those tough days where nothing else feels like it's going right or I'm stressed from work/uni/horses.

Enjoy the chapter.

Our little bubble of bliss lasted exactly 2 weeks and 4 days until Natasha came home. She and Jared were having a break from their mission. It had leads going back to Moscow and SHIELD wanted to back off the trail for the moment. Jared got another side mission right away, much to his disgust. He had enough time to drop Natasha off and then he was gone again.

Natasha was dying for waffles and was in the wrong timezone. So here we were at 2230, me feeling like a zombie after getting out of bed thanks to her phone call, sitting down at IHOP.

I'd never been so nervous in my life.

I'd rehearsed this a million times in my head on how I was going to break the news to her. As soon as my ass hit the seat, my mouth betrayed me. At the worst possible timing as Natasha had gone to take a drink of coffee.

"Me and Clint are fucking."

There really wasn't any other way to put it I suppose. To Natasha credit, she managed not to spray her coffee everywhere. She did choke on it and went bright red with trying not to cough a lung up.

"Sorry." I hastily handed her a napkin. "My mouth opened before I could think of a better way to put it."

"Fucking hell, Kari," Natasha wheezed between coughs. "You could have at least let me one have a sip before you blurted that out."

That was not the reaction I'd been expecting.

I looked at Natasha suspiciously. She didn't look the least bit surprised by what I'd just said. I continued to stare at her while she finished coughing and wiped her mouth.

"Why aren't you yelling at me yet?" I asked, eyeing my best friend off. I really wasn't sure if I should get ready to defend myself or run for my life right now.

"Because I'm choking on the first decent cup of coffee I've had in a week." Natasha's scowl looked half hearted. "And do you really think I'd yell at you after how you found out about me and Jared?"

Natasha had a good point. I had thought of that but I didn't dream of using it against her. It had been a horrible point in our relationship, one I'd rather not rehash.

"What happened?" Natasha asked.

"You know Wilkerson's boyfriend?" I started my story after a quick sip of my own coffee. Natasha nodded with a smirk on her face. She'd shamelessly flirted with Wilkerson's boyfriend at the first Christmas party I'd had with SHIELD. "He sent me a photo of Ben kissing another girl before Ben got there."

Natasha's smirk turned into a scowl as she looked pissed for real this time. At least I knew it wasn't directed at me. Not yet anyway.

"So I told Ben not to bother coming over." Even now it still stung. I took another sip of coffee before I went on. "I started drinking, Clint had been out drinking with the Bravo boys. He forgot something and asked if it was safe to come home. I answered the door in my new lingerie set and, yeah."

Natasha probably didn't want or need to know the details after that. She could get the general gist of it fairly well. At least the raise of her eyebrow gave me a clue that she could fill in the blanks.

"And?"

Apparently not. I was going to have to do it. She was doing this to egg me on and I knew it. I could feel my face flush at the memory.

"And Clint grabbed me and fucked me up against the hallway wall." There was no point lying about it. "Then we made it back to the bedroom, he went down on me and gave me one of the most intense orgasms I've ever had in my life with his tongue."

Natasha was outright smirking now. There was a brief moment of silence and I knew I wasn't off the hook.

"Then I rode him, got another orgasm. Fell asleep. Had a minor panic attack in the morning and we decided that it was stupid but fun. Fucked on the couch while I had my coffee and haven't really stopped since. I've been walking funny for the last two weeks."

To my ever lasting relief, Natasha laughed. I felt myself sag with relief. I knew I wasn't off the hook entirely. I hadn't been stabbed or yelled at though. It was a lot better than anything my imagination had conjured up.

"You aren't mad?" I hated how small and tentative my voice sounded. But telling Natasha was terrifying.

Natasha's shoulders lifted in a shrug. While I was happy there wasn't bloodshed, yet, she still didn't look thrilled about this conversation.

"I have no right to be mad." It was hard to judge Natasha's tone right now. "I can't say I'm surprised either. This has been brewing since Moscow, for Clint anyway. I thought you were being your usual oblivious self."

My mind went to the night of my first date with Ben. Natasha and Clint had been talking about something and I remember Natasha telling Clint that he needed to drop it. At the time I hadn't given any thought to what the subject was. Now I knew. I noticed how she hadn't actually answered my question either.

"Should I feel bad about this?" The words came out before I could second guess myself.

I wanted this conversation to be about Natasha's feelings on something that could change all of our lives dramatically. But I needed someone else to talk to. This was a huge secret I'd been carrying. I hadn't even been able to tell Peggy when I caught up for lunch with her the other day. The words stuck in my mouth every time I wanted to tell her about it. Instead, I'd shown her all the videos from my F-35 display. Peggy hadn't been well that day. She'd called me Hazel four times before I gently corrected her on it. After that, she said she was feeling more tired and old than usual and asked me to help her back to her room. She was asleep in her chair before I closed the door. I'd sent Grams a text to let her know Peggy had been not well, in case Peggy did her usual trick of fobbing everyone off.

"Why should you feel bad about it?" Natasha's expression turned confused. "You're an adult. You're both single. SHIELD doesn't care if you're fucking as long as you aren't in a relationship."

SHIELD had the weirdest rules sometimes. You could fuck your teammate but not develop feelings for them. In a way, I got it. Outright banning any kind of fucking of your workmates was a guarantee of having everyone doing it anyway. At least this way there was kind of a boundary. Since most of the STRIKE force were men, except for me and Natasha, it had been a non issues there. Until now at least.

"Because this changes everything," I said carefully. I really had no idea where this conversation was going and it was concerning.

"Only if you let it," Natasha said nonchalantly as she took a sip of coffee. "Treat it like you did with Gareth. A warm body on a cold night type of deal."

Heading into summer, the weather hadn't exactly been cold at night but I wasn't going to be a smart ass and point that out. I get where Natasha was going with this. Considering she was speaking from experience here, I was going to take her advice very seriously. Especially since she hadn't stabbed me yet.

"Nothing changes for you two except that you are fucking," Natasha continued. "You already live together, work together and do everything else together. Both of you can compartmentalize enough that it isn't going to affect work. Don't overthink it."

Natasha calm words gave me a small sliver of hope that this wasn't going to crash and burn spectacularly.

"What about telling Laura?" I asked and then added after a pause. "We haven't told Coulson and I'm planning on keeping it that way."

"Good plan." Natasha nodded. She scrunched her nose up in concentration for a few seconds. I hated that she looked adorable when she did that. I always looked stupid when I was concentrating. "I honestly don't know about Laura. It's going to go either way. Blow up in your face or she'll think it's hilarious. There won't be any in-between."

I had already considered that was a good possibility. At least hearing from Natasha confirmed my feelings.

"You haven't stabbed me with a spoon yet," I said tentatively. "Why?"

"Why a spoon, brother?" Natasha instantly quoted in a bad British accent with a husky male tone.

"Because it's dull you twit, it'll hurt more." I was just as quick to reply in my bad impersonation of the Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. We both found the old movie hilarious and usually played it to annoy Clint. Our immaturity made us both dissolve into giggles. Natasha was also the queen of deflection. I wasn't completely oblivious to the fact she was being careful about what she said right now.

"I was watching that when I was bored yesterday," Natasha explained as her giggles cleared up. The conversation went back to a serious tone a second later. "You were the only one after you'd cooled down a bit, who didn't lose your shit at me when it came out about me and Jared. I'd lied to everyone and you simply took it in your stride. I can't ever put into words how much I love you for that."

We'd come a very long way in our friendship. Natasha was the sister I'd always wanted but had to deal with Jared instead. I scooted across in my chair and pulled her into a hug. Natasha hugged me back fiercely. If we were anyone else, there might have been tears. I was so relieved, some of the weight of this situation had been lifted off my shoulders.

"Do not fuck this up," Natasha said quietly in my ear. "I'll murder you both."

There is was. I knew I wasn't going to get away with this completely scot free. I nodded to Natasha whispered threat. I knew she'd make good of it too if we did screw things up. Right now I was too happy to care or overthink the threat too much.

I nodded at the threat, letting go of Natasha. She sat back as nothing had happened with a wide smile on her face.

"Tell me everything."

So I did. Over waffles for Natasha and a double stack of chocolate chip pancakes for me, I relayed to Natasha everything. In Russian so no one could eavesdrop. There was a surprising amount of people in IHOP at this time of night. The crowd had thinned considerably by 0100 while we were still talking, we'd long moved onto other topics besides my sex life. I was going to regret this in the morning.

"I wish I could come with you," Natasha said, swirling her third cup of coffee around in the mug.

"Me too." I rubbed my face tiredly. "I thought Coulson was joking when he said it was in the middle of Australia. It is literally in the middle of Australia."

At 0900, me and Clint were taking a bunch of supplies and a fresh group of technicians to a place called Pine Gap. It was a joint SHIELD and military base in the middle of the Northern Territory in Australia. It was responsible for all of SHIELD and the military's classified communication networks. There were very few pilots with our clearance level and apparently we were carrying some sensitive equipment and information on board, so we got lumped with the job. At least I had Clint as my co-pilot for the long flight.

Natasha couldn't come because her mission that she and Jared had been on meant she could be dropped back in it at any second. There was no guarantee Jared would be around to come and get her, so she had to stay in DC.

"Take a bikini, lounge by the pool. There isn't much else to do there," Natasha suggested. A second later, she let out a jaw cracking yawn. "Since Barton isn't using his bed, I'm going to crash at your place."

Jared had dropped Natasha outside of IHOP at her request. I was going to drive her home but her suggestion sounded so much better.

"Good." I drained the last of my own coffee. It wasn't doing much for keeping me awake anyway. "Let's go."

I'd taken Clint's Camaro, simply because I enjoyed driving it. Natasha slung her arm around my waist as we walked out to where it was parked. I hugged her back. Tonight had gone so much better than any scenario I'd played out in my head. Despite being dead tired, we didn't stop talking until we got back to my apartment and Natasha had closed the door to Clint's room.

Crawling into bed, I latched onto Clint who was naked under my covers. He briefly stirred as I snuggled up to his back.

"You're still alive and in one piece," Clint's voice was full of sleep as he patted my leg. "Yay."

There was no point responding. His hearing aids were on the bedside table. Instead, I gave him a squeeze. His breathing evened out and he was fast asleep within seconds. Getting comfortable under the covers, I wasn't far behind him.

When I woke up I was alone in the bed. My alarm hadn't gone off yet. I was planning for a sleep in and we weren't training this morning because of the long flight. It was still an hour too early for me to be awake. I grunted in annoyance and pulled the covers back over my head. Muffled voices coming from the kitchen caught my curiosity before I could settle back to sleep.

"Do not fuck this up, Barton."

Natasha's words were clear, even through the closed door. There was some weight behind them and it sounded threatening. I kicked off the covers and pulled on a dressing gown in case there was bloodshed about to happen.

As I opened the door, Clint was rubbing his jaw looking pained. Natasha was drinking her coffee looking like nothing had happened. It was too early to be dealing with this. I had a pretty good idea of what happened so I went to the bathroom instead, shaking my head at the pair. I was very glad I'd gotten a hug instead of a fist across my face.

By the time I was finished in the shower and dressed, Natasha and Clint were joking in the kitchen like nothing had happened. I wasn't going to bring it up either. Natasha and Clint had a way of punching things out and then moving on. I wasn't stupid enough to get involved in their weird and fucked up ways. Clint was currently into making overnight oats for breakfast and was trying to persuade Natasha to try some. On the first spoonful, Natasha was pulling a face similar to the time I'd given Alexi a slice of lemon she insisted on having out of my Corona I'd been drinking.

"Put some maple syrup in it, maybe she'll eat it then," I suggested as I scooped up my own bowl. Clint had been making mine with chocolate protein powder and peanut butter. Like the child I was, anything chocolate and peanut butter and I'd eat it.

Natasha would eat nearly anything if you added sugar. She always said it was a hangover from growing up in the Red Room and eating bland food for years.

"Nope, you're on your own." Natasha pulled a disgusted face and shoved the bowl back towards Clint. "Where do you find this shit?"

"Pinterest."

Clint and I said it at the exact same time. We shared a grin at that. Clint had gotten obsessed with recipes on Pinterest lately. Between fucking, he'd been feeding me new recipes every night. I certainly wasn't complaining about his cooking sprees. Especially when I walked out one morning to find Clint in nothing but an apron around his waist cooking stuffed french toast.

Natasha rolled her eyes hard at us. She got up and went to the cupboard, no doubt raiding it for some sugary trash cereal Clint always kept in there for her. I was right, she produced a box of Fruit Loops a few moments later.

It was such a normal scene for us. Clint drinking coffee by the pot instead of using a cup like a normal person. Natasha eating sugary rubbish cereal. All we were missing was Jared eating Clint's latest round of cooking like he hadn't been fed in a year. Natasha was right. Nothing had to change here.

I knew that with our luck that nothing lasts forever. For the moment I was content to soak in the bliss of the moment.

As we finished breakfast, Natasha went back to bed and me and Clint got our bags and headed to work. Clint got interested in something on his phone as I drove. I was starting to feel the effects of the late night and early morning. Clint could take first shift while we were flying. It was a 16 hour flight so there was plenty of time for me to nap.

Getting to the Triskelion and pre-flight check was its usual mundane activity. I was yawning every five seconds by the time I put the ramp up on the Quinjet. The back was loaded with people and cargo.

"You have the controls," I said around my yawn. "I'm going to rack out for a bit."

"Sure." Clint looked over at me with a small smile on his face. That smile seemed to be reserved for me these days. As he turned I could see the shadow of a bruise on his jaw. That was going to be a conversation for when I woke up.

I was very glad for teaching Clint to fly all that time ago.I trusted him in the air like I would with my own abilities. I was asleep before we made it to altitude.

An alarm going off woke me up with a start. A second later, Clint was gently shaking my arm.

"M'awake," I said slowly, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. It took me a second to focus on the sound. I frowned as I sat up and looked at the flight computer. Something odd was going on with the hydraulics.

"That's weird." I frowned as I scrolled through the problem. It wasn't anything critical thankfully. It still should have shown up in the pre-flight.

"I know." Clint echoed my frown. "She's still flying all right though."

"Hand me the controls," I asked, sitting up

"Controls to you in three, two, one," Clint was in mission mode instantly.

As the controls came over to me, I quickly ran through some basic tests. Besides a slight vibration in my rudder control pedal and a very mildly sluggish response to the left, nothing felt out of the ordinary. We hadn't long left Honolulu airspace and there wasn't much between us now and until we hit French Polynesian air space.

"Should I call a pan-pan in?" Clint asked.

I glanced over at him and saw that he was scrolling through the flight computer, his brow furrowed in concentration. I tested my controls one more time, making sure I was 100% sure of my answer. Pan-pan was radio call for being in trouble but not an immediate danger.

"No, we're okay." I looked at the flight computer one more time. The alarm was gone and whatever the problem was seemed to have worked itself out. Sometimes these older Quinjets had gremlins in them. "It might be an idea to get everyone to buckle up in the back though."

"This is Hawkeye," Clint was straight onto it. "We're having a technical difficulty. Everyone sit down and buckle up."

No one argued. In less than a minute everyone in the back was in their seats and strapped in.

Nothing woke you up quicker than the potential of having a plane crash. Nothing else went wrong but it didn't help my unease as the hours ticked by. Clint fed me MRE chocolate to keep me awake as we flew along. The only thing I noticed was the slight vibration seemed to be getting worse as time went on. It made the last 8 hours of the flight nerve wracking wondering if I was imagining things or things really were getting worse.

We were 10 minutes off making landfall over Australia when the flight computer suddenly started squawking again. Before I could glance down and see the problem, there was a shudder and all of a sudden the Quinjet dropped to the left.

"Motherfucker," I swore as I straightened it up. Now I had vibrations all the way up to the joystick. "Barton now's the time to call that pan-pan."

As I said that, a loud bang came from the back. More and more of the control panel was lighting up with failures. The Quinjet started to list to the left again.

"Make that a mayday," I said through gritted teeth as I struggled to bring the Quinjet level again. I didn't need to look down to know we were having a critical failure.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is SHIELD 629 Bravo," Clint was onto it straight away. "We have a critical engine failure."

"SHIELD 629 Bravo, this is Brisbane tower. Handing you straight over to RAAF Amberley."

That was smart of them. We were being handed straight over to an air force base instead of trying to land at a major civilian airport. Clint was busy handling the radio and putting new coordinates into the flight computer. A quick glance at showed it wasn't too much further out. I still had control and as long as things stayed that way, I could put us down. It was going to be a bumpy ride.

"How we doing, Kari?" Clint asked, his voice steady and calm.

"We're able to limp along," I said confidently. I glanced down again as another alarm went off. "I'm going to cut all non essential systems to preserve power and dump what's left of our fuel while we're over water."

Clint nodded. I quirked my lips up in what I hoped to be a reassuring smile. I still had both engines fully functional, just lots of other systems were going offline.

"Fuel dump in, three, two, one." Clint moved and hit a switch. It was always slightly scary watching the fuel gauges drop to nearly nothing. At least if we did end up crashing there would be less of a chance of becoming a fireball.

There was one advantage fighter pilot training gave me in this situation. It was an absolute laser focus on getting back on the ground safely. So many things could go wrong in the air and you were drilled over and over again in what to do in worst case scenarios. With Clint handling everything else, all I had to do was fly.

The temptation to slow down was a great one. But as we cleared the coast the area was fairly well populated. If I slowed down and there was a major failure, there was a good chance we could take out someone's house and ruin their day very spectacularly. My sigh of relief of being within distance to descent to land was short lived as the landing gear malfunctioned. Five seconds later, my VTOL also decided to fail. This was going to be one hell of a shitty landing. It's a good thing the Quinjet was so heavily armored, it could take the beating.

Hopefully.

"For fuck sake." I resisted the urge to kick the control panel. Today was not my day. I seriously fucking jinxed myself earlier about my happy bubble not lasting. "This is going to be bumpy. Brace positions everyone."

Clint looked white as a sheet at my calm words. I didn't have time to give me any reassurance. The landing was coming up and all I had to do was get us on the ground. I was very glad for dumping all of the fuel now otherwise this would have been very bad. We were on fumes right now. To be safe, I dumped was little there was left. The Quinjet became a glider as I cut the remaining power. Dead stick landings were not my favorite thing in the world. There was so much more you had to take into consideration while doing it.

"Hang on." It was a useless thing to say. Everyone was holding on for dear life right now. Even though I couldn't hear it, I'm sure there was some praying going on in the back.

The runway was coming up fast now. I'd lined it up perfectly and now I had to do was essentially a controlled crash landing. It was going to be bumpy and I knew I'd be having the worst nightmares tonight. The moment before we touched the ground, I cringed and closed my eyes.

The jerk of several hundred tons of steel hitting the ground nearly sent me flying into the windscreen. There was nothing else I could do except grit my teeth and hope that we didn't explode. It seemed like the Quinjet dragged on the ground for miles. The sound of metal groaning was deafening and not unlike nails on a chalkboard. With one last shuddering groan, the Quinjet stopped.

I was out of my seatbelt within seconds. As I hit the button to lower the ramp, it gave a sad little whirring sound. I could smell smoke and I had no idea if it was from the landing or something else was about to happen.

"I'll smash the window, you get everyone on their feet and out." I didn't hesitate. I leaned forward and pushed my power straight into it. Ice quickly formed over the windscreen and a few moments later, it shattered beneath my hands. I could hear the sound of sirens and in the distance, there were fire trucks racing towards us.

Clint hadn't argued. As I shook the ice crystals off my hand, he was already back in the cockpit, directing people away from the back. The first of the fire engines had pulled up and to their credit, already had an emergency slide out for people.

"Go."

I gave the first person a gentle shove before they could hesitate. To his credit, the bookish looking technician didn't. Everyone else followed without any dramas. There were plenty of people looking terrified and very happy to be getting off the smoke filled Quinjet. I didn't blame them. When the last person was at the bottom of the slide, I jumped down and bounced all the way to the bottom. In any other circumstances, it would have been fun being on the huge inflatable emergency slides. Right now I was glad to get out of the Quinjet and back on solid land again.

"Are you injured Ma'am?"

Before I could take in a breath, I had a medic in front of me. I waved off his concern easily.

"No, I'm fine." I shook my head. "Shaky but fine."

The medic took one critical look at me before moving onto the next person. I moved to the edge of the crowd and sat down, breathing heavily. That was some scary shit. I swallowed hard and took in a few deep and calming breaths. I had survived. So had everyone on board.

Clint was by my side in less than a minute and sat down next to me. Not a word needed to be said between us as he took my hand. I squeezed his hand hard, letting his steady grip steady my shaking hands.

More people were joining the crowd. Amongst the chaos, someone in a blue dress uniform came jogging through.

"Who's the agent in charge?" His raised voice was barely able to be heard over the commotion.

Unluckily for me, one of the other agents pointed in our direction. I was definitely not in charge, neither was Clint. He was probably one of the most senior agents on the plane so this was about to be his problem.

"Fuck my life," Clint grumbled under his breath as he climbed to his feet. "Let's hope this guy has a phone and I can ring Coulson. I am not mature enough to be in charge of this shit."

I laughed a little at Clint's grumbling. As the man came over, I pushed myself to my feet. My legs felt like jelly as I got up. My hands were still shaking so I shoved them in my pockets.

"Agent Clint Barton." Despite his immaturity, Clint could actually be professional if he needed to. He greeted the Air Force Major as he got close. "STRIKE Team Delta, this is Agent Kari Lyngley of STRIKE Team Delta as well and the pilot."

"Squadron Leader Boyd Wicks," he held a hand out for Clint to shake. "RAAF Liaison for SHIELD. A pleasure to meet you both."

Right, I forgot the ranks were different elsewhere in the world.

After he shook Clint's hand, he moved to me. I liked this man instantly. He was in his late 40's with an open and friendly face. He had a firm handshake and looked as steady as a rock.

"One hell of a landing, mate," Boyd said with a small laugh as he shook my hand. "Who do you need to call? Can I get you anything else right now?"

I needed a stiff drink. I doubted I'd get one of them for a while yet. I honestly had no idea what to do in this situation.

"If I can call our handler, he'll be able to direct things a lot better," Clint took the lead. "He's used to us blowing things up and dealing with the fallout."

"Right this way." Boyd pointed through the mess of people and emergency vehicles where a plain 4 wheel drive was on the edge of the runway. "You'll have a little more peace and quiet in the car."

I followed Clint as we walked over. I was more than happy to let him take control until Coulson got on the phone. Boyd opened the back door and gestured for me to take a seat. While I got comfy, he handed a cell phone over to Clint. I put my head against the chair and let myself have a few moments to breath. In and out. Nothing else happening in the world but those steady breaths.

"Hey, Coulson, I swear it wasn't our fault."

Clint's joking tone made me smile. I opened my eyes again and looked over at him. He had one foot up on the sidestep of the car with the iPhone pressed against his ear. His was idly rubbing his free ear, something he usually only did when he was stressed or his hearing aids were annoying him.

"The Quinjet had a mechanical failure," Clint sounded like he got cut off. Judging by the eye roll, Coulson had gone into full mother hen mode. "No, Kari was flying and we're all fine. We landed at RAAF base Amberley. I've got the RAAF liaison here for you because I'm not old or mature enough to be in charge of this shit."

Boyd was standing near Clint and laughed as he took the offered phone. He moved away as he greeted Coulson cheerfully like this was a social chat. Not that we had just crash landed a plane full of classified surveillance equipment and over a dozen people on the air force base. As Boyd stepped away, another man in fatigues and a blue beret came up to us.

"I've been told you two are the ones to talk to about weapons on board." The guy had the same surname as Boyd.

I looked at Clint. He was the one who'd gone to the armory to avoid doing the pre-flight. As usual. I didn't doubt he packed enough to arm a small army. Judging by the guilty look flashing across Clint's face, I was right.

"There's 3 P30's, along with a trunk full of ammo," Clint started. "I have a collapse recurve bow with two quivers. My arrowheads are in the ammo trunk and some of them have explosive tips."

The guy looked at Clint with both his eyebrows raised and a total look of disbelief on his face.

"Kari's got a custom made sniper rifle in the case next to my bow, along with its ammo. It's got her name written all over it," Clint said it as it absolved him of the fact he had an entire case full of ammo with us for the P30's.

"Right." The guy still looked disbelieving. "You always travel this heavily armed?"

"He's a girl and doesn't know how to pack for a simple trip away," I cut in before Clint could come up with some bullshit excuse. "He went to the armory unsupervised to get out of doing the pre-flight."

"I am…" Clint started and I cut him off instantly.

"There's being prepared and there's you, Barton." This was an old argument we always had. "Honestly, back me up here Wicks. Is there a need for anyone to have an ammo cache hidden under their toilet paper?"

I'd thrown one of the magazines at Clint's head when I found it a few months ago. Clint had ammo and weapons stashed everywhere in the apartment. I honestly expected to come home one day and press a kitchen drawer wrong one day and have an entire armory pop out at me like an action movie.

Clint looked to the other Wicks who looked like he was having a hard time trying to keep his laughter in check. Wicks held his hands up in defeat.

"You're on your own, mate," Wicks said, the amusement clear in his voice. "Does it need to be secured?"

Clint and I both shook our heads. The weapons holding in the Quinjet needed biometric access and it was fireproof. There were two things that would survive if the Quinjet exploded. The black box and the weapons holdings.

"Good, I'll let the boss know," Wicks said with a nod. "Dad looks like he's already onto everything else but can I do anything for you?"

That explains the same last names. Now I looked between the pair, the similarity was uncanny.

"No, we're good," Clint said with a shake of his head. "Thanks though."

Wicks nodded and jogged back off in the direction he came. Boyd was still on the phone, nodding at whatever was being said on the other end.

"Hey," Clint's soft voice drew my attention back to him. Now no one was looking in our direction, his game face was gone. He looked as rattled as I was feeling. "That was one hell of a landing."

"Better than my last crash landing," I said with a shaky laugh. "That's going to give me some nightmares again."

Clint pulled me into a hug. I put my head on his shoulder and let myself cling to him like my life depended on it. We rarely talked about the last time there was a crash landing. Clint always felt guilty about the memory blank he had. Nothing could ever really describe the horror of that moment when the Quinjet went completely dead and we fell from the sky. At least today I had control. No one was hurt. The Quinjet was mostly in one piece, though there was still smoke coming from where it had stopped. Things could have been a lot worse. I stayed in Clint's arms until Boyd came back over, holding the phone out to us. Wordlessly, I took it from him. Clint let go of me but didn't move far.

"Hi, Coulson." My voice came out shaky. "We're okay."

"I know but it's still good to hear your voice," Coulson said gently. "I can't get there right away but I'm only a phone call away if you need me."

"I know." Judging by the shift in Coulson's tone, I was about to get our debrief. "What do you need us to do, boss?"

"Right now?" Go to medical and get checked out to put my mind at ease," Coulson started. "Boyd has organized a room for you and Clint for the next few days until we can get a replacement Quinjet out there. The technicians will be staying on base as well, I've got someone else organizing all of their shit because they're an entirely different problem."

I nodded, although Coulson couldn't see me. His business like tone meant I had to listen and not interrupt right now.

"Once the replacement Quinjet comes, you'll be doing the drop off at Pine Gap and coming straight back. We're going to be back and forth to PEGASUS for a while judging by what's going on here."

Project PEGASUS was a joint venture between NASA, SHIELD and the Air Force. It was a lot of classified things that I had no idea about. But if Coulson was needed there it meant me and Clint would be doing a lot of boring door guarding.

"Don't pull a face at me." Coulson didn't miss a beat. "It won't be that bad."

I was in fact, pulling a disgusted face at the thought of being a door guard. Clint was as well.

"Rest up. I'll let Andrew know he might get some calls at weird hours from you if you need him," Coulson continued. "Send me a text when you're done at medical."

"Will do," I said with a small smile. "We'll behave, I promise. Or I will and I'll beat Barton in submission."

That got a laugh from Coulson and an indignant grunt from Clint. With a goodbye, Coulson hung up. Boyd was hanging near the front of his car and came over as I hung the phone up.

"Apparently we're going to medical," I said lightly, handing the cell back to Boyd.

"And I've got your room sorted as well. You'll have to bunk together because we're short on space right now," Boyd said with a nod. "Luke lives on base at the moment so he'll show you around. I'll get a car organized for you in case you want to go anywhere. Let's get you to medical first though."

That gave me the other Wicks' name. Boyd was very efficient in a way that reminded me of Coulson. He had already herded us into the car before I realized he was doing it. At this stage, I was fast running out of energy and too tired to protest.

Medical was busy when we got there. We didn't have any obvious injuries so we had to wait to get through the other agents who did get banged up. The Army doctor who was on looked really unimpressed with all of us making a quiet afternoon into a busy one. While we were waiting, Boyd's son, Luke, rejoined us. Boyd had some other phone calls to make, so Luke kept us entertained.

He was only a year out of the Australian Defence Force Academy and what he called a Ground Defence Officer. He commanded a rifle flight of Airfield Defence Guards, basically the ground force unit for the Australian Air Force. He was more interested in hearing our stories on how two STRIKE personal ended up on this flight and why we had personalized weapons. It was a good way to pass the time until the flustered doctor came up and glanced at both me and Clint. I'd jarred my back but it wasn't anything too bad. A good massage and a hot shower were probably all I needed.

Our bags were dropped off as soon as we were done. I was exhausted and more than ready for some sleep, despite it only being 1700 here. It was late Autumn in this part of the world and the sun was setting already. There was a bite of cold in the wind. Enough that I was going to happily snuggle under a few blankets tonight. Luke's room was three down from us, making it convenient if we needed anything. Boyd dropped the three of us off with a wave and a list of phone numbers in case we needed anything.

"The mess will be open if you guys want to come and grab something to eat," Luke offered as we walked to our room. It was on the bottom floor of a triple story complex. It was a very standard military room looking building. As our room door swung open, it was almost identical to my old room back at Langley Base. It seemed some things never changed from country to country.

"I need sleep," I said with an apologetic smile. "I'd be rude and fall asleep in my food if I try and stay awake much longer."

"Same. Thanks for the offer though." Clint looked as tired as I felt.

"There's a 24 hour Maccas down the road if you wake up in the middle of the night and hungry." Luke didn't look surprised or offended. "Otherwise the servo does a decent burger all night too. I'll be up most of the night because I'm a bit of an insomniac so don't hesitate to bang on my door."

Australia's spoke their own language. I was sure of it. It took me a moment to realize Maccas was McDonald's. I'm sure servo was a gas station or something along those lines.

"Will do, thanks heaps." Clint pushed our door open. "Ladies first."

I gave him a shove which made him go through the door first. Luke laughed at us and with a wave left for his own room. I followed Clint in and went straight for the bed. With a groan, I collapsed on the first available one.

"Do you want a shower?" Clint asked as he sat down next to me.

I shook my head, my face buried in the pillow. I was struggling to stay awake in medical and now it was nearly impossible for me to keep my eyes open.

"Do you want to at least take off your dirty boots?" Clint nudged me.

I grunted and moved my closest foot onto Clint's lap. He laughed and complied to my non verbal request, twisting my foot so he could undo the knot of laces. Once my boot was free, he did the same with the other one. I was asleep before the boot hit the floor.

Unfortunately, I didn't stay that way. I jolted awake while Clint was still in the shower. I was dreaming of fall and hitting the ground with a sudden and horrid stop. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling with a pained sigh. I hadn't had one of those nightmares in a while now. After today it wasn't a surprise that I'd be back on that certain merry go round. I pushed myself off the bed and started stripping off my clothes on the way to the shower. I was naked by the time I opened the bathroom door.

Clint didn't look surprised to see me at all. He opened the shower door for me and I climbed in under the spray and into his waiting arms.

There wasn't anything to be said. Clint knew about this certain demon of mine. He held me under the luke warm water with my head buried into his neck. I hated this part of the job. If I didn't have amazing friends like Clint and Natasha with me, I'm sure I would have cracked by now. I was too exhausted and strung out to even cry right now. I just needed Clint's strong arms around me to make the world feel a little bit better.

And it did. The water turned cold before I felt like I could let go of Clint. As I did, I noticed the faint bruise on his jaw. I brushed a kiss against it. I could feel Clint smile underneath my lips.

"At least one of us came out unscathed from Natasha," Clint said with a low laugh. His hand came up and cupped my cheek. He turned his head and caught my lips in a brief kiss. "Let's get dry and into bed. You can tell me about your midnight waffle run and conversation that didn't earn you a punch in the face."

So I did. We both fell into the bed with nothing but a towel wrapped around each of us while I relayed what happened between me and Natasha at IHOP. His conversation with Natasha had gone how I'd imagined it. Natasha had walked out of the bedroom while Clint was making breakfast and punched him across the face. I'd woken up just after that and heard Natasha's threat. Nothing else was said on the matter between them while I was in the bathroom.

What we were doing was really insane. Even if we stopped now, everything had changed. Being outside of our little bubble of sex on every surface of the apartment made that more of a reality now. I was going to take Natasha's advice to heart about not treating like any differently than I did with my relationship with Gareth. There was too much at stake otherwise.

Our conversation turned to nothing of importance and I finally drifted back off to sleep. My sleep was restless and I kept waking up with the jarring sensation of falling so many times. At least this time I was in Clint's arms and it didn't take me long to be lulled back into sleep. He woke up every time I was jolted awake and held onto me. It was grounding and exactly what I needed. It took me until midnight but I finally fell asleep properly without any dreams.

Until my phone rang at 0215.

I groaned and rolled over, pulling the pillow over my head. Clint reached over and picked it up.

"You do know there's a time difference Coulson," Clint said sleepily. "A very big one."

I couldn't hear what Coulson was saying on the other end of the phone. Clint's sudden silence made me uncover my head. As I did, he wordlessly handed me the phone. I could barely make out Clint's face in the darkness but whatever Coulson had said to him was serious.

My stomach dropped. We must have been caught out. We were going to be in so much trouble.

"Hi, Coulson," I said timidly.

This was it. While I knew our happy little bubble wouldn't last forever, I was really hoping for a bit more time.

"I need you both to head to the airport, right now," Coulson's tone was clipped and professional. "Tickets are going to be waiting for you on the next flight."

"Okay?" So we were going to get our roasting in person. This wasn't going to be fun. Maybe if I played dumb for a bit, it might soften the blow. "What's happening?"

"We just found Steve Rogers."