Natasha ends up in the basement of the hospital. She's too shaken to get in her car. Too upset to leave the place where he took his last breath. Nick Fury died. The second person who ever saw a change in her. Who saw her humanity and knew just how to push her buttons to break her defences. Next to Clint he is the only person she truly trusts in the world. Was.

She slides down the wall in a dark corridor. As soon as she's sitting down her tears come back. As hard as she tried to fight them before, as easy is it now to let them go. Natasha cries for the man she's lost today. Her quiet sniffles turn into louder sobs pretty quickly. She cries for Nick. She cries for SHIELD. The organization whom she called home turns out to be something it's not. Too much has happened over the last few hours. Too much has changed. And she's not good with change.

As she's sitting alone in the dark corridor, softly crying, she longs for Clint. She knows it's the middle of the night and he's probably sleeping soundly. Yet she also knows that this is one of those moments where he would want to be there for her. She grabs her phone but as soon as she wants to hit the call button she realises that SHIELD might have tapped her phone too. So she stands up and uses the light of her phone to search for a phone. Finally she finds one that works in the stairwell. Quickly she dials his number and waits. Hoping that he'll pick up a strange phone number.

''lo?' he answers, clearly still half asleep. As soon as she hears his voice her tears return full force and her legs give out. She sits down on a step and tries to say something. Instead a sob leaves her lips. 'Natasha?' he's now very much awake and alarmed. Her sobs are increasing now that she knows he's there for her. To comfort her, even if it's just his voice.

'Clint', she cries hoarsely. That's all she can manage to say right now.

'Give me a second', she can hear him moving around and she can only assume he's leaving his bedroom to go downstairs. Afraid to wake up Laura or the kids. She waits patiently for him to start talking again.

'I'm here, Nat', Clint softly says, 'can you tell me what's wrong?'

'Fury…', she instantly stops as she says his name and she takes a few shaky breaths. Clint knows to stay silent, giving her all the time and space to tell him what has gotten her so upset. 'He's gone, Clint', she whispers with a broken voice. Saying it out loud suddenly makes it real and another round of sobs can be heard on the phone.

'What?' Clint asks in disbelief. It all suddenly makes sense to him why she's so uncharacteristically upset. He knows how much Nick Fury meant to Natasha. He gave her a home. A stability she lacked all her life.

'He was shot at Steve's apartment', she eventually explains to him. Her sobs die down a bit and she only occasionally hiccups.

'What was he doing there?'

'Don't know', she takes a deep, shaky breath before she continues, 'Steve called me about an hour ago saying he was shot. A few minutes after I came to the hospital his heart stopped'. She closes her eyes and sees Fury on the operating table, how the surgeons tried to restart his heart, their faces as they called time of death. Her emotions are having a life of it's own at the moment and her cries increase again. The emotional pain so strong she doubles over, one arm around her stomach, the other hand still holding the phone. Every minute Clint hears Natasha cry into the phone, he gets more and more worried.

'Where are you? I'll come to you' he says, obviously concerned for her. God, she wants him to come. To wrap his strong arms around her and guard her from all the pain in the world. She wants him beside her so desperately.

'You can't', she cries brokenly, 'it's not safe'. She tries to take a few deep breaths to get her emotions under control a little.

'Please, Tash', he whispers back. She almost gives in, almost.

'Don't', she answers, 'you can't be here. As much as I want you to, you can't. I will not risk your safety'. The sound of her voice makes him stop asking. She sounds so lost. A sound he never thought he would hear. They both stay silent. Natasha is pushing her emotions back down, trying to be calm enough to move on and figure out what is going on. Clint just listens to her. She sounds congested every time she sniffs. But he can hear her breathing getting slower and deeper.

'I need to figure out what's going on, Clint', she says after a few minutes, 'I need to know who did this'.

'Please be careful', he whispers. They're both not ready to hang up but know she doesn't have another choice. She's in the middle of this. 'Call me when you're safe?'

'I will, Clint', it's a promise he knows she'll keep. After a few seconds she gathered enough courage to hang up the phone. After she hung up, she stares into nowhere for a while. Trying to find her courage to get up. To walk out back into the world and fight whoever caused this her this much pain.