I do not own this

It took a few weeks for Isabella to recover completely. At first, she could barely stay awake for a few minutes, but then those minutes turned into hours. Her side, where the bullet had struck, was still in complete agony. She had been told that the bullet did not go right through her, and so she had needed an operation to get it out. All the doctors said that she had been lucky that it hadn't hit anything important, but trust me, she didn't feel that getting shot was lucky one bit! It was about a month later that Isabella was able to walk around the base by herself and although she was annoyed to say that Fury had had a strict 'no mission' policy on her, it was a relief to finally be out and about again. She quickly caught up on what had been happening while she had been out – Fury had decided that the only thing they could really do was to work through the bases they had found on the map, one by one, blowing them up. Something more dangerous would happen eventually to end the SPM, but for now it was all they could do.

There had been 20 main bases in total to begin with, but now 7 had been destroyed. The Secret Russian Power by Clint and Isabella; the Secret French power by the avengers and Isabella in the Alps; and whilst Isabella had been recovering, they had also destroyed the China, United Kingdom, German, Indian and Austrian Powers. Still, they had a long way to go yet. The missions were dangerous, several times Isabella had been shocked to see her friends come home with a dislocated shoulder, or a broken bow (Clint was very very angry!) But Isabella was getting better, so soon she would be able to get out there with them and help protect them, despite how reluctant Natasha was to allow her to do so.

An event happened not long after Isabella had been hurt that took the avenger's relationship to a whole new level. It had been a dull Wednesday evening when it happened. They had just come back from the Chinese base when Natasha and Clint found themselves up in their secret room. The helipad had been on land for once, so they were able to watch the sun as it fell beyond the horizon. Bright yet beautiful shades of red shone out in all directions, illuminating the sky. Natasha stared out for a moment, before turning her head back to Clint.
"You know, it has been 4 years since I met you know." She said hesitantly.
"Yeah." Clint replied. He seemed uncomfortable, shifting around every few seconds as though he were nervous.
"Err," he began hesitantly, "I quite like you Natasha," he blurted out suddenly. There was an awkward pause. The very air they breathed in felt thick and heavy. Clint's heart thumped faster and faster while Natasha didn't really know what to say.
"I mean, I, err..." Clint stuttered, as he realised what that must have sounded like. Perhaps she wasn't ready… or didn't feel the same way… or…or.
"Good." Natasha cut through his stammering, "I've been wondering when this conversation would come up."
"You have?" Clint replied shortly, and even a little bit hopefully,
"Oh come on, we have shared mission together since, what, forever." Natasha said as though it were obvious. There was another long pause.
"So…" Clint tried to get Natasha to speak again. When she didn't, he continued, "I mean, if you don't feel the same way or, or, or anything." He trailed off.
"Sorry, I was out of line there." He backtracked realising that he must have made a mistake.
"No you didn't" Natasha said in her usual blunt way, "I guess, I quite like you too." Clint's heart seemed to pause for a second as he wondered what she was saying. He just didn't know what to say anymore.
"If you're asking me out on a date, the answers yes." Natasha filled in his blanks. Then Clint's confused expression was so comical that Natasha could have laughed. But then he smiled broadly.
"Friday night in New York?" He questioned hopefully,
"I'll be there." Natasha smiled back. How long had it really taken for him to ask her out? Honestly, she could tell had wanted to for ages now, and to tell the truth, she really did quite like him too. I suppose now he had got his act together, she just had to figure out what she was going to wear!

The evening came and went. Clint took Natasha out to see the latest James Bond film, which they both enjoyed immensely, before a pizza at the local restaurant. It was nice to talk to each other in a way that didn't involve the end of the world or what not. Of course, the other avengers thought this was all hilarious – "You two had a kiss yet" Tony would joke about before he found himself on the floor winded – mocking two great assassins was not the best thing to do. Isabella was back on her feet before long, and so she joined in with more and more of the missions. The problem was that her sister was now so protective of her that she could barely get into a fight.

In fact even Isabella found herself in an awkward situation when she was on her morning jog in the gym. Steve had taken to joining her often, and so wiping his forehead with a towel, he said in what he hoped was a casual voice,
"So, you seeing anyone," Isabella stopped suddenly and glanced over at him.
"Err no. I'm only 15." She said casually.
"Well I'm only 20." Steve answered back. Isabella didn't quite know what to say. In fact she was surprised that he was as young as that. But she knew what he wanted, and unfortunately for him, she wasn't quite ready for that just yet.
"Really," she said nonchalantly, "well unfortunately, the SRP doesn't really teach boyfriends and girlfriend lessons – more of the how to shoot a gun kind."
"Oh." Steve said, "Maybe when we're older?"
"Maybe." Isabella said bluntly, "but I'm not making any promises." Steve, a little red faced at this point, quickly excused himself and left the room. Isabella felt bad in a way, but with this big terror threat and everything, she just wasn't ready to let herself into a relationship. It wasn't that she didn't like Steve; she just wasn't ready.

Over the next few months, more and more SPM bases were being blown up by the avengers. It all seemed so easy, but soon something would happen that was going to change all that. They had just been waiting for it to be ready…

Hey. Thanks for reading, and thank you to the two guest reviewers and to Okumura Ichigo for your reviews. I really do love hearing them. They make me want to update all the time!