Chapter 15

There aren't many people who can intimidate her. After the hell that she went through as a child, all the horrors that she's seen, and the things that she's done, there wasn't much that could get to her. There were a few of course, even people like her have a few enemies that would always get the best of them, but she was hoping not to see them again until she was ready to put a bullet in their brains. This man however, with his eyes screaming of anger and judgment, with his glare focused on her she had the tiniest of urges to squirm in her seat. Of course, she would never let that show. She wasn't afraid of him or any other man or at least that is what she made people believe, what she forced herself to believe.

"Ms. Romanoff," Coulson's voice was cold and harsh as he snapped her new name. "I don't believe you understand just how serious your situation is."

"I've done nothing wrong," she replied simply. She let him believe that she hadn't a care in the world about this situation. She could see how her calmness frustrated him. They had been at this for at least an hour. He fixed her with a stony look himself as he reached for a file he had laying there.

"I took the liberty of looking over the security we've been keeping on you," he said and pulled out a paper. He laid it on the table and slid it across to her side. She looked at it but couldn't pick it up on account of her wrists being handcuffed to the armrests of the chair. Natasha glanced over the paper and felt something twist inside of her. He wasn't supposed to have figured it out. When she looked back up at his seething form she already knew what he was going to ask her.

He had seen it. For just a moment she had briefly looked concerned. Was it true that she had something to do with the mission being blown? Every fiber of his being screamed yes, that she was the cause of it, and he was ready to call it that way. However, there was a small part of him deep inside him somewhere that nagged at him. What if she was telling the truth? What if she didn't have anything to do with it? He blamed that part of him on Barton.

"So Ms. Romanoff, on the night that you disappeared for an hour, where did you go?" She fixed him with a blank look. It frustrated him to no end but he had seen that brief moment of emotion and knew that he was getting somewhere. "I've got all day Romanoff." He said when she just sat there.

"I was getting restless," she replied "I just took a walk."

"Did that walk include meeting up with any of your Russian friends to give away SHEILD secrets?" She gave him a deadly smirk at that comment.

"I'm Russian," she let the slightest bit of her accent seep into her words "we don't have any friends." His glare hardened at that.

"This is not a game Ms. Romanoff,"

"Who's playing," she said back with her American accent. They stared each other down.

"This isn't a battle of wits,"

"Isn't it?" She asked and ever so slightly tilted her head to the side. Coulson was really aggravated at this point.

"They are going to put a kill order on you," he said seriously "I'm trying to help you." She scoffed at that statement and actually chuckled at him.

"You're trying to help me?" she looked at him with amusement for just a second before that look converted into one of anger and disbelief. "You want me to believe that you wish to help me? The Russian spy that was brought in because for some reason one of your agents couldn't do his job?" She saw the slight twitch of the corner of his mouth when she mention the archer but she kept going. "You think that I don't see how you all look at me as something that should've been taken care of already, that I don't see the fear in your eyes when I get too close to one of you, or heard the rumors of just why Agent Barton kept me alive?" She spat out "I'm not stupid Agent Coulson, it would be better for all of you if I were to just be killed."

"Ms. Romanoff,"

"And you already had your mind made up before you even stepped foot in here." She added and silence filled the air between them.

"Then change my mind," he said to her after a few moments. "What were you doing the night you went missing?" She blinked and suddenly all emotions were gone again.

"I went to the library down the street."

Clint watched from the observation room. Technically he wasn't supposed to be there, he knew that, but in their haste to question Natasha no one had specifically told him to stay out. He watched as Coulson questioned her. He watched every movement she made. He watched the way she unconsciously pulled at her restraints out of habit when Coulson had slid the paper over to her. He watched the emotions that she allowed Coulson to see and he read her lips when she spoke. Actually, he read both her and Coulson's lips as well in order to follow the whole conversation. Her words pained him because they were true. He didn't think that the Counsel would bat more than an eyelash if they did send out the kill order. He himself could see that Coulson already had his mind made up about her. Although, because he has been working with him for so long, he could also see that Coulson was genuinely looking for a reason to call her innocent. Though he could see that Natasha either didn't see that or she didn't care.

He cursed to himself when Coulson once again asked her where she had gone that night and she replied the library. She was mocking him. Coulson had stood up then and walked out of the room. He was frustrated and unwilling to try anymore at the moment. Clint watched as two guards came in the room and led her out. He knew that they would be taking her back to the cell she had started in when she had first arrived. He waited a few moments after they had disappeared then he slipped out of the room and headed that way.

The guards had just locked the door when he arrived. One of them opened their mouth to say something to him but one glare shut him up and got him moving along with his partner. He heard one of them mumble something along the lines of "I still think he slept with her," but he didn't have time to worry about that idiot at the moment. She stood from where she had been sitting cross legged on the cot and came to stand at the gate of her cell.

"What do you want Barton?"

"Did you do it?" He didn't bother beating around the bush when they both knew what he was there to ask.

"If I said no," she said "would you believe me?"

"I might if you told me where you really were the night you went missing for an hour," he said.

"I went to the library," she said with a shrug. He felt a sudden anger build inside of him.

"Tell me the truth Romanoff," he said.

"What if I was telling the truth Barton," she countered.

"They will kill you, you do realize that don't you,"

"Death doesn't scare me." She answered and he sighed.

"Prove it." He said "prove that you went to the library if that is what you're going to claim." She glared at him.

"Prove that I didn't."

"Why are you being so difficult?" He was beyond frustrated now.

"I can't help it if your agent's team got killed Barton. I'm sure I'm not the only Russian who might have something against your organization. They do realize that I don't have command over all of Russia and what they do right?"

"It was Massey!" he was on the verge of yelling but not quite there "He was a new recruit, he didn't have enemies yet. Before he came here he was a nobody. Don't you think it's a bit much of a coincidence that he was taken and is probably having God knows what done to him right now when the two of you had a fight barely a week ago?"

"So," she said with her face falling back into its blank mask "you think I had something to do with it as well." It wasn't a question it was a statement.

"I'm saying that I can see where they get their suspicions," he said with a sigh.

"But, do you believe them to be right?"

"Do I have a reason to think otherwise?" She looked up at him then. She stared straight into his eyes and spoke with all seriousness.

"You should have killed me Barton."

"Yeah," he replied and she didn't miss the hint of sadness in his voice "maybe I should have." He turned and walked away without looking back at her.

She turned around and leaned against the door of her cell. She didn't think she would soon forget the look he had just given her. One that was filled with anger, sadness, and betrayal. She scoffed to herself at the thought, even as something twisted deep in her stomach, he was a fool to trust her.

Woot! Chapter 15 is finished. I hope you guys enjoyed I got some action planed for the next chapter I believe :)