Chapter: 25

They walked with cautious steps as they moved down the dark hallways. Coulson took the lead with Hill in the back and the other agent, whose name Coulson couldn't remember, was in the middle. The guy was a younger agent. Coulson knew that he hadn't been at SHEILD long. From the way his eyes kept jumping back and forth and the way he held his weapons, Coulson doubted he had been on any real missions. If he wasn't completely focused on the mission at hand he might have felt a little bad for the guy. Your first mission, to infiltrate a group of psychotic Russians in which you see agents who are older and more experienced than you being taken down, and then having to help look for the leader of said group, not exactly ideal. Coulson however didn't have time to dwell on the guys problems though. He signed up for SHEILD and these are the kind of things you had to be prepared for, still, in most other situations he would've felt bad for him.

A slight chill in the room made a shiver creep through his spine. He wanted to find Petrovich, he wanted the man dead. Though, he would be lying to himself if he said there wasn't a feeling of unease running through his system. This man had made his boss flinch, something he had never seen before, and had made Natasha Romanoff scream in fear. He didn't think he would ever be able to forget that, her screams seemed to echo through his head. Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, was afraid of this man. She hid it extremely well, but he had seen it whenever she had let her guard down when he had been hurting her. That alone was enough to convince him that it was smart to approach this man with caution, and dare he say fear.

It wasn't long before they came to the last door at the end of the current hall they had found themselves in. Coulson motioned for them to get into place, Hill on one side of the door, the other agent on the other side of the door, and Coulson in front and preparing to bust it open. Hill counted down for them on her fingers and when time was up Coulson used all his strength and busted in.

Fury was barely able to dodge the punch she had aimed directly at his face. Clint, out of pure instinct, reached out to hold her down. For one thing, he didn't want her to hurt herself further and he also wanted to prevent her from a full-fledged attack. She jerked around trying to get away from him and let out a sound that was something between a growl and an angry scream.

"Let her up Barton," Fury said and without question he pulled his hands back away from her and stepped away. As quickly as she could she stumbled off the table. Having her ankles tied down like they had been and the electric shocks that had gone through her made the first time she was able to stand up properly difficult. Her legs shook slightly but she didn't seem to be letting that bother her. Natasha grabbed a syringe off of the table and stared at the two men as if waiting for them to attack.

"Romanoff," Fury said in a firm but calm tone. Her eyes snapped to him and he saw her body stiffen. "Snap out of it Romanoff." Clint wanted to say something but at the moment it seemed that his boss had it covered so he let him take the lead. Fury motioned for him to move while she was distracted and he got the message. He inched forward as slowly as he could. She did notice however and her eyes glared at him and had him frozen in place. "Romaonova!" Fury snapped and that really got her to focus her complete attention back on Fury. Clint took the opportunity to move closer. "Contain yourself." He said with a lowered voice. "I'm director Fury of SHEILD. One of our agents brought you to us, you know that don't you?" Signs of recognition flashed through her eyes and at the same time Clint made his move. He jumped forwards and forced the syringe out of her hand and tossed it across the room. She looked up at him with clear eyes and he gave her a small smile.

"Sorry had to make sure you wouldn't stab somebody." He said and for the first time he noted that she wore nothing but her undergarments. He fought back both the anger and awkwardness at the situation and reached to take his jacket off. Natasha's hand stopped him though and he gave her a questioning look before she indicated her back and he took in the bloody mess it was in. More anger roared inside him and he took a deep breath to contain himself. "Are you ok?"

"Stupid question agent Barton," she replied and he silently agreed with her. "Thanks though," she said glancing at his jacket "for the thought." He nodded and a look of pain, mixed with fear, anger, and relief flashed through her eyes. He had barely caught it before she blinked and it was gone. The usual mask she always wore was back but her eyes still caught his attention. They were the eyes of a hunter, cold, calculating, and screaming of anger and dark thoughts. These were the eyes of the killer that she was. "I need to find Petrovich." As if they could hear her, Coulson's voice came through Fury's earpiece.

"He's gone sir, we think we found an office of sorts that he used but he's nowhere to be found." Fury said the information out loud for the benefit of the other two occupants in the room. He tried not to notice the look of unease that flashed through Romanoff's eyes.

"Is the building cleared?" Fury asked.

"We believe so sir," Coulson replied.

"Good, call in the…" the door opened then and a group of medical people entered the room. He knew that Coulson was one of his favorites for a reason.

"We'll meet you outside sir," Coulson said.

"Good job agent."

"Thank you sir," the conversation dropped after that and he looked to wear Romanoff and Barton stood. Her body had tensed up again at the sight of the medical team.

Clint thought about how the medical team had crowded Fury and Coulson. He thought back to the time she had woken up in medical when they were back at the SHEILD base, how he had seen the fear she felt for them, so he stopped the group of people before they reached her.

"Slowly," he said and shot them all a look that said he meant it very seriously. For once they actually listened the first time. One doctor approached slowly. He was an older man with kind eyes. He had years of experience with agents afraid of doctors. He caught a glance at the medal table with thick leather straps attached and cursed inwardly. He hated what cruel people could do to others. He then saw the body of the man wearing a white lab coat lying dead on the ground and nodded slightly in recognition that the man would never be able to cause anyone else harm. Natasha's eyes tracked him as he approached her. As a sign that he would do no harm to her he showed her his empty hands and held them out in front of him. She would have snapped at him to just get it over with already but couldn't find it within herself at the moment.

"I'm not going to hurt you Ms. Romanoff but I need to look." He saw that her legs began to slightly shake and he gently grabbed her arm to help steady her. He noted the machine on the table and figure the cause of the shaking was from electric shocks along with the wound on her leg. He frowned at the fact that she had blood all over her body. One glance at her back though and he felt like he could be sick. "We're going to help you but I need you to work with us, ok?" She hated the fact that he seemed to speak to her as though she were a child but she nodded all the same. The doctor led her over to the gurney they had brought in and he instructed her to lay down on her stomach. She listened to what he said but the feeling of a needle pricking her skin put her on high alert again. "It was just a sedative Ms. Romanoff. No need being inn pain when you don't have to be." The doctor's voice said from behind her. She tried to sit up but was held down by the other doctors. She felt panic starting to rise up inside of her. "Please calm down, we don't want you to hurt yourself further. We aren't going to hurt you." Slowly the medication set in and she felt herself unwillingly begin to relax. She heard voices mumbling around her and caught pieces of conversations as her eyes began to close. She felt their hands lift away from her body only to feel a new hand a moment later. A strong but gentle hand moving hair out of her face and then resting on the back of her head. His touch was not full of the darkness that seemed to flow from Ivan's touch. This was something that she wasn't used to, a warm kind of feeling that she had no name for came from this touch, she didn't have a name for it.

"Relax kid," Fury's voice came to her in a soft whisper that she wouldn't normally associate with him, but there was no mistaking that it was him. "You're safe now," and with that being said his hand was gone and they were moving her. Safe? She thought to herself as her consciousness was rapidly slipping away. Is that even possible?

Yay! Chapter 25 complete, I actually had trouble with this one. I wanted Fury to show a bit of softness but not too much. Anyways, thank you to all who have reviewed/Favorited/followed you people are awesome!