The next day

"Hallo? Herr Katt?" There was a man in a suit standing in front of "Johann and Rebekka's" apartment when the two of them came down the hallway as they came home from work. Natasha looked warily at Clint, hand sliding casually into her purse and the gun she kept there as the man knocked again on their door, calling out, "Rebekka?"

"Can I help you?" Clint called out as he and Natasha headed towards their unexpected visitor.

The man whirled to face them and Clint had the unusual urge to run to him when he saw who it was. Even after having not seen his old handler for two years, he would recognize him anywhere.

"Hallo, mein old friend," Phil smiled at them. "Do you mind if we go inside? There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"Of course," Natasha said, stepping past the boys and unlocking the apartment. "Welcome to Linz, Herr… Coulson, is it?"

"Rogers now, actually; Steve and I were married last year," Phil deadpanned in response to Natasha's sarcasm.

Clint snorted as he shut the door behind the three of them. "Only in your dreams."

"He's actually not my type, unfortunately."

"Could've fooled me." Geez, what was he doing? Coulson obviously had more important things to do than stand here and go back and forth with him.

Of course, Natasha beat him to pointing that out. "Nice to see you too, Coulson, but why are you here?" she asked, leaning against the kitchen counter of their tiny apartment.

"I confess," Clint added. "I wasn't actually expecting to ever see you again, especially not once SHIELD nosedived."

Coulson sighed, crossing his arms over his chest in a habit of his that had long become familiar to Clint. "That's just it. SHIELD's not as gone as most people think."

"Meaning what exactly?" Natasha queried.

"Fury – who I assume you both know is still alive – gave me a box of things to get SHIELD back up and running. Right now we're operating out of the first piece of information that was in that box – coordinates to an underground bunker in Kansas City. And 'operating' is a pretty generous word for it. Right now I've got eight people, including myself, and we're still in the earliest phases of recruitment. You two were among the first people I thought of bringing back into SHIELD. So, what do you say?"

Clint looked sideways at Natasha, who stared back at him with worry swimming in her eyes. She wasn't going to tell Coulson, which meant if Coulson was finding out, Clint had to be the one to tell him.

Clint sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned to Coulson and opened his mouth.

Guessing that some form of a refusal was about to come out, Coulson added, "Come on, you two, you've only had this cover for a few months; there's no way you're so attached to it already that you don't want to come back to work. You're more professional than that."

"It's not that," Clint said slowly.

"Than what is it?"

"It's just that…" Clint looked to Natasha for help.

She continued, "When I blew all my covers, Clint came to pick me up at Fury's grave, and…"

"And we decided-"

"-Completely spur of the moment-"

"-And only allowing that we thought SHIELD was over for good-"

Coulson snapped at them then, "I have only been in this apartment for under five minutes, and you are already giving me a headache. What did you two do?"

"What did you find out about our recent movements?" Natasha asked hesitantly after a long pause.

"Skye – my hacker – only found your cover documents and stories. Johann is a security guard and Rebekka is a diner waitress. That's all I know." His eyes narrowed as he thought of a question and asked it. "Now, I assumed that in a long-term cover like this, you were doing the sibling act you've used before. Am I wrong?"

Clint glanced at the floor before he – in perfect sync with Natasha – held up his left hand. Both his ring finger and hers sported gold bands.

"Why is that part of the cover a big deal this time?" Coulson asked. "You've used a husband and wife ruse many times before."

"It's… not a ruse, Coulson," Clint said carefully. "That's what we did after we left the graveyard. We went to the Caribbean and got married."

Coulson eyed them both, taking a deep breath before he asked, "Legitimately? You two are legally now husband and wife?"

Clint nodded slowly and Coulson leaned heavily back onto the counter, closing his eyes and putting his head in his hands.

"It's been coming for years," Clint told him. "You know that. Heck, you had us pegged before we had us pegged, Coulson."

"It's not that," Coulson replied, looking back up at them. "You're right, and I'm honestly not surprised. But do you think that you can still work as partners for SHIELD in the same setting and circumstances as you did before you put those rings on your hands?"

"Yes," Natasha answered instantly, and Clint nodded in agreement.

"Then what's the holdup here?" Coulson asked wearily.

Clint and Natasha exchanged another look, and that's when Coulson realized. "No. No. Crap. Bloody d*** godforsaken h***, no! You're not!" he turned desperately to Natasha, ordering feebly, "Agent Romanoff, tell me you're not."

"Congratulate us, Coulson," Clint said, smiling weakly as he went and wrapped an arm around his wife's waist as a show of unification on their part. "We're going to have a baby."

Coulson actually groaned, loud, long, and desperate as he dropped his head back into his hands.

"I'm just past the first trimester," Natasha offered. "That's out of the greatest danger zone for miscarriages."

"Is Barton the father?" Coulson muttered – in a hopeful tone, Clint thought before bristling at the question.

"Yes, of course!" he answered for Natasha.

"Good. Does that mean that you're still capable of being the undefeatable duo that I know and rather desperately need on my side right now?"

Clint and Natasha shared another look before he repeated, "Yes."

"Good. Then that's all I need to know. Let's get you back stateside before one of the three of us gets smart and changes our mind about this. I'll tell you about your new coworkers on the way. Oh, and Natasha? I need you to help me make a decision regarding Lieutenant Barnes before we land."