Hey…my next chapter posted. I've finished the story so you guys can expect another updates by Friday. But it would be nice if you guys drop a review or two. That would certainly made my day.

Anyway….usual disclaimer still stand.

Hawkeye is not mine to keep and all that.

Thank you to all that favved and followed. You guys rock. Whatever happened in the next few chapters, don't send in any assasins my way coz, I like my life now. Beside I have 2 more new stories coming up once this is done. So review guys…don't be shy…

Shila1378

Chapter 13 –

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Natasha's wrist had started to bleed and still she continued to wiggle out from it. The day had started to darken as she knew whatever it was Alexei had planned was about to be revealed. She could feel it at the bottom of her stomach and dreaded feeling that had crept into her heart. She hoped that Clint and Coulson would just burst thru the door and the three of them will run amuck inside this…wherever this place is… and totally finished Alexei once and for all. She was planning way of Alexei's demise in her head that she was startled when the door was opened. Alexei smiled at her and raised his eyebrow at her.

'Did I startle you, dear Talia?'

Natasha voice was dripping with threat when she answered him.

'Call me that one more time and you will regret ever see me again.'

'Tsk Tsk…our Black Widow is angry.' The armed guards behind him snickered. Alexei's eyes were cold when he snapped his attention back to her.

'Maybe, the Black Widow misses her mate. Oh dear…we must get them together again before it is too late.' Alexei walked and stood in front of her. He looked behind her and sighed. 'But we have to clean you up first though.' He snapped his finger and a black cat suit, similar to her SHIELD's, was handed to him. Natasha just watched him thru narrowed eyes.

'Now, I want you to sit still and don't move, or one of the guards will shoot you. You don't want to meet your mate all bloodied, right?' Alexei walked behind her and the two guards moved in ready to shoot her if she bolted. The sound of a knife caused her to flick her gaze over her shoulder. She tensed when Alexei grabbed her hands and cut the plastic ties that had shredded her wrists. Her bonded ankles remained intact and she eyed the knife Alexei held contemplating her move.

Alexei smiled at her and sheathed the knife inside his jacket and produced a bandage. He held his hands out and raised one eye brow to her. Natasha sighed heavily and extended her sore hands to him to be cleaned and wrapped. Once it was done, he moved behind her and yanked her hair backward. She gasped when she felt Alexei's hand putting pressure on her throat. One of the guards knelt down and started to cut the bind that held her legs quickly. She stayed quiet throughout the process. When Alexei released his painful hold of her hair, he dropped the suit on her lap and winked at her.

'Suit up.' He ordered and left with his armed entourage still aiming their guns at her until the door was shut closed again.

Natasha closed her eyes and shuddered. She had a bad feeling about this. However, she shed her torn clothes and slipped into the suit. She was not going to dwell on how Alexei managed to acquire the suit. She needed to plan her escape fast and the window of opportunity had started to diminish.

Exactly 5 minutes later, the door was opened wide and the armed guards signaled her to come out. They placed a hand cuff on her hands behind her back and nudged her forward. She glared at them but maintained quiet. She needed to act soon. They were walking down a corridor and this was the first time Natasha ever stepped out from her room. She needed to observe the surrounding area before she can formulate a plan. They walked past several doors before they signaled her to stop. The door infront of her opened and they pushed her inside. Alexei were waiting for her with that smile that she wanted to wipe off of his face. The room was bright and there was a chair in the middle of the room with straps on the arm rest and on the chair's legs. Opposite of the chair adorning the whole wall was a mirror which, Natasha was absolutely sure, sat Alexei's partners in crime. Probably wanted to watch the interrogation which Natasha assumed had been promised by Alexie himself. He waved a hand to the chair and she walked to stand in front of it. She was tensed. She wanted to make her move before she was strapped helpless.

Somehow Alexei had anticipated her intention. He moved beside the mirror and waved a little finger at her.

'Ah ah ah… I don't think your plan of escaping will work, sweet Talia. You see, your mate have been waiting…anxiously… for you. We don't want to disappoint him, now do we?'

With that he flicked a switch and the mirror turned transparent showing Clint bound and blindfolded on the floor with both his hands shackled infront of him with a chain to a wall. There were enough slack for him to stand and move a bit. Natasha eyes were transfixed at the sight of Clint and her mouth went dry with fear.

'Now, I would suggest you sit down and relax because we don't want him,' Alexei pointed to Clint, 'to feel this…', he nodded to the camera on the wall and Clint started to grunt in pain and holding his head in shaking hands. Natasha tried not to response to what Alexei was doing to cause Clint to be in such pain. She didn't want him to see how it had affected her greatly because that could be used against Clint and her. So, Natasha sat down and let the guard took the handcuff away and strapped her down tight by her hands and legs. All the while, Clint was grunting and shaking on the floor holding his head.

'There…it was not that difficult, wasn't it Natalia.' Alexei waved his hand and Clint collapsed on the floor. She could see his labored breathing and how his hands were shaking when he blindly felt for the wall and tried to sit up. He ended up on his side dry heaving. She looked up at Alexei who was smirking and his eyes were glinting with malice that made her vowed to extract a proper revenge on the pain he had caused Clint. He started to walk behind her and grasped her shoulder and whispered close to her ears.

'It's time, Talia, for me to tell you why you and your partner, Hawkeye – yes…I know who he is – are my guests. You know, all this wouldn't happen if you had succeeded in your last assignment. But due to your failure, well….let's just say that we have been patiently waiting for this glorious moments.' Alexei started to circle Natasha and when he grabbed her chin, he forced her to look at him and spat angrily. 'I don't know who have helped you escaped that night, Talia, but luckily for us we've managed to properly - 'debrief' - you before your disappearance. I'd say that was very resourceful of you, surviving all those years outside Red Room and then your appalling defection to the other side. You were indeed our greatest achievement.' He released her chin and lean on the glass panel facing her. He looked over his shoulder at Clint who have managed to sit and leaned on the wall heavily. Natasha eyes followed his every move, wondering why he didn't remove the blind fold when Alexei's voice caused her to revert her attention to him.

'You must be wondering why the amazing Hawkeye didn't remove the blindfold, eh? For sure he needs his sharp eyes in order to save you. But you see he can't because the material that is covering his eyes was an experimental material. It embeds on the skin and can only be released with a radio frequency. Marvelous technology, if I may say so.' Alexei watched the expression on Natasha's face.

'Put him on the speaker!' He barked into the room and Natasha snapped her head to him questioningly.

'I'm no barbarian, Talia. I shall give you a few minutes with him. I need to make a few - final preparations. Everyone out.' He ordered all the guards to leave the room. The door closed with a final click.

It was silent for a moment. Natasha could only hear her breathing.

She watched Clint tried to stand by pushing himself off the wall. She heard her grunts and heavy breathing. He touched the material covering his eyes but ended up running his hands to his face. The chain clanged noisily with the movement. He walked along the wall feeling his way and stopped right infront of the glass panel. His hands skimmed on the surface and he knocked at the glass with his knuckle. She knew when he realized that there was a glass panel there and probably someone was watching him. Her breath hitched at the sound and Clint tilted his head.

'Who's there?'

Clint had a feeling that someone was watching him, but the feeling was not dread or spite. He tilted his head at the sound of someone's shallow breathing. He tried to pinpoint exactly where the sound originated. He placed his palm on the glass and whispered.

'Tasha?'

Clint waited for a few breaths but he could hear nothing else.

Damn this blind fold.

He was about to turn around when he heard it.

'Clint.'

'Tasha! Where are you? Are you alright?' Clint turned to the glass and banged his palm on it.

'I'm fine, Clint.' She awkwardly tried to move closer to the glass but she couldn't. Her grunt attempts caused Clint to worry.

'Where are you, Tasha. Damn this…I can't see you, Tasha. They have me blindfolded with this..this…..thing and I can't take it off!' Clint's frustrated attempt to remove the material ended with him banging his fist onto the glass. The sound bounced throughout both rooms and Natasha cringed at it.

'Don't do that Clint. It will only hurt your hands. I'm fine but I can't move. They have me tied on a chair.'

'Tasha, I'm sorry to bring you in this.'

'Why would you say that, Clint? It should be I who am sorry to involve you. He knew about you, Clint. He knew..' She shook her head dejectedly, missing the surprised look on Clint's face.

'Who, Tasha?' Clint pressed closer to the glass panel.

Natasha sighed heavily. 'It was Alexei, Clint. He was responsible for this. He wanted me and I don't know why he held you too. Maybe he wanted to punish me for…', she wanted to say for caring for you, but she couldn't.

'Alexei? Your…from Red Room? I…I…thought he's dead. Just like Barney…Maybe it's the raised from the dead season…', he chuckled at the stupidity of his remark.

Clint was laughing softly and he slowly slide down the glass panel, unknowingly putting his back on Natasha. It looked like both of them were facing their dead past history whose timing were impeccable. Just when I thought we could be more than partners. Shit. Clint put his head down cursing their predicament.

Natasha was about to soothe Clint when the door to Clint's room banged open. Clint startled from his position on the floor quickly got up to stand and tried to face his captors. The chain on the wall began to reel in and abruptly retracted to the wall causing him to fall down and being dragged up to the wall. The toes of his boots dangled few inches from the floor and he grunted when he feel the pressure of his weight on his wrists. Clint struggled for a moment trying to find foot holds to release the pressure.

Natasha saw Alexei walked into the room with another person. The person looked at her thru the glass and smirked.

'You must be the Black Widow, Alexei's ex wife, eh. Nice meeting you, finally.'

She stared at him and noticed some features that were familiar to her. She was about to open her mouth when Clint started to pull on his chain again. The man looked behind his shoulder and laughed. Even the laugh sounded familiar to Natasha's ears, except its underlying tone was evil.

'Hey lil' brother, don't you want to introduce me to her? Come on, Clinton. Tell her.. Don't be shy.' His taunting remarks followed with few slaps to Clint's cheeks caused her to realize who this person was.

'You're his brother, Barney. His supposedly dead brother, right?' Natasha quietly and looked between Clint and his brother. Same grey blue eyes, dirty blond hair and built. He smiled and nodded.

'Gosh, Clinton. I didn't know you share family story with her. What a nice chat you must had with her. Maybe over a bottle of wine over the fireplace or maybe under the cover after wild hot sex. Yeah..that was a nice image. Her under the cover. Her red hair on her porcelain skin. All flushed and smooth…Mmmm…nice image indeed.' Barney was smirking while walking towards the glass panel.

'Barton.' Alexei's low warning voice interrupted his musing. 'Focused on the task.' Barney chuckled and faced Alexei. 'Don't get your panty in a twist, Shostakov.' Alexei just glared at him. An instrument of a sort was wheeled into the room and a white coat man came in.

'It is time. We need to prepare him.' He informed Alexei who nodded and moved closer to the glass panel.

'Raise it.'

A humming whirring noise sounded and the panel was lifted up. Natasha felt dread filled her. Fear of her partner's safety tugged at her and the cold sweat made its way down her back. She anxiously kept glancing towards Clint who surprisingly was still cocking his head towards the flurry of activities and conversations. She could see his chest rise and fell in anticipation of what was going to happen. With his eyes blind, she knew he was imagining bad scenarios only.

Barney crossed the threshold when the panel was lifted and calmly walked to her. He smiled at her when he passed her and grabbed a chair from behind her and sat. Alexei glanced at them before the white coat man drew his attention. She saw he dug in his pocket and drew out a ring which looked familiar and handed it to the man. He pocketed it and instructed the others to prepare the instrument.

'Shall I give you a running commentary of what is happening there, dear Widow?' Barney's voice was so close to her ear that Natasha didn't realize that he was that close behind her. Her focus was on Clint and the activities in front of her. She took a heavy breath and looked over her shoulder.

'Like a voice from the grave kind of commentary?' She tried to maintain her composure. Barney laughed and she despised that at the moment he sounded just like Clint. The said person turned his head towards the sound and called out.

'Natasha?'

She called back to Clint trying to calm him.

'Here.'

Barney shattered the moment with another laugh.

'Jezz, Clinton, just shut up and hang in there, will you. Huh.. Got it…hang in there..' He laughed again at his own joke. Clint started to struggle again and a string of curses, in Russian, nevertheless, came sputtering out from his mouth that caused Alexei and the others to chuckle loudly.

'That was a good one, Hawkeye. Never thought you knew about that.' Alexei shook his head smiling.

'Oh yeah, you liked that one. My partner taught me that when she told me about you, actually.' Clint's head tilted to a side and smirked. He didn't see the fist that came crashing to his face or the punch to his stomach. Clint gasped and coughed. With the position he was in, he couldn't protect himself from the abuse.

'Funny, Agent Barton. Maybe you wouldn't feel like a comedian if your big mouth got the best of you. By the way, how was your headache?' He took out a small device and pressed a red button on it. With that Clint started to grunt loudly and banged his head several times on the wall. His legs trying to find holds and his arms' muscle tighten and trembled.

Natasha turned her head over her shoulder and whispered to Barney. 'Make him stop it. He is your brother, damn you. Just stop it.' She could feel Barney stiffen behind her.

'Why should I, Widow. This is fun. Beside I did say that I'm gonna give you a running commentary, right. Pay attention, Widow and you might save him from this painful experience.' She could see anger and hatred spilled from his words.

Coulson, where are you…

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Oookkaayyyyy….all mistakes are mine…so as I said don't send assassins or snipers this way. Gotta go….see u guys Friday…

Shila1378