Hello everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a bit. I've been busy, but here's the latest chapter. I don't own the Avengers sadly.

Oh but before I go, I'd been meaning to do this with every chapter and just effectively forgot until now. Music is always my muse, and I keep a list of songs I listen to while I write my stories. So just to catch you up, I'll list you my musical inspirations for the chapters.

Chapter 1 - The Beginning: Smooth by Santana ft. Rob Thomas

Chapter 2 - The Widow's Invitation: Queer by Garbage

Chapter 3 - The Proposition: February Sun by Anomie Belle (this was the song I imagined them dancing to, just an FYI)

Chapter 4 - Taken: Numb by Linkin Park and What I've Done also by Linkin Park

So without furthur ado, here's chapter four Taken. Feel free to read and review. I'm convinced it'll only make me a better writer.

Chapter Four: Taken

Natasha Romanoff

We didn't even get the chance to leave the conference room when the doors burst open. Five men filed in armed with guns. Screams could be heard from the ballroom, even the firing of shots. The men had their guns aimed at us, fully prepared to shoot. "Get out," one of the men shouted at Barton. He held his arms up in surrender and moved towards the door, leaving me there alone. I would've felt hurt, but I knew what he was doing. As soon as he was behind all of the men, he turned and landed a punch on one of the guys, knocking him out. The rest turned in surprise, distracted by Barton, giving me the moment I needed to attack.

I quickly slid across the floor and kicked the man closest to me, knocking him to the floor. I jumped to my feet and kicked the gun out of a third man's hands. He came at me, throwing a punch at me that I promptly dodged. He'd have to do better than that if he wanted to land a punch on me. I landed one hit to his face and went for another when the same man I'd kicked returned, grabbing my arm. The third guy went to punch me. I ducked down and kicked the guy holding my arm in the shin as hard as I could. He yelped in pain and let go of my arm, allowing me to untangle myself as the third guy punched the man in the face, knocking him out. I could see Barton back there fighting off two men of his own. He knocked one of them out when the third guy charged me, knocking me to my ground. "Now you're done for Widow," he growled at me. I struggled under his weight before managing to wiggle my body enough to free my arms. I pushed him off of me and rolled over, kicking off the floor to my feet. The man was charging at me again. I quickly moved and let him pass me before I kicked him into the wall behind us. I was behind him in an instant.

"I have a message for Marius. If you wake up, tell him that it's game on." He started to mumble something smart, but I didn't give him the opportunity to finish. I bashed his head against the hard wall and watched him fall to the ground, blood mixing with his blonde hair. I turned around to see Barton throw the last guy to the ground unconscious. We shared a look before I crossed the room to the door. "Come on, there's bound to be more men coming."

"Where are we going?" He asked, completely following my lead.

"My hotel room, we need to change." I said. My dress had gotten torn in the fighting. I couldn't run around looking like the wreck I knew I appeared to be. It was obvious and conspicuous. I felt his eyes on me, looking me up and down slowly as if he'd just noticed the torn black garment. I rolled my eyes and tugged him behind me as we made quick time up the stairs to my room.

There was so much chaos going on with the disturbance of the ball that no one seemed to notice how odd we looked or where we were going. Either way I kept looking around us to make sure we weren't being followed. We slunk down the hallway on my floor. I hurriedly pull my room key out and was just about to put it in the door when I shot Barton a look that told him to stay quiet and still. I opened the door and inched forward, expecting to see some sort of movement in the dark. I waited patiently, ever creeping forward. Finally I saw it from the corner of my eye. They were on the other side of the door. I grabbed the man's arm and flipped them, knocking them into the wall. I turned on the lights and glided in, Barton right behind me. He ducked around one side of the room, determined to check for other intruders.

I went to the closet and pulled out my catsuit. I kicked off the high heels I was wearing and unzipped my dress. I could hear his footsteps as he came back towards where I was. I had just stepped into my catsuit when he appeared. "I don't think anyone else is here…." He said, his voice trailing off. I turned to look at him, rolling my eyes gently. I pulled my arms through the sleeves and zipped it up. His eyes never once left me. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you always this articulate?" I asked, reaching for my boots. I quickly pulled them off as he seemed to regain his thoughts.

"Oh uh, no intruders," he stumbled over the words. I could see the hint of embarrassment creeping into his face. I chuckled as I grabbed the guns I kept hidden in my room.

"Don't worry; you're not the first guy to stare at me." I took two guns and tossed another two to Barton.

"Do you always keep this many guns on you?" He asked, trying to pretend that previous moment had never happened.

"Of course," I said simply, "Don't you? I never met an assassin who didn't."

"I'm better with a bow," he said simply as we made our way back to the door. There was noise outside.

"More of Marius's men," I whispered to him. He nodded backwards towards the window.

"Out the fire escape, come on," he said as we quickly walked backwards, never taking our eyes off the door. Any moment a ton of men could come crashing through that door and we had to be ready when they did. Barton tore open the window and tried to land on the fire escape as quietly as he could. It clattered under his feet. He held out a hand to me, but I waved it away. I curved my way through the window and landed silently on the fire escape. "How do you do that?" He asked amazed.

"Years of practice." I couldn't help but smile. We heard the door being kicked in. "Come on, let's get out of here." I said, starting down the stairs, keeping my feet light and quick. I could hear Barton close behind. It wasn't long before the gunfire started behind us, coming from the open window above. One flew by just inches from my head. "Shit," I muttered, picking up the pace. A couple of men were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I grabbed the railing and propelled myself forward, knocking one guy down immediately. I heard gunshots firing from behind me as Barton took out the other few men.

He joined me on the sidewalk. "Man you really pissed off Marius."

"That's what happens when you kill his only brother," I said simply. "It comes with the job. Come on, let's go." I glanced around before taking off.

"Nice outfit choice. Could you be any more conspicuous?" He jabbed at me. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm sure I could. But in retrospect, I think the multitude of people trying to kill us gave us away first." I said in a short tone as I rounded the corner. People were filing into cars trying to leave the hotel after the disaster the party had turned into. I walked to the nearest one and pulled a gun. The woman who was about to get in the car shrieked and stepped back as Barton motioned for her to leave. I opened the passenger side door and smiled at the driver. He smiled back until he noticed my gun. "Get out," I said in the sweetest voice I could manage. He stumbled out of the car and Barton took his place.

He fumbled for his seat belt while I stared at him incredulously. "Really? A seat belt? We're being tracked by mobsters and you're worried about your damn seat belt?"

"What? Car chases can get nasty. I'm sure you're aware." He said as he floored it out of the hotel parking lot. We sped down some random road. "You should put yours on too."

I couldn't help but laugh. "If I get taken out by a car crash, I'll consider myself lucky. Belov's men would be worse." He glanced away from the road long enough to meet my eyes.

"Hey, we're gonna get out of here, okay, together. I won't let Belov touch you." I looked down, trying not to blush. I wasn't use to stuff like this. It was nice: having someone care. I looked back to him.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked. He quickly looked at me, a confused look on his face.

"What?" He asked, swerving to take a turn.

"Why are you helping me? I mean me of all people? I'm the Black Widow. I'm a murderer. You were sent here to kill me, not spare me in an attempt to recruit me. S.H.I.E.L.D. wants me dead, and they have good reason." I reminded him. He didn't even bat an eyelash.

"Yeah, well S.H.I.E.L.D.'s not here, I am. It was my call. I just made a different one than initially expected."

"You know you said S.H.I.E.L.D.'s not here, but you are S.H.I.E.L.D. You're their agent. I was your mark. Why didn't you follow orders?" I didn't know why I needed to know his motives. I just needed to know. I held my breath as I waited for his answer. He took a moment to consider his words carefully.

"Because you were right," he finally said. I looked out the window and watched the Spanish scenery pass by quickly. "At the party, I mean. You thought that I'd been lost once in my life. Well I was, bad. Nobody's perfect, especially not me. I know you've done bad things, but I did bad things too. And S.H.I.E.L.D. helped me turn things around. And after I heard that you'd pretty much resigned yourself to die, I thought maybe it could do the same for you. Everyone deserves a second chance."

"I'm not so sure," I muttered. I'd committed a lot of atrocities over the years for the Red Room. I'd killed men, women, even children. I'd been a ruthless, calculated killer for so long, I wasn't sure I could be anything else.

"You wanna know what I thought when I read your file?" He asks quietly. I nodded.

"I thought you were just a victim too." I whirled my head back to look at him in surprise. No one ever considered me a victim. Hell I didn't even consider myself the victim. "You were orphaned as a child and taken in by terrible people who trained you to be a ruthless assassin. You weren't a ruthless killer; they made you one." While I was touched by his words, I had my doubts.

"That's debatable. I may have been brought up to be a killer, but I still knew it was wrong. I've killed a lot of people, innocent people even."

"I'm the first to empathize with the idea that a person will do anything to hold on to the life they know. The Red Room, your training, that's the only life you've ever known. It's not hard to understand why you do what you do. It's the only existence you've ever had. But you don't have to let it define you. There are other ways." I nodded.

"You're right," I sighed, "Are we going to the airport?" It just dawned on me that I didn't exactly know where we were going.

"Not exactly, I contacted my handler at S.H.I.E.L.D. and he's sending a private plane to pick us up at a discrete location." I nodded, noticing something out of the side mirror.

"We've got trouble," I told him. We were being followed.

"Shit," Barton muttered. He sped up and changed lanes, but the sleek, black van behind us kept us. As we bobbed and weaved through traffic, I kept my eyes glued to the car behind us. So when the car began to accelerate faster than us, I knew it was coming.

"Brace for impact," I said as the car hit us from behind. We swerved slightly, but Barton somehow managed to keep us on tract. The car collided with us again, and that's when the bullets started. The windshield shattered. "Shit," I said. Barton tried to speed up. I grasped my gun. "Hang on; I'll take care of this." I moved to the back of the car, taking cover behind one of the seats. I leaned out into the open and fired several shots at the close car. I successfully busted their font windshield, the glass heavily cutting the men in the front. The car jumped lanes and began approaching us from the side. I moved back to the passenger's seat and rolled the window down. I didn't want glass flying at me. I shot at the driver, but missed. Then I had the idea of the tires. I fired four rounds into the nearest tire. I quickly aimed again and fired my last two shots into the closest back tire, effectively slowing down the car.

"Nice shot," Barton said to me as we cruised down the street. I settled back into my seat and put my seat belt back on. I could sense him smiling at that. I smiled back and looked around and noticed the incoming car too late to say anything. It had to be going at least 80 mph. It hit us hard, and that's when we crashed.

X.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.X

- Clint Barton

I was vaguely aware that the car had flipped several times, landing upside down. My whole body hurt like hell, but my head hurt the worst. Sharp pains throbbed in it as I opened my eyes, using up a lot of my strength. My vision was fuzzy, and it hurt to stay awake, but I forced myself. I looked over at Natasha who had hit her head on the dash pretty hard. I could see the blood trickling down her unconscious head. It almost blended in with her hair. I tried to reach out and touch her, but my arm wouldn't move. It wouldn't listen to my brain. I even tried to open my mouth, but no sound came out.

That's when I heard movement outside the car. Footsteps were approaching fast. The passenger door was ripped open. My eyes had begun to drift shut as my mind started to drift off, but I forced myself to stay awake long enough to see the men who'd caused us to crash pick up Natasha, her body remaining limp and weak in their arms. I wanted to stop them. I wanted to get up and kick their asses for touching her, for causing the crash and hurting her. I wanted to protect her, but I was too weak, too hurt to do anything by lay there and watch. "What about the other guy?" One of the men asked.

"Leave him," was the answer. "He'll probably be dead from his wounds in a few minutes. Besides Belov didn't say anything about him. He just wants the Black Widow. Come on, let's go. Marius is expecting us." With that, I watched them take Natasha, fully aware that I'd broken my promise to her. I had told her only moments ago that I wouldn't let Belov touch her. I'd let her down, but I would get her back. I was bound and determined, but the darkness intervened, bringing me under the healing powers of unconsciousness.

When I finally did wake up, they were long gone….