Author's Note: Thanks again to Ozhawk for being a seriously awesome friend and beta. Though your fascination to add more hot men to my head when I'm writing though appreciated at times makes by bunnies breed.

Big thanks to everyone reading, following and commenting they help to feed my muses and sedate the other plot bunnies.

Chapter Six: Hell's Kitchen Part Two

As Shay left the bathroom, she made sure to turn the light off. The first thing she noticed upon stepping back into the bedroom was that Barton's position had changed, there were other small indications that he'd gotten back out of the bed too, like the medical bag being moved to rest by the night stand on the vacant side of the bed, the curtain had been drawn open to let the moonlight filter in and the main light turned off.

Shaking her head slightly when she caught sight of Barton's relaxed face in the moonlight, she crossed the room to the bed. Sitting on the edge she lent down to undo her laces and pull the combat boots and socks off her feet, setting them aside she flexed her toes in the carpet. Reaching into her pocket she pulled her iPhone from the pocket and set it aside on the nightstand, before standing up to unfasten her jeans and sliding them down off her hips to pool around her ankles.

Sliding underneath the bed covers she settled against the pillows, sparing Barton's now sleeping form a glance before reaching for her phone, she figured since she felt too wired to sleep yet that she could try to do some research into both of Barton's names that she knew.

Her phone had still been set on silent from her work shift earlier so found herself slightly startled as it vibrated in her hand, quickly swiping her finger over the screen she opened the message a frown forming as she read the message from Tyler's eldest son Liam. "Where are you?"

That wasn't a common question from Liam so Shay knew deep down that they'd heard about Tyler and were likely trying to determine if she knew or if she was safe. She mulled over the best response to send back before opting to go with something simple. "Bed. Exhausted. Fucking awful day. Call you in the morning?"

Though she desperately wanted to speak to Liam and find out how Tyler was doing, deep down she knew that if she let on to Liam that she knew Tyler was shot, Liam would have no qualms about having her phone traced and he'd be kicking down the door quicker than one could say NYPD.

As she expected the search on Jason Walsh gave her exactly the same information Tyler had given her earlier, so she didn't bother reading up on that and instead focused her search on Clint Barton. The very first thing she came across appeared to be a short interview with the Avengers' resident archer Hawkeye, in all honesty she couldn't figure out exactly why that had been relevant to her search until she opened the link and was met with an image of Barton with his arm draped around the shoulders of a stunning woman with fiery red hair.

As she was reading the article she found that her inner personas were having a couple of different reactions, her good girl persona was giddy about the fact her soulmate was apparently Hawkeye the delectable archer of the Avengers, her bad girl persona was utterly furious at the red head that was draped all over her man. Reading further into the article, she discovered the redhead was the Black Widow, she chose to exit out of the page without reading the rest of the story in an effort to tamp down the jealousy that was churning just below the surface.

In truth she knew that he wasn't hers yet, even though fate had paired and bound them together so irrevocably that there would never be anyone else for either of them. Still, she knew he could always choose to walk away from her just as she could walk away from him. Which would condemn them both to only living a half life. People who walked away from their soulmates inevitably ended up alone and miserable.

When she opened what appeared to be Barton's SHIELD personnel file, that raised a few red flags internally. Surely an agency such as SHIELD wouldn't have their personnel files accessible through the internet? As her gaze darted over the screen of her phone, she caught sight of the time and realised she'd been reading for hours.

While reading bits and pieces of the file she reached over with her free hand to gently shake Barton's shoulder quietly calling "Barton, wake up. You need to look at this." Unfortunately her only response was a low grunt and his hand entangling with hers and tugging it beneath the bedding.

Sliding closer to him she worked to disentangle her hand from his and brought it up to gently stroke his cheek in an effort to rouse him from his slumber. At the time that had seemed like a good idea until his newly free hand found itself a new home curled high about one of her thighs.

Her gentle strokes turned into a light slap across his cheek, which had a better result as sleepy grey eyes opened and blinked several times. When she was sure he was actually awake she turned her phone screen towards him while querying "Is it normal for this to be on the internet for every Tom, Dick and Harry to see?"

When his hand that wasn't occupied with stroking her thigh, which was actually rather distracting, reached out to take her phone she turned her gaze towards the ceiling briefly. That was until the hand on her thigh tightened on the verge of painful, causing her to wince and turn her head back in his direction just as he growled "How did you get this? This is my classified file!"

"It came up when I was googling you," was her simple, matter-of-fact reply. In hindsight, however, she probably should have taken a moment longer to think before answering, because his hand tightened further on her thigh causing her to yelp in pain. She attempted to roll away from him in an effort to free herself from his grip, not that she got far, since when he released his grip on her thigh he instead moved quickly to settle his weight on top of her.

"Not possible darlin', SHIELD has top notch encryption that keeps their files secure. So again I ask, how did you get this?" His voice rumbling by her ear combined with the firm grip his free hand now held on her chin sent a shiver of fear down the length of her spine.

Closing her eyes she took a few deep breaths to try and lockdown the fear beginning to spread through her, she had just finished reading bits and pieces of his file and knew he was a trained killer who could probably snap her neck like a twig if he felt so inclined.

As Shay opened her eyes and met Barton's mercurial gaze, she could see his anger boiling just below the surface. Moving one hand she poked lightly at his wounded shoulder before resting her hand over the wound while murmuring "Do you really think if I was hacking into a government agency's personnel files, from a phone mind you, that I'd be stupid enough to wake you and point out what I'm doing?"

Cocking one brow upwards she quietly watched, intrigued, as his eyes flitted between colours. Her first thought was it was rather like watching a mood ring. Her next thought was that if she survived this meeting then she'd have to try to figure out what colour equated to what mood.

When his eyes finally settled back to the blue-grey she assumed was his standard colour and his body relaxed against hers, she found herself distracted by the sensations of all that lean, toned and muscular body pinning her to the mattress. Blinking rapidly, she frowned, then sparing her phone in his hand a glance she asked "Wait, so if that's not supposed to be public knowledge then can the people after you track us by the fact that your file is still open on my phone?"

His muttered curse as he fumbled to try and switch her phone off was cut short by the echoing sound of thudding from the front of the apartment. After he threw the bedding back and braced his hands on either side of her head her gaze drifted to his biceps as he pushed himself up onto his knees. The only possible response she could make to that particular sight was a quietly gasped "Oh….wow."

Shay blinked again as his head turned, and that hypnotic gaze of his swept her body cocking one brow upwards as he spoke, "Darlin', as much as I appreciate the view, I'd much rather not share it with the guys coming to try and kill us. So might I suggest pants?"

His tone was a mixture of teasing and what she was pretty sure was possessiveness. Scrambling from the bed to gather her jeans she pulled them on, hastily fastening them before directing a stern look his way and muttering "Shut up, I wasn't going to try and sleep in jeans, do you have any idea how much that chafes?"

As he moved to the head of the bed and reached under both pillows to retrieve two pistols she tilted her head slightly, watching him as he stood before quipping "You always sleep with weapons in reach?"

"Pretty much, I'm assuming you read at least some of my file, enough to know what I do." As he stepped closer she nodded, though as he pressed one of the pistols into her hand she shook her head and tried to hand it back. She had a rather bad history when it came to guns and honestly didn't want anything to do with one right now.

Barton's free hand curled about the nape of her neck as he rested his forehead against hers while murmuring "Humour me, ok? I need to know you have some way of defending yourself."

"Fine. Just don't blame me if I inadvertently shoot you in the ass." She knew she was being snarky right then but it was better than the alternative of a panic attack, though she was oddly comforted by the fact that despite not really knowing anything about her he was concerned for her safety. When he went to pull away she shifted slightly to brush her lips lightly against his before whispering "Don't worry about me, worry more about yourself. If they get you it's all over."

A small smile curved his lips, and then he shook his head. "No, darlin'. If they get you it's all over for me anyway."