Lost in Translation

A/N: Before we begin our journey through chapter 3...who on earth thought this was a death fic? O.o She lost her voice people - she doesn't have a life threatening disease or a freaky virus (haha bad joke I know memories readers) We'll find out why she can't talk soon! Until then enjoy the Clintasha.

Chapter 3

"You will sleep. You will recover from your injuries. And then we will work through this problem together – okay?" Clint said glaring down at the obviously quiet Russian spy sitting on her bed after being dragged back to her room. She glared back at him.

"Don't give me that pissed face! It's 4 am and I'm tired Natasha! Please? Go to sleep," he pleaded finally running out of the anger that was the only thing that had been keeping him awake for the last hour. Natasha shot him a fuming look before she finally relented and fell down on her bed. However she continued to glare at him from her place lying on the uncomfortable rock.

"Do you sleep with your eyes open or something?" he asked warily. She gave him a look of disbelief.

"Valid question," he said with a shrug. She gave him the finger and angrily turned away from him with a huff. Clint sighed at her irritation and pulled up a chair to sit beside her. He was lucky she cared about his opinion enough to stay. If Natasha Romanoff really wanted to get the hell out of here – she would have no trouble getting past Fury the master spy – let alone her exhausted half dead partner.

"You know Tasha…I was scared shitless when I pulled you out of the rubble after the explosion that took out the building we were in. You were barely breathing – we almost thought we lost you several times," he said quietly as he stared at her tense back. She was definitely listening – she had no choice.

"Were you scared while you were unconscious?" he asked quietly. Natasha froze and he noticed she had stopped breathing. She finally turned around and stared at him dead in the eye. She promptly shook her head in the negative. He smiled weakly.

"Who's the liar now?" he asked with a soft chuckle. She went bright red and growled silently. She was not lying! How can someone be scared when they were unconscious?

She gestured towards his hand. He gave her a confused look.

"What do you want Natasha?" he asked in confusion. She insistently pointed at his hand. He furrowed his brow and he held his right hand out to her. She grabbed it in her own smaller ones and then promptly used his own hand to slap himself across the face.

Clint gaped at her.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" he shouted in shock as he held his bright red cheek in pain. She narrowed her eyes and promptly picked up her notepad and scribbled something angrily onto it.

'You're pansy worrying is giving me a headache – you deserve one too,' she wrote across the page. He stared down at the words in disbelief.

"You are one crazy woman Natasha," he muttered as he leaned back against his chair in exhaustion. Now even his face hurt like hell just like the rest of his body. She furrowed her brow when he still continued to hold his cheek in silence without even getting that irritated at her. Why wasn't he being angry at her like normal?

Natasha didn't want to consider the reality that Clint might be blaming her voice loss on himself and now as a result was taking her shit without complaint. Now was something Natasha Romanoff could not allow. He was never supposed to take her shit.

Clint suddenly found an ice pack being held against his cheek. He looked up at the wary Russian spy holding the bag of ice for him while she looked anywhere but at him. His eyes soften when he saw the slight regret in her eyes as she stared at the wall in front of her.

"It's okay," he whispered. The light scowl on her face told him she wasn't apologizing at all. But he forgave her anyway.

He watched the scowl slowly be replaced by a hesitant look.

"What's wrong Tasha?" he asked worriedly. She pulled back her hand with the ice pack and tried to hold back a wince – but he knew her well enough to know when she was in serious pain.

"Tasha…you are starting to scare me…" he said slowly. She glanced down at her waist and at the dark red colour seeping through her shirt. Clint froze as he noticed the red blotch too.

"Oh my god you pulled your stitches again? Why do you move around so much woman?" he asked in disbelief. She huffed – she didn't move that much. He glared at her dismissal look.

"What do you mean this is not your fault? Who was the one who went gallivanting across the roof right after a serious accident?" he asked incredulously. She glared at him. He glared back.

"Pull up your shirt and let me see what the hell you did," he said angrily. Natasha paled ever so slightly– Clint froze at her peculiar reaction. Oh my god…

"Don't you dare let your mind go in the gutter Natasha Romanoff!" he growled. A bright pink blush started creeping up her neck – too late, her mind had already left innocent-ville. He groaned as he dropped his head on her bed.

"You're killing me – seriously you are," he muttered into her sheets. Natasha tried to beat down the monster blush as she grabbed the towel sitting on the table beside her and used it to try and stop the rapid bleeding. Clint realized a second later she was going to bleed to death if they didn't re-bandage her wounds. His head shot up and he gave her a sharp look.

"Alright that's it! Gutter mind or no gutter mind we are going to change your damn bandages," he muttered as he opened the draw beside him and pulled out a bunch of medical supplies. She raised an eyebrow and gestured to the emergency button beside her. He snorted.

"Natasha – if I call the nurses will you make them cry again?" he asked point-blank. Natasha scowled at him. Those pansy nurses had it coming! It wasn't her fault they couldn't keep their tear ducts under control!

"I'm going to take you disgusted and unimpressed look as a yes – so no I won't call the damn nurses for you to death glare at and cackle when they burst into tears. I can change damn bandages will my eyes closed," he said firmly. She rolled her eyes and watched his dampen a cloth with alcohol – oh damn that was going to burn.

"Pull up your shirt before you bleed to death Natasha," he said tiredly. Natasha sighed as she dragged up her shirt to reveal her ruined bandages wrapped around her waist. Clint shook his head – crazy girl. He started wiping away the blood before he would replace her old bandages with news ones. He paused as he stared at the jagged lines running zigzag across her stomach. They were faded deep knife wounds. Years old but still there.

"You're scars are always in the weirdest places Tasha…" he said quietly. She tensed and looked away. He slowly unwrapped her ruined dressings.

"I still don't know the stories behind most of them," he said softly. She sighed. She didn't want to know them either.

"Will you tell me one day after you get your voice back?" he asked looking up at her cautious eyes. He was too confident that she was going to recover from this incident. She wasn't as optimistic. But either way she still nodded slowly at his question. If she couldn't tell her partner who could she tell?

He smiled softly at her.

"Thank you," he said quietly as he slowly re-bandaged her wound. She never told him he was the only one who she ever let fix her without complaint. Every other person, doctor or nurse always came out of that experience a little scarred themselves.

10 minutes later Natasha was no longer bleeding to death and somehow the conversation had drifted into a strange silence mostly because it's been a one sided conversation since they've been together after their failed mission. Clint was so tired he was basically falling asleep right beside her.

Natasha stared at the uncomfortable archer resting his forehead in his arms against the edge of the gigantic SHIELD medical bed. As if it was fair that she was forced to sleep on this monster while he got the uncomfortable chair. She'd rather have the chair then be the damn patient. She promptly poked him in the shoulder and roused him from his uncomfortable nap.

"What's wrong Natasha?" he asked rubbing the sleep from his eyes. She gave him a second to wake up before she roughly grabbed him by the scruff of his uniform and dragged him onto the bed. Clint nearly fell on his face in shock.

"Natasha what the hec-sdkfjlsfsdlk!" he mumbled against her hand as she promptly covered his mouth in the universal gesture of stop talking. He took a deep breath and stopped trying to speak against her warm hand. She firmly shoved him down on the bed and fell down beside him. Clint held his breath as they lay next to each other staring up at the white tiled ceiling of the dimly light patient room.

"One day you are going to give me a heart attack Natasha," he said turning to look at her. She shrugged beside him without looking at his curious questioning gaze. He continued to stare at her silently as she seemed lost in her own thoughts.

"What are you thinking about Tasha?" he asked quietly after a few minutes of silence. She glanced down at her hands and curled them into tight fists. She wasn't thinking about anything pleasant.

"Does it have to do with the mission?" he asked quietly. She shook her head without looking at him.

"Your voice loss?" he tried again. She shook her head again. He furrowed his brow – what else could be bothering her?

She finally sighed and turned to stare at him dead in the eye.

'You,' she mouthed to him. He froze.

"Natasha-" she promptly covered his mouth again and closed her eyes. He stared at her tired expression and sighed. Even though she was obviously trying to avoid any type of conversation that included feelings he knew she should be resting now anyway.

"Finally want to go to sleep huh?" he said before he leaned back on her pillow. She snorted. As if she really had a choice. Clint didn't particularly want to be the first to fall asleep – but he was so exhausted that the moment he shut his eyes he was out like a light.

Natasha watched his breath even out and waited until she was sure he was sleeping. She then gently brushed the stray bangs out of his eyes and curled them around his ear. He looked so much more peaceful when he was sleeping – during the day he was always so stressed. She winced – she was the number one cause of his extreme stress. She always told him to calm down and stop worrying about her – but he never listened. She missed the slight twitch of his mouth as she turned back to her side of the bed and tried to take a short nap before their hectic day started tomorrow.

Several hours later Clint groaned as he buried his head deeper into the itchy SHIELD medical blankets he was lying on. He knew Natasha would kill him if he rolled over and accidentally squished her in his sleep. So he was beyond shocked when he felt a warm body lean over him. He opened his eyes and got a face full of Natasha's black widow mission belt. That was odd…why was she wearing that all of a sudden?

She stared down at his open eyes and he raised an eyebrow. She wagged her own eyebrows at him before she promptly messed up his dark hair and jumped off the bed. He gave her actions a confused look until he realized…he couldn't move his right hand. He stared at her in shock as she slowly walked backwards away from him. She gave him a small wave before she promptly climbed out the window.

"YOU HANDCUFFED ME TO YOUR OWN FREAKING BED ROMANOFF?" Clint shouted at the top of his lungs as he stared at the open window beside him. A smirking Natasha started climbing down the side of the building – she had ditched him for a reason. She was going to accomplish her original mission whether he liked it or not. He would have to chill in her room until she came back.

Meanwhile Maria Hill was not snoozing on the job. She was definitely not lying on her desk practically drooling. She was no way in hell dreaming of a well-deserved trip to the Bahamas...

Oh who was she kidding? It was freaking 7 am and she never left work let alone come in early! The Avengers were still in the building and until they were healthy and gone it would be insanity to leave them here unattended. And so here she lay on her uncomfortable desk.

Her phone suddenly rang beside her ear and caused her to jump into alertness.

"I'm awake!" she shouted grabbing her chest in shock as she took in several deep breaths. That was one way to wake her up.

She glanced down at the caller ID and furrowed her brow in confusion…that was a number she didn't expect to hear from for at least the next little while.

"Hello…?" she answered slowly. There was a long pause at the other end of the line. And then suddenly Maria heard a series of taps that instantly made her groan. Oh dear god it was too early in the damn morning to be dealing with this shit.

"Morose code… Are you serious Agent Romanoff?" Maria said in disbelief. Natasha smiled slowly at the other end of the line. She always knew Agent Hill was smarter than most of the idiots that haunted the halls of the SHIELD base.

"You do know that I can receive text messages right…?" Maria asked blankly. Natasha repeatedly tapped the wall again in a distinct manner. Maria groaned and leaned her head back against her desk. These agents were too much – especially the ones on the Avengers team.

"Natasha we are not in a freaking war zone – no one is likely to hack my phone anytime soon. Especially considering how it's one of the most secure lines in the world," Maria said slowly.

Natasha silently tapped the wall again and stared at the word she had spelled out against the cold surface.

"Bar…ton…Wait you don't want Barton to know?" Maria asked slowly. Natasha leaned her forehead against the wall. Maria heard another round of quiet taps and furrowed her brow as she muddled through the meaning.

"Co..ming. Oh come on! Why are you ditching medical for the second time in a row Natasha? Clint is going to absolutely murder-" she started to say but Natasha had hanged up before Maria could finish her rant.

Natasha quickly shoved her phone into her pocket and leaned against the wall on the outside of the SHIELD base as she slowly inched across the tight ledge that ran along the edge of the building. If she fell she was would be dead before she hit the ground. It was a long 3 stories fall. Barton would kill her if he found out – well considering the colourful swearing she could hear from behind her he was already planning on it. Oh well – the adrenaline rush always got her through the worst of situations – now would be no different.

Natasha smirked as she finally found the window she had been searching for been. She instantly froze as she felt the weak cement she was standing on give beneath her foot and quickly started falling down the side of the building. She frantically grabbed onto the edge of the window and banged into the wall painfully.

Too bad she couldn't scream for help.

Natasha winced as the burn started building up in her arms. She glanced up at the window in front of her. Well…she did enough acrobatics in her training in the Red Room program to be able to pull this off…right? She felt her fingers start slipping and glanced at the dark metal barb wire running along the wall several meter below her feet. That would a bitch to fall on. It would probably slice her into Swiss cheese. She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. Hopefully she'll survive to be threatened within an inch of her life by Barton another day.

Well here goes everything.

Maria froze as the only window in her office shattered into a million pieces as a familiar redhead crashed right through it and fell into the room. She quickly got up and stared at the mess that covered her hard floor and the crazy woman in the middle of it all.

Natasha Romanoff was lying on floor breathing in shallow frantic breaths as she stared up at the Maria Hill's ceiling. Wow. She did not expect that to work.

"ARE YOU CRAZY ROMANOFF?" Maria shrieked as she stared down at the agent covered in glass. Natasha promptly nodded gravely. That was probably the only reason she was alive. She winced as she pushed herself into a sitting position and brushed the pieces of glass shards off her uniform.

"Are you okay?" Maria asked suddenly switching to sounding very worried. Natasha waved her worry away with her hand. As if a little glass was going to hurt her. She picked herself off the floor and gave her boss a casual nod in good morning like there was nothing wrong with her unusual entrance. She glanced at the broken window and grimaced. She'll pay for that later.

Maria continued to stare at the crazy Russian in front of her.

"Has anyone ever told you, you scare the crap out of your comrades more than your enemies?" Maria asked slowly. Natasha coughed into her hand. Oh yeah – Clint tells her that every day.

"Why are you here Natasha?" Maria asked with a sigh. The faster she found out why she was being stalked by a Russian spy the faster she could send her back to medical and not have to deal with the impending drama that always followed in Natasha's wake.

When she said drama she really meant Clint damn Barton and his constant anger at his deadly partner. She really didn't want to know what Natasha did to him this time to delay his inevitable arrival.

Natasha promptly pointed to Maria's computer with a serious expression – so she really was here for business.

"Is there something you want to show me?" Maria asked as she slowly walked over and typed in her password. Natasha stepped out of the circle of glass and walk behind Maria's desk to give her computer screen a quizzing look. She pointed to the keyboard and asked her boss for permission with her eyes. Maria furrowed her brow but passed her the keyboard anyway. Natasha quickly zoomed through several folders on her screen, bypassed several codes she wasn't supposed to know and pulled up a file that was highly classified – as in no agent was supposed to know classified. Especially not the person that file concerned.

"You know I'm going to ask how you knew how to do that right?" Maria asked dryly. Natasha shrugged – it wasn't that important at the moment. She insistently pointed at the flashing red behind her own personal SHIELD file.

Maria sighed. Natasha was one of the agents that always kept her on her toes. If all her agents were as good as this Russian she would have resigned years ago.

"What do you want to know Natasha?" Maria asked tiredly. Natasha highlighted the most alarming line in the file and glared at Maria accusingly.

'Level of danger to team and pending status on Avengers'- waiting on council decision.

Maria groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. Damn her excellent spy skills.

"Are you here to ask why your accident has gone to the council or why I haven't told you yet?" Maria asked already knowing the answer. Natasha held up two fingers to signify the second option and continued to glare at her boss.

"It's been 5 hours since you've been back from your mission Natasha. You are just too fast – I haven't even had time to properly debrief you all on your mission. On top of that you were and still are supposed to be in freaking medical recovering from your other injures. How many stiches did you pull after crashing through my window?" Maria asked narrowing her eyes. Natasha suddenly looked guilty and glanced down at the red spot on her hip.

She slowly held up 3 fingers. Maria narrowed her eyes.

"Get your ass back to medical before I drag you back or call Barton to do it," Maria said pointing to her door angrily. Natasha sighed – she had one more question left. She grabbed a pen off Maria's table and quickly scribbled down her question on a scrap piece of paper. Maria stared at the note.

'Am I contagious?' was all the note said. She had the strange feeling that was truly the only important thing Natasha wanted to know.

"Natasha…if I told you were contagious…what would you do?" Maria said slowly. Natasha stared at her dead in the eye and promptly looked out the window.

Well that wasn't reassuring at all.

"He would just chase you down wherever you went you know that right?" Maria said with a sigh. Natasha clenched her fists. She knew that alright. It was downright annoying…but somewhere deep, deep, deep down (very deep) she was the slightest bit touched that there was at least one person in the world who even remotely cared enough to try.

But as if they could ever find her if she chose to disappear. She never stopped to consider the fact that Clint was much more than a slightly hotheaded archer who took too many risks and freaked out too much like a hypocrite when she took some herself. At the end of the day with his level of intelligence and solid field skills he just might be the only one to ever come close to being her equal.

She would still beat his ass though.

"Natasha you lost a physical ability – you're not dying," Maria said slowly. Natasha still didn't look convinced. Maria sighed.

"Is blindness contagious?" Maria said trying to convince her. Natasha paused and thought about it – she opened her mouth but Maria beat her to it.

"If you dare bring magic and aliens into our conversation I will slap you," she said firmly. Natasha snorted – it was still valid.

"Don't be a smart ass Natasha – I can kick your ass to kingdom come. And if that doesn't work – I'll stick your ass in probation – AKA no missions," Maria said narrowing her eyes. Natasha narrowed her own. If Clint was still going to go on missions like hell she was staying behind.

They both heard angry shouting from the floor above them.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE ANY METAL CUTTERS? THIS IS AN INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATION THAT DEALS WITH HULKS, AND DEMIGODS AND FUCKING ALIENS! THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING YOU USE TO RESTRAIN THESE IDIOTS!" was heard loud and clear through the thick cement.

"Barton is going to have a heart attack one day because of you - you know that right?" Maria said slowly. Natasha sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. That man was impossible.

Natasha suddenly covered one of her eyes and gave Maria one of the most fake dirty looks she ever used. She tilted her head to the side and tapped her head slowly. Maria furrowed her brow at Natasha's actions.

"Who are you trying to imitat- wait that's your impersonation of Fury?" Maria asked incredulously. Natasha shrugged. Hill understood the reference didn't she?

"What are you asking?" she asked slowly. Natasha pointed to her throat and raised her hands in question.

"Oh. What he thinks about your situation? That's classified information at the moment…" Maria said slowly. Natasha gave her a bored look and promptly aimed her gun at her computer. Maria paled.

"You wouldn't dare – I have months of work on there," Maria hissed.

Natasha yawned. As if she cared.

"You shoot my computer and I'll damn well make your life and Barton's life miserable," Maria said threateningly.

Natasha gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. Oh dear god she can't believe she was about to do the unimaginable. She steeled herself for the heavy loss of dignity.

'Please,' she mouthed.

Maria blinked.

She blinked again.

She has never heard that word come from Natasha Romanoff's mouth. Considering the fact that Natasha didn't actually use her voice to say it meant her record was technically still clean.

"Man you are desperate," she said in shock. Natasha scowled at her. Maria sighed – stubborn Russian.

"Fury isn't going to kick you out of SHIELD no matter what the council says Natasha. Unless you suddenly go psycho you're staying on the Avengers okay? Now get out of my office!" Maria said pointing to her door. Natasha gave her irritated eyes a suspicious look. Maria never wavered. Natasha finally seemed to be convinced she was telling the truth and her shoulders relaxed. That was all she wanted to know. Natasha promptly spun around and stalked out the door – now she could sleep in peace.

She walked down the quiet SHIELD hall on her way back to the dreaded medical bay and suddenly bumped into the warm solid frame of familiar figure as she rounded the corner.

Click. She stared down at her wrist and saw familiar handcuffs wrapped tightly around her small hand. She looked up at the angry eyes of her scorned partner. He slowly raised their handcuffed hands between them and threw the damn key out the window. She didn't even flinch.

"Now you're really stuck with me – understood?" he growled quietly. She stared back at his dark serious eyes with guarded ones of her own. She was always stuck with him – she didn't need handcuffs to know Barton was always just one step behind her.

Like he said – wherever she went he would follow. The real question was – would she do the same?

A/N: Oh Clint – using her own handcuffs against her. Such a hot badass move! But do you really think a pair of handcuffs is enough to keep Natasha Romanoff around?

Review and let me know if you would like more action or fluff next chapter!