Hello! I have had hardly any time to post due to exams! I hope you like it :) Couldn't resist posting another chapter!

Previously

Me and Clint looked at each other and then at the others.

I rolled my eyes, scoffed and said "I'm getting my breakfast."

He kissed me...

After eating breakfast alone in the living room, away from the others who were in the kitchen, I went to my room to think about everything.

I shut the door, sat on the bed and placed my head in my hands with my elbows resting on my knees.

I want to kill Loki. He took over Clint's mind. My Clint. He shouldn't be able to get away with that but he is? Unfair. I want to tear him apart and make him pay for what he has done.

But I know that he will not have a perfect life when he goes back. He will be imprisoned and punishment will be served. If it isn't, I am personally going to hunt him down and kill him.

What would I do without Clint? He has always been there for me. Always. And then Loki had to go and mess things up. He nearly made Clint ra-...I can't even say the word. I don't even want to think about it, but it keeps coming into my mind.

Clint would never have forgiven himself and then where would we be? He wouldn't be able to cope with it and he would probably want to drink himself to death. Not that I would let that happen.

I would make sure that he would be in excellent help and keep him under observation 24/7 by me or one of the other Avengers.

Stop. Don't even think about that. Clint is not finding out and that's final.

Now. What are you going to do for the remaining 4 hours before sending off Loki?

Train? Yep, what else is there in my life really?

I went into the training room next to the bedroom thinking that Barton would still be at breakfast. But he was in their training. Crap.

"Sorry, I'll just go use the other one." I said turning around.

"Wait Natasha." he said and I looked back at him.

"Wait, I don't want things to be awkward between us just because of what happened this morning." Does this mean he wants to forget about it?

"That's fine. Consider it forgotten." I said once again turning back to my own room.

"That's not what I meant." he said coming forward and grabbing my arm to turn me around to face him.

"I don't care what you meant. It's forgotten. End of." Before he could argue, I slammed the door in his face, got my sports gear and went down to the gym.

If he wanted to forget about it, then that's fine by me. He kissed me on the cheek anyway. It's not exactly a big deal.

What am I saying? Of course, it's a big deal. A big deal to me anyway. It obviously isn't to him.

I got off at the gym floor and saw Rogers hitting a punch bag.

"Hey Steve. Am I allowed to call you that or is it just Maria?" I mused.

"Don't you start as well. I already got it from Stark. I don't need anymore."

"Have you even thought about why she did it?"

"Hill was under the influence of alcohol Romanoff. I know what it does. I'm not that old." he returned to his punch bag.

"I think she likes you." Steve stopped, turned around to look me in the eye.

"What? Don't be ridiculous." he said, but he wanted it confirmed that this was the case, not the opposite.

"We all think so. Not just Stark."

"Stark has been trying to get us together for weeks. He even broke down an elevator to try and get us together." I could see him smiling slightly as he went back to the memory of it.

"Yes. I heard. Very eventful." I said and he looked surprised.

"Maria told you what happened?" I smiled. They both call each other by their first names. Has to mean something. Me and Barton do that though...

"What do you think we discussed before you left? Clothes? No, we discussed you and the others." He began to go red in the face.

"What did she say exactly?" Steve said looking very intrigued to find out.

"It's not my place to say. You need to talk to her about it." I said and I went to one of the changing rooms.

I got dressed and went back out to go on the treadmill. Rogers had already left probably to go speak with a certain someone.

As I was running, I thought about how New York had no idea about what really went on in our lives.

Take away all the killing and the serums and the Godliness and you've got a bunch of people who live life like a reality television show.

We could never have that life though. We have been 'privileged', Fury had said to me a few days into when I had first arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D, with extraordinary skills that were too valuable to give away.

Barton was amazing at his craft. You wouldn't think that just a bow and an arrow would be helpful in the field of combat, but he was one of the best.

Clint was recruited for his leadership skills and his belief to do what is right even is it goes against direct orders. I think that was only put in there for my benefit.

He was incredible. He had to work to obtain his skill. Unlike me.

I was just given a serum and forced to train. I wasn't given a choice. Anyone could've been me. Anyone. But not Clint. He was one of a kind.

After running for about an hour, I heard JARVIS's voice.

"Miss Romanoff, Mr. Stark says Director Fury will be here in 30 minutes for a de-briefing with all the Avengers in the living room."

"Thank you. What is the time JARVIS?"

"9:04am Miss Romanoff."

I decided to take another shower before I saw Fury again, because I was not going to a meeting smelling horrible, even though I wasn't sweating due to my physical advances.

I got to my room, had a shower and then put on the clothes that I had worn earlier.

When I got out, the clock read 9:30. I had exactly four minutes.

Fury was always on time.

"JARVIS, are the other Avengers in the living room?"

"All except Agent Barton, Miss Romanoff."

Barton is always late for meetings.

I walked to the living room and found everyone sitting on the sofa's. I noticed Maria sitting quite close to Steve as well.

"So, the Lady Hawk finally joins us. And where is the boyfriend?" Only Stark.

"Quit it Stark. And he is always late for meetings, no matter who for."

"Sounds like me." he said and I took a seat on one of the empty sofa's.

That moment, the elevator door opened and Fury stepped out.

He surveyed the room, walked over to us and said "Barton, get out of the vent." without even looking up.

Suddenly, the vent dropped and Barton lands perfectly on his feet next to me.

"Such a show off." Stark commented and he just smiled coming to sit himself down beside me.

"Says you Stark!" Clint said.

Before Stark could reply, Fury said "If you don't mind, I would like to speak to you without being interrupted about how big your egos are."

Stark and Clint shut up.

I could feel Clint's body so close to mine, because we were squeezed onto a very small sofa.

Only our arms were touching, but it felt comforting.

"Mne zhal'. Eto ne to, chto ya imel v vidu, kogda ya skazal chto." he said quietly so no one apart from me and him could hear the conversation. (I'm sorry. That's not what I meant when I said that.) He was talking about earlier.

"Eto normal'no. Vy ne dolzhny delat' kakiye-libo otgavorki. YA znayu, vy khotite, chtoby zabyt' ob etom, tak chto my zabudem ob etom." I replied back to him. (It's okay. You don't have to make any excuses. I know you want to forget about it, so we'll forget about it.)

He was about to reply, but was cut off by Fury.

"Agent Barton and Romanoff's identities have been compromised, so they will stay here and become true Avengers." No more spying then. "Agent Hill, you will remain here to make sure that no trouble is caused within the group." He said looking directly at Stark who had an innocent expression on his face.

"Hill, you will also help Captain Rogers adapt to the current environment of the 21st century, because the others will be too busy on missions." Everyone looked at Hill and she failed to keep a light shade of pink coming onto her cheeks.

"Of course, Director Fury." she replied in her cold, stern, commanding voice.

"Good. Now, the protocol is being loosened for you two, because you are not full S.H.I.E.L.D agents anymore. You are free to do whatever you would like." Fury said and I thought that he looked like he had more meaning in his words than I thought.

Maria did say that he had placed bets on us being together.

"After Loki has been returned to Asgard, you need to come and see us. We will give you money, cars, and anything else that you need to survive. This will mean returning to the helicarrier." he said that directly to Barton.

I had heard that some people felt like Barton should be executed, but he had no idea what he was doing. It wasn't his fault that he was brain-washed, but some agents thought differently.

Barton looked down at the ground as Fury continued.

"S.H.I.E.L.D is giving all of you missions when you are needed. Some may be solo, but some may be in groups, so you have homework to do on each others backgrounds and specific information that has happened over the past couple of days."

Oh God, please don't say it.

"For the benefit of Agent Barton, I will send over the videos of the helicarrier when Barton was being controlled by Loki."

This was not happening.

"I don't think that's a good idea." I said, not realising that everyone was there.

"Romanoff, I haven't seen this footage yet. Nobody has. You will all be the first, so would you please care to elaborate what you mean by that?"

I was frozen. What was I meant to reply? I can't tell them all about this right now! I at least need a couple of days.

When he was satisfied that I wasn't going to reply, he said "Good. I will send you the videos whilst you are out and you can watch them together, as a group, when you return."

So much for a couple of days.

"Stark go with Banner to the send off point, Rogers take the bike, Romanoff and Barton go together in a S.H.I.E.L.D car that is waiting for you outside and Thor you can come with us now."

Fury looked as if he had finished, so Thor spoke up.

"My friends, it has been a pleasure to fight with you. I hope to see you again soon."

"I hope so." Steve said and we all said our goodbye's to him.

"Hill stay here and make sure that the files are received." Fury said before walking away.

She nodded to confirm that she understood and then they got back into the elevator with the addition of Thor who made Fury look like a child.

"You all need to go and get ready for Loki's send off." Hill instructed once the doors were closed, standing up and walking towards her room.

We all went to our rooms, but Barton stopped me before I reached mine.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course." I said smiling. I was not okay. Barton was going to see the footage of him and me fighting...damn it.

"When Fury mentioned the helicarrier footage, you just sort of...I dunno seized up."

"I'm fine Barton. Stop worrying." I said and both of us opened our doors.

"I never do stop" he said going into his room, looking up at me and then shutting the door.

I don't know whether that is the truth or not.

I went into my room to prepare myself for sending that idiot back into space.

We had to leave at 11:00 to make sure that everything was going to go smoothly.

I put a brown leather jacket on and decided to get Clint.

I knocked on his door and he opened it wearing a red top, jeans and some sunglasses were resting on his head. Of course he was wearing sunglasses...

"You ready to go?" I asked.

"Yep." he said popping the 'p'.

He shut his door and we made our way to the elevator.

Once inside he turned to me.

"You know...when I told you earlier in the gym that I didn't want things to be awkward, I didn't mean it in the way that you thought."

"Then what did you mean? I don't know how to read you...ever since you woke, something's been different about you." I turned around to face him. "I need to ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Did you ever break out of Loki's control?"

He turned to face me.

He hesitated before saying "Yes. Yeah, I did. Why?"

I paused. Just say it.

"Do you remember anything?"

He thought about the question and said "Only the image of him shouting at me and having the sceptre put up to my chest again. I can't remember the conversation. Why?"

I looked into his eyes and thought about telling him the truth. Just tell him.

"When..when you were waking up, you...well you said...that...that you-"

I was cut off when the lift opened and we were met by a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D agents that said they were escorting us to the car.

"Don't worry about it." I said to him before walking out of the elevator doors.

We got in the car and didn't speak for the whole journey.

All shield cars were cab-designed, but I decided not to tell him what had happened. Not yet anyway. Get one thing out of the way at a time.

I looked over at him. I could tell he was nervous from his fidgeting facial expression and his chest moving up and down pretty rapidly.

"It's gonna be okay. It's all gonna be alright." I assured him resting my hand on top of his on the seat between us.

He stopped and slowed down his breathing slightly whilst taking my hand and wrapping his fingers in mine.

"Thanks." he smiled and then returned to looking out of the window.

Our hands remained that way the whole journey to where Loki was being sent off.

Once we arrived, our hands separated and I missed his constant warmth.

We got out of the car and began to walk over to a isolated section of the park with the others.

Whilst everybody was getting the tesseract ready, I noticed Loki was looking straight at me.

I could see him smiling darkly behind his restraints.

I hate him. I hate him so much.

I could tell that he was enjoying watching me suffer. He knew what Clint had almost done to me and he knew that I hadn't told him. I could tell.

My breathing became slightly faster and I battled the tears coming forward in my eyes.

"Hey," Clint said from behind me, but I just kept looking at Loki. "what did he do to you. Please tell me."

I looked at Clint, but didn't answer.

Once everything was in order, we stood around where Loki was.

I turned around to Barton and said "I'm thinking 'I hate Hulk' in red lipstick?"

He smiled and I turned back around knowing that I coaxed him away from his worrying emotions.

Loki continued to stare at me and I could feel Barton's eyes switching between both of us wondering what was going on.

Thor and Loki shot into the sky within seconds and I was happy that he was away from all of us.

"We are going to go to S.H.I.E.L.D and we will meet you back at the Tower." Barton said, but he didn't look too happy about it to say the least.

"Great, see you there." Steve said.

We all said our goodbye's and then me and Clint drove towards the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier.

He was quieter than usual, but I wasn't in his shoes.

He knew he had killed people, but he didn't know who exactly. He didn't know how many.

We arrived at the helicarrier and instantly everyone was staring at us as we got out of the car.

"Come on, we need to go to our rooms." I said because he wasn't really moving.

We walked down the corridor and I could see people staring.

A couple of agents looked like they were going to murder him and I assumed they were close with the people that died.

I open and shut a door on the left, getting close to our rooms, and there is hardly anyone down there. Not unusual, but certainly not normal.

Suddenly a S.H.I.E.L.D agent screams at Clint 'MURDERER!'.

He is pinned to the floor and is getting a continuous stream of punches and abuse being shouted at him.

I am being pinned to the wall by three men, because they knew that we are always together and I will ALWAYS protect him.

"CLINT!" I shout as more agents come to beat him up, but he is not fighting. Why isn't he fighting?

I keep screaming his name as they keep hurting him. There is blood all over his face and I am sure that he has a couple of broken ribs.

"PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM! PLEASE!" I scream, almost crying, as they keep damaging his body.

"The Black Widow begging huh? Who knew." A smug agent asked close to my face.

I take that to my advantage and head-but him knocking him unconscious.

One of the two men holding me is on the floor when I use my legs to hit the back of his knees and then I punch the other one in the face.

The agents are too busy to notice me and I hit the alarm for the section.

Armed S.H.I.E.L.D agents come running through the door and the people abusing Clint stop and put their hands on their heads.

I race over to Clint and cup his face in my hands.

"Oh my God. We never should have come here. How could I be so stupid and let you get hurt like that?" I whispered.

"Not...your...fault...Tasha.." he said breathlessly.

I turned back to see the agents taking the others out in handcuffs.

"Did...they...hurt you..." he said. He's got to stop this.

"I'm fine, Clint. I told you to stop worrying and don't speak. We don't what the problem is."

He shook his head and said "I'm alright...Just...out of breath...from being punched..." He was slowly regaining the air he needed to speak with.

"Good. Do you know what's wrong?" I asked him looking at the blood on his face.

"Knife scratch on...stomach...bruised ribs probably...nothing much..." I didn't even notice they had a knife.

I looked down at his top and saw a cut bleeding. I think it's best if I help him on his own.

I turn around to one of the agents and say "We'll be fine." He nodded and they all filed out.

Thank goodness our room was only a few doors away, because I didn't want him to get injured even more.

I opened the door to my room with him, went into the bathroom and sat him down on the bathroom side.

Going over to the medical cupboard to get the supplies I needed, I asked a question that had been bugging me.

"Why didn't you fight back? You could've easily beaten them all, so why didn't you?"

"I think you know why." he said quietly.

I turned round to face him and said "Shirt off, Barton."

He smirked. Well as much as he could in that much pain.

"At least buy me a drink first." I smiled back and said "Idiot."

He tried to take off his shirt, but I could see that he was struggling, so I went over and took it off for him.

I felt a blush coming onto my cheeks when his chest was in my face, but I don't think he noticed.

I began to clean his wounds and said "You think you deserved it?"

He didn't reply with words. He just nodded looking slightly ashamed.

"Why?" I asked wrapping a bandage round his back.

He looked at me and said "Because I deserved it."

I stopped wrapping the bandage around him and looked up into his eyes. My vision was clouding up with tears and I couldn't hold back my emotions.

"You don't deserve anything. It was all Loki. He did this! He did this to us, okay? It was not you. It wasn't you!" I said shakily with tears coming down my face. I sounded so much like I was trying to convince myself of this and it was true. I was.

It wasn't Clint who tried to force himself on me. It was Loki's brainwashing.

I sat down next to the bath and Clint came to join me not seeming to care how much it hurt, because I could see him wincing.

I turned round and said "Please don't hurt yourself even more!"

"I'm more worried about you than me at the minute." he said looking left to face me.

"What did I do?" Clint asked and I couldn't meet his eyes.

"Please, stop." I begged.

"What did I do?" Clint said a bit harsher than the time before.

My tears had stopped, but I was still shaking and I moved away from him a bit, because he sounded a bit angry.

I heard him take a breath, stand up and say "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be forcing you to tell me if you don't want to."

I looked up to meet a concerned Clint holding out a hand for me to take.

I took it and said "It's just...I don't know how to..."

He nodded and said "I understand."

Then he pulled me into a hug and I wrapped my arms around him.

"God, I'm so glad your back with me again." I admitted before I realised what I had said.

"It's good to be back. Especially with you." I smiled and hugged him tighter like I didn't want him to leave me, but after a minute he pulled me back and said "We need to get our stuff and meet the others."

The video. Oh great.

"Okay." I said quietly.

We collected our clothes, money, keys for our new cars (result!) and went out of the helicarrier.

Before we left, we ran into Fury who said that he would personally serve out the right punishment to the people who had hurt Clint and would explain to everyone the full situation.

Clint nodded his head in thanks and we continued to walk out.

Fury sounded like he was quiet attached to us, because he used the words 'I will make it my personal mission'. He was the second closest person I had right now apart from the Avengers.

We took our separate designer cars and drove back to the Avengers Tower. Mine was black and his was purple.

Even though he was only a couple of cars away, I missed him next to me.

We drove into the Tower's garage and parked our cars.

I got out and went over to hug him. It was a brief hug, but I missed his touch.

We took the elevator up to the living room and I saw all the Avengers already sitting on the couch watching some end footage of Captain America in the olden days.

"Where are you up to then?" Clint asked as we walked towards them.

"We are about to move onto the helicarrier footage, because you have already seen footage of the others in action." Hill said. We had to research the Avengers thoroughly before joining the team. We needed to know their weaknesses and how they operated.

We are moving onto the helicarrier footage. Great.

Me and Clint both took a seat on the couch and I must of looked nervous, because the others were looking at me funny.

"Are you alright Natasha?" Bruce asked. Oh my goodness. Clint would see what Bruce did to me. He would flip.

I decided to keep up my ask and save a breakdown for sometime later.

"Fine, Bruce." I said smiling.

"Lets get this show on the road." Stark said.

What is Clint going to think? I thought as Maria started to play footage of me walking the Captain and Banner through to the bridge.

This chapter was pretty long, but I just couldn't stop writing! Really need to focus on my exams this week, but I will try and update! :) Thanks for reading and please review! x

Also, I haven't had time to check this so sorry if there are any mistakes :(