Natasha was looking out at the Las Vegas sites as she was flying home. She looked down to the group of tiny little chapels that Clint had dragged her to once. It was shortly after Loki had attacked S.H.I.E.L.D and New York, Clint had announced his love for her and dragged her to a chapel. Outside, he had got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She couldn't say yes, she wanted to but everything inside her was begging her to say no.

Deep down she was scared to death that any shred of happiness that they would share, would be ruined by Loki's mind control. Yes, it was clear that he wasn't under the influence of Loki. In fact, Natasha had remembered that day like it was yesterday, she broke his heart but also hers too...

"Clint," she whispered trying to avoid attention, "get up now."

"No, I want to marry you. We both know that we won't have a life in S.H.I.E.L.D but I want to spend it with you. I love you Nat."

"Clint you know why I can't," she said, pulling him up, "Loki's mind control."

"He's not in my head anymore!" He almost shouted

"Clint, He said that he would make you kill me, slowly and intimately and then let you go just when I'm on the brink of death, when I'm past saving. I don't want to put you through that." She, tears filling up her eyes.

"Tasha please," he begged as he opened the ring.

It really was stunning, it was silver with a medium sized diamond so it wasn't too big, just how she would like it, and she loved it. When she had taken a closer look, she had seen that all around the diamond, there were little tiny red rubies. She gasped at the rings beauty, but she couldn't accept it.

"I can't, its too much," she said walking away, "With all this, Clint, I can't handle it. I'm only holding on to everything by a thin thread. I can't."

When arriving back at S.H.I.E.L.D's base, she had seen him in the gym, laughing with a slim, blond haired woman, a bit younger than Clint but she was a lower level agent. He looked happy, no fake smile or fake laugh to match, which only made her heart ache even more. She could not be the one would make him look like that, all because of Loki. She could never marry him, or have children or have to put up with his home cooking, no matter how awful it was.

"Who is that agent?" She asked Coulson as she stopped for a moment.

"Agent Bobbi Morse, also known as Mockingbird, she's been hanging around Agent Barton a lot." Coulson said, trying to push her away from the door.

Clint had seen her through the window, and smiled at her with a small wave. It made Agent Morse turn around and offer her own smile. Natasha did nothing; she just walked into her own room, assigned to her by Fury. She curled up in a ball and wrapped her duvet around her body, refusing to cry. She didn't sleep; she just kept on thinking about the old missions, about Budapest which was where she had saved him from being captured by a hostle force. He couldn't stop saying thank you, despite his injuries and that was the night that she had promised him that if he needed saving, she would be the first to try and he had promised the same thing, but times had changed and his mental state was still unsure. Loki's hold seemed to have vanished, but he still wasn't dead yet, and if he ever even attempted to come back to Earth, she would be the first to try and kill that son of a bitch.

After about an hour, she was bored so had decided to see if Fury had any missions for her, but she knew that it was unlikely that he would send her on one just yet, give it another week and the it would be a possibility.

She walked past the cafeteria, where a lot of agents seemed to be gathered. She went in, just to see what all the fuss was about, and managed to push past the many agents, swooning over something. That's when she had seen it, everything in her wanted to cry and scream and beg him to think about what he was doing but she knew that it was not her place.

"Were getting married!" Bobbi Morse screamed to her other friends.

It had felt like someone had just punched her in the chest, she could not breathe; her heart felt like it was physically hurting with every beat. Bobbi had moved her hand around, so everyone was able to get a good look at her brand new ring and when she stopped it at Natasha, her mouth fell open. The ring that Clint had proposed had a silver band with a medium sized diamond, completed with miniscule red rubies all around the clear diamond. She looked up at Clint, tears now running down her face but she couldn't say anything. Instead, she just walked out of the cafeteria, and carried on walking until she was out of S.H.I.E.L.D. She was trying so hard to get her breath back but nothing would work. She was about to vomit when she felt a light hand on her shoulder. She turned around and it was him. He took one look at her and wrapped himself around her, trying to be the friend that he had promised that he would be.

"You okay Nat?" he asked, gently squeezing her.

"No!" she said pushing him away, "that was my ring. You had it made just for me, you said it was to show your love to me and yet you gave it to her!"

"Nat, please," he said grabbing her hand, "I love you, you know that but I want more. I want you to be included in my life as my wife. I gave you that option."

"But Loki took that away from me!" She said, crying even more, "Look I've missed out I know. I'll confess right now, I'll never love anyone like you but I can't risk it. Not for me but for you, I know you couldn't live with that and I couldn't live without you!"

"Nat..." he said, pulling her in closer, only to be pushed back again.

"I can't Clint, if I start caving in, then it will only break my heart even more. You're happy, I'm glad but honestly I'm scared to death of getting close to you. Not for you, but because of Loki. I've never told you that I love you for that reason-"

"Nat," Clint said grabbing her arms, "Shut up."

He pulled her in closer, not letting her fight back and kissed her like he had never done so before. He had needed to hear those words, so bad. Just three little words that would tell him that his feelings were returned and with this, they both knew that despite the danger, he wouldn't stop trying, he would stop loving her.