Hey all! Sorry for the long break, but I got to go visit England! It was absolutely lovely, and some of things I learned and/or people I met may find their way into my writing yet. So! Onwards and upwards!

Liretto made very few concessions to the masculine body she now wore; she shifted her body only slightly, and her voice kept the lilting quality that Clint was coming to hate so much. In short, Clint got to experience how other people would see him if he dressed, moved, and talked like a woman.

Fantastic.

"It does explain a lot, doesn't it? I know it's horribly foolish of me, but I don't really see the harm, since neither of you will ever be able to pass the information on anyway, so do you mind if I monologue? Just for a moment?" She… he… she waited politely for both of them to nod, then crossed behind her chair and planted both calloused hands on its back.

"As you've seen, I'm a shape-shifter. Always have been. It's a very useful ability, and I'm quite sure I'm the only one alive who has it. Unfortunately, I still need a pattern. A single touch, the tiniest cell, is enough. Miss Liretto," she nodded at Asa, "was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. A train station, I think it was. I needed a new life, a new face, and she was pretty. Young, too- you couldn't have been older than seventeen. So I stole your DNA, your name, and let you go on your way. I kept an eye on you, of course. I needed to see how you would age, and you never know when having an unknowing, anonymous duplicate will come in handy." She giggled. "I joined SHIELD, carefully. I was in a great deal of trouble with any number of people, and SHIELD is a safe place to be. They couldn't know my true talents, of course, but I brought other skills to the table- computers are easy for me, and I can spot a threat a mile away. So I became one of their best agents, specializing in deep infiltration. All it took was a few hours out of SHIELD's eyes, and I could change my face and disappear. Soon, I was playing the board. I'm not sure how they found me out," she frowned slightly, "but as soon as they did, I knew I was in trouble. So, I leaked them info about at a dangerous information deal, dressed Miss Liretto up, and sent her in my place. You were supposed to kill her," Liretto wagged her finger at Clint, an entirely disorienting experience, "Simple, elegant, tidy. The famous Hawkeye would take the threat out, and I'd be free to start a new life elsewhere."

Clint risked a question.

"So why did you switch out the arrowheads? If you hadn't, you probably would've gotten away with it. And how did you know where I would be?" Liretto waved a dismissive hand.

"Oh, come now, don't tell me you haven't figured it out?" Clint had his suspicions, but he kept his mouth shut. Asa shook her head.

"I was the pilot! Really. As for Agent Beecher," Clint glanced at Asa, but she was staring at her hands, chewing her lip. Liretto continued, "Your plan put him too close to Miss Liretto; he would see too clearly that she wasn't who she was supposed to be. He had to be eliminated." Liretto shrugged. "If you'd shot Miss Liretto like you were supposed to, you never would've known. It would've been nothing more than a stupid mistake."

Clint didn't make stupid mistakes, but he didn't tell her that. To everyone's surprise, it was Asa that spoke up next.

"Scars. What about scars?"

Liretto blinked rapidly, confused.

"What do you mean, dear?"

Asa looked up and faced Liretto blandly.

"Scars aren't part of a genetic DNA pattern, and I didn't get that scar on my left hand until a year ago. So how do you do scars?"

At the mention of Asa's hand, Liretto shifted back into her earlier shape, and Clint was relieved to be rid of his doppelganger. She laughed delightedly, and the sound wasn't quite as disorienting as it had been coming from a man.

"Oh, you're good! I like to think of it like making a dress. I may need a pattern to start from, but alterations are easy!" Liretto blinked, and her eyes shifted from azure to emerald to ruby, then settled back into the appropriate chocolate brown. "See? And I did mention that I've been keeping an eye on you. So glad that I did."

Her smile was much more threatening this time, and silence poured into the sitting room. Clint welcomed it, but Asa fidgeted.

"Okay, fine. I know you two are all James Bond deadly trained subterfuge-y people and there's probably some secret threatening communication code thing going on right now that I'm not getting," she struggled to put the words in the right order, trailed off, then picked up again, "But I'm super confused. What happens now?"

It was Clint's turn to blink in confusion. Hadn't he already explained this to her? Of course, if he could get them out of interrogation he would, but he needed her to be ready if he couldn't.

Liretto rose gracefully, and Clint and Asa automatically stood with her.

"I'm sorry, I'm being rude. Why don't I show you to your rooms, and you can get cleaned up?" She turned to the door and talked quietly to the guard, and Asa stared at Clint in utter bewilderment. He almost laughed, but just shook his head instead. He didn't know what was going on any more than she did.

Yeah, yeah, I know. A monologue. There are other, much cleverer ways of letting characters (and readers) know what's going on. Deal with it. I wanted to get this chapter done so I could move on to better things. As always, let me know what you thought! (Also, you guys are seriously the best readers ever. I keep all of your comments in a neat little folder in my email and pull them out whenever I'm having a bad-writer day.)