"I am never doing that again," I said, struggling to get over my post-jumping-off-a-bridge nerves. Now that all of that was over and done with I was beginning to realise just what I had done. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"I would have if I'd have known you were going to do it," pointed out Clint, walking next to me as we made our way back. I could tell he was angry with me, but he wasn't going the full rant on me unlike some people. I wasn't sure if that was better or worse. But what I did know was that I had actually done something heroic-like. A thought which made me ponder the situation a bit further because I sure wasn't what anyone would call a hero. I mean sure I had been recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. and I had met the Avengers. But I couldn't say I'd worked with them to save the world and whatnot.

Although that could be argued; I stopped Coulson from dying, I'd blasted Loki off the tower (that was more of a personal satisfaction than anything else), got the Tesseract from the Chitauri and now saved a little boy- with help of course. Yet I didn't want to call myself a hero.

"Clint," I said, breaking the silence between us. The archer didn't look at me, but made a noise to acknowledge that he'd heard me. "What would you say I am?"

He turned his head to look at me now, a questioning look adorning his features and his sharp eyes looking me over carefully.

""What do you mean? For jumping of the bridge?" he asked.

"No, I mean identity-wise," I corrected. A flicker of understanding crossed his face but he still seemed a little unsure and so I tried further to explain but found I couldn't.

"Well you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," he said somewhat unsurely. "You're a friend, a good person… What more do you want to be?"

A hero like you guys. I wanted to stay it but instead just shook my head.

"Never mind, "I said, smiling at him and resisting the urge to point out that I was an in-training S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. "I'm just feeling a bit weird."

"After jumping off a bridge I'm not surprised," he said with a chuckle, and then to my surprise put his hand on my shoulder. "I understand that being a new world must be difficult for you, having to start over again and make an identity from the beginning. But you don't need to keep pushing yourself so hard in order to get recognition."

Was that what I was doing? I wanted to deliberate over that, or at least ask Clint what he meant but he was already walking off and I hurried to catch up with him.

No more talking was done that day, not on the way back or even when we had reached the apartment. I handed him a spare duvet and pillows without a word, he nodded his thanks and I retreated into by bedroom for a long, hot bath. It finally gave me a chance to go over what he had said, what had happened and everything else. When I finally got into bed I found that I was unable to get to sleep and as I tried to drift off the thoughts plague my mind.

/

"…At approximately 9pm last night an incident took place on the Williamsburg Bridge. Much of what occurred is merely speculation at this point; however, several eye witnesses to the crime as well as our own preliminary findings have positively placed one individual at the scene. Which is why this morning, I am issuing an arrest warrant for the masked vigilante known as Spider-Man…"

Neither of use had managed to get much sleep last night, though for very different reasons and I doubted I would be wrong if I accused Clint of telling Fury about the Lizard. But I did no such thing and we just sat quietly with our breakfast as we watched this morning's news.

"Is he the guy that had you poking around Oscorp?" asked Clint, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," I replied. There was no point hiding it from him.

"So you knew about this…Lizard?" He was looking at me now, obviously curious about this and probably dying to ask questions to which I would not give the answers so willingly- such as to the secret identities of these two individuals.

"Apparently." I was only vaguely listening, trying to remember what happened next in the film. I could remember the attack at the school, but couldn't remember exactly how that went about and I knew that it had to be happening soon. Maybe it was already happening.

The day passed by without incident, the awkwardness dissolving between us and a more friendly atmosphere arriving. After the excitement of last night we didn't bother going out and just stayed in watching TV. It reminded me of the days I spent with Steve, forcing him to watch Disney films (It was my firm belief that everyone had to have watched plenty of them) and I didn't think Clint would want to do the same. But on the other hand I did get him to watch The Hunger Games.

I was in the middle of listening to him putting down Katniss when my phone went off and I realised it was Peter's text tone. Pulling it out I checked it immediately, unlike Tony's messages which were usually just random crap- he'd phone me if it was important.

I could use your healing skills about now.

I was alarmed by the text and took no time in replying, texting him my address and waiting impatiently for him to show up.

"We're going to have company," I informed Clint. "Our Spider friend is in need of my healing hand."

He raised an eyebrow to which I replied with a small grin before getting up to go and get the stuff I needed to clean the wound- which I now had a fairly good idea about what it was made by. Another thought crossed my mind and I turned back to face the archer.

"I'm not leaving you with him alone," he said sternly, not that it was going to change my mind on it.

"Haven't you heard about secret identities?" I asked him as I deposited my stuff on the coffee table. "Besides he's definitely a good guy and he definitely won't hurt me. You trust me on that don't you?"

He opened his mouth to speak and I held up a hand to interrupt him.

"If you're going to spew some crap about orders I will push you out the window," I said in my own stern voice. He stood up, folding his own arms as he looked down at me. "I mean it."

"Do you?" he said with a raised eyebrow although there was a hint of a smile on his face. "And just how do you plan on getting me to the window- I have more experience than you."

"I don't doubt you have more experience than me of throwing people out windows," I replied. "But I'm locking you in my bedroom."

I blushed as he gave me a suggestive smirk and smacked him none too gently on the arm. Without a word I pointed to the bedroom as there was a knock at the door. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before holding his hands up in defeat and going into the bedroom. I made my way over to the door and opened it to reveal the sodden, grimy Peter Parker that required my help.

"Went after the Lizard?" I asked, looking down at the deep gashes in his chest and noting that he'd walked through this building with his costume flashing to the world. He nodded wordlessly and I let him come past me, peering out into the hallway before closing the door behind me. "Take your top off and sit on the chair."

"I bet you say that to all your guests," said Peter jokingly, although his face was set in a grimace as he pulled the top off and sat down on the sofa. Walking over I immediately got my game face on and set about cleaning the gashes. "Arrow boy not here?"

"He's being kept out of the way," I replied, trying not to grimace at the smell of sewage that covered him. "I don't need to ask where you've been."

"You don't have a power to clean me do you?" he asked, sniffing his arm and pulling a face.

"No but they did invent this thing called the shower," I said.

Most of the talk was small talk, and I had the feeling there was somewhere he wanted to go because he kept looking anxiously over at the door. Either that or he expected the Lizard to burst through the door and finish him off. I made quick work of the cleaning and healed the gashes within minutes.

"Any advise doc?" he asked, pulling his ruined top back on.

"Have a shower and don't go fighting giant lizards," I said with a grin, and he chuckled slightly as well as he opened the door.

"Thanks doc," he said with a nod and then hesitated slightly. "You don't mind me dropping in do you?"

"It's no problem," I said, shrugging slightly and mentally trying to remember if anyone else had ever thanked me for my skills- except Steve, he's too polite to count.

"Well… see you."

I nodded curtly and shut the door behind me as he walked away. A tiny blossom of warmth had formed in my chest and I wasn't going to let that go.