Chapter Four

Natasha was nervous, and she had found three main suitable reasons to give for that so far. Firstly, they had been thrown into a mission with nothing more than a thirty second phone call as warning and no back up, which in itself wasn't too unusual. The second reason was sitting next to her, folding and unfolding his hands repeatedly. Banner was scared, that much was obvious, and he had every right to be. Ross was coming for him, and they all knew how well that had worked out last time. Third reason: Juliette was still inside the building behind them lying through her teeth to try and get them some sort of protection. It had been Natasha's idea to go and give a fake name to the British Consulate, which had arms and soldiers on hand more readily than the hand gun strapped under Natasha's arm and its big brother currently in the backpack at her feet. They had run the hoax before, using Phil's Spanish to convince the authorities to hide them, and it would give them more warning than going to ground in Orlando. For Bruce, it was less like the running he was used to, so that was their best bet to calm him down.

Sitting next to a twitch Bruce Banner was not Natasha's idea of fun.

"Fury won't hand you over," Natasha said quietly after Bruce's third attempt to open his mouth and ask her something. "We kept him out of New York after Hulk appeared as an Avenger, and off your trail in India." She was trying to be reassuring, but all she got from him was an abrupt nod.

"Thank you," Bruce murmured finally. He had gone pale, moving his hands around, almost wringing them as they tried to look casual. The small park opposite the glass building that housed the tiny consulate was practically empty, Natasha had hoped for a crowd for them to hide in. At least they wouldn't have to worry about Bruce's claustrophobia, even if they were seen.

"Got it?" she asked Juliette as the smaller agent approached.

"Did you know that you saved me a lot of trouble when you applied for Indian citizenship?" Juliette was smiling, holding out some papers. "Here, if Ross is going to get you cleanly he'll have to go through London, and possibly New Delhi too." Bruce gave her a weak, still panicked smile. "Unfortunately, they don't have a safe house, although they are now missing a few security passes. I'll go back later and mess Interpol up a bit. That'll throw them off." Natasha turned the passes over before handing them back, wiping them off first.

"What now?" asked Bruce, pocketing the passport. Why he had thought to bring it with him, Natasha could only guess. Of all the things she expected Bruce to carry at all times, an Indian ID card wasn't one of them.

"Now we hide, or more exactly, you hide and we plant some false leads for Ross," Natasha answered, standing up. "Starting with Interpol." Bruce was staring at her in surprise, looking completely lost. "You don't have to go running through the jungle anymore, you can sit in a motel room until we get the call and all the while we're sending Ross on a wild goose chase across the country."

"What's bugging me is why we can't go in," Juliette murmured. She had her back to them, looking at the CCTV cameras on the buildings around them to work out the blind spots so that they could walk off without being too noticeable. "Ross must be trying to pull rank on Fury, when he shouldn't be aware he exists. There's something else going on up on high."

"There always is. Are you going to hack Interpol before or after we get a room?"

"I'll come back later; I'll need the footage anyway. Come on, doc, this is how spies hide." Bruce managed a weak laugh as he followed them through the blind spots.

"It's a lot less muddy than I remember," he said quietly. "It probably works better as well." There was a note of panic in his voice, as if he was praying that their version of hiding worked.

"You slipped off the radar once or twice, you got better as the years went by," Natasha told him, trying to give him a bit of confidence. "We had to spend three days in Mumbai before we tracked you down to Calcutta. This time we aren't trying to hide form everyone, we need SHIELD to know that we're safe. It's just Ross we want to keep in the dark."

"Here." Juliette had stopped after walking for half an hour away from the consulate. She nodded towards a rundown motel with a 'vacancies' sign in the window. "You two go check in, I'll meet you in the room." She vanished down the street to circle around and get the video footage she could alter to fool Interpol into thinking they were in a different hotel.

Natasha hesitated before taking Bruce's arm and walking into the motel. His hand was cold under hers, but he was with it enough not to pull away.

"How many nights?" the bored looking pimpled boy at the desk asked them, glancing away from Angry Birds for half a second.

"One," Natasha answered. The rule was to keep moving, to keep the enemy one step behind. She handed over their passports, Bruce's real one and her fake from Juliette's rucksack. They should have brought a hacker instead of an assassin, Natasha thought as they were given a key.

"No smoking, no fires, leave by eleven." They made their way down the grey walled corridor, Natasha noting the stationary camera at the front desk. Juliette was sitting on the double bed, waiting for them. As soon as the door was shut both Bruce and Natasha moved away from each other politely.

"Text book. Give the consulate staff another few hours to clear the office and I'll head on back." Juliette leaned over to poke the kettle half-heartedly.

"Why do you have to go back?" Bruce asked, doing a remarkably professional sweep of the small room, checking the windows and fire escape plan.

"Because I didn't bring my laptop and they have internet." Juliette shrugged. "I could do it at a library, but they have little coasters with Union Jacks on in their office. It's always a bit more fun when you get to hack your own country." Natasha rolled her eyes before doing a sweep herself. She chose to ignore the wet patch on the wall by the wardrobe.

"Bring back food when you go," she ordered. "And let Bruce see the bite again, now that we've got more time we can make sure you won't get rabies."

Juliette left them again once the sun had gone down. Instead of relaxing, Bruce took up a spot on the only chair, facing the door as if he was waiting for someone to burst in.

"Bruce," Natasha called softly, even though she was in the same position near the window. "We'll keep you safe, I promise. Ross doesn't have any power over SHIELD."

"How many times have you been hunted?" Bruce asked her, his eyes never leaving the door.

"More than I care to remember."

"But you always had SHIELD to fall back to."

"No. Red Room folded and I was on my own, with people more dangerous than Ross after me." Each ounce of information about her past had to be wrenched out of her, each detail a painful splinter. Bruce needed to hear it though, if he was going to calm down enough for her to stop worrying about the other guy showing up.

"Once or twice they caught me." That kept him quiet for a long while, so Natasha ignored the window and crossed over to him. "We won't let him get to you, Bruce." He just looked at her, as if he couldn't bring himself to believe her.

"Thank you," he said finally. Fury might not be the most trustworthy man in the world, and he probably had a private agenda concerning Bruce, but it was more than likely going to be better than what Ross wanted him for. Natasha saw his frame loosen ever so slightly. It was enough, he had a hand on his other half now and it would stay that way unless something went wrong. At which point they would need Hulk anyway.