Welcome to Las Vegas Part 1!

I feel I haven't done this in a while so here's a special thank you to: ThePenguinApocalyspe, KnowInsight, rohanyoshi (loved your comment), and Death is inevitable!

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Please keep reviewing, I really love reading every one!

Still Two Years before the Fall of SHIELD

Natasha's POV

Leaving behind the peace and comfort of the farm took an unnoticeable toll. Except to Clint, of course. My partner, without a doubt, was the only one who understand the pain of having to go back to our jobs. The entire trip back were usually spent finding ways to cheer each other up.

Such frivolous conversations were absent from our journey to HQ. We passed the time looking over our briefing file for the mission. The mission itself was simple, uploading information on an influential Black Market entrepreneur off his personal computer. The target, Luis Deteiro, ran several strip joint and adult nightclubs in Vegas. He was a playboy, known for extravagantly blowing his riches to impress the latest one night stand.

"Piece of cake, we'll be done in a day or two," Clint was helping me decide on which provocative dress Deteiro might find most pleasing.

He sat on my bed nitpicking over a handful of arrows, I held up two cocktail length dresses. "You seem awfully cocky about this," I observed.

"The red one is tighter and shows more cleavage," He gestured to the slightly longer dress hanging off my left wrist, "we've done a million of these missions, a have a right to be confident."

"Point taken, just don't let that arrogance blind you from keeping sharp surveillance while I'm selling myself to the target," I tugged his arm to pull him into a standing position, "Help me pick out an inappropriately revealing evening gown."

I heard him mumble something about not getting paid enough for this, and I chuckled as I flicked his temple.

An hour later we were gearing to board separate private jets. To eliminate suspicion Clint and I would appear to be two strangers until I completed the mission.

"See you in the shadows, Barton." We stood facing each on the tarmac, leaning in closely to hear each other over the engines.

"See you there. And about before, when it comes to protecting you, nothing would blind me."

He looked at me seriously and I smiled, "Stop trying to be dramatic, Barton. You sound like young adult novel," I pressed an earpiece into his palm, "Don't be an idiot and keep this in your ear."

We went our separate ways, somewhat saddened that we were now alone.

Clint's POV

The nightclub was loud and unnecessarily dark, but that worked to my advantage. I was tucked away in a tight corner a safe distant from the swarms of sweat glistened partygoers. My first priority was to survey my partner, my second was to get out of this place.

"Hope you're not feeling up any girls in there, Hawk," I could practically hear Nat smiling at her joke through the earpiece.

"I hope you plan on getting in here soon, Widow," A moment later she came into view. Opposite of my garb, she was sporting the eye-catching red dress I had approved.

"It takes time to look this hot," She gave one of the many masculine eyes screwed to her a devilish grin.

"Let's hope it paid off," I whispered as she approached Deteiro. Every Thursday he stopped by The Champagne Glass, one of his several businesses he owned, for maintenance and employment assessment. Deteiro never stayed for long according to the SHIELD, hopefully his lack to stay the club would inspire him to take Tasha to his home as soon as possible.

As I've seen her do a million times, Tasha batted her eyelashes, giggled at every joke, and was the textbook version of the ideal one night stand. It took twenty four minutes for Deteiro to suggest they move to his house for a quieter conversation.

I followed them out the club to where Nat and the target were waiting for the valet service. "Nearly a half hour for you to seduce the mark, I think you might be losing your edge, Romanoff."

She fixated herself into the passenger seat, just before the door close she made a subtle gesture in my direction while keeping her eyes on Deteiro.

"Was that obscene gesture meant for me?" I joked, fully aware she'd punch me for it later.

I proceeded down the street and picked the fastest car I saw. I hotwired it in seconds and used shortcuts beat Deteiro there.

"Ok Tasha, I'm here. As soon as Deteiro disarms the system to unlock the front door I'll be able to sneak through the window straight into the office," obviously there was no direct response from my partner just an array of flirts meant for the mark.

A few minutes later she said the code word, alerting me I had full clearance. "Alright, I'm in his office heading to the computer. Keep him occupied in the- Ouch!" I stumbled before I regained my balance and turned to see what tripped me. A child's toy fire truck appeared to be the item in question. I took a small gasp as the toy began blaring sirens and music. "Romanoff, I may have messed up."

I heard Deteiro fall silent for a moment before resuming, "Excuse me Miss Ella. I hate to interrupt our private time together but allow me to investigate one thing," His footsteps indicated he was leaving and Tasha wasn't following.

"Barton, talk to me. What is that sound?" She sounded hardly worried and more pissed at me.

"Nat, if he's heading this way I'm not going to get to these files in time," I fumbled over the keyboard, "You're going to have to put him down for a nap."

"Copy that, idiot."

"I deserved that one," I smiled to myself. She said nothing for a half minute.

"Yes you did. Target is asleep I'm heading to you now."

The office was tucked in the back of the large house, it took her nearly a minute to calmly stroll inside.

"I fixed the problem," I gestured to the wall behind me where the shattered remains of the toy lie. She rolled her eyes and joined me at the computer.

"Find anything interesting?" She shoved me roughly aside and took a seat in front of the screen. I opened my mouth to respond when we heard the sound of the front door being kicked in.

"I'll hold them off, the upload should be ready in about a minute. Get the flash drive then come help me," I jogged from the room to meet my intruders, they were uniformed and a bit on the obese side. Their backs were turned to me as they used their flashlights to inspect from grand living room. I used a swift leg swipe to bring their feet from under them. Before they had a chance to see me I pinned their forearms behind their necks until they passed out.

Tasha came into the room on alert, "Who are they?"

"The local police, I guess our guy called in a possible home intruder before you took him out," I stood from my crouch position and turned to face her.

"But bad guys don't call the police, because they're bad guys," she squinted to the men on the floor.

"Unless they're not criminals," I pointed out, "SHIELD may have messed up."

"But SHIELD doesn't mess up," she said more to herself than me, "Although it would explain why the only thing on this flash drive are divorce papers, business documents, and school projects."

"Get changed, we need to get to the hotel," Tasha nodded and walked away.

We made it to the room a short fifteen minutes later. We did a basic check for wires or anything suspicious, we came up with nothing. I went to the bathroom to wash up, when I came out Nat was sitting on the edge of bed looking lost.

"You alright?" She looked up at me, as if she was debating whether to share her thoughts or not.

She sighed and stood, "I know who I am but I don't know my fears very well. This is my first mission since New York, I can't figure out why I'm still so afraid, Barton."

Her eyes suddenly became filled with tears. "Hey, hey. It's alright, it's okay," I had pulled her into my arms, she hid her face and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"This PTSD isn't easy, Clint," I heard her mumble from my shoulder. I just nodded and waited for her to pull herself together when she'd push away from me.

It took nearly ten minutes but she did shyly step away from me and took a seat on the couch looking deflated.

I sat next her, "Romanoff and Barton never have an extraction plan. Strike Team: Delta- Fury's dream team. Now Tasha we both know that you are slightly smarter than me, so I need you to figure out why we're here."

She pinched the bridge of nose in search of an answer, "You and I we get results on missions deemed impossible. The question we should be asking is why are we on this simple task?"

"If there's more to this mission, why wouldn't Fury tell us?" I retorted, Fury knew that Nat and I were comfortable with most missions.

Nat looked up sharply as if a light bulb was coming on, "Unless Fury doesn't know. He has no reason not trust us, in fact he has to. Why would Fury send his best agents to do this?"

"Because he needed them, he needed us to figure that out for him. But what could Fury need from us?"

She stood up and began pacing, "The one thing the director would do anything for, information. But what information could he want?"

My eyes widened, "He doesn't know. Nat, he sent us here to find out a secret that he doesn't know about. The mission was a cover, SHIELD might mess up but Fury doesn't."

"Okay so were in Las Vegas, sent on a mock mission and told nothing. From now on, everything is a clue and everyone is a potential suspect. Fury sent us in for something dangerous and we need to come up with something."

I smiled at her, "Welcome to Vegas, Tasha."

Las Vegas Part Two will be up soon.

Sorry for the delay, this chapter was written, scrapped, rewritten, and re-brainstormed several times. Please, please let me know what you think. I could really use feedback. Thank you.