The next few weeks passed in much the same way.

Alex slowly got better at shooting under Clint's tutelage, and had surprised the archer by taking to a rifle much quicker than a handgun. He even threw out a few quips about Alex being his backup on missions where he had to act as a sniper. One day on a whim Clint let Alex try out one of his bows. After the fourth bullseye in a row Clint's initial astonishment turned to suspicion.

"Stop cheating." he said, "You're using your power to guide them. There's no way you're doing that when you've never used a bow before. I can tell by how you handle it."

"Had you going for a minute there, though!" Alex laughed.

Clint was easy to get along with and Alex could see himself being friends with the guy outside of work. It was very much the opposite in Natasha's case.

Her teaching style was harsh and almost brutal, and he was getting the feeling she was even toning it down. Alex quickly understood why they didn't let her train the new recruits. She'd scare them all off. Natasha didn't banter with him like Clint did. She kept all her verbal interactions with him as short and to the point as possible, never saying a single word more than she had to.

Alex had also noticed that every time she entered the gym she was given a wide berth by everyone in it. Xavier had told him she wasn't well liked within SHIELD, and he was seeing firsthand evidence of it. No one talked to her, and he saw several people going out of their way to avoid even making eye contact with her. They didn't think she belonged there and they weren't trying to hide their opinion at all. Alex decided to address it. He'd been trying to engage Natasha in conversation since he'd first arrived, which was usually met with a blank stare that she maintained until he gave up on it. Occasionally she'd briefly humor him, though.

"Why does everyone act like that around you?" he asked her after a training session that would probably result in a few new bruises.

"They don't like me." she said flatly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, I picked up on that." Alex said dryly, "Why though?"

"Because a little better than three years ago I was a Russian assassin who would have killed any one of them without blinking if I was ordered to." Natasha bluntly stated, "And they all know it."

"So how did you end up joining SHIELD anyway?" he inquired.

"We're done for the day." she neatly deflected, "Hit the showers and ice that shoulder after."

Alex had just started to open his mouth to say something else when she fixed him with a glare and cut him off.

"Whatever you're about to say? Don't."

With that warning delivered she turned and walked to the locker room without looking back at him. Professor Xavier had made it sound like such a simple task. Just try and figure out if she was a sleeper agent and report back. But it had been almost a month so far and he had basically nothing to tell them that they didn't already know. He was starting to wonder if the Professor had given him the assignment as a prank, knowing how impossible it would turn out to be.

"Good talk." he called after her sarcastically, "See you tomorrow, Agent Romanoff. Looking forward to my next ass kicking."

Alex saw her shoulders tense ever so slightly when he spoke and felt a quick stab of irritation before she shook her head and disappeared through the door. Getting on Natasha's nerves more than he did just by existing was probably a bad idea, but she certainly wasn't going to open up to him anytime soon and he was just about out of good ideas.

He never saw Natasha on base outside of the allotted two hour training session in the morning. He had gotten the feeling of being watched a few times, but was never able to spot anyone. But, then again, if it was her watching him that wasn't surprising. It was safe to assume she was trying to determine Alex's intentions just as much as he was hers, and he had no illusions about who was better at that game.

Alex had found out what Clint meant by 'boring classroom stuff' the Friday after he arrived. It was meant to get him up to speed on who the major players were in the espionage business. It didn't surprise him that nearly every country in the world had a spy network. It did surprise him a little to learn that SHIELD kept tabs on all of them. There was a lot more going on in the shadowy parts of the world than he had initially guessed. His tutor in these lessons was an almost comically skinny man with thinning hair and glasses that kept slipping down his nose. He radiated nervousness every time Alex walked in the room, so he was probably one of the few people on the base who was aware that he was a mutant and had powers. Either that or he was just a naturally anxious guy.

That was why he was caught a little off guard when he felt Coulson's calm presence in the room instead of the bundle of nerves that was Agent Wolowitz.

When he walked in and closed the door Coulson waited a few moments before speaking.

"Secure the room." he called out to no one Alex could see, "Myers, this conversation is off the record."

"Understood, sir." he answered with a nod. He had learned when it was okay to joke around with Coulson and when he needed to take things seriously. This was definitely the latter case.

"Director Fury and myself are aware of your reasons for being here aside from becoming a SHIELD agent." Coulson began, "You're being fast-tracked through training by Barton and Romanoff for that reason. They know what's really important for you to know, and what you can pick up later. As I'm sure you have deduced, senior agents don't typically get assigned to train new recruits one-on-one."

"Yes, sir." Alex replied, "I did think that was a little odd."

"We're also aware that you've had more combat training than your file says you have." the agent continued, "Xavier's team is a well-kept secret, but some of us here know about it. And we know that you've trained with your powers with them."

This was news to Alex. He managed to conceal his surprise for the most part and waited for Coulson to get to the point he was working his way towards.

"It wasn't a coincidence that Barton and Romanoff were assigned to your training with as overqualified as they are for the job." Coulson said, "It's because you're being teamed up with them as soon as you're ready for field work. Barton already knows. In fact, he requested it. Romanoff hasn't been informed yet, and I'm sure you can imagine how annoyed she's going to be about it."

"That's putting it mildly, sir." Alex said, "She's going to be furious, especially since I'm assuming she's not going to be told until the last minute."

"Correct." Coulson said, "With Xavier asking you to look into her specifically, you need to be in proximity of her to accomplish anything. We can't keep them here for much longer while you're being trained. They're too valuable in the field to keep them benched."

"Why are you telling me this now, Coulson?" Alex asked seriously.

"Because we have a few missions on deck that require their specific skillsets." he explained, "We've put them off as long as we've been able to. But one of them has just become a much higher priority, so they're being sent out in a week. You're going with them."

"That seems a little premature."

"You're not wrong." Coulson agreed, "But we can't afford to wait any longer on this one. A person of interest that we've been after for a while just resurfaced for the first time in three years. The chatter indicates that he's been in Brussels for two weeks waiting for a contact to arrive, and then he'll be in the wind again. The contact he's waiting for is a SHIELD agent, so we have some control over how long he's there as long as he doesn't get spooked. It's a kill order, and who knows when we'll get another shot at him."

Alex digested this information for a few moments with Coulson gazing at him impassively.

"Give me a list of any equipment you need and I'll see to it that you get it before you leave."

"I already have most of what I need." Alex told him, "I use throwing spikes in combat. Professor Xavier had them commissioned for me, along with leg sheaths for them. I just need a vest with a place to put knives on the chest. I won't be needing a gun, unless Agent Barton was serious about me being a backup sniper."

"This mission should be fairly straightforward." Coulson added, "We're not expecting you to see any combat. But you need to be prepared for the possibility. You're being sent into the field much sooner than you probably should be, and we normally wouldn't even consider it. But Barton and Romanoff have both given encouraging reports on your progress and Scott Summers told us you can handle yourself with your powers, so we're making an exception for this one mission. Your task is to stay out of their way and do anything else they tell you. Otherwise, watch and learn from two of the best. When you return you'll be back to training as normal. The briefing will be at nine tonight in the northernmost building, and I expect to see you there. Dismissed."

"Just so you know, sir," Alex added before he left. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to defend Natasha to her own handler, but he did it anyway, "Professor Xavier doesn't think Romanoff actually is a sleeper agent, he just wants to be absolutely sure about it."

"Understood." Coulson replied, "Thank you for your candor. And just so you know, Director Fury shares Xavier's suspicion that something is going on inside SHIELD. He went outside SHIELD in order to look into it because he wasn't sure who he could trust to assign it to. The only reason I'm telling you that is because you're one of the people Xavier chose to send, so you should probably know about it. If anyone aside from Director Fury or myself mentions it, you can safely assume that you've been compromised and it's time to enact whatever extraction plan you have."

Alex got the mental picture of Logan tearing through hapless SHIELD agents and shuddered a little. He didn't want to be responsible for that if he could avoid it.

"I really hope I don't have to do that." he said, "I know who would be sent to get me if I can't get out on my own, and he isn't known for playing nice."

"It was pure luck Romanoff ran across you and thought to try and recruit you. She doesn't know it yet, but she's being commended for it if it pans out. You've got a few hours to kill, go get a bite to eat or something."

"Actually, sir, he replied, "I think I'm going to grab my spikes and go out to the woods. Haven't practiced with them in a while, so I should probably stretch those muscles a little."

"Whatever you think is best."

After practicing with his spikes for a couple hours, stopping only when his head started throbbing, Alex took a shower and headed to the building Coulson had directed him to. Other than Coulson himself, Alex was the first one there. He sat down to wait while idly playing with one of his spikes, flipping it up into the air and keeping it spinning slowly for several moments before letting it fall back into his hand. Coulson was watching this casually, but Alex could tell he was actually paying very close attention. Probably making mental notes to type into a file on him labeled 'observed capabilities' later.

The door opened after a few minutes and Clint and Natasha walked in together. They were wearing their tactical gear, and looked like they were ready to leave immediately if necessary.

"So what's the mission, Phil?" Clint asked, nodding his head in Alex's direction, "And why is Myers here?"

"Because he's going with you." Coulson answered him with a bland expression.

"Absolutely not." Natasha said almost before Coulson finished his sentence, "He's not ready."

"The mission is a straightforward kill order, and we have some control over the available window." Coulson told her, "It's a suitable op for Myers to get some valuable field experience with the two best agents I have."

"It's not going to be straightforward if Myers is with us." she argued, "We can't focus on what we're doing if we have to babysit him. He's a liability until he starts showing some competence."

Out of the corner of his eye Alex could see Clint wincing at her word choice. She'd just insulted him twice and probably hadn't even thought about how it came across. He took half a step away from his partner and leaned back slightly, saying with his body language that he didn't agree with her but wasn't going to speak up just yet.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Alex said to her in a clipped tone, "I'm getting a little sick of your shit. You avoid me constantly when you're supposed to be training me. You do the bare minimum you have to do and then vanish. Hell, you were the one who recruited me in the first place, and since then you've shown zero interest in making sure I succeed at the job you offered me. Which is strange, because I would have to think me failing at it would call your judgment into question. Yeah, you're way better at this job than I will probably ever be. You and Clint both. But I'm not just going to sit here while you call me both incompetent and a child in the same breath."

"Just so you know." Natasha responded coldly, "The last person who talked to me like that? It didn't turn out so well for them."

"I like my chances." Alex shot back flatly, "If I can prove to your satisfaction that I won't be a liability and don't need a babysitter, will you stop arguing about my inclusion on this mission?"

"If you think you can do that, yes."

"Fine." Alex ground out. He didn't get angry often, but her casual dismissiveness of him was starting to piss him off. He couldn't tell if anyone else in the room was angry or not right now, his own anger was drowning it out, "Meet me at the firing range in twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes later Natasha walked into the firing range with Clint and Coulson trailing behind. He had walked over here immediately and set up a target for himself made of five sheets of plywood lashed together with ratchet straps. It was set up seventy feet away from one of the stations. His effective range was just a little over eighty feet, so he should be able to do what he had planned.

"Okay." Alex said when they neared the station he'd selected, "We all know I'm terrible with guns. I'm going to show you why I don't need one."

While he said that Alex pulled out a spike and showed it to them, wiggling it a little for emphasis. It was roughly seven inches long with a triangular profile to the point. He knew from practicing with them that he could put one through a car door. He'd actually put one completely through Logan's abdomen in training, and it was only Jean's quick intervention that had prevented him from being gutted in return.

"This is my preferred weapon." Alex told them, "Propelling things like this is the least costly thing for me to do in terms of energy. I can do it hundreds of times before I start to get worn out and need to rest."

Turning toward the target he whipped his arm forward and telekinetically launched the spike from his hand, guiding it and pushing it at the same time. It hit the dead center of the target with an echoing 'thwock' sound and buried itself four inches deep. He did the same with fourteen of his remaining fifteen spikes, alternating arms and drawing them from the sheaths strapped to his legs. Since he was able to guide them to exactly where he wanted them with his mind, he grouped all fifteen of the spikes together in the center of the board touching each other.

Alex paused with the last one and turned to look at his audience with his eyebrows raised, before turning and propelling it at the board as hard as he could. It was harder to aim with as fast as he got it moving this time, but he only needed to hit the board to make his point. It didn't matter exactly where. Since he already knew he could do it, he was the only one who wasn't surprised when the spike punched a hole straight through the target and clattered to the ground another thirty or so feet beyond it.

"Okay, so you're not useless in a firefight." Natasha admitted.

"Still not enough?" Alex asked her.

The silent headshake was answer enough.

"Okay." he said with a nod, "Hand to hand then. You game?"

"Of course."

"Let's go then."

When they got to the gym Alex moved to a spot on the mat where he had an unobstructed path to the wall fifty feet away and waited. Natasha took up a position in front of him and tilted her head.

"Rules?"

"Anything goes." he answered, "Don't hold back."

Her eyebrows went up a fraction of an inch and she inclined her head in an 'okay then' gesture before taking a fighting stance.

When she started to move Alex picked her up telekinetically and sent her rocketing towards the wall behind her. He slowed her down so she hit it with a gentle thump instead of smashing into it painfully, and then held her there. He was only trying to make a point after all, not hurt her. He walked in her direction quickly with an annoyed expression he couldn't help. He was intending on making his point and then letting her down, but the words died on his lips when he saw the look on her face.

Natasha was staring at him wide-eyed in undisguised fear. Her breath was coming in short, quick gasps and her normally fleeting, muted emotions were hitting him in a rush of overwhelming terror. She was frozen and panicking, and he suddenly felt like a complete asshole for doing that to her. He hadn't meant to.

"Let me go." Natasha pleaded in a strained voice, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please let me go! Please!"

She trailed off then, not taking her eyes off him and still nearly hyperventilating. Clint and Coulson were too far away to hear what she whispered next, and it was quiet enough Alex wasn't even sure that he'd actually heard it, "Please don't hurt me."

Alex gently lowered her to the ground and released his hold on her. The instant he did her knees gave out and she crumpled against the wall.

"Shit. I am so sorry, Natasha." he said, taking a slow step towards her, "I didn't think it would scare you like that. I really didn't mean to, I swear."

"Stay away from me!" she screamed in an unsteady voice and curled in on herself. She was trying to get as far away from Alex as she could, but the wall was stopping her, "Please, just get away from me!"

Clint had run up by then and slid into a kneeling position next to her, shooting an angry glare back at Alex as he did. He started talking softly to Natasha and Alex walked over to stand by Coulson.

"I didn't mean to, but I just scared the absolute shit out of her." he told the man, a little desperate to explain himself, "Honest, if I knew she was going to react like that I wouldn't have done it. I thought it would piss her off, not do that. I damn near pushed her into a panic attack and I feel like an asshole about it."

"I know, Alex." Coulson said, bowing his head and pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers, "You had no idea you were doing it, but you just used her worst fear against her."

Alex gave him a questioning look at that.

"Being helpless." Coulson explained, "You just proved to her that you can do anything you want to her and there's nothing she can do about it. If you knew anything about her past you'd understand why she'd have that reaction. We don't know a lot because she won't talk about it, but we do know that she didn't have any real freedom to speak of before. Taking away her free will like that very likely brought back some very unpleasant memories for her."

Hearing that, Alex felt even worse. Not only had he scared the hell out of her, but he'd apparently done it in a way that brought back a traumatic experience he knew nothing about.

"I just destroyed any chance I had of her ever trusting me, didn't I?"

"Possibly." Coulson admitted, "It remains to be seen, but you certainly just made it a lot more difficult."

Clint had left Natasha and was walking towards them with a look on his face that said he was pissed but keeping it in check.

"Good job, Myers. Nat's terrified of you now." he said with biting sarcasm, "That was completely uncalled for."

"I had no idea it would scare her that bad." Alex defended himself, "Really. I feel like shit, man. I wouldn't use someone's worst fear against them just to make a fucking point. That's fucked up. I had no idea, I thought it was just going to piss her off."

Over Clint's shoulder he could see Natasha back on her feet and heading towards the door. She was moving at a rapid pace with her arms over her stomach protectively and her head down.

"You made her cry, Alex." Clint said softly, but dangerously "I've never seen her cry before. Ever. If I thought for even a second that you did that on purpose I'd put an arrow through your eye socket. But I know you didn't. She feels humiliated that you made her break down like that. She'll get over it, but it's going to take her a while. No one else needs to know what just happened. It doesn't leave this room."

The way Clint said that he made it clear that it wasn't a request.

"Understood." Alex said, "I really didn't mean to do that to her, and I have no idea how I can make up for it."

"Don't beat yourself up too much, Alex." Clint said. He'd cooled off a little, but Alex could feel that he was still mad at him, "Yeah, it sucks. But shit happens. The fact that you genuinely feel bad about it is a point in your favor."

"Tell her I said I'm sorry." Alex requested, "And that I didn't mean to scare her like that. I feel really bad."

"I will." the archer promised, "I don't think she's going to care right now, but I will."

With that, Clint walked off to follow Natasha to wherever she was going.

"I think she'd have been okay if you'd just tossed her around a little." Coulson pointed out, "That isn't that different from getting thrown in a sparring match. It was pinning her against the wall and holding her there that did it."

"I owe her an apology." Alex replied, "But I don't think she's going to want to hear it for a while."

"No, she isn't." Coulson agreed, "You're not going to be reprimanded because you didn't know she'd react like that. But if I thought you did it intentionally, there would be consequences. Severe ones. You just effectively benched one of my best agents for at least a few days until she pulls herself together."

Saying that, Coulson walked out of the room leaving Alex alone in the space.

"Fuck!"

The next morning Alex arrived at the gym at the usual time, and was not at all surprised to find that Natasha was nowhere to be seen. Since he didn't have anything else scheduled, he opted to spend some time working with the heavy bag in the corner. After about fifteen minutes Coulson walked in the room and headed over to where he was.

"This shouldn't come as a surprise." he began, "But your hand-to-hand combat training is being suspended until another qualified agent returns from assignment. Romanoff flatly refuses to train you any further, going so far as to say she'll quit if we try to make her."

"I was expecting that." Alex said with a sigh, "Is she okay otherwise?"

"Physically she's fine." Coulson informed him, "Mentally? She needs some time. She wants to go back to work already, but she's not being allowed to until Agent Barton says she's actually good to go. She tried to go back out five days after getting shot, so we know her own well-being isn't much of a priority of hers."

"Clint wasn't at the range this morning either." Alex mentioned between punches.

"That's to be expected." Coulson said, "He and Romanoff are very close. He's staying with her while she works through this. You probably won't see either of them for at least a couple more days. I wouldn't go looking for them either."

"Wasn't going to." Alex said, punctuating it with a grunt as he hit the bag again, "So, are they a thing? Clint's pretty protective of her. More than just looking out for a partner."

"Not that I'm aware of." Coulson told him, "But they are both very good at keeping secrets, so if something were to be going on between them I wouldn't necessarily know about it."

Interesting. Coulson wasn't lying, but the way he worded that implied that there was something he wasn't saying. It wasn't any of Alex's business though, so he wasn't going to worry about it. He had only asked out of idle curiosity.

"The mission is still a go." the agent told him when he could be heard over the sound of Alex hitting the bag, "Whether you are still included has yet to be determined."

"Okay." he said, throwing a flurry of blows as he did, "Same timetable?"

"Yes." Coulson confirmed, "Romanoff should be mission-ready by then. Whether she can do it with you present is another question entirely."

"Understood." Alex said, "Still planning on teaming me up with them? Because I don't know how well that's going to work. Natasha didn't like me to begin with, I can only imagine how she feels about me now."

"Between you and me?" Coulson said with an uncharacteristic sigh, "Barton let it slip that she's trying to figure out how to kill you. Just in case. Might not be a bad idea to keep your head on a swivel for a while."

"Duly noted." Alex responded. If the Black Widow was plotting his demise, he was going to take that very seriously.

Coulson watched him taking out his frustration on the heavy bag for another minute or so before starting to walk away.

"Coulson." he called, "Do you think she'll come around?"

"Barton is probably the only person who can answer that question." he replied, "She won't talk to anyone else, so I have no idea."

And then Coulson left, leaving Alex alone once more.

Three days later Alex was in the cafeteria finishing his lunch when Clint walked in, followed by Natasha just behind him. He caught a quick stab of fear from her when she spotted him before she took a deep breath and made a visible effort to relax. Clint shot her a questioning look and she thought for a few seconds before giving him a slight nod. Alex scanned the room around him and was relieved to note that no one seemed to clock her reaction to seeing him in the room. Natasha wore her reputation like armor, and the last thing he wanted was for anyone to find out there was a chink in that armor.

He finished his meal and returned the tray before heading out into the hallway to wait. He waited for almost a half hour before the door opened and Clint and Natasha stepped out talking about something in low tones. The redhead registered he was there and stopped in her tracks for a split second before continuing.

"Hey." Alex said softly, "Can we talk?"

"Do I have a choice?" Natasha shot back bitterly. She fixed him with a sullen expression.

"Of course you do." he assured her, "I'm not going to make you do anything. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. But I owe you an apology and I hope you'll at least listen to me."

"I think I can make the time." she stated. It was in her normal, confident tone. Only Alex and Clint could tell it was forced, for entirely different reasons.

Alex inclined his head to the side and started walking towards an empty office he'd spotted earlier. He walked ahead of the two of them and allowed Natasha to decide for herself whether she wanted to follow. He heard two sets of footsteps behind him, which didn't surprise him at all. With the way she'd reacted to him pinning her against the wall the other day there's no way she'd be okay with being alone in a room with him, and Alex was pretty sure Clint had no intention of allowing it. He didn't need his empathy to know Natasha was jumpy, and Clint was wary of him now too.

When he got to the office he walked to the back wall and leaned against it in the assumption that Natasha would be more comfortable if he was as far from her as it was possible to be. The two of them slid into the room and closed the door behind themselves.

"You going to try and make me cry again, Myers?" Natasha spat in the same bitter tone she'd used in the hall. Clint shot her a startled glance, surprised that she'd actually admitted to it. Alex was a little surprised by that himself. He caught a strong emotion coming from her, one of the rare times he actually got anything he could identify. This one was familiar to him, he felt it from a lot of people all the time. But it wasn't one he associated with the woman standing across from him. Self-loathing.

"I didn't mean to do any of that." he told the redhead, "I'm really sorry. I had no idea you were going to react like that. If I had known I would have done something else. I wouldn't do that to you just to make a point."

Natasha stared at him hard for a few moments, trying to determine if he was being honest with her.

"I believe you." she said at last, "But it still happened. How am I supposed to trust you after that?"

"I don't know." Alex replied truthfully, "But I promise I'll never take away your free will like that ever again. You pissed me off a little insulting me the way you did and I went too far. I shouldn't have done that. I should have thought of a different way to make my point. I fucked up and I'm sorry."

"I couldn't move at all, Myers!" Natasha nearly shouted at him, "I was pinned against a wall ten feet off the ground by something I couldn't see or fight, and I couldn't fucking move!"

"Natasha...I didn't do that to you."

"What do you mean?" she snapped back, "Of course you did!"

"No, I didn't." Alex explained, "I was only holding you by your midsection. I wasn't restraining you in any other way. If you couldn't move it wasn't me that did that to you."

"Oh." she said in a quiet voice and closed her eyes for a second, "I was hoping you did. Because if you didn't that means I froze. And I never freeze."

"Can I ask you a question?" Alex asked her.

"You just did, but sure."

"Why do I bother you so much?" Alex inquired, "I have a good idea why, but I want to hear it from you. I'd like us to be able to work together, but I don't know if that's possible if you're freaked out just by the fact that I exist."

She just looked at him with the same sullen expression she'd worn since she encountered him in the hall. He was starting to think she wasn't going to answer him when she suddenly started talking.

"Because I can't lie to you." she began, "I can't hide what I'm feeling from you. And the other day you proved that all my training and skill isn't worth shit where you're concerned. You can do whatever you want to me and I can't stop you! You could snap my neck right now on a whim and I'd be dead before I even knew what happened. I've used the things I learned how to do to keep myself safe for my entire life, and you make all of them completely useless. If you want me to admit it, fine, I will. You scare the shit out of me because there's nothing I can do to protect myself from you."

"Coulson told me you've been trying to figure out how to kill me." Alex said, "Would you feel better if I told you how?"

"Maybe?" she said in a somewhat uncertain tone.

"From long range." he explained, "High powered rifle will work best. If you're far enough away I won't be able to pick up on your emotions so I won't know it's coming. If you have to move in closer, stay at least a hundred feet away. My effective range is a little over eighty, so I could only use my spikes to fight back. And you're used to firefights so that shouldn't be a big deal for you."

"Why are you telling me that?"

"Because I'm trusting that you won't do it." Alex told her, "Just like I'm asking you to trust that I won't do any of the things I can do to you. I could walk around being paranoid about catching a bullet in the head anytime I can't see where you are, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not your enemy, Natasha. I know trust is hard for you, and I'm not asking you to just give it to me. I'm just asking that you give me the chance to earn it."

"Promise me you'll never use your powers on me again."

"I won't do that." Alex said, and then held up a finger to quiet her when she started to retort, "I won't promise not to use my powers on you. I'm not going to just stand there and watch you fall to your death if I can prevent it, for example. But I do promise that I'll never use them against you. Is that good enough?"

Natasha glanced at her partner for his opinion. Clint, for his part, just shrugged. He was leaving it up to her and not trying to influence her one way or the other.

"Okay." she said after a few moments of scrutinizing Alex to determine if he meant what he was saying, "Also, I need your word that you won't say anything about what happened to anyone that wasn't there. I have a reputation to maintain. If anyone finds out the Black Widow had a panic attack it would be damaging to that reputation, to say the least."

"I wasn't going to say anything anyway." Alex replied, "Hawkeye made it very clear how bad an idea that would be."

"I'm starting to see how you got the name Tantrum." Natasha said suddenly in a more normal tone, "You got mad and started throwing things. In this case, me."

"For the record," he told her, "You're not as much of an open book to me as you think you are. Yeah, I can tell when you knowingly tell a lie. But you can actually blank your emotions out almost completely when you concentrate on it. I only know two other people who can do that, and they're the two most powerful telepaths in the world. The fact that you can do it through sheer willpower alone is pretty impressive in my book."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" she asked.

"If someone thought you had an advantage over them you didn't actually have," he answered, "Would you tell them about it upfront?"

"That's fair." Natasha admitted, "I would have done the same, so I guess I can't be too mad about that."

"So are we good?" Alex asked her with a serious look, "Or at least as good as we can be, considering?"

"Yeah, I think we're good."

"Clint?" Alex addressed the archer, "You satisfied I'm not a threat to your partner?"

Clint hadn't taken his eyes off Alex the entire time they'd been in the office. Alex knew he was watching him carefully for any sign of deception and his hand was staying in the vicinity of his sidearm, just in case.

"For now." he replied flatly, "Just so you know, long range kill shots are something of a specialty of mine."

"I'm aware of that." Alex said with a nod, "Why do you think I mentioned it?"

"You good with him going with us?" Clint asked his partner, "It's your call. You say no, he stays here."

"I think I'm okay with it." she responded cautiously, "I'll let you know if I change my mind."

With that said, she abruptly left the room. Clint lingered for a few moments longer.

"Remember what I said." he told Alex quietly, "If you become a threat to her, you won't be one for long. I'll make sure of it."

He didn't wait for a response before leaving the room himself.

Alex was starting to get the distinct feeling that while he had told Natasha how to kill him, Clint had already figured it out and was the one he really needed to worry about here. But at least he wasn't planning to kill him immediately.

At least he hoped not.

A/N:

A couple things.

1) A bit of a controversial decision there, but I stand by it. I'll explain my logic because in my opinion Natasha's behavior in the first Avengers movie supports it. The Hulk visibly scared the hell out of her. You could see it in India when Bruce lunged at her, and you could see it on the helicarrier. When Thor tackled him away from her she was a second away from being a red smear on the bulkhead and she knew she couldn't do a damn thing about it. When they cut back to her a few minutes later she was still in the same spot, shaking. She didn't snap out of it until she heard Clint's name on the radio. Showing fear isn't out of character for her, if it's something she would legitimately be afraid of.

With her history it stands to reason that having her free will taken away again would be the thing she is most afraid of. And that was exactly what Alex did to her, in a way she couldn't fight back against.

2) I'm not sure if I made it clear enough, but she did NOT say "Please don't hurt me" out loud. She was thinking it and Alex picked up her thought without realizing that's what he was doing. That's going to start happening more as his powers grow, but this is the only time I'm going to explicitly say so. There should be context clues as to when it's happening.

Next up: A perfectly run of the mill mission in which everything goes exactly according to plan.