Love Finds A Spider

Chapter 7 - Clearing Things Up

Chapter 7       ... finally on the same page ...

The next morning found Clint at his desk in his private office reviewing training schedules as well as plans for future training on the weapons ranges for the SHIELD support teams. "Office Parameters, Alpha Three..." Clint said. He then looked at the floor to ceiling window system and said "Increase glare-shield fifteen percent..." The window tinting increased accordingly, noticeably decreasing the sun's glare into his office. "Much better" he mumbled to himself.

There were two sharp knocks at his door and Clint easily said "C'mon in Nat!"

"How did you know it was me?" Natasha asked as she walked in and closed the door behind her.

"Cause I heard no one walking down the hallway or come to my door, so when there was a sudden knock, I knew it had to be you" Clint replied without taking his eyes off his computer screen. Looking up and at the surprise on her face, Clint broke into a smile and said "Plus, you're the only person I asked to come by and see me today ... so that really narrowed it down too!"

Natasha smiled and replied with a curt "Ah!"

She then asked "So ... what do you need to speak with me about?"

Clint got up from his desk, and motioned her to take his seat. "I have some interesting body-cam footage for you to watch

Natasha eased herself into Clint's chair and looked up at him and started to ask "So what is this..."

"Shhh!" Clint shushed her and then added "Just watch ... and listen."

Clint clicked on the video he had edited and Natasha began to watch excerpts of her and Peter training together. The video showed their interactions, but would pause and zoom onto Natasha's face, which usually had a scowl on it. And then there was some slow-motion where Natasha was glaring intensely at Peter, and it could clearly be seen where Peter had picked up on it but was not saying anything, but a few times you could see he was clearly upset with what had transpired.

Clint saw Natasha's face go from being placid to looking surprised as if she was watching someone else. And then the video went to Clint's and Peter's walk the previous day. "So ... why are you pissed at Nat?" Clint asked Peter. And then Peter's response left Natasha visibly shaken.

When the video ended, Natasha sat back with her hands on her face, clearly taken aback.

"God ..." she began "... when did I turn into such an awful bitch?" she asked Clint.

"Turn?" Clint replied with a laugh.

Natasha looked sharply up at Clint clearly upset.

"Okay..." Clint said "... that was too harsh on my part. I'm sorry Nat ... I really didn't mean that."

"Clint ... sometimes you can be a real jerk ..." Natasha began. "But it looks like I deserve that" she said looking back at the flat-screen." She then let out a huge sigh and added "he must totally hate me!"

She then looked back at Clint and said "I've taken our best new candidate and have totally alienated him!" She shook her head "I am so ... sorry Clint!" "I don't blame you for what you said. I deserve that and worse." She then let out a depressed sigh. And then she looked up at Clint and said "Maybe Steve can step in and take my place? Maybe he can salvage something out of this?"

"No Nat, you don't get off that easily." "You're going to remain his primary trainer" Clint replied.

"WHAT?" she asked. "You can't ... I've screwed this up so ... the kid hates ME!" Natasha finally got out.