Worth (Sequel to Games of Deception)

Chapter 6 - Safehouse

-Clint-

"Sorry, what?"

"I want her off the grid, Barton. And you're going to have to get her there."

I stood on the opposite side of Fury's desk, probably staring back at him like a complete idiot. Nat and Evangeline had gotten back from their mission not long before, and by now everyone was made aware of the Hydra attack they'd faced at the house, as well as the network of Hydra supporters who still seemed to be lurking around the neighborhood Jacqueline had grown up in. They were slowly making themselves more known throughout various parts of the world, and SHIELD quickly realized there were still many more that we hadn't accounted for in the past. News that no one was exactly pleased with.

And now, good news for me, I was back on field work again. But the assignment was one I definitely wouldn't have predicted. I was still kind of thinking it was a joke, although I know this was one of the more serious things I'd been asked to do in some time.

"I want her nowhere near any SHIELD bases, and especially not here at HQ. Do you think you're capable of that, Barton? Or should I leave it to Rogers?"

I blinked back at Fury yet another time. "Rogers is here?"

"Will be soon." Fury replied. "He knows how Hydra operates. At least, more than a lot of us do." He leaned forward in his chair, looking up at me with a bit darker stare. "But that wasn't the answer to my question."

"I can do it. Tonight?"

Fury gave a single nod. "Leave as soon as possible. I want her there before tomorrow morning. And no one else is to know about your location."

"I'll take care of it."

"Good."I hesitated, but it was obvious Fury was finished speaking to me at that point. He gave me one last wary stare as if to say (I heard him in my head) "Don't get distracted," before turning around in his chair to take a call, and I stepped out of the room to head back down to the training floors.

And now, let's stop and take a guess at who I ran into. Or, rather, ran into me. Literally.

Have a guess? Cool.

"Sorry, sorry," she muttered, barely slowing her pace as she continued on her path, her brown hair swept down to cover the half of her face that I'd seen as she'd passed. She was absorbed in a file she held in her hands as she walked, and hadn't even bothered to look up the entire time.

I stopped and turned, crossing my arms and calling out to her. "Yeah, well, hello to you too!"She froze mid-step and dropped her foot. Her hands fell flat against her sides, some of the papers from the file falling out of her grasp. She spun slowly on a heel, and met my deadpan look with one of her own.

"Agent Barton," she stated coolly.

"Agent Adams."

She didn't say anything else. I waited for her as she carefully walked back, and instead of speak to her, I was taken aback by her arms suddenly around me. I returned the gesture, actually noticing myself feel lighter, yet more whole, at her touch. Whatever either of us had planned to say when we saw each other again was a lost cause now, and that's how things tended to work between us. We said a lot of what we needed to without ever really speaking at all.

She pulled away from me slowly, and looked up to meet my eyes. I could see the exhaustion in her green orbs, speckled faintly with blue, and the determination and the strength to compete with it, but the underlying thing, the part that I didn't want to see, was the fear.

"Say, why don't we bust this joint?" I asked with a half-smile, knowing I'd have to break it to her somehow. And might as well do it with the hopes of picking up her mood.