Black Hawk Down

Chapter Twelve

February 6 - 0500 hours - Natasha's room - Stark Tower

Natasha woke up, still very tired and slightly disorientated. She tried to roll out of bed when she saw the time but found that she was held in place by Clint's arms.

"Is it really morning?" Clint's sleepy voice asked.

"Yeah, it's 5am," Natasha told him.

"Go back to sleep," Clint told her as her eyes slid shut again.

She opened her eyes for the second time not seeing the roof top she was expecting but rather her room in the tower. The events of the night before came flooding back and she remembered what had happened. She rolled over in Clint's arms as she felt him stir awake.

"Мне жаль. Мне очень жаль." (I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.) she whispered. "It will never happen again, я обещаю." (I promise.)

"Я прощаю тебя, мой огненный паук." (I forgive you, my fiery spider.) Clint whispered back. "I know the last week was hard and the next few weeks are going to be hard too but Независимо от того, что я всегда буду любить тебя мой паук." (No matter what, I will always love you my spider.) I will be here to help you through whatever you need me too."

"Thank you, Clint," Natasha whispered. "It means a lot. I really am sorry for last night though, I think it was partly that the serum was mucking up my emotions, but either way I'm sorry. Stay with me? I don't think I can read those files alone."

"That's what I am here for," Clint told her. "You can tell me anything and I won't let it change my opinion of who you are. I already couldn't live without you. I've seen the real you, you're nothing like the manipulated child of the Red Room I rescued. You're so much more. Anything in those files will make me hate Ivan and the Red Room more, as well as making me so glad I rescued you."

"спасибо," (Thank you) Natasha whispered. They lay in silence in each others arms for a while before Natasha again moved to get up.

"What's the time?" Clint asked unwilling to let her go.

"Almost noon," Natasha replied.

"Really?" Clint asked. Natasha nodded in reply. Clint let her go and got up himself heading for the door to go change in his room. "Phil will probably want to see us at some point." Clint threw the words back over his shoulder as he opened the door.

"They want an explanation don't they?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah probably," Clint replied. "But you don't have to tell them everything if you don't want to. I'm sure they would understand." He turned to face her, "Maybe you could just translate the file and give it to them to read if you want to."

"I'll think about it," Natasha nodded. "The meeting I'm supposed to go to is set for February 11th so we have a little bit of time."

"I know," Clint nodded heading out of her room.

Natasha grabbed clean clothes and headed for the shower, mulling over what had happened in the last 48 or so hours. She had been getting up in Clint's cabin after a sleepless night. Then taking some alone time which resulted in her almost dying, forcing Bruce and Tony to work on the serum. The last two days had been a whirlwind of her past catching up to her and affecting the only people she really cared about. Maybe she would apologise once it was all over, assuming she survived it. The serum would cause a lot of problems should word of it get out and she didn't know if the team would be ready to deal with the multitude of people who would want it. Both Nick and Coulson had mentioned that they thought the team would fall apart without her and Barton a sentiment she couldn't agree with although she had seen how close some of the team members had become to Clint since New York she didn't allow herself to admit to being close with any of them apart from Clint. Clint was her partner, he told her he loved her, something she still couldn't quite believe and she had said it back to him another thing she found hard to believe, but the hardest thing to believe was that she thought she truly meant it. She'd never thought she was capable of love, but Clint had taught her so many things she had never thought she would learn or need. Sometime in the last 4 years she had fallen in love with Clint Barton and she hadn't even realised. And according to him he had loved her since soon after they had met. She decided it was all too much to process right then. She finished getting dressed and headed back into her room quickly drying her hair with a towel. Natasha grabbed a jacket before taking the towel back to the bathroom and brushing her hair. She looked at the laptop sitting on her desk knowing she had to start on it some time and walked out the door. She met Clint in the hallway heading for the elevator. They headed down to the common floor. Standing together in comfortable silence. They exited the elevator on to the common floor, Natasha half hoping that the floor would be empty.