Her Little Bird

Chapter 2

But in my dreams began to creep

that old familiar tweet tweet tweet

Chapter 2

Only she didn't react. It was a test and she never fails.

The man looked at her with curiosity and interest but seeing nothing in the widow's face that showed she cared for this man. She stared at Clint's dead body with no despair, no sorrow, no regret. As if he was another scheduled kill. After a long moment she lifted her head to meet the man's eyes.

"Are we done here?" she asked. Her voice free of any suggestive emotion. She let nothing slip.

He was impressed by far. His little girl, Natalia, was by far his greatest success. He snapped his fingers and two of his men appeared, both quickly working to free Natasha of her bindings.

"Well done, Natalia, I am impressed."

"Karpov, I think you have some explaining to do." Natasha rubbed her sore wrists casually. She showed no emotion at all.

"Very well..."

So he explains. Barton was a target, he always was. But he was at the wrong place, at the wrong time. So they picked him. The trail SHIELD had followed to find her was not a "careless accident" as she thought before. It was planted. By the dirty hands of the ones who created her. They exposed her knowing she will be sent to be killed. Barton spared her life, it was planned. It was all planned. They knew it would happen, they had been watching her, and just when she thought she was free, they pulled her back into her cage and slammed the door shut. Again. But this time Clint had paid the price.

She was thrown back in her old room. Kept under lock and key. A prisoner of course, they didn't trust her and she understood why. She didn't try to escape, minutes became hours, hours became days, days became weeks. Eventually she lost track of time in her solitary confinement. She was sure she'd been there for weeks, maybe even months. But she wasn't bored. She was never bored, she had too much to think about.

She often thought about Clint. She still half expects him to bust through the door and throw her some weaponry. Tell her to hurry her ass up then start running in a pace semi-challenging for her to follow. She wasn't one for fairytales. But she felt like a damsel, and she hated it. She was almost disgusted at the thought of being a weeping damsel falling to her knees for the first handsome man she lays her eyes on. She didn't need a knight to fight her battles for her, she can take care of herself. In her mind, her knight in shining armor never existed. Wait he did exist.. Or did at least. She never really came to the realization of it until now. Clint Barton was the knight. Surely he didn't save her from dragons nor had to protect her in the war field, but he did rescue her, he saved her from herself.

She recalled some of her old memories she had with him. Late night stakeouts, undercover operations, disguises. She remembered the very first mission they sent her on. Of course, she was partnered with Clint. They didn't trust her at that time and Clint apparently, was the only one who wasn't afraid of being killed at night by the widow. She remembered being completely pissed off at the fact that she had to play a married couple with him. They didn't get along in the beginning, they were 2 very different people. If someone went back in time and told Natasha she and Clint would become best friends, she would probably laugh and say "that's ridiculous". She couldn't even stand being in the same room as him for 5 minutes without trying to kill him. But now things changed. A lot.

Now she can't stand being away from him. Surely they were occasionally sent on missions alone. Rarely did either of them come back with anything more than a paper cut and a bruise. She remembered the first time one of them had gotten themselves in some trouble. She was going through some paperwork when Coulson had told her Clint was in the hospital. Natasha hated hospitals. The sterile walls reminded her too much of her days in Red Room. She was terrified, and now being back in that very same place terrified her even more.