Part I: She's Been Everybody Else's Girl, Maybe Someday She'll Be Her Own

Yes, With a Message From My Heart

Clint was asleep when Natasha got up the next morning, but he woke immediately as she entered the room. "How long are you going to stay?" she asked.

"Bored of me already?" he responded, stretching. "I didn't think you'd be here, you know."

"So you were just going to hide out for a while?"

A slight smile crossed his face as he got to his feet and headed for the kitchen. "I've got a meeting at 1400. Care to join me?"

"Whom are you meeting, Clint?" she asked, frowning at him.

"Lucius Best."

"Is that supposed to mean anything to me?"

He stopped making coffee to look over at her. "Yes. Come on, Nat, I know it's early, but you should get this."

Something clicked and she smirked. "Fury. He's here?"

"Briefly. Thought I'd talk to him about staying in contact with Cap. Give the team something to do, you know."

Natasha could imagine that Steve wouldn't handle just lying low very well. Not for long, anyway. The others would probably not enjoy their fugitive status and would want to make up for what they'd done to get on Ross' list, justified or otherwise. "That's good," she answered belatedly.

"'Tasha... If you don't want to come with me to Cap, maybe working with Fury would be the next best thing," Clint offered slowly.

"It would be nice," she conceded.

"I would like to know someone's looking out for you. And that we have a line of communication."

She smiled at that. "Thanks, Clint. What do we need to do to prepare?"

"There's a park. We are going to go there and wait for him." She must have looked skeptical because he grinned. "He's dead, Nat. For two years. No one is looking for him anymore. We're the ones who have to make sure we're avoiding attention, or he won't make contact."

"It doesn't seem like that long ago, since we were all at your farm," she said after a thoughtful pause.

The pained look on Clint's face made her wish she could take it back. "Yeah. Well, what's for breakfast?"

Natasha spent the morning perusing potential jobs and feeling relieved that she had an option between rejoining Steve and being completely on her own. It had occurred to her that she might ask Clint to join her, for old time's sake, and they could run missions like they used to without her having to go help babysit those who had chosen the other side. But she didn't know if she could ask that of him. Clint had left his family, knowing it would make him a fugitive, out of loyalty to Steve. And because she'd invited him to help keep the disagreement from getting too out of hand. She couldn't ask for more of him now, not until she'd made up for her mistakes.

She had thought that, together, the two of them might get Steve and Tony face to face to talk things out. When Clint had first heard of the Accords, he'd decided it was a good time to leave the superheroing to someone else. But things escalated to the point he could no longer ignore them, and he'd been staunchly on Steve's side. Which didn't mean he wanted to see Tony beaten to a pulp, so he'd been willing to listen to Natasha when she called. It didn't work out the way they'd hoped.

It might take a while to blow over, if it were even possible. The public opinion was divisive on the subject, though most felt some kind of supervision would be beneficial. It was thought that the handling of Captain America had been done poorly, and Natasha agreed wholeheartedly. That was partially her fault, but she couldn't control Tony. As much as she'd like to sometimes. No one could, except maybe Pepper. Who was understandably frustrated with the situation.