Captain's Hart and Soul

Chapter 9 Vision

Arianna and Clint sat huddled slightly on top of the cradle in Tony's lab at the Avengers Tower. The pair hadn't left each other's side, as was to be expected. Clint held one of Arianna's hands, rubbing it comfortingly, knowing she was beating herself up for letting Nat be captured.

As Tony returned from his trip to NEXUS very late at night, Bruce asked him quietly: "Anything on Nat?"

"Haven't heard." Tony replied with sigh.

He glanced at Arianna worriedly and he added in an attempt at encouragement: "But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it."

Clint exhaled sharply before he hopped off the cradle, letting go of Arianna's hand. She jumped down beside him as he commented to the two scientists as the men walked in: "This is sealed tight."

"We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within." Bruce sighed as he tapped at the unresponsive control panels.

Tony hummed, before he turned to Clint and asked abruptly: "Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?"

"There's some nets I can cast." Clint agreed.

Arianna nodded, glancing at Clint, before she confirmed: "Yeah, we're on it."

"We'll find her." Clint agreed as he and Arianna moved off downstairs, heading for the lower labs.

As they walked, Clint glanced at Arianna and then wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He squeezed her reassuringly as he murmured: "We will find her, Ria. Stop being so hard on yourself."

"Don't act like you aren't beating yourself too." Arianna countered.

Clint sighed, knowing he had no words for that. It was true, and probably for the rest of their lives DELTA would be guilty of it. None of them could really handle another's injury or suffering. Clint only had one love of his life, but he had his two girls- three with his daughter.

Arianna and Nat were just starting to branch out of relying solely on their trio with their deepest emotions, but years of on-the-job bonding could never be broken. Clint murmured as he and Arianna set up the necessary equipment to scan for Nat: "She wouldn't want us to."

"Won't stop either of us from worrying until she's back with us, so just let it be and let's get to work." Arianna returned.

Clint grinned slightly, nodding. He reached over to kiss the top of her head, ruffling her hair as he murmured: "That's my girl."

She smiled slightly before they got down to business. Unaware of the potential danger that Tony and Bruce were brewing once more right above their heads.

*********

Early hours April 13, 2015

They'd been searching for a few hours when Clint finally got a hit. Arianna shot up, sitting upright as the radio crackled and a message in Morse code came across the airwaves. Clint grinned and he quickly pulled the headset over to start taking down Nat's message while Arianna beamed and she headed quickly upstairs to let Tony and Bruce know.

Her smile dropped instantly as she walked into the lab and saw what they were doing. Neither man had noticed her yet as Tony told Bruce: "This framework is not compatible."

Arianna's jaw dropped as Bruce just shrugged before he ordered: "The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent. You have got to upload that schematic in the next five minutes."

"What's going on here?" She demanded.

The two looked over at her quickly, looking like two children caught by their mother with their hands still in the cookie jar.