Broken - A Clintasha Fanfic *ON HOLD*

Broken Part 3

When she pulled the car over on the airfield, Natasha immediately saw the sleek Quinjet waiting for them at the runway. Coulson was standing at the entrance of one of the Hangars, his gaze snapped towards them from where he was looking at a map when he heard the engine of her car.

Carefully she nudged her fast asleep partner until his eyes fluttered open. It only took him a short amount of time to realize where he was. With a grown, he rubbed his eyes and opened the door.

Natasha grabbed his arm before he could emerge and pulled him back. "Hey" she smiled softly at him. "You Okay?" she knew he wasn't but the redhead wanted to hear his response nonetheless . "Have been worse. Have been cosiderably better." came the hoarse reply from her partner before he pulled his arm free. She knew she could not expect him to tell her anything today but still Natasha felt a pang of guilt and pain.

Her last wish was to hurt him but it had to be done. In their line of work they often had to take hard choices. This was one of the easier ones. Clint would forgive her. He always did.

Together, they took their gear out of the trunk and began to walk over to Coulson. The senior agent already awaited them with a thick manila folder in his hand.

"Romanoff, Barton" He greeted them, looking very closely at Clint before shaking their hands. Their handler was as worried for the archer as Natasha but he also knew that there was no other way. He wouldn't have ordered her to look for Barton otherwise, he loved him like a son.

"You have to take out a satellite launching pad before they get the chance to start anything. All the information is in this Folder. Read it on the flight. Call me if anything is unclear. I will be surveying the mission from here. Weapons and supplies are on the plane. Such as a sniper riffle for you agent Barton. You will leave in five minutes. Good luck." Coulson said and handed Natasha the folder. Then he turned and walked back into the hangar to finish the flight preparations. Phil knew that he sounded harsh but he could not stand the look in Clint's eyes any longer. Hopefully the mission went well and they could be back before midnight.

"that was nice" Barton huffed sarcastically. At least he still has his sense of humor Natasha thought before nodding. "He seems tense. It's an important mission."

"I hope for him and Fury that it is." he said absently chewing on a protein bar she always kept in her car for him. "Didn't you just had three boxes of Chinese?" Natasha eyed him dubiously. "Got to get my alcohol level down besides I didn't eat since yesterday." her Partner began to take out another bar out of his jeans pocket. She was glad, that he went back to normal again. The hour of sleep in the car must have helped.

"Come on Barton." the red head turned towards the jet. "Let's get going already." He followed her suit but she noticed, that he had to use his whole concentration to walk normally. The other agents around should preferably not see him stumbling around. Clint didn't want to ruin his reputation.

Once inside the Quinjet he collapsed out of habit on the pilots seat. Natasha raised an eyebrow and he switched to the co pilots place so she could fly. "Don't think I will let you fly in your current state." She scolded him. "Yeah yeah fine. I forgot kinda." he grumbled.

His reaction brought a smile to his partners face. She could see him returning to his usual self every minute. Although he was still smelling like vodka and probably still saw blurry. "I will switch  to autopilot once we have reached flight height. Then we can go over the file. Take a rest." The last part was more order than advice and he knew well better than to object.

Half an hour later Hawkeye awoke by the beeping sound that indicated Natasha switched to autopilot. "Feeling better?" She tried again handing him a water bottle. "Yeah. I still see you blurry though and my headache is killing me." She nodded and made her way to the back of the jet. At least he answered her again. The hurt she had felt earlier vanished from her thoughts.