A Different Call

Is This Karma?

Clint's P.O.V.

 I finished my meal and cleaned up, before heading to Coulson's office to get the paperwork that I needed to fill out. That was one the bad thing about SHIELD, the paperwork. I mean when you've just finished taking down a drug lord or some leader of a terrorist group what you really want to do is sleep, not paperwork.

"Come in, "I heard Coulson say before I even knocked, that man's skill of detecting people was scary. I walked in and laid on the couch that occupied one wall of his office.

"What's the matter, Clint?" Coulson asked moving to sit on the front of his desk.

"Why do you think something is the matter, I mean I have paperwork that needs to pick up from you too," I said, crossing my ankles and putting my arms behind my head.

"I know by the way here," he tossed a binder full of paperwork onto my stomach, "but I also know that when you lay on my couch it's either to take a nap or talk and give what I heard about you and Romanova-"

"Romanoff, sir."

"What?" Coulson asked, a confused look on his face.

"She wants to be called Romanoff. I figured it might help her, new name, new leaf."

"Well based on what I heard happened between you and Romanoff I figured that the adjustment period wasn't going so well.

"That bad?" I asked Coulson nodded in response. "Oh, I almost forgot, here." I tossed him a few keychains, it had become a tradition for me to pick him up on whenever we went on missions."

"Thanks," he said as he put them on his desk. "Now back to the matter at hand."

"She snaps at me every time I try to help her. I mean you'd think I was threatening her family rather than offering her a new chance at life."

"Reminds me of you when you were a recruit," Coulson said.

"I was not as bad as her," I defended.

"No," Coulson chuckled, "you weren't, you were much worse."

"Oh yeah, give me one example."

"How about the time you picked a fight with the two of the recruits?" Coulson said.

"I don't remember that."

"Must have been the minor concussion you probably got. You were supposed to meet in my office. Thirty minutes passed, you hadn't come, so I decided to investigate. I found you up against the wall of a hallway, you had a broken nose and some bruised ribs. I got you patched up and then you told me what happened. You said two guys were saying long distance don't count and you couldn't do anything in hand-to-hand combat, so you decided to prove them wrong. Although you never gave me their names."

"Hey, in my defense I was seventeen and I held my own pretty good for it being two against one and me not having had any real hand-to-hand training."

"I thought you didn't remember," Coulson said laughing.

"The memory came back, it's a miracle...Anyway, what does that have to do with Nat?" I asked.

"I saw that you would stand up for yourself and things you believed in. I knew you had potential to be great, so I encouraged you. How about you do the same for Natasha." Coulson said.

"I'll try but she is so stubborn she won't even listen," I explained.

"Again, a lot like you. Just give her some time to adjust this is new for her. I heard the red room does a lot of messed up stuff, it's hard to get over that level of manipulation and abuse that quickly, especially when you've been raised that way your whole life." Coulson advised.

"Thanks, now I need to go throw this in my room before Nat gets out the history lecture," I said picking up the binder. "By the way are there any trees left after they printed this out. I mean this is like twice the amount of paperwork I normally have to do."

"Well if you don't want to have to do so much paperwork than you shouldn't bring back people as souvenirs."

"Duly noted sir," I said getting up. I also added in a little salute as I headed out the office