The Los Angeles Operation

Four

At 3:45 on the last day of training Barbara Morse ran down the hall and rounded the corner to the small target range on the top floor for the Level Seven agents. She reached the door and turned the knob, finding it open. She pushed the door open.

"Clint?" she called.

"Down here!" he yelled for the back of the room.

She followed the sound of his voice and found him in the very back of the room, an arrow on the string.

"What are you shooting at?" Morse asked.

He glanced at her and grinned. "There's a fly taped to the wall. I'm trying to knock the wing off of it."

She watched him as he shot at it. He made it in one, clean shot. She couldn't resist clapping.

"Oh, please, that's was a decent shot at best," he negated her praise.

"That was amazing," she said.

"You should see me do it from a hundred yards instead of ten." Clint winked.

Barbara felt herself blush. "Um, sorry I'm late. Agent Romanoff kept me a little late; she made me run an extra mile today."

"Don't worry about it. You brought the bow I gave you, right?"

"Yeah, of course." She set her duffel bag down and pulled out the collapsible compound bow that Agent Barton had given to her.

He handed her five arrows, normal tips, nothing fancy. He moved aside a little so she could stand directly in front of the target. She stood as close as she could to him without making things insanely awkward.

Barbara pulled the sting back, purposefully holding the string wrong and sticking her elbow out far too high. Clint sighed and moved behind her. He placed his hand over hers on the string and pushed her elbow down. He gently moved her fingers so she was holding the string correctly.

Barbara felt her heartbeat quicken. She loved his touch more than anything. It was addicting. She knew he was an experienced agent and way out of her league, but still...

"Keep your elbow down," Clint was saying. He pushed her elbow down so that there was a straight line from the tip of the arrow to the tip of her elbow. "Like that."

"Sorry," she apologized. "I guess it's just something I'll have to work on."

"You'll get the hang of it, trust me. You've gotten a lot better over the course of the week."

She smiled at his compliment. "Really?"

"Yeah, much better."

After correcting her form, he moved away from her. She wished he wouldn't. She let the arrow go and it hit about five inches from the center of the target.

"Not bad," Clint said.

She turned and smiled at him. "Well, I've got a good teacher."

He returned her smile. "How're things going in real training?"

"Not bad. Agent Romanoff seems to have a problem with me, though. She's a great instructor, but she keeps throwing me dirty looks and makes me do extra work."

Clint looked interested, as he always did when they talked about Natasha. "Does she?"

"Yeah. I don't know why, though."

That wasn't entirely true. Morse had a hunch that Natasha saw Clint as something more than a partner. What other explanation was there to her behavior? Barbara had to admit that there was a strong possibility of Agent Barton having something that resembled a crush on Agent Romanoff as well. Maybe it was more than that, she didn’t know. But whatever it was, she wasn’t comfortable with it. She didn’t like feeling like she was intruding on something. But both of them denied that there was anything at all between them. What was Morse supposed to think?