Unexpected

Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three

I shook my head at him, my eyes moving between the pair of spies. That scepter? That golden weapon that caused so much pain, that wickedly glowing turquoise jewel in its head that had hypnotized so many souls, that had been the center of so many of my nightmares? It was stolen?

"How?"

"We don't know." Nat said, her voice quiet but it had its professional tone again, like when she had way back when she'd interrogated me in the hospital after the battle in New York. "We had it in a secure S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. We were going to study it, keep it locked away..."

"Study it?" my voice had an unbidden sharpness to it, "What do you mean study it? That thing needs to be locked a thousand feet underground or destroyed! Do you have any idea what power it has?"

"That's why we wanted to study it."

"How did it get stolen?"

"We're not sure, but Fury has set up a task force to track down and-"

I blocked out his voice, not on purpose, but my mind whirled in fear. That scepter could not, must not, fall into the wrong hands! What if it was in the hands of men like Blanc and his employers or worse?

Clint placed a hand on my shoulder. It was warm and stable and steadying as it pulled me from my thoughts. "Penny?"

"How could you not tell me? You know as well as I do what that thing can do..."

"Because of this reaction." Nat stated, not unkindly, "Because of everything you went through with Loki and this scepter. And you were still in training when it was stolen; confidential to higher level agents... there was no reason for you to be burdened with the knowledge."

I felt heat rising in my face at that, not a blush, but anger as I looked away from her, trying to sort through my thoughts. I wasn't necessarily mad at Clint and Natasha, more at S.H.I.E.L.D. and Fury for hiding this from me. I wondered how Loki would respond to knowing that his scepter had been stolen away by some faceless entity.

Nat sighed, turning to face Barton, "This is not how I was planning all this to go."

"Yeah, well, that is our lives right?" he turned to me, "You have every right to be upset."

I exhaled and shrugged, "I'm not mad. I'm just... worried... it was bad enough when it was just Chitauri weapons, but now... we don't even understand all that scepter can do..."

"I get it, trust me." Clint huffed a sarcastic laugh, "I've been heading up this mission since the day is disappeared. Call it a personal score for me. I'm only back until they find me a new lead, then I'll be off again."

"So soon?" my heart sank a few inches in my chest.

"Good." Nat said simultaneously, catching me off guard, but although her voice had been dead-pan, she had her trademark smirk twisting her pouty lips, "You've been back only a few hours and already I'm getting tired of you."

Clint chuckled at this and shook his head, "Why do I even bother socializing?"

I couldn't help but laugh at this exchange. It felt almost wrong to laugh after what I just learned, but I was starting to realize that Clint was right. This was our lives, learning about the monsters hiding in the shadows and taking them down. If anyone could track down the scepter, Barton was the man for the job, even if I wasn't too happy to hear that he was going to disappear from my life again far too soon. I reached my hand down to the small device in my pocket and twiddled it between my fingers as I listened to Nat comment with another sarcastic quip.