The Los Angeles Operation

Nineteen

“I’ve had it!” Clint declared. “I’m done with this mess!” 

“Clint, you can’t give up,” Coulson said calmly. 

“She wants nothing to do with me, Phil! Nothing! I have tried everything to make that woman listen, and won’t! What am I supposed to do!?” 

“Barton, I’m telling you, if you give up now you will regret it for the rest of your life.” 

“Coulson, there’s nothing else I can do without getting shot! Natasha doesn’t care if I get down on my knees and beg. She’s too stubborn!” 

“Don’t you love her?” 

“You know that I do, Phil. More than anything. But… I just can’t get through to her. There is nothing left that I can try.” 

“You’ve got to make her-“

“Listen, I know! I’ve tried! I just… I just can’t take this anymore. Maybe I… maybe I should just let her go.” 

“Clint, nothing was ever achieved by giving up! If you let her go, you will never forgive yourself.” 

“It’s what she wants, Phil. She doesn’t want me to keep chasing after her, longing for a forgiveness I’ll never get. And I don’t want that, either. Maybe it would be better for everyone if we went our separate ways.” 

“You don’t really believe that.” 

Clint sighed. “I love her, Phil. I really, really do. But the big problem is that she doesn’t and probably never will love me. I can’t make her love me.” 

“Clint, you give up and you’ll be giving Trick Shot exactly what he wants.” 

“I know…” Clint sighed. “I can’t believe he’s back.” 

Coulson took a deep breath. “Tell you what. Why don’t you try one more time? Go to her house and knock the door down if you have to. If she doesn’t listen, that’s her problem, but make sure she can’t help but hear you.” 

Clint nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll try that. But if she kills me, it’s on you.” 

Natasha paced the length of her living room and back again more times than she could count. Trick Shot? Had he really returned?  She’d never met him, but she had heard horrible things about him from Clint and Coulson and even Fury. 

She couldn’t trust anything Clint had said to her over the past mission. What if he hadn’t been controlled when he called her a monster? What if he really had fallen in love with Morse? 

And what if Natasha didn’t really love Clint? What if that had been another layer of Trick Shot’s plan? 

What if she had never lost Clint because she’d never really had him in the first place? 

Confusion and anger boiled inside of her. She hated this. Nothing about this made any sense and she hated every last bit of it. Hatred boiled up for Trick Shot and Morse and especially Clint. How could she face him now? Everything they’d had could have been nothing but a dream. 

What was she thinking? They’d never had anything. Not if it could be shaken like this by some stupid blonde. 

Natasha took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She couldn’t trust anything that had happened in the past two weeks. Absolutely nothing. 

There was a knock on her door. She turned and walked to the door. Natasha turned the doorknob and opened it. 

Upon seeing who was on the other side, she tried to slam the door shut again. Clint pushed the door open, however, and walked in.