Follow Your Arrow

September 15, 2007

Elliot sat with a file at his desk. Feeling eyes on him, he looked up to see Fury.

An irritated expression crossed his face. "What is it, sir?"

"I have a mission for you."

"And I have a six-month-old daughter. Can't someone else do it?"

"Hill and your brother are both busy."

"Then call off their missions, or at least one of them, and send them."

"I can't, Barton. Your brother may be able to help, but he's currently busy."

Elliot let out a frustrated groan. "I haven't agreed to anything, but what is the mission?"

"A Black Widow."

Elliot slammed the file shut. "You want me to go after one of them? That's suicide!"

"Only if she kills you first. Your mission is to terminate her."

"And how do you propose I do that?"

"You're smart and resourceful. Figure it out."

"What about Sasha?"

"Your sister-in-law can take care of her."

"You're something else, Fury. So damn annoying. Fine. I'll do it. When am I leaving?"

"As soon as possible." He handed him the file. "Be careful."

Elliot opened the file and stared at the picture of the woman. "All right, Natalia. Let's see what you've got."

Two days later, Elliot was in Budapest.

He sat in his black sedan watching the redheaded woman. So far she didn't seem to be a threat, but looks were often deceiving.

She locked eyes with him and he muttered, "Crap."

Quickly, he locked the doors and pretended to be reading the newspaper.

There was a knock on the passenger side window.

Natalia. "Open up. I know you're following me."

Elliot relented, figuring it was better to have her in his sights.

As soon as she got in, a gun was pointed at his head.

"Really?" Elliot said. "The cliche gun to the head? You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to scare me."

"I'm not trying to scare you." She kept the gun up. "I need your help."

"A Black Widow needs my help."

"I'm not that anymore. My conscience is clear. I need your help taking down the Red Room."

"Whoa, whoa. Taking down a Soviet organization?! I did not sign up for that!"

Natalia looked at him curiously. "Then why are you here?"

"My mission is to kill you." He studied her a moment. "But I don't think I will."

The back door opened and a male voice said, "Drive, Elliot."

Elliot turned to see his brother. "Oh, join the party why don't you. What the hell are you doing here?"

"The director called me in. Now we need to get a move on. Judging from the fact that she's still alive, you made a different call. Right?"

"Yeah. Clint, what the hell?"

Natalia looked between the brothers. "Can we stop the arguing and finish what I started?"

The brothers nodded. "Yeah."

"Good. There's not a minute to waste."

She directed them to where she needed to go and told them to wait in the car.

A short while later, the building blew up and Natalia ran back to the car.

"Did you get him?" Elliot asked.

"I hope so."

"So where to next? We have no extraction plan at the moment."

Clint shrugged. "Subway station?"

"Works for me. Natalia?"

She furrowed her brow. "Yeah. I need a new alias." She thought for a moment. "Natasha. Natasha Romanoff."

"Pleasure to meet you, Natasha." He drove away and they soon ditched the car.

They grabbed their stuff and entered the subway station.

Natasha looked between the brothers. "Where now?"

Clint pointed up and Elliot nodded.

The three made their way to a less populated area and waited for it to empty. When no one could see them, they climbed into the ceiling to wait.

Clint and Elliot bandaged Natasha's wounds and the three sat silently in wait.

As the days passed, they played tic-tac-toe to pass the time, spoke of their families, and became friends.

Ten days later, they were finally able to leave.

They made their way back to HQ and Fury frowned as he looked between the three before focusing on Elliot as he said, "Your mission was to terminate her."

Elliot nodded. "I'm aware. But I made a different call, sir. One my brother agreed with."

Fury sighed. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less. Is she clear?"

Natasha stepped forward. "She can speak, and yes she is. Natasha Romanoff. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you, but you wanted me killed."

A small smile crossed Fury's lips. "I can see I made the right call sending Agents Barton after you. You'll need to be debriefed, and if you're willing, it'd be a pleasure to have you on my team, Miss Romanoff."

"So long as you don't try to have me killed."

"I can assure you, I won't."

"Then I'll consider it."

Elliot and Clint glanced at each other and high-fived, causing Fury and Natasha to look back at them.

The brothers shrugged and walked away, looking back momentarily at the director and the woman they'd saved.

"Hell of a mission," Elliot muttered.

Clint chuckled softly. "No kidding. You did good."

"Thanks."

Elliot pulled up a picture of Sasha that Laura had sent him and smiled. "Uncle Clint and I are coming home, sweetheart."