The Devil's Keeper - Blackhill

Chapter 14 - A Place On Earth

[April 27th, 2007 – Helicarrier, location classified]

The room was too quiet. After the noises of the last few days, the silence was almost deafening to Natasha. It was warm, but the chair she was sitting in was uncomfortable. The metal against her elbows was cold, though a welcome change from the heat. She was used to the Russian weather and warm temperatures simply weren't her friend.

"Please state your name."

"Natasha Romanoff."

She was getting quite bored of the interrogations, too. It was the third one Sitwell had made her sit through in the few hours she had been back.

"Can you please report the events-"

The door swung open, and Natasha's best and only hope was for Fury to walk right into the room and kick Sitwell out of her sight, because she couldn't stomach to answer that question one more time.

Not even her greatest hope could have predicted Maria Hill strolling in, all confidence and assertiveness, to demand for Natasha's immediate release, under the Assistant Director's responsibility.

Natasha watched Sitwell get up and leave, Maria taking his place after closing the door behind him.

"Clint woke up." Maria said as she watched Natasha.

"You came back." Natasha replied.

"You were charged with treason."

"Did you finish your mission, at least?"

"Of course I finished my mission." Maria snapped, continuing after sighing. "Natasha, you were charged with treason. We thought you sold us out or betrayed us."

Natasha only rolled her eyes and sighed.

"But Clint woke up. He said you two were ambushed by dozens of enemies and he was injured, but you fought all of them off and brought him safely to the extraction point. You saved his life."

"I've already told this to Sitwell twice."

"You risked your life to save his. You could have walked away, taken the handcuffs off and disappeared. Yet, you stayed and fought fiercely and bravely."

"Barton trusts me, he's my partner and my-" Natasha couldn't believe she was actually thinking something like that, but those three days had changed their relationship deeply. "He's my friend."

Maria held her gaze for a long time. Natasha didn't break the eye contact, choosing to wait patiently for Maria to say something.

"He will recover fully, thanks to you. He asked to see you. Come on, I'll take you to him." She got up and had to look away.

But Natasha could have sworn, for just a moment, that she saw something in Maria's gaze, something familiar in the eyes of the younger Maria she knew.

Natasha nodded and followed her to the medical bay, into Clint's room.

He was barely awake, but even then he found the strength to open his eyes and look at her to ensure she was in fact Natasha. He closed his eyes again before speaking, like he could only manage to do one of those things at a time.

"I told you so."

Natasha frowned, thinking she'd heard him wrong.

"You knew? About the ambush, about-"

Clint shook his head vehemently to let her know that it wasn't what he was referring to.

"Say goo-" he swallowed, then tried again. "Say goodbye properly, next time. Idiot."