Black Hawk Down

Chapter Ten

Natasha's room - Stark Tower

"How is she?" Phil asked entering Natasha's room.

"She's sleeping now," Clint said quietly. "She woke up about 5 minutes ago and went almost straight back to sleep." He stroked a lock of red hair away from her face. Her head rested in Clint's lap as he sat on her bed.

"She's tired from the procedure isn't she?" Phil asked.

"That and she got up and exhausted the meagre amount of energy she had had left," Clint replied.

"I have some things to tell you both and Tony should be able to tell us what's on that SD card when she wakes up." Phil told him. "Also May wants to see her later, probably in the morning."

"May's welcome to come up in the morning," Clint replied. "She's one of the closest people Tash has to a sister. Her, Maria and I think Pepper are the closest things she has to sisters."

"I'm glad Nat has them," Phil replied. "And I'm glad the two of you have each other."

"Me too," Clint smiled down at Natasha's sleeping form.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, until Fury arrived in the room.

"Have you two finally told each other how you feel?" Nick asked Clint seeing how Natasha was lying down.

"Yes," Clint smiled. "I told her yesterday afternoon and she told me before she was hit by the first wave of pain during the procedure."

"About time too," Nick smiled. "Don't worry no-one will find out from me."

"Thanks Nick," Clint was relieved to find that the man he looked up to as his surrogate father was happy with the idea of his two top field Agents being together. "I think both of us would like to keep those two SHIELD polls in the dark about our relationship."

"Fair enough too," Nick agreed. "Sitwell doesn't need the extra cash."

"Sitwell, huh?" Clint asked.

"Yeah he started both," Nick laughed quietly. Clint and Natasha had both been seeing a different side of Nick since a bit before New York. He looked out for them and was a lot less formal when it was them Coulson or Hill around.

"I shouldn't be surprised at all," Clint smirked. "He is the one that always used to ask whether or not we were together. He stopped after Tash threatened to shoot him the last time. Now it's Tony that asks." Clint commented.

"Sitwell came to complain to me about Nat threatening to shoot him and I had to refrain from laughing the whole time." Phil laughed.

"So how is she?" Nick asked.

"Very, very tired," Clint replied. "She probably needs some proper food and water to get her energy levels back up."

"Make sure she gets it then," Nick ordered softly. "Because I know she probably won't do much about it if someone's not watching her."

"Of course," Clint nodded.

"As for the other day on the Helicarrier, Clint you can't do things like that. I know that mission went badly and I know you probably haven't told me how badly, but please talk to someone about how you feel about things like that. We can't afford to lose you, if we lost you or Natasha I think the Avengers would fall apart too." Nick told him gently, "The two of you help to hold the team together. I know you don't feel comfortable talking to many people and Natasha wasn't there. But you can talk to your team, you have Coulson back now and you can come and talk to me. I'm sorry you two were split up for those missions. I didn't want it to happen but you know the Council. I can't tell them what really happened on either mission because they are so close to putting kill orders out on both of you again already anyway."