Her Hidden Past

- Chapter Twenty -

Coulson was amazed by how much stronger his two young agents had become. They had built a solid partnership despite their rocky start. He was most proud of the team they had grown into, every mission cementing their partnership further. They had learnt to lean on each other for support with all they faced. He could see particularly in the last six months they had grown even closer. Coulson shook himself out of his musing as Clint began to guide Natasha away from the wall they had been leaning on.

"Клинт (Clint)..." Natasha asked quietly.

"Знаю, Таша, знаю (I know, Tasha, I know)," Clint whispered. He sat in the spare chair before guiding her down next to him. Natasha curled into him, placing her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Clint kissed her hair softly, waiting for the tension to begin to fade from her shoulders.

Fury cleared his throat softly, "I presume this all has to do with Lisov's threat after New York?"

"Yes, Sir," Natasha nodded, sitting a little straighter. "It would seem Medvedev has carried it through."

"How complete are we talking?" Fury asked. "I could see there's stuff in there you haven't told me."

"Everything," Natasha sighed. "Everything Lisov and Medvedev have on me. Probably even stuff I don't even know about myself."

"There was a comprehensive list of your punishments," Phil sighed looking away.

"Shit," Natasha tensed, quickly hiding her face again.

"I assume your file must have come from SHIELD?" Fury switched his gaze to Clint, giving Natasha time to process.

"I presume so, Sir," Clint nodded.

"So there are people very high up," Fury growled. "Your SHIELD files are both redacted completely. Only Coulson and I had access to the full unredacted files." He paused, "That means someone had to know that I had those files and be high enough up to be able to override Coulson's access or my own."

"What options do we have?" Clint asked.

"I can't delete it without a second Alpha level approval," Fury sighed. "I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I could throw them right now."

"It's already restricted," Coulson frowned. "We can't restrict it any further without Alpha level approval either."

"The Council will have a field day if they catch wind of this," Fury scowled. "Best case scenario, we find a way to hack the files and encrypt them so no one can access them, but we're going to have to trust someone to do that."

"There are always ways around that," Natasha sighed, rejoining the conversation. "What if Medvedev just reposts it?"

"Maybe Skye or Stark could write a virus to infect the source files?" Coulson asked.

"Medvedev will try to use this as a bargaining chip," Natasha reminded them. "We have to take it away from him completely."

"Will you let us talk to Stark?" Coulson asked softly. "I think he'd be the best equipped to help us."

"You have to make sure he doesn't read it," Natasha whispered. "That no one reads any of it."

"I will appeal to Stark personally," Fury sighed. "I'll explain the basics to him, and ask him to remove every digital copy he can find. However, I am going to make one physical copy that you can access should you ever want to. You have the right to know what they've done to you."

"Sir," Natasha agreed. "There are things in there that people don't know, and if anyone finds out..." She trailed off. "My targets that night, São Paulo, the hospital fire, Dreykov's daughter. The SHIELD agents sent after me before Clint," She looked down. "People will never forgive me."