"What about this one? She looks nice." Clint leaned towards Natasha and tilted his tablet towards her, displaying the profile of a local obstetrician.
Natasha looked over the page with a frown, "I don't know, she looks really young, I don't want someone fresh out of med school."
"Says here she graduated from John's Hopkins five years ago in the top ten percent of her class, and she's been practicing here in Portland ever since."
Natasha quirked an eyebrow, "Are you suggesting her because you think she's actually a good choice or because she's cute?"
The young man smiled cheekily, "Both." He sobered, "Seriously, she gets really good reviews on all of these sites and it's only one visit, if you don't like her you don't need to go back, we'll just find someone else."
Natasha sighed and sank back further into the cushions, "Yeah you're right, I'll call her office tomorrow, its too late to do it tonight. In fact I should probably head home." Despite her words Natasha didn't make any move to get up.
"Is everything okay Tasha?" Clint questioned softly.
The redhead waited a moment before answering him in a voice so soft he almost couldn't hear her, her eyes staring straight ahead, "Can I stay here tonight? I can't seem to fall asleep in my apartment, I see Alexei everywhere and I really don't want to think about him right now."
Clint smiled, "Of course, and tomorrow we'll go through and box up all of his stuff, kick him out once and for all."
"Thanks," Natasha smiled gratefully, "but I'm thinking about just finding a new place. I never even liked that apartment to be honest, the view sucks, the kitchen is too small to actually cook anything, the landlord still hasn't fixed the plumbing, and the neighborhood isn't very safe, definitely not the kind of place I'd want to raise a kid. But Alex insisted, he said that it was perfectly fine and I was just being a picky snob, so I went along with it." The noise Natasha made as she buried her face in a pillow was somewhere between a laugh and a groan, "Oh Clint, what was I thinking? How dense am I for it to take almost two years to realize what a piece of work I was dating?" She laughed and rolled her eyes, "Or maybe I'm the piece of work here."
"Yep, you're a real piece of work alright."
Natasha glared and tossed her pillow at Clint's head, "You really know how to cheer a girl up don't you?"
Clint threw up a hand to deflect the pillow, "I try, but I do mean it. You're a work in progress Nat, you're gonna makes some stupid choices, you know better than anyone how many I've made, but that doesn't make you stupid, it just makes you human."
Natasha's gaze softened, "Thank you Clint, you really do know just what to say."
Clint shifted uncomfortably under her praise, "Yeah yeah, we both know I'm amazing, now enough of this serious crap. I was thinking about what you said about an apartment and I was thinking we should get a place together. With two of us we could get a much nicer place than either of us could afford alone, and you shouldn't be alone at the end anyways."
"Would you really want to do that? I mean, you know people are just going to assume you're the father right?"
"Yeah I'm sure they will, but I don't really care, a part of me wishes I was." The surprised look on Natasha's face told Clint just what he had implied, "What I mean is, uh, that Alexei didn't deserve you," that was no better, "err, I mean that then the kid would have a dad." He finished lamely, hoping Natasha didn't notice his flushed cheeks. He reached for his tablet, "I'm gonna just gonna shut up and look for a place to live now."
Natasha rolled her eyes, "You need some mouthwash? Might want to clean your mouth out after sticking your foot in it."
Clint breathed a sigh of relief, snark was normal, snark he was used to, this serious stuff never seemed to go well for him.
If Clint had looked up just then, he just might have noticed the wistful smile that flicked across Natasha's face.