I know this is a week late but it's here. And I'm pretty happy with it. Thank you for your patience.

Intel

Clint slouched into Phil's chair as the screen in front of him connected. Nat appeared, the blue wall of his apartment behind her.

"What are you doing at my place?"

"Free wi-fi."

"It's not free," Clint said. "I pay for it."

"It's free to me."

Clint rolled his eyes at her, and she smiled at him.

"Where's Phil?"

"He's in a meeting, it's run over. Why are you at my apartment?"

Nat smirked at him again.

"Fine, what happened?"

"I don't think you're going to like the answers."

"But I still need to hear them, Tasha."

Nat smiled at him. "Being back with Phil has been good for you."

"I know that, but why do you think that?"

"You seem content."

"Is that Russian for having lots of sex and unable to stop smiling even when little Inhumans use their powers against you?"

Nat inclined her head in agreement.

"So, what happened with Fury?"

"I'm not going to talk about it until Phil gets there."

"Okay, so what are you been up to then?"

"Still looking for Rumlow."

"Any luck?"

"There are some rumblings about something going down in Africa, we're still trying to narrow the intel down."

"Intel for who?" Phil asked, stepping into the room.

"Rumlow."

Phil nodded. "It's nice to see you, Tasha, are you stealing Clint's internet again?"

Nat smiled at him.

"You knew about this?"

"Who do you think gave her the password?" Phil asked.

Nat smiled wider.

"What happened with Fury," Clint asked again.

"I tracked him down at the helicarrier facility," Nat started. "He had his reasons for re-creating your memories."

"What reasons?" Phil asked.

Clint didn't know how he could be calm in this, he did understand Phil had always had the ability to show one thing no matter what else he was feeling, but this was too much.

"You know him," Nat said. "He doesn't really share his motives with anyone."

"But you got him to talk."

"There's something I should say first," Nat said, body going a little more still than normal and Clint sat up straighter.

"What?" Phil asked freezing, obviously having picked up on Nat's body language.

"He told me too much too easily."

"Did he ask you to complete a mission?" Phil asked.

Nat shook her head, but there was a slight frown between her eyes. "He didn't even press me for information on what is happening with the search for Bucky or Rumlow."

"He's hiding something," Phil said firmly.

Nat nodded decisively. "Something big."

"It's always big with Nick."

Nat smiled at him. "Exactly."

"Did you look around?"

Nat nodded.

"And?" Clint asked.

"Hill made sure to escort me from the building and encouraged me to leave."

"Maria's involved?" Phil asked, his tone making it obvious that he had an idea.

"Definitely."

Phil was silent for a few minutes. "Have you talked to Steve and Tony?"

Nat shook her head.

"Don't," Phil said. "I'll look into it."

Nat nodded once, decisively.

"What did he say about the memories?" Clint asked, dragging the topic away from that decidedly disturbing thought.

"He said that because Coulson had been dead for so long and the chances of him going mad were so high he had to remove him from every part of his old life he could."

"But he left him in S.H.I.E.L.D.," Clint said. "The other subjects were all given lives outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.; if he needed to remove everything, why would he leave him in S.H.I.E.L.D. at all?"

"He didn't say it but it was his backdoor back to us if Coulson wasn't insane or if he ever found out what had happened."

"You're allowing your sentiment to get the better of you," Clint said.

Natasha glared at him.

"Nick only has a few people he always felt he could count on, and I'm one of them," Coulson said. "He'd keep me in S.H.I.E.L.D. for purely selfish reasons. The other subjects weren't high level operatives and were dispensable – at least from his perspective."

Nat nodded. "He had to remove Clint, and being married, from your life to stop you going back to the life that would break the brain conditioning."

"But the new memories were broken anyway," Phil said.

"And you didn't go mad," Nat said with a pleased smile.

"I did for a while," Phil said. "Turns out there was a message encoded in the DNA that made everyone who was injected need to find a Kree temple."

Nat's eyes flicked to Clint and back to Phil.

"It's okay, Tasha, I'm not controlled by that compulsion anymore."

"It's the anymore I don't like."

Phil smiled at her. Nat didn't show how much she cared except through the occasional gentle comment and the fact she was fiercely loyal and knee-cappingly honest with them.

"If I was still a danger May would have warned Clint."

"Bit hard when I'm still giving her the Tony treatment," Clint said with a broad smile.

"The Tony treatment?" Phil asked.

Nat rolled her eyes. "That thing Tony does when he's annoyed with you and he doesn't just give you the silent treatment he acts like you are a black hole in the room."

"It's fun to rile him into it," Clint said.

"Only for you," Nat told him, voice dry.

"Would now be a good time to get back to what Nick said?" Phil asked, looking between Nat on the screen and Clint next to him.

Tasha smiled at Phil. "I asked him why he didn't tell Phil about Clint when he knew that the brainwashing had broken."

"And?"

"He answered," Nat said, eyes locked with Phil. Clint had never actually learned to understand their silent conversations but even he could understand the red flags raised when Nick Fury actually answered a question that was posed to him. Especially one that was about one of his many secrets.

But sometimes Clint wasn't very patient. "And?"

"And he said that he thought it might be too dangerous to make people aware that you were back from the dead."

"Dangerous to who?" Phil asked.

"The Avengers," Nat told him.

"But why?" Phil asked. "How could that be dangerous to the Avengers?"

"I don't know," Nat told him. "And Fury wasn't willing to tell me. Said it was safer for everyone if no one knew."

"That sounds more like Nick," Phil said with a wry smile.

"You mean shadows and lies?" Clint asked.

"Our lives are shadows and lies," Phil said.

"And you two dated, got married, bought a retirement house, and lived your beautiful," Clint couldn't resist snorting at Nat's twee tone when she said that, "love in shadows and lies."

Clint shrugged. "Not offering information isn't the same as lying."

Nat cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. Clint smirked back at her.

"I'll tell May that's how you feel," Phil said.

Clint turned around and glared at his husband. Phil smiled at him innocently.

"How are you coping with the secret being out?" Tasha asked them.

Clint turned to look at Phil who smiled at him gently.

"It's fine," Phil said, not looking back at the screen.

"Good," Clint countered.

Phil turned back to the screen and his mouth quirked.

"You both disgust me."

"We're very happy for us too," Phil told her.

Nat's lips twitched. "When are you next going to the farmhouse?"

Phil nudged Clint with his knee and Clint shrugged. "When do you want to go?"

"After Africa, I can give you and Phil a few days to have sex in every room before I arrive."

Clint laughed. "Need more than a few days, there are a lot of rooms."

"And Phil was dead for three years, not still in the second honeymoon phase?"

"As delightful as I find the two of you discussing my sex life."

"Our sex life," Clint corrected proudly.

Phil folded his arms across his chest and stared at Clint.

"I'm proud of us," Clint said. "Especially you, you're not young anymore, Phil."

"Blue pills?" Nat asked.

Phil made a displeased noise.

"Nope," Clint said. "The alien DNA hasn't affected that at all."

Nat opened her mouth but Phil put up a hand to stop her. "Before you make any jokes about being bottled up for three years please wait until I leave."

"Okay, sweetheart," Clint said with a smile.

"I'll leave you both to it then," Phil said, standing up. He paused to lean down and kiss Clint passionately. He pulled away, winked at Nat, and then turned towards the door. "It's good to see you, Tasha," Phil said. "If you hear anything else please let me know."

"Of course, Phil, and I'm really glad you're happy."

Phil smiled at her. "Talk to you later."

Clint waited until Phil had left and turned back to Nat. "What didn't you tell him?"

"Nothing, not this time, not about this," Nat assured him.

"Even about Fury."

"Especially about Fury, something big is happening and he's not involving the Avengers."

Clint sat back and nodded. A few minutes passed and Clint pushed the thoughts about Fury and what he was doing to the part of his mind that would think on it later. "I'm cancelling my internet."

"You can't, I called and changed your account's master password."

Clint wasn't surprised. But he'd have to find a way of getting even with her. That always worked best when she was most expecting it because then her guard was less likely to end with him missing a limb or an eye.

"You need any help with Rumlow?" Clint asked.

"We're training Wanda, she's powerful but she doesn't have the basic skills. I only need to deal with one smart arse when I'm training people."

"Steve's going to be mad you called him that."

"Steve will know you're stirring."

Clint shrugged. "Let me know when you're going so I can keep an eye on the area."

Nat quirked her lips.

"Going out with this team isn't the same."

"You miss me."

"Always."

"I'll call you for the mission after Africa."

Clint smiled at her. "I can probably get away for a trip to the farmhouse even if Phil can't. We'll go down there and I can plant some more fruit trees for Phil."

Nat flat out smiled at him. "You happy?"

"Yep."

"Good," Nat said. "I'm going to raid your wine and chocolate collection."

Clint couldn't even argue with her, just with the black screen. She knew that wine collection was Phil's…she was really going after his expensive bottle of Pyatizvyozdnaya vodka or the even more expensive bottle of Youri Dolgoruki vodka. She was going to drink the entire damn bottle. Clint swore at the black screen and decided that Phil was going to have to help him improve his mood.

The End

I know there wasn't much of an explanation but really what can you expect from Nick Fury. Plus, after seeing CACW and being possibly inspired to write a sequel and wondering where Fury was I decided I couldn't just make it too neat. I hope you enjoyed this story, I had a lot of fun writing it.