PRESENT DAY: TRISKELION

"Whatcha doing?" Angie asked startling Katherine out of her trance as she desperately tried to cancel out of the files she was in.

"Nothing," Katherine insisted, knocking her mouse to the floor in her mad grab for it.

"Really, because it looks like you were drooling over Agent Barton. Again," Angie teased. Setting the coffee she'd gotten Katherine on her desk, she took her seat at the desk beside Katherine's.

"I wasn't drooling," Katherine defended, bringing her hand to her chin self-consciously.

"Ogling then. Seriously girl, you need to woman up and tell him you've got the hots for him."

"Don't act like you've never pulled up files of Jenson on your down time," Katherine countered, trying to draw the conversation away from her.

"Yeah, and I did something about it and look where we are now. Now, circling back to telling Barton about your fascination with him," Angie smiled widely.

"I'm just the nerdy analysis girl that helps him out from time to time," Katherine sighed, pushing her black rimmed glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

She'd never actually met Clint Barton. Analysists like her normally communicated with agents in the field via coms. Six months ago she'd been assigned to help with one of Clint's missions. Ever since then it seemed his file landed on her desk more often than not and they'd struck up something close to a friendship. Katherine was braver communicating only through coms or emails. The anonymity was welcoming. Though she'd dug into Clint's file for pictures after two months, she doubted if he had the time or desire to do the same.

"Does he know you've been analyzing his body?" Angie countered, her smile growing until it showed one of her dimples as her eyes pointedly stared at the picture of Clint on Katherine's screen. It made Katherine feel like a creeper, or a stalker. In truth, she'd had the file open for legitimate SHIELD reasons, she'd just lingered on the picture a little longer than was necessary.

"Angie," Katherine chided in warning, glancing around the room to make sure they really were the last two working late.

"Alright, alright, teasing aside, you do way more than just analyze the data he finds on missions," Angie continued in a more serious tone. "You've helped him find an exit route when he didn't have an extraction team in place. And your conversations over your coms is way more fun than any conversations I've ever had with an agent. At least the half of it I can hear."

"I just don't want to ruin our routine. I'm good with being the nerdy side kick to his badass agent. Really." Katherine enjoyed their easy banter over the coms too much to jeopardize it with feelings.

"Fine. Since you're not planning on plunging into those waters with him, that means you're free to double date with Jenson and me. His brother's in town and he doesn't want to leave him home alone." That explained the unexpected coffee. Angie had been trying to soften her up.

"Seriously Angie, you know how I feel about set ups." Katherine had had one too many bad blind dates. And if Jenson's brother was anything like him, he wouldn't be Katherine's type. Not that Jenson wasn't a nice guy, he just lacked in the quick wit, and sarcasm that Katherine had come to expect thanks to Clint Barton.

"Please," Angie begged, tucking her chin in and widening her hazel eyes. "He's cute, a pro hockey player, and you could stand a night of fun. I'm not expecting you to marry the guy, or even talk to him after it's over. Just keep him company so I don't have to miss the show at the Kennedy center. I spent half of my paycheck on those tickets and a long time convincing Jenson to go with me."

"Fine," She relented. She knew how much Angie had wanted to see the Phantom of the Opera. "But make sure Jenson's brother knows what to expect. I have a hard time believing I'm a jock's type and I've got years of high school and college to back that theory up."

(SIX MONTHS AGO) SEPTEMBER 2010: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

"Please tell me you're understanding this, because I don't read numbers and symbols," Agent Barton grumbled in Katherine's ear. His agitation was understandable. Ever since she'd lost remote access with the computer Agent Barton worked off of, she had to talk him through the codes for unlocking the encryption.

"Only a few more lines left. Now type: Delta, Charlie, six, nine, zero, zero, forward slash," Katherine instructed.

"Nothing's happening. Isn't something supposed to be happening? I feel like something is supposed to happen. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Yes, but you could always try typing Alpha, Sierra, Sierra, Pound," Katherine muttered, pulling her long dark hair up into a ponytail.

"Alpha, Sierra…." To Katherine's surprise Agent Barton started laughing. "For the record, I appreciate you using the term pound rather than hashtag."

"Most people don't laugh when they're called an ass," Katherine pointed out.

"Do you call a lot of agents an ass?"

"Never directly."

"I'm flattered then," Clint retorted, smiling at the rapport they had going. Normally the data analysts he'd worked with before had been all business and seemed to have no sense of humor.

"Something's happening," Clint said when the screen flashed from the black analog screen to the file they had been trying to access.

"Told you I knew what I was doing," Katherine smiled triumphantly. "Now, scroll through it, slowly."

"Okay, what am I looking at?" Clint asked as he scrolled through the document that was written in the same computer code Agent Lee had been working in.

"It's what SHIELD was looking for when they sent you to Japan. Codes that will help us hack into data we have stored at the hub."

"We just used a code to hack into another code?" Clint asked. That was some serious inception.

"When you put it that way it sounds insane. But it's all pieces to a puzzle," Katherine murmured as she typed away at her computer.

"What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Erase the file," Katherine ordered, once she was finished typing.

"Erase the important code file that I stole from a very rich man who had ninjas at his disposal. Ninjas." Clint repeated back incredulously

"I've got screen shots. We don't need the file anymore. Delete it before those ninjas catch up to you."

"Too late," Clint murmured, glancing up from the laptop at the sound of the window behind him breaking.

"I thought you were joking about the ninjas," Agent Lee's voice buzzed in his ear.

"I never joke about ninjas," Clint insisted, blocking a hit from the man dressed in all black and looking like he stepped out of a Jackie Chan movie.

"How many are there?"

"Not really counting," Clint huffed, grabbing for his bow and using it to twist another ninja's arms up before kicking him away.

"Do you need me to notify back up?" Katherine asked, uncertain of what to do to help him when the sound of more glass shattering broke through their feed. "Agent Barton?"

"There is no back up," Clint grunted, flipping out of choke hold. He really needed to rethink his opinion of how cool the fight scenes in all those old Asian movies were. Because those ninja's were not giving it their all in comparison to these ninjas

"Tell extraction to be ready in five minutes," Clint instructed.

"On it," Katherine said, fingers flying over the keyboard to notify the extraction team. "Was that an explosion?"

"That was the sound of me deleting your fucking drive."

A/N: So here's a taste of what my Clint/OC would be like. Not sure if the chapters would always be this short, but I felt with the first one it'd be good to give a tiny taste. If it's not clear, the second part taking place 6 months ago is their first mission 'together' where Katherine was first assigned to Clint's case as data analysis. Let me know if you're interested in this story continuing. I had a lot of fun writing their banter.

Rach

xoxo