Version 2

"Welcome to your new Home!" Clint Barton aka Hawkeye had said to them with a wide grin on his face, in the moment they had finally reached the SHIELD HQ and a home it had become:

Agent Phil Coulson had introduced them to the Director – Nick Fury – who had been furious about Barton's refusal to follow the mission goal at first, but after he had heard his reasoning for his actions, he settled down and said: "I understand your point of view Agent Barton and we will try it." Then he finally turned towards Tony and Natasha who had followed the conversation carefully but without showing any kind of reaction to the things that were said. "So, you are AES04 and NR03 or rather Anthony Edward Stark and Natasha Romanov." Tony and Natasha nodded in agreement and Fury sat down behind his desk, folding his hands on the desk. "You two will have to undergo the standard training that every Agent has to go through – but I am sure that you will be finished faster than any other recruit before you. After that you will be teamed up with Agent Coulson and Agent Barton and send to different missions. Is that acceptable for you two?" A chorus of "Yes sir." was his answer.

"Good. Now, Agent Coulson and Agent Barton will show you to your rooms and introduce you to the rules. Dismissed."

"Here are your rooms. Clint's is the one right opposite from yours Tony and mine is opposite from yours Natasha. If you two ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask us." The two assassins nodded and went into Tony's room, Clint following them to get to know them better and Phil excused himself. "I have to look for someone. I will come back later, if that is alright with you?" It was, and so Phil went looking for whoever it was and the other three made it themselves comfortable in the room.

Clint started telling them stories of his childhood and how he had come to SHIELD. "Phil found me after the Circus that I had been with left me behind after one to many fights with another guy of the troop. He catched me while training my archery skills in the woods, asked my some questions and then suddenly asked 'Do you want to become an Agent and help your country?' I had nowhere to go, so I went with him." Clint shrugged. "Turned out to be a good decision – Phil and some of the other Agents are really great."

After a while, Natasha and Tony slowly opened up too and told Clint a bit about their time in the Red Room – but left out the worst parts for now since they didn't trust him completely yet. Maybe they would when time went by, but for now they would stay cautious.

They were telling him a bit of their training – Clint was already as pale as a white sheet – when suddenly someone knocked on the door. Instinctively Tony grabbed his bracelet (the one Yinsen had given him and which he never took off), ready to transform it into a knife as he moved towards the door. When he opened it, he was greeted by the sight of Coulson who had a twinkle in his eyes that didn't do anything to relax Tony in the slightest.

"I have someone here that wants to see you." Coulson said and sidestepped to give someone else enough space to go to Tony.

In shock of seeing the person, Tony let go of the bracelet; hands falling limb at his side and his eyes began to slightly sting from unshed tears. His mouth moved but no sound came out of it until he finally found his voice again and whispered "Jarvis!" The former Stark butler smiled kindly at Tony (just like Tony remembered it), tears running down his face as well and the finally closed the distance between them. He hugged Tony tightly (but not too tight as to make Tony feel trapped) and a familiar feeling of comfortable warmth spread through Tony – something that only Jarvis and Natasha could make him feel.

"Tony. Oh my boy, I had feared to never see you again!" Jarvis leaned slightly back and let go of Tony only to take Tony's head between his hands.

They both had tears running down their faces and stared into each other's eyes. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they let each other go and Tony pulled Jarvis towards Natasha and introduced him to her and vice versa. "Tasha that's Jarvis. Jarvis that is Natasha Romanov."

Natasha smiled slightly at the ex-butler. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Tony told me some things about you." Jarvis returned the smile. "The pleasure is all mine. Phil already gave me a short version about you two and I am glad that you two had each other during your time at that place."

Unsure of what to reply to that Natasha just shrugged and inched a bit closer to Tony who seemed at bit puzzled and turned instead to Coulson who was standing beside Clint. "How do you two know each other Agent Coulson?" "Call me Phil and we know each other from our time at the military – we served together and Jarvis was my superior officer."

"I think you need to start at the beginning Agent." Tony stated after a moment of silence. They all settled around in the room – Tony and Tasha on the bed, Clint on the desk and Phil and Jarvis sat down on the chairs that were located near the desk.

Jarvis started: "After Howard had given you away to the two men, I couldn't work there any longer and quit. Howard gave me a few million Dollars to buy my silence on the matter and threatened to destroy my life if something about you should be made public. After that I contacted Phil with whom I had stayed in contact after our service together and with his help I got a job at SHIELD. I took the test and passed. I decided to become a trainer for raw recruits. Meanwhile I never stopped looking for you. ...But I never found a trail and then – years later – Phil told me about some scientists from Russia had kidnapped someone named Ho Yinsen." Natasha and Tony tensed almost unnoticeably at the name – Tasha touched her bracelet and Tony his necklace. " He too was a scientist as well as a medical doctor. His dual citizenship made him not only a citizen of Afghanistan but of America too. In addition to that had he been working on some projects for the government and had been kidnapped from his workplace. SHIELD was contacted when the other agencies couldn't proceed any further. Phil had been given the job and found a trail to a secret lab in Russia where he found you two..." Here he paused, taking a deep breath before continuing "When the investigation led to the believe that it was you, I requested of the Director to be a part of the mission to follow you. But my request was shot down and I had to wait from news from Phil."

They sat a moment in silence before Jarvis hesitatingly said: "...I never touched the money Howard gave me and I believe that you can need more than me. You can built yourself and Natasha a life outside of SHIELD with it if you want to."

Tony nodded in thanks and everyone left slowly after they realised that he needed some time alone to thin, well everyone except Natasha.

After Tony had sorted his thought, he planned together with Natasha his resurrection from the dead while simultaneously being able to stay a SHIELD agent...

End Notes

And that was Version 2!

Now as promised I will tell you the winner: Version 1! I hope it's alright for you and will be patient with me if I don't update very fast (I'm currently not really in the mood to write, sorry!).

As far as I can tell I will call the next part of the AES04 series "AES Assemble", could change but I will warn you if it does. :)