Hi. I'm alive. You guys are awesome.

Kate instinctively flinched towards him when his phone slipped through his fingers and he collapsed to the floor against the couch. Eli tightened his grip around her wrist and pulled her back against his chest with the arm that wasn't still holding Aleksandra. Natasha swiped the phone from the floor and kept her peripheral vision trained on her husband.

"What did you say to him?" Natasha growled lowly.

"The truth. Coulson is alive and currently in captivity. We need you both to come in." he said flatly. Natasha's expression hardened furiously.

She slammed her thumb down on the end call button and clenched her fist around the phone, slipping it into her back pocket. She took a deep controlling breath before glancing at the rather unsure and scared looking young adults watching them. Natasha rounded the couch and crouched down beside Clint, putting her hands on either side of his face. Tilting their foreheads together, the redhead exhaled evenly, encouraging him to level his breathing.

"Barton, get ahold of yourself." She snapped quietly, her eyes boring into his as his pupils remained dilated. Clint slowly got his breathing under control, fists clenching and unclenching to stop the shaking.

He was alive.

Fury had lied.

Phil was alive.

He had mourned him, but he was alive.

"Clint," Natasha murmured, tracking her nails lightly down his face. He nodded and pushed himself off the floor, helping her up as he did so.

"Aleksandra," he realized, internally cursing the hoarseness in her voice.

"We can watch her, Clint." Kate said, ignoring the look of startled confusion from Elijah. Clint's eyes widened slightly while Natasha's narrowed in hesitation. Kate pulled out of Eli's protective embrace and crossed their living room floor to Clint, stretching up on her toes to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders. "Do what you have to do. We'll take care of her." she said steadily in his ear. Clint exhaled in relief and hugged her back.

"Thank you." He replied sincerely, pushing her away gently and glancing at Patriot's slightly nervous expression. "This alright with you Bradley?" he asked warily, glancing at his baby girl. Eli nodded confidently after a moment of hesitation.

Kate had spent so long being angry at this man, and therefore being passively sad, that he would do anything to keep that look off her face. Including take care of the newborn daughter of two assassins.

"I can give Lucky back to Julia…oh God." He breathed, corners of his eyes tightening. "Juliana." He explained at Natasha's faintly worried look. She reached forward, grabbing his hand and spinning him around.

"Clint. Vam nuzhno uspokoit'sya." She muttered lowly. Eli took that as his cue to pull Kate away and tell her whatever it was that he needed to tell her while the assassins were occupied. "It will be okay." She said seriously.

Elijah and Kate's bags had been deposited on the couch and while Natasha was showing them around the apartment, and instructing Kate on how to take care of Aleksandra, Clint was walking Lucky down the hall to Julianna's apartment.

"Her formula is in the cupboard beside the refrigerator. There should be enough to last until we get home. If not then go buy some and we will pay you back when we get home. If you need to get in the car for any amount of time, any amount of time, her car seat goes with you. Understood? Good." She snapped without waiting for a reply. "If there's an emergency, you call Pepper Potts. I'll put her number as well as Steve Rogers', Bruce Banner's and Julianna Adestello's on the refrigerator for you as well. Julianna lives a few doors down, she has a little girl and could probably help you with anything small. Banner is her doctor, and Steve is her godfather. We don't come back, he goes to her, no questions asked. You've got it? Questions?" Natasha asked, dropping her gaze to Aleksandra and rocking her gently, holding her immeasurably close.

"No." Eli said confidently.

"What about you, Bishop?"

"Nope." She said, swallowing thickly. "You guys have just gotta be careful alright?" She snickered. Natasha cracked a small smile and nodded sharply, head turning sharply to look over her shoulder when the door opened revealing a furious and heartbroken looking Clint Barton.

"I lied to her." he spat. Natasha took a deep breath and turned her attention back to Kate and Elijah.

"Pepper is well aware of how to look after Aleks, has done it before. If you can't do this, she will come get her. If we do not come back or check in in one week, you call Pepper. Understand where I'm going with this?" Natasha arched an eyebrow. Kate and Eli nodded. "And you remember where he hides his weapons?"

"Yes." Kate answered tightly.

"Good. We need to go." She said, more to Clint than anyone else. She took a forcibly steady deep breath and hugged her daughter even closer, kissing her forehead and then watching as Clint did the same, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"We'll be home soon, Baby Girl." He murmured, watching as Natasha handed Aleksandra over to Kate then turned around and stalked out the door, down the stairs. Clint kissed Kate on the cheek quickly and shook hands with Eli before following after his wife.

"Clint." Natasha called as they exited the apartment, heading towards the car. He ignored her. "Clint." She repeated, more deadly this time. When there was no reply, Natasha grabbed her partner's arm, spun him around and slammed him into the side of their Acura. He grunted under his breath but other than that made no sound. Only held the angry Russian's eye contact unwaveringly. "You need to get it together." She snapped, countering her words with a surprisingly gentle hand cupping his jaw. "Fury will pull you the second you step onto base with the level of compromised you currently are.

Clint took a few steadying breaths, matching his inhalations to Natasha's, and nodding once his heartrate had slowed considerably. The assassins' split off, Natasha rounding the car and sliding into the passenger seat while Clint started the car. They caught a glimpse of the empty back seat where Aleksandra's car seat usually was, looking at each other with an incomprehensible look before speeding out of the apartment parking lot.

Fury had been a little wary of Barton upon his arrival. Everybody was. He was emotionless, a cold blooded killer, a caged wild animal backed into a corner. Coulson was the only person he didn't lash out at. But eventually, Clint had warmed up to the Director and his wariness had faded. It had been a very long time since Fury had found himself in a state of defense against his agent. Not even when he had first told Barton that they were calling off the search for Coulson did he feel in any way threatened by Hawkeye.

Until today. Today he could feel the atmosphere on headquarters freeze, he could feel the temperatures drop with the impending approach of the Blackhawk storm. He awaited the onslaught of anger and threats, dead eyes and gun barrels with a straight back and high held head, not so much as blinking his one good eye when the door to his office crashed open, sending plaster fluttering down from the wall behind his door. Clint advanced towards him, jumping and landing on the surface of his boss's desk in a crouch, Natasha shutting the door softly behind her whirlwind partner. Fury's eye flicked back to stare straight at Barton, blinking slowly as Clint's hand closed around his throat and shoved his head back into the wall, knocking more than a few frames from their hanging place.

"Where is he?" Clint snarled dangerously. Fury stayed silent, he was not going to be bullied by a kid, no matter how talented a killer the kid was. "Where the hell is he Nick?" he shook him harder. "Tell me, dammit!" he shouted louder when he was again met will dead silence. Instead of an answer, he heard the faint click of a gun between himself and his boss.

"Stand down, Agent." Fury said evenly. Clint breathed heavily in his face for another moment before hopping backwards off the desk so that he was standing beside Natasha, arms crossed in front of his chest. His partner stood half a foot behind him to his left, watching his back like she always did. "Take a seat."

"I'll stand." Clint denied.

"Sit the hell down, Barton. If you can't treat this like any other briefing I will put somebody else on the job." Clint bristled furiously, ready to argue back, but decided the possibility of him being pulled from this mission was far more terrifying than the idea of not standing up to the man who had lied to him about Coulson's death.

He had mourned him.

"Coulson was being held at a base in Manhattan –" Fury began. It was only the hand that Natasha subtly placed on the arm of her partner's chair that kept him from jerking out of his seat. Phil had been right there the whole time, right there and he hadn't been able to find him.

Fury hesitated a moment to be sure that Barton's had himself under control.

"We were experimenting with a cell regeneration drug: GH.325. It was working, he was healing, vitals getting stronger. The scientists thought he was gonna start waking up when the base was broken in to. It was a disaster, tons of casualties, even more injuries. An agent managed to destroy the serum just before he was shot and killed. It seemed that was what they were after because when they couldn't get ahold of GH.325 itself, they took Coulson in its place. We have no doubt they are performing experiments to determine how we managed to bring a man back to life." Not a single muscle in Barton's body had so much as twitched since Fury had mentioned Manhattan.

"Who's the target?" Natasha asked professionally, leaning forward in her seat and peering at the file Fury had pushed towards them.

"Viktor Uvarov, also known as Orion."

Both Clint and Natasha's heads angled upwards toward their boss. They had been sent to track him down almost fourteen years ago. They had not only apprehended him and locked him up but had witnessed him be placed under hibernation as an extra precaution. Uvarov had been out for blood. Coulson's, Fury's and Von Strucker's to be exact.

"How did that happen?" Barton's voice was more terrifying than Fury had ever heard it.

"Agent De la Fontaine double crossed us." Fury answered, flipping to a page in the file of a recently taken photo of an elderly agent's dead body on the floor of one of the research labs. Contessa de la Fontaine had been an accomplice of Uvarov's in the 40's, but had been recruited by one of the Howling Commandos. She had graduated to a desk job now in her age and had access to plenty of confidential information.

"Where is Uvarov now?" Natasha questioned calmly.

"Russia." Fury said shortly, watching the way the Black Widow stiffened up just like her partner. The unwavering, rage filled eyes of the two best assassins' in the world nearly phased him but he continued with the brief before he could clear his throat or look away from their glares. "Wheel's up in one hour, if there's anything with your daughter that you need to take – "

"It's been dealt with. Is that all?" Barton cut in. "Sir," he spat out the addition to the sentence with as much disrespect as was possible to convey in one word.

"That's all, Agent." Fury nodded. Clint and Natasha stood and made their way to the door, Clint pausing with his hand on the door handle.

"Nick," Fury looked up. "After this, you can expect my resignation." And then they were gone. It was implied that with his, would come Natasha's. They were a package deal.

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