Who I can Trust

By

Nicole

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Marvel's characters.

Summary: A three-shot story, while Natasha was helping Steve in Winter Soldier, what was going on with Clint during all of this? Slightly AU for some scenes.

Who I can Trust

Chapter 1: The Call

Natasha's body was aching as she was cleaning herself up from the missile that could've killed both her and Steve if it weren't for the fact he reacted quickly and in turn it saved her life. She was staring at the wall in silence, her fingers tracing over the arrow around her neck. Swallowing, she reached over and grabbed Sam's phone, dialing a familiar number. "Hello?" a voice answered.

"Clint…" she said with a sigh.

She could hear a sigh of relief on the other end. "Nat, where are you? Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I'm just hiding out for a minute, had a rough night," she replied.

She pushed her hair over her shoulder as she leaned forward a little. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"We're both fine, we're just having a blast," Clint answered.

The Black Widow smiled a true smile, her eyes closing for a second. "Can I talk to her?" she asked.

"Sure," he answered.

She could hear the phone being passed to another set of hands. "Hi, mommy!" a little voice said excitedly into the phone. Natasha couldn't help but smile.

"Hey sweetheart, how are you? Are you having fun with daddy?" she asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

Natasha smiled, feeling her heart swell a little more of the love she had for the child she was speaking with. A child that shouldn't even exist, but yet she did by some…miracle. Natasha frowned a little, she didn't want to use that word, but when a child was conceived after a woman had been told her reproductive organs were destroyed…it had to be something. Then that same child that was growing within her was thought to not survive after birth because of all of the experiments the Red Room did to her.

A child…a child that on the day she went into labor it was in the middle of a thunderstorm in April, the power had gone completely out. Natasha gave birth in her room and Clint was the first one to hold their screaming daughter when she entered the world. The first time the assassin shed tears was when that baby was placed in her arms and she looked at her mother with Clint's grey eyes, her tiny hands just barely able to grasp her pinky finger. The only one who saw said tears was the man she now called her husband. "Mommy?" the little voice asked on the phone, snapping her out of her daydream.

"Mama's here," she answered.

"Mommy, when oo come home?" the three-year-old asked.

Natasha let out a sigh. "I won't be home for a little while, she has a big job to do with Mr. Steve," she told the child. She could hear the little girl pout on the other end of the phone.

"No stowy tonight?" the little girl asked.

"Not tonight. Daddy will tell you the story tonight," Natasha replied.

"Otay," the little girl said with a sigh.

"Can I talk to daddy again? Mommy has to go," she stated.

"I wuv oo mommy," the little girl

"I love you, Rowena. So much," Natasha answered.

She heard the phone get passed again and ran her fingers through her hair. "What's on your mind?" he asked. Natasha stared at the carpeted floor.

"Just that everything we were trained to fight for was all a lie," she answered.

Clint was silent on his end of the phone. "I'm sorry I brought you into this, here I thought bringing you to SHIELD would've given you a second chance in living, but instead I brought you to an even bigger nightmare than the KGB," he murmured.

"I'm not sorry," she answered.

She smiled a little. "You and Rowena are the only two good things that have come out of all this," she murmured. She heard him chuckle softly into the phone. "What do we do now?" she asked.

"We do what we have always done, Nat, we protect each other and we protect Rowena," he answered, "This is our mission for life."

"Right," she agreed.

Letting out a deep breath, she gripped the phone. "I love you, Nat, forever," he murmured into the phone.

"Forever, Hawk," she answered before hanging up.

She sat down and started to dry her hair some more when Steve came out of the bathroom. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied simply.

Steve sat across from her and she let out a sigh. "This is why I shouldn't let feelings overrun everything. Makes you worry too much about that person or people," she murmured.

"Talking about Clint and Rowena?" he asked.

Natasha looked at him and she nodded her head slowly. "It's something worth fighting for, look at it that way," he answered, "You and Clint have a family to fight for, and that's a lot more to lose."

"It is," Natasha murmured as she stared at the towel in her hands.

She smirked a little. "You know, I was told when I was first brought to SHIELD during my first physical that my reproductive organs have been compromised to the point that a pregnancy would be impossible and even if a pregnancy could ever happen, it would be impossible to carry the fetus to term," she answered. Steve stared at her. "Found out I was pregnant two months after Clint came back from New Mexico," she murmured.

She smiled a little at the memories of when she found out she was pregnant, how excited Clint had been at the idea of becoming a father, while she refused to allow herself to get attached. "Every day for the next seven months I refused to let myself get attached to her, because I was told she wouldn't survive after the birth," she murmured.

"Then she was born," Steve answered.

She nodded her head slowly. "Everything changed when I heard her first screams," she murmured, "I remembered holding her in my arms, just looking at her and promising I would never let anyone hurt her. Promising no one would ever take her away from me." Natasha rubbed the back of her neck. "Then I find out that I left the KGB for Hydra….everything's different now," she murmured.

"You have a family to fight for, a family to protect from Hydra. Natasha, I promise nothing will happen to Clint or Rowena," he assured her, resting his hand on her leg.

She nodded, resting her hand over his before the two of them started talking about what they had learned from Zola.