"You know - when I send you on a mission to take someone out, I mean TAKE THEM OUT, not bring them back to the people that want them dead," Fury groaned from his side of the phone. Clint could actually picture his boss sitting at his desk, rubbing his temples in frustration at the archer.

"Really, sir, if she wanted to continue what she was doing, she never would have agreed to come with me. Hell, she would have killed me the second I fell asleep," responded the agent with a light laugh.

"You lowered your guard around her?" snapped the Director in a stern voice.

There was a slight regretful chuckle from Clint and shrugged. "What do you expect after sending me on multiple missions back to back?" He cleared his throat and shook his head. "Not the point, sir. Trust me on this. If anything, make her my partner."

"A spider and a bird wouldn't make the perfect team." He could only admit that Clint had a point though. Her sharpened skills were remarkable and she would certainly be a great asset to S.H.I.E.L.D. - and if what Clint had said about falling asleep around her was true, then it only showed she was no threat. He had no reason to disbelieve one of his top agents and Clint's intuitions had not been wrong yet. "We'll go ahead and test this then. The two of you head to the airport in eight hours and catch a flight to Budapest. You'll meet Coulson when you arrive and get your mission briefing. This is her audition. I'll have Hill call Laura and let her know you'll be going on one more mission before coming back. Don't make me regret this, Barton." Clint could hear a click of the other line and knew the Director had hung up.

Clint shrugged his shoulders and gave a laugh. "She's going to have fun with this." Picking himself up off the wall, he stepped back into the hotel room and found Natalia stepping out of the bathroom, running a towel through her wet hair. She offered the shower to him and pointed to a robe that she had the front desk bring up. "Airport in eight hours. Your audition is in Budapest."

Her eyes widened just slightly, surprised a twenty minute phone call had ended with her getting a chance with the organization and not just another order to kill her. "Sounds exciting. I hope I pass," she joked, leaning against the back of the couch and wrapping the wet towel around her neck. "So we have some time to kill then - for lack of a better word at the moment."

He stepped over to the bathroom door and took up the robe that was hanging there, knowing he was a bit passed due for a shower. "How about room service and a few movies to pass the time?" he asked, tugging off the suit jacket he wore. "Or rather - what do you want to do?"

She had not really expected the question as it reminded her of how he had asked the same thing over twenty-four hour before when she still had a deadline before her death. There was relief in her gut this time though as even the tone in his voice was different this time around. "Room service and movies sounds good to me - but I get to pick the first movie."

It was definitely an interesting sight from within the hotel room; lights out, a movie playing on the flat screen television, and the only two occupants sitting on the large couch. Natalia was on the far left, sitting Indian-style with a bag of popcorn on her lap. The look on her face; complete and total fascination with what was on the screen. Clint, on the far right, was resting his elbow on the arm of the couch and his temple on his balled up hand. Despite being clean and comfortable after his shower and in the warm robe, the look on his face was complete and total boredom.

He had easily agreed that she could pick what they watched. Her trust was already gained but he didn't want her to think of him just as an ally and co-worker. He wanted to be her friend and, even after only spending a whole day and night with her, he should have known somewhat of the movie she would have picked. 'Walking The Streets of Moscow,' a seventy-eight minute long, black and white, Russian romantic comedy released in 1964. The moment Clint had agreed, she stated the classic movie.

After his shower and while waiting for their room service, Natalia's face was lit with a beautiful smile as she talked about the movie; how she had watched it while on an assignment much like the one they had met on. That first night as she watched the fantastic film and enjoyed her favorite Baba Romovaya cake, she actually felt like she wasn't just some kind of killing machine.

"It feels good to relax and enjoy someone's company," she had admitted to him at that time. She wasn't exactly emotionless and cold; she just never had someone to really share such emotions with.

Natalia had broken away from her movie to think about that moment before they had made themselves comfortable, how everything had changed for her in the span of a day - and she liked it. She slowly turned her head to the right and looked over to Clint. She wasn't even the least bit surprised to see the man bored out of his mind. She didn't take him for the romance movie fan.

As if sensing the eyes upon him, Clint's head turned to her and their eyes locked. Typical Clint would have looked away quickly and pretended to actually be enjoying the movie. Instead, he just gave her a smile; something reassuring, as if to say 'I'm still here' and seeing his boyish smile, her own soft pink lips curled into a smile before looking back to the movie.