A/N: This is the prequel to my other story, Veritas! This is a multi-chapter story and my plan is to post an update at least twice a week and chapter sizes will vary, I don't have a set word count. Any characters that you recognize aren't mine so I'm not making a profit. I'm all about the smallest of details so I do mega research before I write about something I'm not familiar with but if you ever see a fact that is wrong feel free to point it out (the same with my spelling or grammar). Please read and if you can tell me what you think!

Summary: From their first mission together as Asset and Handler, to their first time together as lovers, to the secret that could have torn them apart and to the miracle that brought them closer than ever. This story follows Clint and Phil as they navigate life as agents, lovers and finally as parents.

Warnings: This story is about the relationship between two men (so don't read if not your cup of tea), also deals with Mpreg and their might be the occasional bad word or two…

Phil locked the glove box and straightened his tie before getting out of his car and heading over to the secured elevator. The parking lot was almost vacant except for a few other cars, but most people weren't usually here at five in the morning. As he rode the elevator up to the floor where the director's office was located he prepared himself for what he knew was going to be a very long day. The Director would have only order him in during his away time if something had gone majorly wrong. When the elevator doors opened he nodded to the agent standing there. "Agent Hill."

"Agent Coulson." Maria Hill replied as they walked towards Fury's office.

"How bad is it?"

"We have four dead agents, one critical, three with non-life threating injuries and one man has already been cleared by medical. Unfortunately on top of it the target managed to avoid capture and is now in the wind."

Phil frowned at this piece of information. "This was the mission in Germany correct?"

"Affirmative, the agent in charge was Agent Mackie." Hill informed him. "He's one of the ones that didn't make it."

"A huge loss for this division; Agent Mackie was my handler when I first started here."

"Mine as well, until he was assigned to handle the agent's nobody else wanted to deal with." Hill replied as they stopped in front of the Director's door. She knocked before pushing the door open. "Agent Coulson has arrived sir."

"Send him in Agent Hill."

Phil nodded once more to Hill before slipping into the Director's office. "Director Fury."

"Agent Coulson, please have a seat." Fury nodded. "Agent Hill, please go down to medical and get me an updated report on our people."

"Yes, sir." Agent Hill replied, shutting the door behind her.

"Thank you for coming in on such late notice Agent Coulson." Nick Fury said as he folded his hands on the desk in front of him.

"It's no problem Director." Phil replied.

"I'm not sure how much…" Fury paused as his office door swung open. "Agent Coulson, I'm not sure if you've met Agent Barton yet."

Phil glanced up at the man who sat down in the chair to his left. "No, I haven't, it's a pleasure Agent Barton."

"Likewise I'm sure." Clint mumbled his eyes locked firmly on the Director's desk.

"Now, as I was saying, I'm not sure how much of the situation Agent Hill was able to debrief you on."

"Just that the mission in Germany was a failure which resulted in the target escaping as well as the death of four agents including Agent Mackie. But that's all I've been made aware of."

Fury nodded before passing a file to Phil. "Felix Hotlzmann is a German national and over the last few years has become one of the biggest arms dealers in that part of Central Europe and is in the process of expanding. His guns have been rumored to be linked to the death of several hundred people and that number has been growing at an alarming rate."

"I remember the original briefing six months ago, wasn't an asset sent in to assess the situation?" Phil asked as he briefly glanced through the file before closing it.

"Agent Colins was sent in to run reckon with Agent Mackie to act as handler and to collect and forward to us all information received by Colins. Four months into the mission Colins was late for a meet up, Mackie check his undercover apartment and found him. Evidence showed that a bullet from one of Holtzmann's guns is what killed him." Fury sighed. "When Mackie returned state side it was decided that a team be sent to Germany to capture Holtzmann and if we could shut down his entire operation."

"How long…" Phil paused not sure how to form the words to ask the question.

"Six days, we weren't there for more than six days before the mission and team were compromised."

Phil shifted and looked at the younger agent, any information he needed to know could only come from one person. "Do you know what caused the mission and the team to be comprised?"

Clint turned and finally met the blue eyes of the older agent and for a moment studied him before glancing over at Fury and back to Phil. "The death of Colins drove Mackie to seek out vengeance and he believed the best way to go about it was by bringing Holtzmann in to face justice. That same drive caused him to rush the mission and sloppy mistakes were made. The night in question was supposed to be the final reckon of the mission before we moved in. Because of that I, along with Agents Romanoff, Stern and Jacobs were order to remain behind." Clint paused briefly, his eyes never leaving Phil's. "We received the distress call from the team not long after they left the safe house. We were ten minutes out and by the time we arrived to provided back up, three of our men had already gone down in what appeared to be an ambush."

"But you're not certain."

"No sir, the only men who were there when the attack first happened are either dead or in emergency surgery. Stern and Jacobs were both shot while pulling Agent Flynn out of harm's way and he is the only one who can tell us what happened."

"So we have no way of knowing which safe house Holtzmann would have gone to then."

"Holtzmann has over a dozen different safe houses and not all of them are located in Germany. We wouldn't be able to put enough teams together fast enough to hit them all." Fury answered.

Clint cleared his throat. "Actually Director, we do know which safe house he's located in."

"Do we now, why is this the first time I'm hearing this little bit of information?" Fury asked.

"I held onto this information to insure my spot on the new mission to collect Holtzmann."

"This isn't how this agency is run Agent Barton." Fury told him sternly.

"It would be greatly beneficial to have someone on this mission who knows Holtzmann's patterns. Sir." Phil added on when Fury's eye met his.

"I suppose your right but after this mission you and I are going to have a long talk about withholding information Agent Barton. Now, tell me how you know which safe house he's located in."

"Before he died, Agent Mackie told me about a safe house that for some reason or another was never mentioned in the original reckon mission. Now we know that Holtzmann has a large order of weapons he was planning on moving out of Germany and into the capital of the Czech Republic at the end of the week, with the amount of money that shipment is to bring in there is no way he won't see it through. He has a secret safe house located in Saxony that is very close to the boarder of these two countries. Mackie also believed that after the shipment had been delivered and payment received, Holtzmann was heading to Budapest."

"In that case we will put a team together and have them in Germany in the next twenty-four hours."

"Sending in a strike team again is a bad idea; it will just result in more bloodshed. Better to just send in two guys, one to get Holtzmann out and the other to act as back up and if necessary, to lay down cover fire."

"Barton is right sir, it would be faster and easier to get two men into Germany and then out again with Holtzmann in custody then it would be to try and get a team together." Phil spoke up. "Holtzmann won't be expecting anything so soon after the attack yesterday."

Fury started to respond to that when the phone on his desk rang. "Fury… I see and has Agent Romanoff woken up yet? Of course they had to sedate her, that doesn't surprise me. When will the other two be released? Okay, thank you for the update Agent Hill." Hanging up the phone, Fury leaned back in his chair and studied the two men across from him. "Agent Flynn just passed away and both Stern and Jacobs will be release in the next twenty-four hours. Romanoff tried to leave medical before they could completely fix her leg so she has been sedated and will be off active duty for at least a month."

"Good luck with that." Clint snorted.

"This man is now responsible for the death of six of my people. I will have the jet prepped and ready to go within the next thirty minutes. Barton, you and your new handler will go and retrieve Hotlzmann and bring him back here in the next seventy-two hours, any questions?"

"Who is my new handler?"

"Look to your right. Now both of you get out of my office and handle what business you need to before you leave."

Phil was about to open his mouth to protest but decided to keep silent as Fury pinned him down with a deadly glare. "Yes, sir. I'll see you at the hanger in twenty Barton." With that he left Fury's office and head down to his. He had a phone call to make before he left.