AN: I'm so so sorry for the long wait!

And the chapter you all waited for...

Clint stares at the file in shock.

He sits in his office (an office! He has an office!) and Coulson has just dropped by to give him the file of his next target. His handler has told him to find and kill her. To find and kill Natasha.

The file is only a few pages long. They have a bad picture and nearly no information. A list of dead guys that people say are her doing, and the fact that she is Russian and a Red Room trainee. That was it. They don't even have her name. Just "The Black Widow".

Clint isn't able to move for quite some time, he just stares at the file. He'd always known that one day someone would be send after her. He just... he just never thought about what he would do when it happened.

In the back of his mind he notices that Coulson is gone and that the door is closed. Good. That means that nobody noticed his little fallout. Clint take a deep breath. One step after the other, he thinks. First, take the mission. If he doesn't, someone else will be send after her. And that somebody will make the kill without a second thought. No, he has to tell Coulson that he'd do it. Next, he has to drop of SHIELD radar for a while. Then, he has to contact Natasha and meet up with her. They have to discuss what they will do now. And all that while Coulson and probably the whole counsil are waiting for him to tell them that he did it. That he killed her.

He shakes his head. When did his life become so complicated?

Natasha is in the middle of seducing a higher up of the Red Room when her phone rings. For a moment, she freezes, then she excuses herself to look why the hell Clint is messaging her. The text however sends chills through her bones.

"We need to meet. ASAP. Big, big trouble. Austria."

Austria. That little house on top of the mountain where they had met months ago. She took a deep breath, then she smiled at her target.

"I'm so sorry..." And with that she cut his throat.

While she leaves the scene to find the next available plane to Austria, she wonders why he hasn't send an address like before. It's not that she won't find the safe house, it's more the fact that they had both agreed that the winter there had been horrible. So why not choose a safehouse somewhere warm? Something is really wrong, she just knows it.

Clint is pacing through the room. He's been there for four hours now. He knows that it will take Natasha a bit time to get here, after all he chose this safe house because it's difficult to find and far away from the usual ways of people. It's not easy to reach. Perfect if you don't want your extremely shady governmental agency boss to find out where you are.

When he hears a knock on the door, he jumps slightly. Then he looks on the little display that shows him what the camera he hid on the door records. Natasha smiles directly at him. Of course she found the camera.

He opens the door and pulls her into a quick hug. She doesn't stiffen, what brings a little smile on his face. Then he closes the door and sits down with her.

"Not that I don't like seeing you again, I really do, but your message sounded urgent. What's the matter?" Natasha asks while she warms her hands at the fire.

"I told you that you made the council nervous. Yesterday... yesterday Coulson, my handler, a kill order on you." Natasha took in a sharp breath. She looked at him sternly.

"What are you going to do?" She asked him.

"That's what I wanted to talk about with you. Since following that order obviously is out of discussion, I kind of wanted to ask you what you think of it."

When Clint said that he had been sent to kill her, Natasha's world stops turning for a moment. Then she looks at him and realizes that there is no reason to be afraid, that this is Clint. Clint. The assassin that calls her to tell her that he has been ordered to kill her. She smiles a bit and listens to him assure her that he does not intend to follow the order.

"I don't know... telling them that you can't find me won't work, will it?"

"Nope. Coulson will tell me to just keep searching."

Natasha stands up. She starts pacing through the room. Of course Clint can buy her time with telling his boss that he hasn't found her yet, but that won't be forever. They could run together, the two of them against the rest of the world, but she wouldn't ever ask that from him. Not when he has finally found a place where he seems to feel at least a bit as if he belongs there. What to do?

"We could fake your death, but..." Clint suggests, but Natasha interrupts him.

"I still have a few things to do, a few Red Room operatives to kill. I will end up on their radar again and then you have a problem. That's no way." She takes a deep breath when she has an idea.

"What... what if I defect? Offer to work for them?" She asks.

Clint looks at her thoughtfully. "It's risky. There are quite a few in the council who want to see you dead. Fury would probably be on your side, but I'm not sure... it's really risky."

"It's our best chance, I think. Everything else would only be temporary. If I defect, we could solve this issue permanently." She looks him directly into the eyes.

"We need Coulson, then. I'm only an agent, if I show up with you they will say that I got tangled up in you net and kill you anyway. If we do this, we need Coulson to back us up."

"Call him, then." She says.

It feels weird to sit here in a safe house that is his, not SHIELDs, waiting for Coulson to arrive. Clint remembers the short conversation they had.

"Hey Coulson."

"Barton. Have you found her yet?"

"Ah... I need your help. Could you please come here?"

"Why are you calling from Austria when your tracker says you're in Bogota?"

"Come here and I'll explain it."

"That better be a good explanation, Barton."

"You bet, sir."

That had been five hours ago. He and Natasha had used the time to discuss how much they would tell Coulson and to cook ridiculous amounts of coffee. Nat would have preferred wodka, and if Clint is honest, so would he, but they need to be sober when Coulson comes.

Finally, there is a knock on the door. Both he and Natasha reflexively reach for their weapons, but a short look on the camera feed tells him it is an annoyed looking Coulson. And that Coulson is alone. Clint looks at Natasha who turns on the signal jammer (they don't want Coulson to call anyone before this is sorted out) and opens the door.

"Hey boss." He greets nervously.

"Barton. What is so important that I need to come here?" Coulson asks while he looks around in the room. He finds Natasha sitting on the couch and reaches for his weapon.

"Ah... put that down, boss. You won't need it. That is my old friend Natasha. Natasha, my boss Coulson." Coulson stands absolutely still when Natasha gets up and extends her hand.

"Natasha Romanova." She introduces herself. Coulson closes his eyes for a moment. He takes deep breath and shakes the hand.

"Phil Coulson. Barton, will you explain this to me please?" Coulson looks positively furious, as furious as Coulson gets, at least, so Clint hurries to speak.

"You see, Natasha here wants to defect. We thought you could maybe help with convincing the council that she does not want to kill them all?" Clint asked, putting on his most charming smile.

Coulson just sits down and looks at Natasha for a moment. Then he shakes his head ever so slightly and asks:

"And you couldn't have mentioned that you know the Black Widow before we send you on this mission?" He asks Clint.

"Well, you would have sent another. And asked me a bunch of questions I don't want to answer. So, no, not really."

Coulson thinks for a moment, then he looks at Natasha. His eyes trace her face, stay at her eyes and finally, after what feels like an eternity, Coulson sighs.

"Why do you want to defect, Miss Romanova?" Natasha looks him in the eyes, not afraid, and Clint can't help but be incredibly proud of her.

"I want to defect because the Red Room killed my family. I want revenge, Mr. Coulson, and I can hardly get it when I'm dead. If I don't defect, your council won't rest until I'm six feet under."

Coulson scans her face for emotions, and whatever he finds seems to please him.

"Well, at least you don't try to tell me your suddenly enamored with America. You will have to go through quite a few unhappy interrogations and it won't be easy, but I'll help you."

AN: I hope you liked it!