2014-02-25 - A Matter of Trust

It's morning and Clint is waiting for Nat downstairs in the gym. He's hung a new heavy bag up, after America beat the shit out of the last one, and he's currently doing his best to break this one in with a series of punches and kicks. There's a pair of coffee cups on set on the boxing ring, and the door to the gym is left unlocked.

Natasha lets herself into the gym, observing Clint beating the hell out of the heavy bag impassively. She doesn't interrupt until he reaches a pause in his strikes. Then she says, "Morning, Clint." Moving towards the coffee cups on the ring, she lifts one of them and nods gratefully.

Clint hears Nat come in so when she greets him, he's ready to finish off his combo with a roundhouse kick. That done he let's out a breath and then makes his way over to the ring, stooping briefly to pick up a towel and wipe the sweat off his face. "Morning," he says as he leans against the ring and grabs his coffee cup. Not hard to tell which was his what with the big purple H on it. "So, I'd be all in your face about getting knocked up, but it sounds like whatever else is going on is more serious," he remarks before he takes a sip.

"Trust me," Natasha says ruefully, "I'm not exactly thrilled about being 'knocked up'." She takes a gulp of the coffee, closing her eyes. "Can you believe Tony is trying to forbid me from drinking coffee? I'm the one with a parasite inside me, and he's the one having fits."

Nat leans against the ring. "And I'm still a bit displeased with him telling you." Her expression makes it pretty clear she would have preferred to be the one to do so.

"I can imagine, seriously Nat, I would have thought you'd have just taken care of it. As for Tony telling me, I figured you were going to tell me the other day but you know, things..." he shrugs and then says. "Anyhow, this crap is none of my business, but I will say this, not as an ex but your friend, /huge/ mistake, Nat. /Huge/."

Natasha rubs her temples. "I was considering it. I hadn't even confirmed the pregnancy-- I was planning to do that when we got back from Siberia, and then decide what to do." And knowing her as he did, it's not a far stretch that 'what to do' may have involved just reinjecting herself with whatever serum that had retrieved, and to hell with the implications for the child. "But Stark. He did a medical scan while I was out."

"He's not well, Clint. If I just took care of it, he would go over the edge. Apparently children are something he wants more than seems entirely healthy." She peers at Clint over her coffee mug as she takes another sip. "I'm in damage control mode right now, Hawkeye."

"That's part of why I'm here. I cannot trust anyone else with this."

"Ah," Clint says and he frowns at the rest. "Seriously? Tony didn't strike me as the parental type. Anyhow, I keep saying this is none of my business, so, gonna actually shut the heck up right now, though the offer is on the table to shut the heck up with you sometime, watch some movies or something, get your mind off things."

After that's been said, Hawkeye is all business "So, what's going on?"

Natasha takes another long drink of the coffee. She watches Clint's face, nodding. "That would be... good, I think."

She pauses, giving a him a wry look at his question. "Remember how I told you once about my ex-husband? The fighter pilot?" She sighs. "I see now why you refuse to assume anyone is more than a solid 70% dead."

Clint blinks when Nat gives him the news, then he reaches up and massages his forehead with his fingers. "Yep, this is exactly why I have this 70 percent rule. So lemme guess, Alexi's come out of the woodwork out for vengeance now that you're knocked up and shacking up with Tony Stark?" a pause. "Also, I'm guessing he's a super soldier or something or you would have kicked his walker out from under him and this would be a done deal. Cause he's have to be like ooold by now, right?"

"Apparently, my country lied to me," Natasha says. She doesn't sound entirely surprised-- decades of being a spook does that to you. "He wasn't killed in action. He was inducted into the Super Soldier program, yes." She takes a breath. "He is the Red Guardian. James-- The Winter Soldier-- told me. He thought I knew."

"Considering it's not public knowledge yet that Stark and I are expecting, I doubt Alexi knows-- or, since he's known I'm alive and have been all this time and has never bothered contacting me, cares." If that hurts her, she does a good job at hiding it. "But Tony and James are going after him to destroy the remaining serum." Which, if she were being honest, Natasha would say she didn't want. That's always a backup plan. Always.

"We need to get to him first."

"I liked my story better," Clint remarks with a little smirk before he nods and sets his coffee down. "Okay, so we find Russian-knock-off-Cap before Tony and 'James'-," he does air quotes around the name. "-do. Then what?"

"You know Tony asked me to move in with him?" Natasha changes the subject abruptly.

"Ah," Clint says when Nat changes the subject. It was going to be one of /those/ missions. "And yeah, he mentioned, or I assumed, I was more concerned at the time with him giving me a goddamn school."

He reaches over for his coffee again. "So, when, where, what sort of opposition?"

Natasha considers. "I've heard rumors coming out of the motherland. Only rumors, though. I used to work for them. Half of what we would let slip was smoke to keep the dirty American capitalist dogs away and in fear." She gives him a slight smirk. "So, I am not too concerned..." Her brow furrows. Except some of those may be true, given Rhenzkov's appearance in New Orleans several months ago. Hmm.

She muses. "I may be able to draw him out, though. We'll have to move soon. Stark is giving James some time to adjust to being himself again before they decide to play Wondertwins and make their way to Moscow."

Clint doesn't follow the first part of what Nat says, about the rumours and such, and so gives a confused "Buh?" in response.

The second part, that he gets. "So, we don't know when or where, but, soon, and probably Moscow?"

"Probably Moscow," Natasha agrees. She eyes him for the 'Buh'. "I've heard rumors that the Red Guardian may be working with a partner; but at the same time, I /know/ the super soldier program was paused. So whoever it is, I don't think they've been injected. With the Red Room facility closed, the training would not be as thorough, in any case." She shrugs. "Also, if we can get ahold of any of the serum, the Director will want a sample for the store room."

"Oh," Clint says when Natasha explains more of what's going on. "So, possibly two super-soldiers," he says taking that all in, and likely working out what sort of arrows he'd need to stop them. "And well, as for serum, I've got some upstairs," he adds and then takes a sip of his coffee. "In the freezer."

Natasha lifts a brow. Damn, if the thought wasn't tempting... but no. She had Tony's sanity to worry about.

Still, she nods, giving Clint the small, secretive smile she pretty much only reserves for him. "Palmed it, did you?" she asks, pleased.

"Yeah, had three bottles earlier, gave two to Tony, which he didn't want me to tell you, by the way. And kept one for you know emergencies."

Clint clears his throat. "And seeing that we're two normals about to go up against two super-soldiers, this might just qualify, don't you think?"

Natasha considers it. For more than a few moments. Then she shakes her head.

"I can't risk the child," she says ruefully. "If I lost it, Stark /would/ lose his mind. And then I'd have to kill him." She delivers than coldly, matter-of-factly.

"So that's wh-" Clint stops himself short remembering that he promised to shut the heck up. He takes a breath through his nose. "I am not sure what exactly is up with Tony and the whole insanity thing, I really don't, but I do know I am not about to die for the chance he might not go insane," he says levelly appealing to Nat's pragmatism. He points to her and back to him "We work Nat, as a team because when we're out there we use everything we've got to win, start holding back, putting aside options, we're going to lose, and these days we have more to lose than we used to."

Natasha leans against the boxing ring again, placing her empty mug aside. She looks torn.

"You're right." She looks towards the ceiling. "But the answer, for now? It's still no-- /for now/," she repeats. "I have to think, consider. See how dangerous it would be. Look at all the angles. We have a little bit of time."

She gives him a level look. "Besides, the injection may kill me, Clint. Only one in three survived. I'm not sure what triggers it one way or the other. I'm a killer, not a biochemist." She rubs her temples. "And the... aftermath isn't pretty, even if I survive it. The changes are painful."

Clint lets out a breath. "Right, forgot about that part," he admits. "Okay no serum, unless we need it. We'll just be careful and think this one out."

"Planning will be key." Natasha nods. "I will see what other information I can find out, before we go." She sighs. "Stark is telling the rest of the Avengers tonight at the meeting, about the child. I felt it was best-- as it is obvious he cannot keep his excitement to a manageable level, and it's not like it will nto be obvious soon, with Tony forbidding me from fieldwork." She scowls. She may be a good soldier, but that's the chain of command at work. In her personal life, she's not as fond of having that sort of control exerted over her.

"Great, probably goes without saying, but figuring out who this guy's partner is would be a big plus," Clint says with a nod. The rest gets a nod as well. "That's Stark for you, he wants to protect everybody. And thanks for the heads up about the announcement, I'll bring my barf bag in case Tony gets all over the top sappy."

"Bring one for me too," Natasha says darkly. She doesn't look terribly thrilled. "Also, feel free to shoot the first person who suggests a baby shower." Her expression leaves no doubts she's considering doing the same.

Clint snorts. "But I like Janet," he grouses good naturedly. "Also I don't have anything powerful enough for Shulkie." He puts a hand on Nat's shoulder. "You'll get through it and this is for the best, there's really too many secrets right now. We're the Avengers after all not SHIELD.”

Natasha nods. "I agree." Wait... she agrees there's too many secrets? She might be a skrull after all. Or those pregnancy hormones.

Or it may be something else.

"Tony wants to wait to do a public announcement until after Sawyer knows." She sighs. "So I may go speak with Sawyer as well. Soon." She muses.

"On a positive note: this child will be coveted by half or more of the villains in the world. We can use that, I think." Of course. Nat's going to start thinking along those lines. If she's going to be a target, may as well make use of it. "After the announcement, I think the Raft might start filling up." Does she look... actually strangely smug?

Clint does blink when she agrees, but he lets it go, and he doesn't comment on talking to Sawyer about things. He knew she wanted a kid with Tony back when they were dating, and the less he had to do with that mess the better.

"Typical of you Nat," Clint says with a shake of his head. "Seriously though, you guys should get a life model decoy made of the kid and drop the real thing off on Luke and Jessica, better for everyone that way."

Natasha snorts. "Tony already declined that idea. He wants to be a 'daddy'. I wanted to take the child to... a friend in Russia." She doesn't clarify. "No one would find him. Or her. Leave the child there until it is capable of learning to defend itself in combat."

"See your idea makes sense, Tony just wants to play house," Clint says and leans against the ring. "How can a guy that's that smart be so stupid, and keep in mind, this is coming from me, so yeah, expert at poor life decisions."

She scowls. "I think this is true. If he and Sawyer would fix their issues, I'd be perfectly willing to hand the child over to her and let them 'play house' and pretend at being normal." She muses. "Though, being with her, I think, was a mistake on his part. We are not cut out to be with normal people, Clint. None of us. The life we live? Once you choose this path, the only ones who can walk it with you are those already on it as well." She shrugs.

"That'd work," Clint says about Sawyer and Tony raising the child. "And agreed about the normal life thing, it doesn't work. I've tried, it's boring, plus the people we piss off in the Life, you can't call time out with them, so going normal just means you're slow and out of practice when they come for you. So, yeah, this hero stuff is for life, as long as that may be."

Natasha leans against Clint a bit. "When he went after her, he brought her into this life, made her a target. Now she still is, even though they are not together anymore. And they call you the king of poor life decisions-- speaking of that, did Rio ever call you about being the king of Carnivale for real?" she teases him.

"No... at this point, there is no turning back for Stark, and I'm not entrusting the care of a child of mine to Sawyer. She could not adequately defend him. Or her." There's not real emotion there, only a chilly pragmatism. "It may have been better for the woman if she stayed with HYDRA. Or was killed. She can never return to what she was, and she is not willing to step forward and become anything more, either. But she will always be a target, even if Tony isn't screwing her anymore." She doesn't mean anything cruel by it. She's simply... thinking out loud.

Clint puts his arm around Nat, snorting. "No," he says. "Though with the video, there's hope." he teases her back.

"I wouldn't say she'd be better off with HYDRA, but she should do something with the training. Either that or just change her name, her face, and everything else and get gone. See, this, this right here is why I don't date normals anymore."

"Exactly," Natasha replies. Not that she ever dated normals. Except for her husband, who was only sort-of normal, given his military training, and then he was apparently hand-picked for a super-soldier upgrade. Or dated, period... besides Clint and James, her relationships had been arranged by mission or pragmatism. So.

"Neither her nor Tony would have the presence of mind to take that suggestion intelligently, however," she comments idly. "So, that leaves me having to handle things. The Director assumes I will take primary responsibility for the child anyway, and I admit, I've considered it. As poor of a parental figure I will be," at least she's self-aware enough to know that, "I think Stark will be worse."

"Yeah..." Clint says about Nat taking primary custody of the child. "Talk about the best of bad choices, I mean no offense to you but you're a spy not a mom." Probably more of a compliment really. "Just don't think you're pawning the kid off on me, I've got my own now, sort of, and I am not taking any more."