6088/Lots of Catching Up

Lots of Catching Up
Date of Scene:	30 April 2021
Location:	Lounge - Playground
Synopsis:	Clint breaks the news about SHIELD to Nat.
Cast of Characters:	Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff

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Clint Barton has posed:
Clint is currently in the kitchen making a sandwich. He's been waiting for Nat to be released from the medical checks she was no doubt put through given the shape she was in when they recovered her. When she walks into the room, he calls over to her, "So, did they decide you're going to live for a little while longer? Grab a seat, want something to eat? I doubt you've been getting very good meals if I know you when you're on the hunt.

He starts putting together a second sandwich even before she answers, collecting ingredients he knows she likes. "I'll get around to yelling at you for going off on your own later, but first there's a lot we need to talk about." He collects a couple of beers from the fridge.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    "Mmmnn..." Natasha grumbles softly, rubbing the side of her head with one hand. She still looks fairly worse for wear. She's healed faster than a person has any business healing, but a doctor would still probably tell her not to go snowboarding. "Of course. I'm not allowed to die until my spy-probation is over." She says dryly. "It was in my contract."

    Her voice is a little bit distant, and her Russian accent is more apparent, even though she usually suppresses it in favor of a neutral American accent in the statess.

    She sits down with a slightly heavier grunt than is usually called for, and replies to Clint's promise of future scolding with "Looking forward to it." It's still honestly a little surreal, being back here. She was pretty sure that phase of her life was over, for a while there. When Clint finishes, she folds her arms on the table, leaning forward a bit. "Okay." She says evenly, not doing much to feign expressivness like she would for most people, "Shoot."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint brings the sandwiches and beers over to the table, sliding one of each over to Nat. "Eat, you'll feel better." He looks around the room, then back to her. "You're probably wondering why we're here instead of the Triskelion. Possibly why I didn't have a bow with me. It's a fairly depressing story, I'm afraid."

He takes a sip of his beer and shakes his head, "It was all going so well, you see. We captured one of HYDRA's leaders, we were knocking back their plans, we were winning, dammit. Everything was going our way, and then.. it all went to hell." He looks over at her directly, "They're high in the government, Nat. The day the president was supposed to announce a major victory for us, he instead declared us traitors trying to overthrow the United States government. SHIELD agents are subject to immediate arrest, and the Triskelion has been taken by the military."

He shrugs, "I figure it's better to rip the bandage off all at once, so hit me with your questions."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    "Thanks." Natasha says with fairly robotic courtesy. She picks at her food a bit. "In my experience depressing stories from the west are sunshine and rainbows compared to stories told in Russia. I should be fine." She says dryly, finally putting some food in her mouth.

    She pops the cap off of the beer with a loud 'pop' the instant after Clint says they were declared traitors. Natasha is very still, and very silent for a very long few moments. Then she brings the beer to her lips and tips it back.

    Glug... glug... glug... glug!

    The beer is empty when Natasha sets it down, takes a breath and says: "... Oh."

    Natasha leans back in her chair, staring straight ahead. "... That makes sense. I was wondering why you guys didn't find me faster." She says, distancing herself from the moment enough to take an analytical point of view on the fact that her home away from home is just... gone. And she's still a fugitive.

    Still keeping that distant air, Natasha asks, "How many did we lose?"

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint shakes his head, "I don't have exact numbers, but they were mainly operatives, our core people are still here. Not that that makes it better, really, but at least we have the people to keep working to fix the situation. We're not giving up, not by a long shot. Oh, and they haven't come after Steve or I, we think the Avengers are too visible and popular to mess with."

"That's why I'm playing ninja instead of using my bow, I can't let anyone know Hawkeye was there. The arrows are kind of a dead giveaway, after all. I'm just glad you're back with us, Nat. I'm sorry I had to hit you with this so quickly, but you'd hear things if I didn't talk to you, and I wanted you to have it straight."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha absorbs all of this silently, while idly pushing the beer bottle back and forth on the table between her thumb and forefinge. "... Appreciated." She says, finally, at present enough to make eye contact and give a nod.

    It really never ends, does it? Natasha should probably be in a hospital. Hell, she should probably be in THERAPY considering you found her knee deep in her own corpses just before she watched her mentor get shot to death. "I'll..." Natasha shakes her head. "... I'll get back to work just as soon as I can hold a gun steady, then." She says, flexing her bruised fingers briefly for emphasis. "... Should only take a week or two."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint looks her directly in the eye, "Don't push yourself too hard Nat. We've been here for weeks now, you taking a couple days extra to recover isn't going to destroy any plans, considering we weren't including you in them anyway. We didn't know where you were or what was going on, so you weren't on the radar. Your being here now is a bonus, and we haven't even started working this out yet, we've been setting up our new base and making sure we had the infrastructure to support operations."

"I'd say you can move back into the Mansion if you want, you can pretty much live normally there. I just sneak over here when there's SHIELD business to deal with, otherwise I'm playing the Avenger role so as to not cause any suspicion." He sits back a little, taking a bite of his sandwich, "So take time to recover properly, better you're actually healed than pushing yourself when you don't need to. We'll probably all get killed in the next six months anyway, might as well be in good shape for it."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha gives a rare soft huff of a laugh and replies "Fair enough, I guess." Gallows humor makes up roughly seventy percent of her conversations these days, so it's nothing she can't deal with even under the circumstances. She's always known in her bones that death was a risk - nay, a likely outcome - to what she does.

    Though... in the time since Russia... it's felt a little different. A little more real. She thought it was plenty real before, but...

    Natasha shakes her head. "In retrospect, I guess I should have made myself higher profile with the Avengers. Put a lot of effort into avoiding cameras. Maybe that toy Tony made of me will convince people I belong there."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint grins, "Oh, come on, I've seen the Avengers fan websites. You're the mysterious hot redhead nobody can get a good look at. Want to talk unknown, let's look at the guy with no powers and a bow and arrow. So if I can make it as an Avenger, you certainly can. Least you've got sexy going for you." He grins and teases, "Old lady."

Another big bite of his sandwich is washed down with a swig from his bottle, and he stands and moves around to stand beside her. He drops a hand to her shoulder and pats it gently, trying to avoid worsening any pains she's already feeling and says quietly, "I know it's a shock, but we'll get through this. Especially now, the team's back together, what have we got to worry about? We've been through worse. Remember Budapest?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha heaves a long sigh and drops her head forward when 'old lady' hits her ears, breathlessly muttering something in Russian that's roughly equivalent to 'Oh, fuck off.'. In English she laments "There's a reason I didn't go telling people that." And then adds, quietly, "A few reasons. I..." Natasha hesitates for a long moment, then just releases a long "Fffffffffffff..." sound and sighs, "... I think I'm done being upright for awhile. Going back to the ward before they find out I'm missing. I'll catch you around." She says, standing up... hobble, about as gracefully as one could expect, to the door.