Falling in the Black

Raylee was in panic mode as she was trying her hardest to move the hand that was covering her mouth. She was about to freak out when the person the held her leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Raylee relax and stay quiet, it’s just me.” Clint whispered in her ear as he moved his hand from her mouth but kept the other arm wrapped around her waist holding her close to him, she tried her best to relax but it wasn’t easy considering the last time she saw Clint he had stabbed her. “I knew you would pick up on this but we have it under control.” Clint whispered.

“Barton, what is going on here?” Raylee asked him in a shaky voice and she knew he could hear it.

“Just go back to the party and stay near Pepper.” Clint said as he released her and she turned to face him for the first time, he wanted to apologize to her but he knew this wasn’t the time or place for that. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Barton, Stark and our mark are moving towards your location take cover quick.” Natasha’s voice said over the communicator in his ear when she saw the two of them moving towards Clint and Raylee’s location from where she was hiding. “They are just twenty feet away from turning the corner.”

“Shit!” Clint growled as he grabbed Raylee’s hand. “We gotta move now before we are spotted.”

“Tell me what’s going on and what needs to be done.” She said as he pulled her into a door way to hide.

“We need this guy tonight and we need him alive for Fury, if this guy knows we are here for him he will fight and bringing him in alive may then be out the window.”

“I’ll distract him, just don’t take long on doing whatever you guys need to do.” Raylee said as she started to move away from him but he grabbed her pulling her back towards him. “Barton just let me do this.”

“No, you are unarmed and shit could go wrong.” Clint growled in a low voice.

“Between you, Natasha and Tony being here I will be fine.” Raylee said as she pulled her arm away from him.

“Tony?” Clint hissed at her. “You and Stark are on a first name bases now?”

“Tony has been by my side since the beginning so yes we are.” She snapped at him in a low voice. “Now quit stalling me and let me do what I am trained to do.”

“Ray…” Clint began to say but Raylee stepped out into the hall before he could finish. “Fuck! Natasha keep an eye on Raylee she is using herself as a distraction.” Clint growled into the ear com and was pissed Raylee was no longer in his eye sight, he hated being on ground level and not being able to see everything but he had hoped to get her out of there before this had gone down.

“What the hell is she doing?” Natasha snapped watching Raylee move closer to the two men walking her way. Natasha knew Raylee could hold her own but she was worried about whether or not she was ready for this. “Clint I have her in sight.”

Tony’s eyes went wide when he spotted Raylee walking towards him and the General as she pulled her phone out of her clutch hoping to make it look like a recorder of some kind. “Mr. Stark, I am a reporter with the New York Times and I was wondering if you had a couple of minutes for a few questions?” she said coming to a stop in front of them. “Hello.” She said looking over at the general and giving him a small smile.

“Mr. Stark we were discussing some private business we don’t have time for this nonsense.” The guy said with a thick Russian accent.

“Yes we were General Grekov.” Tony said to him as he turned towards Raylee with a glare on his face. “Um… Ms.?”

“It’s Ms. Barnes and I promise this won’t take long at all.” Raylee said to him with a soft smile. “My editor Mr. Clinton would be upset if I come back to the office with nothing, I am so sorry General I promise this won’t take long. Just a few questions please.”

“I really can’t turn down a pretty lady like you, General do you mind?” Tony said turning to face him. “She can ask a few questions while we walk then be on her way.”

The general just grunted at them and they started walking towards where Raylee had left Clint waiting. Just as they were passing the doorway a dart shot out and hit the general in the throat and Tony caught him before he hit the floor. Clint came out and Natasha came running down the hall as Tony turned to face Raylee with a glare on his face.

“What the hell is your problem?” Tony snapped at her. “You could have been hurt!”

“Do you have any idea how bad that could have gone?” Clint snapped at her.

“Why don’t the two of you back off!” Natasha snapped at them. “Ray did what she was trained to do and did it well.”

“I am not weak, I know what the hell I was doing.” Raylee snapped at them as she turned and started to walk away from them.

“Where the hell are you going?” Tony yelled towards her.

“Back to the party, I’m in need of a drink.” She said to him as she glanced over her shoulder at them. “Tony are you coming or are you leaving with Nat and Agent Barton.”

“Oh… I could really use a drink… you two got this right?” Tony said handing the slumped man over to Clint and Clint glared at him. “Tell Fury I’ll see him tomorrow.”

Clint stood there in a rage as he watched Raylee and Stark walk back to the party quietly talking to each other. He could feel the jealousy of their friendship eating at him, it wasn’t supposed to be like that. Natasha could see the anger in Clint and got worried about how this was going to affect him. Natasha and Clint had loaded General Grekov on the Quinjet and took off back to the helicarrier with their prisoner. Clint was in a bad mood and Natasha knew why and was determined to get him to talk to her about it.

“Clint what’s on your mind?”

“Nothing, I just want to get this over with because I need some damn rest already.” Clint said focusing on the sky in front of him but he knew what she was up to. “Natasha I told you to drop it.”

“I am not going to drop it anymore.” she snapped at him and he just grunted. “I can see how much it bothered you when she walked away with Stark just now.”

“Natasha leave it alone there isn’t shit going on between us.” Clint said to her. “Some things are better left untouched.”

“I will leave it alone if you tell me right now that you don’t have deep feeling for her.” Natasha said as they approached the carrier and landed. “You wouldn’t go near Raylee’s room when she was in a coma and I cannot get you in the same room with her since she woke up but yet you were sneaking down to check on Raylee and didn’t even tell her you were doing it.”

“I wasn’t sneaking, just because I didn’t tell you does not mean anything.” Clint said getting up from his seat. “Let’s just get this guy in the detention area and brief Director Fury.”

“You can’t keep avoiding me but I’m gonna let this drop for now.” Natasha said getting up to open the back hatch, there were armed SHIELD agents standing there waiting for the prisoner.

Back at the gala Tony and Pepper were dancing with each other and Raylee was having a drink while some guy talked to her about something she wasn’t even paying any mind to. She just nodded and smiled at all the appropriate times to make it look like she was interested but her mind was on Clint not the current conversation. When he got mad at her for helping out all she could think about was him calling her weak and pathetic.

Tony noticed she wasn’t paying any attention to the guy talking to her, by looking at her he knew she was upset about something. “Pepper, let me have this next dance with Raylee.” Tony said pulling out of the hold to look her in the face. “She looks upset and I think I know why.”

“Tony whatever you do don’t make her more upset.” Pepper scolded him and he looked at her shocked.

“I would never do that.” He said in shocked voice as he grabbed his chest in mocked hurt. “Why must you think so little of me?”

“You know exactly why.” she said giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “Now play nice, I’m going to go talk with a few people.”

Pepper walked away while Tony walked over to Raylee. “May I have this dance?” Tony asked cutting the guy off from whatever he was saying to her and she smiled at him. “Sorry my man but a pretty lady needs to be dancing not standing here listening to stories.”

“Mr. Stark I was just telling Ms. Barnes about…” was all the guy could get out before Tony cut him off again.

“Nope still not interested.” Tony said to the guy as he turned to Raylee. “Ms. Barnes… Can I have this dance?”

“It would be my pleasure.” She said grabbing Tony’s hand and he led her out to the dance floor. “Thanks for the save, that guy just wouldn’t shut up and I have no idea what he was talking about.”

“So Agent Matthews when did you change your name to Ms. Barnes?” Tony asked her sarcastically.

“I didn’t want the guy to have my real name so I figure I would stick with Ms. Barnes. I think it had a nice ring to it.” She said smiling at him.

“Good call Agent Matthews… how did you come up with the name?” Tony asked smirking at her as they danced.

“Honestly it just came to me when I was in the moment.”

“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”

“Nothing, why do you ask?” she asked him defensively.

“Raylee sweetheart for being a spy, you are not very good at lying to me.” Tony said trying to be a smartass but ended up getting a completely different response then he had expected.

Raylee pulled out the hold they had with each other and quickly walked away from Tony. She quickly moved pass Pepper and out the door to the balcony coming to a stop at the railing. Pepper watched as Raylee left the room then turned to glare at Tony who was still standing in the middle of the dance floor with a shock look on his face. Once he got over it he started to go towards the way Raylee had gone but Pepper stepped in front of him before he could go out the door.

“Tony Stark what did you say to her?” Pepper snapped at him. “I told you not to upset her more than she was.”

“I have no idea what I said, I thought we were having a good start over there.” Tony said shaking his head at her. “I need to get to the bottom of this.”

“No you don’t!” Pepper snapped at him in a low voice.

“Yeah I do… wait alcohol always helps at time like this.” Tony said as he turned away from Pepper and walked to the bar and got two drinks then quickly moved around Pepper who had followed him and went out to the balcony slowly walking towards Raylee. “Alcohol always helps.” he said handing her the drink and when she turned to face him he saw the tears in her eyes as she grabbed the drink. “Raylee what’s wrong sweetheart, did I do something or say something wrong?”

“It was what you said.” Raylee said wiping the tears away before they could fall then took a drink from the glass.

“I was just joking with you, I didn’t mean it.” Tony said in a remorseful voice. “You’re one of the best agents I have met and the only one I truly like having around.”

“Tony you barely know me and you haven’t even seen what I can do on the field.” Raylee said smiling a little at him.

“Hey six months sitting next to your bed while you slept was plenty of time to hack into Fury’s data base, like I taught you so I read everything they had on you.” Tony said smirking at her. “A one sided conversation is no fun so I kept myself busy. You wouldn’t answer my questions so I answered them myself.”

“So you read about Ireland?”

“Yeah…? It was a mistake and you lived so let it go.” Tony said shrugging his shoulders at her. “You’re not perfect but you are great at what you do. What does that have to do with this?”

“When Clint was under Loki’s mind control he told me I was weak, pathetic and didn’t deserve to be an agent.”

“Oh… I see.” Tony said sounding shocked as he downed the rest of his drink and took the little she had left in her glass and finished that one too. “I think we need to get some more drinks I’ll be right back.” Tony said turning away with both glasses and went back to the bar, he needed a few minutes to think about what she had just said to him and more drinks was a good excuse to get away for a minute.

Pepper spotted him coming in so she quickly went over to him. “Did you apologize to her?”

“It wasn’t me this time, Agent Barton is the one that upset her.” Tony said grabbing the two drinks that was placed in front of him.

“Now explain to me how Agent Barton can do that if he is not here.” Pepper said to him and he smirked.

“I will explain it all to you but that will have to wait.” Tony said giving her a quick kiss and went back out to the balcony.

Tony and Raylee spoke out there for another hour, she told him about Ireland and the fight between her and Clint before he left to guard the tesseract. After hearing all that Tony could plainly see how much Raylee cared for Barton. Raylee knew she was letting her guard down with Tony by telling him everything but it felt good to her to let it all out. A little while later Tony dropped Pepper off at Stark Tower before taking Raylee back to ground base two. The helicopter landed on the helipad and when they got there they were greeted by Fury, Maria, Natasha and Clint standing there waiting.

Raylee leaned close to Tony to talk to him over the roaring of the helicopter. “It looks like one of us is in some trouble.” She said smiling at him.

“Nope not one I think we are both in trouble.” Tony said back to her with a smirk on his face.

Raylee held her dress close to her in an attempt to keep it from flying up and once they were far enough from the helicopter and closer to the waiting firing squad she let her dress fall to the ground again. “Hello Director Fury.” Raylee said to him and he just nodded at her.

“We need to talk… all of us.” Fury said turning and walking away.

“Is he mad at me or Tony?” Raylee asked Natasha in a low voice as they followed behind him.

“Both of you.” Natasha said looking over at her. “He is mad at Stark for taking you from here without the clearance and at you for getting involved with the mission when you haven’t been cleared to do so yet.”

“I wasn’t in any immediate danger.” Raylee said shaking her head. “All of you were there the whole time.”

“Clint and I both tried to tell him it was under control but he is just worried about you.” Natasha said as Raylee looked over at Clint but he was looking forward.

The six of them went into one of the briefing rooms to talk, Fury was mad and they all stood there quiet listening to him yell except Tony who kept irritating Fury with his smart remarks. Once Tony had enough of Fury he excused himself and left with a promise to come back to irritate Fury more another day. Once Tony was gone Fury seemed calmer.

“Agent Matthews I am going to have Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton stay to finish helping with the remainder of your therapy. I think it’s time to step it up and get you back on the field as soon as possible, you are needed on an assignment very soon.”

“Yes sir… that is exactly what I want.” Raylee said to him.

“Get some sleep Agent Matthews, you will be getting up very early tomorrow.” Fury said as Raylee stood up and left the room. “Agent Romanoff don’t hold anything back with her, get her at a hundred percent as soon as possible.”

“Yes sir.” Natasha said walking out.

“Barton keep your eyes on everything here.” Fury said as Clint was about to walk out. “I haven’t been able to brief you as of late due to all the work going on but we think there is a threat.”

“What kind of threat are we talking about?” Clint asked turning to face Fury fully.

“Patrick O’Dell.” Fury said getting Clint’s full attention.

“He is dead, I checked the body myself. How the hell is he a threat if Raylee killed him?”

“His brother has taken over and we have reason to believe he wants to avenge his brother.” Fury said as he glanced around to make sure no ears were close to them. “I have reason to believe he will target Agent Matthews and we need to be alert until she is ready.”

“How are we dealing with this threat?” Clint asked as he felt the urge to hit someone.

“We put word out there that she is in New Mexico and still in a coma hoping to set a trap, I have Captain Rogers working on this.” Fury said in a stern voice. “If anything hits we will let you know but until then don’t let her out of your sight.”

“Yes sir.” Clint said walking away.