Falling in the Black

It has been a couple of weeks since Natasha and Clint started working with Raylee. It was supposed to be a down day for them but Raylee was in the gym doing some lite work outs while Natasha worked on some files Fury sent down to her. Clint walked into the gym and watched from a distance while she worked at hitting the punching bag. So far there hasn’t been any movement in New Mexico and everything Steve checked turned out to be dead ends and that wasn’t making anyone feel better. Rogers had decided to take a trip to Ireland to see if he could find anything out about Patrick’s brother so they would know what they were dealing with or what she was up against.

“You do know what a down day is don’t you?” Clint asked from where he was leaning against the wall. Other than working with her in therapy and workouts the two of them hadn’t talked much and he was hoping to change that right now. “You need to let your body rest.”

Raylee stopped mid punch and turned to see Clint standing there. “Yeah I do but if I am going to have any chance against Phillip I can’t afford a down day.”

Clint’s eyes went wide when she mentioned Patrick’s brother, no one had said anything to her about that, Natasha had just found a few days ago herself. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Barton don’t play stupid with me, I know you are better than that.” Raylee said as she pulled the gloves off her hands. “Tony has shown me a few ways of hacking into the systems around here.”

“So what’s up with you and Stark?” Clint asked changing the subject as he was moving closer to her.

“We are just friends that’s it… are you going to help me or are you going to just stand there and watch?” Raylee asked him as she moved over to the mats.

“Ray you know I had my reasons for not being around.” Clint said as he shrugged his jacket off and moved over to the mats. “I know I should…” was all Clint got out when Raylee swung at him but he ducked before it connected with his face. “What the hell Matthews I wasn’t ready.” He snapped at her as she swung again and this time he blocked it while pushing her back.

“Wasn’t it you that said you should always be ready for an attack.” She snapped at him as she kicked him in his side making him stumble back a little. “Keep your head in the game and never let your emotions cloud your judgment.”

“I know what the hell I said to you.” he growled at her as he swung at her and she blocked it but Raylee didn’t see his leg come up hitting her in the gut and she stumbled back a little. “You really want to take this at full force right now?”

“Why hold back?” she snapped at him as she swung again and once again he blocked her hit.

“You were stabbed and in a coma.” He growled at her as he swung at her and she blocked his hit.

“I had six months to heal.” She snapped at him. “I’m not weak and pathetic. I might not be an Avenger but I can hold my own.”

“We need to talk about that.” Clint said sweeping her leg from under her knocking her to the floor and she quickly jumped back to her feet. “Ray I wasn’t in the right state of mind.”

“Yeah that might be true but the words were loud and clear when you said them.” She said swinging at him and connected with his gut. “They were your thoughts voiced by your mouth.”

Natasha decided to take a break from the files and walked down to the gym to see what Raylee was doing. When she got to the door and opened it she was shocked to see Clint and Raylee fighting each other. Natasha stood there holding the door open and watched as Clint caught Raylee’s leg in mid swing then swept her other leg out from under her. When Raylee’s back hit the mat Clint released the leg he was holding and she quickly swept both of his legs out from under him and he fell down next to her. Natasha shook her head as she backed out of the room and left them to work this out on their own.

“Ray I’m sorry for everything.” Clint said as he laid there next to her breathing heavy as he looked up at the ceiling and Raylee was doing the same. “I said some pretty shitty things to you and I didn’t mean any of it.”

“All the things you and Nat trained me for the one thing you guys forgot to teach was being prepared for an attack from your own friend.” Raylee said looking over at him ignoring his comment about not meaning what he said. “I couldn’t hurt you Clint, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“I had no control over what I was doing and I wish like hell you would have shot me.” Clint said rolling to his side and propped himself up on one of his elbows. “You had your gun why didn’t you pull it?”

“I already told you… I couldn’t hurt you, I let my feelings get in the way.” she said turning her head to face the other way. “Let’s just try and forget about it.”

“Raylee don’t shut me out.” Clint said as he reached forward and turned her head back to face him, he noticed the tear slide down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb. “I’m sorry.”

Raylee looked up at him and the connection she felt to him was too much for her to handle, when she felt him move closer to her she quickly slid out from under his arm and sat up with her back to him. “We should let Director Fury know that I know about O’Dell.” Raylee said changing the subject.

“I will but we need to talk.” Clint said as he sat up next to her and she quickly stood up on her feet keeping her back to him.

“I can’t do this, I’m just…” Raylee didn’t get a chance to finish what she was saying because one of the doctors had walked in the room.

“Agent Matthews we need to run some test to see where you stand at the moment.” The doctor said as he walked closer to her. “Director Fury has sent Dr. Banner to conduct the testing and he should be here very soon.”

“Ok, I’ll be ready as soon as I get cleaned up.” she said to the doctor and he walked away to go to one of the labs.

“Raylee we are not done with this.” Clint said walking over to her but she still didn’t turn to face him.
“I know that but it’s going to have to wait, can you inform Fury that I know about O’Dell?”

“Yeah.” Clint said as he walked away.

Raylee wanted more than anything to tell Clint how she felt about him but she didn’t want to ruin what was left of their friendship and partnership. She knew things would be different between them after what had happened, her trust in him wasn’t completely gone but it was not as it was before. After Tony had showed her how to hack into the data base Raylee looked in to her visitor’s log and was upset that all six months not once did his name appear on it. It was just the same three names repeated over and over, Tony, Natasha and Captain Rodgers. She didn’t know the Avengers personally so it wasn’t a shock that they didn’t all visit, it did shock her how much Tony did but she had expected Clint to be there for her and he wasn’t.

Clint walked into one of the briefing rooms to call Fury to let him know that Raylee knows about O’Dell looking for her. He had no idea what had gotten into him back in the gym, he wanted and was about to kiss her until she had moved from under his arm. Natasha had been right there was something between them and he didn’t know how to deal with it. Clint just shook his head and scrolled to Fury’s number.

“What do you got for me Agent Barton?” Fury said once he answered.

“We got a slight situation down here.” Clint said wiping his hand across his head. “Agent Matthews knows about O’Dell.”

“How the hell does she know about O’Dell if no one down there other then you and Natasha knew about this?” Fury snapped at him.

“Tony Stark.” Was Clint’s only response.

“I did not tell Stark about this.” Fury growled at him.

“Stark taught Matthews how to fucking hack the data base and who knows what else he has been teaching her.” Clint said sounding aggravated and pissed. “I don’t like this friendship the two of them have.”

“I don’t either… Stark having Agent Matthews on his side is not good but he is the reason she is fighting so hard.”

“Director I don’t understand how they got so damn close in such a short time.” Clint said as he closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, he could feel the jealousy eating at him.

“Agent Barton if you think something is going on between them, stop.” Fury said in a stern voice. “Stark and Pepper Potts both friended Matthews, she has been working with the both of them.”

“Yes sir.” Clint said to him.

“I’ll be down there in one hour to talk with Matthews about O’Dell, bring Agent Romanoff up to date with all of this.” Fury said signing off before Clint could respond to him.

Raylee walked into the lab where one of the doctors was updating Dr. Banner on her. “Hello gentlemen.” Raylee said as she approached them.

“Hello Agent Matthews.” Dr. Banner said in a soft voice as the other doctor just nodded at her. “Director Fury said you have been doing amazing at healing and getting back into condition.”

“Yes, I think I’m ready to get back to work and off of this ground base.” Raylee said with a smile. “And you can call me Raylee.”

“Ok Raylee, well let’s run these test and see where you stand and then worry about getting you back out there.” Bruce said to her.

He motioned for her to sit on the examine table and did his best to examined her, not being sure of what he was doing. He wasn’t there to clear her, the doctor had done that but he need to see what frame of mind she was in for Fury. It wasn’t anywhere near his specialty but he agreed to help out with his own agenda in mind. They held a small conversation and to his knowledge he thought she seemed perfectly fine and stable. Bruce decided to take the conversation into another direction to get some answers that were intriguing his interest.

“I had a question… you don’t have to answer it.” Bruce said with a small smile.

“What do you want to know?” she asked him.

“I’ve spent some time working with Fury after the New York incident and the way he was worried about you seemed a little… off for him.”

“Ok… what is your question?” Raylee asked with a hesitated voice.

“I know there is some kind of connection with you two and I was wondering what it was.” He asked her and she looked a little shocked then she looked over at the other doctor who just happened to be patiently waiting for her to answer his question. Bruce looked over his shoulder and noticed the same thing. “Doctor can you give us a few minutes alone?”

“Yes Dr. Banner, I can just run this stuff to the other lab.” The doctor said as he quickly left the room.

“Sorry about that, I should have asked him to leave before I had asked that.” Bruce said turning back to face her. “Was I right is there a connection between you and Director Fury?”

“Yes you’re right.” Fury answered him walking into the lab startling the two of them. “Agent Matthews… Raylee is my niece.”

Bruce looked between the two of them and was completely confused, they didn’t look like they were related at all. Raylee and Fury could tell he was confused, Fury just stood there smirking and Raylee shook her head at him. “Dr. Banner, Nick was married to my mother’s sister.”

“Oh… that makes sense, does anyone else know about this?” Bruce asked looking back over at Fury.

“Only Agent Coulson and one other person knew about this, I wiped the records out that showed the relation.” Fury said walking closer to them. “Dr. Banner you seem to have a good eye on details. When my wife Sandra died I promised her I would do everything in my power to keep Raylee safe.”

“But she’s an agent for SHIELD so how do you plan on keeping that promise?” Bruce said sounding shocked. “Shouldn’t you have started by not letting her join this secret agency?”

“Raylee was already a SHIELD agent when Sandra died and being one of my best agents I couldn’t just let her go.” Fury said as he looked over at Raylee for a second before looking back at Bruce. “The records were wiped out by Agent Coulson so no one would be able to use her against me.”

“None of the Avengers know about this… even Tony Stark is out of the loop?” Bruce asked sounding shocked.

“No trail, paper or computer could put this one together.” Raylee said to him smirking. “Like Nick said you have a good eye for details and with the life we live around here it’s hard for anyone to pay close attention to it.”

“I over heard Agent Barton telling you about Raylee knowing about O’Dell… what is that about?” Bruce asked looking between them.

“That is about a man out for revenge against Raylee because she killed his brother.” Tony said walking into the lab. “So what does Dr. Banner have a good eye about details for?”

“Does anyone knock before walking into a room anymore?” Raylee said sounding shocked and relieved that Tony didn’t hear any more than that.

“I missed you too Matthews.” Tony said sarcastically to her. “So Director Fury were you planning on telling anyone about this manic that is after our friend here?”

“How the hell did you find out about…” Fury stopped talking when he realized exactly how Stark found out about O’Dell. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop looking into SHIELD’s files without permission to do so?”

“If there weren’t so many secrets around here I wouldn’t have to do that.” Tony said as he sat in one of the chairs getting comfortable.

“It’s a secret agency.” Fury said sarcastically to him. “What do you want Stark?”

“I want to know what you are doing about this O’Dell problem.”

“We have this under control and you can stay out of it Stark.” Captain Rogers said as he entered the room.

“Are you serious… how many more people are going to walk in here?” Raylee said shaking her head and Bruce smiled at her.

“Sorry Agent Matthews but I was told I could find Director Fury in here.” Steve said in a polite voice. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“It’s ok.” She said to him feeling bad that he took her comment personal. “I didn’t mean that against you but thank you for being the only one to apologize.”

“Not a problem ma’am.” He said with a smile and she couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“You told Capsicle about this problem but kept me out of it.” Tony snapped at Fury as he ignored Steve and Raylee’s little conversation. “I am the only friend she has in this room and I was kept in the dark.”

“You are not her only friend. You’re too hot headed and that’s why no one said anything to you.” Steve said shaking his head at him.

“Um… guys can I finish with Raylee’s test while you finish this conversation in another room?” Bruce said to them when he realized she was getting uncomfortable with what they were talking about.

“Yes and once you have the results please inform me.” Fury said walking to the door. “Gentlemen let’s take this to the briefing room.”

Raylee and Bruce watched as the guys left the room. “Thank you Dr. Banner, I can’t stand how they talked liked I was not sitting here.”

“Just call me Bruce, I noticed the same thing and it was my pleasure to get them out of here.” Bruce said smiling at her. “Raylee I was done already and I think you are ready to get back on the field, there aren’t any signs of long term effect from the coma and your body has healed very well from the long slumber you took.”

“I guess if Captain Rogers could sleep for seventy years, six months wasn’t too bad for me.” she said smiling at him.

“The difference is that Captain Rogers was enhanced and frozen… you weren’t.” Bruce said walking over to the lab desk. “You were able to get well because you pushed yourself to do so but I do think you should still be monitored for a while until we know for sure things are well with you.”

“But you are going to clear me, right?” Raylee asked.

“Yes, I’ll just check in on you every now and then to make sure things are going well.” Bruce said smiling. “We should go and let Fury know and we could see if they are done arguing about things yet.”

“Yeah I doubt they are.” Raylee said hopping off the table. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Clint and Nat are in there already with them.” The two of them walked over to the briefing room where they could hear the yelling coming from, Bruce shook his head at her as they walked in. Everyone was so deep in the argument they didn’t even notice them standing there until Clint looked over at them then it got quiet. “You don’t have to stop because of us.” Raylee said sarcastically to them.

“How did the test go?” Fury asked looking over at Bruce and he just nodded at him. “Good, now let’s figure out what we should do about this problem we have.”

“I still think we just hunt down the guy and kill him then the problem will be gone.” Tony said shrugging his shoulders.

“We can’t just hunt him down and kill him, we need a plan.” Steve said shaking his head at Tony.

“What is with you and needing a plan?” Tony asked him sarcastically. “The plan is kill him.”

“Cap has been trying to track him for weeks now, SHIELD can’t get a lock on his location.” Natasha said as she ran her fingers through her hair. “The trap they had isn’t working.”

“Why don’t we just put Raylee at a location O’Dell can find to draw him out?” Clint said looking over at her. “We set up around her and wait.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Tony growled at him.

“That would put her right in the middle of danger.” Bruce said looking over at Fury. “Wouldn’t that be the opposite of what you should be doing?”

“I think Clint is right.” Raylee said in a loud voice so she could be heard. “If I am spotted O’Dell will make a move then we could make ours.”

“We will be there with her, she won’t be alone.” Natasha said looking over at Bruce. “Raylee has done missions like this before and it worked for us every time.”

“We need to make sure there is a threat there first.” Fury said looking over the group. “Agent Matthews is being reassigned to headquarters for a while.