The Woman, the Wall, and the Weapon.
The car ride to St. Petersburg with Alexei was a lot. Multiple times all three of them wanted to pull over and drop him off on the side of the road. Natasha even suggested to it on a cliff. There was a bit of arguing between Yelena, Alexei, and Natasha which Maria went full mother and squashed since she was trying to drive a complicated back roads route so they would’t get caught.
At one point, Alexei made a joke about Yelena being on her time of the month which made all three of the women in the car yell at him and Yelena and Natasha educate him on involuntary hysterectomies to which Alexei covered his ears gagging technical terms. Maria mentioned how unsurprising it was that the men who worked for Dreykov got to keep their reproductive organs and Alexei made a face because he had never thought about it that way before and Yelena and Natasha stared him down as he came to that realization.
After things in the car calmed down Alexei struggled to be silent. He wanted to talk he missed talking to people who weren’t prisoners with him. He was in the company of three amazing women on his way to a fourth amazing woman, but everything he said seemed to upset them. He wasn’t totally sure why. He always thought he was a charmer!
“Natasha, Avengers Lady, how did you two meet?” Alexei asked and Maria and Natasha both pressed their lips together as they recalled the first time they ever met.
***** 2008 FLASHBACK
“She wants to defect!” Clint said passionately to Maria, Laura (the soon to be Mrs. Barton), Fury, and Coulson. Not one of the people to which Clint pled his case to to seemed to believe him.
“She wants to kill you.” Maria responded quickly and undeterred by Clint’s passion.
“Hill, you don’t…” Clint started with a whiny voice. “That’s Supervisory Agent Hill.” Fury jumped in immediately and corrected Clint. Clint made a face. Maria had only been a SHIELD agent for three years, she was recently 26 years old, and she was already a supervisory agent, and Clint was not—to his credit he didn’t want to be, it’s not that he couldn’t be.
“I didn’t mean the disrespect.” Clint clarified and Maria nodded, she knew that but Fury knew lots of other agents who had been around did mean it when they didn’t address her appropriately and he would not stand for it. He wouldn’t stand for it for any of the agents he appointed to higher roles, even if he and Maria had developed a special bond over the years.
“She wants to leave Dreykov and come to SHIELD.” Clint slowed down his roll and spoke more calmly.
Maria and Laura exchanged glances at each other. The two of them had always gotten along and been very supportive of each other. In fact, when Maria had her first run in with SHIELD it was Clint who didn’t trust Maria and Laura who did. Despite those first impressions they had all become friends.
“No Widow has ever left the Red Room.” Coulson said to Clint.
“This one is different, and you know she’s an asset.”
“They are all very skilled.” Fury shrugged.
“She’s definitely in a class of her own. No question, but we’re SHIELD we save people, Widows murder them—they’ve killed our fellow agents.” Maria shook her head. This just seemed so dangerous, potentially catastrophic.
“How can you all not see the value in this? She knows everything about Dreykov, the Red Room… she can help us bring him down— finally!” Clint assured.
“Clint…” Laura said quietly, like she knew that probably wasn’t going to happen but she also wanted to be supportive of her partner.
“She doesn’t want to help you, she wants to trick you, gain your trust and then kill us, and she will kill you first.” Maria explained what was really happening. It was clear as day, how could Clint not see what was happening. “She’s a master manipulator.”
“No, it’s not like that.” Clint said with frustration.
Fury made a face because Clint did have a good point, having a widow who knew the inside and outside of Dreykov’s life and routines and where the Red Room was, that was a big get for SHIELD but Maria was also right, how could she ever be trusted? This wasn’t an ordinary widow, this was Natasha Romanoff, the most ruthless and talented of them all. Fury was leaning toward not letting her defect but he thought she had a chance to plead her case.
“If she’s that skilled you can’t trust anything she says.” Laura chimed in.
“I wanted you to take her out and instead you brought her here insisting that she was a candidate for recruitment.” Fury sighed.
“And she didn’t kill me, either.” Clint pointed out.
“It’s a trick.” Maria sighed.
“I ..” Clint sighed, none of them were on his side. “If it’s a trick, I will be responsible for it.”
“Responsible for getting us all killed? For letting a widow infiltrate SHIELD?” Coulson tilted his head at Clint.
“You always recognize talent, compassion, and skill.” Clint said to Fury who was really the only one partially on the fence for Clint. Clint could see he could move him. “It was only a few years ago that Supervisory Agent Hill was brought in as a marine suspected of assisting two SHIELD agents who were undercover Hydra operatives Reynolds and Bradley, and you recruited her.” Clint reminded “and now she’s one of our bosses already…” Clint pointed out and Fury grinned slightly to the side because he knew Maria was something special when he met her.
“Her skills and talent are not the problem Agent Barton, it’s her loyalty, her trustworthiness, that’s what we have to work out.”
“You were the one who didn’t trust Maria at first.” Laura reminded.
“And I was wrong, I admitted it, I was very wrong. Sorry about that, by the way.” Clint said to Maria and Maria smirked.
“It’s okay.” Maria nodded, it was ancient history now.
“So what makes you right now, Agent Barton?” Fury asked professorially and Clint could tell he had Fury almost on the hook to get him to see the potential that was here with Natasha.
“I’m the first one to admit I make mistakes, but this is an opportunity and if we don’t take it we will regret it.” Clint tried to reason. “Have someone else talk to her, see if they see what I see.” Clint suggested.
Natasha waited in a sterile and cold metal room. It looked like closet of some sort that had been made into a makeshift holding room. There was a metal table and metal chair and they were bolted to the ground so they couldn’t be used as weapons. Natasha had been in there for hours, what felt like hours anyway. There were no windows, in clocks, they blindfolded her so she couldn’t see where she was taken in case she was a spy for Dreykov. They removed any weapons from her but did her the courtesy of not restraining her limbs, yet they locked in the holding room so she couldn’t escape. And she could escape most things, but this was clearly designed to hold someone specific…
Natasha didn’t usually get nervous. But she could tell something was wrong. SHIELD finally had her, of course they wouldn’t take her on… well, they’d take her as a prisoner for sure. Of course they would never help her. Natasha realized her mistake. This Barton character was probably just as manipulative as her and she fell for it because she was out matched and saying she wanted to defect at least let her live longer. She bought herself some time at least. Hopefully. The paranoia started to sink in for Natasha as she sat her alone twiddling her thumbs. Then Natasha realized she had a big problem, what if news of her request to defect had already made it back to Dreykov, what if he had widows infiltrated into SHIELD without her knowledge? What if they were coming for her? Would Natasha even know and what would she do to protect herself in this metal container of a room she was being held in. Natasha’s mind raced with paranoia but the boredom and exhaustion got to her as she started to doze off while slightly on edge.
It was then that she heard the door open.
“Privet.” Natasha heard in what she swore was a sinister tone of a woman’s voice saying hello to her in Russian. Even though the voice said hello, Natasha knew it meant goodbye.
Within a blink of an eye Natasha turned and struck the woman she thought was coming to kill her along the side of her face. The tall brunette woman acted quickly pulling an electrified nightstick from her side and pushing Natasha up into the wall not even reacting to the strike. Natasha was pinned between the woman, the wall, and the weapon. Then Natasha realized, it was a SHIELD agent, well most likely a SHIELD agent and not a widow in disguise coming to kill her for her betrayal.
“What the fuck!” Maria yelled sternly and Coulson walked in right behind Maria with a weapon drawn. Natasha’s jaw was wide open as she couldn’t believe she had done that, this was not a great first impression. Maria felt the sting from the hit across her face.
“I can explain that…” Natasha said in a calm unthreatening tone looking at the red mark on Maria’s cheek that she just made.
“I’m listening.” Maria growled sharply not letting Natasha leave the restraint. Natasha could feel the harsh pressure she was being held against and she did not resist it.
“I thought… that you were a widow disguised as SHIELD agent who was going to kill me.” Natasha explained honestly.
“Are there widows infiltrated into SHIELD?” Coulson asked with a tense and urgent tone.
“Not that I know of…” Natasha answered uneasy.
“Then why would you think that!?” Maria yelled in Natasha’s face pointing out the absurdity in her argument.
Natasha paused because that was a good question and she did not have an answer. For someone who just got hit pretty hard in the face this woman was still solid with her logical reasoning. Maria waited for an answer.
“You hit me to try and knock me out so you bolt out of here.” Maria glared at Natasha, her eyes narrowing in a hateful gaze as she caught Natasha in what she thought was a lie.
“Uh, well, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done that either…” Natasha admitted honestly and Maria still hadn’t stopped pressing her into the wall with the horizontal edge of her nightstick.
“So much for a defector.” Maria rolled her eyes and Coulson held his gun at Natasha still.
“This kind of hurts.” Natasha mumbled and she and Maria locked eyes in a tense stare and then Maria lessened the pressure against Natasha and slowly backed away from her so she wasn’t hurting her or pinning her against the wall anymore and Coulson came in the room with Maria.
“One last time, are there widows infiltrated into SHIELD?” Coulson asked sternly and Maria glared at her.
“Not that I know of, I am pretty confident they aren’t, because you guys and I would be dead by now.” Natasha smirked a little. “Plus, do you think I would defect to place where I knew there were people who might kill me?”
“We might kill you.” Maria pointed out smugly and Natasha groaned. “I don’t know why that’s surprising. It was a SHIELD agent that was about to finish you but showed you mercy instead, so maybe you shouldn’t get too confident.” Maria snarked and Natasha glared at her.
“You should really do something about these weak ass agents offering their kills mercy and bringing them to your HQ instead of getting the job done.” Natasha snarked back but instead of looking at Maria she looked at Coulson as a dig like she clearly wasn’t in charge.
“I can get the job done right now, if you’re in a hurry.” Maria huffed at Natasha and Natasha smirked and looked back at Maria and locked eyes with her.
“Well, you know what they say, if you want get the job done right, send a woman.” Natasha kept her smirk as she stared at Maria and Maria kept a stone cold serious hateful glare on her. She couldn’t tell if Natasha was flirting with her or wanted to kill her, or both or neither. There was a weird energy in the room.
“So you want us to kill you? I have another meeting soon, so if we can get on with it, that’s fine.” Maria looked at Coulson unbothered but really she realized Natasha was being an antagonist just shooting the shit and she decided to do it right back.
“Huh, not how I thought this was going to go.” Coulson mumbled to himself.
“Yeah, c’mon just shoot me.” Natasha said trying to get Hill’s attention back and Maria rolled her eyes at Natasha’s dramatics.
“Oh, that’s right, now that I’m in your nation’s jurisdiction I guess there’s all these rules and procedures and a daunting justice system and due process that goes on forever and ever and ugh, god, sounds like a nightmare, just end it for me, you’ll be doing me a favor because if your government wont’ get me mine will, and I’m actually scared of them.” Natasha gloated.
“It’s 2008, we kill terrorists, and even a man in a metal suit flies around and kills terrorists all the time without due process, please those days are over.” Maria enlightened Natasha and Natasha perked up because that was not the response she was expecting to hear.
“Am I a terrorist now?” Natasha tilted her head feigning that she honored by this. Maria and Coulson exchanged a glance.
“Well, thanks for making this easy.” Maria said with a light sigh as she and Coulson stood up to leave.
“That’s it? That’s your holistic assessment of whether I am worthy to join your little organization?” Natasha grumbled.
“Yes.” Maria answered in a short tone as Coulson opened the door.
Natasha sighed loudly she knew she needed a better approach but she couldn’t help herself. As Maria and Coulson started to go she wondered if that had been her only chance.
“I’m sorry I hit you, it wasn’t on purpose.” Natasha said to Maria’s back in a sincere sounding voice.
“It was.” Maria corrected Natasha and Natasha sighed.
“Okay, it was on purpose, but not because you were a SHIELD agent, I did think.. I just thought .. I thought someone was coming in here to kill me.” Natasha admitted and Maria could tell she was being honest. “I do want to defect, I do want to join SHIELD. I have skills, I know a lot of information that can help you, I don’t want to be associated with the Red Room my whole life, that’s all I’ve ever known and Agent Barton as the first person to ever show me that something else was even an option or a possibility for me. I’m glad he showed me mercy, it’s the first time anyone ever has.” Natasha gave a compelling speech as Coulson and Maria stood in the doorway. Maria sighed.
“Okay, great.” Coulson said as they both left and closed the door. Natasha quickly moved to the doorway to see if she could hear them talking.
Coulson and Maria exchanged a wide eyed glance cause that really didn’t give either of the a good assessment of what was going on.
“You should go to the infirmary.” Coulson said about Maria’s face.
“I don’t have time for that today, but do we think we can get her out of the closet and get her somewhere a little more functional to reside while her defection request is considered?” Maria said to Coulson and he nodded in agreement that this was a bad holding space for her. And Natasha took a great sigh of relief because she interpreted it as a good sign that she was being moved somewhere else that would be a bit more long term than the ‘cell’ she was in.
***** END FLASHBACK
Maria and Natasha paused before answering Alexei’s question.
“Work.” They both said in unison as if it wasn’t a surprise.
“Oh yeah, work, that’s obvious… that makes more sense.” Alexei nodded.
“As opposed to?” Natasha tilted her head at Alexei
“Being friends.” He answered quickly.
“Why couldn’t we be friends?” Natasha asked competitively.
“Women, are not friends with other women, it’s a scientific myth that that is possible, actually.”
“Scientific myth?” Maria questioned that phrase with a look of annoyance on her face.
“Yes, because women they see each other as competitors, not as equals, you all want the same thing, men.”
Maria, Yelena, and Natasha made a face at Alexei.
“Tell me I’m wrong!” He said proudly.
“You’re wrong.” Maria, Yelena, and Natasha answered just as boldly.
“Oh.” Alexei paused. “You know, I’ve been in prison for a very long time, it’s possible some of my world view .. is a little dated.” His voice went high pitch at end of his sentence and he held up his fingers making pinch between his index finger and thumb.
“A little…” Maria mumbled to herself.
Alexei audibly pressed air out of his mouth because he struggled so much to keep conversations going without being yelled at.
“Avengers Lady, what exactly do you do for your job? You’re just a lady around the Avengers all the time?”
“Yeah, my job is Avengers, but while being a lady.” Maria snarked and Yelena snickered. Alexei thought about that for a minute and he still confused.
“But like, what do you do?” He asked.
“She drives and she is on her bluetooth a lot and she tells us where to be and she makes sure our stuff works, and like tell us all the background details of stuff, she’s very informative.” Natasha smirked as she answered for me.
“Oh, you’re their assistant. Oh, oh, oh.” Alexei realized.
“I am not…” Maria started “Exactly.” Natasha interrupted cutting Maria off and Maria was quiet.
“And Natasha is your favorite, so you’ve come to assist her in her time of need.”
Maria tilted her head to the side, Alexei wasn’t totally wrong on that one.
“No, her favorite is Captain America.” Nat corrected and Maria rolled her eyes.
“Well, he is very worthy, but Natasha is number one.”
“Hey!” Yelena whined.
“Hey yourself.” Alexei tapped on Yelena’s arm. “The Avenger Lady is right here, network, I bet she knows he higher ups.” He encouraged in a fatherly way.
Natasha smirked.
“Oh, oh right there!” Alexei pointed at dirt road. “We have to go down this road for like an hour and then we’ll find her place.”
“Is this the start of a horror movie?” Maria mumbled looking at the road with tree branches ready to fall on it.
“Start?” Natasha asked. “Where have you been?” She groaned and Yelena laughed. Alexei turned his head to the side because he wondered what was making this so bad for Natasha, it couldn't be him, right?
***** 2008 FLASHBACK
Clint and Natasha were sitting in a room alone together. Clint was struggling to get people on board with letting Natasha join SHIELD. He could tell Fury was intrigued by the idea and he just had to get one other person to help move the needle. Normally, he’d talk to his secret partner, Laura, but for this one, he knew he had to go a different direction. If he could get Maria on board with Natasha that would mean two of the people the newly appointed Director trusts could help him move the needle in favor of Natasha. Fury trusted Clint, he trusted Coulson, he trusted Laura, and the recruit he brought in a few years ago, Maria.
“Look, some people they aren’t buying what you are selling, offering I mean.” Clint started. “I know you’re serious, I know you want to leave Dreykov. If you can get Supervisory Agent Hill on your side, it will go a long way. Right now, I’m one against four.”
“God, I hope she’s not the one I punched.” Natasha sided to herself.
“It is.” Clint made a face.
“What does she matter? You two would still be two against three.” Natasha rolled her eyes what a poor sales pitch.
“You don’t work here, so you don’t get it, but you will. Convince Hill you’re valuable just like you convinced me you want to leave. Her word goes far, further than mine and sometimes that’s really a good thing.” Clint tried to assure.
‘Further than yours? She’s like half your age.” Natasha smirked as she recalled the young woman she clocked in the face upon her entrance.
“Do you think I am 52 years old?” Clint made a face at Natasha and she laughed.
“Give or take…” she shrugged with a wide smug grin.
“Yeah, give or take fifteen years….” Clint rolled his eyes.
“Still, why is a 25 year old girl more valued than you?” Natasha asked she fell back into her old pattern trying to start shit and then she realized what she was doing and Clint shook his head at her not to even go there.
“It’s not like that here.” He shut down her method and Natasha felt kind of bad.
Maybe this guy was right, he was the one person to show her anything good or kind in her whole life and she was already trying to muddy things up and stir things. And here he was still trying to help her. She just didn’t want to believe that anyone would go out on a limb for her, it’s like she wanted it to fail so she wouldn’t bother getting her hopes up.
“I’m just wondering, I guess, how will I get her to buy what I”m selling if I don’t know anything about her?” Natasha asked pursing her lips at Clint.
“Just be honest.” Clint shrugged, that was really the best way to work with anyone here.
A short while later Maria returned to the room and sat next to Clint.
“How’s your face? Sorry about that… again.” Natasha asked. Maria couldn’t tell if Natasha was taunting her or seriously asking.
Maria just stared at her.
“It’s actually really a good thing that you’re taller than me because otherwise you might have had a serious concussion.” Natasha tried to explain in a friendly way and that things actually worked out okay considering.
“Yeah, and you’d be in prison.” Maria glared at her with a narrow gaze.
“I’m not in prison?” Natasha asked turning her head looking around her new slightly improved quarters.
“Prison? Please. Where have you been?” Maria snarked and Clint wondered if maybe Laura or Coulson would be better for this but Clint knew getting Maria on his side meant a lot for his case. And Maria was no nonsense she already met with Natasha once and she very willingly came back despite being hit in the face. Hill must’ve sensed what Clint did too.
“I suppose this is nicer than the standard prison care that SHIELD enemies get…” Natasha looked around the room. Natasha sighed. “It’s a shame though if I end up incarcerated, I moved around undetected from you for years.”
“Crimes have a way of catching up with you.” Maria muttered.
“You guys have been trying for awhile to catch up to me, and I’m just a measly human.” Natasha downplayed herself.
“Yeah, well, we got some new hires and we got ahead.” Clint smirked at Natasha.
Natasha glared at Clint and then looked at Maria and her expression changed a bit.
“She didn’t.” Natasha squinted at Maria.
“I did.” Maria bragged.
“You guys almost had me in Bulgaria.” Natasha smirked a little recalling her escape from SHIELD before Hawkeye went after her.
“Not in Romania?” Maria questioned and then Natasha thought about it and smiled.
“There too.” Natasha added in.
“I guess he’s the only one really good enough to get me, barely.” Natasha gestured to Clint with a smirk.
“Ms. Romanoff…” Maria started.
“Romanoff, please, Ms. Romanoff is my fake mother who never existed.” Natasha laughed.
“You are the one who wants to defect, you have to understand there are really serious safety concerns and precautions we have to take while we consider this. Sitting here snarking and making jokes isn’t really helping you very much.” Maria explained surprisingly calmly.
“Are you afraid to play hard ball because all you ever played at your rich white girl prep school was softball?” Natasha grinned at her joke to Maria. “Or was it soccer?” Natasha tilted her head and Clint just sighed loudly, this was going so poorly.
“They just promote you because you don’t have any skills on the field and they can’t rid of you, is that right?” Natasha asked.
“Yep.” Maria scoffed.
“What are you doing?!” Clint asked he told Natasha to get Maria on her side.
“What?” Natasha looked genuinely shocked. “You told me to be honest.” She shrugged like she didn’t do anything wrong. Clint groaned.
“Isn’t there a man to do this with? I do better with men. I mean, c’mon, the man you stole your job from would have loved me.” Natasha said to Maria and Maria genuinely laughed at that comment and Clint was confused.
“C’mon, you’re never going to trust me enough to really be here, even if I could offer a great deal much needed skill and support to this organization, and I don’t really think I need to prove anything to some twenty-five-year-old legacy hire.” Natasha dismissed Maria looking her up and down. “I mean that’s what you are right? This guy has been here 25 years and hasn’t moved up the chain and you’re already a supervisor and you can’t even block a simple head on strike.” Natasha snorted and Clint eyes widened, what was Natasha doing!
“If you want to go again…” Maria squinted at Natasha.
“Please, I’d have you pinned in tears begging for mercy in less than a minute.” Natasha gave Clint a little head nod like they were pals and Clint was crumbling inside a bit. Yet he was surprised as he heard Maria laugh at her comment and Natasha grinned.
“Romanoff, are you kidding, me and you, in this room? You’d have me on the ground?” Maria laughed again.
“Just you and me.” Natasha nodded then gestured at Clint.
“Yeah, he’s not here.” Maria nodded in agreement with Natasha.
Natasha smirked. “Okay, good so we agree you won’t have any help.”
“Why would I need it?” Maria scoffed back at her.
“And no gadgets, no weapons…” Natasha added in.
“Again, why would I need it.”
“You needed it before…” Natasha reminded her that she pulled her weapon earlier.
“Nope, this would be good head-to-head old fashioned kinda deal.”
“Now we’re talking.” Natasha nodded. “And in that situation, I would have you pinned in three seconds.” Natasha said confidently
“In this room?” Maria looked around at their space constraints. “Please, I have a few inches on you on Romanoff and in a room this size that’s half the fight.” Maria laughed and Natasha rolled her eyes.
“What is happening?” Clint felt uneasy this was so out of character for Maria and they both ignored him.
“Height isn’t everything, all that weight comes with some extra momentum.” Natasha grinned widely at her dig. “A woman like you, you have to be your own worst enemy in that situation.”
“You can’t use momentum if there’s none to work with, a jab here, a feint there.” Maria shrugged.
“Okay, fine, sure, somehow, in this room, between me and you, you manage to corner me, highly unlikely by the way, but I’ll give you this one as an apology for striking you earlier, suddenly I’m up against the wall, hand-to-hand only, no guns, no batons and then…”
“You leg sweep me.” Maria interjected and Natasha made a face because yeah that is what she was going to do.
“No..” Natasha unconvincingly muttered.
“Yeah, that little move you do, please. Predictable.” Maria dismissed, “and how far is that even going to get you? A block and a counter, maybe a little pivot and you are right back in the corner, and it’s not your fight anymore.”
“Bold of you to assume you’d even land that counter attack.” Natasha interjected quickly.
“I don’t assume, Romanoff, I calculate and in this room with these walls in that scenario, seems like things are in my favor.” Maria sad confidently and pressed her lips together and Natasha stared at her and made a slight frown, because Maria did seem right about that.
“I guess I might lose that one, in that exact situation, maybe.” Natasha admitted reluctantly and Maria looked surprised, Natasha was right but she expected more of a fight about it.
“You are just going to let me win?” Maria asked unconvinced.
“No, I can just do the physics in my head, just like you.” Natasha snickered.
“Don’t patronize me.” Maria growled.
“I wasn’t patronizing you I was just acknowledging your home court advantage.” Natasha shot back.
“Oh! I got it! I would bite you.” Natasha exclaimed wildly, that’s how she would get out of it and Maria and Clint both made a face at her.
“Gross.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“You didn’t say teeth were off limits.” Natasha pointed at Maria.
“I guess I didn’t….” Maria sighed.
“And then I’d bash your head into the wall and pin you on the ground.” Natasha smiled.
“But where would you bite me?” Maria asked.
“If I saw your head move to bite me I’d use my other hand to pin your head up.”
“And that’s where I’d leg swipe you.” Natasha pointed out happily and Maria nodded in agreement that could work.
“Okay, okay, now I see it.” Maria agree with Natasha. She had to give her credit where credit was due.
“See, you almost had me, yet again.” Natasha smirked at Maria and Maria couldn’t help but smirk back.
“Wait, but the bet was, ‘pinned in less than a minute’ that would at least take you one minute and 30 seconds, probably at least two minutes.” Maria calculated and Natasha made a face retracing the steps of their hypothetical fight in her head.
“Okay, so you would win pinned in less than a minute, but I would win overall and get away, per usual.” Natasha agreed, Maria reluctantly nodded, but she didn’t tell Natasha that the doors were locked from the outside with guards waiting at them so her escape would be futile because why give her more information than she needed.
“What the hell just happened?” Clint asked astonished.
“What? It's just some girl talk.” Natasha responded casually and Maria looked at Clint like it was no big deal.
****END FLASHBACK