The Clint Conversation
Natasha was somewhat conflicted which was not an unusual state for her. Between the training she received in her childhood and the understanding of morality that she had gained since then, there was always conflict. As the Chinese proverb said, a child’s life was a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark. The marks left by her childhood were large and deep. So she had sharpened her skills at mediating the arguments in her mind; became skilled at playing devil’s (and angel’s) advocate until she came to a conclusion she could comfortably move forward with. It didn’t always work (and the ‘civil war’ was a prime example of a failed situation), but it did most of the time and perfection was not something that Natasha ever considered a possibility.
Right now, she was conflicted about Clint Barton. No, she corrected herself, holding to her principle of scrupulous internal honesty, she wasn’t conflicted about Clint. He was out of control and taking insane risks. He needed to be stopped before he did something that would truly ruin his life, like cause harm to his teammates or cost an innocent their life. So, she was all in for pulling him off until he got his head on straight and it was an even easier call as he would be out for several weeks anyways with a strained shoulder. He couldn’t fight as it was so he could concentrate on getting back his professionalism – at least he would have something to do. Clint did not do well with inactivity.
It was the fact that Steve had been the one to not only identify the problem, but actually move on to calling Clint out – that was the issue. Steve never called them out (except Tony the honest part of her mind hissed); he would talk to them gently about mistakes. He would insist on more training to correct a weakness, but actually bench one of them? Natasha had never seen him even get close (not even with Wanda and she had urged…but no use going down that road). Steve was good on the battlefield and identifying where the parts were not working well, but this was more than that. This was Steve looking back and seeing a pattern of behavior and calling someone on it.
Calling out one of his favored teammates and that was the heart of the uneasiness. Natasha was well aware that Steve Rogers played favorites. He was mostly motivated by personal loyalty; give him yours and he would back you. He would still play you – although she doubted he was aware of that aspect – but he would not let anyone else attack you. Natasha had made a major effort to become one of his and she had paid a price for it. Although neither she nor Fury foresaw that gaining Steve’s favor meant losing Tony Stark’s, or the price that would be paid for that. She shrugged off that unfruitful line of thought (Stark was well beyond her now, with his therapy and well-founded caution of being used). Still, it was very odd for Steve to act as he had been doing. She had decided that she would have to bring Clint’s behavior up to him for him to act on it. There were few people who were important to Natasha, who she would manipulate for on a personal level, but Clint was always one. He was on the edge and she really didn’t think she could cope with him dying because he couldn’t get his life back on track. So she had been carefully preparing to approach Steve when the Captain came to her about benching Clint.
She had made sure to be gracious about the fact that he had consulted others before her (she noted it however) and had immediately agreed. But the scuttlebutt around the Compound was that Steve had already talked about this with leadership before discussing it with her (which she really noted). In fact, she knew that Falls knew and that Steve was consulting with him. This was far from the man she was familiar with and was comfortable working with. It wasn’t that Natasha only looked at people as marks, it was that her comfort was based on knowing how the people around her would react to a situation. Someone reacting unusually disturbed her greatly. On the one hand, Clint needed to be stopped before he killed himself and now she didn’t have to initiate the action. That would make it easier for her to encourage him to get help. On the other hand, Steve was now acting differently and she couldn’t figure out why.
It wasn’t just the Clint situation either. He had been noticeably quiet on the trip home from Delaware until he silenced the bitchfest in jet (and Natasha didn’t blame him. That type of conversation when there were recordings and witnesses was not wise). He had also pulled back from the team during downtime. They had mostly hung with each other all the time, but lately Steve had been missing. He still came to movie nights and team suppers, but he was no longer spending all his time with them. Apparently, he was planning on taking some courses at the War College and was doing preliminary reading for that. He also was volunteering more to work with people on other teams. Natasha actually approved of that; it would increase their influence if Steve was seen as a trainer rather than as the leader of the Exvengers (as some still called them). She, in fact, had been the person to suggest that Steve do some combat training of the less experienced members. But now he seemed to be distancing himself somewhat from them and that was not something that could be allowed. Without Steve firmly at their head, Natasha was well aware the entire group would fray and split. She wasn’t in a position to survive it and land in a good position. She needed to find out what was changing in Steve’s head and then she would be able to plan out how to deal with it.
But first, she had to take set up Clint. She could have let him fall, but she needed him to succeed. Steve wanted to have a meeting with her and Falls in attendance to talk to Clint and she had said that she thought that was best. The meeting was scheduled for the day after tomorrow which meant she had to talk to Clint tonight. If she set this up right, Clint would go from untrusted renegade to agent who struggled with his demons and won – a good old-fashion redemption story. She grabbed her jacket and set off to meet Clint on the grounds. There weren’t many places in the Compound where one can get guaranteed privacy, but Natasha and Clint had found a place in the lee of the training center that had no cameras or mics and she had arranged to meet Clint there. It was essential that he be prepped for the meeting and understand her plan or he might ruin it and himself.
He was there when she arrived, although she still almost managed to take him by surprise. She accepted his hug as she always did. “We need to talk. I have a plan.” Quick and clear set up to keep him focused. She told him about the planned ‘talk’ with Falls and Steve; preempted him when he beganto rail, “Clint – they aren’t wrong. You’ve been off target and it threatens the team. Pulling you off makes sense. But I think we can turn this whole thing to our advantage. Use it to gain more leverage.” She laid out her plan. Steve had been worried about Clint being on the DL without anything to do other than therapy. It had sounded like a recipe or disaster. Falls had agreed and suggested that Clint also get involved with designing a program for scouting and shooting skills. When Steve had told her this, Natasha had immediately seen a bigger picture. “Clint, you work this angle. It will build influence – you’ll be a respected instructor, not a renegade. We need to solidify our position in this new organization and this could be it. But you need to get your head in the game!” Clint agreed and at the meeting, Natasha watched with concealed satisfaction and pride as Clint gave a bravura performance. She had him pointed in the right direction and focused on the prize. Now, she needed to find out what was going on with Steve.