The kitchen began to shake as I stood at the island fixing myself a taco. I was unfazed, recognizing the sound of the Benatar engine as it landed outside the Compound, notifying us that a part of our team had made their return. From the window, I could see Nebula and Rocket walk out of the ship and past Scott who sat on a bench. Scott said something to Nebula, who glanced at him and then spoke into the radio comm on her wrist. Moments after she walked away, there was another rocket sound and Rhodey landed right in front of Scott, startling him. I laughed and Rocket and Nebula entered the compound.

"Yeah! Chow time!" Rocket exclaimed as his eyes fell on the taco ingredients. "No more preserved space-food." He climbed up a bar stool and sat at the island, beginning to pick at the food with his fingers.

"Hey, Rocky Raccoon, use a plate!" I pulled the bowl of ground meat away from him.

"The name's Rocket, not Rocky." Rocket pulled his paw back and reached across the counter for a plate.

As Nebula sat down I gave her a nod of welcome before turning my attention back to Rocket. "You don't understand what I'm referencing, do you?"

"Not a clue," Rocket replied.

"It's a song, by The Beatles," I began and he shrugged. "Rocky Raccoon checked into his room, only to find Gideon's Bible." I sang and Rocket stared at me blankly.

"Come on, it's a good song, you should look it up." I picked up my taco and took a bite.

Rhodey walked into the kitchen and I almost dropped my plate but caught myself and set it down before running over to him.

"Hey, long time no see, El." Rhodey smiled as we embraced. "How you been?"

"Until maybe two days ago, not so good," I replied and stepped back. "But I'm getting better."

"That's good."

My expression turned serious and he knew what was coming. "Did you find him?"

"I know where he's going next," Rhodey answered and I nodded.

"That's good."

~~~~

Our first assignment as a team was to get the rest of the members who had gone awol. Tony would stay at the compound and work on the Time Machine, Bruce and Rocket were assigned with retrieving Thor, and Natasha and I were assigned with retrieving Clint.

Through his deep searching and good connections around the world, Rhodey was able to track Clint's next destination to Tokyo, Japan. Over the past five years, Clint had been hunting down and killing every criminal, gang or mafia that had survived the snap. We had come to figure out that it was not because he was seeking justice, he was seeking revenge. With this fact, we knew that getting him back would not be easy. The team also knew that the only ones who would have a real good chance were me and Nat.

"Do you remember our first mission?" I asked as we sat in the pilot's seats of a Quinjet. "You, me and Clint?"

"Of course I do, it was the most embarrassing mission ever," Natasha replied with a smile.

"You loved it, don't lie," I teased.

"I don't like pretending to be Clint's wife," Natasha muttered, flipping a switch above us.

I laughed along with a rumble of thunder. "It was funny!"

"Yes, but humiliating," Natasha said. "I don't do pet names and that mission definitely set me off."

"Fury did it on purpose," I shook my head.

"He always does." Nat smiled.

- 2006 -

Our undercover I.D's were handed to us and I looked at the name of my new identity.

"Cameron Dale," I read.

"Lisa Dale," Natasha read, with a tone of suspicion.

"Michael Dale," Clint read and began to chuckle.

"Wait..." I looked at the age of Cameron and eyed Fury.

"Fury..." Natasha began.

"I'm your dad, now," Clint turned to me.

"Oh, my God! Clint!" I shouted. "I'm older than you!"

"Cameron, have some respect." Clint's voice turned authoritative and I held back a loud laugh.

Natasha continued to stare at her ID as Clint continued to tease me. "Darling," she spoke up and Clint and I instantly ceased in our laughter. We both looked at her changed facial expression, it was calm, authoritative, and... motherly. It was there for only a split second before she shook her head and looked at Fury.

"Nope, I can't, that sounds weird."

"It's going to sound weird the entire mission, so get used to it," Fury said. "Now, here are your instructions."

I opened the suitcase that was handed to me and surveyed Cameron's clothes.

"You are a family on vacation to Mexico, your prime destination? Ciudad Juarez."

I changed into the yellow summer dress, put on the white sandals, and pinned my hair back with a sunflower clip. This made me feel like I was 10, even though Cameron's age is 14. It's because I'm short, isn't it, Fury?

"There's a market square that is a hotspot for tourists. It is also a common meeting place for gang deals, which is something that isn't expected in a nice market square that is decorated with flowers. Your main target to be on the lookout for is Esteban Gonzales, the gang leader who is in current possession of the bio-weapon."

Clint was handed the keys to a Volkswagen car that would be waiting for us in Mexico. I glanced at his outfit, a light blue, button-up shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. I suppressed another laugh.

"The three of you need to convince people that you are tourists and don't make any moves until the target does. As soon as you see the bio-weapon, you move in."

Natasha didn't look too bad wearing a white t-shirt and a long, flowing, purple skirt coupled with a white umbrella hat. She was not happy to be wearing those colors.

"And lucky you, there is an extraction plan. Once you have the bio-weapon, Flint will send a signal using this pen."

I stood under the awning of a jewelry kiosk, hiding from the sun and twiddling with the pen in my small purse, careful not to click it. Natasha stood next to me, pretending to be interested in a piece of jewelry and happily chatting with the jeweler in Spanish, a language I had not quite mastered yet. Clint stood not far away at a straw hat kiosk, also pretending to be interested in what the owner was selling.

"Cameron, sweetie, look at the pretty flowers," Natasha said, pointing towards an apartment building, but holding her conversation with the jeweler. This was a codeword, meaning, check your surroundings.

I turned away from the kiosk and glanced about the market, paying close attention to where she pointed. My eyes caught a group of men dressed in black shirts and khaki pants, all of them making cautious glances around them. I continued to watch until one of them pulled out a long bag and set it on the ground. I was about to confirm Natasha's suspicion when they pulled out the poles and beams to support a canvas that would become their kiosk for fancy watches.

"They are pretty, but I really like the flowers we have at home," I said, turning back to the jewelry kiosk.

"Ah," Natasha nodded. "How about you go see what dad found?"

I almost forgot what she meant and looked up at her with my brow furrowed before I realized what was going on and instantly changed my expression to bright and happy.

"Okay!" I smiled and skipped over to where Clint stood.

"What'ya lookin' at, dad?" I asked, standing next to him and leaning over the hats on display.

Clint cleared his throat. "Uh, straw hats."

"Like any of em?"

"I don't know," Clint glanced around. "I might look at that flower stand."

I turned leisurely and folded my hands behind my back, making another check. Two men met up behind a kiosk, nothing was very suspicious about them, they were both dressed in summer clothes. The two men shook hands, I recognized one of them to be Gonzales from the picture Fury showed us during the debriefing, and I snorted. Like that's not obvious.

"Yes, I think those flowers look very pretty, we should show mom," I said.

"Sure." Clint set down the straw hat he was looking at and nodded to the owner. "Gracias."

We both began to make our way towards Natasha, who was now standing at a different kiosk. Clint leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Break off, head toward the men."

I nodded and we split ways. I squeezed past the crowd, trying to keep my eyes on the targets. Gonzales reached into his pocket and I picked up my walking pace. As I came closer, he pulled out a small, cylindrical object wrapped in parchment paper. I reached into my purse and began to unzip the hidden pocket inside that carried my handgun. I looked to the side, seeing that Natasha and Clint were now making their way towards the target as well. I set my attention back to the cylindrical object, Gonzales pulled away some of the parchment to show his buyer and a yellow, ominous glow illuminated. That is when I picked up the pace and began pushing past people. I changed my mind about the gun and pulled out my earpiece and secured it into my ear. I looked over at Clint and Natasha who had caught onto my drift and were now securing their earpieces.

"What's your plan, Cam?" Clint asked.

"Uh... I think I might do a grab and go," I answered, beginning to run and receiving confused looks from the locals. "Their handoff is going to be quick, could you meet me around that apartment building?"

"Sure thing," Clint replied and veered to the right, making his way towards the apartment building behind the two targets.

Natasha veered left and was heading in the opposite direction. I decided not to question the motives of someone who has been in the field longer than I have and I continued in my pursuit towards the targets. I realized that these men were much taller than I was. My eyes scanned the area around them and I caught sight of an unoccupied picnic table about five feet away from them. I picked up my running speed and ran towards the table, took two strides and stepped up the chair, then onto the table and pushed off into a leap that turned into a flip.

What came next happened so quickly that I had to explain step by step to Fury and SHIELD Agents for the Mission Report.

Before my feet have even left the picnic table, I had to time the flip so that when I went over the targets, my head was facing the ground and my feet were in the air. In my eyes, it all happened in slow motion. I was above the two men and they raised their heads to stare at me as I reached down and snatched the bio-weapon from Gonzales' hand. I landed with a roll next to the men, and an intrusive thought went across my mind for a split second.

I just did a flip in a dress... No one saw my underwear right?

The thought left as quick as it came and I shook my head, realizing where I was and broke into a sprint towards the apartment building.

My eyes darted about the place, making sure they weren't alone. Which they were not. Of course, there wasn't going to be an exchange of a biological weapon without back up. My eyes fell upon four men sitting at a picnic table ahead of me, they were standing up and had made it clear that they were heading towards me.

"Flint, turn around. You won't make it to the apartment building, we have to change the rendezvous." Natasha's voice spoke in my earpiece. I glanced around me, unaware of her whereabouts.

I stopped in my sprint, taking a few stumbling steps forward from the abrupt halt. My grip on the bio-weapon was tight and I slipped it into my purse.

"Where do I go, Romanoff?" I asked.

"Your best bet is back to the kiosks," Natasha answered. "Gonzales and the other guy had their men scattered about near them, but none of them are by the kiosks."

"Got it." I turned on my heel and ran towards the kiosks. 

"You've got more guys on your tail, El," Clint spoke in my earpiece. I could only assume that he was watching from a high point, as he always finds himself a crow's nest. 

"How many?" I asked, keeping my eyes on my destination to not get distracted. 

"Four, I've got em," Natasha said. "You keep going, I'll get all the others." 

There were quick running footsteps that were not mine behind me and shortly there was the sound of scuffling and I only had to assume that Natasha had engaged with the guys on my tail. The pedestrian crowd began to move away from all the commotion, shocked screams came from a few and another few began running from the scene. My goal was to get to the kiosks through a gap between two stands, which was going well until three men stood in front of the said gap, blocking my way. I turned my attention to a picnic table that was placed right behind a kiosk, so I made a couple of leaping strides before jumping onto the table and scrambling over the canvas roof on all fours and landing in the center of the market. 

The three men that had blocked my way earlier began making their way towards me, their hands in front of them with the intent to grab me. I scanned my surroundings and seeing that I had nowhere else to run at that moment, I decided it would be best to fight these guys off. The one to my right made the first lunge towards me with his arms outstretched. I crossed my arms over each other and grabbed his opposite wrists then pulled so that his arms crossed and he was pulled forward enough for me to butt his head and knee him in between the legs. Once he was on the ground I moved to the next man who was going for the same move to grab me. I swung my left arm and the side of my fist hit his temple, stunning him for a moment. I grabbed his arm that was closest to me and twisted it around against his back then shoved him into the next man. They both fell to the ground and before they could get up I grabbed a chair and brought it down on both of them, knocking them out. 

There was a gunshot and my head jerked up, vapor leaving my mouth. Was someone shot? Was it Clint or Natasha?  Screams erupted from the crowd, people began running from a common place where I assumed the shot came from. 

"Who shot?" Clint's voice came over the comms and I sighed of relief.

"Wasn't me," I answered, making my way to where the gunshot came from.

"It was Gonzales," Natasha answered. "No one was hit, I'm currently holding him dow-" She was cut off and I began running towards the place where the gunshot was heard and where I assumed Natasha was positioned. 

I ran through the kiosk gap and found Gonzales holding Natasha in a chokehold with his gun to her head. I stopped running and held my hands up, showing that I wasn't going to make any sudden movements or try to stop him. Natasha didn't look at all bothered, it was like people held guns to her head every day. But the situation was still dire and I had to make some sort of move that wouldn't get any of us killed, including Gonzales. He was an asset. 

"Shit," I muttered. 

"Hand it over," Gonzales demanded. When I didn't make any move to do so, he held the gun closer to Natasha's head. 

It had been a long time since I was in a situation like this. This had never happened on missions with Clint or with any other SHIELD agent I had worked with. The last time this happened was in Azzano, Italy with Lieutenant Wesley Mattinson. Vapor clouded from my mouth again and there was a click in my earpiece.

"Ellie, stay calm." It was Clint. 

"I am calm," I assured him, even though I wasn't at all. 

"Give me the weapon, now!" Gonzales shouted. 

I had no idea what to do. If I moved towards them, he would shoot Natasha. If I didn't do anything, he'd shoot Natasha. If I gave him the weapon, then we'd fail the mission and Gonzales would probably shoot Natasha and me. We were at a stalemate. I glanced at Natasha and she stared at me, then darted her eyes to my hands, then made eye contact with me again. She was trying to tell me something, but I didn't quite understand. Then she mouthed one word and I knew exactly what she was planning. 

"Ice." 

I looked at Gonzales and my disposition turned calm. My eyes narrowed challengingly at Gonzales and he raised an eyebrow. I slowly reached my hand into my purse and pulled out the biological weapon. A grin spread across Gonzales' face as I held out the weapon in my hand. 

"Alright, here's the weapon. Now let my partner go," I said. 

"Weapon first." Gonzales pointed with his gun. 

"No. My partner first, then weapon, or no deal," I repeated. 

Gonzales sighed impatiently and opened his arm, removing his grip on Natasha. She made a slight nod of her head and I grinned. 

"Great." I turned my hand over and dropped the bio-weapon. 

Natasha jumped forward, Gonzales aimed his gun at me and pulled the trigger just as I flung my hand forward and a patch of ice shot out. Natasha landed on the ground and caught the weapon. The ice hit the bullet and it burst, the bits of metal and ice pierced Gonzales' face. An arrow whizzed over my head and landed at Gonzales' feet, turning into bindings around his ankles and causing him to fall to the ground. I ran over and pressed my foot to Gonzales' chest, holding him down. 

"Took you long enough, Clint." I pressed my earpiece and turned around to see Clint in a window of the apartment building. 

"Sorry, I was tying up the other guys," he replied. "The other gang followed me up here, it was pretty fun." 

I laughed and shook my head. Natasha stood up with the bio-weapon in her hand. I reached into my purse and clicked the pen. In ten minutes, city police were rolling in and in about thirty-minutes, SHIELD Quinjets were flying overhead and landing with cleanup agents filing out and gathering every member for arrest. 

Clint, Natasha, and I sat at a picnic table, taking our time to relax before heading back to the HUB. I took a sip from my iced-tea and watched as police officers put up caution tape around the market place. 

"Quite the family vacation, wouldn't you say?" Clint asked.

"This will be the first and last time," Natasha grumbled. 

"I thought it was pretty fun," I joked. 

A shadow fell over the table from behind me, Natasha and Clint looked up, their expressions turning serious. I leaned my head back to see who it was and got a glimpse of Director Fury's face from upside down. 

"Fancy seeing you here, Director." I turned in my seat to face him.

"Enjoying your stay?" Fury asked. 

"We might head home soon," Clint answered. "We've seen everything." 

"I can see that." Fury looked around and then asked, "What happened to minimal damage?" 

The three of us laughed. 

-2023-

Natasha landed the Quinjet on a rooftop in Tokyo, keeping the reflector panel's engaged. We got out of the pilot seats and Natasha grabbed an umbrella and coat, no weapons or anything. This was a different mission. I began to grab myself a coat when Natasha reached over and lowered my arm. I looked at her in confusion as she opened the door. 

"What?" I asked. 

"Stay on the jet," she said. 

"Nat, I want to get him, too." I walked to stand next to her. 

"He doesn't know that we are coming," Natasha explained. "He wouldn't want us to see him like this, especially you." 

"I don't care what I see-" 

Rapid gunfire came from below as the door fully opened followed by shouting. We turned our heads to glance down at the street below us. Men were jumping out of windows at heights they knew they weren't going to survive and the image of people jumping from the Twin Towers came to my mind. Then it occurred to me that some of these men were not jumping, and were rather being thrown from the windows. I looked back at Natasha as more gunfire echoed up. This had just proven her point and I glanced away for a second. 

"Stay on the jet," Natasha repeated and I didn't argue. 

She stepped off the jet and I closed the door behind her, shielding myself from the rain and wind. I glanced around the jet, realizing that there's not much to do. The only time I have spent time in these was for travel and I was usually with other people to talk with. I walked slowly in a circle around the interior of the jet, trying to find a detail that I had not noticed before and failed. I whistled a long note, a personification of my boredom that was quick to come. It then became clear to me that I had no idea how long it would take Natasha to retrieve Clint. 

"Go with Natasha, Ellie," I said aloud in a voice mocking Steve. "You both can easily get Clint, it'll be teamwork." 

I turned on my heel to face the personal racks for each of the Avengers. I already knew what was in my rack. Extra handguns, a first-aid kit, hair ties, extra blade handles in case I lose one, boring stuff. If there was anyone in the Avengers to keep entertaining items, it would be Tony. He's always needing something to fidget with to cater to his anxiety. I moved to his rack and pulled it open, opened one of the drawers and smiled when I found a Rubik's cube. 

"How many of these do you have?" I asked aloud. 

~~

It really must have been fifteen minutes, but it felt like I had been working on that thing for an hour. My butt was hurting from sitting on the jet floor, and my back was sore from slouching over the cube. I wasn't making a lot of progress with the puzzle and it seemed that with every move, I made it worse. It was like the Gate of Heaven were ringing when the jet door began to open. I stood from the floor of the jet and set the Rubik's cube back in Tony's rack. The door fully opened, revealing Natasha standing with a much-changed Clint. 

As he stepped into the light of the jet's interior, I could feel the incoming threat of sobs that were going to overcome me in the next second. Clint glanced up and gave me a weary smile. What happened in between that smile and the sob that broke from me, I'll never remember, but one moment we were at opposite ends of the jet, and the next Clint had me off of my feet in a bear hug. I honestly thought that he would crush me from the tight hold he had on my body, but then it came to my realization that I had matched that strength with my hold on him. 

"You lost him?" Clint asked, his voice hushed. 

"Mhm." I nodded, hiding my face in his shoulder. "We're going to get him- everyone back." 

Clint set me down, keeping his hands on my shoulders, a soft smile on his face. I saw past that smile at the hurt he was feeling, knowing that I probably looked the same. The jet door closed and Natasha took her seat in the cockpit. 

"It's good to see you again, Ellie," Clint said before kissing the top of my head. 

"Good to see you, too, Clint." 

"Alright, let's head home," Natasha called from the front of the jet. "I'm sure everyone is dying to see him." 

Clint and I hugged one last time before I turned on my heel to return to the pilot seats. I climbed into my seat and buckled in, flipping all the necessary switches above me. I glanced at Natasha and watched as a tear rolled down her cheeks, but a smile spread across her lips. The team was forming once again.