Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The items on Yelena's desk rattle lightly as she lets her head drop to its surface. Valentina has been becoming more and more unbearable as of late. Her usual passive aggressiveness and backhanded compliments have been replaced with snippy and harsh criticism. Val's normal management style, which is characterized by not caring about what her agents do so long as the job gets done and makes her look good, has been set aside for micromanaging. Micromanaging Yelena's team specifically, as though they're not the best team in the entire New York office.

The source of Valentina's bad mood seems to be the same source as Yelena's…whatever it is that Yelena's feeling. None other than Hawkeye. Val's been sending Yelena's team all across the world chasing down pointless leads, unknowingly keeping Yelena from chasing down their best lead. Not that she can tell Valentina this because of how she got the lead in the first place. Yelena suspects that if she told Val about the whole birthday fiasco then she and her whole team would be fired immediately. Instead, Yelena has to make time to follow up on the finger print Hawkeye "gifted" to her in between assignments. Which is why instead of going home or picking up Fanny from Bob's place after her and Bucky's latest assignment Yelena's come straight to the office from the airport. Her hair is greasy and she smells like the baby who threw up next to her halfway through their thirteen hour flight, but Yelena doesn't know when her next opportunity to do some investigating will be.

Feeling eyes on her, Yelena blearily lifts her head and spots her dad, finally back to work, staring at her from his desk. He offers up an uncharacteristically timid smile and a thumbs up. It's the closest he's come to speaking to her all day. Instead of responding, Yelena drops her head back down to her desk and flips him the bird in an attempt to hide the wave of emotions that suddenly crash down on her. But hiding does nothing to stave off the pinpricks of tears and the burn of bile building up in the back of her throat. Alexei being there but still acting so strange and distant brings back a lot of bad memories that Yelena would rather not think of. She thought that she had dealt with all of those lingering feelings but it turns out that instead of throwing her baggage out the window she just hid it away in the corner where it's easy to ignore. At least, it was easy to ignore.

Blindly reaching into her pocket, Yelena feels Hawkeye's necklace that she's taken to carrying. She can practically feel a warm and solid presence holding her hand and lightly pressing against her shoulder. The storm in her mind refuses to abate but the pounding of her heart slows as her breathing eases. Greedily taking in a deep breath, the Interpol agent lifts her head and gets to work.

It hadn't taken long to find a match to Hawkeye's prints. The match was so improbably high in fact that Hawkeye almost would've had to have left them there deliberately. Two weeks before the birthday party there was an attempted bombing at the Sokovian embassy in D.C. Two waitresses were caught on security cameras disarming the bomb after the date of some important politician or another pulled the fire alarm and everyone else was ushered out. Actually, one of the waitresses disarmed the bomb while the other one fought off a group of Latverian thugs. The Latverians have remained stubbornly silent on their motivations and who else they're working with or for. The whole situation is a powder keg just waiting to go off.

Luckily it is not her powder keg to worry about. Yelena's powder keg can be seen clear as day on the security feed, face covered in her usual bumps, bruises, and bandages, winking into the camera. The face of the "waitress" disarming the bomb is hidden by the very catering cart the bomb was hidden in, but it is still obviously Riri. After disarming the bomb Riri and Hawkeye spare a moment to fist bump before rushing away. Brief glimpses of other members of the crew can also be seen on security cameras throughout the night and one of the interviewed witnesses had supposedly won a bronze medal for curling in the most recent Winter Olympics and was attending the event as the date of some diplomat's son. There is no doubt in Yelena's mind that said bronze medalist is actually a member of the crew, though she can't determine wether the role was filled by Cassie or Kamala.

None of that matters though. The print is so obviously meant to be found that Yelena's left further investigating to Bob while she gets more creative. After several days of phone tag, intimidation, and other methods that firmly falls in the 'grey' area of legality, Yelena has managed to get her hands on the FBI's fingerprint database. There hasn't been any conclusive matches so Yelena is now sorting through the partial matches for crimes matching Hawkeye's M.O. It narrows the search results quite a bit but the process is still painfully dull.

Yelena is about to click away from the details of a mob shootout from two years ago in LA when something catches her eye. The file details a veritable bloodbath that seems so beyond out of character for Hawkeye to be involved with that Yelena would usually dismiss it automatically. But the print is a closer match than almost any of the others. There's also the matter of what exactly has given Yelena pause. The partial print was recovered from the shaft of an arrow.

An arrow sticking out of the eye socket of Joseph Manfredi. Its twin is buried in the other socket.

Images flash through Yelena's mind of Hawkeye's hair whipping wildly around her face as she brings her powerful shoulders back to draw her bow before releasing the arrow with deadly accuracy even as she's being shot at on a jostling golf kart traveling at full speed. Of Hawkeye fighting off thugs twice her size in spite of being heavily outnumbered and burying the knife in Willy from an impossible distance. Saving Bob's life.

Physically, Hawkeye is more than capable of this level of destruction. Yet, Yelena still finds it difficult to connect the thief with all of her warmth and bright kindness to the pictures of dead bodies that Yelena can't tear her eyes from. Even from their first meeting at the museum Yelena wouldn't have suspected it of her. An awful, sick feeling lodged in her gut tells the Interpol agent to look into it further anyway. Yelena finds the names of the agents in charge of the investigation and makes a call.

"…listen, sweetheart-"

"Agent Belova." Yelena all but growls into the phone as she tiredly rubs her temple. Agent Thompson's arrogant voice is giving her a headache while the man himself gives her nothing.

"-right. I'd love to help you out, but I can't. Not unless you give me something in return."

"Do I want to know what it is that you want?"

"Nothing bad. I just want to know why Interpol is interested in a bunch of gang bangers offing each other two years ago."

"We believe that a suspect of ours might have been involved in your shootout."

"…Really?" Thomspson says once it's clear Yelena isn't going to say more. "That's all you're going to give me? Not even a name or what you want with this guy?"

"I'd love to tell you more, but I can't. It's an ongoing investigation. Privileged information and all that, you understand."

"The ol' red tape. Honestly it's a miracle you were able to access the file at all. You know, legally."

"Are you trying to imply something, Agent Thompson?"

"I don't know. Is there something to imply, Agent Belova?"

Yelena sighs heavily. She's managed to find the one person more irritating than Hawkeye. "Is there anybody else I can speak to? Like the other agent who worked the case?"

"What, you mean Carter?" Thompson scoffs, his tone suddenly turning bitter. "Yeah. Good luck with that. She just got promoted and has her hands full."

"I take it from your tone that you don't think she should've been given the promotion?"

"The opposite actually. Nobody deserves it more."

"So, you are just a sore loser."

"We all have our crosses to bear. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some real criminals to catch. We can't all be traveling the world looking for cat burglars."

"Agent Thompson-" The line goes dead before Yelena can say more. She slams her work phone on the receiver and releases a guttural cry of frustration.

"Lena? _Мое маленькое солнышко_?" Alexei calls from his desk. "Is everything alright over there?"

"Yes. That is the noise I make when I am happy. No, Dad. I am obviously not okay. Haven't been for a while, but it is good of you to notice. Really, good job."

Alexei looks ashamed in the face of his daughter's sarcasm before rallying. "You seem tense. And tired. So tired. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest. Build up your strength and be more prepared to fight another day."

"Yeah, well, maybe you should decide if you actually want to be in my life or not instead of crawling away into your little hole the moment things become difficult for you."

"I…uh…"

Yelena stares at her dad expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"I will go take my break." Alexei says instead. "Give you a bit of space."

Yelena squeezes her eyes shut and desperately tries to keep her tears at bay. She can already feel the corners of her mouth being tugged down against her will and a burning in her throat. What will it take for him to care? To talk about something real and be honest with her for just once in her life?

"Yelena." Yelena nearly startles at the sound of Bucky's voice. She opens her eyes to see him standing by her desk with that concerned look on his face that's slowly been becoming his default expression.

"I thought you had gone home, Bucky."

"I did. But then Alexei texted me."

Yelena snorts. "Of course he did. This way he doesn't have to talk to me himself."

"He's dealing with his own stuff. Maybe he isn't handling it great, but he's trying. That's more than a lot of other people can say."

Yelena rolls her eyes. She can't believe Bucky is taking Alexei's side. Usually it's Walker who likes to play the devil's advocate. "I'd rather we didn't talk about Alexei anymore."

"Alright. Let's talk about Hawkeye."

Slightly better than talking about her dad, Yelena supposes. She'd still rather avoid the conversation but she'll take the out.

"What about Hawkeye?"

"What aren't you telling me?"

Yelena feigns innocence, more to mess with him than anything else. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Bucky levels her with a look. "Do you really expect me to believe that?"

With a sigh, Yelena resigns herself to Bucky's mother-henning. She tells him all about Jacobson, the fingerprint, and the leads she's found. Bucky nods along thoughtfully as she explains the brick wall she's run into with Agent Thompson.

"So, she knows Nat." Bucky doesn't say it as a question.

She nods her head. "I'm certain that Hawkeye knows where Barton is. If we bring her in she can lead us to him."

"And how are you planning on getting her to talk?"

"I'll figure something out."

Bucky nods thoughtfully. The silence beteeen the two hangs heavy with what's left unsaid. Natasha. Bucky has been trying to push away his hope for her being alive just as desperately as Yelena's been clinging to it. He's never said it out loud but Yelena's seen it in the way he corrects himself with what tense he uses to speak about her. Or when someone walks into a room and the hope on his features breaks as soon as be realizes it isn't Natasha.

One more disappointment will break Bucky. Yelena's already broken and needs this hope to keep going.

Bucky and Yelena sit in their shared grief for a few moments more until Bucky comes to a decision. "Alright, let me see this lead you found." He squints at Yelena's screen for a moment before a smirk grows on his face.

"Okay. I've got this." Without another word Bucky takes out his phone. His posture softens into something more casual as he greets whoever answers."Hey, Peg. Been a while…Yeah, I heard from him last week…Sam's good. How's everyone in your half?…Hey, can I ask you about a case?"

Bucky and Yelena once again find themselves on a plane, this time traveling to LA. Agent Carter, or Peggy as Bucky apparently knows her as, only had a little more relevant information than Thompson.

Manfredi and his boys were the average run-of-the-mill gang for years. Carter says that Manfredi's volatile temper made him impossible to predict and was both his greatest strength as well as his greatest weakness. That changed about eight years ago when he began making strategic moves with surgical precision. After this turnaround, he quickly became the most powerful and feared crime boss on the west coast, almost comparable to the Kingpin in New York. Almost.

It wasn't until two years ago that it was discovered that the cause of this change was due to Manfredi's girlfriend becoming the new brains of the operation. Whitney Frost. Former Hollywood starlet and verified genius turned criminal. It was less than a week after her arrest when Manfredi and all of his leutenants met in an abandoned warehouse where they all ended up killing each other. The notable exception being Joseph Manfredi himself. No one knows who shot those arrows. Their only lead for these two whole years has been that one partial print. Agent Carter's never stopped investigating even though the case was officially closed. In spite of countless interrogations and deals offered, the former actress hasn't given away a single scrap of information.

Yelena intends to change that. If she could just get her to actually come talk to her.

"I told you." Yelena speaks with exaggerated slowness to the guard. "We need to speak with Whitney Frost about a case and we're not leaving here until we do."

"And I'm telling you, Frost refuses to speak to any visitors and so you and your German Shepherd can leave." The guard snipes back, gesturing to Bucky as he does so. Yelena swears she hears Bucky growl at the comparison which really only strengthens it.

Yelena groans. She is so tired and this is the last thing she needs. The overworked agent got hardly any sleep on the plane. What sleep she did have was plagued by visions of arrows sticking out of her own eye sockets as the voices of her parents, Natasha, and Hawkeye all taunt her for being unable to see what is right in front of her.

On top of that, the meals provided were absolute shit. It was not a good flight.

Bucky leans down to whisper in her ear. "Maybe we should just leave it and try again tomorrow. We can rendezvous with Peggy in the meantime."

Ignoring him, Yelena decides to try one last thing. "Before we go, can you just tell her we know who the girl with the bow and arrow is?"

The guard looks skeptical but resigned. "If it'll get the two of you out of here, then sure. Anything else I can do for you?"

Yelena ignores his sarcasm. "Yes. Tell Frost that the girl with the bow and arrow is tall. With dark hair and a small mole under her right eye."

The guard rolls his eyes but doesn't protest as he gets up to leave.

"Do you really think it's her?" Bucky asks.

"I don't know what to think anymore."

The two Interpol agents sit quietly in their thoughts until the guard returns with a woman in handcuffs trailing behind him.

The woman's skin is pale and sallow. Her eyes are cloudy and her blonde hair looks limp and dirty. A scar that almost seems to crack her face open stretches down from her forehead all the way to her jaw. In spite of all this, she's still undeniably beautiful in a timeless, Hollywood way.

Whitney Frost lowers herself down with all the grace of a queen before picking up the phone and staring Yelena down through the glass. "I hear you wanted to speak with me?" She asks after the guard secures her to the table.

Yelena pulls up the picture of Hawkeye she saved on her phone from the Sokovian embassy and shows it to Frost. The effect is instantaneous. The former actresses eyes widen as her breathing quickens and her grip on the phone turns white-knuckled. She stares at the picture for a gobsmacked moment before turning her gaze back on Yelena.

"And may I ask why you are showing this to me?" Frost asks with a tight voice. Yelena sees why her acting career failed.

"She is a person of interest in an important case. We suspect that you might know her."

"Who is we?"

"Our apologies." Bucky says. "I'm Agent Barnes and this is Agent Belova from Interpol."

Interest sparks in Frost's otherwise lifeless face. "Now, what would Interpol want with little old me?"

Instead of responding, Yelena taps the glass with her phone that still shows the picture of Hawkeye.

Whitney huffs, obviously annoyed. "If you want my cooperation, Agent, you might find it in your best interests to be a bit more polite."

Having enough of Frost's bullshit, Yelena cuts right to the chase. "She killed your boyfriend, didn't she? She put two arrows into him and left him and all of your little cronies lying in pools of their own blood."

Whitney Frost's expression hardens and her gaze clears and cuts through Yelena with ice cold cruelty. But still, she remains silent. Yelena decides to keep pushing.

"You had a whole empire at your feet. The most powerful woman on the west coast with politicians, the police, and the entire criminal underworld all wrapped around your fingers. And now…" Yelena eyes their drab surroundings lit up with harsh fluorescents critically. Then she sets her eyes back on Frost, unimpressed. "…you are nothing. And it's all because of her, isn't it? You lost everything because of a girl with a stick and a string. It's pathetic, really."

Whitney Frost's composure cracks as she attempts to lunge at Yelena, stopped by the handcuffs restraining her to the table. Not that she's be able to break through the glass barrier anyway. Two guards begin to rush over but one look from Bucky stops them dead in their tracks. Yelena never breaks eye contact with the broken woman in front of her.

Frost settles back into her chair, though her breathing and snarling expression continue to resemble that of a cornered animal. Yelena waits for her to pick up the phone before continuing.

"We are going to lock her away for the rest of her life. All I need to know from you is, who was she?"

"I thought you said you already know who she is." Frost shoots back, her voice still raw and a little breathless.

"I know who she is," or at least, Yelena though she knew Hawkeye before all of this, "I want to know who she was."

The dethroned queen calculates the agents sitting in front of her with the cold precision of a predator stalking prey. "This is personal for you. Isn't it, Agent Belova?"

Even though it's phrased as question, Yelena knows it isn't. She knows anything she says will just give more away so instead Yelena continues to steadily meet Frost's gaze.

The former starlet smiles as though she's won something before sitting back in her chair, the tension broken for now. "Alright, fine. I'll play. But not before we lay down some ground rules."

"What sort of ground rules?"

"I can tell you about the girl. In exchange I want my case revisited. Shortened sentence, house arrest, or anything along those lines really. We can bring my lawyer in to discuss details later."

"And you expect me to promise you all of this without even knowing what kind of information you even have? If any at all? Not going to happen."

"You don't trust me?" Whitney Frost adopts a look of exaggerated hurt that quickly melts away into something that almost looks like pride. "Smart girl. Everything has a price and people only want you when you're useful. Women like us know that better than anyone, don't we?"

Yelena quickly shuts down the memories of Alexei and Melina brought to the surface by Frost's words. She needs to stay focused.

"Are you going to actually say anything are are we just going to keep going in circles?"

Whitney Frost rolls her eyes but still leans forward. Sensing the weight of what Frost is about to say, Yelena leans forward as well. Whitney brings the phone close to her mouth and all but whispers her next words.

"Joe and his crew always called her 'Tirator Scelto'."

Yelena stares at Whitney for several long moments, waiting for more. "That's it?"

"That's all you get until I get my deal."

Yelena huffs, annoyed. Through gritted teeth she says, "Thank you for your cooperation." Without another word Yelena shoots out of her seat and breezes away, not paying any mind to Whitney Frost loudly demanding to discuss their deal.

"That was pointless." Yelena mutters to herself after stepping outside.

"No, it wasn't." She jumps at the sound of Bucky's voice beside her. Yelena had almost forgotten about him. "It's not much, but it's more than anyone's had on this case in two years. We should take this to Peggy and see if the name means anything to her."

The Interpol agents quickly make their way to the local FBI offices. Once there, they're lead straight to the office of the infamous Peggy Carter by a man with a kind face and a crutch who introduces himself as Agent Sousa. After arriving in front of a nice looking office, he knocks on the door and a crisp voice on the other side beckons them to come in.

A woman looks up from her desk as they enter. She stands at attention and addresses Bucky in a crisp tone. "Sergent Barnes."

"Agent Carter." Bucky mirrors her posture and tone.

Yelena observes as Peggy holds back the smile tugging at the corner of her lips for a moment before allowing it to fully take over her face. Her posture melts from being sharp to something more crisp. "It's good to see you again, Bucky. It's been too long."

The tension and anxiety Bucky's been carrying releases as he returns her smile. "Good to see you too, Peg."

"If that's everything I have some things I need to do." Sousa says.

"Yes, I think we have this from here. Thank you Daniel." At Agent Carter's words, Sousa nods politely before leaving the room.

Agent Carter turns her attention to Yelena. "I take it you're the colleague asking for assistance?" She sticks out her hand towards Yelena.

Yelena takes it and introduces herself. "Agent Belova. It is nice to meet a friend of Bucky's, I was not aware that he had any."

Both women ignore Bucky's sarcastic "That's real funny, Belova." Instead of acknowledging him, Carter chuckles good naturedly.

"Yes, it takes a special kind of person to put up with Sergent Barnes and what passes for his charm. Which is why I've been quite looking forward to meeting you. Strength in numbers, as they say."

Yelena nods seriously. "Yes. I do not think I'd be able to survive the full force of his hovering and worrying. He is such a mom."

"Indeed he is. He's always the one who insists on looking when the rest of us are more focused on jumping. It's annoying but Barnes has saved the lives of our band of merry men more times than I'd like to admit."

"Same." Yelena says, smiling fondly.

"Are we done?" Bucky cuts in, looking far more uncomfortable being complimented than when he was being teased. "Cause I thought we were here for a case."

Agent Carter immediately adopts a more businesslike air, though she's not able to completely hide the way the corners of her lips are still playfully twisted. "Yes. Would the two of you like to take a seat?"

The two Interpol agents sit and proceed to fill Agent Carter in on the important information about Hawkeye, why they believe she was the one who killed Manfredi, and the scant information they managed to get out of Whitney Frost.

Throughout it all Agent Carter listens with a look of intense concentration. If Yelena was anyone else she would have found it incredibly intimidating to have that amount of laser like focus directed fully on her. There are several times after Yelena remarks on Hawkeye's skill, the threat she poses, or the lengths Yelena has gone through to find her in which Agent Carter gives Yelena a look that's just a little too knowing for comfort. Yelena decides it's best to ignore that for now.

The words 'Tirator Scelto' causes Agent Carter to straighten her already perfect posture even further and her eyes to widen ever so slightly. Both Interpol agents clock the subtle shift.

"You've heard that name before." Yelena remarks, only barely managing to keep the excitement out of her voice. Could it be that she's finally going to find answers about the woman who's been haunting her thoughts every hour of the day?

"Nothing substantial. Just rumors, really."

"What kind of rumors?" Bucky presses.

"The kind of rumors that sound more like ghost stories than actual reports. If this Hawkeye of yours and our Sharp Shooter are really one and the same then she is far more dangerous than you've realized."

Yelena's heart hammers in her chest as her fists squeeze painfully tight in her lap. "Please," Yelena's voice comes out weak and choked. She clears her throat and tries to play it off. "That is, please tell us some of these ghost stories."

Peggy gives her a tight, reassuring smile. Yelena doesn't know what the other woman thinks she knows, but she hates how exposed ot makes her feel.

"Manfredi and Frost's organization were known for the brutal efficiency of their enforcers. From precision strikes that'd leave you wondering if the target wasn't just sleeping if it weren't for the bullet wounds, to blood baths in which practical fortresses were burned to the ground. Once Manfredi decided he wanted somebody gone, they'd be gone. Simple as that."

"The rumor is that all of these hits, or at least the important ones, were all done by a single individual."

"Tirator Scelto." Yelena breathes out.

Peggy nods her head. "Precisely. Now, this all happened before I came to LA so I don't know all of the details. But our people looking into the organization were able to confirm her existence and that she was a woman. But her identity, full capabilities and involvement with Manfredi still remains a mystery."

Yelena's mind races with so many questions that she doesn't even know where to begin. Her thoughts drift back to Hawkeye. A familiar path that her mind has developed a habit of wandering down far too easily. Yelena specifically thinks of how young she seems. Hawkeye couldn't be any older than her mid or late 20's, yet this all happened before Agent Carter, who is obviously now well-established, even arrived in the city. Unbidden, Yelena finds a question escaping her lips.

"How long ago was she active?"

Agent Carter thinks for a moment before responding. "With how secretive and protective of her Manfredi always was, it's hard to say when exactly she was active. But our best guess is that she began working for him a little less than ten years ago. The absence of her usual style of hits was eventually noted about a year after Frost took over, so she most likely disappeared around that time. Considering the notable lack of prices placed on her head, the assumption was that she had died."

Meaning if Hawkeye really is Tirator Scelto, something Yelena was almost certain of after speaking with Frost, she couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 when she began working for Manfredi. Possibly younger.

'She was practically a child.' Yelena thinks. A deep and familiar ache settles into her bones.Yelena is all too aware of how easy it is for children to be used and manipulated. The thought sends waves of sympathy and pain throughout her body.

Memories of Hawkeye's kind smile and gentle warmth flash through Yelena's mind, juxtaposed against images of arrows sticking out of Manfedi'a skull.

Yelena is only distantly aware of Bucky continuing their conversation. "And you guys never suspected that this Tirator was the one who killed Manfredi?"

Agent Carter huffs out a laugh. "Of course we did. As far-fetched as it sounds when taking into account her disappearance and the fact that Manfredi has no shortage of enemies, she is far and away the most persistent suspect. But everyone else was more than satisfied for this whole thing to end. A simple shootout between a group of mobsters during a deal gone wrong places a convenient bow on the whole situation, you must admit."

"Something tells me that you weren't satisfied with that, though." Bucky says.

Peggy gives her old friend a rueful smile. "You know I'm never satisfied. I tried to continue investigating, but the trail was cold and the only possible lead was Whitney Frost. You've seen just how willing she is to cooperate. On top of that, I had other cases to work on. Time sensitive ones in which people's lives were endangered. I had to drop the case." Something about her disgrunteld tone tells Yelena that Agent Carter isn't accustomed to accepting defeat like this.

"And that's all you know?" Bucky asks.

"That's all I know."

Yelena finally manages to snap herself out of her reverie to rejoin the conversation. "Does this woman seem familiar to you?" The question practically rips out of Yelena's throat as she thrusts her phone into Agent Carter's hands.

If the FBI agent is taken off guard with the intensity of Yelena's sudden demand she doesnt show it. She takes the phone and closely studies every detail of the photo. "I take it this is Hawkeye?" Yelena nods her head.

After several long moments of intense concentration, Agent Carter sadly turns back to Yelena. "Sorry, I'm afraid she doesn't seem familiar. If you would like, I can show this picture around to the agents who were investigating Manfredi at the time."

The Interpol agents agree, though Yelena is not hopeful that anything will come of it.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help." Peggy apologizes sincerely. "If it's any consolation I do think that you are likely correct, given all that you've told me about her, that Tirator Scelto and Hawkeye are the same person."

Something inside of Yelena's chest rages against those words. Not because she doesn't think it's true, but because she doesn't want it to be.

Yelena roughly shoves the feelings away. People are never who they say they are. Especially criminals claiming to be out for the greater good. Not that it matters, of course. Because the only reason Yelena wants to find Hawkeye is to find Barton and make him pay for taking Natasha from her. And for justice. Law and order and all of that bullshit.

Okay. That last part is a lie. But she really does only want Hawkeye for Barton and her own personal, petty revenge against the woman herself. No other reason.

So lost in her thoughts, Yelena almost doesn't notice as Peggy and Bucky are saying their goodbyes and discussing the possibility of having a proper catch up after Peggy leaves work for the day.

"Yelena." Her attention snaps to Bucky. "You ready to go?" He asks, his hand resting on the doorknob.

"Right, yes. Of course. Thank you for your time. You have given us much to consider." Yelena stands stiffly and makes to follow Bucky out of the room when she's stopped.

"If I may," Agent Carter says, her voice carrying a note of trepidation, "I'd like to have a word with Agent Belova alone. If that's alright with you, of course."

Yelena sighs. As curious as she is about what Peggy Carter could possibly have to say to her, Yelena really doesn't want to stay any longer than necessary. No, what Yelena wants is some time by herself to turn everything she's learned today over in her mind. Well, what she actually wants is to get her hands on Hawkeye and wring some answers out of her, but Yelena would settle for some alone time for now.

Yelena shares a look with Bucky, hoping, perhaps a bit childishly, that he'd read the exhaustion in her face and come up with an excuse for her. Instead Yelena's team leader and supposed friend betrays her.

"I don't mind waiting. Maybe I can talk baseball with Sousa. No one ever wants to talk baseball with me." The last part is muttered a little sullenly. With that, Bucky slips out the door, leaving Yelena alone with Agent Carter.

The silence between the two women feels cavernous for reasons that Yelena doesn't understand. Agent Carter's hands flutter ever so slightly as she straightens out her already wrinkle free clothing before she clears her throat. "Yelena." She says in a measured tone.

"Agent Carter." Yelena responds in kind.

"I think for this conversation it would be more appropriate if you were to call me Peggy."

Yelena's stomach churns with nerves over the idea of a personal conversation after the day she's had. Still though, Yelena nods her assent. "Peggy then. What is it you wanted to speak with me about?"

Peggy opens her mouth to speak several times before finally deciding on how to begin.

"I knew your sister. Natasha."

Yelena's throat tightens. Her mouth turns as dry as a desert and she's only just able to choke out a strangled "Oh?"

"We were close once. Or I'd like to think so at least."

"How close?"

"We worked a case together." Peggy says. "A joint operation. Natasha's superiors felt that she was uniquely qualified to track down a certain fugitive wanted by both our organizations."

Yelena crosses her arms, hoping that it comes across as more authoritative and powerful than self-soothing and protective. "If you are looking for a replacement you've come to the wrong person. Natasha and I are nothing alike and stepping into the shoes of my missing sister is the last thing I want to be doing."

"What? No. I would never suppose to-the last thing I'd want to imply-" Peggy stops her stuttering explanations to take a moment to collect herself before continuing. "No. Even if it were possible to replace Natasha I would never wish to do so. I just. I wanted to." Peggy huffs impatiently before clenching her jaw and looking Yelena in the eye with an overwhelming intensity. "I wanted to apologize. I missed the funeral and I haven't been able to forgive myself."

"So what? You cannot forgive yourself so you ask me to do it for you?" Yelena laughs. She can't help it. The idea of anyone coming to her for any kind of absolution is ridiculous (Yelena shuts down the memory of Hawkeye's reaction to Yelena calling her a good person). Let alone absolution for this of all things.

"I do not care about who was and wasn't there."

"Because you don't think she's dead, isn't that right? Otherwise you wouldn't have referred to her as 'missing'."

Yelena levels a stony glare in her direction.

"Perhaps now isn't the right time to discuss that." Peggy concedes. "I'm not looking for your forgiveness. I wanted to tell you the reason for why I missed the funeral."

Peggy pauses for Yelena's response. When none is forthcoming the FBI agent takes the lack of protest as permission to continue.

"Does the name Dottie Underwood mean anything to you?"

Yelena searches her memory briefly before responding. "No. Should it?"

"I suppose not. She is the fugitive who first brought Natasha and I together. I've been chasing after her for years. One of the most dangerous mercenaries in the world. Dottie is cruel, merciless, incredibly talented, and deviously clever. The moment I think I have her figured out she does something to completely throw off my entire understanding of her. And yet, in spite of the fact that I don't really know anything about her at all, I still feel as though there is some kind of understanding, or a connection, between the two of us. Or perhaps the potential of one in another life."

"Okay. This is a lot." Yelena says, feeling a little dazed. "I see that you are strongly…affected by this woman. But I am not your therapist. I do not see what this has anything to do with me or my sister's funeral."

"She's why I missed the funeral." Peggy confesses. The in-control woman who Yelena's briefly become acquainted with disappears as Peggy begins to angrily pace her office. "I have sworn over and over again that Dottie isn't worth my time and effort to track down. That someone else will eventually arrest her and that she can run for only so long. And yet, no matter my conviction, even the slightest hint of Dottie Underwood will have me racing across the country at the expense of my work, my health," Peggy stops pacing and the next words out of her mouth sound more like a mournful lament than an angry tirade, "and even missing a dear friend's funeral."

Peggy turns her attention back to Yelena who is shocked to see the FBI agent's eyes swimming with emotion. "I have made many mistakes, Yelena. When I set my sights on something I tend to lose focus on everything that actually matters. I have given Dottie Underwood every opportunity to change. She has taunted me, tricked me, and betrayed my trust. In the end she always disappears. Almost like she isn't even real. Sometimes I wonder if she's even able to remember what it is to be a person at all. I know that it's pointless but I still feel a sense of responsibility for the people she hurts because I haven't caught her." A rueful, smile briefly overtakes Peggy's face. "Or perhaps it's a bit more selfish than that. I can't deny that there's a part of me that truly wishes to understand her. Wishes to know if every instinct I've had about her is right. No matter the reason I know I'd be better off to just drop this whole thing. But I just can't."

The silence in the room is deafening, but that is more than made up for by all the noise inside Yelena's mind. It races with so many thoughts and memories. Of Peggy and Dottie Underwood, of Tasha, of Hawkeye, and of herself.

It's all too easy to see herself walking the same path as Peggy. To be caught up in the excitement and the mystery of the chase. To lose pieces of herself along the way. Peggy's words strike an all too familiar chord deep within Yelena. Especially with the many revelations to have come to light today.

And yet.

Yelena places a hand in her pocket and feels the familiar shape of the arrow necklace. A night of refreshing genuineness and fun at glitzy party of rich snobs. An adrenaline fueled chase and Hawkeye standing between Yelena and a gun. Life breathed back into the community center and hope in Bob's eyes. A gentle warmth pressed against her hand. A steady presence closer than Yelena should feel comfortable with yet all it does is make her feel safe. Clever eyes and a mischievous smile. A night sky filled with stars and possibilities.

"I get what you are trying to say," Yelena says, "but just as I am not Natasha I am also not you." And even if Hawkeye was Tirator Scelto, she is definitely not Dottie Underwood. "I thank you for trauma dumping your weird situationship. Truly. I live for the gossip. But I am afraid your story does not change anything for me. I have my own reasons for bringing Hawkeye to justice, but none of them are about her."

Peggy looks disappointed, but not surprised. "I understand. Before you go, might I ask you for a favor?"

Whatever will get her out of this building and in a shower or bed. Instead, Yelena responds "Ask away."

"If Natasha is alive. When you find her, because I have no doubt that you will, could you…give her my regards?"

Yelena studies the other woman closely. For the first time during this entire conversation Yelena sees something approaching vulnerability in the agent's eyes.

"I'll be sure to do that."

The two share a moment of commiseration before heading out of the office.

Later, Yelena's staring at the ceiling of her hotel room as her freshly washed hair slowly soaks the pillow beneath her head. The events of the day play on repeat over and over again in her mind's eye.

She doesn't know what to think. Or why the idea of Hawkeye being Tirator Scelto feels like such a betrayal. It's not like the criminal ever tried to convince Yelena that she had never killed anyone or done terrible things. And even if she had, why would Yelena have trusted in it? Why would the lie hurt?

The fact that there isn't even technically a lie just makes the pain in her heart seem even more pathetic.

The lie, Yelena supposes, is that she would have never guessed that Hawkeye would be the kind of person capable of such ruthless brutality. The thief has managed to steal some small degree of fondness, Yelena is reluctantly willing to admit in the privacy of her own thoughts. She truly thought that she knew who Hawkeye is. Not anything about her, of course, but Yelena thought she was beginning to truly understand her in a way. But maybe she doesn't. Maybe Hawkeye is a much better con artist than Yelena realized. Able to lie with every essence of her being. Yelena wouldn't be the first person fooled by Hawkeye, and Hawkeye wouldn't be the first person to fool Yelena.

Yelena would love to believe that people are not defined by their past, and yet life proves time and time again that nobody ever truly changes.

It doesn't surprise her to hear that Natasha and Agent Carter were close without Yelena knowing about it. Ever since they were kids Tasha has been Yelena's favorite person in the world but her older sister had other priorities. Work, school, and friends. So many friends. Yelena stopped keeping track of all of them a long time ago. Natasha may have told Yelena about Peggy, or she might not have. There's really no way to know for sure.

Now here they are as adults. Melina is still a brick wall, Alexei is deliberately obtuse in order to avoid difficult conversations, Natasha has run off, and Yelena has been left behind.

She wishes she could sleep. That's all her body wants to do. Yelena doesn't think she's been so tired in her life. Instead all she can do is think without understanding any of her own thoughts. How she aches for the quiet sometimes. For the ability to not think or feel anything for just one night. But she can't do that. She and Bob have a pact that Yelena is determined to never break. If not for him and her burning desire to find Natasha, Barton and Hawkeye, Yelena would have lost herself a long time ago.

Eventually Yelena does slip into a restless sleep. It isn't much but by the time she's awoken by the vibrating of her cell phone the next morning she's starting to feel human again.

Yelena was planning on rejecting the call and squeezing in another hour of sleep before their flight back to New York, but stops when she sees Bob's contact photo (a picture of him sleeping with markings Yelena had drawn on his face). There are a few reasons why he would be calling and none of them can be delayed.

"What is it Bob?" Yelena asks blearily as she picks up the phone.

"Oh. Um, hi Yelena. I'm sorry, did I wake you up? Cause I can call back later if you want?"

"No, no. I needed to get up anyway. What did you need to tell me?"

"It's just I found something kind of weird while I was looking into that thing you asked me to. You know," Bob lowers his voice to a whisper, "the case."

Automatically, Yelena finds herself sitting up suddenly much more interested in what Bob has to say. "Yes. What is it, Bob?"

"I did some research on Latveria and the king, not a popular dude let me tell you, doesn't have a huge military so he uses all of his troops as enforcement in his country. But for his own private security to protect him and his place."

Something about what Bob is saying tickles something in the back of Yelena's mind, though what it is lies frustratingly just out of reach.

"The company he uses," Bob says, "is a US based one called Bishop Security." He continues talking but Yelena doesn't hear it because dots begin to connect in her mind almost faster than she can keep up.

"Wait, wait. Hold on Bob. I need to check something." She places him on speaker so she can use her phone to look up the company and immediately finds a familiar looking logo.

She vaguely remembers seeing a sign on Jacobson's estate with that same logo. And it was on the uniforms of the security guards working the renaissance faire. Even August D'Angelo, the former CEO of Roxxon, had business dealings with them. And now they're also involved with the king of Latveria as well? Bishop Security is the largest security company in the world so this could technically be a coincidence.

Yelena doesn't believe in coincidences. Especially not when it comes to Hawkeye.

"Tell me about Bishop Security." She commands.

"They're like, really sketchy Yelena. I mean, maybe not as sketchy as they used to be. I mean, not in a way that anyone can prove. A while back their CEO, Eleanor Bishop, was arrested because an anonymous tip said that she had connections to the mob. The police looked into it and arrested her, but she cut a deal. She testified against Wilson Fisk and she and her daughter, Kate, were put into witness protection. And it's no wonder. I mean, Kingpin is in jail because of her. I'd be running for the hills as well."

Yelena has vague memories of this happening. It was big news at the time but Yelena had just joined Interpol and was focusing all of her time and effort on proving herself so she didn't keep up with the details. Besides that was nearly a decade ago.

"But what about now? You said that they're only less sketchy on paper."

"Right. The police have continued to keep a close eye on them, obviously, but haven't found any concrete evidence of serious crimes. I mean, I'm personally a lot more worried about privacy now after looking into them, but all of it's technically legal."

"People can get away with a lot that is 'technically legal.'" Yelena muses.

"Trust me, I am more aware of that now than I ever was before. I'm just about ready to break out my old tin foil hat. Thought the drugs were making me paranoid but now I don't think I was paranoid enough."

"The police haven't found any evidence of continued affiliation with organized crime? I find that hard to believe."

"Nothing. A lot of really dangerous people use them for security, but they're just some of their clientele. After Eleanor Bishop's arrest Bishop Security went from being the largest security company in the country to the largest in the world. More than half the office buildings and banks in New York use them and I'm pretty sure that includes us."

"I do not like the sound of that."

"You're telling me. I couldn't bring myself to call you from the office. I'm in a park with Fanny and using about five different VPN's on my phone right now. Fanny says hi by the way. She misses you. And I miss the full use of my bed."

Yelena's brow furrows. "You are allowing her to sleep in bed with you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Was I not supposed to?"

"No! That is why she has a doggy bed. Now she will want to sleep in my bed when I return."

"I'm sorry. She just looked so sad. She put her chin on me. She whimpered, Yelena. What was I supposed to do?"

Yelena sighs and takes a moment to compose herself. There are more pressing matters to deal with right now. First off, she needs to do a bit of damage control. Even when Bob's doing well he tends to be sensitive. Around most people, like Walker, that looks like fighting back. But with Yelena he tends to curl into himself.

"I am sorry for snapping, Bob. It is not your fault. Fanny is very cute and persuasive. A lot smarter than most people realize as well. She is able to get most people to do what she wants quite easily." Unbidden, an image of Hawkeye's cheerful face flashes in Yelena's mind for a brief moment.

Clearing her throat, Yelena attempts to bring the conversation back on topic. "Is there anything else I should know about Bishop Security?"

"Um, yeah. Apparently they're unveiling some new technology or code or something at a big party they're throwing at their headquarters here in New York. They throw it every year. It used to be in memory of Derek Bishop, he was married to Eleanor Bishop and CEO before he died. After the arrest the new head of the company kept the tradition going for like, networking and stuff. They've completely erased anything having to do with Derek Bishop from the party entirely."

"And now they are going to use it to release some kind of world changing technology? It sounds as though they are begging for Hawkeye and her crew to crash the party."

"You think so? I mean, the party is happening in the headquarters of the world's biggest security company. That place has to be like Fort Knox, Alcatraz, and Area 51 combined. And they'll probably be on the lookout for trouble. Do you really think that's when they'll make their move?"

"They have been targeting people with connections to the company for months now. I suspect Bishop Security has been their true target all along. When did you say this party is happening?"

"I didn't. But it's in two weeks."

"In that case I am certain that she has made many moves already. And with the public shining a spotlight on the company it is a prime opportunity to publicly humiliate them that I doubt comes around very often. Bishop Security is so big that the only way for them to be taken down and stay down is for the scandal to be even bigger than what happened with Eleanor Bishop and Kingpin. Not only is this their best opportunity to strike, but it is likely their only one for the foreseeable future."

"Right. So what's our next move?"

"Tread carefully. Hawkeye wanted me to find her fingerprint at the embassy. She was practically posing for the security cameras. It is likely that she assumes that we have made the Bishop Security connection and may even be part of her plan. I will think on it on the flight back, you keep a low profile. If you think you can do it safely, try poking around and seeing if you can find an in for the party."

"Cool, sounds good. But what about the others? When are we going to tell them about all this?"

That is an excellent question, actually. Yelena would really rather not bring anyone else in. This still feels like Yelena's own crusade that she wants to keep private. And if Bishop Security is really as powerful as Bob says, then it would be incredibly dangerous to get involved. Even with making their intentions to help stop a group of thieves known, the company probably would not be thrilled to have law enforcement poking around. Navigating the situation is like walking a tightrope with flaming spikes instead of a net as it is, but bringing her team in would be like lugging a barrel of monkeys along as well. But they're already involved. It's too late to uninvolve them now.

"Where are Walker and Ava?" Yelena asks.

"They just got back from running down Val's latest lead. Bucky got on her about overworking us right before you left. I don't know what he said but it seems to have worked. Our whole team has the weekend off."

Yelena hums. "Good. Then we will all discuss this in person once Bucky and I are back from California."

"Sounds good. I'll let the others know. And what about…" Bob trails off.

"What about what?" Yelena prompts once it's clear he isn't going to finish his thought.

Bob takes a deep breath loud enough that Yelena can hear over her crappy phone speakers. "What about Alexei. Should he be included?"

Breath freezes in Yelena's chest. She pauses for only a moment when her mouth speaks before her mind can catch up. "No. Absolutely not. He is the last thing we need to be dealing with."

"Okay. But why? I'm not saying you're wrong." Bob assures her hurriedly. "I just want to know your thought process on this."

Meaning he wants to know if Yelena really thinks he wouldn't be helpful, or if she is just being emotional.

"Alexei does not have a subtle bone in his body. He would give us away to Hawkeye immediately, even if she isn't already aware of him by some miracle. And besides that, he is a literal dinosaur. He barely knows how to check his email and I'm pretty sure the entire IT department is planning his murder. Bishop security has technology that can rival the US military and maybe even Stark Industries. He will just get in the way."

"Right, right. I guess that makes sense." Bob says. "Are you doing alright?"

The question is so out of the blue that it gives Yelena whiplash. "What?"

"I said are you doing okay? Because you haven't taken a break since-in a while, I mean. And this whole thing with Hawkeye has really gotten under your skin. I don't know, I'm just worried about you, I guess."

Yelena's heart warms at her friend's worry, counteracting the defensiveness she feels over Bob saying that Hawkeye has 'gotten under her skin. He deserves honesty and Yelena is tired of secrets and lies.

"I will be. Once we have her."

"Are you sure about that. Cause I'm just not sure what comes after."

"After?" Yelena questions. "What happens after Hawkeye is arrested is that I- we will have her. We'll have her and then she will be able to tell us where Barton is." And then Yelena will finally be able to find her sister. Or revenge if she can't do that. Either way works for her. "That has always been the plan, Bob."

"…Right. I was just checking in."

Yelena would be able to hear the judgement in his voice even if they weren't speaking on the phone. She's heard it plenty of times when they go people watching or gossip about office drama, but she's never heard it directed at her before. It stings a little. But she can't be bothered to worry about that now.

"Well, I should probably get Fanny back to my place and then back to the office. I'll talk to you when you get back."

"Sounds good. And Bob?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay safe." Yelena couldn't bear to lose one of the few people who has chosen her just as much as she's chosen them.

"I will. You too. Bye."

"Bye." Yelena hangs up the phone and stares at it in her hands. The past couple of days have been informative. She's still not sure what to do about the Tirator Scelto revelations. And something about the Bishop Security connection is tugging at her brain.

They certainly fit into the category of Hawkeye's usual targets in terms of moral and ethical bankruptcy combined with law enforcement's inability/unwillingness to do anything about it. But it's risky. Yelena has seen firsthand how protective Hawkeye is of her crew. Even if they have a fool-proof plan to take down Bishop Security, the victory is bound to be short lived and reciprocation will be delivered swiftly. They're just too big to take down completely, even if Yelena's suspicions are correct that Hawkeye's crew has been working on taking down the company's biggest supporters in order to weaken them. There may be cracks in the foundation, but the foundation is still more than solid. It would be more in character for their crew to focus their efforts on endeavors where they are likely to actually make a long term impact.

There has to be something more. Something that Yelena is missing. Whatever it is she will just have to figure out later. She has a plane to catch.

After the team, minus Alexei, meets up and catches everyone up to speed they come up with a "game plan" (Walker's words). The first step is to tell Valentina that they suspect Bishop Security's big unveiling to be Hawkeye's next target. They do sadly need this to be an official operation and Val's influence may be helpful in granting them access to the company.

A quick game of Nose Goes determines that Bucky will once again be the one to handle her (which is basically the team's way of nominating him to do anything the others don't want to do because he always loses). He does prepare an explanation in case she wants to know where their "hunch" came from, but she was apparently quite eager to have the team protecting Bishop Security's assets and the event since Valentina herself is planning on being in attendance.

Which is how Yelena finds herself and Ava sitting in the lobby of Bishop Security after an almost ludicrously short amount of time. Apparently Val has more pull than Yelena realized.

Ava nudges Yelena with her elbow and points out a number of cleverly hidden security cameras that borders on the comical. Except Ava also explains to Yelena subtle differences between some of the cameras, though she isn't able to tell what exactly those differences mean.

Besides all of that, Yelena can't help but feel unsettled. As if merely by walking through entryway of the building she has consented to having thousands of eyes on her, picking apart every last detail. She feels violated just by standing in front of the front desk, waiting for the head of security to arrive for their meeting.

Yelena clenches her fists and tries to shove down her discomfort by remembering what this is for. Hawkeye. She needs to catch Hawkeye. If these security measures are what it takes to do it, then it'll all be worth it.

Out of habit, she goes to touch the arrow necklace in her pocket but stops herself. Instead she turns to fiddling with the rings on her fingers, frustrated and confused with herself over why she even still has the necklace with her in the first place.

"Agents Belova and Starr?" A gruff voice asks, not quite able to mask his incredulity. Yelena looks up and sees a large man with blonde hair and whose face looks as red and rectangular as a brick. He has a distinctive Navy Seals haircut and a suit with the Bishop Security logo on the lapel.

"That's us. I'm Agent Belova. And you are Craig Wilson, the head of security?"

Craig grunts in confirmation. "Gotta say, the two of you are not what I expected from the International Police. You look like a stiff wind would break the both of you in half." The receptionist not so subtly cringes at his words. Yelena and Ava share a look that is equal parts pained and judgmental. Three sentences in and this man's already worse than Walker from before they domesticated him.

"Well, looks can be deceiving." Ava says tightly.

Yelena eyes the head of security critically. He is quite solid and stands with a balance that communicates a certain level of discipline. However, he also moves with a stiffness in his joints that comes with age and years of wear and tear. He has the arrogance of a man who believes he is better than others.

He has experience, which could make him dangerous. But it would be quite easy for Yelena to incapacitate him in a direct confrontation. She files that thought away. For now they have to work with him to catch Hawkeye. Unfortunately.

Craig leads them to an elevator and proceeds to explain the building's security measures.

"You two at least know about our security level system, right?"

They indicate that they are aware of the security levels. The building is arranged in a sort of bulls-eye, with the green areas open to the public and includes places like the kitchen, the front lobby, and the ballroom where the party is to be held. The yellow areas have a higher security clearance and are mostly for the offices. Finally the red areas are reserved for those with just the highest levels of security clearance, such as high ranking executives and the head of security himself. Every security badge is color coded for the level of access it grants.

"Some things that I doubt you'd know is that each badge is embedded with a tracking device. On top of that, each guard is armed with one of these." Wilson pats a device on his belt that looks like a speed gun. "These are retinal scanners. Every person appointed with a badge has their scans on record, which corresponds to their security badge."

The elevator comes to a halt. Wilson attempts to lead Yelena and Ava out of the elevator by the small of their backs but they swiftly move away and shoot him twin looks of disgust.

"You don't want to be doing that." Ava says darkly.

Yelena doubles down on the warning. "Touch either of us again and you will no longer have any appendages with which to do so."

Craig Wilson raises raises his hands in a gesture of surrender and chuckles uncomfortably. "Geez, I was only trying to be helpful. Can't do anything nowadays."

The head of security smartly continues walking before either of the woman are able to control their rage enough to respond.

"I'm going to kill him." Ava hisses into Yelena's ear.

"Not yet. Remember, we still need him for now."

They catch up with Craig who continues speaking as though the last couple of minutes hadn't happened.

"All of this and more is controlled by a Steranko System, alongside our own Bishop Security improvements."

Ava lets out a low, impressed whistle. "A Steranko, huh?"

"Alongside our own Bishop Security improvements." Craig reiterates. Yelena can't help but find his need to impress much less endearing than Hawkeye's.

"And what exactly is a Steranko?" Yelena asks.

"It's a-"

"It's a security system that uses a heuristic algorithm." Ava says, cutting off a very put out looking Craig. "It learns and adapts. Even if someone manages to break in the entire building is basically a trap being controlled by the kind of computer program capable of beating a chess grandmaster."

"Which is why you people really aren't needed here." Craig says. "Your being here is really more of a favor to you than it is for us. That is, if your thieves really do make an appearance. I have no doubt that they would not be leaving this building alive, with or without your help."

The audacity of this man openly admitting his plans to murder the thieves. Yelena's distaste turns into disgust. "Well it is a good thing we are here then because we do intend for these thieves to be leaving here very much alive and in handcuffs. I understand if such a task is too much to ask of you and your people."

Yelena and the head of security stare each other down for a tense moment. The man takes a step forward, putting the difference between their builds in stark contrast. Yelena remains unimpressed by his attempt at intimidation. Especially since his flared nostrils and reddening face are more comedic than anything else.

"Listen here you little-"

"Craig." A friendly voice calls out. They all look over and see a man wiht salt and pepper hair and a charming grin walking up to them. "Are these the agents Val sent over?"

Craig grunts. "These are Agents Belova and Starr."

The new arrival turns his attention to Ava and Yelena. Up close his formerly charming expression is more unsettling than anything else. His smile is almost unnaturally wide. The plasticness of his expression and lack of light behind his eyes gives off the impression of a creepy doll, business man edition.

"It is just an honor to have you here, truly. I hope this guy's been treating you well." He punches Craig on the shoulder playfully, not expecting the head of security to be as solid as he is. He winces and shakes his hand out, but recovers quickly.

"My name is Martin Shaw. My friends call me Marty. Val says that your team is the best of the best and that if anyone is able to keep my company and its assets safe that it's you. And I've learned a long time ago that when Val says something, you oughta listen to it."

Martin Shaw speaks very fast. It's as though he's trying to imitate a fast-talking reporter from an old movie. Or perhaps a Gilmore Girl.

"Martin Shaw, as in the CEO of Bishop Security?" Ava says.

"Bingo! In the flesh. Now, I'd hate to hit and run but I am very busy right now. I just wanted to swing by and introduce myself."

He turns to leave but Yelena stops him. "Before you go, Mr Shaw, could you take a look at this picture of Hawkeye and tell me if she seems familiar?"

"Call me Marty. And sure, I'll take a little look."

Yelena pulls up the picture of Hawkeye and shows it to Martin Shaw and Craig. Craig has no reaction, but Martin's mask of friendliness slips. His jaw slackens and eyes widen into a look of almost terror. Very quickly though, he tightens his expression as it twists into one of pure fury before he once again plasters a false smile across his face. It all happens so fast that Yelena almost thinks that she imagines it.

"Nope. Can't say I've ever seen her. How 'bout you Craig?"

Craig shakes his head. "Can't say I have. But if you send us that picture we'll put it into the system and have all of our employees be on the lookout."

"Great!" Martin Shaw says with a clap of his hands. "Now, I really do have to get going. But it was great seeing you ladies. I'm sure I'll see you around." With that, the CEO turns and quickly scurries away.

Yelena takes a moment to think about what she just saw. Martin Shaw clearly recognized Hawkeye, and not for good reasons. But why would he lie about it? Perhaps she is posing as some sort of criminal client of the company in order to gain access and he doesn't want law enforcement to be made aware of the connection, even if it is a false one? It's possible, but Yelena is hesitant to commit to this explanation.

"Just up ahead is our command center for our security system." Craig indicates. He leads them to a door and unlocks it using his security badge.

Inside the room looks like one of those sci-fi shows that Bob and Walker like (though Walker claims to not actually be a fan and to primarily be interested in sports movies and westerns). One large monitor surrounded by dozens of smaller monitors takes up nearly an entire wall, each showing different views of the building. All except for a few that are showing what seems to be infrared images alongside walls of text and numbers that Yelena can't quite make out. In front of the monitors is a complicated control panel. The rest of the walls are lined with computer towers.

"As you can see we don't just rely on cameras but also have biometric scanners. They track height, weight, heartbeats, body temperature, and a bunch of other crap like that."

"Like casinos." Ava notes.

Craig chuckles condescendingly. "Our system is much more advanced than that, little lady. But you're not too far off."

Without looking, Yelena sticks out her arm to prevent Ava from charging at the man. If Craig notices he doesn't acknowledge it in favor of bragging.

"Casinos aren't able to have as detailed of scans as we do. Our biometrics can be used to identify individuals, assuming that they've been scanned by our system before. Nobody is able to hide. Once you're in this building the Steranko-Bishop system knows exactly where you are at all times."

Yelena shifts her weight, suddenly feeling claustrophobic.

"We have our normal server room which runs all of our day-to-day but then we also have our secure room as well. The only way to get to it is on the elevator that goes from Mr Shaw's office to the secure servers in the basement. That elevator is only accessible if you have a red security badge, like this." He shows them his own badge that has a red stripe across it. "After that the doors will only open after you're checked by the retina scanner. Inside the elevator scanners will check to see that whoever's in the elevator is actually who they say they are using their biometric signature and won't move unless all three of these identifiers are a match. Once in the basement the door to the server room itself is behind a laser grid. The door can only be unlocked by a six digit code. On top of all that we're going to have two of my guys stationed there from now until the end of the party."

Yelena hums. "What exactly is the difference between the regular servers and the secure servers?"

"The regular servers has everything we need to run this building. The secure servers are on its own network and has our more sensitive information on it. Like our experimental technology that aren't ready to be shown to the public yet. "

"You don't actually expect us to believe that there's only one copy of this company's most sensitive information, do you? No matter how secure these servers are it's too risky."

Craig snorts derisively. "Of course not. Everything on those servers is regularly backed up onto a hard drive which only Mr. Shaw himself knows the location of. Nobody knows this building as well as him. Not even me. That's even assuming that the hard drive is even in the building."

Yelena furrows her brow. "You mean you don't know where it is?"

"What part of 'only Mr. Shaw knows where it is' did you not get?" Craig huffs and mutters something under his breath. "Are you two done here, or are there anymore stupid questions you want to waste my time with?"

Ava growls and takes a step towards him but stops when Yelena once again subtly throws her arm in front of her.

"That will be all for today." Yelena says. "But we will continue to provide extra coverage of the building leading up to the event."

"Great." Craig says sarcastically. Not another word is spoken amongst the group of three as the head of security escorts them back to the ground floor all the way until they're outside of the building.

"Almost makes you think he doesn't trust us, or something." Ava remarks. Yelena doesn't disagree.

The next week and a half is spent with Yelena's team, minus Alexei who still needs to pass a psych eval in order to resume field work (thank goodness) familiarizing themselves with Bishop Security, interrogating employees, and doing their best to avoid the annoying and suspicious gaze of Craig.

Yelena honestly doesn't know whether Ava, Walker, Bucky, or even Bob will be the first to punch the head of security. The only reason Yelena hasn't yet is because she is too focused on her goal to let him bother her too much.

Another, more secret, goal of theirs is to try and figure out what exactly is going to be unveiled at the event but everyone is annoyingly tight lipped about it.

In spite of their best efforts, there is not so much as a whisper of Hawkeye or her crew the entire time. Yelena can tell that everyone, even her own team, is beginning to doubt that her hunch is correct. Either the crew is planning on striking the night of the event with no recon, which would be incredibly stupid, or Yelena is wrong.

Yelena is willing to bet that it is the first option.

On the night of the event, Yelena is assigned to keep an eye on the ballroom itself along with Bucky. He looks about ready to crawl out of his skin as he constantly fidgets with his tuxedo and smiles awkwardly at all the rich guests who can tell that he obviously does not want to be there. Yelena herself is wearing an all white suit except in lieu of a shirt she is only wearing a white tuxedo vest. Looking around she probably stands out more than she would like to, but she is sure that Hawkeye would spot Yelena no matter how well she blends in.

The party is bursting with people who are obviously important and rich. Yelena does not recognize most of them. Though she is somewhat surprised to see a number of unscrupulous characters casually mingling with politicians, billionaires, and even heads of government agencies. Val is also here. She's speaking with some senator or congressman with a tight, unpleasant smile on her face. Martin Shaw is being obnoxiously jovial with the CEO's of AIM and HAMMER.

There's even a small smattering of teenagers and children who were most likely dragged to this event against their will. The teens are clearly struggling with soul crushing boredom, but the kids seem to be able to entertain themselves well enough.

It's an intimidating gathering. Yet also strangely humanizing. Yelena even overhears Pepper Potts and Tony Stark bickering nearby.

"…really regretting not getting a sitter."

"Don't sweat it, Peps. Morgan is having a great time."

"Really? Because the last time I saw her she was in the corner talking to her 'friends in the vents.' And didn't I tell you to watch her?"

"Networking. She's networking and as CEO of a multi-billion dollar company you should really know that by now."

"Tony…" Pepper Potts says in a warning voice.

"Relax. She's been picked up by a roving pack of first graders and has been accepted as one of their own. And if she plays her cards right she'll be running this joint in no time."

"Now there's a scary thought."

"Not as scary as the thought of the people actually running this place." Tony Stark makes a disgusted noise and does an overexaggerated full body shudder. "Morgan would do a much better job than all of them. She's almost as smart as her mom."

"Charmer." Pepper playfully admonishes. "But that doesn't tell me why you're not watching her."

"What, are you kidding? The kid was talking to the vents five minutes ago. The last thing she needs is her old man cramping her style. Besides there's a whole pack of lonely grandparents circling the kids like vultures. There is no shortage of babysitters for her tonight. Which gives us plenty of opportunity to dance before throwing ourselves to the wolves. When was the last time I took you dancing?"

Yelena doesn't hear Pepper's response as her husband whisks her off to the dance floor. She can't help but find the image of little Morgan Stark whispering to the vents amusing. Though her amusement only lasts for a moment as a ridiculous suspicion pops into her mind. Could it be…?

Subtly as she can help, Yelena inches over to the closest vent and strains her ears for any sounds at all. All she hears is the sound of air being pumped into the large ballroom. The Interpol agent chuckles to herself. She can't believe she even entertained the notion that someone would be sneaking through the vents as though they are in some kind of cliché spy movie. Who would actually do that?

Kate climbs out of the vent and dusts off her suit with a satisfied grin on her face. She takes a quick peek to make sure the coast is clear before stepping out into the hallway. It's showtime.

Yelena dully listens to the sounds of hers and Bishop Security's teams checking in over the radio. The whole building is crawling wiht Bishop Security but the only Interpol agents inside the building are her team with backup outside. Everything's clear so far but the event's only just begun. They still have a full three course meal to get through before the big presentation. She can't help but to sympathize with the teenager a few tables over who is miming being strangled by his own tie. Looking to Bucky across from her at her own table she sees the same pain reflected in his eyes.

There is nothing more painful than boredom.

Expensive looking salads on literal silver platters are brought out to the guests by waiters in all black suits. Yelena's about to take a bite when she notices some kind of mystery substance on her fork. A deep frown settles on her face. This is typical. After a quick explanation to Bucky, Yelena stands and tries to find a waiter standing still long enough for her to ask for a new fork.

She's just about to stop one of them when something catches her eye. Another waiter a little ways away from her with unmistakeable strong shoulders and long, elegant, and calloused hands. She's wearing a wig and some kind of prosthetics on her nose, jawline, and even ears. But even with all that makeup there is no doubt in Yelena's mind that it is in fact Hawkeye.

Yelena doesn't call it in. She justifies the decision with the reasoning that she's not completely sure that this really is Hawkeye. It's best to make sure before raising any false alarms. Instead, Yelena watches as 'the waitress' disappears behind a door marked "Employees Only." Not wanting to waste a moment, the Interpol agent follows behind her as quickly as possible without attracting attention.

By the time she slips past the door she finds the hallway behind it empty. Cautiously, she begins making her way down towards the direction of the kitchen. However, Yelena doesn't get more than twenty steps down the hall when she's suddenly grabbed and hauled through a nearby doorway.

Instinctively, Yelena twirls the dirty fork still in her hand into a reverse grip and plunges it into her assailant.

Once she has the chance to take stock of her surroundings, she finds herself staring into familiar blue eyes.

Hawkeye's eyes widen in shock and her jaw clenches as she harshly breathes out through her nose to avoid crying out in pain. The space Hawkeye pulled her into is small enough that the two women are practically pressed right up against each other. In spite of all of the anger and confusion burning inside of Yelena, she can't help but to feel the gentle warmth of Hakweye's body heat strangely soothing.

It is very annoying.

"You stabbed me!" Hawkeye whisper yells.

"You ambushed me, what did you expect?" Yelena whisper yells back. "Don't you know you can't go around grabbing women without their permission? It is very rude. You are very rude, Hawkeye."

Hawkeye scoffs. "Oh, I'm the rude one?"

"Yes. And besides that, you stabbed me first. So we are even now, yes?"

Rolling her eyes, Hawkeye fires back. "I never stabbed you. It was a fake sword that didn't even break skin."

"And this is teeny, tiny eating utinsil. How can this be a stab? It is not even a knife. You are a wimp, Hawkeye."

"There is a futzing fork sticking out of my shoulder!"

"And you are lucky that it is not in your jugular. So now, unless you want to get caught you need to keep quiet." Yelena hushes Hawkeye, for reasons unknown to herself, as the thief's voice reaches a volume dangerously above whispering. They both strain their ears for any sign of somebody hearing them. The faint sounds of a pair of footsteps and quiet conversation goes by their little hiding place but otherwise they remain undisturbed.

Both women take the opportunity to calm down after the surprise ambush, stabbing, and heated argument. The only sounds to fill the space are their harsh breathing that slowly begins to even out. The small overhead lightbulb casts dramatic shadows down Hawkeye's face, highlighting her long eyelashes and sharp cheekbones that not even her intensive disguise is able to hide. Yelena continues to study Hawkeye's face closely as her heart rate settles down to nearly normal.

Once Yelena is finally able to think more clearly, Hawkeye's earlier words fully register. "Did you just say 'futzing?'"

The thief lets out an embarrassed groan. "I spend a lot of time around Clint's family. If I ever swear around Nate I'd be a goner. Even though Clint lets it slip literally all the time."

"What did you just say?" Yelena asks, putting pressure on the fork she has yet to take her hand off of. She ignores Hawkeye's hiss of pain to continue her line of questioning. "Laura divorced Barton and took their kids long before he left Interpol. Why would you be spending so much time with them?"

Instead of responding, Hawkeye squeezes her eyes shut and gently taps Yelena's elbow. Realizing her mistake, Yelena stops putting pressure on the fork but doesn't release it from her grip yet.

"This is so much worse than being hit with a fake sword." Hawkeye bemoans. "But yeah. His leaving Interpol took a lot of planning. They wanted to make sure his family was left alone as much as possible when he started committing crime so they pretended to split. It worked because you guys only questioned Laura a few times before she was finally able to disappear. Their house is kind of the base of operations. For the original crew at least. My crew visits every once in a while."

Yelena numbly absorbs everything Hawkeye is telling her. If Barton had been planning this life of crime for so long, does that mean Natasha was as well? How long exactly was she planning on abandoning her? How long was Barton planning on stealing her sister from her? Was this plan conceived before or after Yelena joined Interpol? Is there no end to the lies?

"Why are you telling me all of this? Why now?" Yelena lifts her gaze up to see Hawkeye staring at her with a steady intensity.

"Because," she says, maintaining eye contact. "I finally know who you are and you deserve to know. You always should have known. I mean, Natasha is your sister after all."

Yelena doesn't even realize she's once again placed pressure on the fork until Hawkeye's groan of pain sends vibrations through her own body and a shiver down her spine. She doesn't have time to analyze where that reaction came from before Hawkeye grabs her wrist in a bruising grip and brings their faces even closer together, her eyes filled with an uncharacteristic fury.

"Let go." Hawkeye snarls, her face twisted with pain and rage.

Yelena remembers the pictures of Manfredi and his men lying in pools of their own blood and for the very first time is afraid of the woman before her. The Interpol agent lets go of the fork and presses herself against the opposite side of the closet, though it does very little to create any space between the two.

Seeing her reaction, Hawkeye's face contorts into a look of horror and just like that she returns to her normal self. "Shit, I'm so sorry. I didn't meant to. It just really hurt and-"

"It is fine, Hawkeye." That's what she says, but Yelena is still shaken by her brief glimpse of Tirator Scelto.

Hawkeye continues to gaze at Yelena with no small amount of concern and guilt. Feeling strangely vulnerable, Yelena averts her eyes so that they're no longer in contact with Hawkeye's. The thief reaches up and pulls the fork out of her shoulder with a small grunt and examines it closely.

"What were you even doing, following me with this?"

Yelena shrugs. "It was not my intention. The fork was dirty so I had just gotten up to look for a new one when I saw you."

Hawkeye's expression morphs into one of pure disgust. "You stabbed me with a dirty fork? Ew! That's so gross. I'm going to die of an infection now. I'm going to die the lamest death in history because you decided to stab me with a dirty fork." Yelena has to lean even further back in order to avoid Hawkeye's emphatic hand gestures as she spirals out of control.

Crossing her arms, Yelena huffs and rolls her eyes. "That would be a very lame death, but you are not going to die from a tiny little fork, Hawkeye. Stop being a drama queen. Back to the matter at hand. Tell me where Barton is and I will cut a deal for you to have reduced sentencing or something."

Mouth gaping open, Hawkeye squawks in surprise. Yelena kicks her in the shin and aggressively brings a finger to the taller woman's lips as a reminder to be quiet. She's briefly distracted by the softness of her lips but doesn't have much time with the thought when the thief, red in the face, angrily swipes Yelena's hand from her face. "Do you think you can go five seconds without causing me some kind of pain?"

"I don't know, Hawkeye. Do you think you can answer my questions?"

"That's what I'm trying to do but you keep hurting me. And you just said that you're going to arrest me."

"Yes. You are a criminal and my job is to arrest criminals. Where are you getting confused?"

"I thought that we had an understanding after the last time we met and that you only wanted to arrest me so that I'd tell you where Nat and Clint are. Well, here I am ready to tell you everything, no arresting required. And you won't let me."

Yelena's heart seizes in her chest. Where Nat and Clint are. Present tense. She's alive. Yelena's sister is alive. It's the answer that she's so desperately wanted ever since she heard that no body was recovered from the crash and it was blurted out so casually by the bane of Yelena's existence.

To her horror, Yelena's eyes begin to well up with tears and her legs shake, threatening to collapse from underneath her at any moment.

"Yelena? Are you alright?" Hawkeye asks, her eyes bright and wide with concern.

Trying to speak, all that's able to come out of the Interpol agent's mouth is a sad, pathetic whimper. Cautiously, Hawkeye reaches a hand out and gently places it on her shoulder. Yelena's body betrays her and the moment she feels the soft touch on her shoulder, she collapses forward into Hawkeye's arms and silently sobs. With only a moment's hesitation, Hawkeye wraps her long arms around Yelena and holds onto her tight. The Interpol agent tightens her grip on the thief who responds by giving her a brief, comforting squeeze and soft assurances whispered into her ear.

Months of mourning and years of confusion, pain, and loneliness pour out of her. Every single shattered piece of her is caught and gently cradled by Hawkeye. It feels nice. It feels like being chosen.

The moment is shattered by the door suddenly opening. Yelena jumps out of Hawkeye's arms and shoves her as far away as she can manage. The two women stare in bafflement for a moment as it seems that the door had opened on its own. However a small voice directs their gazes downwards.

"What are you doing in there?" A small girl with a sparkly yellow dress and a stuffed rabbit wearing its own dapper suit says in the most judgmental voice Yelena has heard in her life.

Yelena's mouth gapes open soundlessly as Hawkeye sputters. The girls eyes grow wide and knowing before her features contort in disgust.

"Were you kissing?"

Hawkeye's sputters again and turns as red as a tomato. "No! We weren't. Kissing. We weren't kissing." The insistence in which she proclaims her denial rubs Yelena the wrong way. Yelena is very desirable and Hawkeye would be lucky to kiss her.

"Definitely not kissing." Yelena confirms.

Hawkeye looks at her like a puppy being denied table scraps. "Definitely not? Why definitely not?"

Yelena rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to the little girl. "Get back to the party. Your mommy must be looking for you right about now."

With that said, Yelena pulls Hawkeye back into the supply closet and closes the door on the pouting child.

"Why did you do that?" Hawkeye asks in horror.

"Do what?"

The thief huffs before opening the door again and finds the hallway empty. "Wow, she's fast." Hawkeye mutters.

"Yes, the annoying and judgmental child has gone back to the party. Now perhaps we can get back to me arresting you."

Hawkeye rolls her eyes and closes the door again. "That's definitely not where I remember leaving off."

"Then perhaps you could use a reminder."

Yelena grabs onto Hawkeye's shoulder, only remembering that it was recently stabbed when the thief cries out in pain, and spins her around. Their sudden movements cause the cleaning supplies on the shelves to rattle. Yelena begins to read the thief her rights and reaches for her handcuffs.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Hawkeye pleads, voice muffled from being pressed into the shelves. "I need to tell you about Natasha."

"There will be plenty of time for that later."

Yelena reaches for the door handle and is about to open it when Hawkeye pulls her final ace from her sleeve.

"It wasn't an accident. Nat was driven off the cliff. By Bishop Security."

This stops Yelena dead in her tracks. She brings Hawkeye back to face her, digging her thumb painfully into the spot she had stabbed earlier.

"Why should I believe you? You're nothing but a murderer and a liar."

Hawkeye winces. "I am those things, but I'm more than that. I thought you knew that. Please." She seems so genuinely desperate for Yelena to believe her. "I want to explain everything to you but if I don't go right now my crew, my family, could get hurt. If you come with me right now I'll explain everything on the way."

Hawkeye's eyes shine with sincerity even in the low light. Yelena wishes she could believe her. She wants to believe her. But she doesn't even know who Hawkeye is. There are no good people in this world and the ones who pretend to be are the most dangerous ones of all.

"You can explain from your jail cell."

Hawkeye doesn't seem surprised by Yelena's words, though the slump of her shoulders is impossible to miss. "I'm sorry about this." She says.

Before Yelena can react, Hawkeye reaches high above her to one of the shelves and slams a mop bucket down on Yelena's head.

The pain and sudden darkness are so disorienting that by the time Yelena is able to get the bucket off her head Hawkeye is long gone. The supply closet is open and a Bishop Security guard is staring at her in concern. "Are you alright, ma'am? You look like you really got your bell rung." The guard laughs at his own joke. Yelena does not laugh.

She glares the would-be comedian into silence and checks the inside pockets of her blazer. Yelena almost laughs at the predictable absence of her radio and security access badge. Not wasting a moment, Yelena rolls up her pant leg to reveal her back-up radio and her real security badge strapped to her ankle. She speaks into her radio and indicates the code letting everyone working security that their communications are compromised and to only relay essential information over the radio.

The badge Hawkeye has stolen off of Yelena is labeled for the Red Zone but is actually only good for the Green Zone and is tracked just like the others. Hawkeye will no doubt know about the tracking chips on the badges so she will most likely attempt to use it as soon as possible before dumping it.

As if on cue, Yelena receives a message from Bob in the control room over her team's private comms. Some of the security cameras seem to have a small glitch and that somebody has just attempted to use Yelena's fake badge. Bob has already sent a guard to check it out but Yelena knows that a single guard won't be any good against Hawkeye.

"Take me to this door." Yelena demands, telling him the same door that her fake badge was just used at.

A light flickers in the guard's eyes. "Oh. You're one of the Interpol agents."

The look Yelena gives him is beyond incredulous. "You are just figuring this out now? This door. Take me there now."

The guard nods, looking a little sheepish, and leads Yelena away. The door is two levels up. As they approach, Yelena sees Walker coming from the opposite direction and a guard crumpled on the ground in front of an open doorway. Yelena's fake badge and Hawkeye's discarded disguise lay on the ground next to him.

"дерьмо!" Yelena swears as the guard she came with checks on his fallen comrade.

"What's the deal with your girlfriend, Belova? How'd she get in without anyone noticing?" Walker asks.

"I don't know, Walker. Maybe she snuck in when you were busy with your head up your ass."

"Wow. That felt uncalled for."

It was definitely uncalled for, but being mean to John is always a convenient stress relief. She'll apologize later. For now Yelena ignores him and speaks to Bob over comms again.

"Bob, this hallway branches off in several directions. Any idea which way she went?"

"It's weird. The normal cameras are still glitching out for now, but the system's firewalls are tracking down the source. The biometric scanners don't seem to be malfunctioning but they're not picking up on Hawkeye anywhere."

"What about the unconscious guard's badge?"

"It's not showing up. She must've found a way to block the signal."

Of course she has. "John, go down there and look for her."

"You could say please, you know."

"Now, Walker."

Walker raises his hands in surrender and jogs down the hall.

Uncaring of the guard fretting over his colleague, Yelena leans back against a wall and doubles over, placing her head in her hands, her mind racing. Natasha. Bishop Security. Martin Shaw's strange reaction to Hawkeye. It's beginning to form a picture in her mind's eye, but she can't help but feel as though she's still missing a piece of essential information.

What if Hawkeye is telling the truth about Tasha's crash? That it was orchestrated by Bishop Security. Taking a deep breath, Yelena steps away so that no one will hear her speaking.

"Bob, don't speak. Just hum if you can hear me."

Bob hums. "I'm going to need you to do something very important without Craig noticing. Could you see if Bishop Security has any records regarding Natasha?"

Bob makes a questioning sound that could be passed off as him clearing his throat.

"I've recieved intel that they might be involved in her crash and I want to verify before doing anything about it. You think you can do that?"

"So, Craig. This seems like a tough job. Do you ever take any breaks?" Bob says. Whatever Craig says is inconsequential because Bob's message is clear.

"Ava, are you there?"

"Way ahead of you. I'll get the arsehole out of the way." Ava responds

With that done, Yelena turns her attention back to finding Hawkeye. She wanders just a little bit further into the Yellow Zone when her eyes catch on the cover of a ventilation shaft.

"My friend in the vents…" Yelena whispers to herself thoughtfully. The idea is ridiculous. But then again, so is Hawkeye. The Interpol agent crouches down and pulls on the metal grate.

It's loose.

Another tug pulls the grate away easily. Yelena groans, knowing what she has to do now. She sends out a message over the radio, warning all high ranking security to watch for intruders in the vents. Not wanting to get it dirty, Yelena shucks off her nice blazer and hangs it on a nearby doorknob as carefully as she can before kneeling down and climbing into the vent.

Peter's pretty sure he's about two seconds away from sweating through his suit. They only have a a few minutes before Riri's kicked out of the system and security will have full access to everything she's doing on her laptop. That doesn't give him much time to do this part.

He watches anxiously as Martin Shaw takes a long drag from the champagne Peter's just given him. It only takes a few moments for the mild drug Peter slipped into the drink to take effect. Martin Shaw grows weak in the knees and begins to collapse.

In that same moment, Peter swoops in to steady the CEO and lead him over to a chair. Not wasting a moment, Peter pulls out his pocket retina scanner disguised as a small flashlight, courtesy of Riri, to 'check his pupils.' It takes too long. Peter can feel the suspicious glances of the crowd forming around them as Peter shines a light into the man's eye for an uncomfortable amount of time.

When the scanner finally finishes, indicated by a slight vibration, Peter straightens his back and assures everyone that Martin Shaw is fine and slips away as fast as he can.

Right before leaving the ballroom, Peter stops a waiter passing by.

"Hey, can you cover for me with Gary? I'm not feeling well."

The waiter sighs impatiently. "You too? Fine, but you owe me big."

After one final thank you, Peter races off to meet back up with Riri. He doesn't the second shadow he's gained trailing closely behind him.

Yelena is very glad she took off her blazer. Her pants and vest top are almost certainly ruined by all the dust she sees dancing in the light of her phone flashlight. She didn't have allergies before, but it wouldn't surprise her if she suddenly developed some from pure exposure to a truly unreal amount of dust. She sees now that the all black suit Hawkeye is wearing tonight plays a role beyond allowing her to blend in with the wait staff and making her look devistatingly handsome. Objectively speaking.

After army crawling for a little while, Yelena comes to a crossroads, allowing her to go either left or right. Closing her eyes, the agent devotes all of her attention to her hearing. At first all she hears is the sound of her own harsh breathing. But after a an eternal minute Yelena hears the faint sound of of straining metal to her left. She immediately follows.

Yelena goes through this process a couple more times until she comes to one final intersection. She stops to listen but no matter how hard she strains her ears, she can't hear the tell-tale creaking of metal. Just as she decides that her best option is to guess and hope for the best, Bob's voice comes on over the comm.s

"Yelena? You there?"

"Agh!" Yelena startles and hits her head on the top of the vent. "Yes, Bob. I am here." She groans, rubbing the spot where her head made contact. "What is it?"

"It's the Steranko. It doesn't have any biometric scanners in the vents but it can still track your ID badge and it says that an unrecognized bio signature just appeared out of nowhere in a room near your location."

"Which direction?"

"Uh, right. It's on your right. But wait. Before you go, there's one more thing you should probably know." He lowers his voice to a whisper. "I looked into that thing you asked me to. And, um. It's not good."

"How 'not good' are we talking?"

"It took a bit of work, but I managed to find the police file on Natasha's crash."

Yelena's breath catches in her chest. "That is pretty not good. What would Bishop Security be doing with that?"

"That's not the worst of it. This file is different from the official file on record. One of them is fake."

"Meaning that even if Bishop Security didn't cause the crash then they were at least involved in the cover up."

"That's what I'm thinking."

Yelena lets out a long sigh before addressing her whole team. "Alright guys, change of plans. We are now helping Hawkeye."

A chorus of sarcastic exclamations of surprise ring in Yelena's ear over the comm.

She rolls her eyes and tries to bring them back under control, proceeding to crawl towards the vent cover as she does so. "Yes, yes. You are all such comedians. Now, how is this going to work?"

"Well, we're probably going to want to get rid of Craig." Bucky mutters, unable to speak freely on comms while in the heart of the party.

"Don't worry about it."

Everyone falls silent for a moment at Ava's words.

"What do you mean by that?" Yelena asks.

"You asked me to take care of him. He's been taken care of."

"Geeze, you didn't have to kill him. We are supposed to be the good guys and, like, the upholders of law and order." John says.

"Oh knock off, I didn't kill Craig. Though don't think I didn't consider it."

"His bio signature is in a copy room on the 35th floor. But his heart rate is like, way down." Bob supplies.

"That would be because I knocked him out and tied him to the copy machine."

"You do remember that we were still trying to work with him when I asked you to distract him, yes?" Yelena asks.

Ava makes an uncomittal sound. "Eh, details. It was never going to work between us and him. We're just too different and you already had your eye on someone else."

"We won't have much time before somebody notices that Craig isn't checking in." Yelena says, eager to move on from that conversation. "Walker, go to Bob and make sure he's safe. Ava, work on tracking down anyone on Hawkeye's crew. And Bucky, I think it's best if you stay in the ballroom to keep an eye on things. If the crew is wanting to make a spectacle then that is the most likely place for it to be."

They all voice their understanding, except for Bucky who huffs but otherwise doesn't complain.

Finally making it to the vent cover, Yelena climbs out and finds herself in an empty office space.

"Bob? Where did she go?"

"Give me a minute. I'm kinda busy slowing down the video surveillance and facial recognition from coming back online while also trying to keep security off your back and cover for Craig all without raising any alarms. There's only so much I can do. Riri must've sold her soul or something because the Steranko should've come back on a while ago. I don't know what she did but it's like magic." Bob falls quiet for a moment as he types furiously. "There! To your left is Hawkeye's signature, as well as a few guards and two more unknown bio signatures."

Without a word, Yelena races down the direction Bob directed her until she comes across an open doorway. Yelena observes as Hawkeye stand unnoticed behind a group of three guards, all pointing their guns at Riri and Cassie. They're both dressed in casual business wear and Riri is standing in front of a laptop connected directly to wires inside an open section of the wall.

"You're mad, we can see that." Riri is saying. "But there's not really anything we can do about that. You're going to have to take that up with our boss."

"Where's your boss?" One of the guards asks.

Cassie smirks. "Right behind you."

The three guards turn as one to see Hawkeye right behind them. In a flurry of movement, the thief puts one guard in a headlock and sweeps his leg from under him, slamming his head into the ground. The remaining two guard turn their guns on her.

Deciding that this is the perfect moment to announce her presence, Yelena comes flying in with a bone shattering kick to the knee of the guard closest to her. With a howl of pain, he drops down. Yelena's vaguely aware of Hawkeye disposing of the final guard as Yelena claps her hands over his ears, shattering his eardrums, before bringing his chin down onto her knee. He slumps to the floor unconscious. Yelena turns towards Hawkeye just in time to see her discard the bullet from the chamber of a gun, removing the magazine, and casually tossing the magazine and gun to opposite sides of the room. Her movements are quick and fluid like she's done this a thousand times before. Yelena finds it odd, but doesn't question it.

The two women stare each other down wearily. Yelena studies Hawkeye once again now that she is free of her disguise. She looks just the same as the last time she saw her but with new cuts and abrasions adorning her features. She doesn't miss the way Hawkeye is cautiously sinking back into a fighting stance.

"It is true what you say about Bishop Security and Natasha?"

"Yes." Hawkeye answers cautiously, now beginning to slowly lower her fists.

"And she is alive and you will take me to her?"

"Yes."

Yelena nods. "Then there is no need to worry. My team and I will help you."

Hawkeye breaks out into a big, dopey grin that sends a jolt through Yelena. "You mean we're going to work together again?"

"Yes, that is what I mean. But that does not mean I trust you." Yelena rushes to clarify. "I am merely seeking answers about my sister."

Hawkeye nods as though she understands, yet her smile refuses to dim even a little bit. "Of course. Wouldn't expect anything else."

"Yeah, friendship and we're vibing and everything's great." Riri says, looking impatient. "We gotta get going. That fight made a lot of noise and we're probably about three seconds away from being stormed by Bishop Security goons. So…"

"Right, right." Hawkeye says, coming back to her senses. She grabs onto Cassie, who's been watching Hawkeye and Yelena like they're the leads of her favorite rom-com, and leads them to the stairwell. Apparently there's less security there because the stairs are primarily only used in cases of emergencies. Which is, admittedly, a bit of an oversight. Between that and Bob steering the guards out of their way, the stairs are left completely clear.

As they ascend, Yelena gives them a quick update on her team's movements. When she gets to the part about Ava getting rid of Craig, a devious glint enters Hawkeye's eyes.

"Wait, that gives me an idea. What floor did you say he's on?" Yelena tells her, which just happens to be one floor back down. "Great. This'll make working the elevator easier. If we have him with us then we won't need override it. Riri, can I borrow your taser?"

A few minutes later finds Yelena and Hawkeye struggling to carry Craig Wilson's cumbersome unconscious body up the stairs. They had originally draped his arms over their shoulders, but his height made it difficult so they are now dragging him by his feet, his head softly thunking against against each stair they go up.

"Well, one thing's for sure." Hawkeye says once they reach a landing, both panting and their arms burning from the exertion. "This guy's going to be waking up with one hell of a headache."

"If he wakes up, you mean." Yelena corrects. "Head trauma is no joke."

On silent agreement, the two exhausted women take a moment on the landing to rest and recover. They still have two more floors to climb before they meet back up with Cassie, Riri, and Peter. Yelena thinks she might die before they get there.

"This is a shit plan." Yelena tells Hawkeye.

The thief shakes her head in disagreement. "No, this is a great plan. You'll see."

"Hey guys." They both look up to see a nervous looking Peter poking his over the railing from their desired floor. "I don't want to worry you or anything, but I kind of messed up."

With Peter's help they're able to drag Craig's body the rest of the way up much faster. They bring him all the way to the spacious office in which Cassie and Riri are bickering as the same girl in the sparkly yellow dress from earlier watches on with wide, curious eyes.

"How did you not notice her following you?" Hawkeye asks.

"And more importantly," Yelena adds. "why did you not send her back to the party once you did notice her?"

"I'm sorry, okay? She said that she'd scream if I made her go back to the party." That, Yelena can relate to. "I didn't know what to do, so I panicked and brought her with me."

"I wanted to be with my new vent friends." The girl says with an innocent smile. Yelena doesn't buy it for a moment. This child is a master of manipulation.

"Hey there." Hawkeye says, kneeling in front of the girl with a friendly smile. "My name is Hawkeye."

The girl giggles and hugs her rabbit to her chest. "That's a silly name."

"Yeah, it is isn't it? What's your name."

"Morgan. Morgan Stark."

The entire room freezes. Even Cassie and Riri stop their argument over what to do with the girl. Morgan Stark giggles, reveling in the clear despair she is causing the adults in the room.

"What is it, Kamala?" Hawkeye says hollowly into her comms, still staring at Morgan Stark in shock. After listening to whatever it is Kamala has to say before letting out a long, tired sigh. "Alright, we'll see what we can do."

Hawkeye turns to Yelena, her crew having already heard whatever the problem is on their own comms. "Kamala is having a hard time getting access to the loading bay. Our entire exit strategy hinges on her being there."

Yelena nods. Thinking quickly, she speaks into her own comms. "Ava. We need someone to clear the way for Kamala in the loading bay. Think you can manage that?"

"I'll see what I can do."

"I hate to say it, but I've got some more bad news." Bob says. Yelena holds up a hand to silence the occupants of the room. "A group of three extra guards is on their way to the secure server room. And also I, um, I can't find Martin Shaw. Not his badge or his bio signature."

"Дерьмо!" Yelena swears, which Morgan excitedly parrots, and relays the message to the room.

"You forgot to mention the little detail that we've been made, Bob." Walker snarks. "The lights in the control room are off, we're locked in, and we have about two minutes until cameras and facial recognition are back online."

"Bucky-"

"Yeah, I've got it." Bucky interrupts Yelena, already on his way to Bob and John.

After a quick summary of their conversation, Hawkeye looks thoughtful for a moment before dealing out her own instructions.

"Alright, change of plans. Peter, while I'm sure Agent Barnes can take out any thugs he comes across, I'm willing to bet that he's going to need a hand getting past the electronic lock."

"On it." Peter salutes, hands off a small item to Cassie, and races out of the room.

Hawkeye scoops up a black backpack and starts hauling Craig towards the elevator. "Yelena, we've gotta get as far from Cassie and Riri as we can before the cameras are back on."

They make quick work of dragging Craig across the level, slippery surface of the tiled floor. By the time the two minutes are up, Hawkeye and Yelena have already made it into the elevator.

Running on nothing but pure adrenaline at this point, Yelena and Hawkeye both slump against the back wall of the elevator. They only have a few moments to catch their breath before reaching the next floor. The elevator doors ding open and they drag Craig out onto the top floor. They look up and find themselves in a cozy looking lobby with a couch, a receptionist desk, and a set of double wooden doors.

"That," Hawkeye says, pointing to the double doors. "leads to Martin Shaw's office. But that's not where we're going. No. Where we are going is right…there." She turns and points to another elevator right next to the one they just came out of. "And this is also where our friend, Mr. Wilson here, is going to help us out."

As if in recognition of his own name, Craig begins moaning in pain.

"Think he'll be willing to help us once he's fully awake?" Yelena asks rhetorically.

"No, I do not. Would you like to do the honors, my Lady Belova?" Hawkeye presents Yelena the taser with a flourish and a small curtsy.

Yelena finds herself chuckling at Hawkeye's antics in spite of herself. She delicately takes the taser from Hawkeye's hands with a curtsy of her own and walks over to Craig before ramming the taser into the space where his shoulder meets his neck.

"Gah!" Craig's body goes stiff from the electricity coursing through him and once again falls unconscious.

Yelena laughs and holds the taser up to admire it before turning to Hawkeye. "That was good. That was very generous of you."

Hawkeye beams with pride, not even trying to act cool anymore. Which Yelena honestly appreciates. Hawkeye once again stares at Yelena just a beat longer than the moment calls for before literally shaking herself out of it.

"Help me prop him up. We'll use his badge and eye to get us on the elevator to the servers. From there we'll have a few minutes before we reach the bottom."

Back to business the two women move efficiently to once again hook Craig's arms around their shoulders and move him to the second elevator. Yelena grabs his badge to swipe it while Hawkeye uses her fingers to pry his eyelids a part. It takes a few try's, but they eventually get him to the right angle for long enough for his retina to be scanned.

Craig is unceremoniously dropped to the floor of the elevator with a thud. It's very possible that he is never going to recover from this night.

As the elevator begins its descent, Yelena takes a moment to stretch out her arms. "Ugh." She groans. "I don't know about you, Hawkeye, but I and for sure going to be sore tomorrow morning."

Yelena waits for a response, but when none is forthcoming she opens her eyes and sees Hawkeye staring at her with a glassy expression and her lips lightly parted.

"You have been staring at me a lot tonight." Yelena notes. Hawkeye startles out of her trance, her face turning an almost worrying shade of red. Yelena quirks an eyebrow and allows a playful smirk to dance across her lips. "Makes one wonder what could possibly have you so distracted."

Hawkeye opens and closes her mouth like a gaping fish. Yelena can see her throat visibly working to form words. Hawkeye is eventually able to croak out the word "Arms."

"You have been staring at my arms all night?"

"Amongst other things, yes."

Yelena laughs. She always seems to be doing that around Hawkeye. After recovering from her embarrassment, Hawkeye's own laughter joins Yelena's and fills the space between them.

"You know," Hawkeye says. "you've really gotta stop making me like you."

"I'm sorry, I can't help it." Yelena shrugs.

Hawkeye levels a soft look at Yelena. Too soft. Too soft to be real. Nothing that soft is ever real and it reminds Yelena that nothing she knows about Hawkeye is real either. Yelena clenches her eyes shut and reminds herself all of the reasons why she can't trust the thief in front of her. Yelena still doesn't know her real name, she's been antagonizing Yelena for months, she presents herself as a kind and gentle person but is still capable of an almost unthinkable level of brutality, and she is one of the people who Tasha chose over Yelena. And possibly most importantly, it's too easy to trust her. In spite of everything Yelena still has to fight against herself to not trust Hawkeye.

Feeling more in control, Yelena opens her eyes and gets back to business. "So what is this big plan of yours?"

The sudden tone shift takes Hawkeye back for a moment, but she recovers quickly. "I'll explain. But first we have to get up there." She says, pointing up.

Yelena directs her gaze upwards to see an emergency hatch in the ceiling, then looks back to Hawkeye whose excited grin is not doing much to inspire confidence in the Interpol agent.

"The moment these doors open we're going to have five guns trained on us." Hawkeye explains as she takes off her backpack and blazer.

"So you do not intend to be behind these doors when they open." Yelena finishes the thought.

"Exactly. See, you get it." No longer wearing her blazer, Hawkeye puts her backpack back on and rolls up the sleeves of her black dress shirt. Something about the movements fascinates Yelena. She closely observes the way Hawkeye's tendons and muscles in her forearms move beneath her skin as the thief laces her long fingers together and cups them in front of her.

There's an embarrassing long moment in which Yelena is staring at Hawkeye uncomprehendingly. Hawkeye simply gestures with her still cupped hands and gives Yelena an expectant look. Finally putting the pieces together, Yelena places her foot into her hands and is lifted up to the ceiling.

"Oof." Hawkeye grunts. "You're heavier than I expected."

"That would be because your muscles are for show while mine are practical." Yelena pops the latch on the emergency door and manages to haul herself all the way out onto the top of the still descending elevator. It is dark, grimy and cold. Resisting the urge to crawl out of her skin, Yelena instead looks back down and sees Hawkeye cradling the shoulder Yelena had stabbed with a fork earlier. She opens her mouth to apologize before remembering who she is speaking to and snaps her jaw shut tight.

"Grab on," Yelena commands instead as she reaches her hand down towards the thief. Hawkeye takes the proffered hand with a grateful nod. With the two of them working together, Hawkeye is able to reach Yelena with little trouble.

"Now, when we get down there the signals on our comms will be blocked so we'll be on our own," Hawkeye says while digging through her backpack and handing Yelena a small headlamp. "We'll wait until we reach the bottom and for the guards to come closer. When they do, we're going to hit them with this bad boy." She once again reaches into the backpack and proudly brandishes a canister of sleeping gas. "Oh, and you're going to want this." This time Hawkeye pulls out a pair of gas masks and hands one of them over.

"From there, all we have to do is get past the laser grid, enter in the pass code, and then we'll be in the server room. Any questions?" Hawkeye asks.

"Many."

She seems genuinely taken aback by Yelena's very reasonable response. "Like what?"

"Hm, let me think about that." Yelena says sarcastically. She begins to count on her fingers as she fires off her questions. "How are we going to get past the laser grid and pass code? What exactly are we stealing from the servers? How are we going to get out of here when more guards inevitably show up? What are.."

"Okay, okay. You've made your point." Hawkeye interrupts, placing her hands over Yelena's to get her to stop counting. "You've made some valid points, but I promise it's all going to work out. Have I ever lied to you before?"

"Yes."

"What? No I haven't."

"You told me your name was El Deveroux when we first met."

"That…doesn't count. I didn't know you then and we don't have time for this right now. To answer your questions as quickly as possible, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, we're not stealing anything from the servers, and by the time we're ready to leave the guards that we haven't taken out by now will have their hands full with something else."

That doesn't answer any of Yelena's questions.

"What are Cassie and Riri up to while we're doing this?"

The light from Yelena's headlamp makes Hawkeye's responding smile seem even more menacing than usual.

Morgan Stark looks on in awe as she watches Cassie and Riri use a power saw to cut a hole in the ceiling from a safe distance. The girl is unbothered by the fact that her industrial grade ear protection is about the same size as her entire head.

"Kate better be right about this secret safe in Shaw's office!" Riri yells.

"What?" Cassie calls back.

Riri rolls her eyes and returns her attention to the very dangerous power tool above their heads. After just a little longer, they cut the power to the saw and step back. Cautiously, Cassie uses a broom to poke the weakened area of the ceiling from a mostly safe distance. Cassie and Riri scream while Morgan laughs when a small, top-of-the-line, Glenn-Reeder safe drops from the ceiling.

"Again! Again! Again!" Morgan cheers.

"You got Shaw's retina scan?" Riri asks Cassie.

"What?" Cassie yells again. All she can hear is a loud ringing due to her having given Morgan her own ear protection.

Riri huffs and makes a show of pointing to her own eye and then to the safe. Face lighting up with understanding, Cassie pulls out the small device Peter handed off to her earlier and gets to work picking the lock on the safe.

"…with the guards busy with us and the guys, those two will be free and clear to show all the guests at the party every single dirty little secret Bishop Security has been trying to keep hidden. The ensuing chaos will provide us with the cover we'll need to escape and then we'll all be on our merry way as this whole company burns to the ground. Metaphorically speaking. Probably." Hawkeye finishes her explanation.

Yelena has more questions but no time to ask them because in that moment they're jostled by the sudden stopping of the elevator. They've reached the basement. Both Hawkeye and Yelena hold their breaths as the time between the elevator stopping and the doors opening seems to stretch unnaturally long. Suddenly filled with nerves Yelena catches Hawkeye's gaze. She attempts to give Yelena a reassuring smile, but the trained agent can see the tightness around the other woman's eyes and the way sweat is beginning to form on her temples. It's actually oddly reassuring to know that they're both nervous.

The elevators open with a cheerful ding! There's not even enough time to blink before gunshots ring out and ping against the inside of the elevator.

"Wait, hold your fire! Hold your fire!" A voice calls out, muffled by the closed hatch.

In the ensuing quiet, Hawkeye and Yelena slip on their masks. Hawkeye playfully waves the sleeping gas canister at the agent before handing it over.

"It's Wilson." The same voice from earlier says. "He's been hit. He doesn't have a pulse."

To Yelena's surprise, a look of genuine regret shows on what little she can see of Hawkeye's face. Perhaps she is just reading her wrong or looking for something she wishes is there.

Hawkeye quickly snaps out of her moment of seeming regret and holds up three fingers. She uses them to wordlessly countdown. Upon reaching zero, she and Yelena move in complete coordination as Hawkeye opens up the hatch just as Yelena pulls the pin on the sleeping gas and tosses it down on the guards. Hawkeye reseals the hatch and presses all of her weight on top of it.

The sounds of coughing and retching reaches them. "They're on top! Get that door open! Hold your breath!"

An impact on the hatch nearly throws Hawkeye off of it. Yelena joins her in pressing down on it with all of her strength right as another attempt at wresting the hatch open is made from below. They feel the guards push against the hatch again, and again, and again. Each attempt slowly becoming weaker than the last until eventually

Thud.

Thud. Thud. Thud thud.

It falls quiet. They no longer feel anyone pressing against the emergency hatch. After waiting another minute just to be safe, Yelena speaks up. "Alright. I think we're good."

Hawkeye pops open the hatch and Yelena drops back down into the elevator, narrowly avoiding landing on any of the bodies on the floor. Hawkeye is not so graceful. She lands on a guard and stumbles, nearly falling face first onto the corpse of Craig Wilson. She would have if not for Yelena reaching out quick as lightning to steady her by the elbow. Once Hawkeye regains her balance, Yelena jerks her hand back just as quickly, as though by avoiding being seen then that would stop Hawkeye from noticing her helping hand.

"Thanks." It didn't work.

"Do not mention it." Yelena warns gravely. Hawkeye chuckles but abruptly stops upon realizing that Yelena is in fact being very serious.

"Oookay. Consider it not mentioned." Hawkeye turns and carefully steps over the guard whose body is blocking the doors from closing with Yelena close on her heels. The Interpol agent takes the opportunity to take one of the guns from an unconscious guard. Craig didn't trust Yelena's team to have guns in his building and Val forced them to comply. In retrospect the head of security was probably justified in his distrust seeing as his dead body is currently less than ten feet away from Yelena right now.

They step out into a hallway with concrete pillars lining the walls and a visible laser grid about halfway between them and a heavy, steel door on the opposite end.

Hawkeye takes off her gas mask and takes a couple of big whiffs to test the air for any lingering sleeping gas. Yelena clenches her jaw at the show of recklessness and crushes the urge to march up to the other woman and slap the mask back on her face.

"Seems fine to me." Hawkeye says with a shrug. Yelena sighs and reluctantly removes her mask as well. "Should be smooth sailing from here."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Martin Shaw, gun in hand and handkerchief being removed from his face and pocketed, steps out from behind a pillar.

Time slows. The gun is aimed directly at Hawkeye and Shaw squeezes the trigger. Yelena grabs onto Hawkeye's shoulder and pulls as the gun goes off with a loud bang!

The two of them fall with Hawkeye's back propped against the pillar nearest to them and Yelena right in front of her. The Interpol agent pulls out the gun she stole and fires a few rounds at Shaw who has already retreated back to the safety of his own pillar.

Hawkeye's hands scramble to check Yelena over for any injuries but Yelena just waves her off, too focused on Shaw and the immediate threat he poses.

"The big man wants you alive, brat. But I have been dreaming of putting you six feet under for years now. And here of all places! It's almost poetic, don't you think?" It's the most human Shaw has ever sounded. His voice is filled with hatred and the brief glimpse Yelena had of his smile actually reached his eyes.

His words prompt Yelena to look at Hawkeye. "What does he mean? How do you know him?"

Tears begin to fill the thief's eyes and she looks more scared than Yelena has ever seen her. In fact, this might be the only time Yelena has seen the woman be genuinely afraid.

It feels wrong.

Shaw fires another shot, causing concrete dust and debris to rain down on them. Yelena fires back, missing and hitting the pillar he's hiding behind instead. She pulls out the magazine and swears at what she sees.

"I only have two rounds left in this gun." She says, putting the magazine back in place.

Hawkeye nods, her face beginning to look pale and sweaty. "Better make it count, then." She reaches out and grabs the radio still attached to Yelena's and inches over to get a quick glimpse around the pillar. Another shot rings out and Hawkeye pulls back just in time to avoid getting hit. Yelena fires back to lay down cover.

One bullet left.

"Alright," Hawkeye pants, "get ready."

She hurls the radio at Shaw. It arcs through the air gracefully and falls just wide of hitting Shaw as he pokes his head out from around the pillar. In spite of the miss, the thrown radio still distracts him long enough for Yelena to fire her last round and bury it in his skull. He's dead before his body even hits the ground.

Out of immediate danger, Yelena and Hawkeye take a moment to catch their breath. As she comes down from her adrenaline high, Yelena's limbs feel about as heavy as stone and just as stiff. If she takes a moment to rest she'd probably be asleep in moments. But they're not done yet.

Yelena stands with a groan, every muscle in her body aching, and reaches a hand down to help Hawkeye up. The thief takes it but when she tries to stand her face contorts and she falls back, moaning and clutching at her side. Yelena kneels down and sees blood slowly seeping out from beneath Hawkeye's hand.

"You've been shot." Yelena notes. She takes in the way Hawkeye's face is pinched and how her chest rises and falls quickly as she struggles to breath through the pain. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't notice." Hawkeye whines.

"How do you not notice a bullet in your side?"

"Well, we were kinda busy. I had other things on my mind."

"Like whatever personal vendetta the CEO of Bishop Security has against you?"

"I mean, there's that. But what I was actually talking about is you." Hawkeye attempts a wink and a charming smile but under the circumstances both fall flat

"Blood loss is making your lines worse. We need to stop the bleeding."

Yelena ignores Hawkeye's indignant protests and looks around but doesn't see anything in the immediate vicinity to use as makeshift bandages. Instead she reaches out and tugs on the collar of Hawkeye's shirt. "Do you have anything underneath this?"

"Uh, yeah. Why-why do you wanna-"

Hawkeye isn't able to finish her question before Yelena begins unbuttoning her shirt, revealing a dark purple tank top in the process.

"Woah, woah. Buy me dinner first." Hawkeye jokingly complains. "Or maybe just a drink."

Yelena helps her to lean forward to finish getting the shirt off her back before leaning her against the pillar again. "Yeah, sure. Okay."

Hawkeye's eyes shine with hope at her words. "Really?" She asks breathlessly.

Yelena nods. "After we get out of this alive and you tell me everything that I want to know then I will consider it."

Hawkeye nods stupidly and starts babbling about something or another. Yelena is too focused on tearing the shirt into strips for the bandages to pay attention. The thief's barrage of words is cut off by a pained moan when Yelena presses the torn shirt over her wound and ties it around her.

Yelena helps the injured woman to her feet and leaves her leaning against the pillar while Yelena goes to grab the remaining guns. She's learned her lesson and has no intention to be caught without an extra reload again. When she returns, it's to Hawkeye staring at Shaw's body with an unreadable expression. Yelena almost doesn't want to interrupt whatever inner dialogue the thief is having with herself. Almost.

"Here, take this." Yelena offers up one of the guns, having already stashed the others into the waistband of her pants and a 'borrowed' holster.

"No, thanks. I'm good." Seeing Yelena's confused reaction, Hawkeye offers a simple explanation. "I don't like guns."

It makes sense, given what Yelena's seen of her first hand. Yet if even a tenth of the reports on Tirator Scelto are true then she is more than proficient with guns. Is she lying? For what purpose? Could Yelena's hunch about Hawkeye and Tirator Scelto being one and the same be wrong? Or is it more likely for her to have changed so drastically so as to be practically unrecognizable from her younger self? Every possible explanation seems more unlikely than the last.

Not seeing any hope for answers to this line of questioning in the near future, Yelena instead asks a different question. "Bob did not say anything about Shaw being down here. In fact he said that Shaw had literally disappeared from the surveillance system. How do you suppose he did that."

"Hm." Hawkeye hums thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. I think I remember hearing a rumor about…try checking his pockets."

Yelena does so and finds a small pen-looking device with a button on top and a blue light.

"Is this what you are looking for?"

"Maybe. If it is, and if Riri is right, which she always is. It's super annoying. But if it is what I think it is then it's a device that makes whoever's holding it invisible to the security system."

Yelena raises her eyebrows. "Really? What could possibly be the benefit of something like this for the person who owns the security system?"

Hawkeye shrugs. "I mean, he was able to get the drop on us with it."

"Fair enough, I suppose. It might be useful if he ever wanted to get past somebody else's securities well."

"Yeah, maybe. Though this is probably programmed for this building specifically. Still though, it might work in places secured them."

Yelena eyes the small device curiously before pocketing it. She loops Hawkeye's arm over her shoulders and helps her limp over to the laser grid.

"How are you intending to get past this, Hawkeye?"

"…I'm not sure exactly."

Yelena whips her head around to look at the other woman incredulously. "What do you mean you're not sure?"

"Well, the plan was for Peter to be down here with me and he could, you know," she makes a vague gesture with her hand, "do his flippy, acrobatic thing to get past the lasers and disable them but he's not here. So now we just have to improvise."

Yelena sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. Hawkeye is going to be the death of her. "Well, what about Shaw's signal blocker device? Could we use that to get past the lasers?"

"I don't know."

"Is there anything you do know?"

"Hey! Who got us this far?" Hawkeye defends herself.

"You are literally bleeding out in my arms right now. You do not make the most compelling argument."

"Whatever. Let's just try to find a way to shut these lasers down. Try seeing if you can find a way to access the laser's power source. They're probably wired into the walls."

The beginnings of doubt begin to trickle into Yelena. She has thrown her entire life and career away, as well as that of her entire team, because of a vague hunch based on information given to her by a conwoman? As if that isn't bad enough the more time Yelena spends with said conwoman the more clear it is that her plans are mostly held together with duct tape and dreams.

But there's no going back now. The only way out is through and whatever other BS people use in situations like this.

Yelena brings Hawkeye to one wall to search before rushing to the other so that they can ideally find the power source twice as fast.

Eventually Yelena is able to find a tile on the wall where the edge doesn't quite match up with its neighbors. With some effort, she pries it off the wall to reveal a large collection of neatly organized wires of various colors. Across from her, Hawkeye whoops victoriously before wincing and clutching at her wound.

Yelena contemplates the wires before her intensely, trying to discern which, if any, is most likely to be connected to the lasers. Her concentration is so intense that she doesn't even react as Hawkeye practically collapses against her back with her full weight and weakly wraps her arms around her shoulders. Yelena doesn't shrug her off. Because of the blood loss.

"You could have waited, you know."

"Got impatient." Hawkeye's strained voice says almost directly into Yelena's ear. Yelena literally shakes off the sensation of feeling Hawkeye's warm breath on her ear. This is not the time to be distracted.

"This is your plan, master thief. Which wire should I cut?"

Hawkeye quietly studies the wires for just a moment before answering confidently. "The red wire. Cut the red wire."

Yelena nods and holds out her hand. "I need a-" She doesn't even finish her sentence before feeling a pocket knife being placed in her hand. Without a word, she cuts the red wire. Both women hold their breath as they wait for what happens next. Whether it be the lasers being turned off or some alarm or trap being triggered

They only have to wait about a second before the laser grid shuts down, one by one.

"Wow. Can't believe that worked." Hawkeye mutters.

Yelena slowly turns her head to look at Hawkeye with a rising sense of horror. "You mean you didn't know which of those wires was connected to the lasers?"

"What? No. Why would I know that?"

It takes all of Yelena's willpower to not shove the injured woman to the ground. The only thing stopping her from doing so is her close vantage point being able to catch the miniscule signs of pain that Hawkeye lets slip through her usual confidence.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Yelena says sarcastically. "I just figured that since you knew the precise location of Shaw's secret vault which wasn't on any schematics and nobody else knew about, that you would have some idea of how to get past this very important laser grid. My mistake."

"I can't know everything, Yelena."

"If you didn't know what wire to cut then why did you say the red wire?"

"Because the lasers were red. Figured there was as good of a chance as any that that was the right wire."

Yelena levels a look at Hawkeye so dark and rageful that most other people would drop dead on the spot, even without having been shot not ten minutes before.

"Yelena, I'm sorr-"

"I do not wish to talk right now."

"But I-"

"Buh, buh, buh." Yelena interrupts. "I said no talking."

Mercifully, Hawkeye listens for once as Yelena carefully maneuvers the thief so that they are side by side and only one of Hawkeye's arms are draped over her shoulder. Still though, Hawkeye is resting most of her weight on Yelena and her breathing is becoming more and more labored.

In spite of her anger and distrust, Yelena still can't help but feel worry for her. "Does it hurt?" She asks stupidly as they begin to make their way to the other end of the hall. Of course it hurts. It is a bullet wound.

Yelena continues to silently reprimand herself as Hawkeye chuckles weakly. "I mean, it's not great. But it could be worse. I could've been stabbed by a rusty fork."

A small amount of Yelena's anger turns to an exasperation that definitely isn't fond.

"How do you think the others are doing?" Hawkeye asks.

"Look out behind you!" Bob calls from his place on Peter's back.

Walker turns just in time to punch out the guard attempting to sneak up on him. "How did you manage to hurt your ankle when you weren't even part of the fight?"

"C'mon, that's not true." Peter defends while trying to adjust Bob to a better position. With him being so much taller than Peter his legs come close to hitting the ground even though Peter's holding him up piggyback style. "He jumped on that one guy's back."

"Yeah. That was super helpful. I don't know what we would've done without Bob jumping on that one guy's back." Walker snarks back.

"Just ignore him. He becomes an even bigger asshole than usual when he's scared." Bob tells Peter.

Walker opens his mouth to respond but is interrupted by Bucky speaking to someone in his earpiece.

"No, I said we do t need backup." He pauses for a moment as he listens to the other person. "What do you mean you already sent people in? Who authorized that?…Well, somebody should've told me, even if the order came directly from the director. What's their location now?" Whatever is said causes Bucky to place his free hand on his hip and let out a stressed sigh. "Alright. Thanks for keeping me in the loop, make sure to keep me updated on any more…updates."

"Bad news, guys." Bucky says, turning to face the others again. "Interpol's sent in a squad for backup and they're already on their way down to the basement."

Walker swears while Bob groans and Peter scrambles for a solution.

"Alright, alright, alright. We can deal with this. We can totally deal with this. Here, Walker. Take this." Peter sets Bob down by Walker. "So, you two go meet up with Kamala and Ava and make sure our escape route isn't compromised. Agent Barnes, could you come with me to help Hawkeye and Agent Belova? I'm no Riri but I should be able to hack into the elevator and get us down there."

The Interpol agents stand, unsure whether they should listen to Peter or not for a moment before Bucky spurs them into action. "You heard the man. Come on, let's go."

They split off into pairs and race off, hoping to salvage as much of the plan as they can and get everyone out safely.

"I'm sure they're fine." Yelena's tone is not convincing even to her own ears. Though this does not seem to bother Hawkeye who merely hums in response.

"Please tell me you have a real, actual plan for getting past this key pad." Yelena practically begs once they reach the locked door at the end of the hall.

"Yeah, I know the code." Hawkeye weakly lifts her free hand to punch in the code. Upon seeing how Hawkeye's hand trembles, Yelena grabs her wrist with a gentleness that surprises herself and lowers the thief's hand.

"It's okay. I've got it. Just tell me the code."

Yelena types in each number as they're breathed out of Hawkeye's lips. With the sixth digit entered, the light on the key pad turns green and the door opens.

Faith partially restored, Yelena looks to Hawkeye with wide eyes. She gives Yelena a smile. It's sad, and a little bitter. "It's the day Shaw gained control of Bishop Security. The same day Eleanor Bishop was arrested and there wasn't anything standing in the way of him and everything he wanted."

Yelena searches Hawkeye's face for answers but is unable to find any. "How do you know Shaw? Bishop Security made me believe my sister was dead, what sins have they committed against you?"

"That's a story for another day. A story that I promise I'll tell you the next time you ask."

"That's a big promise."

"Everything. I'm going to tell you everything that you want to know." Hawkeye's face is pale and strained, but her eyes shine with sincerity.

It's too much. Not knowing what else she can do, Yelena turns her head forward and leads them into the server room.

They both startle swings closed behind them and locks.

"Don't worry," Hawkeye assures, "somebody'll come get us. We knew about the automatic locks."

"And you didn't think that would be important information to pass on to me?"

"Hey, there was a lot to catch you up on. Give me some credit…"

Seeing her eyes begin to close, Yelena's heart seizes in her chest and she hurriedly sets Hawkeye down against one of the server towers.

"Hey, wake up. You don't get to sleep yet. Not after everything you've put me through tonight. Come on, come on." The panic in Yelena's voice becomes more and more apparent with each word out of her mouth, urging the criminal who's been nothing but a pain in her side to wake up.

"I'm up," Hawkeye whines as she weakly bats away Yelena's hand, "you can stop that now."

Relieved, Yelena sits back on her heels and lets out a laugh. They're not dead yet, but she's all too aware that it's still a very real possibility.

"We are in the server room, Hawkeye." Yelena feels the need to remind her. "Tell me what to do now."

"Here, take this." Hawkeye pulls a data stick out of her pocket and places it in Yelena's hand. "Just plug it in and the virus will download itself. Then all that will be left to do is sit back and watch their empire fall."

Without any more preamble, Yelena rushes to a server in the center of the room and plugs it in. Nothing happens.

"That was a little anticlimactic. How will we know that this virus is working?"

Hawkeye makes an attempt to shrug her shoulders but stops with a hiss of pain. "Riri just said that we'll know."

With nothing else to do but wait, Yelena leans against the server tower and slides down so that she is sitting beside Hawkeye. She watches as the thief struggles to keep her eyes open. Blood is beginning to seep through the makeshift bandage and between Hawkeye's fingers. She has to make sure Hawkeye stays awake until help comes.

"Still with me?" Yelena asks with a nudge of their elbows.

Hawkeye meets Yelena's eyes with a level of determination that should not be possible under the circumstances. "Always."

That single word is enough to cause a fluttering in Yelena's chest. "Good," she chokes out, "be sure to keep it that way."

They lapse into another silence. This isn't good. Yelena needs to find a way to keep Hawkeye talking. She needs to find a way to stop her from slipping away. Luckily Yelena has more than enough questions to ask to keep them occupied. But staying awake will only help so much. Help better be on its way, and fast.

The awkward silence between Peter and Bucky is thick enough to be cut with a knife as they wait for the elevator to reach the top floor. Peter fidgets with his sleeves. Bucky shifts his weight.

"Sooo," Peter begins, "you have a metal arm. That's pretty cool. I've never seen such an advanced prosthesis before."

"We don't need to talk."

"What? I'm just curious what it's made out of, how you control it, how you clean it…" Peter continues to ramble on as Bucky tries his best to tune him out. This is going to be a long elevator ride.

"…so you see gentlemen," Kamala says to the two wary Interpol agents in charge of guarding the loading bay, "my good friend, Agent Starr here, will attest that I am undercover. Deep undercover."

Ava nods in confirmation. "It's true. And you two geniuses are in danger of blowing our entire operation. Months of undercover work, years of planning, and a considerably large amount of money. All of it will be wasted because of you."

The agents slowly begin to lower their weapons, but stop. They listen to something being said in their earpieces before training their guns back on Kamala and Ava.

"That's interesting. Because I just received word that your team's been compromised."

Kamala chuckles weakly. "We're undercover…?" Ava sighs and puts her hands in the air in surrender.

Before the guards do anything else, one drops to the ground revealing Walker standing behind him. He wastes no time incapacitating the other one as Bob limps out from wherever he was hiding before.

"Alright, you're clear on the plan?" Cassie whispers to Morgan and her gang of first graders through the vent. They all nod enthusiastically, some of them with wide smiles that border on manic.

"Now Morgan," Riri says from behind Cassie, "after you plug in the drive you have to…"

"I know how to work a computer. I'm not a baby." Morgan huffs.

"Of course you're not. I never said you were. This is just really important and if something goes wrong then-"

"Then the bad guys win." A boy wearing a Spingebob bow-tie says seriously. The rest nod solemnly.

"That's right, this is very serious. And that's why we're trusting all of you with this very important mission. There's nobody else we'd trust more. So let's do this and beat the bad guys."

The kids all cheer at Cassie's speech but are quickly hushed by the thieves in the vent. They quiet down and disperse, giggling and whispering to each other excitedly.

"We're going to die." Riri mutters as soon as the kids are out of earshot. "If we don't die here then the others are going to kill us when they find out what we're doing."

"Have a little faith, we've been in tighter spots before." Cassie says despite the fact that she was just thinking the exact same thing.

They both hold their breaths as they wait for the plan to begin. And begin it does.

It starts with one of the kids letting out a blood-curdling scream before descending into violent sobs. In another part of the room a table cloth is pulled and sends thousands of dollars worth of food and silver crashing to the ground. A waiter trips and tackles a senator. Somehow one of the kids manages to start a fire. The entire ballroom erupts into chaos.

Nobody notices Morgan Stark and her tuxedo rabbit slipping backstage to get a very special presentation ready to show to the whole room.

Yelena's sure they're fine. More fine than herself and Hawkeye at least. Not that the bar is very high.

"Tell me something, Hawkeye."

Hawkeye's head slumps over so that she's looking at Yelena, their faces so close that the Interpol agent could count each individual eyelash on the thief's face if she had the time. For one wild moment, she's tempted to try.

"What do you want to know?"

"I have never seen you shoot a gun. The few times I've seen you hold one you discard it."

"Solid observation Agent Belova."

Yelena rolls her eyes though her heart isn't in it. "Why do you not like guns? It seems odd considering your role on your team."

"I don't know. I just don't."

"You are being difficult on purpose."

"Sorry," Hawkeye apologizes weakly, "bad habit. I just don't like guns so I don't use them."

Tirator Scelto was more than proficient with guns, Yelena remembers. Hawkeye is still lying to her. The thought stings more than she thought it would.

"Liar." Yelena spits out. "I know that you know how to shoot. I know that you are good with guns."

Hawkeye blinks slowly, taking a long moment to find her words. If she wasn't actively bleeding out next to her, Yelena would not have allowed her the moment. Yet her concern for Hawkeye is valiantly keeping her anger under control for now.

"I don't like guns," Hawkeye licks her lips, "but that doesn't mean I don't know how to use them."

"Why don't you like guns?" Yelena asks again.

"Because…" Hawkeye trails off, suddenly looking pained. Yelena moves to check on her wound but is waved off. "I don't…I don't want to be the kind of person who's good with guns."

Yelena stares at Hawkeye thoughtfully. Even though the thief's gaze is comparative lyrics weak it still burns with sincerity. Yelena doesn't turn away from it.

"Do you mean you don't want to be Tirator Scelto?"

Hawkeye's eyes widen and Yelena feels the way her entire body stiffens next to her. She frantically tries to move away from Yelena but stops and gasps in pain before she's able to get far.

"How do you know that name?" Hawkeye asks, seeming more alive than she has since she was shot. Her whole body trembles and Yelena does not know if it is with fear or pain.

"I did some digging. So it is true, you are Tirator Scelto?"

"Why?" Hawkeye groans pitifully. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I do not appreciate being lied to. I am trusting you with my life, my career, my team. Everything. Yet I do not know who you are." Yelena tries to make her voice sound firm but it's clear even to herself that she sounds more desperate than anything. Like she's begging for something. Yelena hates how much of her life has been spent begging.

Hawkeye falls still, no longer trying to inch away from Yelena. The two women study each other for a long moment before Hawkeye clenches her jaw.

"You're right. I am Tirator Scelto. Or I was at least. I've been trying not to be anymore." Hawkeye takes a shaky breath and Yelena is shocked to see tears forming in her eyes. There's a part of her that wants to tell Hawkeye to stop. That they can talk about it another time. But she doesn't stop her. Yelena needs to know who Hawkeye is.

"When I was a teenager my mom and I had to move to California. I had done something that I don't regret, but it caused a rift between us. But that's another story that I'd rather talk about when we're not here." Hawkeye looks around them with a bitter smile. "No, definitely not here."

"Anyway. I was angry and hurt and alone. And more than anything else I was young and dumb so I went out looking for trouble. Got into a lot of fights with a lot of people. Sketchy people. Wasn't long until somebody noticed."

"Manfredi."

Hawkeye nods her head. She bites her lip and looks away, visibly fighting off tears. "Oh, I felt like such a hypocrite," Hawkeye breaths out. "All I ever wanted to do was help people but all I did was hurt."

"So all those rumors about you were true?"

"Most of them aren't. But enough of them are." Hawkeye doesn't speak for a moment. Yelena is just beginning to worry that she's slipped into unconsciousness when she speaks again.

"Manfredi took me in. I became almost like a pet or a mascot to him. Nonna, his mom, loved me. Treated me like I was part of her family. I knew that people like Manfredi can't be trusted, but I still did everything he told me to anyway. Because I didn't think I had a choice." Hawkeye barks out a single, painful laugh. "Someday you'll know how ironic that is."

"You were a child." Yelena says, suddenly desperate to comfort her.

Hawkeye shakes her head sadly. "No, I wasn't. You can't do what I've done and still be a child."

Yelena opens her mouth to argue. To tell Hawkeye that she knows what it's like to be used and manipulated, but something in Hawkeye's expression cause the words die in her throat. Instead she places a comforting hand on Hawkeye's shin. The thief flinches at the contact, but slowly relaxes and breaths just a little easier. The touch seems to give her the strength she needs to continue with her story.

"After a while Whitney Frost came along. She was…brutal. Efficient. Too efficient to really be cruel."

"I think that that is it's own kind of cruelty." Yelena notes.

Hawkeye nods. "Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. In some ways nothing changed. I was still Manfredi's favorite errand runner. I still followed orders and did bad things to mostly bad people. But Whitney seemed to always have something new for me to do. The jobs became more precise and more calculated, but the targets weren't as limited as before. She was more specific with what she wanted me to do. Whitney always knew exactly what she wanted." Hawkeye's voice breaks with emotion at the end of the sentence. Her stare is directed in Yelena's direction but whatever she is seeing is a million miles away.

"The worst thing I ever did I did for Whitney Frost."

"What did you-"

"Don't." Hawkeye snaps with a surprising amount of strength. Seeing the way Yelena instinctively recoils from her, Hawkeye deliberately softens. "Please don't ask me that. Because if you ask me then I'm going to tell you. So please don't ask me."

Yelena nods, silently agreeing to drop the topic.

"After that I just couldn't do it anymore. I just couldn't. So I left. Traveled. I was still doing bad things. Still hurting people. But it was on my terms. I convinced myself that it was different from working with Manfredi because it was in my terms. It wasn't though. It was the same thing."

"Eventually the knowledge that Manfredi and Frost were still walking around free became too much. I couldn't deal with it anymore. So I went back to end it once and for all, even if that meant dying in the process. Maybe especially then."

Hawkeye falls silent, lost in her memories. Yelena watches as she begins to lose strength and start to slump over. She reaches out and guides Hawkeye so that she is once again leaning against the server next to Yelena. Hawkeye grunts in acknowledgement.

Yelena's plan to keep Hawkeye talking seems to have backfired as recalling her past seems to be sapping her strength. But Yelena desperately wants to know the end of this story.

"So you killed him." Yelena prompts.

"Not immediately, no. I was about to but then that's when everything changed. I met Clint and Nat."

A tear finally leaks out and trails down Hawkeye's cheek. A wobbly smile stretches across her face. "They saved me. Stopped me from going on a suicide mission. They gave me hope that I can still help people. That I can be one of the good guys. We came up with a better plan to take down not just Manfredi and Whitney, but their entire organization as well. I've been trying to pay back their favor to me ever since then by giving other people the same thing that Clint and Nat gave me. The hope that things will get better and the power to make that better tomorrow happen. It doesn't wipe away the bad things I've done, but I hope that one day the good will outweigh the bad. Either way I'm planning on trying to do good until the day I die."

Finally finished telling her story, Hawkeye seems to lose her remaining strength and slumps against Yelena's side.

Yelena shakes her, trying to keep her awake. "Woah, woah, Hawkeye. It is not nap time yet, you need to stay awake for a little longer."

"I'm awake." Hawkeye complains blearily, not lifting her head off Yelena's shoulder.

There is no way that Hawkeye has the strength to answer any more of Yelena's questions that are burning to come out. She believes her. In spite of all logic and common sense Yelena believes that Hawkeye is sincere and just wants to do some good.

Yelena wonders when the last time she herself has done good. She enforces the law and catches criminals, but does that actually help anyone? Is anyone's life meaninfully better due to Yelena's intervention? She's not so sure. She never really cared about that before outside of her friends and family. Could she be the kind of person who helps people for no other reason than to help?

Yelena is snapped out of her thoughts as Hawkeye leans even heavier against her shoulder. Heaven help her but Yelena actually likes this personification of a thorn in her side. She wants to be close to her, to match wits, laugh, and just exist around the thief. Yelena wants. She's not exactly sure what she wants but the want is real and it aches in her chest. Hawkeye is real. Even if Yelena doesn't know everything yet, she knows enough to know that Hawkeye is real.

And she's slipping away. Scrambling for a way to keep the injured woman awake, Yelena feels compelled to share a piece of herself.

She is dimly aware of the notification from the monitor indicating that the destruction of the files is complete. The victory feels hollow.

"Did Natasha ever tell you about our childhood?"

This seems to catch Hawkeye's attention as Yelena feel the weight of Hawkeye's head on her shoulder lighten briefly.

"No. Wasn't good, I know that. As a general rule criminals don't ask about each other's back story."

Yelena hums in acknowledgement. "It was not good. We were raised in an orphanage called the Red Room. It was a scam. No one was getting adopted. The adults were neglectful at best. When we weren't scamming hopeful parents we were being used for free labor and even as spies on occasion. We were guarded closely by men with guns."

Hawkeye squeezes Yelena's hand softly. Yelena hadn't even noticed that they were holding hands before that. She doesn't let go.

"There were two adults who were kind to me and Tasha specifically. Their names were Melina and Alexei. They would smuggle us sweets, say nice things to us. Melina once even kissed my knee when I scraped it once. The first time Alexei hugged me I cried. It was very embarrassing."

Hawkeye makes a noice that could have been a laugh. Yelena plays with Hawkeye's hand, feeling her callouses and savoring the weaker than normal but still comforting warmth.

"They would mostly ask us about our lives and listen. They always seemed to have more questions for us. I was also a teenager when everything changed for me. The Red Room was destroyed and we were adopted by Melina and Alexei. It turns out that they had been working undercover for Interpol the whole time. I had never been so happy in my entire life."

"Tasha turned 18 and joined Interpol not long after even though she never seemed to fully trust our parents the way I did. I never really wanted to join Interpol. I could not care less for the agency or catching bad guys, I just wanted my family to be proud of me. I wanted Tasha to maybe spend some time with me. Sometimes it felt like she was purposefully avoiding me. Like maybe I reminded her of the Red Room or something. But to me she was my best friend."

Hawkeye attempts to shift closer to Yelena but it proves to be impossible since they are already pressed against each other. Yelena appreciates the attempt.

"A few years ago, not long before Natasha left Interpol, I found out the truth. Alexei and Melina were not kind to us because they cared. We were their informants. They could have gotten us out years before they did but then they would have had to start over building trust with new kids who may not have been as effective. We were useful. And Natasha knew. She knew the whole time. Everyone knew that our family was fake and it was all a lie and nobody told me." Yelena's voice cracks. Her throat burns with unshed tears and a painful pressure builds in her chest until it threatens to burst.

A steady grip on her hand anchors Yelena back to the present moment. Hawkeye is once again squeezing her hand, though she still has yet to lift her head. It's as though a pressure valve is released. Only now realizing that she had stopped breathing at some point, Yelena takes greedy, gulping breaths of air. Even the stale, overheated air of the server room feels like a cool relief in this moment.

"Things have not been the same ever since. We were beginning to fall a part before that, but then Natasha left and it was as though Melina and Alexei no longer had a reason to pretend that we were a family without her. Then Tasha died, or so we thought, and that seemed to sever the last remaining connection we had to each other. They no longer had a reason to stay." Yelena was not enough for them to stay.

Yelena rests her head back against the server and squeezes her eyes shut, refusing to let a single tear escape. Her instincts are telling her that she was too vulnerable and that she needs to run and hide from whatever this conversation has become.

So caught up in her own mind, Yelena doesn't notice as Hawkeye lifts her head from her shoulder. She does notice when Hawkeye softly bumps the side of Yelena's head with her own. Yelena turns her head to see the other woman's face right in front of hers.

"Nat loves you, you know."

Yelena shakes her head. "You don't know that. You did not even know that she had a sister."

"I didn't know about you, but I knew that she had someone that she missed."

"You are probably thinking of Bucky."

Hawkeye's face shines like a child on Christmas. "Natasha and Bucky? Sounds like there's a story there."

Yelena groans. "You have no idea. Don't die on me and maybe I'll tell you about it over those drinks I promised."

"Guess I won't die then."

"Good."

"But for real though, Nat really loves you. And even if you don't want to believe me you also have your team. They're like, crazy loyal to you."

"Or maybe they are just crazy," Yelena says, but the reminder of her team still warms her heart. Her friends love her and there's no use arguing against that.

"And if that wasn't enough," Hawkeye pauses to lick her dry lips, a movement that Yelena finds strangely fascinating, "I'm here. For as long as you want me to be."

The words knock the breath out of Yelena's lungs. She wants to say something teasing. Something that would let her hide from whatever this moment has become. Instead she croaks out one final question. "Why?"

"I like you. That's all."

That's all. It's easy. Simple. There's still a part of Yelena that insists that it has to be a trap. That nobody just offers something for nothing. Not to Yelena at least.

But Hawkeye is different. Yelena's seen it. She doesn't understand it but she's seen the way Hawkeye just does things just for doing it. Even now as Hawkeye's body practically shakes with exhaustion, her face pale and sweaty, her earnestness shines out of her like a beacon. It's beautiful. Hawkeye is beautiful.

Yelena continues to watch the other woman in awe when she sees Hawkeye's eyes flicker downward for just a moment and something clicks.

Oh. Yelena wants to kiss her. It's not a feeling she's accustomed to feeling often but now that it's been identified there's no mistaking the cause of the pounding of her heart and the swooping sensation in her gut.

The hand Hawkeye isn't using to hold her makeshift bandage in place comes up and touches Yelena's cheek so lightly that she almost thinks she imagines it. But it's definitely there, as solid and comforting as Hawkeye has always been. Yelena's not sure who moves first, but their faces suddenly begin to move closer and closer. So close that Yelena can feel Hawkeye's breath against her lips.

Bang! The sound of something slamming against the door startles them away from each other. Yelena shakes off the aftereffects of their shared moment as she directs her attention towards the source of the disturbance.

"I don't care what you have to do, just get that door open." A muffled feminine voice says from behind the door. It's hard to hear, but the voice is just familiar enough to cause dread to creep it's way through Yelena.

"Valentina." Yelena whispers.

"Your boss?" Hawkeye asks. Yelena doesn't respond. Instead, she rises to her feet and begins looking around the room for any possible escape from their room. But there's nothing.

Bang! Bang! The door rattles on its hinges. Yelena doubles her efforts searching the room even though she knows it's pointless. They're trapped.

"Yelena." Hawkeye says, but Yelena is too busy studying an air vent to pay her any mind. Sadly this vent is much smaller than the ones in the rest of the building, rendering Hawkeye's favorite mode of travel impossible.

"Yelena." This time, Hawkeye's call is accomponied by the sound of something hitting the ground and a pathetic moan. Yelena looks over and sees Hawkeye curled up in a ball halfway between Yelena and the spot where she had left the thief.

Concern replacing the need to escape, Yelena rushes to Hawkeye's side and helps her sit up.

Bang! Bang! Bang! "Alright, this isn't working. Gentlemen, it's time to bring out the big guns.

"You have to hide." Hawkeye says with a grimace.

Yelena's face wrinkles into an intense frown. "Hide? What do you mean hide? Where?"

Hawkeye's gaze moves upwards towards the ceiling. Yelena follows after and she sees a small space between the top of the server towers and the ceiling. The memory of Peter leaping down from the top of a bookcase enters Yelena's mind and she knows with sudden clarity what Hawkeye's plan is.

"No. No, we cannot do that, Hawkeye," Yelena says whilst shaking her head. "You cannot climb anything right now and even if you could the biometric scanners would tell them that we are here. Your plan would never work."

"You're right, _we_ can't hide. But _you_ can."

Nausea begins to grow in the pit Yelena's stomach as she puts the pieces together. Dreading the answer, Yelena asks for clarification anyway. "What do you mean?"

"Your pocket."

Knowing exactly where this is going, Yelena reaches in and pulls out Shaw's signal blocker. The light is still shining, signifying that it is on and still working. Yelena is essentially invisible to anyone outside of this room.

"You planned this." Yelena accuses, though she is unable to summon any force behind her words.

Hawkeye shakes her head. "I swear I didn't. But it worked out perfectly."

"Are the charges set?" Valentina's voice asks from the other side of the door.

"Just another minute, ma'am."

"Well, hurry it up. This was supposed to be my night off."

"I'm not going to just leave you behind." Yelena asserts.

"You have to," Hawkeye practically begs. "You know that it's the right move. It's easier to rescue one person than two. And this way you'll be able to tell the others what happened."

She's right. Yelena hates it but she's right. Wanting to say something but unsure of what she possibly could, Yelena hesitates. Hawkeye seems to have a similar thought because she grabs onto Yelena's bicep to stop her nonexistent attempt at leaving.

"One last thing, just in case," Hawkey breaths out. "My name is Ka-"

"The charges are set. Everyone stand back, let's light it up!"

Yelena is shoved away from Hawkeye with a surprising amount of force and she has no choice but to stumble to the back of the room which will hopefully afford her a few extra precious moments to make her climb.

_Boom!_ A small explosion goes off, followed closely by the sound of the heavy metal door crashing to the ground.

"There she is!"

"Freeze!"

"Hands up where we can see them!"

A clamor of angry voices continue to shout conflicting orders at Hawkeye before all falling silent almost at once. Their voices are replaced by the sound of high heels clicking across the floor. Yelena makes it to the top of the server tower just in time to catch a glimpse of Valentina approaching Hawkeye's kneeling figure.

"Well, if it isn't the famous Hawkeye. I've heard quite a lot about you, young lady. I'm almost tempted to ask for your autograph."

Hawkeye doesn't respond to Valentina's mocking. Yelena can't see most of the Interpol agents in the room but she can hear their nervous shifting as the tense silence stretches on.

"What, nothing to say? From what I've heard that's quite uncharacteristic of you."

"Are you planning on arresting me some time today?" Hawkeye snaps.

"Why? You have somewhere else to be? Like with your co-conspirators maybe? Where are they, by the way?" Val waits a moment for a response before sighing. "Can't say that I didn't try I suppose. Not that I actually expected you to turn on your little friends. Not without some incentive at least."

"Incentive?"

"We'll get to that later. And to answer your question, yes. We will be taking you into custody. However, a business contact of mine has made it known that you are a very special prisoner. As our very special prisoner, you will get very special treatment."

"A business contact? You mean Fisk? You're working for Fisk?" Yelena's never heard Hawkeye sound so small, not even during the confrontation with Shaw. The pain of hearing the fearless thief overrides any shock Yelena would have felt over hearing about Valentina's corruption.

"I don't work for anybody, except for the United Nations of course. I just owe a favor. I scratch your back, you scratch mine kind of thing. Don't worry, everything that happens next will be technically legal. Did you know that there are quite a few counries who would just love it if we extradited you?"

'Technically legal.' Yelena hates that phrase. She has seen far too many people get away with heinous acts just because it was 'technically legal'. It's even been part of her job to protect those people at times. Yelena's beginning to see why Natasha left. She wonders if her sister knew anything about Valentina. And if she did, why didn't she tell Yelena?

"Gentlemen, take our little thief into custody." On Valentina's order, two agents roughly grab Hawkeye from the ground and haul her away. Yelena has to bite into her knuckle hard enough to draw blood in order to stop herself from crying out or something else equally stupid. If she wants any hope of helping Hawkeye then she can't get caught. It tears her apart, but Yelena stays quite and watches as Valentina and her agents file out of the room.

Yelena doesn't move for a long time. Or maybe a short time. She's really not so sure. Her mind is racing with far too many thoughts to make sense of any single one while her body just feels numb. So Yelena has no idea how much time passes before Bucky and Peter arrive.

Everything is a blur as the two men help her down from her hiding spot. Her mouth moves of its own volition to some question they ask her. Then they're moving and they arrive at the loading bay.

They're in the car driving away when somebody is suddenly in front of them. More yelling. A gunshot, and the feeling of the van running over something.

"The car's not starting!" Kamala's voice breaks through the fog that's fallen over Yelena.

"The bullet must've hit the engine." Somebody else says.

There's a moment of quite panic as the occupants of the van all look to each other for an answer on how to get out of this. They're not left wondering for long before a squeal of tires sounds in their ears.

"YELENA!" The sound of Alexei's voice screams loud enough for anyone in a five mile radius to hear.

"Oh, no." Yelena groans. This is just what tonight needs. Yelena would rather be arrested than be forced to deal with her father after the night she's had.

"That's Alexei. He's part of our team. Come on, lets go." Bucky urges them.

They all rush out of the van, Riri pausing briefly to say grab a few gadgets of some kind, before rushing to Alexei. Cassie climbs into the front seat and fires out directions.

Alexei is explaining how he came to be there. Something about forging his mental health papers or something, Yelena isn't listening. Her mind finally calming enough to follow exactly one train of thought, Hawkeye's final words ring in Yelena's ears as she begins to put pieces together. Her familiarity with the building, her personal vendetta with Shaw, and a million other small details all begin to snap together to finally form a complete picture.

"Kate Bishop."

Kate wakes with a weird taste in her mouth. She moves her hand instincively to reach for her bullet wound but finds that she can't move her hand. Curious, she opens her eyes to see that both her hands have been handcuffed to a hospital bed.

Usually this would be cause for alarm, but for some reason it's more funny than anything. She tugs on her restraints again and laughs when they don't give a single inch. It's nice not having to worry about anything. She feels floaty. It's probably a good thing she's tied down because otherwise she'd float right up to the ceiling.

"Miss Bishop," A menacing voice growls at her from the shadows. "We have much to discuss."