➶ ｡˚ ° ➶ ｡˚➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚
(𝐑𝐔𝐍)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN-----▹ 

 "It's you, isn't it?"

"Everybody dealt with the blip in their own way. I continued doing what I was trained to do." Clint said, "Protect people." Kate insisted, "Hurting people. Investigating first, but in the end, my job has always been to hurt people." he said, "You were a hero." Kate said, "I was a weapon." Clint corrected, "I was aimed by the right people, at the right targets, so..." his voice trailed off, "Look, you made mistakes, but those are behind you." Kate tried, "No, it's tied to me. Tied to my family." he said, and Kate glanced down, "That's why I'm here, and I can't go home until I fix it." there was a pause of stillness, "I really appreciate what you did tonight. It means a lot. And uh...you're good for her, thank you for being there for her, she really needs someone in her corner." he added, looking at Iskra's sleeping form, and Kate nodded, a small smile flickering across her face when she looked towards Iskra, "You know, you should get some rest, you've got a big day tomorrow." he added. "Yes, boss." she muttered, "Goodnight." she added quickly, "Night." He replied.

Iskra was of course never lucky enough to get a full uninterrupted sleep, her dreams were more like haunting memories all blended together.

"Clint where's Nat?" a voice echoed through her head, the image of Clint standing in front of her, he stood in silence a deep sadness, and far away look in his eyes, Iskra gasped suddenly, "No." she heard herself whisper, shaking her head side to side, "Tell me you didn't let her die." she spoke the volume of her voice rising a few notches, "Uncle Clint, Please..." she cried, "Please say something." there was another beat of silence, "She promised..." Iskra cried, "She...she promised." Someone took a step forward touching her arm in comfort, but she just shrugged it off, leaving the room quickly. 

Clint was the one to find her, she was sitting on the dock one of Nat's jackets wrapped tightly around her, tears decorating her cheeks, "I am so sorry Iz." he whispered sitting down next to the blonde, she looked so broken and so much younger then she had in forever, "What happened?" She whispered lowly, "Tell me...please, I need...I need to know." She said, "It was supposed to be me." he choked out, she listened to each line of his story, becoming angrier at the world with every line of it.

"It's ok,"

Falling.

Gone.

Iskra gasped awake, to Kate shaking her shoulders, "Hey, it's ok." she whispered, pulling Iskra slightly towards her, and Iskra leaned into the embrace shaking like a leaf, it was no earlier than 4, and Kate was tired, but it was more important to her, to help the blonde that she had come to like so much. 

Clint hadn't woken up due to the hearing aid, that was no longer in his ear, so it was just the two of them, awake in the living room. Iskra didn't calm down for what felt like hours, and Kate wondered what had happened to make the blonde look so small, and lifeless. 

When Clint woke up, the two of them were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, "Morning," Kate greeted, "Mornin'" Clint responded pouring himself a cup of coffee, he glanced over at Iskra who had yet to say anything, but decided not to push her, "Ok, so this morning, I'm gonna have a talk with our friend, Kazi." Clint announced, "What I want you two to do is track down the trick arrows, from our friends the LARPers." he directed, and Kate chuckled, "Wait, what?" she asked, "My tracer, arrow stopped moving, and it's over by the NYPD facility down by the bridge. And now the LARPers, they're mostly first responders, one's a cop. See if they can get access to that NYPD facility." He continued, "LARPer friends." Kate said, with an eyebrow raised, "Got something to tell us Katniss?" Iskra asked, "Yeah, they're...They're colorful. You're gonna love them." He stated, "You know, I'd like to think of them more as our arrows." She implied, "Ok. Go get our arrows." he replied, satisfied with the answer, she nodded. 

Walking through a park, Iskra and Kate, came across the chaos that is, the LARPers, "Nope. Forget it, I'm out." Iskra said, stopping dead in her tracks, Kate stepped in front of her facing her, "C'mon Romanoff, It can't be that bad." Kate said looking directly into her eyes, damn those eyes. Iskra thought to herself, "Don't give me that look." Iskra whined, "C'mon." Kate said, taking Iskra's hand. 

"Hey uh, I don't mean to interrupt." Kate spoke up, as they continued, whatever it was that they were doing, "I think Pizza Dog is scared," Iskra whispered leaning over to Kate. "Wow. You guys are-" the dog barked a little, "Dedicated..." Kate added. "Who are you?" One of them asked,  "Uh..uh Hawkeye sent us here, on official Avengers business." Kate began, "I'm his partner-slash-best friend Kate."  Iskra stepped forward, "I'm his niece." 

"Yeah, yeah, we know you, you're the witch girl." One of them said, and Iskra resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Anyways, he said, you guys can help us out, One of you is a cop?"Kate asked, "That's me, Officer Wendy Conrad. Better known as Els-bath of Deepdale," she introduced, "Can we please leave before we get sucked into doing something we don't want to do. Please." Iskra pleaded, leaning in towards Kate again, who just nudged her. "Officer. Basically, all we need is some casual run-of-the-mill, evidence tampering." Kate said in a very nonchalant tone. "Hawkeye's trick arrows are in an NYPD facility near the manhattan bridge." 

"I can probably help you out if you make it worth my while." she said, "Worth our while." some guy in the back of the group added. "Yeah, yeah, sure totally. Whatever you want." Kate said and Iskra gave her a look. "Yeah...yeah, you guys are totally awesome, the costumes just everything," Kate said, and Iskra pulled her to the side, "Look, you are going to deal with this." she said motioning to the LARPers, and "I am going to deal with getting cops off us." Iskra said, "Please, please, please don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." Iskra pleaded, and Kate just nodded, Iskra gave Kate's hand one final squeeze before letting her go and walking away. 

Iskra stared at her reflection in the mirror of the safehouse/apartment's bathroom, Coopper hair dye soaking her hair, was this a bad decision? Maybe. Did it give her a good disguise and make her feel closer to her mother? Yes. Mission accomplished.

There was a bag with a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses sitting on the floor next to her, she always thought they were the most useless disguise, but it always seemed to work, so she went with it. The box instructed her to let the dye sit for about 45 minutes, she did, and then began to rinse it out.

After blow-drying her hair briefly, she looked at her reflection again, and she could almost picture Nat smiling at the scene, she pulled it back into the braid and began her walk to the nearby police department. Entering the building she checked out her surroundings, looking for any suspicious activity. 

She walked right up to the front desk where a male officer sat staring at a computer screen, she stood leaning on the desk, "Hey there fella, the name's Betty James," Iskra introduced using a thick southern accent, "What can I do for you ma'am?" he asked, "I'm staying at that big ol' hotel across from that pizzeria, where there was a fire the other night," she started, "And I've got a hot tip for ya." she continued, "Would you mind letting me speak with Detective Caudle?" she asked, with a sweet smile, which Immediately dropped when he walked away to go fetch him for her. 

God, she hated undercover work with men, most of them were just so...creepy. "Miss James?" she heard and she turned around facing the detective with a sweet smile, "You must be detective Caudle," she said, "That's me. You mentioned you had a tip about the fire?" he asked, "Oh yes." she leaned in, with a hushed voice. 

The detective lead her back to his office, "I have gone to that Pizzeria a handful of times since I've been here, I've even interacted with that Bishop girl, and when I saw that fire, oh I was so worried about her, I called alerting her about it right away, but as it turned out she was staying at a friends house, but boy oh boy did I see something you might be interested in." he got out a pen and motioned for her to continue, "There was this super attractive man, he has this dark curly hair and snuck up into the Bishop girl's apartment, I saw it all with my own eyes."

And so her story was only just beginning...