The continuous dripping noise of the leaking pipe was only amplified when one was alone in the room. The cobwebs of the long since abandoned building were accompanied by a musty smell. And the squeaking of a rat could be heard in the faint distance. All of these combined together were enough to cause the singular woman in the room the beginning of a headache. 

She was a slim brunette who stood roughly at the height of five foot eight. She was dressed in a black catsuit adorned with a combination of silver and red plates. But the most obvious part of the uniform were the two distinctive emblems on each shoulder. For the first one, the more aged emblem, was that of an electric yellow X in a similar coloured circle. The one just below it anybody could recognise as that of the SHIELD intelligence company. This second emblem looked as though it was forcefully sewn onto the uniform, it did not belong and the person who did so was not talented in sewing. 

The woman stood by a computer downloading it's files onto a memory stick. The most highly paid governmental intelligence unit was using a memory stick to download certain files but it seemed as though the mission the lady was on was going to go pretty smoothly. She had taken out the skeleton staff that remained at the base to guard it's obviously out of date information. 

And as she peered through her red lensed glasses she pondered what she was going to have for dinner that evening. She knew that after she had finished here she would be able to head back to the apartment and order a takeaway for herself and whoever else was in the house that day. Would she order Indian or Chinese that night? 

'Indian.' The very familiar voice echoed back into her own head. She supposed she might have broadcast that thought a little too loudly if she was getting a response. But that was a silly thought as she focused rather on the fact that the other person took the time to respond to her. She guessed they would be having Indian tonight. If that was what he wanted then who was she to deny him. 

After all they had all been separated for too long. 

In fact the woman continued her conversation on with the other person in her mind as she watched the download bar slowly increase. It seemed to take forever to finish. But that was either because there was a lot of information on the computer, or because the technology must have been from the late nineties and this was just how fast they worked. The boredom of such a recon mission was now setting in. It always did at this point for the woman, she had never the biggest attention span to begin with. Yet alone when the only time she was trusted to go on her own was such a simple boring mission. 

'It's nearly over Annie. Then, you and I can have dinner. Maybe even Nat will be home.' 

It always made her happier to have the mental link. She could feel where he was, if he was okay and whether he was hungry. She probed out to the other mind link she had but when she got no response she supposed it was because the woman on the other end was busy and couldn't take a moment to respond. But she could feel her on the other end so at least that worry was erased. 

Until one of her mind links suddenly stopped. They had never done this before. Never this suddenly. Never without there being pain related. It was as if it had just gone dull. Like there was something stopping them. She reached out trying desperately just to feel their presence to make sure they were still there. He was still there he was alive she could work that out. But that was it, she couldn't tell where he was anymore, she couldn't tell his thoughts even when she probed, she couldn't feel any of his emotions. 

'Clint.'

'Clint.'

'Clint can you hear me.'

She reached out over and over again desperately trying to get a response. But there was nothing. The dull sudden feeling over the bond caused her to panic. 

There had only ever been one other time, technically it was two but considering they happened in very short succession to ease the pain she considered it done at the same time, when this had happened, and she prayed it hadn't happened again. It couldn't happen again, she couldn't take it happening again. She wouldn't lose another person she loved. Not like that. 

The beeping of the computer to suggest that the download was complete distracted her for a second. It wasn't long but it was enough to get her unplugging the memory stick before dropping her head into her hands. She needed a moment to come to terms with what just happened. She wasn't bothered about the possibility of there being anyone else on site. She would deal with them later. Right now she needed to desperately know what happened to Clint. Where was he, what was going on. Why was he there but only just. 

Annie could feel the pressure building up behind her eyes as she got more emotional. Her brain had gone straight to the worst case scenario. Catastrophising was always her go to thinking motion. But as she continued to think that it had happened again she knew that pressure was only going to continue to build until it was no longer something she could control. 

So Annie gave in. She let the pressure out. She dropped the circular red glasses she wore to the tip of her nose and focused her gaze on the computer in front of her. A red matter beam shot from her eyes cutting a clean circular hole through the centre of the computer screen. she let out a sigh the second she was able to close her eyes afterwards, the pressure now gone she could focus on getting herself out of there. 

She had to find him. Before it was too late. 

♔

Annie had been in the jet flying back home trying to desperately contact her other mind link. The single person jet had been on autopilot for a while now as she probed and probed the link. All Annie wanted was a response, to see if the other person was mainly okay. But if they knew what was going on. 

'Natalia please, I know you can hear me. What's going on?' 

She heard nothing, no matter how desperate her pleas were, no matter how much she begged the other woman to respond. Natasha was keeping her in the dark. It was the first time in years this had happened and Annie didn't know what to do. She didn't know who to turn to. If she was being frozen out there might just be a reason but she needed to know at least that the other woman was okay.

'Natalia please just let me know you're okay.'