It would be that very evening that Annie and Clint heard from Natasha. Neither of them expected her to need more time away on the mission. Natasha was known to be quick to finish her assignments. Therefore, when their home phone rang with an unknown number, it was not like they handed their home phone number out to just anybody, Annie knew deep down that this was Natasha. 

"Hello?" She still asked anyways just in case her gut feeling was wrong. 

"Annie? It's me."

"Thank the heavens Nat, we we're starting to get worried. Are you okay? Are you in trouble? Do you need evac?" Annie fired questions rapidly knowing the time they had on the phone could be limited. 

"I'm okay, I won't be back for a while. Rogers needs me we're going full blackout mode." Annie knew whatever was going on was going to be big. She also knew that this was the last time either of them would speak to Natasha until what ever she was doing was over. Annie hated blackout mode. 

"I'll pass you to Clint. I'll talk to you soon." Annie hated goodbyes, but Natasha hated them more. Though she did what she said and handed the phone to Clint, glad that they had waited a little while to have their no sound evening. 

A few more days would pass before either of them heard from Natasha again. Annie had been eagerly checking her phone waiting for any signs of the red haired woman being okay. Clint was somewhere in their garden doing who knows what, whilst she was stress baking. Stress baking was a habit she had picked up from Kitty Pryde when they had been roommates back at the school. The slightly older girl introducing Annie to the coping mechanism around the time of their exams and it had been her go to strategy every time she had felt that stress building up. 

The kitchen door, which led to the garden, suddenly slammed open causing Annie to jump. She was heavily focused on her baking until that moment in time, but before she could even question Clint what he was thinking when he slammed the already dodgy door open she heard him speaking on the phone to someone.

"What do you mean turn on the TV Nat?" Despite his concern for whatever was going on, Annie watched as he turned on the TV to the news channel, most likely directed by the woman on the phone. 

"Holy shit." He breathed out as the news channel basically screamed the headline out and into the room. 

'US government agency SHIELD falls from within as information leaks of deceit, lies and harbouring of criminals.' 

All Annie could do was watch as images show of weaponry falling from the sky the familiar SHIELD logo on show for all to see. 

"Guess I need to start looking for another job." Clint sighed as he watched the company he had worked for, for the good part of over a decade, burned from the ground upwards. 

"You could always join the circus again?" Annie tried to joke the situation away, hoping that she could make it less sad. 

"I guess I could." Clint was still serious regarding what was going on and therefore, Annie dropped her humour knowing that all she needed to do in this moment was support him. At least until they got more information on what had exactly happened. 

"Is Nat still on the phone?" Annie questioned.

"No she's gone." Clint responded quickly as he realised the line had gone dead chucking his phone down in a random direction, no care for whether it got damaged or not. Instead he just walked closer to Annie, the way of which he went to her was only just short of throwing himself at her. 

But Annie was not one to ever decline him or his affections, and in this moment he needed her comfort. And who was she to deny that. Instead she bundled the man who was only an inch or two taller than her into her arms, before moving them both to the sofa that rested opposite the TV. Annie remained seated on one end allowing Clint to reposition himself until he was comfortable. When Clint had finally stopped fidgeting, he was nearly laid out on the sofa with his head resting on Annie's lap. Her fingers quickly found their way to his head where she began to card them through his hair. The longer she did this, as they sat in silence, she could feel the tension he held slowly be released. 

"What are we going to do now?" Clint's voice was small, rather unlike himself as he spoke words of which even without her mutations Annie could tell he was scared to admit. 

"I'm not sure, but I do know we will get through this my love." Annie had faith in her words, she knew that they would get through this and out the other side, there was nothing to indicate otherwise. 

"I'm scared Annie."

"And that's okay Clint. I will always be by your side."

"You won't leave me?"

"Never I'm like a cockroach remember? Very hard to get rid of." 

"Pinky promise." Clint dared her, holding up his right pinky in challenge to the younger woman.

"I pinky promise, I'm here for life." Annie slotted her finger in his outstretched one locking them into the promise.  

The two allowed the silence to draw over them for the time being. They had very little else to speak about regarding what had transpired. And in the same aspect there was not much to discuss outside of the recent events. Clint had been sent to desk duty when Natasha had first gone on the run, and shortly following he had decided to take a two week holiday considering just how much he despised desk duty. Therefore, they had spent the last few days with each other almost constantly, as it was a week of school holiday coincidently, and there wasn't much to talk about. 

"What about Nat? Do you think she'll stick around?"  When Clint asked about Natasha, Annie paused for a moment. She was unsure just how she was going to respond to him. There were occasions where Annie could really see just how much Natasha wanted to be with them, but those were becoming less and less often. 

"I really don't know Clint. I can't make any promises about Nat. I don't think she's anywhere near ready to get a mundane job and settle down." Annie tried to be gentle in her words, just because she had come to this conclusion and accepted it as a highly likely outcome of the falling of SHIELD did not mean he had come to the same conclusion. And Annie would like to think that after four years of dating that she knew both Clint and Natasha rather well, her conclusions regarding Natasha were based off how well she believed herself to know the Russian super spy. And that was how she knew that Clint might have been aware of this outcome but he would focus on the other one, the one where Natasha would stay with them, get a job at one of the local shops and perhaps even say yes to their proposal. 

"She'll stay, it will be a big adjustment but she'll stay. Why else would she devote 4 years of her life to this relationship if she had no intent of staying with us in the long run." Annie wanted to believe his words, she really did. But the very words Natasha had spoken to her during the time of the Battle of New York still swam around in her head. If the relationship with Annie had started off as just a pity date Natasha couldn't get out of, she didn't desire knowing what the relationship between Natasha and Clint started off as.