(A/N) Well here we are again. This first chapter is kind of a reminder as to what happened previously in Through The Ghost as well as setting up the story.

Thank you to all of the people who have reviewed and private messaged me. It's part of the reason that the sequel is out only a few days after the first fic ended.

Also a quick word on my story A Sinner Amongst Saints my fic set after Age of Ultron (I won't go into anymore detail on it for fear of spoiling anything for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet) I haven't given up on that one I'm just focused on my Clintasha fics and not failing school right now. I have worked on chapter two and it's about halfway done. This is the only fic that is not in the same universe as my others because of it's lack of Clintasha.

Anyways I won't keep you waiting anymore, if you stuck with me through this, because you didn't click this thing to hear me babbling you want to know what happens next. So without further ado

Between The Bars

"Why can't I hear you?"

The memory of those words are what brought Natasha's fist into the leather punching bag hanging in front of her. The words spoken to softly because the person who spoke them couldn't tell that he was speaking to quietly.

"Why can't I hear?"

She drove her fist into the bag again.

Between Clint's pained coughing from having a tube stuck in his throat for far too long he asked these questions. They tore at Natasha's heart even now. Her partner, if she could even still call Clint that, was in pain and terribly confused. The confusion she could handle seeing, even the pain would become manageable for her with the knowledge that the medication he was on would soon numb it. The thing she couldn't handle seeing in him was the panic and fear that had been present and growing stronger from the moment he woke up.

"Nat, I can' hear. Why can't I hear?"

Another punch as she remembered the spike in his heart rate that she knew he couldn't hear. Every sound that she heard in that moment, and every moment since, had brought her more grief because she knew that Clint would never be able to hear them. Not like he had been able to before at least.

She couldn't tell him what was happening, not properly. She could have tried to write it down but Clint wasn't collected enough to read anything she wrote, let alone let her away from his side long enough for her to find pen and paper. So instead she put the words she couldn't tell him in her eyes. His reaction after her attempt at telepathy told her that she had gotten the message across.

Clint looked around the room frantically, seeing but not hearing. He couldn't help it as his heart rate climbed and breathing became more erratic. He had only just woken up after a week long coma to find out that he had been deafened. His mind was blurred by the pain medication that was being filtered into his system, and with a concussion thrown on top of it his reaction was only to be expected. Still Natasha didn't see it coming fast enough.

His fight or flight mode kicked in and instead of picking one or the other he chose both. The pop of Clint dislocating his on thumb, a skill he was far too well versed in, was barely heard over the beeping monitors and the scurrying doctors. By the time that Natasha had acknowledged what the sound was it was already too late. Clint's left arm freed itself and immediately pulling the IV in his hand right off before pushed the doctor to his left away from him.

"Clint, stop." Phil couldn't help but yell even though the agent couldn't' hear him. He grabbed Clint's arm and forcefully pushed it down into the the mattress. Clint bucked away from Phil's hold on him. He let out a frustrated yell only to get more worked up when he couldn't hear it.

Natasha grabbed Clint's face in her hands like she had a moment before when he was getting the ventilator removed. Her thumb ran across his temple and slowly he soothed down. Enough so that he barely noticed the doctor sticking a needle into the crook of his arm. He was unconscious a few seconds later.

Natasha nearly ran out of the room. She found herself in the gym a few minutes later. Yelling at everyone to leave she got to work on the leather punching bag in the corner of the room.

Natasha continued in punching and kicking the swinging bag in front of her. She was so lost in her memories of the past few weeks. So much so that she didn't even hear Phil come into the room, she only knew of his presence when he was a few meters behind her.

"If you're here to give me a pep talk you might as well turn around." She took another swing hard enough that if it had been a person on the other end of her fist they would have been missing a few teeth when they woke up.

Phil laughed at her perceptiveness, she always was one step ahead of everybody. "I know you Natasha I'm not going to give you the classic everything is going to be okay speech. I'm also, for the record, not going to go and get Clint a hallmark card either." She didn't show sign of thinking about laughing at his joke. "You know about a week after I brought Clint in I found him exactly where you are doing exactly what you are doing. At least you had the sense to put hand guards on."

"I know what you're doing." She snapped hard enough to bring most men to their knees. "You're going to tell me about how he was at a low point and pulled himself out, and how he'll do it again and come out of this whole thing stronger. Even though whatever the shit that he was dealing with way back when isn't even comparable to what he's going through right now. There isn't anything you can say to help me right now, so just leave me alone."

"So you can punch all of your anger away?"

"I'm not angry." She snapped in a tone that was completely contradictory to the statement. She took a breath and tried it again, calmer this time. "I'm not angry."

"No," Phil rounded her and stood in between her and the abused punching bag. "If you were angry you would be looking for Peterson. You feel guilty because you didn't get to him soon enough. So you locked yourself down here to beat the shit out of something instead of deal with the fact that there wasn't anything you could have done and Clint got hurt."

Natasha didn't say anything. Instead she just looked at him and clenched her fists. Her eyes were dry because any tears she had were long gone.

Phil just sighed and started his way back to the doors of the gym. "Clint's going to be awake soon and I'm sure he would want you there when he does."

Natasha leaved and for a moment had no idea what to do. She didn't know if she could face Clint again because Colson was right in saying she felt like this was all her fault. Mainly because it was. If she had never killed Peterson's son none of this would have happened. Clint would still be able to hear. She wasn't sure until she remembered that night they did recon in the rain before everything went to crap.

"I'm with you Tasha, to the end of this mission and every mission after."

Now she just had to be there for him.