A/N: Not very long and meant only to set up the rest of the story. I hope you all like it, I've been researching Budapest and developing a plot I think you will all enjoy.

"Hey." Came a familiar voice as I rounded a corner to see a face I knew all too well. With brown hair, bright eyes, and a stupid smile, Hawkeye was coming from another air duct towards the one I needed to go through.

"This is not exactly a good time." I whispered and glared when his smile widened.

"No, you're right." He said with seriousness. "I've been waiting here for two whole minutes for you. Are you getting sloppy?"

"Do you mind?" I hissed as I ignored his banter. "I'm trying to work a job here."

"Really?" He asked with mock surprise. "I thought you were taking a leisurely crawl through the air vents."

"Look, it's nice to see you." I rolled my eyes. "But can we catch up after I finish?"

"Who said I wasn't working?" He grinned again and I groaned.

"The prime minister?" I asked. That was how we met, tracking the same target. Since he was a hired hand where as I worked for the government so I let him take the shot. The goal was accomplished and I gained an ally. He was the closest thing I had to a friend and we helped each other when working certain jobs.

"Nope." He simply stared at me for a moment as realization dawned on me. Neither of us moved or visibly tensed. We simply stared at each other for a few moments of silence.

"I've been off grid for the past three months if you haven't noticed." He continued. "I've become a 'straight' shooter as it were. I've joined the US government."

"And they ordered you to kill me." I stated simply.

"Nope." He smiled at me, which honestly unnerved me more than anything else in this conversation. "I'm here on my own mission. I can do that now."

"And that is?" I asked, trying to get him to give something useful away so I can try to get out if here.

"Shame about Alex." He said suddenly and that made me freeze. "Died in that accident."

"I've been trying to keep my mind off it." I hated how Hawkeye was the only one who could ever get under my skin like this.

"Too bad he's not really dead; I didn't like him very much." He shrugged.

"What are you talking about?" I hissed and narrowed my eyes.

"That's the thing with joining the good guys." He said with no humor this time, suddenly very serious. "I have access to a lot of classified information. Remember Bejing three years ago?" I simply stared. "Exactly. We had a conversation and you've never mentioned it again. You were talking about how you think your bosses were lying to you, that you never were a ballerina, that you never had parents-"

"Stop." I said through gritted teeth. These were all doubts I was just starting to have, why would he know this?

"You go back to Russia and four months later I see you've married a pilot." He said. "You remembered nothing and loved your job."

"What is your point?" I was starting to get angry and that was bad. I needed to keep them in check.

"Natasha." He said with sadness. "They've been brainwashing you. Since you were a little girl. You are the only Black Widow to ever snap out of it, and you do every few years. This time they added another agent to the mix and have you get married and think you were in love. It was a breeding program for more of the perfect agents. When they realized that you couldn't have kids they decided to put Alex with another Widow. He's now brainwashed again and living in St. Petersburg."

"That's. It's not." I didn't know what to think, what to say. Suddenly my head was throbbing and in pain. I put my hands to my head and stifled a scream. Hawkeye immediately came over to me with concern. I closed my eyes and everything came flooding in.

The orphanage. The strangers who came for me. The room. The training. The room again. More training. The room. A few missions. The room. Even more missions. The room. Haweye. The room. More missions and more Haweye. The room. Alex. His death. And now I was here.

"I remember." I said with anger. This was a bad emotion.

"Wow, that was fast." Haweye said but I growled.

"I'll kill them." I said, voice full of anger.

"No, that won't solve anything." He shook il his head. "Only get you killed."

"Then what would you suggest?" I nearly screamed. "I just found out my entire life is a lie!"

"Come with me." He said seriously.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"This is a joke, right?" Nick Furry asked as he met Haweye and I in a small little town cafe in middle of no where upstate New York.

"No sir." Hawkeye said professionally. I was always amazed that he can go from light hearted to cold and calculating militant in a second. It's always made me wonder which side of him was him. But I pushed those thoughts aside; this was the time to be serious.

"You go on a mission that you said was to recruit a friend and come back with the Black Widow." He stated. "Tell me what I'm suppose to think."

Hawkeye simply headed the file over to Furry who snatched it out of his hands. I continued to remain silent through this entire conversation to keep myself in check. I was still very angry and upset, but I knew that I had to control myself.

"So you want to join SHEILD?" Furry said as he looked up at me. "How do I know you won't snap and go rouge on missions to get revenge.

"You don't." I said simply. "You have no reason to trust me. But I am a well trained agent and I know how to priorities. I've seen agents in my organizations and others snap and accomplish nothing but rotting in their own anger and hate. I've done a lot of wrong, even if it was under an influence, and I would like the chance to fix it. This is about redemption, not revenge."

"I must really be going crazy." Furry said. "Fine, I'll let you join. You will be Barton's assistant and work under him. I'll give you a trial mission, see how you do. I'll decide from there."

"Thank you." I said simply.

"Well, your timing is perfect as always Barton, because I actually have something that fits this situation." Furry said. "There is some trouble in Budapest. Fix it. I'll send you the case file when I get back."

"Yes sir." He said and Furry walked out.

"Well that was easy." I said dryly.

"Like I said, we're the good guys." Barton said, manor still professional as he paid and we walked out. "Second chances is our thing."

"Like you?" I asked as we got into the car. "You still haven't told me why you're involved."

"I've been a double agent the entire time." He said, face and voice neutral. "I was never really a mercenary. Every mission we worked together was a target pre-approved by SHEILD to take out."

I was silent and he never took his eyes off the road, voice very matter of fact.

"I was targeting you to learn more about the Widow program but I learned more than I thought. At first it was simply information collection but things didn't add up. This has been a plan in action for two years now." He said in almost a robotic voice. "Learning about the brain washing change things and you being able to snap out of it was the ideal situation to cripple them of an agent and to gain a Black Widow operative for us while also freeing an operative from the mind control."

"Beneficial for both parties." I finished professionally. This made logical sense and I was accepting of this. Facts I can handle. But even through his professional air some thing still seemed off. "I think this symbiotic relation with work."

He never replied and we continued in silence to New York City.