A Gift From: wizbey
Type Of Gift: Fic
Title: The Strike Team Delta Job
A Gift For: poppetawoppet
Rating: PG 13
Warnings: Some mild language
Summary/Prompt Used: Once upon a time, Natasha met one of the Leverage team. She owes them a favour and she (and Clint) pay the debt.
Author's Note: Merry Christmas Poppetawoppet!!! When I read one of your prompts I knew I had to write it. I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful Holiday season. This takes place sometime before the avengers I suppose. It could maybe take place after. It was just fun to write.


The Strike Team Delta Job

Clint watched Nat’s face while she was on the phone. He wasn’t listening to the conversation just watching her. Her eye movement, facial expressions, and the way she was moving as she talked. They told him more than words ever did. She did that thing with her nose before rolling her eyes. Clint sighed and hopped off of the counter. He knew that look. He left her babbling into the phone headed down the hall into the bedroom. He grabbed the two suitcases they had in closet ignoring their ready packed go bags. The suitcases weren’t something that would be associated with them (he hoped anyways that was kind of the point). Bright canary yellow with flowers and an in your face orange one with sailboats. He wasn’t sure were they got them but it seemed as if they had them forever. He was sure they were meant as a joke.

He began pulling clothes out of the closest. Not knowing where they were going he just covered the bases. If he guessed wrong then Nat could always drag him shopping. He was just closing up the suitcases when Nat flopped down on the bed.

“Portland.”

He blinked. “Portland.” What the fuck was in Portland.

“Yeah.” She said it with a sigh. “LA would have been better. Boston…Boston wouldn’t be horrible. But Portland. What’s in Portland.”

“Nat. That’s my question. What is in Portland?” He moved the suitcases onto the floor and he flopped down on the bed beside her.

“We should get tickets.”

“Can’t we just fly ourselves?”

“Oh yes Clint.” He didn’t have to be able to hear her to know her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “We can fly ourselves in the plane that we clearly own.”

He shrugged. “We could steal one.” He grinned as she shot him her patent don’t be an idiot Clint look.

That’s how Clint found himself crammed in economy on a flight heading to Portland of all places without an actual explanation. Yet this didn’t even crack his top five of weird things he had done on a Thursday. Zambia had been much weirder and muddier. Hopefully what they were going to be doing wouldn’t involve any mud.

He rolled his eyes as he saw the rental car and tossed the luggage into the back of the truck Nat had rented them. Be inauspicious he supposed.

“Want to tell me what this is about?” Clint finally asked as he slid into the passenger seat and plugged in one of their two iPods.

“Sophie.” Nat answered as they left the airport. They had a bit of a drive.

“The favour.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. She had mentioned Sophie a few times so he had a vague idea what the favour could be.

“Yeah.” They lapsed into a comfortable silence. He let Nat drive happy to just relax for a moment. He didn’t have a safe house or weapons stash in Portland but he was sure Nat did. If she didn’t he knew someone he could call in a small favour and get weapons. There was always the storage facility in Boring.

Nat pulled up in front of a bar and Clint hopped out of the truck before it was fully parked. He was starving. They entered the gastro pub and it didn’t take long to glance over the menu and place their orders.

The food was good. Kind of homily. The stuff that would fill you up and leave you wanting more. Clint ate his burger and fries, while Nat ate her salad and picked at his lasagna. “I’m a growing boy.” He had told Nat when she had glared at him for ordering two entrees. In his defense he knew that she was going to nibble at one of them. They finished their meal, he knew better than to ask for details. He’d get them in due time and he trusted her enough so that he didn’t have to be pushy. They paid and left a decent tip. He wasn’t sure where their next stop was but wasn’t too surprised when Nat ended up at a stairwell that lead up to the second level of the restaurant. Where, he was assuming, were residential apartments.

He followed Nat upstairs really wishing he knew more about the building they were in and what they were walking into. She threw open one of the apartment doors and strolled through. Leave it to Nat to make it feel like the people in the room were intruding on her and not the other way around.

He did a quick sweep of the room. No weapons. Well no proper weapons. Plenty of things he could use to incapacitate anyone. Knives in the kitchen were the obvious. But there was a lamp in the living that he could make work in a pinch. And there was a guy wearing a scowl and a tie. The tie could be useful. There was an annoying person who was in the middle of presenting (or so he assumed he kind of stopped). Who needed a multimedia presentation anyways? A blonde who was perched on a chair. She looked crazy. This could be fun. Next to here was a brunette who didn’t look surprised but her face defiantly said you should have knocked. Next to her was a pissed off looking guy. Seriously how many people did it take to supposedly take to save the world.

The brunette recovered first. “Nat.” That must have been Sophie. Clint tuned them out and walked into the kitchen area and opened the fridge to see what was inside. He always felt like he should make himself feel at home. Plus it always made him look like an idiot to outsiders. People saw what they wanted to see and he was good at showing just what he wanted others to see. He found a bottle of orange soda in the fridge and a Dr. Who mug out of a cupboard. He turned around to see where Nat was and came face to face with the short man with the glare.

“Making yourself at home.”

“Always Spencer.” He held out the mug in offering. Eliot shook his head.

“Only you Barton.”

“You know each other.” The one who was scowling and wearing the tie spoke up.

“We served together.” Him and Spencer responded together. Clint could see the smile playing on Nat’s lips.

“We’re here to help Sophie.” Nat said as she moved and took a seat. Clint moved over to the couch and perched on the back.

“Nate, Parker Hardison, Eliot.” Sophie addressed each one of her team. “This is Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton.” Clint offered his best I won’t kill you smile and a wave. “They’re here to help out with our little problem. Nat owes me a favour.”

“Okay Hardison run it.” Nate said.

“Alright I’ll start from the beginning.” There was a sigh and the slide show went to a different image. “Newcomers better take notes. Heck everyone should take notes. I put in enough effort.”

“Hardison.” Nate’s voice cut into the rant that was coming. “Run the mark.”

“This is Kalvin Kavanagh. He has this little habit of stealing ideas and work from his employees and then letting them go. Literally just firing them without real cause. He makes things up and because the law allows him to do that there isn’t much his employees can do. Enter us. And you guys. Sophie had to step in much earlier then we would have liked so she said she knew someone to bring in as an extra grifter. That would be you.” He pointed at Nat who nodded her head. “But what about boy wonder what can he do.”

Clint gave a little wave and a grin as Nat spoke up. “He’s a pretty good thief.”

Eliot gave them both a look. “A pretty good thief? That’s what you’re going with.”

“I am pretty good at it. We will be the dream team.” He directed the last bit at Parker. “I loved your work in The Bramlow Diamond Heist.”

“I don’t know any of yours.” She said. The I am not working with a newbie was implied.

“Well then I guess I am doing a good job. The things I steal. Well Nat and I steal. Lets just say it’s better if you don’t know about them.”

Parker gave him a hard look. “Government secrets? There’s no value in those.”

“To the right people. Mostly it’s things that will harm a lot of innocent people.” He shrugged. “I also oved the heist you pulled off at the Louver. Pure genius. Of course I could have done it without a rig.”

Parker snorted. “I like you. They have a Glenn-Reider 525 plus a full security system. Heat sensors, motions sensors.” She got a dreamy look on her face. “A rotating laser grid.”

“Piece of cake.” Clint made a waving motion with his hands. “So what’s the hard part.”

“I was getting to that.” Hardison stated sharply. Clint rolled his eyes. “We were running a con on Kavanagh and both Sophie and Nate are in play. So we need someone else. That’s where you come in Natasha. We have a meeting set up with Kavanagh. Sophie is your in. Now I don’t have time to create a full background for your identity. I’m good but even I’m not that good with the time I have.”

“Herriet Jones.” Nat said. “Use that. I’m assuming you haven’t given him a name yet.”

“We weren’t sure who we were going to be able to bring in. So we were vague about it. This could work.” Nate spoke up; he had been quite taking in the newcomers. He wasn’t pleased about brining in people he didn’t know but he trusted Sophie. They all did.

Hardison pulled up the name and whistled. “This is a CIA level background.”

Clint snorted. “They wish.”

“It will hold up. No matter what Kavanagh wants to throw at it.”

“The meeting is tomorrow evening. At Café Firefly. Sophie is the intermediary. Eliot is in the kitchens. I’m sommelier for the night. Parker will be stealing our client’s work back as well as proof he is selling government secrets with Clint’s help. Nate will be outside watching Kavanagh making sure he is scene at some point. We managed to convince him that Nate is an FBI agent looking to take him down. Not only is he stealing work from his employees he’s selling it to foreign governments. I hope you’ve got a good fake accent.” Hardison explained moving his hands around and pausing to take a sip of orange soda in front of him. “If we can convince him you’re worth selling to then this will be a walk in the park. A very creepy park.”

“I’m sure I can manage.” Nat said and Clint knew what was coming. “I do a pretty convincing Russian accent.”

Nate nodded his head in approval. “Russian’s are always good-“ At the same time Eliot said “messy.” They stared at each other briefly, Clint was sure they were having a non-verbal argument. He did it enough with Nat to know what it looked like when other people did it. Finally Nate spoke up. “All right people lets go steal government secrets.” Clint wasn’t sure if the tension in the room eased or got thicker. Nonetheless the group split up making arrangements and preparations.

Prep didn’t take long. At least for him and Nat. She had a storage locker in Portland; he really wasn’t questioning why she had one in Portland of all places. He did have ones in Boring, Dull and Bland Shrine just for the hell of it. Clint made sure he had a handgun as well as a sniper rifle he could hide in his gear. It was like his grown-up safety blanket. Nat took a few small knives and a few handguns. They were here to help but if things went side ways (and things always had a habit of going sideways) they had to be able to get out.

The waiting was always the easy and the hard part for him. Nat made sure that he was prepared for the night and he made sure that she was ready for this. They had accomplished more with a lot less before.

Come evening Clint found himself on the roof with Parker. This was going to be fun. Ear bud in place, he really liked them maybe they could get some they could be useful. Or maybe not because then Nat (and Phil) would expect him to pay more attention. The plan, for them anyways, was simple. Repel down the roof to the third-fourth floor, cut the window, enter the office get the files and whatever was in the safe. There was always a safe, generally tucked behind a painting.

“Harness?” Parker asked holding one out to him.

“Why not.” Clint figured he wouldn’t need one but accepted it nonetheless. It certainly couldn’t hurt but he was comfortable with heights.

“Robbed many places?”

“Lots.”

“Oh.” Parker seemed almost sad. Like she missed his thieving/robbing virginity. He supposed she didn’t count government secrets as things you could steal.

“We will still have fun.” He promised.

“Oh please this will be a cake walk.” Parker shot back. “I could do it with my eyes closed.”

“Oh.” Clint said teasing. He reached into his bag and pulled out what he was looking for and held it out to Parker.

“Piece. Of. Cake.” Park said as she reached out and took the blindfold. She didn’t put it on but rather pocketed it, the promise hung in the air between them.

Getting into the office was easy; Hardison had already taken control of the security measures in the office for them. Clint tried to follow what was going on over the coms but it was like organized chaos.

“Just like Berlin.” Sophie said with a soft happy sigh.

Nat laughed. “I hope not. I loved that dress.”

“Better you than me.” Clint could see Sophie handing over some sort of bright red clutch that went well with the ink black dress that swirled around Nat’s hips. He adored that dress. The way it swished and swirled when she walked making her appear every inch as dangerous as she was. “Now lets go knock him dead.”

Clint turned his attention back to Parker and the task at hand. He was handling the computer bits as Parker looked for the Glenn-Reider 525 that they had been promised. Hardison made it easy enough. He could hear Nate over the coms giving direction and he tuned him out. He was sure it was nothing important.

A few minutes later Clint cursed himself for not paying better attention to what information was being exchanged over the coms when he saw Parker freeze and heard yelling and boots from down the hall. They looked at each other and Clint pointed up. Parker nodded her head. Clint turned off the monitor got up on the desk and jumped plastering himself on the ceiling thanking as many deities as he could think of for support and structural beams. And the fact it was considered a design feature. Him and Parker hung up on the ceiling not daring to breath let alone move. A team burst through the door not to long after they sought cover. Thankfully the team was either in a hurry or not very well trained because they never lifted their heads (or eyes) up to the ceiling. They did a sweep of the room and left. Clint looked at Parker and jerked his head. She nodded. They were going to stay like this for a bit longer incase the team doubled back.

“I should teach you how to shoot.” Clint began to gesture with his hands before remembering that this wasn’t Nat and he whispered it with the odd hand gesture to punctuate what he was saying.

“If we get out of this I’ll hold you to it.”

“When.” Clint amended.

Parker nodded her head. “When.”

A few more moments later the coast sounded clear and he dropped from the ceiling, Parker right behind him. He was sure Nate was blathering over the coms again but he didn’t care.

“We’re good Nate.” Parker was whispering to herself. “We can get what we came for and leave.”

“Do it but be quick Parker.” She nodded her head and went over to the west wall, moving a Dega from it’s spot.

Clint smiled and shook his head. “It’s always behind the painting. It’s like a very bad cliché.”

“Good thing for us people are stupid.” Parker returned as she pulled out the blindfold and tied it tight around her eyes.

“No peaking.” Clint reminded her.

Parker snorted. “As if I need to cheat.” He hands were already moving as she listened. Clint stayed silent as he watched her work.

“Of course Kalvin we can finish this up and make plans for next time.” He heard Nat over the coms make promises that she had no intention of keeping. The guy had never stood a chance. It wasn’t often that he got to hear the soft Russian accent flow over Nat’s lips. It reminded him of Belgrade. He could see her dark washed jeans and the way the sat low on her hips, the way her dark green sweater had pulled up as she tugged and dragged him where she had wanted to go as they “toured” the city. The way she had swatted him with her purse as they looked at an exhibit in the Military Museum.

“Got it.” Parker’s quite exclamation pulled him out of his thoughts. She stood there with a grin on her face the blindfold and a few files in her hands. “He kept all their personal hand drawn work. And a few interactions and videos from meetings.”

“Guess he’s paranoid that someone would try and screw him over. That’s good let’s get the evidence and get out.” He went over and helped Parker place the evidence in the one bag they had brought with them. The bag with his sniper rifle in it.

“Eliot hates guns.” She pointed out when she saw it placing a few folders into the bag.

“I’m not Eliot.” Clint pointed out adding some of the videos.

“How do you know him anyways?” Parker asked, clearly interested. It wasn’t his story to tell.

“We served together. Briefly.” He shrugged grabbing the bag. “You should ask him about it.”

Cleaning up and clearing out was easy. Meeting up at the agreed spot was easy enough. They were the first ones there and it seemed like Nat was making the most of her dinner. He couldn’t blame her. Hopefully she would bring him home a steak or something.

They handed over the flies and video to Nate when he arrived. “Thank you for all of your help.”

“Guess this makes Nat and Sophie even.” He said. He hated owing people favours but knew how valuable they could be.

“You should come by some time if you’re ever in the area.” Parker said and Clint made a non-committal head nod.

Nat showed up half an hour after Eliot and Hardison who both managed to escape, though there had been some arguing over the coms because Eliot wanted to stay and finish dinner service. Nate had won that battle in the end. She arrived, the dress swirling around her making her look more like a warrior heading into battle than someone coming back from a dinner date gone horribly wrong. She was holding a take out container so he was hopeful. She stopped in front of him and held it out. “Steak. And salad. Eat the salad too.” He took it and gave her a mock salute.

He ate the steak on the way back to the bar. The team was going to meet the client there and share the success with them. Nat had talked to Phil about their success and taking down Kavanagh for good. Phil promised it would happen. Not bad from a trip to Portland.

He was sitting at the bar nursing a beer letting the team unwind around him. Nat was sitting next to him also nursing a beer but more so drinking out of his because ‘it tastes better’. He didn’t mind, just liked to pretend he did and they both knew it.

Clint looked around the bar and shrugged. It wasn’t perfect but it would do. He slipped of the bar stool offering Nat a cocky grin who rolled her eyes but turned so that she would have a better view. He went over to where Hardison, Parker and Eliot were sitting in one of the booths. He stole a fire off of Eliot’s plate before he held out a hand to Parker who gave him a look but took the hand. “I did promise to teach you how to shoot.” He gestured with his other hand where a bow was laying on a table by the dartboard.

“Sounds fun.” Park said as he dragged him over to the set up. “I’ve used a cross bow and a bow and arrow though.” She said as she picked up the bow and knocked an arrow. She took a stance steadied her breathing, pulled back and let the arrow fly. It hit the bulls eye of the target.

“Not bad.” Clint said grinning. Parker turned around to glare at him but broke out in a smile when she saw Clint’s face.

“Think you can do better?” She asked holding out the bow to him.

Clint bent over and began undoing his boots ignoring the bow for now. “I know I can do better.” He told Parker. He slipped out of his shoes and took off his socks. “Be prepared to be amazed.” He told her as he reached out and finally took the bow from her. He knocked the bow raised his right foot and nestled it between his big toe and the next toe. He balanced on one foot, took a few deep breaths to steady himself before going down into a handstand and bringing the bow over his head. With his left foot his pulled back the string. He steadied himself, lined up his shot and fired. It hit his mark dead on. He let out a woop, Parker was laughing. He got out of the handstand and held the bow in his hands.

“Okay that was kind of impressive.”

“You cheated.” Hardison said from behind them. “I’m not sure how but you rigged that.”

“Nope.” Clint said with a shrug. People were going to think whatever they wanted. “Just a lot of practice.”

The flight home was just as eventful as the flight to Portland. Boring. He wasn’t sure where everyone got the crazy idea that being a spy was glamorous and sexy and mysterious. He had no idea where that came from. Most of the time it was boring and flying (mostly letting other people fly and not him flying that would be cool) and trying not to die. So far he was succeeding at the last one. Maybe that was all that mattered.

The plane ride was uneventful. They took it in comfortable silence. Trying to catch up on sleep that was lost. Even a small nap was better than nothing at all.

They were soon (but not soon enough) in Clint’s truck on their way back to the apartment when Nat broke the silence with the question Clint knew was coming.

“So you and Eliot Served together.” She kept her eyes on the road, with quick glances back to Clint who was stretched out in the passenger seat.

“Yep.” He drawled. This was his story to tell and he didn’t feel like telling it.

“That’s it.” Nat said shaking her head. he knew that she would drop it, they had an unspoken rule that if either one of them didn’t want to talk about something the other wouldn’t push it.

Clint could feel the smirk on his lips as he took his right hand and brought his thumb and pointer finger together with the other fingers pointing out.

“Clint!” Nat shouted in mock anger. “What did Phil tell you about using your naughty words.”

“Phil’s not here.” Clint pointed out laughing.

Even with traffic (the bane of anyone’s existence Clint was sure) they were home soon enough. Grabbing the two suitcases Clint followed behind Nat as she unlocked the door.

“Thanks for coming with me.” Nat said as they entered the apartment. He made his way to the bedroom. It had been a whirlwind of a week and he was tired. This was supposedly them being off work. It never seemed to end though this had been fun.

“I’d follow you anywhere.” It pretty much went without saying but sometimes things needed to be said anyways. He flopped down on the bed.

Nat didn’t respond to what he said, she never did. Just like he didn’t when roles were reversed. He reached up and grabbed her hand and pulled hard. Nat fell on top of him as he was laughing. He wrapped his arms around her waste. “Bed?” She nodded her head. Clint moved one of his hands up to her chest right over her heart. His middle two fingers folded down, the pink, pointer and thumb all pointing up. He didn’t have to see her face to know she was smiling. They both weren’t good with their words but that didn’t mean they didn’t find other ways to say things. He felt her hand on top of his, it pressed down the same pattern his hand was in.

I love you.