A Different Call

New Place, Same Accommodations

Natasha's P.O.V.

Barton was waiting for me as soon as I left the lecture. Did that man not have anything better to do?

"Hey Nat," he said, yet again leaning against the wall. I kept walking not even breaking pace as he talked. He ran up to me and said, "Hey, I'm sorry about what happened at lunch. I realized I went a little too far and I was tired and cranky after the mission I didn't think about what I was saying."

I kept walking around the base, trying to find the bunkrooms, until I realized I was lost.

"What's the matter, Nat?" Barton asked. I knew he had been following me, but I had also been trying to ignore him and I certainly wasn't going to tell him I was lost

"Nothing, I'm fine," I said, turning and facing him, my arms crossed.

"Really?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. "Because you passed the sleeping quarters for new agents two floors ago."

I let out a frustrated sigh and stared at him, "Well."

"Well, what?"

"Well, are you going to show me the rooms? Isn't that part of your job as a SO?" I asked a mix of frustration and taunting in my voice.

"Could have shown you earlier if you had listened to me when I told you that you missed the hallway the first time," Barton said, walking towards the bunkrooms as I followed him.

"This is the room that Hill told me you would be in. Word of warning at this point in training we try to combine ops, science, and comms agents so they learn to interact with people from different divisions."

I shoot him a glance, "You've seen my file. You know some of the things I've done. I'm sure I can handle a group of girls."

I entered the room and saw a row of beds on the two longer walls of the room. The beds seemed to be twin size. Each one had a nightstand, with a lamp on it, on its right side and a truck at the foot of the bed. I noticed some girls had pictures of family members in frames on their nightstands. All the beds had the same light gray sheet set, though some girls seemed to also have personal blankets. It wasn't much different than Red Room, except for the fact that there are way more girls than when the program started, and definitely a lot more than when I graduated. Another thing I noticed was all those girls were looking at me.

Clint leaned forward and whispered, 'good luck' in my ear before leaving.

I went to the only bed left which was all the way at the back of the room. There were two pairs of SHIELD issued shoes by the side of the bed, one was a pair of tennis shoes and the other seemed to be combat boots. I checked the trunk and found some shorts, jeans, and T-shirts. As I evaluated the other girls in the room, I noticed that only two of them had been in my group of agents.

One of the girls I didn't recognize walked up and said, "Hello, my name is Lilly." She looked to be about 5 foot 4 inches tall with reddish hair and green eyes. She had stuck a hand for me to shake.

"Natasha Romanoff," I said, sitting on the bed and taking off my shoes. I am not here to make friends, I am only putting up with this whole circus so that I can go back into the field.

She slowly lowered her hand, "Oh, uh, you must be the new agent for the operations division, I am with the science division of SHIELD, chemistry is my specialty." Lilly said. I didn't reply and just put my shoes under the bed.

"Well um, if you want some of the other girls are going to the agents' lounge later after dinner to talk about how our first day was. We have been here for around a week already so most of us already know each other, but I am sure that you'll fit right in. Just make sure that you have your badge with you it's for level three agents and up, so if you don't have your badge you can't get in."

"Well, I'm level one. I can't get in anyway. So thanks, but no thanks." I couldn't believe that I was at least two levels lower than all the other girls in this room, most of whom I am sure I could outperform in a heartbeat.