Barton and Fury were waiting in the adjoining room of the interrogation room, watching the redhead through the mirror. She was extremely stoic, showing no emotion as she knew that there would be people watching her through the mirror. The way she looked like a statue made the men feel uneasy. Eleanor was quickly gathering some documents in another room nearby about this Natalia woman that she knew nothing about.

She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was nervous, she may try to present herself as a confident person, but really she struggled with this kind of thing, but she was somehow good at it, and so she would do it. She felt sympathy for the woman she was yet to meet, and she trusted Clint's judgement. Sometimes.

Once all of the documents she needed were gathered, she quickly walked to the door of the interrogation room and hovered her hand over the handle for a few seconds, a heavy breath escaping her lips before swiftly opening the door. She softly kicked the door shut whilst looking at the mirror, something she did before every interrogation. She couldn't see her peers, but she knew they were there, so giving a swift glance gave her some comfort.

Natalia was not looking in her direction, she was seemingly having a staring competition with the opposite wall, trying not to show her discomfort of being in this situation. Eleanor pulled the chair out, the legs scraping across the hard floor, and sat down, looking at the documents in her hands. A lot was riding on this going well, if it went completely out the window Barton would most definitely be reprimanded, and would most definitely bring Eleanor down with him now that she was involved.

The noise of the scraping chair was enough for Natalia to slowly turn her head towards the young Agent, wanting to keep up her cold demeanour. She could see that the Agent was nervous, her breathing had an irregular pattern, her index fingers were tapping against the documents, and her posture didn't scream 'confident'. Eleanor was usually a lot better at hiding her nerves, not allowing the people she was interrogating to see how anxious she was, but this situation was new territory, especially with Fury on the other side of that glass.

Natalia internally sighed, thinking that this was going to be a train wreck. She was nervous too, and the anxious energy that the strawberry blonde was giving off was not helping.

Eleanor looked up and saw Natalia glaring at her, but her breath audibly hitched as she looked at the Russian. Her already anxious demeanour getting 100x worse if that was even possible. This was the same face she had stared at all those years ago, older, but the same. Suddenly overwhelmed with emotion, she thought some cruel trick was being played on her.

This confused Natalia. Sure, that night had been haunting to her as well, but she had many haunting nights, so people tended to blur into one, it would take her longer to recognise the agent sitting in front of her. But recognise her she did, she had changed a lot from when she was 14 obviously, but the now 21-year-old sat in front of her had the same scared look she had, and the blue eyes staring back at her were the same. Her guard she was trying so hard to keep up was pushed down within seconds, she also couldn't believe that the two of them had been forced to cross paths again.

Seeing a look of realisation sweep over Natalia's face, Eleanor abruptly stood and walked out of the interrogation room, confusing the two men watching this scene play out. If she had stayed in that room she would have certainly broken down, she had already started to feel like she was suffocating in there. She needed out.

Barton and Fury just as abruptly ran out of the room toward her. "What happened?", Clint quickly asked seeing the panic in his friend's eyes.

Eleanor had almost forgiven the unknown assassination years ago, she was an understanding person, she could see how young the woman was and the regret she saw in her eyes that night. She also spared Eleanor's life. Even though this woman had killed her father, she was grateful that she decided against killing her too. Now having first-hand experience in the intelligence business, this confirmed her 'forgiveness' or whatever it was she felt, she knew and understood bad organisations that force people to do unspeakable things. However, she knew that Fury and Barton may not feel the same when they found out.

---

Natalia was inside the interrogation room having similar thoughts. The guilt and regret she had pushed back were now bubbling to the surface. Seeing the same fear on her face, albeit a more mature face, but it was the same look, made her feel nauseous.

When Barton had suggested to her that he might be able to pull some strings and help her defect to SHIELD she had felt hope for the first time in a long time, not that she showed him that. That all seemed to be crashing down now though. They were going to find out that she had been the one to kill one of their own, and also the father of one of their agents, and not just any agent, one of the agents involved in her case.

Panic. Pure panic is what Natalia felt. But of course, she couldn't let it show on the outside. She could not and would not show the people of SHIELD weakness.

It wasn't often she had to face her ghosts, and this was one that haunted her for a long time.

---

Eleanor had told Fury and Barton that she just needed a breather before she explained the situation to them. So, she was sitting on an overturned bucket in a storage cupboard trying her best not to let out a sob desperately trying to escape. She had put that part of her past behind her, and now it was, quite literally, staring her in the eyes. It made her feel like a scared kid again. Which she did not like in the slightest.

Managing to compose herself she stood, shook her arms out and walked out of the storage cupboard. She found Fury and Barton standing outside looking deeply concerned. Getting directly to the point she simply said "She killed my Dad".

"WHAT?" they simultaneously yelled. Realising her mistake in not beating around the bush with such a sensitive topic she quickly interjected whilst waving her hands around a bit.

"Hold up, hold up, she was young and as we suspect, being forced. I put that crap behind me, I don't blame her... I think" she furrowed her eyebrows in thought for a few seconds before shaking her head and continuing, "No I don't blame her, we were young and she clearly wants to put it behind her too so we should still give her the opportunity", she tried her best to not sound shaky, a hard task to do at this point in time.

Fury just continued glaring at her. Clint frowned "You still want to give her a chance?". He was genuinely confused.

"Yes", she said simply, earning more confused glances, which turned into another eye roll, something she seemed to do often. "I can't interrogate anymore, there's a personal tie now. Clint can do it, but I would like to talk to her quickly". She didn't want to just abruptly leave the assassin after they both recognised each other and not give a small explanation, she didn't want it to look like she had just run away. Besides, she was still going to be helping on this she had decided.

Both men looked like they were going to interrupt. "Nope, we were willing to give her a chance on the other stuff she's done, involving SHIELD or not involving SHIELD. Just because I may or may not be involved in one of them doesn't mean I want to ruin her chances of getting a bit of freedom".

Once again Fury just replied with "Fine", before adding "Maria won't be happy".

"I've spoken to Maria about that part of my life, she will understand", she replied giving a small nod to the Director who knew just how much Maria had helped her.

"You can go in and say whatever it is you want to say, then you and Barton will switch roles, if you're still okay to watch that is".

"Fine by me", she said before walking into the interrogation room, more confident than before.

Natalia quickly looked at her, confusion evident on her face. Eleanor sat in front of her, and they looked each other in the eye for a few seconds. This made Natalia feel extremely uncomfortable until Eleanor gave a small, sweet, and genuine smile towards her.

Natalia still felt uneasy about this situation, but she could see that the Agent in front of her wasn't going to be hostile which was a relief.

Eleanor cleared her throat before saying "Well, this is awkward" with a small chuckle. A small, almost unnoticeable smile could be seen from the Russian before her face returned to neutral.

"So um... I'm guessing you recognise me", Natalia just gave a small nod in return, not wanting to speak.

Eleanor knew that she must be more anxious than she was, and so didn't want to push her to speak to her if she did not want to.

Once again, she gave her a small smile to try and relax the assassin, before going to say "I don't blame you". Natalia's eyes fill with confusion.

"About my dad... I don't blame you".

The redhead looked at the table, composing herself, before looking back at the young Agent, tilting her head slightly.

"You looked young, only slightly older than I was, and I was only 14" she paused thinking of the words to say, "Something about the way you looked at me also told me you didn't want to do it, and you also spared me, which at the time I wasn't expecting", she said with a small, dry chuckle at the end.

There was another brief pause, "I can't be the one dealing with your case directly now, Barton will be doing that. But I'll still make sure you're being treated fair, or I'll kick his ass", she said in a serious tone. She meant it. The Russian gave a small smile, which Eleanor easily returned.

Eleanor leant forward slightly, "Make it easier on yourself, tell them what they want to know, don't close yourself off, then maybe we can get you out of that cell". She knew that Fury would have this case under a microscope and so needed to make sure that the woman in front of her would cooperate, she figured that it would take a push to get her to do so. Natalia stayed quiet, still staring at her. Eleanor got up to leave but just before she could open the door she heard a small "Thank you".

Whipping her head around at the sudden noise, they once again made eye contact. She gave Natalia a bigger smile, before leaving the room, nodding at Barton as they passed each other in the hall.