Usually, realizing that Clint was crying which happened seldom enough, would have been just what she needed to stop. To pull herself together, be strong for him. Help him out of that hole he had sometimes fallen into, especially after New York.

This time it just made it worse. She was the reason for his tears, for this proud, strong man who had been her anchor for more than ten years, breaking down...

She just clung to him harder even though it made her wince out in pain, as if that could make up for the world falling apart around them and her having the biggest hand in that. It didn't matter how often you told yourself it had been the only right thing to do. Not when the most important person in your life was crying on your shoulder.

And what could she say as an excuse? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Truth was, she could have tried to find him at once at least, instead of doing road trips through half the US, hoping, he'd somewhere catch up with her. It had always been him approaching her, seeking out closeness, all these years that she had hid behind S.H.I.E.L.D. regulations and her own walls of defense. And she had continued that even after all of these had fallen.

"I wasn't sure if you'd want me to come", she managed to whisper between two heavy breaths, because that was also true.

And maybe she needed to hear it from him. Needed to know what he thought all this before they could even try to pick up the pieces of their lives.