When 'Team' Means A Safe Space
by JalendaviLady
Characters: Phil Coulson, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Jarvis, Pepper Potts, Nick Fury
Summary: Natasha gets reassigned while recovering from a mission and the reason why shocks the rest of the Avengers. And that's only the start. Sequel to "Returning The Favor".
WARNINGS: Rape/Non-con References, Childhood Sexual Abuse References, Rape Aftermath, Underage Prostitution References
Chapter 1
Phil Coulson was still in the infirmary Stark had built into the tower dedicated to his impressive ego when the word came through that Natasha and Clint were back from their latest escapade.
Phil hadn't been conscious when they left and no one had told him the target, but the tales on the news of a Russian crime boss's sudden fall into ignominy and government custody was enough to put some pieces together.
"Natasha's here," Tony told him. "She wants you there. She just needed IV medication, and since we'd already worked out places for all the human Avengers to stay here, she's upstairs in her room." His voice was doing the rising-in-pitch thing again.
That, plus the fact she'd asked for him, was enough to let Phil have some idea what had happened.
Natasha was curled up on the bed facing the wall.
Clint was already there, sitting in the empty space formed in the curve of her knees and holding her hand. His bow was on his lap, the quiver close by within reach.
"We sent Steve to get her bag," Clint told him softly.
Damn damn damn damn damn. Not again...
Natasha had left a space open between the headboard and her pillow, and Phil took it as the invitation she always meant it as and sat down there, parking his IV pole beside hers and taking her other hand in his own.
"Phil?" she asked without opening her eyes.
"I'm here, Tasha."
Her hand squeezed his. "Good." She shifted around enough that the pillow pressed up against his hip. "Did we get him?"
"It's all over the news," he told her. "The Russian government is so angered at him that they charged him with bribery when he tried to pay his way out of it all. No one's saying what he was up to, beyond the general charges."
"He was trafficking on the side," Clint whispered.
Phil flinched, closing his eyes.
When he opened them again, Clint matched his gaze. "Code Marian," he mouthed.
Phil cursed in his mind again. That was their private code that she'd not only felt the need to let herself be sexually assaulted (or, to be more accurate, let a target believe he'd managed to sexually assault her) in the course of the mission, but that Clint had had to watch without putting an arrow in the offender's back - on Natasha's orders.
Code Marian meant Clint had needed to hold himself back from being her personal Robin Hood.
"He won't be harming anyone ever again." Phil hadn't even realized Director Fury was standing in the doorway until he spoke. "One of the guards at the facility he was being held in had a daughter who went missing a few years ago and turned up in one of the brothels you uncovered. He had a little accident this morning."
"Good." Her voice was the bitterest Phil had ever heard her.
"Agent Romanoff, you're being reassigned."
"What?" She twisted around to look at him.
"You are too valuable to the planet to be in the field again against a standard-level human threat. You're the only person we know of who has successfully picked an extraterrestrial's mind. We cannot afford to risk losing you. You're being permanently reassigned to the Avenger's Initiative. I'm sure figuring out how to keep the rest working together without destroying valuable old-growth forest again will be more than enough to fill your time and justify your salary."
"You knew," she mumbled.
"I never would have let you leave the country on that mission if we'd known."
Phil was confused. Clint looked just as confused.
"Agent Coulson, same reassignment. Most of your day-to-day tasks will remain the same."
He nodded. He'd honestly been hoping for it, and with Natasha no longer mentally and physically depending on him as the person who could order her out or order someone else to get her out right now, he could actually feel comfortable about it.
He was as sick as Clint of knowing what was going on, knowing she deemed it necessary, knowing SHIELD guidelines declared it her call until her freedom or her life was in danger, and not being able to do anything. But at least he'd never had to personally watch.
Fury left.
Natasha scooted against the pillow again. "It's over?" she whispered.
Clint let go of her hand and patted her arm. "It's over."
"It's over," Phil repeated.
It's the last time we ever have to do this. He was sure of it. Natasha was strong enough, trained enough, that under nearly any conditions she could defend herself from one to a few human men. The times they'd had to sit like this and help her through the aftermath, she'd either let herself be overpowered or needed to seduce someone she found physically repugnant.
Her shoulders started shaking.
Bruce showed up in the doorway. "Steve told me to bring this upstairs, he and Tony are running out for something, and what is wrong with Natasha?"
Phil took the bag from him and quickly fluffed out the contents.
One overly fluffy blanket, a knitted bed-cap big enough to fit all her hair in even when she'd been growing it out, and a pair of matching bed-socks.
Phil passed her the socks and she slipped them on, being careful of the IV line, while Clint spread the blanket over her.
"What happened to Natasha?" Bruce repeated.
"Mission went wrong. I had to let something happen to stop a very bad man, Bruce." She tucked her hair into the cap.
"The crime boss they're talking about on TV?"
"He was trafficking children, Bruce," Clint told him in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Does he need smashing?" Bruce asked, too quickly for Phil's liking. Although, once he thought about it, the Hulk seeking permission before raging after something was likely an improvement and it was beginning to seem like the functional lines between Bruce's mind and the Hulk's weren't as clear-cut as SHIELD had thought.
"No, Bruce." Natasha was smiling, or at least as close to smiling as she could usually manage at this point. "But you can tell the Other Guy it was a very sweet thing to offer and that I'll be sure to consult him for all my smashing needs in the future."
"Are you sure?"
"Fury says the father of one of his victims has already successfully engineered his demise," Phil told him.
"Ah." He put a hand on the blanket-covered rise of Natasha's shoulder. "Is there anything else you need to feel comfortable and safe?"
"No, but thanks. I'll tell JARVIS to get you if I think of anything."
"You sure?"
"The other guy's still feeling bad about chasing me, isn't he?"
"Well, um, possibly..."
"Oatmeal raisin cookies. And the cheapest rotgut vodka you can find."
Bruce glanced at the IV pole.
Natasha sighed. "Okay, just the cookies."
He smiled and left.
It wasn't five minutes later when Steve came in, carrying a plastic shopping bag. "Fury said something about a transfer?"
Clint answered, "Phil and Natasha were permanently transferred to the Avenger's Initiative."
"Tony's finding a room you can stay in, Phil. And he sent Pepper off on some sort of errand."
"He doesn't need to..."
"You shouldn't be spending nights in the Infirmary downstairs when the rest of us have rooms," Clint told him.
"Fine," he gave in.
"Um, I have something for you," Steve told Natasha.
"Oh?" She turned to face him.
"This is for you." He reached in and pulled out a plush bear with a longish snout wearing a furry hat.
Phil braced himself for the outlash. Natasha Romanoff had never been the sort of person he would associate with owning stuffed animals as an adult.
"Oh!" She reached out and Steve handed the bear to her. "A proper grizzly bear with an adult's nose. He's even wearing an ushanka! Steve, how hard did you have to look to find him?"
"Doesn't matter. I thought you'd need something to snuggle with, and since you already requested that blanket... I thought you might not be mad."
"Mad? Steve, I love him."
"Do you need someone else here with you? I can go grab the shield. I'm only a few doors away."
"Do you need to stay?" Natasha asked him back.
Steve nodded.
"All right then. Go get the shield."