Chapter 2 – Everything Has Changed

Groaning Natasha called out, "come in."

The door opened and Bruce Banner walked in, looking hesitant.

Natasha stood up giving Bruce a small smile and motioning for him to sit beside her on the bed. They both awkwardly moved to the bed and sat down. Natasha had had a crush on Bruce since their first meeting when she had gone to get him for the Avengers initiative. Bruce had had a similar view of Natasha, even fearing for her life when he was forced to take the form of the Hulk on the helicarrier.

Bruce looked at Natasha, "how have you been?"

"Umm… okay I guess," Natasha responded, she could read in Bruce's eyes that he had read her file online. Why had she agreed to do that again? She felt broken down and knew that Bruce would not judge her if she did breakdown but she was too scared, not knowing how Bruce felt about her file made Natasha feel unnerved. She didn't want to react just in case Bruce was disappointed, she couldn't handle that.

"I uh read…" Bruce started.

Natasha's head fell, "what did you think?"

"I don't judge you for it, the past is the past. I of all people know that the past makes us who we are today. You are a good person today because of what you did and went through in your past," Bruce explained.

Natasha slowly lifted her head up, the look of shock and confusion was clear on her face. What was going on? She thought, why wasn't he repulsed, angry, disappointed?

Bruce slowly moved closer to Natasha, reading the confusion on her face and in her body language. He hoped by sitting closer that she would see that he was actually proud of her.

"You look confused by something," Bruce stated.

Natasha looked at him, realisation struck over just how closely he was sitting next to her, she could read the care on his face and after a few moments passed she decided that it was safe to talk to him about her confusion and maybe even her fear.

"How are you so okay with it? Even Clint was angry about my past and he's known me better than most people. I just don't understand why you actually look completely calm about it all."

Bruce could hear the vulnerability in Natasha's voice as she spoke. He realised that no one had reacted well when they had her past revealed to them.

"You were doing what you thought was right, you have since made a change for the better but as I said I can not judge you for your past. You showed so much courage by posting your past out on the web for the whole world to see, at least a part of you was not scared about what people would think. You did what you had to in order to save the lives of millions of people, Natasha as far as I'm concerned that makes you a hero. Why does it bother you what people think? Everyone makes mistakes in their past, that's why it's called the past."

"I don't care what people think," Natasha said stubbornly, "I just care about what my colleagues think, Hill, the Avengers… you," she whispered the last part.

Bruce was slightly taken aback by her statement; never in a million years did he think that he would have a woman care about his opinion of her.

"Natasha I don't know how many times I can say it but I'm not judging you. I think that you are courageous and caring and an amazing human being. I have never met someone who is so understanding of who I am, in turn I am absolutely understanding of your past," Bruce put as much emphasis on that statement as he could, just wanting her to see that what was in her file was the past and that she is no longer who she was.

"I have never met someone who is so understanding of me, that's why I am finding it so hard to come to grips with what you are saying to me. That you aren't affected by my past, by who I used to be, who I was," Natasha explained, she felt tears burning her eyes.

The amount of support that Bruce was showing her was a new thing for her to experience and she was overwhelmed by not only the compassion that Bruce showed her but also by the events of the last few months, particularly her time with Steve and the Winter Soldier. Natasha tried her best to hold the tears at bay but it wasn't easy, she wasn't used to this kind of emotion. She most certainly was not used to the actions of people that she was about to experience. Bruce leaned over and hugged Natasha, her head fell to his shoulder and she cried and cried, letting out all of her feelings that had been building up.

After ten minutes she slowly pulled back and Bruce wiped away the tears that fell.

"Don't be so tough all the time, everyone needs to cry and express their feelings every now and again," Bruce whispered gently.

Natasha looked into his eyes and whispered, "thank you for being here and letting me do that, it means a lot to me. I didn't think that anyone would be so accepting."

Slowly their faces came together, their lips met in a soft and passionate kiss.