Dearest Readers,

My name is Ballerina Terminator, and I have an addiction. It has been five days since I got my last review. Not a day goes by that I don't want to get the high that I feel discovering that I have received a review for one of my stories. I have done things that I am ashamed of in my desire for reviews, like staying up all night to finish a chapter, procrastinating on homework or studying, or even posting without carefully proof-reading for typos. Once, I even posted a chapter missing an entire paragraph, and, to my everlasting shame, I never fixed it because I was so anxious to get the next chapter up. Reviews were like my crack, and I needed my fix.

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm not going to try to kick this addiction. Hell, I don't even want to try. They say the first step is admitting that you have a problem, but this can't hurt me, right? RIGHT? Come on, guys, give Mama her reviews, and I promise that I will continue to provide the prose that you so desperately crave and that I will do my utmost to make sure the product that I'm offering is of the highest quality that I can manage. Ours is a co-dependent relationship where I provide you with the escape that you want while you give me the feedback that I covet! Remember, if anyone tells you that ours is an unhealthy relationship, they are just jealous and don't want us to be happy together!

Anywayyy….. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

All my love,

BT

Chapter 1: Opening Arguments and Evidence

It was a month after Natasha Romanoff's arrival at the SHIELD HQ when Coulson walked into Fury's office and closed the door.

"Agent Coulson, what can I do for you?" Fury asked, nodding to one of the chairs that stood in front of his desk.

"Boss, I need a decision on Romanoff," Coulson said, approaching the desk.

"Is this really high priority right now?" Fury asked with a tone of warning that Phil ignored.

"Yes, sir, I think it is," he said, taking his seat. "This state of limbo that she is in cannot last forever, and I think it is past time. We are just wasting her skills if we never use them, and, until she is activated, Barton is also out of the game."

"What makes you think that accepting her into SHIELD is going to be my decision?"

"Because that is going to be my recommendation. She is a fantastic asset, and she has worked very hard to provide us with everything that she could to prove her willing. We have gotten more information on her controllers in the first two days she was here than we have managed to dredge up in the last half-decade. Names, dates, locations, beneficiaries… there is not much more that she could do without field work."

"Yes, I've seen your report. I want to know about what you didn't put in the official report. What are your personal thoughts on Miss Romanoff's professed desire to 'reform'? Do you honestly think that woman could actually be trying to turn over a new leaf?" Coulson considered the question carefully before responding.

"I believe that she no longer wants to be the soulless killer that someone tried to make her."

"And who was she before that?"

"Just an eleven-year-old kid taken from her parents," Coulson said simply.

"And who were they?" Fury asked, obviously interested. SHIELD had frustratingly little about the woman before she became a notorious assassin. "Does she know where they are now?"

"She says that they are dead."

"Anything else?"

Coulson shifted in his seat slightly, which for anyone else would have been an uncomfortable squirm. "After some pressing by Agent Barton, she added that her father was a teacher and her mother worked with computers. Even this information has given us much more to go on than when we first tried to run a background check."

There was a pregnant pause.

"She is a little less than forthcoming about her childhood," Coulson admitted. "She says that she has a hard time remembering, which I think is true, but not in the way that she makes it sound. She also claims to not remember anything from the two or three years following what she refers to as 'recruitment'. I suspect that she was not the one to coin that particular word to describe child-abduction," Coulson added dryly.

"And you think that she remembers more than she's saying?" Fury guessed.

"I think that she wishes she didn't," Coulson said with a bit of a shrug. "I think that she is trying very hard to not remember."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because of the information on the Program that we got from Col. Markovich when he defected and how she goes into a cold sweat whenever she's around the white coats."

"Oh, so our cold-hearted killer doesn't like visiting the doctor?" Fury asked with mild amusement.

"Or visiting the dentist. She tried to talk the dentist into filling a cavity without a Novocaine injection because she didn't like anything that dampened her senses. Apparently, she was very persuasive. He said that she had him thinking about it for a minute."

"And how is she doing with the shrinks? What do they think about her?

"Mixed results. To say that she is resistant to opening up about her feelings to a complete stranger might qualify as the understatement of the year, but Dr. Nabendu thinks that she has more common with the eleven-year-old abductee than the soulless killer that they tried to make her. The good doctor also had some very interesting things to say about mental programming and its results, but I imagine that you also have gone over her reports on Romanoff."

Fury nodded.

"Then you would also be aware that she is starting to show signs of clinical depression, which is not surprising considering the mental strain that she is under, waiting for you to decide whether or not to put a bullet in her brain. So, you will understand why I'm asking you to make that decision before she decides to make it for you," Coulson's tone was shockingly close to a challenge.

Fury gave him a Look, but Coulson met it with his own impassive gaze.

"As her handler, I am responsible for monitoring both her physical and mental health, and I'm going to take that seriously, despite her unorthodox arrival to this organization."

Fury nodded. "Of course," he said in a tone that was almost consolatory, "I would expect no less from you. However, that still leaves us with the question of what to do with her. The fact remains that I am simply not comfortable letting her loose in SHIELD without knowing what I'm unleashing. She very well may be just a troubled girl who is just barely above drinking age, but she still knows ten ways to kill a man using only her thumb and forefinger."

"Even with probationary status, she'll still be under Barton's direct command," Coulson pointed out.

"Yes, and I want to be sure that he understands what he is dealing with as well."

Coulson was silent for a moment, carefully contemplating the situation before he finally spoke again. "I will need to consult with Dr. Nabendu on this, but I think that I can make arrangements."