Chapter 7

Coming Home

Washington – SHIELD cafeteria

Natasha had finished up a full workout along with a long session on the practice range. She found herself lingering around headquarters a bit instead of heading back to her apartment. She thought of going out for the night, but that prospect seemed to hold diminishing appeal to her lately. New York had raised her profile, but thankfully there were no clear images of her. That didn't stop the media from speculating or even publishing wild stories about who she might be. All that attention went against Natasha's training and personality, she was very much a private person.

Going out wasn't really difficult for her. She was a beautiful young woman, so garnering attention had never been a problem. Depending on the circumstance and her objectives, Natasha could be anyone depending on the situation, the femme fatale, the girl next door or even the awkward, yet cute nerd girl that seemed just right to whoever she was with. It was something she been trained to do from an early age, but Natasha did so much of that for work she had grown bored with doing that in her private life.

It also might have something to do with Clint being an A-hole and calling her out on it every time they went out together. He really was a shitty wingman when you got right down to it, she thought. She had the normal desires and urges that everyone else had, she just kept them more in control. It was just how she was, but some times she just wanted to get laid and putting on a persona seemed like the fastest way to achieve that goal. She wasn't looking for a relationship, she didn't do relationships, but every once and a while, she got that itch and wanted to scratch it, just like everyone else. If she had to pretend to be interested in handsome, yet complete douchebag, Bob the congressional aid to do it, well it was one night and just the cost of getting what she wanted.

Only the pretending was getting harder and harder. Summoning the interested just wasn't there outside of work. Lately if the choice was between pretending or staying at home with a bottle of wine and Netflix, the bottle of wine and Netflix was winning out. It wasn't like she could actually be whom she really was when she went out. She could just imagine how that would go.

"Hi, I'm Bob, I work up on the hill, what do you do for a living?'

"Hi, Bob. I'm Natasha, I'm a spy and I've murdered a lot of people, well mostly in the past, really, but on a pretty regular basis, along with a whole host of really nasty, sketchy shit that if I told you anything about it, you'd crap your pants and I'd also have to kill you. Oh, I'm the Black Widow; by the way, maybe you've heard of me? So do you come here often?"

Yeah, that wasn't going to fly.

If the bar didn't clear out immediately, she was sure Fury, as well as the Council would go apeshit when they heard about it. Yes, the general public wasn't sure how she looked, but the name Black Widow had caught the media and public's fancy. It really was surprising that with all the technology today, no one had snapped a picture of her or Clint. Then again, they worked for a huge international spy agency, so it probably wasn't that surprising. It would be just like Fury not to want his two best agents exposed to the world.

As she topped off her travel mug, Natasha glanced around the room. She knew most of the people and out of habit scanned them for weaknesses and threat levels. She knew every possible exit, as well as most of the agents' tendencies. If she had to she could probably even come up with some personal tidbit about each of them, but that's as far as it went. Natasha also knew most of them were scared shitless of her, which had its pluses and minuses. It engendered a healthy respect for her and her abilities, but also kept everyone at arms length. Usually that was okay, but it did tend to isolate her.

Natasha glanced at the exit, just as Maria Hill came storming into the room and made a beeline to the table the STRIKE team was at. This should be interesting she thought, delaying her plans to leave to watch this play out.

Maria stopped right in front of them and tossed a fistful of mission reports down on their table.

"Do you want to explain what this bullshit is, agents?" She demanded. Her usual control was still in place, but the anger was clear in her eyes.

"What's the problem, Hill?" Rollins asked, with a smirk.

"That's Assistant Director Hill to you, Rollins,' she replied. "The problem is I want to know what the fuck you all were doing on a mission to rescue the hostages from the pirates? You killed 22 out of the 25 pirates!"

"What did Rogers get his nose our or joint and report us?' Rollins grumbled. "Is that what this is about?"

"Rogers? What are you talking about? He hasn't even filed a report yet, you idiot,' Maria replied. "I can read and count, Rollins!"

"We neutralized the threats and the hostages are safe,' Rumlow said. "It was a successful mission in my book."

"Really?" she said, turning to face him. "If it was so successful, tell me how did the pirates know about that ship? How did they happen to be in the exact right place and at exactly the right time to take it?"

Neither man had an answer for her question.

"That might be something say an Intelligence organization might like to know, don't you think?" She asked. "Oh, wait, SHIELD is an intelligence agency, which you imbeciles work for! SHIELD might want to question those pirates to find out who tipped them off to the ship's travel schedule and to find out if they were working alone or with someone else. Unfortunately, you killed all of them so we can't question them, can we?"

"Rogers saved one,' Rumlow offered. "And Widow didn't kill two. Can't you question them?"

"Are they the ringleaders?" Maria pointedly asked.

"I don't know."

"That's right, you don't,' she replied. 'You didn't even think about it when you went in guns blazing! Fuck, you idiots screwed this up! Rogers was on his first mission and backup, yet he managed to do what you supposed veterans didn't! Screw up again and I will personally make sure your team gets disbanded and assigned to guard duty at the shitiest SHIELD office I can find! Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," they both said.

Maria looked at them one more time before shaking her head and storming back out of the room.

"Idiots,' she muttered as she left.


Washington DC

Friday stood hovering over Steve as he tried to figure out the computer Stark gave him so he could type out his report. He really had no clue how to use one, so trying to figure it out at SHIELD headquarters with all those people around would be a nightmare. He knew they would try and be helpful, but he didn't want to feed into the image of a clueless imbecile hopelessly lost in time whenever he tried to understand some new thing or change. He already got more then enough of those looks from nearly everyone when he tried asking about basic things he'd been wondering about.

There had been the hat debacle as one of the most recent incidents. Since he woke up he couldn't help noticing people didn't wear hats anymore. Hats were so ubiquitous when he'd grown up and it was just second nature to have one. All the biggest stars, Clark Gable and Gary Cooper wore hats. Carole Lombard and Rita Hayworth were famous for the stylish hats they used to wear. It was even a little more surprising how few women wore hats anymore. He remembered when an Easter bonnet was an actually thing, not just a song. There was also been swank Milliners and Haberdashers all around New York. Now it seemed everyone wore baseball caps of some sort. When did that happen, he couldn't help wondering? When did people stop wearing a hat when they dressed up? For that matter, when did people stop dressing up? Even as a kid he'd worn a tweed cap. Steve fondly remembered Bucky being so proud of the fedora he wore on one of the double dates he kept dragging Steve on.

"Captain Rogers?"

"Oh, um, ah, yes, Friday, um, where were we?"

He had to stop doing that, he told himself. All the questions he had about the present seemed to trigger memories of what was now the long ago past. The memories didn't feel that long ago to him, but it would be so easy to get lost in them.

"We could delay this if you want, Captain,' Friday suggested. "As I said earlier, you could just tell me what you want to say and I could transcript it for you. I could even transfer it over to SHIELD. It would really be no trouble."

"Thank you, but no, Friday,' Steve replied. "I'm going to have to learn all of this one way or the other, so you doing my work for me seems like cheating."

"As you wish, Captain."

"I know this is probably mind numbingly slow for you, Friday as well as tedious, but I do appreciate you walking me through it all."

"You are most welcome, Captain, Friday replied, still standing over his right shoulder. "As for being worried about my being bored, do not be. I can multitask, so please take as long as you need."

"Thanks again," Steve said with a smile. "So what's next?"

"Well, you have mastered turning on the computer and seem to have a grasp of the track pad, so now you need to open a Word document,' Friday patiently explained.

"Why is it called that?"

"Why is what called that, Captain?" Friday inquired.

"Why is it called a word document,' Steve replied. "Isn't it just a document?"

"We will be created it in a program called Microsoft Word, thus it has always been referred to as a Word document."

"Okay,' Steve nodded. "That's part of what you were telling me about, Microsoft Office right?"

"Yes, Microsoft Office is a suite of eleven applications, though some editions do not include all of them. These are: Access, Excel, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Lync, Publisher, Visio and Word,' Friday explained.

"God, I'm never going to figure all those out,' Steve groaned.

"Most people do not 'figure' most of them, Captain, you should not worry,' Friday replied. "Once you master Word, if you can do a little in Excel and PowerPoint, you'll be ahead of most people. Now just click on the icon for Word and we will start a new document, yes, that is correct, I'm glad to see you remembered the icons, Captain."

Steve felt like he'd just been patted on the head, but he knew Friday was just trying to help him. He let it go and was just about to ask what to do with the dozen options on the screen when there was a knock at the door.

"Do you know who it is?" Steve asked.

"I do not,' Friday replied.

"I guess I should answer it,' Steve mused aloud. "I didn't think anyone knew I lived here. I wonder who it could be. It's not Stark is it?"

"Mr. Stark is currently in California, so no, Captain."

"It wouldn't be Miss Potts, we only met once and that was with Tony," Steve pondered. "I don't think anyone else has been to my apartment or even knew about it."

The knock came again.

"Perhaps if you answer it, you can solve the puzzle of who it is,' Friday suggested.

Steve just looked at her calm, smiling face for a moment.

"Sarcasm? I guess you are related to Tony Stark,' Steve joked as he stood and moved towards the door.

"Must be a family trait,' Friday replied.

Steve laughed as he reached the door and opened it. Standing in front of him, her fist ready to knock again was the attractive, young blond from down the hall.

"Oh, hi, I was afraid no one was home,' she said, smiling as she lowered her fist and opened her fingers. "I'm Kate, from down the hall.'

"Steve,' he replied, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you, Kate."

"I've been meaning to stop by but work and everything, you know,' she said. "I was hoping you could do me a favor?"

"Um, if I can."

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She asked.

"No, I was just talking …,' Steve started say as he turned to introduce Friday, but she was gone. He glanced around the entire room, but nothing. "Um, talking-typing to the computer. Having trouble with it."

"Oh, I know, right, I swear every time I try and download a MP3 or MP4, the Wi-Fi cuts out on me,' she said with a laugh. "I think it has it in for me and my obsession with slasher films and prog rock."

Steve understood nothing she had just said.

"I was trying to type a letter," Steve weakly offered. They stood just looking at each other for a moment.

"So, um, ah, you mentioned a favor,'' Steve finally said.

"Oh, right, I was wondering if you had some quarters?" Kate asked. "I was doing some laundry and ran out."

"Yeah, sure, come in,' Steve said, finally on some solid ground in the conversation. "You sure do a lot of laundry. I mean, I've noticed you with a laundry basket several times when I was coming in or going out. I wasn't stalking you or anything, really, I just noticed."

Stalking was a word Steve had picked up at a seminar at SHIELD.

"I certainly hope not," she laughed. "I'm an ER nurse down at the hospital. If you don't get the blood out right away it tends to stain."

"Yeah, it does,' he replied. Again they stood looking at each other for what seemed like a long time.

"Quarters, quarters, I'm sure I have some over here,' Steve managed to say, hoping he wasn't coming off like an idiot. He glanced around again for Friday, but she had vanished into thin air like Houdini. He reached the tray of spare changed he kept and started picking out quarters.

"How many do you need?" He asked.

"I'll take all you got,' Kate said with a smile.

Steve nodded and turned back to sorting out the change. It took a moment or two.

"Okay, I've got 8 dollars and 25 cents in quarters,' he pronounced, holding a handful out to her.

"You're a life saver, here's a ten and thank you again,' she said, holding out the money for him.

Two sides were at war within Steve at the moment. He'd been raised during the Depression and money had always been tight. He could remember counting out pennies to figure out if they'd have something for dinner that night. So giving away money was just something he rarely did. On the other hand, a gentleman would kindly refuse to take a young woman's money. Should he be practical and take the money or chivalrous and refuse. The thing was Kate was a beautiful young woman from a different time than him. He didn't know if she'd be offended if he took the money. Maybe she'd be offended if he didn't take it, thinking he thought she couldn't afford it and he was being patronizing. He had sat through several sexual harassment seminars when he first got to SHIELD, so he wasn't sure what was the right thing to do. It was in those seminars he'd picked up the word stalking. Why did Friday have to disappear, he could really use some help here. Finally he just took the ten.

"I'll make up the difference," Steve offered. "If you don't mind dimes and nickels, I'm sure I've got another buck, seventy five here."

"Don't worry about it,' Kate said, scooping the quarters out of his hand. "You're doing me a favor, I really appreciate it."

"Still, I'm short changing you, it doesn't feel right,' he replied.

"You can buy me a cup of coffee sometime and we call it even, okay?'

"Yeah, okay."

"Nice to meet you, Steve and thanks again,' Kate said with a smile. She turned and walked back out of the room, closing his front door behind her. Steve stood looking at the door for a moment and then turned around only to find Friday standing right in front of him.

"Oh, Jeez,' he gasped, taking a step back.

"I apologize if I startled you, Captain," Friday replied. "The young woman said she is a neighbor, do I understand that correctly?"

"Yeah, name's Kate, works at the hospital apparently,' Steve said with a nod. "Seems nice."

Friday had been scanning Steve, noticing slight fluctuations in his body indicators. He liked her, Friday realized. Friday had also scanned Kate when she entered the room. Friday had all the access that Jarvis had, so she knew the young woman's name wasn't Kate and she most definitely didn't work at the hospital. The Captain's reaction to her though, made Friday pause and reconsider whether to tell him who the young woman really was. He liked her and it wasn't completely unreasonable that SHIELD would want to keep an eye on him. For now, Friday decided to keep this information to herself, as no harm had come from the encounter.

"Nice,' Friday repeated. "Yes, I am sure she is."

Steve smiled and nodded.

"Hey, where did you go earlier?" He asked. "I mean one second you're there and then I answer the door and you disappear."

"I am rather valuable proprietary property of Stark Industries, Captain,' Friday explained. "It would not be wise for me to reveal myself to others, no matter how 'nice' they may seem."

"So you're going to be like my imaginary friend that only I can see?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"A simplification, but for the most part accurate."

"Great."