Date:March 25th, 2014

Jessica Drew knocked on the door frame as she entered the Avenger's basement containment suite. Dr. Banner's head jerked up from the documents he studied. "Come on in," he said amiably.

Jess set the three cardboard cups of tea down by the door and put a fourth container in the small refrigerator. The large room with the heavily reinforced paneling was as clinical as she had expected. The containment portion of the room had redundant security measures but the energy beams and repulsor panels were off; they were relying on the thick smooth walls and ceiling and the transparent window facing the doctor. At least the cell was furnished.

Jess studied her friend's back as she lay unmoving on the narrow bed in the corner of the cell. "Is she drugged?"

"No," Banner answered. "She's not even asleep. She does that when she's tired of me talking to her. Thanks," he nodded at the tea she handed him.

"Have you been here with her the whole time?" she asked. "That's so kind. I couldn't get clearance to come any sooner."

Banner shook his head. "Sorry about that. Tony doesn't trust SHIELD; thinks they are going to try to take her into custody. I agree with him, actually, but I know you are just here as her friend." Jess nodded and he continued by addressing her first question. "I've been here a lot, but not all the time. I've been trying to figure out what they did to her and I run tests here when I can. I just didn't want her to be alone."

"I got a call from Clint last night. He can't get here and he's freaking out. He's been grounded in Africa by that storm for almost two days. He's been badgering Mr. Stark to send some other transport since all of SHIELD is tied down. He should be here soon, but I'm not sure when."

"Yeah, he's been called me for updates. I don't know what to tell him. He wanted to talk to her but..."

"He wouldn't be much use over the phone," Jess interjected.

"It's not just that. She still thinks we are all lying to her; she thinks it's about 10 years ago and that this is some elaborate ruse. She even keeps accusing us all of being Hydra operatives; there hasn't been Hydra since 1945. I don't know what's misinformation and what's the result of whatever drug they gave her. I can't tell even if she knows. They really messed her up."

"Yeah, I heard she went ape-shit when…" she covered her mouth self-consciously. "Oops, sorry."

Dr. Banner's diffident smile flashed before he hid it behind the cup. "It's fine," he said.

"I heard that she was really terrified when she saw Iron Man. That it was like she didn't know what he was or who Cap was or anything."

He nodded. "That's what Tony said. I think he might have used the term 'ape-shit' too."

Jess looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she said again. She'd met Dr. Banner a few times at parties as himself and seen him in action as the Hulk and she wasn't sure if she was more afraid of the monster or of discomfiting the reserved Bruce Banner.

"You don't have to apologize. I've heard far worse," he assured her.

"Oh, yeah, if you've spent all this time with Natasha, I guess you'd be used to the cursing."

His smile grew sad. "I've always found Natasha's swearing kind of charming. I'm not quite sure how she does it… Natalia on the other hand…." At her puzzled look, he added, "Maybe it's just a habit for me, to think of it as a dual personality… but that is NOT my friend Natasha in there. She doesn't even acknowledge the name."

Jess sipped her tea and looked at Natalia's back as she lay in the minimally furnished cell. "Can she hear us?"

"No, I've got the audio switched off. I can turn it back on, if you want to try to talk to her."

"I do, but..." Jess bit her lip and sat down next to the soft-spoken doctor. "What's she like?"

"Suspicious. Angry. Afraid. She's someone else. If her memory really is reset to ten years ago, she's, what, 20 years old? I hate that she's locked up, but I don't know what else to do." They both knew that this cell was designed to hold the Hulk. Jessica wondered how weird it must be for Banner to be sitting here on the other side of the barrier that was built for him.

"I bet she hates it, too. You think Clint can help?"

"I don't know." The doctor took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "She's not too happy with him. She seems to remember him offering her a place at SHIELD and then knocking her out. She has no memory of being at SHIELD or with the Avengers. She woke up on the train with Rumlow and Rollins. I don't know what happened, but given that data leak and the state they found Rumlow in, I doubt it was pleasant. Tony tried to get the video, but there isn't any."

"I haven't been able to access it either," Jessica confided. "SWORD can usually access any thing in SHIELD's files, but I can't find it either and Rollins claims to have a concussion. They have Rumlow in a medically induced coma until they can work on him. They are still working on Captain Rogers, but he is doing well. They are working with that scientist from Korea."

"Yeah, Dr. Helen Cho. I was looking at some of her work," Dr. Banner gestured to the tablet on the desk. "Exciting stuff. Her regeneration technology takes days for now, but she is already working on accelerating it."

"Could they use that to heal Natasha's brain?" Jess asked, almost like she expected to be rebuked.

The doctor considered it, but shook his head. "I don't think so. But, I don't even know what they did to her."

Natasha stirred on the cot in her cell. "If you are going to be here for a bit, I'm going to go down and run a few new tests," Banner supplied. "I'll turn on the audio. Just go up and talk to her. Tell her who you are. Tell her about things you did together. Maybe it will remind her of something." He flicked a switch on the console and gathered up his work.

Jess approached the barrier and the woman on the bed sat up. "Hi, Natasha. Um, I mean, Natalia. I'm Jess... Jessica Drew. We're friends." Natalia leveled a cold glare at her. "I brought you some tea." She put the cup in an airlock-like chamber and pushed a button. "I also brought you some caramel gelato. It's your favorite. Yeah, I know. It's weird that I'm telling you that it's your favorite, but it was… is. Fuck, I'm doing this wrong." She leaned her forehead against the glass and said wistfully. "It's from that place you like. You were the one that introduced me to it."

"Are we lovers?" Natalia inquired suddenly.

Thrown, Jess stammered, "What? No. I…. we are friends. But not like that."

"I don't have friends," Natalia said, primly.

"You do. Or Natasha does, if you really aren't her. Bruce is her friend. He's been here all this time working to figure out how to bring her back. And Cap, Steve, Captain America, whatever. He's your friend. Her friend…. I don't know. You hurt him real bad, but he's going to be ok. Wants to come see you tomorrow..."

"I hurt the other one, too," she said smugly.

"Brock Rumlow? Yeah, no one gives a shit about him." Jess dismissed and glanced up to see if her friend might be looking out, but met only the emotionless expression of the Black Widow. She sighed. "Well, he's still a colleague, I guess. Even if I'm glad you kicked his ass. He'll be ok, too. Eventually."

Natalia's eyes narrowed suspiciously. She got up, took the cup from the air lock and sipped the tea. "Thank you," she said without a trace of gratitude in her voice. "You can go now."

Jess turned sadly to leave, wondering if she should stay and demand the cold woman listen as Jess enumerated all the people who cared about Natasha and worried for her. Stark had barred most of the other SHIELD personnel while they fought over who had the right to hold her. Normally, Jess would have sided with SHIELD, but there was something wrong and she couldn't quite place it. Covering her face, she decided she'd wait just out in the hall until Dr. Banner came back.

"Wait."

Jess turned back.

"Before you go. The gelato."

Clint jumped out of the helicopter before it landed. Tired and wired, he was grateful that no one but Jarvis greeted him. He took the elevator directly to the containment level, feeling both annoyed and oddly smug that they thought they needed to put her in the room they had designed to hold the Hulk. She would certainly be safe there and no one would get to her without their permission.

Jessica Drew stood outside the entrance to the containment suite, leaning against the door frame. He approached her and dropped his gear on the floor beside her. "Jess? What's wrong? Is Tasha alright?"

She threw her arms around him and hugged him, her tears warm against his neck. She sniffled and wiped her face. "I'm sorry," she said at his worried and bewildered expression. "Everything is fine. Nothing is different than before. It's all the same. It's just hard when your best friend doesn't recognize you. She's a different person. I just, I wanted you to know... before you went in there. It's bad. I'm so sorry, Clint. She really loved you, and you were good to her. I'm sorry I didn't see it before."

Clint nodded absently at her and patted her shoulder, gently disentangling himself from her. He regarded her awkwardly for a moment. "Ok... Um, thanks, Jess. I'm going to go see her now."

He was glad to see they had added some simple furniture to the room and given her a modicum of privacy in the small bathroom annex. Although Hulk containment had been the primary purpose of the room, they had recognized that having temporary accommodations for unwilling "guests" would also be useful.

"Hey, Nat," he said casually, as he walked up to the thick clear polycarbonate barrier. "Fancy seeing you here."

Natalia studied him coldly. "You," she spat, "You promised you wouldn't let them lock me up."

"I did," he affirmed. "And I'd like to get you out, but I can't yet. We need you to get your memories back."

"Vat is this memory-nonsense? My memory is fine." She defiantly held his gaze for a moment and then went back to assiduously scraping out the last of the caramel gelato with a thin cardboard spoon.

"Oh, yeah? What year is it?" She glared at him and looked away sullenly. "You aren't sure, are you? You think it's, what, 2004? Didn't you see a different year on the papers after you jumped off the train."

She shrugged. "You attacked me with a flying robot, you could change a few newspapers."

His brow furrowed as he thought of all the logistical difficulties with that. He wondered why she was playing obtuse on this. "What do you remember?" he asked curiously, hands on his hips.

"You knocked me out and then left me with a brute on a train. And then I was attacked by a man with a frisbee and a red and gold robot. Are you all Hydra?"

"What? No! We are Avengers," Clint turned and looked for Bruce or Jess, someone to explain that cryptic leap, but they were alone. "And what do you mean, I knocked you out?"

"You tazed me," she accused.

"You passed out from blood loss and infection and I carried you to the evac chopper. You had MRSA. You almost lost your leg. You underwent some pretty intensive treatments... Is that the last thing you remember before Rumlow and the train?"

She glared at him, but silence seemed as close to an ascent as he was likely to get from her. Clint pieced together the timeline as she experienced it: she agreed to go with him and then she woke up on the train where she seduced/was almost assaulted by Rumlow. She jumped off the train in Italy and found herself 10 years in the future. Iron Man and Cap must've been a strange shock for her. "How's your leg?"

She rubbed at the long-healed scar and snorted dismissively. "Am I being charged with a crime?"

"No, no. Hill took care of all that. You are still an Avenger and an agent of SHIELD, even if you don't remember. You aren't being charged. Cap is going to be fine. Rumlow, too."

"Who are you people that you can hold me against my will. If I am an agent of SHIELD and an Avenger, why am I being held prisoner?"

He considered her words. "SHIELD wanted to detain you, but we thought it would be better if you were here with us, at Avenger's Tower."

"Who speaks for me? I do not know any of you. I vant to speak for myself."

"You can drop the phoney accent," he declared. "And, well, I suppose I'm the one that decided."

"What gives you that right?" she challenged.

"Natasha," he said quietly, "I'm your husband."