A/N – Happy Pride Month! In honor of, I plan to get two or three more chapters out before the end. We'll see lol
Chapter 53
The Dealer
When no news came about cities blowing up or aliens attacking, the frazzled group had dinner. A continued lack of news put them to bed. Still no apocalypse come morning sent Dr. Cho, Alan, Sam, and Rhodes their separate ways. By the end of the quiet week, the Avengers had mostly dispersed as well.
Natasha took Emily home and started talking about which room would make a good nursery. Natasha's office was decide on, and they happily moved on to bickering about decor. Emily, of course, wanted there to be a fox theme. Natasha finally discouraged the idea by ignoring it. They moved on to Star Wars, unicorns, Paris, or dinosaurs. She was certain that Em would sneak in a stuffed fox or three when she wasn't looking though.
Uneventful weeks went by. Maria Hill finally made the connection between a string of robberies at high-tech facilities and Ultron. Mostly robotics tech, and the assailants were highly advanced robots. There were never deaths unless security shot first; most were left in a fugue state muttering about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see. The Maximoff twins. Robots and twins were untraceable. They simply vanished after taking whatever they wanted.
Word of Von Strucker's death came as Natasha entered the second trimester of pregnancy. What a relief to not be exhausted all the damn time! It was an even bigger relief that Emily's mental health had returned to almost normal. She still had nightmares. The blue screen of the TV still made her flinch, sometimes run, and too big of a crowd still made her anxious. But otherwise she could watch movies, play games, and have long video chats without anxiety attacks. And Natasha could plop on her lap again. She savored it while she could; she'd be too fat to do it soon.
Strucker's bloody crime scene photos had Em twitchy though. Even twitchier when the group decided that Strucker must have known something that Ultron didn't want the Avengers to know. Calls were made. Boxes and boxes of SHIELD paper files were delivered to the tower. Natasha endured the stares at her now obvious belly to help sort through the mountain of paperwork.
"She really shows, doesn't she?" Emily cooed to a gaping Steve. "Some women don't show until the third trimester, but Nat is so damn petite she doesn't stand a chance of hiding it, not in those perfectly tailored clothes she likes."
Natasha pretended to ignore them, scanned page after useless page beside Hill until Emily dragged the useless boys off to let Natasha and Hill work in peace.
"I don't think I ever told you congratulations." Hill spoke after a quiet hour.
"You haven't."
"Congratulations, Romanoff. When is the wedding?"
She arched a brow.
Hill arched one back. "It's not like the world doesn't know you two are a thing. And I know you've thought ahead, about the legal protections for that growth of yours and for Fortune."
"What makes you think we don't already have a marriage license?" She eyed an interesting note handwritten on the side of a file.
Hill set her file aside, lifted another. "She would be wearing a ring. Even if it was a stupid plastic one from the candy machine on her thumb."
She wasn't wrong.
"So why are you waiting?"
Fear. What if Emily said no?
"You aren't afraid she'll say no, are you?"
Fucking spies. Natasha blinked at Emily's voice in her head. She smiled. "I really shouldn't be, but I am."
Surprise creased Hill. "Seriously, Romanoff?"
"I know. I've had her baby in me for almost five months now, but I'm too scared to ask her to marry me." A self-deprecating laugh came out. "Some badass I am, huh?"
An appraising gaze swept over her, took in the wild curls that were getting dangerously long, the extra pounds she'd put on, and the unnatural youth that hadn't changed in the decade they'd known each other. "Being the Black Widow couldn't exactly have prepared you for a domestic life." How much beyond the redacted files had Hill figured out?
"Just let me know if there's going to be a big to-do about it, so I can schedule it in." Hill gave her a tight smile before returning to her files.
Marrying Emily. Natasha shook her head of the tempting daydream and returned to her work. She could think about lace and garters later.
Several hours later, Natasha brought the folder with the picture of Ulysses Klaue -aka the Dealer- with her to lunch. She spread it on the table and stared at it as she nibbled pita slathered with hummus. The Dealer. He was renowned as an arms dealer, could get anyone anything. It was rumored that he even had access to vibranium once. She'd never gotten the chance to find out.
She wanted to now. Vibranium to protect her growing belly sounded amazing. Vibranium armor for Emily too. Especially for Em, the injury prone idiot.
"What's your spy brain staring at?" soft words asked before lips touched her cheek. Emily settled into the chair next to her.
"Possibilities."
"For what?" Tony chirped. He sat across the table, grabbing the open file as he did. "I know this guy. From back in the day. He operates in Africa. Black market arms."
Steve looked up from his Empire State Building-sized sandwich to give Tony a disappointed stare.
Tony rolled his eyes. "There are conventions, alright. You meet people. I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new. A game changer. It was all very Ahab."
"Hm." Crumbs fell from Thor's mouth, several lodging in his beard, others wandering to the table. He gestured at Klaue's picture. "What's this?"
"A tattoo. I don't think he had it before."
"No." More crumbs escaped as Thor gestured at Klaue's chest, the black designs on it. "Those are tattoos." Finger on the neck, what looked like deliberate scarring. "This is a brand."
Natasha took the picture back, studied the brand, thought it was familiar, couldn't immediately place it. Tony started to ask Jarvis to help. Halfway through the name, his mouth snapped shut and he frowned. Natasha manually scanned the picture and set a search program. It finished as the last bite of her pita vanished.
Bruce read the results. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief' in a much less friendly way."
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"W-waka-nada?" Bruce looked back for the answer. "Wakanda."
Damn. Vibranium. That's what Ultron was after. If Klaue had some…
Tony looked stricken. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods."
Steve's face fell. "I thought you said your father got the last of it."
Bruce's gaze flit between them. "I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?"
"Vibranium." Natasha answered. "Strongest metal on Earth. I don't have to spell out for you how bad it'll be if Ultron gets his hands on any."
Emily's hand was abruptly on her knee, tension radiating from her clenched fingers.
"Where is this guy now?" Steve demanded.
"I'll find out." Natasha offered. Africa as a starting point wasn't exactly small. She started with contacts in places she remembered Klaue having been seen. It took weeks to get a definitive answer. The cost of it saw her and Emily making a trip to South America for New Years.
Personal delivery of payment. Then a side trip to make good on her deal with Rocio. Natasha took great effort concealing her pregnancy. She let conversation steer toward how much eating she'd done since retrieving Emily. Rocio seemed engrossed in Emily and the work of her gift to really care about Natasha. Good enough.
The joy of being able to help the young girl brightened Emily in a way that she hadn't seen since before Egypt. Natasha warmed at the sight of it, at the simple bliss on the girl herself as she got up from her chair to run. She stumbled and fell, but got up to stand on shaky legs.
"I was beginning to wonder if you would make good on our deal, Widow, after you broke the last one." Her eye purposely went to Natasha's middle before shifting to Emily. Damn. "But I can see you've been preoccupied."
Emily looked up from smiling at the happy little kid and her cheering, crying family. Her expression asked if Rocio was saying anything important. Natasha gave an unworried smile.
"I'll admit that it took longer than I liked to rid ourselves of Petrovich's stench. I apologize for making you wait."
"It is forgiven. The deal is finished." Rocio eyed her for a long moment. "Congratulations, Widow. I hope this new life goes well for you." She turned and went to the little girl, smiling warmly. It was a clear dismissal. Natasha gathered Em and took her back to New York before they outstayed their welcome.
The intel was delivered ten days and a possible flutter of movement in Natasha's belly later. It made her jittery enough that she almost agreed to stay behind when Steve and Emily pulled her aside before the debrief meeting to team up against her.
"I'm not inhibited yet." She stared them down. "Tony's armor will do its job."
Anger flushed Emily's cheeks. "You're being stupid."
Steve's face agreed with the sentiment though he didn't voice it.
"I can still run faster than you, idiot." Natasha sneered at Em.
"And there's still a scar in your abs from the last bullet you couldn't outrun." Emily pointed, her finger quivering.
She had a point. A little. Natasha reached for Em's freckled cheek. "And it's from before I wore armor and had more than myself to go home to." When she'd been somewhere between thinking that she was invincible and wanting to die.
Cheeks puffed, and eyes narrowed.
"I won't let anything happen to the little bean, even if you won't tell me its sex."
Air rushed through teeth. "It's a girl." Black eyes bored into her. "Little bean is a girl, Nat. And if I don't get to see her born, I'm going to bring you back to life so I can kill you."
A girl? Her hand fled from cheek to tummy, and the enormity of it hit her as though she was newly pregnant all over again. She and Emily were going to be parents. They had a long future ahead of them. Together. "Marry me," slid off her tongue.
Dark eyes bulged at her, and it took a moment for her to figure out why. Oh. Oh, she'd said that. She almost laughed it off, changed the topic, took it back. No. Fear had held her tongue for too long. She wanted to marry her favorite idiot! For a thousand reasons, rational, irrational, completely opposite of everything she'd spent most of her life believing. She stiffened her spine, threw her shoulders back, lifted her chin. Emily wouldn't reject her. She wouldn't. She wouldn't! Would she?
Slowly, the thunderstruck look faded from Emily. Hesitance replaced it. "You want to marry me?"
"I wouldn't have said it otherwise." She deadpanned.
Emily's expression tilted. Hurt shone behind the irritation. "This is a terrible way to detour from our argument."
It wasn't… Of course Emily saw it that way. You idiot, she berated herself. Natasha took a knee. She smiled all her love and attachment up at her favorite person. "Will you marry me, Emily Fortune?"
Shock splashed across Em. "You're..." she breathed, her eyes darting. "You're really asking."
"I should have a long time ago, but," she shook her head. "But I was letting fear hold me back. I've always been so damn afraid of you!"
Emily blinked. Delight giggled out of her. "The great Black Widow afraid of a cookie-addicted pot dealer." She crossed to Natasha, grinned down at her, caught her chin in delicate hands. "Whatever would the world think?"
"Is that your way of saying yes?"
Emily bent and kissed her. "I could use this to blackmail you into staying behind on this mission, couldn't I?"
Yes. She deflated at the easy submission, at the idea that Emily woul-
"I won't do that," was whispered. Emily brought their hands together, kissed Natasha's knuckles. "But I will accept your proposal and still be angry with you that you're going."
Impossibly, Natasha fell even more in love with her.
"Congratulations." Steve beamed at them.
"Congratulations on what?" Tony appeared. His curiosity took in Emily's bent frame, Natasha on her knee, the distinct lack of a ring. "Did you finally propose, Romanoff? You know it's supposed to include a ring."
"I will have to let Em pick hers out." She managed to shrug and stand at the same time.
Em's eyes lit up. "Ooh! Let's get matching rings!"
She glanced at their bare fingers, the imperfect nails and cuticles at the end of them. Manicures needed to happen soon. After the mission. "We can talk about it when we get back."
"From where?" Tony asked.
A ship graveyard. "I'll explain in the meeting."
Tony's head bobbed in its usual way, and he preceded them to their meeting room, Steve following with a cheery pat on their shoulders later.
Emily grabbed her hand, kissed her cheek, and walked beside her. How tempting it was to direct them to their private suite instead of the meeting room. Knowing fingers squeezed hers. A sly smile tilted sideways. What had happened to the days when it scared Natasha witless to know that Em could read her like an open book?
Emily sidled closer to stall their progress. "We could make a detour, future spouse."
Future spouse to Emily Fortune. "Not wife?"
Sweet laughter filled her ear. "Please, we both know that I'm the housewife in this relationship."
"Says the non-pregnant one."
"Says the one who's stayed home while her badass goes off to war." Em's tone had a tightness to it despite the teasing giggle.
Natasha stepped to fully face Emily. "Only while you were healing, Em." She cupped a freckled cheek. "You are one of the strongest, bravest, most intimidating people whom I've ever known."
Dark eyes watched her.
"Did I ever tell you how much you terrified me when we first met?"
"Yes."
That's right. They'd both been particularly drunk while on leave from SHIELD at a lovely little villa on a Puerto Rican beach. "You are no simple housewife, future spouse. You're the other half of my together."
Emily studied her for a few breaths before her smile reappeared. "I accept this compromise. Spouse seems like a good term for both of us. I'd also like to take this moment to address the fact that I will not wear white or a veil to our wedding. You're welcome to wear whatever your fashionable little heart desires, but I'm not wearing white."
How typically Emily to balk at the traditional white and veil harking back to the idea of a virgin wife being presented to her husband for the first time at their wedding. "I don't care for what the veil represents either. Will you at least wear lingerie under whatever you choose?"
Eyes rolled. "Only if you promise not to complain if I choose to wear a tshirt and sneakers."
A tshirt with something horrid printed on it of course. Natasha irritably smoothed a stray curl behind an ear. "Fine."
"Great!" Emily beamed. "Let's go do this meeting thing."
"You don't want to detour for sex anymore?"
"I just won a huge compromise from you. I'm good." Emily tugged at their hands. "Come on, little fox."
She silently grumbled until they reached the doors. She rearranged her expression, gathered her thoughts, and stepped in. "Alright, boys, make sure you wear lots of deodorant. We're heading to Africa."
Faces pinched at her, looked to Emily.
"Go ahead and try to convince her to stay home if you're feeling masochistic. Arguing with her is like beating your head against a wall." Emily found a seat. "I barely managed to win a compromise about clothes today."
Her poor Em. Natasha allowed a bit of guilt to nibble at her conscious. She'd be absolutely furious if Emily was the pregnant one and trying to jump headlong into danger.
"You do realize you have a beach ball protruding from your stomach, right?" Tony used both hands to point at said protrusion that on a taller, larger framed woman would be barely noticeable.
Natasha kept her expression calm. "As I've already explained to Em and Steve, I'm not inhibited yet, and your armor will protect me."
He frowned. "Of course it will." His frown grew as he realized that he'd agreed with her, that he realized her manipulation. "Dammit, Romanoff."
Bruce shook his head silently.
She lifted her chin at Thor.
"I agree with Lady Emily." Thor glanced at Tony, flexed his jaw. "Despite the protection that armor provides, you are endangering your little one."
Inwardly, she cringed. Outwardly, "If Ultron is allowed access to vibranium, my baby will suffer a hell of a lot more. With me going, our chances of success are doubled."
"Ego much?" Tony snarked.
She raised a brow. The boys looked helplessly at each other.
Steve sighed. "She's right. She sees things we don't. We'd be going in blindfolded without her."
She chose a simple head nod instead of an innocent smile. No more arguments came. "Mauritania. It's a developing country in northwestern Africa. Klaue is currently operating out of a ship-breaking yard there."
"A what?" Steve asked.
"It's one of a handful of places in the world that break down old ships into manageable slabs of metal to be recycled. They exist in poor countries with low, to no safety standards. Death rates are high. It's an almost perfect place to operate Klaue's type of business. Bribes in the right places and no one in authority will question his presence or activities."
"Add on that it's literally a port, and he can move wherever, whenever, with whatever he wants." Tony added.
Metal fingers drummed the table. "He sounds smart." Drum drum. "And dangerous."
Natasha eyed the prosthetic for a moment. Where had the Soviets gotten the vibranium to build his arm? She asked herself for the hundredth time. Couldn't have been Klaue, it was too old. Was there more in Wakanda? "He's extremely dangerous. It's one of the reasons I haven't contacted him before now about access to vibranium. We'll need to be careful. Not only will he have traps and a crew, but Ultron may get there before or at the same time as us."
"To be clear, we are talking about confiscating the vibranium and arresting Klaue?" Steve put in.
Getting the vibranium was the main goal. The other was a bonus.
"We're doing the world a favor putting this man away." Tony nodded.
Steve was looking at her. He knew how she prioritized.
"We're going to give this man to proper authorities, correct?" was reiterated.
Natasha made sure to meet his eye with a level expression. "Should we manage to catch him, yes."
Satisfaction started to soften Steve.
"But securing the vibranium before Ultron can get his hands on it is priority."
He closed his eyes. Bucky looked at him, then swept the room. He nodded. "Natasha is right. We have to prevent Ultron from becoming stronger. Then we can chase after the slightly less awful bad guy."
