Hi guys! A new story about Post-Captain America 3. Just had another crazy idea. This is another take at what could happen according to me to the characters in the aftermath of the movie.

I know I started a lot of different stories lately (all in the Marvel universe), and I have yet to update the others, but it's useless to tell me to hurry up because, sorry, but I won't. I'm writing with the flow, I'm writing what's currently in my mind and yes, I do have a lot of free time on my hands right now, but my mind is more set on Marvel than on Star Wars. It's a little bit like with food. Suddenly you have a huge craving for, let's say, strawberries and you just have to eat srawberries. But last week you liked blueberries. Well, that doesn't mean your not going to eat blueberries somewhere in the future, you're just not into blueberries right now. And that's fine. I'm trying to update Shadows every week because that story is really important to me. Ashes, it's a little more complicated because it's been a long while since I watched the finale. But I don't intent to make that story really long so I will finish it. I just don't know when.

Anyway, here's a new story. Again, Natasha-centric and probably Romanogers because I'm a hopeless romantic believer. I hope you like it and don't hesitate to review! I hope to hear from you soon guys!

TS

Tony listened carefully to the conversation. His back left the chair back and he leaned forward, his hands pressed together as he stared into nothingness. His gaze got lost in the intricate patterns of one of his blue movable projected screens but his ears caught every word.

"Just like I promised, the package will be delivered in a week," a gruff voice said in his earpiece.

After weeks of search, he had finally managed to get a lead on the said package, some three days ago. Clint and Steve had immediately been on high alert, working twice as fast as the last month. Had this situation happened a few years ago, Tony would have laughed at their hastiness and how they moved awkwardly, as if they were high on sugar or had pilled glass shoved up their butts. But he didn't laugh, things were too serious and he had changed.

"Make sure it's secure. I don't want any surprises," another voice said, more sinister and somewhat calm.

Tony could smell the cliché Mafioso for miles. He checked on his screen if the conversation was recording. It was the middle of the night at Stark tower. The only people currently there were Clint and himself. Clint was sleeping; they decided to take turns looking for the package and doing spy stuff Tony had only imagined from what he was in the movies. Clint taught him a lot of things in the last months, about both espionage and surveillance and Tony was picking up fast. But he knew it was just for this time, he would forget all those tricky skills as soon as it was all over. But for the sake of the package, he had to do it. So while Clint slept, Tony surveilled and had finally got hold of the conversation he was currently listening to and tracking at the same time (Romanoff would be proud). When the conversation started, Tony had started the recording. There was no time to wake up Clint without losing bits of valuable intel.

"Of course. All the specifics are the same as before, yeah?"

Tony frowned and tried to determine the accent of the first guy who seemed to be the seller or provider of the package. Tony almost expected the Mafioso to laugh in response.

"Yes, negotiations are through. You'll receive the exchange's coordinates in three days, through the way we discussed. Be ready. I will not accept any complications."

And with that, the Mafioso was out. The provider also disconnected and Tony took the earpiece out. "Friday?"

"We have the recording Sir and I tracked the call."

The AI lit one of the screens in front of Tony and showed him a map of Earth through satellite images that progressively zoomed onto a single point in the Atlantic Ocean.

"Of course there would be a boat." Tony sighed. "Okay, call Cap, he needs to hear this." The AI obliged and Tony waited for the call to be connected with all the encryptions he used those days.

Things were messy after the whole Civil War affair. Once Ross lost his prisoners, he made Stark's life a living hell for a whole month. But after a lot of negotiations and signing and changes to the Sokovia Acts which gave the Avengers more freedom than originally intended but still under control of an international organization, every Avenger that was in hiding had been more or less forgiven. Even Steve could now walk in broad daylight without the cops on his back. When the question of 'where is Barnes?' had been thrown on the table, things almost exploded again. But Ross and the general secretary of State had made a few deals with the king of Wakanda and Barnes stayed in T'Challa's custody and under his protection, just like he had promised Steve.

But where things back to normal? No, of course not. How could they?

It had been four months since Iron Man and Captain America fought. Four months since Tony had received that burner phone from Steve. Four months that Rhodey started his rehabilitation. Four months that Clint had returned to his family.

It was three months since Steve returned from Wakanda and had made official peace with Tony. Wanda and Vision were back at the facility and helped Rhodey. Sam was also with them. Scott was still out there in the world, but he was doing fine on his own, trying to make good by his daughter. Spidey was back in Queens and working on that project he didn't even knew was funded. T'Challa had resumed his responsibilities as king in Wakanda.

The only missing piece of the puzzle was Natasha.

She had taken a great risk when she had allowed Steve and Barnes to leave. T'Challa wasn't the problem. They had worked it between themselves and he understood and respected her guts, those Black Widow instincts that were often what allowed her to survive. The government had been the problem. Her last trip to Capitol Hill hadn't been pretty and things escalated quickly. In a matter of days, she had been as much wanted as Rogers and Barnes. She hid, which she did best. The shadows were her realm and Tony was sure she would be fine.

He had been wrong. Natasha had not once spoken to any of the Avengers in the first month following the fall out, since the day she had last spoken to Tony at the facility. She had left them breadcrumbs instead, addresses and codes to her safe houses, encrypted notes that said she was alive. Things to let them know that she was out of reach, but still out there. Things that said she would someday come home. So they waited and did their best with the negotiations of the new accords.

Usually, she sent Tony postcards of the current location she was in. Of course, Tony knew that by the time he received one, she was already three postcards ahead and was out of the country. He had pinned all those postcards in the main room on the top floor, behind the bar counter so whenever he was tempted to drink himself to oblivion, her breadcrumbs were there to remind him he was better than that. It only stopped him half the time.

He had suddenly stopped receiving postcards after a month. The last one was from Barcelona. He didn't worry about her though: if someone could survive on the run for years, it was her. He just thought she was taking her sweet time. But weeks past and after another month, he had decided to call Steve via his burner phone. Because, it could be considered an emergency. Because Natasha only missed a check-in if something went wrong. And during their negotiations with the government, when both parties were still pretty much fighting, things could go very wrong.

Steve had immediately showed his concern and Clint too. Despite everything, he was still Nat's best friend. Both Avengers had decided to come live at the tower until Natasha was found. The accords were eventually signed a month after that, allowing everyone to breath freely. The trio had kept looking, getting more desperate every week. That night when Tony found the lead with the conversation, Steve was out on the ground, looking at another lead from Natasha's web, her former attorney/lawyer/friend Isaiah.

"Rogers here," Steve answered.

"Hey Cap, how's your lead?" Tony asked.

"Nothing. Isaiah doesn't know a thing. She hasn't contacted him since Sokovia fell. He also said she hasn't used her web that much. But he gave me a list of her safe houses that were recently used although I have no idea how he was able to give me that list. I thought they didn't work together anymore?"

"Well, Natasha is full of surprises," Tony said, a slow smile creeping on his tired features.

"Yeah. Well, almost all of the safe houses on the list were used by our friends, you know, with all the addresses and codes she left us? But three of them weren't and all three are in Europe, so I thought I could check those out."

"Great, good job, but I have a better lead." Tony looked at one of the screens, the farthest on the right, the one that he had refused to look at so far that's why he had put it as far away as possible. "I'm sending you a file right now."

Tony could almost see Cap taking his phone away from his ear to look at the file. To his surprise, he could still hear his voice. "Does Captain America finally know how to put a call on speaker?"

"Shut up. And I'm not Captain America anymore." Steve looked at the file and Tony heard him gasp when his gaze settled on the picture joined with the file. "Is it…"

"Yep, that's her. I found this file a couple of hours ago before Clint went to bed. We found a potential lead about this package that's mentioned. It's different than the usual human traffic practices, so we checked it out. Turns out, it's a private exchange. I recorded the conversation. Technically, she should be on a boat, not very far from the Floridian coast."

"Miami? Seriously?" Steve asked, reading the file.

"Yep, that where the exchange is supposed to take place. But it's not due until next week."

"Which gives us a perfect window."

"Exactly. Now get your ass back at the tower, we'll all get some rest. Then tomorrow night we'll give them hell."

"Shouldn't we act now?" Steve asked.

"I know you're concerned about her, we all are. But we won't do any good with our current exhausted states. We don't know her situation. She's the Black Widow for fuck's sake! Whoever managed to overpower her isn't just anybody. Even if they had a lucky shot, Natasha's one of the hardest people on Earth to catch, if not the hardest. We need to prepare."

"You're also thinking about calling everyone in, right?"

"Of course. The Avengers need to assemble again."

As agreed, Steve came to the tower. In the morning, when everyone was rested, Tony called the others. Wanda, Vision and Sam. Rhodey couldn't go into the field yet and decided to stay at the facility. The Hulk was nowhere to be seen and Thor was busy on Asgard with something called the Ragnarok (Tony didn't know much about it and truthfully didn't care). Scott and Peter were back to their old lives and weren't officially part of the Avengers so Tony kept them in the dark.

Technically, one of the clauses of the changed accords allowed the Avengers to intervene without the agreement of the UN counsel if one of them was in grave danger. So they made a plan, prepared the Avenger jet and all their equipment and waited for the sun to set. All the research and leads the guys had in the last three months were constantly present on the main table, projected by Friday. Every time one of the Avengers walked by and looked at the photograph that had made Steve gasp, they had different reactions. Steve couldn't bear to look at it more than three seconds. Wanda almost cried. Vision's face remained neutral but his eyes showed concern. Clint always threw something across the room whenever he laid eyes on the picture. Sam clenched his jaw. And Tony looked at the picture for a while every time, trying to find something new he hadn't seen before, some clue to give him another idea about her current state.

They had no idea how old that picture was, but Natasha had changed. Her friends recognized her immediately but it was true that for the public, she was different. And that picture had only been released privately to a handful of potential buyers, very specific people in the slave market. In her file, there wasn't any mention of her identity, so Tony didn't know if the traffickers knew she was the Black Widow. He shuddered to think what they probably did to her to keep her locked up for so long. No prison Tony knew could hold the Black Widow.

They got a hold of this lead three days ago, when Tony had been scanning the human traffic market (he had gotten desperate and it was as good a place to look as any in their situation). He had seen a few reports about future exchanges and one of them mentioned a fiery redhead with green eyes. After reading all the details about the 'package', such as height, age and measurements he wished he hadn't seen, he had found the picture. He found it hard to believe it was her at first, for two reasons. The first one being that usually in those situations, the slavers changed the physical appearance, like dying the hair color, cutting the hair and such. But they had done nothing of the sort to her. Either because she didn't let them (which Tony hoped was the case because it implied she still had some control over the situation) or because they wanted to keep her like she was (which could imply that the buyer knows she's the Black Widow). The second reason was that this picture made him sick. Mostly because Natasha had lost a lot of weight, it could be seen on her cheekbones and an on too thin neck. She wasn't bruised or cut on the picture, certainly because she had to look presentable to be sold. It made him even sicker. She also had that hollow look in her eyes, something almost haunted, as if she had been through hell and back.

But the sun finally set and they all climbed aboard the Avenger jet, minds set and determined. "Tonight, we're getting our Natasha back," Steve said, taking the lead and everyone nodded. He wasn't Captain America and didn't carry his shield anymore, but he remained one hell of a leader. Tony had also designed a new kind of protection for him so he wasn't completely defenseless in the field. Clint sat in the cockpit and put the coordinates in and they were off.