Fall 2014

Steve looked out to the large field that he was working on. Five months, still no Natasha.

"Cap it's getting late, Laura probably wants us to head back in." Clint called out from the other side. Steve quickly pulled his gloves off and ran over to the tractor. Soon enough the two men ran back to the house. "Thanks for the help"

"Of course, thanks for letting me stay." Steve said as he finished packing up his bag, there was no reason for him to stay around any longer.

"I'll keep looking for them."

"Thanks again"

Laura came in with Lila and Cooper.

"Goodbye Uncle Steve" Lila said and hugged him.

"Bye Lila. Bye Laura"

Laura gave him a sad looking smile. "Come over anytime Steve, we'll call you next time she shows up."

Steve waved at the huge family again and left the property on his motorcycle. Each time it hurt a little more. Each time he became more and more angry. This time more than most. He felt so stupid for letting the two of them out of his sight for those three weeks while he tried to track Bucky. He had to find her and he had to do it soon.

A small woman rushed through the busy street of Seattle. Her red curls jumped up and down while she tried to get to work. She saw that the lights were on with parents already in the studio and she ran into the building.

"Hey everyone. I'm sorry I'm late, I had to get Nadia back from her father's" If there was one thing Nat detested, it was being late. "Ok everyone, come in" she ushered all of the girls into the large room. This class wouldn't be too hard, the next class would be. First would be her intermediate class from 4 to 6 then her advanced class from 6:15 to 8:30 then she had to get home to put her daughter to sleep. She still couldn't believe that her car broke down while she was driving back home from Clint's.

She finished her first class so she had fifteen minutes to get them out, use the bathroom, and get the net class back in. All of the 8 to 11 year olds scurried out the door except for Mikhail. She knew that he had moved here from Russia two years ago and that his mom was a pro ballerina until she was injured. It was similar to the story that she had made up for herself. Natalie Roman moved to America from Russia when her daughter was four, she danced at the Bolshoi for eight years until she snapped her knee. Natalie Roman opened up the Russian-American Ballet Company a few months ago in downtown Seattle.

"Mikhail, Ты в порядке?"

"дa"

Nat could tell that he didn't want to talk. So she went to use the bathroom and when she came back, the phone was ringing.

"Russian-American Ballet School, Nat speaking...oh ok, I'll sent him out...goodnight" she hung up the phone. Mikhail said thank you and walked out the door. People for the next class had started arriving at that point and Nat needed to make some calls tonight.

Two hours and fifteen minutes of dancing later, the last class left. Nat was actually pretty excited. Today she annouced to the older class that they will be able to audition for a much smaller version of the Nutcracker. She had plenty of students and was able to keep herself busy but she definately didn't have enough for that large of a show. She had already been planning some stuff out with the other dance teacher, Katie, and the show director, Casey.

Nat cleaned up some of the floors and turned off all of the lights. She locked the door on the way out. She breathed in some of the cold northwestern air and exhaled slowly, happy with the new pace of her life. The long walk back to her apartment was refreshing. Her mind was always on what was going to happen next, and the next thing that she was about to do is spend time with Nadia. Although it was kind of late and the two of them had just come back from Missuri.

"Nadia, I'm home" Nat calls out. A small shadow appears in the doorway to the bathroom. Nat flicks on the light switch and sees Nadia in her pajamas. "You need to be in bed soon little miss, growing girls need their sleep. Did you have the rest of the chicken for dinner?" She says, reaching into the fridge.

"Yeah, it was good" she says and sips her milk.

Nat rolls her eyes, her kid was always hungry. "Super Soldier Serum, damn you Rogers" she mumbles. She catches herself and takes a breath. Nadia of course heard it though. She could also see the pain in her father's eyes whenever her mother was brought up, she had grown up as a spy so she could see these things. She saw the same look in her mom's eyes whenever she dropped her off at Clint's. Nat never went in when she dropped off or picked up Nadia, she was never seen. Nadia went to Clint's one weekend every month so that she could see her family and her father. Nobody else knows where the two live.

Nadia sees the picture of a cat on the fridge and is reminded of something that happened today.

"Yeah, did you know that a cat can cough up hair? Amy said that her cat did and then Blake tried to touch it. It was really gross, but other than that school was fun. I got that grade back on the test." Nadia looks down. She knows that her mom won't be mad at her.

"Oh" Nat tried to make it clear that Nadia could continue, but she put the dish in the microwave and knelt down to her height. "Honey it's ok it you got a bad grade, me and Ms. Robin can help you if you did."

Nadia smiled but frowned when her mother told her to go to bed. She was always happy to be with her mother. She was happy when she was with her father. She wondered how happy she would be with both of them at the same time, probably really happy.

Nat went into her room and snuggled next to Nadia on her bed. Nadia had her own bedroom but the both of them got nightmare, especially Nadia. HYDRA had done things to her brain for 8 years but her brain wasn't that developed yet to know how to process those memories. "Love you Mama""Love you little hope"

Steve ran his hands through his hair. Another dead lead. Bucky was too good at being on the run. This was so frustrating. He wanted to get back to his life, to find his best friend, see his daughter for more then two days at a time, to find Natasha. He missed his best friend. He missed when they would sit on his couch and watch movies. He missed going bowling alleys and arcades, then laughing when the workers at the shop would gawk at them for winning every prize. He just missed her voice, assertive and caring at the same time. Love, he missed being able to love her even if she didn't know. Hell, he was more angry at her for leaving him than he was with her being and ex-HYDRA assassin who knew Bucky was alive and never told him.

"You're thinking about her again man" Sam tossed him a towel. They were in Vancouver trying to find someone who knew someone but so far no luck.

"How can I not, she's my daughter" Steve says, trying to avoid Sam.

"Not that red head, the other one"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Why do you always think that I'm thinking about Romanoff?" Steve asks him.

"I can tell, everyone can. You miss her"

"Bull"

Sam decideds to give up, Steve is as stubborn as they get. "Is the other birdie still looking for her?"

"Yeah"

"I might have found her" Sam says, looking at his phone. He held it up to Steve.

It was a picture of two girls up on pointe, one was holding a poster and the other was pointing to the sign on top of the studio. The Russian-American Ballet School. One of the pictures showed a small girl, seemingly trying to avoid the camera, but it caught the right side of her head. It was Nadia, the scar on her cheekbone gave it away.

Steve gulped. "How?"

"This is an instagram picture from the guy I found this B&B about from, he's in Seattle. Casey Something promoting a show"

"Let's go."

Nat was sitting at the table of a coffee shop because Katie had this new friend that she wanted her to go out with. Nat really didn't think that she could handle having a boyfriend or any type of relationship right now. She finally had what she wanted, her daughter was safe and she was a ballet teacher. Ballet was taught in the Red Room, but she loved it. It helped her forget what horrors were happening around her.

She got another latte ordered. "Why's he late?" she mumbled and checked her phone, he would've texted if he was going to be late. Instead her phone was vibrating. "Hello" it was a female voice.

"Hello Ms. Roman. You need to come pick up Nadia from school. She punched another student and the principal needs to talk to you"

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes"

Nat stopped for a minute, she didn't want him to show up and her be gone. It didn't matter, he wasn't who she loved. She had to shake that thought from her head, love was for children and the only child she cared about was sitting in the pricipal's office.

Fifteen minutes later she walked up to the school's entrance.

"Where is the principal's office?" Nat asked the woman at the desk.

"Down the hall"

"Thanks" she went down the hallway, passing the doors leading to classrooms. She came in front of the door and slightly pulled on her short shirt. "Hello"

Two heads perked up. "Mama""Ms. Roman"

"What's going on?" she asks. "I heard that she punched someone"

"A student was trying to speak to her but she denied. When he tried to talk to her again, she punched him" the principal explained.

"No, Colin was calling me a witch because of my hair and telling me that I should've stayed in Russia. He got out scissors to cut my hair off." Nadia says loudly. Nat looks at her daughter, to the principal, then back to her daufhter again.

"So, how are they going to be punished? I don't think that Nadia punching him was right, but he should be getting punished too."

"YOUR DAUGHTER PUNCHED HIM! HE DID NOTHING WRONG!" the principal yells.

Nat is starting to lose her cool, she didn't like this man at all. "He threatened to but off her hair, and told her to go back to a country that starved her. Thank you very much principal, we'll be leaving now. Nadia come on." she ignored the protests that the principal yelled at them, something about suspension. Could you really even suspend a nine year old? "We're going to discuss this at the studio." Tired and frustrated, Nat walked into the studio. She pulled out a cheese stick that she packed with lunch and gave it to Nadia to munch on. "How can people like that work at a school?" She asked air.

"There are bad people everywhere" Nadia says back. Nat looks at her daughter. Leading her head down, she starts to braid Nadia's hair.

She tied the french braid off with an elastic. "In general you shouldn't punch people. What Colin did wasn't ok, but you should know better than to punch them. I know that it's hard to control the want to do so. It's how you were trained. I still blame myself for that, but honey I need you to try your hardest. Your very hardest. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah Mama, I can" Nadia hugged her mother. "What time does the late class end?"

"Around nine, Casey's going to be here to hold the big kid auditions. I'll have to ask him to pick up the flyers before class. I'll ask if you can stick around to watch the big kids, but only if you finish your homework before that. OK?"

"Ok, I might need your help with my math though. The teacher assigns way to much work at school." Nadia complains.

Nat smiled. "And that little girl" she bopped Nadia's nose, "is why homework excists."

Nadia giggles and takes out her workbooks. About halfway through the problems, the bell signaling that someone entered rings. Nat made a motion for Nadia to go into a room and stay quiet. She stood up to see who walked in the door this early, hoping it was just someone asking for directions. She walked out.

"Hey, we're not open yet if yo-" she saw him and so many things crossed her mind. He looked different with the beard and longer hair but it was him. He looked tired, stressed, much like she imagined she used to look. He had a more confident look on. His eyes gave away everything though. He was desperate, he had a cloud in his eyes, a certain type of anger. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders. She could also feel him scanning her. She hadn't changed her hair length since summer, she was thinner, she carried herself differently. As a dancer, she was less confident, less scary. "Steve"

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