A/N: Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!

After her revelation, Natasha was surprised she was able to push that down and interact with everyone else. But she had gotten very good at that over the years.

"Alright kids, why don't you go play outside so we can have some grown-up time?" Laura asked the kids, and they groaned.

"Aww, but I wanna stay and talk to Daddy and Auntie Nat!"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask Commander Hill about her cool gun!"

"I know kids, but the adults need to talk."

"Boooooring." Cooper whined, but he dragged his sister outside. Once the door shut, Laura turned to the others in the room for an explanation.

"We rescued Nat from the HYDRA facility that she was working at." Clint began.

"Why did she need rescuing?" Laura asked, surprised that someone like Natasha would need to be rescued.

"Because I failed my mission." Natasha stated blankly, staring at her feet again. They seemed especially interesting today.

"What do you-" Clint started, but Maria cut him off.

"What are you talking about? You got in there, and that gave us a way to get to you and the other agents. You did your job perfectly."

Laura watched the Commander as she said this, and there was something in her face that was… more than concerned. It was like… friendship? No, that wasn't right…

"But they knew who I was the whole time."

"That's not your fault!"

"They did?" Cried Clint, who had clearly not been briefed on this.

"I had been working as a secretary - more like a maid, really - for a while, and then I questioned a guy and that was when Seth and Sidorov decided to tell me about their little plan." She explained.

"What plan?" Maria asked, frowning. Natasha stared.

"I thought you knew."

"No, you haven't really told us anything yet." Clint said.

"Oh, they wanted the baby."

Laura, who had been leaving to give them some privacy, stopped in her tracks.

"What baby?"

Natahsa looked from Laura to Clint, clearly confused. Clint had a look of sheepishness on his face, and he winced as Natasha's eyes finally settled on him and stared daggers.

"You didn't tell her?" She said incredulously.

"Tell me what?" Laura asked cautiously.

Clint sighed. "Nat's pregnant."

Laura stared for a moment before her face broke out into a huge grin and she ran for Natasha, forgetting about the latter's broken ribs.

"Ow, ow."

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I'm just so happy for you! This is amazing! How far along are you? Oh my gosh, you were imprisoned while pregnant? Wait, who's the father? Are you-"

"Laura!" Clint interrupted, looking carefully at Natasha who looked like she was about to bolt. "Take a breather, sweetheart."

"Right, sorry." Laura said, sitting down on the couch and looking expectantly at Natasha.

"Um- there is no father." She decided to begin with. "Stark made a machine that repaired the damage and… impregnated me. I was two months along at the start, for some reason, because of the technology in the machine - which I don't understand either - so now I must be… 4 months? Maybe?"

Laura blinked, trying to understand. "So… it's not Steve?"

"What! NO!" Natasha cried, scrunching up her face in disgust and holding her side because shouting made her ribs hurt.

"Steve?!" Clint and Maria said at the same time, and Natasha thought she noticed a touch of jealousy in Maria's voice. But she shook that off and addressed Laura.

"Why Steve?"

"I don't know, I just thought there was something between the two of you." Laura explained innocently.

Now that Natasha knew she was gay, she finally understood why the thought of dating men had never been too appealing, no matter how much she did it. She shook her head vigorously.

"God, no."

"Never mind. I-" Laura said, but stopped. She'd just realized something. "Wait, damage? You said this… machine "repaired the damage." What did you mean by that?"

Natasha froze. She didn't talk about her sterilization very much, only a handful of people knew, that including the Avengers who had recently found out. Clint and Maria knew, but only because they'd read her files. She would have expected Clint to tell Laura. She looked to him for an explanation.

"Again, it's not mine to tell." He said softly. Laura looked between the two of them, and Natasha figured Laura should know. She checked to make sure the kids weren't listening, and then ripped off the band-aid.

"I was given an involuntary hysterectomy in the Red Room. It was part of the "graduation ceremony," they called it. The machine fixed all of my injuries and scars and stuff, and apparently that too. I'm not sure exactly how." She said blatantly. She put no emotion into it, unlike when she'd told Bruce. But she still stared at the ground. She began to feel slightly nauseous, but she pushed it aside.

Laura's face paled, and she stared, open-mouthed at Natasha.

"I'm so, so sor-"

"It's fine. It's fixed anyway."

She couldn't stand the pity people always seemed to give her when they found out. Laura realized this and quickly changed the subject. She began to address everyone's current situation.

"You guys probably need some food."

So as Laura cooked up some food, Natasha went to shower. She took a moment to look at herself in the mirror once she'd taken her clothes off.

She had some nasty bruises on her face, chest and stomach, which would probably linger for a while. Maybe that was why she felt sick. She ran her hands over the slight bump on her abdomen, wondering what she'd look like in five months. She would find it hard to be incapacitated for so long… she'd been badly injured before, but being pregnant would be entirely different. She didn't feel prepared, either…

After her shower she felt much better, and once she towel-dried her hair and changed into the sweats Laura had lent her, she joined the other five in the kitchen. Maria had also borrowed clothes from Laura.

"Here you go!" Laura said, setting a pot of casserole on the table and sitting down. The kids went excitedly for the food, as did the adults, but Natasha just grabbed a piece of bread and nibbled on it. She was hungry, ravenous, even, because of how little they'd fed her at the HYDRA facility, but she'd started to feel sick again and she didn't want to risk making a scene.

Things went well for most of dinner, with the kids telling stories and the adults talking about all the cool things they'd done. But when everyone was finishing up, Laura looked over at Natasha and saw that she looked relatively pale.

"Are you okay Nat? You haven't eaten much."

"I'm fine." Natasha responded automatically, but as soon as she spoke her stomach lurched. She casually said "excuse me" and got up from the table, but once she was in the hallway she positively bolted to the bathroom and only made it just in time. When she was done, she flushed the toilet and rested her head on the seat. She wasn't sure how long she stayed there. The act of vomiting had made her ribs hurt, a lot, and she was so tired but wasn't sure she'd be able to sleep if she tried.

She whipped her head around when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and without thinking she grabbed it and expertly got to her feet. She stopped when she saw a very scared Laura staring at her.

"Sorry. I'm sorry." Natasha mumbled, holding her ribs. It hadn't even been 24 hours since she'd broken them, and she'd definitely over-exerted herself. She'd thought it was fine, but right now she felt like she was going to pass out. She focused on a spot on the floor, unsure about what Laura was saying, just focusing on not falling over. Her vision started to blur, and with nothing else to grab onto she put a hand on Laura's arm and closed her eyes.

"Natasha? Honey, are you okay?" Laura asked, putting one hand on Nat's face and the other around her waist. Natasha opened her eyes, and stepped back, the feeling ebbing away.

"S-sorry…" She mentally slapped herself for sounding so weak. She couldn't stop her voice from cracking. Suddenly the memory of Sidorov punching her surfaced in her mind and the bruise on her face throbbed, and she wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Then she felt like she was going to throw up again and she lurched for the toilet. As she gagged into the toilet, Laura started to rub her back, on the side opposite the broken ribs.

"I remember I had the worst sickness when I was pregnant with Cooper… it got better with Lila, though. Then when I was pregnant with Nate, I had essentially none." Laura said, trying to distract the younger woman.

Natasha flushed the toilet and tried to stand up, but staggered on her feet. Laura grabbed her arm before she fell, and, giving up, Nat leaned into her. It turned into a full-on hug and Laura held her firmly, and Natasha was surprised to find tears running down her own face.

It was a combination of pregnancy hormones, the fact that she'd just thrown up her guts, the thought that a man who'd traumatized her in the past was coming after her child, the fact that she was having a child, the fact that she'd just discovered that she was gay and had a huge crush on her boss, and how she really, really needed a hug from someone who cared about her, but she started to sob. Laura just held her, rocking gently back and forth as Natasha cried for the first time in a very long time. She let everything out - the trauma of her childhood coming back to haunt her, all of the mess of the present and the thought of what was coming in the hazy future. Her broken ribs protested against the sobs wracking her body, but Natasha didn't care. Even she didn't know how much she had needed this.

Once she stopped crying, she reached up and quickly swiped away the tears on her face. Laura was looking at her, but with not one single bit of pity, and Natasha was grateful. She hated pity.

"Do you want something to eat? I can make you something else if you like."

Natasha nodded, knowing that her voice would crack if she spoke. Laura rubbed her shoulder and left the bathroom, closing the door. Natasha was endlessly thankful that Laura didn't try to talk about it.

After she splashed water on her face and collected herself, she went back into the kitchen where Clint was talking to Laura in hushed voices. Maria was talking to the kids in the living room, who had apparently taken a shine to her. When Nat entered the kitchen, Clint and Laura stopped talking. Clint's eyes lingered on the redness on her face that made it clear she'd been crying, but he didn't say anything. He just smiled. Laura handed her a light, plain sandwich, which she said shouldn't make her feel sick, and Natasha finished it in less than 30 seconds. Luckily, Laura had made two.

The three of them sat down in the living room with the others, Natasha ending up sitting next to Maria. She tried not to look at her, because she was afraid that something would happen, like she would blush, or stare for too long, or sink and drown and die, or worse… giggle.

"Auntie Nat, guess what Commander Hill taught us?" Lila yelled, climbing in between her and Maria and looking expectantly at Natasha.

"What?" Natasha asked, trying to sound as interested as possible, but really she was just trying not to look at Maria, who looked both amused and proud.

"She taught us how to shoot a… a gl… a g-glo… a cool kind of gun!" She exclaimed, drawing a shocked and slightly scared look from Laura, and a frustrated look from Clint.

"Shouldn't you be learning to shoot arrows, not bullets, Lila?" Clint asked, and Maria rolled her eyes, about to respond when Laura spoke up.

"How about we don't shoot anything while we're 7 years old, kay Lila?"

Maria shot an amused look at Natasha, who couldn't help but return it. They'd both started using guns when they were younger than Lila, but they definitely understood why Laura wouldn't want Lila having that kind of childhood. As Maria smirked at Natasha, the latter had to focus very hard to keep a cool face. But as she did so, she thought she saw Maria… blushing? Was Maria blushing? Or was it just her imagination?

After the adults had had an extensive conversation about why vacuum cleaners were strange, much to Lila and Cooper's annoyance, the kids were sent to bed and Natasha decided to join them. Maria was going to go to bed too, but since Laura and Clint were staying up to talk she couldn't sleep on the couch. So Laura grabbed a blow-up mattress and put it in the guest room. So Natasha and Maria would be sharing a room.

How fitting, Natasha thought bitterly. As she brushed her teeth, slowly because the motion hurt her ribs, (what didn't?) she considered how she really felt about Maria. She definitely had a crush on her, much to her own irritance, because the thought of the Black Widow having a crush was just embarrassing. But Maria was just so beautiful, and strong, and smart, and funny…

"I remember when I broke my ribs, brushing my teeth hurt more than shooting a gun. It was hilarious, Coulson made fun of me so much." Maria said, walking in with her own toothbrush. Natasha spit into the sink.

"When did you break your ribs?" She asked, noticing that Maria was wearing sleep shorts, her toned calves and quads visible.

"Volgograd, 2008."

"There was a mission in Volgograd?" Natasha asked, turning around to face Maria.

"Yeah." Maria answered, and led the way back to the guest room. After a minute, she asked "You were born there, right?"

Natasha stopped. She knew that Maria had read her file, and knew a lot about her, but getting into this with her, of all people, seemed daunting. Nevertheless, she responded.

"Yeah."

Maria looked at her expectantly, sitting on the bed, clearly expecting more, but she didn't press the subject when Natasha didn't elaborate.

Natasha turned around and pulled her shirt off, but when she turned back around to grab her sleep shirt, she saw that Maria had done the same. They stood there, facing each other, only in their bras. They both had impressive sets of abs, even with Nat's baby bump, and clearly they were both admiring the other's.

Jesus, calm down Romanoff. She's your co-worker- no, your boss. Just grab your shirt.

But she was frozen. And so, it seemed, was Maria.

"I-"

"So-"

Their voices overlapped and they stopped, returning to the deafening silence. Maria moved first, grabbing her shirt and turning around, pulling it over herself. Natasha followed suit, and they laid down in their respective beds, Maria taking the blow-up. They didn't talk for the rest of the night, even though neither of them fell asleep for a while. But their minds were buzzing with thoughts about each other.