Im back from the dead! Sorry this took so bloody long to post but I am slowly getting on top of things now. Please leave some reviews, it always makes me more productive!

Enjoy!

Parker

'What's going on?' Steve asked probably for the hundredth time in the past few hours. From his flushed cheeks and gobsmacked look Tony could practically deduce that he wasn't momentarily prepared for a kiss from anyone let alone Natasha. He smiled to himself. About 5 months ago himself, Clint and Banner had a bet on if and when Nat and Steve would 'get together' and from this he just won 30 bucks.

'Well first of all you've just won me a bet! And second of all we have work to do.' Tony thrust the napkin into Steve's hand and ushered him out of the cafeteria knowing he had little time to get everything done for Natasha and a dazed Steve wasn't going to help.

Steve stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at the napkin, written in sleek, cursive writing were the words 'brb too many ears. Taxi, Jet and then a plan.' He followed the writing with his finger still not understanding what was going on.

'What does brb mean?'

Tony laughed to himself, attempting to shove the super soldier from the spot he'd taken too.

'Oh God, i'll tell you later. Come on old man'

'Hiya! What's your name?'

Startled from her shivering position in the corner, a 6 year old Natalia looked up at the small blonde girl in front of her.

'N..N...Natalia'

'Hi Natalia, I'm Anna'

The child held out her hand. Curious thought Natalia, in her short time being in the red room after being kidnapped, no one had shown her any type of friendliness. For the 5 days she been there she had shivered in the corner of an empty room. Natalia took the hand of the child, who pulled her up and initiated a hug.

'You've got nothing to worry about now Natalia, I'll be your best friend, if you'll be mine of course!'

A sparkle shined in Natalia's emerald eyes.

'I'd love too'

PING

The sound of the lift stopping to a hault of the floor she needed to get to broke Natasha out of her mind. She trailed down the corridor looking for her doctor, if worst came to worst she would just have to stitch herself up, it was an easy task and had been done before but the pain seems more tolerable when someone else does it for you.

At the sight of blood, the nurses came swooping down on her insisting IVs and bed rest.

'No, just stitch me up. I want to leave'

'Please ma'am, you won't heal properly and...'

'Did you fucking hear me? I don't want none of it! All I need is for you to do your job and goddamn stitch me up! Is that so hard?!'

Agitation took over Natasha's senses before she realised that from raising her voice she had upset the nurse standing in-front of her.

Before she could apologise she was being walked over to a room and the same nurse was getting the antiseptic ready. The process seemed to last for years and Natasha was left with her thoughts again.

'Come on girls! Faster! Move your arse Anna!'

Natalia could see Anna struggling to assemble her gun, damn she shouldn't care but she did. While assembling her 4th rifle she whispered over to Anna.

'Look at how I do it.'

Slowing down the process so the 9 year old could focus on how to assemble better.

After this she raced on to shoot the targets in front of her. Being the best in class she finished the exercise first with time left to spare, Anna was a close second now.

'How did I do headmistress?' Natalia looked up at the older woman, hope and admiration in her eyes. She wanted to do well, she wanted to be the best.

'Exemplary my dear. Your looking to be a prime candidate for phase 2.' With a pat on the head Natalia was sent off to her room, skipping down the hallway with delight.

'Natalia! What happened!' Anna squealed with delight.

'Headmistress said i might get to phase 2! Imagine Anna! We could be working together how cool would that be!'

'Wow amazing! I can't wait to grow up and work together!'

'And there you go Miss Romanoff. All stitched up like you asked for' the bitter sound of the nurses tone grated the syllables that left her mouth. It wasn't the first time, and probably wont be the last, she has left hospital with most of the staff celebrating he departure. Through the years she has found herself to be someone who's not approachable, unkind and certainly unforgiving and from these manner and traits she has people dislike her and push her away. And that realisation hit her like a brick. Being disliked for being different, and yes Natasha always acknowledged that her crusty exterior can be difficult do break but if some people had the guts to do so maybe she would be able to communicate better. And that is exactly what the avengers did. And she pushed them away.

'Thank you, and… well I'm sorry. I shouldn't have treated you like that. You've done a good job ma'am.' While only short, Natasha believed the apology was good enough, mainly because she never apologises to anyone, ever.

'Miss Romanoff, its okay. Its not unusual for us nurses to get patients who are, well you know… 'pissed off'. I cant advise you to leave but considering the fact that you have tried once, you will probably try again.'

'Yeah you are right about that. Thank you again…' Nat chuckled, pushing herself off the bed. The short burst of pain in her abdomen were mainly tolerable as she walked down the crowded corridor of the hospital, everything around her seemed to be blurry for at these moments all she could hear were her thoughts. With robotic actions she made her way to the lift pressing the button to ensure her arrival on the ground floor.

'Natalia! Help!'

'Anna!' Natasha shouted as she shot down 2 more classmates which were advancing on her best friend.

Phase 1 was easy. Assemble guns, learn the basic fighting styles and dance. It was innocent times where students would disappear and everyone would think they were going home.

Phase 2 was more challenging. The schedule got more busier with fighting styles and practise runs and they were moved with older students. The mixture of 12 year olds like Natasha with 14 year olds was intimidating at the least.

Their last task of phase 2 had been to kill everyone, the last ones standing win and go to phase 3. The plan was attack the more advanced students, take them out and leave the easy ones till last but it wasn't until Anna started fucking up that she needed to intervene. She didn't even deserve it, ever since she started the program Anna had slacked but got through by the help of Natasha. Running towards Anna, she shot 2 more students, head shot through and through. Reaching Anna, Natasha managed to take down more and more students while Anna just sat there, literally doing nothing. Then she realised, what headmistress had been saying all along, if she wanted to succeed she needed to cut her ties.

And Natasha wanted to be the best.

'I'm sorry' she whispered, attempting to leave their small hide out behind a mound of bricks.

'Natalia, what are you doing?'

'Cutting my ties'

It was a moment Natasha wouldn't forget. She left her best friend to fend for herself, and until now she didn't actually realise she was still alive. The guilt never subsided but it got easier to live with as the years went on and slowly but surely she started to forget the terrible au deals that led to her becoming an avenger.

Her mind was clouded over by a red fog as she exited the lift, making a direct b line to the drop off zones which were outside.

Surely enough, there was an unmarked black Mercedes with a taxi sign on top that she recognised to be Tony's outside. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, she walked in from of the car, flagging it down as if it were a taxi. She didn't know who was watching, who was listening and she wasn't taking a risk at the very first hurdle. Climbing inside, she was greeted by Tony and Steve, their faces were illuminated by the blue LEDs that ran through the interior of the car. As the car began to move Natasha managed to study Tony's face, his usually smug facial expressions were clouded by looks of fear and worry. Before Natasha even had a chance to speak, he opened his mouth.

'We did as you asked, you have a taxi, you have a jet. Now explain this shit Natasha. Please'

'Wow Stark, please is a word I don't think I've ever heard you say.' Chuckled Nat.

His eyes glared at her and she instantly knew he was serious. As for Steve, he hadn't spoken to her at all, he just stared at her with a blank expression and god was it unnerving.

As she began to explain the inns and outs of who Anna was, why Anna was after her and why she was leaving, it suddenly dawned on Natasha that she had friends. Real friends who cared for her, who wanted her safe. Not people who were prepared to kill her at any slight inconvenience.

'So you got yourself stitched up and ordered us around because of this. Damn Widow your past must have been real shitty to piss off a whole load of people.' Tony added.

'Well stark, I was good and at the time I knew what I had to do. So yeah, people are pretty pissed off. Oh and yeah that jet isn't for me it's for you.'

'What?' Simultaneously came the replies from both Steve and Tony. Natasha recollected it being the first time in over 30 minutes that Steve had said a word, apart from hums and nods that's all she got.

'The jet is so you can go to the red room after me, if she knows I'm not traveling by a private plane she will notice somethings off, then that risks you two and everyone else I know. Aaaaaand knowing the bitch, travelling arrangements will be settled as soon as I leave the airport.' While Natasha's voice undoubtedly spoke with a feeling of boredom and un satisfaction there was an underlying tone that only Steve could pin down to nerves.

The rest of the car journey was quiet. At occasional moments Steve would glance over to Natasha who was staring out of the window. He always wondered what she was thinking when she zoned out when travelling to missions. Using his non existent powers of deductions, he would study her face and notice her expression to figure out if her daydreaming was good or bad. At this moment in time, her face was a mixture of remorse and confusion. How he wished he could read her mind.

Small fires were raging in patches over the field. The looming smoke mocked her eyesight, forcing her to squint to find her way back to the remains of the broken complex where she had spent many years of her life hiding in. Bodies were littered everywhere causing her to stumble more than a few times which as a result aggravated her ankle which she believed she twisted when landing awkwardly after jumping round someones neck to take them down. The small cuts on her body throbbed but she moved with the pain feeling great relief that the whole situation was over and she won. She had won. It hadn't really sunk in yet but the happiness of not being killed washed over her making her feel absolutely ecstatic. From a distance Natalia could see the shadow of the headmistress, as the shadow loomed closer a feeling of fear loomed upon her.

'Well, Natalia. I knew you could do it, I actually put high bets on you to win.' The headmistress held out her hand. 'Come child, we shall get prepared for phase 3.'

Natalia took her hand and was led into the fog. The bodies in the distances not bothering her anymore.

'Nat?'

Tony's voice cut through her daydreaming as she blinked a couple of times to get her bearings. 'Hmm?'

'Nat, we are at the airport. You sure you want to do this?'

'Yeah of course. I need to do this. Will you guys be okay?' She looked at both of them, worry present on her smooth features.

A small smirk rose on Tonys lips.

'Of course, we will be fine Red, might take a bit of persuasion to get lover boy here to talk or even move a muscle but don't worry we got your back. And here take this you might need it.'

Tony passed her a bright red burner phone, again with a smile pressed onto his face.

'Thanks Tony, I guess ill see you soon. Bye Steve.' Natasha's eyes were fixated on Steve, practically begging him to say something to her so she could devise wether he hated her or not.

As she was about to leave Steves hand grabbed her own and he places a chaste kiss upon her palm.

'Be careful Nat.'

'I will, I will.'