So I've been thinking about rewriting "Can't get you out of my mind" for ages and I decided now to just do it. It was my second fanfiction ever ( I might rewrite Remember one day as well) and I've grown as a writer and I'm just not happy with it anymore. So I'm rewriting this story and I will change story lines, same things will stay the same and other things will be completely different. I hope you join me on this journey:)


When Nick Fury called Natasha a few weeks after the battle of New York to inform her that he would recruit Steve Rogers for SHIELD and that she would be his partner, she thought that Fury had gone completely bonkers. Not that it was a bad idea to get Rogers to work for SHIELD, oh no he would be a valuable addition to the agency, but that Fury thought it was a good idea to make Captain America her partner was downright crazy.

She had been almost tempted to laugh at her boss when he'd told her that Rogers had already agreed to it and would be in DC next week to start his job. Oh and he already knew that Natasha would be his partner and he was according to Nick really looking forward to work with her. Really, it looked like Nick and Rogers had both lost their minds.

Why on earth would Fury want to partner her up with Captain America? They were complete opposites. He was light, she was darkness. He was good and she was... well, she didn't consider herself to be evil but she knew that she wasn't a saint either.

It was true that she and Rogers had worked well together during the Chitauri invasion but that had been a completely different situation. Not the kind of mission she was usually send on. She was lurking in the shadows and ordered to kill targets. She would come and go and before anyone could even notice that she was there the target was already dead. She didn't believe that Fury would send Captain America on these kinds on missions with her. That was not his style.

He was soldier, he protected people.

She was an assassin, she killed people.

But since Clint was with his family back at his farm to work through what Loki had done to him and had him forced to do, she needed a new partner. Rogers couldn't replace Clint and the trust they had but she knew that Captain America would have her back. She hoped the history books weren't lying about his good character and sense of duty. So at least she didn't have to worry about him backstabbing her, but would he trust her in return? She had no idea.

She begrudgingly agreed to Fury's request (not that she had the option to refuse) and promised that she would be at the Triskelion next Monday. Fury so very kindly told her that SHIELD would provide her with an apartment but Natasha turned down the offer. She had been long enough in the business to know that every SHIELD apartment was bugged and she liked her privacy. She didn't even want her colleagues to know where she lived, let alone find out what she did at her place. Not that she had an exciting private life despite of what the rumor hill at SHIELD said about her.


And of course she had been right. Fury wasn't sending her and Rogers on any missions that required assassinations. Well, of course some missions ended with dead bodies but they mostly weren't ordered to use lethal force right from the start. No, they only did rescue missions

Currently she and Rogers were sitting in an observation van in Mexico City on another rescue mission. By now they had been partners for over a year and she had to admit that after some problems in the beginning they worked together like a well-oiled machine.

They were going after a human trafficking ring that smuggled under-aged girls into the States for sex work. If their intel turned out to be right, then the US-ambassador was one of the string-pullers behind it.

Natasha hated the mission. It just hit way too close to home. She knew exactly how it was when adults lured you with promises of a good life into hell. She hoped that they would find the children soon and she could put a bullet into every head that was behind this. There would be some paperwork if she killed the US-ambassador but it wasn't like he didn't had it coming.

"You okay?" Rogers asked her, quietly.

He was sitting next to her in the back of the van, staring at the surveillance feed. A SHIELD team was close by to help them rescue the girls. Everyone was just waiting and hoping that they were at the right location. A language school in a suburb of Mexico City.

Even though it was already night, it was still hot and Natasha could feel the sweat building up in the back of her neck. Maybe she should cut her hair again.

"Everything's peachy, Rogers." She replied not looking up from the screen.

She was very aware of the fact that Rogers had excess to her file, her real file, and probably knew why she was so tense. Every muscle in her body was ready to attack. She was ready to storm in and take everyone out.

She didn't need to look at him to know that he gave her this soft and caring look. She didn't need his pity. He would probably call it compassion, and she had no use of that either. She needed to spill blood, not her guts.

"Focus on the mission, Cap."

He sighed but didn't say anything else.

An hour later in complete silence, there was finally movement. A black Tesla showed up and Ambassador Cullen stepped out of it and walked into the school.

"Alright, everyone in position. " Rogers told the ops team through his comms. "Romanoff and I go in first. Rumlow and Rollins, you secure the back entrance. We have to assume they'll use the girls as human shields. Do not take any shots if it could hurt a child! Do you copy?"

Everyone copied and she followed Rogers out of the van and through the darkness to the school. They needed to be quiet and hopefully everyone would be dead before they could use the girls for their protection.

"Three, two, one..." Rogers used his enhanced hearing. "Okay, go."

Natasha climbed through the window and checked if the muffler were on her Glocks. And then she shot her way through the hallway up to the attic to the girls.

Rogers followed her and knocked out everyone with his shield who wanted to attack them from behind.

The mission was a success. They found 32 terrified and scared girls between the ages of 9 until 15 who recognized Rogers and started to cry when they realized that Captain America had come to save them. The data on the computers revealed the locations of every establishment in the US where girls were forced to work at. All of them would be saved and brought back to their families.

And Natasha got to kill the Ambassador when he jumped around the corner and was about to shoot Rogers. SHIELD couldn't fault her for saving Captain America, now could they?

She was outside sitting on the hood of an SHIELD SUV, watching the girls being escorted out of the house, when Rogers was walking towards her. He had his shield on his back and pulled his helmet off his head. How different would her life be if someone had come for her?

She moved a bit to the side so he could sit next to her. They watched the girls get into the bus that would take them to a hotel in Mexico City and Natasha was really thankful that Rogers wasn't asking her how she was doing. A girl looked straight at her and waved shyly. Natasha was confused by the gesture but waved back before the girl disappeared inside the bus.

"You've ever had authentic quesadillas, Rogers?"

If Rogers was surprised about her question, he didn't show it.

"Not that I can remember."

She looked at her watch. "Well, it's a bit late but I'm sure we can find some place that's still open."

She hopped off the hood and walked to the driver's side and got in. Rogers looked one last time to the girls and then followed her and sat down in the passengers seat.

He gave her a warm smile and she tried her best to ignore the strange feeling she got every time he gave her that smile.

"Lead the way, Romanoff."


Adjusting to a new world was not easy. Everything had been strange, too loud and too bright in the beginning. Nothing made sense anymore. Everyone he knew was dead. Everyone except Peggy who she was in the early steps of dementia and it broke his heart to see her fierce spirit vanish in front of his eyes. He was losing her as well.

When Fury had showed up at his apartment two weeks after the battle of New York - he still had some issues to wrap his head around the fact that aliens were real- and offered him a job at SHIELD, he'd said immediately yes. He knew from Peggy's file that she'd helped founding it and that was a huge factor why he'd agreed to move to DC. And honestly he had no idea what else he could do and he would have lost his mind without a purpose.

He would work with Agent Romanoff since her partner Barton needed to recover from Loki and would then be undercover for a few months. Steve liked Romanoff. She was a capable agent and had fought well along side him in the streets of Manhattan. He was still in awe that she'd jumped off his shield to hijack a Chitauri ship.

So he packed his few things and left Brooklyn a few days later to move to DC. And it was easier than he'd thought, this Brooklyn wasn't his Brooklyn anymore.

Romanoff made it from the moment they left Fury's office very clear that she wasn't going to hold his hand or baby him. He appreciated that immensely. Everyone treated him like he was made out of glass and it drove him nuts. Everyone except Romanoff. She taught him the rules of espionage, how to use new technology and trained him in various martial arts. They spent hours on the training floor of the Triskelion.

Practically everything he knew and learned in this new world was what she'd taught him. And he liked to think that she was becoming his friend. He wasn't so sure if Natasha Romanoff did friends but she didn't give him a death glare when he sat down at her table in the SHIELD cafeteria. He'd witnessed how some Level 2 agent once tried to sit at her table and she gave him her signature death glare and the poor man almost fell over his own feet when he stumbled away.


They were on their way back from a mission from Mexico City to DC when Romanoff plopped down on a seat next to him on the quinjet and asked him for his book. She had gifted him a small notebook a few months ago so he could write everything down that he wanted to learn about or see. He pulled it out of the unity belt of his uniform and handed it to her. She had a pen in her hand and wrote down quesadillas and crossed it out.

"You still haven't checked out Harry Potter?" She held the book in front of his face so he could see it. Harry Potter was right over quesadillas and not crossed out.

"I've read the books but I haven't seen the movies yet." He explained and hoped that she would offer to watch them with him. They didn't do it often but sometimes she would notice something on his list and watch a movie with him at his place or go to a restaurant with him. She'd introduced him to Thai food last month and he'd underestimated the hotness of the food and almost burned off his tongue. But the pain had been worth it because she had laughed a full belly laugh with tears in her eyes. He'd never heard her laugh before.

She gave him the book back. "I would start them with you but Barton comes back tomorrow."

Right, Barton was needed for some reports at the Triskelion and had to leave his post in Chicago for a few days. They never confirmed it or showed any PDA at SHIELD but everyone assumed they were an item. Barton had saved her and brought her to SHIELD and since then they were inseparable. But then Loki happened and she had needed a new partner and he had taken Barton's place. He couldn't help but be disappointed that Barton would come back and even if it was just for a week.

"Okay, maybe another time, Romanoff?" He asked hopefully. It was maybe sad but she was his only friend and the little time they spent outside of SHIELD together meant a lot to him.

"Sure." She gave him a short smile and stretched her legs. "I think after one year you can call me Natasha."

That for some reason made him incredibly happy.

"Only if you call me Steve."

"Okay, Steve." She patted his knee for a second and he liked how his name sounded when she said it. "Hey, did you ask out Lola from Public Affairs?"

He groaned and crossed his arms over his chest. She'd been trying to set him up with several SHIELD agents for the past two months. For some reason she was hellbent on finding him a girlfriend. But he wasn't ready for that and he had to admit that he sometimes wished Natasha would throw her own name in the ring. He knew he wouldn't say no to her if she'd ask him out. But she was with Barton and she was his only friend, so he let that fantasy go.

"I told you I don't want to date yet, Natasha." He liked saying her first name. He had a feeling he would use it a lot from now on.

"It is almost a crime that you refuse to share that patriotic booty with the female population of the world." She smirked at him.

He could feel how a blush was forming on his cheeks. "Shut up."

Natasha's grin got even wider and she looked very pleased with herself. Yeah, he already figured out that she liked to tease him and for some reason he liked it too.

They landed at the Triskelion two hours later and after a short debriefing with Agent Hill they were free to go. Natasha was already in the elevator when he got in. The sun was rising and shining through the glass walls of the elevator and gave Natasha's face and hair a beautiful glow. He couldn't tell when he started to pay attention to those things.

"You gonna go crash or are you gonna run a marathon now, Steve?" Natasha arched one of her perfectly plugged eyebrows at him.

"Nah, I'll think I head straight to bed."

"If you asked out Lola, she might would have been waiting in your bed for you." Her eyes sparkled at him.

"I walked right into that one, didn't I."

"Yup, you did."

The elevator stopped and Rumlow got in.

"Mission went like clockwork, didn't it?" Rumlow said to no one in particular.

Steve felt obliged to answer. "Yeah, it did."

Rumlow turned to Natasha and gave her a look of approval. "Looking fine as always, Romanoff."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "It's like you're begging me to kill you."

They all got out when the elevator reached the underground garage. Natasha needed to go the other end of it for her car and said goodbye to him.

Rumlow's car was near his bike and so he had to walk a bit with him.

"Did you just call Romanoff Natasha?"

"Yeah. So?"

"It's just there are only three people who get to call her that. Fury, Coulson and Barton. And now you. Rollins once called her Natasha and she wiped the floor with him the next day in training. He almost didn't make it. No one ever dared to use her first name again." Rumlow shook his head at the memory and got into his car.

Steve couldn't hide his grin the whole drive back to his apartment. It was a good sign that she allowed him to call her Natasha, wasn't it? He knew how important Fury, Coulson and Clint were to her. He was honored that he now belonged to that circle as well.