after visiting a young Nattie with her uncle Nate, now we jump in with an older Nattie and her uncle Cooper.
enjoy. 😊
"Hey, Uncle Coop."
Cooper is shaken from his thoughts by his niece's voice. He grins when he spots her making her way toward him. "Hey, Nattie. Long time, no see."
She steps in to give him a quick hug and then bobs her head in agreement. "Yeah, it's been a while."
Cooper takes a moment to catalogue the changes because it has been a bit since he'd seen her last. She's taller, sporting some streaks of blue in her hair, and is practically a clone of his sister at that age (minus the hairstyle, of course. Lila had always been more conservative with her hairstyles). "Your mom around here somewhere?" he asks before turning his head quickly to glance around.
"Yeah, somewhere back there with Uncle Nate and Grandma and Grandpa," she answers, giving a vague wave behind her. "They're talking with Dr. Banner."
Cooper nods once in acknowledgement, holding in a grin at her effort to portray the time-honoured teenage annoyance of being associated with their family. "So, how ya been? Your mom told me you were killing it in school."
He sees a slight flush on her cheeks, and he figures she's embarrassed by what she assumes is her mother's emails and texts filled to the brim with pride over her accomplishments. She isn't wrong to think that; Lila's emails had been chock full of proud updates about Nattie and her brother.
"Yeah, I did okay," she answers, downplaying her achievements that Cooper knows are genuinely impressive, family bias notwithstanding. His boys had done alright in school, but Nattie's grades were something else altogether. "I didn't know you were coming today," she adds after a beat.
"Yeah, I wasn't sure if I would be able to get time off at work, but I managed to swing it. I'm glad I did, this is an impressive exhibit," Cooper replies.
The 30th anniversary of the Blip had come up faster than he'd realized, and the Smithsonian had decided to shine the spotlight on the event for the occasion. Cooper had waffled on whether or not he would attend, but his mom had called him and mentioned it was important for his dad to honour his teammates' sacrifices. His mom had said "teammates," but Cooper had understood that while his dad wanted to honour Tony Stark and Steve Rogers too, it was more about Aunt Nat.
"Yeah, it's quite the show," Nattie quips dryly as they watch a crowd move toward the entrance. The whole family had gotten VIP tickets thanks to his dad's status as a former Avenger, but the crowd ahead of them (filled with politicians and other 'honoured' guests) was still large enough. But it was nothing compared to the sizable crowd outside the building, waiting to get in once the public hours began.
"Hey, Coop." Cooper turns and finds his brother moving toward him, waving as he does.
"Hey, Nate. How are ya?" he says as he throws his arms around his brother for a quick hug. God, it's been ages since I've seen any of them, Cooper thinks guiltily.
"Good, I'm good. How about you?"
"Good, good," he answers.
"And you, Nattie? How are you? Heard you kicked ass this year at school," Nate adds with a grin.
"Does my mom talk to you two about anything other than my schooling?" Nattie says with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. Coop can see it's all for show though, and knows that underneath the teenage mortification at being gushed over by family, she's proud of herself.
"Only on our birthdays," Nate quips back before opening his arms to hug her tightly momentarily. "Mom sent me over to check on you two," he says to Cooper after they break the hug. "Wanted to know if you were gonna go through together, or if you wanted to come with the group."
Cooper sees Nattie glance back at the group and then look at him. It's clear she's asking permission to stay away from the group and stay with him instead, but Cooper's not quite sure why. "Oh, we're good here. Tell Mom not to worry. I won't let her accidentally leave with some other family," he replies with a grin. "We'll meet you guys at the end."
"Sounds good," Nate says as he gives them a wave and heads back to join the group.
"Thanks," Nattie says quietly.
"Ah, no worries," he says with a wave. "Though I am curious why you're so keen to not be with the group."
She hesitates momentarily while picking at the dark purple nail polish on her fingernails. "Mom and I have been fighting."
"Ah," Cooper says with an understanding nod. Alongside the gushing details about her success in school, Lila had also mentioned the bickering with Nattie had been ratcheted up lately. "Wanted some space?" he guesses, and Nattie nods. "Well, I get that." He'd gone through the same with his two boys, so it wasn't a surprise.
Before she can respond, a loud chime sounds, followed by an announcement inviting their group to enter the exhibit. Cooper and Nattie wait and watch the rest of the group move toward the entrance. He spots a few familiar faces he knows his dad and Aunt Nat had worked with back in the day, and a few unfamiliar faces too, which he assumes are connected in some way to the Avengers. Their family walks past them, and Lila stops briefly to hug Cooper.
"Hey, Coop," she says with a smile. "It's good to see you."
"Likewise," he replies with a sheepish grin.
"Let's catch up after this, okay?" she suggests, and he nods immediately.
"For sure. And don't worry about this one," Cooper says with a gesture to Nattie, who's actively trying to avoid her mother's eye, "I'll make sure she doesn't get lost."
"Thanks. We'll see you guys after," Lila says, then glances at her daughter. Cooper sees her smile falter when Nattie refuses to meet her eye, so he gives her a sympathetic smile.
"You ready?" he asks once they're the only ones still waiting to enter.
"Yeah, let's go."
They make their way through the entrance, much to the relief of the staff members who'd been watching them and then glancing down at their detailed timesheets with slightly frantic and worried expressions. Cooper glances at the large glass sign inside the entrance, which outlines that the exhibit has several sections and includes directions on how to reach each.
Turning to his niece, he asks, "Anywhere you wanna go first?" Nattie shrugs, so he gestures for them to head to their left and start their tour chronologically.
They walk down a long corridor before entering a large room filled with pictures, video screens, and interactive graphs and charts. They slowly make their way around the room, taking in the details and occasionally pausing to examine something further or watch a video. The room chronicles the key moments leading up to the fated day in Wakanda when the Avengers and their allies lost to Thanos and his army, dooming half the universe's living creatures to become dust. There are some first-hand accounts from Wakandan soldiers, General Okoye, and the late King T'Challa, as well as quotes from Dr. Banner and James Barnes. They spend a little more time reading through the information before they make their way to the next section.
The next room of the exhibit tells the story of the five years following that day in Wakanda. There are stories submitted by citizens from across the globe, chronicling the pain and grief of losing family members and trying to find a way forward. Looped videos play interviews with world leaders, including the President of the United States at the time, and a few with the remaining Avengers. Aunt Nat appears a few times alongside Steve Rogers and Colonel Rhodes, all three of them looking exhausted but focused.
Once Cooper and Nattie finish their circle of the room, they make their way to the last part of the exhibit, which covers the Battle of Earth and the Avengers' actions to return the Vanished. Cooper and Nattie split up, each working different paths around the room and stopping to watch interviews and read the posted information. Cooper listens to Wakandan soldiers describe coming through a portal alongside countless other allies from across the galaxy. Scott Lang was featured heavily, having given extensive interviews in which he showered praise on his fellow Avengers and their allies for coming together to fight "the big guy." There's a montage of footage from press conferences in the aftermath of everyone returning, including one clip where Colonel Rhodes and Sam Wilson announce the deaths of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff.
Cooper moves past the general information and onto the parts of the room dedicated to the fallen Avengers. Steve Rogers and Tony Stark feature heavily, which isn't surprising, given they had been popular throughout their tenure as Avengers (and arguably before then too). While she had never been quite as popular as her teammates, Natasha's part of the room is comparable in size to those of Rogers and Stark.
Cooper spots his niece focused intently on reading some text alongside a large image of Natasha and begins walking toward her. He eyes the picture of his late aunt, figuring it was from the earlier days of the Avengers based on the short, red hair. His niece is oblivious as he comes to stand next to her, and he leans forward slightly to read the accompanying information. There's a brief description of Natasha's defection to SHIELD and how she'd long been an exemplary agent before becoming a founding member of the Avengers. It continues, detailing her roles in the various Avengers events over the years and then how she took over leadership of the team in the years following the loss in Wakanda. Finally, it describes her sacrifice to allow the Avengers to obtain one of the Infinity Stones, ensuring that the Vanished could return.
The posted details surrounding her death are few and far between, which isn't surprising to Cooper given that he knows only a handful of people in the universe know what truly happened that day. Many years after her death, Cooper asked his dad what had happened, expecting his dad to brush off the question. But his dad had given him an honest answer, describing how the two of them had fought one another to be the one to jump off the cliff and how she had, in the end, forced his hand. Cooper had seen the unshed tears gather in his dad's eyes as he told him that her last words had been reassurance that it was okay. They'd poured themselves each a double of whiskey and toasted her memory before silently agreeing never to speak of it again.
The poster boards and video loops list many posthumous awards Natasha had been honoured with, as well as her accolades from her SHIELD days. Cooper hadn't known she was that decorated of an agent, though he can't say he's surprised; after all, his dad had always maintained she was the best there ever was. There are quotes from some of the remaining Avengers — his dad had been reluctant to give an interview but had eventually caved to the repeated requests, while Thor had apparently jumped at the chance to "tell tales of his friend and fellow warrior" — as well as some from a few other notable names, including Colonel Rhodes, Maria Hill, Pepper Potts, Sam Wilson, and Nick Fury the most recognizable among them. There's a short video featuring a montage of various photos and videos, with some narration that outlines her contributions to the world over the years.
He sees his niece still staring up at the large image of his aunt, and he sidles up next to her. "Big shoes to fill, huh?" he guesses. Nattie grew up hearing stories about the woman whose name she'd been given, and he knows she probably feels some pressure because of it. Nate had sidestepped some of that pressure because their names were just different enough, but he knows it had weighed on his brother at times too.
"I guess," she answers with a shrug.
Cooper shoves his hands in his pockets as he looks up at the picture of his aunt again. "It's too bad you couldn't meet her. She woulda loved you."
"You think?" Nattie says uncertainly while chewing on a nail absently.
"Definitely," he confirms, bobbing his head once in an affirmative nod. He knows Aunt Nat would have loved Nattie. For years his aunt had been misunderstood and demonized by the media, and they had never seemed to recognize that she had such a big heart. There's no doubt in Cooper's mind that she had loved him and his family deeply and that her love would have naturally extended to the new members as the family grew.
"What was she like when you were a kid?"
Cooper looks down at his niece, a slight furrow in his brow. "Surely your mom has told you stories."
"Well, yeah, but you knew her before my mom was born too. Maybe she was different."
"I was young," he reminds her, "so I don't remember a lot from before your mom came along."
"Oh, right," she says, deflating.
He decides to throw her a bone. "One thing I do remember is when your mom was born I got a bit jealous at losing the focus of my parents. Aunt Nat made sure when she visited that she always greeted me first before holding the baby, and she was always really good about knowing when I needed some attention. She always had this knack for understanding what we needed. I suppose most of it was probably due to her training, but I think some of it was just instinct too. I remember thinking as a kid that she was just so cool . She wore these leather jackets and travelled the world, drove a motorcycle, knew all these languages… To a kid, she just oozed coolness."
Nattie nods. "Mom still has some of her knick knacks that she brought you guys from all over. They're on a shelf in the den."
"Oh, that's right," Cooper says, remembering having noticed them the last time he'd visited for Christmas. "Anyway, we always loved when she visited because she'd babysit and give your grandparents some kid-free time. She'd usually take us out to the movies, but beforehand she'd take us to load up on candy and snacks that we'd sneak in. She always said the food at the theatre was overpriced, and she'd rather give her money to the mom-and-pop shop we went to for the snacks than the corporate movie chain."
Nattie chuckles. "Mom did the same with us."
"She helped me get over my fear of thunderstorms too. Taught me how to figure out the distance by counting between the lightning and the roll of thunder. She told me to find some element that I could control of something I feared, and that way I could start to manage the fear rather than it manage me."
"I remember doing that as a kid. I used to try to do it when it was just raining to see if I could make the thunder and lightning appear," Nattie says with a soft chuckle, and Cooper smiled, pretty sure he'd seen her do that at least once. "She sounds pretty cool," Nattie adds, her gaze dropping to sweep over one of the displays. Then she looks up at Cooper again. "Do you still miss her?"
Cooper blows out a heavy exhale before he nods. Somewhere along the way, the loss had shifted from a black hole that seemed to suck in any and all happiness at the mere mention of his aunt to a duller ache that cropped up now and again. Now he can remember her fondly rather than only feel the acute sting of her being gone. Still, there is a part of him that will always miss having her around. He knows she'd have been at his graduations and would have doted on his boys as their cool great-aunt. "I do. I know maybe some people would say she was just my aunt, but she was a huge part of my life. She visited us often, and she was there for a lot of my milestones growing up. When I came back and found out she was gone…" he trails off, not having intended to unload this much onto his niece.
"Mom told me once that it was like losing a family member," Nattie offers, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and then back again.
"That's exactly what it was like. She was a part of our family."
"Does it still hurt?" she asks gently. Cooper can see she's curious about Natasha but doesn't want to open old wounds either.
"Sometimes," he answers as he thinks of those moments when he was tackled by grief at the most unexpected times in the weeks and months after finding out about her death. "Mostly I just miss her and wish she could be here with us. She and I talked once about some of the stuff on our bucket lists. She didn't get to finish hers, and sometimes I think about that and it sort of brings up all those same old emotions, you know? She wanted to do things, and spend time with her friends and family, but instead, she sacrificed all of that for all of us. She had a pretty shitty—" he stops abruptly, realizing his choice of language. "Sorry," he says, apologizing for his language gaffe. Nattie grins for a moment before gesturing for him to continue. "She had a tough life growing up, and it sucks she never got to do the things she wanted to do, you know?"
Nattie nods. "What was left on her list?"
He strokes his chin, reaching deeply into his memories. "A bunch of stuff. Most of it I don't remember, but I know for sure that she wanted to ride the top ten roller coasters."
"According to what? Speed? Height?"
"Uh, I don't actually know," he admits. They had never discussed it all that much detail, and he isn't even sure if Aunt Nat had been serious about it.
"Well…" Nattie begins, a smile widening quickly. "I like coasters, and I'm her namesake. That ought to count for something, right?"
Cooper eyes his niece, who's looking up at him with a hopeful expression. "Uh, yeah, I guess."
"So let's finish this for her."
Understanding blooms in him, and Cooper smiles at the idea. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Nattie agrees eagerly. "I know I didn't get to meet her, but it sort of seems like something I could do to honour her memory."
"You living your life is honouring—"
"Yeah, I know. Mom and Grandpa have both told me that. But I want to do something. It's silly, I know, but if she wanted to do this, then maybe if I do it for her…" she trails off sheepishly. "I don't know," she adds quickly with a shrug, trying to walk back her enthusiasm, pink colouring her cheeks. Her bravery has waned a touch in favour of the beginnings of anxiety that she's overshot, but he gives her a reassuring smile because it's a sweet and beautiful gesture.
"I think it's a great idea. Tell you what, you get the okay from your parents and we can work on the list together."
"Can you ask my mom for me?" she asks hopefully.
"No deal," he replies immediately. He has first-hand experience of being sidestepped in favour of his wife by his boys on occasion when they thought he'd tell them no for something, and there was no way he was going to do the same to his sister. "You gotta ask your mom."
"Ask me what?" Lila says as she appears beside them.
Nattie swallows, uncertainty colouring her expression again. "Uh, we, uh, well, uh, we were thinking, uh—"
"Nattie, breathe," Lila says reassuringly with a smile, reaching out a hand to squeeze her arm in support. "What were you and your uncle thinking?"
"Wewannaridethetoptenrollercoasters," she says in one breath. She'd said it so quickly that Cooper was sure if he hadn't already known the topic of discussion, he wouldn't have been able to work out any of what she'd said.
"Sorry, one more time," Lila says, shooting Cooper a look of confusion before resettling her gaze on her daughter.
"We wanna ride the top ten roller coasters."
"Okay…" Lila says slowly, eyes flicking again to Cooper before returning to look at her daughter. "Why?" Her tone isn't judgmental but instead is genuinely curious. Cooper can't blame her for that — it was out of the blue.
"To finish one of the items on her bucket list for her," Nattie says, gesturing to the picture of Natasha behind them.
Lila smiles, and Cooper sees joy and bittersweetness in her expression. "Oh, that's right. Her bucket list. I remember she said she wanted to visit all these theme parks to ride them," Lila says, and Cooper nods. Her gaze slides again to Nattie. "I think it's a great idea."
"You do?" Nattie says in disbelief. Cooper suspects their more prevalent bickering as of late has left Nattie with the opinion that her mother is out of touch and prone to denying her what she wants just out of spite. Such is the teenage mind, Cooper thinks dryly.
"It's nice. She can't finish it, but her namesake can."
"Exactly!" Nattie exclaims and then shrinks in on herself when she realizes her loud reply caught the attention of some strangers. And, Cooper suspects, when she realized she's agreed with her mother — a true teenage horror.
"You're okay with this, Coop?" Lila asks, turning to face him.
"Yeah. Not like I do much with my vacation days now anyway since the boys are away at school. May as well spend time with my niece before she goes off to college and leaves us all behind."
"College isn't for two years, Uncle Coop," Nattie says with a roll of her eyes.
"My point exactly. It's now or never."
They'd researched and made plans to visit the top ten roller coasters on a series of weekend trips. Much to their surprise, other family members had gotten wind of their plans and had decided to join them on a few weekends. His boys came along with them for the first two coasters (numbers 10 and 7 on the list), which conveniently happened to be in the same park. Always one to enjoy time with her cousins, Nattie had been overjoyed when Cooper told her they wanted to tag along. Nate had managed to get some time off work and secure a dog sitter on two separate weekends, accompanying them to cross off four coasters on the list (numbers 9, 6, 3, and 8). He hadn't known of Natasha's bucket list, but after Nattie had filled him in, he'd declared that as her other namesake, he ought to help them cross a few coasters off the list. In somewhat of a surprise, Lila had joined them for number 4, and his dad had accompanied them for number 5 (a tame but much loved and revered coaster). They tackled number 2 by themselves on a weekend with just two hours of weather that didn't include rain. The last roller coaster, which also was number 1 on the list, they planned to tackle on a weekend trip after school was back in session (Lila had given permission for the slightly impromptu trip, much to Nattie's surprise).
The line for the coaster wasn't long in terms of the number of people, but the length of the queue itself was a bit staggering. As they wound their way through the maze of the queue, Cooper found his thoughts drifting to his late aunt. He wondered if she even liked roller coasters (he suspected she did — his dad had always said that Natasha liked rushes of adrenaline after all) and if she was watching them from wherever she was for all these weekends of coaster riding. Cooper wasn't religious, but it was hard to deny that the afterlife was a distinct possibility given that he had been gone for five years and had returned, magic was real, and aliens were no longer just the thing of conspiracy theories. So, it wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility that his late aunt had watched him scream for his life on a few coasters he was sure would leave him with a permanent injury to his aging back. He imagines she was smirking at him and laughing at his expense — something for which he absolutely wouldn't blame her.
Nattie seems excited to be at the end of their bucket list quest but also slightly contemplative. He supposes she very well might be mulling over her namesake too.
"Last one," he says, nodding to the boarding area now in view, albeit blocked by a dozen or so people in front of them in line.
Nattie nods. "Yep."
Cooper leans over the queue's guardrail to peek up at the tracks. "Oh man," he murmurs. "Aunt Nat, what the hell did you get me into?"
Nattie laughs, apparently having heard him. "Scared, Uncle Coop?"
"Yes," he answers bluntly. "Have you looked at that?" he adds, pointing to the steep incline and subsequent drop-off. Even after all the high-speed, looping, twirling, and spinning of the roller coasters they'd ridden already, Cooper was beginning to question that this one might not be strictly legal. Well, at least it's not a rickety old wooden one , he thinks, trying to convince himself this somehow wasn't a terrible idea.
His niece leans over to look, and he sees her face pale a little, the bravery that youth affords teenagers waning.
"Still game?" he asks. They might be driven to finish the last one on the list, but he wasn't going to force her to ride it if she didn't want to. If she wanted to call it, then he'd—
"Yeah," she says with a cocky grin, bravery apparently restored, "it'll be fun."
A memory plays in his mind instantly at those words, his dad recounting a moment of absolutely absurd badassery by his aunt in the Battle of New York.
"And Cap's telling me how your Aunt Nat told him she's gonna need a ride to get up to the portal thing, and then she meaningfully looks up at these alien-flying-ship things that are speeding past, a little ways above their heads. And Cap's looking at her, thinking she's some next-level kind of crazy to be aiming to jump up and snag a ride with one of these things, so he asks if she's sure. And you know what she says? She shrugs and tells him, "yeah, it'll be fun," like it's not an insane thing to be doing."
"Hey, Uncle Coop, you okay?"
Nattie's words startle him back into the present, and he smiles. He'd seen grainy footage from afar of the moment in question and had been suitably impressed. And now his niece is saying those exact words before they go and do something ill-advised? If that isn't a sign to do this, he thinks. "Yeah, sorry. I'm good."
She eyes him doubtfully. "Really?"
"Yeah, just remembering something your grandfather told me once about Aunt Nat."
"What was it?" Nattie asks, clearly eager to hear more about her namesake.
He grinned. "In the Battle of New York, right before Captain America launched her up into the air to catch an alien spacecraft speeding past them, he asked her if she was sure about her plan. She shrugged and said "yeah, it'll be fun," like it wasn't a terrible, terrible idea." Nattie's eyes brightened, and her grin spread wider, recognizing the phrase matched what she'd just uttered herself. "So, I guess you and her have something in common after all," he says with a wink.
The line in front of them begins moving, and they shuffle forward before making their way to get on the coaster at the very front. At least the view before I die will be good. Cooper checks that his restraints are securely fastened again. And then again for good measure.
"You ready for this, Nattie?"
She turns her head as far as the restraints allow and grins widely. "Hell yeah. Like I said, this is gonna be fun."
"Fun," he says doubtfully. "Right."
The attendant begins murmuring — incoherently, much to Cooper's chagrin — this ride's variation of the safety spiel they'd heard before riding every single coaster. Then suddenly, they lurch forward as they begin climbing the steep incline. When they reach the top, he closes his eyes momentarily and thinks, This is for you, Aunt Nat . He opens his eyes and is amazed by the gorgeous view, but then the coaster enters that painfully slow moment where gravity begins to win, and the first car starts to tip downward.
He barely has time to think, Oh shit, before they're plunging downward far faster than they had any right to, in his opinion. The rest of the loops, twists, and drops pass by in time that feels both like hours and only seconds, and then they slow as they begin to pull into the loading station.
"You okay, Uncle Coop?" Nattie teases him.
"Yeah, I'm good," he answers, probably unconvincingly. You and I are gonna have words when we meet again, Aunt Nat , he thinks to himself as they come to a stop and the restraints unlock, because my back will never be the same again after that.
so...thoughts on their finishing one of Natasha's bucket list item? did you enjoy Cooper's viewpoint/thoughts on things?
as always, comments and thoughts are very much welcomed!