A/N: So originally this chapter and the last one was actually one really long chapter instead of two. The reason I decided to split the two of them was that I felt it got a bit too long for my liking. Don't get me wrong I love me a good long chapter, but it was a bit much I thought.

I will say though. At this rate, this fanfic will be like 50 chapters long. I have like 20k words already and we are still in the very first part. Like I have so much planned for this part of the story like my gods. And then we need to cover all the year between CW and infinity and wowie it's going to be fun. I know I don't have as many readers for this one and people really want me to do to like flying sky high, but I am seriously having a lot of fun playing around with this one.

As always, I hope you guys are making the best out of your, week, day, month and I will talk to you again in a few days.

Lots of love, Red/S-B

This evening was something different, that was for sure.

Natasha had disappeared the second they moved into the living room, but with guests in the house, Laura had no way of following her without feeling like she was abandoning them. Instead, she was now making pizza dough with Wanda and Annie. Not that it was anything wrong with the two of them, but she would've liked to check up on Natasha. She had a small feeling something was wrong, and she wanted to find out what before something bad actually happened.

Laura didn't know what she had expected of Wanda. She obviously wanted the best for her since Clint cared so much for her. But in a way, she never realized she would be in this position where she would have her in her house like this. Maybe that was silly of her, considering Clint was actually looking at her as a daughter figure, but it was still not something she had considered.

The woman was young. She had told her she was turning 20 in January meaning she had just been 19 and a half when everything had happened with Ultron. She had been just over 19 when she lost her brother.

After that, she had moved to the Avenger's facilities where she was training under Natasha and Steve. And while the girl didn't talk too much about her training with the avengers it seemed like she liked it, so that was something at least.

The team seemed really close, which was a good thing for multiple reasons. One, it seemed like Wanda needed a team she could trust. Clearly, she didn't really trust them completely yet, but sooner or later she would, and the Avengers were the perfect group to be around as you spent the time to heal.

Another reason why the close team was a good thing was for Natasha. Laura still felt like she had kicked out Natasha, but knowing the team had her back, and she had women like Wanda around her to talk to, was at least somewhat helping her hurting heart.

Laura had only spent a small amount of time with Wanda, but she could already tell the girl really looked up to the redhead. Technically she already knew this. Maria had pointed it out multiple times after Natasha's accident. But it was really nice to see it in person, and not only hearing about it from others.

Wanda didn't actually talk about what had happened back at HQ, but she didn't have too to tell Laura she still cared for Natasha very much. Plus, Laura had seen the footage. How Wanda had tried to save her. She knew Wanda trusted Natasha.

In a way, Laura could see a lot of Natasha in the girl. Not only had Natasha too showed up at their house when she was just 20, but they actually had a few similar traits. Natasha, at that time, was still working under the red rooms spell and her personality didn't show before years later. But if you looked at how the woman was now and compared Wanda. Laura definitely could see the similarities.

It would make sense. Wanda was probably very insecure when she joined the Avengers and Natasha was the one only woman there. Laura knew they had been working closely as well, so it would be easy to take after the other woman. Things like the way she raised her eyebrow when thinking or her small smirk in the corner of her mouth was very Natasha like.

But it wasn't just small quicks that were similar between them. But bigger things as well, more established traits that were actually scarily similar to one and another.

Wanda, like Natasha, was very polite. Manners were sharp and on point as she moved around in Laura's home. She didn't really speak unless spoken too, and patiently waited for instructions. She was very soft in her ways, Laura could tell. Her voice was soft and respectful as she answered questions. But Laura could also tell she was a strong person and burned for her passions, and when Clint started to talk about the Avengers her eyes started to light up.

But even when she seemed so mature for her age Laura saw a lot of curiosity in her young eyes as well. Observing and almost inhaling all the knowledge possible as Laura started to work around in the kitchen and Annie knead the dough carefully. A fast learner who constantly was looking for ways to increase her own knowledge.

She seemed like she was picking up things very fast, and she seemed very sharp. This was the one thing that really had stood out when Laura met Natasha too. A trait that was just so strong it was impossible to miss.

Other than that Laura also soon learned that Wanda was a very creative soul as well. She watched the woman's eyes light up in stars as Annie started to talk about some painting she had been doing. And again, Laura watched the woman hang on every single word that got spoken not wanting to miss anything.

This wasn't really something Laura had learned about Natasha before years into their friendship, but the redhead too had a big heart for creative professions and both of the avengers seemed to have that in common too.

It seemed scary how similar they were. Of course, they were still individuals who of course were different. But Laura couldn't help but think how similar this first impression of Wanda really was with her first impression of Natasha. Or more correctly her first impression of Wanda compared to her first years with Natasha, considering the redhead didn't really give her much at first.

It kinda stung thinking about it. This really was the closest Laura would ever see Natasha and her own relative. Obviously, Wanda wasn't related to the redhead by blood, but this was a brain, an individual, Natasha was currently helping to shape. And Laura could see it, Wanda taking after her mentor in every way. Just how a daughter would have.

The dinner in itself was lovely. The kids were very curious about Wanda. The parents didn't mention her brother was one of the namesakes of Nate. But they did learn she was part of the Avengers. Laura knew Wanda had some kind of superpower, but she was very thankful the woman didn't go around using that around the kids.

The kids seemed to like her a lot. Which was a good thing. Clint could barely keep his mouth shut about Wanda, and she had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time the woman was eating with them.

After the dinner, the kids had played some more, and the adults had ended up talking for the rest of the evening before they had left.

It wasn't before after dinner, Laura finally had the opportunity to go check up on Natasha. Annie and her family had left, and the kids were hurled to bed. Nathaniel had been very easy to put to bed tonight. Usually, he was quite fussy at night. And especially when his sibling had a lot of energy, he too had the tendency to drag out the time spent on the bedtime routine. But tonight, he had been very easy to deal with. Not that Laura was complaining.

Clint was downstairs helping Wanda settle in in the guestroom. They had ended up talking as they worked on making the bed, and Laura was not expecting Clint to join her upstairs any time soon. Laura was happy Wanda was here. Clint seemed to be very happy, and at the end of the day, that was all she wanted.

It was only 10 in the evening, and on a normal day, Natasha would not be sleeping. But she had a feeling something was wrong today and she didn't know what to expect. Maybe everything was fine, and maybe the redhead just needed rest. But surely, she would have told her if that was the case. Right?

Laura stood outside of Natasha's door for a while debating what to do before she carefully knocked on the door.

"Talia?" Laura tried. She stood still and listened to see if it was any movement inside. But it seemed quiet. Maybe she hadn't heard her?

"Natasha" Laura tried again, this time raising her voice a bit more. Again, she was left with no reply. She could feel herself starting to get worked up.

Calm down Laura, nothing is wrong, just take a deep breath and try the door.

Already her hand had started to shake, and as she lifted her hand to try the handle, she could feel it getting even worse. Surprisingly the door slid open revealing a dark room. She was kinda expecting Natasha to have locked the door with her travel look. That was what she used to do before at least.

The room was dark, and it didn't seem like anything had been touched or moved. In fact, it really didn't seem like Natasha was here at all, except for the fact that Laura could see the light in the bathroom was on. A faint yellow glow was revealed under the closed bathroom door on the other side of the room.

Laura closed the bedroom door before taking a small breath again. Okay, bathroom it is.

She moved slowly over the bedroom floor. She looked around in the room as she walked trying to spot if anything was out of the ordinary. She could tell Natasha hadn't touched her bed yet. It looked exactly how Laura had left the room a few weeks ago after she changed the sheets when Maria had left.

"Nat you in here?" She tried carefully, not expecting the door to slide open as she tried to knock.

Natasha was sitting on the bathroom floor leaning up against one of the walls. Her eyes were closed, and she almost seemed like she was sleeping. Keyword being almost because Laura could see her right eyebrow flinch as Laura walked in.

"Nat, sweetheart what are you doing on the bathroom floor?" Laura couldn't help small voice crack as she slid down to Natasha's height.

"The warm tiles feel nice." Natasha only mumbled back still with her eyes closed. Laura could feel herself getting more and more worried looking at the other woman. What had happened? Why was she here? Was she sick? Why didn't she go to her bed right away?

"Are you in pain? Hurt? Do you want me to look at you? Please?" Laura tried. She wanted to reach out to her. To check her every inch for any cuts, bruises, or injuries of any kind. To hug her and take care of her. To make sure she was okay. But she knew better than to just so. Instead, she just looked at her, waiting for a reply.

"Laura I'm fine," Natasha said, and for the first time, Natasha opened her eyes. They were glossy and tired. And far from what Laura would call "fine".

Natasha looked at her again before slowly trying to push herself off the floor clearly struggling. Immediately Laura could tell this was already a situation that needed monitoring. She was not fine.

Knowing Natasha would not let her help her now, she let out a small sigh before saying.

"Can you move to the bed for me, please? If you're fine, the last thing I want you to do is to fall asleep on the floor." Natasha stopped moving for a second before looking at her. "Please" Laura tried again and didn't let her stare go before Natasha nodded back slowly.

"I'll meet you in the bedroom in a few okay. Do you want some Advil or Tylenol?" Laura said trying to keep her shaking voice under control as she stood up from the floor.

Natasha didn't bother to answer her with words. Only nodding as she continued to try to get up from the floor.

Laura left the room slowly, and the second she was completely out of ear range she let out a loud huff. Natasha was way too stubborn for her own good. Maybe before Laura would have pushed her to have a look at her, but after the accident, the last thing she wanted was to push her even more away from her.

She walked into her own bathroom messing around in her cabinet trying to find the painkillers. It was almost a mini pharmacy at this point having all kinds of medications and first aid equipment everywhere for all sorts of reasons. She grabbed one box of Advil and one of Tylenol plus a glass of cold water before walking back to the redhead's room.

"NATASHA!" Laura's eyes widened as her eyes fell on the redhead. The redhead was leaning over the bathroom door in her room, holding over her stomach with her eyes closed. Laura hurried to put her things on the nightstand, closing the bedroom door and turning on the light in the process, before running over to the girl.

Natasha was panting loudly still holding around herself as Laura closed the distance.

"Nat" her voice was firm as she walked up beside her letting her left-hand hold around Natasha's waist to support her. Immediately Natasha let out a small yelp under the touch, clearly in pain. She opened her eyes just to look at Laura with two pain-filled eyes.

"What happened? Nat talk to me!" Laura said trying to keep the redhead on her feet. Her heart was racing in her chest as she held around her.

Should she call on Clint? What was going on?

Natasha only shook her head, letting a heavy sigh out, not looking at Laura.

"Natasha, you need to let me look at you." The last part of the sentence practically fell out of her as Natasha let out yet a loud groan as she lost herself for a second, relying entirely on Laura to keep her entire body weight on her shoulder. But even when she was so clearly in pain Natasha only shook her head not even looking at the other woman.

"Natasha you either let me help you getting in bed before I look at you, I call Maria and she will force you to let her look at you, or I call on Clint. It's the only three options I'm going to give you. You cannot refuse this one." Laura looked down at the other woman hoping she would not respond too bad to her raising her voice like that.

When she didn't reply Laura could feel her heart starting to speed up again. Maybe this was a mistake, but she couldn't take it back now, and she really did need to look at her. And if she didn't let her look at her, somebody else needed to.

After what seemed like half a year Natasha finally nodded. She could hear the redhead was starting to breathe loudly and she was clearly starting to struggle to be on her feet, so she really had no other choice than to agree.

Laura only nodded back before slowly starting to signalize to move over to the bed. It was only like three steps, but it was clear the redhead was giving every bit of energy she had left to make the move.

The second they reached the bed Natasha let out a heavy sigh, almost falling onto the bed.

Laura looked at her trying to get a better overview of the situation. The first thing Laura noticed was how she really couldn't see anything wrong with her at first.

The woman was dressed in all black, with a turtleneck and some black yoga pants. She had never really seen the woman with a turtleneck before. But the all-black was not new considering that was how she dressed mostly anyways. Her hair was loose and other than just looking tried, and clearly, in pain, she looked "fine". Or at least on the outside, it seemed like she was.

Obviously, the woman wasn't fine. It could be something not physical, or something you couldn't see on the outside of the body. But she was still dressed, and she couldn't really eliminate it before she had checked her whole body. It meant she needed to undress her if she really was getting to the bottom of this. Clearly, the former spy was in a lot of pain and she needed to know why.

"Nat, help me lean you against the headboard please," Laura said softly fluffing up a pillow to let her lean on. Natasha only bit her lip before nodding.

The redhead pushed herself slowly, and it was first now Laura noticed her left arm did almost all of the work. Was it her right arm maybe? Surely that wouldn't cause her so much pain, right.

Laura tried putting a supporting hand on her back to help her prop her up and immediately Natasha whined making Laura rapidly take her arm back. Laura looked at her with big eyes as Natasha let her head back and groaned loudly.

Her back too? Clearly, she needed to get the sweater off.

It took Natasha almost a full minute to move into a sitting position, and by the time she was done, she was completely drained of energy.

"Natasha, I'm going to remove your sweater, okay," Laura said slowly making sure the redhead was getting everything she was saying.

Natasha looked at her with big eyes. Laura could clearly see her eyes starting to get worried. So, it really was something wrong there.

Natasha continued to look at her for a while. Laura didn't want to do anything without her consent. Clearly, it was still serious, but Natasha also didn't want anyone to know. If she trusted her with this, Laura needed to be patient to make sure she didn't push too hard. At the end of the day, Natasha was the one in charge here. Even injured Natasha could easily cut off Laura completely, letting nobody look at her. And even if Laura wasn't a medic, her at least having some knowledge was better than nobody knowing anything.

After a while of just looking at each other Natasha nodded. She leaned forward slightly letting Laura carefully take the bottom of the shirt before very carefully pulling it upwards.

"Oh my god." She had barely lifted the shirt but already Laura's heart was speeding up. She didn't mean to say anything, but it just slipped out. She could only see her left side. And even if she could only see a couple of inches of her skin the part she could see was covered in blue and green bruises. They were clearly from punches.

She let out a heavy breath as she continued. She had beardly seen anything yet, and she had a feeling it was only going to get worse. Trying to push the thought away she lifted the shirt higher slowly revealing her upper body.

No, no, no, no. Please don't be real.

Laura could barely contain herself from ripping the whole sweater off as she laid her eyes on her destroyed collarbone and the blue marks around her neck. Her whole upper body was destroyed. Filled with cuts and bruises. It was barely any spots that hadn't been touched.

The worst part was her neck. It was both blue and red. And it was no doubt somebody had tried to choke the woman at one point.

At this point, the woman only had pants and her underwear on. Her bra was barely on with both of the straps fallen off her shoulders and bloodstains covering what really would have been a nice white bra.

Laura dropped the sweater on the floor before slowly leaning forwards to look at the woman closer. Natasha was only staring into nothing not giving Laura any real attention.

"Turn towards me," Laura ordered slowly. She tried her best to keep her own nerves under control as she spoke, not wanting to make an already scary situation worse.

Natasha moved slowly around, still looking into nothing, and didn't stop until her whole upper body was pointed towards Laura. Laura inhaled sharply as she watched Natasha reveal an even more bruised right and front side. You could see the scar from War machines blast, but even with that there it really wasn't what took Laura's attention.

The whole right side of her neck was filled with hikes and she had a deep cut under her right collar bone. The blood was dried up and you could tell the cut was a few days old, with old strips barely hanging on still. But even if it was old Laura could tell this was still hurting now.

Laura threw one last look on her neck again before she spoke up again.

"Lean forwards," Laura said with a short breath, already scared of whatever would be next.

She needed to see her back. She needed to make sure it wasn't as bad.

"Oh my god Natasha," Laura exclaimed. She was completely lost for words as she looked at a completely destroyed back. The whole back was covered in claw marks from nails against the skin. With old bloodstains on her back and infected cuts, it was no wonder she had flinched when Laura had put pressure on it.

No. This could not be real life. This wasn't real.

She refused to believe it.

She pushed Natasha slowly back up against the bed, making sure Natasha was comfortable against the pillow. Natasha didn't fight her this time. She only looked at her, meeting her eyes for this first time since the bathroom. Her eyes were filled with pain.

Laura could only look at the destroyed redhead for a second before she felt her eyes move over to her body again. Letting her eyes follow the bruise on the left side. From her neck and down the entirety of her left side. She could tell it didn't stop by her pants. She knew it continued.

Slowly pulling down the edge of the pants just past her waistline she could see it continue down. Still blue and destroyed with claw marks along her hip.

She didn't need to see any more. She didn't want to see any more.

She already knew.

"Nat, you need to let a doctor look at this. This is. This is really bad." The last part was only a whisper as she let her hand glide carefully down the redhead's neck and along with the dark blue bruise. It was like she could see the marks of the hand still there on her neck.

"No." Natasha's voice cracked as she spoke to her for the first time since the bathroom. "No" She repeated looking at Laura with a scared look in her eyes.

"The deal was only you. Don't tell anyone. Not Clint. Not Maria. Not Pepper. Got it!" The last part was definitely a threat. Laura could see the anger in her eyes, and for the first time in years, Laura could feel herself getting a bit scared of the redhead.

She hadn't even thought of Pepper. Pepper, Natasha's girlfriend. The woman that loved her more than anything. It broke her heart. Pepper needed to know, she deserved to know.

She didn't want to hide this from them. It felt wrong hiding something so bad, something so incredibly seriously and important from all the people this woman loved. This was awful. But she had no choice. If she didn't agree, Natasha would probably run away ending up hurting herself more. And if she broke it later, Laura could tell Natasha would not forgive her with this one.

She knew she was the only person Natasha would let help her, and she could not risk hurting this woman more now. The stakes were too high.

Laura looked at her again. She could feel herself wanting to refuse but she only looked at her one last time before nodding slowly.

"Okay"