A/N: So now I'm back to the point where I have to write again. Because now I've caught up to what I did in nano… damnit xD so that means it will take longer between updates. So, I'll try to write some every day, but I have a few other things I need to do in the next months as well. But I know people are impatient for this one and very much so for the other fanfic soooooo….. trying. Just like hang on. Also, I have not like beta read this at all. So lol to that.

Make it a good week and I'll talk to you soon.

Red/S-B

"So, what we learn from this?" Clint said leaning back in his chair as they had their evening meeting.

Maria, Pepper, and Laura came home a few hours earlier and after eating dinner and getting the kids to bed they decided to call for the Avengers and tell them what they discovered.

"We know that she at least meant to give us that card. And she was aware we were there." Pepper said looking at them to see if they all agreed.

"And then what. Like this is not you every normal woman. We are talking about the black widow. Surely she wants something more." Rhodey said as he pulled up a map of New York to look at.

"If they were speaking Russian chances are high, they won't be staying very long." Steve pointed out as he pulled out another hologram map and started and flip through some different countries before landing on Russia.

"So, what, you're just going to look for her in the world's biggest country. That seems kind of ridiculous" Rhodey challenged "You are only thinking about Bucky. He is over there in Europe somewhere I am sure you would like a chance to go there." Rhodey mumbled.

Laura looked between them feeling her stomach tighten. She didn't like this. Not at all. She had no idea why they switched the tone like that, but this didn't seem good. Not at all where did this even come from?

"Excuse me but that is not what this is about," Steve growled back forcing Tony to step between them making Laura let out a small exhale in relief.

"Okay calm down boys we don't need to start anything. Take a deep breath and just focus up" Tony said looking between the two of them. It was almost sounding like a threat, not that Laura thought that was a bad thing right now. They needed it to focus on Natasha here and not starting to argue.

"But how are we going to approach this? I mean I think we can all agree this didn't help us as much as we hoped it would." Sam said as he picked up one of the copies of the business cards playing with it between his fingers.

Pepper had ended up printing 3 copies of the card with Maria's blessing earlier just to make sure they could look at it without actually damaging the other real one. They knew the original would hold some secrets but better safe than sorry. Because was it one thing Laura and learned with kids was it that touching things a lot of times usually left marks.

Clint leaned forward to the table. Laura watched him carefully pick up the one real card. It was still in a small plastic bag to make sure it wasn't getting damaged.

He looked at it with a thoughtful look.

"Why did she use that name? And why did she her real handwriting?" He mumbled as he let his finger glide along with the card. He was clearly thinking very hard about this and was more talking to himself than to the rest of the group.

"What do you mean? She always uses a variant of her name when is undercover doesn't, she?" Rhodey said looking at him with a confused look. "Like with Stark industries. Natalie Rushman." He continued nodding at Pepper and Tony.

"This isn't a made-up name; this is her real name," Clint said. Laura watched as the whole room died down and she could see them staring at him confused.

"Say what now?" Sam said blinking confused at him.

She was actually surprised they didn't know. Even if Natasha never used the name anymore, she thought she would have mentioned it once or twice. Even Pepper seemed surprised, and she was definitely sure Pepper would know. How had Natasha never told Pepper, her girlfriend. That seemed very odd. Even for an old word-class superspy.

"It is. Heard it back when she and I were working against hydra. It's her two first names." Steve said nodding conformingly at Clint.

Okay, Steve knew. That wasn't that surprising. Still hadn't been Natasha who told him. She wasn't aware Natasha was so secretive about her name. she still let her call her Talia, and that was a direct link and nickname to her real name Natalia and not to Natasha. It never had and never would.

"Not going to lie, I did not know she had another name," Sam said shaking his head leaning back in his chair.

"She changed it after she joined shield. Told us she had too many bad memories connected to Natalia" Maria added with a small nod at Clint who nodded back in confirmation.

"So, she did it on purpose then." Rhodey pointed out with a small sigh.

"We are talking about the best spy in the world. She does nothing without a reason." Clint said before throwing the card on the table.

Laura looked at it carefully. One arrow. On red paper. All she could think about was Clint. And Natasha. Together. It was like the necklace he had given her. In fact, the shape seemed extremely similar. Or maybe identical. Short neck. Big point and tail. No, this was her necklace. She was sure of it. It was too similar not to be.

She grabbed the card carefully, and she could feel everyone look at her as she slowly lifted it to the light shifting it slightly to get the light to hit differently. She knew it probably seemed off. Especially since she was a housewife and not in any way involved in this kind of work. But she had learned a few things from her husband and best friend over the years.

04.10.2005

"oh my god," Laura whispered. Looking at the card.

It was barely noticeable, and she could only see it if the light it on the right angle but there it was. so very clearly right in front of her.

"What?" Maria said leaning over to see what Laura was talking about. Laura decided not to try to give the whole explanation knowing it needed some more backstory than she had the energy to give. Instead, she handed the card carefully back to Clint who looked at her with a confused look.

She watched as he copied her slowly lifting it up to the light. Immediately she saw his eyes light up as he realized.

"Jesus Christ Nat," he mumbled before throwing the card on the table grabbing the control over the map. They watched as he moved the map over.

"We are going here." He said pointing at the city on the hologram.

"Vienna?" Tony said already starting to work on his tablet.

"Why?" Steve said looking at him with a confused look.

"Because she left us a hint. On the card. It is the date when I brought her in. And that's where I found her."

Laura was sitting in the living room with Lila on her lap reading a book when Pepper walked into the room. She locked eyes with the mother but decided not to say anything, only taking a seat on another side of the room.

Laura was alone with the kids. The Avengers minus, Wanda and Rhodey were out in Europe to look for Natasha, and after talking about it for a while, Laura had let Clint go.

First Tony had gone alone, but after needing some backup Sam, Vision, Steve and Clint decided to join him to cover more ground in the safest way possible.

They left the rest of them behind in the facilities. Not that Laura minded too much. It was a lot of work with three kids alone, but both Pepper and Wanda helped her in the evenings, so it wasn't too bad.

The team hadn't found anything, and they weren't necessarily expecting to either. They knew Natasha was leading them somewhere, but they were more than one step behind at this point. And if the people Natasha was working for was even just like a quarte as efficient as she was, they would be long gone by now.

They had just gotten into March now and Laura was starting to feel the need to go outside more to try to get to enjoy some early spring weather. It seemed to turn warm quite fast and she was eager to get back a temperature that was warm enough to spend some time in.

As she finished her book with Lila, she could see Pepper starting to pull out some work. She wondered what she wanted.

"Lila could you go over to that table and join your brother for some drawing, please. I'm going to talk with Pepper, okay?" Laura said looking at the girl. Lila nodded happily before sliding off her lap running over to her brother. She smiled after the girl. Just thinking about how happy she was that she and her brother had been so good at listening to everything she said lately.

Laura turned to Pepper and walked up to the other woman.

"Hi. You need anything?" Laura said with a soft smile as she took a seat by the other woman.

"Not really, I just wanted to hear if you were interested to go check out your new home with me tomorrow or in two days? I know it is very last minute, but the old owner gave me the keys today, and I rather want to check it out now than wait too long." Pepper said with a soft smile.

Laura looked back at her surprised. She knew Pepper was getting the keys soon, but she didn't know she already had them. She would love to look at the new home, but she also had the kids, so she needed to find somebody to watch them if they were to go.

"I don't know I have the kids. And I don't think house looking it the best thing to bring them" Laura said thoughtfully. Pepper nodded understandably before saying.

"I am thinking I'll take one of our planes to Washington Regional Airport it's just under an hour to the new house from there," Pepper said with a small smile looking down at a map on her tablet.

Regional was a couple of hours away from their old house, but she did know about it. It was a small airport only used for small planes or the occasional small private jet. They had multiple small airports around in Missouri, in fact, it was one quite close to their old home.

Laura nodded slowly before saying. "Have you heard of Waynesville" her voice was slow as she was trying to figure out if this was going to work in her head or not. Not sure if her memory was good enough for this one.

"Yeah, it's a bit more to the west?" Pepper said as she was looking at the map in front of her. Laura nodded before jumping even closer to her.

"Yes, we lived kinda close to it over here." She said pointing at the map. "We have some friends there that the kids are very close to. I can always ask if they could watch them for the weekend and then we would have two days instead of just a few hours?" Laura said looking at the woman.

"Yeah, why not. I can always ask if our pilot can go there instead, yes. Just need to talk with a driver, but it sounds like a plan." Pepper said nodding softly.

Laura smiled happily back. She knew the kids were missing their friends. And seeing Lucie and Caspar again would be a dream for them. She smiled at Pepper lifted her phone to rearrange and Laura could only fish up her own phone to call Annie.

She was already smiling from ear to ear when she heard Annie pick up her phone on the other end of the line.

"Laura!" she could hear the happy voice on the other end Laura could feel herself missing the other woman now. They had of course talked and texted a bit. And with talked and texted Laura meant dumping everything on her because she needed an outlet. She was very thankful she had her, especially now, but she still missed just hanging out and talking to the woman on a regular basis.

"Hi! How are you?" Laura said with a small laugh as she leaned back in her chair.

"Good. The kids are of course all over the place, but what is new. What about you?" Annie said with a small laugh making Laura smile softly.

"I'm good. We are thinking about looking at the new house this weekend. And I don't know if it's on very short notice but are you available to watch the.."

"OF COURSE," Laura laughed loudly as the woman cut her off.

"I would love to see the kid again and of course. You need to look at your new house!" Annie continued only making Laura laugh more.

"Had a feeling you would say yes but needed to make sure," Laura said with a small giggle. She already knew this was going to be a great weekend.

Laura, Pepper, and the kids decided to leave early Saturday morning. It was a two-and-a-half-hour flight, but they needed to drive a bit, and better to go early than late. Then the kids would get as much time with their friends as well, something Laura thought they deserved.

They took one of the private planes Stark had and before Laura knew it, they were back in Missouri. It would only be a 20 minutes' drive to Annie's, and then another hour to the new home. And when the driver pulled up in front of Annie's house Laura's heart started to expand.

The woman was in the door with the kids already, and Lila and Cooper were almost out of the car before they had stopped.

Laura watched as Lila launched herself at Lucie and Caspar running straight into Cooper's arms. It was so amazing and heartbreaking to watch at the same time.

Laura stepped out of the car and grabbed the bags their driver handed her. They were going to spend the night at Annie's while Pepper would stay at a hotel close by.

Annie was waiting for her as she walked up to the door and dragged her into a big hug.

"Good to see you again Laur," Annie said with a soft voice as she pulled back.

"I know you need to run again, but if Pepper wants to, she is more than welcome to eat dinner with us this evening," Annie said grabbing the bags from Laura. Laura only nodded at her before saying.

"It was lovely to see you. Promise to talk tonight. But I think Nate is waking up too." Laura said giving Annie another short hug before moving to the car again. Annie nodded before waving at them before they continued their way over to the new house.

Laura spent most of the drive there to nurse try to calm down Nate who woke up, but when they started to get close, she started to feel some butterflies. Why was she so nervous about this house?

They drove past a small little down before taking a small sideroad to get to the house. Outside it was beautiful big fields with beautiful houses everywhere. Was this really where they were going to live?

She let out a small gasp as they pulled up into the driveway. Unlike the last house, it wasn't on an end road, it was its own whole section. The small road the connected all the houses and farms had a small branch this house was part of. The small branch went straight through their lot, 90 degrees from west to the south before connecting with the main road again.

It was a beautiful white house, one of what seemed like 3 buildings. One of them was a big wooden garage. And farmhouse. All on the lot connected with a small road in the middle of the lot. With small grass patches between and open space for what she could only imagine was going to be lots of play.

She picked up Nate carefully before stepping out of the car taking in the beautiful place. As she tried to get him in his baby carrier she tried to look around as much as possible.

"Wow." Laura let out looking around carefully.

"Yeah," Pepper said softly before slowly starting to make her way over to the house.

"it's bigger than I thought it was going to be." The blond said, almost making it as a statement, as they walked towards the house. Laura could only nod at the comment. She didn't know what to say. It was incredible. Pepper was incredible.

This was perfect.

"The bigger the house the emptier space." Was the only thing Laura was able to say, making Pepper laugh softly as she started to look for the keys.

"This feels like a back door." Laura pointed out as they walked up to a white door.

"Probably is too." Pepper only said clearly not going to try to find the front door, making Laura laugh.

The back door was nice though. It was like a small back area underneath a roof. With space for some chairs and benches. The old owners had left an old grill. It was old and rusty but matched the rest of the farm. It really was a nice small area she could definitely picture being the home for a lot of clutter knowing her family.

While Pepper was opening the door, Laura took the time to turn around and look some more around. It was a small wooden storehouse here too, which she hadn't noticed before. The whole place really seemed beautiful. So much space. So much land. Laura didn't even know what to think. This was going to be their home. This beautiful place was where they were going to live. This was incredible.

"Oh my god."

Laura didn't have the time to turn around properly before she backed up straight into Pepper who had stopped in the door just looking into the room.

Laura shook her head confused before walking past her immediately stopping too.

The whole room was filled with cardboard boxes. Carefully stacked with numbers on them. They were all in different shapes and sizes spread across the whole room.

"I thought you said it was empty," Laura whispered slowly moving over to one of the boxes. She let her hand glide over it carefully not opening it, just looking at it confused.

"I thought so." Pepper replied with a low voice. Laura turned to her when she heard the sound of paper. Pepper had a paper in her hand. It was a printed list.

1-3 kitchen.

4-9 living room

10 dining room

11-12 kids

13-20 extra

Laura looked at Pepper confused. Pepper only looked at the paper before slowly moving over to one of the boxes labeled 2. It was relatively big but flat.

Laura watched her open it slowly.

"How?" Laura whispered sinking beside Pepper as Pepper slowly removed the newspaper in the box. Pepper turned to her and looked at her confused, but Laura already knew what it was. It was her white porcelain fruit bowl. Natasha had given it to her years ago.

Laura lifted it up carefully, trying to not hit Nathaniel as she did so, before placing it on the floor. It was no doubt this was hers. She knew it was because Natasha even told her she got it commissioned for her.

"This is from our old house," Laura whispered letting her finger glide over the bowl. Pepper turned to her with wide eyes before squinting clearly thinking about something. Laura watched her think before moving over to another box. It was the number one. It was big. really big.

Laura immediately recognized what it was the second Pepper opened it. It was the costume knives Natasha had gotten clint, followed by some plates Laura had inherited from her parents after they had passed away. Two things that were so important to both of them.

She already had a feeling she knew what the theme was now. She turned around and opened a random box not even looking at the number. Inside was filled with toys for the kids. Toys she remembered. Things she knew they loved.

She moved to the next box. One of Clint's best suits and a dress.

Clothes of the kids.

Some of her favourite old books.

More toys

"Oh my god." Laura said turning to Pepper who was in the middle of opening another box. "how is this even possible?" Laura said picking up one of the pictures Natasha had had in her old room.

"I don't know." Pepper only whispered looking down into a big box. Laura tilted her head looking at the woman who only looked down at the box not moving anything. Laura made her way carefully over trying not to step on anything she had so carelessly placed all over the floor.

She looked curious over Pepper's should and to her surprise inside was Wanda's guitar and most the of the Christmas gifts Laura and Clint had gifted her.

Pepper turned to her and looked at her seriously.

"This could only be her. It's no other explanation." Pepper said looking at her seriously.

Nobody else would know about many of the things that were here. Some of the things would for most people just seem like random things, but this really did seem like a collection of all of the most important items from Laura's old house. Pepper was right. This had to be Natasha.

They spent the next 7 hours trying to unpack everything and going over the house. The house in itself was beautiful. It had two big bedrooms, like master bedrooms. One had, like her old house, a walk-in closet so that would be Laura and Clint's master bedroom, while for the time being, they would reserve the other big room for Natasha.

They didn't know if Nathaniel would end up with his own room or share it with Lila. Right now, Lila really wanted to share a room with him when he got old enough, and if both of them did want that they wouldn't have a problem with doing so. They would also have one room over the garage to give to one of them if they wanted some more space. Or maybe that would be the room for Wanda. The garage was almost like a small apartment. It had a bedroom and an old stove and fridge as well. The bathroom was on the same level as the car, but it was still very nice. Looked quite new too. It would be a lovely place to live for a teen.

The living room and kitchen was one big room here too. The kitchen was quite new, newer than her old home at least. And it was bigger. A lot bigger. They had a study, dining room, and something that felt like a mini living room. Pluss of course two bathrooms.

Laura didn't know how Pepper knew how this would be the perfect home, but it really was. it was incredible. The open space would be perfect to play on. So much space to run around on for the kids. They could put up some targets for the kids. A swing maybe. It was lovely.

Like Pepper had said, it was a renovation project. Even with her knowledge of zero, Laura could tell this needed some work. One of the walls had a big dent in it. It seemed like it was partly water damaged in some places, and just in general quite old. Not that Laura minded. She knew it would turn out great, and since Pepper had warned her about it too it wasn't a disappointment either. If anything, she could picture it being quite fun working on the house with Pepper.

As they finished up for the night Laura realized she had lost Pepper. She thought she was down in the living room with her, but she must have moved somewhere when she didn't notice. The car that was picking them up and driving them to Annie again was already here, so she needed to find her.

Laura picked up Nate again before slowly making her way upstairs. He had been so good at handling the traveling surprisingly well. It wasn't ideal at all, but he had been very good regardless. She was happy had turned into a better sleeper. He was still a lighter sleeper than his siblings, but he was definitely better now than before. And especially considering his age.

She found Pepper in one of the bedrooms standing by the window. In her hand, she had Natasha's red leather jacket. The one that Wanda had arrived in months ago and used before Laura lent her one of her own winter jackets.

Laura watched the woman as she slowly collected herself and turned around.

"Ready to go?" Pepper asked softly. Laura nodded back with a small smile.

She could tell Pepper was hurting. She wasn't surprised. Of course, she was. Why wouldn't she? She had more or less lost her girlfriend. They had no idea where she was, and she hadn't seen her in months. Laura couldn't imagine the pain she had to be going through and having to deal with every day.

The drive back to Annie was mostly quiet. Pepper was spending her time going over some emails on her phone and Laura had Nate. Pepper had been unsure if she wanted to join dinner at Annie's and had argued to just stay at a hotel. But Laura thought that was ridiculous. Annie was a lovely woman and she thought it would be a good chance for Pepper too. So, after some talking Pepper had agreed to join dinner before she would eventually take a taxi back to the hotel.

Laura didn't even bother to knock when they arrived just walked straight into the house with Pepper trailing behind her. She could already smell the delicious smell of some homemade pizza sauce. Laura loved Annie's pizza and so did her kids. She was really hoping for a nice evening with them.

"Laura how was the house?!" Annie walked around the corner already reaching after Nate to let Laura take off her jacket.

Laura smiled softly before replying. "Very nice. Big. very big" She watched as Annie let out a small laugh before nodding.

"Dinner won't be finished before an hour, a good time for this little guy to go to bed I'm guessing. Because of the time zones, right?" Annie said cuddling softly with Nate who seemed very interested in the gold necklace around she was bearing.

"Yes. You really do think of everything." Laura said softly turning to Pepper who was standing awkwardly behind her. Or as awkward as Pepper Potts could look, she supposed.

The two of them, plus Nate, spent the next hour in a small sitting area close by the kitchen as Annie worked on dinner. They had both offered to help at least three times each, but Annie continued to refuse.

Just before Laura was putting Nate to sleep, Kent joined them. Pepper and Kent hit it surprisingly well off. She didn't know why she was surprised really. Pepper was really easy to like as long you didn't try to annoy her and Kent was a very down to earth man. Never pushing or digging in any way, which Laura knew Pepper always appreciated.

Annie had, of course, offered them the guest room. While Pepper had declined, she and Nate would still be staying in the guest room while the kids would stay at the kids' room together.

Being here made Laura realize how very thankful she had Annie still. It was the one other adult friend she was really close to. Because while she was on good terms with the kid's friends' parents, Annie knew more or less everything about her and her family. And she was the only one to do so. But the best part was that even though Annie knew about Natasha's inane past and Clint's former job, nothing had really changed, and she never treated her differently because of it.

Of course, they and that one event when Annie had admitted she had found out everything about Natasha by more or less accident. And of course, when you find out one of your best friends, is a friend of one of the former biggest assassins, you get scared. But after Laura explained their side Annie started to understand and went back to her soft self. If anything, she seemed to grow closer to Natasha herself, always making sure Natasha was involved when she was around.

The whole evening and night were used to catch up. The kids didn't really give the adults any attention, which didn't bother Laura at all. The kids were very much allowed to have fun with their friends without the adults interfering. She was just happy the kids could hang out with their old friends again.

She had no idea how it would be when they moved into the new house. She wanted them to still keep in touch, of course, but she never did know how to keep a long-distance friendship alive. Even if it was only "one hour" away.

The kids were currently upstairs laughing. They were supposed to be sleeping at this point, but they were very clearly not. Still, none of the parents wanted to talk them down. Instead, they just continued their own small conversation.

Pepper stayed longer than Laura had thought she would. But Pepper had fallen very naturally into the conversation and Laura was happy she stayed for a bit longer.

"So, being, well Pepper Potts, I'm guessing you are very involved with the Avengers?" Annie asked softly as she was holding around her tea mug looking at Pepper curious.

"I am. I want to say sadly, but that might be a bit rude." Pepper said with a small smile making Annie laugh loudly and Laura giggle softly at her.

"But yes. I do. Never seem to get a break from them." Pepper said, still with a small mischievous look in her eye.

"So, the next question would be, is what I've seen about you and Natasha true then?" Laura watched as Pepper's eyes widened in surprise. "Because I like Natasha, but I never heard anything about a… a hot blond dating her. That was before I saw it on the front page of every newspaper inexistent. But I mean I don't know if what I've read is true" Annie added with a small playful voice.

Laura and told Annie what had happened. Of course, she had. She needed to so she could keep herself sane. She needed to talk to somebody. She hadn't told her everything, but the bigger parts. Just so he could get it off her chest. But even if Annie knew that Natasha was gone, and they were trying to hunt her down, Annie was clearly not going for that information. She was going for the fun part. She was going for the juicy part.

"Depends what you've read," Pepper mumbled looking down at her hands making Laura laugh louder than what she was planning.

"It is. And it is very cute." Laura said with a small laugh making Pepper hide herself in her hands even more clearly uncomfortable, even if both Annie and Kent were laughing softly with Laura.

"I think it's a beautiful thing. And they both deserve it." Laura added tossing Pepper a serious look. Pepper lifted her head and looked at her carefully before giving her a small smile.