The next day, Laura was slouching on the couch in her living room, clearly exhausted.
It was early in the morning and still dark out.
She had called the emergency extraction which was a medi Quinjet.
Nat had an emergency surgery performed on her to heal her wound and Laura had donated a large amount of blood for her.
She wasn't surprised to learn that they had the same blood type.
They were going to bring them back to the Triskelion but Laura forced them to fly them back to her house so Nat can rest and recover in peace.
Away from SHIELD.
Nat herself was sleeping in one of the guestrooms upstairs.
It was currently past 4 in the morning and she had been up for two days straight.
She was waiting for SHIELD to show up and make a scene.
She still had her Glocks strapped on her waist.
There were bruises and cuts from the broken glass on her arms from the crash and a large one on her forehead.
She took a sip of her espresso and right on cue the doorbell ran followed by a loud knock on the door.
"Hold your horses I'm coming!" she groaned while getting up.
She clenched one of her Glocks as she made her way down the hall and flicked on the chandelier.
She cracked one of the front doors open slightly.
There she saw Fury angry gaze down at her.
"Get the hell off my property." she spat.
"Not before a debriefing and explanation on what went wrong out there. Now you'll either let me in or I'll force myself in and have you arrested." he warned.
"Try that and I'll unleash my army of Stark lawyers and destroy SHIELD!" she threatened.
He looked down to see her hands on her gun.
She looked behind him to see the black SHIELD SUV's crowding her driveway, blocking her way out.
She simply narrowed her eyes at him but ungripped her Glock.
"Just you." she said while eyeing the half dozen agents behind him.
Fury turned back to them and nodded.
They stepped back and Laura opened the door to let him.
She closed the door behind him as they stood in the foyer.
"How is Agent Romanoff?" he asked, breaking the silence between them.
"Resting. And your presence isn't helping with that." she crossed her arms.
"She's resting because you compromised the mission." he argued and she clenched her fists.
"I most certainly did not! We made it into Iran. Picked up the engineer. Then made are way our of Iran without any issues. It wasn't until we were almost at the rendezvous when some phsycho with a metal…" she shouted but stopped herself.
She wasn't going to snitch.
She didn't wanna get Nat into trouble.
"A phsycho with a metal what?" Fury demanded, stepping closer to her.
"Nothing." she denied while stepping towards him, refusing to let his towering presence intimidate her.
"Ms. Watson. You will answer my question." he ordered.
"And I'll remind you I'm not one of your agents you can boss around!" she shouted angrily.
Nat groaned in pain as she heard shouting wake up her.
Her eyes were still closed when she felt soft silk sheets on her back.
Her head on a pillow.
That couldn't be right.
The last thing she remembered was… Ukraine.
She slowly opened her left eye to see a bedroom.
It looked normal enough but alarms were going off in her head.
She looked down to see herself dressed in a SHIELD uniform.
A note taped on an alarm clock got her attention.
"Natasha, I had you brought back to my house. You're in one of my rooms upstairs so don't be alarmed. The doctors said you will make full recovery. It was a clean shot." -Laura.
She sighed with relief and forced herself upright.
She turned on the lamp on the side table and winced as she clenched her wrapped waist.
She caressed the stitched wound where the bullet went through her but heard Laura shouting from downstairs.
"You'll ask my question Ms. Watson." Fury repeated himself.
"My loyalty is to Natasha, not SHIELD." she denied.
"It's okay Laura." both of them heard her voice.
They turned around to see her walking down the semi circular wooden stairs, clenching the banister tightly with one hand and her wound with another, taking one step at a time.
"Agent Romanoff? Are you alright?" Fury asked concerned.
"Yes, sir. And this isn't Laura's fault. It's mine." she admitted as she stepped down next to her.
"No it's not Natasha. You don't have…" Laura began but Nat put her hand up.
"I take full responsibility for what happened out there. If it wasn't for Laura I wouldn't be here to explain myself to you. Don't blame her. Blame me." she said.
She gave Laura a warning look to not defend her and she closed her lips tightly reluctantly.
Fury looked between them, seeing their silent communication and sighed.
"I expect a full briefing to be written up by tomorrow. And then the proper course of action will be taken. Is that understood?" he asked Nat firmly.
"Can Natasha recover here?" Laura asked Fury through her teeth.
"She may." he nodded.
"Good. This is yours by the way." she reached for her sweatpants pocket, grabbed the chip, and tossed it to his hand
He raised an eyebrow but put it in his coat pocket.
"Now get the hell out of my house!" she ordered while pointing at the doors.
"Very well. Agent Romanoff. I expect that report. Ms. Watson." he nodded at her.
She crossed her arms and he simply walked out and closed the doors.
"You didn't have to defend me." Nat told her.
"Yes, I did. You didn't have to take the blame." she countered.
"I did though. I failed the mission." Nat argued.
"It wasn't you though it was… who the hell was that?" she asked, remembering his medal arm.
"I'm not exactly sure. He's a ghost. He's credited with at least two dozen assassinations. I have no I.D. on him. All I know he's called The Winter Soldier. He's KGB." she answered.
"That sounds ominous." Laura frowned.
"I owe you, Laura." Nat said seriously.
""If anything I owe you." she replied.
"What do you mean?" Nat asked.
"Well after what... happened I don't know I was just kinda drifting despite everything. Then you came into my life. And then well you kinda made me a badass." she smiled and Nat smiled back.
"So thank you." she hugged her at the end.
"You were the first person I trained. At least my time wasn't wasted." Nat shrugged her shoulders but Laura's stomach growled.
"I don't know about you but I'm starving. Breakfast?" she offered.
"I can eat. You look like you haven't slept since Ukraine though." Nat noticed.
"I've stayed up for longer. I need to eat first. I just bought a killer Italian made espresso machine…" she said and Nat nodded.
They began walking back into the kitchen but Nat grabbed her shoulder.
"Thank you for what you did back there.." she said seriously.
"It was nothing you wouldn't have done for me." she shrugged it off.
"You believe that?" Nat asked, failing to hide the surprise on her face.
"Yes. I do. Your life would be too boring without me anyway." she joked and she smiled faintly.
Nat pulled her into a hug, surprising her but she hugged her back.
"Thank you, Laura."
After breakfast, Laura took her much needed rest.
She was able to convince Nat to stay for at least a few days.
Nat reluctantly conceded, spotting the collection of Russian novels on her bookshelf to pass the time.
The two sharing their love for Isaac Asimov.
Both agreeing the future will be dystopian versus utopian.
Laura had told Clint of Nat's injury on what happened and he rushed over as soon as possible.
She gave him a tour of the house and the other guest room.
It was nice.
Having people over in the usually empty house.
It was currently evening and Laura was grilling up some steaks for them on the patio in the backyard.
It was a hot clear spring day but the palm trees were shading them from the California sunshine.
She flipped a steak on the grill as Clint walked up behind her while Nat was sitting at the table.
"So Natasha had told me what happened in Ukraine. I'm very impressed." he complimented.
"It really was nothing." she shrugged it off.
"Climbing a 100 ft cliff with Natasha on your back isn't nothing." he said seriously.
"Yeah well that's the last favor I'm ever doing for SHIELD." she said angrily.
"What?" both him and Nat asked surprised.
She sighed and turned around to them.
"Look Natasha I appreciate everything you have done for me. Truly. They're good people in SHIELD. The two of you. Phil. But the whole organization is just… ugh well you know." she said, swallowing the insults she wanted to say.
"I get it. SHIELD has made mistakes but still SHIELD is doing the right thing. That's why I joined." he shrugged his shoulders.
"And besides I do have like a whole other job being COO of Stark." she joked sarcastically.
"Wait I know exactly what you need to stay. A codename." Clint joked.
"A what?" she frowned.
"A codename. Natasha is the Black Widow. I'm Hawkeye. We just need one for you." he smirked.
"I already have to deal with Tony's nicknames…" she groaned.
"Perfect then the two of us…" he said while gesturing back to Nat who smiled.
"Will come up with a codename for you and you'll stay." he grinned widely.
"Fine. As long as the codename isn't cheesy."
Laura had decided to stay on as a technical consultant.
Being asked to by Nat and Clint.
Fury had talked to her, asking to stay on for the secret project she was working on at least until it was finished.
And she agreed.
Although she was done with field work.
Her work at Stark had kept her busy enough as it is.
The tower was almost done.
Laura and Pepper had decided it would serve as the 2nd headquarters for Stark.
She called dibs on the top floor for her personal penthouse.
Much to Tony's dismay.
The basic work of running Stark Industries took up all of her free time.
Just today she had introduced the 2nd generation of Stark products and operating system on her stream on YouTube which was slated to be released for Christmas.
It was spring now and another nice day in Los Angeles
She was currently in her office and the sun was setting behind the wall of windows behind her, illuminating the large room in its orange glow.
She was going over a the analytics of the stream when her Stark Phone 2 vibrated.
She frowned, seeing "Unknown Number" on the screen but answered it.
"Yes...?" she sighed, knowing who it would be.
"Ms. Watson." she heard Fury's voice.
"Yes?" she leaned back into her chair.
"We need you to come in to help address a situation. It's urgent." she heard the seriousness of his voice.
Sinking back into her chair, she crossed her arm.
"I believe I said I was done with this kind of SHIELD work." she stated.
"I wouldn't be asking if I was desperate. The situation in New Mexico has become… unstable. We're evacuating the facility." he said seriously.
"And Clint?" she asked with worry.
"Barton is still on duty while our scientists are trying to determine what is going on. But we need your expertise. The situation is critical." he said urgently.
She checked the time on her watch and groaned, her rare early night being ruined.
"Fine. Send a helicopter so I can save your assess."
