Disclaimer: The Avengers, its characters and The Marvel Cinematic Universe belong to Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company, among many others. Just as Daredevil and its characters belong to Marvel Televisions, ABC Studios, Netflix and many others. I'm only a fan, writing this for love of this film franchise and personal pleasure.

A.N.: Set during CA:CW, after Nat and Tony talk at the compound. This chapter references The Incredible Hulk and the tie-in comic Fury's Big Week, but I'm keeping the dates according to the MCU timeline with The Incredible Hulk taking place in 2009, Iron Man 2 in 2010, Thor in 2011 and so on. And I'm bringing in Matt Murdock from the Daredevil TV series, throwing in his comic connection to Black Widow. This is deviating a bit, as it's not strictly Romanogers, but it's another one of my head-canons and I thought it was important to the narrative, so here we go.


To Build a Home

12. Red Tape

Natasha felt livid. She was stuck between two incredibly stubborn, prideful men and the huge rift that their differences were causing in the team, and the consequences were already upon them: Rhodey, probably paralyzed from the waist down; Sam, Wanda and Clint serving time in a supermax prison in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, along with the unsuspecting Scott Lang that had turned up all of a sudden; Steve and Barnes, off to God knows where to fight these Winter Soldiers by themselves. And here was Tony accusing her of double-crossing him, as if she were supposed to choose sides when they were all Avengers and all she'd ever done was try to keep everyone safe and together.

"T'Challa told Ross what you did, so they're coming for you." She supposed that was his idea of an apology, a warning for something she already knew that was coming. She'd known the moment she made her decision and let Steve go in that hangar back in Germany.

"I'm not the one who needs to watch their back."

Even as she said her biting parting words to Tony, Natasha was already moving fast. Really, she'd been moving fast the moment she'd first hit the Crown Prince of Wakanda in the chest. Not once, not twice, but three times. She would've been stupid if she would even consider that T'Challa wouldn't tell the Secretary of State just what exactly she'd done to him and Natasha Romanoff was definitely not stupid.

She had a plan. She always had a plan. There were always escape routes, safe houses, secret stashes, packed bags, prepaid phones, unmarked vehicles and untraceable offshore accounts in her life. It was how she was raised and trained to be. Always the spy, always on the move, always three steps ahead. She would always hope that she'd never have to use them. When she left SHIELD behind and stepped up as an Avenger she really thought she'd have no more use for all of that.

Still, she had kept them. And now she found herself glad that she'd done so as she'd need to use it all once more.

Taking the packed bag she kept hidden in her room and one of the cars from the garage of the compound, she stepped on it and took I-87 heading south. She ditched it in Newark near the airport, avoided all the street cameras and soon enough she found herself in the building garage where she kept one of those unmarked vehicles. Getting back out on the road, she checked her hair in the rear view mirror, contemplating which new color she should use this time, and activating a secure line on the car phone as she dialed the familiar number.

"Hey, Laura." She said softly as soon as the line picked up.

"Nat?" Her friend gasped back in surprise.

"How are you doing?" Natasha asked, already guessing at the answer and dreading it.

"I'm… Nat, I'm freaking out." Laura's voice shook as she told her this and Natasha pursed her lips into a thin line. "They put him in some secret prison in the middle of nowhere and they won't let me see him. They're calling him a war criminal, a terrorist! I can't even get him a lawyer. I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"Listen, you don't have to worry about it," Natasha told her firmly, the grip on the steering wheel turning her knuckles white. "I'm going to fix this, I promise."

"How?" Laura breathed out. Her tone wasn't one of doubt, but of wonder.

"You know me. I'll use every trick in the book." The corners of her mouth turned up. Laura didn't need to know that, but everything in the book, off the book and frankly even throwing out the damn book would probably go down for this. "I'll get him back to you and the kids. I will."

"I know you will, Nat. I trust you," Laura replied promptly, causing this warm feeling to spread out through Natasha's body. To think that she'd have a friend who would still trust her like this, even after she'd been on opposite sides of a fight with her husband. "But what about you?"

"That might take a while," the redhead drawled out. "I'm not sure when we'll be able to see each other again. Tell the kids to be good 'cause their dad will soon be there."

"I will. Be safe, okay? And make sure you keep Cap and those guys out of trouble." Laura said softly, a hint of a smile in her voice.

Natasha smiled to herself at that. Funny how Laura had become as well-versed in reading her as Clint was. Or maybe she was just becoming predictable. "I'll talk to you soon. Bye."

Making good use of that car phone and the encrypted secure line, Natasha placed several other calls and cashed in all sorts of favors and even metaphorically twisted a few arms as she headed down to her first stop: Culver University, Virginia. It'd been almost seven years since she was last on that campus, but she remembered vividly posing as a student to keep tabs on Dr. Elizabeth Ross. Back then, there had been chatter that Bruce Banner was on the move back to the US and Fury had wanted her to be infiltrated in case he tried to make contact with his former girlfriend, so Natasha had been right there when Ross and his men had rather disastrously tried to take him in, nearly resulting in Betty's death and Natasha herself had suffered some minor damage as well, which had pissed her off at the time.

She pushed those thoughts aside and the immense feeling of awkwardness that she was coming to Bruce's ex-girlfriend, of all people, for help. She hoped whatever Betty Ross once felt for him had been strong enough that she would be willing to help his friends now─if she even had the right to call herself that, but desperate times and all of that. She quickly made her way through campus, locating the biology department, sitting down on a bench and staking out the exits. It wasn't long before the woman she was looking for walked out.

"Excuse me. Dr. Ross?" Natasha approached her with a disarming smile.

"Yes?" The brunette looked up with a polite smile of her own. Betty Ross looked almost the same as she did all those years ago. There was a refreshing quality about her and her clear blue eyes, which just then she blinked up at Natasha with something like recognition. "I'm sorry, I never forget a face and yours is very familiar, but I can't place the name. Were you a student here?"

"Not quite." Natasha said, her smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. Technically, Nancy Roberts had been a student there, but that wasn't her, or not anymore anyway. "We don't know each other, but we have someone in common. My name is Natasha Romanoff and I work with the Avengers."

"Oh!" Betty breathed out, her whole posture going rigid in a second and she stepped closer, her blue eyes looking avidly into her face. "Where is he? Is he okay? Please, just tell me he's okay."

"I─I'm not sure." Natasha replied, feeling a little thrown at her reaction. She hadn't expected her to be still so attached to Bruce, even after all these years. She knew how he'd kept away from Betty, because he didn't want to put her in danger again and Tony had kept him stashed away at the Tower, practically hidden from government and public alike and only heading out on missions when they had all been working together. Shaking her head a little, Natasha continued. "Officially, he's AWOL. But we have every reason to believe he's still alive." He'd still been as indestructible as ever the last time she saw him, after all.

Betty seemed somewhat reassured at this and breathed out a sigh of relief. As she kept looking at the redhead in front of her, her brow furrowed softly in thought. "This isn't about Bruce, then."

"I was hoping you'd be willing to help me, for his sake." Natasha felt bad for manipulating the woman. But in a way, this was the truth. She didn't know where he was, but if Bruce had been here he would never have agreed to sign the Accords, that much she knew. He'd always been very against any sort of government claiming their strength, especially the Hulk's, as their own. And wherever he was, she hoped they got rid of this Accords mess before he came back. Plus Secretary Ross never stopped trying to get a hold of him, even after his military career was shot to hell with that mess in Harlem. She still had no idea how he'd managed to weasel his way into the DOS, of all places.

The doctor's shrewd blue eyes kept looking at her, then her brow unfurled in dawning understanding. "This is about my father and those Sokovia Accords that were on the news, isn't it? And everything that happened in Vienna, Bucharest and in Berlin?"

Natasha merely gazed firmly back at her. She could see why Bruce had liked her. "Yes."

The brunette took a deep breath in and out. "What do you need?" At Natasha's rather surprised flickering eyebrow at her simple and straightforward response, she shrugged her shoulders easily. "My father let his ambition get the best of him. He tricked Bruce, he tricked us into helping with his research, claiming the serum was supposed to make the subject immune to gamma radiation, withholding information that it was actually an attempted recreation of the super soldier serum. So yeah, tell me what you need and I'll see what I can do."

Natasha smiled gratefully back at her. They started walking together as she outlined her plan and what she'd already set in motion on her way to meet her. After settling things with Betty and thanking her for her help, she got back into her car heading north back to New York. On the way there, she dialed another number she knew quite well.

"Any chance you're on the east coast?" She asked without preamble, not bothering with niceties, as they'd never had any need for that between them.

"I might be. So what are you up to now?" Nick Fury drawled out unconcernedly in reply.

"I need dirt on Ross." She said, going straight to the point. "Physical, tangible, binding dirt. I know you have it, boss."

"I suppose I do." He said, never one to give a straight answer if he could help it. "Wanna tell me what the hell you were all thinking when you decided to blow up half the airport in Leipzig?"

"I was trying to keep us together." She said, her tone clipped. "It didn't work, so now I need to backtrack and do what I can to fix this."

"This is not on you, Natasha." Fury said, his tone too light for her caring.

"It's on all of us." She hissed back, swallowing hard for a moment before talking again. "We all let the situation get this far and I can't let them sit in a prison like criminals, Nick. My sources tell me they put Wanda in a straight-jacket with a shock-collar, like she's a goddamn animal! She doesn't deserve that. None of them do."

She heard the man sigh before replying. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks." She told him sincerely, knowing it wouldn't be long before she heard back from him.

Night had fallen when she got to Manhattan, finding her way to one of her safe houses on the island and making preparations before getting to her last stop on the day's itinerary. Breaking in to his apartment was easy, of course, but she wasn't quite prepared for the amount of time she'd be kept waiting for him. All part of his new nightly routine, she guessed. But she wasn't too concerned, helping herself to the leftover Thai food on his fridge and at last he returned home late in the small hours. She was pleased to note the surprised posture as he walked into his living room to find her sitting comfortably in an armchair.

"Natasha Romanoff." Matt Murdock, dressed in some sort of bodysuit in dark red and black, carrying a mask in his hands, said with wonder in his voice. "Long time no see."

"I'm glad your sense of humor is still intact, Matt." She smirked back at the blind man. "How are you doing?"

"Not too bad." He said easily, and the comfortable way he moved around let her know he thought she wasn't a threat to him. "I got my own practice. Those aliens destroying half of Manhattan helped me get a nice office in Hell's Kitchen at a moderate price that we can actually afford, so thanks for that, I guess."

"Glad to be of service." She drawled out, still with that smirk on her lips.

"And how may I be of service to you?" He asked gallantly, ever the gentleman, furrowing his brow after a moment as he thought about it. "Is there trouble in the area?"

"You'll probably know more about that than me, to be honest." She said, getting up from the armchair and walking leisurely back to his kitchen, opening his fridge and helping herself to one of his beers. "I know you're still active, heard you've been causing quite a stir in the area. But that's not why I'm here. I actually need your legal expertise." She popped the bottle open and took a long draught.

"Huh. Can't say that was what I expected." He said, walking up to her and she handed him a second beer bottle, which he accepted promptly. "Are you in trouble with the law? Again?"

"Yes and no." She leaned back against the counter and bobbed her head left and right. "I am in something that may be called trouble, but the help I want is not for me. I have some friends that need it more."

"Do tell." He asked then took a long draught of his own bottle.

"I'm in the process of getting everything you'll need," she explained. "Affidavits, transcriptions, legal paperwork, search warrants and findings."

"Anything legit?" He smirked at her before taking another sip of his beer, remembering quite well who she used to be and what she used to do.

"Yes, it's all legit." She rolled her eyes at him, knowing he could hear it in her voice even if he couldn't see it with his eyes. All the documents would be real, even if what she'd done to obtain them may have flirted with the line of what was lawful, but he didn't need to hear about that part. "This won't go to trial. I just need you to actually file everything and negotiate the terms with the feds. Get the best deal that you can."

"You're doing all my homework for me," he smiled and shook his head a little at her. "You were always such an overachiever, Nat."

"Well, you know me," she shrugged her shoulders easily. "And I did infiltrate a couple of legal offices back in the day, so I know how it works."

"How many deals are we talking here?" He asked, walking around her and leaning his forearms on the counter.

"I'd think two," Natasha narrowed her eyes a little as she thought to herself for a moment. "My friends have families, they can't be on the run with me."

"Why would you need to be on the run?" He countered, a tone of curiosity in his voice. "Why not let me negotiate a deal for you as well?"

"Well, I doubt that even with everything I got I'd be able to get that good a deal," she drawled out before taking another sip of her beer. "You know I'm not going to sacrifice my freedom to be holed up somewhere, even if for a short while. I gotta keep moving."

"Not by yourself, I hope." He murmured, a slight tone of worry in his voice then.

"Don't worry. I got back-up." She assured him easily.

He grinned at her then. "Yes, I'd think Captain America would qualify as back-up."

She flickered one of her eyebrows up at this and smirked at him. "Have you actually started to read people's minds or have I become that transparent?"

"Trust me, you're still harder than most to read, but it's not that big of a leap, if you're saying you'll be on the run and he's been all over the news as a fugitive of the law, again." He said, making a disarming gesture of the hand and pausing for a moment. "Dèjá vu? Same thing happened two years ago, right?"

"Different circumstances, same consequences, I guess," she commented, nursing her beer for a moment. "This time I expect we'll actually be on the run for a long while."

"That could get rough," he said, frowning a little at her.

"It's what I signed up for," she assured him with a quiet smile. "He's my partner. And they're our team."

Matt was silent for a minute, reading her in that preternatural way of his. "You changed, Nat."

"You haven't." She noted back.

"I'll take that as a compliment." He chuckled in response.

"It was one. You know, you remind me of him." Natasha found herself saying with a soft smile. It was true, both men came from Irish Catholic upbringings, had a strong sense of justice, were always taking hits and getting back up, never knowing when to back down. Complicated past love lives, even. At least Steve's past hadn't tried to kill her.

Well, there was Barnes, when she thought about it.

"Shouldn't it be the other way around? You met me first." Matt pointed out with a smile, bringing the bottle up to his lips.

"He predates you." She rolled her eyes a little in good humor.

"Fair enough." He conceded easily. "Alright. You know that my standard legal fees will apply."

"I was hoping to get a discount, considering San Francisco." She raised her eyebrows rather dryly at him. "Your ex left a not-so-pretty scar, after all."

"That was a misunderstanding." He said, shaking his head a little. "She thought you were a threat."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard that the first time." Natasha rolled her eyes again. Threat my ass, she thought to herself. That woman had been jealous, that's what. "Tell that to the knife I got on my back, literally."

"Okay, okay." Matt sighed in reply, then raised a hand up. "No pro bono, though. I know you can afford it."

"Deal." She smirked and extended a hand at him.

He shook her hand then. "When do I get to meet my defendants?"

"Uh, as soon as I get them out." She murmured, bringing the bottle up to her lips and drinking the last of the beer.

"Out?" He raised his eyebrows at her. "Where are they being held? Did they set bail yet?"

"Well, not Rikers. And I'm just about to go post it." She said, walking back to the living room and retrieving her jacket that she'd left draped over the back of his couch. "The paperwork will be sent directly to your office. Expect us back anytime from tomorrow up to a week from today, more or less."

"How… vague." Matt commented with raised eyebrows once more.

"Working with a moving timetable, here." She said easily, putting on her jacket. "Too many variables and it's not all up to me."

"You're not really going to post bail, are you?" Matt asked with a light chuckle in his voice.

"Not unless posting bail means breaking into a supermax prison." Natasha told him casually over her shoulder as she walked to his front door. "Bye, Matt."