Sometimes Cousins are the Worse!
Something in her gut was telling Natasha that Tony's manic behavior was due to more than just lingering PTSD from being captured, held, and tortured by terrorists hired to kill him by one of Howard's business partners. Sure that was a factor in the way Tony had been living his life since his return, but over the last few weeks he seemed to be getting worse when he had wanted to be better. Natasha had been on a mission when Tony was taken, and to deeply in to even be notified about it, let alone able to do something. She would have scoured every single cave and tunnel in the middle east herself looking for him if she had known. According to Fury her mother had threatened to do just that, and Natasha had tried to smother a sense of guilt for not being here for her family by joking that he should have let her. Peggy Carter would have found Tony sooner and taken out the entire terrorist cell while doing it, and she'd have done it all on her own to find her wayward boy.
It wasn't until Natasha had completed her mission and returned to her safehouse in Prague that she learned of what happened to Tony, and it took another six weeks before Fury would order her home. He'd given her an extended R&R at first, during which she'd stayed with her mothers, helping them move back into their old faded red brick brownstone in Brooklyn now that her Mum was retired and no longer needed to live close to the Capitol. It was during that time that Natasha had heard a bit more about Tony, and how he'd called one night, a bit drunk, and rambled on for over an hour about wanting to do better, be better, and promising his Aunt Peggy he would make her proud of him again, because he had a plan.
That plan had turned out to be a red and gold suit of high tech armor. At first it seemed like Tony had meant what he'd said to Peggy during his rambling phone call, he was trying to do the right thing, to make up for past mistakes made in the Stark name. Natasha, meanwhile, had been told she was being reassigned to the New York office by Fury, and had moved into an apartment in Queens. Then Tony started showboating again and Fury called her in with her next assignment. Tony.
Tony had no idea she was a SHIELD agent, hell he didn't even know about SHIELD until Coulson started bugging Pepper Potts about debriefing meetings. Tony just thought he was bringing family into the family company. He'd been absolutely thrilled at the idea. "A Carter and a Stark working together to build a better future, it's how it should be Nattie!" He'd said as he'd showed her around the New York offices before spiriting her away to the West Coast offices. Pepper hadn't been so sure about her at first. Tony wasn't the display family photos all over the place type, so Pepper didn't know who Natasha was at first sight.
"Ah, Nattie!" Tony said excitedly when Natasha walked into the gym. "Good, good, got those papers form legal for me?"
"Right here, Tony." Natasha said holding up a thick black portfolio.
"Great!" Tony replied as he climbed out of the boxing ring he'd been in with Happy Hogan. "You give me those, and while Potts and I sign them you can keep Happy company."
Natasha could feel the other woman's eyes on her as she smirked at Tony as he took the portfolio from her. She could hear Pepper's protests, something about sexural harassment and she couldn't help but chuckle softly as she climbed into the ring to tease Happy for a little awhile. Happy, unlike Pepper, knew who she was to Tony and it was kind of sweet that he wanted to teach her self-defence.
"What do you mean new personal assistant?" Pepper hissed softly.
"You're going to be too busy being the CEO and Chair of the company to be my assistant anymore." Tony replied as he signed the documents Natasha had brought him. "I needed a new one."
"So you just hired the first pretty face to apply?" Pepper's voice was tight, her tone low, a touch of anger and maybe a little hurt coloring her words. "What do you even know about her? How did you even meet her? How long have you known this woman? Forty-eight hours? Twelve?"
"Huh?" Tony looked up at her with a confused expression. "Pretty face? Who Nattie? Eww, Pepper don't be gross. How long have I known her?" He blinked, turned to look at Natasha in the ring, barefoot, wearing her pencil skirt and blouse that reminded him of her school uniform. "Hey Nattie, how old are you?"
Natasha groaned and rolled her eyes while ducking Happy's playful jabs. Well, Happy thought he was being serious, to Natasha it was playful. "I'm five years younger than you, Tony, you know this."
"Oh, right, yes." He replied and then followed up with, "Hey Nattie, how old am I?"
"You're an idiot, Tony." Natasha chuckled. "A brilliant genius idiot."
Tony beamed. "Yeah, but I'm your brilliant genius idiot and you love me."
"Only because I have too." Natasha teased back.
Pepper looked on with an uncomfortable expression, her pale skin flushing. She was about to say something, or smack someone or, she wasn't quite sure, when Natasha slammed Happy into the mat of the boxing ring, causing her and Tony both to jump to their feet and rush to the ring. "Happy!"
"I'm fine!" He mumbled from where he was pressed to the mat.
Tony laughed hard. "Ok, ok, let him up Nat. Aunt Peggy would be impressed."
That was a name Pepper knew. "Aunt Peggy?"
Natasha shook her head at Tony while helping Happy up. "Tony, Pepper has no idea who I am, does she?"
"Of course she does!" Tony sounded offended. "Pepper is my…" He blushed, suddenly at a loss for words. "My Pepper, she knows who my family is!"
"Family?" Pepper repeated.
Climbing out of the ring Natasha stands in front of Pepper and holds out her hand. "Natasha Carter, it's a pleasure to finally meet you Ms. Potts." She smiled a warm reassuring smile. Pepper accepted her hand but still looked a bit confused so she explained, "My mother is Tony's godmother, and his father was my godfather. We were pretty much raised as cousins."
It finally clicked for Pepper and she smiled repeated. "Aunt Peggy?"
Natasha nodded. "Is my mother, yes."
After that Natasha and Pepper got along wonderfully since they both knew all too well what it was like to love, though in vastly different ways, Tony Stark. Whose behavior was getting more erratic by the day, which made the knot in Natasha's stomach grow tighter with each new stupid stunt. When she started noticing him slipping off alone she followed him, only to watch him with a small gray device he would press his finger to. Each time Tony used that thing he looked more and more dejected. Whenever she would ask him what was going on he would brush her off, it was really starting to piss her off. So if Tony wouldn't talk to her, maybe someone else could clue her in.
"Jarvis?" She calls out softly as she stands alone in Tony's Malibu house.
"Yes Miss Carter?" The AI responds.
Natasha still finds herself fighting back a shiver whenever Tony's AI responds to her with her Uncle Jarvis' voice. She missed him and Aunt Ana, and every time the AI called her Miss Carter it felt like a sharp prick to the heart. She sighs softly, unsure if this will even work. Can you even appeal to an AI's sense of compassion? Does it even have a sense of compassion? "If there is truly any part of my Uncle Jarvis in your programing, please tell me what's going on with Tony so I can help him."
"Miss Carter I'm afraid I…" The AI starts and then stops.
"Jarvis?" Natasha calls out, a little worried that she might have broken it.
Several minutes later Natasha is thundering her way down to Tony's shop and keying in her passcodes to open the door. She's so pissed her skin is flushed nearly as red as her hair. She storms over to Tony who's tinkering with something and punches him hard.
"Ow!" Tony yelps in genuine pain. "What was that for?!"
"You're fucking dying of palladium posisoning and you didn't think to tell me!" Natasha yells at him, tears of anger and fear starting to well in her blue-green eyes so she hits him again for making her teary.
"Ow!" Tony whines again. "Stop hitting me!" He yells back at her and then freezes. "How… How do you know that?"
"You turned Uncle Jarvis into a computer, Tony!" Natasha sniped at him. "You weren't the only one who had an emotional connection to him!"
"I didn't actually turn Jarvis into a computer, you know." Tony huffed at her and began to explain J.A.R.V.I.S to her in detail.
Natasha growled at him, and went to hit him again, but this time he caught her by the wrist. For several long moments they simply looked into each others' eyes before she stopped struggling against his grip. "You selfish son of a bitch!"
"I didn't want to hurt you, Nattie." Tony said softly. "I don't want to watch the people I love suffer knowing I'm going to die and there's nothing they can do about it."
"Bullshit!" Natasha shook her head, pulling her hand from his grasp so she could poke him in the chest. "You're not going to die! Do you hear me, Tony? You dying now isn't in the plan! Remember? You, me, and Sharon growing old and cranky, sitting in the park on Sundays yelling at the youths. That's the plan. Now tell me how I can help you!"
"You can't, Nattie." Tony said softly, his own eyes welling with tears as he watches tears roll down Natasha's cheeks. Natasha, his Natasha, as strong as Aunt Peggy and as sassy as Aunt Angie, and here she was in tears over him, begging him to let her do something. This is why he didn't want to tell her. "I've tried everything, there isn't another element out there that will…" She turned away from him, marching towards the door with frightening purpose. "Nat, where are you going?"
"If you won't help your damn self then I'm going to the one person who can either make you help yourself or will know someone who can help." Natasha replied.
Tony shot forward, grabbing Natasha by the arm. "Natasha no! Please! You can't tell her!"
"Why the bloody hell not!" Natasha replied as she turned to glare at him. "She can help, Tony!"
"She can't." Tony said, pulling his cousin into his arms and hugging her tightly. She was trembling. His heart was breaking. "Nat, I'm sorry, but not even Aunt Peggy can fix this."
Maybe Tony was right, maybe her mother couldn't fix this. She was retired after all, and didn't have the same amount of access to people and things that she use too. She'd given all of that over to someone else, and luckily for her, that someone else was rather fond of her, and that crazy ass plan of his. "I know what's wrong with Stark."
"Bipolar disorder?" Fury asked, not looking up from his work. "Combined with alcoholism?"
Natasha had a biting comeback ready to defend her cousin but stopped. That wasn't a bad guess in all honesty. "The damn thing keeping him alive is slowly killing him." She said instead. When he looked up at her she explained, "Tony's got palladium poisoning."
"That would explain a lot." Fury says, sitting back in his chair. "He's a man who thinks he's going to die."
"Help him." Natasha demanded.
"Excuse me, Agent Romanoff?" Fury sat up straight and glared at her.
"Do something to save his life." Natasha said, her tone of voice and posture mimicking her mother's perfectly. "Or I go to my mother."
Fury barked out a laugh. "I'm not afraid of Peggy Carter."
"Maybe you're not," Natasha marched over to the desk and looked him in the eye. "But you care about her, you respect her, and wouldn't want to hurt her. Losing Tony, would hurt her."
They glared at each other for a long time before Fury finally gave in. "Fine, I'll see what I can do."
Natasha relaxed a little for the first time since finding out about Tony's poisoning. "Thank you, Sir."
On her way out of the building Natasha passed Sharon who looked at her with concern. For a moment Natasha thought about pulling her cousin into an empty room and telling her everything, but then she heard Tony's voice begging her to keep this between them. It was remembering the crack in his voice as he asked her to keep his secret that made her give Sharon the slightest shake of her head before walking away. The only people who knew about their connection to each other, as well as who they were to the former Director and founder of SHIELD, were Fury and Hill, maybe Coulson but Natasha didn't think so. Fury had turned her into Natalia Romanoff when he'd recruited her behind her mother's back, so that's who the other agents knew her as. Sharon was in Special Services, which meant she simply went by a number, Agent 13. They had both been adamant about failing or succeeding on their own merits, not on their shared last name. Agent Romanoff and Agent 13 hardly ever crossed paths so it would be a bit odd for Sharon to go running after Natasha now, which was a good thing because Natasha wasn't sure she could lie to Sharon if the blonde asked her point blank what was wrong.
Knowing that she would find it hard to keep Tony's secret from Sharon, meant there was no way in hell she could be around her mothers, so Natasha went back to her apartment and packed up a few things before returning to Malibu. During her short return to New York, Tony had managed to make things worse between himself and Pepper, which lead to him acting even more like a giant idiot. Thankfully it only took nine days for Fury to show up, not with a cure but something to keep the poisoning at bay, and something that would hopefully give Tony what he needed to solve the problem himself. Tony, the big dumbass, fought against the idea, refusing to let go of his resolve. He was also a bit grumpy about finding out that Natasha was a secret agent for a secret agency founded by their parents and run, until recently, but his beloved aunt his entire life.
"Jarvis, call my Mum." Natasha ordered the AI as she stood toe to toe with Tony in the ruins of his Malibu home.
"Calling Peggy Carter." Jarvis replied.
"Natasha what are you doing?" Tony demanded.
"If you're not going to take this seriously I'm calling in someone who will make you!" Natasha fired back.
"Alright fine!" Tony yelled. "I'll do! Not that it's going to matter!"
Natasha glared at him, looking into his eyes as the sound of soft ringing filled the air until it was replaced by an accented voice. "Hello?"
A few more seconds of glaring and Natasha relaxed when she saw Tony meant it, he would try. "Hi Mum. I'm just checking in while I've got a few free minutes."
Tony is equal parts relieved, thankful, and annoyed when he tells her he did it. He discovered a new element, and he was already adding it to his arc reactor. He was going to be alright. Her knees wobble with the wave of relief that washed over her.
"Thank you." Tony said softly, looking at her in a way that conveyed more than his simple words, though for Tony saying thank you really wasn't all that simple. "Nat, really. I'm going to be ok because of you, because you wouldn't give up on me."
Natasha hugged him tight, and sighed softly when he returned the hug. When they finally let each other go she pushed him back playfully and said, to cover the tears of relief in her voice, "Neither one of us will be ok if my Mum ever finds out about this."
Tony snorted and tisked. "I'm not afraid of Aunt Peggy. I have an Ironman suit to protect me."
Natasha laughed, her first genuine laugh since Jarvis said the words palladium poisoning. "You think that red and gold tincan's going to stop her from thrashing you for almost drying and not telling her? She'd find the world's biggest can opener."
Tony laughed. "She would wouldn't she?" Then he stopped, blinked, and looked at his cousin with the slightest bit of fear in his eyes. "She would! Wouldn't she! Nat! Aunt Peggy can never know!"
"Agreed." Natasha nodded. "If she knew I knew and didn't tell her, that I lied for you again, no amount of SHIELD training would be able to save my ass."
The Stark Expo was an absolute nightmare. Natasha had used her connection to Tony to get VIP passes for her neighbor and her young nephew who was a huge Tony Stark fan. The boy had been so excited, so happy and full of joy. He'd been running around the expo wearing the brand new Ironman helmet and gloves Natasha had gotten for him having the time of his life. Natasha had been thrilled to have been able to give that to him, and the smiles she kept getting from his aunt were all the repayment she'd needed. Truth be told Natasha might have the tiniest crush on her neighbor, but after the dangerous disaster that was the Stark Expo, Natasha didn't think she'd still have the woman as a friend, let alone anything else. Natasha had to leave them on their own during the mayhem to rush off to Hammer's facility and in her annoyance at having to do so, began bickering with Tony, letting his near death experience slip while Pepper was on the comms. Pepper had been pissed, rightfully so, but Natasha assumed all was well again, what with all the kissing Pepper and Tony were now doing.
"You didn't have to punch him in the face, Nattie." Tony said as Natasha helped him pack up his bots.
"He stole one of your suits and turned it over to the military, Tony." Natasha huffed. "He's suppose to be your best friend. Best friends don't do that."
"He was in a really tough place, Nat." Pepper said from where she sat at Tony's workbench working on a tablet. "His loyalty to Tony or his loyalty to his duty."
Natasha grumbled, still not willing to look past what Rhodey did. She was about to tell them both that it would be a long time before she trusted the man, and that if he ever hurt Tony again she'd do more than punch him in the face, but a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach made her stop. It was that same sinking feeling she'd gotten only a slight handful of times as a kid when she'd done something so stupid or wrong that she'd gotten the old, "Go to your room Natasha and wait until your mother gets home!" from her Ma. It was the same overwhelming sense of dread she'd felt when she'd heard the front door open and her mother's heels on the hardwood below her.
When he saw Natasha's hand go to her stomach and her lips twist into a frown, Tony stopped what he was going to fully take her in. "Nattie? You ok?"
"Do you feel that?" She asked her cousin with slightly wide eyes.
Tony looked confused for a moment, it had been a while so it took longer to hit him. He hadn't felt that kind of forboring since the L.A. incident. "I feel a disturbance in the Force."
"What?" Happy called out, tensing up as if ready to fight because Tony's secret agent cousin suddenly looked concerned.
"She's here." Tony said, his head tilted back, his gaze locked on the ceiling as if he were following something as it moved across the floor above them.
They hadn't replaced the glass that Tony had blasted so the sound of heels echoed like a steady, angry, heartbeat. Natasha swallowed. "She knows."
"Nat!" Tony whispered her name with hiss.
"I didn't tell her!" Natasha shot back. "Why would I throw myself into hot water?" She hit him, slapping his shoulder as she huffed. "This is your fault!"
"How is it my fault?" Tony whined.
She hit him again.
The two bickered back and forth as the heels that appeared on the stairs turned into nylon encased legs, which turned into hips, a torso, and then finally a very angry face. Peggy Carter stood, framed by the paneless window, with heat in her eyes for a moment before she her voice shot through the silence like a whip crack. "Anthony Edward Stark!"
"Aunt Peggy!" Tony stammered.
With her mother's focus on Tony, Natasha tried to slip out of her mother's line of sight. There was a hole in the wall nearby, if she could reach it she could escape the firestorm that was about to fall on their heads.
Peggy snapped her heated gaze to her daughter, freezing the younger woman in place. "Natasha Elizabeth Luisa Martinelli Carter do not move!"
Natasha hit Tony again.
"Ow!" Tony whined. "Stop hitting me!"
"All five names Tony!" Nastasha yelled at him. "I got all five names because of you!"
She hit him with each word spoken and Tony whined, "Aunt Peggy make Nattie stop hitting me!"
"Enough!" Peggy ordered as she closed in on her children. "If you two don't knock it off I'm the one whose going to start a round of proper smacking! Lord knows you've both earned one!"
As Pepper and Happy retreated from the shop Happy couldn't help but notice the amused, pleased with herself, look on Pepper's face. He shook his head and smirked. "You called Aunt Peggy."
"I thought it was long past time that I got to know Tony's family, and the other women in his life that matter to him." Pepper replied sweetly as the scolding tones of a royally pissed Peggy Carter faded as the pair made their way to what use to be a front door. "If during the conversation with the woman who helped raise Tony I may have mentioned what happened, well, my bad." Pepper beamed at Happy who just smirked and shook his head. "Now, I believe Angie is staying at the Beverly Hills, I would love to meet her. Would you drive me over?"
"Absolutely." Happy said, opening the door. "I have a feeling those three will be awhile. I'll come back to pick them up when it's safe."