To Sooth a Broken Heart

Most of her injuries from the Battle of New York have healed, everything but her ribs, because ribs were always slow to heal. But the lacerations, patchwork of bruises that covered her body, the concussion, and her sprained ankle were all healed. It was just her ribs, and of course her broken heart, that still pained Natasha. May's words still haunted her thoughts, "I thought I could do this because I do love you, Natasha, but I can't, I'm sorry, I, I just can't." The phantom warmth of May's parting kiss lingered on Natasha's lips. She couldn't blame May. Natasha had watched and rewatched the footage of the battle, had watched herself come close to death more than once. She could accept that May had been willing to love an agent of SHIELD, but loving an Avenger was just too much. She could live with that, she told herself, what choice did she have. She would have to live with that.

It's why she was now living in Stark Tower and not her apartment in Queens a couple of floors down from May and Peter. Natasha had tried to reach out to May, to find a way to make it work, but in the end she realized she just needed to give May what she wanted. So she moved out. Tony had wanted to give her an entire floor of the massive tower to herself, the one right below his own penthouse, but Natasha insisted just an apartment would be fine. The compromise was that she and Sharon would share the entire floor below the penthouse, two separate apartments with a shared space between them. It was too much space for just Natasha and Goose, she was used to smaller spaces when on her own and sharing larger spaces with her mothers and family, but it would do for now.

Adele played softly in the background while Natasha moved around her kitchen making dinner. Goose watched from the top of the refrigerator with mild interest, the tip of his tail seemingly twitching in time with Hello. Suddenly the music stopped, replaced by a still eerily familiar voice. "Pardon the interruption, Ms. Carter."

Natasha jumped a bit, still not used to the A.I. and still creeped out by how much it sounded like her late uncle. "Yes, Jarvis, what is it?"

"Mr. Stark wishes to see you in his lab at your earliest convenience." The A.I. tells her.

"Thank you Jarvis." Natasha replies. She wonders what Tony could want. He'd been spending a lot of his free time tinkering in his lab, especially when Pepper isn't home, or she's swamped with trying to help rebuild the city. "Jarvis, is Pepper still out of town?"

"She is, Ms. Carter." Jarvis replies. "Ms. Potts will be in Tokyo until Tuesday."

Natasha hums to herself as she moves across her kitchen to get a large bowl from her cabinet. "How long has Tony been in his lab today?"

"Since breakfast." Jarvis answers.

"Thought so." Natasha replies with a shake of her head. "Thank you Jarvis."

Natasha transfers a large portion of the rigatoni she was making to the bowl and grates fresh cheese over it before grabbing forks from the drawer and a six pack from the fridge. Then she heads down to the labs after checking with Jarvis to see which one her cousin was in. Surprisingly, Natasha didn't find Tony in one of the workshops he used to work on his armor. He was in a smaller lab, one he's dedicated to a different project apparently. Like Pepper and Happy, Tony had given Natasha biometric access to his secured labs, so as soon as she stepped up to the door it slid open and she walked in. "Have you eaten?"

Tony looked up from tinkering with something and blinked. "Yes?"

"When?" Natasha asked as she walked over to an empty workbench and set the pasta and beer down.

"Um, this morning?" Tony replies, looking a little dazed, like he'd forgotten how time works. This wasn't uncommon for him, when he was engrossed in something like this he did actually forget how time and the human body worked. Time marched on, and the human body required food and sleep. Luckily the women in his life knew him well and knew how to take care of the clueless genius idiot.

Natasha shakes her head and smiles fondly. "Come and eat while you tell me why you wanted to see me."

Tony's whole face lit up as he set down what he was working on and moved over to the bench Natasha had commandeered. He accepts the fork Natasha is holding out and digs into the pasta with gusto, moaning with pleasure at the homemade Martinelli sauce. "You told me I could make you a new suit."

"I didn't say a suit, Tony." Natasha narrowed her eyes at her cousin as she crossed her arms and glared a warning. "I'm not wearing one of your tin cans."

"It's not an Iron suit." Tony shakes his head as he pulls a small remote from his pocket and presses a button on it.

The suit that was revealed looked similar to Natasha's SHIELD uniform in style and cut. Walking over to the rack the suit is on Natasha reaches out to feel it. It's made of a lightweight, high tech, material of some type that feels similar to fabric. She smiles as she runs a finger along a seam. "Blue isn't really in my color scheme, Tony."

"It has a red setting." Tony says as he walks over to join her, bowl of pasta in hand as he explains. He then begins telling Natasha about the suit and it's abilities, and how the suit works with the new weapons he's made for her. Her gauntlets were a bit more sleek now, and included what Tony was calling her Widow's Sting which was to incompastate, as well as the Widow's Bite which was more of a lethal option. The suit itself could produce a protective shield with an electro-shock discharge, the material was newly created and would give Natasha some protection against bullets and blades.

"And the red setting?" Natasha asks after Tony's explanation.

"Indicates that you're in lethal mode." Tony tells her. "It needs some fine tuning, and I thought we could work on it together." He moves across the room to what looked like a tool rack and pulls open a drawer, revealing two batons. He takes them out and hands them to Natasha.

"Oh, I like these." Natasha says as she gives them a test twirl. They felt as if they were made and balanced just for her, which they most likely were.

"When I'm finished with them they'll also be able to produce an electrical charge." Tony smiles as he adds, "Slam them together at the ends and twist."

Natasha raises an eyebrow and does as he says. She laughs when the batons form a small bow staff. "Oh I really really like these."

They worked together for the rest of the evening over pasta and beer, and then every afternoon for the rest of the week. Saturday morning is spent testing everything one final time for any tweaks that needed to be made to the uniform or weapons before Natasha took the whole kit out into the field. Natasha's smiling by the end of it, happy with the results, but Tony wants to tinker just a bit more so she changes out of the gear and leaves it with him in his lab. Just as she is placing everything on his workbench her phone buzzes with a text message which she checks and her smile grows. "Sharon's on her way into town. She wants to know if we want to go out for dinner and drinks. You down?"

Tony beams, "Sounds good to me, it's been awhile since the three of us have hung out."

Natasha replies to Sharon's text while teasing Tony. "You need to ask Pepper first?"

"No." Tony huffs at her. "I don't need to ask Pepper first." He pouts for a moment and then adds, "I should probably check and make sure she doesn't have plans for us though. Jarvis, get on that."

Jarvis replies affirmatively while Natasha laughs. When Pepper's response is for Tony to have a good time with his cousins he once again beams at Natasha. "Looks like the night belongs to the Carter cousins and their favorite Stark sidekick."

Natasha walks over and kisses Tony's cheek. "Tony, you know damn well you're as much a Carter as Sharon and I."

Tony fakes making a face while trying to hide the blush. "Eww, stop being sappy, Nat."

She smiles at him and then starts towards the door. "We'll work out the details in the group text. See you in a couple of hours."

"Looking forward to it." Tony replies as he makes a few adjustments to Natasha's gauntlets. He gives her enough time to go to whatever part of the tower she was heading towards and then asks Jarvis where she is just to make sure she's nowhere close. Once he's sure that she isn't going to return to the lab he moves to a back corner of the room and opens a concealed door that's locked by his biosignature. "Jarvis, track Nat for me. I want to make a few changes to the IW project."

"Yes Sir, Mr. Stark." Jarvis replies.

Inside the hidden lab is an Iron suit, but it's nothing like any of Tony's Iron Man suits. As Iron Man, Tony is meant to be a tank, but Natasha was anything but. She had presisition and grace, and needed to have a range of motion that Tony didn't, so the armor was more lightweight with thinner armor plating. He used his own mix of lightweight metals, but this was Natasha, so like the Rescue armor he was building for Pepper, Tony had mixed in just a hint of vibranium to add strength and protection. The suit was black in all the places Tony's was red, and red in the places Tony's was gold. It's power source, a new type of reusable energy Tony developed just for these suits, glowed red behind Natasha's hourglass symbol in the suits chest, with a small backup lower down in the same placement as Natasha's belt buckle.

While Tony was working on his secret project Natasha had ventured up to the bar to find Pepper and invite her along, but instead of finding Tony's girlfriend working on the building repairs the tower needed following the battle, she found Pepper making small talk with Thor. Every muscle in Natasha's body tensed up, as if preparing itself for a fight. Making her way over to the pair she demanded, "What's wrong? What's happened? Is it Loki again?"

"Ah! New friend Widow!" Thor says joyfully as he playfully charges towards the redhead.

"Be gentle Thor!" Pepper warns the large blonde man. "Nat is still recovering from her injuries."

Thor reigns in his excitement and gently puts his hand on Natasha's shoulder instead of giving her the crushing hug he'd been intended on. "I am pleased to see you again, friend Widow."

"Um, good to see you too? And just call me Natasha, Thor." Natasha replies, her gaze cutting between Pepper and Thor. "Is everything alright? Is there a problem?"

"No problems, friend Natasha." Thor replies. "Loki has faced Asgardian justice. He has been imprisoned, his magic taken, and he has been thoroughly chastised by our mother for his attempt to rule over Midgard."

At Natasha's look of confusion Pepper said, "Apparently his girlfriend is busy and he was bored, so he took Tony up on the offer to stay here."

"Friend Tony has mentioned your need, friend Natasha." Thor says, his voice full of concern.

Natasha blinks. "My need?"

Thor nods. "You require a lay of rebound, and I have friends who could be of assistance."

Natasha tries really hard not to blush as she looks around Thor and over at Pepper, but seeing the strawberry blonde trying not to laugh just made it worse. What the hell was Tony telling people? Why the hell was he talking about her in the first place? She was going to murder him.

"Fandral is dashing and charming, very handsome." Thor said joviality, a smile on his handsome perfect face. "Hogun is strong, powerful, and rugged. Volstagg is kind hearted and brave, perhaps the best choice to sooth a broken heart." He looked down at Natasha with sympathetic eyes. "They are well known as the Warriors Three, and if you wanted to they would gladly come to you as such."

Did he just offer her what she thinks he's offering her? "Um, Thor…"

"There is also Lady Sif, who is all of those things and more." Thor continues. "She would be a fine match for a great warrior like you."

Natasha stood there blinking. She could see Pepper out of the corner of her eye, the other woman had given up on trying not to laugh. When Thor first started speaking she wasn't sure if he'd understood what Tony had meant by a rebound lay, but once he started describing his friends she knew he totally understood. Thor didn't understand not breaking glasswear when he wanted another drink, but causal sex he gets. She spends a good twenty minutes convincing Thor that while he was sweet to try and help mend her wounded heart, and while she's sure his friends were all good people, pimping out one's friends really wasn't something they did on Earth. Thor seemed to understand. When she picked Sharon up at the airport and told her, the blonde laughed so hard she had tears streaming down her face and she couldn't catch her breath.

The cousins head out for the best steak dinner in New York after the girls convince Tony that they can't just take off and fly to Argentina or Japan for a steak. He does get them the best table in the restaurant they choose and orders the best top shelf whiskey to go with their meals. Natasha notices the way Sharon and Tony are careful in navigating the conversation, avoiding talk of Tony's relationship with Pepper or if Sharon's still dead set on relying on herself when it comes to her sex life. She finds it both annoying and sweet, because while she can understand her cousins desire to take care of her emotional needs, she hates being treated with kid gloves. They spend hours at the restaurant, talking, eating, drinking and enjoying each other's company before moving on to a private bar where they could continue their evening out without worrying someone might notice Tony. He and Jarvis had developed a program that would scrub Natasha's image from all media in an attempt to conceal her true identity. It wouldn't do her or anyone she loved any good for the world to discover the infamous Black Widow was Natasha Carter from Brooklyn. No one knew Sharon, she wasn't in the public eye at all. But Tony, Tony had made a point of outting himself as Iron Man. In hindsight, maybe not his best idea ever.

Sometime around two a.m. as the trio piles into the back of Tony's limo more than a little drunk, one of them, they're not sure which one, mentions ice cream. There aren't any places open to get ice cream at that time of night, Sharon points out, and they all pout until Natasha suddenly perks up. "Ma keeps gelato in the freezer!"

It's nearly three in the morning when Peggy is startled out of her sleep. It takes her a moment to realize why, that there was someone in her home. Extracting herself carefully from her bed so she wouldn't wake Angie, she quietly retrieves her hidden pistol and makes her way downstairs. There are noises coming from the kitchen, so she makes her way towards the back of her home, pistol ready. It isn't until she hears voices, slurred but familiar voices, that she relaxes and lowers her weapon.

"I really do love her." Natasha says as she picks at the label on her gatorade bottle. She was sitting at her mothers' kitchen table with Sharon on one side of her and Tony on the other. "I really thought maybe, ya know, maybe, I'd finally found that little sliver of something special, ya know, just a tiny little piece of something like my moms have."

"We're sorry, Nattie." Sharon says softly as she leans against Natasha, putting her head on her cousin's shoulder.

"Thought May was made of stronger stuff." Tony hiccuped as he poured bright blue gatorade over his gelato and began drinking it like a float. "You need to find you someone like Pepper. Someone strong enough to handle your shit, but tough enough to make you handle it yourself too. Like the way Aunt Angie does with Aunt Peggy. Yeap, Pepper, she's like that. Yeap. I'mma marry her." He nods as if that's the most brilliant idea he's ever had. "That's what you need Nattie-cat, you need a woman like Pepper or Aunt Angie."

"I thought I had." Natasha whispered before she let her head hit the table with a loud thunk.

Sharon hissed. "Oh that's gonna leave a mark."

Peggy peaks around the corner and sees all three of her children, each clearly inebriated, gathered around her table with bottles of sports drinks, water, and pints of gelato. She can't find it in her to be cross with them for showing up at this ungodly hour pissed off their asses, because it's clear that they've been trying to ease Natasha's current heartache. So Peggy turns around and just as stealthy heads back upstairs. Slipping back into bed beside her wife Peggy allows herself a few more hours of sleep. When she and Angie get up for the day she walks over to Natasha's bedroom door.

"English?" Angie asks simply when she sees her wife heading in the wrong direction from the stairs.

"The children were here earlier." Peggy explains as she gently turns the knob on Natasha's door. "I want to see if they stayed."

Angie blinked and followed her wife. When Peggy carefully pushed opened Natasha's door sure enough they found their girls passed out in Natasha's bed, pinkies locked together and everything. "What the…"

Peggy hummed softly. "I don't see Anthony. I hope the girls didn't leave him passed out under the kitchen table."

"Guest room?" Angie offers, and once again follows her wife as they move down the hall. "You gonna explain why the kids are here, English?"

Peggy explains what happened several hours earlier while opening the guest room door to find Tony passed out across the top of the still made bed. Satisfied that her drunk children had done the smart thing and stayed put, Peggy finally headed towards the stairs. "As hard as Nat tries to pretend that she isn't hurting, we all know she's in pain. Anthony and Sharon must have taken her out last night, they all had too much to drink, and came home afterwards."

"I hate seeing her so broken up like this, English." Angie sighs as she and her wife make their way to their kitchen where she puts on a pot of coffee while Peggy fetches the morning papers. Once Peggy has rejoined her she adds, "I wish you would let me go talk to May."

"Stay out of it, Angela." Peggy warns sternly.

Angie groans and rolls her eyes at Peggy's tone. "I just think I can give her a different perspective on the whole loving someone in a dangerous line of work thing."

"If Natasha and May are meant to be together long term then they will have to work this out for themselves, darling." Peggy tells her wife yet again as she walks up behind Angie and slides her arms around her waist. "I mean it Angie, stay out of it." Peggy hugs Angie, kisses her temple, and then as she moves away lands a swat to her rear end, making the other woman yelp. "Hangover breakfast for the children?"

"You start the pancakes, I'll get the bacon and sausage." Angie replies with a pout as she makes a show of rubbing where Peggy had smacked.

By the time Natasha stumbles into the kitchen looking like death warmed over the table is laid out with pancakes, eggs, breakfast meats, fruit, toast, tea, coffee, and juice. At first the smell of it all churns her stomach, and she's on the verge of dashing off to the toilet, but then she finds a mug of peppermint tea placed in her hands and after several sips she's feeling and looking a little less green. "Thanks."

Peggy smiles warmly as she brushes her daughter's messy red locks off her face. "Did you at least drink them both under the table?"

Natasha snorts, and then moans because her head is pounding and snorting felt like setting off dynamite in a cave. "Close to it."

"That's my girl." Peggy replies as she pulls Natasha into her arms for a morning cuddle.

Sharon's the next one down, though she does end up dashing off for the downstairs bathroom before anyone has the chance to give her something to settle her stomach. When Tony finally makes it to the kitchen table he's smiling and chipper, and the girls glare at him from where they're sat with their heads on Peggy's shoulders.

"What?" Tony asks them as he pours himself a cup of coffee and takes a seat beside Angie.

"How are you not hungover?" Sharon's voice is laced with annoyance and a touch of anger.

Tony shrugs as he sips his coffee before setting it down and reaching for the serving spoon in the bowl of scrambled eggs. "Higher tolerance for heavy drinking? I was getting drunk while you two were still in plaid skirts and pigtails."

"Do we need to have another chat about hereditary addiction, Anthony?" Peggy asks her godson while trying to get her daughter and niece to eat something.

"No ma'am." Tony replies with a shake of his head.

It takes a little more coaxing by both Peggy and Angie, but the girls do give in and start to slowly fill their bellies. Soon they're feeling a bit more functional and willing to engage in the conversation. At one point Natasha recalls something from the day before and points her butter and jam coated butter knife at Tony and says, "Will you please stop telling everyone I need to have rebound sex. Thor offered up his Asgardian friends like he was asking me if I'd like to choose a donut or six." She crinkled her nose as she added, "He even said I could have them all at once if I wanted too."

"And you didn't say yes?" Tony looked as if she'd lost her mind.

"I'm not interested in some Asgardian orgy, Tony!" Natasha huffs.

"If they look like Thor can you hook me up?" Sharon asks, smirking.

Natasha picked up an end piece of her sausage link as if to throw it at her cousin, Sharon scooped up eggs onto her fork ready to retaliate, and that's when Peggy finally spoke up, clearing her throat to get their attention. "Enough." Her voice was gentle but stern, clearly a soft warning. "Your noses all still fit rather well into corners you know, age be damned." The girls both blushed, and ducked their heads like scolded children while Tony snickered. "I was talking to you as well, Anthony."

"Sorry Aunt Peg." Tony responds with a pout.

It's decided, by Angie, that since it was Sunday the three would stay the day and they would have a family dinner. She told Tony it would be alright if he invited Pepper, and Tony checked with Natasha to make sure she would be ok with that. Natasha rolled her eyes and told him to stop being stupid. If he did in fact want to marry her, Natasha pointed out while she, Tony, and Sharon cleaned up the kitchen for her mothers, then Pepper was going to be family, hell she already was.

"That's cool of you to say, Nattie." Tony said as he took a pan from her to dry and put away. "Especially since it was Pep who called Aunt Peggy and told her about the positioning secret."

Natasha's eyes went wide. "That was Pepper!?"

Tony nodded, his eyes slightly wide. He'd assumed Natasha had worked that out for herself a long time ago. Shit!

"I love Pepper, Tony, I do." Natasha grumbled. "But snitches get stitches."

Of course there was no way her mothers were actually going to let Natasha hurt Pepper. They could not however stop her from lurking at the top of the stairs where she waited for the strawberry blonde to walk into the house, and then shoot her right between the eyes with a Nerf dart from a Nerf sniper rifle she and Clint had built.

Pepper was confused, Tony had gasped. "Nat! That's not fair!"

"Stay out of it Tony." Natasha said from her perch. "Tattletales have to defend themselves, alone, in Carter Nerf Wars. You're either on my side or you keep score. Pep's on her own."

Since he was in town Clint had been invited over as well. He gave Pepper a sheepish apologetic grin as he offered her a Nerf gun. "The rules are simple. One, if you get tagged out of sight of the scorekeeper, be honest about it and call it out. Two, the kitchen, the study, and the master bedroom are off limits. Three, don't break anything, everyone gets a time out if you break something and no dessert, so seriously, don't break shit. Four, the armory,"

"He means the dining room." Sharon calls out from the living room where she stands with a Nerf rifle, ready and waiting.

"Is neutral ground." Clint continues. "No shooting anyone who's there getting ammo or a new weapon. And last but not least, the game ends when Mrs. C has had enough and puts an end to it. The winning team normally gets extra dessert, but since this is about you being a snitch…"

"Excuse me?" Pepper blinked, still very confused by the whole thing and even more so now.

"You called my Mum and snitched about the palladium poisoning." Natasha said as she shot Pepper from the hallway. No one had noticed her come downstairs.

"Those don't count Nat!" Tony huffed at her.

"If you can beat us, then all is forgiven and there's no repercussions." Clint continues once again. "If not, then Nat and Tony get your dessert and you have to wear a snitches get stitches t-shirt to the next family dinner."

Pepper blinked, her gaze darting between Natasha, Sharon, and Clint who were all armed with Nerf weapons, and Tony who was standing beside her shaking his head. "Are they serious?"

"Carter Nerf Wars are very serious." Tony said with a nod.

"Alright then." Pepper says as she slips out of her heels. "How do we get started?"

"We gather in the living room." Tony tells her as everyone moves into the living room. "When I say go, you all take off running while I count to thirty. Then it's game on."

Ten minutes into the game Angie is shaking her head as she listens to the noise filling their home. She's sitting at the kitchen table watching Peggy as she bends over to check on the roast in the oven. "Three of them are trained spies. How are they louder than when they were kids?" She laughs at the sound of childish fun being had by people who like to proclaim their adulthood on a regular basis and then asks, "How long are you going to let it go on for, English?"

Somewhere close by there's a squeal, Pepper's, followed by a boisterous laugh, Natasha's. Peggy smiles as she closes the oven and turns to look at her wife. "Haven't heard her laugh in awhile, so I think a little longer if that's alright?"

Angie nods her agreement. It was nice to hear Natasha laughing happily again.

Peggy lets the kids play for a good thirty minutes before she walks into the dining room and picks up one of the Nerf pistols and goes on the hunt. Pepper is obviously the first one she finds. Peggy shoots her with a foam dart right in the chest, and the look of surprise on Pepper's face makes her laugh. "It's how I end the game, dear." She explains. "Once I've shot you, you put your weapons down on the floor and hands up in surrender."

Clint's next. Peggy's dart hits him right in the temple, and when he sees it's her who shot him he instantly puts his weapons on the ground and raises his hands in the air. She tags Sharon next, right in the back of her shoulder. Sharon spins around, firing a shot, tagging Peggy back, which made the older woman grin as she shoots her in the chest. Sharon, like the other two, puts her weapons down and hands up.

Natasha however isn't going down without a fight. Peggy had told them when they were little, when these wars first started, that if one of them could tag her six times before she shot them in the chest or the head, she would take them to the toy store and let them pick anything they wanted. Looking back, Peggy really shouldn't have been so surprised when all three of her children followed in her footsteps in one way or another. Natasha got close, but she'd miscalculated when she thought Peggy was out of darts. With a triumphant smile Natasha went to take her last two shots at her Mum, but Peggy pulled a smaller pistol from her waistband and tagged Natasha in the chest, twice.

"Almost poppet." Peggy said with a soft laugh as she watched her daughter pout.

"One of these days, Mummy." Natasha replies.

"Perhaps my love." Peggy said as she walked over and kissed her daughter's cheek.

Of course Pepper hadn't stood a chance which is why Angie gave her dessert at the end of dinner anyway. Natasha didn't even care. She'd had such a good day with her family, it had felt so good to laugh and be stupid with her cousins, she was just greatful to have had the day to feel good again. Yeah, she had started picturing a future with May, and while it seemed that wasn't going to happen now, at least she knew she would always have her family in her future.