Chapter 20 - Broken Beauty

"It's gotta be here somewhere!" Bucky runs his right hand through his shortened hair. That morning, when he got to the tower, Natasha had trimmed his hair so that it better hid where he had stitches. It wasn't as short as in the 40's but it is still shorter then he was used to.

Natasha looks up at Bucky as he tosses down another file, "Would you like some help?"

"Where would I see her family information, Nat?" Bucky hands over the files in surrender.

"Well," Natasha opens the third file and immediately pulls out the sheet that he'd been looking for "right here."

Bucky mutters thanks as he takes it from her. After he scans the sheet he says, "Look at that," he points to a name at the bottom of the page.

"What?"

"My sister signed off on this. And here," he points to a small family history "here she is again." He looks at Natasha with a disturbed look on his face, "That means that the girl trying to kill us is my great, great niece."

"Do you think she knows that?" Natasha sticks the paper back in the stack.

"I don't know. Are you sure that you don't mind talking to her?" Bucky picks at his finger nails absentmindedly.

"I do mind," Natasha pops her neck "but I'll do it because I know that it must be done, and I know that I'm better for the job then you are," she grins at him then hands him the files on her way out the door.

She takes the elevator down to the floor with IT and secretary offices. When she walks into the IT half she almost runs right into an excited girl with her bleach-blond hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Hi there!" she says, stepping to the side.

"Hello," Natasha quickly looks her up and down noticing that she works here by the name badge pinned to her flowery, pink, blouse "Do you know where Jamie Jankins' desk is?"

"Of course. Jamie's a good friend of mine. Follow me and I'll show you," she turns and prances down the hall. "Jamie and I started work the same month and have been friends ever since. She's kinda quiet, more so now than when we first met but she has a great heart."

"What does she like to do on weekends?" Natasha asks, looking for clues.

"I don't know. Typically, she is visiting family. Her grandfather is at the hospital now and they like playing chess together. Sometimes she comes to the mall with me and when she does, she really loosens up. It's almost like she thinks someone is always watching her. I'm Lilith by the way," she sticks her hand out for a handshake as they reach Jamie's cubical.

"Thanks, Lilith. I'm Natasha" Natasha shakes Lilith's hand then knocks on the wall to get Jamie's attention. "May I speak to you for a moment?"

Jamie pulls out her ear buds and smiles, "How may I help you?"

Natasha walks in and leans against the wall, "I just wanted to chat. Are you too busy?"

"Well, I suppose I could make time to talk with one of the Avengers," Jamie laughs trying to hide the nervousness in her voice. She feels leery of everyone since what had happened last night. She shuts off her iPod and computer, then stands up, "Where would you like to talk? I can go grab you a chair."

"Why don't we go to my office?" Natasha walks to the door without seeing if Jamie was following. She pauses at the elevator and presses '65' when Jamie steps on.

"I'm... honored, for you to want to talk to me," Jamie says, flustered, "Is there a problem with something?"

"I just wanted to show you something."

They step off the elevator and head down a short hallway to a black door with a red black widow mark on it. The red stood out like blood in clean snow.

Natasha sits on one side of a small table and gestures for Jamie to sit in the other chair. "Do you dance?"

"You know I ... wait. What?"

"Did you ever take ballet as a little girl?"

"When I was eight until I was about thirteen. Why?" Jamie rubs her sore wrists as she looks carefully around the room observing the cabinets and shelves full of books, guns, and strange trinkets.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"I suppose so," Jamie shrugs, utterly confused.

"Why did you want to learn to dance?"

"Is this some kind of test? Did I do something wrong?" she clutches the arms of her chair with white knuckles making the marks from the cuffs on the electric chair stand out all the more.

"It's not a test," Natasha Romanoff leans back in her seat, taking a more relaxed position.

"Well, I thought that it was beautiful," Jamie answers the question, relaxing a bit, "We watched The Nutcracker at Christmas and I was determined to be able to perform like that. I don't know."

"I did ballet."

"Really? Did you like it?" Jamie asked, still confused on where this conversation was headed.

"No. Ballet was part of my training. Taught so we would become 'unbreakable'. When you repeat a routine over and over again, you learn to endure, or you're punished. I assume that one wouldn't guess me to be an excellent dancer," the corners of Natasha's lips turn up in a slight smile. "A beautiful thing was turned to evil."

"I'm sorry, I di..." Jamie starts.

"Jamie," Natasha stops her, "what was done to you?"

"What do you mean?" Jamie's mind flickers to the night she was recruited then to what had happened last night. She sits back and reaches down to place a hand on the pistol strapped to her thigh under her knee-length plaid skirt.

"Were you torched? Did they threaten to hurt your family?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Miss Romanoff," Jamie's face hardens.

"Why did you give in? What was in it for you? They told you that you'd be safe, unchanged. You would only have to turn in information. After a while they need you to remove a few things. The 'things' become people. And soon, you, innocent girl, are attempting to murder a man. You constantly wonder how you reached this place."

Jamie pushes her chair back and has her gun in her hand. "I wasn't told to kill you, Miss Romanoff, but I'm sure my partners won't mind you being gone," she points the gun at her, hands almost shaking. She hopes that by using the term 'partner' it will be true. She tries to forget last night happened.

"Jamie, don't let them turn you from something beautiful into a thing of evil," Natasha stands and reaches a hand for Jamie, "What would your great grandmother say if she knew that you'd almost killed her brother and his best friend?"

"Her brother?" Jamie whispers, lowering the gun a little, "He's my... my..."

"Great, great uncle," Natasha supplies.

"I'd thought... but that means..." she sets her hand gun on the table and lowers her head. "The vile serpents! They are rotten, filthy, monsters!" tears that she'd kept bottled in start to trickle down her face. "When they told me that they wouldn't hurt my family, they didn't have to. I did... I did. I was so gullible!" She sits back down in her chair thinking of her many assignments over the years and how they had all somehow resulted in someone she loved getting hurt.

"You can stop this. You can have forgiveness. Now, what do you want to do?" Natasha walks over and places a hand on Jamie's slumped shoulder.

"Is there a way... a way I could talk to them? Explain my story to Sargent Barnes. Maybe he will understand, and if he doesn't, then that's alright too. I don't deserve anything but their hatred." Jamie looks up to see Natasha smiling.

"I can send him in."