Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! They make me smile. I know people are anxious to see more Steve and he's an important part of the story. Thanks for your patience. By the way, I still don't own Marvel. Here's chapter 3!
Berlin Airport
"So let me get this straight," Sam said as he and Steve walked through the airport. "You've called her every Monday, like clockwork for six months. You guys talk a few minutes about basically nothing. She flirts a little, you get embarrassed then we do our thing for another week and you call her again the following Monday."
"Yeah, so?" Steve replied.
"In all these months, that's the way things have gone. You call her every 7 days. She doesn't call you then all the sudden she calls you on a Tuesday, a Tuesday, Cap, and says things are," Sam paused, "what were her exact words again?"
"She said nothing was wrong and things are 'really right'."
"Uh, huh, and you didn't even let her tell you what was really right before telling her you were off to meet with another woman."
"It's not like that between Nat and I, Sam. It's not even like that with Sharon and I."
"You forget, Cap, I've seen you and Widow together. I have listened to you talk about her every single day for 6 months. It might not be like that but-"
"Stop right there. She's always trying to set me up. Natasha isn't, we aren't, it's just not like that," Steve protested.
"All I'm saying is that you should have found out why she called. See, I personally have a theory."
"Of course you do."
"Cap, she said 'really right', you have to know what that means, right?"
"It means things are finally going well for my friend, my colleague, Sam. That's all it means."
"It means she's met someone, Cap. 'Really right' is code for Mr. Right. Face it, Cap, if you are into Widow, you need to up your game. I can follow this lead with Sharon."
Steve bristled. Why did the idea of Natasha with someone else bother him so much? He cleared his throat. "If she's met someone, I'm happy for her. Friends should be happy when their friends are happy," he replied trying to convince himself it would be a good thing if Natasha had found someone special. She deserved to be happy more than anyone he had ever met. He didn't think there were very many people on the planet who could go through the things she had, done the things she'd had to do, and come out on the other side. "There's Sharon. Can we stop talking about this now?"
"Whatever you say, Cap," Sam said with a grin.
The Hotel Room, North Dakota
After a less than restful night, Natasha woke early to find a still sleeping Nicole. She sighed when she realized the child had climbed over the pillow and slept on the edge of the bed with her arm outstretched to reach the headboard. She knew it would take time to convince her daughter things were different, but seeing her there, trying to recreate the bonds of her captors, hurt Natasha deeper than she could have imagined.
Deciding to let the child sleep, Natasha flipped on the news. After a few local stories that didn't really hold her interest and a quick weather report, the announcer cut to a press conference, Tony's first since having his arc reactor removed. Natasha was watching it earnestly when she heard the lamp shatter. Nicole had jumped to her feet on the bed. She was standing in a fighting stance Natasha herself used, and in her hand was a shard from the lamp, held like a weapon. There was a wildness in the child's eyes.
"The bad man!" she kept repeating.
Natasha slowly approached her daughter. "It's okay. Remember what I told you. The people who had you didn't tell you the truth. I haven't hurt you, have I? And, they told you I was bad. Do you think I'm bad?"
Nicole seemed to be thinking then she lowered the shard but otherwise remained in her fighting stance. Finally, she shook her head. "You're Widow but not bad."
"That's right. You're safe with me, and Tony is not bad either. He's a friend. Give me the piece of glass please. I don't want you to get hurt. Remember, you're not a weapon. You're my daughter. I'm your mom. No one will hurt you when I'm around, okay?"
Nicole handed Natasha her weapon and looked at the broken lamp then at Natasha. "Uh oh, it broke." Her demeanor had changed back to normal little girl mode, and it was as if the last few minutes had never happened. "I clean it."
"I don't think so, young lady. You stay put. Mommy's job is to clean up broken glass."
"Mommy's job," Nicole repeated, and hearing her daughter even halfway acknowledge that she was her mom made Natasha's heart flutter.
After cleaning up the lamp, getting her daughter dressed for the day, and profusely apologizing to the hotel manager for the broken lamp, Natasha pulled back onto the road. They were probably another three hours from Clint's, and Nicole definitely wasn't in the mood to sleep so Natasha decided she needed something to distract herself.
Pulling into a local Walmart, Natasha put Nicole into the cart and headed for the toy aisle. "I think we should find you something to play with. What do you think?" she asked the child, realizing there likely weren't any toys where she had been held. "We'll find you a baby doll and maybe a coloring book and crayons. You liked drawing on the notepad," Natasha continued.
Nicole just looked around at the other shoppers with suspicion. Natasha sighed. At least, she had a few vague memories of her life before the red room. She remembered staring out the window in the afternoons with her own favorite doll in her arms waiting for her dad to come home from work. She remembered her mom kissing her forehead as she tucked her in bed at night. Nicole had none of those memories to reference, so even a simple shopping trip put her on edge.
Natasha was pointing out different dolls when Nicole suddenly became animated and started pointing at a Baby Alive doll on the top shelf. "Is that the one?" when the girl nodded, Natasha picked up the doll and handed it to her daughter. Nicole smiled and looked at the box in awe. "Yes, I think we've found it. We just need a coloring book and some crayons and we can get out of here, okay?"
Nicole paid no attention to anything but the doll while Natasha quickly picked out the art supplies and soon they were checking out. Her phone started ringing as they walked back to the car.
"Romanoff," she answered.
"I need your location now," Melinda replied.
"What's going on, May?"
"Simmons believes Hydra has a way of tracking the girl. Our base was just attacked. If she's right, and she usually is, there are others and they'll be coming for you."
Natasha did a quick scan of the perimeter before responding. "I'm in Devil's Lake, North Dakota and we're headed north."
"Same car?"
"Yes, same rental."
"On our way. Keep heading north and don't stop until you see the quinjet."
Natasha quickly buckled Nicole into her seat and took off, constantly scanning for trouble. As soon as they were on the highway, she called Clint.
"You guys almost here? The kids can't wait to see their new cousin."
"There's been a change of plans. We're being tracked. I can't risk the family."
"Where are you? I'm coming."
"May is on her way. I really need you to do something else for me."
"Anything, Nat."
"Go to Berlin and get Steve. Just don't tell him about Nicole. I'll do that, but he needs to be here."
"I have a feeling he won't want to be anywhere else, Nat. I'll get him."
"Crap, I've got incoming. There's a black sedan coming up pretty fast on my rear. I've got to go. Get Steve."
Natasha scanned the horizon for signs of the quinjet but saw nothing. She grabbed a gun from her purse as she increased her speed. The last thing she wanted was a fire fight with her daughter present, but Natasha wasn't about to let Hydra get their hands on her child again.
The sedan was still gaining on her and Natasha was cursing whoever the idiot was who thought it was a good idea to put governors on cars. If she were in her car, they'd never catch her.
There weren't any other cars on the road and Natasha knew that was both an advantage and a disadvantage. She really didn't want any collateral damage, but a few witnesses sure wouldn't hurt.
Natasha managed to thwart the sedan's first attempt at rear ending her with evasive maneuvers, but the sedan clipped her bumper on the second attempt causing the car to do a 180. She heard gunshots and looked back at her daughter who didn't seem as bothered by the guns as she'd been by the other shoppers half an hour before.
"Guess we'll have to do this the hard way," Natasha sighed, as she threw the car in reverse, rolled down her window and took aim. Her first shot took out the man in the passenger seat, but the driver was unscathed. He rammed her again, this time pushing her off the road into a ditch.
"Uh oh," said Nicole, "car fall down."
Natasha tried to pull out of the ditch but the wheels were stuck. She jumped out of the car to face her enemy head on. She would kill him before he could get within ten feet of her child.
The Hydra agent simply parked his car and ducked behind it while shouting, "Give me the girl, Widow. She belongs to us."
"That's not going to happen. She's my daughter."
"Your daughter?" he laughed. "She's not really yours. We made her. Your blood may flow through her veins, but it was our genius that made her what she is, what she will become. Do you really think we didn't add our own specifications to the weapon? She is so much more than you or your captain could even hope to be, and we will not give her up. There is nowhere she can go that we won't find her. She isn't a child. She's a true monster, our monster."
As he finished speaking, the quinjet came into view. The man turned to evaluate the situation, raising his head just above the trunk of his car and giving Natasha the target she needed. She pulled the trigger and down he fell.
Natasha looked back toward her daughter, praying the child hadn't seen or heard much. Thankfully, the car seat was pointing the opposite direction.
The quinjet landed in the field behind her and the cargo bay door opened. Natasha could only stare in shock.
"Need a lift?" Phil Coulson said with a smile as he walked off the jet.
