Chapter 68 – Natalie Rushman

A/n – I know a lot of you have been looking forward to seeing Natasha and Toni interacting in the movies so I hope this lives up to your expectations. Also keep an eye out on the blog for this story for a video addressing some of the most commonly asked questions asked in reviews. And you should know that I'm taking my laptop in to a shop to fix a problem with it tomorrow so I may not be able to post on time next week.

TheNinjaTurtle00 – I'm quite excited to do a movie that Toni's not in so I can do some different stuff with her. As for relationships. Basically none of the canon relationships are in this story.

Mystic777 – I feel the exact same way about art. Just let me into the gallery I have no interest in owning it. Monaco should be fun.

– That was a really fun bit to write so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

"Yeah, I'm just going to warn you up front because otherwise you're all going to throw some kind of hissy fit later, I did go to the Monaco Grand Prix that year," Toni told them, "and the reason that he probably knew about that is because the fact that I would be there was highly publicised. As you should know since you live in the same house as me that does not apply anymore. The press have been forbidden from telling anyone my exact whereabouts except places where my security detail is beefed up. When they try and complain we just cite the fact that it makes it less easy for mad men to find me and accidentally get innocents involved by possibly being in the way. They find it hard to argue with that logic even if they still try."

"And also I'm pretty sure you should all be more cheerful because I'm pretty certain I'm about to make my big entrance and while not impressive by Toni standards I think it was good," Natasha joked.

"I liked it," Toni said with a shrug.

The other Avengers looked interested to see what would happen next now. Finding out exactly how the two women had become friends had been one of the long term goals of the male members of the team but you could never get anything out of them. They probably would never have known the details if Amora hadn't decided to use these movies as a way of getting back at them. Toni and Natasha had way too much fun with inside jokes for that.

Piper was shown walking down a hallway towards a boxing ring where Toni was sparring with Happy. He called out, "The notary's here. Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?"

"That's a good cover," Clint admitted, "not sending you directly in as a PA is wise because if Toni hadn't already been in the know it would give the illusion that she had personally picked you instead of you showing up with the qualifications to be the best pick and yet giving more leeway for doubt if something slipped."

"I was quite proud of that one," Natasha said with a smile, "Fury suggested just applying as a PA as I should be attractive enough on my own that I would get the job but I saw the long list of attractive women who had been quickly fired and knew – as you said – that having Toni personally pick me would be beneficial. Of course this is all academic now that I know that she knew I was a spy the entire time." Here Natasha sent a mild glare at Toni.

"It was kind of funny at times," Toni snorted, "I got a kick out of tricking you into believing you'd fooled me at first I'll admit but as you'll remember as we became friends I did let my guard down a little bit. That was a bit stupid but hey in the end it means that it won't be seen as unusual when I bring you back to work for me again after we've finished all this. Piper will probably be thrilled despite his standoffishness towards you all. You've always been better at talking me into things than he was."

"That's because I explain things faster so you don't get so bored," Natasha said with a smirk, "that and you'd gotten rid of your duties as CEO at that point so I only had to wrangle you into finishing projects and attending the occasional board meeting because even my skills can't get you to go to all of them."

"No power in this realm or in any other will ever make me go to every board meeting," Toni stated simply, "and if you managed to find one I'm fairly certain we'd find out if I could get away with murder because those idiots need to be listened to in moderation. I'm fairly certain that I could get away with murder if I had to so let's not make it necessary."

"Why haven't you ever told Piper this?" Bruce asked, "I'm pretty sure murdering the entire board would not be on his list of ways to have a successful company."

"I'm pretty sure he would murder me first to be fair," Toni acknowledged, "he can be scary when he really wants to be which thankfully is not all that often."

"I'm on happy time," Toni told her continuing to box her bodyguard ducking under most of his blows to make up for her being physically smaller than him.

"That's the best advantage you've got in a fight when you're small," Steve said knowledgably, "if you're fast and agile enough that they can't hit you but you've learnt how to hit them then you're always going to win. Not that I was very good at winning when I didn't have the serum. I was far too sickly."

"The arc reactor prohibits my movements sometimes," Toni shared, "dropping to the ground completely to avoid leg moves is hard because the pressure on my chest can jar me enough that my opponent could get his weight on me to stop me getting up again. And sometimes if I time a flip wrong it can really hurt. Thankfully I've learned a few ways to alter some techniques so that doesn't happen as often as it used to."

Bruce exchanged a smile with the other Avengers wondering if the pair even realised that they'd just had an entirely civil conversation without one sarcastic remark. And that they'd also found something to relate to each other about. It would be nice for the final source of real conflict among the team to wipe itself out. Steve had had his misconceptions practically beaten out of him and as a result Toni had found herself able to genuinely appreciate the things she had always liked about him without the bitterness of always being compared to her hated father muddying things. Phil was especially pleased at this result. He had been rather horrified about seeing how much one of his closest friends and his hero had argued. Although in hindsight the constant arguing had rid him of his more blatant hero worship and changed it to a simple appreciation of Steve Rogers the man. Not only had that made him feel like he was less likely to make an embarrassment of himself now but Steve himself was now becoming a closer friend than he ever would have been before without sacrificing his friendship with Toni in the process.

When Happy managed to land a few hits Toni lost her patience and hit him square in the face with a quick follow up of, "Sorry," that didn't sound very sincere.

"What the hell was that?" Happy asked angrily.

"Every time I see him being something other than happy it confuses me," Thor stated, "does not taking up the title Happy mean that that is what he should be?"

"His real name is Harold," Toni told him, "Happy is just his nickname and he didn't come up with it. Although unlike many nicknames neither did I. Piper being called Piper was my idea though. I called him that because aside from me he's good at getting people to follow him. Besides his real name is Virgil which is just not a name I can accept."

"It's called mixed martial arts," Toni quipped, "it's been around for three weeks."

"It's called dirty boxing. There's nothing new about it," Happy told her.

"To be fair to both of you mixed martial arts is one of the best forms of actually defending yourself if you're attacked as it can give you an edge over an opponent who's either not expecting you to change styles or only has one specific set of moves themselves but you were supposed to be boxing," Clint commented.

"Since when have I cared about what I'm supposed to do?" Toni quipped.

"Never!" the room chorused.

"Exactly," Toni said smugly, "and I probably never will because expectations and limitations both suck in entirely different ways therefore I shall do my best to pretend that both don't exist."

"All right, put them up. Come on," Toni taunted as Natasha was seen walking into the room.

"And you have long hair," Bruce said, "it's nice."

"I liked it too," Natasha said with a glare at Clint who simply rolled his eyes and said, "the fire burning your hair was not my fault."

"It was your flaming arrow that set my hair on fire ergo it was your fault," Natasha said not buying his innocent act.

"Well, if you insist on cartwheeling into the path of my shot while fighting then it's not exactly my fault when it all goes wrong is it," Clint pointed out.

"You two can bicker about this – for the fifteenth time – later when we're not trying to get through a scene in this film that lasts about five minutes and dragging it out to over half an hour through petty squabbles," Phil told them firmly, "and for the last time you were clearly both at fault. Get over it already!"

Happy was the first to spot Natasha blatantly staring at her causing Toni to turn around and see what he was looking at. She quite happily checked Natasha out too once she did see. "I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company," Piper snarked as Natasha made her way over to him with a file in hand.

"Just to clarify, you were genuinely checking me out even though you knew I was a spy right?" Natasha asked.

"Definitely," Toni told her, "I find you very attractive even when you're infiltrating my company on the orders of a complete asshole."

"Good to know," Natasha said.

"I need you to initial each box," Natasha told Piper handing over a pen as she held out the forms for him to sign.

As Toni studied Natasha carefully Happy tapped her on the shoulder and told her, "Lesson one. Never take your eye off…"

Toni didn't bother letting him finish that sentence considering he was doing nothing to back it up. Instead she kicked him forcefully into the corner as the bell signifying her win rang out. This caused Natasha to look up. Piper didn't react at all choosing just to keep signing.

"Sometimes he looks far too used to my antics," Toni sighed, "I suppose I'll have to come up with something new that wouldn't possibly destroy the entire world. I'm shelving those ideas permanently because it would be too much of a hassle."

"What's your name?" Toni asked knocking on the bars of the wrestling ring to get Natasha's attention.

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman," Natasha told her.

"One of the better cover identities, it's always nice when the name is close enough to your own that you can use nicknames to cover any mistakes. Not that I made any but still," Natasha said.

"I nearly slipped up and called you Tasha instead of Nat a couple of times," Toni chuckled, "now that would have led to questions. From more people than just you."

"You want a go?" Toni asked with a smirk, "Front and centre. Come into the church."

"I'm kind of upset with myself for not catching that now," Natasha said with a frown, "I didn't actually get it at the time. I originally figured that it was just so you could look at me or something but once I got to know you I knew that wasn't it. You were goading me into showing some of my skills in front of you to try and prove to yourself that you would have spotted it without the hacking."

"Well, you've clearly got me all figured out now Tasha so I figure you're good," Toni laughed.

Bruce thought this was the most he'd seen them talk to each other ever since meeting them. Even everyone else knowing they were friends hadn't seemed to make them more prone to talking to each other. He'd almost thought that because they were both on screen now they would have let what they were being shown do the talking but it seemed to have brought out the sides of them that had made them friends in the first place. This wasn't exactly a bad thing of course. Both of them needed to relax more often especially considering some of the no doubt horrific stuff related to Vanko and the palladium poisoning that they would have to relive by watching this. And unless he was mistaken in the very first movie they'd watched Natasha had mentioned that despite their being friends that Toni didn't trust her for more than just her being a spy. This implied that they might have to live through a viewing of a painful betrayal on both sides. Phil however knew this was the case and was definitely not looking forward to it. Sure, he had only been peripherally involved in Toni ending up being locked in her own house and she'd proven quite adept at sneaking out and didn't seem to resent him for it as much as she had resented Natasha and especially Fury but he had helped in the end. Maybe she'd been more understanding in his case for after Fury had left he had told her that he was truly only doing this so she would actually work towards finding a cure for her current condition rather than waiting around to die. The orders from the organisation that he worked for simply gave him the opportunity to do so without having to personally intervene and probably be ignored. Toni always did appreciate honesty even if she didn't always practice it herself.

"No, you're seriously not going to ask…" Piper started as Natasha looked on curiously trying to determine her motives.

"If it pleases the court, which it does," Toni interrupted prompting an exasperated sigh from Piper which Natasha answered with a simple, "no problem."

"You're smirking a bit there Nat," Clint teased, "You clearly thought you were going to shock Toni with your skills."

"She did act shocked for my benefit at least, as you'll see in a minute though Piper's expression was much funnier," Natasha said with a smirk similar to the one Clint had referred to her wearing on the screen.

"I'm sorry. She's very eccentric," Piper tried to explain.

Natasha simply walked right up to the ring and ducked under the bar to get in and simply look at Toni for a second as she took a swig of her chlorophyll shake. "What?" Toni said when Natasha continued to stare at her when she didn't talk finally she continued directing a comment to Happy, "Can you give her a lesson?"

"No problem," Happy said as Toni ducked out of the ring and headed towards Piper.

"This is not going to end well for Mr Hogan," Thor boomed clearly thrilled at the idea.

"Piper," Toni whispered as she headed over to sit by him.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Who is she?" Toni asked.

"She is from legal," Piper sighed exasperatedly, "And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that."

"Most of those cases get kicked out unless they're accompanied by lewd comments or touching," Natasha commented showing the research she'd done to portray someone from legal, "besides every single one of the complaints against Toni were thrown out when it was proved that either the employee was willing or lying to try and get some of the billions of dollars of Toni's fortune paid out to them to hush it up."

"Sexual harassment isn't cool," Toni said simply, "although I will admit to looking if I find someone attractive if they're not into me then we leave it there. As everyone should if they end up in that situation."

"I need a new assistant, boss," Toni told him.

"Yes, and I've got three excellent potential candidates," Piper insisted clearly ignoring Toni's implications, "they're lined up and ready to meet you."

Toni however was still watching Natasha being given a lecture by Happy and said, "I don't have time to meet. I need someone new. I feel like it's her."

"That's actually a nice trick," Clint chuckled, "you make Piper think you just want her as your PA because she's attractive but because she's competent he'll agree to it. You make Natasha think that you've fallen for her gambit and she becomes your PA which in turn is what Fury wanted and you get the infiltrating agent in a position where you can keep an eye on her."

"No, it's not," Piper said simply.

"He was probably not believing that someone from legal who would consent to lower themselves to work as a PA wouldn't be doing it solely to sleep with you which you've stated before is immediate grounds for dismissal. They can like you but they have to be capable of sticking around if things were to go sour," Phil mentioned.

"You ever boxed before?" Happy asked Natasha in the ring.

"I have, yes," Natasha told him with a smile.

"What, like, the Tae Bo?" Happy asked incredulously, "Booty Boot Camp? Crunch? Something like that?" Natasha's facial expression darkened more and more the further he got into his sentence.

"Now he really has doomed himself," Steve commented, "there's no way he's going to get away with sexist comments in front of Natasha. It might have been impressive before but now it's going to be brutal."

Natasha cleared her throat derisively as Toni called out, "How do I spell your name, Natalie?"

"R-U-S-H-M-A-N," Natasha spelled out for her.

"What are you going to google her now?" Piper sighed as Toni reached for the holographic table and typed the name in to bring up the fake file that SHIELD had created.

"Hm, I thought I was ogling her," Toni snarked.

"You were," Natasha snorted.

"Technicalities," Toni dismissed, "they mean nothing unless they're involved in science. I wouldn't want to blow too many things up. Well, not in my lab anyway."

"Oh, wow," Toni sighed as she looked through the file ignoring Piper's background comments, "Very, very impressive individual. She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin other than me?"

"No one speaks Latin," Piper sighed trying his best not to even look at Toni at this point, "it's a dead language."

"Lady Toni literally just pointed out two people who speak Latin to you only a short amount of time ago," Thor said puzzled, "if more than one person speaks a language doesn't that mean that it is no longer dead because people may converse in it."

"No one speaks Latin?" Toni scoffed.

"You can read Latin or you can write Latin," Piper stated as Toni pulled up pictures of Natasha modelling in underwear up onto the screen, "but you can't speak Latin…"

Clint wolf whistled at the pictures of Natasha who promptly rolled her eyes and said, "that's my head photoshopped very well onto someone else's body so that's quite enough of that Barton."

"That wasn't the smartest decision SHIELD made," Phil admitted, "if Toni hadn't already known about you being a spy if she'd been the least suspicious at any point she could probably have dug up the original photos without your head on them and found us out. Including them for extra sex appeal when you were already there probably wasn't even necessary."

"Did you model in Tokyo?" Toni quipped, "Cause she modelled in Tokyo."

"Well…"Piper started.

"I need her, she's got everything that I need," Toni insisted. The faint sound of this conversation was enough to get Natasha to turn her head to try and see what was going on.

"Rule number one," Happy stated again, "never take your eye off your opponent."

As he actually tried to put this into action by throwing a punch at his opponent this time Natasha completely turned it into a no-sell by grabbing hold of the glove using her distraction to jump up and get her legs around his neck and pull him down to the ground. She'd obviously finally had enough.

"That was even better than I thought it was going to be," Bruce admitted.

"The best part is that I have it on tape in multiple angles now," Toni said gleefully, "the footage from the security cameras in that room pales in comparison. This is the one good thing that Amora has given me."

"OH MY GOD!" Piper shouted as Toni gave an appreciative, "Whoa!" evidently seeing the assassin in action in person was a different experience from watching it in videos because that expression was genuine.

"Happy?" Piper declared worriedly as Natasha stood up and made her way out of the boxing ring Toni praising her skills with a, "that's what I'm talking about," as she did.

"Probably would have had even more of an effect if I hadn't known you were a spy beforehand," Toni sighed, "it's a shame I missed that experience when Piper and Happy were so clearly amazed by it. It must have been awesome."

"I just slipped," Happy insisted.

"You did?" Toni scoffed.

"Yeah," Happy said weakly.

Toni simply rang the bell again commenting, "that looks like a TKO to me."

"Considering the fact that I could have easily killed him from that position I would say that's a fair estimate," Natasha said with a smirk.

"Just… I need your impression," Natasha told Toni.

"You have a quiet reserve," Toni told her, "I don't know, you have an old soul."

"I meant your fingerprint," Natasha clarified.

"Right," Toni said.

"That was a fairly good assessment after only a few minutes though Annie," Natasha told her, "for someone who doesn't have formal spy training that is. Even if you did have a first impression of me from my work already which I didn't know about."

Piper walked up to the pair as Toni was shown the page where the fingerprint had to go and asked, "So, how are we doing?"

"Great," Toni told him earnestly as she printed her fingerprint, "Just wrapping up. Hey. You're the boss."

"Will that be all, Miss Stark?" Natasha asked.

"No," Toni stated before she was interrupted by Piper for once saying, "Yes, that will be all Miss Rushman. Thank you very much."

Natasha walked off back to deliver the file to legal while Toni pouted and commented, "I want one," to an immediate no from the new CEO of Stark Industries.

"I have to admit," Clint said, "that's a hell of a first meeting. Still doesn't beat my first meeting with Nat but it is pretty close."

A/n – Hope you enjoyed this since so many of you were looking forward to it.