I still do not own Marvel, nor do I own MASH 4077

"Life is full of regrets, but it doesn't pay to look back." ~Zinedine Zidane

Natasha was exhausted but she couldn't sleep, it was one of those nights where all she could see when she closed her eyes was all the red in her ledger, the red she wanted to wipe out.

"Well, this isn't working" she muttered swinging out of her bed. Normally she would bother Barton, but he was on a mission. Natasha didn't want to bother Stark or Banner, figuring it wouldn't be the best idea. That left Anora, and the assassin was certain that the young woman would be sound asleep, especially since it was two in the morning. But, when Natasha walked onto the common floor she saw the young mutant woman curled up on the couch watching some TV show.

"I wasn't expecting anyone else besides Stark to be up right now." Natasha watched a Nora jumped and turned to look at her.

"Oh, hi Tasha. What time is it?"

"Almost two thirty."

"Oh, I didn't think it was that late. Oops." She smiled at the red head. "Wanna join me since you look like you couldn't sleep?"

"Are you sure you don't want to go get some sleep?"

"I've been awake this long. Might as well stay up a bit longer, besides, you look like you could use some company and I'm at that point where you're so tired you're not. You know?"

Natasha nodded, sitting down next to the Burnette, just as one of the characters started ranting to another.

"I will not carry a gun… I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Carry Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even hari-kari if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!"

"What?" Natasha had no idea what was going on or who was talking, she'd never seen this show before.

"That's Benjamin Franklin Peirce. His friends call him Hawkeye. He's a doctor at a MASH Unit during the Korean War. Major Frank Burnes, that one who's actually in uniform, is trying to get Hawkeye Peirce to carry a gun since he's an army Captain and Frank is a stickler for the rules. But Hawkeye is a doctor first and foremost, he took the Hippocratic Oath and he meant it. He's there to patch up people who have been wounded by guns and bombs, not carry a weapon that causes all those injuries, so he's chewing Frank out for it."

Natasha had to admire the character's ability to stick to his principles. She wished she could do that as well as the doctor on the show who was refusing to carry a gun.

"Tasha, you and Hawkeye Peirce are more similar than you think. He does everything he can to make the world a little better, while in the middle of horrible circumstances. He does everything he can to make the people around him happy, even in the middle of a war zone, trying to patch kids up and keep them from dying. Even when he feels shitty and like he can't do anything to fix the life he was thrown into, he still comforts everyone else and tries to make them smile. You do the same thing. Whenever anyone of us feels like we're drowning from all the things we've seen or done, you always find a way to pull us out. Why? Because you understand and you don't judge us for it, and you've been there, you know it doesn't do any good blaming yourself. You do your best to make a terrible past not so terrible. You don't have to wipe out the red in your ledger, what's been written there is in red ink, you can't erase it, but you can move on and write your future in something else, and we're all here to help if you need us to. That's what friends are for."

Natasha smiled, actually smiled. "Thank you."

"No problema chica. Oh, I love this part!"

The assassin shook her head. She might be able to get used to having a support system, not just for her job, but for herself too.