Author's Note: I apologize for the long wait. Between visiting relatives over the holidays and uncertainty of how I wanted to continue this story forward, I was unable to write. I think, however, that I know where I'm going, so there shouldn't be anymore ridiculously long waits between updates.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favorited!
An Interlude of Rage
A vase sails through the air, propelled by anger, meeting its demise against a wall. Glass shards, water, and flower stems scatter on impact, joining the broken bits already strewn on the floor. The wall above the debris is scarred by the relentless bashing.
Natasha's hand reaches out, desperate for more ammunition. Perhaps if she screams enough, and breaks enough things, her bleeding heart will heal. After she had been taken, Natasha had carefully hardened her heart to the past, knowing that she would never again see her best friend. As an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha had no use for weakness. Fate was a cruel mistress indeed if with just a single mission Natasha Romanoff could once again know what it is to feel.
Her seeking hand finds a box filled to the brim of second hand dishware she had purchased for an insanely cheap price at a nearby thrift shop. With a scream of rage, Natasha hurls a plate at the wall. It chimes brightly as it smashes against the wall.
A knock at the door interrupts her throw of another plate.
"Go away!" she snarls at the unknown person on the other side.
Agent Barton's voice filter through the closed door, "Natasha, we need to talk about this."
Natasha refuses to talk. Instead she resumes her destruction of dinnerware. When she has spent the box, Natasha sinks to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees and begins to sob. For the first time in her life, she sobs for her lost childhood; she sobs for the years on inhuman treatment at the hands of the Russians who made her into such a good spy; she sobs for her hardened heart that fears opening up to people. She sobs hardest when she realizes she has shut out the one person in all the world who would welcome her with open arms and accept her as she is – Olena, a once-upon-a-time best friend.