When 'Team' Means A Safe Space
by JalendaviLady
Characters: Phil Coulson, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Jarvis, Pepper Potts, Nick Fury
Summary: Natasha gets reassigned while recovering from a mission and the reason why shocks the rest of the Avengers. And that's only the start. Sequel to "Returning The Favor".
WARNINGS: Rape/Non-con References, Childhood Sexual Abuse References, Rape Aftermath, Underage Prostitution References
Chapter 2
Phil tried not to think about Steve's insistence on staying. He tried not to think about the bear with the ear-flap hat.
He tried not to think about the way her hand was resting on Steve's as it rested on her other arm.
"What did Fury mean, he would never have let you go on that mission?" Clint finally asked.
"We had... a history."
Dear God...
"My earliest training was in his organization.
Phil felt himself relax. At least it hadn't been...
"Which part?" Clint asked in a voice as taut as a bowstring.
No answer.
No no no no no I did not stand by how many times while a sex abuse victim let herself be mistreated again. No. Absolutely not.
Steve's hand visibly squeezed. "Which part, Natka?"
Phil's mind had just enough time to process that yes, the Soviets had been allies when Steve was frozen so yes he'd be likely to know some standard Russian nicknames when they got their answer.
"I was nine! I was nine and I escaped after a month and a mercenary group took me in because their leader liked my spunk and thought I had potential. They trained me in how to fight. And then I joined the proper military once I was old enough. He didn't even recognize me, but by God he never gets to hurt anyone ever again!"
"Natka..." Steve squeezed her arm again.
Clint was staring into empty space.
Phil felt like doing the same.
They had sat and listened and Clint had watched, for God's sake, while a former child prostitute let men she could not stand have sex with or flat-out assault her for the good of a country she had not even been born in.
Not that being a citizen by birth instead of by law and fervent oath would have made it any better.
There was coughing from the doorway.
Bruce was standing there holding a bag from the local bakery. Tony was right behind him, his face blanched and his hands shaking even as they held a bouquet of yellow roses.
Roses, Stark? Roses!
"Yellow roses mean friendship," Bruce said quietly, as if he'd caught the reaction.
Tony put the flowers in an empty oriental vase on the dresser. "Natasha, if I need to go take care of something for you..."
"He's already dead," she told him as she curled up on herself.
Her feet hit Clint in the rear, and he finally seemed to snap back into awareness. "Nat?"
"I wouldn't've done it if I didn't trust you, and I only did it without Phil this time because it was my one shot and I knew the bastard well enough to dare." She visibly forced herself to calm down. "I knew you two would always end it whenever I wanted it to stop. And now Fury's ended it forever."
Clint sat a long moment, just holding her hand. "If I'd known," he finally said, "I would have put an arrow in his back the first time I saw him."
She pressed the back of his hand against her cheek. "That wouldn't have stopped his operations. This did."
"Good," Bruce told her as he sat the bag beside the vase. "When I was on the run, I treated kids for things kids just shouldn't have."
Phil noticed Natasha was looking straight into Bruce's eyes.
"They were all runaways, so far as I could tell. There were a few reputable rescue organizations in the area that I tried to steer them to. And when you took me out of there, I handed Fury all the information I could recall from the stories they told me."
Natasha laid her head back down. "Bless you."
"Tony, let's let her try to get some sleep," Bruce suggested.
"Natasha, if you need anything, you tell JARVIS. Got it?"
"Got it."
Tony left.
Bruce nodded meaningfully at the IV pole. "I hope most of those are precautionary."
"He was clean when they tested him," Clint said, "but making sure makes her feel better."
"I always take the full course. Nothing's going to get antibiotic or antiviral resistance from this, at least not that way."
"I'm glad it helps," Bruce told her. "And if seeing him ripped apart in effigy would help, please remember that I know a guy."
Natasha smiled, her eyes drifting shut as she snuggled deeper under her blanket and pulled her bear close. "I may have to take you two up on that. I haven't seen the woods upstate yet."
Bruce patted her shoulder. "Goodnight."
When he was gone, Clint and Phil both moved a little closer to her. "Tasha, I swear, if we had known..."
"Phil, I needed to do this."
"If we had known," he repeated, "you would have never been asked to..."
"Somebody had to. Someone will have to."
"And now it will just have to be someone who chose that life as an adult," Steve told her kindly.
There was a rolling sound from the hallway and a moment later Tony and Pepper were wheeling a folded-up roll-away bed through the door.
"We, ah..."
"We thought things might be getting a bit cramped even though Tony put a full-size bed in here, so we thought you all might appreciate this."
Natasha looked over her shoulder again. "Go ahead."
They set it up with Steve's help, careful of the two IV poles and the lines leading from them.
"Want to join the sleepover?" she joked.
"You ought to have another woman in here," Pepper told her seriously. "Might as well be me."
"It ought to be all of us defending you tonight. We're a team."
Natasha seemed to consider that. "JARVIS?"
"Yes, Ms. Romanoff?"
"Get Bruce."
They finally settled down with Natash curled up in Pepper's arms with Clint scrunched in at their feet and Phil leaning on pillows pressed into the corner where the walls met.
Tony and Bruce were lying on the twin bed at an angle so that Steve would have a place to sit at their feet.
"I don't need as much sleep as the rest of you do," he had explained. "I can catch up tomorrow."
Phil was the last one awake other than Steve.
Natasha whimpered in her sleep, but between Phil stroking her shoulder and Pepper unconsciously pulling her closer she settled back down without waking herself or anyone else up.
Steve caught his eye. "You couldn't have known," he whispered.
"Doesn't make it better," Phil whispered back. "She trusted me to protect her."
"Seems to me, she thinks you have." He looked down at her. "So much else has changed. I think I was hoping that would be gone too."
"We're trying. Nearly the whole world's trying."
Steve looked away. "I'm just thinking out loud again. Get some sleep."
Beep.
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep...
What...
"IV alarm," Bruce announced. "I'll deal with it."
Everybody complained when he turned the light on with no warning.
Settling back down once he had seen to everyone's medical needs and turned the light off again took time.
"Goodnight," Bruce told them all in the darkness.
"Goodnight, Bruce," Clint answered back.
"Goodnight, Other Guy."
"Tony, that really was not appropriate."
"Pepper, when has my sense of humor ever been appropriate?"
Natasha yawned. "I thought it was sweet."
"This is a reminder that it is currently three hours until dawn."
Clint quietly counted down. "Three... two... one..."
"Goodnight, JARVIS!" everybody but Steve chorused.
"Doo. Doo-doo."
"Tony, do I have to come over there?" Clint threatened.
"I missed a reference there, didn't I?" Steve asked after a moment.
"No one introduced you to The Waltons ? We need to have a marathon."
"Tony, I swear..."
"Ow, watch where you're sticking that bow."
A moment of blissful silence.
"Barton, I meant it." Steve's voice was strained.
"Clint, stop it," Natasha ordered in her best 'I will kick your ass' voice. And, given why they were all there, Phil seriously doubted anyone would cross her.
He just shook his head, closed his eyes, and tried to ignore the continuing bickering.