I finally got to the last chapter! I am so happy! I hope you all enjoy, and that it won't be too disappointing and short. Thank you to all those who have read and reviewed. Especially those who reviewed! Hopefully I will be able to post more of Nat's adventures eventually... when I actually have more of them written down.
One Last Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not even Nat, really. She just decided to come live in my brain. I am grateful.
Chapter Six
New York
Diana Stark paced in front of the wall of windows, anxiously twisting a section of her hair around her fingers. Aaron and Nat should be arriving in the city any time now. The trip from North Carolina wasn't particularly long, but it was extremely dangerous with Nat having been labeled a fugitive.
Diana passed the couch, snatched a pillow off of it, and hurled it across the room in anger. She was sure that Fury had been the one to tip off the CIA about the girl. It was all ridiculous! Nat was publishing the stories as Fanfiction for crying out loud! No one was going to realize that it was true! For goodness sake, the government could pass off tiny aliens made out of fat as some kind of mass hallucination! They had no business worrying about one teenage girl posting 'fictional' stories on the internet.
Tony walked in, and headed for the bar, barely glancing in her direction. "You're going to create a rut in the floor if you keep doing that," he told his sister.
"I don't care!" she snapped. "They should be in the city by now, and I'm just so angry at Fury for doing this! Nat's no threat!"
Tony left the bar without his drink, and caught Diana by her shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. "Look, Di. I know that, you know that, the entire team knows that. But Fury is too dense to even talk to her himself. But it's going to be alright! Aaron will get her here soon, and she won't leave the Tower until we can get everything straightened out."
Diana took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "You're right. I'm sorry I yelled at you."
Tony grinned, "Thank you."
New York City. Nat had been there several times to visit the Avengers and other superheroes who had their bases in the big city. But she had never come in like this. Sometimes, she would use transporter tech from Voyager, other times, Tony would come pick her up in one of his slightly less obvious cars and he would drive her there. She quite enjoyed that last method. Tony wasn't so bad once you got to know him. From the outside, he was tough and tried to keep people at arm's length. But inside he was an extremely fun and funny teddy bear.
Now, sneaking into town by train, wearing a hat pulled low over her face, and closely following Aaron as he led her through the crowds, she was trying not to panic. They were so close, all they had to do was get to the tower.
They stayed on the train for as long as they could, but were forced off quite a ways from their intended stop when security started looking at they suspiciously. It helped that they were expecting Nat to be alone, not traveling with a companion.
They only made it about half a block before Aaron spotted police closing in on them. "Nat, keep walking. Don't turn around, just walk. I'll be right back." He disappeared into the crowd before she could say anything, but she did as he told her. She kept her head down, and kept walking.
When Aaron pulled up to the sidewalk on a motorcycle, she nearly missed him, she was so focused on where her feet were going. "Hey!" he called, finally catching her attention. She was almost relieved when she saw the bike. "Have you ridden before?" he asked as he handed her the helmet.
"Yep," she replied, taking the helmet and buckling it on quickly before mounting the bike.
"Good, hold on tight." She did so, wrapping her arms around his waist. Then they were moving, and Nat thought that, just maybe, they would make it without much more trouble.
She was almost right. After weaving their way through traffic lights and around cars, and managing to lose quite a few cops in the mayhem, they were forced to ditch the bike and duck into an alley. The reason for this was because Aaron had suddenly spotted an agent on their tail.
They were boxed in. They had nowhere to go. Until Nat suddenly face-palmed and dug out her Stark Phone. Aaron's eyes widened at the sight of the shiny, high-tech phone. "What is that?" he asked.
Nat grinned. "Stark Phone. It's protected by JARVIS, so it's completely untraceable. That's why I brought it, but not my cell phone." She quickly keyed for the first number on her speed dial.
Diana's phone started ringing, blaring out the Britt Nicole song, 'Ready or Not.' "It's Nat!" she exclaimed. Her fingers moved effortlessly over the buttons as she answered, keying for a signal trace. "Nat! Where are you? Are you alright?"
"We need help, Di," Nat's voice came over the phone. "We're stuck about a block from you. Think you could send Tony to pick us up? Thor would be helpful too, we need an air evac."
Diana looked up to find her brother already moving toward the exit, calling to JARVIS to tell Thor that he was needed. "They're already moving," Diana told her friend. "They'll be there soon."
"Thank you, Di. We'll see you soon!" The call cut off, and Diana hurried to the balcony where she could just barely see Tony and Thor streaking toward Nat and Aaron's position.
"Do you have the coordinates?" she asked into her comlink.
Tony's exasperated voice came back to her, "Of course, Di. JARVIS can move faster than you, ya know."
She laughed. "Yes, dear brother. I do know that." And with that, she saw Thor and Tony flying back toward the tower, each carrying a person.
It was almost a week before they got everything straightened out with the government. Nat had to promise that she would never try to publish the stories as anything other than Fanfiction, and that she wouldn't give specific details as to the layout of secret bases or their locations. Of course, she did so willingly.
They all enjoyed having her in the tower, as always. They also enjoyed getting to know Aaron. Clint especially liked him, since they looked so alike. After they talked for awhile, they found out that they were third cousins four-times removed or something like that. Nat suspected that whichever one had come first had done so near some kind of spatial rift or something.
Whenever Nat was at the tower at the same time as the Black Widow, Nat went by Tasha, and the Russian went by Nat. It was a little confusing, and Aaron got mixed up several times before he finally got it straight. The two of them had quite an enjoyable time teasing him and trying to mess him up. That is, until Clint got involved on Aaron's side and decided that dropping water balloons from the air vents was a good way to get them to stop. It did work, but Tasha wasn't too happy about it, and Nat wanted to start a real prank war over it. Thankfully, Diana got them all straightened out and calmed down before anything crazy happened.
When Tasha finally was safe to go home, she thanked Aaron for rescuing her. "You're welcome," he replied with a smile. "And if you ever need any help again, you can always call me." Tasha smiled as he held up his new Stark Phone. Since the phones weren't traceable, it was safe for Aaron to use it while he was on the run with Marta.
"Tell Marta that I want to meet her some time," Tasha told him.
"I will," he promised. "I'll see you later."
With a quick hug, Tasha turned and climbed into one of Tony's cars. He was going to drive her home, and he had promised that she could pick which one she wanted. As usual, she had picked the dark green Mini Cooper that he had gotten just because it was her favorite.
As they drove away from Avenger's Tower, Tasha settled back into her seat and breathed a sigh of happy relief. Another adventure for the website. She wondered how people would react to this. To them, it would be just another crossover between Bourn Legacy and Avengers with a little US Marshalls and a couple Doctor Who references thrown in for good measure. But she knew the truth. It was real. Every single word.
