Chapter 45

Natasha was tired and exhausted when she arrived back at the Tower. It was afternoon and all she wanted was to take a nap to recharge and then she would call on a group meeting. She needed to tell the others what she found out and they needed to come up with a plan on how to deal with Malick. She stopped on her way to her floor at the common floor to get some food from the kitchen. She walked into the room and there was a fucking teenager sitting at the kitchen counter eating cereal.

"How did you get in here?" She barked and the kid looked up from his bowl.

His eyes widended. "Oh my god! You're the Black Widow! You're so cool!"

Oh no was that the kid Tony had been talking about? "And you are?"

"Peter." He looked like was thinking about offering his hand but decided against it. "My name is Peter Parker, Ma'am."

God, being called ma'am by a teenager made her feel old. What was Parker doing here? She wanted to ask him but Tony waltzed into the room with a tablet in his hand. "Peter, I got an awesome idea for your suit-" He looked up and saw her. "Oh crap. Hi, Natasha."

"What is he doing here?" She pointed at the kid.

"Relax. It's not like I kidnapped him. Cap said we would help him if he needed us and he did and so we helped him." Tony sat down next to Parker. "Then I invited him over to the tower to talk about a suit for him. If the kid goes after criminals he should have at least have a real suit and not some romper."

"I made that suit myself." Parker mumbled into his cereal.

Tony patted his back. "And for that it was not that bad, kid."

She gave Tony an incredulous look. They couldn't start housing teenagers around here. They were about to go up against HYDRA. "Do your parents know about your Spiderboy thing?"

Parker's face clouded for a second. "I live with my aunt and no she doesn't know I'm Spiderman. She would freak out!"

"Tony,can I talk to you for a sec?"

Tony got up and followed her out of the kitchen into the hallway. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

He seemed annoyed. "Look, I'm not recruiting him. I can see that it might be a bit ludicrous. But he ran into some bad people and Sam and I helped him and I invited him to check out the tower. He's a good kid but if he keeps running around the streets in that romper of his, he's gonna get hurt. I'm just trying to help him."

Tony was probably right. If Parker continued to keep the streets of Queens safe, he needed a better suit."Fine. I'll take a nap and then we have a team meeting. The kid better be gone by than. This doesn't concern him." She didn't think HYDRA would have any problems with killing a child that got into their way.

Tony nodded. "You got it, boss."

She left Tony with Parker alone and took on her couch a two hour nap that she desperately needed. Now that she had seen and talked to Steve she was finally able to get some sleep without tossing and turning.

Natasha took a shower after her nap and checked her burner phone for messages from Steve. He hadn't called her yet or sent her a text but they've only seen each other ten hours ago so she wasn't worried. He would probably call her later.

She changed into jeans and t shirt and told FRIDAY to inform everyone to meet her in Tony's lab. Wanda and Pietro were at Columbia as FRIDAY told her and maybe that was for the best. They already had to deal with enough HYDRA in their young lives. She could still call them if she needed their help. Sam and Tony were already there and Rhodey came in a few minute after her.

"Where's Hill?" She wanted to know after she didn't show up.

"Helping Coulson."

She nodded. "What I am going to tell you can't leave this room. I am not exaggerating when I saw that we can't trust anyone."

Rhodey spoke up. "Did you get that HYDRA list?"

"Yes, but I don't have it."

"Then who does?"

She took a deep breath. "Bucky and Steve."

All three men stared at her. "What?"

So she told them how she ran into them in Bucharest and that they were after the list as well and about Ward and that they found him and took it back.

"I hope you kicked Steve in the eagles when you saw him!" Tony said. He like everyone else had been pretty mad at Steve for leaving her in the middle of the night.

Nope, I had sex with him two minutes after we ran into each other. "We talked about it eventually." She simply said and hoped that they realized that she wasn't going to say more about that topic. "I gave the list to Steve and Bucky so they can bring down HYDRA cells in Europe. Bucky can't return to the States for now. Ward gave up a name." She clenched her jaw. She was mad at herself that she hadn't realized that she had been played.

"Whose name?" Sam asked and the boys were giving her expecting looks.

"Malick."

"No fucking way!" Rhodey exclaimed. "That fucking bastard!"

She wholeheartedly agreed. "Yes, he has been fooling us this whole time."

"And what do we do now?"

"Nothing. We let Malick think that we have no clue and that he is still playing us." She turned to Tony. "Do you still have these things you used on the helicarrier to hack into SHIELD?"

He nodded. "Yes and I improved them."

"Good. I wanna pay Malick a visit soon to thank him for his support and plant one of those at his house."

"Well, you get that chance sooner than you think." Tony replied. "You and me got invited to dinner at his mansion in Westchester. And now that you're back, I think we should take him up on that offer."

She jerk her head in a nod. Excellent, she thought that inviting herself over to his house might have caused suspicion. But this way Malick wouldn't suspect anything. She told Tony to contact Malick to set it up. The sooner they had access to his servers the better.

Tony and Rhodey shortly left after the briefing and Sam stayed with her and made the two of them sandwiches.

"So how was it to see Steve?" He asked her when he handed her a plate with two sandwiches.

She eyed him for a moment. She wasn't one to talk about her feelings but maybe talking about everything would help her. "Weird." Should she tell him everything? "I slept with him." She admitted and could feel herself blush. Oh great.

If Sam was surprised by that he didn't show it. "So you two made up?"

"Um, actually we had sex before that." She didn't know why she was embarrassed now or why she told him that. "But we did get to talk about what happened and he apologized. He promised he would never do it again."

"And you believe him?" Sam asked kindly and she appreachiated that he didn't immediately take Steve's side. He had been his friend longer than hers.

"Yes but I lost some of my trust in him."

"That's just natural, Natasha. And understandable."

She gave him a small smile. It was nice that someone agreed with her. She sometimes thought that because of who she and Steve were, Steve was always right and she was wrong.

They ate their sandwiches and Sam told her about how they had helped Parker.

She was going through the files they had on Malick to get to know him better when her burner phone rang. She didn't tell the others that she had it. It was her and Steve's little secret. Well, he probably told Bucky about it.

She got up from the couch and ran to the bedroom to answer it. "Hey!"

"Hi!" Her heart started racing when she heard his voice. She wished he was here so they could work on their relationship and move on.

"Where are you?"

"We're in Roma. There is a HYDRA cell outside of town. We're going after it tomorrow."

"Be careful!"

He chuckled lightly. "Of course. How are things back at home?"

It wasn't really a home anymore now that Steve was gone. He was her home. "Good, I told them about the list and Malick. They knew that I ran into you."

"Okay." He sighed. "How much do they hate me for bailing on you? And them?"

"No one hates you, Steve. We get why you thought that it was the right move at the time. We're not happy with it but we get it."

They both knew she wasn't talking about the others.

"I'm sorry I hurt you so much, Nat. The minute I walked out that door I wanted to go back to you." His voice broke a bit. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do."

"I know you're sorry." She took a deep breath. "I forgive you."

"Really?"

"Yes, I don't want to linger on that for the rest of my life. We need to move on and I want you in my life. I want to be with you."

"I love you, Natasha." His voice was full of emotion. "I don't deserve you. I love you so so much. I'm sorry!"

"I love you, too." She was finally capable of saying these three words to him again. "I love you and we'll get through this."

She told him about the dinner at Malick's house and their plan to bug him. They promised to check in on each other daily and after another love declaration they ended the call.

She crawled under the blankets and wished Steve was here to use him as her pillow. She hugged his pillow and breathed in his smell. She hated sleeping alone.