9.30am
The ride up on the elevator was silent. Steve stood in one corner trying to keep his posture open and relaxed, while Natasha stood in the other stiff as a board with her arms folded tightly.
Her eyes darted all over the small space, no doubt taking in every miniscule detail and filing it away for future use.
When they arrived to the top floor Steve exited first, knowing intuitively that Natasha probably wouldn't want him in her blind spot.
Tony was welding something on the far side of them room. It appeared that he'd just about finished building the machine they'd started the night before.
He spotted them and stopped what he was doing to push up his welding mask.
"He guys how's it- woah! What happened to your face Rogers?"
One of Steve's hands involuntarily touched the cheek Natasha had punched and he winced. It still stung.
"It's nothing. It'll be healed by the end of the day. Natasha didn't recognize me when she woke up."
"So I guess your memory is gone then huh?" he said addressing Natasha, who had positioned herself like a small shadow behind Steve
"For all intents and purposes it seems so," she said cautiously.
"Well then you must allow me to introduce myself," said Tony dramatically as he pulled of the gloves he was wearing and threw them into his work bench along with his welding mask.
"I'm Tony Stark, genius entrepreneur millionaire philanthropist. I moonlight as Ironman, coolest superhero on the Avengers," Natasha raised an eyebrow.
"… The Avengers..?"
"Oh, you're an Avenger too, fought in the battle of New York and everything. Your cool superhero name is Black Widow."
"Are you serious?" asked Natasha, skepticism written all over her face.
"Perfectly serious. As a matter of fact, we met when I employed you as my assistant but you were really spying on me for S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Actually I've read the reports, she wasn't spying on you. She was assessing you for the Avengers Initiative, and babysitting," piped up Steve.
"Babysitting?! I resent that!"
"It's true, those were director Fury's literal words on the mission brief," replied Steve with an unapologetic shrug.
"Anyway, if Steve hasn't told you already you're an elite-spy combat-specialist and you lost your memory on a mission gone wrong, but we're friends and we're going to help you get it all back. Comprende?"
She looked between the two of them, seemingly wresting something internally.
"Are you an 'Avenger' too?" she asked Steve.
"Sure am."
"Do you also have a code name?"
"He's Captain America, super solider extraordinaire," cut in Tony. Natasha still looked skeptical.
"Here, watch this, it'll convince you. Jarvis, do the thing on the big wall."
"Yes sir."
The lights dimmed and footage came up of them fighting Chitauri in New York. Natasha had gotten a hold of one of their alien scepters and was wielding it against them, and Steve was besides her throwing his shield.
The scene changed and showed footage of a helicopter by a collapsing building. The helicopter suddenly dived to the side and caught a tiny human figure that had burst through the windows moments earlier.
It changed again and showed Tony flying across the sky as Ironman on a beautifully clear day.
The lights came back up.
"… I see why they call you Ironman," commented Natasha mildly.
"If that doesn't convince you, think fast!" Tony picked up a spanner and hefted it as hard as he could in her direction. Steve put out an arm and caught it easily in one hand, but Natasha had already anticipated it making contact with her, and had back-flipped out of the way.
She followed that up with a forward handspring, snatching the spanner out of Steve's grasp to biff it back at Tony much harder than he had thrown it at her.
Tony let out an unmanly 'eep!' before diving ungracefully behind his workbench.
"You're reflexes are still intact I see," was his muffled reply as he scrambled back to his feet.
Natasha stayed crouched low in a defensive position, eyes wide seemingly in shock at her actions.
"Not the best time to startle her Stark, are you alright Natasha?" asked Steve with a frown, offering her a hand.
"Yeah, I just can't believe I did that," she replied, accepting his help. He pulled her to her feet and she held onto his hand a second longer than was necessary.
"Okay everyone, let's calmly take a seat and maybe talk some logistics," suggested Tony.
Natasha stiffly followed them over to the settee. She sat beside Steve and opposite Tony.
"When Bruce gets here we're going to run some tests-"
"What kind of tests?" cut in Natasha tersely. She edged a little closer to Steve.
"MRI scan, he might want to run a few blood test."
"Oh, okay," she appeared visibly relieved. Steve wondered what kind of tests she thought they might run…
"For now I think we need to test the extent of memory loss you've suffered. Quick fire round!" Tony pointed his index finger at Natasha like it was a gun, "Date of birth?"
She frowned nervously, edging a little closer to Steve.
"Stark what are you doing?" he injected.
"C'mon, its quick fire, do you know or don't you? We need to establish what type of memory she's lost and retained. She's obviously kept her muscle memory for starters," said Tony, gesturing with his hands for her to hurry up and answer the question.
"I don't know," she replied curtly.
"Place of birth?" she seemed to rack her brain for a moment before answering.
"…I don't know,"
"How do you take your coffee?"
"... I don't even know if I like coffee."
"Parlez-vous français?"
"Oui." Natasha clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise at the word that had escaped it.
"Parlez-vous quelque autres langues? "
"…Oui."
"Par exemple? "
"Je peux parler… Ruse, chinois, latin, bien sûr l'anglais…"
"Well apart from English I can't speak any of those to test you and so we'll have to take your word for it on the others. Any brothers or sisters?"
"I don't know."
"Where do you live?"
"I don't know."
"What happened in Budapest with Hawkeye?"
"Hawkeye?"
"Never mind, any allergies?"
"Look, I don't know. This is pointless," said Natasha shaking her head, "Honestly, I was … born the moment I woke up in that room. I can't recall ever meeting anyone; I can't picture the faces of anybody that I might know, heck I don't even know what I look like… I just don't know anything," she said hopelessly, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them tightly. She drew in a ragged breath, seemingly composing herself. Steve lay a reassuring hand on her back.
Suddenly she unfolded her body and sat up ramrod straight. Steve pulled away, but smiled encouragingly at her when she glanced at him.
"So how about you answer some of my questions?" she asked, folding her hands in her lap.
"Of course, what would you like to know?" asked Steve.
"How can I get my memory back?"
"I defer to you Stark on the science-y stuff," said Steve.
"Well, you did manage to give us a lot of information about what we're dealing with. Whoever invented the memory serum hadn't yet discovered a way to reserve the process, or if they did, you didn't manage to steal any info on it. When Bruce arrives, I propose we run the tests and work from there."
"So I'm a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D? Do we all work for them?"
"That's a complicated story actually. You used to be an operative of S.H.I.E.L.D, and I used to occasionally take on missions for them, but not anymore. A few months ago we found out that S.H.I.E.L.D had been compromised by HYDRA, a terrorist organization dedicated to the achievement of world domination-"
"I know that sounds corny, especially coming out of Mr Patriotic's mouth, but it true," injected Tony.
"Anyway, they were going to put three helicarriers in the air that had the ability to shoot any target they deemed threatening to their ideals. We took them out and dumped all of S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA's dirty secrets on the internet."
"In a nutshell."
"Mr Banner has arrive," interrupted Jarvis
"Brilliant! Send him up."
Bruce stepped out of the elevator wearing a patched up jacket and carrying a battered suitcase.
"Hello everyone," he said with a tired smile.
"Natasha, Bruce, Bruce, Natasha," supplied Steve.
"Oh wow so her memory is really gone?"
"For all intents and purposes," said Tony, parroting Natasha's words from earlier.
"I guess I should introduce myself then," said Bruce, loosening his tie.
"Dr. Bruce Banner, expert in Gamma radiation," he held out a hand and Natasha shook it, scrutinizing him closely.
"I guess you're on the Avengers too? What's your super power?"
"I turn into a giant green rage monster when I get angry," replied Bruce sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Natasha didn't seem to have a reply for that.
"Well let's get stated on these tests shall we?" said Tony getting to his feet, suddenly all business.
Steve thought about leaving them to it seeing Bruce and Tony didn't really need him around for anything, but when he got up and made his way over to the elevator he noticed the way Natasha's eyes followed him with worry. Feeling a bit like a security blanket, he flopped back down on the couch.
Natasha sat stiffly in a chair as Bruce took blood out of her arm, and then they had her lie in the bowels of the machine Tony had constructed overnight.
The two of them were in their element, squabbling in a language that couldn't be English because Steve could only understand every fourth word. They had holographic screens open all over the place, and were both typing away furiously.
"How much longer do you need her to in that machine for?" asked Steve an hour later. He'd occupied himself by playing tetris on the phone Tony had bought him.
"This should be enough data right Bruce? You had a look at what we managed to salvage last night yes?" said Tony distractedly pressing buttons on the machine.
"I think you're right, let her out."
The platform Natasha was lying on slid out of the machine and she slid off gracefully, before stretching.
"Anything you need us to do now?" asked Steve.
"Stay out of trouble. We'll let you know when we have some results," said Tony.
"Are you hungry?" Steve asked Natasha. She nodded.
"I think I could use a change of clothes too…" she said, fingering the collar of his shirt.
"There should be something for you to wear in one of the closets on the 20th floor. I had someone go pick up some stuff while we were gone. For you too Steve," said Tony without taking his eyes away from the screen in front of him.
"Also there's food in kitchen. Make yourselves at home."
"Thanks Tony. Follow me," said Steve.
The ride back down to the 20th floor was less tense than the ride up.
"I get the feeling that me and Stark don't exactly get along normally," said Natasha, breaking the silence.
"He tends to grow on you. Underneath all that bravado he does care," supplied Steve. Natasha hummed thoughtfully as a ding announced that they had arrived at their destination.
They both eyed the brand new coffee table identical to the one they had smashed. Tony had obviously already sent in clean up.
Steve pointed out the room Natasha woke up in, "Your leather jacket should be in there somewhere. You told me before, when you had your memory, that you'd written yourself a letter. It should be in the pocket. Take a shower, get changed, take your time. I'm going to clean up too and then I'm going to cook something. When you're ready just ask Jarvis to direct you to the kitchen. You can do that right Jarvis?"
"Yes sir."
"Thank you," said Natasha gratefully, before closing herself in the room.
Steve went into the other room and had a punishingly hot shower before changing into sweatpants and a singlet that he found in the closet.
As he walked past Natasha's room he could still hear the shower running. He took the elevator back up to the top.
Stark's kitchen was pristine. Steve wondered idly if anyone had actually cooked in it before. He found some eggs in the fridge and some bread in the cupboard. Neither of them had had breakfast yet technically so he decided to make scrambled eggs.
After poking around he found a pan and set to work cooking everything.
Natasha appeared in the room silently just as he was buttering the toast. Her hair was wet, and she was wearing sweat pants and a singlet similar to what Steve was wearing but in a much smaller size.
"Hey, did you read your letter?" he asked her. Natasha's face was carefully blank as she nodded. Steve decided not to pry any further until after they'd eaten. He slid a plate of hot food over to her along with a knife and fork.
They ate in companionable silence.
"What do you want to do now?" asked Steve as he washed their dishes. Natasha wordlessly began drying them and putting them to the side. She didn't know where they were supposed to go.
"I don't know," she replied.
Her lips quirked up on one side into a small self-deprecating smile, "That's seems to be all I say doesn't it?" she said.
"If you don't mind me asking, what did your letter say?" asked Steve carefully.
Natasha's cheeks turned faintly pink and she looked down determinedly at her feet.
"It just said that I could trust the Avengers," she said after a beat, looking back up at him. There was something she wasn't telling him… but Steve decided to let it go.
"Oh, good. Well you can, we'll do everything we can to help you get your memories back. I promise," he said sincerely with a reassuring smile.
"… So what can we do now?" she asked.
"There's no point in us interfering with Tony and Bruce, we'd just get in their way. Do you want to watch a movie or something?" Steve felt silly for the suggestion, but there weren't really all that many options open to them. They had to wait and see what the scientists could come up with. They couldn't really leave the tower, and he felt that sparring would be inappropriate considering Natasha's mental handicap so to speak, not that he even felt like sparing after the dramatic night and morning he'd just gone through.
"Sure, why not," she replied.
Hello! Sorry for taking so long to update. Good news is that my last exam is on Friday so after that I should be able to update more often hopefully. This chapter was a bit of a filler, it will get more exciting later! Thanks for reading and please review :)