Thank you so much for the reviews! Really sorry that this is coming to an end, but I just don't have the motivation that I used to. If you want me to write it into AOU then do say whether you would prefer me to focus on this story or a new one where Pietro comes back to life?
Previously:
"Yours or mine?" Clint asked, knowing that we still had unfinished business.
"Lets try it in yours." I smiled and took his hand.
"These doors aren't sound-proof you know!" Steve shouted from Maria's room.
"It's a good thing the rooms are then!" Clint shouted back as we went to his door.
It had been two days which we basically full of me and Clint having sex if we weren't training. We facetimed Pepper and Tony a couple of times to make sure that they were okay and had a small mission down town, but apart from that it was just time with Clint.
I was in the kitchen and Clint was making waffles. I had given up on wearing nothing more than Clint's shirts and my underwear, yesterday. No one else was on our floor apart from Maria and Steve and they didn't care anymore. Infact, Maria did exactly the same thing. Bruce and Betty were in the living room and they didn't seem to care either, because they spent most of their time talking to each other than to us. I guessed that they had a lot of catching up to do. Clint fed me a waffle and I hummed from the perfection of them. They were homemade and Clint's speciality.
"Mmm...these are amazing!"
"Aww thanks babe."
"No, we have already been through this!" I said, angling my head at him.
"I know, I know! No nicknames." he said, putting his hands up in the air. "I promise that I will try not to."
"Make that al promise that you won't and I'll be even more happy than I already am."
"Okay…" Maria said, walking towards us. "I had to publish something in the Avengers paper about you, because I was going to get fired by Tony."
She chucked us the paper and I saw the headline Clintasha - the real story.
"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I know you didn't want Clintasha a your 'ship name' as it were, but Tony insisted. It's better than CaptainHill. Believe me!"
I continued to read: Speculation over the new romance has been circling the world like a wildfire, so here is the truth acting as an extinguisher. They are a couple and a strong one at that. They have always been good friends and colleagues and now want something more. So what if they want to get together? It's a free country!
"Well done for keeping to the professional side Maria." Clint smirked as he read over my shoulder.
"The readers seem to like the fact that I'm real with them. No stupid statistics. Just the truth." she said, smiling.
"I'm happy that you've found another hobby apart from being Stark's assistant."
"She's not only Stark's assistant." someone voice from the elevator. We looked round the corner and saw Nick Fury coming towards us.
I turned to Clint and panicingly whispered "I'm wearing your shirt!" He came towards us and looked at me weirdly.
"Is that your shirt Romanoff?" he asked, flipping through some files.
"It's new."
"Yeah, it's from a shop called 'Hawkeye'." Maria said and I glared daggers at her.
"Do you not think I read the papers Agent Romanoff?" Fury asked and I felt like dying inside.
"I know fraternisation is against the rules and I'm sorry. I just-"
He held his hand up. That's it. I'm dead. "Stop trying to justify yourself. I was in on the bet with Coulson." he smiled slightly. I have never seen Fury smile in his life, even if it was this small one. "I would actually be happy for you if it weren't for the fact that I'm dead, remember." he said, taking out a file and handing it to Hill.
"I'm sorry for your loss Sir." Clint joked and I tried to hold back my laughter. Fury shook his head, rolled his eyes and exited the room. We burst into laughter and Maria snorted at one point, making us all stop and look at her. We were silent for five seconds until we began to laugh even more than last time.
"What is going on?" Steve asked, walking into the room.
"Maria snorted." I said, eating another piece of my waffle.
"No, I didn't." Maria insisted and Steve kissed her head.
"Whatever you say baby girl." he said and Clint scowled at me.
"See! They have cute nicknames!" he shouted at me, gesturing to Maria and Steve who were now holding hands.
"Well we don't." I said, hitting his arm and picking up another waffle. "Unless you don't want to have sex with me?"
He froze and then turned to me. "Normal names are fine, Natasha."
"Good." I smiled and bit the new piece of waffle. Maria and Steve laughed at us and I smirked at them. "How's the suit?" I asked Maria.
"Under wraps for the minute. The public don't need to know yet and Tony insists that I make a dramatic news outing about it. I need him to finish part of the design on it and then it will be completed. I've tried out the Ice Bites and they are brilliant."
"Well, I'm happy you will be part of the team." I said to her, taking a seat at the table.
"Glad I have the chance." she smiled. Maria, Steve and Clint all sat down with me as Clint finished serving all the waffles onto plates.
The elevator dinged again and I though Nick might be back until I saw two familiar faces walking towards us. "Hey guys! Haven't seen you in a while!" I said.
"Good to see you." James said. Hopefully War Machine will be on our team soon as well.
"Are those waffles?" Sam asked, picking up the plate and taking one off.
"I swear all you think about is food." Steve smirked and we laughed. "Has Tony talked to you about joining the team?" he asked them.
"He mentioned the possibility of it happening a couple of months ago." James replied.
"We talked about it a few times." Sam said.
"Good, because we think it would be a good decision to bring you guys in." Maria said, collecting some folders together. "Fury gave me some new suit designs. Would it be cool to run them by you?" she asked. They nodded and walked over to her shoulder.
"Incoming emergency transmission from Tony Stark." JARVIS said. We looked towards the projection on the wall that showed Tony's face and hands on a keyboard.
"TONY!" Steve shouted, hoping for him to respond, but he fell onto a chair. The video showed people lying on the floor and blood splattered everywhere. What has happened? Are they okay?
"JARVIS, get me the coord-"
CHANGE COORDINATES "3872682 East, 3920600 West." he said, interrupting Steve. Maybe JARVIS did care towards Tony. Even though he was an artificial intelligence, he seemed to have a human side to him occasionally.
"JARVIS, get the crew to prepare the fastest jet." Steve shouted to him. "5 minutes maximum to suit up. Meet on the roof. If you are not there in five we leave without you."
We sprinted to our rooms and I got changed as quickly as possible. I zipped up my suit, put my guns in place and charged out of the door. I met Steve, James, Falcon and Clint on the roof all in their gear. As soon as Maria and Bruce joined us, we left. Betty was still in the tower to transmit any more messages should they be sent to the tower. Tony and Pepper are alive. They are alive.
"Okay, we go in, find Pepper and Tony and then get the hell out of there. Falcon and War Machine, you two will set up a perimeter using these discs." Steve said, holding one of the discs up as we began to accelerate. "This will stop anyone entering the facility, so that we can come back and investigate. It also stops anyone getting out and gives them a message about their safety. Hawkeye, Hill, Black Widow and me will locate Pepper and Tony. Hopefully this mission will go to plan and we can get them out before it's too late."
The helicarrier landed quicker than expected and we sprinted out as soon as the doors were open. The trip over was silent, mostly because we had nothing to say. We exited and Falcon and War Machine set up the perimeter as we entered the building. It was empty for the most part apart from the bodies that were lying dead on the floor. We continued through the base and the body count increased.
"Which way?" Steve asked Betty who was also directing us through the base to the place with the strongest signal.
"Straight on, then turn left and take your second right." she instructed and as soon as we got to that second door, Steve didn't hesitate to kick the door down. There seemed to be no one alive in there, like we expected. We fanned out and I couldn't see Pepper and Tony anyway. "I've got them!" Hill shouted, but not with as much energy as she would usually have.
We ran over and found Pepper, red blood pouring from her throat, and Tony slumped over a chair, where he must've fallen trying to communicate us.
Clint was frozen, Hill was crying. Steve was struggling to find words to say. Black Widow...be the Black Widow. I told myself and stepped forward. I checked Tony's pulse.
"He's alive." I reported and walked over to Pepper. I crouched over he body. There were was a bullet hole in her left thigh and small cuts across her body. The cut across her throat was deep and there was no way she would've survived that. I felt a tear scrape down my cheek and fall onto my leg. I had never been so affected by someone's death in my life. She was a friend.
"Pepper is down." I whispered and hung my head as I picked head body up. I went past the others and carried her body back to the helicarrier by myself. I could take the weight and the others weren't moving any time soon.
I placed her carefully down on one of the medical beds and let the medics attend to her. I stepped away and leant against the wall. I slid down it, my knees giving in, and wrapped my arms around them.
I put my head between my legs and tried to breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. She's dead. Pepper's dead. My mind went back to her birthday when I gave her the bracelet...the elevator...She was part of the team. A part of the team was dead. The tears were being freed from my eyes without my knowledge and I felt so vulnerable. I didn't even know how I was crying so much. The tears were leaving my eyes, but there were no sobs escaping my lips. I looked out for Clint, but I couldn't see him, so i walked back to where Tony was. As I walked down the corridor, I ignored the dead bodies. They didn't seem relevant. I saw Steve and Maia dragging Tony down the corridor.
"He's still in there." Steve said to me and I nodded. I walked past them and into the room. Clint was there, still in the same frozen position, but his eyes were looking down at the blood on the floor where Pepper had been.
"She's dead, isn't she." he said, as a fact rather than a question. Regardless, I nodded anyway.
"The medics are with her, but their efforts are pointless. She's too far gone."
He nodded and shut his eyes. I looked at him and noticed that there were some words written on the wall behind him. I walked towards the words and saw what they said.
"Clint.." I said, trying to catch his attention. "Have you seen this?" I asked and he looked up at me.
"Seen what?" he asked, but I could tell that he was turning his head to look so I didn't respond. I just let him see the words and let it sink in.
"I'm really sorry Clint." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder.
"Forget it." he said and turned away from the writing, walking out of the door behind him. Once he had left, I turned back to the writing.
"What do you want from us?" I asked. "Leave us alone. Just leave us. Please. We haven't don't anything wrong." I shouted at the writing. My whole body was shaking and I had to grip the side of a table to steady myself. "Just leave us be…" I whispered. I pushed myself off of the table to a standing position, because I felt my body gain it's strength again.
I turned away, took a deep breath and looked at the blood stain on the floor one last time. She was there. She died there. Took her last breath there. Why wasn't she protected? She had the hole base to protect her. Why did she have to die? Why? My body started shaking and I could feel my legs start to go weak. Get a grip, Romanoff.
I straightened up and walked away from the wall. The words Harry Forder Arekland were transcribed into the wall, written in the blood of the bodies surrounding it. HYDRA is going to pay for this. They are going to pay for taking her away from us. How dare they? She was one of us and she deserved to live. What is Tony going to do without her? I slowly walked through the doors to the exit and got onto the helicarrier. Tony was still unconscious on a hospital bed, Maria was crying into Steve's arms, James and Sam were just sitting on the side benches talking quietly to each other and Clint was resting his arms on the bars of Pepper's hospital bed.
Clint was devastated. You could see it in his face. What was I supposed to do? Comfort him? Not speak to him? I opted to go and sit on a bench so I could let him have some peace. I checked on Tony a few times on the way back, but apart from that I just sat there...thinking. I didn't think about how we were going to Avenge her, I didn't think about revenge. I thought about her and how we would miss her. So much. Too much.
Pretty heavy chapter. I was crying when I wrote this - NOT ASHAMED! Anyway, had to listen to some sad music to get into the vibe. Please take time to review this one! Thank you xx