Law and Order

Chapter 13

Wednesday had come and it was time for Nat to meet Steve for the case. She had on a black dress similar to the one Audrey Hepburn worn in Breakfast at Tiffanys. She kept it classy with simple black heels and a single diamond necklace. It was 7:00 a.m. and the case was to begin at 9:00 at the courthouse. She did one look at herself before grabbing Steve's gift and heading upstairs. Her nerves were a little on edge since they've both been working and haven't had time to see each other since the kiss a few days ago. Nat walked upstairs and knocked on his door.

"Hey Nat." Steve said with a small smile. "I'm almost ready." He continued fixing his tie.

"Ok." Nat stepped inside and sat on the couch, dropping the bag on the table in front of her.

Moments later Steve was sitting next to her. "So we're going to leave shortly, I wanted to briefly run down everything with you." She nodded waiting for him to continue. "Although this should be open and shut, I just want to prepare you that not everything goes that way. We will have a lot of evidence so I'm not worried that the judge won't rule in our favor. Now, there is going to be a projector on there and everything that is shown will be on the tv for people to see. There is no jury and its a small room, so it will only be me and you, Bruce and his lawyer, the judge and bailiff as well as any witness. Sound good so far?"

"Mhmm" Nat replied. She listened intently though she felt uncomfortable, she tried not to show it.

Steve continued on with the explanations but stopped once he noticed Nat wasn't exactly listening to what he was saying.

"Natasha? What's wrong?" He sighed setting his paperwork on the table.

"What? Nothing." She spoke quickly hoping to dissipate whatever thoughts were running through his head.

"Clearly something is wrong because I've been saying stuff the last ten minutes and you haven't been responding.."

"I'm sorry..." She suddenly felt small. She hated when he got upset especially if she was the cause which only happened once before.

As if he could sense it, Steve took a deep breath and relaxed. He left lawyer mode and went into Steve, the man she lov—liked. "Nat, come on, what's the problem? Is it about Bruce?" He touched her hand gently hoping to get her to at least look into his eyes. Nat slipped away and stood up.

She spoke quickly, getting it out. "It's not that..It's just I..I messed up things with you...and I wish I hadn't and now I don't know what it means."

"What do you mean?'' He asked confused.

Nat threw her head back in frustration sighing loudly. "I kissed you, like deep and clearly you didn't want that because you left and I figured I'd just stay away to save myself the embarrassment.  I didn't mean to ruin our friendship Steve. You're so important to me and I'm really really sorry.  I promise it won't happen again. I j—"

"Nat stop." He said standing up interjecting her from the rambling. "One, I didn't leave because I didn't want to kiss you, it was because I did. I wanted to do a lot that night, but you had been drinking and I wanted anything that happened to be when you are fully aware of what you were doing and Two, you need to stop running every time there's a problem. You avoiding me because you thought you were wrong was unnecessary because it could've easily been addressed like right now. " Nat put her head down and lightly shook it.

"I'm sorry Steve."

"Oh and three, stop apologizing. You do that often and I know it's because of him, but you don't need to do that with me. Not everything deserves one, ok?"

"I thought I had messed everything up." She gave a sad chuckle as she wiped the tears bundling in her eyes.

"No, you didn't." He said walking up to her lightly cupping the elbows of her arms. "Me leaving was more for me than you." He laughed.