Venomous

25. Tidal Waves

a/n: Shit's about to hit the fan, are we ready?

(Natasha's POV):
It was late by the time I made it back up to my room. I had been training with Steve, who provided me an earful on how I was feeling, and how I was handling the fact that Parker and Wanda appeared to be dating. He finally got the hint and stopped talking, holding the punching bag securely in front of his chest and letting me pound it into oblivion. I don't know how long I kept punching, but I couldn't feel my hands anymore, even with the wraps.

I headed back to my room, looking for nothing more than a scalding hot shower and sleep. I frowned, noticing something unfamiliar on my night stand. I read the note quickly, looking down skeptically in the bear in my hands. It was holding a gun, which was cute – I guess, but it was scruffy looking. And fat. I loved it. I placed it back on the nightstand, sliding the note into the drawer before heading towards the shower and a surprisingly dreamless sleep. Bear may or may not have – fallen – into the bed with me.

...

I opened my eyes promptly at six, staring up at the ceiling. There was nothing on the radar mission-wise today, which probably meant that the team was going to be talking about whatever it was that Parker and I had brought back. If that was the case, I wanted to get there first. Having been there, whatever decision was made was going to have to go through me.

I walked through the doors of Stark's lab, finding the man already there, examining the creature in the glass canister closely. He jumped when I cleared my throat, recovering almost immediately and chuckling lightly. "Want to tell me what you saw out there?" I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

"Hell if I know." Tony was about to respond, but a voice from the doorway stopped him in his tracks.

"Language," Steve murmured, shaking his head almost immediately. "I've GOT to stop doing that." Tony and I just smirked in unison in response.

"еще слишком рано для этого. (It's too early for this)." All of our eyes snapped to the brunette who had entered the room silently behind Steve.

"Длинная ночь? (Long night?)" The words were out of my mouth before I realized I was saying them. Shit. Wanda glanced up at me, frowning slightly and she looked dangerously close to tilting her head. I was spared the witch's wrath, however, by Steve walking further into the room, approaching where Tony and I were standing. He glanced into the canister before leaning back against the counter behind him, folding his arms.

"What happened in there, Romanoff?" All eyes turned towards me. I sighed and began relaying the information as clearly as I could remember. The team was silent, allowing me to complete the entire story before bombarding me with questions.

"Is this the same thing that Parker has?"

"What are we supposed to do with this?"

"How do we keep it safe?"

"What was seeing another one of these things like?"

"Clearly we have to help Parker get rid of it." All of us stopped talking at the same time, turning towards Wanda – the one who had spoken.

"Wait a minute," I started. Steve raised his hand.

"Wanda, what are you talking about?" Wanda scoffed as she glanced at each of us in turn.

"Don't you see this thing? One of these....THINGS...is inside a person that I think all of us care about. What's confusing?" Tony, Steve, and I exchanged glances, each of us frowning.

"Wanda, that's really not for us to..."

"We have no idea what a separation would do to her..."

"Are you saying she's dangerous?"

"Enough!" I shouted, finally bringing the room to a standstill. "This is not a discussion for us to have. We do not tell people what they should or shouldn't do with parts of themselves." Steve raised his eyebrows.

"Don't we, Natasha? Aren't all of us dangerous?" I huffed at Steve in disbelief. The fact that he was taking this position was far more hurtful than I wanted to admit. "Didn't you say that yourself, not too long ago?" His last question was softer and gentler, but it didn't make me feel any better.

"I had to learn to control my magic so I wouldn't hurt people," Wanda argued. "We don't know that this...thing...can be controlled. I went to speak, but Tony raised a hand to stop me.

"Wanda, we have no idea what would happen to Parker OR to Antivenom if we try to separate them. If that's even possible."

"Clearly it's possible," Wanda snapped, gesturing towards the undulating creature in the container between us. Tony continued to shake his head.

"But inflicting whatever that would take on Parker, just because Antivenom COULD become dangerous is just..."

"Well, we wouldn't do it against her will," Steve scoffed, staring incredulously at Tony.

"Shouldn't we?" The room went silent again as we all stared at Wanda in disbelief. Every single of one us in the room flinched at the sound of the door closing behind us and turned, in horror, to find Parker standing there, a furious expression on her face.

"Since you're all talking about me, I thought I might be able to weigh in on the conversation," she snapped. Shit. Parker shifted her gaze to Wanda, whose mouth hung open in disbelief.

"Parker," she started, her accent suddenly thick with regret. Parker raised a hand, silencing her immediately.

"Stop." Surprisingly – or not – Wanda obeyed. Parker shifted her gaze to me.

"Thank you, Natasha. And Tony. I appreciate you standing up for my bodily autonomy." Her eyes had gone cold. Emotionless. "I'll be in touch."

"Brock, wait," Steve started, but Parker silenced him with a glare.

"I'm sorry, Rogers, but I can't talk about this right now."

"Is it because you think you can't control it?" I glared daggers at Wanda. The witch was pushing it with ME, and if she thought that Parker had control issues, she clearly did not know me very well yet. Parker sneered at her, and for a moment I swore that I saw her white teeth extending into sharp points and the tip of a much longer tongue protruding from the side of her mouth.

"Luckily for you, Maximoff, control has never been my issue." Her voice was a low hiss laced with danger. Thankfully, and mercifully for the rest of us, Wanda finally seemed to get the message and shut her mouth accordingly.

"Parker, we can straighten this out," Tony spoke softly, holding up his hands peacefully. Parker's jaw clenched and I saw genuine regret in her eyes.

"It's clear that I'm not welcome here. By some of you." Her eyes shot daggers at Wanda, and the brunette stared at the floor, but held her ground. "Stark, I'll be in touch." Parker spun on her heel and left the room.

"That ended well," I mumbled, exchanging glances with Tony. Nobody said a word when Wanda walked out of the room. Steve, Tony and I looked at each other expectantly.

"Now what?" Steve asked. Tony looked at me.

"Where would she go?" I shrugged.

"I'll find out."