Gone by Ghosts (Natasha Romanoff x OC)

~19~ Time to waste

Nat's POV:

Atlantic Ocean 07/15/2009

The plane was steadily gliding through the white clouds of the darkening night sky.

Natasha admired the stars twinkling above her head and felt strangely calm. The feeling spread out inside her chest and even though she wasn't tired she closed her eyes. Not to sleep but to take in the peaceful mood the world seemed to give to her before the chaos would break down onto them. But she didn't waste one thought on her future problems. For just as long as the moment lasted she was fully occupied by it.

That was until she heard frantic mumbling coming out of her earpiece that she had put on Kate's seat after she made sure her partner had fallen asleep. Questioning her senses she opened her eyes and put the earpiece back in to find out that her senses had not deceived her. On the other end of the line, she could hear Kate move too much to be soundly asleep. The mumbling must've decreased but she could still hear her wince once or twice.

Without a question, her body had decided for her that she would go and help Kate so she jumped to her feet. Only her mind was holding her back from leaving the cockpit. What followed were moments of standing around indecisively followed by relief when she heard a decrease in movement and mumbling. Relieved she turned back to her seat and she would've sat back down in peace if Kate had not said that one damned word. Natasha froze in movement when Kate mumbled a soft but desperate "Mama".

Her feet carried her to the middle of the plane faster than her mind could come up with a plan on how to get Kate out of this...situation.

Haphazardly she stood in front of a curled-up, lightly shivering Kate and watched with guilt as she tried to decide what to do about it. If she was going to be too rough she might frighten Kate. But if she was going to be soft and tender Kate might think that she was invading her personal space. It might make her uncomfortable to be that vulnerable in front of a person she barely knew.

Carefully, she touched the agent's shoulder and when she gave no reaction she started to lightly tap it and whispered: "Kate wake up."

When none of her trials woke her up she started to lose faith in her ability to help Kate. Hesitantly she looked at her. She couldn't just walk away and pretend it didn't happen. Softly she placed her palm on Kate's cheek and felt her lean into it immediately.

"Kathrine, wake up.", her voice was soft but deep, quiet but loud enough to help Kate slowly ease out of her state of distress.

Natasha watched as a tear ran down Kate's cheek and her eyes fluttered open.

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Shared POV:

Still hectically breathing Kate leaned on her right elbow and her other hand traced the scars on her lower back, too disoriented to understand that she wasn't alone at first.
Nat, on the other hand, shocked by Kate's fast reaction, let go of her face in fear of crossing a line just to grab the woman's shoulder to pull her back to reality shortly after without missing the wandering hand on Kate's back.

"Hey, hey I got you. You're fine.", she reassured Kate whose eyes were now fixed on hers. The panic inside them slowly subsided.

The mere compassionate look in Natasha's eyes let the panic and pain inside her die down to a point where she was present enough to understand that she was not alone. But not just not alone, no. Her boss was sitting right in front of her. A different kind of panic arose in her and she turned away in shame. She behaved like a little kid. A little kid anguished by nightmares, not an agent trained to save people's lives.