Never Give Up On You

Chapter Four: You Can't Tell Her 'No'

Chapter Three: You Can't Tell Her 'No'

Natasha lay on her bed in the Tower, staring up at the ceiling with what could only be described as a deadly look. The entire team, minus Steve who was off doing something with Sam, was going after the next HYDRA target.

And she was grounded.

They had tried to pass it off as she was still injured, and she needed to recover. It took all her willpower not to throttle Tony right then and there.

Off in the distance she could heart the sound of a jet taking off, sending her friends on yet another mission, without her.

A few moments later a knock sounded on her door and she sighed loudly.

"Come on, you'll just keep bothering me otherwise." The door opened and in walked former Agent Maria Hill, who now worked as the un-official secretary for the Avengers.  The two simply looked at each other for a moment before Natasha spoke again.

"What?" She growled, in no mood for whatever Maria was going to say. The black haired former agent stood her ground anyway and crossed her arms.

"You know they're right."

"So am I!"

"Well they're more right." Maria countered with a huff, taking another step into the room. Natasha finally propped herself on her elbows to regard the other woman.

"I can't just sit here, he's all I have left." She said quietly, Maria nodded at this and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I know." This time her expression was that of understanding.

The two shared silence for a moment before Maria stood up, clearing her throat as she did so.

"I just wanted to check on you..." She said, as though trying to give reason for her intrusion. Natasha let her get all the way to the door before she responded.

"Maria?" The other woman turned, her head cocked, as she waited for the Russian to continue.

"He's babysitting me isn't he?" She asked casually, but her expressionn was pointed, and demanding. Hill let out an annoyed puff of air and leaned against the door, seeming to fight with herself on whether she would answer her or not.

"Two in each cast. Just in case you found one." She answered, before turning again and walking into the hallway.

"You never asked me that!" She called over her shoulder as the door shut with a soft hiss, leaving Natasha to smirk to herself.

She waited a few moments, until she saw sure she was alone once again. Natasha swung herself off of the bed and moved to one of her dresser drawers. She rummaged around before she extracted a wicked looking knife. She leaned against the wall, then brought her hand upwards so she had a better angle...

A few minutes later both the cast on her wrist, and the one on her foot lay on the floor, and inside them the two tracking devices Fury had put in them to keep an eye on her.

With that she moved to her closet and extracted one of her 'mission ready' bags and walked out the door towards their garage. She needed time to think and plan, and she couldn't do it here...

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"What do you mean she's gone Clint?" Laura Barton asked into her cellphone as she leaned against her kitchen counter.

"Just was I said Laura, Nat's up and gone..." He sighed before continuing. "I should have known she would have gone, she was madder than I've seen her in a long time."

"Clint, you can't tell her no, especially when it comes to something like this." His wife reminded him, and in return she got a grunt.

"Well now its Fury's turn to be mad, he's got any spare agents looking for her, she's not wanted but she's pretty darn close... Rouge. Look, I've got to go, he wants to brief me again, love you." Laura barely got a chance to respond when she lost her connection. She sighed and flipped her phone shut.

Less than a minute later there was a knock at her door and she sighed getting up to go answer it. When she opened it, she was left open mouthed at a familar sight.

"Hey."

"Hey..." She echoed, staring at the red-haired Russian, before the shock wore off and she grinned.

"Sorry about this." Natasha began before Laura shook her head.

"No, no, come on inside." Natasha followed her in.

"Kids?"

"At school."

"Ah..."

"Nat, whats going on? Why did you come here?" Laura asks, walking back to the kitchen and pouring a glass of ice tea for her friend.

"I needed a place to think, here was the one place I know they wouldn't look." She answered with a sigh, a lost look in her eyes. Something Laura hadn't seen since she had met the Russian woman years ago...

That had been nearly ten years ago, her newly married husband had come home from what was one of his first solo assignments, and he had brought her with him.  She still remembered his words to her.

"We'll only have a few days before he calls me out on this, I figured this was the best place to wait... Laura, this is Natasha." 

And that was the way the two had met. It had taken Laura a long time to gain Nat's trust, but in the end she did win it,  and that meant next to Clint, she knew the most about the Russian, both her past, and the person that hid inside the shell of the Black Widow.

"So... What happened?" Laura asked, sitting on a barstool, next to her friend.

"I found him... Well saw him." Natasha said, looking up at her friend with determination in her eyes.

"Alexi? Are you sure?" Laura asked, her eyes going wide as she realized what the other was saying. Natasha bit her lip before she nodded her head.

"Yes, I know him. No matter what they say.... Laura, I have to find him. I have to." She said, her voice almost desperate.

"What can you do?"  Laura asked softly, her hand going to the red-head's shoulder. Natasha's face got hard and for a moment the other woman wondered where in her mind she was.

"I know where I saw him... I just have to trace his actions from there." She said finally.

"What exactly are you going to hack?" Laura asked in a wary tone.  Natasha grinned a little, giving the other a reassuring smile.

"I need to hack a very certain thing... Hydra's dealings with the Red Room." She said, pausing before she continued.

"I'm lucky, when I released all of SHIELD's files, that means somewhere, I left a key that will put me on that track." She said, motioning to the computer bag she had brought with her.

Laura let out a shakey breath.

"Well... If you're going to be here that long, I'll go throw some sheets on the guestroom bed." She said with a small smile getting up.

Natasha smiled back as she watched the woman go up the stairs, before she reached down and un-zipped the bag, pulling her laptop from inside. She flicked it on and waited for it to power up.

It was a heavily encrypted, government issued laptop... Which she may or may not have 'borrowed' when they were first issuing them. This would be her way into the files, and hopefully some light would be shed on where she could find her brother...