Little Ballerina (A WinterWidow Story)

Ch. 8 We keep this love in a photograph

Ch. 8

Natasha woke up feeling the best she had in a long time. She had no nightmares that night, her dreams were usually full of memories she had tried to forget. She sat up and stretched her arms. She immediately got the sense something was wrong. It was too quiet.

She jumped out of her bed, throwing on some workout clothes before heading to Ekaterina's room. The door was slightly ajar. She pushed it open, revealing an unmade bed and no Ekaterina. She shut the door and ran to Bucky's room, he wasn't in there either. She let out a sigh of relief. Bucky had probably gotten her. What time is it? She thought.

With a quick glance to make sure no one was coming, she walked into his room to check the time. His room was quite empty, nothing personal was in the room she noticed except for an old photograph of him and Steve from the 40's, before the war. She walked to the nightstand where the clock was 8:40 am the digital numbers read. I never get up this late, she thought to herself. She was about to walk out when a photograph caught her eye. It was closed between the drawer, like someone had tried to hastily conceal it.

She tried to leave but her curiosity got the better of her and she took it out. She gasped when she saw what it was. It was a photograph of them together on a mission, it was worn and torn at the edges. They were standing in a field together posing for the camera, James's stood behind her, arms wrapped around her while she leaned her head back against his chest. Even though it was for a mission she was so happy, being there with him, pretending to be different people. That was before they were caught.

She heard footsteps approaching but it was too late, the photograph was still in her hand when Bucky entered through the open door.

He looked at her and the photograph in her hand and said,

"You know for a super spy this is just lazy"

She scoffed in mock offense,

"You wound me. If I was spying you'd never know" she told him

He began walking toward her,

"What have you got there?"

She handed him the picture, he looked at it saying nothing.

"I didn't know you kept this. How did you?"

He shook his head,

"I don't know. It's always been with me after every freezing. In my boot, in my pocket, always in a different place. I never remembered putting it there but even all those years ago I knew it was important"

She took the photograph back from him, looking at it.

"I was so happy that day" she said tracing her finger over the photograph.

He smirked,

"Why? I thought you hated those missions"

With her free hand she shoved him playfully,

"No" she stared at him in mock annoyance, "we got to spend the day together, we were gathering intel but still... we were together"

"Wait I remember. We were pretending to be Sadie and Nathaniel Davis, a married couple on vacation. Right?" He said scratching his head

"Yeah" She said

"Horrible names" he murmured

She laughed,

"While we were trailing the suspect, that little old lady wanted to take our picture-"

"Yeah, we were laughing and joking around and she said we reminded her of her and her husband when they were young"