Civil War

1

"Someone please convince me Carter wasn't murdered." Natasha asked.
"I'm sorry, what?" Coulson did a double take.
"You have anything to back up your paranoia?" Maria asked.
"You can't tell me it hasn't crossed your mind. The timing on this couldn't possibly be worse." Natasha pointed out. "Tony and Pepper broke up and now the love of Rogers' life is dead and the pain in the ass that is Thunderbolt Ross literally threw a book at us. I'm serious; somebody please convince me that isn't suspicious."
"She died peacefully in her sleep, Tasha." Maria countered.
"Yeah and we all know how easy it is to fake that. You'd never know if I did it." Natasha pointed out.
"Did you?" Coulson deadpanned.
"That's not even a little funny Phil." Natasha glared at him.
"As much as I dislike having to buy into your paranoia - it's better to have our bases covered than to be blindsided by another shadowy conspiracy." Coulson stated.
"I'll look into it. Best not to let anyone suspect we think something might be off." Maria agreed reluctantly.
"I've got my hands full trying to keep the peace around here. Your team on standby on case I need some help?" Natasha asked.
"As long as I'm still running the show but they want SHIELD to go public again." Coulson nodded.
"Which means your out. Talbot's not my biggest fan but he's slightly more agreeable than Ross." Natasha mused.
"They want someone else to be the new Director. Somebody with powers to show the public the government has control over enhanced individuals and make it look like people with powers have an actual say in all this nonsense." Coulson corrected.
"A government prop with some other  government stooge to call the shots." Natasha groaned.
"Most likely. They were hoping Rogers would fall in line but seeing as that's never gonna happen, I put your name in the running." Coulson confirmed.
"You'd better be kidding me." Natasha said.
"No. They wanted Rogers because the public trusts him, he's an established Avenger with a controlled set of powers." Coulson continued. "You're all of those things too."
"Except I've never gone public. I've spent my entire career at SHIELD suppressing my abilities so the government wouldn't turn me into a lab rat. It's not even in my personnel file because Nick has been doctoring my file since I joined. Hell - my team doesn't even know. Only the people in this room, Nick and Clint even know I have a serum."
"Then they're a bunch of idiots. You walked off a bullet to the shoulder and blood loss that any normal person would have passed out from mere hours after you'd been shot in D.C." Maria pointed out. "And got shot in the leg and was more or less perfectly fine after Sokovia."
"The government will sign off on me taking over as Director?" Natasha asked after a long pause.
"They're not thrilled that the person who blew the whistle on us is now gonna run the agency but I pointed out that can only be good for us. If we were to get infested by another secret society - you'd root them out before it got as bad as it did with Hydra. Let them think they can control transparency." Coulson shrugged.
"And they're aware I won't be some puppet on a string. If I'm gonna do this - I'm actually going to run the agency without interference." Natasha added.
"They're not happy about it but you've got enough of the old and new guard in you that they're somewhat confident you can handle the espionage and the politics with relatively little babysitting." Coulson amended.
"And the second I do something they don't like, I get thrown in the Raft, right?" Natasha retorted.
"Like you couldn't break yourself out." Maria pointed out.
"Fine. When do I take over?" Natasha asked.
"Effective immediately. Congratulations Director Romanoff." Coulson answered.