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Post by natasha romanoff on Oct 14, 2012 15:04:17 GMT 1
Natasha was relieved for Tony offering to let them all stay in his tower that night. While Stark got on her nerves more than anyone else, she wasn't going to pass up being able to just collapse into a warm bed, without having to trek back to the nearest safe house her and Clint had, or SHIELD HQ to do it. Her body was screaming in exhaustion and pain from the battle, and like everyone else, she had disappeared into the room Stark had given her, to clean herself up.
She had patched up the minor injuries she had sustained, the only major one being her ankle. It was swollen and slowly turning a purple-ish black from where it had gotten trapped under the wreckage on the helicarrier. It wasn't broken, but it hurt after being used despite the injury. Other than a few scrapes, cuts and bruises, she was okay.
Sleep was evading her, so Natasha decided to go and grab a glass of water and just sit for a moment. That usually helped her sleep. Passing the bedrooms, hearing a quiet snore from Clint's room that made her smile, she reached the elevator and was soon back in the main living area of the tower. She walked over to the sink, trying her hardest not to limp but also not to antagonize her ankle even more, and poured herself a glass before sliding into a seat at the dining table. She had only been sat there a few moments before she heard footsteps behind her. The redhead looked over her shoulder and her tense muscles visibly relaxed when she recognised the person who was stood there. It was Pepper.
During her time as Natalie Rushman, Natasha had worked closely with Pepper. Now she supposed she had some explaining to do, as why would Natalie Rushman, personal assistant, be sat at Tony Stark's dining table, dressed in a form-fitting catsuit with an array of guns attached to her body? She had yet to take them off, she was still a little wary of aliens they may have missed, despite knowing there were none. The Black Widow never let her guard down.
"Hi Pepper..."
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Post by pepper potts on Oct 14, 2012 23:16:15 GMT 1
So many stories had been flying around about the battle. All Pepper could think about was Tony. She saw him disappear into that vortex, and she nearly collapsed when she thought he was dad. To finally, after what seemed ages, to get a hold of him and hear he was doing well, she made the pilot send them right back to New York.
Everyone was at the towers, though it needed a lot of work done to it. Something her and Tony were working on together as a team. She was just happy to have him safely back in her arms where he belonged. If she lost him it would be like losing a part of herself. She would never be the same after.
Leaving their room, she decided to get a drink of water. It was late and everyone should be asleep. Tony had been out hours ago. He was sore and tired, and she had been doing everything she could to make him as comfortable as she could.
One thing that she missed was him mentioning anything about Natalie being a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. As she stepped into the kitchen, she gave pause. Her blue eyes roamed over the woman in her black catsuit. Pepper was a smart girl. It didn't take long to see the S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia embroidered on the arm of the suit.
"So...you were a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. that whole time?" She asked as she traveled over to a cupboard to grab a glass and fill it with water. "I knew you were up to something. The day of Tony's birthday party and the way you hung all over him. You were just trying to get close to him for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s benefit, weren't you?" It made her angry, and if anyone knew anything about Pepper she could be a firecracker when she got mad at someone.
She turned around then to face Natalie. She had the glass of water in her hand as she leaned up against the kitchen counter. She was trying to figure out what was real with Natalie or whatever her name was.
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Post by natasha romanoff on Oct 16, 2012 20:41:46 GMT 1
Natasha supposed she deserved the way Pepper was speaking to her. Usually, if anyone spoke to her in such a sharp tone of voice she would have them on their back and begging for mercy in seconds. But this was Pepper and she liked Pepper. While she had worked as Natalie, Pepper had been something of a friend to her. Natasha didn't have friends, aside from Barton and she supposed she could have considered Coulson one too. So if she could help it, she didn't want to mess things up with Pepper.
Watching the other woman walk to the cupboard, just as Natasha had not long ago, her blue-grey eyes looked down to her own glass. She was now wishing she had something stronger than water, some Russian vodka perhaps. In answer to Pepper's question, Natasha nodded her head.
"I was placed undercover here at Stark Industries by SHIELD, so I could assess Stark's behaviour. We wanted to know if he was a good candidate for the Avengers Initiative." She was being honest with Pepper, after all that had happened in the last few days, the poor woman deserved that much. After all, Tony had almost died.
Reaching into a hidden pocket on her suit, Natasha pulled out her ID badge. She slid it along the table for Pepper to see and to know that she was being entirely truthful.
"Natasha Romanoff. SHIELD agent, assassin, spy... whatever you want to describe me as. Definitely not Stark's assistant. I've made sure he knows that now too."
As Pepper asked, or rather insinuated angrily, about Tony's birthday, Natasha sighed. She knew what this was about - the way she had flirted with Tony on his birthday. Natasha remembered the way she had needed to get close to him that night, playing with his Iron Man suit and everything.
"What happened on his birthday meant nothing. All I was doing was evaluating him. Believe me when I say I have no interest in Stark at all. You're welcome to him."
There was only one man for her and he was downstairs asleep.
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Post by pepper potts on Oct 18, 2012 15:38:59 GMT 1
Pepper was silent as Natalie spoke of how she had been placed undercover by SHIELD. She didn't like to think SHIELD was the bad guy. She never thought that way. Phil had become her friend, even as she thought about him now she had to fight the tightness in her chest. She would never get to speak with him again. "Phil knew you were placed undercover here?" She was surprised he didn't tell her after the fact.
She stepped over to the table and picked up the badge that Natalie slid towards her. "Your name isn't even Natalie? It's Natasha.." That was going to be difficult to change. She had been calling her Natalie for months now. "Is SHIELD hiding anything else from us?" She asked bitterly as she set the badge down. Was Phil really her friend or had he been under SHIELDs orders and up to something as well? She felt really confused right now.
She pressed her lips tightly together as Natal- no, Natasha, spoke of Tony's birthday. "Is that what it all was? Just a job? You didn't care anything about us really. We weren't friends. You were just a spy trying to find as much about Tony as you possibly could?" She was genuinely hurt and bothered by this.
"I trusted you," she spat out. "To find out that this was all a lie makes me sick to my stomach. How do you do it? Pretend to like people for the job?" She wasn't sure she could sleep at night if she did that. "I should have put two and two together. I can't believe we let you in right under our noses without realizing you worked for SHIELD."
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Post by natasha romanoff on Oct 20, 2012 12:22:24 GMT 1
The mention of Phil made Natasha look down. He had been one of the best men she had ever known. She was still trying to adjust to not having him here. She remembered hearing the medics call his death over the comm lines while she had been waiting for Clint to wake up. For a moment she had felt a spark of hopelessness, as if she had lost Coulson then that meant she only had Clint left. And at the time Clint had been lying unconscious in the medibay with an unknown chance of waking up still trapped under Loki's spell. It was at that moment that Natasha knew she didn't want to be alone ever again.
She nodded in response to Pepper's question.
"Yes, he knew. He was my handler, I was in constant communication with him the whole time. He was under orders not to let anyone know, so he had to keep quiet. And he did. He was a good man."
Her voice was quieter, less like her, and she frowned slightly in realisation of that. Natasha Romanoff did not show emotion. So she cleared her throat and put her internal wall back up. She watched as Pepper examined the ID badge and bit her tongue to avoid saying that actually her name wasn't even Natasha. Pepper didn't need to know about Natalia. Natalia was dead to Natasha and that's how she would stay.
"SHIELD hides a lot of things and I'm sure I don't even know half of what it does."
Then Pepper got to Natasha. The words she was using mixed with the genuine hurt in her voice made the Russian shake her head and break that wall she had just put back up. Her eyes couldn't conceal the emotions she so desperately wanted to hide.
"No. No, that's not true. Natalie was a lie, yes. But I cared. I still do or I wouldn't be here right now and I wouldn't have done what I did today. And I never pretended to like you. Tony... maybe. But not you. I may not be an actual office clerk, but aside from Agent Barton and Coulson, you're the first person I've ever worked with that I didn't hate right off the bat." And when Pepper voiced her belief at not knowing about Natasha's secret cover, the Widow could only shrug.
"You could never have known, SHIELD are very good at what we do. The only way Tony found out was because I had to blow my cover to give him what he needed to stop him from dying." Natasha scoffed. "That's new, me stopping someone from dying instead of killing them myself."
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Post by pepper potts on Oct 22, 2012 17:45:04 GMT 1
It hurt Pepper that Phil had kept that from her. She thought they were really good friends. He was gone now though, so she couldn't ask him why he hadn't been honest with her about Natasha. It was something she would never have the answer for, and she couldn't be mad at him, not with him gone. It made her chest ache just thinking of him. She realized both of them had gone really quiet.
"I can't be mad at him for not telling me. I miss him terribly. He was a very good man." She had cried for what seemed like hours when she learned of his death. Pepper was never one that was good at losing people. The fact that she didn't have many close friends made it especially hard for her. Tony was really all she ever had, but it seemed since they had become a part of SHIELD and Avengers that they were making new friends.
"You've got me there." SHIELD did hide a lot of things, so she decided as mad as she was that Natalia err Natasha hid all of this from her that she was following orders.
She listened to Natasha as she explained that she did like her. It wasn't an act, but she suddenly laughed as she said that it might have been an act towards Tony. "Tony kind of deserves it though," she said jokingly, trying to lighten the conversation. She really didn't want to head down this road where they fight over what should have been.
Her laughter died away at the mention of Tony dying. "Tony is always on the verge of death. Yet he never tells me when he is. If it happens again will you please let me know? I don't want to find out secondhand again. I love him," she added those last three words quietly. Tony was her everything, and she didn't want to lose him.
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