Tightrope

Stubborn

Natasha stares numbly at the window. She's barely touched her face since that moment, makeup stuck in the corners of her eyes.

Banner's presence is comforting even if she can't acknowledge it. He's tended to the injuries she's permitted him to see; 4 stitches to the calf and one on her forehead.

They are sitting quietly on the steps of the jet having already changed out of their blood stained clothes. His head is pressed against the wall, his fingers clasped around his knee. Her slumped shoulders and vague expression are hard to read.

Bruce contorts his mouth after over two hours of silence. Between returning to the jet and getting her stitched up, changed, Natasha still hasn't said a word.

Even though her face is a ghostly pale shade of white and her words are dry, they mean something to him when she finally speaks;

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Natasha looks up with a forced curve of one side of her mouth, content to continue staring outside of the window. And he has no intention of moving from her side.

Letting Bruce see her this way is one thing but the team feels much more complicated. She feels weak now that she's already cried over two people she shouldn't have.

She lets her eyes fall onto Banner's when he mumbles above a whisper, "What do you need?"

Natasha looks toward the ground, tapping the toes of her boots together, "To move on. I'm stronger than this."

His eyes never move from off of her, "No one questions your strength, Natasha."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Positive." He uses his sleeve to brush a bit of mascara from her cheek with her silent nodding consent.

Clint's arrival with Jennifer and the rest of the team pulls Natasha's focus from off of talking with Banner and back onto her mission.

Steve talks first, "We have to discuss the children now that they're all on board."

Maria cringes over her wrapped ankle and awkwardly settles on the steps beside Romanoff, "They need homes with families who understand them."

Clint lifts a knee and camps near Bruce to better face Natasha, "Yeah, I don't think sending them to unsuspecting foster families is going to end well."

Tony laughs under his breath, hands in his pockets, "Public school would be a bitch; Riley will start reading minds and pummeling her 8th grade bully into the ground."

Rhodes scoffs with a knowing shrug.

"I talked with SHIELD's legal department, and we have an idea. To be fully transparent we've all talked this over on the walk over to you guys,' Jennifer interrupts, 'I think SHIELD should house them."

"Are you insane," Bruce protests.

"Just hear me out; imagine a shelter where empowered kids can learn to be the best versions of themselves. And then imagine if any parent who applied to adopt, went in knowing the costs. Knowing, exactly, what they were getting into before the adoption process even began."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Why."

"You know why,' Bruce looks toward Thor for backup in arguing with his cousin, 'If Loki drops by looking like a typical American dad, goes through the process and gets, gets, what's her name, the bomb."

"Linda?" Clint offers.

"Linda! Loki takes off, goes back to Asgard with Linda and the world explodes."