Old Scars Resurface - Natasha Romanoff

A hunch

"Come on, we can sneak through there when they lock it down." One of the agents in the filing room asked his girlfriend.

While shuffling through stacks of files, finding something to occupy herself with, Erin tried her best to block their conversation out. She flipped through the pages while occasionally glancing at the many agents that rushed past the room, but she never gave it another thought.

"There will be guards everywhere, James, we can't." His girlfriend chuckled while standing as close as she could to him.

"Everyone's gone out looking for the black widow, no ones around." He stated.

That was what finally pushed through her guard. With a scoff, she took a random folder and began to leave so she wouldn't have to listen to their conversation anymore. However, before she could sneak out without being noticed, James caught her and spoke to her so she couldn't just walk away.

"What's the matter?" He asked with a smirk, "you don't wanna hear about how they're about to finally catch her?"

After sighing under her breath, she turned to look at him and leant against the shelf, "uh, no, actually. I just don't fancy standing here listening to you flirt with your girlfriend of the week while trying to guess whose gonna break whose heart first."

With another smirk, james pushed himself off of what he was leaning on, "you're all work and no play. Don't you get bored of being so professional all the time?"

She pointed her fingers at the two of them, "if this is what you class as 'play', then I'd gladly choose work."

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and turned back to his girlfriend.

With a groan, she gripped the folder tighter and finally turned away from the shelves. Just as she was about to make it down the hall and hide away in one of the empty offices, someone who considered her a friend blocked her path.

Without any kind of greeting, he excitedly asked her, "did you hear?"

"What?" She raised her head and looked at him with annoyance.

"They've found black widow." He explained.

"You mean Natasha?"

"Yeah, whatever." He rolled his eyes, "they found her and they're sending their team now."

"Good for them, I'm sure they'll get her." She sarcastically told them.

"You're not even a little bit excited?" He asked, "i thought you were a fan of her?"

"A fan?" She cocked her brow, "grow up, Nick."

He laughed to himself. Over the time he'd grown to know erin, he'd gotten used to her sarcasm and pessimism, so he didn't take offence to it anymore. "Maybe this would cheer you up. Its different than the usual missions you're sent on, i think you should give it a go."

"I have spent the last hour hearing about how they're going to catch her. Do they seriously think they're gonna find her in a random hotel?" She rhetorically asked, "surely they don't underestimate her that much."

"I wouldn't sound to confident." He shrugged, "they're sending their best."

"Oh, my god, nick, please change the conversation before i blow my fucking brains out." She groaned obnoxiously loudly.

"Alright, alright." He chuckled, "what are your plans for the rest of the day? ... are you going on any missions or anything?"

"You're a dick." She laughed to herself while hitting him with the file she had in her hands before she walked away from him.

"If you ever get bored, there's a mission you can go on." He called to her, making her chuckle under her breath, "Ill send you the location if you want."

"Fuck off." She called back with a smile.

"Train station in Germany!" He shouted, then turned away to do whatever he wanted to do.

Although he turned away and left, she froze in place and kept her head at the ground while thinking. Now that she knew where they were going to be, she could go with them, right? But that's not what she was thinking about.

"Germany?" She mumbled under her breath in disbelief.

After dropping the file on the table beside her, she quickly paced down the hall while trying to look as casual as possible. Every time an armoured agent walked past her to get to the quinjet that was leaving, she studied them.

She thought about the way ross seemed so confident, even though it didn't make sense. Her tracker might have showed that she was in Germany, but Erin didn't seem to believe that. She knew Natasha. She'd spent most of her time at shield studying her work, so she knew that someone with her intelligence would've already fled the country by that time.

After realising that, she had to think about where she'd actually be. She thought back to their time together in hopes she'd find a clue, but her brain couldn't come up with anything on the spot.

"Hey, Erin." An agent who recognised her smiled as she entered the office she was standing by, "can I help you?"

"Oh, uh-." She snapped out of her concentrated trance, then thought for a moment. "Yeah, actually. Have you got the official mission report for this mission everyone's talking about?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear, but I can't give you that." She shook her head.

Erin pulled her shield badge out of her back pocket and showed it to her, "I'm level 8. That's high enough to look at current and future missions."

"You are, but general ross specifically requested that you can't look at this." She explained.

"What, my units been blocked from seeing this one?" She scoffed.

"Not your unit." The lady shook her head, "just you."

Erin tilted her head in confusion, but decided not to push into it. "Son of a bitch." She mumbled under her breath before preparing to turn away, "thank you, anyway."

"That's alright, dear." She nodded to her as she watched her walk away.

While trying to keep her hopes up, Erin trailed off to the library. Her eyes studied every geographical book she found in hopes that one of the places would jog her memory. For a while, she found nothing. All of the names of the countries seemed meaningless to her as she read them, until her eyes stopped at one.

-----
"You know the northern lights?" Young Natasha asked Erin while they looked up at the stars.

"Is that what this reminds you of?" Erin smiled to her.

"I want to go to Norway." She told her.

Erin pushed herself up to a sit to look at Natasha, so Natasha looked up at her, "you know that Norway isn't the only place you can see the northern lights from, right?"

"I know, but it seems the closest." She shrugged, looking up at her with a smile on her face.

"Why's that?" Erin asked.

"Norway... Northern lights. They both start with 'nor'" she explained.

She giggled, "that's some good logic, alia."

"Shut up." Nat giggled as well.

-----

"Norway." Erin mumbled to herself, "fucking Norway."