Tragedy of Natalie Thomas-MCU

Epilogue

Epilogue.

Two weeks later.

Natalie and Peter were sitting at Natalie's new desk. She was trying her best to sit still as he went through the process of resetting her email password. The rug Sam had bought her last week really made the room feel more like home, and there were more furnishings coming in the mail. Natalie was holding both Cookie and the new lizard tightly. Sam had bought her both a phone and a laptop, but only after Natalie promised to help with dishes and clean up her room once and awhile. Peter had come over to help set everything up, and they were almost done...

Peter slid the brand new spinny chair backwards with a flourish. "There! I changed the password to what you requested, and you're back in your own email." He said with a laugh.

Natalie jumped up from her mattress, "Really?! Th-thank you Peter!"

"No problem Nat! You have about a thousand unread emails, so have fun with that."

She sat down in the chair, and Peter took the bed. "A-A thousand?"

"Not actually... but pretty close."

Natalie pulled herself closer to the computer, and was overwhelmed by the familiarity of it all...

She'd chosen the background behind the hundreds of unread emails, and the little chat box on the left hand side of the screen was still filled with old messages, and a few new ones...

Natalie Thomas: Last online, 9 months ago.

The unread messages were from her friends, months and months ago...

Taylor: Natalie, are you getting these? Me and Heather saw you on the news, are you ok? Do you need us to call anyone? If the Avengers are holding you hostage in any sort of way they will still be held accountable.

Taylor: Me and my siblings miss you.

-Sent two months ago

Heather: hey nat

Heather: hope you're doing better

Heather: :)

Heather: do you still like iced coffee? my mom bought a ton for me and i need to get rid of some.

Heather: sending hugs

-Sent two months ago

Natalie's breath hitched, and she moved over to all the unread emails. It was mostly stuff from subscription lists... But there was the occasional notification that Heather had sent her something on one of the many social media platforms she frequented. There were emails from nearly a year ago now from various social workers, telling her that she needed to come back to school... Taylor had sent her emails too, links to youtube videos, different news articles...

They had missed her.

Natalie looked at it all, a little bit teary-eyed.

"What are you going to do now?" Peter asked, fidgeting with the pillows on Natalie's bed.

"Something im-important."

She opened up a new message, and started typing.

To: Heather Fox, Taylor Suzuki.

Subject:

She hesitated for a second, and took the safe route. Best to leave it blank.

To: Heather Fox, Taylor Suzuki.

Subject: None

I'm safe!

She looked at it, and deleted that. Before she could start typing again Peter interjected, "You sure they'll see an email? I never check mine."

Natalie nodded, "Taylor always checks hers, or at least she used too... Then she'll call Heather, hopefully."

"Why don't you just text them with your new phone?"

".....That's scary. I-I want to see them first."

"Fair enough."

Natalie started typing again.

I'm back-

She deleted it.

"You need help?" Peter asked.

"No-no. I wanna do this by myself."

Sorry to make you guys worry, I missed you-

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault-"

"I said I didn't want your help!" Natalie laughed, but she deleted it anyway.

Hi! This is awkward, but I just wanted to let you guys know I didn't disappear on purpose. I'm back now, and here to stay, no matter what. Thank you guys for worrying about me. I have a lot to tell you both, wanna go get coffee as a group soon? I haven't been to Little Mocha with you guys in awhile. I missed you both a lot. I'm available whenever, just email me back! I got a new phone, so this will work best for now. :)

-Natalie

She sat there for a second, thinking about it. An hour or so out of the house, in the city, without Sam.

She pushed down her worries, Hydra was gone. She was safe.

I can do this.

She hit send.

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