The closest thing to a daughter

Season 1 Episode 8

After the conversation, the Avengers had to return to the Helicarrier, this time with Natasha as well, since her ability was needed against Loki.

In an interrogation, she was able to figure out that Loki's plan all along was to get himself locked up in order to get on the Helicarrier, unleash the Hulk and tear the heroes apart. Unfortunately, her clever insight had not helped foil the plan.

Loki managed to turn the Avengers against Nick Fury by opening their eyes to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s true intentions with the Tesseract. They were not only searching for energy, but mainly they were creating powerful weapons to prepare for a possible alien invasion. Hawkeye and some helpers, meanwhile, managed to gain access to the airship, and when Bruce lost his temper and actually turned into the Hulk as a result of the argument, total chaos broke out on the ship.

Natasha had to knock out her good friend Clint, who was under Loki's influence, and luckily managed to break him out of mind control in the process. Thor and the Hulk went overboard in the battle, while Captain America and Iron Man tried desperately to keep the Helicarrier in the air, but the greatest drama took place in front of Loki's cell, as he managed to escape and inflict a mortal wound on Phil Coulson, who was held in high regard by everyone. When the fight was over, the situation seemed hopeless. The heroes were separated, Loki had escaped with the Tesseract, and no one knew what to do next.

Eventually, however, Nick Fury managed to motivate everyone one last time and get them to work together.

Tired, Nat was the first to re-enter Stark Tower and found a sleeping Abigail. She was curled up on the couch, looking peaceful for the first time in a long time.

"Are you all right, Romanoff?" asked Steve, who had entered the living room after her, now leaning against a shelf and looking deep into his colleague's eyes, trying to understand what had happened to the usually distant Natasha.

"Why is this child sleeping here?" she asked the counter question, looking from Steve back to the small sleeping Nolan.

"Don't tell me you care about the child now," was again a counter question from Steve, only this time they both knew the answer without either of them having to say it.

Nat actually cared about the little redhead and especially after that nerve-wracking mission, her protective instinct towards her had grown.

"Shut up," she ordered him laughing and shaking her head, but immediately became serious again and asked, "Isn't there a spare room?"

"Stark is making room, she'll be fine here for a night," Steve assured her sympathetically, gently placing a hand on her shoulder to reassure her as he stepped closer.

Not being used to being touched for good reasons, she flinched under his touch, but didn't take his hand away, because oddly enough, it felt good to have someone who cared. And she realized that the little girl needed exactly this affection, too.

They stood like that for a few more minutes until they both realized the little girl was shivering, and Nat quickly covered her with a blanket.

"Oh, so that's what you're not interested in?" Instead of making her usual dismissive remarks, she smiled gently and said to him, "Don't mention it in front of the team or you'll regret it," bringing out her usual perky manner again.