The closest thing to a daughter

Season 2 Episode 28

Wanda and Natasha both stayed with her until she finally calmed down. In fact, at some point Abigail was able to fall asleep with her head on Nat's legs while she stroked her back. The two talked for a few minutes until they decided to carry the little one back to her bed. Just as they were about to join the others in the training room, Wanda bumped into a cardboard box lying on the floor. It toppled over with a clang, jolting the little Novanoff from her just-found sleep. "Good job, you woke Abigail up.... it's okay, go back to sleep," Natasha whispered, stroking through the half-asleep girl's red long wavy hair. "Love you," she mumbled back but kept her eyes closed. Wanda looked touched at the cute scene in front of her, while a huge smile had formed on Natasha's lips. "What's wrong?" the latter asked taking a closer look at the brown-haired one's sparkling eyes. "That was so cute," she squeaked softly and left the room with an even wider grinning Natasha.

The next morning, Wanda and Abigail found themselves in the kitchen telling each other jokes to take their minds off their loss. In fact, it worked really well and the two quickly developed a closer friendship together. So it turned out that the two had a lot in common, which made them get along better. Wanda had just finished a joke when Natasha entered the room in her black Widow suit trimmed with glowing blue accents. Training wasn't scheduled until the afternoon, for which reason she earned a confused look from the two young ladies. "Wanda, I need you to watch Abigail while I'm out on a mission," she explained for clarification, but directly. Surprised, addressed raised her head. "Nat can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked and Natasha nodded at her. Together, the two redheads disappeared into the adjacent living room. "Where do you have to go? Ultron is defeated, your job is to train us with Steve."

"I'm aware of that Abigail, but I have to go look for Bruce," Natasha answered honestly, earning a horrified and surprised look at the same time. She had been sure the last time Steve and her met that Banner was a written off subject. But now she was going to go looking for him? "I thought that subject was settled. What about Ste-"

"Abigail no. There isn't and won't be anything. He's still crying after his one true love and I'm about to get mine back now," Natasha interrupted her, complaining herself not particularly convinced by her words, though. It was also clear to Novanoff that Nat was only lying to herself, but there was nothing she could do, even if she wanted to so desperately. Both were lies, Abigail knew that, and inside Steve and Natasha knew it too, but they would never admit it to themselves. "I just don't want you to wait too long. I made that mistake by running away from my feelings towards Danny. And now it's too late, I'll never get that chance back." Bitterly, Nat tried to put on a forced smile. She too now understood the truth behind her words, but there was still no way around her leaving. Even though she might not be looking for Bruce to be with him after all, but to get an answer from him for leaving, she couldn't stay here now. The Black Widow was too proud to simply throw her plan overboard. So the two said goodbye to each other and went back to Wanda in the kitchen. "Don't worry, Nat, I won't let her out of my sight," she assured and a little later Natasha disappeared into the unknown in a Quinjet. 

"What's wrong?" inquired Wanda, touching her shoulder encouragingly as they sat on one of the couches a short time later. "I'm worried about Natasha. She's running from her feelings and I just don't want her to make the same mistake I once did," Abigail explained after some failed dodging of her question. She didn't even have to explain to Wanda that she was talking about Steve and Danny, the witch could sense her feelings far too well for that. "As much as I'd like to help you with that, there's not much we can do." Loudly, the redhead sighed and leaned back into a pillow. All she wanted was to see the most important person in her life happy. Wanda sensed her sadness rising again and pulled the younger one to her in a hug. They hadn't known each other long, and the start may not have been the easiest, but they understood each other all the more now. It wasn't until Steve walked in the door and marched up to the two young women with a serious look on his face that they broke away from the embrace.