Resilience | S. Rogers [3]

28 | HEART TO HEARTS

October 2023
Avengers Compound, New York

THE DAY BEFORE

"What?" Nat smiled nervously.

Rose breathed in with a heavy look before deciding to speak about what had been plaguing her mind recently.

"Uh...maybe we should sit down?"

Nat put away her notebook doubtful but did as she said. "You drew something, didn't you?" she asked Rose reading her gestures. "Is it me?"

Rose nodded. "The drawing didn't show much but..." she closed her eyes briefly swallowing the lump in her throat. "It's clear to me that...you die," she informed grimly. The image of Nat's body lying unnaturally itched on her mind.

Nat clenched her jaw putting her hands on her thighs taking a deep breath as emotions hit her like a truck.

"It doesn't have to be like that though," Rose mentioned. "If you stay—"

"No."

"What?" Rose shook her head disbelievingly. "Nat, I drew it, it doesn't mean it has to end like that."

"Every single thing you've drawn Rose, it has happened. It helps us prepare for it, but it happens," she pointed out.

"Yeah," Rose replied annoyed. "And know I'm telling you we can change it. It's obvious that wherever you are it's not here, I don't think so. So you can just—"

"Rose, I'm not going to stay here while the rest of you risk your lives," Nat shook her head speaking softly.

Rose kept arguing with her with a harsh tone due to desperation whereas Nat kept an accepting demeanour speaking with a soft voice.

"Fine..." Rose said finally. "Then you go on the missions that are on Earth."

"That's not our call."

"Yes it is."

"The teams will be decided on the best pair for each place," Nat stood her ground.

"We can—"

"Rose just..." Nat breathed in deeply. "Did you draw something else?"

"A couple of things."

"Do we make it? Do we win?"

Rose let out a huff but went through the drawings that had been made by her hand recently. "Yes."

"Then there is nothing to talk about," she grinned but there was sadness in her eyes. "Whatever it takes, right?"

"No," Rose shook her head not wanting to lose someone that close to her. "At what cost?"

"Everyone that was lost vs me? There's no math there," she repeated the same thing she'd said years ago fighting at Sokovia. "The possibility of not bringing everyone back is not worth more than my life, Rose."