The Widow's Bite (Natasha X G!P OC)

Chapter 55 || 23 Days Later

I have risen from the dead :) Little explanation at the end but for now...Hello

Natasha POV

Once again, with the sound of shuffling feet down the hall, I nearly run to my door at the compound, only to see Jayce slamming her door shut and the click of the lock stinging my ears.

I stare at the barren door, feeling my shoulders slump and hope disintegrate once again. Every time that door opens I get this excitement, thinking that Jayce will come to me, speak with me, anything. But she leaves her room once a day to train, which has just turned to punching every heavyweight bag off its chain, leaving me to clean it up and replace it, then walks right back to her room.

Upon returning from Wakanda, the most painfully empty jet and quiet trip, Jayce asked me to go with her to May and Peter's apartment. We found it empty, with dust on the floor of the kitchen.

May's gone, and still no word from Tony, Peter, or Strange.

Everyday I try to get Jayce to eat, I'll leave a plate of food in front of her door. She was the cook, she's always been the cook, so the food hasn't been the best, but Pepper has helped me out.

The first few days the plate was left still full, untouched. But then she started eating, which was all I could ask for.

I stare down at the little crack between the door's bottom and the ground, seeing a shadow of Jayce's figure walking; pacing.

Part of me wants to kick the door down. It's been 23 days since the snap, 23 days since we lost, since I lost my sister and all of my friends.

But the other part of me knows Jayce needs to be alone. I've never felt the kind of fear I did that day. The way she screamed...it was an eruption of grief, anger, torture, terror.

I've lost people in my life. My sister is gone. Melina and Alexei are gone. But I've never experienced the kind of loss Jayce has.

That, and knowing that she is probably trying to figure out how to find Peter only makes me worry more. We haven't heard anything in weeks. And I want to think the best, but a painfully large weight in my stomach tells me that the reality isn't good.

Instead of standing like an idiot, willing her to open the door and at least let me see her face, I walk over to the office like I have been every day since and greet Pepper.

"Hey."

"Anything?" She asks quietly, but I shake my head and shove my hands into my jean pockets, "Nope."

Pepper nods slowly and glances through the window into the training room. Once following her gaze, I see yet another hole punched in the wall and another bag burst open, sand all over the ground.

Smacking my lips together, I hum in a way to distract my senses from making me cry. I've held it together for this long, I can keep doing it.

The first few nights I cried. But I can't let myself do that. Not when people need me. Clint's gone off-grid, Jayce locked herself in her room, Tony's MIA. All that's here still trying to figure something out is Steve, Bruce, Pepper, and I.

But nothing has come up. We've gotten reports of cities going up in flames from peoples' anger, funerals, government officials dusting away. Half of the entire world's population is gone.

"She's grieving. I can't even begin to imagine the kind of toll this is taking on her. She's lost her entire family and we don't know about Peter. That poor girl."

Closing my eyes briefly, I sigh and walk over to the training room to clean up Jayce's mess. Pepper follows along, grabs a broom and dust pan, and helps me out, "How have you been doing since? I know losing Yelena must be hard...I'm sorry."