Black Hawk Down

Chapter Fifteen

February 6 - 2150 hours - Natasha's room - Stark Tower

"I've finished my report," Natasha broke the silence. "Are you done?" She asked Clint.

"Yeah," He got up from his seat at her desk. "Are you sure you want to start this now?" Clint asked seeing her opening the files on her laptop.

"I have to do it now," Natasha said. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep until it's done. Besides I told the rest of the team at dinner that I would answer some of their questions tomorrow."

"Alright, let's do this," Clint said quietly.

Natasha opened the first file "Наталья Романова" (Natalya Romanova) and began to read and translate it at the same time. The first file had the letter from Ivan, describing how to set up the meet as well as the consequences if his orders were not obeyed. The next thing things in the file were her birth certificate, her personal file then a list of the names of the people she had killed. Below that she found the signed contract between Ivan and her parents as well as the paperwork for the lab experiments that had created her. Below that was the paperwork for the case her parents had been preparing against Ivan. Right at the bottom were several family photo's and photo's of a young Natalya Romanova. She hadn't realised that she was crying until Clint was wiping the tears off her cheeks and putting his arms around her.

"They wanted me," She whispered through her tears. "They really wanted me." She let Clint hold her until the tears dried up.

She quickly finished translating the last part of the document before going back to the list of names she had skipped past. She read through them unable to put a face to the names of most of them. She shook her head and flicked across to the other file "файлы Миссия" (Mission files). She let Clint take her hand as she began to read through and translate the first newspaper clipping. They were in date order with the newest Red Room missions first. One of her last missions with them had been the one that had upset her the night before. Ivan had sent her to assassinate a young girl whose father wasn't moving fast enough on one of his projects. She translated every single article and the mission brief and report that were with it. She came to the articles of her earliest missions, when she read the article about her parents deaths she couldn't help the sobs that spilled out again.

"Ivan's right I am a monster," Natasha cried into Clint's shoulder.

"No, you were never a monster." Clint told her, "Ivan was the monster, he made you do terrible things when you didn't know better."

"Every detail of this file describes a monster Clint," Natasha whispered as Clint tightened his arms around her. "Every police report, mission file, newspaper article."

"You're not a monster, you may have done terrible things but you are my Angel," He whispered.

She smiled through her tears, "You're the only person on earth who would call me an Angel."

"Я люблю тебя, мой ангел," (I love you, my Angel.) He said quietly.

"Я тоже тебя люблю, мой ястреб," (I love you too, my Hawk.) She whispered back.

Natasha quickly finished off the translation of the file before saving the translated files onto the SD card and closing the files and her laptop.

She looked across at the time seeing it was almost five in the morning. She shoved the laptop under the bed out of the way and collapsed back onto the bed beside Clint. "I guess I know my real life story now," She said quietly. "It doesn't feel real though. Not remembering makes it feel like it wasn't my life."