Hydra's shadow

Chapter 12: Confession

*NATASHA'S POV*

"James? Please say something."

He'd been staring at the wall next to us for the past thirty seconds, almost like he was frozen in time, in a trance-like state. I don't blame him it was a lot to take in, finding out the person you share your life with has been hiding a secret as big as this one.

"You have a daughter?"

"I do. But I haven't seen her since the day she was born, well until now maybe."

"You have a daughter." this time not a question, almost like he was grounding himself to believe everything I'd just told him, to believe it all to be true.

"You have to understand why I didn't tell you, why I didn't tell anyone. I was so young and he told me I'd never see her again. It hurt too much to think about where she was, how he was treating her, if she hated me for leaving her."

I felt tears pricking at the corner of my eyes as a lump formed in my throat, my voice slowly becoming strangled by it.

Before I could get any more words out James moved over to where I was sitting wrapping his metal arm tightly around my shoulder, bringing me into a hug, my head resting comfortably against his chest.

"You didn't leave her Nat, she was taken from you." he reassured as he ran his other hand gently through my hair, occasionally wiping away the tears as they fell over my cheeks.

"Hey at least I can stop freaking out about how similar you two look." he joked, squeezing my shoulder slightly as I managed a half-hearted laugh.

"I don't even know where to start James, I don't want her to hate me."

"How could anyone hate you?" he whispered as he tilted my chin up to face him.

"She'll understand, I know she will." he muttered, placing a small kiss on my forehead as I leant back against his chest.

We stayed like that for a while, for what seemed like hours, until a few sharp knocks on the bedroom door broke me out of my thoughts.

"Hey lovebirds, dinners on the table in 5!" Stark shouted from across the other side of the door.

I stood up pacing around the room nervously searching for Echo's necklace, she'd be looking for it if I didn't give it back soon, and I wanted to tell her in private so the chaos of her searching for it might mess up my plan of telling her away from everyone else.

"Hey Nat just be normal okay? As far as everyone else is aware nothing's changed."

"Normal? I can act normal." I spoke confidently, but the nervousness in my voice was clear as James gave me a hopeful smile tipping his head to the side in question.

"I'll be fine James."

"As long as you're sure."

I nodded in his direction before opening the door and heading straight down to the kitchen, the smell of pizza already wafting across the table as I took a seat down opposite from Echo.

"Oh Echo I forgot to mention, I found your necklace earlier when you used our bathroom, I meant to give it back to you in training but it must've slipped my mind. Here." I said, clearly nervous as my voice was more high-pitched than normal, and I was speaking at a much faster pace.

"Oh thanks." she smiled back at me, as I reached over and placed it into her outstretched palm.

"What is it?" I heard Steve mutter from the other end of the table.

"It's a star-pendant necklace, I've had it since I was young enough to remember. I think it might've belonged to my mama."

"You never met her?" I asked, trying to act normal as possible, still eager to know more about the girl sitting right in front of me. My girl.