Powers to Spare

Chapter 19

Goal: 4 votes, 2 comments
Dedicated to anoynamous_writer

Natasha's POV
When Rose finally went to bed, thought back over the day that I've had. I told Rose that I'm gonna adopt her, Im starting to actually have feelings - much less showing them, and I'm still slightly distressed over the phone call I had with Nick Fury the other day. He doesn't want me to adopt her, he wants to keep her in one of the research labs to see if he can try to "help her control her powers. Who would be better to help her than us?" And I know that's code for, "we want to see what she can do and if she'll be useful to us." He acts like I was never part of SHEILD and wasn't his best agents. Gosh! It's infuriating!

Either way I'm adopting her, whether he likes it or not!! But then there's Steve to think about. Gah!!! Can I not get a break. It seems that every time something good and light comes into the dark, flaming pit called my life it gets stripped away from me just as fast as it comes.

What did I do to deserve this type of life?!? Oh wait, there's a lot of things. Ok back to the whole adoptions thing cause I can't wallow in my self pity. What to do? Well obviously I'm adopting her but what to do about Steve? I think the only way to have us both adopt her is to be married which isn't gonna happen...ever? I mean he is really nice and... HOLD IT!!! STOP YOUR THOUGHTS NATASHA!!! You can't think about him like that! You guys work together for heavens sake, not to mention the fact that you are too messed up to be loved. I mean eventually Rose will find out everything and I doubt she'll be very happy with that.

Either way I need to talk to someone about this. Not Rose, I can't keep worrying her I mean after all she is only 10. Steve, maybe. Clint, maybe. Wait are those all my friends? Gosh I gotta get out more. I think I should talk to Steve about this - especially since it involves him.  Yeah. That's what I'm gonna do.

"Hey Steve" I call out as I knock on his door. No response. I can't even hear him breathing.

"Hey Steve" I call out before opening the training room door. I finally find him pinching the crap out of his sixth punching bag.
"Steve!" I yell over his punching, trying to gain his attention. After a moment he looks up at me but then continues punching the bag. He's dripping in sweat, muscles tensing, but what really got me was his eyes. His eyes looked like tortured crystal clear blue pools.

"What's wrong Steve?" I ask in what I hope is a soft genuine voice. He just shakes his head in defeat; at this motion, I nearly break. I don't know why but ever since I started working with this amazing pure man, I've noticed myself changing and feeling more. It's the weirdest thing. But since I'm not the best a comforting people (genuinely) I decide to instead hold the bag in place for him. With each of his hits it feels like a light thump to my midriff; normally I feel nothing at all. I see he's getting lost in his own world once again. It looks like he's diving further and further into his own torture chamber and all I want to do is get him out.

"Steve! I have to talk to you" I say firmly. He looks up a moment later and comes out of his haze.

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were holding the bag for me. Did I hurt you?" He questions.

"No, not at all. But I really do need to talk to you." I say with a dismissive hand wave. He just stands there looking at me expectantly. Oh right I have to talk; wow what's happening to me? "So I was thinking about Rose and adoption..."

"We've already talked about this. You can adopt her but..." He interrupts while staring to clean up the mess he made from training.

"Steve just listen for a moment! I was thinking and realized that we both truly love her as a daughter and we both want to adopt her, then why don't we just pretend to be a normal married couple. The only way she can have two legal guardians is if they are married (A/N: not sure if that's true) so why not. We can acquire an apartment to rent for a month to show the adoption agency and all. And yes I know that they all think she's dead but I did my research and she's back on the grid again so technically we have to send her to an orphanage for a while to actually make it seem like we're adopting her. Or we can just have someone do it in secret.  But now that I'm thinking about it again I guess we could just hack into the database and update it to our liking." I ramble off.