Iron-Man: For The Love Of The Spy

A Broken Widow

True to her word Natasha didn't go back to Stark's mansion. She had told Fury that Tony was very capable to protect himself should there be an attack against him. After Fury had seen what Tony had done in the Red Room he was inclined to agree with her and therefore he pulled away all protective detailing from Tony Stark and focused those efforts on other projects for SHIELD. But two years later, everything that Natasha had promised Tony would soon fall apart when Fury comes to visit.

Natasha lays on her couch in her apartment in New York watching yet another season of Friends on television. She hadn't been an active SHIELD agent for a few months now, and at this point she was really beginning to miss it. She slowly gets off the couch and heads to the refrigerator for another beer when she hears a knock at the door. Natasha takes a quick look at her apartment and her nose wrinkles a little in disgust at how untidy it is. There is a old pizza box and some empty beer bottles on the coffee table, plus to add to that there are items of clothing scattered across the floor. She really needed to clean this place up.

The knocking continued and she groaned as she walked towards the door taking a swig of her beer. "Whatever you're selling I am not buying it okay. So fuck off!" yelled Natasha at the door. The pounding commenced and she was beginning to become really pissed off. She marched over to the door and flung it open ready to punch whomever was on the other side and was surprised by who was there. Nick Fury.

Nick eyed here with a look of distaste. She was wearing a stained hoodie (which was Stark's from 2 years ago), and her leggings had a few tears in them. Her hair was a mess and what mascara she was wearing was smudged. She felt embarrassed that her mentor saw her in this way.  Nick said nothing as he stepped inside and allowed his eye to wander around the apartment, with each passing moment Natasha could see how disgusted he was becoming. Nick pulled a pencil from his pocket and stooped over and soon she saw what he stooped over for. On the end of the pencil was a used condom from a few nights ago.

"So Natasha, you quit SHIELD. You stop taking care of yourself, your apartment and now from the looks of things you are also having meaningless sex with strange men; the box of condoms on the couch tells the whole story Nat," said Nick with the tone of a disapproving parent. Natasha sat down on the couch not making eye contact with Nick. He sighed and threw the pencil and condom into a trash bag that was laying in the corner of the apartment. He sat down next to Natasha and placed an arm around her. She couldn't help it but she fell onto his shoulder and she emotionally fell apart. She began crying and once she started it felt like she couldn't stop, but Nick didn't break his hold on her.

"I'm s-sorry Nick. I-I can't. M-My l-life is falling a-apart," she sobbed into his shoulder. Nick just made comforting shushing noises to try and calm her down. "E-everything I d-do I screw up," she sobbed, "B-barton hates me, s-so d-does everyone e-else!"

"Hey now, where is all this coming from! Barton can't hate anyone, he just physically can't. I don't think that this is to do with Barton or to do with anyone else at SHIELD now is it?" he asked with a knowing look. Natasha looked at him with a confused expression, "What?"

"I know who it's about Natasha. Barton knows too. Why else do you think I am here? Clint was worried and told me to come and see you," said Nick with a soft smile, "You didn't think that I would notice the fact that you always wear that damn hoodie. You don't even like AC/DC! But Stark does...doesn't he?"

Natasha broke away from Fury and looked down at the faded AC/DC logo on the hoodie. Her memory brought her back to when she watched Tony working, he was wearing this exact same hoodie. The way he would furrow his brow when he concentrated. The wrinkle on his cheeks when he smiled. She was slightly obsessed with him for the past two years and whenever he appeared in television she watched avidly. Yes she knew she was in love with Tony Stark, but he hated her guts for what she did two years ago in his workshop. She snapped, and she almost hurt him, all because he did the world a favor and wiped out the Red Room! She regretted it for two years, she wished she could have thanked him instead, but no it didn't turn out that way.

She looked over to Fury who was watching her and she nodded, "Yeah Tony does like AC/DC." Nick nodded in understanding, "Now the bigger question is, are you in love with him?" She looked away. For the past two years when there was a gala that Tony was attending and there was a beautiful woman on his arm, she would imagine it was her. Not some bimbo that wanted to fuck Iron-Man, but her, the woman who fell in love with him.

She looked back at Fury and said nothing but nodded confirming what he had said. Nick stood up and approached her, "Get dressed, and clean yourself up a bit and pack a bag. You're coming with me to Malibu." Natasha smiled a little at the thought of seeing Tony again but then it faded when she remembered what Tony said he would do if he ever saw her again. She backed away slightly, "Sorry Nick but I cannot go back to Malibu."

Nick raised an eyebrow at this remark, "Why would that be?" She looked at the ground awkwardly, "Tony and I fought each other in his workshop two years ago. It didn't end well." Nick smirked, "Yeah I know, I watched the whole fight happen on the security cameras in the workshop. You fairly held your own, even with him in a suit of armor."

"But-" she began. "If you're worried that Stark is going to spill all your secrets to me don't be. I already know them all. Even that you like to sleep with a hello kitty plushy," said Nick with a chuckle. Natasha blushed, "Um how did you know about the-"

"Oh the kitty thing, yeah not telling. But you calling it by the name precious, now that is truly something else," laughed Fury. Natasha buried her head in her hands out of pure embarrassment. 

"Now get dressed, I'll meet you in the car...I have some news about Stark that you may be interested in," said Fury with a stern expression that clearly communicated that she could not argue with this. Natasha nodded and headed for her bathroom to get ready.

*

After a quick shower and a change of clothes (though she put the hoodie in her bag) Natasha was ready to go along with Fury to Malibu. She threw her bag into the trunk of the car and climbed into the shotgun position. Fury sat in the driver's seat with a smirk on his face.

"What?" asked Natasha as she brushed some of her hair out of her eyes. Fury just chuckled, "Oh nothing, was just thinking of a song I heard a long time ago." Natasha looked at him puzzled but said nothing about it.

"So what was the news about Tony that you wanted to tell me?" asked Natasha as Fury began driving. Fury glanced at her, "Okay, you know that thing in his chest, the arc battery."

"It's an arc reactor, he spoke about it briefly last year at a convention in Turkey," said Natasha without thinking. Fury hesitated, "And you know that how?" Natasha shrugged, "Not important." Fury chuckled, "Right. Anyways that thing in his chest, the reactor. Well...."

Natasha looked at Fury with a curious look, "Well what?"

"The arc reactor uses something Stark describes as palladium, that same thing that is keeping him alive. It's slowly killing him. Our scientists at SHIELD have confirmed that having that stuff inside your body for a long period of time can cause that person's blood to become toxic. So the long and short of it is Tony Stark is dying and needs help to find a replacement for the thing that runs the arc reactor. You are going to be going undercover inside Stark Industries to keep an eye on Stark to make sure he doesn't die. Understand?"

"HE'S FUCKING DYING!" yelled Natasha so loudly Nick almost crashed the car, "HE'S FUCKING DYING AND YOU'RE ACTING SO GOD DAMN CASUAL ABOUT IT! WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"Jesus Christ calm down Nat, I get it you have feeling for Stark, but god damn my ears."

"How long does he have?" she asked dreading the answer. "A few months if we're lucky, he's very sick but is doing a good job of hiding it from the world. So in a few days you will be taking care of Stark as his PA, so I suggest you do something to prevent him from recognizing you."

Natasha nodded, "Okay. I got this."

"You better, because if Stark dies...well then we are all in a lot of trouble," says Fury ominously. Natasha nodded along but was no longer paying attention to Nick. Her mind wandered to Tony wondering what he was doing, and if he was closer to finding a cure for the palladium poisoning.