Broken

Chapter 10

Natasha's POV

After Stark gave me his little pep talk, I decided to ask Charlie if she wanted to meet the team or not. After all, it is her life.

"Hey, Charlie?" I say as I enter my room (or- our room).

"I'm in the bathroom!" Comes the slightly muffled reply. I sit on the bed and ponder on how to ask the question. I don't hear the bathroom door open but I feel the bed dip slightly as someone sits down. "What's the matter, Mom?" I look at her and smile softly, proud that this is my daughter. "Wait, why are your eyes red? Were you crying? Are you ok?! What happened?! Did I do someth-," I quickly silence her before she hyperventilates.

"Charlie I'm fine," I half say, half chuckle. "It doesn't matter what happened, I wanna talk to you."

"Wait, did I do something wrong? Was it my fault you were crying? I'm so sorr-," I quickly place my index finger on her lips.

"You finish that sentence and I'll kick you out," her eyes grow sad as tears threaten to fall. "Wait, no! I'm just kidding! I swear, you haven't done anything wrong. Please don't cry," I pout with her jokingly and she slowly starts to laugh, me joining in soon. "I just wanted to ask you..." I say once we've both calmed down. "How would you like to meet the team?" She looks at me, shocked and almost scared.

"W- why?" She stutters out.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, I just think it might be good if you met some more people." I immediately start to see the fear in her eyes again, the same ones I saw in her cell nearly a month ago. "Of course, you don't have to," I say quickly. "They will never hurt and I will be with you the whole time, if that helps."

She takes a couple of deep breaths and tries to steady her shaking hands before answering. "O- ok-ay," she answers timidly. I pull her into a hug as her whole body begins to shake.

"It's okay, I promise. If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"No, you're right. I need to meet more people," she says quietly. "But, could we do it now? To get it over with sooner rather than later."

"That's my girl," I whisper into her hair. "If you wanna bail, just say."

Charlie's POV

Mom lends me some of her clothes to go meet the team. I'm wearing a hoodie and jeans so I can just hide my face if I want to. She puts an arm around my shoulders and guides me towards the elevator. I haven't been anywhere asides from the Mom's room and the med bay (I didn't pay a lot of attention when going up) so this is very intimidating alone.

All too quickly the elevator doors open to reveal the lounge and kitchen area. Mom steps out with me but turns towards me, each hand on a shoulder. "Remember, if you don't wanna be here, just say." I nod my head and take another couple of deep breaths. "I promise you, they're actually really nice once you get to know them. Dorky and idiots, but, well, kinda nice." I giggle quietly and we walk towards everyone who is in the lounge (literally- everyone is here). I flick my hood up so they can't see all of me.

The first person to notice us is Tony. I shy away from him slightly, still scared about the whole needle fiasco. He turns off whatever film they were watching immediately, much to everyone's dismay. I recognise most of the people here- Wanda, Steve, Tony, Clint, Bruce, and, of course, Bucky.

The first new person I notice is someone curled into Tony. I know this isn't the Pepper Mom told me about, so I briefly look into their mind to see who it is. Peter Parker, 15 years old and- HOT DAMN HE IS CUTE. I turn my body into Mom's, trying to shield (ha I'm so funny) my face away from everyone.