The Prince And The Rose

14 - This Was My Life

Summary:
it was long but basically Natasha was going to be put in jail after Civil War for the reasons I explain in the story, but first she wants to go say goodbye to Steve.

After Natasha helped Steve and Bucky escape, the government had, understandably, become even more wary of her than they had been before. Because of her past service record (and her tendency to be totally unpredictable), there was talk about confiscating her weapons and retiring her from the Avengers indefinitely. At first, with Tony and the others supporting her as much as they could, it seemed likely that she would be allowed to continue fighting with them, but as the days progressed and the government officials expressed more and more concern about whether she could be trusted, she finally stopped all the argument herself. Taking the initiative, as she always did. She would step down from the team, turn in her weapons and uniform, and disappear. No more Black Widow for the government to worry about; Natasha Romanoff would go the way of Natalia Romanova and Natalie Rushman.

The others protested, as she knew they would, but she'd expected something like this when she backed Tony. Although a few members of the U.N. tried to demand that she be locked up, they were outvoted, and she was given forty-eight hours to turn in her uniform, collect her things, and get out of their hair or they would have to arrest her.

Natasha didn't really need that long, but she didn't say so, instead doing as they told her to. Tony seemed remorseful, but she dismissed his attempt at an apology.

"I knew this might happen when I joined your team, Stark," she told him. "I'm just glad they aren't putting me in the Raft."

"Are we going to know who you are?"

"No." She handed him a duffel bag full of weapons and gadgets and gear. "This part of my life is over now, and that's it. No phone calls, no letters, no emails, no encrypted messages like you got from Steve."

Tony's expression tightened in a scowl, but he didn't argue. "Why are you packing up so fast?" he asked.

She smiled a little. "There's a few people besides you guys that I need to say goodbye to, and I won't have time if I don't hurry."

"Who?"

"None of your business, Stark. And if you try tracking me when I leave to find them, I'm going to come back as an ugly, frumpy secretary and murder you."

He looked at her thoughtfully, and she could tell that he knew who it was she wanted to find, but he let out a long sigh and nodded. "Fine. No tracking. I swear."

She nodded and walked past him to get to the computers. She needed to delete all traces of herself on the Internet, a long process but a necessary one.

It wasn't until late that night that she managed to finish her preparations, using up twelve of her hours to erase herself. When she'd finished, the U.N. didn't even have files on her anymore. She was gone, like she'd never existed.

She put on an old SHIELD uniform, to be discarded at her earliest convenience. She made her way into the base hangar, avoiding anyone else who might want to ask her questions or say goodbye. She didn't want long, drawn-out farewells with anyone; best to let the Black Widow disappear quietly, as legends should.

It was fairly simple to take a quinjet (evidently Tony had had JARVIS lower security measures for her), and once it was in stealth mode she knew they couldn't track her even if they tried. She'd brought nothing with her, only the clothes she had on, her cellphone, and a small roll of cash.

She knew where Steve would be. She hadn't told anyone, because they would try to make her tell them. And no matter how right she thought she was, she wasn't going to let them take Steve or Bucky and imprison them.