ONCE THE AVENGERS ARRIVED AT THE TOWER, they split off into groups.

Clint rushed off to the hospital wing with Peter securely tucked in his arms while Tony trailed behind them, telling Jarvis to set up a range of medical equipment for their arrival. Thor was in search of Bruce so he could attend to the gunshot wound despite Jarvis having already alerted the scientist.

Meanwhile, Natasha and Steve accompanied the unknown woman into an interrogation room for questioning before sending her off to a Shield base far away from Peter.

The room was bare apart from the usual, stand-alone table and chairs.

Steve secured the woman to the table by her handcuffs, ignoring the way her eyes bored into his head like she knew something he didn't. Across the table Natasha leaned back into her seat, not even looking at Steve when he sat beside her- he glanced in her direction when she withdrew a phone and began texting, his curiosity peaked.

Clint: Getting Bruce to check Peter out.

Natasha: take him home.

Clint: On it. Meet you there?

Natasha: soon as possible.

After a moment she looked up, ignoring the quizzical look Steve was shooting her way.

They had little time with the woman seeing as Shield would arrive to pick her up as soon as possible for their own interrogation, and the assassin was much more interested in her than providing an explanation to the captain.

"What's your name?"

The woman's lips curled into a smile as her cuffs clinked together when she set her hands onto the table, looking thoughtful. "Helen? That's a good name, isn't it?"

Despite the teasing, Natasha's gaze remained fixed on the woman. Her lack of response didn't deter the captive, instead her attention seemingly jumped to Steve who had frowned disapprovingly at the lack of a truthful answer. He opened his mouth to press for something more honest but Natasha cut him off smoothly, she didn't have time for the trivial thing like a name. If the woman wanted to fake it then she could do so for the time being.

"What's so interesting about a kid in a spider suit to you?"

"It's what's beneath the suit." Helen drawled as if they were painfully dense. "It's what's in his blood that makes him very interesting Miss Romanoff." She smiled, all teeth and no warmth when Natasha arched a singular eyebrow in question- her eyes glittered, making Steve wonder if she was even sane. "His abilities are the same to a mutate we lost. We're only retrieving what's ours."

"People are not property." Natasha's voice was cutting and sharp.

Her eyes narrowed at the implication that Peter was someone to be owned, like an animal- her mind involuntarily jumped to the collar that had dug into his skin enough to draw blood. She recalled the fight in the warehouse with perfect clarity, including the case of cash that had been spilled onto the floor; her skin crawled with the idea of Peter being sold to the highest bidder.

Despite her internal conflict, Natasha's features remained eerily calm.

Steve eyed her slightly, as if sensing the warring emotions but not being able to physically see them. Instead of commenting, he leaned forwards in his seat and forced himself to focus on the 'Helen' woman in front of him. "Who's we?"

"Hydra. Which you, of course, already knew." Helen explained, sitting back with a bored look.

Steve huffed out a frustrated breath, "What do you-" He cut himself off when the door swung open and Tony of all people poked his head into the room, looking irritated and panicked. His sleeves were rolled up and his hair ruffled, like he'd ran his hands through it a few times.

Natasha shot him a curious look as he gritted out, "A word, Cap? Romanoff?" accompanied by a gesture with his head. Steve, who had already begun to stand, straightened up and spared a look at the redhead who had stayed stubbornly seated despite the intrusion.

"I'll catch up in a minute."

Reluctantly, the men left the room, making Helen looked mildly interested when Natasha's attention shifted back to her. "Going to threaten me, Miss Romanoff? Hurt me? Torture me?" She taunted, eyes glinting in the fluorescent lights of the room.

Her chest rose and fell as though she was preparing herself but Natasha hardly blinked.

"I'm going to promise you something." The assassin leaned forwards, hands clasping together as they rested on the table, mimicking Helen's stance from before. "I promise you, that I am coming for all the monsters that ever touched him. I am coming for the bastards that thought they could twist him into their little puppet. They turned his life into a nightmare, so I'm going to do the same to them."

The only reaction was the sudden stillness to Helen as she stared.

Satisfied, Natasha rose to her feet in silence, heading for the door- "You'll never stop Hydra." Natasha grinned wickedly over her shoulder as she yanked the door open, displaying every reason as to why she was called the Black Widow.

"Try and stop me."

-

An hour later, Peter was laid out on the couch back at the apartment.

He was wearing a set of sweatpants with a jumper half covering his torso while Natasha finished stitching him up. The first aid kit was sprawled across the coffee table as Natasha leaned over him, face concentrated and calculated while she worked around the wound in his side.

"Why did Clint have to haul me out of a window again?" Peter gritted out.

His face was scrunched in discomfort as he tried his hardest to stay still and not flinch back- he'd always tended to his own wounds if they were scratches and bullet holes so it was strange to allow someone else to be so close when he was so vulnerable.

Natasha barely reacted to the question except for a mumbled, "We don't trust the doctors."

Peter hummed, "You called them useless."

"You were barely conscious then." Nat frowned. She didn't want to scare him, because technically the doctors who had messed up last time had been fired by Stark the moment he heard about the mishap. But neither Clint or Natasha was willing take the risk again, even if Bruce himself was involved in overseeing the whole procedure; they trusted one another instead.

"Semi-conscious, please." Peter breathed out, grimacing as Natasha finished stitching the wound.

Getting the bullet out had been an easy feat; the hard part was getting Peter to stop fidgeting long enough for her to stitch him up and stop the blood flow.

"Why don't you trust them?" Peter asked, trying to distract himself from the blooming pain.

"Clint went once. They left shrapnel in from a bullet wound- he went on another mission. The shrapnel almost killed him, not the mission itself." Natasha recalled, almost like reciting something from a file to hide the clear emotions behind that memory.

Peter gulped. "Oh."

"Oh, indeed." She muttered, reaching for a bandage.

It would only take a day or two for Peter to be fully healed, but the assassin was taking no chances as she made sure to clean the wound for a fourth time.

"Where's Barton now?" Peter wondered, trying to relax again.

"Back at the tower. If both of us disappeared, it'd look suspicious." Nat explained, focussed on the task of applying the bandage as gently as possible.

"Where are you supposed to be right now?" He asked, mildly curious.

"On a mission from Fury."

Peter hummed, yawning slightly. "The drugs are kicking in."

Carefully, Natasha pulled down Peter's jumper as he practically melted into the couch from exhaustion and painkillers. "Stay." He mumbled, clumsily grabbing her wrist when she moved to pull away after draping a blanket over his shoulders.

"Sure, kid." Nat mumbled, pressing a chaste kiss to his forehead before resting his feet in her lap.

The duo still had things to talk about; like how to stop Hydra from chasing Peter down and for Natasha to berate the teen for taking a bullet for her. But right now? They were content to fall asleep on the worn couch knowing that the other was safe next to them. 

A/N

Natasha threatening Helen is one of my favourite scenes in the book.

I'm not sure about the kiss on the forehead though :( I'm trying to keep my version as close to Nat in the movies as possible and I don't know how to feel about it- oh well. It'll haunt me but I can move on.

Tell me about any spelling mistakes! xoxo.