Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 63: The Start Of Something Old

~~ One week later ~~

They did it, they had beaten Ultron, but at what cost?

Sokovia, at least the part that had been flying, was blown up by Tony and Thor before it could crash into the ground. It exploded with the loudest bang Katya had ever heard, and she had heard a lot of them in her life. 

The Hulk had brought Natasha to safety just before that, by jumping onto the Helicarrier from the rock, but had disappeared afterwards. She had been unable to turn him back to Banner and he had disppeared in the Quinjet after making it untracable. He was gone, lost. 

The world wasn't happy with them and it wasn't surprising. After all, this disaster wasn't just fixed by the Avengers, it was also caused by them.

Although everyone loved to blame Tony solely, every single Avenger was at fault. They were a team, no one was guilty on their own. Katya made sure to remind Tony of that whenever he needed it, since nobody else did. 

It was a PR mess according to Maria Hill, who, to no one's surprise, had been secretly working with Fury the entire time. The Avengers' image and reputation was damaged, people were calling for their arrests. And while Katya understood where they were coming from, she also knew that would never happen. 

The world needed the Avengers, even if they were cleaning up their own messes. 

Katya had a lot to process. Like expected, nightmares haunted her every single night. It had become so bad she had to knock herself out with sleeping pills to even fall asleep, only to wake up at least once a night screaming. Combined with Natasha's nightmares, it was a really fun time sleeping.

They had moved to the new Avengers Facility Tony had built at the edge of the city, next to a big lake. It was a beautiful place that provided Katya with a sense of peace every time she stepped outside and sat by the water, something she had done a lot. 

There was a lot to think about, and with a tired mind and an even more tired body, it was hard to concentrate. Every little sound made her jump and she had yelled at Tony when he jokingly called her Katariina instead of Katya. She knew it couldn't go on like this and eventually, she had let the man give her the phone number of his psychologist. She had to work on her PTSD and anxiety. 

''How did you sleep last night?''

The annoying clock on the wall interrupted the silence every second. That and the traffic downstairs. The rest of the office was light but warm. It had a cozy aura, somewhere Katya immediately felt comfortable. 

Surprisingly, Katya liked the woman sitting in front of her and didn't want to throw one of the couch pillows at her head. This was already her second visit this week, desperately needing it.

Katya bit her already non-existing nails, a bad habit she had picked back up. ''I don't think you want to hear ''3 hours'', but that's all I can give you.'' The couch was made of comfortable leather but it squeaked every time she moved her weight around. 

''I didn't ask how long, I asked how you slept,'' the dark-skinned woman asked, smiling kindly. She had that soft nature Katya wished she could have. Unfortunately, she yelled at others too much for that.

Katya sighed, sometimes wishing the woman couldn't read her as well as she could. ''Shitty. Nightmares as usual.''

''Same ones as always?''

Katya had refused to tell her what they were about, but since the woman knew who she was and undoubtedly knew about her past, it wasn't hard to guess what they were about.