525,600 Minutes

An Intervention

"There you are,' Laura smiles kindly, locating Natasha, 'I heard Alex barking."

She waddles in with a hand over her baby bump and camps on a bar stool. Natasha barely acknowledges her friend, her eyes falling toward the bump. Laura addresses her line of vision and attempts reassurance;

"Being pregnant isn't all it's cracked up to be. You better believe I'm never doing this again."

Natasha scoffs and throws her dart, "Garrett will be in college before Clinton Francis Barton Jr turns 5. He's going to want a little brother to play with."

Laura hums thoughtfully, an idle finger tracing her bump, "Yeah, we're not doing the 'Junior' thing."

"Killjoy."

Natasha takes two more hits before Laura addresses the target, "Is she the bitch of the hour?"

Romanoff sighs, rotating the dart in between her fingers, "Is it tasteless to curse a woman who is already dead?"

Laura frowns with her eyes focused on Betty's eyes in the picture, as if she's waiting for them to move, "I mean it's not the classiest. But I'm not classy...and she's not dead."

"I envy her," Natasha finally admits out loud, defeated.

"This is what I like to imagine all of Clint's scorned exes do on a Friday night; just put my face on a dart board and go wild. Got a dart for me?' she takes the one Natasha offers and analyzes the craftsmanship, 'I see you've borrowed Clint's mahogany collection."

"If I'm cursing, I might as well curse her in style."

"We could be doing voodoo."

"I thought about it."

"I have a book."

"Do I want to know why? Have you hexed Maria? Because that would make so much sense."

Laura laughs suspiciously, "Anyways.. I guess I'm still a bit confused as to what's going on."

"The boys didn't tell you-."

She sighs and then, makes a face, "No, they did. Their side of it, in their odd, geeky way. I want your side, now."

Natasha nods thoughtfully and explains her dilemma. Everything from her agitation in there being another Elizabeth Ross in the universe, to the specifics on the disease she's stuck with. Laura knows most of it already, but she supportively listens.

The spy brings up Izabella and her skills, demonstrating sincere concern for her favorite meta and if she can in fact handle warping to other dimensions with that much mass. They haven't tested on people since the incident in Russia, and if Natasha is being honest with herself, the idea of it is triggering.

"Do you think you can find a cure elsewhere? You are surrounded by geniuses, after all," Laura shifts with a groan and props up her swollen ankles.

"I don't know,' she looks down and turns back to her drinks, 'I also don't know if I want my cure to come from the woman Bruce assumes can solve all of the world's problems. Apparently Elizabeth,' she spats as if it were something sour, 'Knows stuff not even Jarvis has access too. Like a walking much more extensive Wikipedia, only, she's Bruce's ex-almost-wife."

"Aha."

Clint sneaks quietly through the door and takes a seat next to Laura, sneaking an arm around her waist and over her bump. Natasha is aware of his entry as she reaches to take back her darts, barely acknowledging his presence that feels so normal.

"What are you doing to my darts, Nat?"

She collects them all and sits at the barstool, next to the happy couple, "Shouldn't have left them where someone could just pick them up, Barton."