Gone by Ghosts (Natasha Romanoff x OC)

~16~ Take-Off in 3, 2,...

"You're right those are good reasons. But these people won't be any safer if the one meant to protect them isn't making rational decisions. You have to-"

"I know, I have to take control over them. I'm just-", she considered if cursing in front of her was a good idea, but she just wanted to be honest." I'm just fucking scared that we're going to fail and I'm the one to blame."

A light above her head blinked. They reached maximum altitude. Natasha leaned over Kate's lap, put one hand down on her thigh to keep balance, and flicked the switch for the autopilot. "We're good. You can let go of the controls now.", Natasha said with her hand remaining on Kate's thigh.

Kate's white knuckles had lost color again when she felt the unexpected touch of Natasha's hand high up on her thigh. Kate forced herself to let go of the steering wheel and Natasha's hand softly patted the spot where the hand was resting to signal that she had done a good job and was then pulled back. The spot her hand had warmed up cooled down now that it was gone.

"Now what do we do?", Kate asked looking around. She didn't think of the autopilot taking over for most of the 12-hour flight, so she didn't have a plan on how to spend the following hours in the most productive way.

"We sleep. In shifts, that is. We can't let the plane fly on autopilot for hours on end without us around to keep it in check."

"Alright. I can take the first shift. You can go to sleep.", Kate suggested not necessarily for selfless reasons. She didn't want to go back to sleep again. She had already reached the end of her memories from that time. She couldn't start them over again. Not now. Not with all of these people on the line.

Nat shook her head and simply answered: "No."

"What? Why?"The words left Kate's lips faster than she could think about them. She was just so convinced that Natasha would accept her offer. It might've been that she just hoped for it so much that she started to believe it.

Natasha on the other hand felt almost offended by the rapid and incredulous questions fired at her. Usually, she wouldn't be but Kate's rant earlier had reminded her of everything that was at stake, resulting in some odd need for the feeling of control. She had to be sure that Kate was going to follow her lead, throughout the mission.

"You have the one-time chance to sleep about 8 hours before you don't get the chance to close your eyes again for at least 24 hours since I will sleep the first night after our arrival. So please, just follow my orders.", she explained to Kate and stared at her with an up-right and authorial posture.

Kate was a bit perplexed but recovered quickly from the light shock she felt by the fast switch of Natasha's tone from warm and understanding to cold and commanding.

"Got it.", she answered and stood up, switching from anxious to professional about as fast as Natasha did before. She left the cockpit heading for the bunk beds beside the entrance of the plane.

Natasha took a mental note of how willing Kate was to take orders from her, even though it was clear that she would've rather declined. An empty feeling that was way too familiar washed away the previous, confusing mixture of confidence and worry. It was time to function not to be.

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Kate's POV:

She stared at the grey, perforated fabric of the plane's ceiling. With her eyes wide open she expected not to fall asleep for at least an hour. Not because she wasn't tired but because her mind just wouldn't shut the fuck up. When her eyes closed she couldn't stop going through the profiles, the steps of their plan, and literally everything that could go wrong. The more she thought about it the more frustrated she got. Annoyed she sat up and let her fingers run through her hair. Her eyes wandered down her legs to the corner of her booth, where her backpack was leaning against the side of the plane. She got on her knees and pulled the backpack towards her. Stuffing her hand inside she searched through the carefully ordered layers of equipment and personal belongings until she reached the tiny pocket where she had slipped in her mp3-Player and headphones. She pulled them out pushed the backpack toward the end of her bed and plugged the headphones in. She let herself fall back on the cushion and put on some not-so-old-fashioned P!nk. Her head bobbed to the beat of  "Who knew" and by the time she reached "I'm not dead" she had fully lost herself in the sound of a rasping voice and the melody of rapidly strummed electric guitars. And while most people wouldn't describe this as relaxing, somehow Kate's eyelids got heavier and heavier until she drifted off with the passive rustling from the plane's turbines still in her ears.

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Sorry that it took me this long, I had a difficult exam this week
and some trouble with how I wanted this chapter to go.

As always thank you so much for reading and please leave a comment or suggestion.

It would help motivate me a lot if you would write one :)

~1530~