Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 21: Goodbyes

Clint drove the SHIELD car while Natasha called shotgun and Katya was stuck in the back. She had thrown the woman a glare when she had opened the back door for her to step in, but Natasha's face said there was no room for discussion.

So Katya had sighed and dropped on the backseat with a huff, something Clint found very funny. ''Drive, Barton,'' she growled at him while almost burning a hole through the rearview mirror with her eyes. 

He just laughed harder. ''Did you feed her this morning?'' He asked Natasha in the seat next to him.

And she was oh so happy to play along, a teasing smile on her lips. ''I did. Must be the morphine wearing off.''

''Shut up, both of you.'' The morphine was wearing off, her shoulder starting to hurt more. Katya just wanted to get home and get some sleep, preferably with Natasha next to her, but at the rate she was going right now, Natasha would have to sleep on the couch tonight. 

Clint drove away from the hospital, the humor shining in his eyes. But Katya was too busy watching the world outside the car to notice. 

They drove through the city, but it was almost impossible in some areas. A lot of the streets were closed off so they had to take a longer route to get to the spot in Central Park they were supposed to go.

How Clint didn't puncture at least one tire was a miracle. Glass lay everywhere including small, sharp looking pieces of rock and metal. With every bump in the road, pain shot up Katya's shoulder, but her pain was irrelevant to the pain of the city. The pain of the people who were off much worse than her. No home, no job. She was lucky to know she still had a home and a job.

Katya hadn't been outside like the rest of the Avengers had before. She had been stuck in the hospital for the whole night, so this was the first time she saw the destruction done to the city. And now she understood why Natasha had been so upset this morning while watching the news. Why she blamed herself for this. Because in the end, it was partly their fault, SHIELD's fault, for luring Loki here. 

Their work with the cube had alerted the god of the power the people of Earth held. Messing with the Tesseract is what caused all this. SHIELD, and thus Katya, Natasha and Clint, were as much responsible for this as Loki.

Katya wanted to say something, but didn't know what. No words could describe what she felt right now, so eventually, she simply averted her eyes from the window, no longer able to look at the mess that was New York City. 

It wasn't the worst state she had ever seen a city in, but if you compare this to how it was a week ago and add the area the destruction covered, it was right on top of her list.

It was dead silent in the car as everyone tried to ignore the scene outside. Even Clint, who always had a joke at the ready, said nothing. It wasn't awkward, but Katya was happy when the car passed under the metal gate signaling the entrance of Central Park.

Natasha had already opened her door before Katya could unbuckle her seatbelt, helping her out of the car. She was so overprotective at the moment, but it came from a good place. So Katya didn't say anything as she straightened out her shirt with her good arm.  

Natasha had grabbed her some clothes from their room before she had come to the hospital last night, knowing they would have to leave early in the morning. She had clearly paid attention to what Katya wore on days off, because her favorite jacket hung over her shoulders. 

The doctor -and Natasha- had insisted Katya wear a sling on her left arm as a way of resting her shoulder as best as possible. It was quite embarrassing. She felt like an invalid. But Natasha would kill her if she didn't wear it for at least a week. So she was stuck with the thing.