Director Fury and Tony Stark were sat inside the closed donut shop, having an intense discussion about his current situation with Palladium poisoning.
Natasha Romanoff was stood outside, conversing with one of the SHIELD agents that normally accompanied Fury for safety reasons. Every once and awhile, her eyes would drift back to the woman waiting nervously, the one they had retrieved from the ice just days before.
After watching her pace for a few moments, Natasha finally made the move to approach her.
"You're nervous, and you're making ti quite obvious,"
Charlotte Watson looked up at the woman quickly, shooting her a nervous smile.
"Sorry it's just...it feels so weird being here. It's almost like a whole new world,"
"Thought your brain moved so fast that you processed all this?" Nat questioned with a raise of her eyebrow. "Shouldn't you feel adjusted?"
"I do, but my brain can't get rid of the loss," Lottie told her with a shrug. "Everyone I loved and knew is seventy years in the past. My best friends, my mother, the love of my life...my brain can't get rid of that. Knowing that the son of my best friend is in there is...strange."
Natasha was quiet as she watched the woman look down at her hands. She contemplated her next move as Fury called her in over the comms.
Without a second of hesitation, Natasha placed her hand on the woman's shoulders, bringing her attention to the assassin.
" I'm not any of them, and you don't know me. But believe me when I promise you that you won't ever be alone, not again,"
The familiar batons, created by Tony years ago, sat in the palms of Charlotte Rogers hands.
Beneath them lied a bed of red roses and dark green leaves, and directly in the middle was the symbol of the Black Widow: the red hourglass. The piece was gorgeous, something that brought tears to the eyes of the entire team.
Exiting the kitchen, where she had put the piece together, Lottie walked through the doors and out onto the lawn.
Lining the way to the dock leading out to the river was the rest of the team, the one's who knew Natasha, but not in the way that original six that fought with her had. They stood together with their heads bowed respectively, deciding to stay back and mourn from afar, allow the ones closest to her to be with her in this moment.
Swallowing the lump that rose in her throat, Charlotte stepped onto the platform of the dock, looking into the eyes of all of her closest friends. She held back her tears as she turned to face Clint, handing the bed of roses to him.
Steve Rogers placed his arm around his wife, tugging her into his side as they both tried to control their tears. Tony joined Lottie's other side, his hand entwining with her's as Bruce and Thor stood beside them.
Clint walked toward the edge of the water, trying to contain his own tears as he turned to face the group.
"I met Natasha when I was sent to kill her," Clint's voice cracked as he tried to keep himself steady. "Obviously, I didn't complete that mission. Instead, I brought he back with me, convinced Fury that she could be an asset to SHIELD. And that she was. I think she'll go down in SHIELD history as one of the best agents there ever was. Nat was my best friend...and I'm gonna miss her."
Turning and kneeling at the edge of the dock, Clint placed the bed of flowers in the water, stepping back as the team watched it drift off in the small ripples of the water.
The team stood in silence, standing together as Clint moved back to stand with them. Their arms wrapped around one another as they stood in solidarity, their eyes never leaving the bed of flowers as it drifted further down the river.
"One of the first things she ever told me was that I would never be alone," Lottie's voice cut into the silence as the team listened quietly. "I had nothing. I was just a woman that woke up in a time that wasn't her's. Nattie was the first person to be there for me. She made me feel less alone in a world I didn't belong in. Nat...she died for us. She did this for us."
"She was a pain in the ass, but she was the most loyal person you'd ever meet," Steve chimed in as Tony hummed in agreement.
The team stood silently for awhile, moving to different parts of the dock to sit and reflect on Natasha, the weight of what they had lost finally seeming to settle in for many of them.
The rest of the team had moved back into the compound, leaving the six outside to reminisce and figure out the next move.
"Do we know...did she have any family?" Tony asked the group quietly.
"Yeah," Steve muttered, a tear slipping down his cheek as Lottie's hand gripped his shoulder. "Us,"
Thor shook his head from the other end of the platform, stalking toward Tony and staring him down as Lottie and Steve cautiously watched him.
"You're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead?" Thor sneered, slowly losing his mind from being in denial of Natasha's sacrifice. "We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, Lottie, we can bring her back, isn't that right? So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together."
"We can't get her back," Clint told the team, drawing all eyes to him. "It can't be undone. It can't."
Thor let out a dry laugh, shaking his head at his friend.
"I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And "can't" seems very definitive don't you think?"
"Look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Thro went quiet at Clint's words as his voice raised into a yell full of pain. "It can't... be undone. Or that's at least what the, great floating guy had to say. Maybe you wanna go talk to him? Okay? Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him."
Tears pooled in the eyes of the team once more as tears streamed down the sides of Clint's face. He looked down to his feet, shaking his head as his voice came out choked.
"It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamned stone. She bet her life on it,"
With a cry of anger, Bruce grabbed onto the bench at the end of the dock, launching it out into the river. His body heaved as he turned back to the team, the frown on his face permanently etched there.
"She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to,"
"Natasha Romanoff was the least selfish person I ever met in my life," Lottie chimed in, looking around at the team as she masked her pain with confidence. "Anytime there was a battle, she was willing to risk her life to make sure we came out on the winning side. She was our friend, she was our family. We can't bring her back, and that's not what she would want us to do. Natasha Romanoff would want us to get off our asses and win. We...we have to. We have to do this for her. We can't let her die for nothing. We avenge her death by making it mean something."
"We will," Steve's voice rang out as he rose to his feet, his hand intertwining with Lottie's as he looked around at the team before him. "Whatever it takes."
◼ ◼ ◼
A funeral is what my baby deserves. Damn you Russos for taking that away. I know her funeral was small, but I wanted to keep it at the remaining members of the original seven because they were the ones who knew her best, they were he best friends. I wanted it to be intimate.