Bruce last time they were in touch is hiding somewhere in Canada. Somewhere he tells Riley when they talk on the phone, where there is lots of snow so she can make snow angels. This seems to please Riley immensely enough so she cannot hear the longing in her father’s voice when she talks about seeing him again.
Natasha hates the fact that Bruce is in hiding but with Thad Ross lurking around the Tower like a bad smell, Steve and Bucky on the run from Tony and Clint refusing to speak to her she doesn’t know what to do. She has a child and she’s not putting Riley in the situation where she has to live life on the run and if that means keeping her mouth shut then they will.
If Ross knows Riley’s last name is the double barrelled Banner-Romanov then he doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t ask her about Bruce. Riley has never met the man and she promises Bruce that she never will. She leaves Riley in the capable hands of Pepper Potts or Maria Hill or even Vision who is fascinated by Riley who in turn is fascinated by him and she always makes sure that she is the first to leave the conference room whenever they discuss the Sokovia Accords.
In truth she doesn’t know what to make of them. She understands Clint’s hatred of the thing. He doesn’t want anything to do with something that makes him accountable. She supposes he remembers Loki-if that had gone the way the tide is turning now he might have never made it home to his children. Steve thinks of nothing but Bucky and Sam disapproves of going back into his ‘Yes Sir, No Sir’ mood that he used when in the Military. She supposes even Rhodey disapproves slightly of what Ross is proposing.
Bruce doesn’t like it either and if it wasn’t for the fact that Natasha is 99% sure Tony is having her followed she would take Riley and run. If Ross comes after her however…well…she has a lot of shit in her closet that she doesn’t need airing.
Riley for the most part doesn’t care, she doesn’t care she cannot leave their apartment, she spends time wandering the floor looking out the windows, she doesn’t care that she’s not at school, with all of Bruce’s gamma radiation in her brain making it more expendable she’s smarter than most grad students never mind your average five year old and she spends most of her time either reading or planning and conducting science experiments. Her favourite one so far has been the volcano. She’s still a kid after all.
But Natasha knows that something is brewing. She and Bruce have a codename between the two of them. Baby Red means that Natasha has twelve hours to pick up the phone and let Bruce know what is going on before he comes looking for them. She’s never had to use it and she hopes she never does.
And then one day. She has to.
Something feels strange when a Captain from the US Army knocks on her door and tells her Tony Stark needs to see her. Ok Tony doesn’t use FRIDAY a lot more than he use to and if Steve has done something stupid again he probably doesn’t want to alert Ross but still. The Captain doesn’t look too impressed so she tells Riley she’ll be back in five minutes and she shuts the door and follows him down the hallway.
He leaves her when she reaches Stark’s lab.
“What?” she asks unimpressed “If you want more Intel on Bucky I don’t have any.” Tony jumps looking up from where he’s working on what looks like FRIDAY.
“I didn’t ask to see you about Bucky Barnes” he said finally. “FRIDAY is down looks like an inside job but if its Ross people are behind it then I don’t know what they want”
For a split second Natasha stared at him. Then the ice broke and she swore loudly “You fucking moron” she hissed looking furious “He went after Riley” she turned and ran back up the stairs Tony following “You think Ross deactivated FRIDAY to take your daughter?” he asked following her up another flight “Why?”
She whirled around to face him. “This man made a living out of hunting Riley’s father. He knew that there was no possible way that Bruce could have children and then he went and had one. I should…I should have left when Steve left I should have took her and run the second that he entered the building…I knew…” she shakes her head at her own stupidity. “This was a mistake” she says finally “Brining her here. Believing that Ross was done with Bruce, believing in the accords” she looks him in the face. “I don’t have to take accountability for anything I have done and neither does Bucky Barnes.”
She leaves Tony spluttering on the steps as she gets to the door of her apartment.
Riley is gone. The TV is still playing and the milk in her glass is still warm but the absence of Natasha’s red headed little girl is apparent. It hits her like a ton of bricks to the stomach. She hears Tony mutter something about outside security cameras and the second the door closes she leaps into action.
She reaches for the big duffel bag she keeps under her bed. Inside are her and Riley’s fake passports, a lot of cash and the phone she uses to ring Bruce. She’ll get Riley back fire of the emergency code, steal a car and by a disposable, if she can get over the border she and Bruce can go from there.
She runs through people she can call as she throws some of her clothes into the bag and some of Riley’s. Neither she nor Clint have been speaking to the other lately but he does have kids of his own, Sam is underground and even if she could get to Steve she’d have to go through Bucky and she doesn’t want Riley near the Winter Soldier.
She crosses the room into Riley’s room to get her stuff. Her little stuffed dragon that she never leaves behind (and she needs to take another breathe as her heart constricts painfully) and her Hulk blanket, and her little Black Widow Barbie. She throws in some of Riley’s science books and her book of Russian Fairy Tales. She throws in some clothes, jeans, boots, jumpers, Riley’s best skirt, her hairbrush and the bottle of Marc Jacobs Dot spray that Bruce got her cause she like the ladybird print. Natasha takes another look around her daughter’s room cataloguing all the things that make Riley-Riley. Finally she takes the photo frame on the desk. It’s of her, Bruce and Riley when she won her Kindergarten Science Fair. Riley was wearing her little white lab coat with her name on it (it had been a present from Bruce and it had took Natasha three hours before she could convince Riley to take it off) and…
She runs back into the room dropping her bag and reaching for her boots and her nearest knife. In the safe she takes three guns, four loads of ammo and three knifes. Even when that’s done she still feels like something is off. Going (and for the first time in her life) on her feelings she turns around back to the master bedroom. Under the bed in a draw she keeps Riley’s medical files, the brain scans that Bruce took, blood tests and the EKGs and the blood pressure results. And she realises that it’s gone. That gives her two outcomes.
One. Ross forced Riley to give them to him. Two. Ross gained Riley’s trust and she gave them to him willingly.
Either one makes her feel sick to her stomach.
She turns around grabbing the bag and slinging it on her back. She’s going to find her daughter and then go to Bruce and if needs be they stop being Avengers then they both can live with that. As long as Riley is safe.
She makes it to a computer. She doesn’t look for Tony, she hacks into the whole Stark Network and finds what she’s looking for. There is Riley wearing her Doctor’s coat and following General Ross. Natasha grits her teeth so hard she can heart them creak. If Tony has something to do with this then she will kill him and make it look like an accident.
Ross doesn’t even bother to hide Riley meaning whatever it is he’s after he knows Natasha is gonna be right behind him. When Steve gets a hold of this he’s never gonna let her or Tony hear the end of it. Sokovia Accords her ass. He puts her in a car and a few clicks forward the car is parked in a warehouse near the Bronx. She calculates. From the Bronx she can get the subway to the nearest stop near the border and then she can get a car and get Riley across to Canada unless she can get to Ross’s car first, it all depends on what state Riley is in. She refuses to think about Riley in the past tense.
She doesn’t bother with the door. She skirts around the cameras and finds the nearest window. It’s a three floor drop but she makes it and she pulls her hood up tucking her curls behind her ears and dropping her eyes to the ground. She thinks of Bucky Barnes and grins. She was trained by the best of the best the Red Room has to offer.
The building is big and empty. She ditches her phone on the way snapping the SIM Card and buying a disposable. The second she gets Riley she’ll text Bruce and let him know that she’s on her way. She hopes that he manages to not go Green when he gets the text with the codename.
She peers round the door to see General Ross and a team of Doctors pouring over something on a table. A second glace makes her forget all her training and grip her knife tighter. Connected to what looks like a pump sucking blood into a bag is Riley…she’s recognisable only by her shock of red hair, she’s either unconscious or sleeping but Natasha is willing to bet she’s lost nearly a pint of her blood. For a five year old she knows that that’s bad. She doesn’t need a super-sized brain.
Ross looks nothing short of gleeful.
Natasha will rip him apart limb from fucking limb.
She steps out from behind the wall, wraps one arm around the nearest tech, swings her legs at the other catching him in the nose and throws the nearest knife at Ross. Once the two techs are down she ducks the bullets sends a roundhouse kick to the nearest soldier sending him flying into the other one and snaps the wire connecting Riley to the blood machine thing out. Leaping over her daughter she takes quick care of the other two before turning to Ross. He tries to fire his gun before Natasha kicks it out of his hand. She flips around breaking what she hopes is his left hand, arm and shoulder before throwing him over her own shoulder where he crumples like a rag doll.
Suddenly she is extremely grateful for the Red Room Training.
Riley is alive, shivering but alive. She’s lost a lot of blood and is whiter than a ghost but her eyes are open due to the nose. “Hey butterfly” she says gently using Bruce’s nickname and ripping of a corner of the sheet Riley is lying on. Her jumper has been crudely cut but Natasha turns the tourniquet tight. “You hurt anywhere other than your arm?” she asks. Riley’s eyes are big and blown brown but she manages a small shake of her head. That confirms that her spine is untouched or undamaged so she grabs the files on the side of the table and stuffs them in the bag and with that Natasha hooks her daughter into her arms careful of the bag she’s carrying and storms out of the room.
She takes Ross’s car, a dark silver Jaguar and she disables the GPS, slips Riley into the passenger seat wrapped in her Hulk blanket with her dragon teddy and drives faster than the speed limit allows her to. She’s not sure if someone is following her but she gives it an hour and ditches the car. Just before reaching the border she buys a rental parks out in front of the cheapest motel that she can find, grabs some chocolate from the nearest store and takes Riley inside. She goes under the name Nicola Rome and gently tucks Riley into bed. The tourniquet seems to be doing a good job but she doesn’t honestly know what else to do. Now the adrenaline is wearing off she doesn’t know what to do.
She reaches for the disposable phone and with hands shaking a bit more than she would care to admit she manages to type in the words. ‘Baby Red’. It takes all of fifteen minutes of Riley’s eyelashes fluttering and Natasha’s hands shaking before the phone rings back. She snatches it up greedily.
“Bruce?” she confirms and then nearly cries when she hears his panicked voice over the phone.
“Nat? Natasha? Jesus…I just…tell me…do I need to go green?”
Natasha sniffs. “No I need you to stay calm and tell me what to do, I’m not sure how secure this line is gonna be”
Bruce swallows. “Riley?” he asks carefully and Natasha sniffs again “I was so fucking stupid Bruce” she confesses needing to let him know how deeply her oversight could have cost them, how trusting Tony could have cost them, how backing the Government that has hunted them both down like animals could have cost them. “Ross, he got Riley, I got her back but not before he got his claws in deep, she’s lost some blood, so much so she’s barely conscious and I tied of the arm but…I don’t know what else he’s done”
She doesn’t mention the worst case scenario. She doesn’t have to. She can imagine it all.
Bruce is silent down the phone for a second and Natasha knows that it’s because he’s trying to keep calm. Then his voice comes back on the phone his voice tight. “Do you have the files?” Natasha nods “Yeah, he got hers and he had some of his own, he deactivated FRIDAY and sent one of his men to get me and Tony in the same room, I…I didn’t think…he never showed any interest in Riley when Tony mentioned her, he didn’t seem to care seemed more interest in the Sokovia Accords but…Bruce I am so sorry”
She wipes her face.
“No” Bruce says sternly “No Nat you don’t get to blame yourself for this, this is him, this is all him. Has…” his voice trails off “Has she moved?” Natasha nods “Yeah, she shifted a little bit and she is awake sometimes but she seems to spend a lot of time asleep, I…is her body healing itself or…?” she doesn’t want to say anymore.
Bruce sniffs down the phone “If she wakes up again” he says finally “Get her to eat something, and get here as soon as you can, I’ll set up an IV with blood and then we can watch her for a few days see what happens” he pauses “Do not blame yourself” he says firmly “Ross blindsided you and used Tony to do it, not that, that’s going to affect him” he added bitterly. “Let’s just sit this one out”
Natasha nods again even though Bruce cannot see her “I’ll be there about midday providing there are no issues” she pauses “I adore you” she says finally. Bruce pauses “I love you to Natasha” he says eventually “Tell butterfly Daddy loves her if she wakes up please” Natasha sniffs again her eyes wet. “Will do”
Bruce hangs up the phone, with Riley still asleep Natasha carefully closes the door of the shitty bathroom turns on the shower and finally cries.
When Riley opens the door after the second knock she’s surprised when she sees a man she doesn’t know. Usually Vision or Pepper come and watch her when her Momma has to go away. There’s something about this man that makes her long for Momma’s arms around her and Daddy’s voice in her ear.
“So” he says finally “Your little Riley Banner-Romanov” he beams but if feels strange “My name is General Ross, I knew your Daddy” he bends down to Riley’s level “And I hear that you’re quite the little scientist” Riley beams she is. She loves science. “I was wondering” General Ross says finally “If you would like to come to my new labs and see all the equipment-maybe you would like to take part in a once in a lifetime science experiment?”
Now that does sound interesting. If Daddy knows this man…but why has he never mention a man with the surname Ross? Something must show on her face because the man smiles “I was wondering if you would like to be the experiment. We could do some blood tests, and an MIR and take some spinal fluid and brain scans and then maybe you could analyse them?”
Now that does sound interesting. Riley has never done that before. Momma has a thing about her seeing her own brain scans and Daddy agrees with her.
“I can get my files…and my jacket” she says grinning and the man grins back “Good, I’ll let your mother know where you’re going to be” he grins again all teeth “Oh you are going to help me with so much”
She barely has time to get her lab coat before she remembers nothing.
When she comes to all she can see is the MIR, copies of brain scans and lots of blood. And then a flash of red hair.
Blood, Brain Scans, MIR. She repeats it in her head until she falls asleep again.
Natasha is over the border and a twenty minute drive away from Bruce when Riley opens her eyes. She carefully doesn’t spin them off the road but manages a smile “Hey butterfly, how you feeling?” she hopes the tremble she hears in her voice is imagined.
Riley looks around before her eyes shut again “Tired” she moans clutching the dragon closer before she sits up looking horrified “Blood, Brain Scans, MIR” she hisses “Momma I’m sorry I thought…” she bits her lip but Natasha makes shushing noises. If she cannot blame herself for this then there is no way in hell that Riley will. “It’s not your fault butterfly” she whispers “You were really brave going with him willingly. If you hadn’t…he just took some blood?”
Riley nods before she turns as Natasha pulls the car to a close in front of a stunning cabin. The snow is thick and heavy and it’s just the sort of place that Riley would love. She wonders if that’s why Bruce chose it.
“Daddy” Riley cries and before Natasha can open the door she’s out the car, blanket, dragon and red hair. Her leggings and jumper still thin and the bandage around the arm still leaking blood down her arm mixing in with the dried blood.
Her knees give out but before Natasha can move Bruce is there. He’s in a jumper and sweatpants and his feet are crammed into unlaced boots and he sweeps Riley into his arms looking nothing short of petrified. She knows that the same look is reflected in her eyes.
“Hey baby” he says smiling gently “How about we go take a look at that arm…” he brushes hair out of Riley’s eyes. “You were such a brave girl” he reaches out with his other arm and Natasha leans into him smelling his shower gel and aftershave and shivering with something that has nothing to do with the cold.
Once Bruce gets Riley settled on the couch and starts the IV with blood he crosses back over the room kicking the bag over the side of the couch and wraps Natasha in his arms. She leans into him feeling her eyes get wet again. “I don’t…” she swallow and Bruce presses a kiss into her hair “Don’t” he says thickly. “Not tonight…just…we got her back, she’s gonna be fine, we’ll keep her in bed for a bit, roast marshmallows and watch documentaries eat food that’s homemade and live far away from New York…no SHIELD, no Sokovia Accords, no Tony or Ross or Nick Fury. Just you, me and Riley”
Natasha nodded “Sounds perfect” she confessed feeling more human than she had in a long time. Maybe there was a life, a simple life without the next mission.
There’ll sleep little for a couple of days, there’ll talk tomorrow and worry tomorrow but they both know that tonight that they have a lot to forgive.