Chapter 2
Natasha had studied the file front to back and back to front again, she had the entire thing memorized, she had fully become her cover.
She had always been taught to become her aliases, not just pretend. So the second she had received the identity she had locked Natalia Romanova away into the back of her mind and she had become Natasha Romanov.
As far as covers went it had not been hard to follow the directions in the file, what Natasha was struggling with though was that most of the cover had been left to her own discretion. What did Natasha Romanov like ? How did she dress, what did she eat, what movies and music she loves, how did she make friends ? SHIELD had taken care of all the legal aspects of her cover, they had set up her identity with the corresponding paper trail, school transcripts and bank account, but the rest was up to her.
This mission was feeling more outside of her skill set every passing minute. She would figure out, she always did, she did not know failure, she wasn’t allowed to know failure.
“Hey Romanova, I heard you’re going on a new assignment ?” Said Deputy Director Hill as she sat across from the redhead in the almost empty cafeteria.
Natasha nodded curtly, her back straight and her hands folded on the table- sometimes it astounded her how much familiarity the deputy director allowed herself.
But Maria - despite the fact that all the rookies had taken to nicknaming her ‘hardass Hill’ - was always slightly more relaxed and human when said rookies weren’t around.
Natasha had never understood this, perfection didn’t stop when you were no longer being scrutinized, perfection was something you should strive for every second of every day.
Something else that confused Natasha even after three years was that despite being Deputy Director, Hill had always approached her like an equal - even more so, she was one of the few people who seemed to consider her as more than just an asset.
Natasha didn’t do friends, hell she didn’t even do allies, people were sorted into two categories : enemies, and potential future enemies.
But she supposed if she had been the kind of person who made friends, Hill would have been one of them. In fact, from the way the deputy director acted it seemed that only Romanov was aware of the fact that they were not friends.
“It’s Romanov now. I do have a new mission, tomorrow.” Replied Natasha.
Most people who have been deterred by the way the redhead had responded but Hill was used to the Russian’s way of communicating, no nonsense, no emotions or inflations in the voice, only relevant information. She had hoped that at some point in the past three years Romanov would have opened up a little and started to communicate more but so far it hadn’t happened, maybe being Natasha would give her the push she needed to realize that there was nothing wrong with actually talking to someone else.
“Right yes, Natasha Romanov, of course. Do you need any help getting ready ?” Offered the brunette.
“No.” Replied Natasha, ‘thank you.’ She added as an afterthought. She knew she would not get in trouble for forgetting her manners in front of her superior or for supposedly disrespecting said superior - but knowing that was not enough a reason to let herself go.
***
The house was… well a house. There was nothing special about it, it was boringly ordinary. But as Natasha stood in front of the house it was as if the past fifteen years had never happened. Suddenly she was back to being twelve years old, she was certain that if she had closed her eyes in this instant she would have heard the whistling rhythm that had been resonating in the back of her mind since that dreadful day.
But Natasha did not close her eyes, she did not allow any memory to float to the surface, and she did not allow herself to think of the similarities between this place and the neighborhood she had lived in in Ohio. She did not allow herself to feel anything except for what the brand new Natasha Romanov was supposed to be feeling.
The issue was that Natasha had no idea what people were supposed to be feeling when moving to a brand new place, perhaps excitement, but all she was right now was bored.
“Hey Neighbor!” Exclaimed a high pitched voice right behind Natasha.
It took all the redhead’s training not to turn around and slam whoever it was into the wall, instead she plastered on her best innocent and most definitely fake smile and replied with similar enthusiasm.
“Oh hi! This looks like such a nice neighborhood, doesn’t it ?” If Natasha had not been a literal spy she would have cringed at the sound of her own voice, she sounded like those idiotic soap operas Melina had sometimes watched back then.
“Oh it sure is, I’m Nancy, my husband and I live a few doors down, it is so nice to meet you!”
Natasha shook the hand that was offered to her, this was her life now; high pitched voices and white picket fences. The idea that this interaction was setting the tome for the foreseeable future revolted Natasha, to the point where she actually found herself looking forward to Deputy Director Hill’s visit in a couple of days.
Officially Hill was a college friends who was simply coming by for a housewarming visit, unofficially though she was dropping by to get Natasha’s first mission report. All she had to do was a quick recon of the neighborhood and an initial layout of her surrounding, just getting a feel for the mission. Still she looked forward to it, those mission reports were the only normalcy she would have in her life for the next couple of months.
SHIELD was Natasha’s life, and as of right now, SHIELD was Deputy Director Hill.