Up the Garden Path

              Natasha bounces on the balls of her feet, swinging at the punching bag. Each hit lands with a satisfying thump. Since SHIELD fell, things have slowed down too much for her liking. In response, she has thrown herself into training to be ready for anything that might come their way.
              “Nat,” Steve walks into the gym.
              “Rogers,” Natasha greets, not pausing from her workout.
              “I’ve got a mission for us, if you’re interested.” This gives her pause. Finally.
              “Mission?”
              “Yeah, upstate New York. We can drive there. Leaving here in 20. Going to be an undercover op in a small town. Pack some civilian clothes,”
              “On it, Cap.”
              Natasha heads up to her floor and takes a quick shower before packing a bag. She makes it down to Steve’s truck five minutes early, but he is already waiting. She tosses her bag in the bed.
              “Here, let me get the door for you,”
              “I’ve got it.” She grabs the door and climbs into the passenger seat, “So what’s this mission?” She asks.
              “We’ll find out more when we get there. I know there is a stakeout involved. It is being kept offline.” Natasha begins to yawn and feels her head drooping.
              “Tired?” Steve teases.
              “I’m fine,” Natasha says through another yawn. She took pride on how little sleep she needed, but it seems like the rigorous training might be catching up to her.
              “You can nap, we’ve got another three hours in the car,” Steve offers. “I won’t tell, promise. You have been going a little hard lately.”
              “Tell anyone and I will kill you,” She warns him, resting her head on the window. Natasha feels sleep quickly washing over her.

              Nat wakes up on a queen-sized bed, stretching out her limbs. The bed is plush and soft, and Natasha almost wishes she could sleep a few more minutes.
              “Hey sleepy head,” Steve smiles at Nat as she sits up, “Good sleep?”
              “You carried me in from the car?” Nat realizes, a little embarrassed, “I must have been out cold.”
              “I made you coffee,” He nods to the nightstand. Natasha feels something on her neck.
              “Where did this come from?” The strand of pearls rests cooly on her skin.
              “I gave it to you in the car, you don’t remember? You woke up for a few minutes at a rest stop,” He prompts. Nat frowns, “It’s okay, you were tired. I’m not surprised you don’t remember. It is for our undercover look,”
              She stands up and stumbles slightly, still in a deep sleep. Steve rushes over to steady her.
              “I’m fine, Rogers.”
              “My damsel in distress,” Steve teases.
              “Hardly,” Natasha laughs and picks up her coffee, taking a long sip, hoping the caffeine will wake up her brain. She looks around at the powder blue bedroom “This place looks like it hasn’t been updated since Truman was in office,”
              “I think it’s charming,”
              “Of course you do,” She finishes off the coffee, “We should get started on the mission brief,”
              “They have a bit more info to gather for us. There is a drop location in town, they aren’t going to send it over email.”
              “So, we are in the ‘50s? Next thing you know I will be blamed for the Red Scare,” She jokes.
              “You want a tour of the place? I looked around a bit and then did some grocery shopping while you were sleeping.” Some guilt tugs at Nat for Steve working while she was asleep.
              “Sure,” Steve shows her the guest room upstairs of two twin beds, as well as a second full bath, the first being an ensuite to the room she woke up in. Downstairs, there is the kitchen, dining room, den, living room, and sunroom. They are all just as dated as the bedroom. Weirdly enough, all the curtains and blinds are drawn, even in the sunroom. Enough light comes in from the sheer fabric, but obscures the view from outside. Or rather, she supposes, stops the outside from looking in. He also points out a closet and the basement, where the washer and dryer are.
              “I can make us sandwiches for dinner,” Steve offers.
              “You got me coffee, only seems fair I make the sandwiches,” Natasha offers, heading into the kitchen. She makes them ham and cheese, cutting the sandwiches into triangles. They sit down at the kitchen table and Natasha is still exhausted, biting back another yawn.
              “Thank you for the sandwich.”
              “Of course,” Natasha smiles sleepily.
              “Want to watch some TV? You still seem a bit tired.”
              “Maybe a little,” She admits, taking the dishes and loading them into the dishwasher. “One episode of something, okay?”
              They head into the den and turn on the TV, greeted by the opening credits to Leave it to Beaver.
              “Very on theme with the rest of the house,” She comments dryly.
              “I’ve never seen it, you?” Nat shakes her head and snuggles down on the couch, hogging the blanket, “Care to share?” She begrudgingly gives him half, “I like June Cleaver,” Steve states as the episode finishes.
              “Yeah?” Natasha looks at Steve, trying not to looked too amused by the proclamation.
              “She seems like a really good person, she really cares about those around her. That’s a lot like you,” Steve gives her a charming smile, “And you both have the same necklace.”
              Natasha laughs, “I am nothing like her,”
              “I think you’re more alike than you know,”
              Nat is fighting to stay awake halfway through the second episode. It doesn’t take much encouragement from Steve for her to get up and head to bed when it finishes.
              “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
              “Where are you going to sleep?” She pauses at the door.
              “In the guest room,”
              “In one of those tiny twin beds? Please Steve, you can sleep in the master with me. It is no big deal.” They had shared beds on missions plenty of times, not mention that things have always been a bit blurred between them.
              “If you insist. I’ll be up in a bit,” Natasha changes into her pajamas and is asleep when her head hits the pillow.
              She wakes one again to Steve bringing her a cup of coffee, steaming and aromatic. Natasha drinks it quickly as they down the hall and then downstairs. It seems Steve also attempted to make breakfast. There are two bowls of oatmeal at the kitchen table, and they look like partially dried cement.
              After one bite, she imagines that this might be what actual cement tastes like. Natasha tries to get some of the gloopy substance onto a spoon.
              “When are we going over the mission?”
              “What are you talking about?” Steve stops trying to eat his oatmeal, looking just as unenthused about the food.
              “The mission, the reason we are here? When are we going over the debrief?”
              “We did last night,” Steve stares at her like she has three heads.
              “No, we watched TV.”
              “I went and picked it up in town and then we talked it over. Right after the second episode of Leave it to Beaver. After, you asked me to sleep in the master with you. And I came up a little while after you went to bed. You don’t remember?”
              “No,” Nat racks her brain, “I think I would remember it.”
              “You forgot me giving you the necklace yesterday too. We went over it, Nat. Where the stakeout is going to be, what to wear. You seriously don’t remember? Are you feeling okay?”
              “I don’t,” How could she forget? That isn’t like her. And she should definitely know what is going on for the mission.
              “Maybe take a shower after you finish eating?” Steve offers, “You might feel better,”
              “Maybe,” Nat bites her lip, “I should check my phone,”
              “No service here, or Wi-Fi,” The lack of modern conveniences here is astounding. How could this town not have service? Everyone must use landlines, which of course this place doesn’t have. “Tonight, after dinner is the stakeout. We’ve been asked to keep a low profile here for a while, keep the curtains drawn, draw as little attention as possible,” Steve offers a refresher.
              “Understood, so I guess this means more Leave it to Beaver or something?” Natasha heads upstairs to take a shower and gets frustrated with the controls. Using new showers might as well be diffusing a bomb. Finally, hot water rains down and Natasha struggles to take off her new necklace, the clasp jammed. She decides it has to be fine, they came from water anyways. She shampoos and conditions her hair, then washes her body and steps out, drying off. Nat puts on the smaller of the two bathrobes hanging and steps out into the bedroom. Steve is lying on the bed with a book.

              “I couldn’t get this thing off,” She gestures to her neck.
              “Weird, maybe the clasp is stuck?”
              “I mean, they are pearls so it is probably okay for them to get wet,” Nat sighs, going into  her bag and taking out some clothes.
              “I’m going to head to town to see if they’ve made another drop with mission info,”
              “I’ll come,” Nat jumps at the chance, feeling a bit of cabin fever.
              “We’re supposed to keep a low profile. People have already seen me. They see the two of us together, someone might start to connect the dots,”
              “Fine,” She knows Steve is right, but it doesn’t mean she has to like it.
              “Watch some TV or read a book or something. I’m sure you’ll find a way to keep busy.” He leaves the room and Natasha gets dressed. When she comes downstairs, Steve is gone.
              Nat heads into the kitchen and looks in the fridge. There are about a dozen bottles of Coke, and Steve knows that is one of her indulgences. But she decides against it at the moment. Instead she heads to the living room, flipping through the magazines on the coffee table. They are about good housekeeping and dinner recipes.
              Steve returns in time for lunch, which he prepares horribly. She honestly can’t believe he is such a bad cook. Somehow, canned soup tastes burnt. But he leaves again shortly after, excited that the drop will be this afternoon.
              Natasha does some light exercises before getting bored and going back to watching TV. According to the commercial, it is a weeklong Leave it to Beaver Marathon. Flipping through the other two channels they get, there is nothing even remotely more appealing- a rerun of a football game and a cooking show. Natasha falls asleep on the couch watching TV and wakes to Steve rubbing her arm.
              “Dinner is ready, I picked up shepherd pies in town.” They sit down at the table, and Nat sees that the pies are a little crushed, but after a bite, she hardly even notices as the gravy coats her tongue.
              “So good, Steve,”
              “Thanks,” He laughs. They eat and discuss how the rest of the team must be fairing without them, especially with such limited contact over the past few days. Nat helps clean up the kitchen, when Steve announces he is leaving. “I’ll meet you in town at ten at the restaurant?”
              “Yes, sounds good,” Natasha finishes loading the dishwasher. It must be the mission she forgot about. Meeting Steve in town at ten. They must have a second car. She is fighting to stay awake as the clock only reads seven. Now that she has finally slowed down, apparently her body is ready to take advantage of that. “Just a quick nap,” Nat reasons, setting an alarm for nine.
              A slam wakes her up, and Steve storms over, fuming.
              “What the hell Natasha?”
              “What?” She looks around, “What time is it?”
              “I waited for you all night at the stakeout spot, we were supposed to meet at ten last night!” Based on the amount of light streaming in through the curtains, they are way past that.
              “I don’t,”
              “I wait for you, I had to do it on my own, without me partner.”
              “I feel asleep.”
              “Do you know how it looks for a man to sit in a restaurant by himself for hours? It doesn’t look good.
              The clock changes to 9:00 AM, and the alarm starts to go off. Natasha had set it for AM instead of PM. She reaches over, turning it off and flooding with guilt.