Better Days

NATASHA POV:

I headed off to my meeting with Nick later in the afternoon after checking to make sure that Wanda was absolutely, 100% okay with me returning to missions. His office wasn't in the compound so I actually had to make a short drive to see him. I wasn't far though so if anything happened at home, I could be back in no time at all. 

I knocked on the door and heard his booming voice tell me to come in so I pushed open the door and saw him sitting behind his desk. I was honestly not looking forward to this conversation whatsoever. I used to enjoy going on missions, but that was before I had a kid.

Now Wanda was my main priority, I didn't want to leave her. I knew that that was my job though, I just hated that there was a possibility of me being sent out of the house without her now.

I learned a long time ago that I had an extremely hard time saying no to missions. Occasionally, Tony, Steve, or one of the other Avengers will be sent to a mission by Nick but they escape going by telling Nick no. He doesn't like to hear it but he usually respects them enough to listen and not send them on a mission, especially because they rarely opt not to go on the mission and when they do, they usually have a pretty good reason.

I felt like I couldn't tell him no. I was trained to go on missions, I grew up learning that if I didn't succeed in a mission, I either got punished or faced the possibility of death. Luckily, I rarely failed. 

I knew that if I had to tell him no due to something happening to Wanda, I would tell him in a heartbeat, but if Wanda was healthy and happy, it was going to be hard for me to refuse to go on a mission. Hopefully everything would go smoothly though and I wouldn't need to say no to any missions.

"How's the kid?" he asked as I sat down in front of him.

"She's good, much better than when she first got here." Nick had known how bad of a state Wanda was in after she arrived at the compound. He knew all about her stay in the med-bay. 

"Good, now onto business." Nick was never one to spend too long on pleasantries, it just wasn't his thing. "I agreed to let you stay home from any mission that didn't absolutely require you while the kid got used to her time at the compound. You stated that you might be ready to return to missions? Are you sure about that?"

I sighed and replied with, "Yes, I'm ready to start going on missions again. Wanda is stable now and she doesn't need me around 24/7. I would still prefer that I'm not sent on unnecessary missions and that you really believe that I will either be helpful to the mission or substantial in some way in order for you to send me. I don't want to be going on constant missions if at all possible."

"Of course," he said and I was kind of confused as to why he didn't question that anymore. Normally, when we asked something of Fury, he questioned us until he had absolutely any and all of the information. Then he would consider. I didn't question him though, happy that I didn't have to lay it all out for him.

"That being said," I continued, "I am ready to go back on missions, whether that be team missions or solo missions."

"Alright," he said as he slid a file over the desk towards me. I looked at him before picking it up and opening it. 

There were security photos of large men and several pages of information on each of them. I flipped through the pages, glancing over the information to see what exactly was going on with these guys.

There had apparently been some footage recovered from a security camera that contained information from a conversation the men had. They were planning to shoot up a secure location, only problem was, we had no idea which one and when they were planning on doing this. We needed information from the men and there was really only one way to easily get it.

I felt my stomach clench when I realized what type of mission this would be. It was a honeypot mission. I used to be sent on a lot of them when I first joined SHIELD because they knew that I was good and effective at completing them. That was part of what I was trained in in the Red Room so I was meant to be good. 

I used to find a way to block out my emotions while completing these missions, going in, doing what needed to be done, and then leaving feeling the same as before I went in, but as time went on, I found it harder and harder to ignore and block my emotions. 

I despised going on these missions but I was the only one who could do them as the only woman on the team. 

"When do I leave?" I asked blankly after I finished reading over the file.

"Tonight, you'll probably be gone for about a week. We traced the men and found their location. You'll take the Quinjet there tonight and then hopefully be back in a week, no guarantees though." I felt sick when he told me how long I'd be gone and how little time I had left before leaving. I covered it up with an emotionless face though and nodded. 

These men were believed to be hiding a lot of crucial information, I was going to need time to get into their minds before they trusted me enough to supply any information. Unfortunately, that meant time away from my baby girl. 

I went over a few more details with Fury before leaving his office and heading back to the compound. I felt almost numb after finding out about the mission but I knew that I couldn't really be upset in front of Wanda. I needed to be strong for her. 

Wanda was cleaning up some game by the time I got in the house. "Hey, how'd it go?" she asked, pausing from the cleaning. 

"Um, it was good. I have something to tell you though," I told her, just wanting to rip off the band-aid and tell her what happened. She would find out sooner or later. "So I told Nick that I was ready to start going on missions again and he just so happened to have a solo mission for me."

"That's cool!" she responded. No, no it wasn't. This was the furthest from cool. I had to leave my girl to go on a terrible mission. If only she knew.

"He wants me to go on it now," I explained, not wanting to upset her but wanting her to know what's going on. I was kind of hoping that she would freak out so that I would have an excuse to tell Fury I wasn't going on the mission. I really didn't want to go.

"Okay, how long do you think it will take?"

"At least a week," I paused, watching the emotions crash over Wanda's face. She seemed surprised and then a little nervous but quickly settled into a neutral expression. 

"A week?" she asked and her shaky voice revealed her emotions.

"Yeah, you would stay here with Pepper and the team and I would be back as soon as I can."

"Can't I go with you?" she asked and I felt my heart stop. 

"No," I blurted out. "This is not a mission suitable for children." I could not have Wanda sneaking onto this mission. It was going to be dangerous and I never wanted her in the situation that I was about to be in. 

"I'm not a child," she whined and I looked at her sternly. 

"Wanda, I'm trusting you to stay here. I will let the team know what is going on but if I find out that you even think of sneaking onto this mission, we will have a repeat of what happened last time." I hoped that the threat of a spanking would keep her from leaving because if she did, she was going to see things that she could never forget and I would never forgive myself. I was dead serious about it too, if she just looked at the jet wrong, she would be going over my knee. It was for her protection so hopefully she understood. 

"Okay Tasha, I'll stay here, I promise," she told me in a sincere voice and I knew immediately that she was going to listen to me and not leave. 

I told Wanda that I had to go get ready to leave and she set off in search of the team to let them know that she would be staying with them without me. I headed to my room to pack all of my stuff. 

I tried to pack quickly, knowing that Wanda would be there soon and that she would see all of my stuff but unfortunately, I didn't pack fast enough. Wanda walked in right as I was packing the clothes that I would use to try to seduce the men. "What are those for?" she asked innocently. 

"Nothing," I was quick to answer as I grabbed some t-shirts and pants to cover the clothing. I didn't want her figuring out what was going to happen during the mission but luckily she still seemed clueless about the mission, exactly how I wanted her to stay. 

I needed to talk to Steve before I left so I made sure that Wanda understood that she could call me if she needed anything. I didn't want her suffering all night just because she had a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep. She hadn't really been without me since she came to the compound so I had no idea how she would do without me, especially for how long I was supposed to be gone for. 

I went to go find Steve and asked to talk to him. We went to another room to ensure that no one overheard us, namely Wanda. 

"Is it a honeypot?" he asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Yes," I said. He hated when I went on them but there really wasn't much he could do to stop it. It was helpful to uncover information, no matter how bad it was. "I'll probably be gone for a week, I need you to watch Wanda and make sure that she's eating and sleeping. Okay?"

"Of course, I'll take care of her. Don't worry. She'll be okay."

"Thank you," I told him, feeling much more relieved now that I knew she was going to be taken care of. "Also, she has nightmares basically every night. I told her that you and the team would help her but I have a feeling she won't ask for help. Maybe have FRIDAY wake someone up if she has a nightmare? I don't care who it is, I just need someone to make sure that she doesn't spend the night crying because she doesn't want to seek comfort."

"We've got her, we'll take care of her," he assured me. "I'll make sure that she doesn't spend the night crying. She'll be okay." 

"Okay, thank you so much Steve, it really means a lot. I texted Pepper to let her know what is going on and I will call her when I get a chance so that you aren't the only one aware of the situation."

"Okay, sounds good. Be safe Nat," he told me, getting serious.

"I will," I smiled at him.

I headed back out to see Wanda one more time before I left. I was going to miss her so much but hopefully I would finish the mission quickly and make it home. After reminding her one more time to call me if she needed absolutely anything, I headed down to the Quinjet. 

I was headed to Singapore for the mission which was 12 hours ahead of New York. This meant that I'd have to plan when I called carefully. One, to make sure I didn't mess with Wanda's schedule, especially her sleep, and two, so that she didn't figure out where I was. I didn't need her trying to come find me.

I was the only one in the Quinjet so I got in the pilot seat and started the long flight to Singapore. 

I had an uneventful flight and landed in Singapore about 19 hours later. It was a long trip and I was tired and hungry. I landed in front of the safe-house and put the cloaking ability on the jet, making sure no one could see it. 

The first thing I did was call Wanda. I already missed her and it hadn't even been a full day. She sounded like she was having a good time with Pepper and I was relieved to hear that she hadn't had any nightmares the night before. I had called Pep during the flight and had basically the same conversation I had with Steve. She told me that she would take Wanda out the next day to occupy and distract her and that she would make sure she was sleeping. She had set up FRIDAY so that she would wake her up if Wanda was having a nightmare.

After my call with Wanda, I ate and then got some sleep, knowing that I wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep in a few days. 

I slept a good 12 hours and was energized and ready to go find the guys that I would be spending the next few days with. I called Wanda and was surprised to see that she hadn't had a nightmare the next night.

"Are you sleeping?" I asked her, thinking of the only reason how she could go so easily without nightmares. I might've been more inclined to believe that she hadn't had nightmares if she hadn't had a nightmare every night for the last several weeks.

She assured me that she was sleeping and then moved on to ask how my mission was going. I told her that everything was going well but that there was a chance I wasn't going to be able to answer her tomorrow. I was heading out to find the guys and if I was laying in one of their beds, it might be a little hard to call my daughter. I would try but there was no guarantee. 

I ended the call telling her to get some sleep, not fully trusting that she was actually sleeping. I couldn't really do much if she wasn't sleeping though so I could only hope that she was getting full nights of rest and that she wasn't lying. 

I made sure that I had a full stomach, not knowing when the next time I would be able to eat would be, and then I grabbed my clothing, slipping on a backless dress that was low in the front, showing a lot of cleavage. 

We had an idea of where these guys were going to be to start their plan. My job was to intercept them and convince them to take me home with them before they had a chance to do anything. 

I grabbed a gun but knew that I would have to ditch it before I went with the men so that they didn't pick up on anything happening. 

I headed to the party and almost immediately spotted the men. There were three guys, large, standing near the bar, keeping a watchful eye on everyone around them. There was a chance that they knew that someone would be sent in to stop them but they probably wouldn't expect me, the girl in the skimpy dress. 

I acted like I was drunk as I stumbled into one of the guys, the one who was believed to be the leader. I grabbed onto his arm to hold myself up and looked at him, giggling. "Oh, I'm sorry!" I exclaimed. "Thanks for catching me, you're so strong!" He smiled at me and helped me stand up straight. I made sure to grip onto his arm, putting on the show of a weak girl.

"How are you doing little lady?" he asked me.

"Much better now that I'm with you," I replied, trying to make this fast. I didn't want to hang out at this party for too much longer. The sooner we got to his house, the sooner I could get information, the sooner I could go home to Wanda. 

We had a small conversation, him asking me things like my name and what I was doing at the party. I had a full backstory to use for this mission and I answered the questions with ease. 

I flashed all of the guys smiles but I mainly focused on the leader. He most likely knew the most. 

Within 10 minutes of talking to him, he was trying to lead me out of the party, saying things like, "Let's go somewhere quiet," or "We should go relax somewhere." 

I was relieved to see that the other two guys were following us out of the building and into the parking lot. I easily went along with them, climbing into their car.

I laughed along with the conversation that was going on in the car but I was keeping a watchful eye on the street signs that we passed, wanting to know where we were going and how I could get back to the jet when I escaped. 

My purse was still on my arm but it was not going to be much help to me. It had my wallet with my fake ID and some makeup. I took out a canister of lipstick and made work of putting it on my lips, making sure that the eyes of the men were trained on my puckered lips.

We traveled for about half an hour before we pulled up to a small house. I didn't really know what to expect but for some reason, I thought the house would be a little bigger, especially with three guys living in it. 

The men led me inside and had me sit on their couch while they got me something to drink. Two of the men, who I now knew as Brian and Adam, sat across from me, continuing to ask me questions about my life. Jack, the leader, was in the kitchen, getting me something to drink.

The second I got the drink, I knew it had been drugged. He hadn't given it enough time to completely dissolve in the liquid so there was still some powder lining the bottom of my drink. 

I put off drinking for as long as I could but they started looking at me a little suspiciously so I took a few sips. They seemed satisfied at this point so I stopped drinking, quickly feeling a fuzzy feeling fall over me. 

This was pretty expected on these types of missions but it didn't mean it was easy. The room tilted a little bit as the drug kicked in more and I felt dizzy. Luckily I had only taken a few sips instead of downing the whole drink. 

I acted like the drug affected me more than it did to make the men think that I had gotten more than they thought. I needed to be dramatic because if I was barely acting drugged, there was a chance they would slip me more or forcefully drug me. Then there was no way I could get information out of them because my brain would be jelly. 

The men smiled at each other and I let them carry me to their room. I had to keep telling myself that this was what I wanted and that this was what was expected to happen in order to keep my panic at bay. 

Jack started by stripping me and I just laid in the bed, keeping my eyelids droopy, acting like I wasn't completely sure what was going on. I tried to block out all my emotions but it was hard. I kept thinking of what would happen to Wanda if things went south. 

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

The next morning, I was trying to forget all of the events that had happened last night. All three men had their fair share of me and I felt disgusted. Jack was laying next to me, sound asleep, while I was laying still, staring at the ceiling. 

The drugs had worn off by now but I had a feeling that if I had had as much as I acted like I had, then it would take at least a few more hours for it to be out of my system. That just meant I had to carry on the act a little longer. 

I hadn't gotten any information but at least they had a little of my trust now. I was slowly inching my way into them, making them feel comfortable enough to tell me information. 

I wanted desperately to get out of bed to find my phone to call Wanda but I knew if I got out of bed, Jack would wake up. His arm was sprawled over my chest and I wasn't sure how deep of a sleeper he was. 

Jack woke up a few hours later and looked pleased when I was still in bed with him. "Good morning gorgeous," he told me and I smiled at him, leaning closer to him.

"Good morning."

"Did you have fun last night?" he asked. I knew by the slight fuzzy feeling from the drug that it was supposed to make me forget most if not all of what happened so I played dumb. 

"At the party? Yeah, I think I was too drunk to remember what happened last night though, I feel a little sick."

"Oh!" he said as he rushed out of bed to grab me some pain killers and a glass of water. I smiled at him gratefully as he climbed back in bed with me. "Well I had an amazing time with you last night. We took you home because you were so drunk and then we made sure you were comfortable."

"Thank you so much!" I told him, trying to seem appreciative. So he wasn't going to mention all of the things him and his friends did to me last night. That meant I would have to prove my trust by asking for it.

"If you wouldn't mind," I started slyly, "I need something else to ease my headache." I rolled over and climbed on top of him, kissing up and down his body. I wanted nothing more than to stop and run away but I needed this information. I needed it or I would fail the mission. 

He seemed to like it and soon it became full on sex. I felt disgusted every minute of it but I acted as if I enjoyed it, watching as Jack's eyes glowed. 

I was so glad when we were done. We both laid panting in the bed while I tried to forget what just happened. It obviously didn't work though so I tried to block all my emotions and continue acting sexy. 

We ended up getting out of bed and joining Brian and Adam for lunch. I continued to play the sexy girl all day and spent relatively equal time with the two guys, Jack got most of my time though. 

We had a repeat of last night, but this time, I was fully aware and they knew it. I acted like I wanted it, like I enjoyed it. They didn't try to drug me once they knew I would be compliant. I again hated every second of it but I did it to complete this mission. I knew it was only a matter of time before all the information came flooding in. 

I knew from past experience that the information would come easier if I got them drunk so the next night, when they started to drink, I acted like I wanted to have a little party with just the four of us, and watched as they drank glass after glass after glass of alcohol. 

Soon, they were drunk enough that they didn't really seem to care what they said. This would make my job a million times easier. 

I started by asking them simple, basic questions, making sure I didn't alert them to what I was trying to do. I was trying to figure out a way of asking them about their plan to shoot up some secure location without them blocking me out but to my surprise, Jack started offering up information without me even having to ask.

"Can I let you in on a little secret?" he asked me.

"Of course Jack," I told him sweetly.

"We, Brian, Adam and I, are planning on shooting up a weapons base in New York. There is this place called SHIELD, have you heard of it?" he paused for me to answer.

"No," I told him, acting interested.

"Well it's this place that protects things basically." Well that was a really generalized, basic, wrong description but I let him continue. "They own big weapons, a lot of them help in the states, and we want to shoot it up, kill all of them, and then retrieve all the weapons! We've heard there's even alien tech held there and that would help us control the world! If we look all big and mean, we can do whatever we want and get all the money in the world. We've been doing some research and there are these people called the Avengers, basically just a ton of assholes who think they are better and more powerful than everyone else, who may try to stop us, but we've come prepared. We tried to find some of their weaknesses and we couldn't find many but we have enough ammo to kill all of them. You should join!" They told me as they continued to drink.

"You would be an amazing addition to our team! You could live the best life with us!" 

"That sounds amazing," I told them, smiling widely, glad I got all the information I needed. Now I just needed to wait for them to get drunk enough before tying them up and giving Nick my location. Then I was out of there and someone else would come take care of them. 

It didn't take much longer for all of the guys to pass out from the amount of alcohol they consumed. I carefully tied them up using some rope I had found in their garage. I then retrieved my purse and fished out my phone. 

I had a few missed calls from Pepper and that worried me but I unlocked my phone and called Nick, giving him my location and giving all the information I knew. It was what we needed and it was enough to get the proper protection in New York. 

I was just glad to be heading back. After getting the okay from Fury to leave Singapore, I got on the Quinjet after packing all my things and headed out. Luckily, there were already agents in Singapore, just waiting for me to give my location, in order to come and take the men into custody so I didn't have to wait around for another 19 hours for someone to make the trip out here. 

I called Pepper the second I got into the jet to find out what was going on.

"Pepper, how's Wanda?" I asked immediately. 

"She's okay, much better now that she's getting some sleep. She hadn't slept for four nights and Steve and I finally caught her. I forced her to get some sleep and she's been sleeping for the last day. She was okay, she was just getting a little sick and hallucinating. That's how we finally caught her and got her to sleep. There was a bit of an argument and some tears but she eventually ended up sleeping, after she tired herself out from crying."

I knew that she hadn't been sleeping. The fact that she said she wasn't having any nightmares was a red flag. I should've pushed more. At least she was sleeping now, that's all I could hope for at this point.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry you had to deal with that," I said, knowing how difficult Wanda could be about not sleeping.

"No worries at all Nat," Pepper immediately replied. "How'd the mission go?"

"It was good," I said, not wanting to go into details. "It was easier than I thought it would be, the guys are chatty."

"How are you doing?" she asked me gently.

"I'm good, so ready to be home with Wanda." 

"I bet." Pepper knew I didn't like to go into details about my honeypots so I was glad she wasn't pushing me to give her information. "Alright, well I'll let you get here, I have to go check on Wanda again. She'll be thrilled when you get home."

"Thank you again so much for taking care of Wanda," I told her sincerely.

"No problem, see you soon." I wanted more details on what happened while I was gone but I figured I'd get them when I got back. 

I was exhausted from the last few nights so I put the jet on autopilot and leaned back, closing my eyes, wanting to be completely rested for when I get home to Wanda.