Business as Usual - for steverogers_cpt

[kick_ass_curls]

They say it takes the average woman half the time of a relationship to get over a break up.

It took Natasha Romanoff  seven and a half hours, a bottle of Stoli, and half the ammunition she had in her personal collection to 'get over' Steve Rogers. Or, that's what she told herself happened. In truth every second she was apart from Steve made it worse, made her worse. She was angry, violent, close to becoming unhinged. It would have been scary of she hadn't spent much of her life in a very dark place before. It wasn't anything new. He'd be better off without her, and she'd live.

She always lived.

Everyone at SHIELD knew by the time she came to work the next day that she and Steve were over. There was chatter of a betting pool. Natasha considered breaking the wrist of the man holding the wad of bills. Instead she walked by, head held up like nothing was bothering her, her expression so cold and emotionless it was terrifying. She'd got mission orders. She was a SHIELD agent, damn it and a failed relationship wasn't going to stop her from doing her job.  

Comments

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

The doctor nodded before moving around to change the medications on Natasha's IV. It too several minutes for her to open her eyes, and when she did she was extremely disoriented.

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve breathed in deeply through his nose when he saw her eyes open, moving forward slightly on his chair. "Natasha.....?"

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

It took several seconds for her to focus on his voice. Natasha smiled, moving to reach for his hand but the pain in her stomach stopped her. "Fuck." She spat in Russian as she looked around the room. The doctor wasted no time rechecking her stats, her brain activity more than everything. There wasn't any damage...at least to her mental capacity.

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

"Take it easy.." Steve murmured. "Don't move yet..."

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

Natasha HATES being in medical. She hates being useless. But, she respects Steve's opinion and what he wants her to do, so she settles back, begrudgingly answering all the doctors questions. What's her name. how many fingers, what letter comes after H, what day is it...?

Tasha stopped at the last question, her brow furrowing when she looked at Steve. "It's...June, something. Right?"

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

When she looked at him with her brow furrowed, saying it was June, Steve breathed in sharply. Taking a few moments before he shook his head. "September...."

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Internally Natasha was in a panic. Three months? Where did three months go? it was clear to her that her not knowing upset Steve a great deal, and she didn't want that. She liked him. A lot. A lot a lot...

"September." She blinks, things not quiet adding up just yet. She's still groggy from the sedation. Tasha smiles at him, though it's not as strong or bright as usual. "I missed your birthday."

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve closed his eyes, tilting his head down as he took a few moments to try and come up with something to tell her.

"You didn't miss it...."

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

Tasha's eyes dart to the doctor, who goes into a calm medical explanation of why three months are missing. He explains how memories are formed, and lost, how parts may stay while others may go. That she may never recover what she'd lost, and if she did, it would be mentally trying when those memories returned.

Tasha listens. She knew all this already. She has for a while so it's still there. Instead of looking at the doctor she's staring at Steve, her mouth open slightly. When the doctor is done speaking she rolls her head back, closing her eyes. "What else did I forget?" She asks as if there's a simple answer.

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

He looked up slowly, unsure of how to tell her just what she forgot.

"Nows probably not the best time..."

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

Before the doctor could back Steve up, Tasha's eyes snapped open, her expression desperate. "Steve! What did I forget? What happened to me?" She pleaded, tears pooling in her eyes.

The doctor reaches his hand over, ready to switch the sedative back on to calm her but Natasha is still her, she's still the Black Widow. She knows what he's doing. "You knock me out I will break your arm after I wake up again, Doc!" She shouts. "Someone tell me what happened. Now."

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve gritted his teeth before breathing in deeply and starting. "I was reverted back to my.. old body and you took me to Russia to fix it. after that I..." He stops short of telling her that he told her he loved her, unsure of whether he could say it right then. "... I was switched with a duplicate whilst on a mission and I ended up in stasis for 3 weeks in a lab run by Zola. The duplicate..." Steve stopped again, gathering himself before telling her what had happened with the LMD. "The duplicate killed several agents before being set right. Then you and him went away and the two of you..." He swallowed, looking down for a moment. "... You were physical. The duplicate was killed and you all thought I was dead.... When you told me everything, we broke up...... And I quit."

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

This is news to everyone in the room but Steve. The Doctor heard there was scandalous incidents, but...wow.

Natasha, meanwhile, is in even more of a panic. "You...I..." She blinks, her eyes burning when she hears everything. Everything. She can tell he's not lying. Natasha Romanoff can spot a liar a mile away. Her heart rate starts to accelerate, her blood pressure spiking dangerously. The monitors start to beep loudly. The doctor flips several switches, puching her IVs full of a fast acting sedative.

Tasha's gaze is fixed on Steve, her mind reeling from what she did...what she did to him...and doesn't even remember. Her mouth feels like it's made of jello suddenly, her vision a blur and her thoughts clouding. "I'm sorry." She whispers, pained and guilty before she blinks several more times, her eyes finally closing again.

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

"Tasha?!" Steve asked, standing and looking at her then the Doctor. "What... what happened?"

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

Natasha's head drooped against her pillow, the sedative restoring her heart rate and blood pressure to a relatively safe level. The doctor is silent for a moment, but his anger is clear. Finally he turns to Steve.

"Were you not listening when I explained that recovering her memories would be trying?" The doctor accuses pointedly. "You're lucky she didn't go into cardiac arrest from the shock of what you told her. Not to mention, that sort of trigger could have brought back everything she lost and caused irreparable damaged to her memory and her mental stability." The doctor lets out a heavy sigh, looking at Natasha. "Her body and her mind are still recovering and therefore they are fragile."

The doctor turns, shaking his head as he looks at the monitors. "We're keeping her unconscious if this is going to happen again, Captain Rogers."

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve looked at the Doctor, lips parted in shock before he looked at her with guilt on his face. "I'm sorry, I... I can't say no to her....: He closed his eyes and tilted his head downwards. "I won't say anything again. Even if it hurt himself not to, Steve didn't want to hurt her again. The guilt adding greatly to the pile of emotions that were running around in his head.

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

The doctor made sure that Natasha was stable and able to rest before he turned back to Steve. The guy's intentions seemed pure enough, but after everything that he'd heard about her, about him, and what Steve had just told her. Well...

"Look, Cap." The doctor's tone was a bit gentler then. "I'm not going to tell you how to live your life but maybe it'd be better," he paused and glanced at the unconscious Black Widow. "She doesn't remember, you...weren't here for a month. Maybe you two broke up for a reason." It's probably not a nice thing to say, but...it's logical. Especially from an outsiders point-of-view.

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve looked up at the Doctor with a furrowed brow, lips parting. "You're saying that I should break up with her again...? Now?"

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

"Are you even really back together?" The doctor asked simply. He didn't want to comment that the two had obviously been through a lot, and given who they were...maybe they were just torturing themselves. Tasha had worked for SHIELD long enough that people knew her reputation of being cold, distant and emotionless. "Is it really worth putting yourself, and her though that pain again."

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve closed his eyes and tilted his head down, trying not to listen to the Doctor.

"If you have nothing to do for her right now, i'd like for you to leave."

[kick-ass-curls.livejournal.com]

The doctor new better than to push a super solider. "They'll need to check on her every fifteen minutes. She'll remain sedated until we can be sure she won't be upset." There's a pointed look from the doctor before he settles the chart on the desk near Tasha's been, checks the machines one last time, and leaves the room.

[steverogers-cpt.livejournal.com]

Steve glared at the Doctor has he left before looking back to Tasha, wishing he hadn't told her any of what he had. That she was still awake.

That none of it had happened. He would have rather had her hate him then her be in the hospital bed.