Venus | James B. Barnes✔️

lxxiii. 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐

NATASHA AND Steve kept a closer eye on Evelyn when she returned to New York with them. Although she did not speak much, she wanted them to know she was not going anywhere. She had gotten her closure, no matter how much it pained her to say that. She knew she had to move on. The words tasted bitter on her tongue.

Evelyn was doing laundry. It was something so mundane that she had not done in a while. It was something simple. Natasha had been letting her work slowly instead of throwing things at her, so she had a lot of free time. With that, she would go train harder than ever. She would go walking to help anyone who needed it. Older people who lost their families and had no one to take care of them, kids who lost their parents—Evelyn was helping them all. She knew Steve was still doing Sam's VA therapy sessions, so he was always busy. He did, however, make sure to call her at least once or twice a day before they saw each other again that night. He was worried, rightly so, that she would run off again.

A knock on the door had Evelyn turning with a risen brow at the red-head she had loved so much. "Hey," Natasha greeted quietly. "Want to come to sit in the meeting? Okoye has been worrying about you."

Evelyn smiled tightly as she glanced at the shirt she was folding. "No. I think I might go do some more traces on Clint."

Natasha's eyes flashed in pain. "Might be a good idea. Rhodey's been doing sweeps, but..." she trailed off as she thought of her best friend's horrible actions. Clint meant everything to Natasha. "Is that Steve's laundry?"

"Both of ours," Evelyn said with a slight laugh. "Steve never could do laundry right. Sarah—Mrs. Rogers—fussed him so much growing up. Bucky—" Evelyn coughed slightly as his name came out so easily. Her eyes went down. "James used to always pick up Steve's laundry when we would go to the laundromat."

Natasha smiled fondly. "James always took care of Steve."

"Just like Steve takes care of me now."

"Me, too," Natasha murmured as she leaned against the doorframe. "If we didn't have Steve, where would we be?"

Evelyn's gaze flickered back to Natasha as she threw a sock from her basket at her. "Dead, probably."

Natasha saw the grin on her lips and threw the sock back, making it into the basket. "Always the optimist," she said sarcastically.

Evelyn shrugged and grabbed the basket. "Someone's got to be," she teased.

"All right. Come sit with me in the briefing room while you do your work. I won't make you talk to them," Natasha bargained. Evelyn nodded as she followed her to the room. Sitting her laundry down on the table, she took up a chair to begin her recent search for Clint Barton. Natasha moved to the counter to grab bread and peanut butter. Evelyn sighed out as she noticed Rhodey on the same website she was on, scanning through different IP addresses to do with Clint's whereabouts.

Evelyn had never been close to the archer, but she knew that he was Natasha's best friend. If he was alive, not Blipped, he deserved to have someone to lean on.

"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged," Rocket's voice was heard over the speakers as Natasha joined in a call with the remaining Avengers. Evelyn slouched a bit in her chair, trying to keep herself from being seen.

"It was an infectious garbage scowl," Nebula finished for Rocket.

Rocket turned to look at Carol Danvers with a smirk on his face as he added, "So, thanks for the hot tip."

The woman only shrugged as if she did not care, which she probably did not as she had much else to worry about. "Well, you were closer."

"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage," Rocket said with a snort of laughter. "Hey, Assassin, how is she doing?" Evelyn flinched because she knew Rocket was asking Natasha about her. "Haven't been getting any replies when I send her messages. It would be nice to know she's alive."

Natasha let a small smile move onto her face. "She's okay. Gets better each day."

Evelyn sat up, unable to stop the Stark-wit from coming out. "Maybe I would answer you if you'd stop sending me updates on your life as if I was reading a novel. I mean, Jesus, Rocket! You tell me every time you take a shit!"

Everyone began to laugh—genuinely laugh—as Evelyn sat up into view.

"Wow, you look like crap," Rocket commented with a mock scowl. Evelyn only shrugged as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Natasha turned to look at Okoye after she noticed Evelyn get uncomfortable. "You get a reading on those tremors?"

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate," the Wakandan replied.

Natasha sat up a bit straighter. "Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?"

"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it."

"Carol, are we seeing you here next month?"

"Not likely," Danvers replied as Rocket decided to add a comment about her haircut. "Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets."

Rocket murmured back a bit irritated knowing she was right. "All right, all right, that's a good point. That's a good point."

"So you might not see me for a long time," Danvers finished, looking to Evelyn again for a moment.

Natasha touched her peanut butter sandwich again as she bit her lip to think of the next point to make. "All right. Uh, well. This channel is always active. So, if anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me." Everyone agreed as they signed off until it was just Rhodey staring at the women. "Where are you?"

Rhodey crossed his arms over his chest. "Mexico. The Federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off."

"It's probably a rival gang," Evelyn tried to add hopefully.

He shook his head. "Except it isn't. It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years... I mean, the scene that he left... I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him." Evelyn noticed Natasha begin to tear up as she looked at the table beneath her fingertips. Suddenly, she took an abrupt bite of her sandwich, almost making Evelyn smirk at the emotional front she tried to put out.

"Will you find out where he's going next?" Natasha asked. Rhodey seemed hesitant. "Please?"

"Okay," Rhodey agreed before signing off. Evelyn turned as she heard footsteps. Steve's blonde hair came into view, seeing him take in the scene before him. Natasha wiped a tear that reluctantly fell as Evelyn slouched again, this time in defeat.

"You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you both seem pretty miserable already," Steve quipped to his best friends. Evelyn let out a small laugh at his words while Natasha only smiled and wiped at her face harshly.