Never Alone Again |N.R|

When will you stop?

I arrived to the meeting a little bit late, but not so late that all eyes were on me when I walked in. I slipped through the door and stood right there, next to it so that I could make a quick exit once it was over. But Natasha had different ideas, calling me over to sit next to her. Reluctantly, I pushed myself off of the wall and wandered over, collapsing into the chair beside hers with a sigh. She was looking at me, I could feel it, searching for anything in my appearance that told her what I refused to say. That I was exhausted, and all I wanted was for her to hold me as I curled up in a tight ball. But I wouldn't make that evident to anyone, not even her and she could read me like a book. Noticing her eyes that were still on me I sat up a little straighter in the chair, pulled the hood off of my head and tried hard to slow my slightly rushed breathing.

Nick Fury started to speak after a couple of minutes, immediately stopping the light chatter that had been going on in the background. "I'm sure you're all feeling defeated after the recent mission, but we can't afford to give up now." His eyes briefly met mine during the last half of that sentence, and I couldn't help but feel a little attacked. I may look truly beaten down but I was working harder than ever to make up for my failures, although it felt like there were too many of them to truly redeem myself. "We don't know anymore yet, who this new leader is or what their intentions are, but that's why I have you." Tony snickered at his words.

"That's not exactly a lot to work with." He eyed me warily, making sure I kept an unknowing face about the little secret operation we had going in the background.

"You're better than you allow yourselves to believe. I expect every one of you to be all hands on until we gather the intel we need to end The Red Room once and for all. Is that going to be okay with everyone?" It wasn't really a question, we had no choice, but he waited for everyone to either give him a nod or a 'yes'. When his eyes finally reached me I didn't offer anything, I was deep in thought so I'd barely heard a word of what he'd been saying.

"Rue" Natasha whispered into my ear, giving my arm a light nudge. I quickly looked her way, to which she continued "Fury's talking to you." I looked towards the Director now, urging him to repeat himself and I would actually listen this time.
"Rue, can I rely on you to get the job done?"

"Yes, Sir." That seemed to convince him as he gave a nod of appreciation before looking to face the team again. He proceeded to discuss the plan ahead, assigning a few people very specific tasks but the rest of us had the same job. Keep up on the training and spend most of our free time researching to aid some kind of breakthrough. After about another hour of talking the meeting was over, and I was more desperate than ever to get back to my room and have a shower. I felt gross and I'd been wanting to freshen up for ages.

I immediately made my way to my room, having no intentions of talking to anyone about what Fury had just discussed, now or anytime soon. As far as I was concerned I had my own mission, one that no one could know about but one that would be good for everyone in the long run. Just as I was nearing the door I heard footsteps behind me, light but quickly approaching. Before I could turn around to see who they belonged to Natasha spoke up. "Rue, can I talk to you?" Ugh, I really wasn't in the mood to talk about anything right now, especially not how I was feeling.

"I was just about to have a shower." Hopefully that would be enough to deter her, and I'd have a few hours of peace before she pressed on with her interrogation.

"That's fine, I'll just wait." Natasha really wasn't giving up easily, I should've known since that wasn't in her nature.

"But-" before I could finish she cut me off.

"No but's. We're having this conversation, end of."

"Fine. I'm showering first though." I didn't wait for her to speak again, I just pushed the door open to our room and grabbed a change of clothes before walking into the bathroom. It was my second shower of the day but it felt so much better than the first, my muscles even more sore after a second bout of training. As I thoroughly cleaned my skin I thought over what Natasha was going to say, but more importantly how I'd get her off of my case. It would be difficult but I'd have to find a way because I couldn't afford for her to find out my true intentions, not this early on.