I'm finally back, and I've got a chapter that's longer than what I usually have for this story, and what might be the standard chapter length from now on!!! Have fun, and sorry about the psuedo-angst?

"You're sure he spotted us?" she asked Bruce as they casually walked around New York.

"Yeah, Ross looked directly at me. There's no way he didn't recognize us." he responded.

"Okay good. Now we've got to get out of here." she said, and Bruce agreed.

"But we aren't shadow traveling. That just makes you really tired." Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Then how, exactly, do you plan to get us out of here?" she wondered. Bruce grinned, and wrapped her in a hug.

"Hang on tight." he suggested, and Natasha tightened her grip as winds started to circle around them. Suddenly, they were shooting through the air at ridiculous speeds.

"What the hell???" Natasha thought. Sure, they'd spent a couple weeks after the trip to Olympus experimenting with their powers, but she hadn't known Bruce could do this with them.

The winds abruptly dispersed, and Natasha found herself standing on a beach. She looked around, realizing that she could just barely make out the Raft floating on the ocean.

"What was that?" she asked Bruce.

"Wind travel. Basically I become the wind, and go through what's basically a wind tunnel until I get to my destination. I can go anywhere that isn't completely airtight." he explained.

"So I have shadow travel, Percy has vapor travel, and you have wind travel. Okay, then." she summed up, and Bruce shrugged.

"Well, until the Avengers all end up at the raft, we have some time to kill. So, why don't we just sit on this beach and enjoy the breeze?" Natasha proposed. Bruce smiled.

"That sounds very nice." he replied. And so they did.

Several hours later, they saw a small jet shoot through the sky, heading straight for the Raft. Soon after, another jet followed suit. Natasha sighed, and stood up. Bruce stood up as well.

"I guess that's my cue." she muttered, quickly changing into her tac suit. Bruce smiled reassuringly and kissed her on the forehead.

"Good luck, Tash." he stated.

"Thanks. See you on the other side." she responded, and stepped into her own shadow.

The world went dark and cold for a couple seconds, and then it was over. She was kneeling in the center of the containment room of the raft.

"Natasha? What the actual-"Clint started, and Sam cut across him.

"How'd you get in here, Romanoff?" She ignored their words, slowly rising to her feet and facing the entrance of the room. Seconds later, Steve, Bucky, and T'Challa barreled in, stopping short when they saw her.

"Ms. Romanoff." T'Challa said, and she inclined her head.

"What are you doing here?" Bucky asked warily.

"Company's coming." she stated simply.

"You're here to arrest us?" Steve questioned, shocked.

"Are you kidding me, Rogers? She's a fugitive too, you know. It's all over the news." Clint defended her.

"Then who-" the doors blasted open, and Tony, Vision, and Spiderman entered the room.

"Romanoff." Tony snarled.

"Stark." she said back, voice cold and detached.

"Wasn't she on your team?" Scott Lang asked, confused.

"She let us go, though." Steve pointed out. Everybody stared around awkwardly at each other as they tried to figure out what was going on.

"Romanoff, can you clear this up a bit?" Sam said.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Stark hates me. It's a bit of a personal issue." she said smoothly. The other Avengers were shocked.

"You broke his heart! You betrayed him! He left because of you." the billionaire yelled. She saw Steve turn to Clint and mouth Bruce?, earning him a shrug from the archer.

"This may surprise you, but I actually had nothing to do with it." she retorted calmly.

"Really? Then who did?" Tony growled. Ross's voice rang out from behind the billionaire.

"I did." Ropes suddenly sprang from the walls, wrapping everybody outside of the containment cells but Natasha in steel cords.

"Ross, what the hell is this?" Tony cried. The general ignored him.

"I've been looking for you for a long time, Ms. Romanoff. And I think you know why. Tell me, where is he?" he questioned. Natasha played dumb.

"Where is who?" she teased. The general gritted his teeth.

"Bruce Banner. Where is he?" he asked in a level tone.

"How would I know?" she mocked.

"I saw you with him in New York a couple hours ago. Don't lie to me." Natasha looked over at Tony, who had a shocked expression on his face.

"She was with Banner?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. Stark. And they seemed quite cozy." Ross replied, pulling up a picture of her and Bruce laughing freely as they walked arm in arm through New York. Everybody looked very confused.

"Romanoff, you really need to explain this." Sam stated.

"There's really nothing to explain." she said. Clint raised an eyebrow.

"Really, Nat? Because nobody's seen Banner since Sokovia, and now you two are walking through the streets of New York like nothing's happened." he pointed out.

"Also, you shoved him off a cliff after kissing him. Isn't that why he left in the first place?" Tony added, his anger fading to befuddlement.

"Wait, she did what?" Wanda piped up from where she was wrapped in a straitjacket.

"That's not important right now. What's important is that I wasn't the reason why Bruce left. This guy over here is." Natasha deflected, gesturing towards Ross.

"What? What are you talking about? What is she talking about, Ross?" Tony questioned.

"If you say another word, Romanoff..." Ross warned, but Natasha wasn't having any of it.

"He wants to make more Hulks with Bruce's blood." she revealed, and everybody froze in shock. Ross sighed.

"I didn't want to do this, but I guess it's unavoidable now. Romanoff, you have one more chance to tell me where Bruce Banner is." Natasha smirked, crossing her arms.

"You had one chance to be a good father, and you failed. Now, she hates you. Congratulations." she mocked. Ross's face twisted in anger, and raised a hand to his ear.

"Bring them in." he commanded. Seconds later, soldiers started entering the room, carrying two cases. A soldier brought one over to the general, who popped it open and extracted a long baton. Natasha knew what that was. She had two exactly like it. Ross whipped his hand out to the side, extending the baton. It elongated with a sharp crackle of electricity. The soldiers pointed guns at the various Avengers in the room.

"Resist and they die." Ross said, and swung the baton at her ribs. She let the baton hit her, barely stumbling back.

"I think you have to swing harder." she advised him. He punched her in the face, and then shoved her to the ground. She shook her head, propping herself up on her elbows. Then, she started laughing. She slowly got to her knees, still smirking self-assuredly. Ross cranked up the voltage on the baton to the highest setting.

"Sir, that could kill her if she's exposed to the electricity for too long." a soldier commented, but Ross wasn't listening. He shoved the baton into her ribs, watching in satisfaction as the electricity leaped across her skin and her body started shaking. The Avengers cried out in protest. However, they soon grew confused, as Natasha didn't seem to show any signs of pain. She raised her head, revealing that she was... giggling?

"This kind of tickles." she announced, and reached out to poke the baton with her finger. It immediately shorted out as she absorbed the electricity within.

"Oops. I'm not sure what happened there." she said. Ross tossed the baton to the side in frustration, and opened up another case.

"Really? A flamethrower?" Natasha asked, rolling her eyes. Ross turned and set her on fire. This sparked several reactions. Wanda screamed. Clint and Tony started yelling obscenities at Ross. Steve, Bucky, and T'Challa struggled to get out of their bonds. The rest stared in horror.

Natasha got to her feet, and started literally brushing the fire off. She was really glad that she didn't burn anymore. Everybody went silent as they tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"I do not believe that I am processing this properly." Vision stated. Natasha wondered how he hadn't escaped yet. There was probably some sort of EMP device keeping the android from using his powers. Ross growled in frustration.

"Fine. If it takes a monster to hurt a monster, then I'll bring you one." he muttered. The general turned to his soldiers.

"We're leaving this room. Send him in." he commanded, sweeping out of the room. The soldiers followed suit. A minute later, she heard a loud growl. Confused, she watched the door carefully. She didn't have to wait long.

A tall, extremely ugly, gray figure stomped into the room.

"Okay, what the hell is that?" Sam exclaimed.

"That's the Abomination. Also known as Emil Blonsky. He's the guy Bruce was fighting when they 'broke Harlem'." she explained. Everybody made sounds of recognition.

The Abomination growled at her. She laughed, earning her a similar growl from Ross, who she realized was standing in a room overlooking the containment cell. His sound of annoyance echoed through the intercom, and she smirked.

"So, what's the plan, Ross? Have my boyfriend's nemesis beat me to a pulp?" The Avengers stared at her. Tony choked, and started coughing, almost falling over in the process. Clint's eyes were comically wide. Steve, Sam, and Bucky had weirdly approving expressions on their faces. Natasha frowned, tilting her head to the side.

"What? Is it something I said?" she wondered.

"Since when is Bruce your boyfriend?" Clint asked. She froze in realization, mouth opening to say something but failing to emit a sound. For once, Natasha couldn't control her emotions. A sheepish smile spread over her face, and she ducked her head and shuffled her feet in a way she knew was probably reminiscent of Bruce himself.

"Nat, are you blushing?" Steve teased.

"Shut up, gramps. To answer your question, Clint, he and I have been in a relationship since a couple weeks after the last time I saw Tony." she answered confidently, although she suddenly felt impossibly shy and awkward. Which was a strange feeling, because she rarely felt that way.

The aforementioned billionaire inventor seemed to be flabbergasted. Finally, he managed to speak.

"Well, I have to say, I would not have expected that from you, Romanoff." he stated. Before she could reply, the Abomination suddenly started towards her, roaring indignantly.

"Oh, right. You're still here. I'd forgotten." she quipped, and ran directly at the tall creature. Ignoring the shouts of confusion and questions about her sanity (which, they should really know the answer to that: she was lacking it) from the Avengers, she slid between its legs and melted into its shadow.

She reappeared behind Ross, and kicked the general straight through the window and into the room below. He landed ungracefully in a heap at Tony's feet.

"What the-" the billionaire was cut off by a loud roar. Natasha jumped from the higher room before the soldiers within could react and activated her grappling hook, swinging like Peter Parker towards the Abomination. As she swung, she willed electricity to form around her hands, charging her Widow's Bite gauntlets simultaneously. At the apex of her swing, she deactivated the hook and front-flipped, slamming her fists downwards into the Abomination's head.

"Natasha smash!" Clint cheered. The gray creature screamed in agony, grabbing its head as its body shuddered violently. Suddenly, the Abomination's body stiffened, as if it'd been hit with a Petrificus Totalus. It fell to the ground, muscles tense.

Natasha didn't waste the opportunity. She raced over to it and pulled out a pair of weapons she'd convinced Vulcan to forge for her: two sleek, long knives made of imperial gold and vibranium. But just before she reached the fallen Abomination, Ross shot at her.

Well, he tried. She'd seen him move and instinctively dove to the ground before he'd gotten the shot off. Rolling to her feet, she turned towards him, annoyed.

"Really??" she asked indignantly. Suddenly, a gray hand came out of nowhere and knocked her across the room into a wall, which, like all the walls on the Raft, was made of metal.

Several Avengers yelled her name in panic.

She gasped in pain as she made impact, the air in her lungs forced out violently. She struggled to inhale as she recovered; she didn't think she'd actually broken anything, but it had hurt. A lot.

The Abomination roared and threw something in her direction. She ducked, clumsily, and it hit the wall above her. As it turned out, it had thrown the flame thrower.

The fire from the resulting explosion didn't burn, but it did block her vision a bit- she didn't see the Abomination charging at her until it was almost on top of her. She had no energy to shadow travel, so she chose to jump to the side like a matador fighting a bull, her red hair being her metaphorical piece of red cloth.

She started running, the Abomination in hot pursuit. Naturally, Ross decided to shoot at her again, only this time, she had much more of a problem. If she dove to the ground, she'd slow down just long enough for the Abomination to catch up. Her only option was to take the bullet and keep moving.

The gun went off, and the bullet went through her thigh, causing her to stumble slightly. She kept running despite her injury, adrenaline keeping her from feeling the pain as a crazy plan formed in her mind.

Natasha ran towards the wall, and launched herself as high as she could off the ground, running up the wall another couple of feet, and backflipping as hard as she could off of it, just managing to clear the creature's head. The Abomination slammed into the wall in front of her as she fell through the air, a Vulcan-crafted knife in each hand. She landed in a crouch, and then leapt forward. She threw the knife in her right hand as hard as she could at the Abomination's head, and then used her momentum to spring into a butterfly twist. In mid-air, she used the twisting motion to fling the second knife at its back.

The godly metal mixed with vibranium allowed both knives to sink easily through the tall creature's skin, hitting their respective marks. Everybody stared in shock as the Abomination stiffened. Then, Emil Blonksy's hideous form dropped to the ground, dead.

For a minute, no one said anything. Only her labored breathing could be heard - everything else was silent.

"Okay, what the hell?" Sam finally commented. Natasha gritted her teeth as a wave of dizziness suddenly hit her. She could feel the pain radiating from her thigh, although it seemed that the blood flow was staunched by the bullet, which hadn't pierced all the way through. She clenched her fists and tried not to show any physical weakness. It wasn't easy, though.

Ross started slowly clapping, walking towards her.

"So, the beauty can kill the beast... interesting." he said. Natasha stared at him.

"Was that a Disney reference?" she asked. Ross ignored her, moving towards the corpse of the gray creature. The knives had disappeared from the Abomination's body; she'd willed them away so that he couldn't get a closer look. He frowned and turned towards her.

"How'd you do it?" he questioned.

"Why, so you can try to cut into Bruce's skin?" She had a feeling that the Hulk had tougher skin, and Bruce was also a demigod, so she hoped that meant that the Hulk was even more resistant.

Ross didn't answer her question. She laughed derisively.

"I'm special, Ross, or haven't you heard? I wouldn't be in the same room as me if I were you... who knows when I might decide to kill you." she threatened.

"Move, and they die." he blustered, and the soldiers in the room above raised their guns at the Avengers again.

"Bullshit." she scoffed.

"What?" Ross looked confused.

"Those are public figures, Ross. I'm pretty sure nobody put a kill order on them, so I'd love to see you have them killed with all these witnesses and cameras and then get away with it." Ross stopped short, realizing she was right.

"Before you think about it, you can't kill the people they love, either. They'll destroy you physically and in court." she added.

"Maybe not the ones that are high profile. But the ones that nobody knows exists... like the people living in a tiny farmhouse in Iowa... " Ross answered. Clint started swearing at him. Natasha sighed.

"And that right there is the reason I didn't fight back when you were trying to torture me earlier." she told him.

"Then we have an understanding." he said grimly.

"So long as the reasoning is clear on both sides." she replied.

"Good. Now, kneel." he commanded.

"Excuse me, you arrogant idiot? I'm not kneeling without a good reason." Natasha protested.

"Kneel or I evict the Barton family from their home." he clarified. She obeyed, glaring at him. The ruse was getting hard to keep up. She hoped Bruce would show up for his part soon.

"Now, tell me where Bruce Banner is." Ross ordered. She stayed silent. He hit her across the face with his gun. She spit some blood out of her mouth and kept her mouth shut.

"Tell me where Bruce Banner is." he commanded again, pressing a knife to her arm. She refused to say anything, and he stabbed the blade into her shoulder, causing her to groan slightly as she squeezed her eyes shut momentarily. She inhaled deeply, trying to breathe through the pain.

"Ross, when I get out of these chains..." Steve snapped as he struggled violently. The general ignored him, focusing on Natasha and kicking her in the ribs as hard as he could. She flew backwards and slid across the floor. He knelt beside her, pointing the gun at her head.

"I asked you to tell me where Bruce Banner is. You'll answer me if you don't want Laura Barton to die." he growled. Natasha started laughing as she felt a breeze pick up, despite them being inside.

"Where is he?" Ross yelled, cocking the gun. She kept laughing.

"WHERE IS BRUCE BANNER?" the general screamed, kicking her in the stomach. She wheezed as the breath was knocked out of her, and then continued to laugh maniacally, blood bubbling out of her mouth. Everybody seemed a little concerned.

"Right behind you." Bruce said as he materialized in the middle of the chamber. The Avengers gasped.

"Get the hell away from her." her boyfriend snarled, and she grinned as Ross stood quickly and moved away from her.

"Hey, Bruce." she called cheerfully, wiping the blood from her mouth.

"Hi, Tash. How are you feeling?" he asked distractedly, looking over at her to assess her injuries.

"Better now that you're here." she said truthfully, and she thought she heard a small awwww come from one of the Avengers, although she wasn't sure who.

"Have you come to save your little girlfriend??" Ross asked, and Bruce smiled grimly.

"Yes, but that's not the only reason I'm here. I'm here for my friends, too." he replied, stepping forwards. The soldiers trained their guns on him.

"You want to deal with the Hulk, Ross? Good plan." Natasha snorted.

"Execute plan David!" Ross yelled, and dived for her, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her along.

Metal ropes sprang from the walls again, wrapping around Bruce. Another cage dropped from the ceiling, landing around her boyfriend and drilling into the ground, anchoring itself. A group of soldiers wheeled two sound cannons into the room, aiming them at the cage.

Ross put a pair of handcuffs of her, and wrapped her in chains, locking them in place and then holding onto an extra section like a leash. She looked at them, realizing that they weren't made of steel.

"All of these restraints are made of a mixture of alien metal and vibranium. We got it by making a couple of risky trades, but I think it was worth it. That cage is as similar to the Hulk cage from the helicarrier as we could make it. I'd like to see you get out now." Ross announced smugly. The Avengers looked worried, but Natasha smiled. Bruce looked completely at ease where he was, and she knew the reason why.

"Ross, I'm impressed. All this effort, just to trap the Hulk. But you've forgotten one thing." Bruce called.

"And what would that be?" Ross wondered warily. Bruce smirked.

"You forgot to make sure you trapped me as well." he answered, and dissolved into wind. The restraints dropped to the ground uselessly.

Natasha savored the shocked look on Ross's face as Bruce reappeared outside of the cage.

"And now that my part is done, it's time for another player to enter the game. Ladies and gentlemen.... I give you the Hulk." With that, Bruce's eyes flashed green, and his alter ego came to the fore.

"Ross..." he growled, and the mentioned general backed up, dragging Natasha with him.

"So, the beast can speak now." Ross commented.

"Hulk, get the others out. Quickly." Natasha ordered, resisting slightly against the general so she could finish her conversation, and Hulk nodded.

"Okay, Krestovina. Hulk will smash cages first. But Banner says that he misses Krestovina already, so Hulk will smash fast. And then, Hulk will find Ross and help Krestovina." the green giant responded. Natasha grinned, catching Clint's eye. The archer was smirking at her.

"Well, tell Bruce I miss him too. Have fun, Hulk!" she replied, winking. Sam wolf-whistled. Hulk grunted, smiling in anticipation, and turned towards the soldiers. She relaxed, and let Ross pull her out of the room.

The door closed on Hulk's battle cry of a roar.

Ross dragged her through several passages, moving as quickly as he could. She was making it pretty easy on him, going with the flow as they twisted and turned through the Raft.

The general shoved her into an elevator. Natasha "accidentally" fell against all of the buttons. They spent a few awkward minutes in silence as the elevator opened and closed at every single floor. Ross glared at her. She snickered, eyes alight with mischief.

They finally reached the top floor, and Ross pushed her out of the elevator and directly into a deluge of rain. The general dragged her through the freezing cold downpour towards a helicopter.

Suddenly, the Hulk burst through the ground of the Raft's top floor, holding Steve, Bucky, T'Challa, and Clint in his hands. He dropped the four on the ground, and Scott hopped off his shoulder from where he'd been perched in his ant-sized form. Wanda, Vision, and Tony flew up after him, hovering in the air threateningly. Vision blasted the helicopter with his gem, destroying it completely.

Ross snarled, holding a gun to her head. Hulk walked slowly towards them, shrinking down to Bruce as he went.

"Give up, Ross. It's over. The whole world knows of your crimes. I released them on the internet. You have nowhere to go." Bruce called. Ross backed up to the edge of the Raft, bringing Natasha with her.

"STAY BACK. STAY BACK OR I BLOW A HOLE IN HER HEAD." he threatened.

"Ross, let her go. We'll take you in, unharmed. Nobody has to get hurt, and we'll see if we can reduce your sentence or something, alright?" Steve tried. The rain began to lessen.

"STAY THE HELL BACK." Ross yelled again, pushing the gun more violently against her head.

"You don't have any other options, Ross. Let Natasha go." Clint coaxed. Bruce looked genuinely concerned, which Natasha could understand. There was a real risk of Ross actually pulling the trigger. So, she decided to move things along.

"DON'T MOVE, BANNER. GET ON YOUR KNEES AND SURRENDER TO MY SOLDIERS. STARK, CALL ME A JET. IF ANYONE TRIES ANYTHING, SHE'S DEAD." Ross screamed, and Bruce scowled, clenching his fists.

"Ross, you let her go right now or I'll-" Natasha cut him off.

"Bruce." Her boyfriend stopped ranting, and looked at her. She returned his gaze, and took a deep breath.

"It's okay. I promise." she said, and he shook his head, ready to protest.

"No, listen to me, please." she pleaded. Bruce stopped, sorrow in his eyes. She noted that it wasn't raining anymore.

"The last few months with you have been the best months of my life. With you, I felt like I was free of my past, like I was actually a good person, like I actually deserved to be cared about. With you, I felt whole. Thank you for giving me that." she started, meaning every word that came out of her mouth.

"Nat, no-" Clint began, but she shut him up with a warning look. Bruce shook his head, his eyes pleading.

"You've saved me so many times, Bruce. Now, it's my turn to save you. I just- " she stopped abruptly blinked rapidly, eyes actually stinging. She hadn't meant to get this emotional, but she didn't feel like she was acting. She felt raw, because it felt real. She could see it in Bruce's eyes as well. They both knew that she would survive whatever she was planning, but although the situation was fake, their emotions weren't. They were feeling exactly what they would feel if she was actually in danger.

"I wish we had more time. I'm sorry. Just- try to remember me, alright? And don't you dare blame yourself for this." she told him. She looked around at the other Avengers, who all had tears running down their face. She felt guilty, suddenly.

"I'm grateful to have known all of you. But the sun's getting real low, and it's time for me to leave, I think. Stay safe, please. Take care of each other. Live your lives, and live them well. Clint, tell your family that I'm sorry I couldn't stick around. Steve, for goodness sake, take Sharon on a date already. Tony, I wish I'd been more honest with you. Wanda, keep training. You've already come so far... don't give up because of what others think of you." she continued. Then, she looked her boyfriend in the eye.

"Bruce, one last thing, before I go. I need you to know that even though I always thought love was for children, the only person who has ever made me question that belief is you. I- "she said honestly and then caught herself before she said something she'd regret saying in that situation. She took a shuttering breath, and glanced down briefly before looking around at the Avengers again. She wasn't going to see them for a while, so she tried to memorize every detail about them, to capture their faces in her mind so she could keep them in some small way.

"Bye, everyone." Natasha finished awkwardly, a single tear going down her face. Bruce stepped back, hunching in on himself.

"Goodbye, Natasha." he said on behalf of them all.

"That was a touching speech, Romanoff. But what I don't understand is why you made it." She turned her head towards Ross, who was frowning in confusion, his hand still wrapped around the end of one of her chains.

"Because my time is up. And so is yours." she responded. Before he could react, she head butted him in the forehead, and then jumped into the air, managing to slam both of her feet into his chest. He stumbled backwards, gun going off and the bullet just missing her head.

Ross teetered on the edge of the Raft, and then fell off, dragging her over the edge with him. The general lost his grip on her chains but it was too late. They were already dropping through the air.

She looked up at the edge they'd come from, seeing the tiny figure of Bruce watching their descent. Looking down, she saw the dark expanse of the ocean, deep and foreboding and generally unwelcoming. They fell towards the water. Natasha squeezed her eyes shut. She could still hear Ross screaming in terror somewhere near her, which was getting really annoying. She wished that he would stop.

Suddenly, she felt a pressure wrapping around her, slowing her fall. She opened her eyes, and saw Percy sitting on the surface of the ocean, arms raised towards her in concentration. Next to him, Ross hit the water with a violent slap, sinking below the waves. She cringed. The Raft was pretty tall; the general had probably died upon impact.

Of course, she didn't care that he was dead. It just wasn't a pleasant sound to hear.

Percy brought her down carefully, and then wrapped them both in a bubble before submerging them beneath the sea. He inspected her wounds. She struggled to keep her eyes open, pain flaring throughout her entire body.

"Styx, Natasha. Is that a knife in your shoulder? And a bullet wound in your thigh- gods, what happened in there?" Percy wondered, pulling both the bullet and the knife out and then feeding her a small chunk of ambrosia. She immediately felt a bit better, both wounds closing slightly.

"A lot." she said flatly. Percy nodded, accepting her explanation.

"Okay, then. Well, get some rest. I'll take us back to Lyssa, and try to heal your wounds a little more." he replied, and the bubble started moving. Natasha yawned widely, her earlier exhaustion returning full force.

"That sounds good to me. Good night, Percy." she responded. The son of the sea nodded at her, and then focused on piloting their little bubble through the water. Natasha closed her eyes, and ignored the fact that she wasn't technically lying down on anything. Floating on nothing was nice, and she really didn't feel like considering the mechanics of being within a bubble of air that shouldn't technically be able to exist. She relaxed her muscles, and enjoyed the silence that came with being beneath the surface of the ocean. She let all thoughts of the chaotic events of the day drift away from her, and let her mind remain blank.

Within a few minutes, Natasha was out like a light, dreaming of those moments with Bruce when nothing really seemed to matter and the world felt at peace.

That was quite the fall, wasn't it? Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll TRY to be back soon with the next one. Byeeeeee!!!!

- Spathi