Can't Handle This

Toni, Brooke, Pamplemousse, and all the Avengers sat in Natasha’s room as the doctor fiddled with some equipment. Agent Schaefer slowly walked in, looking like he just got done crying his eyes out.

“It’s going to be a little bit before we can easily move her out of here,” the doctor said softly after he finished. “SHIELD has some very specific requirements to go through.”

Clint nodded and sniffled as fresh tears slid down his face. “Thank you for everything you did, doctor.”

The doctor nodded and navigated his way out the door through the throng of people.

Agent Schaefer walked to Nat’s body and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I vish I could’ve done something.”

Tony shook his head and slumped in his chair. Steve wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulder and lightly kissed the top of his head. “We did all we could. I’m sure she’d be proud of what we did.”

Brooke nodded. “Yeah,” she said through tears. “Besides, I’m sure this is the way she wanted to go; protecting all of us.”

Agent Schaefer removed his hand from Natasha’s shoulder and moved towards Brooke. He sat down next to her and looked down at his hands. “None of you even got to say goodbye,” he said slowly. “And for that, I am truly and inexplicably sorry.”

“Daddy?” Pamplemousse said to Bruce. “What’s going to happen to her now? Where’s she going to go?”

Bruce hugged his daughter closer to him and continued to trace small circles on her arm. “Nobody really knows, Pamplemousse.”

The little girl looked up at Bruce, tears welling up in her eyes. “Do you think she went to Heaven?”

“Yeah,” Clint said from across the room, trying to hold back a flood of tears. “Yeah, Nat went to Heaven. I don’t think she’d end up anywhere else.” At that point, Clint couldn’t hold it back any longer and just let the sobs course through his body as he hung his head and cried into his hands.

Toni leaned over and put her head on her dad’s shoulder, feeling supported and supportive at the same time. The three of them, Steve, Tony, and herself, held hands and cried together.

Thor held onto Pamplemousse’s small hand as she cried into Bruce’s shoulder and let Brooke cry onto his.

Loki just sat on the other side of the room, watching the group intently. He wouldn’t admit to all of them that he was broken up by the spy’s death. How could he? The only one who’d support him would be Thor, but he seemed too occupied to care.

“Loki?” Toni asked softly, her hand still in her dad’s. “Are you doing okay?”

Loki tried to hold a brave face. How is it that she could care so much? Especially about someone like…like me. he thought to himself. The god tried to nod, tried to lie, only to break down crying. Yes, he mourned her death after all that they both had done to spite each other.

Toni stood and grabbed his hand, pulling him farther into the group. “It’s okay to show sadness,” she said soothingly. “Being sad isn’t a weakness.”

“What’s going on?” came a female Russian voice from the open door. “Where’s my-”

Everyone turned at the suddenness of her silence. Standing in the doorway was a ginger girl, looking about Toni’s age. Her blue eyes were filled with fear and sadness, locking directly on the lifeless body of Natasha. “Natasha?” she mumbled, tears thickening her voice.

She walked, almost like she was in a trance, to the spy. She placed a hand on Nat’s cold ones and started to weep.

Steve stood, being the natural leader of the group, and approached the girl slowly. “Who are you?” he asked softly. “Did you know Natasha well?”

The girl turned, tears still streaming down her face. “I knew Natasha very well,” she said with more conviction than she looked to have had. She turned away and starred back at the spy. “She was my big sister.”