Whatever else can be said about some of the creative choices in Age of Ultron, one thing that really intrigued me was the idea of Natasha being a loved part of Clint's whole family and how that reshapes a lot of how I pictured Natasha's past in S.H.I.E.L.D.. So, I started playing out some background context for what may have been happening between major moments throughout the film series and came up with a bunch of vignettes. Because the idea that Natasha wasn't alone or isolated from everyone but Clint makes for so many new stories. (And gives me a chance to try to headcanon all the inconsistencies from AoU into some kind of coherent whole.)

The first time Laura heard about Natasha Romanoff, she was terrified.

Having been married to Clint Barton for several years, she was used to him making…inadvisable choices (not the least of which involved his insistence on using a bow and arrows around people who preferred guns and bullets, but that was part of his charm). But even then, hearing that he had not only chosen to spare the notorious assassin he was sent to kill, but to bring her back to the US with him? Laura was convinced then that the woman had manipulated him somehow and was planning to kill him and his coworkers once she was on the inside.

As months passed and Natasha showed no signs of betrayal, Laura began to fear her for another reason.

Clint was the only person Natasha trusted in those early days with S.H.I.E.L.D., so it wasn't really a surprise when Fury put him in charge of her training and orientation in the field. What did surprise Laura was how much the pair hit it off. Clint would phone or come home from missions and instead of venting or joking about what a disaster it was, he almost immediately was full of praise for the new agent. Once she started hearing affection in his voice, the surprise festered into a resentment she couldn't bring herself to voice. It wasn't that she didn't trust Clint; she had no reason to doubt his love and commitment to her. But he had said in the past that seduction had been one of Natasha's main weapons of choice, and she knew how dangerous the heat of the moment could be while in the field under the best of circumstances.

When she got the call that a mission had gone a bit south and their house was a closer place for them to get patched up than going all the way back to S.H.I.E.L.D., she nearly told Clint no. The children were home for the weekend and she had no way to get a neighbor to babysit them in time. No matter how much Clint would vouch for Natasha, Laura still wasn't thrilled about inviting the woman into her home.

The kids had been put to bed a few hours before the quinjet landed near the edge of the property. Laura stood in the doorway, watching nervously as Clint limped out of the plane, the red-haired woman supporting herself on his shoulder. She knew from the call that neither had life-threatening injuries, but enough they would need rest and time to recover before another mission.

Clint greeted her warmly, likely unaware of her reticence at their company. She could tell from the way Natasha's eyes subtly swept over her that despite their flat mask and slight haze of pain, no detail was lost on her.

Natasha continued to size up the house as they entered, eyes flicking to every corner and doorway. Clint hadn't been exaggerating when he described her constant readiness for trouble that hadn't calmed since defecting. Laura, in return, was very aware of the weapons visible at the other woman's belt and wrists. She didn't know the exact numbers of the death counts connected with this woman, but she knew they were high enough to feel like a tiger on a fine, fragile leash had been brought into her living room.

Clint had helped Natasha to a chair and urged her to stay while he went with Laura to get clean washcloths, soap, warm water, and bandages from the bathroom. They had a brief, hushed conversation where Laura gave him a quick checking over, before reassuring herself his injuries were minor and he could handle most of the cleaning and dressing on his own.

"I promise, I've got this," he soothed. "Besides, I haven't had an indoor bathroom since we left a week ago, so I could use the privacy. Would you get the rest of those to Natasha? Give her a hand?"

Being alone, up close and personal with the Black Widow was not something Laura was eager to do, but she knew how much Clint cared about his partner, so she would be welcoming to the other woman too.

As she walked down the hallway toward the living room, she saw Natasha still in the chair, still sitting slightly rigidly, eyes drifting about the room, no doubt logging every detail for future use. Laura was about to announce herself so she didn't take the edgy assassin by surprise when a movement caught both of their attention.

Laura's heart froze just slightly as she saw Natasha's eyes focus on their three-year-old son creeping sleepily down the stairs. She knew Clint would never bring a threat around his children, but her maternal side still bristled slightly that a near-stranger was between her and her child and became even more aware of her infant daughter still sleeping upstairs.

Cooper froze on the stairs too, seeing the strange woman sitting in his living room.

To Laura's surprise, Natasha held up a calming hand before he ran or cried out. "It's okay," she said, her voice, still faintly accented back then, was softer than Laura would have expected possible. "I'm your father's partner."

Cooper's eyebrows furrowed. "Agent Roma…Roman…"

"Romanoff, yes. Everything's all right."

"Where's Daddy?" he asked.

Natasha glanced back toward the hallway and Laura found herself ducking further into the shadows. "I think your mother's helping him somewhere." She looked back at Cooper. "Can I help you?"

Cooper played with the bannister awkwardly. "Wanted a drink of water."

"Ah." Natasha nodded, standing up. "Well, I have retrieved classified data from violent despots in four different countries. I think I can figure out a sink and cabinets."

Laura watched silently as Natasha walked stiffly into the kitchen. She was surprisingly quiet, only producing an occasional hinge creak and slight clink of glass, then the sound of the sink running.

"Ice?"

"Uh-huh," Cooper answered, still looking a bit unsure.

The sound of the fridge, and then Natasha came back out with a glass of water a bit too big for a three-year-old, but Cooper took it carefully. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Anything else?"

"Is Daddy going to come say good night?"

"I'm sure he will. He missed you very much and was excited to see you again."

Cooper grinned then. "Okay. Thanks, Ms. Roma…"

"Natasha is fine."

He nodded. "G'night, Natasha."

"Good night."

As Cooper carefully carried the glass back upstairs, only spilling a little bit on the way, Natasha watched him go. Maybe it was an effect of the low lighting or maybe Laura was misreading her features, but Laura could swear, just for a moment, there was a glint of something like sadness or regret in the other woman's eyes, just behind the mask.

She decided now was as safe a time as any to announce herself. Stepping back slightly, she started walking forward, pretending she hadn't been standing privy to the whole interaction. "Natasha? I've got some bandages and First Aid supplies for you."

The mask was firmly back in place as Natasha turned to her. "Thank you. Your, uh, son came in. I gave him a drink of water."

"Thank you," Laura said brightly, feigning ignorance as she set the cleaning supplies and bandages on the coffee table. "You didn't have to do that. I could have come taken care of it."

Natasha waved dismissively. "It's the least I could do after intruding on your home."

"Please," Laura looked up and gave Natasha a warm smile. "Any friend of Clint's is welcome here."

Natasha arched an eyebrow. "You may want to reconsider that policy."

For a second, Laura thought it might be a threat, but she was starting to recognize the dry tone as being Natasha's sense of humor. "Knowing Clint, maybe you're right. Come on, there's a guest bathroom upstairs you can use."

She noticed Natasha's eyes focus on the chair she had been sitting in and followed them to see a red stain across the upper right side of the back cushion.

"I'm sorry, I should have put my jacket over it first," Natasha said, sounding genuinely remorseful.

"Don't worry about it." Laura turned back with a reassuring smile and tried to ease the awkward atmosphere. "Besides, what woman hasn't left bloodstains on the furniture now and then?"

A really strange look went through Natasha's eyes and for a minute Laura thought she had gone too far with that joke. She knew the conservative older women in town would have found it highly inappropriate, but Natasha seemed at least as young as Laura was. Maybe that was just a very taboo topic in Russia.

Either way, the emotion faded from Natasha's eyes before Laura could get a good sense of what it was and a slightly artificial smile replaced it. "Right. Still. I'll clean it up."

"Let's worry about where the blood came from first, huh?" Laura said.

Natasha shrugged nonchalantly, looking down at her right arm. "I got slashed with a knife during the fight. Let myself get distracted and was too slow."

"Let me see," Laura said, cautiously reaching out to take Natasha's arm. To her surprise, Natasha let her, turning so Laura could gently examine the torn fabric and skin beneath. She winced as soon as she saw how deep the gash was and realized the dark material of her sleeve hid the fact that it was soaked in blood. "Jeez, you've just been sitting here bleeding?!"

"It looks worse than it is."

"Uh-huh. Come on, we're going up to the guest room and stitching that up."

"It's all right, I can take care of it myself," Natasha said, extracting herself from Laura's grip.

"You're right-handed, right?" Laura asked, scooping up the medical supplies. "No way I'm leaving a guest in my home to stitch up her own arm. Besides, I'm married to Clint Barton and raising his son. You really think you'd be the first person I've patched up?"

Laura managed to half-shoo, half-pull Natasha upstairs into the guest room with its adjoining bathroom. As Natasha got out of her uniform and cleaned up in the bathroom, Laura went back to the master bedroom to pull out a tank top and pair of pajama pants for Natasha to sleep in. She doubted either hers or Clint's packed clothes were in great condition after a week in the field.

She returned to the guest room in time to hear the shower turn off and was setting up on the bed when Natasha stepped out, wrapped in a towel. She looked smaller out of her uniform, but her muscle tone left no illusions that her size made her any less dangerous.

The woman paused, apparently not expecting Laura to be there already, but Laura just casually patted the bed. "Let's get that arm taken care of."

Natasha didn't seem troubled by her state of undress, so Laura ignored it as well. The wound didn't look quite as bad with the seeping blood washed away, but it was still in need of attention. Laura dabbed the area with alcohol, unsurprised that Natasha hardly even flinched even when she swabbed the inner edges of the gash.

"I don't have anything to numb it," Laura apologized as she prepared the needle and surgical thread.

"It's fine," Natasha said calmly, shifting so her hands gripped the edge of the mattress. She stared straight ahead and seemed to become even less expressive. Laura assumed she was focusing on some kind of pain tolerance technique and decided to just get this done as quickly as possible.

As she worked, Laura saw the faint lines of old scars across Natasha's arms and shoulders. The marks continued on her legs where they stuck out from the bottom of the towel, including some swelling on her knee that suggested a recent sprain. Laura could make out the shapes she had learned so well from Clint's own body: cuts, stabs, burns, bullet grazes, as well as a few she couldn't readily identify; all faded, but all telling of a brutal past.

Laura had glanced up at Natasha's face when she thought she could do so without being creepy. Up close, she was certain the other woman was younger than she was, her features still holding the slight softness of young adulthood. Her eyes, though, seemed decades older than the rest of her face, the flat emotionlessness no doubt concealing years of horrors and pain. Clint didn't talk in specifics about her past, but she knew the Black Widow had not chosen her life willingly and her training had started young enough that Natasha had known nothing else before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D.

Laura found herself thinking of tiny Lila, asleep in her crib down the hall surrounded by plush toys and bright colors, and was grateful anew for the life she and her children had been blessed with.

When the stitching was done and bandaged, Laura made up the bed as Natasha got changed and set out a glass of water, a plastic baggie of ice, and a couple ibuprofen.

"I can set your uniform up to soak out that bloodstain if you want," Laura offered when the bathroom door opened again.

"I have already set it up in the sink, but thank you. I'll take care of the chair if you show me where your peroxide is."

"I can handle that. You rest. If you need anything else, just ask me or Clint," she told Natasha as they stood a short distance apart in the room. "I'm sure he'll stop in after he says hi to Cooper."

"You've already been kinder than necessary," Natasha said, looking a bit uncertain and puzzled. "What can I do to repay you?"

Laura just shook her head. "Nothing to repay. You have Clint's back when you're out on missions. Every time he comes home safe, that's all I could ask for."

To her surprise, Natasha nodded with a serious expression. "I'll do my best."

Laura pointed at the glass on the bedside table. "Rehydrate. Sleep. Ice that knee. Let yourself heal. Breakfast is at seven a.m."

"Spokoinoi nochi," she heard Natasha say quietly as she left.

After she checked on Barney, Laura saw Clint smiling at her from the stairs. "What do you think?"

Laura glanced at the door of the guest room. "I think I get why you defied orders."

"Hey, I don't meet people as messed up as I am that often. Gotta look after my own."

"Bite your tongue," Laura scolded as she walked down to meet him. "Nobody's as messed up as you are."

He laughed as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "Thank you. For being nice to her."

"She's not used to that, is she?"

"Nope. But she's a quick learner. And she's willing to put up with me, so I'm trying my best not to scare her off too soon."

"Good, because you know you've only found one other woman who's willing to stick with you, so don't mess this up," Laura teased, leaning in to kiss him. "Now go see your son so he can get back to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am."

Laura watched her husband go up to see his children and gave another quiet thanks for having her family safe and under one roof for another night, then headed downstairs with more peace of mind than she expected.

The next morning, Natasha joined them for breakfast, still seeming quiet and hesitant over where she fit in there. Clint put her to work helping set the table while Laura dished up the meal. Over the course of the meal, Laura noticed that Natasha warmed up slightly, joking with Clint as he fed Lila her bottle, answering Cooper's questions about her work in as child-friendly a way as possible, and helping clean up afterward so Laura could sit and eat her own meal.

But the peace was too short-lived and soon Laura was bidding Clint and his partner goodbye as they headed back out to their quinjet, travelling on to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters at last. When she went up to tidy up the guest room, however, Laura was surprised to find the bed already stripped, the sheets and borrowed pajamas neatly folded and stacked at the foot, the bathroom wiped down and pristine, glass rinsed out and drying beside the sink, so that there was almost no trace that the strange woman had ever been there at all.

None, that is, except for the note resting on top of the folded pile of sheets listing suggestions on how to fortify the house and defend it should anyone ever find them and try to attack. Including Natasha's secure S.H.I.E.L.D. phone number.

OOO

After that, Clint brought Natasha with him frequently. She became a regular fixture at weekend dinners and family events. Clint got her to help him with work maintaining the house and farm, while Laura included her in cooking alongside Cooper. Surprisingly, after initially seeming terrified to hold baby Lila, Natasha took to helping with the children relatively easily.

Cooper, with his father's sense of humor and Laura's extroversion, included Natasha in his games right away and it soon became a normal sight for him to run up, assign her some role in his latest fantasy world, and then drag her off to help him fight an imaginary dragon or space monster with his suction-cup bow and arrow set. He especially took a shine to her when she started teaching him techniques for how he would really win if faced with a larger opponent or a horde of ninjas and Laura had to remind him only to "play" like that at home.

Honestly, the kids seemed to be the most instrumental part in getting Natasha to relax while visiting the house. When Cooper greeted them by hugging her as well as Clint, she couldn't help but return the gesture. She began to step up and help take care of Lila without Laura even asking, and as far as she could tell, actually seemed to enjoy it. She even caught Natasha teaching the kids bits of Russian, to the point that once Lila began speaking, Clint wasn't sure if she was calling him "Da" or saying "yes".

Over the years, between Clint's teasing, but supportive friendship and the kids' energy, Laura swore she saw Natasha come to life. The wariness and tension seemed to be taken off like a jacket when Natasha walked in the door and she talked with a sparkle in her eyes that never would have fit with the woman who first sat bleeding in the living room years before.

The first time Laura saw her smile brightly and without reservation was when they were playing with Lila and the little girl pointed to her and said "Na!" loudly.

Laura would never forget the look on Natasha's face when she said back, "That's right, Lila! That's your Auntie Nat."

As Natasha had no one else outside S.H.I.E.L.D., and even Agent Coulson didn't know about Clint's family, Laura welcomed her to share holidays at the farm. While Clint usually couldn't get off work for smaller times like the Fourth of July or even Halloween, even Fury didn't stand in the way of Clint being home with his family for Christmas unless a major crisis was in the works. Which led to Laura being party to what was likely the first Christmas Natasha had ever had with anyone, or at least that she could remember.

To Laura's amusement, Natasha took her newly christened role as aunt extremely seriously and asked repeatedly what gifts were best to give the kids. They even managed a last-minute shopping trip in the madness of the holiday rush, which remarkably did not end in violence, until Laura had made sure Natasha was suitably prepared with presents for Christmas morning so the kids were happy.

It was a huge surprise, though, when Natasha presented her and Clint with a simple white envelope containing a handwritten note that read "Good for one vacation for just the two of you, all missions and babysitting covered. –Natasha"

OOO

Laura wasn't sure at what point Natasha became the sister-in-law that she had never had, but the connection was strong. Clint began to have regrets about introducing the two of them when he realized he basically had a work wife and home wife, as both were quick to let each other know when he did something stupid and needed a talking to. But Laura could rest a little easier while he was away knowing the agent who had his back loved him and his family fiercely too. Given Clint's ability to get into trouble going out to pick up the mail, this was a considerable load off her mind.

The kids grew up unable to remember a time when Natasha wasn't part of their lives. They looked forward to visits from their doting aunt who had an uncanny ability to sneak them snacks when they weren't supposed to have them and brought souvenirs of questionable safety for youngsters. As Clint taught them archery, Natasha taught them little computer tricks and spying techniques to the point that Laura had to tell her to stop before she lost complete control of what her kids were doing to avoid getting in trouble. Instead, Natasha taught Laura enough countermeasures that she could stay three steps ahead of the kids and Laura called it fair.

During one visit, Clint came up to hug Laura from behind and whispered "Thank you" in her ear.

"For what?"

He nodded toward the living room. "Letting her have this."

On the couch, Natasha had dozed off, Lila leaning against her from one side, Cooper on the other, both just as sound asleep, with a storybook still laid out in her lap. And for once, Laura didn't see any hair-trigger wariness disrupting the calm on her face.