Summary: In another world, Nancy Rushman's memories of being Natasha Romanova and the Black Widow never returned.

Disclaimer: "Spider-Man", "X-Men" and all related characters and situations are the property of Marvel Entertainment and are used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

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"What If...? Loves of Spider-Man"
'What If... Black Widow's Memory Never Returned?'
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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"It would seem no one reads Santayana anymore."
- Lt. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova, 'Babylon 5'.

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It was the last class of the day at Midtown High School, not that the teacher would allow that as an excuse for her students to slack off. Instead, she saw it as all the more reason for which they needed to pay attention to the lesson; history had a habit of catching up with the unwary. Part of what she attempted to pass on to her students was that, as the philosopher George Santayana had said, 'those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'. One lunch period, she had co-miserated with one of the English teachers who was complaining about a student who thought 'pastural' was what they did to milk over the fact that one of her own students thought that The Seven-Years War was a Marilyn Monroe movie. The other teacher had pointed out that she could at least take comfort that they knew who Marilyn Monroe was. It was little comfort to her when she was in the classroom teaching, though, and her students thought Mel Gibson fought in the American Revolution, the Scottish War of Independence, and the Vietnam War all.

"So, contrary to popular belief, Thanksgiving was not an official holiday until the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration and then mainly made a Federal Holiday in response to the backlash from an attempt to move the traditional - but not officially recognized - national day to give thanks to God from the last Thursday in the month to earlier. Abraham Lincoln called for a 'national day of thanks-giving', he did not establish the holiday, nor was he the first President to make such a call; that would have been George Washington."

The teacher turned to the whiteboard and wrote out a phrase in black marker, 'Separation of Church and State', "In fact, the 'Founding Fathers' never intended this concept as it's become accepted. Their interpretation wasn't the now-common belief that Church - religion, faith, God in whatever form - should be kept out of government. Rather, they believed that the State - in the overarching sense of Government, not the sense of individual states such as New York - should not be allowed in interfere in the practice of religion by its citizens."

With her back to the class and her attention on writing out another phrase, 'Continental Congress', the teacher never saw someone quietly open the door and slip into the classroom, nor saw them gesture for the students' silence.

"The Continental Congress, while it was debating the Declaration of Independence, actually began and ended each session with a prayer for guidance and wisdom, led by Benjamin Franklin. They believed that a proper government needed faith in and guidance from God to remain a proper government and not devolve into a tyrannical regime."

Under 'Continental Congress', she now wrote 'Communist Party', "Contrast this with the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics between nineteen-eighteen and nineteen-ninety-two, which not only refused religion any place in its form of government, but in its society as a whole; oppressing and executing practicioners of religions from Buddhism and Christianity to Judism and Islam. They presented Communism as an 'enlightened' and 'progressive' way of life, but in actual fact it was far more restrictive on the personal level than other forms that were generally considered more totaltarian, such as Monarchies and Autocracies which typically didn't care what an individual did as long as they obeyed their leader's commands. Citizens of Communist countries, on the other hand, were frequently considered simply property of The State and subject to restrictions on everything from where they could live, what they could eat and drink, if they could have vices and, of course, that they weren't permitted to have religious beliefs."

As she spoke, various symbols of the different subjects mentioned were drawn under 'Communist Party' and each was crossed out in turn.

"Why did the Communist Party not want anyone to have religious beliefs? Because they didn't want to risk the citizens to have divided loyalties and for the Party to then be on the lesser side of the scale. It was for the same reasons that they presented informing on family members and others as something worthwhile and good; to weaken bonds of family and community so that the State, and thus the Party, would be the ultimate entity in one's life."

"So did family members include girlfriends and wives?" A voice asked from the back of the classroom, causing the teacher to jump slightly and turn around in surprise at her realisation that someone had entered the room while she was talking and more importantly who it was.

Taking a deep breath both to steady herself and to prepare for a good, hard rant at the newcomer, the teacher was prevented from her intended remarks by the sound of the Last Bell of the school day ringing, leaving her the more immediate situation of needing to release her students, "When we come back Monday, we'll finish with the rise of Socialism in Eastern Europe, post-World War One, then we move on to National Socialism in Germany, the nineteen-twenties and -thirties. Class dismissed. And as for you, mister, you stay right there."

"Ooo," several students all made sounds of amusement at that instruction.

"Dismissed!" The teacher repeated sharply.

As the students collected their belongings and filed out of the room, one wag had the temerity to remark on how the teacher's Colonel Klink impression would have been better if she had drawn out the 's' sounds. They were promptly smacked on the arm by one of their classmates who also chided them to show a little more respect to their teachers. 'Mister' stayed right there only long enough for the last student to leave the room and, intelligently, close the door behind them before they started walking towards the front of the classroom. By the time he was halfway across the room, the teacher had already perched herself on the corner of her desk, crossing her legs and 'bouncing' one of them, knowing full well how distracting he considered the act. The fact that for the second half of the room he seemed to have a hard time drawing his eyes away from her legs would have put a smirk on her face if she weren't schooling her features to maintain a displeased expression.

When he was standing only feet away from her, Nancy Rushman looked at Peter Parker and asked in an apparently annoyed tone, "Is there a reason you decided to disturb my class?"

"Depends, does the fact that I was finally able to get a decent amount out of J.J. for some pictures and I wanted to treat you to dinner count?"

Nancy always thought that Peter looked especially attractive when he was rubbing the back of his head nervously such as he was doing now, so she lightened both her expression and the tone of her voice, "And this couldn't wait until I was home?"

"I kind of got excited and wanted to ask you as soon as I had the chance," Peter admitted.

Nancy was familiar enough with him to know when he was holding back something, "Peter... where were you planning to ask me to dine at with you?"

Peter blushed as he mumbled something that she was still able to make out. Nancy's eyes widened involuntarily and her mouth dropped open ever so slightly in disbelief.

Blinking and swallowing to help her regain control of herself, Nancy made an observation; "That's one of the most expensive places in town, just how much of a 'decent amount' did Jameson pay you?"

"...Fifteen hundred?"

"What did you sell him?" Nancy's voice rose slightly on the last two words, emphasising her shock - two times in as many minutes that she'd been surprised like this.

"I might have gotten permission from Jan to take and sell J.J. some exclusive 'first look' photos of next season's Van Dyne Originals for the Bugle's Lifestyle section," Peter answered, "Fortunately, Old Mustache just thought I had encountered Jan and the other Avengers while taking pictures during one of the times Spider-Man was with them and didn't ask any questions like why me..."

"I am surprised he bought them without comment," Nancy remarked, an eyebrow raised to imply that she knew better than the words which she was using.

"Oh, he had plenty of comments about how I should go to work at a ladies' magazine if I wanted to take pictures of women's clothes and that I should have been out there getting proof of Spider-Man's 'nefarious deeds' - his words, even - instead of wasting my time trying to be a fashion reporter..." Peter shrugged in the traditional non-verbal sign for 'what can you say?, "But he bought the pictures anyway."

"How magnanimous of him," Nancy observed in a tone that those who'd known her pre-amnesia would have called 'pure Natasha' from its level of sarcastic drollness.

"I think it was the comment that Jan had suggested Empire Media instead of the Bugle that got him," Peter admitted.

"Of course, if there is anything Jameson hates more than Spider-Man, it's the thought of being scooped," Nancy agreed.

"I just don't understand it," Peter sighed, "I've met both J.J.'s father and his son, John, and neither of them have this severe hate for Spider-Man that he does. John even admitted that he didn't know where his father's coming from with it."

"If he could not claim 'Freedom of the Press', the man should be charged with incitement to riot with the way he tries to work people into violence over Spider-Man," the red-haired teacher huffed.

"Jen keeps trying to get me to sue him, but I don't think I'd win," Peter shook his head. "I'm not even sure it'd make it to court if Spider-Man refuses to remove his mask. Probably claim it would be a violation of his right to face his accuser or something."

"Using the law to pervert justice, how droll of him," Nancy shook her head. "It's almost enough to make a person wonder why we have half of the laws that we do when they end up serving the exact opposite purpose from which they were intended..."

Peter shrugged and grinned, "Dammit, Jim, I'm a web-slinger, not a lawyer!"

"And a 'Star Trek' character you're also not," she rolled her eyes.

"Thank God for that, I'd hate to see how I'd get cast," Peter muttered to the side. "They'd probably get that guy from the horse-racing movie to play me, someone like that."

Nancy rolled her eyes again and, ignoring that particular comment, moved back to the reason that Peter was there, "Peter, you do realise that simply because you couldn't wait to tell me doesn't mean we don't still have to go back to our apartment, don't you? I'm sure you'd be perfectly willing to give jeans and a polo-shirt a try, but I would prefer being better dressed before we go to dinner somewhere like you're proposing."

"That... would be why I brought you a change of clothes with me," Peter admitted.

That statement got him an annoyed look as Nancy reminded him, "Most of my clothes that would be considered good enough to wear to a dinner like you're talking about don't take well to being carried across the city in a web-bag."

Peter's face turned pink as it tried to blush and go pale at the same time, "Oops."