A/N: Hi. I can't even tell you how addicted I am to Stasha/Romanogers. And so, because I'm besotted with those two ever since Avengers came up, I decided to (finally) do something and contribute to this wonderful community of fanfiction. Alas, this is my first time submitting this so please be gentle and review. I probably would make this a three or four shots, but no longer than five chapters. This chapter is dedicated to ym4yum1 and Mystic Fantasy because both are awesome Romanogers writers. Love you guys.

Lovelots, Agent0018

Blood. There was blood everywhere. On the bathroom, on the floor and in the sheets.

Natasha bit her lip in pain, trying not to cry out.

The spasms were coming and going, each harder and more intense than the last. Her water had broken roughly eighteen hours ago and she knew that there were at least six more hellish hours to go. Her baby's father was nowhere in sight, probably cursing her name while trying to drink away the memory of them together (even if she knew he wouldn't even get drunk for it, but still), or maybe even in a damn near suicidal mission, all in an effort to forget her. Her existence.

She was alone because she had to be. She was alone because she was running from her enemies both past and present. She was alone because her former teammates thought she betrayed them.

She was alone because she, Natalia Romanova, master assassin and super spy, was betrayed.

Seven months ago...

"Duck!" Captain America, Steve, yelled at her. She automatically followed her partner, now fiancée (still weird to think about that), and avoided a barrage of bullets aimed for her head. She quickly hid behind a car and aimed for the man who shot at her. Taking him down with a single shot because she needed to conserve her bullets (not that she still couldn't fight with her kicks and deadly jabs but she needed to take care of the goons without bodily contact because of her condition), she ran to cover Steve's back.

"I'll take care of this Cap! Go and get the vial before the rest of their company comes!" She shouted while shooting simultaneously three men. "Go!" She looked at Steve who was also trying to crane his neck to look at her. Natasha threw a couple of smoke bombs and Steve dragged her off to a fallen section of a wall.

"I will go and get that vial but you have to promise me that if the rest of their company do come, you get the hell out of here. Stay low and on the ground for twelve hours and then contact Nick. After the thirteenth hour, I'll meet you at the safe house." Steve said, while looking at her gorgeous green eyes that now held a deadly glint of determination. Nat nodded, and then grabbed the back of Steve's neck and dragged him down for a hard kiss. They stayed like that for a moment or two, desperately trying to draw strength from one another.

"You better be at the safe house, Rogers. I can't afford to wait another seventy years for you. Especially after this." Nat hissed at him before drawing back and slipping her Black Widow's face again. "Good luck Captain." She said and in a hail of bullets, left his side.

"Aw, come on, this is no time for sucking face Cap, not that I mind watching Nat and you, I just prefer to be you whenever you suck face with her-" Tony teased before using his repulsor beams to fire at a soldier trying to sneak up over the fallen debris "but I prefer to have the family jewels intact"

"Shut up, Stark" Steve said while punching in the code to open the metallic door towards the safe.

"...89#NLI. Got it! Now go inside Stark and have JARVIS deactivate the electronic traps in-" Steve didn't finish the sentence because at that moment, JARVIS told him that all defense systems were disabled inside. Steve managed to locate the chamber and then he gingerly stepped onto the platform that would deliver him the deadly vial.

The conveyor belt finally produced the bluish-green vial. Steve looked at it, the small little thing that has the power to kill an entire population of a small city once released into the air. Steve placed the vial in a Kevlar-lined pocket in his suit and got out of the chamber. Just before he called Tony, Bruce and Thor to fall back, an incapacitating blow to the back of his head made him collapse unconscious, but not before he saw Black Widow reach inside his suit and take the vial out.

Thor was the one who found him and helped him out of the building. They airlifted him after he was unable to wake up, fearing that Captain America's injury was more than a concussion.

They found Black Widow twelve hours later in the safe house, preparing to leave and holding the deadly vial that was taken away from Steve. SHIELD agents found her and attempted to take her into custody. Black Widow put up a hell of a fight but was ultimately taken down by a Taser-gun fired by a very reluctant Agent Hill. Subdued, they took her to the Triskelion holding cells.

Steve Rogers woke up two days later, after having sustained a rather severe concussion, but was healed completely because of the super serum. He was quietly informed of Black Widow's betrayal by Nick Fury. He couldn't believe it. Natasha Romanoff, his fiancee and one of the country's revered heroes. A traitor. He was deceived. When he was released from the infirmary another week later, he returned to a lonely apartment and gazed upon the surfaces littered with their things forlornly and with anger.

He took out a cardboard box and put Natasha's things inside. He started with the living room, then the kitchen, and the bathroom. When he came inside their bedroom, he took a deep breath-Natasha's scent - still lingered in the air. He just stood there for a minute trying to get his bearings and then he cleaned out their closets and finally the vanity. He came upon the box that once held the ring he gave to her when he proposed in London on one of the downtime of their many missions. He took the box and tossed it into the cardboard box that held all of Natasha's things and closed it.

Three hours later a knock sounded at his door. Three, hesitant knocks, but he heard it all the same.

"S-Steve?" Natasha called out. "I can explain. Let me in. Please."

He shuffled silently to the door and with a deep breath, opened it to reveal Natasha in jeans, tank top and a leather jacket with a gash on her forehead. There was a pang of concern that struck Steve's heart, but he reined it in. Nat immediately started talking. "Steve, it wasn't me, I swear. Yele - " "I packed your things and put it all in a box. You can keep the ring." Steve cut in.

A lengthy silence ensued. Looking back, Natasha couldn't recall how she managed to keep a straight face when inside she felt as if she was breaking, no - dying, inside. The look on Steve's face when he told her to get her things and keep her - his - ring was forever burned into her heart. She never wanted to see such dead eyes, their usual jovial lights extinguished by suspicion and disbelief. Her pride urged her to take her things, get out of there and disappear.

Her heart told her otherwise. For the sake of their unborn child, she needed to get through to Steve, needed to make him understand.

Steve retreated to the apartment and she followed, eventually stopping at their bedroom where the closets were opened and the vanity cleared. She looked at the big cardboard box that held the things she accumulated while living blissfully together with Steve. The reality of Steve throwing her out was comical and she was sure that the old Black Widow would have cracked a joke or two about it. But nothing was funny now.

She started to convince Steve again, to see the situation from her point. "Steve, please. Listen to me. Before the mission went FUBAR, I really needed to tell you somethi – "

"SHUT UP! JUST, PLEASE! DON'T YOU DARE GIVE ME LIES ANYMORE, ROMANOVA! I trusted you! With SHIELD, with the safety of the country, with the Avengers, and, hell, even with my heart! But what did you do? You fucking betrayed us! I don't want anything to do with you anymore. I couldn't stay with someone I can never trust!" Steve shouted at her.

Natasha was stunned. Never in the two years that she had been with Steve and the other three in which she was his partner did she hear him shout except at missions. And never at her. And certainly not with that tone that sounded like he would like nothing more than to treat her as the enemy.

"Rogers, listen to me. Just, please. If you ever loved me – "

"Don't you throw that obsolete fact that I loved you at my face! I loved the Natasha whom I trusted, not this sham of a woman in front of me. Certainly not you!" Steve seethed.

Tears that were bravely held back now spilled over and over her cheeks. Each word that came out of Steve's mouth were like nails driven through her heart. She was numb, unfeeling.

Steve looked a little shocked after his outburst and he paled slightly. Nat took a step back and tried to steady her wobbly knees. "Natasha, I – " Steve began but Natasha immediately cut in. "It's fine, I-I'm leaving. I'm leaving."

As she reached the hallway door and turned back to Steve. She took off the ring on her left hand and gently put it down at the coffee table. She raised her eyes and took one last look at Steve, memorized the planes of his handsome face, the planes she traced on many a night. At the lips she has kissed and bitten, soothed and licked. And the intense blue eyes that to her was a glimpse to heaven from her personal hell, eyes that were now stormy.

She committed it all to her memory, imprinted it in her heart. And then she left.

As she was fighting the need to push, Natalia heard the breaking of doors. Guns cocking and search lights flashing. Fuck. She has tried to avoid the agents sent by the Red Room but she could only go so far now that she was pregnant and especially now that she is giving birth.

She waddled to a switch near the bathroom mirror and flicked it. A reinforced steel door, twelve inches thick, sealed the bathroom. She flicked another switch and pressed a button, then a hallway appeared behind the sunken tub. She quickly went down the hallway where an red Audi waited for her. She quickly drove away from the apartment and went down the highway.

Just as she was getting relieved that she had evaded them this time, another car appeared on the right side of her car and slammed into her.

Nat's tires skidded but the road was icy and slick. The Audi knocked into a post and the impact of it nearly sent Natalia flying if it weren't for the seatbelt. Nevertheless, she hit her head, hard, on the side of the car. Trying desperately to stay awake, she tried to open the door of the car. It was jammed so she kicked it, again and again but a spasm again wracked her stomach.

Hunching over in pain, she rode it out until the pain passed. Kicking the door again, it finally gave out. She grabbed a gun and a hospital baby kit and wobbled away from the wreck. As she was nearing the cover of the trees, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm. She swung blindly but her center of gravity has shifted and she fell down.

"Well, well. Natalia Alianovna Romanova. We meet again. But it looks like I'm not bringing home one, but two hostages. Lucky night, eh?" Alexi Shostakov sneered down at her.

Impossible. It was the last thought Natalia had before the fist coming at her made her lose consciousness.