This was written last Christmas for hiddencait on LJ. We both participated in xover_exchange on there and I got her as my assignment. An Avengers/NCIS crossover is what I came up with from her prompts and fandom preferences. Now I am finally posting this onto here. Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or The Avengers.

Summary: He never expected to see her again. Yet with the Black Widow, he should have remembered that "never" was not an option.

Gibbs never expected to see her again. It had been four years since that unexpected mission to Russia and it was an experience that he was not about to forget. It was not every day that one can say that he or she survived an encounter with the Black Widow. And that was before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. That had surprised him. He never thought that she would give up the only life that she had ever known. But she did and seemed to be doing well.

What he really did not expect was for her to come looking for him. They did not part too amicably but at least they made sure to leave each other alone. "The last time I saw you, your hair was longer," he said as he looked at her. She was standing at the top of the stairs, leaning against the railing, just watching him.

Natasha gave him a small smile. "And you have stayed the same," she replied as she pushed herself up and walked down the stairs.

He smiled. "Just gotten older," he retorted as he turned his attention back to his boat. "Why are you doing here?"

"Not to kill you," she said as she leaned against the boat.

He smiled at that. If she had wanted him dead, he would already be dead. She wanted something. "Then what do you want?" he then asked.

She was silent, as if she had no idea what she wanted to say. But then, he remembered her being the silent type. Then she said, "You work with a team." He looked up at her, staying quiet. He knew that she wanted to say something. "You've heard about New York," she added, knowing for a fact that he had. Yet she continued: "I've never been a situation like that. I am so used to working alone that working with other people is…"

"Difficult," he ended when she trailed off. He sighed. Since when did an assassin need advice? Yet, when he thought about it, Natasha had had a hard life. "Remember the last time we saw each other?" he asked.

She smiled. "You were trying to stop me from killing a diplomat…Andrei Patrescu. You got in the way and I slipped."

"Very unlike you."

"Indeed. Patrescu's men spotted me and began shooting," she continued, the smile growing. "You grabbed me and dragged me along with you as we returned fire."

"We got away," he said as he walked over to his workbench. She nodded. "How is that different from what happened with those aliens?" Gibbs then asked.

She was silent at that moment. It was obvious that she had never thought about it before now. "Does it get easier?" she asked. Natasha knew that Gibbs had never been a team player and it took him years to learn it.

He nodded. "Over time," he replied. He offered her a mug of bourbon – his choice of the week – and took a spot next to her. "And don't be afraid to slap them every so often."

She chuckled. "I'll remember that," she said as she took a sip of the alcohol, allowing it to help her relax. She then rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her waist. They both knew that there was more to discuss but it can wait until later.

The next morning, Gibbs woke up to a smell of fresh coffee and knew that Natasha was already up…and that she did not run. He let her stay in one of his guest rooms so that she did not have to worry about much. Besides, he just thought that she was going to leave before he woke up. However, it turned out that she stayed after all. "Still here," he commented as he walked into the kitchen. She just shrugged. "You're welcome to stay here while I'm at the office," he added as he grabbed himself a cup.

"No case?" she asked.

"Not yet," he replied. He then went back upstairs to get ready. When he came back downstairs, he noticed that she moved into the living room, sitting on the couch and watching some news show. "Call me if you need something," he said as he left. He knew that that was a pointless offer, but he felt as if he had to say it.

It was late before he got back to the house. A case had come up and so far there was nothing to really follow up on. The victim was an enigma inside of an enigma and it was driving him crazy. As he walked up to the door, all he could think about was a cup of tea (surprisingly) and a good book. Yet seeing the light on reminded him that Natasha was probably still here. He opened the door and looked around. "I'm in the kitchen," he heard her yell.

A bit surprised, he walked in there to see her at the table, reading a book while playing with some food on her dish. "You alright?" he asked.

"Quiet day. You?"

"Got a case."

"Anything interesting?" she asked. He responded with a shrug, which caused her to smile. They both knew that it is never good to discuss the things they are working on. Keep the work life as far away from the private life as possible. "Clint called," she said, deciding to change the subject.

"He missing you already?"

She smiled. "He's accusing me of leaving him alone with Stark while I'm off 'finding myself'," she replied, emphasizing the last part with quotation marks – something else that she normally did not do.

"I thought I remember hearing that you all were living together?"

"We are. But that does not stop us from driving each other crazy," she replied as she turned a page.

Taking a seat at the table, Gibbs said, "Tell me about them."

She sighed. "Tony is an idiot and a fool yet he does have some good points every so often. Bruce is sweet. None of us know how he manages to corral Tony much less not get angry with him. Steve is understanding, even though he is still having difficulty catching up," she said.

"Seventy years is a lot to go over," said the NCIS agent as he took another sip of his drink.

"And it shows. You've heard me talk about Clint. But ever since being taken over by Loki, he has become different. More reclusive."

"Annoying?"

"A bit. And I don't know much about Thor besides the fact that he is loyal to a fault. Yet it seems to work for him."

"And yet you seem to work together pretty well," he said. She remained silent. He knew that she was piecing together what they just talked about. "Dysfunction is part of what makes a team work. Hell, you know how many times I've complained about mine. Yet…"

"Yet you still make it work," she ended. They sat in silence for what seemed like an hour before she got up and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she said as she walked to the stairs and up to her room. Hopefully she found what she was looking for. That was at least what Gibbs hoped for.

Natasha was gone by the time Gibbs got up the next morning. That did not surprise him – he had a feeling that she might do that. And he knew that she would be back. The fact that they were not trying to kill each other helped. Besides, Bucharest was fun.

As he got to headquarters, he was disappointed to find out that no one had been able to find any leads to discovering who their victim really was. To say that he was not happy was an understatement. After sending Dinozzo and Ziva back out and sending McGee to help Abby, he tried to do some investigation his way. But that got him nowhere. "Agent Gibbs?" came a young voice from in front of his desk.

Looking up, he saw one of the junior agents standing in front of him with a manila folder in his hand. "What?" he asked, making the fact that he did not like the interruption very much.

The junior agent froze for a moment before answering, "This arrived for you. We scanned it and it's safe." He handed the folder to Gibbs and walked away as quickly as possible.

Looking at the folder suspiciously, he slowly opened it and pulled the contents out. What he saw amazed him. It was pictures of his victim, as well as documents and financial records that went back a ways. He also found a note that read:

Jethro,

I hope that you find this helpful. Thank you for letting me stay for a bit. Believe me when I say that I do appreciate it. Contact me if you ever need anything.

Love,

Natasha

All he could do was smile. He never could figure out how she managed to find out things that nobody wanted her to find. Yet, in this case, he was more than thankful that she did. She gave him a better starting point than he originally had. iGood luck, Natalia,/i, he thought as he began to look over the information, wishing her the luck that she needed to find her place.