Chapter Nineteen

A few weeks before, Natasha would have thought it impossible to fall into a nightly routine with a cyborg, but apparently anything could happen. Their dinners usually consisted of something frozen that could be heated up in the oven. The convenience helped alleviate Natasha’s exhaustion from working as well as Fury’s strange desire to cook. Although he couldn’t exactly make gourmet cuisine, he enjoyed putting food on the table for her. Other than fish sticks, he had now made frozen pizza, a small lasagna, and Chinese dishes in little boxes that looked like takeout. He had even begun enhancing the foods before putting them in the oven, taking steps like adding extra cheese to a pizza or a dash of sauce to a rice dish.

Natasha wondered if he had often cooked in his previous life. Perhaps he felt he was paying her back for the meals she had brought to him, or maybe he got a sense of accomplishment. Either way, she didn’t want to ask and ruin it. It was nice to have hot food waiting when she kicked off her sneakers and collapsed into a dining chair.

After they ate and threw their plates in the dishwasher (a small task that Natasha was glad to take on since he always did the cooking), they moved to the living room and relaxed. Natasha had never cared much for television, so she usually settled in on the loveseat with a good book or played on her phone. She propped her feet up on the opposite arm of the small couch and ignored the crime shows Fury had been hooked on. She didn’t care to add any more drama to her life, especially when it dealt with husbands who murdered their wives or other television episodes that felt far too familiar to her.

When Fury first discovered the shows, he watched them from the couch. After a few episodes, he couldn’t sit through them. Mostly, Fury stood up for the duration of the show. When standing was unsatisfactory, he began to pace back and forth.

This night was a pacing night, and it was starting to worry Natasha. He stared at the screen like he could burn a hole through it with eyes, and he pressed his hand against his lips. “Is everything ok?” she asked, putting her phone away for the moment.

“No,” he answered quickly. “I need to get out.” The television had been prompting his memories of speaking, and his sentences were complete without any effort at all. In rare instances, he took a moment to think about the right word or phrase. When Fury had a delay, Natasha had to force herself to not help him. He was doing well on his own, and if she started feeding him words, it would inhibit his development.

Natasha sighed and picked up her phone again. They had talked about leaving the house, and she didn’t think it was a good idea. He had grown angry with her about the topic, and his rage could make him swell up and look larger than usual. She shook inside when she saw his anger, but she refused to budge from her position. It wasn’t worth arguing about again. “You know that can’t happen,” she casually said as she added a new yoga mat to her shopping cart.

“I can’t stay here. Everything’s the same. I need to see something new.”

Natasha hadn’t heard that type of urgency in his voice before, and it made her look up. She could see veins standing out under the skin of his neck as though he were about to burst. “Where do you think you’re going to go?” Natasha didn’t want him to leave, not after everything they had been through together.

Fury crossed the room and put his eye against the split in the curtain panels, staring down the driveway and wondering where it led. “Wherever I need to be.”

“I know it’s frustrating, but what choice do we have? What if one of the former employees from the Cyborg Sector recognizes you? Some of those scientists get to know their projects a little too well. You’d be dead before I went to bed.” Perhaps John had been right when he predicted there would be more difficulty as Fury’s memories returned. She hadn’t thought the cyborg would move along so quickly, but he was beginning to feel more like a roommate than a science experiment.

The soldier flexed his muscles. He had kept himself occupied during the day with rigorous workouts and practicing exercises prescribed by Natasha. But he was already fit as hell and capable of doing almost anything he would need to do to be able to live on his own. Natasha wasn’t surprised he was bored and restless.

“It doesn’t matter. I need to do something. It’s too much to make me look at the same walls every day. Do you think you can stop me, Natasha?” Her name sounded less awkward on his lips than before. She enjoyed hearing Fury say her name even when he wasn’t pleased with her.

Natasha prepared to grab a tranquilizer so she could immobilize Fury, if necessary. It didn’t seem fair to use the syringe on him; but he was right, she couldn’t possibly overpower him if he decided to leave.

A knock on the door stopped both of their plans. “Go into the kitchen,” Natasha whispered. “I wasn’t expecting company.”

A peek through the curtains revealed Nick on her porch again. He swatted at the bugs gathering around the porch light, and he staggered slightly on the concrete. Natasha opened the door with a sigh. “What do you want?” She had no energy left for polite greetings.

“That’s no way to say hello to the love of your life,” he responded with a lopsided grin. The stench of old whiskey washed over her as he spoke. “How are you doing, beautiful?”

“I was doing pretty well until your sorry ass showed up. Go home, Nick.” The nurse kept her body in the doorway to block his entry.

“I can’t. You have to listen to me. I need you, Natasha. You mean the world to me. I messed up.” Tears glistened in his eyes as he pleaded. A moth landed in his hair, but he didn’t notice.

“I don’t have time for this. I’m tired.” She started to shut the door.

He reached out and grabbed the door handle, stopping her with an unexpected amount of force considering his inebriation. “You do have time, and you have to listen to me. You were the best thing that ever happened to me, and I threw it away because I thought I needed more. But nobody could be worth more to me than you.”

Natasha felt sorry for the miserable wretch, but she had a feeling there was more to the story than he was sharing. “Sharla left you, didn’t she?” No doubt the skinny blonde bitch had gotten enough free drinks out of him and had moved on to something better.

“Of course not,” he insisted. “I left her. I told her I couldn’t see her anymore. You’re my wife, and I need you.”

“Can we talk about this in the morning?” Natasha asked, mentally adding, when you aren’t drunk anymore. Her eyes felt tired, and she had enough things to handle without Nick adding to them.

“No, I need to see you right now.” Her husband didn’t seem to be able to stay still. He moved restlessly, losing his balance before he barely regained it.

“There’s nothing more to say, Nick.”

The cyborg’s voice came booming out of the house. “She told you to leave.”

The voice behind her made Natasha freeze on the spot. She had never been good at hiding her emotions. Anyone could read her feelings just by looking at her face. She couldn’t stop her eyes from widening or shoulders from stiffening. The nurse could feel the presence of the cyborg behind her, and Nick couldn’t help but see him.

“Who the fuck is this, Natasha?” He said her name like he was spitting. Nick’s attitude had completely changed in the fraction of a second it took him to notice the man standing behind his wife. “I come over here to apologize, and you’ve got another man at your house? I never realized you were such a whore.”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Fury boomed. He picked Natasha up by the waist, swung her around, and planted her on the floor behind him. The cyborg filled the doorway as he confronted Natasha’s husband face-to-face.

“I’ll talk to her any way that I want to, asshole.” Nick’s alcohol level didn’t let him see what a formidable opponent the cyborg was. “She’s my wife, and I can do whatever the fuck I want to with her.”

Even though Nick’s words infuriated her, Natasha didn’t want him to die. She leaped up to grab Fury’s arm as he pulled it back to strike a blow. She didn’t need blood on her front steps or anyone to call the cops when the cyborg knocked her husband’s arrogant head off. Natasha knew he could do it easily. “Stop!”

Fury didn’t punch Nick, but kept his arm cocked. “Is he going?” The question sounded like a threat.

Nick leaned over in an attempt to look around the bulky man and speak to his wife. “Who is this clown? Are you into bodybuilding cave men these days? Last week I thought your type was computer nerds. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.”

A metallic taste of nausea filled Natasha’s mouth. There was no reasonable explanation for the man currently sharing her house. “He’s a handyman, sent over from the Cyborg Rehabilitation Center. It’s a work release program.” The lie came quickly to her tongue and was close enough to the truth. The CRC organized paid internships for cyborgs who had progressed enough to enter the real world and practice for the job market.

“At ten o’clock at night? What the hell kind of handyman has any work to do that late? You’re fucking him, just like you fuck whoever you can get your hands on. Hell, you’ve probably been doing this behind my back all along. Do you want to talk about all the things I did wrong? You need to take a look in the mirror, bitch.”

Natasha tried to hide behind the soldier. Nick was right, unfortunately. Not about her cheating - she had always been faithful. But Natasha had been an idiot to lie. Should she have come up with a plausible cover story in case anyone came snooping around? Why hadn’t she ignored the accusations like she did when John was there?

In her heart, she knew the reason. Natasha wasn’t sleeping with John, but she had slept with the cyborg. There was more to hide, and she felt like there was far more at stake.

Fury didn’t think much about Natasha’s lie or whether Nick bought it. He was more interested in the fact that the drunkard on the porch had just called her a bitch. He launched a fist forward, making Natasha’s husband fly backward into the grass, feet completely coming out from beneath him.

“No!” Natasha exclaimed as the cyborg took a step out the door to finish the job. “Just leave him alone!” The bar owner was going to be nothing more than a smear on her lawn if she didn’t find a way to control Fury. She moved to follow him.

Fury turned around to face her. He stepped back into the house and slammed the door. A framed picture of two boats sailing on a river fell and crashed to the floor. The cyborg’s face looked menacing as he loomed over her. “You shouldn’t talk to him anymore.”

“He’s technically still my husband. I’m going to have to deal with him.”

“No!” Fury exploded. “You don’t talk to him. I’ll talk to him. Only me.”

At the moment, Fury looked terrifying. She could barely keep herself upright under the force of his argument. “But what if he comes back?”

“That’s no excuse. He is no good for you, and I will keep him away.”

The cyborg barely had himself under control. If this incident had happened right after the upgrade, there was no telling what the cyborg might have done. Natasha could tell he was on the verge of dropping his safety protocols.

“I’m sorry,” she stammered.

“Don’t apologize if you haven’t done anything wrong.” Despite John’s advice, Natasha had given the cyborg a guest bedroom. He stomped down the hallway and slammed the door.

Natasha fell to the floor, lost in a puddle of emotions. Tears stung the back of her eyes, and she let them flow freely. They flooded down her cheeks and silently dripped down her face.