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September 9, 1971
New York City

It was an attractive pair of women who were seated at the rear corner table of Jean-Pierre's Restaurant. One was a redhead in her 30s wearing a loose blouse, vest and slacks. The other was a blond in her 20s with her hair pulled back by a clip wearing a tight red and black turtleneck with slacks. The potted plant behind the redhead was a Boston Fern. The tablecloth was fine linen, the silverware was polished to a high gleam and the menus were written in both French and English. The wine list had been turned away, the two women choosing to drink water only.

Natasha Barton ordered coq au vin and pointed to a few other things on the menu. The waiter walked away, leaving Natasha and Gwen Parker alone.

“I've been waiting to tell you that you look fantastic,” Gwen said, her hands animated and her speech enthusiastic. She smiled when she spoke.

Natasha had never seen Gwen not smile. “No…no, I'm not,” Natasha said before sipping some water.

“Yes you are! You are glowing!”

“No – but you! Look at you!” Natasha redirected. “You look great. All your baby fat gone in two months?”

Gwen looked down at herself, embarrassed. “Not quite all gone, but I sure look a lot better than I did. When I was five months pregnant I looked so terrible I wouldn't go outside, but you don't look like that at all.”

“You did not look terrible. I haven't been gone that long that I forgot what you looked like, though it does seem like forever since we've had a chance to sit down and talk like this.”

The waiter returned with a plate of appetizers. Gwen wrinkled up her nose and gave Natasha a funny look after seeing the snails on the plate. “You said you weren't going to make me try escargots,” Gwen said.

“Russian spies are notorious liars,” Natasha said, teasing Gwen with a hint of her old accent. “You don't have to try them if you don't want to, but I wanted some. I was craving escargots last night. Clint said I was crazy.”

“So you talked me into coming to lunch with you instead,” Gwen said with a half-smile. “Sneaky.”

“It's not like that,” Natasha said as she slurped down the contents of a shell. “Wasn't it January when we last talked about having lunch?”

“I do remember that,” Gwen conceded, sipping her water. “Right before you got whisked away to Arkon's dimension, wasn't it?”

“Well...I won't be doing any whisking for awhile now,” Natasha said glumly.

“Before you know it you'll be whisking just like—oh no,” Gwen said, losing her bubbly, cheerful personality so fast that it surprised Natasha.

“What's wrong?” Natasha asked, sitting up and tensing.

“Don't look, but Norman Osborn just came in,” Gwen said quietly, leaning her face into her propped up hand to conceal it.

“What, the businessman Norman Osborn?” Natasha asked, confused.

“No, the father of my best friend Norman Osborn,” Gwen said, then dropped her voice to a whisper, “and the man who hit on me.”

“No!”

“Yes!” Gwen said, still whispering. “When Peter and I were in London last year, Norman tried to get me to – you know – with him.”

“Oh!” Natasha said, suddenly filled with anger. She turned around and glared at Norman Osborn being seated across the room at a table with some other people who were probably business partners of his. “Oh, that's disgusting! He must be stupid. Does Peter know?”

“No, I haven't told him. When your boyfriend is strong enough to rip somebody's head off, you try not to get him too mad.”

“Well, I would if I was that strong too. I mean, only the biggest idiot in the world would think you would – you know – with your best friend's dad.”

“I know! I didn't think anyone in the world was crazy enough to think I would do something like that.”

While Natasha glared icy daggers the oblivious Norman stood up, excused himself from his friends, and headed off toward the restrooms.

“Excuse me, Gwen,” Natasha said, rising from her seat. “I'm going to the ladies' room.”

“Natasha, don't—”

Natasha paused and looked back. If Gwen asked her to sit down, she would.

“—be gone too long,” Gwen said, picking up her water glass again and trying to look innocent.

Natasha zigzagged around tables, trying to reach the restrooms right behind Norman. Norman Osborn was wearing an expensive suit, his wavy brown hair immaculately groomed. To all outward appearances he was a classy man. That just seemed to make it worse. As Norman opened the door to the men's room, Natasha followed him in before the door closed. He noticed her right away as she closed the door because she had allowed him to.

“I believe one of us is in the wrong—” Norman started to say but was stopped when the palm of Natasha's hand drove up into his nose with such force that he reeled backward, spraying blood in the air as he fell. He uttered several obscenities before he managed to sputter out, “What is wrong with you?!”

“No, the question is what is wrong with you?!” Natasha said but she turned and left without saying another word. Best to leave him guessing, she thought with a smirk as she made her way back out to the tables.

Gwen was watching for her and eyed her impatiently until Natasha was in range to hear. “Well?”

In answer, Natasha stepped to the side and allowed Gwen to see Norman leaving the men's room with a wad of red-stained toilet tissue under his nose. He stumbled towards his table with his head tilted back. His business associates rose in alarm and met him halfway, leading him back to the table. The maître d' also raced to their table to see what was wrong. By now, Norman was so embarrassed by all the attention that he yelled at the maître d' that he was fine and led his friends hastily out of the restaurant.

Natasha was back in her seat and trying the French onion soup that had arrived while she was gone. She and Gwen exchanged knowing smiles at each other. They each took a few sips before Gwen said, more seriously, “I've never been a revenge kind of person, I don't think.”

“It grows on you,” Natasha said with a wink as she had another snail.

“Do you ever want revenge on Zodiac?” Gwen asked, as if she had been screwing up the courage to ask for awhile.

Natasha had started to pick up her soup spoon again and sat it down while she thought for a moment. “I did at first,” she confessed without looking directly at Gwen. “I was so hopping mad when Clint found me that I was ready to track down all 12 leaders and, well, do more than break their noses. But the more he told me about the Kree and the threat from space...well, I began to think, 'What's the point?' It just really put my problems in perspective.”

“Yeah...” was all Gwen could say. There was a long awkward silence while both women just looked at the food or the table. The alien fleet was the topic they had avoided discussing so as not to ‘talk shop’, as it were, but there was the topic in front of them again. They avoided it further while the waiter came and replaced their soup bowls with fresh plates of salad. Finally, Gwen asked, “Did you ever see the Vice President?”

Natasha shook her head. “No, but I didn't need to. Captain America stepped in and took over trying to persuade the White House of the danger we're in. He got in to see the President, but Humphrey isn't listening. Everyone in Washington is acting like they're pretending they don't hear anything.”

Gwen forced a smile. “I got his autograph once for my father. Captain America's, I mean. Is he going to fight the Kree? Is anybody?”

Natasha shrugged. “I don't know. I know Clint is ready. Me too, whether they come before the baby or not. What's the point in staying behind to keep the baby safe if aliens are coming to destroy or enslave us all? The trouble is, ever since the founding members all came back and disbanded the Avengers, there's no organization to Earth's defense. The Fantastic Four should take the lead, but if they're doing anything to get ready they aren't letting the rest of the superhero community in on it.”

“What's Clint doing?”

“Fuming,” Natasha said, flashing a genuine smile for the first time that day. “Lots of making phone calls to NASA and SHIELD, trying to convince them to give him a rocket. I think he has Wanda and Pietro half persuaded to go with him to try and intercept the fleet in space before they get here. What about Peter?”

“I don't know...” Gwen said, looking concerned for the first time. “He's been so withdrawn lately.”

“Because of the Avengers disbanding? He always took being Chairman very seriously.”

“No. I'm not sure…Peter was even talking about stepping down as chairman before that happened.”

“Really? Peter? I didn't think he would ever step down.”

“It...might be because of me,” Gwen said. She was staring at her salad plate and not looking up. “I had told Peter he needed to find more time for me and Leila now and...”

Gwen had trailed off as the waiter came back. They both reported that everything was excellent so far and he cheerily told them the main course would be arriving soon.

“That's funny, I usually tell Clint to back off because...” Natasha said, but trailed off as she could see that Gwen was not smiling and she was suddenly filled with regret. Gwen had probably agreed to come to dinner to cheer her up and now she had brought Gwen down instead. Natasha bolstered her spirits through sheer willpower, sat up straighter in her chair and said, “Gwen – baby pictures.”

A smile slowly crept back over Gwen's face and she went for the purse hanging off the back of her chair. “Well...I do have a few with me,” she said, her bubbly self coming back. She fished her wallet out of her purse and removed the photo section entirely. “Here is Leila eating creamed corn…or wearing most of it anyway. And this one is Leila asleep in her stroller. That's Peter pushing it. And here's Peter and our friend Harry holding Leila between them.” Gwen smiled a big smile at each picture, leaning across the table and admiring them with Natasha.

“She is so adorable. And Peter looks like he's so good with her.”

“He is, though I had to force him to hold still for those pictures. You'd think with his photography background he would like having his picture taken more.”

“And Leila, has she exhibited any superpowers yet?”

“God, no!” Gwen exclaimed, rolling her eyes at the idea. “A regular baby is hard enough to take care of. You think I could handle a super-baby? At least you and Clint won't have to worry about that.”

It was truly unlikely for two non-superpowered parents to have superpowered children, but Natasha made a silent prayer asking that her son not be born a mutant anyway. She said nothing out loud about it. The waiter had returned with their entrees and the wine-basted chicken looked delicious.

“What's it like...being with Peter?” Natasha asked hesitantly after the waiter left.

“Well, like I said, it's hectic—”

“No, I mean...what is it like doing...you know...with someone with super strength?”

“Oh...oh! Well...” Gwen looked a little embarrassed, but sat down the photos and leaned in closer. “It's actually pretty dangerous! The first time we did it I could barely walk for days afterwards. I mean, he almost fractured my hip! And Peter, being so protective, didn't even want to try doing it at all after that. It was a few months before I convinced him it was okay to try again.”

“Wow. I am so glad Clint has no superpowers! He would wind up killing me for sure. At least now I'm just...side-lined.”

“Oh, you don't have to be. Sure, maybe you shouldn't swing into fights and, you know, start karate chopping everyone for awhile, but I can't do any of that and I still help Peter. Not with fighting bad guys but with looking for clues. Being a forensic scientist, I can be a big help sometimes, and there's other things I do for him too, like when he lets me help track down his 'spider-tracers' with his hand-held tracker. Sometimes I'm even the bait for traps – I prefer it when it's our trap and not someone else's for –” Gwen started to say, but then she covered her mouth and looked to see if Natasha was offended.

“You mean being taken prisoner,” Natasha added with a sarcastic smile. “Yeah...I guess that comes with the job whether we have superpowers or not. Sue has powers and she used to say she could almost schedule being used as a hostage on her calendar. Maybe...maybe I've just been feeling too powerless because of what Zodiac did to me. There's still lots I can do to help organize and coordinate for the war that's coming.” Natasha raised her hand to flag down the waiter.

“What are you doing?”

“We're taking our dinners to go. There's too much to do to sit and wait for things to happen. Oh, and Gwen...thanks.”

Gwen shrugged. “I didn't do anything.”

“You were a real morale boost for me today. Peter is lucky to have you.”

“I know,” Gwen said with her usual smile.

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To Be Continued...

Next: In Black Widow #6: Natasha and Clint set up a nursery – oh, and Zodiac returns, along with two other supervillains! It’s not all bright and cheery in “Smiling Faces Sometimes!”

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