It had been a hard mission. Fighting over two hundred hydra soldiers who were all armed with deadly weapons. However the Avengers fought as a team and that resulted in victory. They successfully shut down the hydra base and all escaped with no more than a few cuts and bruises, but, it was a hard mission.

The Avengers were all sat in the Quinjet which was flying them away from the mission and to SHIELD HQ for debriefing. There was a conversation filtering between each of the teams members, all taking turns of pointing out the battles pros and cons. They were having fun, especially when Clint brought up the fact that Tony had accidentally flown into a building during the fight.

"I didn't think anyone noticed that", Tony sulked.

The team laughed as they continued to tease Tony. They were all beginning to relax, all except one.

Natasha had been sat silently in her seat for the whole flight. She hadn't added to the conversation, she hadn't laughed and she definitely hadn't relaxed. The spy was sat stiffly in her seat, gripping the arm rests tightly either side of her to try and hide the fact that her whole body was shaking. It wasn't just the fighting that had been hard for Natasha on this mission. The spy closed her eyes and the images reappeared in front of her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Flashback

The battle was still raging on behind her as she ran into the hydra base building. She had heard cries coming from inside and she couldn't continue to ignore them, it was expected that hydra would have some hostages. However nothing prepared Natasha for what she found.

As she ran into the room where the cries were coming from, Natasha froze at what she saw. There were around twenty four crumbling bed frames around the room and handcuffed to each one was a little girl, no older than eight.

Natasha was hypnotised by what she saw. Images of her own experience in Red Room flashed through her mind and she stood shaking, looking at the stolen girls.

"Natasha? What did you find?" Steve's voice crackled through the communicator in her ear. She took at few seconds to muster up the courage to speak.

"I need backup", she said quietly.

Within a minute Clint and Tony were both by her side, staring in shock just as she had done herself.

"We need to get them out", Clint finally spoke. He and Tony both instantly helping girl by girl free.

Natasha slowly walked forward and began to help. She knelt down next to a little girl and let her free. As she was about to stand up, the child threw her arms around Natasha's shoulders and began crying. Natasha didn't know what to do, she looked around for Tony or Clint but they were both busy. In the end Natasha slowly hugged the child back.

"They're not going to hurt you anymore", she whispered into the girls hair.

"I promise."

By this time, Clint and Tony had both gathered the other girls and had began leading them out the building. Natasha picked the girl in front of her up and put her on her hip as she followed the guys. As she looked at the other girls more memories flashed threw her mind.

'The Red Room. The training. The pain. The toucher. The killing. The memories.

Natasha tried to focus on the present but she couldn't push the thoughts away.

"Why are you shaking?" The little girl in her arms asked.

Natasha looks at the girl in shock. Was it that obvious?

"Don't worry about me", Natasha told the girl. "I'm okay."

She wasn't okay, she was anything but okay.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------End of flashback

Natasha's eyes snapped open. She was gasping for breath and her whole body was trembling. She felt the panic inside her building up as she gripped her arm rests beside her as hard as humanly possible. It was no good. Nothing was working. All the techniques she had used in the past to avoid having a panic attack in front of the team were failing her. It was too late.

The conversation between the others had suddenly got very quiet which only made Natasha panic more. They had noticed. Her team had noticed.

"You're pathetic," the voice inside Natasha's head whispered again and again, making her dizzy.

Everything was suddenly so loud. The voices, the stress, the panic. It was to much.

Tears were now streaming down her face as she sobbed silently, trying to stop herself but it was impossible.

She could her someone saying her name repeatedly but she couldn't tell who it was over the voices in her head. However when she felt someone gently touch her cheek her eyes slowly opened.

Tony was knelt on the floor in front of her brushing the tears off her face. Natasha looked at him for a few seconds before noticing that the whole team was around her. Steve and Clint were either side of her softly rubbing her back and Thor and Bruce were both sat by Tony, smiling sympathetically.

"It's alright Tasha", Tony said softly.

Natasha shook her head slowly as more tears streamed down her cheeks. It wasn't alright she was pathetic.

"Hey, hey, it's okay", Clint gently spoke as he wrapped both his arms around her.

Natasha's breathe hitched slightly as he did so because she was receiving something that she had never had before, comfort.

As she slowly relaxed in to Clint's arms, Natasha began to feel the other guys also holding her until she was surrounded by their love and support.

Natasha had never felt this way before. She felt truly loved and cared for and somehow that feeling managed to push all other feelings away, leaving her feeling...safe.

She felt safe, for the first time in forever. She was safe.

Natasha slowly relaxed in to the teams hold and let her head fall against someone's shoulder as a hand gently ran threw her hair

"You're okay Natasha. You've helped up all so many times, it's our turn to help you now."

"It's our turn to help you."

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Thank you for reading this story. This was the last chapter but I hope you enjoyed it. Im thinking of writing more stories about Natasha in the future but for now, I hoped you liked this one. Thank you!