Who: Natasha Romanoff & Christine Palmer What: morning run in When: earlier this month before things went sideways Rating/Warnings: none
It was good to get out of the hospital. Actually, it was good to get out of a medical clinic period. She’d been busy lately, taking a few extra shifts. Since making her plans to go home at Thanksgiving with Stephen in tow, she wanted to make sure that she had plenty of favours to call in. This also meant that she didn’t want to schedule any surgeries in November, so finding operating times and scheduling things a bit earlier meant working all. The. time. And it was fast approaching too. Sigh.
Good thing she loved her work.
The hospital wasn’t that far from Central Park, only a few stops away, so when she finally left Metro General, that’s where she headed. It wasn’t a ‘stay at home and watch Netflix’ kind of day, and she didn’t really have any other plans. Besides, the sun was shining and when was the last time she managed to enjoy that?
With a fresh lemonade in hand, and oversized sunglasses firmly on her face, Christine casually walked the path, looking at the runners and cyclists wondering ‘who does that?’ when she recognized one of them. The red-head -- Natasha. They’d chatted here and there before, so it was only natural that Christine gave a wave and called out a hello.
“Here I was enviously watching people who enjoy running, and here you are.” She took a sip of her drink. “You look amazing. Probably because you run.” Christine was very aware that she was in her scrubs and probably could stand to lose a few pounds.
Oh well.
Natasha had headed to Central Park that day to get out of the Warren and get some fresh air. The facilities at the apartment complex were top of the line, but there was something to be said for getting out there in the real world and interacting with people. She couldn’t let herself get too comfortable after all. Anything could be coming at them at any time.
She had her headphones in, appearing to be focused on her run to all intents and purposes. But she was tracking the people all around her and any changes since the last time she was out here. She couldn’t turn that part of her brain off. It was old habit and had come in handy more times than she could count.
She slowed when she heard her name being called and dropped to a walk when she saw Christine. She was one of Stephen’s friends and they’d interacted on the network some. She shot her a smile as she came to a stop beside her, wiping a hand across her sweaty forehead. “Hey, didn’t expect to see you out at this point of the day.” She laughed. “Thanks, but I’m a hot sweaty mess and don’t look good at all.”
Christine raised her sunglasses and gave Nat a look . “Um, women don’t sweat, they glow. That’s called science and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.” She flashed a grin as she put her sunglasses back on her face. “And I’m a doctor with fancy letters after her name, so people have to believe me.”
Yeah, some days she also had a hard time remembering how responsible she was. Professional Christine was so different than regular Christine.
“Speaking of which, yeah, I do get out during sunshine, which I know, is also very shocking to me. I’m trying to save up all my vacation time, get some more for Thanksgiving. I’ve convinced Stephen to come with me back to Seattle to see my parents, and guilt is telling me I should give them more than one day.” She shrugged. “What have you been up to? Did I see that right online, you took a vacation?”
Natasha laughed. “Absolutely. Who are we to question someone with fancy letters after their name. It would be simply unthinkable.” She rolled her shoulders to make sure she stayed limber while they were talking. She was almost done with her run, just a jog back to the warren and that was it. She’d hate to be stiff for what would be the easiest part.
She let some of the surprise show on her face. Strange was just as much a workaholic as she was and evidently he was also getting a bit of a forced vacation in the coming months. “That’s definitely an accomplishment. I didn’t think he left the Sanctum for anything but an emergency.”
She shrugged. “Yes, I did. It wasn’t something I had planned. I was more dragged on it.” She glanced briefly at the other park goers wandering around them. “But, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself. Getting to sample all that delicious food was amazing. I can see the merit in a vacation after that.”
“Food is half the reason why I travel,” Christine admitted. “Hope and I went to Quebec a few weeks ago, and all we did was eat and drink. And spend money, but who cares about that? What’s a little more debt?”
Okay so it was a lot more, but she was working and keeping busy and doing her thing. She was actually fine, even though she did like to tease about it to Stephen, more to see him get all annoyed at interest rates and compound interest and something something ‘you’re never going to get ahead’. Whatever. She’ll be dead one day anyways, and then the debts would definitely be gone.
“At least you’re enjoying yourself while there’s down time.” Christine looked around quickly before leaning in a bit closer and adding in a low whisper: “is it always busy like this? It feels like every month something is happening, and I don’t know how any of you have normal blood pressure rates. It blows my mind.”
“Hey, if you’ve got the time and the money, why not? After all, it doesn’t go with you when you go.”
Natasha didn’t have to worry about money exactly. Her blackops background and her own methods of socking away funds meant that she was covered on the finance front no matter what she decided to do in the future. No one aside from Clint and likely Tony had any idea about any of that.
She tilted her head at Christine’s question. It had been exceedingly busy. It had been one thing after another with barely any real relaxing time in between. “Honestly, it has been a bit intense lately. Usually we can expect a multiple month to year break between the big disasters. I wonder what’s up in the universe that’s causing this.” She laughed. “It’s the adrenaline junkies in all of us. Despite what they might tell you, they all enjoy it to an extent.”
Christine shook her head, laughing slightly. “All that adrenaline…. I wish I could harvest it.” And the second that came out of her mouth, she gasped. “That sounded creepy. I didn’t mean it like that. I mean more like it would be neat to study it and maybe look into it a bit more, see the medical applications… wait, I’m still being creepy.”
She gave an apologetic shrug. “Sorry. Ever since I casually mentioned to my medical director I’m thinking of doing more research, he’s been harassing me to start. Does he not realize that as much as I would love to do that, I really don’t have time to do that?” She gestured to her outfit. “I barely have time to get dressed…men. They don’t get it. And they’re always bosses. What’s up with that?”
Natasha merely arched an eyebrow at Christine’s words. She found it was the same with all doctors. Put an interesting case in front of them and they went all weird science geek on you. The good ones did anyway. The ones that didn’t realize the novelty of things were the ones you needed to avoid. She rolled her shoulders to loosen them. She was carrying entirely too much tension these days. A massage was most definitely in order.
She chuckled to let Christine off the hook. “No worries. The superhero business does take a certain kind. I’m sure you could do some fascinating research on all of us.” She paused. “Maybe you should. While we have the best team of doctors available to fix us up, analyzing some of the more understated stuff might be good to have later down the line.”
“Yeah?” Christine recovered from her little snafu, and smiled brightly at Nat. “Well, maybe if I can get a volunteer, we’ll see.” That was highly unlikely but it was what it was. Sighing, she pushed her sunglasses back on her face and lifted her drink. “I’ll let you get back to your run. We should do something sometime though. I think us super women need to stick together, show those guys who really runs the world.” She brushed her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ears, taking a sip of her lemonade.
“Good to see you outside in the real world, Nat. Hope we can do it again sometime.”
“You could probably do an observational study on all of us and get some interesting data,” Natasha said with a laugh. “Though for the real interesting stuff, you’d probably need to rope in an actual psychologist, which might not be a bad idea considering what an emotional aware bunch we are.”
She was pretty sure a psychologist would have a field day with all of them. Natasha could easily lie her way out of those conversations but it probably was to her own detriment despite the fact she’d been doing it for years while at SHIELD.
“We should! Spa day? I don’t have nearly enough spa days or, oooh, we should get our nails done. But yes, it was great to see you too, Christine. Definitely should do it again.” She nodded and stretched. “I’ll see you around.”