Natasha woke up to a jarring pain surging through her body from her shoulder blade. She could feel electricity coursing through her as her muscles seized and she shook on the ground. When the current stopped, she breathed heavily and looked up, pushing herself into a sitting position instead of remaining sprawled out on the floor. She looked up to see who had electrocuted her but her eyes stopped on the first face she saw.

"Alexei?" she whispered, staring in disbelief up at the man. His arms were crossed tightly and he was frowning as he glared at her. The man to his left leaned forward and the electricity coursed through her again. She grit her teeth, trying to stay upright but failed. She fell forward onto the ground in front of her and the current stopped. She pushed herself up again and stared at Alexei in front of her.

"Welcome home, Natalia," he told her bitterly in Russian. He spit at her and she flinched as it hit her face. She wiped it off her cheek but didn't look up in time to anticipate the hard slap he gave her. Her head snapped to her right and her face stung. "I hope you regret ever joining the Americans."

"I could never regret the best decision in my life," Natasha replied harshly. Alexei looked at her in cruel amusement as he stepped back and let two men stand between him and Natasha.

"You will change your mind," he promised her. He gave his men a wave and the first man kicked Natasha in the stomach. A sharp pain coursed through her stomach and she was suddenly reminded of FRIDAY's diagnosis. She curled around her stomach protectively, trying to prevent each kick from striking her abdomen and injuring the tiny human inside her. She hadn't had much time to grow attached to it, but she wasn't going to let Alexei have the pleasure of taking away the one miracle she thought she'd never get.

One man reached forward and pulled her to her feet, holding her up while the second man punched her repeatedly in the face. She felt more than heard the crack as her nose broke and blood trickled down her face. She spit the blood on the floor, coughing as her mouth filled with the horrible iron taste. Thankfully, the men avoided her abdomen as they beat her harshly, bruising her face and getting close to breaking her arm. Suddenly, they let her go and she crumpled to the floor. She curled up to protect her stomach, wrapping an arm over it protectively as Alexei leaned down to look at her again.

"Welcome back," he hissed. He turned and left the room, leaving Natasha in pain on the floor with nothing to do but worry about whether or not the few hits to her abdomen had been hard enough to hurt her baby.

* * *

Just like Steve had worried, they found the car ditched on the side of the road. They followed a trail of trampled grass and broken branches only to find what looked like the imprint of jet wheels. Tony cursed and Steve punched a tree in frustration. They really were in the dark on this one with nothing to track Natasha with or any leads as to where she could have gone.

Tony pulled open the front door of the car and scanned the interior. FRIDAY sent all the information back to the lab and he used a gauntlet to grab the key ring on the dash. He'd scan it for fingerprints at the lab or any other traces of DNA he could find. Before that, though, he'd have to stop Steve from destroying the surrounding forest.

"Hey, hey, calm down," Tony said, approaching Steve and trying to pull him away from a tree he was furiously beating. He barely raised his gauntlet in time to stop Steve's fist from colliding with his face. Steve took deep breaths, trying to calm down while Tony stood there quietly. "I have to admit, this isn't looking very good," Tony said once Steve had calmed down.

"Whatever gave you that impression?" Steve snapped. Tony ignored him knowing he'd probably be just as irritable if someone had kidnapped Pepper.

"We have to head back to the lab, though," Tony told him, holding up the key. "I'm going to run DNA scans and see if we can figure out where this thing came from while you think up everyone Natasha's ever mentioned might want to hurt her."

"Most of them are Russian names," Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'll probably slaughter them."

"Hey, but that's a good start," Tony encouraged, leading him back through the forest to their car. "I can run through SHIELD files and private information that might have some names and you can compare with your own mental notes." Steve nodded silently, staring out the window as Tony drove them back to the Compound.

When they walked inside, they were met by Rhodey and Clint. Based on the way they approached, Tony knew they'd figured out something was going on. He widened his eyes behind Steve's back, frantically shaking his head and cutting at his throat with his finger to warn them not to ask. Either they purposely ignored him or they figured it wasn't that big of a deal, because the first thing they asked was what was going on.

"Natasha's been kidnapped and we don't have any tips as to who it could be," Steve growled, storming past them and down to Tony's lab. Tony gave Rhodey and Clint irritated glares and hurried after Steve. Rhodey and Clint followed close behind, wanting to know more.

"Hey, how about instead of upsetting the super soldier that could destroy my lab without breaking a sweat, you try and be helpful by leaving?" Tony suggested, watching Steve angrily pace through the room. Steve muttered an apology but didn't pretend he was any less panicked.

"We can help here," Clint told him. Tony took a deep breath as he paused to remain calm. He shoved the key in a scanner and had FRIDAY pull up its stats on a holographic screen. While FRIDAY scanned it, he worked on searching for names in Natasha's files that could lead to possible kidnappers.

"You want to help?" Tony asked, glancing up from his computer screen briefly. Rhodey and Clint nodded anxiously and Tony pointed to a screen that had the information they'd gathered so far. "Search and compare all that to what comes up from the key scan."