Chapter 8
KATE’S P.O.V.
Kate had stayed at Yelena's apartment the next day, watching over little Lena while Sonya was being shown around the better parts of New York. The girl had refused to let Kate leave when the two widows came back, especially since the latter was going to stay at the apartment for the night until getting a hotel room. So, on impulse, Kate agreed. Plus, she didn’t want to leave the kid too close to Sonya without knowing more about her.
The young archer had slept in Lena's room while the little girl slept in her aunt's room and Sonya had taken the living room couch. At least the kid had a twin bed so Kate could fit into it fairly easily. Well, if she curled in a bit more than usual. It wasn’t hard to get used to, though, since she and Yelena had picked out the most cushy mattresses they could find for both bedrooms when they first moved in.
It was still early in the morning when Kate woke up to the alarm on her phone, around the same time she usually got up to practice archery in her own apartment. She was half asleep and in need of caffeine (but not espresso this time). She just needed to remember what type of coffee Yelena had.
Kate resisted the urge to snooze the alarm and pull the blankets back up to her chin, all too familiar with the urge. She pulled her hoodie over her undershirt, flattening her bed-head hair as she stood up and stretched. Her head and eyes still felt droopy so she kept one hand on the wall, making her way along little Lena’s room toward the closed door. That is, until she heard Sonya’s voice and realized the unexpected widow was wide awake.
"Stop. I said stop!" the woman snapped, getting Kate to flinch slightly. She still wasn’t fully awake, but it was JUST clear enough in the quiet apartment. Kate stopped at the door with her ear almost touching, dead silent while trying her best to stay focused. Knowing how lethal Yelena could be if she actually wanted to, she didn’t want to barge in on Sonya who she didn’t know or fully trust.
"But it's mine!"
Kate frowned at the sound of little Lena's voice. What was going on?
"Don't touch it!"
"It's just a toy, what's so important about it?" Sonya asked harshly, followed by the little girl jumping and crying.
Suddenly the struggle stopped, those small soft footsteps moving away from where Sonya’s voice came from. “Go away…” she pleaded.
At that, Kate, still half asleep, opened the bedroom door cautiously. She was concerned about what she was hearing, especially from the child.
When she walked into the living room, Sonya was sitting on the couch while the little girl stayed away with her pink pony in her arms. Lena was staring back angrily and scared at the same time. Immediately Kate’s head was back on its swivel.
"Hey, sweetie.” Kate yawned, approaching the kid while keeping Sonya in her peripheral vision. “Everything okay?"
“No.” Lena said quickly, her cheeks flushed. “She’s mean.”
Still a bit disoriented and with a headache, Kate squinted briefly and rubbed her brow. “Why?” she asked Lena.
“She had a nightmare or something.” Sonya answered, her tone sounding more confused. Was she honestly expecting a different outcome from… well, from whatever happened? Clearly Sonya had never been around little kids—at least not properly—in her life. “Scared her to death. I tried to get her back to bed but…” The short-haired woman shrugged.
Bull. Her story didn’t match with what Kate heard from the other side of the door. At all. Sure, the Red Room crap wasn’t Sonya’s fault. But still, she couldn’t mistreat little Lena… Natasha’s daughter, Yelena’s niece…
“Well, here’s the thing you learn about Lena.” Kate said as if giving Sonya a casual lecture. “She’s very sensitive and you can’t make her go to sleep. We’ve tried. She has to actually get tired and want it.”
The child hadn’t been up this early except when Kate’s hand was recently bandaged up. Lena would probably get sleepy during the day and take a nap later. Hopefully it would be with her aunt by her side. Sometimes Kate laughed to herself at Yelena’s bed size since she was shorter than her. But the size was more about preparation for little Lena needing her aunt’s comfort.
In the meantime, though, Kate rubbed the gunk out of her eyes and walked over to Yelena’s kitchen area for coffee. She mainly stayed in place, searching through the cupboards near the coffeemaker.
“I’m scared, Auntie Kate.”
Almost startled, Kate looked down at Lena right beside her. “Of your nightmare?”. She only used that suggestion since Sonya was in the room and didn’t want her to know she was suspicious.
Lena responded by pointing back at the widow. “She’s lying!” the girl exclaimed.
Sonya held her hands up in surrender, suggesting, “I swear, if I appeared in her dream or something, maybe it's because she’s surprised by strangers.”
“Yeah.” Kate replied. She was deep in thought but keeping herself casual as she filled the electric kettle with water and turned it on. “That’s why they’re called strangers. They surprise you.”
-/-
"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Kate asked the child once they were alone at the apartment. Something had clearly spooked little Lena, which Kate never liked seeing.
“She’s a liar.”
A while ago, the five-year-old had clung to her aunt as soon as she woke up, just looking for comfort. But since the older blonde had started talking to Sonya over breakfast almost right away, seeming oblivious, the child had run to Kate.
Little Lena, who was now sitting on the couch with her aunt's iPad in her hands, stared at Kate for a few seconds before looking back at the screen. There was a sweet picture of Natasha doing a silly face to the smiling baby she was holding.
"Sonya said Mama was a traitor, that she’s bad." The kid answered, and Kate could see the sadness in her little face. "But that's not true, right?" Lena stared at her while questioning. "She's a hero. She's an Avenger."
A TRAITOR?! Kate couldn't hide her anger at that, but did her best for Lena’s sake. She grew up idolizing the Avengers, including Natasha. Even during the Blip, she was a hero. She’d rescued little Lena and gave her a good home, passing her to Clint and to Yelena in her will, making both their lives better too. To call Natasha a traitor was blasphemy.
Kate planned on letting her feelings out with a pair of gloves on, going ten rounds with her punching bag. Or even better, with Sonya’s face. Not here, though. Not in front of the kid.
She kept her fists hidden in her folded arms and took a deep breath. "Sonya said that to you?"
Lena nodded, not saying anything.
"Your mama was one of the best heroes. She saved a lot of people. She saved Auntie Lena and Uncle Clint… And even me when the big bad aliens attacked the city. I saw it." She crouched in front of the child, gently wiping the tears running down her cheeks. "And she saved you. She loved you so much, kiddo. You should be really proud of your mama." she told her, to which the little one nodded. "Did anything else happen?"
"She took my pony away because I talked back at her." The five-year-old answered. She hugged her stuffed pony as if she could lose it any second. “But I took it back.”
Kate sighed while staring at the child and at the photo she’d been fixated on. She really needed to have a conversation with Yelena.
-/-
"Lena," Kate called, entering the kid's room. She was on the floor drawing when she noticed.
"Where are you going?" the child frowned at the sight of Kate sliding her arms into her gray coat.
"Just going back to my apartment." she answered.
But she had no idea that the little girl was going to jump in her direction while shaking her head.
"No!" Lena exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the archer. "You can't leave me all alone."
"Kiddo… I have to check on Lucky. HE’S been alone all night." She tried to reason with the five-year-old, gently trying to pull herself away from the strong grip the kid had around her right leg. "I'll be back." she assured her. “And you’re not all alone, I’m sure Auntie Lena will be—”
"Don't leave." the child pouted, clinging to Kate's leg, refusing to let go.
"You have to let me go, so I can go check on Lucky and come back."
If her buddy Grills wasn’t on his long shift with the fire department, she’d have immediately called him to go over and check on the dog (like she’d had him do the other night). There was a spare key he could use. Then Kate could stay and calm the kid like she actually wanted to. But being short-handed right now, SHE had to do it.
Kate tried one more time. But all she got was a squealing child, startling Kate to the point where she fell against the door frame and landed on the back of her head.
“Ah…” Clutching her head, she took a deep breath and looked down at the kid who was deeply disturbed by their new visitor’s attitude. If there was one thing Kate feared at least that much, it was how upset Lena was and not knowing how to calm her. She thought worriedly, ‘How did Clint handle this kind of stuff with Lila when SHE was little?’, remembering his fourteen-year-old daughter very well from Christmas.
"Oh, sweetie…" she sighed. Kate felt a bad combination of anxiety and sympathy. She hated the idea of leaving the child there after what had happened with Sonya that morning. Especially if what Lena said was true. It was hard to tell exactly since she hadn’t been fully awake. But what else could she do about it? "I'll be back by morning, I promise."
It was only a few seconds later that Yelena walked into the room because of her niece's cries. Sonya was standing behind her, so Kate pushed the child behind her to shield her from the ‘guest.’
Seeing Kate’s reaction, Yelena turned to her friend and gestured for her to leave them alone for a moment.
"What's wrong?"
"She doesn't want me to go home."
"Lena, sweet girl." Yelena crouched to her niece's height. "Auntie Kate has to leave—"
"NO! I don't want her to leave!" the child exclaimed.
"I know," the former widow nodded. "But I'm sure Auntie Kate will come back later."
"I will." Kate answered, hoping it would calm the child. It didn’t work, though. Not at all.
Little Lena just shook her head, getting Yelena to pull the child away to free her friend. However, that just made it worse. The little one started crying as soon as she was in her aunt's arms, trying to reach for Kate. It didn’t stop even when she had already left Yelena’s place, guilt-ridden as she walked down the hall and through the lobby.
Suddenly Kate felt like a child herself again. She’d spent so long trying to be better, the kind of person who could do pretty much anything. But now she was ten years old again, clueless and surrounded by utter devastation.
-/-
No answer. “Come on, Yelena, pick up the damn phone already.” Kate lay back on her bed getting Yelena’s voicemail repeatedly. “I swear, if those two are sipping Yelena’s vodka, getting too drunk to pick up…”
Lucky was there next to her, probably wondering what was going on with all the tension. The archer rolled her eyes and hit the Record button to send a video message instead;
“Wherever the hell you are right now, PAY ATTENTION.” she said sternly. “Sonya says Natasha’s a traitor, how she escaped and all. She scolded Lena and tried to take her favorite toy when she defended her—Yeah, Lena, a five-year-old who’s never heard Natasha’s story, stuck up for her. And your ‘friend’ tried to punish her for it. We need to have a little talk about this. Like, RIGHT now. Call back the second you get this, I don’t care how late it is. That kid is NOT gonna put up with verbal abuse when she did nothing wrong.”
She hit the button again to stop recording and the video was successfully ‘Delivered’ to Yelena’s inbox. Kate slammed her phone on the bed and wrung her hair in frustration, her mind flooding with ‘what am I gonna do about this?’ The best way she could describe it was that she now had someone to protect from bad guys again like with her mom. And this time, Kate had to keep whoever-this-was closer than whatever potential enemies she’d previously been preparing herself for.
It’d only been a couple hours, but still. Unable to get to sleep, she lay there rolling her fists up in her sheets, staring at the ceiling till she couldn’t stand lying still anymore. All she could think about was how upset Lena was.
Kate could still hear it all in her head. How could she go to sleep with that last image of little Lena being really upset and clinging to her so she’d stay? Especially since the reason for it was that feeling of neglect? Not to mention the resulting separation anxiety that Kate had only ever seen in dogs? Lena would have a hard time sleeping too if her aunt wasn’t able to calm her…
Come to think of it, would Yelena even be able to? Or would the kid pout and spend hours demanding for her Auntie Kate to return? If she did that, sure, it would be tiring and eventually she’d fall asleep. But Kate didn’t want her to reach the point of having a tantrum till she passed out.
“Screw it.” She reached under her bed for a black nylon hiking backpack that she’d loaded up as a go-bag in case she ever had to flee for a while. She clipped Lucky’s leash onto his collar after slinging her pack on. Her folding bow was in there with a padded quiver of regular arrows fixed to the side.
“Come on, Lucky.” she said. “Promised the kid I’d be back.” Good thing she had a sleeping bag in there too. “Gonna need your help calming her, ok? Give her lots of cuddles.”
Lucky gave off a friendly-sounding bark and followed her downstairs from the loft.
-/-
“You said you wanted to talk.” Yelena looked at Kate who faced her friend questioningly. “Sonya is in her hotel room and Lena is asleep with both Lucky and Fanny.”
‘Yeah, I wonder why,’ Kate thought sarcastically. Lena may have been a good sleeper who could be out once her head hit the pillow, but she wasn’t usually asleep this early. Especially not with Fanny around all day to cuddle and play with. If she was tonight, it was because her breakdown had really drained her of any energy that would normally keep her awake a while longer. So for that, Kate was angry.
Yelena continued, “It took hours to get her to sleep so I only just saw that you sent me a video message. You knocked on the door before I could watch it. So…”
The archer sighed, looking for the right words to start the conversation without sounding pissed off.
“I don’t know if you’re actually aware of what happened this morning.” Seeing Yelena shake her head, Kate continued, “Sonya told Lena her mother was a traitor.” she said, hoping for some sort of reaction, but there wasn’t. For that, Kate added aggressively, “Do you even hear me? She told a FIVE-YEAR-OLD her mother was a traitor who left ‘her people’ behind. And the kid already has abandonment issues herself, with Natasha leaving and with you coming and going; these last few days PLUS back at Clint’s farm, when you were getting jobs from that witch Valentina. How are you so calm?!” She was frustrated by the ex widow’s lack of reaction.
“A lot of widows hated Natasha for escaping the Red Room. Especially Dreykov who made sure no one else could.” Yelena answered. “I resented her, too, you know.” the young woman admitted. “So no, I’m not surprised that Sonya thinks that. She probably hasn’t told me in order to spare my feelings or something. She knows I’ve been grieving.”
“So you’re okay with your friend not saying that to you, but throwing it at your sister’s child instead.” Kate stated flatly. “Is that what you’re telling me?”
Yelena shook her head, finally seeming concerned now that Kate had put it straight to the point. “No. Of course, no. Lena doesn’t know about her mother’s past and I hope she will never learn. Or about mine.” She asked Kate sincerely, “Did anything else happen?"
"Lena said Sonya took away her pink pony as a punishment for defending her mom." she explained, getting Yelena to look down in thought. “Who does that? Scolding a little kid for standing up for her family?” Kate added, “She may be way sensitive, but she’s got guts that way. She loves her family, idolizes her mom, and clearly hates it when someone insults her.”
"Did you see that happen?" the blonde questioned her.
"No. But Lena was really upset." Kate implored. “I had just woken up and I heard them—"
"So it might not be ENTIRELY true…" Yelena pointed out.
"It was." she said defensively. "That kid might have a strong imagination too, but she wasn't lying. I could see it in her eyes, and she was hugging that pony in desperation. Ask her and she’ll tell you the same thing I’m telling you.”
After checking that little Lena’s bedroom door was still closed, the ex widow suggested, “Just remember this. Sonya hasn’t been around little girls who actually get to have a normal life. She spent her life in the Red Room before I used the Red Dust to free her. It’s as far as her memory stretches. She doesn’t understand why kids cling to things like stuffed animals or… well, pretty much anything that isn’t made to kill someone.”
Kate waved that notion aside. “Well, either way, it’s like this. Your pal may be putting on a smile for YOU, but she clearly has a grudge against Natasha and is taking it out on her daughter when you’re not looking.”
“Well, don’t antagonize her.” Yelena warned with concern. “She doesn’t know anything about you so, if you push her, she could see you as an enemy.”
Kate said almost humorously, “I thought you said Black Widows wouldn’t attack me because of your reputation, with me being YOUR friend.”
“Well, I wouldn’t push anything, Kate Bishop. She wouldn’t go easy on you like I did back at Rockefeller Center.”
Kate scoffed, finally with an amused smile at the corner of her lip. “You and I remember the Rockefeller Center VERY differently.”