Chapter 13
CLINT’S P.O.V.
Clint lost track of how long it had been since he wore his wedding band. He hardly ever wore it during his SHIELD days and especially as an Avenger. If he had it on while out in the field, then an enemy would see it and realize he was married. From there, they could look for whoever his family was. No way would he dare take that risk. The last thing he wanted was for them to get targeted when they had already been living off the grid. Even with that it’d been dangerous sometimes. But now it felt good to have that ring back on like Laura usually had hers.
This farmhouse had been their second homestead in Iowa since joining SHIELD, having been relocated here by 2016. With all the crap with the Sokovia Accords and then being broken out of that Raft prison, he’d had no choice but to reveal his family’s existence and agree to house arrest (damn ankle bracelet and all) so he could stay with them. That is, till the Blip and all.
The man watched proudly from the porch as his daughter Lila hit the bullseye on the tree target in front of the house again. Especially having made it home in time for Christmas so he could retire, he cherished every moment he had with Laura and the kids.
His phone vibrated in his jeans pocket. Just to be safe, he turned his hearing aid back on. After checking to see who was calling, Clint took a relaxed breath and answered. “Yeah?”
“We need to talk, Clint Barton.”
He sighed with relief, recognizing her voice. “I’m listening, Yelena. My hearing aid’s on.”
-/-
Clint had taken the phone call into the kitchen to not disturb the others outside.
Natasha had talked about her sister-figure all the time and her daughter was no exception, not even talking like she was adoptive. So he was glad to be of service with an anecdote. He’d already given a worried Kate some advice on how Yelena’s newfound protectiveness was a hidden side to her that already existed. Now it was time to help Yelena with learning the kid’s origins.
“You mean she was taken as an infant?” said her strong-accent voice through the speaker.
“Yes, unfortunately she was.” said Clint. “Just like Natasha. In fact, that’s part of why she took the kid in. She saw her own situation in the baby and, well, unlike the real parents—who were in a bad spot because of the Blip and needed help—they didn’t realize who they were talking to. But Natasha found out it was the Red Room. She knew they wouldn’t actually take care of her. Not properly.” he said sadly. “They’d have trained the girl as an assassin and, like her own mom, little Yelena’s came to her senses. Your sister knew they were gonna kill both parents to cover their tracks. So she tried to help them out. But before she could intervene in time, they were both gone… set up to look like they’d been mugged and shot down in an alley or something. See, normally, the baby would’ve been brought to her godparents. But they’d also turned to dust when Thanos happened.” he said with a tired eye roll and snapping his fingers.
Clint lowered his head, taking deep breaths before he could continue talking.
“Nat stepped in before widows could grab her, then changed her name to yours. With you ‘erased’, well, she wanted to honor you.” he sighed. With a bit more seriousness in his cracking voice, he continued, “Listen, Yelena. One way or the other, she’s gonna find out she’s an adopted child and will have mixed reactions about it. Even now, the kid’s worried she’ll forget about Natasha. It’s our job to make sure she never does. When she’s old enough, I want you to be the one to tell her that her ‘real’ mom fought for her before Nat came. I want you to make sure she knows who rescued her from the Red Room when things went south.”
“Therein lies the problem.” Yelena sounded extra upset. “They DID take her, just days ago.”
“What?” Clint grabbed at the counter, astonished. “How?”
“They took her right from me at the playground after shooting me twice.” she trembled, her Russian accent getting only a little tougher to understand. “Kate and I have been gathering whatever we can, but this is as far as we've gotten.”
“Well at least now you know why, so hopefully that’ll give you a new lead.” Clint sighed ruefully. “They took her since she was the payment for a bargain that didn’t go through. I mean, with half the planet erased, who’s gonna be around to help a couple to get by when they’re struggling?”
Yelena said sadly, “That doesn’t tell us just where they took her, though, Clint Barton. And that’s the most important thing. Is there anything Natasha would have said before Lena was passed to you? Maybe a warning she may have given?”
Clint paced the kitchen floor, scratching his head in desperate thought. He and Laura loved the kid just as much as Yelena and Kate. He remembered when Natasha came by, telling him that if something happened to the baby that he should look after her until whenever the Blip was reversed—when they could find Yelena again. There had to be something she said or did during that time…
“Clint?”
“I’m thinking.” the man replied. There had to be something. He remembered seeing Natasha, her telling him who the child was. He remembered being surprised but also happy for her since she was really good around his own kids before all the craziness. Before the Avengers, even. He’d felt the seriousness in her tone when she told him that someday other Black Widows just might remember the bargain and come for her.
Yelena’s tone changed. “Wait, hold on. What did you find, Kate?”
“Wha—Kate’s got something? Put me on speaker.” said Clint, hitting the Speaker button on his own phone as he set it down on the counter.
-/-
YELENA’S P.O.V.
“What is it?” she asked. Yelena put the phone on the desk with Clint on speaker, hurrying to see what Kate was looking at on the monitor.
“From Valentina’s iPad. She was supposed to keep the widows away, so that means she had to keep track of them. She may not have been able to keep tabs on EVERY base, but she could do it for the nearest ones. That’s still a lot. There’s bases here in America. And Lena was only grabbed the other day, so these transfers here are recent which means they’ll have her somewhere closeby.”
Kate pointed to a roster on the screen, Yelena going wide-eyed when she saw the name; ROMANOFF, YELENA.
“There! Where is she?”
“Well, thankfully these bases don’t keep changing locations like you told me the last one did.” said Kate. “They’re fixed. Nuclear-war-style bunkers, basically. So they’re gonna be taking her to an actual place, and her name is down on a manifest for one of them. For the time being anyway. Plus, they gotta make stops along the way to avoid attention. I’m gonna make a copy of this transfer data, so it’ll keep us updated on where and when they move her.”
Kate looked up at Yelena who was chewing her lip.
The ex-widow said, “If they make stops at bases in America, odds are they will go overseas to get her to Russia. We need to go airborne for this, Kate Bishop, before they can.”
“How?”
“I know someone,” said Yelena. “Rick Mason. He helped Natasha when she was on the run just like Captain America was.” She leaned a little closer to the phone, saying to Clint, “So you can rest easy knowing she was well taken care of while you and those other Avengers were in prison.”
“I don’t need to be told that.” he replied. “She could take care of herself just fine. Besides, this Mason guy? I know him too. He’s a former SHIELD agent like Natasha, Laura, and I all were. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to finding things. He’s provided for armies and black market dealers everywhere.”
“Slight problem.” Kate winced. “I can’t even drive a car, let alone pilot some chopper.”
Yeah, getting her driver’s license wasn’t a ‘Now I'm free to go where I want’ thing since she’d never anticipated that kind of travel. Parking in New York City was already a hassle, plus owning a car was extra money and there was no telling how long she’d get stuck in traffic. Especially if the weather sucked. Kate got to places much more reliably and consistently with the subway or getting a driver, so she didn’t need to take a driving test, let alone something like this.
“I can,” said Yelena. “And I did, the one Mason gave us.”
Kate looked at her in astonishment before she continued.
“That particular helicopter is gone, yes, but we can get another one from him.”
“You got his number?” Kate asked.
“Depends. Do you still have a credit card?”
Kate smiled. “Mine AND my mom’s.”
-/-
Yelena had made the call to Mason, Kate providing payment for a Mil Mi-8 helicopter similar to what he’d set Yelena and Natasha with before. She said that one specifically since that was what the sisters had piloted before. Now was no time to learn a new system, so the Soviet-designed helicopter was what they needed. Still, they had to wait for a call on where to meet them when he had the time to get that thing and put it somewhere discreet. Yelena remembered him complaining about not having time or money when he got that one for her and Natasha back in 2016. So she expected it would take longer to get one that was in better condition. Plus, he would have to give them fake pilot licenses. In case they got noticed when refueling or ending up in unauthorized airspace, that was something they’d need.
Yelena and Kate gathered as much gear as they could, stopping at both their apartments which were thankfully close-enough together. Yelena’s things were in a big black duffel bag—plus the strongbox with her widow bites—which she grabbed before hurrying back out to Kate and following to her apartment above the pizzeria.
Kate’s laptop in her archery workshop was open with everything Valentina could see from her iPad; specifically, displaying the transfer data with “Romanoff, Yelena” on it. Both young women kept a vigilant eye on that as they prepared their things, which included Kate building more arrows.
-/-
KATE’S P.O.V.
Kate unlocked the safe at the back of her workshop, the one with her new trick arrows including Clint’s remaining ones they’d both carried while fighting Tracksuit Mafia. She remembered the twinge of guilt she’d had about accepting those afterwards since they didn’t feel like hers. But Clint insisted back at his home that she’d earned them, so she kept them safe for emergencies and used the materials (including his instructional PDFs) for inspiration when it came to making more of her own.
Since now was nothing short of an emergency, Kate pulled the trick-arrow quiver out of the safe and recounted them. Leftovers from Clint, plus her new ones, were in there. She’d made copies of some of hers and Clint’s for practice, so she had two quivers loaded almost to the max; one for her stiff web belt, and then her back quiver where she put the regular arrows. Each finished trick arrow had a red strip of metallic label tape. Especially the “TOO DANGEROUS” ones. So they all went in the hip quiver with plenty of room.
These days, any arrows that Kate could make to the right effect—especially the regular ones—were made of hard metal that could transfer all the power behind her shot. No way in hell was Kate going to rule out the scenario of those Black Widows wearing concealed body armor.
-/-
Kate’s laptop sat on the dining table with Yelena taking her turn watching it, waiting for an update from Mason on that helicopter. She was sitting there in a white tank top and sweatpants, the bandages over her abs and shoulder easy enough to see.
“Well, we know that the convoy is breaking up to avoid attention.” said Yelena. “These trucks stop at different places in the dark. They aren’t taking nearly as many random girls this time. This time it’s for similar cases as Lena; debts, genetic potential, ways they can narrow things down for discretion. Whoever is running the Red Room now, they’re being more cautious than Dreykov was.”
The shooting lane was structurally a wall cavity running under Kate’s loft. With expendable ‘regular’ arrows nearby, she stood on the marked line with a plain carbon arrow on the right side of the bow with her forefinger pinning it in place and three fingers underneath on the string. After quickly aiming at the cedar arrow stuck in the bullseye, she released and the bow turned slightly leftwards with minimal friction on the arrow. It flew almost completely straight like a torpedo and hit the nock, splitting the wood arrow right down the middle.
“And to think I called ‘bullshit’ on that one.” Kate whispered, remembering when Clint told her he’d successfully split a wooden arrow up the middle a few times.
She felt a brush of air past her head and saw a small knife spinning really fast down the shooting lane. Kate’s eyes widened when she saw the blade split the nock of the arrow and peel the carbon fiber shaft into long slivers. “Holy sh—”
“Focus.” Yelena said loudly. “You’ve got more widows coming at you, so don’t stop and stare. THEY won’t.”
Kate grabbed three more arrows with her finger and thumb, rapidly shooting each one off the thumb side of her bow, releasing them all in about four seconds. Yelena tossed two more throwing knives at different areas of the target and told her to hit those exact spots. So Kate grabbed two arrows and did the same thing, pulling the bowstring towards her ear and shooting at the knives.
“You need to be able to keep your distance. If a widow gets close enough, you will be dead in seconds—LOOK AT ME, KATE BISHOP.”
Kate turned around and noticed Yelena stepping away from the table to throw a punch. Kate blocked it with her outer forearm just before Yelena raised her knee toward Kate’s gut. The archer shoved the sturdy grip of her bow down towards Yelena’s thigh with both hands to block and push it back down.
“Yelena, stop, you’re still hurt—!”
“The widows out there won't be nearly as nice to you.”
“For God’s sake, sit down before you tear your stitches and open those bullet holes.”
“Pain only makes us stronger.” She grunted, throwing another punch and kick, both of which Kate was able to deflect rather than block. “You won’t have the luxury of aiming behind that mounted scope. At least not long. You will need both eyes open at all times.”
“Copy that. UNH!” Kate grunted, continuing to defend herself from Yelena’s sparring strikes.
-/-
YELENA’S P.O.V
Kate’s blunt arrowheads were teardrop-shaped with a stud at the end. Because of the added weight, she held the shafts against the bow with the heads facing up. She did it with the forefinger extended or hooked in, so using just her last three fingers added more flexibility and to retrieve each arrow easier.
After using the three-finger pinch grip to peel the arrow from the grip and directly onto the string to shoot fast, the first one hit the big empty pretzel jar. The head dented it deeply and sent it rolling over the floor. Kate’s right hand didn’t stop moving as she slid another arrow back onto the string and shot the jar again. While it jumped from impact, the blunt head punching through the plastic, the third one hit the jar again and shoved it against the wall. Then it fell to the ground helplessly. Good thing her fingers and thumb had fully healed from her “comfort shooting” night on the roof so this way she’d have more dexterity than with a leather glove. She was able to shoot all three arrows somewhere between three and four seconds.
Considering that this method (and the other methods she was adapting to) didn’t involve sighting down the arrow, closing her left eye or anything like that, she would have probably bragged about it if these were better circumstances.
“Gotta aim where it will be, not where it is, otherwise you’re guaranteed to miss.” said Kate, more to herself than Yelena. But of course, her voice was audible in the dead quiet.
Yelena sat on the edge of Kate’s loft simply nodding, her bare feet dangling above the ground floor. “Correct. Impressive. But we’ll need ways to take out enough widows at once—an opening we need to get Lena away…”
“Clint gave me all his remaining trick arrows. All the leftovers. There are acid arrows in there. There’s also the explosive ones, pepper spray, and a few other types like flashbangs I’ve been making. Good thing they’re labeled.” she added with an eye roll, wondering how in the world Clint could tell what he was shooting with unlabeled arrows in a back quiver.
“Uh, Yelena?” Kate said, seeming like she needed help. “This is the part where you finish my sentence with a plan…?”
“We have no plan, Kate Bishop. Not until Mason delivers that damn helicopter. Until he does, every second that goes by means Lena is further away.”
“We’ll get her back. The both of us.”
“WHAT IF WE CAN’T?!” Yelena stood up, raised her arm forward and blasted the big glass window with her widow’s-bite. The glass didn’t shatter, but the whole metal frame lit up red as the bolt sizzled over it.
“Woah, woah, easy.” Kate stepped back with her arms up as ‘Pizza Dog’ barked and ran around the room in panic.
As soon as the red glowing bolt fizzled out, though, Yelena stumbled. She only just caught herself by grabbing the railing near the stairs that resembled a fire escape. Good thing her feet didn’t slip over to them. “What… Why did I…? Sorry, I… I don’t know why I did that.”
“Look, Yelena.” Kate said calmly. “We’re doing this together. We’ll get her back, I promise.”
“How can you be so sure?” She was devastated, plus conflicted on whether or not to bring Kate along since there was no way she would even win a sparring match against her, let alone one of the other widows who would give it their all. “You won’t last against Black Widows in combat. They’re nothing like those Tracksuit idiots you fought before. The Red Room makes your Special Forces look like secondary school.”
“Exactly. Why do you think I’ve been amping up my archery?” Kate replied. “I found you bleeding by the playground, almost unconscious when you said they took her, and I was terrified when you did black out. I was scared for the both of you. And I still am.” she implored. “That shot in the abs? I was worried that the EMTs were gonna tell me you were dying or something.”
Yelena looked down at her widow bites and hastily took them off her wrists, tossing them downstairs to Kate with shaking hands. “Take them. NOW. Lock them up, back in the box. You were right, they are a crutch. I don’t want to see them until Mason brings us that helicopter.”
Kate, a worried look on her face, slowly put the widow bites in the strongbox and set the lock after closing it.
“He said he’d get it ASAP.” Kate assured her. “He sent me the coordinates for where he’d land and everything. Won’t be long now. We just gotta keep our eyes on Valentina’s data. We’ve got eyes on Lena now; where she goes, when she gets there, where they’ll move her next… This Red Room convoy won’t be able to hide from us, not as long as Yelena Romanoff’s name is in their manifest.”
Yelena nodded, quivering, and hung her head. Unable to contain herself when hearing the child’s name, she sat against the wall crying harder than she ever had while in New York. And it was NOT from the pain of those two bullet holes. She sat there hugging her knees, curled in a ball.
Just like with the news of Natasha’s death, she wanted to scream. But she just couldn’t. Somehow she didn’t have the energy. The memory of it came flooding back as soon as she heard ‘Romanoff’. So did the memory of watching little Lena being dragged away begging to be let go. It was too much, she couldn’t take it.
Yelena’s breath caught in her throat as she trembled with hot tears stinging her eyes before collecting in her eyelashes and running down her warm face. She could barely see with her vision too misty and foggy. She could feel Kate’s presence, hearing her slowly ascend the stairs and sit next to her. But the younger girl made no other move and didn’t talk. From the corner of her misted eyes, Yelena saw Kate’s silhouette simply sit there with her arms on her knees.
Yelena couldn’t speak properly, or she would have thanked Kate for giving her space while still being good company. She felt sick all over again as she broke down, her throat feeling phlegmy.
“I love her so much…” she sniffled, her voice thick and cracking. “I can’t lose her…!”
Kate patted Yelena’s back like a child, laying the side of her head against hers. “I love her too, moy drug (my friend).” Kate whispered. Yelena softened, her head dropping a bit as she heard a slow “shhh…” The younger girl simply hugged her. “I promise you we’ll get her back. It’s our job.”
Yelena sobbed into Kate’s sweatshirt, having NEVER felt this helpless. Not even when she herself was taken as a six-year-old alongside Natasha. The child was out of reach and it could be anytime before they reached the point of never finding her. The thought scared her to death, her stomach in knots.
As Yelena sat curled up near the stairs, letting Kate try to comfort her, she heard a slight jingle and panting sound with pizza breath. The golden retriever stopped in front of them and sat closeby. No sooner did she unfold one of her legs and pet him than he laid his forelegs and head on her lap, nuzzling into her.
“Thank you.” she croaked, speaking to both Kate and the dog.
“This will work, I know it. Soon enough your niece will be back in your arms and happy to see you.”
“To see both of us, right?” Yelena rubbed her eyes. “We’re a team?”
“Absolutely.”
She almost didn’t want reassurance, to be lifted up only to crash back down if they failed. But at this point, Yelena knew Kate Bishop better than that. No matter what she said, Hawkeye here would do her best with that positive attitude.
With her vision clearing, Yelena looked into Kate’s eyes, almost seeing her own reflection in those irises before looking back down.
“I, erm… I don’t know what else to say.”
“Then don’t say anything.” Kate said softly. “Just let it out.” She let Yelena melt into her again, quieter but still no less afraid for little Lena. “And it’s ok to feel this way. I feel it too, and I did for a long time losing my dad and trying to protect my mom. I know it didn’t go as planned, but that protectiveness—that family love—that’s what made me stronger. Whatever Sonya said to you about kids, screw her. If anything, little Lena’s made you stronger than any Black Widow out there.”
As if pulled into her own mind, her eyes shut tight, all Yelena could think about were the cherished memories that had been made; she loved how cute the five-year-old was in that hand-me-down vest that was too big for her, how excited she always was to show her drawings, the smile she gave with that missing baby tooth, how the kid was great with the dogs… Yelena already missed that little heartbeat she could feel when the child would snuggle with her for comfort (when she was being affectionate or just trying to make her aunties feel ok).
It all came flooding back, all the little things Yelena adored about her niece who she couldn’t bear to lose. She would rather die for Lena than see her forced through the Red Room. ‘We need her back…’ she thought. ‘I need her back…’ She sniffed, returning the hug with her head on Kate’s shoulder as she trembled.
“You’re my best friend, Kate Bishop. The only real one I’ve ever had.”