Chapter 20
KATE’S P.O.V.
NEXT WEEK…
It was 03:30 and Kate was freaking out. Laura sure sounded confused when she answered the phone.
"Kate? Is everything okay, honey?"
Kate really hated having to call Clint’s wife when both adults and the three kids were probably asleep. But this felt like a domestic emergency, so she contacted the only trustworthy mother figure she could.
"Um... Lena, she's—She had a nightmare. Well, more like a night terror, I know the types of dreams. And a BAD one from the sound of it, I’ve never seen her like this.” she answered while pacing by the end of her bed. She didn't even know how to explain the way that child had been screaming in her sleep. “I mean, Yeah, she’s had some tantrums out here, but not while sleeping. I've never heard that child scream like that. She woke up terrified…"
“Okay, breathe.” the woman told her. Kate hadn’t realized she was hyperventilating.
Laura asked with concern, “How is she now?”
The archer panted nervously, “I—I don’t know. Lena started talking in Russian. I didn’t know she was so good. Either that or she was repeating something she heard without knowing what it means. But whatever she said, Yelena shut it down and did her best to calm her. I just lay back in my bed hearing it happen. I was alone and I couldn’t…”
She wrung her long black hair, trying really hard to keep her composure and slowing her breath down.
“Agh, dammit, I didn’t know what to do.” She trembled, stuttering, “Yelena was in the guest space with her already, so I didn’t wanna crowd the kid. I just covered my ears and lay there with my pillow over my head, I couldn’t listen, I just couldn’t take it…”
“Hey, it’s ok.” Laura assured her. “I get it. You’re scared, we all get like that when taking care of kids. I’m no exception. Neither is Clint, though he’ll deny it.” she added with a slightly humorous tone. Only slightly, though, just enough to make fun of her husband but not diverting.
Kate felt her heart racing as she paced the floor, still panicking. She didn’t know how to help the five year old or her friend in that situation.
“Is Yelena aware that you’re there?” Laura asked her quietly. “I mean, where are you right now? Anywhere she might hear you calling me? I’m not on speaker, am I?”
“No.”
On that note, Kate carefully walked back to where Yelena and her niece were, just poking her head in. The former widow had her arms wrapped tightly around the little girl who was a lot calmer than when she had woken up. There was a fierce look in her friend’s eyes, but as Kate tried to walk closer, Yelena growled as if she were a different person.
The archer walked backwards, observing how even Fanny distanced herself.
“She thinks I’m a threat.” she answered.
“Well, don’t touch her. She will do anything to protect the child.” the former SHIELD agent told her. “And I mean anything. Just keep an ok distance from Yelena and talk to her. Let her know you’re not a threat. It will take time, you have to be patient with both of them.” the woman said.
“I think I can do that.” Kate sighed nervously. “Thank you. I’m sorry I probably woke you up, I just… I love them both and it scares me seeing them like this.”
“It’s okay, honey,” Laura assured her. “We’ll talk in the morning, okay? I love them, too, so just keep me posted when you can.”
“Yeah, sure.” Kate said before hanging up the call. She went back in and sat down on the floor, far away from Yelena since she was scared of what the widow was capable of doing just to protect the kid. Still, Kate had to be there in some way and make sure it was clear that she was no threat. Kate just sat with her arms on her knees, sometimes petting Fanny to ease both their nerves.
Yelena was probably dreaming with her eyes open, perceiving someone else when Kate’s movements came—just like when she was sick that time and thought she was back in the Red Room training. There was a growl every time Kate would talk, so she remained silent as she could for the next thirty minutes.
At that point, though, after a while of tiring herself out, Yelena was whispering in Russian to the little girl snuggled in between her arms—probably telling her she was alright, that she was safe. Soon enough, she looked over at Kate ‘with her own eyes’, so to speak.
“Yelena?” Kate said quietly. “That you?”
“Kate Bishop…” Yelena murmured, staring at her. “Did I hurt you?” She must have remembered how she’d grabbed Kate and pinned her to the floor when she had that fever dream before. With that, it’d make sense to worry if she’d done something similar.
“No, no, Yelena, you didn’t. I’m okay.” she assured her friend. “Been over here the whole time.”
“I’m sorry if I scared you… I…” The former widow broke down, giving it her all to stay quiet with the child in her arms.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Kate walked closer, her socks leaving her footsteps quiet over the floor. “Lena’s nightmare scared you and you felt like you had to protect her. That’s what you did, you protected your niece, it’s what you’ve always done.”
“Not always.” She shook her head as her voice cracked. “I let her out of my sight when Sonya came. I neglected her. And then she was gone.”
“And you put in every effort to get her back from the convoy.” Kate whispered, adding fondly, “I watched over you from the chopper the whole time. If that’s not real love and protectiveness, then I don’t know what the hell you were doing down there.”
Yelena nodded reluctantly before looking down at the child who had gone back to sleep.
“Do you want to tell me what her dream was about?”
“It wasn’t a dream.” The blonde closed her eyes. “It was a horrible memory. She saw two agents dragging a girl’s dead body. She’d been shot in the head. The Russian words Lena was saying? It’s what she heard.” Yelena explained, clearly feeling sick at the thought of a five-year-old seeing such brutality like that. “Tasha tried to calm her down, but an agent realized they were getting attached… That isn’t allowed in the Red Room…” the woman sighed. “Apparently, Natasha was punished for that and Lena was forced to watch. She stood up for her mama.”
Kate had to admit, the kid was really getting some guts if she was sticking up for Natasha in front of Sonya AND some other agent she didn’t know.
“They were going to…” Yelena shook her head as she cradled the kid. Kate didn’t need her friend to finish that sentence to imagine what they could have done to that sweet little girl.
“She’s safe, Yelena.” Kate whispered while wrapping her arm around her friend’s shoulders, looking down at the kid for a moment. “Both of them are safe.” she assured her. “It was probably just as scary for her and Natasha as it is for you to learn about that. But right now she’s here, with you, and no one is going to hurt her.”
Yelena yawned, melting into Kate’s embrace. “We will keep her safe.” she murmured, her accent thicker. “We HAVE to. Can’t lose her again, I am not strong enough…”
“We will keep her safe, I promise.” Kate nodded. She patted her friend’s shoulder tenderly. “You’re just gonna have to make new memories. Enough where when she’s older, she won’t remember the Red Room. All she’ll remember are the three kickass warriors who saved her from inside and out.”
Yelena let out a slight chuckle. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Auntie Lena?”
Yelena looked down in shock, just as much as Kate, to see little Lena half asleep. Of course, it was past 4 AM, but the normally-heavy sleeper was putting in some effort to keep her eyes open. Her pink pony was cradled in one arm with the other small hand climbing up Yelena’s arm.
“Why are you crying?”
Yelena averted her eyes for a moment, trying without success to hide it. “It’s alright, malyshka.”
“Come here.” The little girl beckoned her aunt closer, reaching up for her shoulder. “I don’t like when you’re sad.” She obviously liked it even less when she didn’t understand why, when she didn’t have clues about what was in Yelena’s head.
Kate leaned back with a smile as the small girl hugged her aunt gently like she did for Natasha. Through a yawn the child said quietly, “You’re ok, Auntie Lena. We’re home.” Her eyes fell shut, finally asleep again after using up that leftover energy to check on Yelena.
Kate stayed with both of them for a while, just sitting against the side of Yelena’s bed while her friend sat on the other one, her precious niece in her arms as she fell asleep too. Kate gently laid Yelena on her back and spread a soft blanket over both of them before stepping out of the room.
Kate’s hunch was that because the kid saw Yelena upset, she got curious and sympathetic in a way that distracted her from what was making her feel bad. It was one thing for an adult to see the kid have a hard time, but the other way around? That was something else entirely in the eyes of a child who saw adults as people who could do pretty much anything.
Sure, it would take time, but the young archer was optimistic that soon enough Lena would be ok. Soon enough, given how a little kid’s attention span could be, she could look at what was in front of her and the Red Room wouldn’t come back to haunt her dreams. ‘She’ll be ok,’ Kate thought. ‘She definitely will.’ The next time they went on an adventure together, it would be good.