Chapter 21
YELENA’S P.O.V.
WEEKS LATER…
There was no part of Yelena that didn’t miss her big sister. But she knew it was for the best that Natasha remained hidden. Everyone who’d heard of her before believed she’d died saving the world. A good portion of her was thinking, just like a kid, “it’s not fair, why does she have to go out and be a hero instead of being here for us?” But still, for the sake of freeing so many victims of the Red Room, it eased her conscience knowing why. After all, Yelena could only guess whether or not the kids Natasha helped weren’t just like them.
What she herself wouldn’t have given to be rescued from that horrible place as a child…
On a more positive note, though, Yelena had enjoyed Central Park from the beginning and kept the multiple maps Kate had given her. Back at her apartment, she hovered over them with a magnifying glass to get a better look at things like what was wide open and what was dense forest. The topographic maps showing things like height above sea level gave her a good idea about hills that would be fun. She remembered passing by a big cluster of boulders back when Kate brought them to the park—boulders that she had to put in her best effort to keep the child from climbing since they were far too big.
When little Lena came over to the table, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Thinking of where to go next.”
“Another adventure?” the child asked eagerly.
“If I can find one… and I think I have. And there won’t be so many people, so it’ll be a nice picnic too.” Most would be either at school or at work during the week so she decided to take Lena out to the wooded areas this time.
-/-
Even though Lena’s legs were tired, she was still darting her head left and right taking in the North Woods. Yelena had picked a good spot to lay out a picnic blanket and have lunch. The child was fixated on the stream fed by a trickling waterfall emerging from a short hill of rocks. Yelena had to tell her not to jump in since it wasn’t allowed, plus the water was freezing. Thankfully the kid was convinced after sticking her hand in and then shuddering “cold-cold-cold” as she yanked it out.
“See?” Yelena laughed quietly. “Here, dry it off on the blanket, then use your armpit. That will warm it up.”
After the picnic, they continued walking until Lena asked to be carried. Yelena said yes to that after making sure she could get her pack on over her chest without it falling off. “Ah, of course.” She piggy-backed her, which they both seemed to enjoy more and more each minute. Sometimes Yelena would sprint and swerve, leading to the little one spreading her arms out and giggling, “Flying! Like Falcon!”
Yelena didn’t know Falcon—Sam Wilson—personally. But she knew of him, especially from the storybooks little Lena was hooked on. Plus, she’d seen on the news how he basically became the new Captain America after Steve Rogers died. She remembered the silvery jet-pack powered wings, white supersuit and the iconic stars-and-stripes shield on his back.
Given how repeatedly the kid would go through the same picture book after the next, Yelena figured maybe one day she would leave her with Kate and surprise her with a longer book.
She continued this piggy-back ride with a very nimble and well-controlled run, savoring Lena’s enjoyment. She didn’t want it to end purely because of how much they both loved it.
-/-
HOURS LATER…
In the apartment bathroom, Yelena sighed while kneeling in front of her niece to check on the scratches on her little face, arms and knees. They were finally back home after an eventful afternoon.
Back in the North Woods right after her piggy-back ride, the five year old had decided to imitate Kate by climbing a tree. At first, Yelena figured that she would only get a few feet and come down, unable to make it further. But Lena took her by surprise, having somehow picked up on how to keep going like a monkey!
Out of fear, Yelena had yelled at the child to get down from there. But that only made things worse, startling her into losing her balance. She’d fallen to the ground like a rock before Yelena could catch her. After being scratched by branches and twigs on the way down, the kid fell hard on her left hand and broke her wrist. The impact from her body had made it bend inward too far, letting out a loud CRACK. Thankfully there was a couple walking nearby who saw it and called for help right away. Yelena picked up the child, and then the couple had led her to the nearest road where the ambulance would come.
At least now the hard stuff was done. They’d gotten her to that hospital, then the doctors x-rayed and fixed her wrist. While Yelena had stayed close, holding the child’s other hand until they got her to a room, the doctors had put Lena to sleep. So she’d stopped struggling and crying pretty quick. Yelena remembered thanking them for that since it hurt to see her niece in such pain.
But with that out of the way, Lena just had to keep her fiberglass cast on so the bones would stay in place. At least the material was less irritating and lighter for the sake of her small hands. It could be waterproofed and stay on for x-rays.
“It hurts,” the little girl complained while Yelena was cleaning the scratches on her knees and shins. Thankfully it was nothing that a few butterfly bandaids couldn’t cinch back up. Little Lena was looking down at her cast, crestfallen. With her non-injured arm cleaned, she hugged her stuffed pink pony close for comfort.
“I know, malyshka. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Yelena whispered, trying to be careful. “But be careful from now on. Please.”
Lena nodded as her aunt looked over any bruising. Fanny approached carefully and lay next to her, sensing the worry and pain. The kid carefully raised her arm and lay it over Fanny like a furry pillow.
“AH!” Kate screamed from the living room. “Yelena, I’m—!”
Then came the slapping sound of something being caught. Kate must’ve tossed something to no avail. Yelena stopped what she was doing, both hers and the dog’s attention quickly honed in on where her friend’s voice came from.
“Stay here.” she told the scared child. Despite it being a few weeks since they rescued her from the Red Room, for all they knew, the threat was still there. Whoever gave the order before probably wanted payback, to go to further extents and take less chances to make sure they would succeed in KEEPING the girl. But Yelena wouldn’t let that happen. She walked carefully, hiding in the shadows, until she could make sure of what was going on since Kate hadn’t made a sound after screaming.
“Do you and your sister always use the windows to get into apartments?” Now she sounded just plain annoyed. “I thought it was just a Yelena thing.” she said, finally meeting the redhead’s green eyes.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” Natasha smiled at the girl. She stood there with a ‘lucky cat’ in her hand and set it on the counter. That must’ve been what Kate threw at her when she was caught off guard. “Are you sure you’re alright, Kate? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Pretty sure I have. But no, no. I’m fine.” the archer shook her head as she laughed.
“Are you sure?” Yelena raised an eyebrow while looking at her friend. “You didn’t look fine when you threw a bottle of sriracha at me.”
“Oh, you LOVE hot sauce. Don’t act like you weren’t giddy about THAT being what I threw.” After a brief pause, Kate laughed a bit, clearly knowing she’d never hear the end of it—how she’d freaked out when she and Yelena actually met.
But almost immediately, Yelena’s attention turned to Natasha. “You’re back.” She embraced her sister tightly, not wanting to let go.
“I’m staying in the city for a few days, but no one else can know I’m here. I only took the veil off when I got to the window.” Tasha explained, hugging her tightly. “I promised I would show you around the city, but I guess Kate already did.” There was sadness in her sister’s voice, but also a bit of humor.
“It’s okay. We can show you our favorite places.” she answered. “Like the Zoo. Lena loves it. And our favorite spot for picnics…”
“I’ll go if you’re making peanut butter sandwiches.” her sister requested, getting Fanny to approach them after hearing those words.
“No, there are no sandwiches for you, Fanny.” Yelena scratched the dog behind her ears.
“Fanny?” Natasha stared at her completely unamused, so Yelena grinned at her big sister knowing she’d pushed the right buttons. “How old are you? Twelve?”
“I was honoring you, poser.” she playfully rolled her eyes. “Mason sent me your stuff from that trailer he gave you in Norway. ‘Fanny Longbottom’. HA.”
“So you went through my fake IDs, huh?” the redhead poked the younger sibling’s side.
Yelena just stuck her tongue out. The childish gesture only got the Black Widow to smile before tickling the blonde’s sides.
“Mama!” little Lena exclaimed while running towards them.
“Hi!” Natasha released her sister to pick up the five-year-old. “What happened to your arm?” she asked while observing the army-green cast on the child’s left arm.
“I fell from a tree.” the little girl answered while looking down. “I wanted to be like Auntie Kate.” The child lightly pointed to the archer who looked down awkwardly chewing her lip.
“Oh, sweet girl…” Nat hugged her daughter. “But you learned your lesson? Not climbing any more big trees, right?”
Almost immediately, the child shook her head. “It still hurts.”
Kate whispered to Yelena, “If she gets the urge to climb again and can’t be talked out of it, I can teach her to do it right so she won’t fall. Except on a safer thing like one of those walls where you’re on a harness. The small ones, though, not those super-high rock walls I’ve done.”
Yelena scratched the back of her head thinking that might actually be a realistic fallback. Seeing how the child had gotten a taste for it, she’d probably want to try again if she saw a way to do it without falling—or what she thought would be a way without falling. But only with someone watching over her or climbing with her. Those boulders at Central Park would probably be fine if Yelena and/or Kate was there with her.
“Short rock wall with harnesses that catch her.” she said sternly. “And that’s only if she brings it up on her own somehow. No making suggestions to her.”
“You got it.” Kate nodded. “And if she tries the boulders at Central Park, I’ll be right next to her the whole time.”
Unaware of their chat, Tasha pointed to the vest the child was wearing. "It matches your vest."
“I know." the little girl grinned, getting the three adults to laugh. “Got it for my birthday at Uncle Clint’s house.”
Yelena heard the little POP of a cap coming off a thick marker, Kate walking over to little Lena with a wide smile. “Can I sign your cast?”
“Hear that?” The woman tenderly held little Lena’s arm out as KATE BISHOP and two x-crossed arrows were inked into the cast.
“Huh?” Yelena scratched at her neck, confused. Kate looked over at her for a moment as she handed the sharpie to Natasha. Nat put the child on the floor so she could use both hands; one on Lena’s cast and the other using the sharpie.
Kate sat on her heels and told Lena, “When I wasn’t much older than you, I… wasn’t very careful.”
Yelena scoffed. “You STILL throw caution into the wind, Kate Bishop.”
The archer rolled her eyes and kept saying to the child, pointing to the ceiling, “One day I tried swinging from a fancy light at home and broke my arm. And it hurt so bad.” She winced and held her arm as if it hurt all over again. “After my cast was on and all, I still didn’t feel good. But my best friends came over and signed it. Somehow I just felt better… cared for.”
Natasha wrote MAMA with a heart next to it, also clear enough for the kid to see, and held out the sharpie for Yelena. “Here.”
At first confused until looking into Kate’s eyes, seeing the honesty in what she said about her childhood, she knelt down with them and wrote AUNTIE LENA over the green cast. This sort of trivial gesture was unfamiliar to her since she’d never gotten sick or broken a bone. Not at the Red Room during training. So it wasn’t until Kate gave the child her anecdote that it made sense.
"Oh, look at this, kiddo." Kate said while taking three ‘Avengers' books from a reusable cloth shopping bag.
"Three?” Yelena looked at her friend, mouth agape. “Kate, I told you ONE book. And those are thicker, too."
Kate sighed, admitting, "I know, but I felt guilty that she got hurt because of me. Plus, Lena’s a quick learner. She goes through them quickly, not to mention over and over. Pretty sure even I can recite those other ones word-for-word by now. The girl needs more pages for all our sakes. Might need to rethink this since her tutor says her reading’s picking up fast.”
“Her tutor?” Natasha repeated.
“Yeah. I, um… arranged to have her homeschooled till we get a better grip on things. And so far it’s been good.”
"Thank you!" The five-year-old hugged Kate's legs before taking the books to start reading them. "Look! That's you, mama!" Little Lena pointed to the picture of Natasha on a motorcycle picking up Captain America’s shield from the road as she drove past.
"That's right." the former Avenger nodded, approaching her daughter. She sat cross-legged on the floor against the couch next to her. “I remember that crazy adventure. Lots of big robots running around…”
"And that's Uncle Clint! And Uncle Steve..."
Kate subtly reached into her coat and handed Yelena a pocket-sized journal with an elastic band attached to the cover. “I grabbed this for you, too, so you can write down whatever memories you want.” she said. Yelena had never kept a journal or scrapbook before, but maybe sometime soon would be a good time for it.
Natasha grinned at little Lena. “You know, there’s other neat stuff that these storybooks don’t tell you about.”
“What? What? What else?”
Yelena smiled at the excitement in Kate’s and her niece's eyes when Natasha started telling some untold stories of the Avengers…