Dasha steps back from where she had just pinned another photograph to the wall. “I can confirm that Valery has made contact with Veronika. This photo was taken yesterday.”
Sonya curses softly under her breath at the sight of yet another photograph pinned to a wall that’s already full of photographs of known Widows who have associated themselves with Valery. Kate turns to observe Yelena’s reaction.
Yelena remains silent, the tightening of her jaw the only indication that she had heard Dasha’s words.
Ever since they had rescued baby Sofia from Valery’s clutches three months ago, they had started monitoring known Widows, to find out if they were in league with Valery. Much to Yelena’s dismay, more and more Widows seemed to be joining, or at least cooperating with Valery and her network.
Kate’s heart aches for Yelena. With each passing day, Yelena grows more troubled, despairing, and a tired grimness has settled upon her, making her broody and short-tempered.
Standing next to Dasha, Anna shakes her head and props her hands on her hips. “We need to stop this bleeding, before it gets worse.”
“Can it get any worse than this?” Sonya mutters. “She’s already recruited over fifty Widows, that we know of, anyway.”
Looking frustrated, but without a good answer, Anna shoots a helpless look at Dasha, who sighs heavily.
“Between us, we don’t have enough manpower to stop them from joining Valery, while also tracking down her next targets. We just - “ Dasha pauses, shrugging her shoulders up weakly. “We can’t do both, not well, anyway. We can’t do this ourselves.”
For the first time in over an hour, Yelena’s hard gaze meets Dasha’s. “And who do you suggest we ask for help? Who will help us?”
An awkward silence falls over the group, and Yelena’s lip curls. “Go on. Tell me who will help us? S.H.I.E.L.D? The Avengers? I do not think the Asgardians would answer my call.”
At the back of the room, Kate has to fight very hard not to react to Yelena’s words. She knows it’s not personal, but it stings a little. She knows Clint would be more than happy to help, but she bites her tongue knowing that one additional person isn’t going to make much of a difference. And she knows for a fact that Yelena is too proud to even contemplate asking Carol Danvers for help, assuming she was even contactable off-world.
But Yelena is not done, she continues to fix her unblinking stare at Dasha. “Or maybe you, Dasha, can help. You betrayed Valery to help us. How about you ask these Widows to turn too? You seem to be very good at that.”
A wounded expression flashes across Dasha’s features as she flinches at the reminder, and Anna steps forward, deliberately angling her body to shield the newcomer from Yelena's biting anger.
“Yelena.”
The quiet warning is clear in her voice.
Yelena’s flinty gaze turns upon her, and Anna shakes her head once firmly. “Don’t.”
With a disgruntled huff, Yelena backs down. “You have a better idea then?”
Anna’s eyes flicker to Sonya and Dasha’s briefly, as though seeking their permission, before facing Yelena again. Taking a deep breath, she draws herself to her full height and lifts her chin. “We should activate the others.”
Kate winces inwardly when Yelena’s eyes immediately narrow at Anna’s words. She’s seen Yelena’s fierce protectiveness of the Widows she had rescued, and her staunch determination to keep them safe and sheltered away from the violence they had escaped. It was for that reason that Yelena had only ever allowed Sonya and Anna to help her in missions to free other Widows. Anna’s suggestion goes against everything Yelena believes in.
As expected, Yelena shakes her head firmly. “Many of them live peaceful lives, I won’t drag them out of retirement, away from their lives and families, into this mess.”
But Anna isn’t willing to back down. “If this keeps on going, a target will be on all our backs, all Widows. No one will be safe. There is no avoiding this, Yelena.”
"Our friends deserve their peace. It was hard-earned."
"Don't you think they deserve a choice, to decide that for themselves?" Sonya counters, and Yelena looks deeply cut at this, that Sonya would back Anna over her. "I know you want to keep them safe, but they may not have that luxury anymore. Not with Valery's aggressive recruitment. And as Dasha says, they may not have a choice."
Dasha nods in assent. "Threats come easily to Valery. I know that too well."
“And besides,” Sonya plunges on, “even if Valery doesn’t put a target on their backs, the rest of the world will if they believe that all Widows are as out of control as Valery is. Don’t you understand that - “
“I understand just fine,” Yelena snaps, bursting to her feet, and Kate grimaces at the hard scrape of the chair against the floor. “I know this is a threat to all of us, but I made a promise to those Widows we freed. I promised them they would be free, that they no longer had to fight. I promised them that they have a place in this world, where they don’t have to look over their backs in fear. We - I - “ she abruptly cuts herself off, her nose turning red with emotion, before lowering her voice. "It's not right, I cannot ask that of them."
A long silence falls over the room, and Kate can see that Yelena’s composure is starting to crumble. Her hands are clenched tightly into balls at her side, and her breathing is growing heavier.
Anna makes her way forward slowly towards Yelena, approaching her as she would towards a skittish animal. She gently places her hands on Yelena’s shoulders. "You saved me, a long time ago. You and Kate.” She reaches up to brush lightly against a scar on Yelena’s cheek. “I gave you this, and these others that night. But you saved me regardless. That's not something I've forgotten. Nor is it something the others would have forgotten. A debt is owed, whether you like it or not. That is the truth."
"You don't owe me anything." Yelena looks offended at the suggestion.
"But we do."
Yelena spins around at Dasha's quiet words.
"To you and Natasha. Absolutely, we do. We would not be in control of ourselves if you two did not come for us." Dasha steps forward, and yanks her left sleeve up, exposing a jagged pale scar running vertically up her arm.
Yelena's eyes widen, and she swallows heavily. She raises her eyes to meet Dasha’s, which are now welling up in tears. "I nearly managed to kill myself once, when I was briefly free of Dreykov's control. I was so angry when I found out I survived. But now that I'm free, I'm glad I didn't succeed. This feeling of freedom, of self-control, I never could have imagined it. You saved Anna, and,” she pauses for a while, turning to the brunette next to her, overcome with emotion, before continuing hoarsely, "in turn, Anna saved me."
She falls silent then, lost in her own thoughts, and Anna shoots her a watery smile as she gives Dasha’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Anna turns back to Yelena, an imploring look on her face. “I know this is a lot, and it goes against everything you have told us before. But please, you must reconsider this, Yelena. We’re out of options. Take a few days to think about it, okay?”
Yelena squeezes her eyes shut briefly, before giving her a short nod. “Okay,” she chokes out, before spinning around on her heel and leaving the room quickly.
Tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, Kate finally sits up straight and swings her legs to the floor. While waiting for her computer to finish running a program, she’s decided to stay in the office overnight instead of heading home. With a heavy sigh, she pushes herself off the cot in her office and ambles down the corridor towards the pantry.
“Seems I’m not the only one who's still here,” Kate says softly when she enters the kitchen, raising her hand in greeting at the other woman in the room.
Dasha is hunched over a mug of tea, and she offers Kate a tired but genuine smile. “Seems so.”
Kate joins her at the table, and she casts a critical glance at the other woman, her dirty blonde hair wrapped in a messy bun, dark circles under her eyes, her shirt heavily rumpled, looking exhausted. “Go back to the apartment, sleep in a proper bed, Dasha. You look like shit.”
“You wound me Kate,” the former Widow counters with a soft chuckle, before taking another sip of her tea, her expression growing serious again. “I wanted to take another look at the surveillance footage, to see I missed anything - “
“I’ll stop you there, Dasha,” Kate interrupts her, leaning forward across the table. “No matter how many times you rewatch that footage, it doesn’t change anything.”
Dasha’s throat bobs, and her eyes drop to the table. Kate continues. “It won’t change the minds of the Widows that are working with Valery. We have to focus on the others Valery hasn’t yet reached out too. More importantly, this isn’t your fault. I hope you know that.”
Her blue eyes shoot up to meet Kate’s. The same pain and guilt that Kate had seen burning behind those eyes the other day when Yelena confronted her is once again in full view. “It is though, it is my fault. I’m guilty of having helped Valery recruit those Widows,” she whispers, and her hand on the table clenches into a fist.
“I helped her. She threatened me, it is true, but I was weak and afraid,” she spits out, brimming with self-disgust. “I should’ve fought back the first time, but I was so afraid that she’d expose me. God, I’m such a coward - “
“No.”
Kate has heard enough. She’s witnessed enough of Yelena’s breakdowns to guess that most, if not all, of the Widows have a similar capacity for self-flagellation. She reaches over and placed her hand over Dasha’s trembling fist. “No,” she repeats. “This is not your fault. Valery would have done this with or without you. And you are not weak. Far from it. You survived immeasurable pain and suffering, I saw that scar, and I’ve heard about what you all had to do to make it through your training. I also know you are not weak, because you’re right here in front of me now, alive. You are brave and good. You saved Yelena and Sofia that night. You shot another Widow who would have killed them. You escaped from Valery, and now you're helping us. That takes courage.” She ducks to try and catch Dasha’s gaze. “You are far from weak, my friend. Far from it.”
A strangled little noise escapes Dasha’s lips as she tries to hold back her tears, and Kate smiles warmly at her, patting her hand. “I’m glad you’re with us, Dasha. I really am.”
“That is something we agree on.”
Kate and Dasha turn around at the sound of the familiar voice that echoes from behind them. Anna is standing at the threshold of the pantry, leaning against the doorframe, a crooked smile on her face. She’s dressed as though she had just rolled out of bed - a matching pair of sweats visible under her heavy coat, and her unruly brown hair is tucked under a grey woolly hat.
“What are you doing here?” Dasha blinks in surprise, sniffling, hastily wiping away her tears with the back of her hand.
With a fond chuckle, Anna strides over towards them, and comes to stand behind Dasha, planting both hands on her shoulders and giving her a playful shake. “What a question to ask. You told me you’d be home by ten. It’s already one in the morning, mind you.”
Kate has to bite back the grin that threatens to overtake her face at how Dasha seems to relax and sink back into Anna’s warmth, some of her earlier despondence dissipating, overtaken by a shy smile. A shy smile that she wears most often when Anna is around.
Kate's eyes meet Anna’s knowingly, and Anna throws her a quick wink, before turning her attention back to Dasha. She leans down and drops a quick kiss to the top of Dasha’s head, before giving her another light shove. “Come on, finish your drink, and let’s go. I want to get a decent night’s of sleep in.”
“Okay, okay,” Dasha mumbles, throwing back her drink with one swift gulp, before standing up. “I’ll go get my things. I just need five minutes.”
After Dasha has exited the kitchen, Kate stands up to gather the glasses and places them in the sink. When she turns around, Anna is regarding her with a soft look on her face. “Thank you Kate.”
“For what?”
Anna smiles at Kate’s confusion. “For being kind to her. For being a friend that she needs,” she says simply. “Your capacity for compassion is one of your best traits, Kate. It really is a rare thing.”
“Oh.” Kate can feel a flush creeping up her neck at that, and Anna sees it too, as her grin widens teasingly. “Thank you.”
“I’m good to go.” Dasha reappears in the kitchen, bag slung across her shoulders, and Anna spins on her heels.
“Wonderful.” Anna spins her car keys around her index finger, and waves at Kate. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Bishop.”
Kate gives her a thumbs up, and Dasha approaches her. “Thank you, Kate. Really,” she says earnestly, and Kate grins at her.
“No problem. I meant every word of it.” Kate gives Dasha a warm squeeze on the elbow. “Get some rest.”
With a small smile, Dasha nods, and follows Anna out the door.
A few weeks pass, before Sonya calls a meeting with Yelena, Kate, and the others. From the moment the meeting starts, Kate can tell that Sonya, Dasha, and Anna are buzzing with nervous energy.
Arms folded expectantly, Yelena tips her head towards Sonya. “Tell me.”
Sonya clicks play on the laptop, and a familiar voice rings out across the speakers.
“Yelena, Sonya told me everything. You’re an idiot for not asking me right away. I owe my freedom to you. I have a family now, and I’ll be damned if they’re put in danger because I stood by and did nothing. What Valery is doing puts us all at risk, and I won’t let her ruin what I have, what we have. I’m with you. Alina is also in. Just tell us when and where.”
The recording ends, and Yelena’s eyes remain fixed rigidly on the screen. It takes a long moment before her eyes seek Sonya’s. “You contacted Irina without telling me,” she states flatly.
Kate can’t read the expression on Yelena’s face, but senses something boiling underneath her calm voice. She can see that Sonya likely feels the same, and the woman’s shoulders tense slightly, like she’s bracing herself for a fight.
“Two days ago. I have messages from many others, more than forty of our sisters. They are willing, Yelena, they are ready - “
Yelena’s fist slams down against the table, and the sudden noise of it sends Kate reeling back. To her credit, Sonya barely bats an eyelid, like she had expected this reaction all along.
“You went behind my back!” Yelena snarls, her voice low and utterly furious. She whirls around on the others. “All of you! Why would you do that? I specifically said not to seek them out -”
“We don’t have a choice, Yelena! It’s time to face up to the truth!” Dasha cuts in. “If you want to stop Valery, this is our best and only shot!”
“No! There must be another way, and we’ll find it!” Yelena steps towards Dasha, who matches her step for step, and the two women end up nose-to-nose, still arguing their point.
Anna immediately bounds across the room towards them, getting between the two blondes, and pushing them apart before things get physical.
“Please, stop, the two of you,” she says commandingly. “We’re a team, we’re not here to tear each other’s throats out.”
"We're just trying to help, Yelena!" Dasha cries out over Anna’s shoulder, frustration etched across her face. "If you'd just stop being so fucking stubborn and just listen - "
Yelena's temper flares up again. "I don't need you telling me what to do. You better watch yourself!"
Anna's head whips back towards Dasha. “Don't let her bait you!” she hisses, as Dasha stubbornly tries to jostle against her staying hand. “Dasha!”
Looking mutinous, Dasha nonetheless wilts under Anna’s warning look, and steps back.
"Better get your little pet under control, Anna," Yelena growls. Behind Anna, Dasha makes an angry noise, and Anna's calm composure finally breaks.
She spins around and steps forward, towering over Yelena, fully leveraging her height, her brows furrowed in controlled anger. “I know you’re angry, and I’m sorry we went behind your back. But now you're just being cruel and acting out, so you fucking listen to me right now. I truly believe this is the best course of action, and until you have a better alternative, I ask that you listen to these messages in their entirety, before you decide whether you're in or not. Because at this point, we will proceed, with or without you.”
Yelena’s jaw clenches angrily, as she considers Anna’s words. “Fine," she grits out.
With a small hum, Anna jerks her head towards Dasha and Sonya, and the three Widows slip out the room. With a tiny nod towards Yelena, Kate also takes her leave.
Hours have passed before Kate knocks on the door of the room, and opens it tentatively. She peeks her head in to see Yelena staring out the window, hands clasped behind her back.
She joins Yelena by the window, keeping her own gaze fixed on the stars outside. She waits in silence, waiting for Yelena to speak when ready.
“Forty two.”
Yelena’s words are whispered so softly that Kate can barely hear them. She turns her head slowly to face Yelena.
The blonde’s eyes are red-rimmed, tear tracks on her face, and her brows are furrowed, deeply troubled.
“Forty two that are willing to fight.” Her throat bobs. “Forty two who may not go home to their families, to their lives, when this is all over.”
“True. But these are also forty two women that are making this decision by themselves, for themselves. Who are you to deny them?” Kate asks gently. “I do not presume to know what it feels like to make your own decision after years, hell, a lifetime of imprisonment. So I cannot speak for these women, or you, but it seems to be that this is something they want.”
Yelena looks away, blinking back tears that threaten to fall again, and Kate continues. “I trust that they are secure in their decision. Are you?”
The blonde exhales shakily, and Kate presses a kiss to her cheek. “Whatever you decide, I'm with you. That doesn't change. But don’t take too long, the others are outside waiting.”
As she turns to leave, Yelena speaks again. "What would you do if you were in my shoes?"
Kate turns around slowly. "Yelena, I can't answer that."
"Yes, you can. You already know the answer," Yelena says quietly.
Kate sighs deeply. "I would trust my friends. They've done their homework. They would not choose this option unless there was no other way. But like I said, you have to make your own decision, Yelena."
With that, she swiftly exits the room, and heads for the pantry. Upon her entry, three heads immediately lift up in unison towards her in expectation. Kate shakes her head. “She’s still thinking. But I have a feeling she’ll be out soon.”
Sonya looks disappointed, but Anna nods understandingly. “Thanks Kate.” Dasha flashes Kate a small smile and pats the space on the table next to her, gesturing at a fresh cup of tea that she's brewed.
With a grateful smile, Kate slides onto the chair next to Dasha and breathes in the aroma of the freshly brewed tea.
Another hour passes in relative silence, each of the women lost to their own thoughts, when Yelena finally steps into the pantry.
She doesn’t speak, merely looks each of her friends in the eyes, and nods once. A loud gasp of relief escapes Sonya’s lips, Dasha's head falls to the table with a dull thunk, and Anna immediately leaps out of her chair to embrace Yelena.
"Let's get these bastards," Yelena says quietly, and Sonya and Dasha also rise from their chairs to wrap Yelena in a hug. For a moment, the 4 Russian women are tangled up in a mess of limbs, their heads huddled together, and Kate bites back a smile.
There is hope yet.