For the upteenth time in the last thirty minutes, Kate glances back at the bathroom door, which had been shut promptly by Yelena moments upon her return to the apartment after what Kate assumed was the conclusion of her mission.
Fanny is sitting outside the bathroom, tail slowly swishing across the floor. After twenty minutes of waiting, the Akita’s patience had dwindled, ending in her pawing insistently at the door that Yelena remains stubbornly locked behind. Heaving a soft sigh, Kate places the spatula down, and pads over to Fanny, giving the dejected dog a comforting scratch behind her ears. “She’ll be ok, Fanny. Just give her a little time” she mutters, and Fanny looks up at her mournfully.
Kate retreats into the kitchen, knowing Yelena would emerge when she’s ready to talk. She takes heart in the fact that she didn’t see any obvious injuries on Yelena, but the same can’t be said for her mental state. The devastation was clear as day on Yelena’s pale complexion and her defeated posture when she returned.
Eventually, the bathroom door squeaks open, and Kate hears the scraping of claws across the floor as Fanny bounds towards Yelena, followed by Yelena’s soft loving words murmured in Russian to Fanny.
A set of arms wrap around her waist, and Kate leans back into the familiar warmth of Yelena, accepting the gentle kiss pressed against her bare shoulder.
Silence falls across the kitchen, filled only with the soft sounds of Kate stirring the pot of stew, and Yelena's slow breathing. Kate feels the press of soft lips against her shoulder again, before Yelena’s arms slip away from her, as she shuffles towards the cupboard. Kate watches silently as Yelena reaches for the bottle of whiskey tucked at the back of it, and gives herself a generous pour.
Kate puts the lid back onto the pot, then turns around to face Yelena, who is now leaning against the kitchen island. When Yelena looks up from her glass of whiskey, Kate is staring at her, an eyebrow cocked questioningly.
The corner of Yelena’s lip ticks upwards fondly. Kate Bishop’s patterns will never change, she’ll always ask how Yelena is, will always want to know if she's okay. Knowing she cannot postpone this conversation much longer, Yelena takes another sip of her whiskey before responding.
“Sonya and I were tracking down a Widow. We thought she was still being controlled, because she was doing such unspeakable things. But she wasn’t.” Yelena pauses, shaking her head. “She is on a mission of revenge against all who she believes has wronged her.”
“Wronged her,” Kate repeats, frowning. “But you killed Dreykov. The Red Room is destroyed, you and your family saw to that. Who else is there left?”
She isn’t ready for the tortured look that comes over Yelena’s face - one of anger, regret, and shame. Yelena’s eyes flicker away, falling back to the drink in her hand, and she takes another gulp of whiskey.
“It is true, we killed Dreykov and many of his lieutenants that day, and more after. But there are many more responsible for the suffering of Widows, who are still out there in the world. Many are people you know and see on television. Celebrities, politicians, businessmen. They hide in plain sight, even as they had funded the Red Room, or now continue to control Widows.”
Kate silently takes in this information, before choosing her next words carefully. “Did you go after them?”
Yelena shakes her head. “Not explicitly. I focus on freeing the Widows that I know or hear of. Taking out those who had enslaved them has been a secondary objective, a byproduct of sorts when I free the Widows,” she says through gritted teeth. “Now I cannot help but feel that I’ve made a grave mistake in that.”
Kate frowns at the regret and self-loathing in Yelena’s voice. She carefully frames Yelena’s cheeks with her hands, and when Yelena turns her sad eyes upon her, Kate shakes her head. “No. You should not regret prioritizing the safety of the Widows. It was, is, the right thing to do. You cannot fault yourself for that. “
“Still - “
“No,” Kate interrupts her fiercely. “You did what you knew to be right. Sonya knows it. Anna knows it. Countless others you freed know it. Just because one Widow has gone on a bloodthirsty rampage does not make you wrong.”
Yelena scoffs. “One Widow. I hope it’s just one Widow, but I suspect there may be more. We’re don’t yet know. All I know is that I have to stop Valery, before she hurts more innocent children.”
Kate feels her heart drop to her stomach. “Children?”
Yelena’s fist clenches so tightly around her glass that Kate is afraid she’ll shatter it.
Kate swallows heavily, almost afraid to know the truth. “Yelena. What the hell happened?”
48 hours ago
“Oh god.”
Bile rising in her throat, Yelena toppled to her knees when she laid eyes on the bloodied bodies in front of her. Lost in a haze of horror, she shook her head fervently, trying to rid her brain of the images in front of her. Sonya screeched to a halt behind her, a similar breathless gasp of horror escaping her friend.
Breathing heavily, Yelena raised her eyes to the stoic dark-haired woman in front of her, whose hand was still wrapped tightly around a knife.
The knife was coated in crimson, the blood still dripping onto the floor. Blood was spattered over the front of her clothes, and her face, giving her a manic, threatening presence.
“Valery, what did you do?” Yelena asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She wished she sounded more commanding, but she was shaken to her core by the sight in front of her.
“I did what none of you had the balls to do,” Valery answered, a cold glint in her eyes, twirling the knife confidently.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I took the fight to them!” Valery snarled, aggressively tapping her hand against her chest. “I took the fight to those who enslaved us, who made us suffer for years.“
“No, no, no, no, no. What are you talking about?” Yelena shook her head fervently, trying to make sense of it all.
Valery looked at her as though she’s stupid. “These children are not innocent, they’re not - “
Yelena broke.
She staggered to her feet, pointing at the bodies. “They were CHILDREN!” she roared. “You murdered little children!”
“Do you even know who their father was? What he did to us? Their father owned three Widows, I was one of them. Oh that’s right,” she sneered derisively at Yelena and Sonya’s reactions. “That’s right. One of the Widows failed, and he forced me to kill her.” Her face twisted in anger and grief. “And it was a slow death. I watched as Elena’s blood seeped through my fingers, down my uniform. I watched her suffer, and there was nothing I could do. And the whole time, the bastard was laughing. He was a sadistic son of a bitch. He deserves to suffer these deaths, before I kill him slowly.”
“So these children were just collateral damage?” Sonya looked aghast.
“He was our enemy! He deserved to suffer! Like we have suffered!” Valery bellowed back at her, spit flying from her lips as she jabbed her finger venomously at Yelena. “Don’t forget that!”
Yelena remained shell-shocked. “They were children! They were not responsible for what happened to us! How could they be?”
“It’s war, Yelena. I’m just continuing this fight against them, against anyone who worked for the Red Room, for Dreykov. It didn’t end that day when the base came down. It’s not over!”
Horror giving way to red hot fury, Yelena sprung forward, eyes blazing, gesturing at the bodies between them. “Look at them!”
Valery’s eyes narrowed, fixed upon Yelena’s face, refusing to obey.
“Look at them!” Yelena hissed, and for a brief moment, Valerys’ angry eyes fell upon the children, and her jaw tightened. “Look at them! They were children, they don’t even look older than ten. They were defenseless and you killed them in cold blood!”
"We were defenseless!" Valery’s answering shout was pained, full of trauma and fury. "We were defenseless when they took us. We couldn't do a thing.”
Yelena fell silent, body shaking in anger. Next to her, Sonya took a step forward, hot tears of rage and frustration in her eyes. “Valery. I know you’re angry. We all are. But now you’re spreading that pain and suffering onto others. We were freed, so we won't have to do this to others!"
“We’re not mindless murderers anymore, doing the bidding of other men. We’re not child-killers, not anymore. This isn’t us!” Yelena added, trying to make the former Widow see sense.
Valery’s eyes narrowed in disgust. “No, it just isn’t you, not anymore. You and I are different now, Yelena. Your time with Bishop has made you soft.” She pauses, her eyes glinting cruelly. “Or maybe it was the aliens who fucked with your brain. You haven’t got the stomach for what needs to be done, not anymore.”
“No.”
Yelena spun around when she saw that Sonya had pulled her gun on Valery. She took a small step forward, holding out her hand towards Sonya in a bid to de-escalate the situation. “Sonya, put it down, let’s talk this out.”
“Doesn’t seem like Valery here is going to back down, Yelena,” Sonya growled, a hard expression having taken over her features.
Yelena glanced back towards Valery, who was wearing a smug smirk on her face. “Let’s put the guns down, and talk it out.”
“I don’t think so,” Valery said snidely, before hurling a smoke bomb that landed at their feet, and within seconds, the room filled with suffocating smoke.
“Fuck!” Sonya cursed, covering her eyes with her hands.
By the time the smoke cleared, Valery was gone.
Sonya tucked her gun back into her holster, and approached Yelena, who was once again crouching by the bodies. With a sad sigh, Yelena’s gloved hand gently slipped their eyes shut.
“We need to go, before the police arrive,” Sonya told her quietly, and Yelena nodded before rising to join her friend.
Present day
“They were just children. Little children,” Yelena whispers brokenly.
Kate immediately wraps her arms around her, pulling the shorter woman into a tight embrace. She presses her lips to the top of Yelena’s head. “The sins of a parent are not the child’s to bear. You told me that once, a long time ago, remember?”
Yelena stills and pulls back, a glimmer of surprise flickering through her face, followed by the ghost of a shy smile. Kate smiles tenderly at her, her thumb smoothing away the tears trickling down Yelena’s cheeks.
“So what’s next?”
Yelena huffs out a ragged breath. “Sonya and I agreed to take a few days to regroup. We need to find out who her next targets could be, and stop her from killing more innocent people.”
Kate leans forward. “Let me help you. I can’t let you and Sonya go at this alone.”
“We’ll be fine, we’ve got Anna too.”
“Isn’t four better than three?”
Yelena cocks an eyebrow pointedly at her, and Kate grins.
Two weeks later
Yelena looks down at the precious bundle in her arms, then up again at Kate. Her throat dries up, and uncertainty and fear well up within her. Reading her easily, Kate steps forward and grasps Yelena’s shoulders.
“Run, and don’t look back.” Yelena opens her mouth to argue, but Kate continues. “You need to get Sofia out of here. Sonya and I will be fine. We’ll hold them off, and then we’ll get out. No time to argue. Get to the chopper. We’ll be fine.”
Yelena’s gaze moves away from Kate’s earnest expression, landing on Sonya, who is sitting on the motorcycle. Their eyes meet knowingly, and Sonya gives her a sharp nod, along with a comforting smile.
I’ll take care of her.
The two former Widows have worked together long enough now for that silent communication to be enough. Yelena sighs, and presses her lips to Kate’s in a chaste kiss. “Take care of each other, I’ll see you soon.”
With one last smile at Yelena, Kate leaps onto the back of Sonya’s motorcycle, bow in hand, and they roar back towards the direction of the oncoming guards.
Yelena sprints as hard as she can across the courtyard, as gunfire erupts around her. But she can barely hear the deafening noises around her. All she can hear is her own ragged breathing, all she can feel is the burning sensation in her legs as she wills them to pump faster, and all she cares about is the cargo in her arms.
It doesn’t escape her attention that the roaring of the motorcycles behind her is growing louder. Valery’s Widows are in hot pursuit of her, and Yelena glances up ahead, looking at the helicopter far across the field. With a growl, she pushes down her fatigue, and keeps going.
The helicopter is coming closer within sight now, and she’s close enough that she sees Anna in the cockpit. She allows herself a huff of relief, just as something slams into her from the left at high speed.
With a shocked yelp, she finds herself flying through the air at break-neck speed, and it’s all she can do to wrap her body protectively around the baby in her arms, before she crashes to the ground shoulder first.
She hears a loud crack at the impact, and rolls over multiple times, before landing on her back with a groan.
Dazed and agonized, she rolls to her right, as pain ripples down her left side. Heart in her throat, she looks down at the baby still somehow cradled in her right arm. To her utter relief, the baby appears unharmed, though her face is turning red with tears. But Yelena’s relief is short-lived, as she hears footsteps - boots crunching through the grass towards her.
She scrambles to her knees, and finds herself face-to-face with a pistol. The woman in front of her pulls off her helmet, and Yelena’s brows furrow in recognition.
“Dasha. Don’t do this,” she says quietly, while surreptitiously shielding the baby with her right arm, as her left arm swings uselessly at her side.
“Give me the child, Yelena,” Dasha says commandingly, stretching out one hand, even as her other levels a gun at Yelena’s head.
“You know I can’t.”
Dasha sighs heavily, looking torn. It gives Yelena a glimmer of hope. “If you give me the child, I’ll let you go.” Yelena merely shakes her head, and Dasha heaves another sigh. “Please, don’t make me do this. You’re my friend, I don’t want to hurt you - “
“Oh shut it. I’ll shoot her if you can’t do it.”
Yelena turns towards the newcomer, who has also yanked off her helmet. “Karolina,” she greets the woman in a clipped voice. “You just had to run me over, didn’t you?”
Karolina, a head taller than Dasha, strides towards her, and Yelena tenses. She snorts and presses the muzzle of her pistol against Yelena’s forehead. “Yeah, I couldn’t resist it. You don’t look so good, Belova. Give us the baby, and you don’t have to die today.”
“Over my dead body.”
Karolina digs the muzzle harder against Yelena’s temple. “I can make that happen, easily.”
“Karolina!” Dasha scolds her, scandalized at her partner’s actions.
“She needs to know we’re not fucking around,” Karolina growls, her eyes not leaving Yelena, who holds her gaze challengingly.
“I can’t let you have Sofia. Valery is going to kill her, and I won’t let that happen. Look at her, she’s just a baby.”
Karolina continues to look unmoved, but Yelena can sense the hesitation emanating from the other woman pointing a gun at her. “Dasha, there is no way Valery is going to let this baby live, and you know it. She’s already killed innocent children, and she will continue to do so.” She watches as Dasha’s throat bobs as she swallows heavily, and she shifts her grip uneasily on her gun. “I draw the line at killing little babies. I am no longer controlled by anyone else, only me, and my own fucking conscience. And what kind of conscience do you have, that lets you put this baby within Valery’s psychotic reach - “
She doesn’t get to finish her sentence, as Karolina brings her pistol whipping down upon her injured shoulder. She staggers to a knee with a surprised grunt of pain, and Sofia starts wailing at the sudden movement.
In her haze of pain, she hears Dasha furiously shouting at Karolina, and sees Karolina moving towards her in an effort to seize the baby from her. Instinctively, she turns her back towards Karolina, trying to shield the baby, when a loud bang echoes through the night.
Whipping around, Yelena half expects a bullet in her body, but instead, is greeted by the sight of a shocked Karolina, whose hand is clapped over her shoulder. Blood is seeping through the gunshot wound, and she stares in shocked accusation at Dasha, who still has the gun trained on her.
“You fucking bitch!” Karolina howls at her, as Dasha hurries forward to kick the gun out of her reach, and pistol whips her into unconsciousness for good measure.
Yelena stares at Dasha in shock as the woman turns back to her.
“Let’s go, come on,” Dasha says, bending down to haul Yelena to her feet.
“What just happened?” Yelena barks in confusion as Dasha ushers her towards her motorcycle.
Dasha rolls her eyes. “I saved you, that’s what. Come on, let’s get you to the helicopter. I’m sure Anna is waiting for you there.”
Climbing onto the motorcycle behind Dasha, Yelena pauses and frowns. “Wait, how do you know it’s Anna?”
Dasha cranes her neck backwards and smirks at her before flipping the visor back down. “She always was the best pilot of us all. And besides, you’re too predictable. It's always you four musketeers, no? You need new friends, Belova.”
Snuffing a laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, Yelena shakes her head as Dasha guns the motorcycle towards the helicopter.
If Anna is shocked that Yelena has arrived with Dasha in tow, she doesn’t let up. After they are a safe distance away, she turns to Yelena. “Kate and Sonya contacted me, they’re on their way out as well, it all went to plan.”
“Well, sort of,” Yelena counters drily, jerking her head towards Dasha who is sitting behind them. Dasha raises a hand in an awkward greeting.
“Well, Dasha always had a secret soft heart, I can’t say I’m surprised.” Anna huffs out a laugh at Dasha’s indignant “hey!” at that. Flicking the controls to autopilot, Anna shifts around to face Dasha. She smiles broadly at Dasha, holds out her fist, and with a shy grin, Dasha bumps it. “You did the right thing, my friend. I’m glad you’re with us.”
At the quiet earnestness in Anna’s words, Dasha’s grin slides slowly off her face, replaced by a contrite look. “Thank you, Anna. I - “ she pauses, chewing her lip worriedly. “I hope I can make amends.”
“You will,” Anna says firmly, her gaze flicking to Yelena, who also turns to look at Dasha.
“No, we will. Together,” Yelena states with fierce determination, and Dasha nods.
Upon arrival at the safehouse, Yelena feels a great sense of relief wash over her when she sees Kate and Sonya standing at the helipad. Sonya is the first to greet her with a triumphant kiss to the cheek, and scoops Sofia off Yelena’s now very tired right arm.
Turning around, Yelena finds herself with a face full of Kate Bishop, who flings herself into her arms. Hearing Yelena’s grunt of pain as her injured left shoulder is jostled, Kate leaps back as though she was burned by fire.
Her eyes wide in concern, Kate’s hand hovers over Yelena’s shoulder, and Yelena nearly laughs. “I’m okay. Maybe a fracture, can’t be more than that,” she reassures Kate, who looks anything but reassured.
“Come on Kate Bishop, let’s take the baby and your lover to the med-bay. You can have your alone time with her later,” Sonya drawls teasingly, and Kate flushes bright red, drawing a fond chuckle from Yelena.
Later that evening, Kate walks past the two armed S.H.I.E.L.D agents standing guard, towards where Yelena is standing outside the hospital room, gazing through the window at the baby. Bumping Yelena gently on the shoulder, Kate joins her in her vigil. “Baby's going to be okay?”
Yelena turns her head slightly and offers her a small smile. “Yes, surprisingly no damage, even though she took a few tumbles with me.”
Kate chuckles softly. “Good thing she had you to break her fall.” Yelena smiles at that, and as Kate steps closer, Yelena lets herself lean into the brunette’s warm and solid body. “You did good, really good.”
Yelena hums, the smile sliding off her face, replaced by a moody contemplative frown. “We saved one child, but Valery is still out there. She killed Sofia’s dirtbag father, and I’m sure she’s going to keep going after the others.”
Kate purses her lips, and rests her cheek against the top of Yelena’s head. “What about Dasha? Do you think she can help us find Valery?”
“Perhaps,” Yelena murmurs. “She was coerced into helping Valery, and she has a target on her back now. Valery and Karolina,” a disgusted look comes over her face at the memory of the cruel Widow, “will not take this betrayal lightly.”
“Gives her more incentive to help us stop Valery right?” Kate muses.
Yelena shrugs, and grimaces when a sharp pain ripples through her left shoulder. An exasperated look comes over Kate’s face, as she lifts up her hand, her fingers skating gently over the blonde’s arm that is tucked in a sling.
“I’ll be fine,” Yelena tells her stubbornly.
Kate quirks up an eyebrow in amusement at her, but doesn’t pursue the matter further. She slips her hand into Yelena’s, and tugs her away from the window. “Come on, get some rest. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
Reading the hesitation on Yelena’s face, Kate cocks her head to the side and smiles in understanding. “Sofia’s going to be okay, thanks to you. But take the time you need, I’ll wait for you upstairs.”
Yelena blinks rapidly, trying to hold back the sudden well of tears. It’s not the first time she’s been moved by Kate’s kindness and empathy, and she’s sure it won’t be the last. She lifts up their entwined hands and presses a kiss to the back of Kate’s hand in thanks.
Kate grins at her, a hand softly caressing Yelena’s jawline. “Don’t be too long.”
“I won’t,” Yelena promises her.
As Kate’s footsteps grow more distant, Yelena turns back to the window to watch Sofia, and makes a promise then and there.
I’m coming for you, Valery. You won’t hurt any more innocent people.