The Tube
Her hands shook slightly as she clicked from one monitor to another, trying to find the perfect angle to see what was happening in Kolkata. She shouldn’t have gone for the extra cup of coffee after she woke up that morning, but after Phil had asked her to take over as handler on the mission to secure Banner, she poured another mug.
“In position, say the word and we’ll secure you and the space,” she talked into her coms, watching the agent’s markers on her screen as they positioned themselves around the safehouse.
“Thanks, Hill,” Natasha responded, her voice low.
The two of them had worked together for a few weeks last year when Phil was pushed into a mandatory vacation. So far they were 6 for 6 on successful missions, the Commander intended to keep this streak up.
Natasha’s normal handler was currently sitting in the medbay trying to get the child to eat, if she still refused in the next few hours, she would be sedated and a feeding tube would be placed. He was scheduled to leave by 7pm to be in New York at the right time, the thought process was that he would be absent when she was sedated, and return as she was waking up.
The redhead spoke in Bengali to the child actress that returned to the safe house, the scientist in tow. Maria sat and listened as they exchanged pleasantries, hoping that it would be simple recruitment. Her breath hitched as she heard the man begin to yell.
“Strike team on my go,” she spoke into the comms device, not waiting for the man inside to get the chance to hurt the Russian.
The Commander waited for another moment, listening to the slightly ragged breath Natasha let out before she spoke, “stand down, we're good here.”
“Copy,” Maria watched the dots on her screen move back from their lurch towards the safe house.
There were no other problems with the plan, and within half an hour the two of them were entering the back of a Quinjet. Their streak of perfection continued.
“Hill, mission update,” Fury called from his spot at the bridge.
“Banner is on a flight back to the carrier now, should be there within an hour. Barton and Coulson are scheduled to leave in the next two hours, they'll travel to New York first for Stark and stop by DC for Rogers,” she opted to leave out the part that they were picking up May as well.
“Move us back to the US,” he nodded and retreated to his office, “I need us there intact, as soon as possible. We have a tesseract to find.”
“SHIELD emergency protocol 193.6 in effect, set coordinates to base 42,” she spoke with authority to the younger agents stationed at computers beneath her. Her phone vibrated and she looked down.
Nat: Have I ever told you your Commander voice was sexy?
Maria kept her face neutral even as she felt blush creep across. She glanced down at the comms that were still open with the agents, whoops . Her hand clicked the disconnect button before sending them over to air traffic.
Maria: Have I ever told you, that completing your mission paperwork is sexy?
Nat: :/ no thx
She smiled and put her phone away, it was worth a shot. Her attention was back to those around her as the evening was catching up. There never seemed to be enough hours in the day, especially when something as important as the tesseract was missing. Fury had been in meetings with the council all day leaving a majority of the items he normally took care of, on her plate.
“Commander, we have a hit on the facial recognition program for the child,” one of the agents looked up at her and suddenly she was energized again.
“Throw it to my tablet,” she waited patiently until the file was dropped to the tech in her hands.
The information was spotty at best, the child had been linked to a string of break-ins on political figures with an older girl who looked to be in her late teens. The teenager's name was Kyra, she was brought to a police station in Yekaterinburg after being caught. Soon after the teen mysteriously “escaped” no doubt thanks to a bribe.
The officers documented a child that had fled the scene before they were able to arrest her as well but all they had was a picture. A picture that was grainy and in black and white, but showed a small child with curly dark hair and shoes too big for her.
They pressed the teen about the child’s whereabouts but she didn’t give anything up other than that the little girl was an orphan. As sad as it was, it sent a small amount of relief through the Deputy Director, now they knew that there weren't parents looking for her.
Maria looked around the bridge, everything seemed to be fine for now, she could take a moment to inform Phil. She continued reading the report as she walked towards the medbay, popping a half piece of gum in her mouth to keep her from locking her jaw with stress. Just as she reached the door she read the last line of the police report: the teen had given up a name (whether it was real or not was up for debate), but they had a name. Elizaveta.
She swiped her card and walked into, what seemed to be, a stalemate. Phil was sitting in the chair at the table that the child- Elizaveta was sitting under. Her hair and eyes were as wild as ever.
“Sweetie, I just need you to eat this sandwich,” he moved his hand with the food under the table, the girl moved away as if they were repelling magnets, “they want to put a tube in you if not, and... you’re just going to rip it out anyway.”
Clearly, he didn’t notice the new person in the room, but the child did. She stared at Maria as she walked further into the room. The commander pulled up the picture of the teen on her tablet and flipped it around to show the girl.
“Kyra,” she announced, getting the child's full attention, scaring the hell out of her co-worker who yelped.
“When did you get in here?” he coughed and tried to cover up his noise with a deeper voice.
“30 seconds ago,” she kept her eyes on the child who was still staring at the screen, “Kyra?”
The girl blinked and nodded slightly, her face full of confusion as Maria got closer. She wondered if the girl was close to the woman on the screen, or if they had just worked together as Natasha had suggested days prior.
The woman sat down on the floor in the same spot she had been the day before when they watched videos on her phone, “Elizaveta?” she motioned to the girl with her whole hand.
The child was clearly torn, she looked up at Phil before looking back at Maria in debate on what she should confirm. They all waited until Maria motioned to herself, “Maria.” then to the man next to her, “Phil.” and then finally to the child “Elizaveta?”
This time the little girl nodded, clasping her hands together tightly as she brought her lower lip into her mouth.
“Hi Elizaveta,” Phil’s voice was so soft, so full of love as he called her by her name.
Her big green eyes looked as if they were about to spill tears as she closed them tightly. A portal opened up under her and closed quickly. Maria panicked for just a second before the child showed back up on the bed. She watched as the girl pulled the sheet up around her body, leaving only her eyes exposed.
“Honey, we talked about that,” he shook his head and moved the chair over to where the bed was.
The girl stayed put, not fleeing as soon as he got close. Progress.
“Anything else on there?” he motioned to the tablet.
“No, but I’ll send it over to you anyway,” she moved the file to their shared drive and scrolled through it once more, “she’s an orphan, or at least that’s what the police report says.”
“A police report is good enough for us to go off with the documents. Looks like we can go ahead with the adoption if Mel is still on board” a sliver of excitement ran through his voice as he talked about it.
“It’s a big step to take, lots of work,” the brunette tried to be supportive but knew that there would be a lot of trials they would have to overcome before everything was settled.
“Tell me about it,” he tried to offer the sandwich again, the child still moved away from it.
And so she did, or rather he told her about it for hours. They would need to file the adoption papers and get her citizenship so that she could stay with the two agents. He wanted to move to the suburbs of DC and buy a house in a more kid-friendly neighborhood, making sure she had her own room. The car they had now would become May’s car, he would need to buy another one. A full physical would need to be done with blood work, and after that a psychological exam and therapy. It was sounding like a mountain of work even to Maria, the queen of everlasting to-do lists.
“But that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 24 hours, compiling it all and creating this,” he smiled and moved his eyebrows as Maria’s tablet pinged.
She looked at their shared drive and opened the file: “What to Expect When the Child is Already Here” which then had many sub-folders broken down by month and category.
“Impressive,” she continued to open up the documents and look at what he had already complied. It was a little bare but a good start.
“I’ve had some extra time on my hands, plus Mel added things too. Check out the one dated for tomorrow.”
There was a list of items that Phil had declared he needed on the carrier for the child, followed by May’s input and checked off items that she seemingly had already collected to bring.
“Hopefully by the time we're back we can get her a little more comfortable with that stuff,” he smiled and looked at his watch, “shoot.”
The smile on his face fell as two physicians entered the room.
“Hi, there friend!” The male doctor was too loud and the child squeezed her eyes tight and was under the table again, “Woah, now THAT is something you have to see to believe.”
“Has she eaten or had a bowel movement yet?” the female doctor asked and frowned as Phil shook his head, “okay, if you wouldn't mind helping us try to calm her so that we can administer sedation.”
Maria stood to the side and watched as the child teleported any time an adult got close to her. After the third round, the child was exhausted and the commander wondered how much energy it took for her to do that. She faltered for just long enough for the doctor to come up and inject her thigh with sedation.
“no!” Elizaveta’s tiny voice caught everyone by surprise as she tried to kick off the adult.
Her legs moved erratically before going limp with the rest of her body. She was unconscious as Phil moved his hands under her body and placed her on the bed, pulling up the covers around her. He glanced down at his watch, it was time for him to go to New York.
“I- I can watch her,” the offer was out of the commander's mouth before she realized it.
“You have work,” he shook his head.
“I’ve been off the clock for the last hour,” they both knew that this meant nothing to the woman who worked at any hour, regardless of if they were her ‘working hours’ or not.
“Are you sure?” he glanced at the child, “she’ll be asleep for most of it anyway.”
“Phil, go.”
“Okay, thank you, let me know if anything happens okay?” He pulled a hand over the child's hair.
“You got it, now go,” she motioned for the door.
“Thank you, Ria.”
The physicians gathered supplies and approached the girl on the bed. They both moved quickly as one-handed the other the endoscope to properly place it. Elizaveta’s body contorted as the tube ran down the back of her throat, but then calmed as the nutrient-rich formula began filling the tube.
“While she is sedated we're going to get as much information as we can,” the male doctor said, supporting the unconscious child in his arms, “Blood draw, IV placement, size and weight, imaging if we can.”
He placed the child on a scale that was positioned in the room, keeping her in an upright position with the feeding tube sticking out slightly from her nose.
“34.7 pounds,” he placed the girl back on the bed and measured her height, “37.8 inches. So that will be what? Like 500 ml?”
“We're going to start off slowly, we don’t want to shock her system,” the female doctor told Maria as she opened up a bottle of what looked like formula.
The commander opened the file Phil had just shared with her and began documenting everything that they told her under the project with the current date on it.
“Starting with about 500 ml of Pediatric Peptide 1.5,” the doctor looked over to Maria who wrote that down.
“She is in the bottom percentile of her age group if we are guessing that correctly,” the male doctor told the deputy director, placing the child back on the bed.
“And how old would that be?” she spoke up for the first time.
“Well it’s hard to tell, but she has two teeth missing on her bottom row,” he donned gloves and open up the child's mouth, “tooth loss starts around 5.”
She recorded that as well, not having noticed the missing teeth earlier. But then again she couldn't recall ever seeing the child’s teeth.
“We're going to go ahead and do a physical examination now,” the female doctor closed the curtains that framed the large sliding glass door.
Maria nodded and stood up, she wasn’t exactly sure what she should do but it felt right for her to oversee what was happening.
“It’s not uncommon for neglected children to have years of built-up injuries, we just want to look her over to make sure none of it will affect her later on in life,” the female doctor very gently removed the clothing on the child, “this may be difficult to watch.”
The brunette nodded and kept her eyes on the face of the child, she wasn’t going to miss anything. She would be here for Phil, Mel, and most importantly Elizaveta. The doctor was right, it was hard to see them move their hands over the child's body, there were so many scars.
“You’re doing so well, sweetie,” the female doctor talked as she continued to work even as the child lay unconscious.
“Elizaveta,” Maria spoke up again.
“Well isn’t that just a beautiful name, Elizaveta,” her voice was light and cheery even as she pressed down on bones that stuck out.
The doctors talked to each other, pointing out old and new injuries as they touched different lumps and bruises. Both were gentle and spoke to the child as if she was awake, which put the handler at ease, knowing that the little girl was getting help from nice people.
“Okay all done with that part,” the male doctor said as he finished writing something down, “I’m sorry we don't have any gowns that would fit her.”
“That’s alright, she can last a little longer in those before Coulson brings her new ones,” she watched as they pulled the too-big clothing back onto the child.
“We’re going to start an IV and take a blood draw,” the doctor retrieved more supplies, “I know that she pulled it out last time, but we need to get fluids in her.”
The Commander watched as they took two vials of blood and placed the IV into her arm, and hooked her up to a heart monitor. After they finished they looked over to the woman in the chair who was still documenting everything for Phil.
“She’ll most likely be asleep for the next 18-24 hours. One of us or a nurse will come and check on her and replace the IV and nutritional formula every few hours,” the female doctor smiled, “but if you need anything else before then, don't hesitate to call.”
“Thank you,” Maria wrote both of their names down and leaned back in the chair as they exited.
She looked at the child who, for the first time, looked peaceful even as she was connected to new equipment.
“There you are!” Natasha walked through the hospital door, pulling Maria out of whatever sense of sleep she had been in, “Oh shit, sorry.”
The brunette rubbed at her eyes and sat the chair up fully, it had been a little over 6 hours since she had fallen asleep, 10 since the tubes had been placed. The first few hours were full of her calling Phil and May to update them and explain her notes on the shared drive, the next few she sat researching everything about neglected children.
“It’s okay, she's sedated,” she looked at the child.
“I meant for waking you up,” the Russian made her way over to the chair and sat on the armrest next to Maria.
“Sorry I missed your messages,” the older woman looked down at her phone, it was very unlike her to miss something like that.
She smiled as she took in the sight next to her. After missions and before she went to bed, the Russian would take out her perfect braids and let her hair be free. However, she would soon get annoyed with her hair so most nights ended with her pulling her hood up to keep her hair back, but poking her ears out on either side of the hood so she could still hear everything. By all accounts, she looked adorable and not at all like an ex-kgb assassin.
“That’s okay, I was just bored,” Natasha kept her voice soft, “the new scientist isn’t very fun, and Barton is back in DC.”
“Well he doesn’t need to be fun, he needs to be good at tracking gamma rays,” Maria responded, watching Elizaveta’s chest rise and fall as the monitor continued to beep at each heartbeat.
“I guess,” the green-eyed woman kicked her feet out and watched them fall back against the chair, “any update with her?”
“She’s tiny and has a lot of scaring, they aren’t too concerned about anything other than her weight and a few deep scars on her ribs. Her name is Elizaveta, you were right, she was working with a teenager,” she waited to see if the woman would bolt at the mention of something Red Room-related.
“Figures,” she kept her gaze on the child, “Elizaveta… she gotta be what? Five?”
“How’d you know?” by looks alone the child looked four.
“It was a popular name in Russia about five years ago, plus you didn’t say anything about a tracker,” the redhead continued to stare at the child.
“Tracker?”
“Tracker,” Natasha confirmed, sticking out her left arm to reveal a scar on the inside of her arm, “The Room places them in you once you’re 8 and able to do your own missions.”
“Oh,” Maria couldn't help but to reach out and trace a finger down the scar on the Russians forearm, “we don’t know who she was working for.”
“I could be wrong, who knows. I’ve been wrong about a lot of stuff recently,” she sighed and scooted ever so slightly closer to the brunette.
“Want to talk about that?” The Commander absentmindedly leaned her body against the woman on the armrest.
“No… I don't know,” she quickly slung her feet over and was suddenly sitting in the lap of Maria Hill, her legs dangling over the other armrest, “you read the file when we took it down during my defection.”
“I did,” she tried her best to stay calm at the display of trust and affection.
“Then can you tell me how someone would have survived that?”
“I dunno Tasha,” she began drumming her fingers on the spy’s thigh in thought, “maybe it’s like a cockroach, not so easily killed.”
“Ria, we demolished a full city block to take him down,” she sighed and directed her attention back to the child, “she needs a bath and curl control shampoo.”
“That’s a good idea, hand me my tablet?” it seemed the conversation about The Room was now over.
Maria held on to the Russian’s legs as she stretched to grab the tablet from the table. She opened up the notes section for the file dated with tomorrow's date. Almost all of the items had been checked off now, but still, she added “Child-friendly curl shampoo” to the end of the list and chuckled.
“Something funny, Hill?” The redhead cocked her head to the side and looked toward the woman who was using her lap as a makeshift desk.
“If I ever asked my father for specialty shampoo I’m pretty sure I would have woken up with a shaved head,” she looked back at the woman in her lap.
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, he didn’t do femininity,” the brunette recalled.
“I would hardly say hair texture defines what’s feminine,” the Russian raised an eyebrow.
“You’re right, but he would have argued that maintaining it was. And I would be stuck with my tia trying her best to make a buzzed head pretty,” she laughed again, “she probably would have glued bows to my head.”
“Now that, I would pay to see,” Natasha smiled, “you don’t talk about them a lot.”
“My family?” she paused and looked down at the items on the list.
“Yeah, I like it when you do. Your eyes get all crinkly,” the green-eyed woman closed hers until they too crinkled around the edges.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she tried to focus on the last item on the list, and not how the woman made her heart race and ache simultaneously.
The cursor on her tablet continued to blink until it crossed off every item. Next to the last one, there was now a note from Melinda.
May: got it, thanks, Ria.
“Mel says she’ll get the shampoo,” the brunette ran her finger along the scar of the Russian once more, “thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she leaned back at the touch and they were suddenly cuddling.
Maria breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth to keep her nerves under control. The feeling was similar to clicking in the last piece of the border of a puzzle, there was still more to go, but it felt right. There was a starting point.
She closed her eyes and soaked it in, the feeling, the smell of cocoa honey shampoo the redhead used, the sound of her heart beating in her ears. It was nice, really really nice.
“It’s the only reason I didn’t think she was a widow at first, the hair I mean,” the spy talked about the room but kept her position on the chair firm, “It’s like the first thing you learn how to do, braid hair, detect poisons, ballet. When you’re young they make sure that you know how to be perfect.”
“I don’t think that she can do her hair yet, she’s really little, Tasha.”
“But if she was with a teenager, that girl would have known how to do her hair. It’s one of your chores in the morning, make sure the littles have their hair done or do it for them,” her voice was quieter this time, “either she didn’t care about the girl, or she was trying to get them out of the room. Make them look like street kids and move undetected to another place.”
“Maybe that was the plan with Loki, maybe they joined up with someone who they thought could get them out of the Red Room,” Maria drew patterns on the Russian thigh.
“Is it bad that I hope she’s a Hydra kid?”
“No,” the brunette continued drawing patterns, “I mean if you are saying that like ‘I hope Hydra is recruiting kids’ then I would say it's a bad thing. But if you’re saying it like ‘I hope it’s Hydra and the Red Room is no longer active’ then I would get it” she joked.
“I just need to know, I think I know but I need to confirm it. And then take it down, with or without SHIELD.”
“I told you, I’d help as soon as we get this power source thing under control,” she reminded the woman.
“I know, you also said that you would take time off for me,” the redhead wiggled her eyebrows.
“You know I really do regret-” she stopped mid-sentence as Elizaveta sat straight up, her eyes immediately reaching for the wires that were now connected to her chest, “shit.”
“Der'mo,” Natasha rattled off an explicit word herself.
The little girl's hands continued to try and rip the heart monitor leads off with little success, the adhesive was strong. Maria scooted out from under Natasha and approached the bed, her hands moving to quickly stop the child.
“No,” she warned as the child went to squeeze her eyes shut.
Frustrated, the girl now grabbed at the tube on her face, ripping off the tape that was keeping it secure.
“остановись сейчас, вдова,” Natasha commanded in Russian.
Immediately the child's hands stilled before starting to shake, her eyes going wide and filling with tears. Tears that were mirrored in the eyes of the woman who was sitting on the chair.
“Congratulations,” Natasha's voice cracked as a single tear fell down her cheek, “it’s a widow.”