The Congressional Subpoena
“Subpoena: A fine and imprisonment may be imposed for failure to obey this summons”
Maria put the piece of paper back on the kitchen island and threw her head back in frustration. It had been three months since the hearings had started and while she knew that she would get the request sooner or later, she had really hoped the latter wouldn’t have been so soon.
She read over the details and shoved the rest of the documents in her bag to show the Stark Legal team in the morning. It was a little after 10pm when her phone began to ring and she decided to call it a night, taking a seat on the deep couch as she answered.
“Yikes, you look like you’ve had a day,” Natasha grimaced as she answered the phone.
“I just got subpoenaed by the US government,” she rolled her eyes.
“Just tell them to fuck off,” the Russian waved her hand dismissively.
“Yeah, because that worked so well for you,” Maria snorted.
“I told you, I’m not hiding,” Natasha shook her head.
“I know, I know,” the Commander knew that the Russian was still helping Yelena with her transition into adulthood and overall free will.
“When do you have to go to DC?”
“Two weeks from now, the 14th,” she recalled the details of the paper, “which means Ellie will have to miss her fall art show. But I think they have a ton of them, these fancy private schools Tasha-”
“I could watch her,” the Russian cut her off.
Maria focused on the screen in front of her once more, Natasha looked more serious than she ever had.
“You, what? No, no I can’t have you do that. She can just come with me and we can-”
“I can watch her, Ria. I’ve watched Cooper before and besides, I was calling to tell you that we would be in New York that week anyway,” Natasha pleaded her case.
The Russian had an impeccable poker face, there was no way of telling if she was being honest or not.
“Really?” she would have to try and catch her.
“Yeah, really.”
“Why?”
“I have to have an excuse?” the redhead stalled.
“Well, do you?” she pushed.
“I do,” Natasha laughed, airy and bright, “that’s when the fall fashion week is, Lena has been itching to go.”
Maria squinted, trying her very best to decipher if it was-
“I’m telling the truth,” Natasha smirked.
“It… would only be for a few days, a week at most,” she held her breath.
“Great, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do that week anyway. She said I was going to cramp her style by tagging along.”
The Commander hesitated before glancing at Ellie’s door. The girl would be at school most of the time, and it would prevent her from missing her first art show at the new school.
“You sure?”
“Positive. I’ll send you my flight information.”
And so Maria found herself with the solution to her problem less than an hour after it was created, all thanks to a certain redheaded Russian. One that showed up promptly at 1pm on the 13th after one knock, then a second, then a hesitation before the third.
Ellie followed her mother to the door, knowing exactly who would be behind it not only because they had discussed it, or because of the knock, but also because Stark had gone overboard and added every security measure for anyone accessing floors 90 and above.
“You have gotten so big!” Yelena boomed from where she stood next to Natasha as the door opened.
“You getting smaller,” Ellie blushed and smiled at the ground.
“It is impossible, I eat all of my vegetables,” the blonde walked over to the child.
“That’s not true,” her sister spoke up, “Hi Ria.”
“Hey Tasha,” Maria smiled, “Yelena, always a pleasure.”
“True, it is,” Yelena laughed as she crouched down until she was eye level with Ellie, “what you are too fancy, in this fancy tower to hug?”
The curly-haired girl shook her head and launched herself at Yelena, causing the older girl to nearly fall over.
“See, so big!” the blonde pretended to strain as she stood up, “But not too big for this.”
She stood to her full height and grabbed Ellie’s ankles from where they were hooked around her midsection. In one fluid motion, she flipped the girl and began to dangle her from her ankles.
“Yelena!” Natasha called for her younger sister to stop.
“What? She likes it,” she shook the girl who made a noise somewhere between a screech and a laugh, “right Lizochka?”
The redhead stared in disbelief at Maria who shrugged, “She seems fine.”
Ellie screeched in delight once more as Yelena began to walk around the apartment.
“It is very nice Maria Hill, I will add it to my list of luxury stops in New York,” the blonde deposited Ellie on the couch and continued looking around.
“You’re always welcome,” Maria inclined her head, “Bear, go show Yelena around.”
<ok> Ellie sat up with wild hair and reached for Yelena’s hand.
The older widow pulled her hand away and rubbed the back of her neck before glancing at Natasha who gave a slight nod.
“Okay, let’s go rat,” she hesitated for one more moment before taking Ellie’s outreached hand.
“It’s ‘rug rat’,” Natasha corrected as the two left the main area of the apartment.
“Hey,” Maria smiled.
“Hey,” Natasha echoed.
In a moment of bravery, she threaded a finger through the redhead's belt loop and pulled her in close.
“I missed you,” she whispered to the Russian’s lips.
“Yeah?”
She hummed in response, bringing her lips ever closer until Natasha finally closed her eyes and the distance between them. Maria deepened the kiss, bringing her free hand to the cheek of the woman to claim more skin. Their lips molded together, making up for lost time between them as they pressed themselves into each other.
“Yeah,” Maria broke apart first, “I missed you.”
There was a loud *thump* from the other room, Maria sighed as Natasha looked increasingly worried.
“What did I say about jumping off the bunk-” she was cut off by a much louder *thud*.
“Yelena,” Natasha took a step away from Maria who smiled and went to investigate.
“You said that you would Поймай меня,” the blonde looked up from her place on the floor and rattled off Russian that Maria didn’t quite get.
Ellie laughed and then shrugged from where she was seated on top of the bunk bed. It had been a long time since Maria saw the girl this happy. Yelena climbed back to the top of the ladder and watched as Ellie dangled herself from the edge before gracefully flopping onto the beanbag below.
“Doesn’t it stress you out?” Natasha asked from where the two stood in the doorway, “What if she gets hurt?”
“She’s a frequent flier in the ER,” the brunette shrugged, “I figure, I can worry about her constantly, or let her live and figure it out as we go. ”
It was the complete opposite of what both women had experienced in their childhood. Maria would be damned if she didn’t give her daughter the freedom to be a little kid.
“Let me show you around,” she stepped out of the room and walked back up the hallway where her bedroom door was.
“Wow,” the Russian’s eyebrows rose as she took in the massive room. The neutral colors and soft lighting welcoming them into the space, “I’ll have to tell Clint that Ria’s gone all luxury on us.”
“Pepper,” Maria corrected with a roll of her eyes.
Natasha hummed as she ran her hand over a blanket at the foot of the bed that had made the journey from the last apartment, “okay, it was mostly Pepper.”
“I was hoping this one would make the cut,” the redhead smiled.
The blanket had been wrapped around them many times, sometimes while both of them were unclothed, sometimes on the floor when Maria had a particularly rough flashback and needed a reminder she wasn’t on the soft surface of sand. It was a good blanket full of memories, there was no way it wouldn’t have made the cut to the new apartment.
“So,” Natasha leaned against a dresser that sat below a mounted TV, “you’re liking it here?”
“I miss DC sometimes but overall, I like it a lot. It's been hard on Ellie though,” she thought back to the argument she had the day before with her daughter.
The little girl had wanted to see Liam and had gotten upset learning that Maria would be going to the city he lived in and not taking her.
“Because of school?” the redhead asked.
“No,” she paused, “yes and no. The school itself has been great, Tony paid for her to go to the best school in the city. It has every prestigious thing you can think of, she likes her classes, and the work actually challenges her,”
“But,” Natasha offered after the brunette paused.
“But… she has a hard time making friends and while all the other kids talk about their horses or their lake houses they have been around for years, she doesn’t quite fit in.”
The week before the child had asked Maria what an amuse bouche was and why the other girls in her class wanted them after recess.
“Fitting in after the Room is hard,” Natasha recalled her own childhood, “When we first got to Ohio I thought that I was living in a different reality.”
“I can’t even imagine,” her features softened as she thought about a young Natasha, how scared she must have been.
“But now look at me,” the Russian smiled, “I’ve done alright for myself. She will too, she’s got a good support system.”
There was a light electronic signal from the ceiling, “Agent Just Hill” Jarvis called out.
“Go ahead Jarvis,” she waited.
“The boss would like to kindly ask your guests to refrain from trying to hack my system.”
“YELENA,” Natasha pushed herself up and stormed out of the room.
“I did not do anything!” the blonde called back before she had even known what she was being accused of.
“Got it, thanks Jarvis,” Maria shook her head with a smile.
“You’re welcome Agent Just Hill, I will remind you in 1 hour to give the Small One her medication.”
She followed the redhead out of the room and into the one down the hall from where she could hear a heated conversation.
“It was more of… an inspection,” Yelena defended herself.
“You don’t need to inspect anything!” Natasha argued back.
“Well you believe I do not need to inspect, but I believe it is always good to know what is occurring,” the blonde shrugged.
Ellie took it all in from the top of her bunk bed, covering a smile as the two women below her argued.
“Pull out of it,” Natasha shot her sister a look, “now.”
“Yes, alright alright, you do not need to be so bossy,” Yelena walked out of the room and back towards the entryway of the apartment.
“Ready for dinner soon?” Maria looked up at her daughter who nodded, “Great, I can show the kitchen and where her meds are.”
She left the girl’s room and walked back into the main living area, “all of those doors on the left are guest rooms, Yelena.”
The blonde looked up from where she was scrolling through her phone by a wall outlet, nodded once, and disappeared into the last bedroom.
“Guest rooms,” Natasha whistled low, “Maria Hill is a rich girl.”
Maria snorted and shook her head as she pulled out a pan and placed it on the stove, “you guys okay with stir fry?”
“She’ll eat anything with hot sauce, and you know me, I’m not picky,” the redhead watched as she grabbed vegetables from the fridge.
“Okay so, the fridge is pretty much stocked all the time,” Maria motioned to a tablet on the fridge, “if there’s anything you want go ahead and put it on the list here, and they’ll drop it off with the weekly groceries on Wednesday.”
Natasha walked over to the appliance and scrolled through the options.
“Ellie will eat pretty much everything, except Brussels sprouts,” she thought about it, “and green peppers.”
Maria roughly chopped the vegetables in front of her, “Other than that, she’ll eat anything. I try to get her to eat a good dinner at least, but if you guys end up eating out, that’s fine too. She’s survived worse than fast food.”
She looked up quickly, realizing who she was talking to; Natasha smiled.
“Sorry,” the Commander felt her cheeks tint.
“It’s okay, you're right,” Natasha took a seat on the other side of the island, “what else?”
“Let’s see,” Maria placed oil in the pan and wanted for it to warm before dumping the vegetables in, “She knows the rules by heart, but if you need to know them or want to remind her of one, they’re right there.”
The woman pointed to the 6 rules fastened to the fridge with a magnet as she added spices and sauces to the dinner with practiced ease. Natasha watched her before looking at the list, her eyes scanning over the outlined rules.
“We rarely need them, right Bear?” She caught the girl’s eye from where she stood eavesdropping in the hallway.
“Right,” the girl said, unashamed of being caught.
“Let’s see, let’s see,” Maria thought out loud as she rinsed rice and added it to the cooker, “her daily schedule is right there, and I emailed you a copy.”
She pointed to the far end of the island where a stack of papers sat, outlining what Ellie’s day-to-day routine looked like.
“I’ll show you where the important documents are tonight,” she stirred the vegetables, “am I missing anything, Ellie?”
“Dress,” the little girl spoke up.
“Right,” Maria smiled, “Tony found out about the art show and had Pepper order a dress for Ellie, should be here sometime this week.”
Never in her life did Maria Hill think that she would have a daughter, let alone a little girl who had custom-tailored dresses for a first-grade art show.
“A new dress, huh?” Natasha raised an eyebrow.
“Yes,” Ellie nodded before climbing up on a stool herself.
“Dinner?” Yelena re-emerged from the guestroom hallway.
“I swear she has the nose of a bloodhound when it comes to food,” Natasha rolled her eyes.
“What can I say, it is a gift,” the blonde joined the rest of the group. Propping her head up on top of Ellie’s as she stood behind the little girl who smiled.
Maria chuckled, “A few more minutes.”
It was the green light for the younger two to start messing around, Yelena picking Ellie up again as the little girl smushed the blonde’s face in her hands.
“ты смешно пахнешь” Ellie took in a deep breath.
“I do not!” The blonde gasped in faux shock.
“Do too, like airplane,” the girl squealed as she was thrown over the woman’s shoulder.
Maria looked at Natasha who laughed before translating “She said Yelena smells funny, like an airplane.”
“Well, how do you think I arrived?”
The two continued to bicker and joke with each other for the rest of dinner, and into the night when Maria finally had to break them up to get Ellie to go to sleep. The girl had brushed her teeth and was picking out a book to read as Maria entered the room.
“Okay but if you pick that book, we can only do one chapter,” she watched as the girl weighed her options before nodding.
Ellie crawled into the bottom bunk and handed the book over to Maria who took her normal spot on the close side of the bed. She paused before starting the story.
“Are you nervous about when I leave tomorrow?” they had talked about the trip for the last week, but still she wondered if the child had remaining nerves.
“Little bit,” her daughter nodded.
“That’s okay, I am a little nervous to go too,” she was honest with the girl, “but you know if you need me you can always call me, or LoLo, or Tasha. All of us are here for you, no matter what.”
“Even just to say hi?” Ellie tilted her head and squinted.
“Even just to say hi,” Maria nodded.
“Okay,” the girl seemed to accept that answer and tapped on the book.
“Alright, let’s see,” she flipped through the pages, “okay chapter 5, Gold in the Grass.”
Maria read through the chapter as Ellie listened intensely, running her finger along the words until the end. She handed the child her flashlight, kissed her forehead, and wished her goodnight before retiring to her own room.
“She down for the night?” a wet-haired Natasha asked from where she sat on Maria’s bed.
The women tried to not look surprised at the fact that the Russian wasn’t even going to pretend to sleep in one of the other guest rooms. She simply nodded and got into her own pajamas that sat neatly in the closet. Or at least, she was going to before noticing her shirt was gone.
“I figured you wouldn’t mind,” Natasha spoke quietly.
Maria glanced back, now noticing that the redhead had on her old west point shirt, “not at all.”
She changed into a separate pair and joined the woman in her bed, trying not to scare her away. The light from under the door flickered on, catching Maria’s attention momentarily before Natasha sighed.
“That’s Yelena,” the redhead listened to the distinctive noise of the fridge opening, “she still has some food… insecurities.”
“So does Ellie,” Maria shrugged, “she has a mini fridge in her room for that reason.”
Natasha slowly reached up and slowly traced the curve of Maria’s jaw, “how’d we get here?”
“By being flexible with what the universe throws at us,” Maria leaned into the touch.
“You are the least flexible person I have ever met,” Natasha joked.
“You think you’re more flexible than me?”
“Oh, I know I am.”
“Prove it,” Maria’s eyes darkened as she took in the sight of the woman next to her.
The Russian rolled her eyes as she moved across the bed where she continued to show Maria just how flexible she was for the next few hours, neither caring about the early flight the next day. They had the night, and for the time being, that’s all that mattered.
The front door locked behind Maria, officially signifying it was now Natasha who was in charge of ensuring Ellie’s wellbeing.
The girl in front of her pulled one of her hands out of her pocket and waved with a lopsided smile.
“Hi,” Natasha waved back.
They stared at each other for a while longer before Ellie coughed and walked out of the room.
“Wow, you… are not good with children,” Yelena stood in the hallway next to the front door.
“I am,” she argued back in their mother tongue, “I’m good with kids, I just don't know her.”
“You don’t know her?” the blonde laughed, “she grew up the same as you and I. If anything, we’re the ones that know her better than anyone.”
“Yeah well,” Natasha sighed, “maybe that’s why I’m not good with her.”
“It’s okay, that’s why you have me,” Yelena boasted, “I’m great with kids, especially her.”
“You really know her that well?” Natasha knew that they had talked a few times on the phone, and had briefly met in the Room.
“More or less,” the younger of the two walked into the rest of the room, flopping down on the massive couch in the living room, “her handler, Kyra, and I were a year apart. I was with her often.”
The redhead followed her sister and sat next to her, careful not to push the conversation too far.
“A year older?”
The blonde hummed and nodded, “We were in the same dormitory, when the subjugation started we would come back to reality around the same time. When she started training Elizaveta, she would bring her back to the room sometimes and we would get to see her. Other times I would just see her training but I knew her. And she knew me.”
“They would make Kyra look older,” Yelena furrowed her brow, “Like… like a mom so that she could get into houses of targeted families who thought they were in need. A young mom.”
Yelena’s face started to harden as she recalled the memory.
“And Elizaveta had to keep the children occupied so they didn’t know what was happening,” she paused and squinted again, “or… or maybe she was supposed to neutralize the children… I can’t remember. She would come back and would cry.”
She watched as her sister’s eyes started to go vacant at the awful memory.
“Lena,” Natasha placed her hand on the couch next to her sister, recognizing the mental slip that was about to happen.
The 20-year-old took a deep breath and looked at the woman next to her, “Sorry.”
“That’s alright, you remember where you are?” she waited to see how bad the lapse was.
“Maria Hill’s apartment in New York,” the blonde closed her eyes.
“That’s right, we're here to watch Ellie and so that you can go to all the fashion shows.”
“For fashion week,” Yelena took another breath.
“You’re right, it starts tomorrow,” she leaned over and placed her hand on her sister's shoulder.
Yelena soaked up the affection for a moment before opening her eyes once more, “I think I’m going to go lay down.”
“That sounds good, do you want me to join you?”
The blonde shook her head and stood up, making her way slowly to the hallway she had started in. She opened up the last door, slipped in, and closed it all without making a sound. It was a steep learning curve with her sister, trying to find the line between being overbearing and not caring enough.
She leaned back into the couch and looked up, catching a glimpse of brown curls in the doorway before they ducked back into the child’s room. Natasha wondered how much of the conversation the girl had been listening to. It was less than 30 minutes into the week and she already felt like she had messed up.
Nat: Do 6-year-olds remember a lot?
Clint: only the stuff that they shouldn’t remember, Coop still tells people about the time he caught Mommy and Daddy naked wrestling. He also can’t remember his middle name.
Natasha laughed before responding.
Nat: What is his middle name?
Clint: No clue.
The Russian waited a little longer before venturing into the little girl’s room. It was massive, with a huge bunk bed shaped like a rocket, a model replica of the solar system hanging in one corner, and bookshelves holding thick and thin books along with toys and pictures of space-related items.
It was in that corner that she found Ellie, book in her hands as she eyed Natasha from her bean bag chair.
“Were you listening to us talk about you, or just when Yelena walked away,” she asked in Russian.
The girl squinted, tilted her head to the side, and pinched her fingers together.
“A little bit of both?”
“Yes,” Ellie responded in her native language.
“Did it scare you when she lost her memory just now?” she knew that watching Yelena’s face become void of all emotions could be unsettling.
“No, I saw it a lot,” the brunette shrugged, “but should try… warm. Like Blanket or…”
The child squinted and huffed, not knowing the word for the item she was trying to recall. Finally, she got up and walked over to a mini fridge that was kept under her desk. She pushed out the chair and motioned for Natasha to sit down after rummaging through the fridge.
“It can be cold, but do not use it as cold,” the child held up a freezer pack, “when coming out it was cold cold. This and blanket are good.”
Ellie placed the item in Natasha’s hand, her eyes hopeful that it made sense.
“Give Yelena something warm when she starts to dissociate?” She asked the girl who tilted her head to the side, “When she starts having a blank face?”
“Yes!” Ellie beamed, excited she had made sense.
Natasha nodded, “Thank you for telling me that, I didn’t know that would help.”
The girl nodded and took a seat once more on her bean bag chair, pulling her book back out and looking at it once more. Natasha looked around the girl’s desk, there were fliers for a book fair, one for her art show, and a completed math worksheet. She looked next at the child’s backpack that hung over the chair.
A small insert on the shoulder strap caught her attention with what was visible through it. The woman pulled the items out, the first was a business card that had Maria’s new Stark Tech information printed neatly on it, the next was an old subway card, and the final was a library card.
“It is mine,” Ellie spoke up, “I know it has my information on it but please… Please do not take it.”
“Oh, I-” Natasha shook her head.
“It says my name, I know we should not,” the girl switched to French with her pleas, then Spanish, “I will not let people know I am here.”
It was one of the first things Widows learned, never leave a trace, never have something that could come back to you.
“Hey hey,” the redhead held up her hand, “I didn’t mean to make you upset. I think it’s great you have it. I just noticed that it’s for DC.”
Ellie glanced around, slightly alarmed, slightly confused.
“You live in New York now, this one is for your old home,” she tried to clarify.
The girl nodded slowly, “Mommy is very busy now. We did not go to the new library yet.”
“Is that something that you would want to do-”
“Yes.” Ellie cut her off before she could get the whole sentence out.
They had a few days to kill together and even though Natasha knew that Stark could, and would buy the girl her own bookstore, she had a feeling it wouldn’t make her happier than a library card would.
“I think we can probably do that, I’ll text Ria and ask.”
Ellie smiled and let out a breath when Natasha placed all three items back where they belonged in the girl’s backpack. Her phone vibrated for a moment, alerting her to a text from someone who had been in scarce contact.
Steve: Hey, you got eyes on widows in Romania?
She knew that he and Barnes had been in the country for a few months now, settling down in a small town to keep the Winter Soldier at bay while staying off the radar.
Nat: Details?
Steve: Mid-twenties, glossy eyes, both brunette. Caught sight of bites under their jackets at the market today.
It was enough information for her to sigh and do the one thing she hated doing, still, she dialed the number and waited.
“Hello Natalia,” Mealina answered the phone after the second ring. The woman took forever to respond to texts but always answered the phone.
“Got intel of two possible Widows in Romania,” Natasha didn’t want to prolong the conversation with niceties.
“Hm, Romania,” the older woman paused, clearly looking at something in front of her, “we had reports of Hungry in the last month, not too far, Alina is in Ukraine…”
Melina continued to think out loud before making a plan and bringing her attention back to Natasha, “Older widows? Brunette?”
“That’s what my contact said,” she thought back to how Steve and Melina had very different parameters of who was young and who was old.
“If you send me the location I can get girls there to take a look and free them.”
“Great, I’ll text you the coordinates,” she tried to end the conversation.
“Always in such a hurry, not even telling me how you’re doing,” Melina huffed, “your sister at least tells me if she is well.”
It didn’t surprise her, Yelena had always craved the care and attention of parents, able to hold on to the idea of Melina and Alexi as their parents far more than Natasha did.
“Good,” the redhead sighed, “I’m doing good. And you?”
“Oh, busy, always busy with more girls, more fights, more teaching and learning,” Melina explained.
“Sounds like a lot of work,” Natasha humored the woman.
“It is, but I do enjoy it.”
“Really?” the statement took her off guard.
“Of course, I’m able to help even slightly to offset the horrors I have caused these women,” Melina paused, “I will do this until I die, and even then it will not be enough.”
There was a moment where neither woman spoke, a sadness filling the void.
“But I will try,” Melina spoke first.
“I think that’s all you can do. Try and help those that you hurt; leave the world better than how you found it,” Natasha shrugged.
The older woman hummed, “Always my smart girl.”
“Right well,” she cleared her throat, “I have to go make lunch so.”
“Goodbye Natalia, please send the coordinates.”
“Got it, bye Melina.”
She hung up the phone and sighed, only paying attention as she heard little footsteps enter the room.
<Peanut butter?>
“Fantastic idea,” Natasha smiled, “do you want a sandwich or-”
Ellie opened up a drawer and pulled out two spoons before opening up a cabinet and climbing up a shelf to reach the jar.
“Be careful,” the redhead placed her hand on the girl’s back as she descended, peanut butter jar secured.
The girl waited for Natasha to open up the container before handing it back to her. Ellie carefully dipped a spoon in, and immediately began eating it.
“Pretty good?” she asked the child.
“The best,” Ellie said back in English, the words and cadence identical to the way Maria spoke.
The two sat on the counter, carefully eating the snack, each bite easing some of the worries Natasha had about the coming week. She looked at Ellie who had peanut butter in the corners of her mouth as she smiled, the moment easing the rest of her worries.