Chapter 1
It was the middle of the night when Melina shifts restlessly, unable to sleep. Alexei snores heavily just beside her, a white noise that disturbs the peace and silence Melina needed to rest. There was an uneasy knot in the pit of her stomach, the unshakable feeling that something was wrong.
Melina brushes it off. She herself made sure the house was safe and secure, she’d know if they were in any danger. She tries to shut her brain off to get some rest before the next day.
She’s just on the cusp of sleep when there is a loud shriek as Natasha cries out. “Mom!” The genuine fear and panic in her tone has Melina up and out of her bed before Alexei even sits up. Inside the room that the girls shared, Natasha was standing next to Yelena’s bed. Yelena’s breathing heavily, making a choking noise as she struggles for air.
“What happened?” Melina pulls the sheets off of Yelena’s body, pulling the girl up into her arms.
“I woke up and she was-- she was making this noise,” Natasha explains, watching Melina with wide eyes.
By the time Alexei makes it to the doorway, Melina has determined that Yelena’s not actually choking on anything. That doesn’t mean anything, though. Yelena’s face is red and her lips are starting to turn blue as she struggles to breathe. Her pajamas are damp with sweat and Melina can feel the warmth in her arms. Without even needing to check, she knew that Yelena had a high fever.
“We have to go to the hospital,” Melina said. She was a scientist, not a doctor. Not to mention that she didn’t have the things to treat Yelena at home, even if she knew what was wrong. “Get your shoes.”
It’s a flurry of movement from there. Melina holds Yelena close in her lap as Alexei drives them to the hospital. Melina goes back while Yelena was admitted while Alexei stayed back with Natasha.
They intubate Yelena to preserve her airway and quickly find the source of her inability to breathe. Yelena was bleeding internally and they couldn’t figure out why. Melina can’t think of anything that Yelena did that would have caused it. No falls or bumps or accidents.
They rush Yelena back to surgery and Melina is left to find the rest of her little family waiting for her. Natasha was wearing her pajamas still, just a coat and shoes thrown on over them. The redheaded child was leaning against Alexei, dozing lightly.
Because even if she was a Widow, she was also nine and the buzz of fear had worn her out. Melina takes a seat next to Alexei and she feels him reach out to grip her hand.
It takes four hours for the news of the surgery to reach them. Yelena’s abdomen was riddled with tumors and while they controlled the bleeding, there were too many tumors to remove. They were sending one off to biopsy to test for cancer but they had done all they could for the moment.
There’s no reason for Yelena to have so many tumors. At least, that was Melina’s thoughts for a long while. Alexei scoops a sleeping Natasha up into his arms to take her back home while Melina stayed with Yelena. He kissed her softly and made her promise to call before he leaves with a sleeping child draped over his shoulder.
As Melina sits at Yelena’s bedside, staring at all the wires connected to her daughter, she remembers that there was a small section of Widows separated from the others to be enhanced. Experimented on like pigs. Out of batches of fifty Widows, one or two would survive with enhancements.
Did they give Melina a failed experiment? She’s only had Yelena for a year, did they know? Was this a test?
Yelena’s stable for nearly five hours before she declines again. She takes a turn for the worst and the doctors scramble to keep her stable.
Melina can’t think. They shove papers in her face and ask her to sign them for her permission.
At hour six, the biopsy comes back. It’s not cancer.
That doesn’t matter to Yelena’s little body though. They keep finding more and more tumors. Melina calls Alexei when they tell her that all they can do is make Yelena comfortable.
The sun has only recently set, stars peeking out in the sky when Yelena flatlines. Alexei is stuck in traffic, trying to get there.
Yelena dies at night.
If Melina squints and ignores the equipment, she can almost pretend that Yelena’s merely sleeping. She wants to protest and cry and yell out at them to keep trying but she knows deep in her heart that Yelena was gone.
They unhook the machines and they ask Melina if she wants to hold her until her husband arrives.
Melina cradles Yelena close to her. It’s not fair. There was no moment where Yelena opened her eyes to peer up at Melina or curled her tiny fingers around Melina’s hand to give it a squeeze. There was no moment of Yelena calling out for her mama through chapped lips in fear.
Yelena was there and then she wasn’t. Melina didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. She didn’t get to reassure Yelena that her mama was there or tell her that she loved her.
Melina knows that if they report Yelena’s death to the Red Room then they’d send someone to collect the body. They’d cut her up to inspect what went wrong with their experiments before burning the body with other dead little girls.
She can’t let that happen. Because one year ago they set this little girl down in Melina’s arms and told her that this was her daughter.
Melina would be going undercover in Ohio with her fake husband and two daughters.
Alexei bursts into the room, Natasha on his heels. Melina doesn’t even get the chance to warn him to keep Natasha out of the room. Natasha’s eyes land on Yelena in Melina’s arms before she peers up at Melina with wide, disbelieving eyes, her face screwing up as though she's fighting off tears.
Melina opens her mouth to play the dutiful role of the mother and soothe her child but she doesn’t know what she could possibly say that would make everything alright.
Yelena’s dead.
Melina only has one daughter now.