Chapter 3
"You were younger,"
That's what the woman, the girls' mother, had said.
"You were younger," Melina repeats, "We've give you three years," She says, now to James. "Three good years for them, but it's time to come back home now."
No, James is shaking his head no. The other man, the man James had called 'Alexi', is speaking in a foreign language. Sam would put money on it being Russian.
"You didn't give me anything," James denies. The woman ignores him, speaking to Natalia in the same foreign language Sam doesn't understand.
Slowly, so slowly, Natalia makes her way towards her mother, Melina coaxing her all the way. The woman drops Yelena behind her to embrace her older daughter. It would've been a beautiful moment of reunion if everything abut this interaction didn't scream 'wrong' capital and bold.
There's still a gun leveled at James' head, they've all but forgotten about Sam.
Natalia wraps her arms around her mother, Melina moves quickly to reciprocate the hug. As soon as Melina's arms enclose on his daughter, James lunges for the gun in the bigger mans hands.
Sam is watching it all happen in slow motion.
The gun fires off, the two men struggling for control of the weapon. Yelena screams, Natasha pushes her away, towards Sam who takes her without thought. Holds her close, tries to block her view of the full-on fight taking place in her family room.
James has taken a bullet to the shoulder but he's not letting it slow him down. He tosses the gun, kicks out, catching Alexi across the nose. Blood, the nose bleeds a lot. Melina is bleeding from a literal knife in her back from where Natalia had stabbed her during their hug.
The gun fires again, blood blooms across Alexi's thigh, James kicks him in the balls anyway. Just incase, Sam thinks, Just incase Alexi was still planning to get up.
"Cheap shot, Yasha," Alexi jabs.
James flips the couch on its back, pulls three small hand guns and a larger gun case from the underbelly.
Natalia has Alexi's gun trained on her mother, James points another at Alexi. With his free hand, the shoulder that had been shot, James pushes Sam and Yelena behind him. They back towards the door, Natalia purposely using her fathers body as cover, but also staying open enough to keep the gun on Melina until she absolutely has to remove it to exit the house.
Natalia keeps her gun aimed at the front of the house as James finds a stashed key to the old pick up truck. He herds Sam and Yelena into the back seat, raises his own gun, careless of the fact that anyone could place out their window to see. He has to spit something in probably-russian to Natalia for her to lower her weapon and climb into the front seat of the truck.
James peels off with no regard for driving laws. "What the hell was that?"
"I would drop you off at home, but they're probably expecting that." James says instead of answering.
"Lena, get the kit for Daddy." Natalia demands, though softly.
Yelena crawls from Sams grasp onto her knees in the floorboards where she pulls out a first aid kit. She puts it on the center console for her sister.
Sam watches the thirteen year old pull supplies from the kit and yank James' shirt up harshly over his stomach. He's not sure when James' had taken a shot to the abdomen, possibly as he was distracted watching Melina pull a knife from her own back.
James leans forward, into the steering wheel and Natalia, for some ungodly reason, knows to check for an exit wound. There must be one, because she mumbles, "Good," and then gets to work dressing the wound. "I don't know if I can get to the other one while we're still driving," She tells him, ripping the gauze with her teeth.
"It can wait," He tells her. James adjusts the rearview mirror so he can see Yelena who buckled herself into her little booster seat. "Lena," he catches her attention, "Did you get hurt?"
She shakes her head no and Natalia glances back, "She looks fine," the older girl says.
James raises a hand to push Nat's hair from where its fallen into her face as she leans over him, still fussing with the gunshot wound but now at the entrance point. "Natalia," her name is followed by something soft and foreign.
"I would be better if you'd stop moving." she declares, "They weren't trying to hurt us," she muses, as if she's surprised by this, "Live capture only, at least for me and Lena."
"Yes," James agrees.
"Although, I'm sure Alexi would be all-too happy to 'accidentally' kill you."
"Feelings mutual," James assures her.
"How did they find us?" She leans up on her knees, chest angled completely towards him. She shifts from side to side like she's trying to find a good angle to attempt a patch-up job for the gunshot to James' left shoulder despite him telling her to leave it.
"I don't know." It's quiet for a while and then, "I saw the signs, I should have moved us as soon as I suspected. Figured I was just being paranoid again."
"I didn't think you were being paranoid last time,"
"Well, I was then but now- Better safe than sorry and I should've been safe but I wasn't and now we're all sorry for it."
"They only sent two,"
James replies something in another language. Sam is watching them like a soap opera. Watching this little girl who, two months ago, barely had the autonomy to tell him her favorite movie field dressing bullet wounds in a moving vehicle.