antiseptic
Yelena doesn’t really remember the rest of the night. She curls up into a ball on the tiny bed in their quarters while Natalia fills out the stacks of paperwork brought in.
Yelena offered to help but the forms were in English and Yelena would just take twice as long to read and then attempt to write her answers in English. So instead she curled up on the bed and listens to Natalia reading the questions aloud in Russian.
“They want two emergency contacts,” Natalia comments. “Who do you want as your second?”
“Who are you putting?” Yelena asked. “Barton?”
“He’s my partner. I could put Coulson too but I’m sticking with Barton,” Natalia said with a small shrug. “Do you want me to put him for you too?”
“Can you put May?” Yelena inquired and Natalia glances up from the paperwork with a raised eyebrow. “She’s my SO. I don’t have a partner.”
“Fine.” Natalia scribbles onto the paperwork. “Do you know your blood type?”
“O-” Yelena said, running her fingers along her shirt nervously. “Do you think they’ll take our blood tomorrow?”
“Probably,” Natalia frowns, flipping to the next page. “I won’t let them hurt you.”
“I know. I won’t let them hurt you either,” Yelena replies before sitting up. “It’s different here.”
Natalia pauses, glancing up to give Yelena her attention. “Good different?”
“The women here aren’t like the madams and the men aren’t like the sirs,” Yelena said quietly. “May likes rules like the madams but she says the rules are to keep us safe. She lets me make rules.”
“Coulson is the same,” Natalia said before focusing down on the paperwork again. “It’s different. Good different.”
“I still like Ohio the most though,” Yelena said quietly and Natalia lets out a long sigh.
“That wasn’t real,” Natalia repeats what she had told herself over and over.
“Just because it wasn’t real doesn’t mean that you’re not my sister…” Yelena mumbles before hesitating. “Right?”
Hearing the insecurity in her tone, Natalia leaves the papers to sit on the bed next to Yelena. “Of course you’re my sister. We get to choose. We have a choice.”
Yelena shuffles to lean against Natalia, resting her head against her shoulder. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never,” Natalia rests her cheek onto Yelena’s hair. “You’re stuck with me.”
Clint comes to retrieve them for dinner that night, something that confuses Yelena.
Clint keeps glancing at them, sensing that something was wrong. “What’s up?”
Yelena stares up at him, trying to decide if she should tell him.
“We didn’t earn it,” Natalia replies for her and Clint raised an eyebrow at her. “Dinner. We didn’t earn dinner.”
Clint paused in the hallway and that causes the two girls to pause as well. “Have they been making you earn dinner?”
“We’ve been good and followed the rules and did what was asked so we got to eat,” Yelena explained. “But today we were bad. We didn’t earn it.”
Clint stares at them before shaking his head. “No matter how badly you screw things up, you can still eat. The only time your meals will be restricted is if you’re in medical for a long time because you’re sick or injured.”
Yelena squints up at him. “But we didn’t earn it.” She repeats.
Clint looks them over. “It’s part of the rules. You get to eat. No matter what. Come on, we’ll even go ask Coulson.”
The two girls follow after him as he approached Coulson eating his food with May.
“Hey,” Clint stands in front of them and Coulson glanced up at him. “Our little Russians get to eat, right?”
May raised an eyebrow as Coulson frowns. “Yes… withholding food is not something we do here.” He replies.
“See?” Clint glances at the two. “You don’t have to earn it.”
May and Coulson glance at each other as Clint points at the seats across from the two superior officers. “Sit. I’ll get you two trays.”
The two sit and watch Clint disappear into the line.
“Do you have any questions about what is going to happen tomorrow?” Coulson asked them.
“Are they gonna take my blood?” Yelena blurts out first.
“Yes. We need to have it on file,” Coulson said. “We don’t need much.”
Yelena frowns and Natalia rests a hand onto her knee under the table. “You said no restraints.”
“Right. Out of our many years of working here, one of us was only restrained once and that was because they got hit with some sort of drug during a mission that made them aggressive and a danger to themselves.” Coulson glances up at Clint sets two trays down on the table in front of the girls before sitting down with his own tray.
Natalia reaches out to take a drink from the carton on Yelena’s tray. Yelena watches her quietly.
Natalia did that sometimes. Taking a bite or sip of food before Yelena did. Drugging food wasn’t uncommon and Natalia was better at detecting poison than Yelena was.
Her action doesn’t go unnoticed but nobody mentions it as Natalia passes the drink to Yelena a few moments later.
The two are escorted back to their quarters when they finish and Yelena curls up on the bed as she waits for Natalia to join her.
Yelena wakes up in the morning full of anxiety and Natalia makes her do push-ups when she paces for far too long.
Coulson comes to collect them in the morning, looking more tired than usual. “Alrighty. Clint and May are already waiting for us at medical. Maria will meet us there.”
Yelena watches as Natalia collects the paperwork up and can tell that she’s just as nervous. She decides ‘fuck it’ with public affection because she needed her sister’s comfort as much as her sister needed the comfort. Yelena pressed against Natalia as they walk, her hand brushing against hers.
There’s a small section marked off in medical. Yelena falters when the scent of antiseptic hits her nose.
Natalia had to literally push her forward and Yelena braces herself.
There’s a single doctor in the room with May and Clint but Yelena doesn’t even realize that it’s a doctor until they’re introduced as such.
“Where’s your white coat?” Yelena demands when the doctor is wearing a mustard yellow sweater and black khakis.
“I was told that I didn’t need it today,” The doctor introduces themselves as Thomas Malley. There was a streak of bright purple in their brown hair and their glasses were bedazzled.
Needless to say, they looked nothing like any doctor the girls had ever seen.
Thomas does Clint first. They loudly ramble on about what they were going to do before they did it. Clint keeps remarking on whether things hurt her not. He exaggerates his eye rolls when he’s weighed.
Yelena and Natalia watch with confusion throughout the whole thing.
Then it’s May’s turn and Yelena is surprised that May lets the doctor touch her.
By the time that the two finish, Thomas turns to look at them.
“Alrighty. Which one of you will go first?” Thomas clasped their hands together.
Yelena looks up at Natalia. While the whole thing had soothed some of her worries, her older sister didn’t look convinced. “Me?”
Coulson and Clint step out when Thomas asked Yelena to strip down to her underwear. Nudity never bothered Yelena much so she sheds her clothes.
Thomas takes her height and her weight and kept mentioning that she was doing well. They made sure to announce each time before they touched her and while Yelena wasn’t exactly comfortable, nothing hurt.
Thomas uses a pen instead of their finger to tap on scars and asked where they came from. “These look like they’re from laparoscopic surgery.” Thomas comments, tapping the three fresher-looking scars on her abdomen.
“They are,” Yelena comments, trying to wiggle away from the pen slightly.
“For what?” Thomas glanced up at her.
“They took my…” Yelena hesitates because she doesn’t know the word in English. “Reproductive system.” She glances at Natalia for help translating.
Natalia doesn’t know the translation either. “The part that makes the babies.”
Thomas glances up at her in surprise. “You’re seventeen years old? What was the medical decision for removing it?”
“So I don’t get any personal attachments that would compromise me,” Yelena said and Thomas goes quiet, poking the scar on Yelena’s left side again. “All girls go through it.”
“So they took your uterus and ovaries?” Maria pipes up for the first time. “You can never have children of your own?”
Yelena shakes her head as Thomas sighs.
“A medically unnecessary procedure. You’re not even eighteen yet. You’re still growing and maturing and you’ll probably get pain from it,” Thomas nods his head. “Okay. Two more things. A mold of your teeth and some blood.”
Yelena tenses up, watching as the doctor retrieves the clay for the impressions. Yelena gags when it’s in her mouth and Natalia jerks toward her but Maria grabs her shoulder and tells her to stand down.
Yelena flashes a sign at Natalia that she’s okay and Natalia clenches her jaw.
Yelena was doing well until she sees the needle in Thomas’s hand and nearly jerks backward over the side of the examination table she was on.
“No!” Yelena blurts out and nobody stops her when she darts across the room to slip behind Natalia.
Natalia grips her hand, letting Yelena hide behind her.
“This is a little needle. The smallest we’ve got,” Thomas holds it up. “Just a little pinch. The whole thing will be done within two minutes.”
“Two minutes?” Yelena repeats suspiciously.
“Don’t believe me?” Thomas grins. “They call me the one stick wonder. They say my fingers are magic.” Thomas wiggles their fingers covered by the purple latex gloves. “Come on.”
Yelena hesitates, glancing over at Maria. “Is that the truth?”
“We get Doctor Malley whenever we need blood or to start an IV because they can often do it with only one stick,” Maria agrees. “They’re the best for this.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want,” Natalia said quietly to her. “Say it.”
“I… think that I can do it…” Yelena glances up at her. “But you make sure they stop if I say stop… and sit with me.”
Natalia nods her head and moves to sit on the examination table with Yelena. Yelena flinches when Thomas takes a step toward them and Thomas paused, waiting for her approval to come closer.
Yelena shoves her arm out and Thomas takes that as their cue, approaching her.
Yelena clenches her jaw, twisting to shove her face into Natalia’s shoulder when the antiseptic is swabbed on her arm.
“Okay. Pinch on three. One-- two-- three--” Thomas slips the needle into the crook of her elbow.
“You’re doing well,” May comments before glancing at Thomas. “She’s getting pale.”
Yelena felt light-headed but swallows hard, trying to slow her breathing.
“Your heart is racing…” Natalia whispers to her and Yelena lets out a small whine.
“There. Done!” The needle is pulled from her arm and a wad of gauze is pushed over the mark before it was secured with a band-aid. “That wasn’t horrible, was it?”
“No…” Yelena whispers, trying to keep the surprise from her tone.
“Brilliant! Get dressed and I’ll be right back,” Thomas disappears from the room and Yelena takes a moment before she reaches for her uniform.
“You’re pale,” Natalia comments, grabbing Yelena’s uniform to help her get dressed.
“I’m sorry,” Yelena replies, letting Natalia manipulate her limbs back into her uniform. “That… was nothing like medical.”
Thomas returns and holds out a juice box. “Here. Drink up so your blood sugar doesn’t drop. How are you feeling?”
Yelena glances at the juice and passes it to her sister to inspect. Natalia looks it over, pops the straw in, and takes a sip before passing it back to Yelena and letting her drink the rest.
“Righty. Now, it’s your turn,” Thomas glances at Natalia. The same as your sister then. Strip to your underwear. You can have a blanket if you want. We can kick anybody except you and me out of the room for privacy.”
Thomas frowns when they see the scars on Natalia’s stomach. “Huh, these are much smaller…” They frown, glancing at Yelena. “Can I see yours again?”
Yelena lifts her shirt up and Thomas compares their scars.
“Do you know why yours are bigger and thicker?” Thomas glances up at Yelena.
“Things went wrong and I died,” Yelena said quietly and Thomas pauses, glancing down at her stomach. “They froze me so they could fix their mistake and bring me back.”
Thomas lets out a noise that Yelena can’t discern. Natalia’s physical went much quicker now that they knew what to expect.
Natalia grips Yelena’s hand tightly when her blood is drawn. Yelena does the same with Natalia’s just that Natalia did with hers. Yelena takes the first sip before passing it to Natalia.
Thomas leaves with a wave of their hand and their armful of paperwork and labs.
“Both of you did very well,” Maria steps forward when they’re dressed and now just waiting for further orders. “I appreciate the trust that you’ve put in us to allow us to do this.”
“It was nothing like the Room,” Yelena said quietly, looking up at her. “It didn’t even hurt!”
Maria gives her a smile that’s a little tight on her face as she nods her head. “I’m glad to hear that. Since you’ve given blood then you’ll have no training today. You’ll have the rest of the day off.”
Natalia doesn’t hesitate to drag Yelena as far away from medical as possible once they’re dismissed. They end up in “Clint’s Vent” to unwind from the tense emotions of the day. Clint joins them after an hour, dumping some snacks into the nest of blankets.
“Coulson sends these. He says that he’s proud of you and that you guys earned a reward,” Clint tosses one of the packages he had at Yelena.
Yelena catches it, frowning at the English on the package. “What is it?”
“Candy,” Clint said, tossing another one at Natalia before opening his own. “Coulson’s really happy that you decided to trust him and went to medical even though you were scared.”
“We weren’t scared,” Natalia denies abruptly, glaring at Clint.
“Of course not,” Clint agrees. “Even though you were hesitant.” He amends.
“It wasn’t bad,” Natalia begrudgingly said after a few moments and Yelena passes her candy toward Natalia to take the first piece. “But I won’t go again.”
Clint shrugs. “Okay.” That was a whole other conversation for another time. “Anyway, what do you think about the candy?”
Yelena finally pops one of the pieces into her mouth and her face twists. “It’s sweet!” She yelps. “Is all American candy this sweet?”
Clint laughs at the look on her face. “Some of it is. Do you like it?”
Yelena’s teeth hurt afterward but she eats the whole thing.