interrogation
As soon as Yelena is settled down with Bobbi, Natalia strides down the hallway with one purpose.
To find Maria Hill.
It’s not that hard. Maria’s in her office and she looks surprised to see Natalia there.
“Romanov.” She greets her. “I expected you to be with Yelena.”
“She’s with Morse,” Natalia enters the office. “I wanted to speak with you.”
Maria gestures for Natalia to take a seat but Natalia remains standing. Maria raised an eyebrow, leaning back in her seat and giving a nod for her to start.
“I can’t leave tomorrow,” Natalia starts out. She’s set out to go back out tomorrow and she can’t. Not with Yelena in the state she’s in now. “I need the mission to be pushed back or to be taken off.”
“You can’t be taken off. This is for your defection to SHIELD,” Maria reminds Natalia. “And you and I both know that this is a time-sensitive mission. If you fail to go then all of the months of work you’ve put into this will be for nothing.” There’s a hint of regret in her tone. “I’m sorry, Natalia.”
Natalia refuses to back down. “My sister needs me and you’re shipping me off anyway?” Natalia gets it but Yelena needs her and Natalia has to fight to stay by her side.
“We’ll look after her while you’re gone,” Maria promised and Natalia can’t help the scoff that passes her lips at the promise.
“Yeah… because you’ve looked after her so well before now,” Natalia folds her arms, inspecting Maria’s body language. “My sister has been harassed, bullied, and abused by a superior and the other rookies.”
Maria lets out a sigh and Natalia can tell she’s tired and weary. “SHIELD has been doing what they can but in case you forgot, you and your sister are Russian assassins who have both killed numerous of our men. You have taken friends and family away from some of the agents here and they blame you. I can’t order them to like you, Natalia…”
Maria shakes her head gently. “Your sister is a Russian assassin that can't read English very well and reverts back into speaking Russian when she gets frustrated. She has confirmed the kills of at least six of our agents. She follows me around which causes the others to believe she’s either manipulating me or that I have a fondness for her that she will exploit.”
“I want to be able to communicate with her,” Natalia barters. She wasn’t supposed to be allowed a cell phone yet. Neither was Yelena. Before then they weren’t able to talk to each other when Natalia was gone.
“The rules--” Maria starts but Natalia interrupts her.
“I need to be able to communicate with her. You just saw her break down in the Director’s office. I cannot leave her like this and be okay with it,” Natalia is not against doing whatever she needs in order to get what she wants.
“There are rules, Natalia,” Maria said, her voice softening to convey her regret.
Natalia approached the desk, bending over to lean on it, and gave Maria a soft smile. “I know. I just… I just thought that you’d understand.” She lowers her voice.
“I get where you’re coming from, Natalia. I know that you’re worried about her,” Maria’s voice lowers to match Natalia’s. “But you need to finish this.”
“I know. But my sister attacked a Widow and is being punished for it,” Natalia doesn’t want to think about the fact that confinement to a small space was a punishment the Red Room used and that Yelena being stuck in that room until they said she could come out would make her panic.
“We have no proof that she’s a Widow yet. She refuses to talk and is still being treated for the injuries Yelena gave her,” Maria replies and Natalia straightens.
“Is she here?” Natalia demands and Maria blinks at the abrupt turn in the conversation.
“She’s being treated here, yes. If you’re worried about a tracker, if she had any it was rendered unusable by an EMP,” Maria reassures Natalia. “In fact, would you be willing to look at her and see if you can’t identify her for us?”
Natalia originally came to ask to push the mission back but if she identified the Widow then Yelena’s punishment may be dropped. “Alright.”
Maria stands and moves past Natalia to the door, their shoulders brushing together as she passes. Natalia tries not to focus on the fact that Maria always smelled like mint and apples. She follows Maria toward where the holding cells were.
She stands in front of the cell with a woman in front of it, dismayed that she doesn’t recognize her. It’s not that surprising, there were hundreds of active Widows not counting the hundreds of ones now dead that Natalia had once known. The woman was in her late twenties to early thirties and had bronze colored hair that was neatly braided out of her face.
“Well, do you recognize her?” Maria questions as Natalia stands and peers through a two-sided mirror.
Natalia could lie and say yes in hopes that it reduced Yelena’s punishment. Instead, she feels Maria’s stare and has a hard time lying, something twisting uncomfortably in her gut at the thought. “No.” She admits. “I know how to prove it.”
Maria raised an eyebrow, staring at the side of Natalia’s head. “How?”
Natalia stares at the unconscious, restrained Widow. “Can I show you?”
Maria takes a few moments. “You understand that you cannot harm the woman, correct?”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” As much as Natalia would like to make the woman regret slamming her sister onto the pavement, Natalia had to prove her sisters innocence first.
Maria slides her badge and the door to the room opens. Natalia steps in and makes her way toward the woman.
Natalia immediately grips the bottom of her shirt and pushes it up slightly. She searches for the scars of the forced hysterectomies that all Widows are forced to go through. The woman was certainly old enough to have had the procedure.
There’s a trickle of panic that crawls down her spine at the smooth skin on her abdomen. No scarring at all.
“Natalia?” Maria prompts and Natalia pushes the shirt back down before moving to pull her shoe off and inspect her feet.
Still, damaged feet from ballet weren’t good enough proof.
Natalia’s fingers then search her left thigh for the small bump of the injectable tracker just under the skin.
She trusted her sister. She had full faith in her but there was no proof that she was a Widow.
“Natalia?” Maria calls again as she slowly approaches her. “Do you have proof?”
Natalia clenches her jaw and stares down at the woman. There had to be something. Anything.
Maria’s hand rests onto her shoulder, squeezing slightly. “Natalia, are you still with me?”
The feeling of Maria’s hand on her shoulder brings Natalia out of her thoughts. “I’m here.” She replies quietly.
“Come on,” Maria’s hand moves to between Natalia’s shoulder blades. Natalia lets herself be led out of the cell as she wracks her mind for proof.
The only thing she could think of was interrogating the Widow while awake or having Yelena speak to her.
Maria must catch onto Natalia’s train of thought. “The Director wants to put Yelena in the same room as her to see what she can get from her.”
“No.” Natalia knows that this could prove her sister didn’t attack unprovoked but Yelena had been so distressed.
Maria pauses once they’re back in front of the mirror. “If you let Yelena do the interrogation then I’ll see about what I can do to provide you and her with communications for your mission.”
Natalia glances at Maria. She hadn’t expected the commander to barter. “You made it clear that it was against the rules.”
“Contrary to popular belief, I do bend the rules sometimes,” Maria replies before dropping the hand she had still on Natalia’s back. “Do you understand what’s at risk? If we have no proof that this woman isn’t just a civilian then Yelena could be taken from you and SHIELD would not be able to prevent it.”
Natalia stiffens immediately, tired of people using Yelena to get her to do what they want. “She was protecting herself and SHIELD!”
“Do you think I like the alternative any better? Because if they take Yelena from us then I can guarantee that they’re not going to put her in a foster home and they’re certainly not letting her back out on the streets either,” Maria folds her arms, staring down at Natalia. “We need proof.”
“Yelena does this and we get cell phones to talk to each other?” Natalia questioned.
“I’ll try,” Maria said but Natalia shakes her head.
“That’s not good enough. I need a guarantee on that,” Natalia tells Maria firmly. “Or no dice.”
Maria inhales sharply before giving a curt nod. “Fine. Is it a deal?” She holds her hand out. “An interrogation for a pair of cell phones?”
Natalia reaches out and grasped Maria’s hand in hers, giving a firm shake. “Deal.” She agrees.
“But she is Red Room!” Yelena protested immediately.
“I know,” Natalia nods her head. “But they don’t. We have to prove that to them and in order to do that then you have to talk to her and make her confess that she knows you from the Red Room or that she is a Widow.”
Yelena rocks on her feet, the unconcealed motion of anxiety concerned Natalia because Yelena was usually better about hiding her emotions and feelings. “And if I prove it then I won’t be punished anymore?”
“I don’t know,” Natalia admits. “But if you do it then you can talk to me while I’m out finishing my defection.”
Yelena nods her head immediately. “Okay. I’ll do it.” She agrees.
Word got passed to the Director who sent Coulson to fetch Yelena as soon as the woman was conscious.
Natalia is grabbed by Bobbi to head into the camera room where they could watch the video feed of the room. Maria was there waiting for them along with the man who manned the cameras.
Yelena steps into the room, Coulson closing the door behind her and the woman immediately looks over at Yelena.
“You…” She hissed out in Russian. Natalia watches Bobbi lean over to whisper the translations into Maria’s ear. “Come to finish what you started?”
The woman’s voice is hoarse from where Yelena had choked her.
“No. I came to prove who you are,” Yelena seems to be sticking close to the door. “I didn’t forget about you.”
“No?” A smile crosses the woman’s face. “We had a very good time together.”
“Perhaps,” Yelena murmurs, tilting her head to the side. “You don’t usually go out into the field.”
The woman lets out a chuckle. “I’m a teacher.”
“My point exactly,” Yelena takes a single step closer. “You were a pretty shit teacher. I’ve got much better teachers now.”
“You were one of my favorite students,” The smile on her face turns into a grin. “So easy to teach.”
“You knew how to motivate me,” Yelena folds her arms and Natalia catches her curling her fingers into her sleeves to grip it. “I’m disappointed that you didn’t put up a bigger fight.”
“Oh my pretty girl,” The woman starts and Yelena lets out a slight flinch. “I loved every moment of it.”
Natalia stares at the cameras before pieces click into her head. “Deals off, get her out of there.”
Heads jerk to turn toward her. “What?” Maria questioned.
“Deals off, get her out!” Natalia replies sharply, eyes on the monitor.
“We can’t cut--” The agent running the cameras starts before he watches the screen. “She’s fine.”
“I’ve missed you so much, pretty girl,” The woman coos, her voice hoarse. “Did you miss me?”
“Of course I did,” Yelena slides closer to the woman. “I could never forget you.”
Bobbi had stopped translating and was staring at the screen, seeming to pick up on what Natalia meant.
The woman then drops her smile and her face turns serious. “Then get over here and make it up to me just like I taught you.”
“End it--” Bobbi tells Maria and turns on her foot to leave the room, Natalia hot on her heels just as Yelena leans over to kiss the woman.