night terrors
Maria didn’t know what to expect from night terrors when dealing with Yelena. She didn’t sleep in the same room as the sisters and the sisters had never felt safe enough to sleep with her near them except for the time Yelena was falling asleep standing up during Natalia’s deprogramming.
Maria can tell that Yelena’s not sleeping. Yelena gets deep bruise-like bags under her eyes and she starts to miss small movements or actions that usually would have put her on edge. She wouldn’t notice someone enter a room unless they were standing right next to her or spoke on their way in.
Then Yelena got clumsy and scraped her knee while they were out on a run and Maria knows that there will be a point where she might have to order Yelena to go to bed and sleep. She knows that Yelena’s trying to adjust and must miss Natalia something fierce.
Maria’s settled on the couch the night that Yelena scraped her knee, barely asleep when she hears restless shuffling from her bedroom and waits to try and see if they settle down.
Instead, there is a loud thump and then a cry of pain.
Maria jolts to her feet as Skye’s panicked voice cries out. “Get off of me!”
She enters the bedroom to see Skye staring up at Yelena with wide eyes. Yelena’s not quite awake, her fingers mimicking holding something poised above her head.
Yelena mimes swinging her arm down and Skye lets out a flinch, her arms pinned under Yelena’s knees.
Maria moves forward and wrapped her arms around Yelena to haul her off of Skye. Yelena frantically starts writhing in Maria’s grip as Skye scrambles off of the bed into the closet.
Maria probably shouldn’t have grabbed Yelena because she wasn't actively hurting Skye but Skye had been crying out in fear and Maria just acted. Maria didn’t even realize just how badly she messed up until she’s realizes that Yelena was gripping the waistband of her pants with one hand, the other trying to shove Maria’s hands off of her.
Yelena could probably break out of Maria’s grip if she used both hands. Instead, she keeps one protectively clutching the waistband of her pajama bottoms. Maria has to admit that she’s out of her league and that she doesn’t know what to do. “Skye?” She calls out, spotting the head of dark hair from where Skye had flung herself into the closet. “Are you hurt?”
It was quiet for a few moments other than Yelena’s heavy breathing as she squirms. “No…” Skye’s quiet reply came from the closet.
Maria readjusts her grip around Yelena and the girl throws her head back and howls. “Can you grab my phone off the coffee table?” Maria needed to make a few calls and she couldn’t grab it herself.
Skye darts out of the room in a blur of purple pajamas and Maria grabs Yelena’s wrist when Yelena reaches up to grab her own hair and yank on it, hitting her head.
Skye returns and Maria has to guide Skye through the contacts until she calls Phil.
Maria tells Phil that she needs him. He can probably hear Yelena babbling in rapid Russian and he very regretfully tells Maria that he can’t make it but he can send Melinda.
Maria takes what she can get. She then settles Skye on the phone with Coulson while she focuses on Yelena.
Yelena’s breathing hard and her glassy eyes finally peer up at Maria’s face. “I don’t-- please” Maria only catches a few words.
Maria falls back on the few phrases she can pronounce. “You’re safe. Everything is alright.”
Yelena rips her wrist from Maria’s hand but instead of fighting Maria or hitting herself again, she cups her groin as if Maria told her to relax and undress. “I will not-- sex-- please.”
Skye’s on the phone with Phil and is slowly calming down as she talks to him. Maria can’t call Natalia and she really didn’t want to grip the back of Yelena’s neck. She could really use a translator and should learn Russian faster.
It’s not until Yelena says a phrase that Maria had specifically looked up the translation for. “--I will be a good girl--”
Maria wants to back off and give Yelena space, especially when pieces were clicking together and she didn’t like the full picture. But Yelena would hurt herself or someone else if Maria let go.
“Yelena,” Maria tries English. “Look at me. What am I not?”
Yelena froze at the question that Maria asked her. She’s breathing hard from all her writhing around and she’s still not quite conscious. Maria can tell she knows the answer but is confused about why she was being asked.
“I can be good for you,” Yelena replies softly instead and Maria’s surprised when Yelena’s hand moves from the waistband of her own pajama pants to the waistband of Maria’s.
“No.” Maria said firmly, gripping Yelena’s wrist and shoving her hand away. She has absolutely no idea what to do.
Yelena’s face scrunches up in confusion before she bats her eyelashes at Maria. “I can make you feel good. I’ll be a good girl just for you.” She purrs and Maria hates the look on her face. No seventeen-year-old should know how to look seductive.
“I said no.” Maria doesn’t know if bringing up the conversation she had with Bobbi and Yelena about consent was a good idea. “We’re not doing that.”
Yelena switches reactions so quickly that Maria nearly got whiplash. Her eyes widened and her hand automatically grips the waistband of her own bottoms again. “But it hurts--” She whispers and Maria swallows down the bout of nausea churning in her gut.
“What is the age of consent?” Maria prompts and Yelena stares at her for a few moments, not really seeing her but acknowledging her presence. “Yelena? What is the age of consent where we are?”
“Eleven…” Yelena whispers and Maria’s heart drops into her stomach.
“No.” This was all going very wrong. Maria has no idea what she was thinking when she agreed to take the girls home. Maria doesn’t know where Yelena got the number from and she’s unsure if she wants to know. “It’s eighteen. The age of consent is eighteen.”
Maria moves a hand up to cup one side of Yelena’s face. Yelena flinches away from the touch slightly.
“What’s my name?” Maria asked Yelena softly. “Where are you?”
Yelena’s eyes flickered around the room and her breath hitched before she arched her back to try and break free of Maria’s grip. “No! I don’t want to!”
“My name is Maria Hill. You’re at my apartment and it’s currently three in the morning,” Maria tells Yelena, wincing when Yelena’s elbow catches her jaw.
Maria finally clamps her hand down on the back of Yelena’s neck and the fight leaves her instantly. Maria doesn’t even want to think of how vulnerable and defenseless Yelena became when the Red Room used it against her.
Maria pulls Yelena against her, shushing her softly when Yelena begs for it to not hurt. Maria cradles her close, shifting as her legs start to fall asleep. Yelena had resumed the grip on the waistband of her own pajama bottoms, her breathing shaky.
The door to the bedroom opens and Maria looks up at Melinda standing in the doorway. She hadn’t even heard the woman arrive or Skye let her in. She can see Skye standing behind Melinda sheepishly, her arms wrapped around herself for comfort.
Maria can see Melinda’s raised eyebrow at the inquiry of if she needed any help. Maria waved her hand in dismissal and Melinda closed the door behind her as she left with Skye.
While Maria really had no idea what she was doing, Yelena didn’t need to be gawked at. Yelena’s still tense but is gradually relaxing against Maria’s chest, her head resting against Maria’s collar. It was quiet for along time before Yelena’s tiny voice spoke up. “Ria?”
“Hey, are you back with me?” Maria asked as Yelena’s fingers move. Maria loosens her grip on Yelena’s neck some.
“I… I fell asleep--” Yelena jerks up in a panic and Maria pulls her close again. “Where is Skye, is she okay, did I hurt her--”
“Skye’s okay. Look at me. Eyes,” Maria grips Yelena’s chin and Yelena peers up at her after a few moments. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Please don’t send me back yet,” Yelena pleads and Maria resists the urge to sigh.
“I’m not sending you away anywhere,” Maria promised and Yelena was quiet for a few more seconds before she spoke again.
“I don’t wanna go see my therapist so don’t send me back,” Yelena whispers and Maria frowns.
“You don’t like the sessions?” Damian had reported that no progress was being made. Surprisingly, Natalia was the one who cooperated the most but Maria’s pretty sure Natalia was making up fake trauma to work through rather than open up.
“I try to be good for him,” Yelena murmurs and it’s the phrasing that makes Maria pause.
“I’m sure you’re very good for him,” Maria approached the subject slowly. Yelena shakes her head, sleepily resting her forehead against Maria’s collar.
“No. He said I was gonna get in trouble,” Yelena huffs quietly.
“In trouble for what?” Maria prompts and Yelena was quiet. Maria doesn’t want to drop the topic yet so she repeats her question. “Why would you get in trouble, Yelena?”
“For not talking,” Yelena reaches up to cover her face with her hands. “I try really hard to be good but it's hard. Sometimes the thoughts get jumbled up in my head and sometimes the words get stuck in my throat. Please don’t be angry with me.”
“Why would I be angry with you?” Maria tries to keep her tone soft so she doesn’t spook Yelena. These things she was hearing weren’t good and causing a lot of alarm to rise in her.
“He said you’d be mad. That I’d get in trouble. I wanna be good, Maria,” Yelena said softly before stifling another yawn. “I’m sorry I’m so bad.”
Yelena is exhausted and had she been awake or not recovering from a dissociative episode then she wouldn’t be sharing this information with Maria.
“You’re not bad, Yelena. You’ve been very good telling me this,” Maria finally lets go of the back of Yelena’s neck and the teenager doesn’t pull away from where she was curled against her. “Do you want to call your sister?”
“No…” Came the reluctant response. Maria knew Yelena really wanted to call Natalia. “I’m fine.”
Maria doesn’t bother arguing on that point. She holds Yelena until the teenager falls back into an unwilling sleep.
Maria adds looking into a child psychologist as well as Damian onto her growing mental task list.