his daughter
Natalia feels glued to her spot, staring at the door that Yelena just slipped through.
“Nat?” Clint questioned carefully, approaching her.
Natalia knows that she should move and follow after her baby sister but she can’t.
I don’t believe you.
Why did those words hurt so much?
“C’mere,” Clint reaches out to set a hand onto her shoulder but Natalia jerks away from the touch. She just spent ten days squished in a vent in the subway station with him. She’s hungry and she’s tired and just wants to shower and curl up with her sister.
“Natalia.” Maria pipes up and Natalia’s eyes flicker to peer at her. “She has a tracker on her. She’ll be okay.”
Natalia lets out a long sigh. “Where is she?”
Maria pulls out her phone and taps away for a few seconds before frowning. “She has the tracker, I know she does. It can only be removed by key…”
Dread forms in Natalia’s stomach. “What does that mean? Where is she?”
“It’s like her tracker turned off. We had this problem before with the signal blocker that was on Goose’s collar…” Maria taps at her phone. “There shouldn’t be--” Maria paused before she spun around.
Natalia follows her gaze to see the other teenager sitting on the couch.
“Skye…” Maria starts and Skye gives them an innocent smile. “What did you do?”
Skye shrugs. Natalia surges forward but Maria’s arms quickly loop around her and stop her. Skye jolts at the sudden movement, leaning back into the couch.
“Natalia, stop,” Maria tells Natalia sharply before looking at Skye. “Where is it?”
Skye offers out a burner phone from behind her back and Maria reaches out to take it.
“Reenable her tracker,” Maria orders Skye, turning the phone over her in her hands.
“No.” Skye doesn’t hesitate to respond. Maria raised an eyebrow, staring down at the defiant teenager.
“No?” Maria echoes and Skye shrinks in on herself slightly but holds Maria’s gaze.
“No.” Skye nods her head, her fingers tapping nervously on her knees and betrays how anxious she really is.
“This isn’t funny, Skye. Put her tracker back on,” Maria pulls Natalia against her to stop her from lurching at Skye again.
Skye juts her chin out stubbornly. “Make me.” She replies.
Natalia could make her but Maria’s grip on her is a warning to keep a calm head. “Yelena has to come back.” Natalia tells Skye, frustration in her tone.
“She’ll come back when she’s ready,” Skye replies, folding her arms. “She ran for a reason and finding her to drag her back won’t help.”
“You’re writing ten lines for every minute that you refuse,” Maria says and Skye’s eyes grow wide. Natalia could see her doing mental math of how long she could hold out for.
Skye clenches her jaw, looks down, and says nothing.
Clint leaves to head back to SHIELD so he could shower, eat, and then go to sleep in his own bed. Maria tries to urge Natalia to shower. Natalia had clothes, Maria told her to take an extra set when packing.
With much reluctance, Natalia heads into the bathroom and showers.
When she exits the bathroom, Skye is chatting loudly on the phone with Coulson about why she was openly defying the rules.
Natalia can see Skye get frustrated and is reminded that she’s only two years younger than Yelena.
So Natalia tries to reason with her. She approaches Skye and Skye flinches when she nears. Natalia hadn’t meant to frighten her, she was just frustrated and exhausted.
Skye pulls the phone down from her ear, waiting to hear what Natalia had to say.
“I understand why you turned her tracker off,” Natalia tells Skye slowly and Skye blinks before nodding. “It’s been ten days since I’ve seen my sister. I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I just want to hold my sister in my arms and take a nap.”
It’s tough to be so brutally honest with her but Natalia spent ten days cramped inside of a vent with Clint and three days of supplies.
“She ran away from you,” Skye points out and Natalia conceals the flinch that threatened to take over.
“I know.” She says instead. “Skye, please just make this easy. I just want Yelena to come back safe.”
Skye glances away from Natalia and Natalia knows that she’s crumbling with the avoidance of eye contact.
“Skye…” Natalia lets out a sigh. “Please?”
“What if she doesn’t wanna come back?” Skye questioned, glancing down at the phone where Coulson was listening in. “Are you gonna make her?”
Natalia wasn’t going to drag her sister anywhere unless it was a matter of life or death. “No.” She said. She glances at the clock. It had been nearly an hour since Yelena had run off.
Skye sighs, clearly torn on what she should do. Natalia appreciated the loyalty she was showing to Yelena, even if it was against her.
Maria pokes her head into the room, her phone clutched in her hand. “She’s with Bobbi.” Maria says. “Bobbi will bring her back when they’re ready.”
Natalia’s glad that at least someone is with Yelena, even if it’s not her. Maria’s attention turns toward Skye and the teenager suddenly freezes.
“I’m impressed. You held out for…” Maria checks her watch. “Forty-seven minutes. But do you understand what could have happened?”
“I didn’t break any rules,” Skye said and Natalia sees the way she leans back into the cushions as Maria crosses the room to approach her. “You can’t punish me for rules that I didn’t break.”
Maria crouches in front of Skye and Natalia stares because this is Maria Hill and not The Commander or Hard-ass Hill. “What if Yelena got hurt?” Maria questioned.
Skye scoffs at the question, something that Natalia can’t help but find some amusement in. “Tiny Dancer kicks ass and takes names. She’s like a ninja.”
“You know that Yelena and her sisters are assassins,” Maria starts and Natalia watches Skye’s body language carefully. “They’ve made a lot of enemies over the years and a lot of people want to hurt them. Yelena can take care of herself, yes, but she might not see a sniper.”
Skye sinks down into the seat. “Yeah…” She mumbles. “I didn’t really think about that.”
“Go sit at the table,” Maria tells Skye. “I’ll get you paper.”
“That’s over four hundred lines!” Skye immediately protests, sitting up. “That’s like eight sheets of paper front and back!”
“Sit at the table, Skye,” Maria repeats firmly and Skye glances at Natalia before standing and slinking into the kitchen.
“Did Bobbi say when she’d be back?” Natalia questioned Maria.
“No. Just when Yelena was ready to come back. Bobbi’ll look after her,” Maria reassures Natalia. “Come sit at the table too, I’ll get you leftovers to eat.”
Natalia wants to go out and look for her sister but she has to trust that Bobbi will bring Yelena back safely. Natalia sits in the seat next to Skye and watches as Maria sets a few sheets of paper and a pen down in front of Skye.
“I want you to write ‘I will not hack equipment for our safety’ until I stop you,” Maria tells Skye. Skye narrows her eyes at Maria and for a few moments, Natalia is sure that she’s going to tell Maria to fuck off.
Skye then picks up the pen and hunches over the paper. “Are you gonna punish Yelena too?” She murmurs.
“Yes,” Maria says, pulling a container out of the fridge. Natalia’s head snaps toward her in disbelief.
“For what?” Natalia demands. She just wanted to lay down with her sister and sleep.
Maria looks at Natalia and Natalia sees some of Commander Hill slip into her gaze. “She broke the rules that I had set up.”
“She was scared, you can’t punish her for that!” Natalia stands and Maria turns toward her.
“Sit down.” Maria says sharply. Skye flinches, her hand jerking and drawing a line across the page as Natalia immediately drops back into her seat at the tone. Maria lets out a sigh, reaching up to pin the bridge of her nose. “I apologize, I didn’t mean to raise my voice.”
Maria moves toward the table with a plate of food, setting it down in front of Natalia. “Being frightened isn’t an acceptable reason to break the rules. Eat up.”
Natalia shoves the plate away despite how starving she was. Maria sets her hand down to stop the plate from sliding off the table. “You cannot punish her for running.”
“She broke the rules, she will face the consequences. All she’ll do is write lines like Skye and then she can go to bed.” Maria replies calmly, sliding the plate back toward Natalia.
Natalia scoops the fork up and slams the prongs into the table. Maria wastes no time in gripping Natalia’s wrist and relieving her of the utensil. “I said no!”
“That is enough, Agent Romanov!” Maria finally tells her harshly. “You will not intimidate me and you will not destroy my things!”
Natalia knows that she’s playing with fire. Maria can severely punish her as soon as they arrive back at the Helicarrier but she’s just so done. “Fuck you.” Natalia makes a lunch toward the fork.
Maria grips a fistful of Natalia’s collar and drags her up and out of the room. Natalia growls at her, quickly catching her balance when Maria lets her go. They’ve moved into Maria’s office and Maria has closed the door. “Enough is enough.” Maria tells her. “What happened?”
Natalia had fully expected to be punished. She thought she had finally crossed the line with Maria just then. She didn’t expect Maria to collect herself and question her.
“What happened? I know that you’re hungry and I know that you’re tired but this is more than that.” Maria raised an eyebrow.
“You grabbed me.” Natalia says instead of whatever she should have. Maria had yet to put her hands on her like that outside of the map.
Maria’s face softens, a tinge of regret in her eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that but you were scaring Skye.”
Natalia reaches up to smooth out the wrinkles in her shirt. “Don’t grab me like that.” She says quietly because when Maria had grabbed her a jolt of fear surged through her, not that she’d ever admit to that.
“Okay,” Maria inclines her head in acknowledgment. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
Natalia stares at Maria for a few moments. “I killed her.”
Maria’s brow furrows. “Killed who?” She prompts.
Natalia figures she wouldn’t have to debrief if Maria heard it now. “The little girl. His daughter. I killed her.”
Understanding fills Maria’s eyes and Natalia has to look away. “It made you think of Yelena.”
It had. And Natalia hadn’t been able to call Yelena right after to check in like she wanted. She was stuck in a vent for ten days wondering if her sister was okay. “I need Yelena.”
“I know,” Maria says, her voice softening. “Bobbi will bring her back.”
“If you punish Yelena for running then she won’t run anymore,” Natalia starts. “She’ll hurt herself.”
“Hurt herself?” Maria repeats and Natalia starts to backtrack.
“If she can’t run then she will try and punish herself for feeling things,” Natalia can’t hold Maria’s gaze. “She used to run all the time but she always came home to me.”
Natalia jumps at the hand that rests on her shoulder, shoving away the instinct to flinch or retaliate. “I appreciate you telling me this.” Maria says. “I wish you could have felt that you could tell me this before the situation escalated.”
Natalia peers up at Maria’s face after a few moments. “She was only a few years younger than Yelena.”
Natalia can’t get the sight of Antonia Dreykov out of her mind. The sight of her skipping up the steps to greet her father, the perfect braids bouncing up and down with each hope.
Natalia doesn’t expect Maria to step closer and she certainly doesn’t expect Maria to wrap her arms around her in a loose hold. Natalia could easily shove her away if she wanted and step out of the hold.
But it feels so nice and Natalia’s just so tired. She leans forward against Maria, her hands slowly moving up to curl into the back of Maria’s shirt. “I’m free.” She whispers. The General is dead. He can't control them any longer.
Maria tightens her grip slightly when Natalia doesn’t pull away. “You’re free.” She agrees just as softly.
Natalia tilts her head forward until it rests on Maria's shoulder and cries.