startled
Nearly immediately after leaving Fury’s office, Yelena pulls out her cell phone and pulls up the contact for Maria Rambeau. She hesitates before calling her.
The phone rings a few times before there is a “Hello?”
“Maria Rambeau?” Yelena checks, Goose still curled in her arm.
“This is she…” Came the cautious reply.
“It’s Yelena Belova… the teenager Carol introduced to you,” Yelena explains, able to hear the way Rambeau’s tone shifts.
“Yelena. Right, what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” Rambeau questioned.
“I never really got a way to contact Carol before she left,” Yelena admits, it was an honest oversight on her part. “Do you know how to get into contact with her?”
“I do. Is it an emergency?” Rambeau inquired.
Yelena paused, glancing down at the not-cat in her arms. “Not an emergency but I do really need to speak with her as soon as I can.”
“Alright. Is everything okay?” Rambeau asked her.
Yelena paused. “What do you know about Carol’s cat Goose?” She interrogates and Goose lets out a chirp at their name.
“Ah…” She replies and Yelena untenses some. “Yeah. I can let Carol know you have questions about Goose.”
“Is it really…” Yelena trails off, peering down at the ball of orange fur curled against her chest.
“An alien? Yes. Carol brought Goose back from space,” Rambeau seemed nonchalant about the whole thing. “Are you okay?”
Yelena blinks a few times. “Okay?” She echoes in confusion.
“You just found out aliens exist. You probably witnessed Goose eat someone. Are you alright?” Rambeau’s voice softens like Laura’s did when she talked to Cooper.
Yelena’s chest tightens and Goose squirms in her arms, letting out a chirp. “Yes. I’m fine.” Yelena knows the expected answer.
Rambeau tuts like she knows that Yelena is very much not fine but she doesn’t call her out on it. “You can call me if you ever need someone to talk to.”
“Thank you,” Yelena’s only ever spoken a few words to this woman. She still doesn’t even know if she can trust her. “Can you pass the message along to Carol?”
“Of course. Depending on when Carol receives it, she should show up within a few days,” Rambeau tells her.
With that confirmation, Yelena bids her goodbye and hangs up the phone before heading on a path straight to Maria’s office.
Goose is still cuddled against her chest, innocently licking her paw like she didn’t eat a whole person just for Yelena.
Natasha and Clint are in the office with Maria and their conversation halts as Yelena enters and then plops Goose down onto Maria’s desk. “You knew!” Yelena tells Maria.
Maria glances down at the cat and then back up at Yelena before recognition clicks in her eyes. “Are you okay?” She questioned, immediately glancing over Yelena for injuries.
Maria’s inquiry causes Natasha to stand and move toward Yelena to check her over herself, unsure of why Maria was concerned but needing to know for herself.
“I’m fine,” Yelena shoves a finger at Goose. “But I just saw what I thought was a cat eat somebody?”
Yelena is then subject to Natasha grabbing her face and staring into her eyes to check for blown pupils, a sign of a concussion or drugs. Yelena lets her, knowing that she sounds crazy even to her own ears.
“Woah, hold the phone,” Clint finally pipes up. “What?”
Maria stands and approached Yelena. Yelena glances up at her, Natasha finally letting her face go. “Does the Director know?”
“Yeah. He’s with the man they ate now,” Yelena murmurs and Maria nods her head, glancing at Natasha and Clint.
“I’m afraid that I have important matters to attend to,” She said.
“Are you saying that this thing--” Clint points at Goose innocently cleaning their face. “Ate somebody?”
“I am.” Maria nods before leaving the room quickly. Yelena lets out a tired sigh and Natasha doesn’t hesitate to wrap her up in her arms.
“Nattie…” Yelena mumbles out, reaching up to cling to her big sister. Everything was suddenly hitting her all at once. How close Damien was to hurting her. How a cat she had snuggled with could eat someone whole. The existence of aliens. “I’m not crazy.” She says aloud.
She knows there is a very real possibility of hallucinations. When they messed with her brain, she not only experienced time loss but severe migraines and auditory hallucinations. She’s never hallucinated a cat or an alien before but she had hallucinated her not-mom when she wanted comfort after a very rough training session.
“Of course not,” Natasha murmurs, cupping the back of Yelena’s neck and lovingly squeezes it. Yelena relaxes against her, letting out a soft sigh of contentment at the reassurance that her sister was there.
“Are we just going to ignore the fact that the cat ate somebody?” Clint questioned, thrusting a hand out to gesture at the cat sitting on the desk.
“Yes.” Natasha said, seemingly content to let things be for the moment to avoid further upsetting Yelena. “Come on.”
Yelena lets Natasha guide her out of Maria’s office, Goose still sitting on Maria’s desk. Natasha takes her back to their bunk and asks no further questions, just letting Yelena decompress from whatever had made her so startled and unsure.
Yelena is grateful that she’s not bombarded with questions, even though Natasha is very curious about whatever had happened. Yelena relaxes against her, eventually falling asleep to the feeling of Natasha stroking her hair.
Yelena wakes up to the sound of frantic knocking on their door. It’s night now, the lights off and Natasha in her pajamas. Yelena hadn’t even woken up to her moving around which spoke of just how exhausted she was. Her shoes had been removed but Natasha left her dressed in her shirt and jeans.
Natasha sits up, quickly sliding out of her handcuffs and approaching the door.
To Yelena’s surprise, it was Coulson on the other side in his pajamas, a plain white tee and Captain America pajama pants. Yelena sees Natasha cock an eyebrow, leaning in the doorway with disinterest.
“I need Yelena.” Is the first thing out of Coulson’s mouth. He peers into the bunk and his eyes fall onto where Yelena was. “It’s Skye.”
Those words spurred Yelena to stand up and cross the room, standing just behind Natasha to peer up at him. Coulson hadn’t really spoken to her since the whole incident where Yelena had hurt him and May. Yelena even skipped out on cheesy bread Tuesdays because she didn’t know how to face him.
“What’s wrong?” Yelena demands, glancing past Coulson to look for any sign of Skye but she’s not there.
“She had a nightmare. I can’t get a response and she keeps pulling away from me,” Coulson sighs. “I don’t know what to do.”
Yelena taps Natasha’s shoulder, the redhead moving out of the way so Yelena could slip past her out into the hallway. Without acknowledging Coulson, Yelena heads down to where she knew Skye’s bunk was.
Skye had hacked into the keypad on her door to let Yelena in whenever she wanted so it was easy for Yelena to get into her room. Skye’s room was dark but Yelena can make out the small form of Skye curled up in the corner of the room with a blanket over her head.
“Skye?” Yelena enters the room, suddenly unsure of what to do. She knew how to comfort Natasha after a nightmare and how to help Maria with panic attacks and how to soothe Bobbi when she got frustrated. But she doesn’t know how to help Skye. “Skynet, it’s me. Tiny Dancer. Yelena.”
Yelena approached Skye warily, slowly crouching down next to her. She can hear Skye breathing heavily, the sound of muffled sobs barely audible through the fabric.
Yelena reaches out and sets a hand onto what she assumes is a shoulder. “It’s only me, Skye. I’ll protect you. I’ve got your back.” She slowly pulls Skye against her, the younger girl nearly going limp against her. Yelena shifts to kneel instead, wrapping her arms around Skye. “You’re safe.”
Skye doesn’t acknowledge her other than leaning against her, muffled sobs still audible through the fabric of the blanket. Yelena eventually reaches down and grabs the bottom of the blanket and pulls it up and over Skye’s head in one motion. Skye lets out a yelp, flinching and it makes Yelena feel bad. But Skye’s face is bright red from being under the blanket and Yelena doubts that the thick fabric made it any easier to breathe.
“It’s only me, Skynet,” Yelena reassures her, reaching out to smooth down the hair that stuck up from static with the blanket.
Skye stares up at her before slumping against her again. “Tiny Dancer.” She croaks out.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Yelena says, finally sitting down next to Skye. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“Yeah,” Skye breathes out, squeezing her eyes shut as she reaches up to rub at her face and get rid of the tear tracks on her cheeks. “How’d you know?”
“Coulson came and got me,” Yelena explained and Skye glances away in embarrassment.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” She said quietly. “I can deal with it on my own.”
Yelena knows all about dealing with your demons and your past alone. “You don’t have to be alone anymore.” Yelena says softly.
Skye peers up at her before glancing away once again, unable to hold eye contact. “I guess so…”
“I’ve got your back, Skynet. I’ll protect you,” Yelena swore and Skye leans against her once again.
“I know.” Skye said simply and Yelena feels a warmth in her chest at the sincerity of the words.
Yelena’s still not quite over the events of the previous day but sitting here with Skye is a needed peaceful calm.