Chapter 4
As they get closer to the entrance, Yelena feels doubt start to well up inside of her that makes her slow down her walk.
What if Natasha was upset with her? What if she got angry? Yelena doesn’t know if she’d be able to handle that at the moment.
“Yelena?” Coulson prompts when he notices her slow down. “Are you alright?”
Yelena gives him her picture-perfect smile. “Perfect.” She replies and Coulson frowns.
“We can take a minute if you need it,” He tells her kindly.
“Not too long. Natasha is already getting antsy,” Hill reached up to mumble into her comms as Yelena forces herself to keep moving forward.
“It’s just--” Yelena glances up at the man that Natasha had trusted. “Everything is kinda hitting me all at once. This isn’t the first time SHIELD has kidnapped me.”
Coulson nods his head. “Everything will be alright for you.”
“For me?” Yelena raised an eyebrow.
“I’m expecting her to at least hit me,” Coulson shrugs his shoulders.
Yelena lets out a hum, focusing forward. “I’ll keep her from permanently maiming you.”
Coulson lets out a low chuckle that makes Yelena give a small grin.
Natasha was pacing anxiously when they entered. Her head jerks up and emotions flicker across her face too fast for Yelena to discern. Her eyes finally landed on Yelena. “What did you do?” She demands.
Yelena knows that it’s the emotions and Natasha is not angry with her (at least she doesn’t think so) but the tone makes her flinch and curl in on herself. “Sorry…”
“C’mere Barbie,” Tony beckons her forward when her feet don’t move like she wants them to. “It’s okay.”
Hill gives her a small push that makes Yelena shuffle forward until she’s darting across the room. Natasha meets her halfway, wrapping her arms around her tightly as her hands frisk Yelena for injuries.
Yelena lets Natasha do whatever she wants, not realizing how much she needed her sister’s touch until she had it.
“Are you hurt?” Natasha questioned, her hands finally cupping Yelena’s face.
“No.” Yelena mumbles, leaning into the touch. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be angry at me.”
Natasha swallows hard and shakes her head before pulling Yelena’s head to her shoulder. “Not at you.” She replies and Yelena curls into her sister’s touch.
It was quiet in the room. Yelena can tell that Coulson wants to speak but also doesn’t want to interrupt whatever little bubble Natasha and Yelena have.
Yelena finally forces herself to peel away from Natasha and move to wrap her arms around Tony. She’d gotten better about casual touches with Tony. She was fine with Tony Stark, a man, touching her as long as she either initiated it or saw the touch coming.
With Yelena now with Tony, Natasha turns toward the three SHIELD agents. Yelena watches as Natasha strides across the distance that separates them before slapping Coulson so hard that he stumbles back.
Yelena winces at the noise and Tony shifts to pass her to Pepper. Pepper comforts her much like she did back at the police station. Yelena hadn’t wanted the touch back then but she craves it now.
Yelena watches as Natasha yells at Coulson. How she rants and yells and lets out all of the hurt and anger that she had bottled up.
And when she’d done yelling at Coulson, she turns to look at Maria and starts yelling again, this time about the audacity that SHIELD had to kidnap her sister.
Yelena’s pretty sure that she needs to step in again when Natasha keeps shoving Maria. Not just once but repeatedly shoving Maria against the wall and yelling and not even bothering to mask the pain and genuine hurt in her tone.
Yelena peels away from Pepper despite her protest and moves toward her sister. “Natasha, that’s enough.”
Natasha spins to look at her. “You don’t get to tell me when enough is enough!” Natasha snaps at her and Yelena suppresses the flinch.
“Enough.” Yelena repeats firmly. “Let her go.”
“You don’t understand what I’m feeling,” Natasha tells her and Yelena raised an eyebrow.
“Betrayed? Remember when Melina faked her death? Or when Alexei gave us to the Red Room. Or when Melina electrocuted me and gave me back to the Red Room. Or when Melina headed the experiment that took away my free will? Or when Alexei used the information I have him against me and pinned me to the couch?” Yelena lists. “When you left me in the Red Room and didn’t come back?”
The last comment was a low blow but it made Natasha fold in on herself. Yelena winces. She didn’t mean to say that. “Sorry.”
Natasha looks up at where Coulson, Hill, and May are standing and she lets out a sigh. “I can’t do this right now.”
She sounds tired and guilt pools in Yelena’s stomach. She just wanted Natasha to be happy.
“Where’s Fury?” Tony steps forward into the conversation. “Because he can’t keep doing this.”
“As of…” Pepper’s phone pings and she looks down at it. “Now Yelena Belova is officially the goddaughter of one Tony Stark and Virginia Potts.”
“She’s under our protection,” Tony glances at Yelena guiltily. They were waiting to push the paperwork for the whole thing together. That also meant that the adoption was official. “Sorry, Barbie. We needed this.”
Yelena wants to be upset that SHIELD took that away from her but at the moment she just wanted a quiet safe place to have a meltdown and then take a nap.
“Follow me,” Hill pipes up and waves for them to follow her. Natasha’s arm wrapped around Yelena’s tense shoulders and starts to walk.
Yelena slows down the closer they get, Fury’s talk having impacted her more than she expected.
“Yelena?” Tony asked quietly as they walked.
“He…” Yelena focuses on the ground as she walks. “He has a gun.”
The falter in her step draws more attention than she means to.
“Do… do you really need me to go?” Yelena asked quietly.
The group comes to a stop in the hallway and Yelena’s face flushed with shame.
“Nevermind.” Yelena moves to walk forward again but Natasha pulls her against her. Yelena squirms because the touch was so kind and reassuring that it was going to make her cry.
“I’ll wait with her,” May offers, glancing at the others. “Unless you need me there.”
Natasha looks at Yelena. “Is that okay?” She asked, the trust she still held for them shining through.
Yelena nods her head. She didn’t really want to see Fury again.
Hill leads them to her own office and Yelena steps inside with May.
“We’ll be right back,” Natasha tells Yelena, cupping her face briefly. “You’ll be safe.”
Tony steps forward and holds his phone out. “FRIDAY is on here. She’ll alert me if you need me.”
“FRIDAY?” Yelena repeats, taking the phone from him.
“Hello, little Romanoff,” FRIDAY greets and Yelena smiles slightly. She felt better knowing that she had Tony’s AI with her.
“Hi.” She said quietly before looking up at them. “Are you sure you don’t need me?”
“We’ll be back,” Pepper assured her and it feels too soon when the door swings closed as they leave.
Yelena looks down at the phone before looking up at May.
“You can sit,” May tells her, gesturing to the chairs in the office.
Yelena shuffles around her to sit so that she has a clear shot to the exit. Her eyes rake over the room for security cameras and microphones.
“My name is Melinda May,” May tells Yelena even though they both knew that.
“Yelena Belova,” She replies, fidgeting with the phone Tony had given her. “I’ve heard about you.”
“Oh?” May glanced at her.
Yelena nods her head. “Natasha told me.” She said before looking up at her. “You helped her learn how to sleep without handcuffs.”
“All I did was hold her wrist every night,” May glances Yelena over. “To fool her brain into thinking it was handcuffed.”
“She cares a lot about SHIELD,” Yelena lets out a long sigh.
“Nick Fury often wants what he thinks is the world's greatest good. Powerful things frighten him,” May tells her and Yelena lets out a scoff.
“So he kills them? Would I be the first child that SHIELD has killed?” Yelena thinks of Toni and how she was written off as collateral damage.
“You stopped being a child the day he found out it was an eight-year-old that managed to bypass everyone and nearly gain access to enough files to wipe out SHIELD,” May tells her. “You’re dangerous.”
Yelena pulls her knees up to her chin. “I never asked to be…” She mumbles and listens for sounds of yelling.