Chapter 10
Yelena hates when she’s blacked out. There is the fear of the unknown each time she comes back.
Who did she kill? Who did she hurt? What did she do? What was done to her?
She’d wake up sometimes completely naked. Other times she’d wake up covered in blood.
She doesn’t know how long she’s stuck in her head for until she’s drawn out by a familiar touch. She looks up into the face of her sister and Yelena tries to distinguish if what she was seeing was real or a hallucination. The hand feels just like her sister and it smells like her and she’s wearing her vest.
Yelena can’t stop the tears from coming as she pushed herself out of bed to wrap herself around her sister. She’s not shoved away or hit and presses her nose into her sister’s neck to inhale the scent that she associated with safety.
She answers questions when prompted but otherwise was content to just hold onto her sister because she feared Natasha leaving again.
She jerks when she hears Dreykov’s name but Natasha isn’t acting like there is a threat.
She clings to her sister even though her abdomen throbs. She’s startled when Natasha starts to walk but she merely pushes her face into Natasha’s neck because she was being carried around like a little baby but she never felt safer now that Natasha had her.
She can feel people starting but Natasha doesn’t care and just holds her closer.
“Do you think you can stand?” Natasha whispers into her ear and Yelena really doesn’t want to let her go nor does she think she can stand. But she nods anyways and her legs leave Natasha’s waist.
The pain in her side is screaming as she puts weight onto her legs. Natasha lets her go briefly and panic fills Yelena but Natasha slides off the vest she wore and helps guide Yelena’s arms through it. The weight is familiar and comforting. Yelena still clings to Natasha, wrapping her arms around her sister’s waist as Natasha wraps an arm around her shoulder.
They approach one of the rooms and Yelena can hear muffled yelling coming from inside. Hill knocks three times on the door quickly and the yelling stops. Hill opens the door and Yelena doesn’t know whether to shove herself back or lunge forward at the sight of the doctor sitting in a chair in front of the man’s desk.
The man’s one eye immediately looks at her and Yelena inhales a sharp breath, the pain in her stomach throbbing angrily.
“Romanoff… Stark…” He glances at the two. “What are you doing here?”
“I called them,” Hill steps forward.
“You had no reason to,” The man, Fury if the nameplate on his desk was correct, stands. “She shouldn’t be freed.”
“She’s a child,” Hill argues. “And Romanoff’s younger sister.”
That causes Fury to pause, glancing over at the two of them before he looks at the doctor. “You are dismissed.”
“No!” Yelena doesn’t even realize she spoke until heads are turned to look at her. “I’m going to kill him for what he did to me!”
Natasha is then gripping her chin to pull her eyes away from the man so she can look up at her sister. “What did he do to you?”
Yelena glances around the room, staring at the doctor before looking up at her sister. “He tried to fuck me.”
The crass language causes Natasha to give a small flinch before she turns to look at the man.
Tony grabs her and pulls her away when Natasha lunges at the man. The chair he was sitting in flips over as Natasha pounces and Hill and Fury try to reign her in.
Yelena watches her sister hit the man over and over, getting sloppy by being driven by emotions. The doctor cries for mercy, saying he’s sorry. He then tries to excuse it with how Yelena was prisoner scum and had killed so many and needed to be punished.
Natasha gets the gun off of Hill and shoots him in the head.
Yelena watches, a rush of relief moving through her now that he was dead.
“Romanoff--” Fury starts but Natasha shoves the gun out to Hill who takes it.
“Shut the fuck up, Fury,” Natasha snaps at him before seeming to remember that Yelena was in the room.
Yelena watches her turn to look at her. Yelena glances down at the dead body before looking back up at Natasha.
Yelena moves away from Tony and toward her sister and wraps her arms around her. Natasha is still straddling the man and moves to wrap her arms around Yelena.
Yelena tugs her sister up and away from the dead doctor.
“There was no need to kill him,” Fury said calmly.
“If you don’t shut up then I’ll kill you,” Yelena grumbles at him when she feels Natasha tense up. “I’m going to kill your other agent.” She tells him in English.
She watches him arch an eyebrow. “Is that so? Are you threatening me?”
“It’s not a threat, it’s a promise,” Yelena ignores Natasha’s warning tug on her vest. “You kidnap me, shoot me, bring me here, tie me down and gag me and leave me alone with enough time for this fucker to get my pants around my knees.” Yelena kicks the dead body. “I should kill you too!”
Natasha does wrap her arms around her, stopping her from lunging toward him. Yelena lets out a cry of pain when Natasha grabs the wound and Natasha immediately lets her go.
Yelena’s hands cradle over the wound as she looks up at Fury. “I killed your agents. I killed them while under mind-control. I remember absolutely nothing while under the influence.”
“Mind-control?” Hill speaks up and Yelena turns to look at her.
“Mind-control. I was under it from the age of ten. I barely remember anything from the ages of ten to fifteen. That’s all a blur,” Yelena tells them because Natasha hadn’t stopped her from speaking. “I stopped killing your agents a year ago because I finally got out. Then you send so many agents to kidnap me.”
“You killed thirteen of them,” Hill comments.
“I did,” Yelena nods. “And I was in my own headspace this time. But I didn’t shoot the waitress or the little old couple eating dinner in the corner booth or one of the cooks. That was your people’s fault. I killed thirteen of your agents to protect myself.”
“You killed thirteen people in under a minute,” Fury finally comments.
Natasha tugs Yelena back at her side, careful of her wound now that she knew about it. She then turns toward Tony. “Take Yelena.”
“What? No,” Yelena shakes her head but Natasha is pushing Yelena toward him.
“I just need a minute,” Natasha said and Yelena eyes her warily. “Is a minute okay?”
Yelena nods. “One minute.” She said.
Tony guides her out into the hallway and as soon as the door closed behind them with a soft snick the shouting starts again.
“You should sit, kiddo,” Tony tells her but Yelena waves him off.
“I can stand,” She replies in a clipped tone as she paces outside of the door. She doesn’t bother to knock when the minute is up. She enters and takes only a moment to drink in the scene.
Hill has a bloody nose and is sitting sprawled on the floor. Natasha has Fury up against the wall and is no longer speaking English. Yelena doesn’t think Fury knows what Natasha is saying.
“--I trusted you! I trusted you and you go and kidnap my baby sister!” Natasha snarls at him.
Yelena moves up toward Natasha, gently peeling her hands off of Fury’s suit because even if she did want to kill him, Natasha was in no headspace to be making heavy choices.
“It’s been a minute, big sister,” Yelena’s voice was soft when Natasha glances at her in surprise.
Natasha lets her pull her away from Fury. The man takes in a few deep breaths now that Natasha wasn’t pinning him to the wall.
“I am okay, I am alive,” Yelena whispers, wrapping her arms around Natasha. She feels Natasha press her face into the vest. “You are here now. Everything is okay.”
Yelena watches Hill get off the floor.
“Get me the agent that said he could make me compliant and then we’ll leave,” Yelena tells them in English. She watches the glances between Hill and Fury before Fury pulls up his comm and asks for him.
His name was Jason Payne. Yelena had known him since she was eleven. She had broken his hand once when she came out of a session of mind-control and was naked in bed with him.
Jason steps inside the building and Yelena pulls away from Natasha, flicking one of her knives out from her vest and shoves him against the wall before sticking the blade into his stomach, giving it a twist.
He was the one that taught her stomach injuries meant that it was personal.
He tries to say her trigger words again and she stabs the knife into his neck until he gurgles on blood and Yelena lets him drop to the ground.
He chokes on his own blood as Yelena wipes the blade clean on her ruined jeans and tucks it away. She turns back toward Fury and Hill.
“Coming after me is not something you will win,” She said as she steps back toward her sister again. “You cannot blame a child that was human trafficked into the Red Room at the age of six and was horrifically abused until she finally managed to get out at the age of fifteen.”
“You just killed another agent,” Fury states, and Yelena has a hard time getting a read on him.
“He was HYDRA. You’re welcome,” Yelena looks down at the man that had gone still. “I trust that this is the last time we will meet.”
“There are no promises,” Fury comments and Yelena grabs Natasha when she jerks forward.
Yelena knew how much Hill and Fury had meant to Natasha. She wasn’t going to let Natasha kill them in a moment of anger.
“Natasha, hey, hey,” Yelena turns to grab her sister’s face and pull her forehead down to meet hers. “Look at me. I will not let you kill them. You spoke so fondly about your time at SHIELD. They made a mistake--”
“Kidnapping you is more than a mistake,” Natasha says harshly and Yelena takes a deep breath.
“ I know, I know,” Yelena takes a moment to gather herself because she felt like she was going to fall over at any second. “They fucked up. They should not have done what they did. They had no right to go after me or hurt me. But you are here now. The two who hurt me are gone. It’s time to go home, Natasha.”
Yelena’s legs then stop working and she buckles forward and Natasha immediately wraps her arms around her.
“I wanna go home,” Yelena finally said softly, resting her chin on her sister’s shoulder.
“Okay,” Natasha whispers. Yelena lets Natasha scoop her up again, wrapping her arms around her sister’s neck.
Yelena is content to just lean into her sister’s hold and let Tony and Natasha deal with the rest of the talking. She’s really tired. She’s lost three days of time and doesn’t even know if she ate anything or slept at all during it. For all she knows, they did something else to her while she was under the heavy influence of mind control.
She’s so tired. Her head is heavy and her side is throbbing.
“You can sleep, little one. I’ve got you,” Natasha whispers into her ear and Yelena trusts her. Yelena closes her eyes and falls asleep.
She wakes up curled up in Natasha’s lap. They’re in a car, Tony behind the wheel as they glide smoothly down the freeway. Yelena sleepily burrows into Natasha and melts into her sister when she feels Natasha gently stroking her hair.
“So, Barbie, I don’t know about you but I’m pretty hungry,” Tony comments after a few moments. “What do you think about pulling over to grab a bite?”
Yelena takes a moment, content to snuggle into her sister. “Nothing messy.” She finally mumbles quietly.
“What about a good old-fashioned cheeseburger?” Tony grins but Yelena can see that it’s nervous.
“Sounds good,” Yelena mumbles, watching as he melts in relief and nods, asking his AI about nearby fast food places.
They pull over and Tony gets them burgers and fries. Yelena is coated in dried blood so they eat in the very expensive car.
From the way Yelena’s stomach grumbles, she guessed that she hadn’t eaten in her three days while she was gone.
Yelena eats quietly, focused on not making more of a mess than she already had. She’d have to empty her vest and wash it again to get the blood out.
She falls asleep again when they hit the road once more. She knows that Tony is driving the speed limit to give her more time to sleep.
She wakes up with bleary eyes as she’s shifted. They’re in the garage of the tower and Yelena scoots out of Natasha’s lap to get out.
Peter apparently found out that she was coming back, got MJ, and they were both waiting.
They do a double-take when they see her coated in blood and grime.
Peter sees her and steps forward, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “I missed you.”
Yelena takes a moment before hugging him back. “Missed you too, Peter.”
Peter takes a step back and MJ steps forward next.
“I’m going to hug you,” She announced before hugging her. Yelena wraps her arms around her. “You scared the shit out of me, Belova…” She said but her voice wavers.
“I’m sorry, MJ,” Yelena said softly, hugging her. She feels MJ’s shoulders start to shake and tears soak the collar of her vest. She was dirty and bloody but MJ clings to her tightly. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
MJ lets out a choked laugh. “You are very far from okay.”
They descend into silence for a few moments. The hug lasts much longer than Peter’s but Peter also wasn’t there for the shootout.
Yelena rests her chin on MJ’s shoulder. “I need to go get cleaned up and take a nap. Can I call you later?”
“Always,” MJ pulls away and pulls a grin on her face. “I’m really glad you’re not dead.”
Yelena can’t help but smile back. “I’m glad you’re not dead too.”
Yelena hugs her again, taking a few moments to reassure herself that MJ was indeed alive. She breaks the hug first and gives MJ a small smile.
Natasha then guides her up to her room and into the bathroom. “You need to shower and then I’ll look at the wound on your stomach.”
Yelena empties her vest pockets into the sink and then strips the vest off. She struggles with her hoodie. It’s caked in blood and sticking to her skin and she can’t raise her arms without a sharp pain in her side. “Help me.”
Natasha helps Yelena peel the hoodie off and then the tank top she wore underneath before finally undoing her bra. Yelena huffs at the hole now in her clothes from the bullet. Yelena manages to wiggle out of her jeans and underwear, stepping into the spray of the shower.
The water burns her wrists and side, turning the water a pinkish shade as it swirls down the drain. She’s so tired. She takes a long time in the shower just standing under the hot spray.
She finally starts to wash up when the water starts to turn cold. She was in long enough for Natasha to wash her vest and pick out some clean clothes. Natasha sits her down on the bed and fusses over the bullet hole in her side. Yelena catches her staring at it with a glare as if the wound had personally offended her.
Yelena reaches out to set a hand onto her sister’s head. “I’m okay.”
Natasha stares at her side for a moment longer before wrapping her wrists up with gauze.
Yelena gets dressed when Natasha is done, ready to just curl up and fall asleep. She sees the way Natasha’s face falls when she sees what Yelena is wearing.
Yelena wears her vest and jeans to bed again.