Chapter 11
Maria watches the trio leave the office before turning to look down at the two dead bodies in the room.
“You’ll need to get your carpet cleaned, sir,” She comments, feeling him stare at her.
“Why did you call them?” Fury questioned again and Maria straightens her back.
“She said she was the Black Widow’s younger sister. I took a risk,” Maria replies calmly, watching him carefully.
“You went against orders and brought a fugitive here,” Fury states.
“With all due respect, sir,” Maria tilts her chin up. “She’s a child.”
“Indeed,” Fury hums in response and Maria tries to gain a read on him.
“Never once have we involved anyone under the age of eighteen in our operations,” Maria continues. “We employed an ex-Hydra personal.”
“I was there when the child shot him, Hill,” Fury said and Maria’s mouth snaps shut. Fury’s eye lands on the two bodies in the room.
“I don’t regret calling them,” Maria finds herself speaking up. “That kid shouldn’t have been here in the first place.”
“She’s nearly an adult,” Fury comments, finally retaking his seat at his desk.
“She’s sixteen and killed thirteen men in a matter of minutes. How many years of experience do you have to have to do that? I don’t know of any six-year-olds that wants to wake up and be an assassin,” Maria reminds him. “She was unresponsive when she was brought it and did nothing for over forty-eight hours. She lay still and stared at the ceiling with no light in her eyes.”
“I read the reports,” Fury comments but Maria shakes her head.
“You weren’t there. You didn’t see her. He kept going into the room to try and speak with her, even when I denied him,” Maria shoves a finger at the dead body slumped against the wall. “It makes sense now. She was with the Red Room and he’s ex-Hyrda…”
“Why did you call Romanoff?” Fury interrupted her and Maria stares at him. She’s tired of the repeated question.
“She worked for SHIELD for years. She because a good alley… and a good friend. She deserved to know,” Maria finally replies.
“She killed thirty-six of our men,” Fury comments. “And you call her sister to bail her out.”
“For fuck’s sake, Nick!” Maria finally drops all the formalities and stops speaking to him as her boss. “We agreed that we would drag no kids into this. We save the ones being trafficked and the ones that have been kidnapped. We don’t do the kidnapping!”
Fury lets out an indiscernible hum and Maria lets out a growl of frustration.
“Why can’t you just accept that you made a mistake? We fucked up! Look at this!” She gestures to the dead bodies. “We fucked up, Nick. You can’t argue with me on that.”
Fury pursed his lips, glancing at the dead bodies. “Romanoff never mentioned a sister.”
“In case you weren’t listening, she’s adopted,” Maria lets out a long sigh and flops into the chair that wasn’t occupied and upturned on the floor, coated with blood. “That kid needs Natasha and Natasha needed that kid just as much.”
“We cannot break protocol for every child that comes through here,” Fury finally says with a huff. “We cannot forgive deaths because they are a child.”
“And if it was your little sister?” Maria dares to tiptoe across the line. “And she had been in the Red Room and killed many people. You wouldn’t move Heaven and Hell to comfort her?”
“My little sister is dead,” Fury comments, staring at her. “What is your point, Hill?”
“This was one of our agent’s family. We always do what we can for our agents when they need us,” Maria reminds him. “Yelena Belova is the little sister to Natasha Romanoff.”
Fury leans back into his chair. “Romanoff is currently a fugitive. You gave a government-wanted criminal our location.”
“I gave my friend and previous agent our location,” Maria corrects. “Because I still trust Natasha to have my back should I need it. You’re not even focusing on the fact that an ex-Hydra member snuck in. How many more do you think we have?”
Fury is quiet so Maria continues.
“You focus on the pedophile and you focus on the child. You are not acting like yourself. What is wrong?” Maria asked him with a sigh. “This isn’t like you.”
“Go double-check and tighten the security. I want everyone screened again and this mess cleaned up,” Fury orders. “Discreetly.”
“I haven’t disagreed with you in a long time about something like this,” Maria comments. “You made me your Deputy Director because you said that I wouldn’t be afraid to pull you back from the edge. This is me now, Nick. I’m telling you that you have gone too far and lost sight of what our goal is.”
“I believe I gave you an order, Hill,” Fury said and Maria briefly closed her eyes before looking at him again.
“What happened to you?” Maria whispers. “To make you do this?” she stares at him for a long time, suspicion whirling in her gut. “Did you know that we have Hydra in our mix? Is this part of some ploy? To see what they’re up to?”
He’s quiet.
“Nick, do you know that there is Hydra in our mix?” Maria repeats and Fury raised an eyebrow. “Did you let them in on purpose? After the whole collapse of SHIELD before?”
Fury stares at her and Maria stares back at him. They sit in silence for a long time.
“I’m disappointed in you, Maria,” Fury finally said and Maria closed her eyes.
“I’m disappointed in you too, sir,” Maria said quietly, standing and stepping over the bloody corpse in front of the door before leaving.
POV Yelena Belova
The sheets are soft. Much too soft. Where is she? Who is she?
There’s a gasp of air as she sits up, her eyes immediately assaulted by hues of cream and deep red.
“You’re finally up,” A deep voice comments and she turns to look at him. He’s naked, the only thing covering him is the sheet on his lower half. “Sore?”
She looks down at her body. It’s riddled with hickey’s and bite-marks and what looks like lashes from a whip. It hurts to just sit up. She reaches up to feel something around her throat.
“Right, sorry, forgot to take this off.” He reaches over and undoes what looks like a dog collar. “You were very lovely last night, little spider.”
She takes a sharp inhale of air. Yelena. Her name is Yelena. She was a widow. She scans the room for clues of where she is or what she had done.
She manages to get one word past her sore throat and chapped lips. “Bathroom?”
He chuckles and points to a door that connects to the bedroom. She slips inside, closing the door behind her. It hurts to walk. To move.
She pauses in front of the mirror. Her thighs are coated with sticky blood that had mostly dried hours ago. There are bruises and marks covering her body. She runs the water in the sink, biting on her tongue to keep quiet as she rinses blood and some kind of jelly off the inside of her thighs and groin.
It’s messy and painful. Small drops of blood and white matter splatter onto the bathroom floor and Yelena lets out a sharp breath of air.
“You know, for an eleven-year-old, you were pretty good. Still pretty sloppy. I’ll teach you what you need to know.”
She turns to look at the man in the doorway as he approached with a smile. He’s dead… isn’t he?
Yelena jerks awake, phantom pain riddling her body as she lets out a muffled whine. There are hands grabbing her but Yelena shoves them off, listening as their body thumps on the ground off the bed.
She’s looking for the door but this room isn’t cream and red and she’s not naked and there’s no blood.
“Yelena,” Her name catches her attention, and her head jerks to look at the silhouetted figure standing in the dark.
Her sister.
Yelena jerks to her feet, letting out a brief gasp of pain as she’s reminded of the wound on her side. “Natasha--”
She reaches out toward her sister and familiar arms wrap around her. Yelena sinks into the hold, curling her fingers into her sister’s shirt. “I’m sorry.”
Natasha pulls her close. Yelena clings to her, squeezing her eyes shut.
The dream-- no, not a dream-- the memory disturbed her.
Jason Payne was dead now. Gone. Dead.
“Are you mad at me?” Yelena whispers into her sister’s shoulder. “For killing Jason Payne?”
“No,” Natasha shakes her head immediately. “Never. Are you upset with me for killing the doctor?”
Yelena shakes her head. “No. I’m glad you did it.” She admits softly. “Thank you…”
Natasha strokes her hair, letting Yelena burrow into her hold. “Thank you. For stopping me yesterday. My head wasn’t on right. I’m compromised when it comes to you.”
Yelena looks up at her sister in confusion. “Is that such a bad thing?” She asked quietly.
“Of course not,” Natasha immediately replies. “It means that you are my weakness. I care for you so much.”
“We still have Ross after us… and I guess Hydra now after me too,” Yelena looks up at her sister. “I just want to be normal. I know I can never have that but I really want it.”
“I know,” Natasha pressed her lips against Yelena’s forehead. Yelena closed her eyes with a small sigh of content. She loved when Natasha kissed her forehead. “Come on. Do you think you can go back to sleep?”
Yelena shakes her head. She didn’t want to sleep again. “Can we go get something to drink in the kitchen?”
Natasha nods her head. “Of course. Do you want to wear that up?”
Yelena looks down at her vest and jeans. “Is… is that okay?”
“You can wear whatever you want,” Natasha quickly assures her. “Nobody cares what you wear.”
“You do. You got upset that I wore it to bed last night,” Yelena argues, folding her arms as she looks down at the floor.
“It wasn’t upset because you wore it to bed. I was upset because you were wearing pajamas in my room because you said you felt safe enough,” Natasha said. “I should have dragged his death out more.”
“I’m sorry,” Yelena repeats, letting Natasha wrap an arm around her to head toward the elevator.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Natasha quickly assures her. “Absolutely nothing.”
Yelena leans into Natasha’s side as they enter the elevator. “Okay…”
The kitchen lights turn on automatically for them. Yelena flinches at the sudden light before her eyes adjust to the bright room.
“Get the mix from the pantry,” Natasha instructs, opening the fridge.
Yelena heads into the pantry and fetches the cocoa mix from the top shelf, heading back out to watch Natasha heat up the milk.
She’s content to push herself up to sit on the counter, the wound in her side burning as she hops up. She watches Natasha, letting the silence wrap around them.
A shuffle catches her attention and she looks up as Wanda enters the kitchen. The woman looks exhausted and takes a moment to watch them. Natasha wordlessly takes out a third mug from the cabinet and sets it down.
“I’m glad you’re back, Yelena,” Wanda comments softly.
Yelena hadn’t had very many interactions with Wanda. Just a few small conversations. But she smiles at Wanda lightly. “I’m glad to be back.”
Natasha fills the mugs and passes them out. Yelena wraps her fingers and absorbs the warmth that it provided. The smell of this particular cocoa mix reminded her of Ohio. Of when she was safe and secure and happy. When she was still innocent and naive.
“Are you still with me, Yelena?” Natasha’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. “You’re staring at your cup with a blank look on her face.”
“I’m here,” Yelena replies quietly, pulling her mug up to take a long sip.
It falls back into quiet, nothing other than the sound of clinking of mugs as they’re set onto the table or small sips taken.
It’s a peaceful quiet. The early hours of the morning doesn’t disturb the peaceful atmosphere that had settled in the kitchen. Yelena closes her eyes, wishing to commit the moment to memory. She tries hard but knows there is a chance that she might wake up in the morning with no recollection of this moment.
They’ve been in the kitchen for an hour by the time Yelena finishes her drink that had turned lukewarm at the end.
“Are you ready to head back to bed yet?” Natasha pipes up when Yelena slides off the counter.
“Maybe,” Yelena sets her mug in the sink, Natasha’s empty mug following it.
“We’re gonna head back to bed,” Natasha tells Wanda whose cup is still half-full.
“Okay,” Wanda gives a small yawn. “Goodnight Natasha. Yelena.”
The duo head back down to Natasha’s bedroom. Yelena settles back into bed and feels Natasha slide into bed next to her.
“Think you can sleep now, little one?” Natasha asked, reaching out to smooth some of Yelena’s bedhead out of her face.
“Why do you call me that?” Yelena glances up at her sister. “Little one?”
“I can stop. Does it bother you?” Natasha frowns slightly and Yelena shakes her head.
“No… I like it,” She confessed with a shy smile. “Nobody has ever called me that. Papa-- Alexei… he called me his duckling. Remember? And Mama-- Melina called me her little lightning bug? That was before the Red Room. They don’t call me that anymore.”
Yelena looks up at her sister. “You call me that even though you know what I’ve done.”
“You still call me ‘big sister’ even though you know what I’ve done,” Natasha said in reply and Yelena smiles up at her. “Our pasts don’t define who we are. What we do moving forward is what matters.”
“I’m really happy that I’m here with you…” Yelena said softly.
“I’m sorry for not looking for you. For not going back for you,” Natasha said and Yelena shakes her head.
“I’m not upset with you about that. Not anymore,” Yelena promised as she shifts to wrap her arms around her sister. “Thank you for not turning me away and taking me back here. For adopting me and protecting me and loving me.”
Her eyes slide shut as she lets out a sigh of content when Natasha kissed her forehead. “I like it when you do that.”
“Then I’ll do it often,” Natasha promises, cupping her sister’s face. “I love you, little one.”
“Love you too, big sister,” Yelena lets out a small yawn and her eyes slide shut.
“Sleep. I’ve got you,” Natasha said softly and Yelena lets out a small hum as her breathing slows when she relaxes. Natasha hums the same comforting song as always and Yelena focuses on the sound of her sister’s voice.