17
The next time Adrianna woke up, she was lying in a bed. She had fallen asleep in Natasha’s car if she could remember correctly. She must have been moved, turning her head to the side. Adrianna saw how dark it was and that she and Wanda were lying on the same bed. But Adrianna couldn’t tell whose room it belonged to; both their rooms were bare, lacking sentiment and decorations.
Sitting up yawning, Adriana dropped down from the bed shuffling out of the room as quietly as possible. When she made it towards the door she heard a click. She silently thanked Friday for opening the door but instantly cringed when the bright lights had her shutting her eyes staggering back into the room. It took Adrianna several seconds before she finally left the room. She immediately heard the soft quiet voices coming from Natasha’s living room. Adrianna didn’t know why but she started tip-toeing towards the living room peeking her head out from around the corner to see Natasha, Maria, May, Daisy, Bobbi, Jemma, Pepper, and Yo-Yo all sitting around drinking wine by the looks of the empty wine bottles, and half filled or empty wine glasses.
Adrianna stepped back she had seen this scene many times before with her mom and her aunts when they would sit down and drink wine or whatever was in the house while the kids slept or played it was a scene where she or her friends woke up too and seen often now as teens,” Look whos up. You’ve been sleeping like the dead.” Adrianna jumped startled; she hadn’t realized that she had been caught by Pepper instead of one of the many spies in the room,” Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.” Pepper followed Adrianna's eyes and tracked how Jemma, Daisy, and Yo-Yo gave her pity smiles and how Natasha, Bobbi, Maria, and May were watching her like a bomb.
“You okay kid?” Daisy asked, shifting to one of concern instead of answering Adrianna made her way towards the coffee table, snatching her phone and AirPods before turning around and walking back to her room on Natasha's floor.
She didn’t mean to slam the door behind her. But it slammed anyway and for a couple of seconds, Adriana's body tensed, expecting Natasha to come to her room and yell at her, to start a fight over something so simple and meaningless. Instead, she heard nothing and she let out the air she had been holding in her lungs. Adrianna made her way to the closet, finding the darkest smallest corner in the back, and sat there.
Adrianna had always loved dark cramped corners, they were one of her safe places, somewhere she could read or just hide away from everyone depending on whose house she was in. She knew it was probably an odd choice but she loved it.
“That was weird?” Daisy said looking at the other women around her,” This whole situation is weird. We’re just movie characters in like a million other universities and in others we’re the Avengers.” Maria answered by taking another sip of the wine Natasha only brought out for gossip sessions or after a partially bad mission and there was no vodka,” Maybe she's just a weird kid.” Jemma said,” This all is new to her. I mean I would be terrified if I woke up to find myself in a different place and then in a whole different world, a world that's fake to her. I would have a panic attack every morning if I was her.” Jemma grabbed a handful of pretzels that sat on Daisy’s lap before curling back into herself.
“But how did she get here? Don’t you think it's odd how she gets Nat’s number and then suddenly she’s here? Something or someone brought her here?” Daisy said, looking around the group of women who would agree with her.
“And who would bring her here?” Natasha asked, taking a long sip from her wine,” That's what we should be finding out!” Daisy said practically jumping out of her seat at the declaration,” Tony is working on it. He and Vision can’t find where the energy source is coming from. They also don’t know what the energy source is.” May said looking at Daisy,” But they said she had some of the energy source all around her.”
“But that could mean anything. I think she is absolutely adorable.” Jemma said
“Gosh I want to have a kid as cute as her,” Pepper said
“She could be a villain disguised as a kid.” Bobbi rolled her eyes at Daisy. She was becoming paranoid. But working in their field makes everyone highly paranoid. If anyone in their field of work hasn't become paranoid as the years pass then they weren’t doing their job right or the enemy but either way, they couldn’t be trusted.
“Sure, a 14-year-old came here to be the Avenger's biggest downfall. She already said we have bigger problems to worry about.” Bobbi said looking at Daisy as she shrugged,” She could also be a big problem.” Yoyo scoffed,” Like throwing a tantrum? I say we let it play out, play with her if necessary, make her feel comfortable and then we interrogate slowly.” Jemma made a sound of disagreement,” What do you agree with this loca?” Yoyo asked, pointing to Daisy who stuck her tongue out at Yoyo while Jemma shook her head clearing her throat,” Well Fitzs and I have been working with Tony and Vision as well as Dr. Cho and we have all come to the possible conclusion that she may not stay this way.” Jemma said fiddling with the throw blanket that covered her legs,” Stay what way?” Natasha asked as she sat up straighter,” We have a couple of theories, one that in the coming weeks, maybe months, she'll get younger to the point where she might become a toddler or even an actual newborn baby. Then there's the next theory that she might lose her memories, revert to her 7-year-old mind, or become a new person internally. We don’t know, testing and observing will begin next week.” Jemma explained the room was silent.
“But how? Why?” May asked if it didn't make any sense for the kid to continue to keep changing,” Whatever brought her here and changed her has been radiating off of her since we found her. We took a couple of brain scans when she was in medical school and there's too much activity in her brain, it's essentially too full. The human body was never built to go through a change like things were supposed to grow and age not revert to certain ages. ” Jemma pulled out her tablet broadcasting Adrianna’s brain scans.
“So when will you be taking new brain scans?” Pepper asked looking at Jemma,” On Monday, Tony and Dr. Dawson the pediatrician think it's better to keep her in the dark. Vision thinks it’s better to tell her Cho, Fitz, and I agree with him.” Jemma paused and Daisy knew there was a but coming,” But?” Jemma sighed,” But we also think it might change the results of her brain scans and could throw everything off if she finds out. She'll be scared and her emotions could be heightened, changing everything.” Natasha sighed heavily looking at the scans and reading the notes both Cho had made and Dr. Dawson,” Let's have a meeting about it tomorrow I agree we shouldn’t tell her but she’ll find out eventually especially when we decide to stick her into an MRI, half her family is made of doctors.”
“Tony said he would work on a convincing lie.” Jemma said, ending the display of Adrianna’s scans at the sound of shuffling from the hallway,” Friday could you please alert everyone and add to their calendar a meeting tomorrow at 2 pm.” Natasha told Friday hearing Wanda coming out of her room and walking blindly into the kitchen completely ignoring the group of women that sat in the living room as she looked for a cup,” All set Ms. Romanoff. Dinner will be ready shortly Mr. Wilson wanted me to relay it to you all.” Friday’s words must have made Wanda aware that she wasn’t alone because she turned around confused seeing the group of women in the living room.
Wanda waved at the crowd while she put the cup of water to her lips, turning around shortly after causing Pepper to laugh watching as Wanda’s thirst hit her,” I’m gonna go help set it up.” Jemma said, draining the last bit of wine in her cup before getting up and slipping back into her slippers, Daisy, May, and Yo-yo followed Jemma into the elevator.
“I'll go get Adrianna.” Wanda said, placing the glass in the sink before shuffling her way to Adrianna’s room,” How’ve things been lately?” Bobbi asked Natasha after Wanda went into Adrianna’s room,” A different kind of hell. What am I going to do with those two?”
“The only thing you can do. Take care of them until we find someone suitable. And keep pretending that you know what you're doing when you don’t.” Pepper said, putting her hand on Natasha’s knee,” Thanks but I think it’s gonna take a hell of a lot of pretending.”
And it would be because Natasha wasn’t sure if she could pretend when it came to being someone's caretaker there were times when she couldn’t be bothered to take care of herself. But taking care of children? She wasn’t destined to take care of her children so didn’t that mean she wasn’t a suitable mother?
She had tried to get anyone in the compound to take Wanda but nobody would say she might be more comfortable with living on another floor with a woman instead of men she didn’t know. But the thought of Wanda staying with her and having to watch over her after finding out how young she was made Natasha's skin burn. Wanda shouldn’t be near her, she didn’t want to be near Wanda either she never knew what to do. Natasha felt so out of her element and every time she had to take care of Wanda and Adrianna her skin burned and itched screaming at her to get away. Her lower abdomen cramped in ways it hadn’t in years.
Natasha didn’t understand why. She had been around Clint’s Kid for many years and she had never reacted the way she was now. Her skin didn’t burn, or itch. But why did it with Wanda and Adrianna?