through space and time || pietro maximoff

8 | ᴍʏ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴛᴏ ʟɪᴠᴇ ɪs sʟɪᴍ, ʙᴜᴛ ᴍʏ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴛᴏ ʙᴜʀɴ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴋᴇᴇᴘs ʜᴇʟʟ ɪɴ ʙᴜsɪɴᴇss |

SAFE HOUSE IOWA, USA
May 11th, 2015
6:47 pm
__________

I didn't speak on the plane ride to the safe house. I didn't want to do anything but sleep this day off. Thing is, I'm not very tired anymore.
Unless you count being tired of being absolutely helpless.

Clint and the others had stayed in the warehouse and jet during the Hulk vs. Iron Man fight, which means the only witness of the group is me, and an entire town we had to leave behind. I felt really bad. We had showed up, leveled their homes, and just...left.
Who knew being a superhero was this hard on the morality of the soul? I regret ever agreeing to this. I've changed my mind, I'll happily take the cage.
Better yet, I'll take being an evil villain over this fight
in my heart. I'm not supposed to be feeling remorse for what I've done, or allowed to be done, and in this moment I find myself missing my mother more than ever, if only for her words of encouragement and reassurance that there was nothing I could do.

Once we land, the walk up to the safe house is eerily quiet. Clint helps Natasha up the stairs and Thor and Stark share slight conversation, but as I walk behind Bruce, I feel like crying all over again.

I would like to reach out to him and do at least something to make him feel better, the way he tried to make me feel better, but I highly doubt a pat on the back from me would be comforting. I personally would be offended if I, a HYDRA agent who nearly killed his friends upon first sight, patted myself on the back.

Clint opens the door and loudly yells, "Honey? I'm home." I'm confused for a second when I see a lady walk around the corner, her stomach hugely disproportionate to the rest of her body. Then Clint walks up to her and kisses the lady. I let my mouth hang slightly open. Is this how Americans greet each other? Smashing their mouths upon the other? Disgusting.

"This is an agent of some kind." Stark mutters in disbelief. I'm on the fence on whether I should agree with him.
"Gentleman, lady, this is Laura." Clint introduces her.
Laura smiles awkwardly. "Hi, I know all your names." She says with a small laugh.

Stark raises a hand in awkward greeting, matching hers. I'm still staring at her stomach. It's like, really big! But the rest of her is somewhat small? Is she hiding something? Is she Enhanced? Was this something she was born with? My mind starts racing again with questions.

"Incoming." Clint smiles as two young children run down the stairs and into his arms.
"These are...smaller agents." Stark insists. We all look at the greeting in confusion. What is happening?
I start pondering again, and place my hands on my hips as Clint explains who these people are, and why The Avengers have never heard of them.
They're his 'family', he reveals. Hawkeye has a 'family', and from the welcoming Black Widow received, I'm guessing she knew about his secret family club.

I hear a crack of plastic and look down to see Thor brushing toy blocks under a couch as Natasha and Laura talk about names while putting their hands on her stomach. I get a strange urge walk up to her and poke it.
I take the risk to tap The Captain on the shoulder, my eyes never leaving the woman and her protruding belly.
"Is her stomach naturally shaped like that?" I ask. More concerned, I say, "Is she diseased?"
His eyes follow my gaze to Hawkeyes lady friend, and he chuckles.
"No, she's not. She's just-"
"She's not?" I gasp. Then why is it like that? My mind flashes back to earlier when Stark mentioned the woman being an agent. "Oh, she's injured from a past mission." I connect the dots.

The Captain chuckles at my attempt to understand who and what has happened to this woman. My curiosity gets the better of me and I end up standing face to face with the strange Laura. She eyes me, looking to Clint for an answer of who I am and what I'm doing.

"Oh, honey this is Agent Balakriev. She's uh..." he looks for the right words to say, as secret HYDRA agent or Enhanced bad guy would not acquire an appropriate response from the healing woman. No linger listening, my hand reaches to touch the inflated stomach of the injured agent. I should make it clear, my intentions were not to harm Laura anymore than she already was, but to explain to everyone else that even among the worst that can be dealt upon the intestines and their surrounding area, expansion like this is horrifically uncommon in the healing process.