LRS-Episode II: Black Widow and Hawkeye

Chapter 18

NATASHA'S P.O.V.

The fire from both destroyed trucks did its work and lasted a long time, still burning. Especially with all the fuel. But thankfully, things were quiet aside from the crackle that sounded more like a campfire now. Plus, the four pals were deeper into the trees opposite from the convoy and tower of smoke.

"You make it look so easy." Yelena commented after observing how fast the little girl had fallen asleep in her mama's arms.

Natasha smiled and shook her head at the comment. She'd told Clint a while back that the kid had Yelena's personality. Or, at least, the personality she had when they were children together. Every time she looked at this precious girl, Natasha felt as though she was looking directly at her sister from when they lived in Ohio. The second thing that would come to mind was wondering how Yelena would have turned out if the Red Room hadn't taken her... the kind of life she'd have had... Natasha couldn't express well-enough how she wanted that, for this girl to have a life that both sisters were deprived of.

Yelena smiled with admiration. "You're a natural, Tasha."

"You are too." Natasha answered, but she frowned slightly. "She's always talking about you... These rare moments where we'd have privacy in the Red Room base and in that truck. I asked her to talk about New York, about you and Kate, to distract herself when she got scared on the road. She loves you."

"It was hard at first." Yelena admitted. "It still is sometimes... I've had a lot of breakdowns myself. Both awake and while sleeping. Not from her, though, but from fear, and..."

"I know." the former Avenger nodded. "I know because that's how I was. Did I feel qualified, like I had any idea what to do? After everything I'd done as a black widow? No way. I was terrified at first. I would spend so many nights wide awake, just checking that she was still breathing." She looked down at the sleeping child, feeling a bit sad as she recalled these particular memories. "I thought everything I did was wrong. I even believed that I would end up hurting her at some point. So I tried really hard not to get attached to her. I wanted to find her a good foster family if I didn't do a good job. But we learned together and, even if I still wanted to deny it, I just fell in love with the chubby-cheeks baby." Natasha kissed her daughter's cheek and sat quietly. "We put things together as we went along... I tried not to think too much, to not miss out on the memories..."

Yelena smiled. She'd never thought of herself raising a child until she met her new niece. She'd always thought those motherly feelings were gone after her involuntary sterilization from the Red Room. But like Kate had told her through Clint, nothing had changed in her. Yelena was always like this even if she didn't know it before.

"What exactly is her story?" Yelena asked. "I mean, Clint Barton told us as much as he could. We know her parents weren't in a good place, but..."

"I was in charge of an organization for orphaned kids that had lost their parents because of the Blip. Lena's mom came to me asking for help."

Natasha sat down next to her, readjusting the kid in her arms.

"She didn't have a good feeling about what they were being promised for their baby. It all sounded too familiar, like it was basically the same as my own story. So I investigated it. Whatever this other organization was, they were taking girls from the families that were desperate and would ask them for help... They took advantage of other people's poverty."

The redhead paused for a while, making sure she got the words out right.

"It was obvious the Red Room was behind all of that. I called her mom, told her not to give them the baby, to bring her to where I was helping kids instead. But I was already too late. I found her and her husband in an alley, planted by agents who staged the cause of death and were now in the wind, looking for her. They had already killed Lena's dad. Her mom was fatally injured. She..."