Everyone was frozen for a moment, different ranges of emotion crossing their faces. Then Tony broke it by dashing out of the room. Everyone followed quickly, even the kids and Fanny.
Bruce met them outside of the med bay's doors, a smile stretched across his face.
"Peter's awake! You can all see him, just don't crowd him!" he said, his eyes meeting Yelena's. "Who are you?"
Tony waved Bruce away, "We'll explain later, now let me see my kid."
Bruce nodded and let everyone else pass. Natasha followed slowly, almost as if she was scared to see Peter. Yelena hesitated outside of the doors, before walking in.
I'm not in the Red Room. No one will hurt me here. I'm safe.
The med bay was lit up brightly, and had rows of white beds in it. Most of the beds were empty, except for one, which had a young boy with messy chestnut hair and big brown eyes.
"Mr. Stark!" the boy, who must have been Peter, exclaimed. Tony reached over and gave him a huge hug. "Ha! Ow! Ow! Not so tight Mr. Stark!"
Tony loosened his grip, but continued to hug him, "I missed you, kiddie."
Peter laughed. "C'mon, it wasn't that long!"
Tony let go of Peter and sat down on the bed. "It might have been short for you, but I'm pretty sure it was an eternity."
Peter seemed to have zoned out, his eyes filling with tears, "Мама паук?"
Natasha laughed. There were a few tears mixed with the laugh, but she won't admit that, "You can see me!"
"You're alive," Peter whispered softly, "I thought I was only dreaming it."
"She's.... really here?" Tony whispered. If a kid who had just woken up after being in a coma could see her, there was no way this was all fake. He blinked, and there was Natasha.
"I should probably explain that," Peter mumbled, "So... I may or may not have kind of sort of died. A little bit."
"WHAT?!" Tony freaked out.
"Maybe? Well somehow, I was outside of my body. I could see myself laying on the bed, and I saw Natasha sitting next to me, waiting for me to wake up. I thought I only dreamed it, but I guess I might have just died for a minute or two, or something"
"Wait. You've been sitting next to Peter this whole time? Just waiting?" Captain America cut in.
Natasha nodded and spoke quietly, "I kept watch."
"The whole time?" Sam raised an eyebrow, "That must have been boring."
Tony sent Sam a glare before looking back to Natasha, "Thank you, for watching over him."
Natasha nodded again.
"You're not really dead though. I think," Peter said.
Natasha raised an eyebrow. "Not. Dead...." she thought about that for a minute. "Huh. I guess that explains why I haven't seen any other ghosts around."
"Who's that then?" Peter asked, looking at Yelena.
Yelena laughed, "You think I'm a ghost? I hope I don't seem like a ghost!"
"She's my sister," Natasha said.
Peter let out an excited gasp, "YOU HAVE A SISTER?! I had no idea! Hello mysterious sister that no one had an idea existed!"
"Hello ребенок паук that recently woke up from a coma after defeating a crazy rock collector."
"Wait. Natasha's a ghost. That's her sister. And you all believe this?" Bruce said, folding his arms.
Peter grinned. "Yep!"
Bruce seemed hopeful, he even laughed a little. "Hey Nat."
"Well that was easy," Yelena murmured, "so much easier than trying to convince this идиот. (idiot)" she was gesturing to Clint.
"Hey!"
Natasha paused, then jumped over to Peter and gave him a hug, grinning. "Finally."
"Hey Queens, how are you feeling?" Cap asked, ruffling Peter's hair.
"Considering I snapped away an entire army with six infinity stones, pretty good!" Peter looked over his arm and grinned, "I got some cool scars though."
Yelena smiled as she watched her sister interact with the others, everyone laughing and smiling. She had finished her mission, got her sister's friends to see her, and now she wasn't sure what to do next.
She should probably just leave, Natasha had her family back, she didn't need her lousy sister too. Maybe Yelena should just head back to the farm? Melina would probably have some sort of something or other to do.
Plus, she hadn't visited the farm in a while. Maybe Melina was wondering where she was?
Probably not.
Sydney and Vikki might be?
Lost in her thoughts, Yelena didn't notice when her right hand subconsciously gripped her wound tighter, where the white bandages were soaked red.
"Uh, Natasha's sister? Whatever your name is?" Bruce piped up, dragging Yelena out of her thoughts.
"Hmm? Oh, Yelena."
"Yelena, right, you might not have noticed, but you're bleeding... a lot. Do you want me to help with that?"
Yelena blinked and looked down, now noticing how her hand and side was covered in hot, sticky, blood. She bit her lip, how did she not notice that before! It was a weakness she should have covered up. But the painkillers were making her sloppy, causing her thoughts to bounce all over the place.
Yelena knew she shouldn't have taken them, but Natasha insisted. Yelena cursed her stupidity and sternly reminded herself to keep her guard up.
Bruce sighed. "Come over here," he said, gesturing to an empty bed near Peter's.
Yelena hesitated at trusting Bruce enough to let him get close enough to treat her, but he was a doctor. Right. He was a doctor. She shouldn't trust him. The doctors at the Red Room were stern. They generally made things worse instead of helping.
She took a step back from Bruce.
"Hey, Yelena, it's alright," Natasha said gently, "он не красная комната. (he's not like the red room)"
Yelena looked away from Bruce and over to Natasha. Why did she feel all panicked all of the sudden?
Breath normally, she reminded herself.
Then she drew in a deep breath and walked over to the bed, she would trust Natasha's word that he was safe.
She would not show them her fear.
"What happened!? Why are you bleeding?!" Peter exclaimed. The other avengers stopped talking to listen to the reply, silence falling over them again. Yelena wasn't sure what to say, and it seemed like neither did Natasha or Clint. Thankfully, (or annoyingly), the kids did.
"Some random lady set our car on fire on the way here and tried to kill us. Auntie Lena got hurt, maybe Dad did too, and then Dad stole a car, but that's about it," Cooper said, bouncing on one of the beds with Lila and Nathanial.
"I thought I told you not to tell anybody!" Clint halfheartedly glared at the kids.
Lila grinned. "No, you said not to tell Mom."
Yelena pushed herself up onto the edge of the bed, gritting her teeth for a moment when the dull throb in her side turned into sharp pain.
Bruce groaned loudly. "If you guys get hurt you need to tell me. Get over here, Clint."
With a laugh, Clint walked over and sat down as well. The obvious ease and comfort he had around the others almost made Yelena jealous. How could he be so unguarded and eased around so many people? How could he smile and joke even when the person who attacked them was on the loose?
Who is the attacker?
Natasha's and Yelena's gaze met, and Yelena could tell that Natasha was thinking the same thing. The worried crease above her eyebrows showed that.
"How exactly did you guys get hurt?" Bruce asked as he unwrapped and looked over Yelena's wound, her hissing in pain while he did. "Sorry. I'm trying to be gentle."
"Uh, bad guy, gun, fight, the normal," Clint said, shrugging.
"Gun? So you got shot?" at Clint's nod he continued, "Yelena, the bullet went in pretty deep, but luckily missed anything important. I'm going to have to pull it out. And you are going to need stitches. Clint, you're fine. Just grazed your arm. Keep a bandage on it and apply ointment until it heals, so I'm going to treat Yelena first."
Clint stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. "Not fair."
"Ha!" Yelena grinned, trying to forget about that heavy feeling in her chest that she couldn't seem to get rid of. "I'm more important!"
"Well, I didn't say that," Bruce replied, pulling out some tools.
Natasha's worried frown grew bigger, "You're sure Yelena's going to be fine."
"Yes."
That made Natasha let out a sigh of relief, the worried crease and frown disappearing.
Does that mean she was worried about me? Not the attacker?
"Do you want to take something for the pain?" Bruce asked, pulling Yelena out of her thoughts once again.
Yelena shook her head, her pain returning slowly, burning her side. But she was not going to take any medicine to make her loopy. She couldn't risk that. Not with the attacker out there. Not with these strangers surrounding her.
Bruce smiled softly, "Natasha didn't like taking medicine either, but I have something to just numb it, it won't affect anything else."
Hesitating, Yelena glanced at Natasha, who was talking with Tony and Peter again, occasionally glancing over at Yelena. Seeing something out of the corner of her eye, Yelena turned her gaze to Wanda, who was watching her.
When their gazes met, Wanda's mouth stretched into a kind smile, and Yelena found herself smiling softly back, her panic diminishing.
Turning her attention back to Bruce, Yelena said, "Fine. As long as it doesn't do anything else."
Bruce nodded and made her drink something. The medicine worked quickly, making Yelena's various aches and pains fade, the burn in her side growing dimmer.
"Don't move, okay?"
Yelena nodded, biting her bottom lip. Then Bruce started.