Elle, her mother and Yelena were in the ventilation right above the Budapest metro. Elle still hadn't regained consciousness, Yelena had a wounded arm, and Natasha was looking through the bars to see if they had lost the robot.
Luckily, yes. The robot lost their trail. Natasha sighed and nodded to let know they're safe. For now.
Natasha pulled Elle on her lap and checked quickly if she's hurt. She took off her weather jacket and covered girl's body to keep her warm.
Yelena gasped with pain and blocked the wound on her arm with a piece of her T-shirt.
"You okay?" Natasha questioned and looked on her sister to make sure she'll be fine still holding Elle close on her lap.
"Yeah. Great plan. I love the part where I almost bled to death." She said sarcastically and tried to sit down. "What about El?"
Natasha was about to say something, but she got cut off by Elle's groan. The women immediately looked at the girl.
"El, baby?" Natasha stroked softly her daughter's cheek. "Can you hear me?"
No answer.
Yelena looked confused at her sister then put her hand on Elle's leg to get her attention. "Princess? You okay?"
Elle didn't say a word. She couldn't. Her eyes filled with tears. She just got up and fell in her mother's arms sobbing in her shoulder. She was terrified.
"Oh, my sweet, little girl" Natasha hugged her daughter as tightly as she could. She just knew, it was way too much for just nine-year-old. "It's alright, babygirl. I got you. I'm right here. You're safe now." She rubbed her back and rocked them both lightly.
Yelena made sad face at that sight, but at the same time she was impressed. She never saw her sister from such a soft side.
"I'm sorry, mom." Elle whispered sobbing. "I'm so weak. I'm not like you."
Woman sighed and pulled Elle of her shoulder to look into her eyes. "Honey, look at me."
Elle still was looking down on her fingers nervously avoiding eye contact with her mom.
"детка (Baby)" Natasha raised girl's head by her chin.
Girl sighed and her teary eyes finally looked up to met her mother's.
Woman smiled softly and wiped tears from Elle's cheeks. "There's nothing to be sorry about. First of all that is not true. No word you just said was true. You're my girl. I know how smart and strong you are." Natasha kissed Elle's forehead. "And don't you ever say that again, you know how much I hate lies." She smirked and booped Elle's nose.
Big smile appeared on girl's face.
"I don't want to disturb you guys, but it's quite cozy in here." Yelena spoke looking around.
"Honestly I prefer my home." Elle shrugged and leaned against her mother's chest.
Natasha chuckled. "Barton and I spent two days hiding out up here."
"You and Uncle Clint?" Elle raised her eyebrow and looked up on her mom.
Natasha nodded and tucked some of girl's hair behind her ear.
"That must have been fun." She pointed with her eyes up on some Tic Tac Toe draw on the wall.
Elle started playing with Natasha's rings and zoned out a little bit. Her mother noticed that and started a topic hopefully her daughter won't hear too much. She didn't want to worry her even more.
"Who the hell is that guy?" Natasha questioned.
"Dreykov's special project. He can mimic everyone he's ever seen. It's like fighting a mirror." Yelena explained.
Natasha sighed and nodded to give her sister sign to continue.
"Dreykov only deploys him for top-priority missio-" Yelena tried to finish her sentence, but Natasha cut her off.
"That doesn't make any sense." She shooked her head lightly.
"Well, the truth rarely makes sense when you omit key details." Yelena looked in Natasha's eyes clearly knowing something she shouldn't.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Natasha raised her eyebrow offended.
"You didn't say one word about Dreykov's daughter. You kille-" Yelena got cut off.
"No, Yelena. Enough. We are not going to talk about that in front of Gabriella. Is it clear?" Natasha said in serious tone.
"Huh?" Elle looked at her mother confused as she heard her name.
𝘈/𝘕
𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦
𝘪'𝘮 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯
𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘺𝘬𝘰𝘷'𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪'𝘮 𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘹𝘹