When the doctors come and officially announce Yelena's diagnosis, the switch in moods is immediate.
Yelena doesn't remember the word, it started with an O and her brain was too full of when can I leave for any other thoughts to truly permeate.
That question was answered rather quickly with the introduction of an oncologist - a cancer doctor - named Dr. Leana Perez - who carefully explained that they wanted to take an aggressive approach and stop the cancer from moving (which, like, what. ) and gave Natasha a packet with more information.
There's also a conversation about surgery and more scans and more tests and all Yelena really hears is that her future is the four walls of this hospital room. She also doesn't like the word surgery based on her prior experiences, but she doesn't say anything. They probably wouldn't know how to react.
They all finally leave and Kate's still sitting in bed with her, arm wrapped around her shoulders and cheek pressed against her head. She really missed Kate.
"Lena," Natasha's voice is warning and Yelena turns her head slightly to look at her, "you really should read this."
"It's going to happen regardless of if I read it or not," Yelena responds, glancing at Anya at the end of the bed and deciding to switch the topic entirely, "It's getting late."
"Yeah, we should probably get home," Wanda says, taking the packet from Natasha and handing it to Yelena, "Nat, you're coming home."
"I'm staying with her," Natasha retorts, grabbing at the packet but giving up once Yelena hands it to Kate.
"Kate's staying," Wanda insists, standing up and glancing at Anya in some kind of practiced motherly way, "We're going home, you're going to sleep, and we'll come back in the morning."
"With Clint," Kate adds, and Wanda nods.
"I'm not leaving," Natasha says, still sitting down on the cot, "She's my sister."
Kate leans over and whispers something in her ear, "I'm going to say something. Go with it."
Yelena nods and Kate clears her throat, "Nat, do you really want to stick around with your sister and recently reunited girlfriend? All night? Right there?"
Yelena stifles a laugh, happy that she let Kate take the reigns. Sometimes lies are completely justified and this is definitely one of those times.
"You two can't do that in a hospital," Natasha scoffs, but Yelena can see that she's getting uncomfortable.
"I've done worse things," Yelena shrugs, smiling when Kate squeezes her hand, "besides, Wanda's right, you need sleep. You look like shit."
"Yelena, I'm just looking out for you," Natasha says softly.
"You're gonna come back tomorrow," Yelena replies, "now go! Or I will be a real little sister and call Mama on you."
Natasha rolls her eyes, an amused smile on her face.
"Fine. Don't boink in here, though," she gets up, pressing a kiss to Yelena's forehead and hugging her, "I love you."
"Love you too," Yelena says, resting back against Kate's chest when Natasha parts from her. "Take a shower!"
"Bye," Yelena and Kate wave to the little family as they leave.
"Y'know, Nat was right, you really should read this," Kate says, paging through the packet, "do you know the side effects of the chemo?"
"No," Yelena responds, glancing down at the paper, "what does it say?"
"Fatigue," Kate reads off, "so more naps, I guess. You're gonna be pretty boring to be around if you're sleeping all the time."
"Rude," Yelena retorts, grabbing something off of the over-bed table, "What's this?"
"Oh, a Rubik's Cube," Kate responds, "I think it's Anya's, she must've left it here."
"Huh," Yelena fiddles with the cube, "Keep reading."
"Vomiting, nausea, those are kind of a package deal," Kate says, "Way more susceptible to infections, loss of appetite..." Kate swallows, "um, hair loss."
"What do you mean, hair loss?" Yelena's stomach sinks, "like... no more? That's it?"
"No," Kate shifts behind her, her free hand wrapping a little tighter around Yelena, "just during the treatment. My mom, actually... she didn't have cancer or chemo, but when I was in like fourth grade, she had sepsis and lost a lot of hair. It all came back, but she always had to straighten it because it changed texture."
Anxiety crawls up and down Yelena's arms. She doesn't want to lose her hair. She likes her hair. Her hand moves up to the ends, which are currently a blue-ish color. She was going to dye it something completely different, but time escaped her.
"I don't want to lose my hair, Kate," Yelena says quietly, turning her head so her face is on Kate's shoulder, "I like it."
"I know you do, babe," Kate kisses her forehead, "but you'll get better. You heard the doctors, you have good odds."
"I can't lose my hair," Yelena mumbles, "It's my hair."
"It'll come back," Kate assures her quietly, running her fingers along Yelena's abdomen, "I'm sure you're beautiful with or without hair, Lena."
Yelena shakes her head, "I don't... I don't want it. Do I have to do the- the chemotherapy? I don't want to lose my hair."
"It's going to get you better," Kate tells her, angling herself so that they're looking at each other now, "you heard the doctors. You will be okay, but you have to do the treatments."
Yelena threads her fingers through the colored strands of hair. She's not going to lose it if she has any say in it.
-
If someone told Natasha ten years ago that the witch living on the same floor of the compound as her and only communicated with through random movies would be a scary fiancée that refused to let her leave the house to go see her cancer-ridden sister, she'd refuse to believe it. Well, that and the sister part.
Either way, it's Friday, and Clint's due to arrive at any minute. Natasha's been watching TV all morning with Anya and Wanda's currently working on breakfast, and if Natasha didn't know that Wanda would force her back to where she is the second she decided she was leaving, she would've escaped already.
She's yet to decide on whether she's excited to see Clint or not. He's basically her big brother and she loves him, sure, but she's not looking forward to him inevitably making her talk about everything going on. She doesn't need to talk, she just needs Yelena to be okay. It's that simple.
Admittedly, she's a little happy that Wanda forced her home last night, it was a good change of pace and she - for the first time in years - slept an entire night. She missed being able to do that even though it's only happened a handful of times. (Especially because she was with Wanda, god, she loves her.)
She's brought out of her thoughts by a nudge at her leg and she sees Fanny, "Hey, pretty girl."
She scratches between the dog's ears, smiling softly when Fanny rests her weight against her leg and fully settles in for pets. Fanny's a good dog. Lucky, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found and probably eating garbage.
"Breakfast!" Wanda calls out, and Natasha gives Fanny a final pat before getting up off the couch and going into the kitchen with Anya.
There's pancakes stacked on a plate for taking and syrup out on the counter. Natasha quickly walks over to Wanda and wraps her arms around her waist, resting her head against Wanda's shoulder, "Thank you, dorogoy."
"Mm, anytime," Wanda turns, kissing her sweetly, "now, go eat. Once Clint gets here we're gonna go see Yelena."
"Clint's going to want to eat," Natasha points out, smiling when Wanda kisses her forehead and flips a pancake. It feels wrong to be happy when her sister is going through something so terrible. She shouldn't have left the hospital.
"I know, dorogoy," Wanda brings her back, "go eat-"
There's knocking at the door and Wanda corrects herself, "Answer the door, and then eat."
"Mm," Natasha squeezes around her middle one last time before walking over to the door and opening it, revealing a semi-disheveled Clint Barton.
"Let me in," he says immediately, shifting his bag on his shoulder.
"That's not very polite of you," Natasha retorts, "Can you be a little kinder?"
Clint huffs, "Hi Natasha. How are you? Can I come in?"
"Sure," Natasha says with a teasing smile, mouth dropping open when he nudges her with his shoulder, "Asshole."
"Hi Clint," Anya greets from her spot at the table before returning to drowning her pancakes in syrup. The sight alone makes Natasha want to gag, but she doesn't say anything.
"Hey, kid," he replies, leaving his bag by the door and going to the kitchen, "Hey, other kid."
"Hi Grandpa," Wanda greets with a little nose scrunch, knowing he's trying to get a little rise out of her, "how was the ride over?"
"Well, aside from Tony changing my login from Legolas to Hawkear, pretty okay," Clint responds, serving himself a couple of pancakes.
"You never should've told that story in front of him," Natasha responds, serving herself a couple of pancakes as well. Wanda turns off the stove and follows in their footsteps, and everyone sits at the dining table with Anya.
The conversation bounces around from all sorts of things, the kids, the farm, the dogs now inhabiting the apartment, whatever they can discuss without talking about the elephant in the room.
Finally, though, when Anya's off getting dressed and Wanda's packing up the extra food as leftovers, the conversation lands on Yelena.
"Did you guys get an official diagnosis?" Clint asks, and Natasha nods.
"It's a type of bone cancer in her knee and at the top of her tibia," she explains, "it's stage two but they're worried about it spreading, so they're going to do intensive chemo."
"Jesus, Nat," Clint says softly, leaning back in his chair, "but her odds of survival?"
"They're good," Natasha nods, "they're hoping they can make the tumor smaller and then do limb salvage surgery, but there was a brief mention of her losing her leg."
"How does she feel about it?" Clint asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
"She hates that question, first of all," Natasha responds, cracking a half-there smile, "but... she hasn't really said anything. She seemed to not be paying attention, honestly."
"It's probably her way of coping," Clint says, "when are they starting treatments?"
"Next Monday," Natasha presses her lips together and closes her eyes, willing away the feelings in her stomach. Yelena doesn't deserve this. Yelena deserves so much better than this.
"She's gonna be okay, Nat," Clint assures her, "she's stronger than all of us. I'd know, she beat the shit out of me last year."
Natasha laughs, wiping at the tears that fell down her face, "She is really strong."
He leans over, patting her leg, "Let's head out now. The other two can catch up."
Natasha nods, "Okay."
They quickly explain to Wanda that they're leaving, and Wanda gives her a look as if she knew it was going to happen - and in all fairness, she probably did.
They leave the apartment not too soon after that and decide to walk to the hospital being that it isn't too far away, Clint making sure they stop at a coffeeshop on the way there.
The coffeeshop is bustling with a few local college students and some other people there to have something, and Clint quickly orders his usual black coffee (because he's gross) and she orders herself a tea that's called "Raspberry Cream Pie" (mainly because it's their special for the day and she's otherwise indecisive).
"Do you think your sister's going to want something?" Clint asks, and Natasha shakes her head.
"She's not going to be able to have caffeine once her treatment starts, so I'm not getting her anything," she reasons, "also her drink is expensive."
"Oh, she's not going to like that," Clint retorts with a little chuckle, grabbing his coffee when they call out his name. He takes a long sip, "That's good."
"You are insane," Natasha responds, grabbing her own drink and following him out of the coffeeshop, "no one drinks coffee straight black and right as they get it and enjoys it. It's disgusting and probably burning all of your tastebuds."
"I like it," Clint defends, zipping up his jacket as they walk towards the hospital, "so leave me alone."
"No," Natasha retorts, "this, though, this is good. Even though the name is a little..."
"Cheery?"
"No."
"Well, I can't say the other one," Clint responds and Natasha snorts.
They continue their trek to the hospital, only having to cross one more crosswalk before the sign comes into view. They get their visitor badges and head up, a little confused when they see Kate in the hallway.
"Did she kick you out?" Natasha asks and Kate looks up.
"Yes, but no," Kate responds, "Hey Clint."
"Hey Hawkeye," Clint nods, "What're you doing out here?"
"She has a visitor," Kate explains, "it's Isabel. I... called her."