*ECHO'S POV*
"Holy shit. Nat tell me this isn't some sort of sick joke." Clint muttered with his hand hovering over his mouth in shock.
"I promise you it's the truth." she responded assuringly as he continued to stare, diverting his eyes between me and Mama.
"I mean I guess it explains the fact that you both look so similar." I heard Steve say from the corner of the couch.
"Buck how are you so calm right now?!" he continued, shooting a look of concern in Bucky's direction as he shrugged his shoulders back at him.
"You already told him didn't you Nat?" Tony asked, cocking his head in question as he faced her.
"Well what did you expect?"
"Honestly I don't really know what to expect right now Natasha, this is all extremely confusing."
"I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, I mean you all must have some right? This is probably the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me, so believe me when I say I want to make this seem the least confusing as possible." I chimed in, everyone turning to face me as I hovered just behind the couch, nervously picking at the frayed edges of the backboard.
Just as Tony went to ask the first question, a blinding and rather colourful beam of light shot its way through the window next to the couch, shattering the panes of glass causing everyone to jump backwards.
"Greetings my fellow teammates. I have returned from Asgard!"
"Yeah no shit Sherlock, look at the mess you've made!"
"My apologies Stark but I can't exactly choose where Heimdell directs me back to Earth!"
Tony simply raised his hand to run his fingers along the bridge of his nose as he sighed and turned with his back to the man who had just burst in through the window.
"Oh, and who is the child might I ask?"
"My name is Echo." I responded with my best impression of a friendly smile, still extremely confused at who this man was.
"Well it's nice to meet you Echo. And just how do you fit into this crazy group of misfits?"
"Echo's family.. she's my daughter." I heard Mama say as she stood close beside me.
I watched as his gaze turned from shock to confusion as he too stared at us both along with the rest of the team.
"Actually they were just going to explain before you decided to enter through that smashed window just there Thor." Tony snarked.
"Hold on, you're Thor, like the god of thunder?"
"That's exactly right child!" he yelled, grinning from ear to ear.
"Why don't we all sit down and give them a chance to explain what's going on?" Banner suggested, everyone now motioning to sit on the sofas as I sat next to Mama on the armchair of her seat.
Over the next half an hour or so I tried my hardest to answer everyone's questions, to try and make the situation make as much sense as possible:
"So you're Russian right, the accent?"
"Yep I was born in Russia, well I guess I now know in The Red Room which was stationed in Russia at the time. But I couldn't tell you where we were moved around to, so I'm not sure where I have and haven't been honestly.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Whenever Dreykov, that's our leader, moved us to different countries for a mission we were always sedated before leaving The Red Room, he said it was to ensure maximum security and so that our location wasn't threatened."
"So you never knew Natasha was your mother?"
"No, he never talked about my mama, and when I asked about her he'd tell me she gave me away, said she didn't want me. So after a while I stopped asking, but I never stopped wondering if she was out there somewhere and had changed her mind, wondering if she wanted to take me back, away from him."
"How'd you get your powers?"
"Well.. ever since I was young I was always separated from the other girls. He said I was different and that I already had enhanced strength from birth, and he wanted to 'help me achieve my full potential'. So he'd experiment on me, almost daily I'd be taken to The Room where he'd.. he'd umm.."
"Experiment on you?"
"Yeah, exactly."
Noticing my sudden change in mood as I hung my head low staring down towards the floor, Mama stepped in interrupting the flow of conversation.
"I think that's enough questions for now, don't you think?"
Everyone nodded silently as they took their seats as Clint turned on the TV ready to watch the film. I moved slowly over to the arm of the chair next to Mama, feeling her eyes on me as I stared ahead watching Clint fumble around with the remote.
"You don't have to talk about it just yet if you don't want to. It's okay." she assured with a half-hearted smile.
"And you also don't have to sit on the arm of the chair, James move over will you?" she whispered to him as she patted the empty space on the sofa next to her.
I slumped down onto it gently as I felt the weight of the sofa move beneath me, James still trying to get comfortable. I could sense eyes on me watching my every move, trying hard to ignore them I just stared straight ahead at the TV, praying Clint would figure out how to work the remote before it got awkward.
"Clint let me help." I heard Steve say as he waved his hand out in offer to him.
"Oh please Cap how would you know how to work it, let me help." Tony commented, and much to Steve's annoyance Clint handed the remote to Stark.
A few seconds later the screen switched on, the coloured picture coming into focus as I adjusted to the brightness. As the movie started, I felt myself relax slightly back into the couch, my shoulder knocking against Mama's. At first I jolted away momentarily, but as I felt her arm sneak around my shoulder with her hand resting gently on my forearm, I felt comfortable as ever, leaning my head softly against her shoulder as the movie played on. A few stray hairs resting on her shoulder were tickling against my cheek, but in that moment I couldn't care about anything at all, I finally felt safe, the feeling I'd always longed for in all the years of living in The Red Room.
I could quickly feel my eyelids starting to drop, still tired from the intensity of the training session earlier that afternoon, as I tried to keep myself awake to finish the end of the movie. As I tried to keep my eyes open I yawned silently, Mama clearly noticing my tiredness as she began to rub her thumb back and forth against my arm, the repetitive feeling giving me a focus, enough to keep me from falling asleep. Or so I thought.
* NATASHA'S POV*
"Hey Nat, she's asleep." I heard Clint whisper as the end credit scenes rolled down the screen.
I tilted my head down cautiously so as not to wake her, her head still resting against my shoulder, but her eyes now tightly shut, her breathing being the only movement as she lay against me.
"You want to wake her Nat? I could carry her if you'd like but she's probably a bit old for that."
"It's okay James, I think I might just stay here tonight."
Everyone else had started moving away from the living area, Steve searching through the fridge as Bruce moved around the floor switching off all the lights.
"You sure you don't wanna move her?"
"No it's okay."
"Ok, goodnight my love." James smiled as he turned towards our bedroom.
"Night baby." I whispered back as I turned down to face Echo still sleeping sound against my shoulder.
I layed there with her for a while, it felt so comforting to me, just holding Echo in my arms. It felt so natural, like no time had passed since the day she was born. The nurturing feeling of holding your child was the best possible feeling out there, and I'd never let her go, not now I had her back as mine. Never.