Somewhere over the Atlantic
Spring 2015
Well, the pain over her ribs and the ache in her head certainly let her know she was still alive. And though she had no way of realistically knowing, somehow, as her eyes fluttered open, she knew she'd been out for a while.
She didn't recognize where she was at all. It sent a spike of fear through her at the realization, the fear from last week returning with a vengeance. There was a distinct, sterile, medical feel to the room; the walls pale and indistinct, monitors and other such equipment tucked around the room, the cot she lay on more like a gurney than a bed. The last time she'd woken in such an unfamiliar, lab-like room her waking had been followed closely by agony as Strucker had begun his experiments on her. After that, well...waking up in the Twin's apartment had been better, but no less frightening; she hadn't known right in that moment just how precious their company would become to her.
But now, there was no Pietro by her side, and no Wanda.
Not that she was alone, either. No, as she glanced around in panic, her eyes immediately fell to the figure sitting next to her bedside. Someone with fox-red hair and bright green eyes. Her heart was suddenly pounding as the last few hours before she'd blacked out came back in an alarming, adrenaline-fuelled rush. Everything from the pervading fear that something horrible had happened to the Twins to Black Widow—Natasha—being dropped at her side to the revelations about her mother...to the battle in the streets of a flying city...to a Quinjet barrelling down on them, its guns blazing...
A strangled breath caught in her throat, choking her, causing her chest to seize in residual panic. At once Natasha was sitting straighter, leaning forward as she noticed Nina was awake.
"Nadya." No sooner had she spoken than Nina's gaze was snapping over to the other side of her bed where she realized her hand was already caught in a firm, comforting grip. A dry sob of relief tore at her.
"Mom." But neither Nina nor Natasha's breathless exclamations had been necessary. Her mom had already shifted from her seat at Nina's side onto the edge of the bed.
"What were you thinking, you foolish girl," she choked out, her voice thick with relief as she pulled Nina tightly against her. Nina clung back, not even realizing that hoarse, frantic words were spilling from her mouth.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry—I—I'm—" She could barely breath between Nadine's tight embrace or the gasping sobs breaking up her voice. But her mom's soothing hums and her hands gently rubbing her back and stroking her hair soon managed to help her calm. As her lingering panic and her overwhelming relief began to fade and Nina fell silent, her last memories before blacking out began to creep back into her thoughts, leaving her trembling in her mom's arms. Memories of the jet coming impossibly fast and the bullets screaming toward them...toward Hawkeye, the boy and... All at once fear and panic was crowding painfully into her chest again. With a jerk she pulled away from her mom, her blue-grey eyes wide and terrified as Nadine's brows creased faintly with worry and confusion. She almost couldn't speak, her voice hoarse as she only managed to force out a single word.
"Pietro—" Even as her mom's face softened another body all but crashed into Nina, a different set of arms wrapping tightly around her.
"He's okay," Wanda's shaking voice spilled out next to Nina's ear. A shudder of relief went through Nina as she hugged the Sokovian girl back. "He's going to be okay because of you." As Wanda pulled away she grabbed up Nina's hands tightly in her own, her overly bright eyes fixed intently on Nina as a smile stretched her lips before she turned to glance over at the cot next to Nina's.
There, propped up and looking barely conscious despite the tired smirk on his face as he watched the two of them, lay Pietro. With a hiccupping gasp Nina was scrambling from her own bed, ignoring her mom's and Natasha's and her own body's protests to all but throw herself at the Sokovian boy. She flinched as a pained breath gusted out of him as she fell against him, immediately pulling away, but his arm had already risen to curl around her, tugging tiredly at her until she was settling onto the bed next to him.
"Thank you." It was little more than a hoarse whisper, one that Nina felt more than heard as he said it into her pale hair. Hot tears blurred her vision as she peered up at him, her heart thundering in a mix of residual fear and overwhelming relief as she met his undeniably grateful, emotional gaze. A shuddering breath hiccupped out of her at the tenderness in his blue-green eyes. It was more than she could process in that moment, her own pain and relief beginning to overwhelm her. Even as she pressed her face against his neck, Wanda had circled the bed to settle on his other side, her arms wrapping around them both as she trembled with barely restrained tears of her own.
What had happened? Nina shuddered again, the memories at once coming back with nauseating clarity the instant the question burst into her head. She remembered the Quinjet. She remembered Pietro whisking her out of the line of fire before going back for Hawkeye and the boy. She remembered realizing he wasn't going fast enough; he'd been exhausted, she understood now, his face in that split-second before he'd gone back flashing in her mind's eye. She remembered the panic and desperation flooding through her, adrenaline pushing her to run faster than she ever had before.
She remembered crashing into him just as the bullets did.
She remembered the line of fire searing along her ribcage.
And she remembered watching him fall, patches of blood beginning to bloom darkly on his shirt before unconsciousness had taken her.
She remembered something had happened. Something unexplainable...unless...
...no...she couldn't have possibly...that couldn't have been her...
Could it?
Her heart felt like it was trying to pound its way up her throat. Weakly, she lifted her eyes to Wanda even as she felt her mom's gentle hand land on her back. As blue-grey eyes met blue-green, Wanda didn't even have to say anything. Even her small, barely perceptible nod was unnecessary. Nina saw the answer to her silent question in her friend's eyes. She wasn't even sure if Wanda had seen the question in her thoughts thanks to her powers or had simply seen it on her face. Either way, there was no mistaking her answer.
Nina had powers.
Sure, in the abstract, she'd known she might develop them; Pietro and Wanda had believed as much from the beginning. It had been the purpose behind Strucker's experiments and she had survived those agonizing doses of the Sceptre's power, something Ultron had so bluntly theorized to mean that, since she didn't die, her body had likely accepted the changes brought on by the alien device's energy.
But now that it seemed to be a reality?
She felt Pietro shift beside her, feeling him craning his head slightly to look down at her even as the ghost of a confused frown played about Wanda's features. It was then that she realized that her knuckles had gone white where they had suddenly fisted in Pietro's hospital gown. With a supreme effort, Nina forced her fingers to relax, reaching out to Wanda to awkwardly embrace her back across Pietro's heavily bandaged chest.
All while silently pleading for the other girl not to say a word.
She couldn't say precisely why she felt the sudden urge to keep this discovery to herself. For all she knew, everyone knew already anyway; whatever she had done had saved Hawkeye too, after all, which meant that he'd likely seen what she'd done and possibly told her mother and the rest of the Avengers.
But there was still the chance that the Avenger hadn't seen. In which case, part of her knew she should be telling her mom...but something in her chest fluttered nervously at the idea. It was baffling! She trusted her mom more than anyone, and had never been afraid to tell her anything. But this? She could barely wrap her head around the idea that she was now definitively Enhanced. She didn't even know what exactly it was that she could do! She vaguely remembered the feel of something heavy and hazy bursting free from somewhere deep inside her chest, making the air around her feel still and warm and safe. Like she was safe and protected within her own little bubble. Had she actually stopped the bullets? Not all of them, obviously; just as vaguely as she remembered it forming, she thought she remembered it faltering as her last remaining strength had been poured into...whatever it was she'd done.
The same warm, heavy feeling began to bloom weakly in the centre of her chest again.
No, she needed to come to terms with it herself before she brought it up with her mom.
And she was scared.
She was scared of what she now was. Of what she could do, whatever that was. Of what to do, now that she had powers.
Of what her mom would think...
And with a jolt and wash of nausea, she realized there was more than just her Enhancement she was going to need to come to terms with. There was also everything her mom had kept from her. The nervous flutter intensified into a thrum of hurt. A small, petty part of her baulked at revealing the new truth of what Nina was to her mom in the face of the monumental secret Nadine had kept from Nina. That it was only fair to keep an equally monumental secret from her mom. She forced the thought away, refusing to let herself think like that. Her stomach churned at the thought. Or maybe her stomach was just churning.
But despite the sudden hesitance she felt at confiding in her one constant confidant, the feel of her mom's hand gently rubbing her back still managed to comfort her, soothing the ragged ache threatening to grow in her chest.
"Nina," Nadine finally said softly, her hand stilling on Nina's back, "solnyshko, you need to rest. You're still healing too." Nina turned, looking up into her mom's visibly concerned gaze. Exhaustion suddenly rose through her at the subtle command, as though her mother's words had reminded her body of just how abused it was.
But even as her eyes were growing heavy, she didn't want to move. For the first time in days she felt truly safe right where she was, curled up against Pietro's side with Wanda close by and her mom sitting next to her, watching over her. She felt protected.
It was only when Wanda smiled encouragingly, squeezing Nina's hand in silent support that she finally surrendered to her mom's gentle urging, letting the older blonde help her extricate herself from the Twins' sides and back to her own bed.
Thankfully, despite the small, nameless little fear that she'd feel alone away from the Twins, the feeling didn't manifest. Her mom's reassuring presence and the knowledge that the Twins were only a few feet away kept the irrational fear at bay. Even catching sight of Natasha sitting quietly at the end of her bed, her features sympathetic and watchful, soothed the anxious feeling deep in Nina's chest that still refused to abate even though there was no question that everyone who meant the most to her—her mom and the Twins, even Natasha now—were safe and by her side. That she was safe. That she wasn't alone. It would probably be a long time before those feelings ever really went away, she supposed. Especially now that she knew the truth of what her mom was...and the truth of what she'd become.
Another shiver went through her even as her mom helped her settle back onto her own bed, carefully tucking the covers around her. The ache in her side flared, abruptly reminding her that she hadn't escaped unscathed. She forced those thoughts away too. There would be plenty of time to think on it later. But for now, she just needed to sleep. She could feel her body beginning to grow as heavy as her eyelids as her mom sat next to her, leaning in to place a kiss against her forehead.
"You had me so scared, solnyshko," Nadine was murmuring, her voice thick with emotion. "I thought I'd lost you." Exhausted as she suddenly was, Nina could feel tears beginning to prickle behind her eyes again. Unconsciously she leaned into her mom's touch, the little girl in her wanting nothing more than to curl up against Nadine and simply know she was safe and loved; to forget that her entire world had been utterly shaken apart and pieced back together in such a haphazard way that she didn't entirely recognize it anymore. "The instant I'd realized they'd taken you—" Her mom's voice faltered, causing Nina's own breath to hitch painfully. It hurt seeing her usually perfectly collected mother so close to losing control. Though she'd resolved to wait to worry about everything that had happened, seeing Nadine so visibly upset? She couldn't help the words that bubbled up to finish her mom's unfinished thought with one of her own.
"—you went to the Avengers," she mumbled, her voice so small and pained it was nearly a whisper. Nadine nodded, her expression resigned. But Nina found that she couldn't stop, the hurt blooming in her chest of its own accord to push the pained words from her mouth. "You never told me—you kept who you are from me."
Nadine smiled sadly, brushing a strand of Nina's pale hair back from her face. "I know, solnyshko. We need to talk. And we will." She cupped Nina's face then, her pale gaze fixing on Nina's. Nina nearly shivered at the chaotic emotions simmering just below the surface in her mom's familiar eyes. But then they were gone, leaving only loving concern on Nadine's face. "But first you need to finish healing." Reluctantly, and with a small measure of relief that nevertheless left Nina feeling faintly uneasy, Nina nodded in understanding.
And with her mom sitting next to her, softly stroking her hair with her aunt and her dearest friends nearby, Nina let sleep take her again.
A/N: Thanks for Reading!
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