Chapter Text
“Hey пацан,” Hey kid , Yelena hissed, “I’m trying to help you.”
After the initial shock of finding a young girl in the place of the widow Melina tracked down, Yelena soon realised that this girl was in fact the widow she was looking for. It is a reality she herself is still unsettled by. Yelena was at least three years old when she was swept away by the Red Room. Just how she got there, she doesn’t know. Her birth certificate was destroyed long before she even began to think and feel for herself. Really, she is surprised to see a little one already on assignment for the Red Room. As far as she could remember, widows that young were kept in the Red Room until they could handle a gun with near-perfect accuracy. After the abrupt end to the Alexei Shostakov family-act, Dreykov made sure no future operations left any suspicious civilians or attracted the attention of intelligence. The Red Room does not tolerate imperfections.
For Dreykov to assign a girl so young, well, there must be more to her than Yelena can decipher.
“Держись подальше,” the girl shouted desperately, with her arm extended and a knife in hand, threatening to strike, “Не трогай меня.”
Stay away. Don’t touch me.
Yelena maintains speaking English to girl, to separate herself from the tongue they have come to associate with the Red Room.
“No, no—I am trying to help you!” Yelena scoffed, really beginning to lose her patience with this fight. She is a grown woman, and she is struggling against the will of a small girl.
“Я убью тебя!”
I will kill you!
Yelena’s breath caught in her throat, and it pained her to see such a small child already so indoctrinated, shouting the same words she had under chemical subjugation. But Dreykov is dead, and he cannot take away another little girl again. No, not anymore.
Yelena caught the girl off-guard, disarming her and kicking the knife away. She pinned the girl’s arms down with little effort, but the girl twisted out from under her with a swift kick to her chest.
“No!” Yelena shouted, backing the girl into a corner. She reached into her vest pocket and pulled out a glass vial, glowing in red. Grasping the child and anchoring her up the wall, she sprayed the antidote over the girl’s head.
The child’s clawing hands dropped from Yelena’s arms as she tucked her head and curled in on herself. Yelena eased her onto the ground and backed away, showing the girl open palms. She spoke to her with carefully scripted words, “The next bit is going to be really scary, but I am here to help you.”
Yelena’s words did little to comfort the girl. She instead braced her head down between her knees as quiet sobs started to wrack her body. The girl, naturally, was bathed in terror. There was no way this could have been done easier. Widows are just wired differently. Even the children.
It never gets easier to watch them wake.
--------------------------------
There was then silence between them. In the quiet, the two caught their breaths. Yelena watched the girl. Her blonde hair was set in tight braids and dropped just past her shoulders. Her eyes were magnified by her tears like a dangerous pool of deep brown. She wore pastel-coloured pinafore to suit the innocent persona she was orchestrated to play before.
Yelena desperately wants this girl to come to her senses. She wants it to be easier than this, for the girl to accept that life isn’t for missions, control, and death. She wants this girl to take on free will without forethought, feel free to have feelings and leave everything from the Red Room behind. She wants this girl to learn how beautiful the Russian language can be. She hopes the girl can find someone like Natasha to share that with.
It took another twenty minutes before the girl started to show any indication that she was cognitively present. The little girl took in Yelena’s face. Her eyes burned and fresh tears threatened to fall. She does not know this woman and does not know where, or how she came to be here. Where are the others? She has failed her purpose, she will be punished, and yet she cannot remember what for.
“It’s okay to cry, you know?” Yelena kneeled down and spoke quietly, “they hurt you for showing it. But they’re not going to hurt you anymore.”
The girl sucked in a large breath and held it, willing to keep any sound from escaping. Her eyes darted around the room, finally losing their red glow from the antidote. She disguised her exhale with a pained swallow, finding her throat was dry and raw from the fight she put up. She felt her heart hammering in her chest, and she could not seem to keep her fingers steady once she released their grasp from her legs. Her fingers traced the angry, red lines she had left on her knees, attributing to the scars of the Red Room.
“Can you tell me your name?” she tries in a soft voice.
Yelena’s gaze trails over the girl anticipating a response. After a beat of silence, she attempts to ease closer to her and feels some relief when she doesn’t move away. “I’d like to show you somewhere safe. The people there won’t hurt you, I promise.” Yelena continued, “You won’t have to protect yourself, and you can have a family that’s real. You can have a family that’s not a pretend family.” Considering the circumstances Yelena found the girl in, she felt she could estimate their greatest fears. “You don’t have to be alone.” She offered a small smile, knowing she got to choose her family after the Red Room.
The older widow doesn’t know just yet where she will take this girl, but she is going to make damn sure that she goes to a great home and has everything she promised. If Yelena can amend what is left of the little widow’s childhood, she will do it. It will be one less childhood the Red Room has completely robbed.
Yelena waited a few moments for the girl to show she was comprehending. The girl picked herself up and off the ground and stood straight, waiting for what was to come next. Yelena stood and took careful steps towards the girl as if a sudden movement could scare her off. “Let’s go.” She gestured her hand, inviting the girl outside. “I used to be in the Red Room. I have my own jet now. It’s pretty cool.”
Yelena relaxed to see the girl followed her out of the apartment, willingly.