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The mission was supposed to be simple recon, gathering information and returning the following evening with an actual plan, but they’d been betrayed by the mole, drawn into an ambush they weren’t prepared to deal with in that moment.
They probably would’ve made it then if one of the men hadn’t thrown off Kate’s landing as she leapt from the tower of crates, something in her left ankle giving with a crack; Kate crying out and stumbling into Yelena, who caught her on instinct. “Kate!”
Kate tried to put weight down on her foot, but a sharp pain shot up from her ankle and she just barely bit back a hiss. Leave it to her to be the reason they failed to escape, “Damn, I think it’s broken.”
Yelena said nothing at first, dragging them both behind cover as bullets pinged off the storage container, managing three shots before being forced back down, eyes hard and jaw clenched tightly in anger as she let out a string of Russian that could only be curses.
She knew Yelena wasn’t angry at her, but rather their situation.
Yelena would easily be able to escape, ducking in and out of the shadows flawlessly despite the bright white combat suit she wore. Hell, she could probably take out a large portion of the men shooting at them in the process.
Kate was the weak link now, making something that should’ve been easy near impossible; she pushed herself into a kneeling position and drew back one of her more destructive arrows, bracing herself to stand, calculating the adjustments she would need to make for her ankle, “I can distract them so you can —”
“No, you will not.”
“Yelena —”
“I am insulted that you think I would leave you here.” Yelena’s voice was hard, her eyes holding Kate’s with such intensity that Kate nearly looked away. “I’m not abandoning you, Kate Bishop, because it is the easier option, so banish that foolish thought from your mind.”
“I —” Her mouth snapped shut when those eyes flashed. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“Take them out.”
Kate took a breath, waiting for a lull in the bullets before standing, drawing back her arrow and firing, tucking back behind cover as a small explosion sounded and dust filled the air. She felt a small modicum of relief when the shooting stopped momentarily.
Yelena was already standing, “Go ahead, I’ll cover you.”
Kate found the door through the haze and braced herself again before starting at a jog, jaw tight at each stabbing, shooting pain, but she refused to slow even a bit, to look back for Yelena, because if she did, she would never be able to start up again.
And with Yelena laying down cover, they might’ve succeeded if she hadn’t slowed at the sound of something rolling across the concrete, eyes wide when she realized what was in front of her: a flash bang grenade.
She had no time to shout a warning or move away before it went off, throwing her violently off her feet with a bright white light into the corner of a storage container. Kate gasped as the air was knocked off her lungs, a couple of ribs cracking on impact before she dropped to the ground, ears ringing.
Kate saw the white smudge that might’ve been Yelena moving towards her and she crawled, hands outstretched for her bow that was lying just out of arms reach, failing to see the dark shadow approaching her until a boot connected with her temple.
Her head snapped back and everything went black.
…
Yelena watched Kate go slack and knew instantly that she was unconscious.
There was a cool, clinical voice that told her she still had an opening, albeit small, of getting out, but she banished the thought almost instantly, hating the part of her that could so easily abandon someone for the sake of completing a mission. The part that had been one of Dreykov’s many disposable Widows.
She would kill every person in this building before she left Kate Bishop.
But as proficient a fighter as she was, Yelena couldn’t stop one from getting past her guard or pointing the gun at Kate’s head, quickly taking in the details; the man’s steady hand, the safety off, a finger on the trigger...
He would not hesitate to shoot her.
Yelena’s jaw tightened as her hand was forced (for the time being), dropping her gun and raising her hands, fingers splayed wide, and forced herself to remain rigid as they took the opportunity to “search” her for weapons, and with every hand that freely groped her, she imagined shattering their bones one by one.
They seemed much too smug with themselves as her guns and blades were tossed aside.
(Not that Yelena needed any of them to beat them.)
Soon, they’d suspended her on a hook with a ridiculous length of chain, toes just barely skimming the ground while Kate was dragged and deposited unceremoniously into a metal folding chair and restrained with rope.
One of the men took particular joy in cutting away her vest and the top of her combat suit as well as the white tank top she wore underneath, leaving her in a sports bra and her skin crawled as they leered openly at her.
“The famous White Widow.” One stepped forward, clearly deeming himself the leader, twirling one of Kate’s arrows between his fingers as he walked around slowly, appraising her. “From the intel, I thought you’d be more...difficult to apprehend.”
Yelena said nothing to that, looking up to appraise the chains digging into her wrists, following them up to the pole it was wrapped around, noting just how rusted it was. With the right amount of force, she could probably break it.
“I should’ve known, though...” he reached up to brush fingers over her cheek, chuckling as she tried to bite at his hand, “...that at the end of the day, you’re both just more pretty young things trying to hack it at being heroes.”
Yelena scoffed, “I’m not a hero.”
He grinned, “You could’ve left, but you didn’t. You...” he grabbed a fistful of Kate’s hair and pulled her head back to expose her throat, pressed the tip of the arrow to the carotid. “...didn’t want to leave her.”
Her hands grew numb, the chains cutting off the blood flow, but she still managed to curl them into tight fists, watching the thin trickle of blood as the arrowhead broke skin, “Good partners are hard to find.”
“I’ll bet they are.” That leering smile was back, looking from Yelena to Kate.
Yelena managed to keep her expression neutral, hiding her disgust at his assumptions and relief when the arrow was removed from Kate’s neck and his attention once more focused on her. She intended to keep it that way. “What do you want with us? Information? Ransom?”
“None of that. Just your screams.”
He drove his fist into her stomach.
She sucked in a breath, but said nothing, even as she lost track of how many times he hit her. She only watched his anger and frustration grow as she remained stalwartly silent, only breaking that silence as his last punch struck her cheekbone and snapped her head to the side.
She moved her jaw and ran her tongue over her teeth. Nothing loose.
“You’ll get nothing from me.”
His jaw tightened in anger as he motioned to one of the men and Yelena was subsequently soaked with a bucket of ice water, her body jerking once at the sudden temperature change and Yelena bit back any sound, holding herself completely still, refusing to shiver.
She’d been trained in Russia, for God’s sake.
Cold was child’s play.
Yelena smiled.
He growled, “Crazy bitch.”
He dumped Kate’s quiver onto a nearby table, grabbing the first one he saw (thankfully it was a regular one) and lunging forward, stabbing it deep into her right shoulder, and his jaw tightened further, grabbing yet another one and piercing the meat of her thigh.
Still, Yelena remained silent.
He turned to examine the arrows from Kate’s quiver further, finally realizing there were more than just the regular arrows and Yelena tried to remember exactly which ones Kate had packed for the mission and which ones had already been used —
“Your girl’s got quite the collection of arrows here...ah, here we go!”
She didn’t bother trying to read the label, recognizing the tip just as the arrow was slammed into her side, the electricity shooting through her body magnified by the water coating her bare skin and she squeezed her eyes shut as every muscle in her body locked in place.
Yelena wasn’t able to keep track of how much time passed before the arrow’s charge was spent, shoulders aching when her trembling legs failed to hold up the rest of her body, and it was only due to past experience with Widow’s Bites that kept her from passing out entirely.
(She would have Kate reconfigure the voltage when they got out of here.)
“Impressive.” He lifted her chin. “I thought that would do it.”
Yelena just stared at him.
He hummed, looking through the arrows until he lifted one that glowed a sickly green.
Her stomach dropped but she kept her stony expression, even as the tip approached her face, and she could picture exactly what would happen, how quickly the acid would eat through her skin and muscle and bone, how painfully she would die, the screams she wouldn’t be able to hold back...
“Nah, too quick.” he set it aside, “Can’t have that now, can we?”
Kate groaned, diverting everyone’s attention as she finally lifted her head and blinked slowly, eyes shooting wide in horror when she saw Yelena hanging in front of her, the arrows sticking out of her... “Yelena!”
“I am fine, Kate.” She tried to keep her voice casual, almost unbothered, but her body betrayed her statement, still twitching from the electricity and faintly shivering from the cold; the arrows shifting uncomfortably, “I am handling it.”
Kate scoffed, “Clearly.”
Yelena shot her a look.
“Not to interrupt this tender moment, but I think this arrow will do the trick.”
The blood drained from Kate’s face, “No, don’t —!”
As soon as the arrow touched her skin, ice crawled across the bare skin of her back and crept around her stomach and Yelena couldn’t hold back her scream as she burned with the sudden cold, squirming uselessly on the chains to shake it loose.
The ice slowed to a stop once it reached the underside of her bra and Yelena was ashamed of the tears that spilled over, taking comfort in Kate’s voice calling her name, grabbing onto the sound with everything she had and holding tight.
“There’s that scream I was looking for!”
Kate’s dark eyes flashed with an anger Yelena had never seen before, the ropes around her snapping free and she exploded into movement, taking the leader out at the ankles before surging towards her discarded bow they’d been stupid enough to leave too close.
She shot with blinding speed, the men falling one by one.
Yelena looked down at the ice encasing her torso, the burning fading into a worrying numbness that left her unable to free herself from the chains like she’d originally planned but she managed to get her feet underneath her at least.
The shivering had already set in.
“Yelena?”
She lifted her head to meet Kate’s eyes.
“I’m going to melt the chains, alright? You ready?”
“ D-Da .” Yelena nodded; forcing her feet shoulder width apart.
Kate drew back the acid arrow and fired, dropping her bow to catch Yelena as she stumbled, brow furrowed as she studied the arrows currently sticking out of her, focusing on the one in her shoulder. “Let’s get this one out first.” She gripped the shaft, “Ready. On three?”
Yelena nodded.
“Okay, One —”
She yanked it out.
Yelena winced.
Kate gave her a small smile, “Now about the other arrow —”
“It did n-not hit the femoral artery. T-Trust me.” Yelena cut her off, cursing her inability to keep herself from chattering; the beginning stages of hyperthermia already setting in. She spared a glance at her fingers, noting just how pale the tips of them were.
Kate frowned, “Yelena?”
“Just p-pull it out.” Yelena felt her legs getting heavier, her vision darkening at the edges, and the confusion on Kate’s face was telling her that she hadn’t spoken the last sentences entirely in English.
“I don’t understand. Yelena, what are you saying?”
She blinked slowly up at Kate and concentrated on forming the words, hating how quickly her body was refusing her commands, too focused on the words to be aware of where she should place her leaden feet, “Nothing was...hit. You can...you can pull it out.”
Kate did that, throwing the arrow aside quickly to catch the swaying Yelena, “Let’s go.”
Their progress was slow-going, Kate’s limp and Yelena’s decreasing motor functions making it near impossible to move faster than a walk, but there were no more men conscious to stop them as they hot-wired one of their cars.
Kate helped Yelena into the passenger seat, hoping around the front of the car and sliding into the driver’s seat, turning the heat on as high as it would go before tearing out of the lot, and Yelena tried to stay awake, but even Kate’s incessant talking became more and more distant until Yelena finally drifted off into unconsciousness.
…
Kate would admit to no one how terrified she’d been when she’d pulled up to the ER entrance, tires screeching to a stop, looking over to find Yelena unconscious and unresponsive, deathly pale with blue-tinged lips.
She frantically felt for a pulse, only mildly relieved at the one she found.
The ice encasing her torso had melted some, but not near enough to come off.
The panic she’d been staving off finally hit her then, hot tears streaming down her face as hospital personnel ran over to see what was going on, and even though her head wound had coated half her face with blood, she practically fought them until they looked at Yelena before her.
They acquiesced and a nurse opened the door, eyes widening at the sight. “What...?”
“Liquid nitrogen.” Kate managed, unsure how else to explain the special mixture Clint had designed for use on clothed targets. She had no idea what damage it did with direct contact to bare, wet skin, but her imagination provided plenty of horrible images. “I think.”
Yelena was carefully extracted and wheeled away on a gurney.
Only then did Kate finally allow them to examine her.
It was confirmed that she had a mild concussion and a fractured ankle that thankfully wouldn’t need surgery as long as she stayed off of it and normally the thought of being benched might’ve been irritating, she was more concerned for Yelena’s condition.
No one could answer her questions, though, and she was forced to sit still as they set her ankle and put it into a cast and going through the concussion test before being given some pain meds for her ribs and head and being asked to take a seat in the waiting room.
The entire time, though, Kate couldn’t shake the thought that everything that happened was her fault . It was her fault that Yelena couldn’t get away. It was her fault that they were able to string Yelena up. It was her fault , her arrows that put Yelena in the operating room.
Kate’s throat tightened and her vision blurred with tears.
“I’m not abandoning you, Kate Bishop, because it is the easier option...”
Her eyes had burned into hers so intently despite the arrows sticking out of her or the electrical burn already beginning to blister on her side in the distinct pattern of her electric arrow, her body still twitching from the after effects...
“Miss Bishop?”
“I am fine, Kate. I am handling it.”
Then he’d pulled out the ice arrow.
Kate doubted she would be able to forget the sound of Yelena’s scream as ice moved over her bare skin or how quickly the hypothermia had set in afterwards, how the graceful fluidity of the assassin began to stumble and slur her words in a mess of Russian and English, how cold the arm draped over her shoulders felt...
“Miss Bishop?” A gentle hand tapped her knee.
Kate’s head snapped up and it was by the skin of her teeth that Kate didn’t punch the nurse currently crouched in front of her, but the other woman realized quickly how frightened Kate was and held her hands up, “I didn’t mean to startle you, Miss Bishop, but I need you to breathe alright. I need you to breathe with me.”
“Wha —”
Breathe?
Oh, Kate thought, that was why her chest hurt.
“You’re having a panic attack, okay? So, I need you to breathe with me, alright?”
Kate nodded, following the nurse instruction and finally getting her breathing back to normal, but it dissolved quickly into hiccupping sobs that had her clinging to the poor nurse for an indeterminant amount of time before she finally calmed enough to separate, “God, I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to —”
“It’s quite alright, Miss Bishop —”
“Kate.” She cut in sharply before softening, “Just call me Kate.”
“Okay, Kate.” The nurse amended, “Is there anyone we can call?”
“Uh...uh yeah.” Kate nodded, wiping at her eyes, “Could I call them?”
“Of course.” She eyed the crutches and cast, “Will you need help up?”
Kate nodded, feeling much too tired to do it herself, taking the nurse’s hand and allowing herself to be pulled upright, getting the crutches underneath her arms herself and moving towards the front desk, her head throbbing and ribs screaming with the movement, but she pushed through it all.
The nurse bent over the desk and lifted the phone and its base, setting it on the counter in front of Kate, giving her a small smile before stepping back, giving her as much space as she was able to as she sat at the chair and turned to the computer, “Press nine first, then the number.”
“Thanks.” Kate smiled, then dialed the number for the house.
It was picked up after the second ring despite it being after three in the morning, “Kate?”
Kate’s throat tightened once more at the sound of Laura’s voice and she swallowed thickly, fingers squeezing the phone with a white-knuckled grip, her own voice choked when she finally got out past the lump in her throat, “Is Clint there?”
“Yeah, he’s just getting his hearing aids in.”
Kate nodded, forcing herself to take another deep breath before she devolved into another panic attack. It had been years since she’d last had one and having another back-to-back would certainly drain whatever energy she had left. “I’m sorry for calling so late.”
“It’s alright, sweetheart. You know we’re here for you no matter the time.”
Kate nodded.
“Here he is.”
Kate took one last breath before Clint’s voice came through.
“Kate, what’s goin’ on?”
His voice was a balm for her panic, everything zeroing in on him. He was grounding in a way he’d been since she first saw him. An anchor point that would keep her aim true every time, “I messed up, Clint. Big time.”
“Start from the beginning.”
Kate glanced at the nurse, who gave her a small smile and picked up a stack of files and walked away, “It was just a recon mission, but our source betrayed us and they...” her ankle throbbed at the memory of the botched jump, “...we were ambushed and I landed wrong on a jump and we couldn’t get away and they knocked me out. When I woke up, they...” her voice trembled now, the image of Yelena hanging flashing through her mind, “...they were torturing her...with my arrows and I...”
“Kate.”
“They used an ice arrow on her, Clint. On her bare skin...” Tears spilled over again as that scream echoed in her head, “She screamed and he...he laughed and I couldn’t...I got so angry Clint and I —”
“Kate...”
“I killed him.” Kate choked the words out, remembering exactly how that arrow had felt when she’d released it, watching almost numbly as it pierced his heart, as he fell to the ground dead, as she’d removed that arrow and picked up the others on the way out of the building, “I killed him and I didn’t...feel anything.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
Tears spilled over, “I’m sorry, Clint. I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Kate. Do you hear me?” His voice, while stern, was warm, comforting and grounding. “You were protecting your friend. You saved her from someone who was hurting her, hurting you. You are still my partner, Kate Bishop. You are still you. This man will never change who you are. Nothing and no one ever will.”
She nodded. “Th-thank you.”
“How’s Yelena?”
“She’s still in surgery, I think.” Kate swallowed, wiping the tears away.
“What hospital are you at?”
Kate listed the information off, “Are you coming?”
“Yes, I’ll be on the first plane. Send me updates?”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” Kate nodded, “Thank you, Clint.”
The small smile could be heard, “I’ll see you soon.”
…
Kate had never done well with waiting so the hours passed in painstaking slowness.
There’d been one update every hour: that Yelena still in surgery.
That was all they could tell her.
In three hours, that was the only thing they could tell her.
It was a small comfort, but she held onto it with both hands close to her chest, like she could protect her friend from death itself if she just told herself enough that everything was going to be okay. That Yelena Belova was as tough as they come. That she had survived so much worse than this. That she wasn’t going to —
Clint came at hour four, Laura and the kids right behind him.
And Kate broke down again, crumbling apart in his arms.
He held her tightly, one hand on her back and the other in her hair, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head like Dad used to do, murmuring reassurances over and over again until she was finally all cried out.
“God, I'm so tired of crying.”
Clint chuckled dryly, pulling back, “You’ve had quite the day, I think you’re forgiven.”
Kate noticed a sheen to those pale eyes but said nothing, resting her head on his shoulder and the doctor came out not fifteen minutes later with a tired smile and a confirmation that Yelena had pulled through, that she was going to be okay, and she felt the weight finally lift from her shoulders.