Chapter Text
"You can call me or text me no matter the time. Whatever you need I'm just at a call of distance. Everything is on a list on the fridge and S.E.A.N. has every one of the routines. Please take care of her."
"First, it is not the first time I am alone with our daughter. And second, thanks for worrying about me, Kate Bishop."
"Love you, take care of yourself too."
"Too late, I already let myself die, but your daughter is okay, you don't have to worry." she rolls her eyes.
"Do not look at me like that, it was you the one who was freaking out the last time I left."
"Because she was in her biting phase. I was afraid she could take something into her mouth and die of suffocation."
"And that is a very uncool way to die." she shakes her head in amusement.
"She's a baby, Kate Bishop, there's no cool way to die when baby." the blonde says in offense.
"And you didn't let her die, and you won't this time either."
"I know! It's you who doesn't leave and it's that worried. Don't you trust me to take care of Natasha by myself?"
"I do, babe. Of course I do."
"But…"
"But?" Kate says, confused.
"There's always a but."
"No. No buts now, I just love you both and I'll miss you, and I'm worried something would happen while I'm out. But I would never doubt your responsibility with Tasha."
"I love you too." she stands on her bare toes and kisses Kate's lips. "Now go. I don't want Cassie and Kamala to be mad at me for keeping you again." she rushes and after a few more kisses the brunette finally leaves.
This is the second mission Kate goes after Natasha's birth, the previous one was a simple stake-out in another state, but this time is an actual mission in some country classified far away. The last time, in effect, Yelena was so worried and afraid to be alone with the baby but this time she's more confident about it, but it's mostly because of Kate's worry since it's the first time she'll be away for so long and the blonde just wants her wife to be unconcerned and focused on her mission.
Yelena goes to check the playpen in the living room, finding a fast asleep baby surrounded by plushies, and toy cars. She sighs and takes the cars out, she had said Kate to not leave plastic toys in the playpen because Tasha used to fall asleep in there and she can hurt herself by accident in her sleep, because "she's like you, Kate Bishop, it seems you two have a dance competition during the night. Is it so difficult to sleep still?". When the place is comfy and safe enough, she takes a few locks of hair away from the baby's face, it's growing fast, ten months and her hair is down her shoulders already.
"S.E.A.N. check out on Tasha while I get her food. Low volume please."
"Got it, Mrs. Belova." the A.I. responds in a low whisper.
Then she starts to prepare the feeding bottle,she takes advantage of the quiet time to make herself a coffee, if she's not wrong the baby is about to wake up from her morning nap in a few minutes.
"Mrs. Belova, baby Natasha is up." S.E.A.N. informs in the standard volume.
Yelena makes her way to the living room and after putting the mug and bottle on the coffee table, she approaches the baby, who's waiting for her, sitting up.
"Hello baby hawk. Did you sleep well?" she says in a sweet voice as she takes her in her arms. Quickly Tasha grabs Yelena's shirt's collar in a sleepy attempt to put it down. "Oh no, no, I'm not that mom." she laughs lightly. "But I do have something for you."
Taking the bottle she approaches it to the little hands, and Tasha takes it immediately to her mouth, crashing against the pacifier.
"Okay, let me take this…" Yelena tries to pull it out but can't. "Svetlyak, if you don't give me that you'll can't have your milk." she says, trying to convince the little girl to let go of the pacifier.
Of course Tasha doesn't understand and of course she doesn't let go of it, but smiles at the term, she always smiles at that nickname and Yelena doesn't understand why, maybe it sounds funny to her, but everytime it happens the blonde's heart melts.
"Why do you always laugh, svetlyak?" again that smile. "Do you think it's funny?" she starts tickling her, making her smile grow enough to take the pacifier out.
When she finally grabs it, Tasha doesn't have time to protest when her mother approaches the bottle to her mouth and immediately starts to suck. With a victorious grin, Yelena puts the pacifier down and takes her mug to share breakfast with her daughter.
The silent moment doesn't last long, about five minutes and half of the bottle down, Yelena's phone buzzes on the table and she walks at it, she thinks it's Kate even if she left about twenty minutes ago.
"Do you miss me that fast?"
"Please, look at the phone before answering, honey."
"Mama, how are you?" she composes herself quickly after a wave of embarrassment.
"Good. I need your help."
"I'm good too, thank you. Right now I'm eating breakfast with Tasha. Do you want to say hello to babushka, baby hawk?"
"Yelena…" Melina sighs.
"You're lucky she's eating."
"She doesn't talk, Yelena." she says laughing lightly.
"It does not justify that you do not greet my daughter."
"I'm sorry, honey. I promise I'll go see you soon, but I'm afraid I'm not calling for a nice talk."
"I don't like that tone." she says, concerned.
"There's a widow."
"A lot around the world." she sighs.
"Under control."
"What!?" she yells, scaring Tasha who had her head on the blonde's shoulder, the sudden movement and increasing of the volume makes her jump and her eyes start to get wet. "Oh no, my love, everything it's okay." she says gingerly and puts the speaker on the phone while sitting on the couch to calm the baby. "I thought we freed them all." she goes back to her mother as she swings Tasha on her lap, caressing her dark hair.
"We did, but there's this widow, she was in coma since the blip, we thought one of the widows that didn't disappear, freed her. But no, she woke up about a few months ago."
"How could a widow survive a coma? I mean, Dreykov used to end with anyone useless." she wonders.
"I don't know, but she did and she's still under mind control, just that no one is giving her orders."
"If nobody is giving her orders, doesn't that mean she is free?" she asks more confusedly.
"There's a kind of active vegetative state. They turned their mind off, but they still lived life as if it were a default state." Melina does her best to explain, but Yelena can't get it yet.
"I don't understand, then she lives a life but not being alive?"
"She's like a robot, or like a zombie if you prefer."
"And why do you need me to free her?"
"She's in New York. And I know you aren't working right now, but as I said she has a default state which means she still can keep out of the radar. I don't know how long I'll have her location and it was very hard to find." her mother pleads.
"I… I'm…"
'I can't, I'm taking care of my daughter.'
'I am alone, I don't have anyone to leave her with.'
'I don't want to.'
"I'm not doing it alone. I can't risk myself getting hurt."
"I can call Sonya for backup."
"Couldn't you call Sonya to do it?"
"I wanted to trust the last widow to you." she says simply and although Yelena wants to argue against it. She's making enough bad decisions right now.
"Send me everything." and without waiting for a response she hang up. "What do you think, svetlyak? Do you want to go on a mission with Mama?" she asks sweetly and Tasha laughs very lightly, teat of the bottle still between her fully four little teeth. "If this widow doesn't kill me, your Mommy indeed will." she whispers against her daughter's hair, before gettin up and starting to get ready for the mission of 'free the widow and don't be a bad mom in the process'.
Her get out fast protocol has been extended considerably since they had had Natasha, her ready-to-go backpack is always near the door, but a ready-to-go baby bag wasn't a basic necessity. And after fifteen minutes of searching for all the indispensable baby stuff, Yelena starts to think she needs to pay more attention to what Kate packs every time they go out.
"Okay" she sighs once the baby bag is full and ready. "As much as I love when Mommy dresses you with her obsession, that's not appropriate for a mission." she says to the baby in a purple sleepsuit as she carries her to her bedroom. Once Tasha is settled on the crib, Yelena approaches the wardrobe. "I think you need more black clothes. What do you think?" she turns to her daughter who seems to be more interested in Barney than in her. "Yeah, I agree."
She ends up making a quick decision and dresses Tasha with a dark green jumpsuit, a matching wool cap and hard sole shoes - even if she doesn't walk yet but just in case.
"It highlights your eyes." she pokes her nose making her laugh. "You know, you might have your Mommy's face, but indeed have Mama's style, look at you!" she's cheering when her phone buzzes in her pocket. "Right. The mission. Do not distract me, Natasha." she says playfully, letting her on the ground so she can crawl while Yelena dresses herself.
Tasha follows her to her bedroom and finds her place caressing an old growth Akita sleeping at the foot of the bed, Fanny snorts and places her head on Tasha's lap.
Happily in her own black jumpsuit, the blonde exits the room not before telling Fanny to look after Tasha and comes back with a box wrapped in gift paper, putting it on the bed.
"Can you keep a secret, baby hawk?" at the sound of one of her many nicknames she looks up. "This is the gift Mommy will give me for Christmas, but maybe we can use it a little bit earlier." she puts out a baby carry bag, it's black with little purple details. "This will be our little secret, okay?"
And finally with her bracelets on, weapons on her thighs, the baby bag on her back, and Tasha on her front, Yelena makes her way out the apartment.
"S.E.A.N. activate security protocol. Fanny stays in the house. And any threat or incident, notify me and not Kate."
"Got it. Security protocol activated. Good luck, Mrs. Belova." the A.I. responds.
"Thank you S.E.A.N." she sighs knowing she will need that luck. "And baby hawk" she looks down, finding her very same green in the baby's eyes. "If Mommy finds out, tell her I love her, she will not let me speak before she kills me."