Chapter Text
In a small suburban home just south of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, was a house that meant everything to a little girl who thought her family was real. For two years, while everyone knew it was a mission, this little one hadn’t known any better—
Even though her family shot Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and summer vacation all in one day, with just different backdrops. It was real to her, but to them, it was just another deep-cover op to sell the perfect American family lie.
And after the mission was compromised, the house had sat abandoned on the market for years until someone bought it.
Made it somewhat livable again, just a five-minute distance, where the homeowner’s sister’s grave was. Even though there was no physical body buried, she came yearly to pay her respects. Even though the little girl had grown up, it sometimes felt like she hadn’t at all.
She felt lost until she met someone who mirrored her own quiet ache—
Lonely, adrift, searching for purpose and a ‘home’ amid the wreckage of his past, just like her.
Now, in that same, small suburban home just south of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, was a home filled with framed photos, wheeking guinea pigs, mismatched mugs, and books always sprawled across the tables.
Now, a child was hiding underneath the bed, trembling as he tried to make himself smaller. Another child lay on her belly, peeking in and slowly reaching a hand underneath in hopes of convincing him to come out.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, smiling and showing off one of her missing teeth. It had been a while since she smiled, since anything made her feel anything remotely close to it, but something about him, seeming so terrified, tugged at her heart as she tried to coax him out again. “Hey, it’s okay. I just want to talk. What’s your name? It’s alright, I’m all alone too.”
He peeked out at her through his tears, sniffling.
Little did they know it would be exactly six days before anyone checked on them.
“Have you heard from Yelena or Bob recently?”
Walker’s bucket of popcorn went flying when Ava suddenly phased into existence beside him—right as a jump scare exploded on screen. He let out a strangled curse, heart hammering as popcorn rained down across the couch and floor.
“You have got to stop doing that,” he barked, clutching his chest. He glared at the woman, taking a few popcorn kernels and chucking them at her. “You ever think of using the goddamn door like a normal person sometimes?”
She smirked, completely unfazed.
“And miss watching you lose ten years off your life? Not a chance,” she chuckled.
”You fucking did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
”Mm, yes.”
“See? This is why I don’t invite you over whenever I visit Olivia and the kid,” Walker grumbled.
Ava snorted, bending to pluck a kernel from his shoulder and pop it into her mouth.
“Oh, please. It’s because the last time we all came over for dinner and Olivia told us all about your high school days, you nearly had a meltdown,” Ava finished, grinning wickedly. “What was it again? Oh, right, you streaking—”
Walker groaned, dragging a hand down his face while he paused the TV.
“I thought we agreed never to speak of that again.”
“You agreed,” she countered, fighting back a laugh. “I never said anything of that sort.”
Walker shot her a look that could have curdled steel.
“Remind me again why we’re friends?”
“Because nobody else can stand you, and the classification of ‘friend’ stops us from killing each other rather than teammates,” Ava said sweetly, kicking her boots up onto the coffee table. Then her expression shifted to half amusement, half concern. “Anyway, jokes aside. Seriously, have you heard from Yelena or Bob? I’ve been trying to reach them all week.”
“No, and shouldn’t that be a blessing—ow!”
The super soldier scowled at Ava, rubbing his arms.
“Has anyone ever told you that you have the strength of a blackback gorilla—ha! You fuckin' missed—”
He didn’t get to finish when something smacked him square in the face. A pillow this time, launched with unnerving precision. “Can you focus? It’s been a week, and it’s not like either of them to do that.”
Walker pulled the pillow away, throwing it over his shoulder.
“So? What’s the problem? I mean, they’ve been married for two years now and living in Ohio. They only show up in New York whenever duty calls our asses like all of us to be on standby like glorified firefighters, or they decided to take a summer vacation somewhere far from here,” Walker clipped.
“Exactly. A week of total radio silence is a red flag, then,” she remarked, crossing her arms and staring at him, completely serious. “Yelena checks in like clockwork, even from the middle of nowhere.”
“You’re worried about her? Ava, you and I both know that their farmhouse has more traps than a Bond villain’s lair. Nobody’s getting past that front door without losing a limb first unless they know how to disengage the system,” Walker assured. “Again, maybe they decided to take a vacation at the last minute and forgot to inform us.”
“We’ve known both Yelena and Bob for… what? Almost seven years now?” Ava pressed, leaning forward with that no-nonsense glint in her eye.
“So?” Walker shrugged, still playing it casual as he scooped up stray popcorn scattered about.
“Every time they travel, they make us babysit their three guinea pigs,” she said, ticking off fingers. “But not this time. No call, no drop-off, no ‘Walker, Ava, don’t let them chew the couch again.’”
“Maybe they found a sitter,” he countered, though his tone lacked conviction.
Ava snorted.
“The woman who doesn’t even trust the mailman and chooses a PO box? Come on. Something’s wrong.”
“Well, have you asked Alexei?” Walker questioned, trying not to sound concerned.
“I did, and he was about to march down there himself before I made an excuse that we’d handle it,” Ava admitted, rubbing the back of her neck. “Told him it was probably just a comms glitch from all the solar flares messing with satellites or something of that sort.”
The former Captain America arched a brow, finally setting the popcorn bowl down for good.
“You lied to Alexei?”
“Had to,” she said with a shrug. “The last thing we need is him going full Papa Bear if there really was nothing going on. So I figured we could take the Quinjet to check ourselves first? I already informed Bucky.”
“Oh, so you already decided to drag me with you?”
“It’s not like you have anything better to do,” she conceded. “Now come on, change.”
He paused for a moment and then sighed.
He hated it when she was right, and she usually was, which was strange for Yelena or Bob to drop off the radar without any notice. Although Walker knew it was damn near impossible to attack a former Black Widow with basically a god that couldn’t be killed, it was a bit troubling.
There, he admitted it.
“Alright,” he agreed. “You wanna go play house detective in Ohio? Fine. But I end up seeing something I don’t want to without bleaching my goddamn eyes, you’re cleaning the guinea pig for the rest of the year.”
“Deal,” she nodded. “Grab your shield, popcorn boy. Wheels up in ten.”
And so, in less than an hour, Walker and Ava touched down on the spacious lot of grass they always used for parking during their biweekly dinners. The Quinjet’s engines whirred to a quiet hum, and the ramp hissed open to a world that hit like a gut punch, no matter how many times they came here. It’s crisp, loamy earth and fresh-cut hay thick in the air, laced with distant wildflowers and zero trace of NYC’s choking asphalt tang or dumpster rot.
Unlike the city’s gray concrete jungle, this Ohio sprawl stretched endlessly.
Sometimes, it felt so damn peaceful that it was unnerving for Walker.
Walker wrinkled his nose, shield already in hand.
“Why does it always smell like a damn petting zoo out here?”
Ava inhaled deeply, scanning the house a couple of feet away.
“Better than your popcorn breath. Now quit stalling. The fact that they haven’t come out to greet us is already a red flag,” she muttered, voice low as they crunched across the gravel path.
They passed the old porch swing first, creaking faintly in the breeze, then the colorful slide they’d installed last year, so whenever Walker brought his son over, he could play with the neighborhood kids.
Walker took the three steps up to the door, rapping his knuckles hard against the wood—
Three sharp knocks that echoed into silence.
No answer.
He glanced at Ava, then twisted the knob.
It turned smoothly, unlocked.
Now, the alarm bells were blaring at the back of their heads.
It’s not like Yelena to leave the house unguarded like this, so something must be terribly wrong.
Gritting his teeth, Walker entered the code so they didn't get tased and slowly pushed the door wider to enter.
Walker instinctively reached for his 55-caliber gun, raising his half-bent shield. Ava gave a quick nod, pressed the button on her suit, and phased through the next wall to sweep the adjoining rooms.
This was strange.
Walker swallowed, his boots creaking heavily against the old, wooden floors. The picture frame hangs of the two of them, so happily in love, that it sometimes makes him want to puke whenever he finds himself looking.
Photos of them around the world whenever Yelena requested a few weeks off.
Photos Yelena had taken of them around the Watchtower were hung up as “funny.”
Photos of their three guinea pigs munching away on whatever they’re usually eating.
Disgusting.
His finger hovered near the trigger as he moved deeper into the house. If there’d been an intruder, the traps she’d set would’ve gone off. Only her inner circle knew how to disable it like him, and that was the only reason his head was still attached.
“Yelena?” he called out. “Bob, you in here, buddy?”
It was then he heard it.
A rustling somewhere and then, a quiet, raspy voice.
“No.”
It’s a small, young, and entirely unfamiliar voice that only baffled him further. The last time the super soldier checked, Yelena couldn’t have kids, and Bob wasn’t particularly fond of them due to his childhood. The closest they had to kids were three guinea pigs that lived a pampered life.
Now that he thought about it, did they ever think of adopting a child?
That would make the only sense why—
Walker turned toward the sound, feeling on edge. However, before he could call out, a low whip-crack sliced through the silence. Instinct kicked in, and he threw his shield up, bracing for impact, but it wasn’t a bullet.
Something snapped around his ankle.
The line tightened fast, yanking his leg out from under him. He barely caught himself with an elbow, the shield clattering against the floorboards. The trap’s pull dug into his boot and sent pain lancing through his calf.
“What the fu—”
Weight hit his back before the curse finished, and something small quickly clambered on him, and then a piercing pain flooded his system as he groaned. He felt a flash of warmth as a blade punched through armor and into skin.
“Son of a bitch,” Walker hissed, twisting as blood surged hot.
He managed to grab whatever was on him, which told him that the other person must not be that much of a threat. Tiny thing, wiry strength, but had a mean kick like a feral, out-of-control demon child that reminded him of when his son was younger and learning how to throw a fit. He twisted to throw the person over his shoulder, the knife hand caught in his grip just as it went for his eyes, and that’s when he saw her.
A kid.
Not just any kid, but a snarling, wild‑eyed one that couldn’t be more than nine years old. Her hair was sticking out in chaotic tufts; her lips curled back in a hiss that sounded more animal than human.
Her eyes, though, those stopped him cold.
Bright green.
Yelena’s exact shade.
The little girl jerked and spat, her knife still clenched tight as if sheer will could make her arms stronger. She kicked, clawed, and even tried to bite at his forearm through his uniform, but against someone four times her size, the effort was almost pitiful.
Almost.
“What the hell…” Walker breathed, blood still dripping down his sleeve, disbelief cutting sharper than the blade had. He managed to rip the knife from her, using it to saw through the rope, biting into his ankles before tossing it aside, his breath coming fast as he kept one wary hand on the furious kid still thrashing as he held her a good distance away.
“You alright?” Ava asked, suddenly phasing back into the room. The glow of her suit flickered once before stabilizing, and then she froze mid‑step. Walker didn’t blame Ava for her confusion and shock because it really solidified that this child really did look like Yelena. “What the—?”
Walker glared over his shoulder, still holding the kid at arm’s length while she hissed and twisted in his grip like a small, defensive kitten.
“Took you long enough. Where were you?”
“Upstairs, trying to find any clues of their whereabouts,” Ava said, eyes darting between his bleeding arm and the wriggling child. “Until I heard you screaming like a little girl.”
“That wasn’t me,” Walker shot back, tightening his hold as the kid kicked again. “That was her.”
The girl snarled, her voice like gravel and smoke.
“Иди на хуй!”
“Speaks Russian too,” Walker mused. “However, I never saw you around before in the neighborhood. I would have remembered seeing basically a carbon copy of her, which begs the question…how’d you get in and where’s the homeowners?”
“Гори в аду!”
Shit, does she even speak English?
Ava blinked, squinting her eyes curiously. “And who’s this bundle of joy?”
Walker snorted, giving the child a little shake. It’s not enough to hurt, just enough to make her stop writhing for a second. “Beats me. The fucker stabbed me and almost went for my eyes, but guess she wasn’t that trained.”
The girl tried to spit at him.
Ava folded her arms.
“Charming. Think Yelena picked up a souvenir we didn’t know about?”
“If she did,” Walker muttered, meeting those too‑familiar green eyes again, “it’s got teeth.”
Now that both of them were looking closely, her clothes were clearly not hers but Yelena’s. It was then cut and tied together with rubber bands and alike to cinch it tighter around her smaller frame.
“You know…if I didn’t know any better,” Ava began. “She kind of reminds me of Yelena.”
The little girl continued to scowl at them.
“Yeah, but more untamed and—”
“L-leave her alone!”
Walker and Ava snapped toward the small, trembling, but fierce voice. From the shadowed hallway, another kid lunged. This one was a skinny, tiny boy, no older than ten, eyes wide with desperate fury and swinging a baseball bat.
Ava reacted first, phasing out of solidity in a shimmer of light. The boy’s wild swing of his bat passed harmlessly through her, but caught Walker square in the groin. He grunted, doubling over, breath exploding out.
“Little shit—”
Why the fuck did he decide to come here again?
The girl in his grip seized the moment, whipping her legs up with impossible speed. Her teeth sank into his forearm like a viper’s strike. Pain lanced deep; enhanced or not, that bite drew blood fast.
Walker’s fingers spasmed, and she dropped free, hitting the floor in a feral crouch.
Ava phased back solid behind the boy, no hesitation this time. One arm hooked his neck, the other snapped cuffs from her belt and ratcheted tight around skinny wrists. She drove a knee into the back of his legs, dropping him face-first to the floorboards with a thud.
“Stay down,” she hissed, pinning him as he thrashed.
“No,” he shouted. “Yel—run!”
Huh.
Now that she was looking closer, the boy looked suspiciously like Bob.
It had been seven years, but neither could forget what they saw that day they entered Bob’s shame room. The coincidences were too much that Ava couldn’t ignore them anymore, especially that distrustful, terrified look in his eyes.
She swallowed down the growing, gnawing sensation. “Are you…”
Suddenly, the child who had always been on the defensive end threw her body in front of Bob, shielding him. Her small frame expanded somehow with shoulders squared, arms flung wide, green eyes blazing with a snarl that promised violence beyond her size.
“Don’t. Touch. Him,” she hissed. “It’s me you’re after, isn’t it? The Red Room sent you to get me, right? He's innocent."
Walker blinked, completely thrown off not only by the fact that she could speak English but also by what the hell she was saying. He stared at the little shit that stabbed and bit him, baffled. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Just run, leave me,” Bob urged, but it all fell on deaf ears. “Please.”
The girl was only focused on Walker, eyes narrowed to slits and wild.
“What are you talking about?” she threw back. “Don’t you serve General Dreykov?”
“Drey—no.” Walker scoffed, offended on instinct. “Serve? What is this, the 1800s? We don’t serve anyone, and even if we did, it certainly wouldn’t be for a crazed, manic communist like him.”
Ava cleared her throat, still crouched near the boy with her hands raised in a show of peace.
“Well, we technically do work for Valentina, which by definition is similar to serving… okay, fine, it’s complicated,” she amended under her breath when Walker threw her a glare. He then shook his head, focus snapping back to the two kids occupying his friend’s (though he’d never admit it) home.
“Now that we answered one of your questions, it’s your turn. Who the hell are you two?” he demanded, shield half-lowered but still between them.
The little girl’s jaw tightened. “Why should we answer you after you attacked us?”
Walker’s jaw almost dropped.
“Newsflash, you attacked me first! With a rope and a knife and, in case you forgot, your teeth.”
“Guys,” Ava cut in sharply, palms up. “Let’s dial it down from ‘war crimes’ to ‘inside voices,’ yeah?” She slowly reached into a side pocket, eyes on Yelena the whole time. “Look, we don’t mean any harm. Here, I’ll give you the key as a peace offering that we don’t mean any harm.”
She set the small cuff key on the floor and nudged it forward with two fingers. Yelena darted forward like a striking snake, snatching it up. In seconds, she had the cuffs off the boy and was checking his reddened wrists, small thumbs rubbing gently over the marks.
“You’re okay,” she whispered. “You’re alright.”
Walker and Ava noticed the way the little boy’s breathing eased under her touch, and neither missed the way he stared at her when he thought no one was looking—
Like she was his goddamn world.
Yeah, that was Bob.
There was no doubt about it.
“You shoulda ran,” he whispered.
“And leave you? No way,” she snorted, like the idea was just plain stupid. Once she was done inspecting him and seemed somewhat satisfied, Yelena straightened up, turning back to Ava and Walker with that trademark chin-tilt—half challenge, half calculation. “Explain. Who are you?”
Right.
Guess they had to go first.
“I’m Ava Starr,” Ava continued carefully, staying low, making herself less of a threat. She supposed her years of saving children from hostage situations and consoling crying little ones alike had helped her immensely. She nodded toward Walker. “And this is John Walker, a friend of mine. May we ask who you are?”
The child’s throat bobbed as she swallowed, eyes flicking between them, then back to Bob, who was now hiding behind her as if anchoring herself. She stared at the ground for a moment, mumbling, “I’m… Yelena.”
They supposed it was a step in the right direction if she didn't try handing over a fake alias.
“Yelena…Belova?” Ava tried.
The girl’s head snapped up again, suspicion sharpening. “You know who I am?”
"Of course," she nodded and then gestured to Bob. “And you’re Robert ‘Bob’ Reynolds.”
Bob’s eyes widened, paling instantly. “You know me as well?”
“Yeah, kid, we do,” Walker muttered, still a little dazed, “unfortunately.”
Yelena shifted in front of Bob again, shielding him with her body as much as she could.
“Are you also a Black Widow?” she demanded, gaze pinning Ava with chilling intensity.
Ava held her stare, then shook her head.
“No, but we’re on your side. We’re not here to take you back to the Red Room or any of that sort.”
Walker nodded reluctantly, blood still trickling down his arm.
“Trust me, if we were the bad guys?” he mumbled, jerking his chin at the shredded rope and dented floorboards. “You two wouldn’t have gotten that many hits in; you could certainly count on that.”
The kids didn’t relax—but for the first time, they hesitated.
“How do you know who I am?”
“We… we’re acquaintances of Alexei Shostakov and your sister, Natasha Romanoff,” Ava opting in telling half the lie, choosing each word like she was stepping through a minefield. She debated whether the truth was that they had somehow been turned into children, but something told her it would only complicate things further.
Right now, she had her priorities down to:
One, secure the kids.
Two, extract them to a controlled, safer environment.
Then, once everyone’s safe, work through the horrifying metaphysics and emotional truths.
Preferably, after running it down with everyone else on the team.
“Nat?” Yelena whispered, a flicker of hope appearing. “Is Nat with you?”
Ava’s stomach dropped. She regretted the name-drop instantly because her older sister was dead, gone years ago, to bring everyone back from the Snap. Something no one outside their group knew was shared on one drunken night.
There was no body to bury, just a symbolic grave back that Yelena still visited religiously. And not only that, but blurting it out to pint-sized versions of her friends felt like kicking a live grenade down a hallway full of kids.
Bob clutched the back of her shirt, peeking out like he was ready to bolt with Yelena in tow.
The former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent cleared her throat.
“She’s… not with us right now. But she talks about you all the time. She was the one who sent us here to retrieve you both,” she answered. Yelena’s face crumpled just a fraction before suspicion snapped back.
“Liar. If she knew where I was, she’d come herself.”
Walker shifted, wincing as his bitten arm throbbed.
“Kid, your sister’s—” He caught Ava’s sharp elbow jab to the ribs and clamped his mouth shut. “Is…busy at the moment in freeing other widows, so forgive her for not dropping everything for you.”
Yelena’s eyes narrowed further, her small body still a rigid shield in front of Bob.
Clearly, she wasn’t buying a word—not the half-truths, not the reassurances. Her lips puckered tight, and she blew out a sharp, two-tone whistle: high-pitched trill sliding into a low, warbling note, cutting through the tense air like a secret password.
Ava’s breath caught.
She knew that sound.
Yelena had let it slip one drunken night over vodka shots, swapping childhood stories back when trust was new and raw of the family they could never see again. Without thinking, Ava puckered her lips and whistled back: perfect mimicry, high-to-low, clear as a bell.
Yelena froze mid-stance, her fierce scowl cracking into stunned silence.
Bob peeked out wider, confusion rippling across his face.
“You…” Yelena whispered, eyes searching Ava’s face like she was dissecting a lie. “How?”
“I told you that I know Natasha,” she professed. “She informed me to bring you somewhere safer. We’re part of the Avengers.”
“The… Avengers?” Yelena echoed, the word foreign on her tongue, her stance loosening just a hair as curiosity warred with caution. "What's that?"
"It's a team of superheroes assigned to protect Earth," Ava said slowly, keeping her voice steady and low. “The good guys that are working to take down places like the Red Room. Natasha managed to escape and came to us for help. That’s why we’re here for you. Do you mind telling us what happened here?”
“Yeah, what do you last remember?” Walker asked.
“I don’t know,” Yelena confessed after a short pause, shaking her head in dismay. “I was in the Red Room, getting ready for bed after supper, and then the next thing I knew, I ended up here with Bob.”
Bob meekly raised his hand before speaking. “I was…s-sleeping as well when I woke up here.”
“How long ago was that?” Walker questioned, finally grabbing a towel from the kitchen and pressing it to the wound. He ignored Ava’s glare. The last thing he wanted was bleeding out on their carpet.
“About six days ago.”
“Six days ago?” Ava echoed.
Shit, that would have been the time when they stopped all forms of communication.
Meaning something did happen between them then and now.
“Yeah. I thought this was supposed to be another test,” Yelena admitted.
“A test?” Ava echoed.
“To see if I break,” Yelena muttered, fingers tightening in Bob’s sleeve. “Put me in my old fake home with someone I don’t know and watch what happens. How long until I talk. How long until I fail and try to leave, try to escape. I saw the house was rigged and armed.”
Well, that explained why it seemed Yelena hadn’t tried to contact anyone or leave.
“Jesus,” Walker murmured. They had always known Yelena’s childhood wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine as a child assassin, but for her to be this untrusting of others was next level. “That’s some fucked up shit.”
It’s then that Yelena frowned deeply.
Her eyes darted around the room like she would suddenly find hidden cameras.
“So…is it a test?”
“No, definitely not,” Ava affirmed. “Either way, it’s definitely not safe here.”
Bob blinked up at them, voice small but earnest.
“Really? But this place has everything… and guinea pigs.”
Walker’s head snapped up, towel forgotten against his arm.
“The guinea pigs? They’re still—” He cut off, exchanging a wild-eyed look with Ava. They’d half-assumed the little squeakers were kibble after a week of silence, not pampered survivors. He cleared his throat, glancing towards the creaky staircase. “Uh…kicking it…upstairs?”
Yelena nodded quickly, fierce pride flickering through her suspicion.
“Yeah, we’ve been feeding them vegetables and…” she trailed off, and then something like a glint flashed in her eyes. “Oh.”
Ava tilted her head. “Oh?”
Yelena’s lips puckered again as a dawning realization slipped on her face.
“I just remembered why you both look familiar. You’re the people in the photos.” She gestured at the walls: candid shots of dinners, barbecues, Walker holding a squirming pig in revulsion while Ava and Alexei were laughing. Bucky was in the corner, shaking his head behind his drink, but there was no denying he was smiling behind it.
Ava nodded, scanning the room’s familiar chaos anew. “Right.”
“So I guess after my mission was compromised two years ago,” Yelena ventured, piecing it together like a puzzle, “the couple in the photos bought the house or something? Someone you both trusted to use their house?”
“Correct,” Ava confirmed, careful not to overplay her hand.
Yelena’s gaze sharpened. “Where are they?”
Walker snorted before Ava could stop him. “Currently? Anywhere better than here—”
Ava elbowed him hard in the ribs.
“Vacation of sorts,” she stressed through gritted teeth.
“That doesn’t explain why I’m here,” Yelena pressed, arms crossing tight. Newfound suspicion arises as they dart between the two adults. “Or why did they leave their animals neglected like this?”
Jesus Christ, there was nothing that could get past her, was there?
“Well, let’s just say they had something important come up and knew you’d be here,” Ava crouched to her level, voice softening. “And you’re here because Natasha didn’t want to spook you. There were some… issues, so it took longer to get here than we intended. But I’m glad you’re holding up alright until we get here to get you and their guinea pigs.”
Bob fidgeted, wringing his hands. “So w-why am I here too?”
“Because… Natasha heard what happened to you,” Ava said gently, “and knew you’d be better off here.”
“Here?” he echoed, glancing at the wrecked living room.
“With us,” she affirmed. “We’ll explain everything better when we get back. Why don’t we grab the piggies and head back to New York?”
Yelena hesitated, then straightened. “Can I talk to Natasha then?”
“I’ll see what we can do,” Ava promised.
“What about Bob?” Yelena shot back.
“Bob?”
“Yeah, I'm not leaving without him.” She reached behind her, grabbed his hand, and squeezed it tight, chin lifted in defiance. The boy looked startled and awestruck by that declaration. As a matter of fact, his entire face reddened as she continued. “If it weren’t because of Bob knowing how to cook and ration the feed, we’d both be dead by now. He kept me alive. And the guinea pigs.”
Bob’s face burned crimson, eyes wide as he’d just been handed a medal—or a weapon.
Walker exhaled, rubbing his throbbing arm. “No surprise you two are a package deal.”
“We made a deal to stick together from now on,” she asserted.
Ava and Walker couldn’t help it.
A low chuckle escaped them both at once, the sound warm and conspiratorial despite the tension. They traded a knowing glance, memories flashing of Yelena and Bob’s not-so-subtle domesticity seven years ago.
It seemed some things never changed.
“Something funny?” Yelena demanded, eyes narrowing as her grip on Bob’s hand tightened like a vice.
“Nah,” Walker said, wiping blood from his arm with a smirk. “Just… déjà vu. You remind me of the couple that lives here, that’s all.”
Yelena and Bob frowned in unison, eyes darting to the hanging photos. Yet before they could ask and complicate things further, Ava decided not to build more lies on top of the other before getting the story straight with the others.
“Right, why don’t you two grab the guinea pigs, and we’ll head out?” she suggested.
Yelena eyed them suspiciously but didn’t argue, tugging Bob toward the stairs.
Yet not before giving them all one last cold glare.
“No tricks,” she declared.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Walker countered, and once they’re out of earshot, he sighed.
They looked at one another, and no words needed to be exchanged for what they were thinking:
What the fuck did they get themselves into?