Here's my Christmas present for you guys, I meant to post it yesterday but there weren't done so second day of Christmas will have to do. A new chapter for 'Related' and 'Justice or Revenge?' and the prologue to a new story that I'm writing 'Red daughter'. Merry Christmas and please let me know what you think. And thanks to anyone who left a review earlier. Enjoy!

Rose was looking out of the window.

This was her third foster home that winter and she'd like it to be her last. These foster parents were kinda nice and it was close to the orphanage she lived in most of the time so she went to the same elementary school as her friends together with the two other children in the house.
The White's had been foster parents for over ten years now and Kyle, Rose's older foster brother had been with them for thirteen years now. He thought of them as his real parents and far as she knew they felt the same way about him.
Rose had been in the system from when she was less than a day old and she had never even been allowed to call someone mom or dad, much less wanted it. They'd told her that a woman, probably her mother, had dropped her off when she was only a few hours old. The woman had told the people at the centre that she couldn't take care of Rose. That her name was to be Rose Alexandra Romanoff, then she'd given Rose a peck on her forehead and left, leaving the child behind.
They had respected the woman's wish so now that was Rose's name. She didn't really like her last name because the jokes other children made about her name resembling that of the last Russian tsars. But at the same time it was a tie to her parents and a possible way to find out who they were.
She'd looked up the name but there were only two persons she could find with that name, an elderly, childless man and a woman who was part of The Avengers. She liked to think about how it would be if that was her mother but the people who had been there when she'd been brought in thought it was probably her father's name.
So she just hoped that maybe the woman would come back and take Rose with her. By now she knew that was rather improbable but she couldn't help but hope.
At the same time she realized that maybe it was time up hoping for her real parents and just try to find new ones, like Kyle had done. Maybe even the same, Claire and Thomas were really nice and had told her that she could call them what she wanted. Maybe she could try to think as them as her real parents. It would certainly be nice to have parents.

Then she heard knocking on the front door, followed by Claire shouting for someone to open the door.
She quickly left her room, hoping to be the first one there but when she was halfway down the stairs she saw Kyle open the door or two persons.
A man and a woman, Rose thought they looked familiar but couldn't place them. The woman had pale skin, bright green eyes and flaming red hair, the man was big and had brown eyes and dirty blond hair. They looked really nice. Then the woman spoke up.

"Hi, could we talk with your parents, please."

Kyle nodded and asked them to come inside to wait while he went to get them.
When they were inside he closed the door and walked out of the hallway to find Claire.
The visitors stood there, waiting patiently and talking to each other in a hushed tone until the woman noticed Rose on the stairs.

"Hi there, what's your name?" The woman asked looking directly at Rose.
The man looked up to see who the woman was talking to and when he saw Rose too he smiled encouragingly at her.

Rose answered in a tone that wasn't much more than a whisper. "I'm Rose."

Now the woman smiled broadly. "Hello Rose, my name's Natasha and this is Clint."

Rose smiled back shyly until she connected the names to the feeling that their visitors looked familiar. Then her eyes went wide. "You're members of the Avengers!"

The woman - Natasha – smiled. "Yes, we are."

"Cool!" Rose exclaimed, then she looked at Clint. "You are the archer, Hawkeye?"

He nodded and smiled a bit hesitantly, like he wasn't used to being recognized.

Rose felt the urge to tell him that he should get used to being recognized if he planned on continuing to be a super hero but supressed it. Instead she said "Cool! I loved how you two worked together in New York."

They smiled at Rose and it seemed like they wanted to say something but then the girl bolted back up the stairs and a moment later the boy who had opened the door was back with a woman in tow. The woman introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Claire."

"Natasha Romanoff and this is Clint Barton. We wanted to talk to you but could we do that away from the children for a moment."

Claire nodded and led them to the living room while sending Kyle upstairs.
Rose saw the Avengers follow Claire and wanted to know what they would be talking about but didn't know how to do that until Kyle saw her looking down from the stairs and gestured that she should follow him.
He went to his own room where he looked back at Rose and said.

"My room's directly above the living room. If you put your ear to the ground you can hear what they are saying." Then he laid down and started listening, Rose followed suit and they both tried to hear what was being said downstairs.

"… like to get to know her, it's taken me ten years to get in a position that doesn't put her in constant danger and Child Services granted me permission to take custody of her again. I thought that she could come and stay with me for a few days to decide if she wants to live with me or she'd like to stay here."

"What are you doing?" Their five year old foster brother had entered the room without them noticing and startled them out of their concentration.

"Shit Ethan!" Kyle yelled. "The hell you doing here?"

Ethan began sobbing and Kyle tried to comfort him, trying to make him stop. Rose came closer to try and do the same.
he hugged the boy. "Hey Ethan, it's okay. We were just playing a game and you scared Kyle."

The sixteen year old scowled at her but she shrugged and gave him a look that said 'Don't be a baby.'

Then Ethan spoke up. "Can I play with you?"

"Yeah, sure."

Now all three of them were lying down on the floor and Rose explained Ethan what they were doing.

"We're trying to listen to what they are saying downstairs. You have to be very quiet if you want to hear anything."

Ethan nodded and did 'Shh' to show he understood.

Rose smiled and nodded. Then she put her ear to the ground but she couldn't hear anything.

Kyle shot Rose a questioning look which she understood as that he didn't hear anything either.
Then they heard someone coming up the stairs and they got up quickly as not to show what they had been doing – not that they had understood anything of what had been said – and Rose picked Ethan up too.
He looked upset that he had to stop playing the game but it was only just in time because a moment later the door was opened and Claire came in, followed by Clint and Natasha. Claire looked at Ethan in Rose's arms and raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything about it.
Then she looked at Rose.
"Could you come downstairs for a moment, Rose? These people want to speak with you."

Rose looked confused but nodded, put Ethan down and followed the grownups out of the room.

When they were in the living room Claire spoke up. "I'm gonna give you some privacy and see what those boys are doing." Then she left and the three of them stayed behind.

Natasha was the first to open her mouth and Rose looked at her but no sound came out. Rose didn't know if she should say anything but the fact that she didn't know what was going on was enough to convince her to stay silent. In the end Clint was the first to speak.

"Natasha wanted to tell you something very important." He then looked over at Natasha and saw that she nodded at him to show that was ready for this conversation. "But she should be the one to tell you."

Rose was now even more confused but looked back at Natasha who looked her into the eyes before speaking. "I don't really know how to explain this but maybe it's best to start at the beginning."
Rose nodded. That sounded logic after all.

Natasha sighed and started. "Ten years ago I was training to become an agent for the remains of the KGB in Russia with other girls from the program when we got a new observer. He was liaison from the KGB and a lot of the girls were always gossiping about him because he was young and quite handsome.
At first I didn't see it but then he took an interest in me because I was the best one in the program. We grew close and fell in love. We were together for a few weeks before he disappeared and a few months later I was sent on my first mission.
It was here in the US and during that mission I noticed I was pregnant. I didn't want my child to fall in the hands of the KGB so I made sure no one noticed and had the baby before I finished my mission.
Then I finished my mission but before I went back to Russia I brought my daughter to the child services here.
When I was back in Russia I graduated to become the Black Widow and did missions for a few years before I defected and was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. by Hawkeye. And now I am an Avenger."

Rose had listened to the whole story and was awed by what she had heard. Then she pieced it all together and it clicked. She looked at Natasha curiously.

"Are you saying that you think that I am your daughter?"

Natasha smiled and said "I don't think you are, I know you are." Then she glanced at Clint and when he nodded she looked back at Rose and continued. "What I don't know is if you want to be my daughter. If you want to give me a chance at being your mother."

By now Rose was listening with an open mouth and wide eyes but when she registered what Natasha was asking she nodded frantically before speaking. "Yes, of course. I've always wanted to know who my parents were."

Natasha smiled. "I agreed with your foster parents that you could stay with us for a few days and get to know us. If you want to, of course. Do you want to do that?"

Rose nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I would like that."

She received a real smile in return and smiled back before hugging the woman who was momentarily surprised before she hugged Rose back.

After a minute or so Rose pulled back and was surprised to see Natasha crying. "Why are you crying?" She asked.

Natasha laughed and answered "I'm just happy, really happy to finally meet you. I never dared to hope that I'd get the chance to do so."

Rose saw Clint smile at Natasha's words, but at the same time it was obvious that he felt like he was intruding.

Then Natasha spoke up. "My plan was to take you to spend some time with me and Clint's family on his farm, if that's okay with you?"

"Yeah, sure. Are there other children there?" Rose asked.

Clint snorted. "Yes and believe me they are gonna be happy to meet you. My daughter Lila has been asking for a sister as long as I can remember. And my son Cooper will love to have someone besides his sister to play with." He said with a grin.

"You have children?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, sure I do. And I know they would love to meet their cousin."

"Their cousin? Are you two siblings or something like that?"

Natasha snickered. "Something like that. But his children call me their aunt so that makes you their cousin. Do you want to meet them?"

"Yes. When do we leave?" Rose answered, sure of her decision.

The two adults laughed at the determination written on her face and Natasha said "Why don't you go pack whatever you want to take with you and say goodbye to everyone here and when that's done we can leave."

Rose smiled broadly and raced out of the room towards her bedroom to do just that.

So this was the prologue to this fic, hope you like it (please let me know if you do) and I'll post the first chapter as soon as I can.