Chapter 1. Sestrenka

It wasn't often that Natasha Romanoff found her thoughts drifting from whatever task was at hand, especially during important discussions such as the dismantling of the remainder of Hydra, but despite the cool mask of quiet concentration on the redhead's face, her mind was far afield from anything the Avengers (minus Thor), plus Sam Wilson and a penitent Bucky Barnes, were saying. This was the latest in a long series of on-going meetings at the newly-christened Avengers Tower and Natasha was reminiscing on how she had gotten to this point. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't exist anymore because of me, she thought wryly. The Russian assassin pondered how she felt about that, if she felt anything at all.

After Clint made a different call when he was sent to kill her all those years ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. had offered her the chance to wipe the red from her ledger and she jumped at it, tired of fighting the KGB's battles. If you had asked her if she would ever help take down the secret organization she would eventually call home, she would have laughed in your face… or shot it, more than likely. S.H.I.E.L.D. became the family she never knew and never knew she wanted, and it was all in due-part because of a select group of talented agents who welcomed her with open arms—well, most of them; maybe not Fury. Regardless, Fury, Coulson, Barton and Kat became the four most important people in her life. Natasha hadn't thought about Kat in a while. The woman who had been her mentor in many ways had disappeared from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar several years ago desperately seeking some time to herself and now, for the first time in a long time, Natasha wondered where she was, if she was all right, if she knew what had happened.

A phone ringing startled her from her thoughts before she realized with concealed abject horror that it was hers. Steve stopped talking and everyone turned to stare at her, but Natasha took it all in stride, wondering who could possibly want to talk to her that wasn't in this room. A glance at the caller ID told her it was a hospital in Washington, D.C. and she frowned. What could a hospital want with me? Stomach clenching with forboding, Natasha looked back up at the table's occupants and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, boys, but I need to take this," and with that, she stood up and walked out of the room for privacy, but not before she heard Tony take offense to her calling them 'boys.'

"Hello?" she answered the phone once the door clicked shut behind her.

A nervous female voice greeted her. "Uh… hi… sorry… this is a bit weird… um… I'm Amy Miller; I'm a nurse here at George Washington University Hospital… is this 'sestrenka'? I'm calling on behalf of a patient who goes by… err… 'starshaya sestra'? She refused to give me any real names, but listed this number as her emergency contact."

Natasha stiffened as she listened to the nurse fumble over her words. Just as she was wondering where she was… "This is sestrenka," she cut the nurse off, finding the woman's ramblings grating her nerves. "What's happened?"

There was a sigh of relief on the other end. "Oh, thank goodness; I wasn't sure if I'd have any luck since I didn't have your real name; it's all a little fishy to me. Umm… so… umm… starshaya sestra was involved in some kind of… explosion three days ago. She was brought in with numerous injuries—four cracked ribs, a concussion, massive internal bleeding and numerous scrapes and cuts. We had to operate to stop the bleeding, but she's in stable condition now and just woke up a couple of hours ago, which is incredible; I've never seen anything like it. She's certainly a fighter; most people would be in a coma… or worse. Oh, hold on… I was also told to tell you that and I quote 'under no circumstance is Tony to know about this.' Does that mean anything to you? Ummm… Are you still there?"

Natasha let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and struggled to get her next words out. "I'm still here. Thank you for informing me; I'll be there as soon as I can." She didn't give the nurse a chance to respond before hanging up. If her thoughts were drifting before, they were running rampant now. What was going on? Natasha didn't like the feeling of not knowing, but one thing she did know for certain—she need to get to D.C… fast.

Schooling her features, she headed back into the meeting room with a grim determination. The second Natasha entered, all eyes were back on her and the conversation petered out. "Hey, fellas. Hate to do this, but I've just been called to D.C. on an urgent request from Fury," she lied; there was no request from Fury and she most definitely felt no remorse for leaving.

"That was Fury?" Steve intoned dubiously; the man had little trust for the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. these days and certainly didn't like that the super spy still took orders from him.

Natasha nodded. "Barton, Fury said he wanted you with me; we leave now." Clint didn't need to be told twice and stood up immediately and started making his way to the door.

"Hang on," America's golden boy ground out in frustration. "We're having an important discussion on taking down the rest of Hydra; you can't just leave in the middle of it."

"Watch me, Rogers," Natasha bit out. "Besides, hate to break it to you, but we were getting nowhere. It would be better to table this discussion for another day." Just try and stop me; I'll make you regret it.

"She's got a point, man," Sam chimed in remorsefully. "We're runnin' in circles right now; maybe we should take a break, get our thoughts together."

Steve looked to Bruce and Tony, who had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire exchange, and both seemed to be in agreement with Sam and Natasha. He turned to Bucky, who looked blankly at him from under his dark curtain of hair and shrugged. Well, that was helpful. The Captain sighed and hung his head in defeat. "Fine. We'll continue this discussion later." He turned to Natasha again and gave her a stern look, "And then you're going to tell me exactly what Fury thinks is so important that you need to leave in the middle of a team meeting."

Natasha smirked when a stroke of genius hit her; she really ought to pat herself on the back. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she quipped, "I'll do you one better, Rogers; I'll show you. Bring Bucky with you; you'll both want to see this."

Tony could contain himself no longer as Steve and Bucky started to get up, confused expressions written on their faces, but not about to dismiss a golden opportunity to get information when it was presented to them. "Hey, if we're going on a field trip, I want in."

'Under no circumstance is Tony to know about this.' The nurse's words weren't lost on Natasha; Tony could not come. "No can do, Stark; you'll draw unwanted attention."

"Oh, what? And he won't?" Tony returned, pointing at the world's first super soldier.

"It doesn't matter, Tony; I can't risk you coming. This relates directly to Steve and Bucky, so I'm throwing them a bone and letting them in on this; Fury will have my head if you come too."

"Oh, don't even get me started on how you're still taking orders from Mad-Eye Moody."

"The answer's still 'no.' Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go. Rogers, Barnes, if you're coming, we leave now. I've already wasted enough time with this pointless conversation," Natasha said coldly and turned to leave the room all lethal grace. Clint gave a nod to the rest of the room's occupants and followed her out the door, Steve and Bucky right behind him.

"Do we know what just happened?" It was the first thing Bruce had said this entire time.

"Nope," the other two replied.

"Okay. Just checking."


Author's Note

Russian translation

Sestrenka: little sister

Starshaya sestra: big sister

Hope you enjoyed! Who could this mysterious Kat be? And what does she have to do with Steve and Bucky? Until next time!