AN: I apologise for the wait! I have trouble keeping to deadlines with writing and I've had exams to revise for lately haha, I'll get to work on chapter 3 soon enough! Thank you all for waiting! :3 Also, who do you think the mysterious persona is at the end? Let me know who you think it is ;)
The room is white when I wake up again but something's different… And I can't quite understand what's so different. It dawns on me when I try to move and find myself completely free, no ropes or chains to bind me down. I suddenly see someone above me who looks like a doctor and I frown, realising I'm back in Shield but why? And how the hell did I end up back here? I think back over the last few months… And find nothing. Just a single memory of being taken by Hydra, kidnapped from my own house. I don't feel safe anymore, not here, not anywhere. It hurts to even think about what could've happened over the past few months.
I push away the doctors and sit up carefully, letting out a soft whimper as I feel a pain shoot through my entire body. I groan gently and run a hand through my hair carefully as I bite my lip gently and suppress the rest of my groans and whimpers. It's hard but I manage to. I don't care about the pain; I just want to find out what happened in the months that I can't remember anything about. My mind flickers back to those months as I try to recall what happened to me. There's a sudden shot of pain through my body and it takes away the breath I didn't realise I was holding in.
I don't even realise there are tears in my eyes until there's one falling down my cheek. I can feel hair on my back and I pull it forward over my shoulder, looking at it intently. It's grown since I was last awake, leaving me to wonder how long I was out for; clearly I've been out for months. I know my own hair; it wouldn't just grow out like that. As I allow a sigh to escape my lips, the door opens and my head shoots up. Stood in the doorway is Clint, and all I want to do is run up to him and hold onto him as tight as I can.
Instead I just stand and stare, just watching him carefully. He stares at me too, just taking in my appearance and I just assume he's weirded out by the fact that I'm awake; most likely at least, I think. I'm just fuming that he never seemed to care. Well, it wasn't him who found me… Or was he? Curse whoever fucking stole my memories. I stand up slowly and don't remove my gaze from him. I can't trust him enough to even look away, let alone touch me. I gulp softly and run a hand through my hair with a brief sigh.
"What happened?" I ask and swallow thickly as I watch his reaction and take a deep breath. It seems as though the awkwardness just fills the room and doesn't leave. It pains to even look at him as he looks right back at me and I can tell just by the look on his face that he's figuring out the best way to tell me. It makes me even more nervous for the answer. I gulp softly and watch as he moves to sit opposite me, taking my hand in his. My brows knit into a frown as I observe him. It's not like Barton to be so quiet, to be so calculating.
"How far back can you remember?" The question startles me and I frown, trying to think back to the last thing I remember. It takes me a while and when I finally remember, his face has grown concerned as he's watched me struggle to remember. "10 months Tasha. You've been gone for 10 months. Little under actually, but hey ho." I gulp at his tone and I blink several times before I rub my head and try to think back to the last thing I actually remember.
"A party…" It comes to me suddenly and I look at him. "We were having a sort of party… more of get together…" I say softly and furrow my eyebrows further.
"Yeah… we were," he replies softly. "Your birthday, do you remember?" I look at him and nod quietly, gulping softly. The gulp gets caught in my throat and it threatens to release tears from my eyes. I quickly gasp for a bit of air, almost as if I'm trying to wash down the gulp. When it finally calms down, I look at him quietly.
"Who took me?"
"Who do you think? Hydra." His grip seems to tighten on my hands and I nod, moving closer to him more for his comfort than mine.
"Right," I say softly. "Any idea what they wanted?" I hated this, not being able to remember anything is a damn pain in the ass. I let out a sigh and close my eyes as I lean forward and he instantly takes the signal to let me rest upon his shoulder. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and I feel his head move a little, which way – I'm not sure until he speaks.
"The doctors… found evidence of… of a foetus in your womb Nat." His voice is soft, seeming to break it to me calmly but it doesn't work. As calm as I look on the outside, I can't hide the shivers that run through my body. My own voice is cold, full of hatred and shaky as I reply,
"What?" It's sharp. I don't want to believe it.
"I mean, how is that even possible?" I don't want to think about it. How is it even possible? "I thought, they like sterilised you." He's blunt, as usual. It's nothing new to me but I'd appreciate some sort of sugar coating.
"So did I…" It's soft and I'm trying to hide the break in my voice. A child? Perhaps. "What else did the doctors find?" I want to know. I need to know.
"They… uhh… Nat, they found traces of newly torn muscle… As in muscle torn when you go into labour…" He's slow at getting to the point after being so blunt and honestly, I just feel like grabbing him around his collar and shaking it out of him, but I know I can't. For one, I'm too tired.
"Just get to it." I'm half snapping now. Great. I guess the hormones caught up to me too late.
"Nat, they're saying you gave birth about two weeks ago… You shouldn't even be up on your feet so soon." I can hear him but the words don't register in my brain. All I can think about is my child… my two week old child. I frown and push away from him quickly, stumbling over to the nearest bucket and gripping the sides of it tightly as I throw up the contents of my stomach. I can feel Clint behind me, pulling my hair back as he rubs my back. I'm trembling and heaving, it's not exactly attractive.
I begin to calm down, firstly pulling away from the bucket and sitting in front of it, still heaving. It's a slow process but I finally look at him, panic in my facial expression as I try to hold back tears. It's unbelievable how this happened, and I just want answers… that's all I want. "Do we have anything else?" My voice is tight and strained, I don't want to believe any of it, yet I find myself falling more and more in love with this child I had given birth to but never met. It almost felt, protective. It's at that moment that I realise, I have become a mother and I can't let anything else happen to this child.
"Given that she's not with you, Hydra have her… Coulson's working on a way to infiltrate the building and get her back."
"Coulson knows?" I stare at him. Gods, what do they think of me now? Being taken by Hydra only to come out with a child at the other end.
"Nat… the team knows… Fury too, and Hill. But other than that, no one else knows." I let out a breath and run my hands through my hair, pulling at the strands.
"Right… So what do we do?" I ask him, our attention only on each other. We're so focussed that neither of us notices the figure in the doorway.
"I believe I can help."