Natasha watched the girl intimately. She watched her chest rise and fall evenly. She told them she was just watching her, like the others. Honestly though, that was far away from the truth. She watched the girl to make sure she lived. She watched her chest to make sure her lungs would pull enough oxygen into her. She watched her hours on end not moving, not even when she lost feeling to her left leg three hours ago. She wanted to know why.
Why was this little girl so important to her?
She felt that she needed to protect this child. Every fiber in her badly bruised body screamed at her to protect her and never let her get hurt. But when they found her after two weeks of hair pulling and a redhead locking herself in her room, her body began to burn. Every inch of her skin burned from the pain she had to see on the poor little blond. Her heart broke into two when Steve emerged into the sunny day with her broken body limp in his arms. She cried in front of her team, she didn't work out, she didn't eat, she just watched the child recover. Because every bruise that would fade the burning sensation would die a little more. But her heart will stay broken forever, she thought looking at the heart rate monitor to the right of her.
She heard the door creak and she snapped her head to the left. The figure that emerged was carrying a tray with homemade Pepper food. She looked up to the figures eyes, Tony stood there shifting slightly onto his left leg. She noticed he was waiting for her to say something, instead she pushed her hands from her side and took the tray placing it on the round table beside her.
"I feel like I should have done more," Tony broke the silence but never once looked at Natasha. "I should have stayed up long with Steve, I should have canceled all my meetings, I should-"
"You did what you could," Natasha turned to the man but she didn't move, "We don't know what we found there. It wasn't human, they weren't human." She shook her head at the memory of the creatures they walked into. They head two arms that reached to the floor, a skull stretch too long and squished to tight. Their eye sockets were empty and too large for their faces. Their back legs resembled a wolf's but they stood almost nine feet tall on them. Their body was a brownish-grey color and their backs were badly hunched over. Their mouths were appeared to be forced open exposing a black hole behind jagged shark like teeth.
"It burns ya know."
"What?"
"When I see her, my skin, it burns, but when I walk away it doesn't hurt as bad. But there is a heavy feeling in my chest that is always suffocation me. When I saw her, I think my heart shattered."
She looked at him shocked, "Your skin? It burns also?" This time he turned and looked at her.
"What does yours?" She nodded looking back at the girl who took a deep breath.
"Maybe it's her," Bruce commented making the two of them jump. They looked back at the doctor who looked over tired and half starved. He sat at the end of the bed avoiding the girl's body. He looked at her with a frown upon his face. She had been sleeping almost nonstop the past two days. Though it was expected, he wished she would be awake longer so he can just talk to her. He came in at night after Natasha had fallen asleep and talked to her. Anything that he could think of. The news, space, food, Thor, Languages, her health, urban legends. He would sit there and talk himself to sleep waking up to himself covered with a blanket and a pillow under his head. He suspected it was Natasha but he was finding out many people came to visit her whenever that it was a crap shoot.
"I get the same thing," he pulled his thoughts back to the present. "When I'm around her my skin burns, but when I'm away I feel like I'm never getting enough air. Steve is the same way."
Not saying anything they watched the girl sleep. The men left the room hours later, mumbling something but Natasha ignored them. When she heard the door clicked close she bowed her head. Tears slowly dripped onto her sleeve. Not making a sound she looked up, shaking the hair out of her face. She sniffled, her nose red and eyes puffy, but refused bawl. She moved to the bedside placing her hand on the girl's small frail hand she broke down. Resting her head on the bed beside her, she cried into the mattress.
This little girl had nothing, no parents, no family, no home, and no nothing. Yet she kept moving on. How the girl could manage the spy would never know. She tried so hard to be as strong as this girl has been. She tried for years, and this little gem, comes along and manages it within her 7 year life span. But the spy knew, this girl lived in a different world than her. Her life is different than hers. Thinking back, she thought she had it bad in the Red Room. She was wrong, so very wrong.
"You are perfect," She whispered into the blonde's ear. "You are my perfect little gem. So precious and so rare. So hard to find the right one, the one that everyone can fall in love with. But you were the lucky one; you're the Princess Diana wedding ring." Natasha didn't know if the girl would wake up. Not from the reports on the test that they ran. But if she didn't, Natasha would make sure she knew she was loved and cared for. That she was the perfect thing in the world.