Sunlight filtered through the curtains causing Clint to roll over to block out the light, well he tried to roll over, but found he had a certain sleeping redhead curled up at his side. Clint gently, as not to wake her, brushed the red curls off her face and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. When Natasha was asleep, truly asleep, not just faking, or half asleep waiting for an attack, all her masks dropped and she looked the most peaceful. Waking up with Natasha next to him gave him a reassuring sense of familiarity. In the early days of their partnership it was how they built up their trust in each other, Clint would come to her every time she had a nightmare about her time in the Red Room or about Lena and eventually she started to come to him when he had his nightmares about his time as a sniper in Afghanistan. It had only been after the incident with Loki and the nightmares that followed, that Natasha stopped even pretending to go to sleep in the room Stark had assigned to her, in the new Avenger's Tower and just stayed in his room, helping him to get through the night.

There was a knock on the door, which caused Clint to sit bolt upright, waking up Natasha in the process.

'Urgh' she mumbled, before rolling over and burying herself under the covers.

Clint just chuckled at his partner's actions before getting out of bed, throwing on some clothes and walking over to the door to find out what he person who was still knocking wanted – it better not be Stark.

'What do you want? Oh Agent Hill' he remarked noticing that it was a brunette haired agent, rather than a multimillionaire, playboy, philanthropist, knocking on his door.

'Agent Barton, have you seen Agent Romanoff?' she asked. 'She's not in the infirmary or in her room. It's just that the girls are waking up soon and we thought that it might be advisable to have her on hand, in case the girls react badly to their new environment. Oh' she remarked, noticing the red-haired agent, sitting up on the bed behind Clint, having heard her name being mentioned

'I'll be out in five minutes' Natasha stated to the now baffled agent.

Exactly five minutes on the dot, Agent Maria Hill was greeted by the sight of Agents Barton and Romanoff, emerging from the former's room, acting like nothing was odd. Maria tried to mask her look of bemusement at the fact that just a couple of minutes ago these two agents had been sharing the same bed (which was technically against S.H.I.E.L.D regulations) and now they were standing next to each other, wearing what Maria liked to call their 'business' faces, showing no emotions. 'Right, if you would follow me' she stated leading them through the corridors towards where the girls were being held.

'Where's Fury?' Natasha asked as they walked at a briskly, ignoring the curious looks her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D agents were giving her. Just over four days ago they had seen a battered Agent Barton rush into the infirmary with an unconscious, pale, Agent Romanoff cradled in his arms and now she was up walking around like she hadn't been out for three days. Clint chuckled at their curious faces, knowing that they were wondering if Natasha had super human healing powers and whilst the scientists during her time in the Black Widow Program had increased her immune system, she was still normal. The curious agents just didn't know that the best way for Natasha to heal was to have a good night's sleep.

'He's not at Headquarters at the moment' Hill replied striding ahead.

'Oh' was Natasha's only reply, though Clint saw an angry look pass across his partner's face. He knew that she wanted to have some words with Director Fury.

'So what is going to happen to the girls?' Clint asked as they neared the infirmary.

'Well with the younger ones, we've managed to secure them places with some S.H.I.E.L.D trusted families, who should be able to help them readjust to life here in America and the older one-'

'Irina' Natasha interjected

'Yes, well we're giving her a choice'

'And what about Elena?' Clint asked for his partner

'Elena?' Agent Hill asked, wondering which one of the six younger girls that was

'The youngest one, the one with bright red hair' Clint explained

'She'll be going with the other girls' Hill replied, wondering why Agent Romanoff had suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as they walked the through the door to the Infirmary

'She can't,she's my daughter' Agent Hill heard Agent Romanoff whisper just before they were greeted by one of the S.H.I.E.L.D doctors.

'Ah, Agent Romanoff, I'm so glad to see you're here, we need your help. Waking up the girls has proved as simple as expected.'

'How come?' Natasha asked as the bald haired doctor led her into one of the rooms containing two girls.

'Agent Romanoff, out of bed without permission I see' came the patronising tone of Doctor Michaels, who clashed with Natasha frequently, walking up to them.

'Well I heard you need my help' Natasha replied coolly.

'Well, when we wake the girls up, they start screaming, kicking and thrashing around whilst saying things we just can't understand' the Doctor replied 'so we have to sedate them again, which is not really ideal.

'Well are you surprised?' Natasha asked, watching as the team of Doctors began to wake up the small girl to the left side of the room. 'You remember what I was like when I first came in?'

'Yes, but you weren't as vocal' Dr Michaels responded as the girl emitted an ear splitting scream.

'If you had been prodded, poked, jabbed and experimented on all your life, you would be afraid of doctors, needles and people wearing white lab coats in general, as well' Natasha stated before running towards the girl, hoping to calm her down, before the doctors had to sedate her, before she caused herself any harm.

As Natasha neared the hospital bed, leaving her partner to be berated by Dr Michaels for helping her escape the clutches of the infirmary last night, she realised that the girl in the bed was one of the identical twins so she hastily looked to see if she was the one with a birthmark on the right side of her neck, the only way to tell them apart.

'Anya, Anya' she whispered after working out who the brithmark-less twin was. 'Anya, these people aren't here to hurt you, they are here to help you. You're are safe now' she stated gently in Russian, placing a calming hand on the girl's shoulder 'bezopasnyi'

'Bezopasnyi?' Anya repeated, calming down. 'Ms Romanova is that you, where am I?' she asked looking up at the red haired woman who was standing over her.

'Yes it's me Anya' Natasha replied. 'You're in America, in the headquarters for the Agency I work for'

'Where's Sasha?' the small girl asked, sitting up and looking around for her twin.

'Where's this girl's twin?' Natasha asked Dr Michaels quickly 'The dark haired girl, with an obvious birthmark on her neck' she elaborated as the doctor looked at her blankly.

'She's next door, with the child with the broken ankle'

'Kira' Clint supplied, remembering the girl he had had to carry out on his back

'She's fine, she's next door' Natasha repeated, reassuring Anya in Russian.

'What is going to happen to us now?' Anya asked Natasha as the doctors began to check her over

'You're going to go somewhere safe, somewhere you can be normal and have a childhood' Natasha replied, holding the small girl's hand.

'Is Sasha going to go with me?'

'Yes' Natasha replied firmly, making a mental note to tell Agent Hill not to split the twins up

'And I don't have to fight anymore, no more guns or blood'

'No, not if you don't want to'

'And what happened to Mr Yusupov?' she asked anxiously. 'Is he going to come and make me do all those things again'

'No' Natasha replied 'I killed him, so he can never hurt you again'

'Ty obeshchaesh?'

'Ya obeshchayu'

By midmorning, when she had spent the past couple of hours, repeating the same routine every time they woke up one of the girls, Natasha was exhausted and all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed, preferably with Clint at her side. Therefore she was thankful to find that when she opened the door to Irina's room, the fifteen year old blonde haired Russian was not only awake, but sitting up reading some documents.

'How are you?' Natasha asked in Russian as she entered the room.

'I'm ok thanks' Irina replied looking up from the documents she was reading

'What are you reading?' Natasha asked curiously sitting down in the plastic seat next to Irina's bed.

'Just some stuff about the options S.H.I.E.L.D are giving me' Irina replied.

'But I thought that they had not discussed them with you yet?' Natasha asked puzzled

'They haven't, but your friend or teammate, Mr Stark, left them for me. He said I should know what was going on'

'Trust Tony to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's data base as soon as he gets back from a mission' Natasha muttered, before taking a closer look at the documents. 'They're in English' she commented.

'I can read and understand English quite well' Irina replied 'I'm just not very good at speaking it. The other girl's aren't so good, some better than others.'

'So what are the options they are giving you?' Natasha asked 'Agent Hill didn't say'

'Well I can either go with the younger girls or go through an extensive psychoanalysis test and join the S.H.I.E.L.D agent training program, or if I want I can go back to Russia'

'And what do you want to do?' Natasha asked curiously

'I don't know in the long term' Irina replied 'I can't imagine not training and fighting every day, but right now, I want to go back and find out what happened to my family and if they all perished in the fire Boris saved me from, or if some of them, my brother, my mother or even my grandparents are still alive. Gain a bit of closure, before I try and move on'

'You know that it was unlikely that no one survived that fire' Natasha replied 'Boris was always extremely efficient'

'I know, but I can hope that there is some trace of them left' Irina stated 'I was told that you killed Boris'

'Yes'

'Was it hard?' Irina asked curiously

'One of the easiest kills I've had in my life' Natasha replied, a satisfied smirk appearing on her face 'I made sure he paid for what he did to all of you'

'What are you going to do with Elena?' Irina suddenly asked 'I worked out that she must be your daughter'

'I don't know' Natasha told the younger girl honestly 'but I know that I'm not going to lose her again'

'Good luck Ms Romanova' Irina stated as Natasha stood up to leave the room

'And to you as well Irina' she replied before closing the door behind her, to leave the fifteen year old to her thoughts.

'How was Irina?' Clint asked as he handed Natasha an energy bar, knowing without asking that she was hungry.

'Recovering and working out what do do next' she replied, devouring the bar eagerly. 'Oh, that was so much better than kasha' she remarked as she took another one off Clint. 'Well, actually anything is better than kasha'

'They are about to wake up Elena' Clint stated as he led Natasha towards the room Elena had been put in, which was separate from the rest of the girls, because she had needed more medical attention than they did.

' O Bozhe' Natasha gasped as she entered the room and saw her small daughter, lying in the bed, her bright red curls standing out it stark contrast to the whiteness of the sheets, fanning out around her head on the pillow like a fiery halo.

'It's going to be alright Tasha' Clint whispered to his partner, reaching down to squeeze her had reassuringly as she approached her daughter. 'Oh, you might want this' he stated, handing her the locket which contained a picture of her holding a baby Lena 'the medics took it off you when they brought you in' he explained

'Thank you' she whispered, clasping it around her neck, where it belonged. She sat down in the chair next to her daughter's bed as the doctors began to wake Elena up.

Natasha held her breath as Elena's eyelids started to flicker and she wondered if Elena would remember who she was.

'Mumiya' Elena whispered, as her blue eyes found her mothers, putting a stop to Natasha's fears and reaching up to touch Natasha's face

'Lenochka' Natasha replied placing a kiss to the top of her head and caressing her daughter's cheek 'I'm here'

A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out, but real life unfortunately took over. I hope you like this chapter and hopefully the next one will be up much sooner than this one was!

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I've reached 50 reviews!

Cherry :)

Translations

Bezopasnyi - Safe

'Ty obeshchaesh?' - Do you promise?

'Ya obeshchayu' - I promise

' O Bozhe' - Oh God

'Mumiya' - Mummy

'Lenochka' - Little Lena