A/N: Hi, yes, me again, with another tardy update. I fail, I know, I'm sorry, bUT GUYS I FINALLY DID IT I WROTE THE RED ROOM ONE THAT I KEPT BRINGING UP WITH NAT AND MAGGIE HAVING TO RUN AWAY I FINALLY DID IT GUYS I AM SO HAPPY
AFTER SITTING ON THIS IDEA FOR MONTHS AND WRITING AND RE-WRITING IT DIFFERENT WAYS DIFFERENT TIMES I DID IT so sorry if you guys don't like it but I FEEL LIKE I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING so let's hope it's good
This one feels different than any of the other things I've written before. There's actually, like, action in this one, which is very unfamiliar territory for me to explore in writing! So I apologize for any fails there XD
trigger warning for violence (specifically, awkwardly written fight scenes and a child panicking whilst trying to save her mother from bleeding out)
As always, thank ye kindly for the faves, follows, and reviews! You are all my heroes~
Natasha was nothing if not a spy.
In fact, despite what people might have thought, motherhood strengthened her - she fought harder than ever before on missions. She had a reason to protect and save the world now, aside from just being one of its inhabitants. She even had someone to go home to.
So, really, the men outside her house trying to be quiet were failing. Badly.
Natasha thanked her lucky stars Maggie had yet to break her co-sleeping habits while Steve was away.
Hearing more shuffling outside and a quiet voice barking orders, Natasha immediately jumped out of bed.
"Maggie, Лапушка, get up, we have to go." She whispered fiercely as she shook her sleeping daughter awake.
"Hmm?" Maggie mumbled a sleepy reply, looking up at Natasha with a tired, questioning look.
"We have to get up and leave right now, okay?" Natasha managed to keep her voice calm and collected, as she collected the tired girl into her arms. Luckily, Maggie had inherited Natasha's small frame, so she was still relatively light at age six.
"Mama? Why are we leaving?" Maggie asks curiously as Natasha settled her daughter on her hip and grabbed her Widow's Bites. Natasha debated grabbing other weapons and supplies, but the sound of footsteps in the living room indicated they were a bit pressed for time.
"Is Daddy home?" Maggie innocently inquired as the sound of footsteps continued. Natasha shook her head and placed a finger over her lips, gesturing for Maggie to be quiet.
"There are bad guys around, Maggie. We have to go." Natasha quietly explained as she opened the large window that faced the backyard. "I promise, I'll protect you."
Natasha managed to time their flight from the master bedroom perfectly, as most of the suspicious men were inside the house. There were a few remaining men stalking around outside, but Natasha mentally made a quick and efficient plan to take them out. She carried the confused Maggie over to a bush on the side of the house.
"Okay, Maggie, I'm going to put you down for one second, okay? Just stay right here, and if someone comes, yell for me." Natasha really hated having to do this, but she knew she couldn't take on three men and carry a six year old at the same time. Not to mention, if she left Maggie out in the open, who knows what one of these mysterious attackers might do?
"O-okay…" Maggie stammered, clearly not on board with Natasha's plan.
"I will be back in two seconds, I promise." Natasha swore, setting Maggie down between the bush and the house. "Remember, be extra quiet. Unless someone comes over here and sees you. I'll be right back."
Before Maggie could say another word, Natasha whipped around and ran out into the open in front of the house. The young redhead watched as her mother swiftly incapacitated one, and took the next one down with barely any more effort. Maggie then heard the remaining man yelling in what she identified to be Russian - Natasha had talked to her enough in it, that Maggie could understand what she was saying, even though she couldn't speak it herself - but Natasha took him down with a Widow's Bite to the neck. Under normal circumstances, Maggie would have cheered for her.
Natasha rushed back over, and swiftly pulled Maggie back into her arms. "There. Told you I'd be back." The spy murmured with a small smile as Maggie wrapped her arms around her mother's neck.
"That was so fast!" Maggie commented, wide-eyed and amazed at her mother's skill. "Can we go back inside now?"
Natasha shook her head as she turned on her heel and sped-walked down the residential street. "No. There are too many men inside the house, we have to stay away for now." She explained, repeatedly glancing over her shoulder for signs of trouble.
"Who were they?"
Natasha hesitated in her answer, not believing it to be the proper time nor place for that discussion. "Bad guys from Russia that don't really like me very much. It's from a long time ago." She brushed the question off.
"Oh. Where are we going?" Maggie inquired, apparently appeased by Natasha's answer.
"We're going to go to one of my secret bases. You know, the ones I always mention in my stories?" Natasha fought to keep the mood calm as she turned down a random street.
"How will we get there? Can we walk?" Maggie continued curiously.
"No, we'll have to drive. I'll have to borrow this person's car." Natasha stopped beside a car parked on the side of the street.
"Mama! Stealing cars is illegal!" Maggie squirmed in protest, eyeing her mother with a serious gaze. "Uncle Nick can arrest you!"
"While Uncle Nick may be able to arrest people, it is okay to bend the rules in dire circumstances." Natasha returned as she walked around to the driver's side, and set Maggie down on the pavement. "I know you're barefoot and it's kinda gross, but I just need you to stand there for a little bit while I get the car going."
Maggie crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Natasha break into the car. Throughout the entire process (which only took a few minutes, but felt like an eternity to both redheads), Natasha couldn't help but feel that her daughter was silently judging her. Years later when Maggie was more mature and would definitely do that, Natasha would laugh at the thought crossing her mind that night.
"There we go." Natasha breathed a sigh of relief as the car started.
"Woohoo." Maggie cheered unenthusiastically with a yawn.
"Alright, in you go." Natasha picked her daughter up as she got into the car, and passed her over into the passenger's seat.
"Whoa! I get to sit in the front?!" Maggie looked awake and excited all of a sudden.
Natasha chuckled as she buckled both of their seat belts. "It's a bit of a… Special occasion. I think a little more rule bending is okay." She replied as she put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb.
"Will we give this person their car back?" Maggie asked worriedly as she watched the presumed owner's house get smaller as they moved further away.
"They'll get it back, don't worry." Natasha offered her daughter a small smile. "Now, then, you can go back to sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there."
Maggie yawned, apparently tired again, and nodded sleepily. She settled back against the large seat, her eyes drooping closed immediately.
"Goodnight, sweetheart. I love you." Natasha whispered under her breath in Russian. "And I'm so sorry."
Of course Natasha knew who was after them. It was obvious, especially once she saw the men and heard them speak. But, really, it was a predictable move.
She always knew her past would catch up with her someday, but raising Maggie for six years had proven to be quite the distraction from her old gloomy thoughts. She silently berated herself for forgetting how vulnerable Maggie was, just by her relation to Natasha. It was only natural that the Red Room - the evil place Natasha had been trained and abused at for her entire childhood - would be after her daughter, especially considering the fact that Maggie carried the super soldier serum in her blood. Natasha always had a feeling that genetic trait would prove to be a burden in some way, and this seemed to be their first real trouble with it.
To make things worse, Maggie still didn't know Natasha's origin story. She knew that the spy had originally grown up in Russia, and… That was about it. Oh, and that the first person she had met working for S.H.I.E.L.D. had been Clint. That was it.
It wasn't that Natasha was never going to tell her; she had full intentions to tell Maggie the truth someday. The keyword being someday. Not when she was six. Natasha was thinking more like sixteen.
And if older Maggie were to ask something specific about anything relating to Natasha's past, Natasha had already decided she would answer the question to the extent she believed to be appropriate. Obviously, all those carefully thought out psychological strategies were now useless. Maggie deserved an explanation as to why she was being hunted down with her mother while her father was absent.
Suddenly, Natasha jumped at the memory of Steve. Steve! He had no idea what was going on!
She quickly resolved the issue by deciding to contact him through an encrypted phone line she had set up years ago for missions gone wrong. The poor guy was due back home that night, too; he would be coming home to an empty house, or even worse - walk right into a trap. Natasha swallowed nervously, knowing she had to remain objective and remember that Steve could handle himself, should things turn physical.
And in the worst case scenario, Natasha knew that between herself and Steve, there was a silent agreement to always put Maggie's life first.
Natasha drove to a remote safe house just outside of the DC area. She had kept the place well-stocked after she moved in with Steve in the nation's capital, since that resulted in her being in the vicinity of DC most of the time, increasing her chances of being in danger whilst there. Even after Maggie was born, Natasha still visited her secret location to replenish her supplies there, including clothes of random sizes for Maggie, just in case.
Obviously, Natasha had never wanted to have to run away here with her daughter, but that would be a very optimistic thing of her to think. She wasn't much of an optimist nor pessimist, really; she was a realist, and being realistic meant acknowledging that bringing a child up in this world would be no walk in the park, considering her daughter's parentage and relations.
She parked the car about a few miles away from the location to avoid anyone finding them through the tracking of the car. Though the house was relatively isolated, it wasn't the only one in the area, so it would take someone a while to find the thief of the stolen car once they found it.
Natasha wasted no time in unbuckling both hers and Maggie's seatbelts and pulling Maggie over into her lap. The shift caused Maggie to stir a little, but Natasha promptly shushed her and managed to lull her back to sleep while getting out of the car.
We're almost there. Natasha breathed a tentative sigh of relief as she started the long walk, shifting Maggie into a more comfortable position to hold at her hip. Maggie had wrapped her arms around Natasha's neck and laid her head against her shoulder in her sleep, making Natasha smile a tiny bit.
The hike took a while, as expected. It was a rural place (fabulous to walk through on barefoot, but she could handle it), reminding her of the "cave" (as Fury so affectionately called it) that she had hid out in with Steve, Sam, Hill, and Fury before taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA at the Triskelion. Oh, she marveled, how much simpler things were then. World crisis? Okay, get a handful of Avengers, and they'll have it contained. Simple. Now, though? World crisis? Hold that thought, my daughter has a playdate until three and dance lessons from four to five, and, oh, wait, we agreed to watch a movie tonight, maybe tomorrow? Oh, wait, no, she has a birthday party to go to and then we were going to go check out this new restaurant, ah, screw it, can you please just try to hold off on taking over the world until next week (preferably not on a school night because bedtime stories are mandatory)?
Natasha couldn't help but silently chuckle to herself at her mental banter. Really, though, she loved Maggie more than anything or anyone, and was eternally grateful for her being in her life. Sure, it could complicate things and make the job a bit harder, but it was definitely worth all that and more. Natasha never even thought she could love someone that much. Of course, her relationship with Steve had been a shocker to herself, but Maggie practically turned her mother's entire world upside down and reformed it with how much love Natasha was feeling both for and from her daughter.
"Mama?" Came Maggie's tired voice, pulling Natasha from her thoughts. The spy didn't stop walking, but shifted the hand she had on Maggie's back just a bit to indicate she was aware of her awakening.
"Yeah, Лапушка?" Natasha whispered back, trying to sound as casual as possible and not like they were walking through the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.
"Where are we? Why is it so dark?" Maggie's voice trembled a bit with the second question, and she tightened her hold on Natasha.
Natasha slowly rubbed her back in reply. "We are on our way to one of my secret bases, remember? It's really late, so it's still dark outside. I left the car out in the open so the owner can come find it tomorrow morning." She hoped that statement would appease the young girl's previous worries.
Luckily, it did. "Oh, okay, good. I hope they look for it here, then." Maggie yawned, laying her head upon Natasha's shoulder once more. "Is Daddy at the secret base?"
Good thing it was still relatively dark outside, as Natasha didn't want Maggie to see her crestfallen expression, nor did Natasha want to see Maggie's. "No, sweetheart. Once we get there, I have to contact him to let him know what happened."
"Oh." Maggie sounded disappointed, as expected.
They continued in silence after that, and finally found themselves in front of a small cottage-like house no more than twenty minutes later. Maggie mentioned wanting it to be light outside already, so she could see what the house really looked like.
Upon going inside, Natasha didn't set Maggie down until they were in the master bedroom. She pulled the covers back and set Maggie down under them as the six year old yawned.
"Mama, you'll stay with me, right?" Maggie looked uncertain when Natasha didn't immediately crawl into bed with her.
"Of course. I just need to take off my gloves, and then I'm gonna go get some water." Natasha replied softly, setting her Widow's Bites down on the nightstand.
"Ooh, can you get me some, too?" Maggie requested.
"Sure. I'll be right back; stay in the bed." Natasha cautioned, as she knew the place was not childproofed and there were loose weapons everywhere. She had unloaded every gun and locked everything away back at their home after Maggie started crawling, unlike at the safe houses. There were instances when she was home alone with Maggie that she might have a gun hidden on her somewhere, sure, but other than that, she had done a complete one-eighty from her longtime habit of having a loaded gun in reach all the time.
"Okay." Maggie yawned, and Natasha swiftly exited the room.
While her mother was gone, Maggie took in the unfamiliar surroundings with a curious expression. The room was plain, aside from having a nightstand, dresser, a relatively empty closet, and, of course, a bed. Maggie wondered how long they would be staying there.
Meanwhile, Natasha sent a message to Steve saying what had happened through an encrypted phone line she had set up with him and the rest of the Avengers years before. Taking extra precaution, she didn't say where they were; though she trusted Stark's technology, she didn't want their location to get to the enemy first. It was too risky. The message was brief, just saying they had been attacked by Red Room agents, but got away safely, and were now on the run.
She returned to the bedroom moments later, noticing the slight jump in Maggie's shoulder when she entered the room. Natasha cast her eyes upon her daughter sadly at the reaction.
"Here's your water, Лапушка." Natasha said softly, handing the girl a small bottle of water as she sat up. Natasha took a seat next to her in the bed, knowing she wouldn't be getting any sleep that night, or for a while.
"Thanks." Maggie mumbled, unscrewing the cap and taking a sip. Her eyes lingered on her hands in her lap for a moment longer, before turning back up to face Natasha. "Who were they?"
Natasha's breath caught in her throat, but Maggie didn't notice. She just looked at her mother with a burning curiosity, most likely expecting a cool story about some bad guy that the Avengers defeated that somehow managed to get away and was now after them. Natasha wished the truth were that innocent.
"You know I grew up in Russia, and met Uncle Clint right before I started working for S.H.I.E.L.D., right?" Natasha thought she was going to be sick.
"Yeah! You're name used to be Natalia Romanova, which is why that's my middle name! Uncle Clint said you used to be really grumpy and not fun, but then you and him became partners and did a ton of missions for Uncle Phil." Maggie beamed up at Natasha in reply, obviously having no idea what the connection between her mother and their attackers really was.
Well, I guess Clint wasn't wrong, necessarily. Natasha silently mused as she thought of her past self. She averted her eyes, breaking eye contact, as she tried to get a handle on how she wanted to proceed.
"Maggie, what I'm about to tell you… It's nothing good." Natasha ended up saying, still not meeting Maggie's eyes. "I used to be a bad guy. A really, really bad person. I did awful things to innocent people." You don't have to love me after this, she meant, but couldn't bring herself to say.
Maggie looked up at her with a questioning stare. "You're not a bad guy." She protested.
"Not now." Natasha nodded in agreement. Well, to some people, that's still a debatable statement. "But I used to be."
"What did you do?" Maggie cocked her head to the side, still not completely understanding where her mother was coming from.
"Growing up… I was trained in this evil place, called the Red Room. I didn't get to have fun, or do anything I wanted to do while I was there; I could only train." Natasha suppressed a shudder at the memories.
"Didn't you get to spend time with your family?" Maggie seemed shocked that someone of her age was denied the luxury that had become so normal for her.
"I didn't have any family. I was an orphan, like Anna and Elsa after their parents passed away." Natasha explained sadly. "I didn't have any friends, either. I was just taught how to fight and complete missions."
"Like S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Maggie asked.
This part was crucial for Maggie to understand, Natasha knew, as she resumed eye contact with her daughter. "No. It was nothing like S.H.I.E.L.D.; the Red Room people were cruel and mean, and hurt a lot of innocent of innocent people. They trained me and other girls in the Black Widow program to carry out their missions when we got older."
"Black Widow…" Realization dawned on Maggie.
"Yeah, that's where I got the name from." Natasha gave a small, sad smile, turning her eyes back to the blankets in front of her. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is very different from the Red Room. S.H.I.E.L.D. trains agents to protect people, and save the world from dangerous threats. The Red Room trained people to hurt others who didn't do anything wrong."
Out of her peripheral vision, Natasha could see the gears turning in Maggie's head as she processed the explanation. "So, you hurt a lot of people? You… Killed people?" She asked a bit hesitantly.
Natasha could swear she felt her heart ache with all of the old guilt that had resurfaced from the conversation. "Yes… I did. I was the best they had."
"Wow." Was all Maggie said, and Natasha wasn't able to pinpoint what exactly was in her voice: awe, disapproval, sorrow…
"When I was all grown up, I was on a mission and then an arrow appeared out of nowhere, sailing in through the window and into the wall right next to my head. Following the arrow came a certain archer that you know and love." Natasha smirked at the memory.
"Uncle Clint?" Maggie guessed.
"Yup. He came in, and we fought, and he managed to beat me. Apparently, Uncle Nick had sent him to kill me, but once Uncle Clint had me cornered, he decided to take me back alive instead. From there, Uncle Phil and Aunt Ria decided to give me a chance, and I started working for S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha explained, casting her eyes back down towards Maggie's. "You know the rest."
Maggie blinked, but then scrunched up her nose in confusion. "I don't get it, what does that have to do with the scary bad guys?"
Natasha was taken aback by Maggie's complete disregard for everything she had just confessed. "They, uh…" She stumbled over her words for a moment because of the shock. "They're from the Red Room, and they're mad because I betrayed them by working for S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Oh." Maggie understood now, but she didn't say anything more, leaving Natasha appalled.
"Maggie, everything I just told you… It's bad, I know, so I understand if you don't trust me or love me anymore, I understand-" Natasha sighed, but was interrupted.
"That's silly, Mama, of course I love you!" Maggie interjected. "Just because you did bad things before, doesn't mean you have to do bad things now. And you don't."
The simple logic was a breath of fresh air to Natasha, and she just stared at Maggie, not sure what to say. She desperately wanted to reach out and embrace her daughter, but now that memories of her life as Natalia Alianova were interrupting her thoughts, she felt the old belief that her hands were made for killing, not for comforting.
"I love you." Maggie repeated, pulling Natasha from her messy thoughts.
The spy began feeling a bit emotional, but she quickly shoved it all back down. She didn't need to make this way more complicated than it really was. Pushing all her fears and doubts to the back of her mind, she pulled Maggie into her lap, embracing her tightly. She smiled at the surprised "oof!" sound Maggie made. Maggie wrapped her arms around Natasha's neck with a content expression.
"I love you, too." Natasha murmured, feeling much better with her daughter safe and secure in her arms.
"I'm bored. How much longer do we have to stay here?"
Natasha ran a hand through her messy hair stressfully. They were currently two days into their stay at the safe house, with no sign of the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. coming to their doorstep to give them the go-ahead to return home. Natasha knew that if another day or so passed with the same lack of safe assurance, she and Maggie would have to hit the road again.
What was taking them so long, anyway? They were probably taking out every last Red Room agent on American soil, obviously, but why was it taking so long? At least, after taking out most of them, they should be coming to retrieve Natasha and Maggie and moving them to a more secure location.
"Maybe another day or so. I'm sorry, Лапушка, I don't really have a lot of things here." Natasha said apologetically, biting back a yawn. She was also on day three of no sleep, which definitely wasn't the longest she had gone without resting, but it was a bit harder while trying to keep a six year old entertained. To top it all off, since she and Steve were trying for child number two, she couldn't drink coffee as often as she would have liked for such a sleepless long haul.
"When's Daddy coming? You said he'd come soon, right?" Maggie lied back down on the carpet with a huff.
"He should be." Natasha sat down on the floor beside daughter. "I'm sure he's coming any time now."
"He should hurry up. I'm gonna die from boredom!" Maggie groaned with a pout. Natasha couldn't help but smile at the scene; it helped make things feel a bit more normal, despite the fact that they weren't.
Their days consisted of mostly drawing and made up games. Together, they had even managed to construct a makeshift board game out of the paper and limited art supplies they had, which was only entertaining for a limited amount of time.
Bath time had become quite interesting. Because there was no bath tub, Maggie had to take a shower, whether she liked it or not. It resulted with Natasha just dragging her into the shower with her, to which Maggie decided were incredibly boring compared to baths, and should be outlawed immediately. Natasha poked fun at her remark by pointing out the young redhead would have to take showers eventually, and the six year old swore she never would again because of how awful they were. To say Natasha was amused would be an understatement.
"What do you think Uncle Clint and Uncle Tony are doing right now?" Maggie's asked a few moments later.
"Probably working with Daddy to try and find the bad guys, so we can all go home." Natasha reasoned. "In fact, I bet they all are working together."
"Everyone? Even Uncle Nick and Uncle Phil?" Maggie asked in awe.
"Yup. I think so." Natasha smiled at her daughter's amazement at how much everyone loved her and always wanted to protect her. "They just have to be extra careful to make sure they don't mess up."
"They won't mess up! They're the best at their jobs." Maggie parroted the words of her billionaire uncle.
"Yeah, I guess they are." Natasha chuckled.
They fell into a bit of a routine by the third night. Though there was no set bedtime (with how much Maggie was moved around and taken care of by different people, it was impossible to have a specific time be her exact moment to retire to bed for the night), certain aspects were repeated: Natasha notices Maggie yawn, changes her into her pajamas, convinces her to brush her teeth (some nights it was like pulling teeth, pun intended), tucks her in, slides into bed with her, and then they're out. On nights when she managed to get Maggie in the shower, step two would be bypassed as Maggie would already be in her pajamas, but that was basically the jist of it all.
On the fifth day, Natasha announced they would be changing things up a bit and hit the road for the next safest location. Maggie complained at the idea of a long car ride, but Natasha insisted it was for their safety.
"Where are we going?" Maggie asked her mother innocently as the spy packed a bag of clothes, food, and toiletries.
"New York. But not Uncle Tony's tower; the bad guys might be waiting for us there. We're going to a secret base I have a little ways away from there." Natasha explained.
Maggie leaned against the door frame of the bedroom, crossing her arms over her chest. "We're never going home, are we?"
Natasha paused, turning to look over at her suddenly pessimistic daughter. It crushed her to think Maggie was already being so drastically changed from this experience. Natasha feared she was losing her Maggie.
"We are." Natasha said firmly, hoping to restore some of Maggie's original optimism. It was a trait that reminded her of Steve. "The others just need more time to make sure we're safe before they come find us. We can't stay in one place for too long, because then we might get caught by the bad guys."
"I wanna go home." Maggie frowned, getting impatient with the entire situation. Natasha knew she would have to endure some type of breakdown eventually, but she was hoping it would be outside of the period of time in which they would be changing location.
Natasha walked over to the young girl - she was reminded of the fact that Maggie was just a little girl having to go through this process of being off the grid - and pulled her up into her arms. "Hey, it's okay. It's gonna be okay." Natasha spoke softly, trying to comfort both her daughter and herself. "I know you want to go home. I do to, too."
Maggie laid her head against Natasha's shoulder, to which the spy sighed in relief. Maggie's breakdowns usually resulted in her aggressively pushing everyone and any form of comfort away, or she just needed someone to hold her close. Luckily, it seemed to be the latter this time around.
After a few minutes, Maggie looked up at her mother. "How are we gonna go to New York? Are we gonna walk there?" Her eyes widened with the second question.
Natasha chuckled, shaking her head. "No, silly, we aren't walking there. I don't think it's possible." She walked back over to the bed, sitting next to the half-packed bag and settling Maggie in her lap. "We're gonna walk a little bit, and find a car we can borrow to get there."
"You're gonna steal another car?!" Maggie stared at her like she had grown another head.
"Under extreme circumstances, it is perfectly okay to bend the rules a bit." Natasha reasoned.
"'Extreme circum…' what?"
"Circumstances." Natasha finished the unfamiliar word. "It means-"
They were interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside, to which both redheads jumped.
"Is it Daddy? Is Daddy here?" Maggie asked excitedly, craning her neck over her mother's shoulder and trying to see outside of the window across the room.
"I don't know yet, but until we know who it is, we have to stay quiet, just in case, okay?" Natasha whispered in reply, and the steps grew closer and louder. "I need you to do something for me first, Maggie."
"What?" Maggie looked up.
Natasha set her down on the floor, and gestured to the bed. "Hide under the bed, okay? I need to make sure it's not someone who will hurt us. Stay under there unless I come back and tell you it's okay to come out."
Maggie looked at Natasha like she was crazy. "Y-You're gonna leave me alone?" She did not want Natasha to leave her by herself when they were in possible danger.
Natasha crouched down in front of the small girl. "I'll be right back, I promise." She assured her, placing a quick kiss to the young girl's forehead.
Then they heard the sound of the front door being kicked in, and Maggie gasped in surprise. She reached out for Natasha, but the spy only pushed her down under the bed. "You have to stay down here, Maggie."
"Mama, no! Don't go!" Maggie cried out in protest, but Natasha had already grabbed her gloves and gun and was out the door. "Mama!"
Natasha ignored Maggie's cries as she locked the bedroom door, shoving all her emotions to the back of her mind for the time being. Arming herself, she slithered down the hallway quietly, and saw five men, all Red Room agents, standing in the living room. She ducked back behind the corner, mentally preparing herself. The world - her world - depended entirely on the outcome of this fight, she knew. Taking aim with her gun, she fired.
Maggie was curled up in a ball under the bed when the gunshots started. She had her hands over her ears as she shook, hoping her mother was not on the receiving end of the fire. She whimpered as she tried to stay quiet through her tears, so no one would find her.
Unfortunately, there was a crash as the glass in the window of the room was broken. Someone had entered the bedroom, and Maggie was stuck in there with them. She let out a shaky breath as she watched boots hit the floor as the intruder stood in the room. He stayed still for a moment, before walking around a bit.
He called out something in Russian that Maggie didn't recognize. She only recognized the name "Natalia," as that had been her mother's name before coming to America. Maggie tried extra hard to stay completely still, but was struggling.
She let out a small gasp as the foreigner began walking towards the bed, walking painfully slow. Maggie was sure he could hear her heart pounding.
"Natalia," he called out again, and Maggie watched in horror as he went down on one knee right beside the bed, "you really shouldn't leave your things lying around in the open." He was speaking in Russian, and seemed to be taunting Natasha, who was definitely not in the room. He sounded like a condescendingly disappointed parent, and it sent chills down Maggie's spine.
She pushed herself further away as he put one hand down, and slowly lowered his face to meet her eyes. Maggie's breath caught in her throat and she froze in fear.
The man smiled a cold, chilling grin as he took in her appearance. "You look just like her." He commented, and reached out to grab her.
As he touched her arm, Maggie yelled out, calling for her mother.
Natasha was momentarily distracted by Maggie's scream. She froze up while tangled up in a fight with the last man, and he managed to use the moment to his advantage. Gaining the upper hand, he pinned Natasha down, and pulled back to strike her.
"Stop!"
The agent looked over at the newcomer who had ordered him to cease fire. Natasha also looked over, having recognized the voice.
"...Alexei?" She shot him a look of pure surprise. "What are you...?"
Not giving Natasha a chance to finish her question, Alexei yanked Maggie's arm, pulling her into view. He held her wrist up in a tight grip, and Maggie cast her eyes down to her pinned mother frantically. "Mama..."
Natasha immediately tried to break out of her assailant's strong grip, her senses and adrenaline kicking into overdrive at seeing Maggie in the scared state she was in. "Let her go, Alexei. She has nothing to do with this." Natasha spat out angrily, slipping into Russian with ease. "Why are you even here?"
"I'm just doing my job. Something you couldn't even do, traitor." Alexei replied coolly, but with the same contempt behind his words.
"I made my choice, Alexei. I became my own person and took control of my life. I didn't want to hurt innocent people anymore." Natasha snapped back in reply.
"You betrayed us, Natalia. Even after everything you and I have been through together… You just left." Alexei began to lose his cool facade, and he tightened his grip on Maggie, eliciting a small whimper from her. "But just because you left, doesn't mean we have to end the Black Widow program. We can continue… With your daughter."
Natasha squirmed, trying desperately to break free from the agent's hold. "No, Alexei, don't you dare take her! She hasn't done anything wrong, leave her out of this!" She knew she was starting to lose her cool, but she didn't care; Maggie's life and future were on the line.
Maggie, meanwhile, was panicked. She couldn't break free from Alexei's grip, and her mother was trapped. She was trapped. There seemed to be no way out.
"How interesting it will be to have both a super soldier and spy in one person, hm." Alexei commented, observing Maggie's struggle. "Tell me, Natalia, does she have her father's super strength and stamina?"
"You dirty son of a…"
The entire room paused as Alexei let out a frustrated, but pained, groan, as Maggie somehow figured to kick him in the groin. For whatever reason, she remembered something her godfather had taught her at the most crucial moment; Natasha made a mental note to thank him later. Maggie kicked as hard as she could, and though it didn't take him down, it distracted Natasha's attacker enough for her to flip him off of her and onto the ground. As she jumped up, she struck, knocking him out, cold, with her Widow's Bites.
"Mama!" Maggie tried to run to her mother, but was grabbed around the waist by Alexei's powerful hands. She slipped and fell with a pained squeal as Alexei pulled her back to him. Natasha wasted no time in crossing the room, and launching herself at Alexei and Maggie.
As he was knocked over, Alexei lost his grip on Maggie, and she hastily crawled away. Natasha prepared to strike again, but was pushed back by Alexei. She stumbled back onto the ground next to Maggie, but was immediately back on her feet and prepared to strike again. Alexei stopped her, waving a remote around in his hand.
"Natalia, I would be careful if I were you. My men have planted explosives around your humble home." He cautioned teasingly. Natasha wanted to slap him. "With just one press of this button, this place will go up in flames."
Natasha placed herself between Maggie and the acclaimed Red Guardian. "Your men?" She echoed.
"Times have changed since you were with us. I've risen in the ranks." Alexei informed her proudly. "In fact, I was the one behind this entire operation. I hate to break it to you, Natalia, but you have not been hidden from us. We've been following Natasha Romanoff for quite sometime now, especially after she got together with Captain America and bore his child."
Natasha glared at him icily. "Why attack now, if you've been following me this entire time?"
"We were waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. What better age than to take your daughter at the innocent, yet matured, age of six? Though you were younger when you were taken in, I figured the longer I let you have her, the more you might have already begun to train her." Alexei explained. Upon seeing the cold stare Natasha was giving him, he chuckled. "Oh, that's right. You didn't want her to have the childhood you had, so you haven't trained her at all, have you? That is very irresp-"
He was cut off as Natasha precisely shot a Widow's Bite at his hand, making him drop the remote. Leaping forward, she kicked Alexei's legs out from under him as he was momentarily distracted, and grabbed the bomb remote. "Maggie! Over here!"
She held out a hand for her young daughter as she jumped back from Alexei, standing back next to a large window. Maggie promptly ran over to her mother's side, grabbing Natasha's leg with an iron grip. As Alexei jumped back up, Natasha held the remote threateningly, copying his earlier methods.
"Take one more step towards us, and I blow the place up." She warned coldly, all the while gently massaging the side of Maggie's head with her other hand in an attempt to soothe her.
Alexei blinked at her, and then laughed. "Oh, Natalia, you're still as dramatic as ever. Some things never change."
Natasha, puzzled, hesitated for a moment, but was soon brought back to reality as she felt a sharp pain her gut. Maggie cried in surprise and took a panicked step back. With a small gasp of pain, she staggered slightly, bringing the hand with the remote down to her bleeding abdomen. Looking back up, she realized Alexei had snuck a man in from behind him - through the bedroom window - and he had shot her. As she grit her teeth in pain and pulled Maggie back, closer to her, she was hit again, not too far from the original wound. She slammed her back against the glass, in an attempt to stay standing.
"Mama, you're bleeding! Mama…" Maggie cried frantically, not sure what to do. Natasha only held her tighter.
"Give it up, Natalia." Alexei taunted, taking a step closer. "You cannot win."
"No… The only one here who won't win is you." Natasha snarled, summoning the remaining amount of strength and adrenaline within her. She would go down fighting before ever letting these men touch her baby girl.
In one swift motion, Natasha managed to lift Maggie up with one arm and jump backwards out the large window, pushing the button to ignite the explosives. It was tough, but she managed to shield Maggie's smaller body from the glass and hard fall onto the ground. The last thing she registered, after the sudden increase in pain and Maggie landing with a slight bounce on top of her, was the grass beneath her fingertips and the heat of the bursting flames against her skin.
"Mama… Mama!" Maggie cried, scrambling to get off of her unconscious mother. She shook the spy lightly, but nothing happened. "Mama, wake up! Mama!"
Her breath hitched as she struggled to figure out what to do. She noticed the blood that was now covering her arms and clothes, as it was on Natasha, and figured stopping that may be a place to start. With a small sob she grabbed Natasha's limp hands and placed them over the bullet wounds, pushing them down with her smaller hands (Natasha's hands were bigger, so maybe that meant they could stop and cover the bleeding more).
"Wake up, Mama, please!" Maggie sobbed as the red continued oozing. Natasha was showing no signs of life whatsoever, and Maggie was freaking out. "Mama! Mama!"
"Give it up, kid. She's not waking up." Came the all-too familiar voice of Alexei Shostakov, in Russian, as he walked up to the two redheads. Maggie froze up again, except for a slight tremor of fear that had taken over her body.
Alexei had a few burns here and there, but he appeared to have somehow escaped most of the blow unscathed. Maggie had no idea how. But she didn't have the time or energy to dwell on that, as Natasha was dying right beside her, and she didn't know how to stop it.
"P-Please…" Maggie resorted to begging. She was just so scared. "Help me save her… I-I don't know what to do!"
Alexei shook his head. "I am going to bring you back home. We are going to raise you now." The half-English, half-Russian conversation continued.
Maggie struggled between her two immediate instincts at the moment: run away from Alexei and the Red Room, which meant leaving Natasha to die, or staying beside her mother until the very end, even if that meant going with Alexei. Because Maggie was frozen to the spot, however, she seemed to be stuck with option number two.
"Come on, kid, we have a plane to catch." Alexei reached out to grab her, and Maggie shrunk back fearfully. She just wanted the nightmare to be over.
Then everything happened in slow motion. Out of nowhere, an arrow appeared in Alexei's shoulder, followed by a man with a metal arm launching himself at him. As the two men rolled away in their scuffle, Maggie heard someone speak in English - finally - and report that they had found her and Natasha. Still in fight or flight mode, Maggie cowered closer to Natasha's body, trying again to wake the unconscious spy.
"Maggie! Natasha!" Came a deep voice she instantly recognized. Snapping her head up, she saw Steve running toward her, decked out in his S.H.I.E.L.D. stealth suit with his legendary shield in tow. It took her another moment to register the fact that this was a person she trusted, and before she knew it, she was being pulled into an embrace - being pulled away from Natasha.
"No, no! Let me go!" Maggie cried out in protest, fighting against Steve's strong arms. "You have to help her! Mama's hurt really bad… You have to help her! Let me go! She's bleeding!"
Maggie continued to let out a flurry of exclamations that increased in fear and volume while decreasing in context and content, as tears overtook her. Because of her shaken state, she was not able to acknowledge that Bruce and Clint had rushed over right after Steve did, to take care of Natasha and contact the medical team.
As Maggie continued to cry and clench her bloodied fists angrily, Steve just held her. She squirmed, fought, flailed, and kicked, but, finally, she calmed down in a few minutes. By that time, they were loading Natasha onto a stretcher, and were preparing to board a quinjet that would take them back to the Triskelion medical wing.
"Daddy…" Maggie sniffled as she finally lifted her red face off his shoulder after her episode passed. She realized she had somehow been transported from the ground to the sky. Tears remained welled up in her eyes as she met Steve's gaze for the first time. He was feeling incredibly choked up himself.
"I'm here. You're safe now, I promise." Steve said, rubbing a stray tear off her cheek with the gentle touch of his thumb.
"How long have we been flying?" She asked, her voice hoarse from all of the yelling she had done that eventful day.
"A while now. It's been a rough day." He said casually, rubbing her back. She laid her head against his chest again, with a breath of relief.
"Are we going home now?" She asked quietly, but with the slightest hint of impatience.
He smiled a bit at that. "In a little while. You need to get checked out by Uncle Brucie and some other doctors first, though, to make sure you're okay." He said softly.
"I am okay." Maggie challenged him, glaring daggers at her reflection in the window.
Steve noticed her much more negative expression and overall countenance with a twinge of guilt. Maybe if he had come sooner, he could have saved Maggie from herself after being so traumatized.
"Natasha's out of surgery. We managed to repair everything that had been damaged, thank God."
Steve couldn't help the huge sigh of relief he gave at Bruce's news hours later. Maggie was currently off with her godfather, who was supposed to be distracting her, and hopefully getting her to sleep or eat. It had been rough once they arrived back at the Triskelion; Maggie was completely uncooperative and on edge with everyone, even more so than the time she had pneumonia as a toddler.
Everyone's heart broke when Steve suggested she go off with Clint, and she gave the archer a brief look of fear and distrust before reluctantly agreeing. Clint had never looked so hurt. Maggie was so broken and changed, no one was sure what to do. She had become a shell of her previous self-an angry, bitter, pessimistic shell. Bruce immediately recommended that she go see a therapist of some kind to help her sort out her problems and hopefully return to normal. But they all knew it wouldn't be that easy.
"Thanks, Bruce. For everything." Steve said gratefully, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. "We have a long road ahead of us."
"I know." Bruce acknowledged with an equally tired voice. "This whole thing has flipped our world upside down. Things will never be the same again. That being said, the rest of the Avengers and I are going to be here for you three, and help in whatever way we can."
"Thank you. That means a lot." Steve offered up a small smile to the scientist. "I just hope we'll be able to get part, maybe even just a fraction, of her back."
"Which 'her'?" Bruce raised his eyebrows.
Steve pictured Natasha lying limp in a hospital bed, guilt eating her up from the inside at the fact that the Red Room pursued Maggie. He then thought of Maggie, with her empty and intense stare, looking through the hospital window at her recovering mother, not trusting anyone right now. He pinched the bridge of his nose stressfully.
"Both of them."
A/N: This was an interesting experience to write! It feels kinda weird, considering this shift in character we're seeing in Maggie - we all know that she goes back to being hyper and energetic at... Some point. XP
Also, I didn't feel like going through all the trouble of running 20% of the dialogue through the wonderful Google Translate, so just assume that all of Alexei's lines, and Natasha's lines when she's talking to him, are in Russian. Speaking of Alexei, I don't know anything about his character besides what I've read on his Marvel wiki page, and how other fanfic authors have depicted him. I decided to make him a bit of a meanie, ouch. I also feel like I wrote Maggie as a bit mature for her age, but, eh, I think she has it in her. Maybe. I don't know. XP
