Yelena decides to stay for a while, and somehow this helps them all heal.
They give her Natasha's old room, and she finds her vest with many pockets folded carefully inside the closet. It's clearly been through some fights, with tears and scratches here and there. But each one has been mended with tiny, neat stitches that make her want to cry. She knows Nat didn't really love the vest that much, but she loved the sister who gave it to her.
Each night the last thing she sees is the photo of the two of them as children. She presses a kiss to the bedhead where it's pinned and falls asleep with a smile on her face.
Fanny's a huge hit with the kids, who fight over who gets to take her for morning and evening walks. At night, she curls up at the foot of the bed every night, an ever-present comfort to Yelena, loyal to a fault.
Trying to honour her sister's wishes, Yelena starts to give Lila self-defence lessons. On that first day in the barn, while the boys have claimed Fanny for the afternoon and Laura's busy in the kitchen, Clint decides to supervise. It's not because he doesn't trust Yelena, but because he's curious. Natasha had never let him spectate on her sessions with Lila, but Yelena doesn't know that and Lila doesn't protest.
Yelena asks Lila to show her what she could already do. Turns out the girl has a great kick and really knows how to put her weight behind a punch. There's even some modified parkour.
When Lila lands in that characteristic Black Widow pose, Yelena is heartbroken and horrified at the same time. She glances over at Clint, who's gone as white as a sheet, and mumbles something about catching some air before heading outside, blinking rapidly.
Lila looks aghast but confused, and Yelena rushes to reassure her. 'You looked just like your Auntie Nat when you did that,' she explains, her voice a little choked. 'But it's a stupid pose, really. She was such a poser. You'd be better off going with the flow of the momentum, like this.'
Yelena pounces up the bales of hay and jumps down, but instead of landing in Natasha's pose, she turns the fall into a roll and after one rotation, springs back lightly up onto her feet.
'Cool!' Lila's eyes are shining with excitement.
Yelena has her try it in slow motion on the ground first, then gradually builds her up until she can leap off the bales, land on both feet and roll over in the same way Yelena did.
They're both panting and sweating by dinner time, but have huge grins as they head back to the house for dinner.
In the evening, when the kids have retired to their rooms, Yelena sits on the porch with Laura. They cradle mugs of steaming hot tea and watch the moon and the stars shimmer across the sky. Fanny curls up between them, relaxed and content.
Yelena loves Laura's stories about Nat, many of which involved the two of them contending with Clint's ridiculous antics. Tonight, Laura's retelling the tale of the time Clint tried to show off to a bunch of older agents and accidentally impaled himself in the shoulder with one of his own arrows.
'Nat cleaned and dressed his wound, then gave him an earful the whole flight back. Then I gave him a piece of my mind and locked up his arrows for three weeks,' she says, as a wistful look passes over her face. 'You know, your sister always brought him home to me. No matter how high the stakes. I owe her. The whole family does.'
'The whole world does, actually, if we're being technical,' Yelena points out, and Laura laughs even as the tears pool in her eyes.
'I'm so glad you're here, Yelena,' Laura says sincerely. 'We all are.'
Yelena smiles. She hasn't felt that warmth of home in such a long time that it's almost foreign. It's nice, though. She's a little afraid to get used to it, but she might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
'Nat was like a sister to me, too,' Laura continues. 'I do wish she could have seen us all together.'
Yelena nods. 'She would've loved it. Her whole life, she was all about family. Finding a family, saving her family.'
Laura couldn't agree more. She sips her tea, and shifts her gaze out to the stars again. It's a little chilly outside, and she shivers involuntarily.
A blanket appears over her shoulders, and she turns to see that Clint's come out onto the porch. His hand falls on her shoulder, and she touches it gently.
None of them speak. They simply stare out into the darkness, as if hoping their missing family member would suddenly appear.
But she doesn't.
Night sets in with rigour and they are forced to retreat indoors. Clint and Laura leave first, and Yelena steals just one more moment in the cold night air.
'Thanks for this new family, sis,' she whispers. She whistles two shrill notes into the dark, then turns around and heads back into her new home.