"Remind me why we are being called on again?"
She's complaining, as they walk down the never-ending hallways of HQ.
"Well, I guess we are being called in because of mission, why else would Fury be crazy enough to bring in the whole strike team delta?"
Clint points out, making Natasha roll her eyes. She knows however that her partner has a point in all of this. The only thing is, she had not seen Melinda or Phil since they had been in charge of little Mary. And she had not heard anything from Mary since she was taken from Phil. Which is making her more worried, which is the cause to her mode in this moment.
"I know, I'm worried about her too. But you know she will contact either of us if something were to happen."
Smiling slightly, Natasha takes a deep breath. Somehow the bird brain beside her knew what to say to calm her down slightly. Mostly because Natasha is sure both he and Maria are having the exact same worry. But for now, she has a mission she needs to put her mind and energy towards that. Feeling how her phone vibrates however, Natasha comes to a halt in the hallway. As she fishes up her phone from her pocket, she can see that Clint stops and looks at her with a confused looked in his eyes. Without looking at the screen, she answers the call.
"Hello."
"Tash."
The weak and broken voice on the other side of the line, sent a chill through her system. It didn't madder how broken her voice have become or how weakly she's speaking, Natasha knows that voice from anywhere. The fact that the usually happy and laughing voice is this broken sends her worry to a whole new level. With a quick glance around herself, Natasha grabs hold of Clint and pulls him into an empty room.
"Mary? Are you alright?"
She knew it's a stupid question to ask, of course the sweat little angle girl isn't alright, not with that level of brokenness in her voice. Lifting her eyes, she sees how Clint have grown stiff in front of her, deep worry taking over his eyes.
"No."
Natasha is sure, that if she wasn't putting so much attention to hearing Mary, she would have missed the reply.
"Are you safe, do you know where you are right now?"
A sob is the answer she gets, and Natasha let's out a small curse in Russian.
"Hey, Mary, it's alright. Everything is going to be alright."
She must come up with a plan and that fast, moving the phone from her head, she smiles. At least the girl isn't using something that can't be traced.
"Mary, are you alone right now or is someone with you?"
Natasha urge, she has started to walk back and forth without fully realizing it.
"Alone."
"Are you hurt?"
When no instant replay was given, Natasha knows the answer and she can feel how her blood is starting to boil.
"Alright, I need you to stay on the phone for as long as you possibly can. I'm coming to get you!"
She tells the young girl before locking her eyes with Clint once more. She can see how he's ready to just throw himself out there, ready to follow her into what ever crazy idea is going through her mind. All to save and protect Mary.
"Stay here, go to the meeting and then pull Maria out of here. We'll meet up at the safe house."
Natasha orders him however, knowing fully well that the two of them cannot disappear just like that without an explanation. And if someone is good at coming up with those it's Clint, if that won't work, they will need Maria's help to get away from work. Seeing how her plan sinks into his mind, Clint nods his head and steps away from the door.
"Get her and do it quickly."
He speaks in a low voice, making Natasha nod her head this time before heading out to the corridor once more. Glancing around herself to see which way the had been coming from, she starts to sprint down that corridor, swiftly passing every single agent walking in her way. She had gotten to her car and fast, there's no way she will leave Mary in a bad spot for any longer than needed.
Finally reaching her car, she starts working away to track the phone call, it being easier to do thanks to Mary doing what she had been told and stayed on the line. Finally getting a location, Natasha starts the car and speeds out from the underground parking lot.
"Mary, I'm on my way. Just hang in there for a while longer little star."
There was a low humming as a respond, making Natasha step on the gas pedal even harder. She knew she should be worried about breaking the law with the way she's driving, even for a S.H.I.E.L.D agent this was a new level of dangerous and bad. The only thing that's going through her mind right now is to get to Mary as fast as humanly possible, and if she were about to be pulled over by the coops, she can always wave her badge in their face and tell them she must rescue the small child she's currently talking to on her phone.
Seeing how she's getting closer to the location; her stomach makes a flip. The place she had arrived to was not the type of place she would have thought she would have to save Mary from. This road, this whole area is the picture for every good family base homes. The once you see in moves and tv-shows, which made this situation so much worse.
This also means, the people who have ended up taking care of her were not S.H.I.E.L.D agent's, which made this whole thing a new gameplay. Parking outside of the house that was marked at the right location, Natasha is almost happy that there's no cars parked outside, meaning that Mary is still alone inside. Which is good, if there were to be someone in there, Natasha doesn't wish Mary to see what she would do to those people. Now she could only focus on getting Mary out of this building, into the car and head of to the safe house.
Turning of the car, Natasha grabs hold of her phone.
"Mary, I'm outside and I'm coming in, meet me at the front door please."
She speaks, already halfway up the front yard. There's no respond from Mary, but she can hear how she's moving at least. Which is as good of a hope she can wish for in this moment. Reaching the door, Natasha is taking a few seconds to try and decide on how to get in. Kicking down the door would be the fastest way, but that would also lead to the police alerting the people she wants to deal with later and they might just try something stupid.
As she starts to pull out a hear pin so she can pick the door lock, she hears it unlock by its own. Being on her guard, she grabs hold of the door handle and carefully push the door open. She's quite sure what's waiting for her inside is just Mary, but her years of training and work have left its mark on her. Glancing into the hallway, her heart break more than she though is even possible, and she forgets all about the worry sha had have entering the house.
With two quick steps towards the very broken and bloody young girl standing in the middle of the hallway, a torn Mushu plushie that Clint had given her after they had realized how much she loved the Mulan movie and the share joy they had comparing Mulan with Melinda, in a lose grip. Being as care full as possible, Natasha pulls Mary towards her in a hug, making the girl start to cry.
"Hey, hey. It's alright Mary, everything is going to be alright. I got you little one and I'm not going to let you go ever again."
She whispers into the young girl's ear, hopping her soothing voice is going to enough to calm her down. It did have some effect as the crying slows slightly but not stopping completely. Taking it as the best sign she could get at this moment, Natasha scops the small body as she stands up herself.
"Do you have anything else here you want to take with you?"
Feeling how Mary shakes her head on her shoulder, Natasha turns around and walks out of the house once more. Her eyes locked on the car, no care in the world if anyone would be there to see what's going on. Right now, she needed to get this little angle to a safe place where she can take care of the wounds and come up with a plan on what to do next.
Placing Mary in the car, Natasha quickly enters it herself and speeds down the road like a crazy person once more. This time around she is a bit more careful, she doesn't wish to create more discomfort to Mary after all. A silent is hanging over the two of them as they drive, Natasha can feel the urge to ask what happened to her, but she also know Mary won't talk. Especially not if she's somewhere she doesn't feel safe, so she keeps driving in silent.
Reaching the road where the safe house is located, Natasha slows down her driving and makes sure no one is following her, or any coops is around. Once she's sure it's safe, she parks outside of a slightly rundown apartment building. Getting Mary out of the backseat, she heads for the main door and pulls it open with no effort. Taking the stairs two at the time, they reach the 4th floor within a minute. Knocking slight on the wall beside one of the doors, that part of the wall slides to the side to reveal a hand scanner and keypad.
Natasha places her hand on the scanner and as that is showing green, she enters a 10-digit code before she can hear the door unlocking. Looking down at Mary, she gives the young girl a smile before turning the door knob the wrong way before turning it a fully back again. As the door opens, the scanner and keypad are being hidden once more and Natasha enters the apartment.
"The only once that have access to this apartment is me, Clint and Maria. We figured we would need to get a safe place incase something bad would ever happen. And this will be the perfect place for us to raise you ourselves."
Natasha explains as she walks towards one of the bathrooms. The apartment is a large one, it's all of level 4. Which meant three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and living room, large once at that too. This is however something one will only see once entering through the doors they had, the rest of the doors in the hallway are fake once to throw people off. It had cost them a bit, but they all agreed it was money that needed to be spent, it also includes the top of the world security. Tony Stark himself had even been involved in the making of a few parts of the system, he wasn't aware of that part, however.
Putting down Mary on the toilet, Natasha carefully starts to look her over, just to establish how badly hurt she had been and just how much pain she's going to deliver later on. What she is greeted with makes her blood run cold and she starts seeing red once more. With a deep breath however, she forces herself to calm down and start to clean Mary. She knows she won't be getting any information out of the girl today and she isn't going to force it out of her either.
"What will happen now?"
Mary asks once Natasha is satisfied that she has done a job well done. She has moved the two of them out from the bathroom and into the living room, placing both of them on the couch.
"Well, like I said earlier. From now on, me, Clint and Maria will be your guardians. We are not going to let anyone else take care of you. I guess the best way to make you disappear is to have Maria delete all information there is about you, we should make it so there is no Mary-Sue Poots out there to be found."
Natasha starts to explain, and she can see how the young girl beside her is in deep thought.
"It would mean we need to change your name from Mary-Sue Poots too. It's time you get a name that you actually like and not something a bunch of nuns have given you."
A smile starts to finally form on the young girl's face, something that make Natasha smile too. It was always good to see the young girl smile, even if things were as bad as they are.
"Skye."
There was a determination in her voice that Natasha had never heard before and she pulls Mary… no, Skye closer to her.
"Well then Skye, how about we watch some Mulan until the rest of our little family get home?"
She asks, laughing lightly as Skye nods her head. Grabbing the remote control, Natasha starts the tv and DVD, said movie had already been place in the DVD player and all she had to do is press play. They didn't get past the awakening of Mushu when Natasha could feel how the small body beside her suddenly leans towards her more heavily. Looking down, Natasha sees how Skye had managed to fall asleep, and the red-haired assassin can't blame her. It has been an emotional day and it's not over yet.