She normally let the typical teasing of other kids roll off her back, not paying much attention to playground cheers and jeers. Someone would call out a stupid remark about the color of her hair and Natasha would just roll her eyes and keep walking. What she couldn't roll with was teasing meant to hurt and bully. Userally Natasha would step in when one of her classmates was being pushed around, she would step up with a biting remark or a quick bend back of a bully's fingers. Natasha was actually well liked by her classmates, which is why no one could quite understand why the new girl in the other fourth grade class had targeted Natasha. At first the taunting and mean remarks just made Natasha roll her eyes and walk away, but the more she did that the more the other girl seemed to get pissed. But then parents night happened, Natasha happily and proudly showed her mothers all of her projects, and the new girl found a button to push that Natasha couldn't ignore.
Natasha stood with her friends excitedly talking about the family night fundraiser at the retro skating rink that weekend. She couldn't wait! Her Mum had been really busy lately, even missing more than a couple dinners every week for over a month, but she never missed a family night event and Natasha was looking forward to getting to spend time with her.
"Oh, Natasha can't go to family skate." Tina Minko said, cutting into the conversation about whose parents could skate and whose were probably going to end up falling a lot.
"Go away Minko." Hope van Dyne said with a deep frown and her best glare.
Natasha and Hope had been best friends for as long as either could remember. Hope's parents worked with Natasha's mum, and was the only reason Natasha was even remotely ok with moving to Washington D.C., especially when she was told she'd be going to the same school as Hope.
"Why can't Natasha go?" Another classmate asked out of curiosity.
Tina smirked. "Because it's a family night thing and Natasha doesn't have a real family."
"I do too!" Natasha replied. Why would the other girl even say that? She had a family! She had the best family!
"No you don't." Tina argued. "You don't have real parents."
Natasha's pale skin was starting to flush as her anger began to rise. "I do have parents, they were even at parents night, and they'll be at family skate. Where were your parents, Minko? Wasn't that your nanny with you on parents night? Will your nanny be coming to skate night too?"
Anger flashed in the other girl's eyes. "At least my parents are normal and my real parents! You're adopted, and having two moms is weird!"
"Having two moms isn't weird!" Natasha shot back. Her mothers had never shied away from talking to her about the fact that she was adopted. Some children, her Mum had said, were loved and raised by the mothers who gave birth to them, but some children were chosen by mothers to love and raise when their birth mothers couldn't. Natasha had always felt special because she'd been chosen by her mothers to be the child they loved. "At least I have moms who wanted me and love me, they choose to be my moms! Your parents are stuck with you because the condom broke and the clinic was closed, they didn't want you, why do you think they're always away?"
In the years to come Natasha would learn to read the way an opponent's muscles moved under their skin and use that to prepare herself for an attack. But that was a skill she didn't have yet, so she didn't see Tina coming until the other girl was on top of her, her head cracking hard on the ground. It dazed Natasha enough that Tina was able to get a couple of punches in before she started fighting back.
Angie knew her kid wasn't a perfect angel. Natasha was a good girl, but she was just a kid, and kids got into trouble sometimes. Angie also knew that Natasha wasn't the type of kid to get into school yard fights, so it came as quite a surprise when she got the call from her daughter's school. Natasha had been in a fight and she needed to come pick her up. What? Angie's mind ran through all kinds of scenarios to explain what could have possibly happened to make Natasha get into an actual physical fight with a classmate. It simply didn't make sense to her.
Walking into the main office Angie's gaze instantly found her daughter sitting in one of the plastic chairs outside the nurse's office. Her heart dropped at the sight of her baby girl sitting there holding an ice pack to the back of her head and blood on her white button down. Walking over to Natasha, Angie crouched down to look her over with wide eyes. "Nattie, your shirt! Are you alright?"
"Yeah." Natasha answered nervously. The moment she saw her mother walk in her little heart rate speed up and her stomach knotted so tightly it hurt. "Blood's not mine." She licked at her busted lip and frowned a little. "Most of it's not mine."
"Ms. Martinelli." The headmaster's voice called out.
Angie stood, fire in her eyes. "Why is my child bloody?"
"Please, step inside and we'll discuss it." The man said, stepping aside to allow Angie entrance into his office.
Natasha didn't cry when her head hit the ground, she didn't tear up when Tina busted her lip, or while the headmaster was grilling her about what happened. But when her Ma put her hand on her knee as she stood before disappearing into the headmaster's office, she felt the sting in her eyes. The thought of her mothers being mad at her, disappointed in her, that's what was going to make her cry. She'd been honest with the headmaster when he asked what caused the fight, he knew what had been said, and that Tina had started it. Natasha wasn't sure if this would matter or not, she still got into a fight at school, she was still being suspended. When she felt her bottom lip start to quiver Natasha sucked in a sharp breath, closed her eyes, and dug the fingers of the hand not holding the ice pack into her thigh until she was sure she wasn't going to cry.
When she stepped back out into the larger main office Angie watched her daughter for a moment, watched Natasha trying to be so stoic, and she couldn't help a small tick of a grin. So much like Peggy, she thought. "Natasha." Natasha opened her eyes to look at her and Angie knew she was trying so hard not to cry. "Do you have all of your things?"
"Yes ma'am." Natasha said while pointing at her bookbag.
"Ok." Angie replied as she walked over and picked up the bag and the little blazer that had been tossed along side it. Then she held out her hand to her daughter."Let's go home."
Natasha slipped her hand into her mother's a bit timidly but her Ma gave her hand a squeeze and when she looked up at her she had a small, soft smile on her lips. Natasha relaxed a bit, and tried to smile back but she just didn't feel it.
On the drive home Angie kept stealing glances at Natasha in the review, her gaze landing either on her daughter's glassy eyes or her split lip. She sighed softly to herself. Obviously she and Peggy couldn't ignore the fact that Natasha had gotten into a fight, but she totally understood why the fight happened. "You know, I was really hoping you'd get to be just a little older before you found out that some people are just shit people."
Turning her head away from the window to look at the back of her mother's head Natasha blinked. "What?"
"There are people out there, Nattie, who are just really crappy people." Angie explained. "They're not happy unless they're finding what they consider faults in others and trying to use those faults to hurt them. It's bullshit, Nattie, but some people are just shitty like that and we have to learn how to deal with them." Catching her daughter's gaze in the mirror she added, "Perferbally without breaking their noses."
Natasha huffed. "She wouldn't get off of me. I warned her twice to get off of me."
"I know you were defending yourself, Nattie." Angie said as she pulled into the driveway of their home, and into the garage. "Mummy and I will talk out the details, but you're not in trouble for defending yourself."
"I'm not?" Natasha was surprised.
Angie smiled at her daughter as they headed inside. "Like I said, Mummy and I need to talk out details, and we're going to want to talk to you about everything, but that can wait. Go upstairs and get cleaned up, hop in the shower baby, and just toss that shirt but bring me your skirt. I might be able to get it clean."
Natasha looked down at herself and then up at her mother and said, "I didn't know noses could bleed that much."
Sometimes Peggy felt like she was playing nanny to two four year old boys when she got caught in the middle of Howard and Hank arguing over whatever it was they were arguing about at the moment. Neither man liked to share when it came to their scientific discoveries, and yet both seemed to think that it was an unfair practice when it came to the other. When she caught sight of Rose slipping into the conference room Peggy found herself actually hoping for a crisis that would get her away from the science stooges. When Rose stepped up beside her to whisper in her ear Peggy's eyes went a little wide. When she'd wished for a crisis she hadn't meant one at home. "If you gentlemen will excuse me."
"Everything alright, Peg?" Howard asked.
"Yes, there's just a phone call I must take." Peggy said as she made her way towards the door. "Do carry on, just please try not to kill each other."
Both men looked insulted. "We're perfectly capable of having a debate without it coming to blows, Peggy." Hank huffed.
Peggy snorted softly and left the room. When she got back to her office she sat behind her desk and picked up her phone. "Angie, darling, is everything alright?"
"Mostly." Angie answered. "I had to pick Nattie up at school. She got into a fight, but before you get mad, she was defending herself."
"Is she alright?" Peggy asked, flooded with concern more than anything at the moment.
"Smacked her head on the ground really good when the little shit tackled her." Angie growled. "Nurse said we might want to watch her for concussion symptoms. She's got a pretty nasty busted lip too."
Peggy's concern remained, concussions weren't a joke, but now anger was slowly joining the mix. "What the hell happened?"
"Any chance you can get home soon?" Angie was biting her lip. "There's a lot we need to talk about, and a lot we need to talk to her about."
"I'll see what I can do." Peggy promised.
"Good." Angie sighed softly and then chuckled. "And because I know you English, and I know what you're thinking, yeah, the other kid got it worse. Nattie broke the little shit's nose."
Peggy blinked, a little startled by that fact. "Broke her nose?"
"Yeap." Angie drawled. "Our kid don't play, English. She warned the other girl to get off of her and when she didn't, well."
Natasha wouldn't have the strength at her age to break someone's nose with a simple punch, and it wasn't something Natasha would have learned in her judo or aikido classes, which meant that someone had taught her daughter to throw a very specific type of punch. She would have to ask who. "Give me a bit to move some things around, love, and I'll be home as soon as I can."
It took well over an hour for Peggy to get out of the office, plus the drive home to the Maryland suburb where she and Angie had made their home, so she hadn't gotten home quite as soon as she would have liked. Angie greeted her when she walked in and quickly told her what had happened. Peggy's heart hurt for her little girl. She frowned deeply and shook her head with a soft sigh.
"We expected she would someday run into issues about having two moms." Angie said with a shake of her own head. "Never thought they'd pick on her for being adopted though."
Peggy hummed thoughtfully. "Being adopted has been looked down upon in the past, but I thought people had come along further than this in that regard. In think in this case, seeing as how this Tina Minko has been an issue for awhile now, the girl was looking for buttons to push to get a reaction from Natasha and just happened to land on us."
"People are shit, English." Angie said firmly.
"Yes, I suppose they can be." Peggy replied.
Natasha knew her Mum was home, and even though her Ma had said she wasn't in big trouble, that tight painful knot in her stomach was back. Aunt Maria and Tony had been in Europe for a few weeks, and Aunt Maria had gone to several ballets while they were there. Tony had gone with her, much to his mother's surprise, and had slipped a recording device in with him each time. He'd sent her videotapes of each performance including the Mariinsky Ballet company, Russia's best, performing Sleeping Beauty, and the Royal Ballet company performing Carmen. The television in their living room was currently playing a scene from Giselle, performed by the Bolshoi Ballet, and the principal dancer was Natasha's favorite ballerina, but her focus was on what was happening in the kitchen and not on the tv.
Peggy found it endearing that her child could get into a playground brawl and then come home and watch illegally obtained Russian ballet videos, and it just reminded her of just how special Natasha was. "Hi poppet, mind if we turn Miss Alexandrova off for a moment, please?"
"Sure Mummy." Natasha said as she turned off the tv and vcr. Then she looked down at her hands in her lap. Feeling her mother sit down beside her, she tensed a little. She didn't want to see disappointment in her mother's eyes. Just because her Ma hadn't looked at her that way, didn't mean her Mum wouldn't.
Reaching out Peggy gently cupped her daughter's face as she asked, "Will you look at Mummy please, darling?" She didn't force the girl to move her face up towards her, she waited on Natasha to do herself. When those beautiful worry filled blue-green eyes were looking into her own Peggy smiled softly. She very gently caressed the corner of Natasha's lips. "That looks like it hurt quite a bit."
"It's not so bad." Natasha said softly. "As long as I remember not to drink lemonade."
Peggy chuckled, she couldn't help it. "Oh poppet, I think straws might be in order for a week or so." Taking her hand from Natasha's cheek she reached up to feel the back of her daughter's head gently. "That's an impressive little egg, darling."
"Yeah, that made my head hurt." Natasha admitted.
"I'm sorry you had such a bad day, sweetheart." Peggy said as she leaned in to place a kiss to Natasha's forehead. When she pulled back Natasha was looking at her strangely. "What is darling?"
"Aren't you mad at me?" Natasha asked. "For fighting and getting into trouble?"
"You were defending yourself, were you not?" Peggy asked, brow raised slightly. Natasha nodded gently, and Peggy noted that her headache must be lingering despite Angie having given her something for it. "Then no, darling, I'm not angry with you. Now, if you had started the fight, or been fighting for a ridiculous reason then yes, I would be very cross with you, and you and I would be having a very different conversation."
Natasha both relaxed at knowing she really wasn't in as much trouble as she thought, but also understood her mother's tone that her worry had been somewhat warranted.
"Why don't you tell us what happened, Nattie?" Peggy asked. "So if there's ever a next time Mama and I can help you figure out a way to handle things that will hopefully not lead to you getting your head knocked into the ground."
"She said we weren't a real family." Natasha said after a moment of hesitation, because she didn't want to hurt her mothers the way Tina's words had hurt her. "And that you and Ma were weirdos."
"You know that isn't true, don't you?" Angie asked gently. "You know we are a real family and me and Mummy loving each other doesn't make us weirdos?"
"I know." Natasha nodded. "I told Tina that too, and I told her that you and Mummy picked me special to love."
"We certainly did, my darling." Peggy said with a warm smile and a gentle caress of Natasha's cheek. When she noticed the blush blooming on her little girl's cheeks, she raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What else did you say Natasha?"
Natasha bit her lip, forgetting once again about it being busted and hissed in pain, before she admitted. "Something about her parents were only her parents because of a broken condom amd a closed clinic."
"Natasha!" Peggy scolded while Angie fell against the back of the sofa laughing. Peggy shot her wife a look. "Angela, really."
"Oh come on, English!" Angie replied, catching her breath. "That was a good one. That's the Brooklyn in our girl shining through."
"And just how is our daughter aware of how a broken condom could result in pregnancy?" Peggy accused. "Or about such clinics?"
"Don't look at me, English." Angie held up her hands. "We have those kinds of talks with her together, whatever I've said, you've heard."
Peggy turned her gaze to Natasha, the look on her face asking the silent question.
"Would you believe tv?" Natasha asked in response.
"I would not." Peggy replied.
Natasha sighed and regretfully answered, "It's something I've heard Uncle Howard say."
"Of course, the obvious suspect." Peggy rolled her eyes.
For twenty minutes they talked about better ways to handle situations like the one Natasha had found herself in. Peggy and Angie re-enforced that it was always better to try and talk things out first, but if it comes down to defending one's self then one must do as they must. They also talked about how Natasha didn't have to defend them to anyone, she didn't have to defend their family. They explained that there would be three types of people when it came to their unconventional family, those who would accept them for who they were, those who would come around, and those who would dislike them simply for being different. "Those people, Nattie, the ones who will never come around, well, they can just bloody sod off."
Natasha giggled at her proper mother cursing.
Angie bumped Natasha's shoulder and smiled at her with a wink. "Don't let Mummy fool ya angel, she swears like a soldier."
"If you recall my love, I was a soldier." Peggy chuckled. "Speaking of my soldiering days. Nattie, show me exactly how you hit the girl." She watched the way Natasha didn't quite make a fist, but curled her fingers over, and then jabbed upwards with the heel of her hand. Peggy blinked, "Who taught you how to do that?"
"Uncle Dum Dum." Natasha answers. "He says I'm tiny, and sometimes tiny needs an upper hand."
Peggy shook her head. "It would seem that Mummy and Uncle Dum Dum need to have a chat."
"Why?" Natasha asked, feeling bad because she seemed to be getting a lot of her uncles in trouble with her Mum.
"Because darling, that way of punching someone will almost always result in a broken nose." Peggy answered.
"Oh!" Natasha replied, wide eyed. "That's why there was so much blood! Hope totally puked."
"This is why school janitors don't get paid enough." Angie chuckled.
"We'll be sure to get Mr. Johnson something nice for the holidays." Peggy said, turning her gaze to Natasha. "Along with a reassurance that our little goblin won't be making any more of her classmates bleed quite so profusely."
"I can't promise that, Mummy." Natasha replied earnestly.
"Why not?" Peggy demanded gently. She'd been sure that Natasha had understood everything they'd just talked about.
"I don't know what profusely means." Natasha answered.
Peggy laughed, reached out with quick relaxes and tickled the girl before pulling her into her lap. "It means a lot, Nattie."
It was so much easier to protect Natasha from the world outside their home when she was small and always at their sides. Now that she was out in the world on her own, all they could do was make sure she had the skills to navigate it as safely as possible. That was hard to do when there were people out there who wanted to hurt her for no other reason than hurt a child. Peggy tightened her hold on her daughter as she carefully kissed the top of her head. Angie was right, some people were just shit and it Peggy hated that she couldn't protect Natasha from them all.