"Come on." Natasha said as she opened the door. Katya looked at her curiously, then rose from the bed and followed her out the door. They walked side by side down the hallway, receiving some confused glances from the people they passed. They went up an elevator and entered a building that was nothing like the many conference rooms, and offices they had passed before. It was a quaint apartment, with multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and a couch with a television.

"This is the compound where the Avengers live." Natasha explained to the girl, knowing she probably already knew about the world famous Avengers.

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Because, this is where you are going to stay too. For the time being." She added. The girl just looked around the space warily. Natasha opened a door to a room on the left side of the hallway.

"This is where I sleep." She explained. The room was very plain, with just a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a nightstand. The only personal touch was a small framed picture beside her bed that had a picture of a young girl with blue hair and an even younger blonde girl. She closed the door and crossed the hall to the door opposite to her own.

"This is where you will stay." The room was almost identical to Natasha's.

"The rest of the Avengers sleep in the other rooms." She explained gesturing down the hall.

"Their rooms are way more decorative than mine." She said with a slight laugh.

"I hope I'm not being a bother by staying here."

"No, probably not, they know almost everything about each other, so we get on each other's nerves a lot. Plus, it would be nice to have another girl around."

"You're the only female Avenger?"

"Yeah, and living with five men, is dirty and exhausting." This was very strange for Katya to hear, after all she had grown up with dozens of girls. She thought about how strange it must be to live with boys. She had talked and even flirted with some while training in Russia, and all she found out was that they were cocky and thought they were cooler than they were. So far, her expectations were set very low.

"Well, let's get you settled." They both walked into the room and Natasha locked the door behind them.

"I know you don't have any clothes of your own yet, so I gave you some of mine to borrow."

"Thank you." Katya said opening the dresser, it had about 5 pairs of pants, shirts, underwear, various forms of outerwear such as sweaters and jackets, and a pair of tennis shoes.

"They might be a little big on you, but it'll do for now. The bathroom is behind that door over there, towels, soap, and anything else you might need are in there, and I'm right across the hall if you need anything."

"I get my own bathroom?" She asked with wonder in her eyes.

"Yes." Natasha replied as she left the room and closed the door behind her. Katya looked out the window, it was midday, around noon, she guessed. She picked some of Natasha's clothes from the dresser. Plain black pants, a maroon tee-shirt, and a navy SHIELD sweatshirt. She brought them into the bathroom with her, and set them beside the sink.

She looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes had large bags beneath them, and she was incredibly underweight. She took off her hospital gown, folded it, and set it on the other side of the sink. Then, she turned on the shower and waited for steam to cloud the ceiling. She carefully went inside. It was strange, showering in warm water. At the Red Room they only had cold water, it made bathing a rather unpleasant experience. This was heaven. She sat down in the shower and leaned against the tile wall, as she let the warm water rain down on her. She came out feeling better than she had in a long time. She wrapped herself in a warm towel, combed out her hair, and blew it dry. She put on the clean clothes Natasha had given her. They fit almost perfectly. They were a little bit baggy, but despite their age difference, Katya was slightly taller than Natasha, so it worked out well.

Katya just sat down on the bed for a little while, she stroked the sheets while she adjusted to her new surroundings. She took in everything, the layout of the room, the sounds that the air conditioning made, the view outside, and the glow of warm sunshine that filled the room. She sat down at the desk beside her bed. She rolled open the drawer to find a notebook, and a couple of pens. She carefully took one of each out, and looked at the door out of habit. She had written down her thoughts in the Red Room as well. If she could not cry, then she would write. She wrote them down on tiny scraps of paper, napkins, and paper towels from the bathroom, then she would stuff them beneath her mattress. Slowly she began…

3/28/2005

I've been through hell. I was raised in the Red Room, a covert school in Russia where orphaned girls were trained to be spies and assassins. I wasn't very good. I could have been if I really wanted to, but I cared too much, I was too kind, too anxious. Every other day I was beaten for my incompetence, by the Headmistress, Madame B. or one of her associates. One day she even tried to drown me. I went back to my room, and a kind girl named Natalia helped me with my injuries. A few days ago I met her once more. She no longer works for the KGB, she works for an American organization called SHIELD. She is one of the Avengers and is letting me stay in their apartment while I help them to destroy the Red Room. Natalia just gave me my own room, and bathroom. I've never had a bathroom to myself before. She even gave me some of her clothes to borrow. She may be the kindest assassin I've ever known. I'm not quite sure what to do now, I know I can trust Natalia, but I'm afraid to meet the other Avengers. Natalia says they know almost everything about one another, I am afraid. I have never been close to anyone before. I hope they don't think I'm bad with the way I grew up, the things I've been trained to do...

Katya froze as she heard a knock on the door. She quickly stashed her notebook back into the desk and went towards the door. She hesitantly turned the doorknob expecting the worst, Madame B, or an intimidating avenger. Instead, she was greeted by a very friendly man with dark brown hair. He shook her hand excitedly.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Clint."

"I'm Katya." The girl spoke quietly.

"So, your Nat's little sister?" he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye as he casually leaned against the doorframe. Katya was confused, she was used to people speaking in code, and yelling at her, but she had never engaged in friendly banter before.

"Yeah, sort of. Not biologically, but I kind of grew up with her if that's what you mean." She said, uncomfortable talking about the Red Room with this stranger, but at the same time wanting to please him.

"Tell me, what was she like when she was little?"

"Um… I'm not sure. I didn't really know her until she was older. A few years ago she beat the crap out of me."

"Yeah, that sounds like Nat. Anyway, dinner is going to be ready soon if you would like to join us."

"Maybe, I'm kind of tired."

"Okay, it was nice meeting you, Katya!" He called as he walked down the hallway. Katya waved, then locked the door again. She was hungry but she wasn't ready to eat with the Avengers, not yet.

"So, has anyone talked to the girl yet? I'm starting to think she's a ghost and Nat has finally lost it." Tony joked.

"I have." Clint said.

"What was she like?" Steve asked curiously. Everyone except for Natasha looked up from their food, and waited for Clint to respond. He chewed slowly while he thought.

"Nice enough, shy though, real jumpy. She did tell me that Nat beat the crap out of her when they were little."

"Really Nat, a little girl?" Tony teased Natasha.

"Hey, you weren't there, you don't know the whole story." She replied.

"So, what happened?" Steve asked.

"It was a long time ago. I was young. Can we please move on?"

"Storytime! Storytime! Storytime!" The men chanted as they pounded their fists on the table.

"Fine." Nat spoke entirely in Russian. Everyone just stared at her as she animatedly told the story, none of which they could understand. Suddenly, she would pantomime violent actions, sending them into even more confusion.

"Did you get all that?" She smiled mischievously.

"Aw, come on Widow, in english, please." Tony asked. Natasha closed her eyes and sighed.

"I don't want to talk about it, just please be careful around her. She is still recovering, and we are going to need her to trust us, if she is going to help us."

"What should we be careful of ?" Bruce asked.

"The nurse that cared for her said she had multiple panic attacks and very light sleep, most likely from nightmares. Just don't sneak up on her; she might gouge your eyes out. Oh and she doesn't like to be touched, so please just be careful about what you say and do around her."

"Yeah."

"Sure."

"No problem."

"Now, I'm going to go see if she wants something to eat." Natasha rose from the table, the men all watched her, saddened by how much she still didn't trust them. Shemade a plate for the girl and knocked on her door. Katya cautiously opened it.

"Can I come in?" Katya nodded as she opened the door more. Katya closed the door and locked it again. Natasha was relieved to see that the girl had changed clothes, and her hair was no longer matted and tangled.

"I brought you some dinner. I hope you like salmon and rice."

"Thank you." She took the plate and utensils from Natasha, and sat at her desk. While Natasha sat on the bed, making sure the girl ate something.

"So, how are you settling in so far?"

"Pretty good. The hot shower was nice. strange, but nice." Natasha remembered the cold, goosebump inducing showers of the Red Room.

"The rest of the gang is excited to meet you." Katya just smiled unenthusiastically before she took another bite.

"Clint was nice." Was all she said.

"Yeah, he's a good friend of mine."

"I've never really had any friends." Of course, she hasn't.

"Maybe, you will, if you go to school, meet the Avengers..." Natasha said encouragingly.

"School?" Katya replied nervously.

"Yeah, a real school, with kids your age where you learn math and history, you know, without the violent part of learning how to endure hours of torture, or how to kill someone with a junior mint and a paper clip."

"I'm finished." Katya replied, handing her empty plate back to Natasha. Natasha could tell that the girl wanted to avoid the subject, so she stopped pressing her on it. She noticed that the girl kept giving the desk a sideways glance every so often.

"Katya, is there something you want to tell me?" Natasha asked, kneeling down next to where she was sitting to make her feel more comfortable.

"No." Katya said, staring directly at Natasha. It was impossible to tell whether she was lying or not.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Natasha said as she exited the room.