That night, Katya's dreams were more horrific than ever. They were filled with blood-red snow, Madame B's petrifying stare, the cries of newborns, it was all so gruesome, but she was too exhausted to wake herself up, she could only endure it. Finally, she woke up, it was around six in the morning, the sun was still low on the horizon. Everytime she blinked, all she saw was the rusty red color of blood. She rushed over to the sink and vigorously splashed water on her face, to try and make the illusion stop. Then, she headed out into the main space. Nobody was up yet, so she flopped on the couch and lazily turned on the TV to find some kids show about twin boys living in a hotel was on. She actually found it quite entertaining, so she decided to leave it on. She made peanut butter toast and ate it on the couch.

"Geez kid, you're up early." It was Tony, he made himself a bowl of cereal.

"Yay! I got a prize!" He said excitedly while he poured it into a bowl. Katya looked at him with a funny look on her face.

"What are you staring at? Let a grown man get excited over his cereal prize! Look, It's a color changing spoon!" He joined her on the couch, as she snickered at him in a playful manner.

"Oh shut up, you're laughing at me, when you're over her watching a friggin Disney sitcom!" She just laughed again.

"To be fair, I'm only 15, and I'm not too familiar with TV shows, so I just left on what was already playing when I turned the TV on."

"Wait did you say that this was already on?"

"Yeah, why?" Katya asked as Tony burst out laughing.

"That means one of the other Avengers was up late watching Disney Channel!" Katya just shrugged, she didn't see why it was such a big deal. Slowly the rest of the Avengers emerged from their caves and they began binge watching the Harry Potter movies. They had just finished watching The Prisoner Of Azkaban when Natasha pulled aside Katya, and they went on the balcony.

"So, yesterday me and the rest of the team were talking about where you are going to live. Because I mean you already did everything SHIELD asked you to do for them and more. Most of the other girls are being sent to orphanages or foster families, and well, we were wondering if you would like to continue to live with us?"

"Really? Why?"

"Because we all really like you, and we want you to join our family, officially."

"But, do I have to be a spy?" Katya asked rather quietly.

"You could, yeah, you can go on missions with us, and continue to be a spy if you want." Katya just looked down at the sidewalk far below. Katya was good at hiding her feelings, but Natasha saw her eyes start to water.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I don't want you to be mad, but…"

"But what? Katya you know you can tell me anything, right? What's the matter?"

"I don't want to be a spy… at least not right now maybe when I'm older." She said, her voice cracking. Natasha hugged her and stroked her hair.

"Shh… It's okay, I'm not mad. Look, you're my sister and I love you; I don't want to make you do something you don't want to. I get it, you've been through so much and you are so, so brave you deserve to relax and be a teenager."

"Thank you."

"Of course, I can even register you for high school next year, and you can live here. It'll be fun."

They spent the rest of the day laughing and eating popcorn during their marathon, warming up for their week off. The next morning Katya got dressed, then as soon as she stepped outside, Natasha grabbed her hand and rushed into the elevator and pressed for the ground floor.

"Woah, I just woke up. Where are we going?"

"I figured since you're living here we need to get you some stuff."

"What sort of stuff?"

"Like clothes, shoes, and new bedding, stuff like that."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, It'll be fun." They got into Natasha's car, unexpectedly it was a Toyota four runner SUV, from two years ago.

"We are picking up Pepper on the way, she's gonna come."

"Is that a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, she's Tony's girlfriend." The rest of the car ride was fairly silent until they stopped by one of Stark's buildings to pick up Pepper, and Natasha rolled down the window, when they saw her on the sidewalk.

"Get in loser, we're going shopping." Pepper climbed in the front seat with a light laugh, Katya just looked confused. Natasha saw Katya's reaction in the mirror.

"It's from a movie Katya, remind me to show you one day. Pepper, this is my younger sister, Katya."

"Nice to meet you." Pepper said kindly.

"I've heard so much about you from Tony, from what he tells me you are quite a brave young lady." Katya just smiled shyly and listened to them chat on the way.

"Okay, we're here." They entered the store, it was a Target. It was fairly empty because it was a wednesday morning, so it was mostly moms going grocery shopping, but Katya still looked on edge.

"Okay, let's go." They went to where the clothes were, Pepper and Natasha started casually walking down the aisles occasionally looking at stuff. Katya didn't know what to do, so she copied them. She occasionally picked out some clothes she liked and that she thought might be her size. She tried them on, it felt strange to be normal, her whole life she either wore her school uniform, clothes the Red Room gave her, or disguises. This was the first time she ever had a choice, and now she didn't know what to do with this freedom. She finally found the right size, and replaced some clothes that were too small. She found Pepper and Natasha, in the swimsuit section, that she had visited earlier.

"You all set?"

"Yep."

"You didn't get much." Katya shrugged. Then, they checked out.

"Okay, next stop Old Navy." Natasha said as she made a U turn.

"We're going to another place?"

"Yeah, you can't buy clothes at just one store." Katya leaned back in her seat, the trip to Target had already been exhausting enough, but that all changed when she got to Old Navy. She couldn't help but be mesmerized by the store. She had a lot more fun, browsing and trying on clothes than at Target. But, by the time they got into the car she was ready to go home.

"So, Katya did you have fun?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah, I did. And thanks for buying me new clothes."

"Of course." Nat said. That night Katya tried to sleep, but her sheets and pajamas felt strange and alien. Natasha gave her more access after the Red Room battle. She walked around the SHIELD facility. It was creepy and eerily quiet. The only light she had was that in the dim emergency lights, and the moon. She learned lots about the people that worked there just by their desks. Fury's office was in tip top shape, everything was spotless, but his drawers were filled with old files, and other junk. He clearly appears calm on the outside, but is internally freaking out. Coulson's office was quite the opposite; he appeared to be more scatterbrained than a toddler, half of his desk drawers were left open, a picture was literally hanging off the walls, his chair was tearing and pieces of leather were scattered all over the floor. Hill's office was very clean and ready to work in, she did have a few pictures on her desk though. She had two dogs, both labs, and a boyfriend or fiancè maybe. She looked happy with whoever she was with, she had a light in her eyes that she had never seen before. Agent Hill almost always has this same stoic expression on her face. Suddenly, Katya froze. There was a box in her desk with her full name labeled on it. She hated to be intrusive but she couldn't help but be curious. Inside was a file she carefully opened. It was a file from the orphanage where Madame B abducted her. It had her scores on various tests she was put through along with some photos. She found a picture of a woman holding a newborn child in a bed. In small handwriting on the back it said: March 28th, 1990, and it had her name. There was an old report that explained how the woman had died, she had the same last name as her, so she started calling her, her mother. It said that her mother was a young woman named Marta Vera Smirnova, her father was a man named Kir Terenti Smirnoff. She had been born in the orphanage and put up for adoption shortly after her mother died from eclampsia shortly after giving birth. Her mother had run away because her husband was abusive, and went into labor. She didn't know how to feel, she was grieving her long lost mother's death, she was angry at her abusive father for how he treated her sweet, kind, gentle mother, she was angry at the Red Room, and she was happy that she finally knew who she was. No longer was she Katya the orphaned assassin that has no place in the world; she was Katya the daughter of the gentle Marta, who died giving birth to her. She held the picture close to her chest and stared blankly at the wall. Carefully, she brought the box to one of the side rooms and made a copy for herself. She put it into a file and returned the box to Maria's drawer. She hid it in her notebook in her desk, then got dressed for the day.

The sun was barely up in the sky when she ran to a park nearby, small tears falling down her face on the way there. Some early joggers passed by her, but still no one seemed to notice her. She pulled her hood over her head and just walked through the many trails of the park. Her shoulders were hunched and pointed to the ground. Tears streamed down her face, as she sniffled, still no one noticed her, all the joggers around her either had headphones in or simply didn't care, she had never felt more alone. She started jogging with them just to feel as though she was a part of something. She saw a woman jogging in the opposite direction of her, she instantly recognized her gait, it was Natasha. She panicked, she wasn't ready to face her just yet, she needed time to collect herself but if she kept walking surely she would notice her. Katya didn't know what to do and she was running out of time. She tried to casually turn around and jog the other direction but quickly realized she had made a mistake. She heard Natasha's footsteps getting quicker behind her, Katya couldn't help it, she broke into a run. She could hear Natasha gaining on her, and made quick turns hoping to avoid her. She was no longer in the park; instead, she was racing through the rugged, overgrown paths in the woods. Katya saw the ground come closer and closer to her face as she tripped over a tree root. Natasha turned her over and pulled down her hood.

"Katya, is that you?" Katya nodded as she watched as her eyes changed from fierce to gentle. She helped her off the dirt, and held her face in her hands.

"Have you been crying?" She asked as she rubbed the dirt off of her face. Natasha didn't need an answer, she knew she had been. Without warning, Katya hugged her tightly. Natasha was surprised, but wrapped her arms around the girl and rubbed her back comfortingly all the same.

"What's wrong? Don't worry, you can tell me."

"I think I'm having an identity crisis."

"What happened?" In response Katya brought Natasha back to the Avengers compound, and showed her the papers she had found. Natasha was so infuriated that Katya saw her body visibly tense up.

"Let's go." Natasha said as she took the papers, and rushed towards Fury's office with Katya trailing behind her. Natasha slammed the file onto his desk.

"What the fuck is this!"

"It's a file."

"I know damn well it's a file Nick! I'm asking why didn't you tell any of us about this."

"Some things are on a need to know basis, Romanoff, this is one of them. After you guys left, I sent a team to search and recover any evidence and items of importance before we completely destroyed it. I planned to tell you only when we found anything that was especially important."

"Nick, I don't think you understand how important this is to her and to me."

"Please Natasha, enlighten me." She took a deep breath and lowered her voice.

"Nick, we have spent our whole lives being told we were nobody, nothing, that our sole purpose for living was to kill. You always knew who you were. I never got that luxury. All I was told was that my name is Natalia Alianova Romanova, and I have no place in the world. This might just be the only clue Katya has to knowing who she was born to be, and you decided to hold onto it until you were ready." Nick just stared blankly at her, since she had been recruited she had always been very polite and even keeled, this was the first time he saw her get angry for real.

"I'm sorry." Fury didn't know what else to say, over the years he had learned to trust Natasha, he even would go as far as to consider her as an adopted daughter of sorts. It hurt more than he could've imagined that he hurt her.

"Thank you. And thank you for going back and retrieving it. How many other files on the girl's did you find?"

"Over a hundred."

"Did you happen to find a file for a Yelena Belova?"

"Um, I'm sorry I don't think there was one but I'll have them double check. And Katya, I'm sorry to you too." She just nodded. Fury began to look through her file just to learn more about its significance to the girl.

"You don't mind do you?"

"No, go ahead." He quickly flipped through it.

"Is this your mother?"

"I think so, but I'm not sure I only knew her for nine months and a few hours." He handed the file back to her.

"Nick? Was there anything about me?" Natasha asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm sorry Natasha, we searched all over the school but we couldn't find any records about you, but we did find this in Madame B's office." He handed her a photo of a much younger Madame B holding a small infant with a dollop of red hair, and brilliant green eyes.

"Our photo experts were working on trying to confirm if it is you."

"It is." She turned over the photo and showed him a very small note in neat handwriting on the back.

"It says marble." Fury said.

"That was her nickname for me in the Red Room."

"Look, I'm sorry I wish I had more information for you but we didn't find anything."

"They burn them." Katya said.

"They did what?"

"As soon as you graduate Madame B burns them. She figured there was no point in knowing who you were, all that matters is how good you are at what you do." Natasha nodded and looked at the floor saddened by how her origins would always be a mystery to her. She thought about asking Madame B, but that woman was made up of lies and there was no telling what story she would come up with.

"Hey Nick, will you give me permission to go on a hiatus from work for a little while?"

"Of course Natasha, take all the time you need."