December 20th, 2010

Hydra Research Facility

Bucharest, Romania

Melina walked through the stark white hallways of the research facility silently, not making a sound as she made her way down the different corridors of the building.

The last part of her plan was finally completed. She had gotten a hidden message to Alexei last night and had gotten his reply this morning, saying he'd be there with the escape vehicle.

Today was finally the day that she and her grandson escaped this stupid base.

Luckily for her, there was scheduled maintenance for all the security systems happening this afternoon, right as Alexei was scheduled to reach the building.

She couldn't have planned it better herself.

Oh wait, she did.

She made her way to her quarters and once she shut the door, she took off her annoying helmet that they had her wear and brushed her braided hair behind her left shoulder before walking over to her bed where she had two bags laid out.

One full of C4 and the other filled with every ounce of information she has about her grandson that she was going to send to Natasha once he was safe and she was back on the run.

Now originally she didn't plan on keeping him a secret from her daughter, honestly she didn't want to but these men would be out for her blood once she destroyed this facility and Pyotr wouldn't be safe with her for the time it would take her to track down her daughter.

It was a risk, she wasn't willingly to take with him. He's already been through so much and she'd be damned if she was the cause of anymore pain in his life.

So, she was doing the next best thing.

She had a contact in New York City who had agreed to look out for the boy and be there if he ever needed a place to go. All Melina asked of her was she made sure to check in on him and be sure he was safe.

Felicia had been understanding and agreed to her terms without a complaint though, happy that she could finally pay back the debt she owed to the older woman.

Even if that meant looking out for a nine year old, possibly traumatized assassin.

She trusted Felicia with her life, she knew that the woman wouldn't fail her.

With one last check to her gear and the files along with the letter she would send, she zipped up everything, placed her helmet back on, shouldered the bags and walked out the room.

She had work to do.

————

It was a pretty normal day for Pyotr, having woken up by himself today and not by the slamming of his cell door which was a good sign to the boy because it meant he didn't have his training or a mission that he'd no doubt regret later on.

Which just left the boy to his thoughts.

Which, was never a good thing.

It had been two months since his handler had told him he'd never see the Solider again, and he still didn't know how to feel about that.

James was the one constant in his life, had been for a few years now and when the man remembered him, he always tried to help Pyotr in anyway he could.

No matter how small the gesture, Pyotr always appreciated it and made sure to subtly tell James whenever he could.

He still likes to keep to the lessons his mother had taught him years ago, from the ones he could remember and one of them was of course using his manners whenever he could.

Man he missed her..

Just as that thought crossed his mind, his senses detected a set of feet making their way over towards his cell. He made sure that all emotions were cleared from his face before sitting up right and waiting for the person to enter.

From what he could tell, she was definitely female so he'd bet that it was that female guard who has taken to leading him around the facility.

Pyotr was proven right when about ten seconds later, said woman walked into his room without her helmet on and a bag around her shoulders before she shut the door and looked at The Spider in the eyes.

"Come. We're leaving." She said in a tone that brokered no room for argument but Pyotr always was curious, just like his mother.

"Where? What's the mission?" He asked, his response actually getting a small smile out of the woman's face but her eyes were sad.

"Just like your mother, always asking questions. Come, we have no time for trivial details, let's move." She said gesturing to the door with her head but Pyotr was focused only on one thing as he slowly walked forward.

"You know my mother?" He asked hopefully. The boy couldn't help himself, he's missed her so much that it physically hurts him sometimes.

"I do, but we can't go to her right now, it's not safe. I have no idea where my daughter is and it is too risky trying to look for her when I'll have you." She said, leading the way out his cell door, Pyotr following right behind.

"You're my grandma." He stated with a raised eyebrow and it was almost funny how he looked so much like his mother with that one action, the eyes and everything.

Melina smiled, "Yes, I am but if we want to get out of here, you'll have to trust me okay?" She turned around and waited for him to nod his head, she continued, "Good, there's a ventilation system in my room that we both can crawl out of. It'll take us outside and from there, we can get far enough away before they realize we're gone, and by then, well let's just say that this base won't exist anymore."

The both of them snuck around the base until they reached her room, not wanting to be too loud incase they alerted someone but they only had a couple more minutes before the maintenance for the security system was completed and they'd be locked in again.

Then they'd see that their Spider wasn't in his room...

And they would not be happy...

They got to her room and as soon as Pyotr closed the door behind them, Melina walked over to the vent which was level with the ground, and ripped off the vent covering, the opening just big enough to fit them.

"Alright, I'll lead the way through the vents, you can follow me yes? Stay as quiet as you can, we don't need them hearing us escape." Peter nodded his head and crawled in behind her before grabbing the vent cover and placing it over the opening before he continued crawling again.

It took them only five minutes to get through the ventilation and Melina knew that the system would be up again in only two minutes so they had to hurry.

So when she got to the end, she wasted no time in turning her body and kicking the vent cover off which lead outside.

"Come on, we've got to get the hell out of here." She said, standing up and offering her hand to the boy which he took. She hauled him up before she started to run in the opposite direction, Pyotr following behind.

"You never said where we were going." He said, keeping up with her without a sweat.

"You are going to be staying with a friend of mine, she's offered to give you a place to stay while I make sure these assholes don't hunt you down and take you again."

"What about my mother?" He asked desperately, but trying to hide it.

She sighed, "I honestly don't know where your mother is. I know she works for this government agency called Shield, but I don't know which state she's in. She lives in America now, just so you know. And that's where you'll be." Melina said.

"Where am I going then? Will I ever see her again?"

Melina huffed, "Just like your mother with all the questions, yes you'll see her again, I promise. But until then, you'll be staying in New York with an old friend of mine, her name is Felicia and she's a very nice woman who will look after you while I can't."

Pyotr frowned, "I don't need to be looked after, I can take care of myself."

It was Melina's time to frown now, "I know you think that right now, trust me I know what you're going through, but everyone needs a little support from time to time, even I. No one needs to be strong every second of the day, we all have our moments and in time, you'll learn that."

Before Peter could say anything else, he heard the telltale sounds of yelling coming from where they had come from.

"They know." He said simply, knowing she'd understand.

She nodded her head, "We've only got a little ways to go, let's pick up the pace."

It was only another thirty seconds before they had come across a little clearing where they had a view of the base down the hill. Without a single word, Melina took a device out of her pocket and pressed the button.

Peter stood their in shock as he watched the whole building get engulfed in flames, he could hear all their screams, all of their panic filled last breaths as they died and ceased to exist.

"Burn in hell bastards." He heard as the woman next to him, his grandmother, angrily muttered to herself. He knew he probably wasn't supposed to hear that so he made no comment about it, but he did decided to ask another question.

"How are we getting out of here?" He asked.

Just then, his eyes caught something behind them so he turned around and came face to face with a plane that wasn't their five seconds ago. He watched as the vehicle went from being see through, to a normal dull grey color.

"What is that?" He asked in shock.

"It's an old Shield jet. Active camouflage to make sure we aren't seen leaving the scene. We're going to drop you in New York with Felicia and then leave before they track us to you. There's no doubt going to be survivors who will look for you."

"What do you mean we?" He tilted his head in confusion but just then the back hatch to the jet opened up and revealed a man in a red costume with a star on his chest.

"Melina, I see you got him! Come then, let's get out of here before those bastards crawl out of the fire." He said, walking back into the jet.

"And...who's that?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

"That's your grandpa, he's...definitely unique." She said. "But let's not worry about that right now, let's get you to New York." She said walking over to the jet.

"Will I ever see you two again?" He asked, dying to get to know more about his family and it seemed that the only person who knew anything would be leaving to try and protect him again.

"I promise, you'll see us again. We're family, and family have to stick together."

————

December 25, 2010

Natasha was sitting down in her little apartment with her sister when she had gotten the message from Fury.

It was Christmas Day, and the resident spy family was down in the dumps, especially Natasha. All she wanted was her son and she still wasn't any closer to finding him than she was years ago.

It was like he had vanished from the face of the earth, and Natasha could do nothing about it.

That was until, the message came through.

All she got was a simple text from Fury saying come to my office so Yelena and her dragged their bodies off the couch and followed the familiar path to his room.

As soon as they got there and opened the door, they knew something was happening when both Agent Parker's were standing there along with Fury.

"What's wrong?" She asked, not knowing what the hell was going on.

"You don't happen to be familiar with the name Melina, do you?" Fury asked, not even beating around the bush causing both Yelena and Natasha to tense.

"How do you know that name?" Yelena glared.

"I'll take that as a yes," Fury muttered before continuing, "There was a package that was dropped off at our New York facility yesterday. There was a duffle bag full of information on a base in Romania and a note, addressed to you Romanoff. You're lucky the Parkers were the ones who found it before it had gotten in the hands of the board."

"Wait, pause for a second, why should I be glad about this? What did Melina drop off? What kind of information was it? What did it say?" Natasha asked with narrowed eyes.

Fury and the Parker's looked at each other before Mary spoke up, "How about you read the letter she wrote to you instead." She offered, handing her the note with a gentleness behind her eyes.

Natasha narrowed her eyes even further but grabbed the note and started to read, Yelena reading it too, over her shoulder.

"Hello Natasha, I know that this isn't how I should be doing this, but I promise you that if I knew where you were, I would've taken this info and the package to you personally, just know that."

"I'm taking a very big risk at just leaving this in New York, but like I stated, I have no idea where you work, I only know you work at Shield, so...let's hope this makes it to you."

"I found him..."

"I found your son Natasha, I've been playing as a guard at a base in Romania for the last two years to try and help him out and just a few days ago, I finally managed to get him out."

"He's safe, I promise."

"But I don't know where the fuck you are and it pisses me off. I don't have time to try and find you because there are assholes on my tail for what I did to their base and their previous spider."

"That's what they called him, Their Spider."

"In the bag, I've left you all the information about the base I destroyed and any information about your son. I tried to help him as much as I could without getting found out, but I don't know if it was enough."

"They did horrible things to him, things that even disgusted me."

"I have a friend though, a woman who I trust with my life who promised me she'd look after him while I'm gone or until you find him. I hope you understand why I can't say her name on a piece of paper, since I have no idea who will see this, so I'm not saying it for his own protection."

"In the bag is a few pictures of him, so you know what he looks like and know what to look for while in the city."

"I hope you find him Natasha, truly I do. Say hello to your sister for me."

"Your mom, Melina..."

In shock, Natasha looked up at the three others with tears in her eyes.

"W-where's the bag?" She asked.

Fury reached under his desk and placed the bag on the table, letting Natasha go through the files, he had already gone through them anyways.

He knew what she wanted to see...

She gently pulled out the first picture she could find and when she did, more tears leaked out from her eyes.

It was like staring in a mirror, she was basically looking at a male version of herself. From the eyes, to the nose, the jaw hell, even to the slight red in his hair, all she could see was herself staring back at her.

And this was very recently taken, it looked like he was nine in this photo, so it had to have been taken after August and it was only December now.

Her son was okay.

Her mother had saved her son when she could do nothing to help him.

And she now knew with one hundred percent certainty where he was located.

New York City...

"Before you go all mama bear Romanoff, need I remind you that you have a job to do with Stark? I need you to stay undercover here, not in New York."

Natasha glared with so much rage behind her gaze that it made both Parker's take a step back, "When I first came here, I said for the information I had, you'd give me and my sister a pardon and you'd help me get my son. That last part still hasn't been delivered. Now I know where he is, I'm going to find him even if it's the last thing I do."

"Agent Parkers live in New York, they can conduct the search for him." Fury said.

Natasha glare, If it was possible, became even more livid, "He's my son."

"And we know that." Mary interrupted, "Fury here just wants you to finish your mission. So when you're done evaluating Stark, then you can take over for us. But until then, we'd be happy to help look for your son."

"Yeah, the city is a lot smaller then the rest of the world, it's only a matter of time before we find him." Richard shrugged.

Natasha thought about it for a second before Yelena spoke up for her sister, still seeing the hesitation in her gaze.

"How about I work with them. I'll help them try to find Pyotr while you're busy with Stark, okay?" Her sister offered which made Natasha slightly relax her muscles at her sister's suggestion.

"I'd like that." She admitted with a small nod and a slight bitterness to her tone.

She should be looking for him, he was her son.

And yet she was stuck in California until she was done babysitting a giant man child.

Fury nodded his head, "Good, Belova, Parkers pack your gear, you're going to New York."