"I don't have to go back?" Lainey asked, wanting to be 100% sure that this was true.
"Never. You belong with me now and that's where you're going to stay." Natasha smiled reassuringly. "You're mine and I'm yours."
And there was something about that last statement that made Lainey's muscles relax so she could throw her arms around Natasha.
She belonged to Natasha now.
And despite the abuse, the kidnapping, and the experiments, and the nightmares, she was the happiest she had ever been. She knew that she would have to talk about what happened at some point, but for right now, she was content just to be in Natasha's arms.
She was safe and she was loved. That was all that mattered right now.
Chapter 11:
"Here."
Lainey squealed as an entire outfit hit her square in the face. "Hey!"
"Hay is for horses." The redhead smirked. "I thought you'd want to get out of here as soon as possible."
"Doesn't someone have to look me over?" Lainey raised an eyebrow, before wiping the sleep from her eyes.
"Bruce came in to look you over, but you were asleep. He said you were okay to leave as soon as you woke up. Unless you don't want to leave, that's completely okay-"
"-No! I'm coming!" Lainey shot out of the bed to put her clothes on. "Someone changed me into a hospital gown? Yuck."
"What were we supposed to do? Leave you in your dirty clothes?" Natasha asked, sporting an amused look on her face before turning around. "You don't have anything I haven't seen before."
Lainey rolled her eyes, but changed anyway, climbing onto Natasha's back to let her know she was finished.
"What is this?" Natasha asked, playfully prying her off.
"I've been in bed for days. I'm not used to walking on my own two feet. My legs are weak."
"Oh?" Natasha smiled. "If your legs are so weak, how did you manage to jump up on my back? I think you're being facetious just so you won't have to walk. Child's play."
Lainey huffed and sat back down on the bed, with her arms crossed clearly pretending to be upset at the accusation.
"And now you're pretending to be upset with me because I'm seeing right through you."
Lainey looked down at her lap for a moment before looking back up at Natasha with fake tears in her eyes. "I'm not pretending, I'm really upset."
Natasha bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at the pathetic looking kid, before she held out her hands.
"What's this?" Lainey asked.
"Put your right hand in my left and you left hand in my right." Natasha instructed.
Lainey shrugged and did as she was told, giggling when Natasha swung her up on her back. "Thank you."
The redhead rolled her eyes and nodded. It wasn't too much trouble anyway. Lainey was one of those kids that always enjoyed the little things. She didn't like soda, but she loved glass coke bottles, she cherished the budding leaves of the trees and the New York City skyline. She even managed to find something beautiful in the heaviest of rainfall.
She had Natasha wrapped around her fingers and she knew it.
"Dammit!" Lainey gasped as the glass of water she had been drinking from slipped out of her hands.
She attempted to catch it so it wouldn't shatter all over the tiled floor of the kitchen, but her hands missed the cup.
To her surprise, the glass never hit the floor and neither did the water inside of it.
It just hovered in the air with a purple aura around it.
Lainey gasped as her eyes widened in disbelief. "What did he do to me?"
Her hands shook, making the glass fall and shatter all over the floor, startling her. But she didn't scream. She didn't make a sound.
She didn't want anyone to find out. How would they look at her? Some stupid kid that was experimented on to work for HYRDA? What if they thought that she was HYDRA? She didn't want to take the chance, so she decided not to say a word and clean up the mess.
Unfortunately for her, she managed to gain multiple cuts on her hands from the sharp shards. It would make it harder to cover up, but maybe if she wore fingerless gloves and came up with some stupid excuse as to why she was wearing them, she could get away with it.
She could do this. She'd be fine.
If she could lie about how well she was sleeping, then she could lie about a few cuts on her hands. Sure they hurt and she almost gave up on trying to stop the bleeding, but she could make this work.
"Lainey?"
"Hi Sam." She smiled, acting as if nothing was wrong.
Luckily, she had managed to clean everything up right before he walked in. So all she really had to do was hide her hands.
"Are you okay?" He asked, opening up the fridge, pulling out a carton of orange juice only to drink straight from it.
That never failed to make Lainey cringe. She could never. All his germs and backwash stayed in that carton for other people to drink. That was the number one reason she had a mini-fridge in her room. The other reason was because these grown man-children thought that it was okay to eat all of her ice cream. Lainey didn't mind sharing, but when they completely demolished her favorite treat, she lost it. Natasha didn't even bother to try and stop her.
She found it to be one of the funniest things she had ever seen, but Steve "I'm Everyone's Dad" Rogers broke the crime scene up and sent Lainey to her room for her quote on quote, "disrespect and lack of control over her emotions."
Lack of control over emotions, huh? He wasn't saying that when he took a shower the next day and came out with red, white, and blue hair. Lainey has plenty of pictures and videos to prove it.
She didn't get very much ice cream after that for a long time. But it was more than worth it.
"Sure." Lainey spoke, shaking herself out of her own thoughts. "Why?"
"Just a question." Sam shrugged nonchalantly. "Are you sleeping well?"
"I'm sleeping very well, thank you." Lainey furrowed her eyebrows, her suspicion rising by the second.
"Are you sure? You've been through a lot. It's okay if you're having nightmares. Or if you can't sleep."
"I'm fine. Okay?" Lainey responded tersely, she didn't even notice that she was gripping the countertop so hard, her knuckles were white.
Not only that, but the force reopened her wounds, making her blood seep onto the counter.
Sam immediately grabbed her hand and pulled a towel off of the refrigerator door, wrapping it around the wound. "What happened to you?"
"Nothing. I just squeezed too hard." Lainey shrugged.
"Contrary to Ms. Alayna's response, she seems to have cut her hands on very sharp pieces of glass that she dropped a few minutes before you walked into the room." F.R.I.D.A.Y interjected with the truth before anything could get any worse.
"F.R.I!" Lainey gasped as being tattled on by an A.I.
"I'm sorry Ms. Alayna, but I have been programmed to inform an adult whenever you get hurt. They are Ms. Romanoff's orders."
Lainey rolled her eyes. Of course they were Natasha's orders.
Ever since the adoption papers were finalized, the redhead had made it her personal mission to "mother-hen" her as much as possible. Lainey appreciated that Natasha cared for her, but she was making Steve look like a rebel!
One day Lainey stubbed her toe on the end of the couch, and Natasha lost it. She held Lainey on her lap and cradled her for ten minutes before Lainey built up the strength to push her away.
Nobody dared to laugh at her or tell her that she may have been taking it too far. They liked being in the land of the living.
"Anytime you are injured in the slightest, I must activate the Little Romanoff protocol."
Okay, as much as Lainey hated all this coddling, 'Little Romanoff' did sound nice. Maybe she could suck it up a little bit longer.
"Ms. Romanoff has been alerted and should be arriving short-"
"-Is she okay? What happened?" Natasha sped-walked into the room, making Sam chuckle.
"Natasha, I'm fine. You didn't have to come in here." Lainey told her, trying to get her hand out of Sam's grip.
"She isn't fine. She cut her hands on some glass and tried to hide it." Sam explained.
Natasha sighed and lifted Lainey up to sit on the island, before going through the kitchen drawers to find a first-aid kit. "Unwrap the towel and give me both hands."
Lainey didn't even bother protesting, she knew it was futile, so she just did as she was told. Just because Natasha was nice to her, didn't mean that she could be taken advantage of.
"Well, you don't need stitches. It just looks worse than it is. Why didn't you tell anyone that you needed help?" The former assassin asked, cleaning the cuts.
"There was no one around and I didn't need anyone's help, I'm not a little kid." Lainey snarled, making both adults in the room raise their eyebrows.
"Watch yourself." Was all Natasha said.
That's all she had to say. Lainey knew she was wrong even before the sentence came out of her mouth. Somehow, her mouth overpowered her brain and she ended up saying it anyway.
"You know what?" Sam chuckled nervously, making his way to the elevator. "I think Vision's trying to call me."
He was no fool.
Natasha's reaction wasn't something she particularly expected. Nevertheless, Lainey listened.
"Sorry." She spoke quietly, watching the redhead, dab Neosporin on her wounds.
"What?" Natasha finished up and tilted Lainey's chin so she could look her in the eyes.
"I'm sorry." Lainey repeated a little more clearly than before.
Natasha nodded and put everything away before turning back to the child. "I noticed you haven't been sleeping well."
"How'd you know?" Lainey's eyes widened.
"I know everything." Natasha crossed her arms. "That isn't the point. Have you been having nightmares?"
"No...…yes."
"About what?"
"Both my parents…...HYDRA…...whatever they injected me with." Lainey didn't even bother to try and lie.
It wasn't worth it. Natasha would know and she was already upset with her once. She wasn't dumb enough to poke the bear twice.
Not on purpose anyway.
"Your mother is in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody." Natasha began. "Your father is dead. You were injected with something that isn't life threatening. You don't need to worry. You are not alone. We're all right beside you. You can come to any one of us for anything. You don't have to go through this by yourself."
"Okay." Lainey sighed. "Here we go."
Lainey looked at the jump ropes on the training room floor and stretched her hands out, hoping to be able to lift them.
She did everything she could think of, but nothing worked.
So she just stopped trying.
But before she put her hands down, the ropes floated off the ground.
"I knew there was something more you were hiding."
Lainey shrieked and lost focus, dropping the ropes, before turning around to face Wanda. "Please don't tell anyone!"
"Why do you feel the need to hide?" Wanda stepped further into the room, noticing how Lainey's body grew rigid as her fight or flight response tried to force its way to the surface.
"I don't know how to…...they injected me with this…...what if everyone thinks I'm a monster, or HYDRA?"
"Do you think I'm HYDRA?" Wanda asked gently. "I chose to undergo the experiments.'
"Well of course not, but-"
"-Then how could anyone possibly think that you're a monster? You didn't choose this. This was out of your control. It isn't your fault."
"But they only had me so I could work for HYDRA." Lainey insisted. "I was only born so that HYDRA could use me. How could they see me as anything else?"
Wanda sighed and wrapped her arms around the brunette. "I can tell you that you're not a monster as many times as I'd like, you have to believe it yourself. I think you should tell Natasha."
Lainey shook her head rapidly and pulled herself out of the older girl's embrace. "I can't. She'll never look at me the same way again."
It wasn't true, but like Wanda said earlier, she could try to convince Lainey all she wanted to, Lainey would have to come to terms her own way.
"Would you feel better if I taught you how to control your powers?" She suggested, dropping the subject.
If Lainey didn't tell Natasha, and if and only if this got out of hand, she'd take matters into her own hands. She didn't want to betray her trust, but Natasha had a right to know what was going on with her child.
The redhead took her parental responsibilities very seriously and Wanda didn't blame her. Lainey was precious.
"Please." Lainey nodded.
"Okay." Wanda smiled fondly. "Moving things with your mind is more than just making them go from one place to another. You can't hope that they'll get there. You have to believe that you're moving them. Don't think too hard."
The Maximoff girl lifted her hands and moved a dumbbell, a red aura surrounding the item. Lainey watched carefully as she gently put it down, not making a sound or an effort in doing so.
"Your turn, but try it with the ropes. Don't be afraid of it. If you become afraid of it, it controls you."
Lainey inhaled deeply and shook her hands.
Here goes nothing. She lifted her hands just like Wanda did and instead of thinking about moving the jump ropes, she didn't think of anything at all.
And it worked. Lainey managed to gain control of her power and moved the rope from one side of the room, to the other in awe. She had no idea she could actually pull it off. And so quickly too!
"If you'd like, I could train you...…just incase something were to happen and you need to defend yourself."
"I'd like that."
And just like that, a hole in both of their hearts began to mend. Neither one of them spoke a word about Lainey's newfound powers to Natasha. It was their little secret for the time being. They had reached an understanding. As long as Lainey continued to train, Wanda wouldn't spill the beans. Lainey managed to gain a close friend, confidante, and sister in Wanda. Something she never knew she needed, being raised an only child. She liked having a sister. She could talk to Wanda about anything and the older girl would listen intently, studying her emotions, yet never reading her mind, until she found an opportunity to give her advice.
Not only did Wanda help her physically, but she also helped her emotionally. Even though she still had nightmares, they became less and less frequent to the point where she could finally get a good night's sleep and get back to school. She was gaining control of her life again.
Little did Lainey know that as much as she thought Wanda was doing for her, she was doing so much more for Wanda. She couldn't replace Pietro, no. But she did make her longing heart much easier to bear to the point where she felt that she didn't miss him so much anymore. She would tell Lainey stories about him when they lived in Sokovia. The good and the bad. She told the younger girl that Pietro would've loved her and that meant the world to her.
Two girls from completely opposite sides of the world, brought together, forming a bond that could never, and would never break.
Did it get any better than that?
A/N: Hi guys! Happy May! Did anyone see Endgame? I'm going to be honest, it broke me. So I'm writing to cope. I know this story may seem a little rushed, so I plan to write a series of one shotes, featuring missing scenes from this story. Anyway, Lainey has powers and she knows how to use them...somewhat and next up is Civil War!