Finally, Natasha's chapter is here.
Translation of the only sentence in Russian is at the bottom.
One more thing: reread chapter 4 if you don't remember it; Coulson's mission there is directly related with this chapter.
Coulson sat on the couch watching the Russian girl, lying face down on the floor, doodle. Everything was silent and they were the only two in the house. The man could feel his secret eating him from the inside out, but how could he open his mouth to spill something like that? He couldn't. Not even May knew about it.
It all happened almost a year and a half ago when he was sent on a mission to Russia and came home with a second-degree burn. Coulson and his STRIKE team of five men were surveilling a building, just across from the motel room they were staying in. Three members of the team were sleeping as Coulson and the other two members of the tactical team remained on stakeout. That was when Coulson spotted that a fire had started in a nearby building. It was a spontaneous fire and it was progressing fast.
When Coulson and the team got to the building, the flames had already consumed part of the façade. Bystanders stood on the sidewalk in their pajamas, wanting to step in, but fearing the flames. The six men walked in, trying to clear a safe path while finding and guiding as many people outside as they could. Coulson arrived at a fifth floor apartment. A woman was lying, dead, by the door, the fire starting to crawl over her body. As much as it twisted his stomach, Coulson had to erase that image from his mind, leave the woman, and look for trapped survivors in the rest of the apartment. Because there was someone alive there, it was only a matter of time until he found from which door the poundings were coming from. It was a young girl, as old as his daughters, coughing and crying out for help. He swung her off of her feet quickly and picked her up in his arms. The apartment began to collapse, but they didn't leave just yet.
The girl pointed to another bedroom, repeating the names Vindiktor, Vladimir and Anatoly. Coulson walked amidst the wreckage to the door the girl pointed. He had to kick it down and found the bodies of three boys in their beds. One of them was older than the girl he carried, and the other two were small infants. Natalia shouted their names, and they didn't move. She cried, hugging the man tightly, believing they were dead.
(The three boys were alive but were separated after being rescued from the fire; Vladimir and Anatoly ended up having their surnames changes to Ranskahov and moved to Hell's Kitchen, and Vindiktor was killed years later by Natasha herself after they met in Russia and he blamed her for the death of their family)
Just as Coulson was almost out the door, a big beam of wood fell over his back, and his clothes immediately caught fire. He made it into a room where the fire had yet attacked. It was the kitchen. He put the girl down on her feet and put out the fire burning his clothing. Realizing that there was no way that would allow him to leave the apartment with the girl safely, Coulson decided that he'd throw her out the window. The bystanders would catch her – or the firefighters, as they had arrived by then – and then he'd leave the building, with more or less physical damage.
Coulson made it outside with a burn on his back and his arm, and then he learned that two of his agents hadn't made it out of the building. Something else that troubled him was the fact that, after the fire was put out, the firefighters removed fifteen corpses. And he didn't know where the girl he threw out the window was. She surfaced about a year later, in New York. The FBI had been tracking down a man named Ivan for trafficking, and with him they found a seven-year-old, Natalia, who he had illegally brought into the country. He was training her to follow down his path of life. Once Coulson saw the girl's face on the news, he knew it was the girl he rescued from the building in Stalingrad. The FBI kept Ivan, SHIELD got the girl. Coulson said he'd take her in his house until they found her family or a place at an orphanage, preferably in Russia.
How could he really open his mouth to spill such things? He couldn't. He saved Natalia from a fire, threw her out a window in hopes of saving her life , and ended up putting her in the arms of a criminal who was training her to be a killer. The secret was killing him, but if he could do the best for Natalia now, then he'd feel slightly better.
Natalia tried to pick up a crayon to continue coloring, but as she didn't tear her gaze away from the piece of paper, she pushed the crayon away instead. Coulson picked up the blue colored crayon that rolled all the way to his feet and gave it to her.
The girl looked up and smiled slightly, "Thank you."
She continued to color the paper as Coulson looked at the drawing, "That is you?" he pointed the stick figure she had drawn.
"Uh-uhm," Natalia nodded her head as well for emphasis, "And this is the sky," she pressed her finger over the top of the sheet, completely colored in blue.
"You like the sky?"
"Yes. Birds fly, they're free, and there are clouds there."
"I know of a place here in the city, the rooftop of a building that is so tall that you can almost touch the sky. Would you like to go there?"
She looked up, grinning, "Yes."
"I think we can go there today. Melinda is coming home early, and tonight is pizza night, so we can leave once Melinda comes home."
Once Natalia resumed her drawing, she got up and offered the paper to Coulson, "You're giving me your drawing?" the girl nodded, "Why don't you write your name on it before giving it to me?"
"How?" Coulson frowned at Natalia's question so she explained, "English or Russian?"
"As you want," he said, giving her the paper.
Natalia picked up the black crayon, held it in her left hand and wrote 'Natalia' in English. Then switched the crayon to her right hand and wrote 'Наталья'. Coulson was impressed, and no matter what horrible things Ivan was doing and teaching Natalia, he did teach her something amazing: he allowed her brain to be compartmentalized and to think in two different languages.
Coulson received the paper, "Thank you. I'll keep it in a nice place."
Natalia looked around, every little detail fascinating her. The brick walls of the buildings, the cabs and buses, fast and loud, the skyscrapers, the scent of hot dogs and exhaust fumes, the plane engines roaring up in the bluest of the skies. The girl's eyes lit up and she had a giddy smile, feeling high on the feeling of meeting the city from a different perspective. Mr. Coulson was nice to walk hand in hand with her and to point at buildings and people and seemingly uninteresting things, explaining to her about them. She loved it. He told her they were going to take the subway. Even though the building with the high rooftop wasn't far, Coulson wanted her to experience the New York subway. It was an interesting ride, in all its possible aspects.
After going down the stairs to the subway and purchasing two tickets, the two of them took a seat on a bench, waiting for the subway train to arrive. Natalia swung her legs, taking in the details of the station: there was an almost overwhelming mixture of noises and scents and it was extremely hot due to the many, many people in there. Next to her sat a woman smelling of cheap perfume and tobacco. Natalia didn't like the way she looked at her from head to toe with a scornful grin. Her hair was like a bonfire, like angry birds were fighting in it. Coulson put his arm around the girl's shoulders and pulled her closer to him.
"Oh, there it is," Coulson said, standing up and holding out his hand to Natalia, "there's our train."
Coulson rode the subway standing, Natalia took a seat. He could see her attentive look scanning the faces of the other passengers, finding out about their lives, seeing past their masks. He could tell she'd grow to be quite an observant one. Once they hoped off at the station, Natalia did her best to keep up with Coulson's pace, as he held her hand and pulled her up the grubby stairs out of the subway station. They walked past a jazzy beggar on the saxophone blowing as hard as he could for a few coins. Natalia stopped to listen to him and then looked to her side, seeing a man toss a coin into his sax case. Coulson pulled a five dollar bill out of his wallet and gave it to Natalia. The girl stooped down and gently placed the bill in the saxophone's case. The man blew some groovier notes, his lips forming the best smile he could, given the fact he was playing, as a way to thank both the girl and the man.
They had wandered a bit away from the downtown area now and the sun was setting. Natalia didn't mind. She was too enthralled looking up at the sky sloppily brushed with tones of orange and watching flock of birds crossing the sky. Coulson directed their route to the back of a tall building and they climbed up the fire escape. The more they climbed up, the more the city atmosphere faded away. Silence embraced them as they reached the rooftop. The warm summer air blew gently and Natalia opened her arms, feeling it whip against her unzipped jacket. She giggled and ran around the rooftop.
A blonde-haired boy showed up from behind one of satellite dishes with binoculars in hands. He looked at the girl, she looked at him, and the two of them were frozen where they stood. His expression melted into a smile and he offered her the binoculars.
"I was watching the birds."
Natalia crossed the distance between the two and picked up the binoculars, and looked through the lenses, seeing the boy's face enter her vision, given the fact that she was standing so close to him. She laughed and then commented, "I like the birds. They're free."
The boy nodded in agreement and pointed to the sky, "Over there, a red-tailed hawk."
"Wow, there are so many birds."
Coulson was watching the two of them at distance, fascinated as to how Natalia was socializing so well with a boy she had just met. She barely socialized with his children back at home, so that boy must have some sort of special charm.
"What're those?" Natalia asked, pointing to his ears, returning the binoculars to him.
"Hearing aids. I'm a bit deaf."
"If you take them off you can't hear?"
The boy removed the two hearing aids and said a bit too loudly, "I can barely hear now."
Natalia smiled and took the boy's hand, taking him with her on a run around the rooftop. The two giggled, playing tag. Coulson sat on the edge of buildings wall, watching them play. It was delighting that he had accomplished what he wanted: Natalia was feeling good about being there. Coulson ended up getting hot dogs for the three of them at a vendor's stall just around the corner from where they were.
The girl's happiness didn't last long. She had to part ways with the boy she so liked - she didn't even get to know his name but they promised each other to meet to birdwatching another time – and when she got to Coulson's house, she overheard May telling her husband that SHIELD had found an orphanage in Moscow to send her to. Now that she was starting to like things around she had to go away.
Natalia sat bolt upright, the word 'Ivan' quietly escaping her lips. She heard her heart thumping in her ears and felt that there wasn't enough air for her to breathe. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face to her legs, sniffling, as warm tears trickled down her cheeks.
"Перестань плакать, Наталья. Вы не ребенок." Natalia whispered to herself. That was what Ivan used to tell her.
Once she regained control of her emotions, Natalia threw a quick glance around the bedroom. The British girl (Jemma was her name, maybe…? To be honest, Natalia couldn't even understand her when she spoke, let alone remember her name; her accent was thick and she fired words faster than an automatic gun) and the younger girl, the one about her age (Skye – this one the Russian remembered well because she liked the sky, the clouds, and the warm sun) were sleeping and she was the only one not sleeping; she was awake and petrified.
Swinging her feet off the bed and down on the wooden boards, she shivered as the chill from the floor ran up her spine. She walked slowly to the door, hugging herself in a futile attempt to keep her body warm. Natalia felt herself trembling with cold, all of her hair was spiked up to its ends, and an icy sweat moistened her palms. A crack of light crept its way into the bedroom's floor as Natalia opened the door slowly. Her bare feet were nothing more than a pitter-patter echoing along the hall she strode. Natalia's first instinct was to walk to the living room, to the windows, into the light, heading for a spacious place with plenty of things that could be used as weapons.
"Natalia?" Coulson's voice quietly spoke as he raised his head. He woke up at the sound of her steps, as he had fallen asleep sitting on the couch.
The girl gulped in some air, sharply, and swiftly turned around, taken aback by the voice that spoke amongst the darkness. Her eyes filled up with tears and she gripped the pajama's cloth tightly, staying motionless in the middle of the living room.
"Come here," the man invited, holding out his hand for her.
Natalia didn't have time to hold her tears. They just immediately dropped from her eyes, streaming down her snowy-white cheeks. The girl crawled up the couch and nestled against Coulson's side, her tears still rapidly coursing down her face as she did her best to swallow her whimpers. Coulson tossed the folder over the coffee table and dragged her small body onto his lap, cradling her close to his chest and wrapping his arms around her. She was shivering with fear and cold. He fitted her head under his chin and gently patted her back.
"I'm scared," she cried, tightening her grip on a handful of Coulson's shirt fabric.
"Don't be. I'm here."
"Ivan -"
"- is gone," Coulson assured her, pressing a kiss on top of her redhead. "Ivan's gone. Natalia, do you trust me?"
Natalia nodded her head, not even bothering to look up, brushing her cheek against his chest, "I trust you, Mr. Coulson."
Of course she trusted him. Mr. Coulson gave warmer hugs than Ivan; in two weeks Mr. Coulson was much more caring than Ivan had ever been even though he had taken care of her when her mother and her brothers died in the fire and she had no other family left.
"Then call me Phil. And don't think of Ivan ever again."
"And when I go away?" she asked, swallowing hard.
"Trust me, Natalia. I'll keep you safe, no matter where you are," he ran his fingers through her hair, "But you know it's best for you to go, right? You'll go back to your country; you'll grow up where you belong."
"I understand," the girl sniffled and wiped her tears with the palms of her hands.
"They'll take good care of you there," May said, perfectly aware that it was a lie. Orphanages were not places for children.
Natalia looked down at her feet and Coulson ducked to be at her eye level, "Remember what I told you?"
"You'll keep me safe no matter where I am."
"Exactly. Then trust me, Nat," he stood up and helped with the straps of her backpack, "I -" looking back at his wife he amended, "we'll keep an eye on you. Don't worry."
The girl gave a firm nod and walked to the flight attendant to be escorted to the plane. While they waited in the queue to board the plane, Natalia ran all the way back to Coulson and May again.
"Mr. Coulson," she asked, "if you see that boy again, can you tell him my name?"
"I will. If I meet him again, I'll tell him your name is Natalia and that you really liked his company."
Coming a few steps closer, she whispered, "Tell him I'll be back to watch birds with him soon."
"I'll tell him," Coulson smiled unable to hide his sadness, "Now go before you miss your flight."
"Перестань плакать, Наталья. Вы не ребенок." -Stop crying, Natalia. You are not a child.
Из России с любовью (chapter's title) - From Russia With Love.
I guess I don't need to tell you that the birdwatcher boy is Clint, but either ways I just told you. It's a sad story, and yes, Natasha is being sent to the Black Widow program. Coulson and May don't even suspect that such facility exists, let alone knowing that she was going to one.
I'll give you some heads up about next chapter, because lacking a better (and most accurate) expression, you're going to shit bricks when you read it: Grant and Leo learn about SHIELD. You'll get to learn about what happened to Grant that led him to be beaten up and tied to the house's radiator (check chapter 9) and why did SHIELD walked in the HYDRA's lab and found Leo there (check chapter 17). The "shitting bricks" part is about Leo's story - there will be some deepening about his father's real identity, his motivations, and it might give you some difficulties in hating that man again. Just a heads up, no biggie *sadistic smirk*