Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel or The 100
Warnings for homelessness, trauma, child abandonment
A feral mate
Almost as soon as they smelled her, regardless of the stench that was carried around in her clothes, they knew that what they were smelling was the scent of their mate.
The thirty of them had stiffened and gasped.
It was if a powerful freight train had crashed into them. Their mate was here.
Six of them already had mates. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts were mates. Simone and Barney Barton were mates. And Laura and Clint Barton were mates. But it seemed that they had another mate.
And all of the others were mated to the being they could smell and sense.
"Where?" Rhodey growled out, searching the street that he and his fellow vampires were walking down.
Jessica and Frank and Yelena moved close to an alleyway, where they heard shuffling around near a dumpster.
There was a figure standing up on a crate and using the crate to help her get into the dumpster, sifting through the garbage.
The vampires near the alleyway, could see the figure perfectly. The figure had black, ragged clothing on, had long, blonde hair that was knotty and stained with dirt and clearly hadn't been washed in ages.
The vampires crept closer.
It didn't matter to them that their mate was most evidently homeless and that she stank, they'd clean her up, give her a home, take care of her, love her. Have their way with her.
Peggy was the first to approach, speaking softly, "Sweetie? Can you turn around for us?"
The girl at the dumpster smelled young. Not so young that she was under the age of twenty, but young.
At the sound of Peggy's voice, the figure at the dumpster whirled and faced them, and as soon as she did, her mates realized that they were dealing with someone who was not going to come quietly with them.
The woman at the dumpster turned to them and her lips had curled back, her nose had wrinkled in a snarl and her blue eyes were filled with malice.
Then a sound left the woman that startled all of the vampires. The woman growled at them.
"What the-?" Tony mumbled, eyes wide.
The woman leapt off of the crate, leaning forward, growling still at the vampires, puffing her chest out and growling, gnashing her teeth.
"Whoa, now," Frank said his voice strong but low, "Easy. Shh. Shh."
The woman's enraged expression never left her face as she let out a series of snarls at the vampires.
"Okay, okay," Luke said, "It's okay."
"I don't think she can understand us," Danny said, staring at the woman that was their mate, in shock.
"Yeah, I think we figured that one out, Rand," Rhodey said, staring in shock at the woman.
"What the hell happened to her?" Jessica asked, anger flooding her blood as she pondered on what exactly had made this woman like this.
"Have no idea," Steve said, "But we won't know until we catch her."
Yelena, staring at the woman, feeling her heart hurt at the sight, stepped forward, ignoring Melina and Natasha both saying her name.
She reached out and said softly, "It's okay, you can come with us. We'll take care of you." She knew that the woman most likely didn't understand what she was saying, but she hoped the woman recognized from her tone of voice that she meant no harm.
This unfortunately, did not help.
The woman lunged for Yelena, teeth bared.
The reaction was ironic, considering the woman was facing off with a series of vampires, all of which could tear her throat out easily, but they never would. She was their soulmate, so, they'd never hurt her.
But she most certainly lunged for Yelena, her teeth bared and she was on Yelena in a second.
Yelena was able to restrain the woman, easily.
It was most likely the case that Yelena would have been able to restrain the woman even if Yelena weren't a vampire.
The woman had been on the streets for years, clearly. She was malnourished, didn't think things through.
Yelena grappled the woman by her collar and carefully maneuvered the woman to the wall, grabbing the woman's left wrist and holding the woman's arm to the alleyway wall.
The woman struggled and snarled at Yelena, blue eyes still filled with anger and malice as she screamed and snarled, sounding exactly like an animal.
"We have to get her out of here," Pepper said, staring at the woman, shocked and afraid for her second mate.
Tony nodded.
"If we try dragging her away, she'll attract attention with how much she'll struggle and snarl," Jessica commented.
"That's right," Natasha said, sighing sadly as she walked over to stand next to Yelena. She reached out to the woman up against the wall, and she looked at the woman, a sad smile on her face as she spoke to the woman softly, "I'm sorry."
She pressed a nerve against the back of the young woman's next, applying pressure.
Then pressed her hand against the front of the woman's neck, gently cutting off the young woman's air supply.
Yelena flinched, looking away.
Natasha wouldn't be able to press against the woman's neck for long. Vampires were incapable of doing real harm to their soulmates.
As soon as the mating bond sensed that the woman's life was in danger, Natasha would have to stop, even if she wasn't planning on stopping on her own.
When the woman gasped, eyes closing and going limp, Natasha released her hold on the woman's neck.
"I'm so sorry, malen'kiy," Natasha said, voice pained.
Yelena scooped the woman up into her arms. "It's alright," Yelena assured her adoptive sister, "She was going to hurt herself if we hadn't done it."
All of the vampires knew this, and realized that they were going to have a series of serious tasks on their hands.
Their mate was feral. Clearly had been on the streets for years and years. Perhaps never even had learned how to speak, or had been on the streets so long, that she had forgotten how to speak.
Either way, there was no question-she most likely had been out on the streets since she was a small child.
"Sweet girl," Melina said sadly, watching Yelena carry the woman out of the alleyway.
"We'll figure out what happened to her," Jessica said, trying to keep the anger out of her voice as she imagined just who the hell it was that would throw someone out on the street so young, because obviously, this woman had been homeless since she was a child.
Thankfully the car was right nearby.
They carried the woman to it and put her in the backseat and they got into their other cars and drove off with the woman.
When they reached their home, carrying the woman out of the car and bringing her inside, they instantly went to work, locking all the doors and windows. They suspected that the woman might have trouble with doors and windows if she was this feral. She might not understand how locks work.
Or had forgotten how locks worked.
They lived on a property near the Sierra mountains and it was plenty cold there. So, they put the heat on for their mate, as Yelena placed the woman onto the sofa.
Steve went to the kitchen, got some cool water from the fridge, brought the glass full of water to the coffee table and placed it down by the couch where the woman was asleep.
Bruce and Peggy got some food from the fridge and set it out onto the counter to get ready for when the woman woke up.
Pepper, Melina, Natasha, Jessica, Sam, Wanda and Clint went to the bathroom on the ground floor, started to get things ready for when they were going to bathe the woman.
Had the woman possessed all her mental faculties? They would have left her to bathe herself and not invade her privacy while she was bathing, mates or not.
But it was most likely that the woman didn't even know how to bathe herself, if that deep seated scent on her was anything to go by.
Were the situation different? All of the woman's mates would be happy at the prospect of bathing her.
However, the situation wasn't different. The woman was feral. She couldn't consent to anything as of this moment.
Which meant that everything they did, they had to be extremely careful about handling her. They would not touch her in any sexual way-or they would try not to, since she could not give consent.
But they would need to clean her, one way or another. She couldn't remain like this.
"You know, she'll freak out as soon as she wakes up, right?" Tony said casually, trying to keep the concern out of his voice.
"I think we can all guess that," Bruce said grimly.
Hela said from where she stood, watching the woman sleep on the couch, "We all hold her down, force her to drink water, force her to drink some food. Then we make her bathe. After we put clean clothes on her, we should start trying to teach her how to speak and read."
"I think we all guessed that, Hela," Tony snorted, "But easier said than done."
They all agreed on that.
"Think she has any ID on her?" Pietro asked.
"Hmm," Yelena mumbled, reaching the woman's coat pockets, finding nothing except small bits of food that the woman obviously hoarded away.
She then checked the woman's pants pockets. Again, nothing. Except for some pictures.
Yelena frowned and pulled the pictures out, she began flipping through them, handing the previous ones she looked at to the others so they could look at the pictures.
In these photos, there was a man and a woman together, with a small child, a girl.
The girl was about five or six in the photos. Blonde. Blue-eyed.
"Think the girl is this woman?" Thor asked, nodding to the unconscious woman on the couch.
"I think that's a safe bet," Yelena said dryly, flipping to another photo, this time just the man in the photo and the girl in it, hugging the man, both man and girl grinning at the camera.
Curiously, Yelena flipped the photo around and her eyes found some writing on the back of the photo.
The writing on the back of the photo said, "Daddy and me."
And next to where the sentence ended; right next to the "me," was the capital letter "C."
Yelena said, "Whatever this woman's name is, I think it begins with a "C." She lifted the photo up, keeping the back of it with the writing on it facing her and handed it to Thor, who was closest to her.
Thor read the back of the photo, and handed it off to the others.
They each read it and looked back at the woman.
Whoever this woman was, she'd had a life before all this. Parents. A home.
Then something had happened and she had ended up on the streets.
But what?
Yelena kept looking through the woman's pockets, then gasped as she pulled out two more items.
A watch and a wallet.
"Oh, hello, ID!" Tony exclaimed.
Yelena opened up the wallet, reached in and pulled out an ID card and she said, "No, but the next best thing, maybe."
She handed the ID card to Hela.
Hela read the name on the card, "Griffin, Jake, age thirty-two."
Hela handed the card to Tony and he handed the card to one of the others.
"That's the guy in the pictures," Carol said, "It's her father. It has to be."
"We have a name now," Tony said, pulling his phone out and going to the Internet, "Jake Griffin."
He typed in "Jake Griffin," then "tragedy."
And boy, did he get a result.
Tony's eyes widened when he saw what was on the page. He said, "Uh, guys, you should look at this."
The others in the room moved forward to read what was on the tiny screen.
The others who had gone to get things ready for when the woman would wake up, began to move to the phone, as well, wanting to see what Tony found.
According to the article on Tony's phone, the Griffin family, consisting of the married couple, Jake and Abby Griffin and their very young daughter, Clarke Griffin. Then Jake Griffin had been killed in some sort of home invasion.
Abby had expressed great grief, as of course, had Clarke who at the time, had been only five.
A year later, Abby remarried, and for a long period of time, none of Abby's neighbors saw Clarke.
Abby later insisted that she had decided to homeschool Clarke, and later she explained that Clarke had run away from home.
At the time that Abby had claimed that Clarke had run away, it had been fourteen years ago.
Clarke had been nine at the time.
Several of the vampires gasped, many of them growled and shook.
Clarke likely had been abandoned by her own mother at the age of only nine. Fourteen years ago.
They could do the math. She was twenty-three now.
And clearly, the trauma, not to mention growing up on the streets, had taken its toll on her.
"Oh," Brunnhilde said, looking at the couch, her expression of anger softening when she saw that the woman was awake, "Hello."
The other vampires looked up from the phone at where the woman-Clarke, was, now fully awake.
Clarke's eyes wildly trailed from one individual to the next, until her eyes found the ID card and the watch. Yelena was still holding the watch. And Thor had the ID card and wallet.
All hell broke loose then.
Clarke screamed out, lunging for Yelena.
Yelena was about to push Clarke back down onto the couch, when she saw where Clarke was grabbing and saw the desperation on Clarke's face.
She was just trying to get the watch.
Yelena's eyes widened and she handed the watch to Clarke. "There you go," She said, trying to keep her voice soft and reassuring, knowing Clarke wouldn't understand her, "It's okay."
As soon as she had the watch back, Clarke turned to Thor and snarled, ready to get up and charge at him.
Yelena snapped at Thor, "Dumbass, give her the wallet and card back."
Thor, the moment he saw the expression on Clarke's face when she saw that he had the ID card and wallet, quickly placed the two items on the couch's arm so Clarke could grab them.
The look on Clarke's face, had been an expression of pure desperation and pain. Not anger.
That was enough to make Thor's heart clench.
Clarke grabbed both the card and the wallet and held them and the watch to her chest protectively, shaking, staring at the creatures around her, sniffling, looking scared and desperate.
Bruce and Frank put all the pictures back together in a pile and placed them onto the couch next to Clarke. As soon as Clarke saw this, she reached out and grabbed the pictures and pulled them closer to her. Frank and Bruce watched sadly at the look on Clarke's face at this.
"It's okay," Yelena said softly, "You're safe. We're not going to take anything from you."
"Clarke?" Pepper said, causing the woman to look at Pepper, and Pepper repeated Clarke's name, causing Clarke to tilt her head slightly.
Pepper smiled, "Do you recognize your name, honey?"
Clarke stayed back up against the couch, staring at the vampires.
Tony put his phone away and gestured to Clarke as he said, "Clarke. Clarke." He gestured to himself as he said, "Tony. Tony."
The others each did the same, gesturing to themselves, telling Clarke their names so that she would know what to refer to them as-even if she couldn't say their names yet.
"Clarke," Pepper said, and Clarke paid attention to the woman, indicating that she did indeed recognize her name, "Here."
She leaned down and tapped at the glass of water on the table, watching Clarke look at the glass full of water.
Yelena smiled and picked up the glass and showed it to Clarke.
Clarke eyed the glass, and eyed Yelena, then Pepper, as if not sure if she could trust anything here.
Seeing that Clarke wasn't going to go for the water, Yelena and Pepper both resigned themselves to what they were going to have to do.
They lunged forward, and Clarke tried to struggle away, but Pepper took hold of Clarke's wrists, holding her to the couch, as Yelena leaned in, tilting the glass, forcing Clarke's mouth open and pouring the water down the young woman's throat.
Clarke tried to spit the water out, but Yelena and Pepper held her firmly.
The water thankfully flowed down Clarke's throat.
When Pepper and Yelena were sure that Clarke had gulped down all the water, only then did they let her up.
They backed away, giving Clarke some room to recover. The formerly homeless woman coughed and glared and growled at Yelena and Pepper as she stood up, tense.
Tony looked over at the kitchen counter, where the food was.
He had a feeling it would be one hell of an effort to get Clarke to eat her food too.
He turned to Pepper. "What do we do about the food?" He asked.
"We'll get her to eat something," Pepper said, trying to reassure herself more than anything else, and she looked over the young woman, seeing how thin she was and winced as she said, "She has to eat something, even if we have to force her."
Tony nodded and he and Steve went to the kitchen to get the food.
As they got the food, they brought it over, and Tony looked at Pepper as he asked, "So, who wants to hold her while we force feed her?"
"I'll do it," Wanda said, stepping forward, trying to keep how she looked at sounded soft as she approached Clarke who turned to glare at the vampire, as soon as Wanda had spoken.
"I will too," Jessica said, stepping over next to Wanda.
"Maybe we can get her to eat willingly," Natasha said, and turned to Tony and Steve, reaching out, her right hand up, "Hand me some of the cooked things."
Hesitantly, both men handed Natasha the leftovers from their food last night.
Unlike what the many stories said, vampires could eat human food. Yes, their main staple was human blood.
But they were very capable of eating the same food that humans ate.
So, yes, they had leftovers from what they'd eaten last night.
Clarke glared at them and Natasha lowered the food down onto the coffee table and gestured for Pepper and Yelena to move away from Clarke.
All three vampire women stepped back, and the feral formerly homeless woman watched them cautiously.
Clarke's eyes then traveled to the very good smelling food on the table. She glared over at the people that were holding her captive again, then back at the food, then back at her captors again, then finally, she lunged for the food, grabbing it and pulling all of it onto the couch with her and biting into it, hungrily and desperately devouring it, as if she expected the food to be taken from her at any moment.
"Oh, baby," Yelena said sadly, staring at this starving, desperate being that was their mate.
"We'll help her, Yelena," Melina assured her, "She just needs time."
They hoped that that was all it would take would be time. But not much time hopefully. Because there was no way they could turn Clarke when she was like this.
A vampire this feral? This savage? Would be a danger to herself and everyone around her.
They would have to wait until she had the mental faculties enough to know who she was, to speak and have conversations, to read and write, to be able to communicate. And until she was well-fed, and healthier than now.
They would have to wait.
All of the vampires looked at each other, troubled, then looked back at their mate, who never stopped watching them dangerously as she tore into the food, and never did she release her hold on the watch, wallet and ID card, holding onto those three objects in her left hand, keeping the pile of pictures by her legs, and her right gripping the piece of roasted chicken she was consuming with animalistic hunger.
All of the vampires knew that this woman would need time. But they would help her. They would rehabilitate her. Hopefully.