Chapter Text
Chapter 15 - Stay your pretty eyes on course
Yelena was sitting on the sofa when they arrived.
The jet touched down on the landing pad with controlled precision.
The cargo doors opened, revealing her team.
Despite all of them looking younger, the day had clearly taken its toll. Bob’s pajamas were torn and burned in several places. John was still wearing the same tactical gear he’d had on since arriving from Afghanistan, and he was drenched in sweat. Bucky’s hair was a mess, and sand clung to his boots. The only one who looked relatively presentable was Ava.
Her team had already filled her in about everything that had happened.
And an awfully lot had happened.
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Once the electricity of the Avengers tower came back on, Yelena was already in the living room.
A British voice from the walls informed her that she was free to steal anything.
As if anyone would want that broken furniture.
Even the TV hadn’t been spared. A part of the display was cracked in the corner.
She had no idea what had happened here, but at least the sofa was still intact. So was the fridge. It was mostly empty: ketchup, mustard, eggs, a lonely apple, and five puddings - each a different flavor.
Strawberry one was among them.
Finally, some good fucking food.
Just as she sat down and started eating, another voice came from the wall.
“Yelena? Can you hear us?” Ava asked her.
Yelena turned her head in the direction from which the voice came. There was a speaker next to a camera.
“Hi!” That was Bob. She waved, expecting his usual way of greeting, even if she couldn’t see him.
She tried to reply, but they informed her that they couldn’t hear her. Apparently, it only worked one way. So, she let them talk about their experience with time travel and spending almost an entire day in the past.
She already knew that Bob had woken up in the Avengers tower and helped catch the falling spaceship, she had seen it on the news. It was amazing to see him use his powers again. She was also happy to hear that nothing darker had happened afterward.
What the news hadn’t mentioned was that Bob had fought with the Avengers and then flown to space.
“Hundred percent their fault.” She muttered, even though she knew they couldn’t hear her. She wanted to give them a thumbs-down, but Bob would probably think it was meant for him.
So far the entire conversation had consisted of them talking and her replying with gestures. Nodding for “I agree”, a shoulder shrug for “What can you do” and most recently a smile for “Serves them right”.
Is this really the only way to communicate? It’s 2012, not Ancient Rome.
She asked JARVIS if there wasn’t anything he could do. He pointed out a tablet lying on a shelf behind her.
Did we seriously just spend ten minutes forgetting a video call was a thing?
“Ugh.” She signed throwing her head back, and then she stood up to take the tablet.
They had told her to steal whatever she wanted, it belonged to her now.
“JARVIS, would you mind connecting me?”
“Of course, Mrs. Belova.”
The screen came to life, showing her friends. The angle was horrible, showing Bob in the middle with Ava and Bucky by his side, all captured from an unflattering shot from below. A part of John’s forehead hovered in the corner.
“Great to finally see you all.” She commented.
“In our defense, we didn’t know there was a tablet near you,” Ava replied.
Yeah, well, Yelena hadn’t thought about it until now either.
“So, where were we? I already know about Bob, great job by the way.”
She saw a small, shy smile and a spark of happiness in his eyes.
“Uhm- thanks. It somehow worked out.”
“How about the rest of you?”
“I have been in the training camp, and John’s been in Afghanistan before SHIELD gave us a ride here,” Ava said.
“Oh, fancy. I had to borrow someone’s boat to get to Palermo from Tunis, while people were shooting at me. Did you know the trip takes eight hours?”
Bob shook his head.
“I didn’t know either. Then I stole a plane ticket to get here.”
“How exactly did you borrow that ship, Yelena?” Bucky asked.
“I asked nicely, and they screamed something in a language I don’t understand. Probably wished me a happy journey.”
“Yelena.” She knew the tone Bucky used, it was the ‘I know you could do better’ tone.
“How about you, leader?”
Bucky looked away from the camera as he replied. “I stole someone’s car.”
“Hah! No moral high ground over me.” They were both doing what they had to do to regroup. She was lucky that seeing a man fly was such a piece of sensational news it made it to the European TV stations. It helped her set a starting point for finding her team.
Other than Alexei, she had no idea where everyone else had been.
The starting point, the Avengers Tower, was a special place for other reasons beyond finding Bob. Yelena would be lying if she said she didn’t look forward to seeing her sister.
Natasha was alive, currently on her way here along with her friends.
“So, what are we going to do now? There are a lot of things in the past that we could fix.” She started.
“There is nothing we can do, Yelena. We don’t belong here.” Bucky stated.
Bullshit.
She just got her sister back. Bucky had his best friend. Ava probably didn’t care at all, and the team being together was all that mattered to Bob.
“What do you mean, nothing we can do? There are so many things-“
“The past is past, it shouldn’t be messed with. The right thing to do is to find a way back to the future.”
“Shouldn’t be played with? How do you explain going on a mission with the Avengers and stopping a spaceship?”
“Sorry,” Bob mumbled, realizing he was a big part of the changes in the past.
“You did nothing wrong, Bob,” Yelena assured him. “This is between me and Barnes now.”
“We joined the mission to help save lives.”
“And how many lives could we save by changing the past?”
Natasha didn’t have to die for some stupid stone. She saved the whole universe, just for people to forget she even existed.
She continued. “The reality isn’t falling apart because of our presence here, nor do I see any time police stopping us.”
Yelena saw Bucky opening his mouth, but didn’t let him get a word out.
“How did you even make the Avengers believe you and let you join them?”
“I have explained my situation, told them about us and about…. HYDRA infiltrating the SHIELD”
“Oh, that’s nice!” She threw the tablet on the couch, stood up, and started pacing while talking. The whole discussion was getting frustrating.
“You can tell them about your bad guys, while I can’t tell them about mine? They should know that-”
“Yelena, please, shut the fuck up,” John said. They were his first words to her since the call began.
It was weird how quiet he had been until now, and even weirder to hear him say the word, please. Why did it matter so much to him if the past was unchanged?
That’s when she remembered that, even if she had more in the past than in the future, for John it was the opposite. His ex-wife and son weren’t part of this new old reality.
It was one of the first times she listened to John and didn’t continue to speak. She didn’t share more information that the Avengers could hear that might change the past even more.
She wanted to tell them about the Red Room. They were a threat as dangerous as HYDRA, and this Natasha didn’t know the organization was still active.
There were Black Widows all over the world under Dreykov’s manipulation, waiting for his orders to strike.
Yelena was glad that the manipulation didn’t linger when she woke up in the past.
She had been on a mission in Tunis when she woke up. Bodies all around her. She took a hit to the head before regaining her composure and taking down a mercenary fighting her.
The assignment was to steal a disk with unknown information and deliver it to her superior.
They were getting no disk this time around. She had to fight her way out, including two other Black Widows on the mission, once they noticed her unusual behavior.
The disk rested in her pocket now, but there was no way in hell she would go back and hand it over just to keep the timeline as similar to the past as possible.
“Yelena?” Bucky spoke after a while.
“We can discuss it later.” She said, walking back to the tablet.
It was hard to tell what was the right thing to do.
She didn’t want to lose her sister again, but John didn’t deserve to lose his son.
There were many lives they could save, however, there was no certainty in knowing the past that kept changing. Their interference could cost even more lives.
“Agreed. We should arrive in about ten minutes. You can wait for us in the Tower,” Bucky said.
“Yeah, okay. It’s not like I have planned to leave anyway.” She switched off the call. Ten minutes should be long enough for her to collect herself.
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“Yelena!” Bob shouted as he stepped off the jet. He was about to run towards her when Bucky grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
“Bob, I'm glad that you are comfortable with your powers now, but be gentle.” He could still feel his ribs hurting from the hug he had received hours ago.
“Oh,” Bob said, taking a few cautious steps towards Yelena and stopping with his arms slightly raised, unsure how much force was too much. He hadn’t realized that the hug he gave to Bucky and John earlier might have been uncomfortable for them.
Yelena trusted he wouldn’t hurt her, so she took the final step and gave him the hug he wanted.
“Glad to see you again.” She told him, then looked at the rest of their team. “All of you.”
“I like how we are all back together,” Yelena added, stepping away from Bob as others got closer.
“We are still missing-“ Bob started.
“I said I like how we are all back together.” She was happy to have at least a day without listening to Alexei’s nonsense. He was basically like a father to her, but the made-up stories and not working marketing strategies were getting ridiculous. Some more time in prison wouldn’t hurt him.
After Thunderbolts, the original Avengers exited the jet.
“Wow, you must be Captain America the first.”
Rogers was about to confirm and introduce himself when the last part of the sentence caught him off guard.
“The first?” He mouthed in Bucky’s direction.
“There’s more of them?” Tony asked curiously.
“Yelena,” Bucky warned. They had already agreed not to share anything about the future.
She put a finger to her lips to signal she was going to be quiet. John beside her huffed and threw Captain a hateful glare.
John was a true captain. He had earned that title after serving his country for years. Most of his missions succeeded, while the man called Captain America had initially gotten the title symbolically, to parade around in a costume and show how great the American army was.
“And then there is Bruce Banner.” Her eyes found another target. “You are an amazing scientist.”
Banner seemed shocked by her words and mumbled a quiet thanks.
Then her eyes landed on Tony Stark.
“Excuse me, but who are you?”
“I am-“ Tony stopped himself. There was no way she didn’t recognize him.
“Hey! You have to know who I am.” Disbelief shone in his eyes.
“Uhm, should I?” She continued to pretend not to know him.
“You are standing in my Tower!”
“Didn’t see your name on it.” Yelena prodded.
“It was there! I have changed it only recently!”
Before Yelena could raise Stark’s blood pressure any further, Natasha exited the pilot's cabin and also walked out of the jet alongside Clint.
“Yelena.”
“Natasha.”
The greeting seemed cold, but there was a storm of emotion behind it. Natasha was seeing her long-lost sister again, and Yelena got the chance to meet her alive.
She wanted to hug her, which wasn’t something they had done the first time they reunited after years of separation. Bob must’ve been rubbing off on her.
“Good to see you’re well,” Natasha said.
“Good to see you’re well, too.”
This was getting awkward instead of heartwarming. Yelena wasn’t sure what to expect from their first meeting in the past, but this wasn’t it.
“I am Clint,” Barton said, trying to break the weird tension.
“Yeah, I know,” Yelena replied.
At least we didn’t fight this time. She thought.
“You know Barton, but not me?” Stark asked, placing a hand on his heart, theatrically offended.
Natasha decided to spare his ego today. “She is just making fun of you, Tony.”
Stark gasped dramatically.
“It must have been a long day for all of us,” Rogers said, stepping in to take control of the situation. “We should all get some rest now, so we are full of energy tomorrow and take a better look at this time-traveling problem.”
“Finally,” Ava said, turning and heading toward a room that used to be hers.
“No, not there,” Stark called after her. “This floor is ours. The guest rooms are lower.”
Ava kept walking, only changing her direction towards an elevator. She raised a thumb up over her shoulder without looking back.
“I’m heading out too,” John said, clearly needing a moment alone.
“John, I need to talk to you,” Bob spoke from behind Yelena. Ever since the Avengers had gotten closer, he had been using her as a shield between himself and them. It was quite as effective as Bucky in the jet; Yelena was a head shorter, but it worked well enough.
“Bob, not now,” John warned him, his tone sharp.
Bob wanted to follow, but Yelena caught his sleeve and shook her head. Sometimes, dealing with John was hard enough even when he was in a good mood. Best to give him some space now.
“Good night. If someone wakes me up tonight, they are getting an arrow to the knee.” Clint said as he walked off. Bruce followed, offering everyone a quiet good night.
“As much as I would love to know more about our new guest, living on 3 hours of sleep is catching up to me,” Stark added.
He made his way around the sofa and smirked down at the tablet.
“The video call was very entertaining.”
“Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Tin-Man, or whatever your name is.”
Tony huffed, grinning as he made his way to the bed.
Natasha’s eyes found Yelena’s. She, too, had decided to turn in for the night, but before she did, she took a few quiet steps closer and whispered.
“Сладких снов, сестра” (Good night, sister.)
Yelena held her breath as Natasha approached, then softly exhaled her reply.
“тебе тоже, Таша” (You too, Tasha.)
She was here, alive, real, so close she could touch her. But Yelena didn’t. She just watched her sister walk away.
Steve cleared his throat, catching Bucky’s attention. They hadn’t really had a chance to talk since the meeting.
Bucky didn’t want to share anything about the future, but there were plenty of things from the past they could still talk about.
“You two can go without me.” He told Yelena and Bob. He left them alone in the living room and walked over to join Steve.
Yelena hadn’t lingered because she was waiting for him.
Meeting the old Avengers and seeing her sister felt surreal. She had known they would meet the moment she set the Tower as her next destination. But expecting it was one thing, living it another. Right now, she needed a moment to stand still and just let everything happen around her.
Bob was sharing the moment with her, completely unaware of its significance.
When the silence stretched too long, Yelena signed. “Alright, time to go.”
They stepped into the elevator together. She was too tired to even press the button to the right floor. Luckily, JARVIS took care of it.
“Yelena,” Bob said softly.
“Yes?”
When he didn’t respond right away, she looked at him. Bob had his eyes downcast and was fidgeting with a button on his pajamas. He felt her gaze, glanced up briefly, then looked away again.
“This is going to sound silly.”
Yelena waited for him to continue. The elevator doors had already opened, and as they stepped, he went on.
“I just… have this bad feeling that none of you will be here when I wake up.”
That could be easily fixed.
“Let’s go,” Yelena said, linking her arm through his elbow and leading him towards a room that was in a similar position to hers. Just a floor lower and years in the past.
“We can have a sleepover.” She added.
“I don’t want to-“
-burden you. She finished his sentence in her mind before he even said it, and cut him off.
“Bob, it’s nothing. I don’t mind, and it’s not like it’s our first sleepover.”
They entered the room.
“Remember when John joined us and didn’t believe anyone who said he had snored?”
There it was. The small smile returned.
They took turns in the bathroom to quickly wash and change into some clean clothes from the guest room closet.
The bed felt like heaven after the long day.
“Night,” Bob said.
“Night.” She wanted to say something else, too.
Glad you are okay. I have missed you all. Thank you for giving me a chance to meet Natasha again.
Just like the rest of the team, and Bob himself, she believed this might have been his doing. But she found no reason to blame him for it.
All the sentences felt too emotional.
So instead, she said. “If you start spinning in your sleep, I am taping you to the bed.”
“I don’t spin while I sleep.” He mumbled, already losing the fight with exhaustion.
“I remember that helikopter move from the last time. You are not fooling me.”
He was already asleep.
As Yelena slowly drifted off to sleep beside him, a thought ran through her mind.
If JARVIS could see and hear them… there must have been a microphone in the wall as well.
There was no reason for her teammates not to hear her during the first part of their conversation.
…Unless someone muted it.
She remembered Stark’s smirk when he talked about their video call.
Son of a bitch.