Natasha's Kid

Chapter 14 - In the Floating Red Room

Third Person POV:

The two assassins left staring at each other.

Natasha suddenly gets up from her chair, it scrapes along the ground. She starts to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Melina asks, still in her chair.

Going through the doorway Natasha responds, "To do this myself."

"Don't. You won't survive." Melina shakes her head.

Still walking away Natasha rebuts back, "I wish I could believe that you cared." she turns on a light, "But you're not even the first mother that abandoned me."

Up from her chair and walking through the house Melina loudly states back, "No, you weren't abandoned. You were selected by a program that assessed the genetic potential in infants."

On opposite sides of the hallway, Natasha near the laundry and Melina near the living room stand facing each other.

Natasha slowly walks towards Melina. She struggles to start her sentence, "I was taken?" pain flows through her voice.

"I believe a bargain was struck, your family paid off. But your mother, she never stopped looking for you. She was like you in that way. She was... relentless." Melina's voice a steady and calming.

"What happened to her?"

Melina stares into the eyes of Natasha, guilt and sorrow fill them, "Dreykov had her killed."

Natasha gasps, looking down at the floor. Melina continued, "Her existence threatened to uncover the Red Room. Normally, the action of one curious civilian wouldn't warrant an execution, but, as I said, she was relentless." Natasha had lifted her head, but she didn't make eye contact.

Natasha's voice wavers with emotion, "I thought about her every day of my life." she looked down at the floor, then briefly to Melina then her eyes searched the room. "Whether or not I admitted it to myself. I did."

Melina sharply inhales and crosses her arms, slowly making her way closer to Natasha. "I've always found it best not to look into the past." The two make eye contact before something catches Natasha's eye on the bookshelf.

She walks closer to it. Picking a book out of a pile. It was the book. The one from Ohio. "Then why did you save this?" Natasha asks

Melina doesn't answer. She just hopes that Natasha didn't get to the back of the book. She knew that she shouldn't have put the pictures in there, or even have them but, she knew that one day if she ever saw her again, she would have to tell her. She had a daughter.

Natasha starts flipping through the book. She looks down at all of the happy memories that she had back in Ohio. Several pictures of her and Yelena fill the book.

As she continues to flip through the book, nearing the end Melina walks even closer to her. Natasha stops at the Christmas photos.

"I remember this day. We shot Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and summer vacation all in one day." Melina stands next to her daughter, "different backdrops," the red-head continues.

"Mmm," is all she can manage, hoping that Natasha doesn't get to the last three pages. She lifts her head from the book staring at Natasha. But her face flickers, one moment she can see Natasha the next Inna. The grief washed over Melina like a tidal wave.

Oblivious to this Nat continues, "I knew all the presents under the tree were just empty boxes, but I didn't care. I wanted to open every single one..." She turns the page once more. Showing pictures of her and her sister under the tree opening presents. "So just for a second, it would feel real."