одиннадцать.

265 12 11
                                    

одиннадцать. (odinnadtsat') — eleven.

"What the hell, Belova?"

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"What the hell, Belova?"

Bucky helped Mace stand up as she stared at the woman in front of her.

"You're not mind controlled?" Yelena questioned.  She seemed surprised.

"What?" said Mace.  "No.  Of course not!  What was that red gas?"

"An antidote to mind control," she said.  "I thought that... that maybe you were still a Widow."

"I thought you were still a Widow," said Mace.  "What are you doing here?  And how did you get out of the Red Room?"

"Another Widow," she explained.  "While I was on a mission, a former Widow exposed me to that gas, and I... well, snapped out of it.  So I went to find my sister, and we took down the Red Room, and Dreykov, then —"

"Stop stop stop.  You did what?"

"I am telling a story here, Wilcox. Anyways.  Then, we saved a bunch of Widows by exposing them to the gas.  And while Natasha had to get back with her Avengers, I took the other girls and we went around saving other Widows from the mind control, and it was going well, and then..." Yelena paused.  "Then snap." She snapped.  "Five seconds for me, five years for others.  Everyone else was gone.  They had families, or boyfriends, or jobs... and there were no more Widows that needed help.  I couldn't even locate any.  Except for you.  So I thought... I thought that maybe I could free you and you could lead me to other Widows and then we could continue the mission, you know?

"But you're not mind controlled.  You're.. happy.  In New York.  You've got a boyfriend."  Yelena nodded toward Bucky.

"I— what?" Mace looked at Bucky, then back at Yelena.  "No.  He's—" she stuttered, then glanced at him again.  "We're not—"

"Yeah, no, we're not—" Bucky pointed from him to Mace. 

"He's not my boyfriend," she finally said. 

"Really?" said Yelena, sounding surprised.  "I don't know, I'm pretty sure there's something going on between you two."  She pointed from Mace to Bucky a couple of times. "Like... some sort of... unspoken relationship."

Mace and Bucky looked at each other, wide eyed.

"I think— hold on, who is this, anyway, Macie?"

"Okay, firstly, don't call me Macie. And his name is James."

Yelena furrowed her brows in thought. "As in.. James Buchanan? Barnes? Winter Soldier?"

"Yes. But—"

"The man you have wanted to kill all your life?"

"I— no! He's— no. He's not the Winter Soldier. That's past him. Mind control, remember? He was in the same situation as us. Worse, really."

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