Baby Widow Romanova

Chapter 6

Natasha smiled while looking down at the sleeping child, whose head was resting on her lap as she continued to run her fingers through her daughter's hair.

Vera had had a little bit of trouble falling asleep. At first the child had asked her for the cuffs and, much to her own disagreement, she had contemplated the idea. But she could not do it. It did not sit well with her to cuff her child to the headboard of the bed.

However, after hearing the child cry, Melina had done her best to convince her to let the young girl use the cuffs, at least until the kid was asleep. And she had complied, a few seconds later the nine year old was asleep on the bed.

Natasha had uncuffed her daughter's right wrist slowly, gently caressing the red mark, before pressing a kiss on it as if it would make everything better. But still, it had not made disappear how guilty she felt about it.

It had taken her years to stop cuffing herself at night. She would still do it after a bad day, when she felt like she was about to lose control. So she knew that it was going to take time for that little girl to stop asking for them to fall asleep.

The Black Widow sighed. Motherhood was not like she thought it was. Especially not with a child that had gone through so much trauma, that at her only nine years old was one of the best assassins the Red Room program had ever created.

"Shh, it's okay, sweet girl" she whispered when the kid cried in her sleep, her green eyes meeting hers before looking around. "You're safe, it was just a dream" she told her, trying to stop the child from sitting up.

The nine year old pushed herself away, starting to breathe agitated as she continued to stare around. Tears were already streaming down her cheeks while her hands were scratching furiously on her face.

"Vera, stop" Natasha tried to grab the kid's arms before the little girl would be able to scratch her arms as well. "You're hurting yourself, baby. Please, stop" she felt desperate to embrace her child, but each time she tried, her daughter would only get more upset.

"No! Don't touch me! Please, don't-" the child sobbed, her whole body shaking.

"I won't touch you, but you have to stop" she remained away from the little one.

However, her daughter was not listening to her. The kid's mind was still focus on the nightmare or memory from the Red Room that was causing the panic attack.

She did not want to, but when the nine year old kid went from scratching to pulling from her own hair, she did not have any other choice than to grab the child from the back of her neck. The kid stopped moving immediately, her gaze down as her breathing evened out.

"I'm going to release you. No more hurting yourself, understood?" she chose her words carefully to give the order, not wanting to scare the child ever more than she already was.

Vera's eyes were full of fear the moment she let go of the grip. Her heart ached at the sight of her own child being so scared.

"I'm sorry" the nine year old sniffled, slowly calming down.

"Can I touch you?" she asked, waiting until the kid would be comfortable enough for her to touch her.

The girl just stared at her for a few seconds before nodding, so she wrapped her arms around the little one, pulling her as close as possible. Vera hid her face in the crook of her neck just as the kid had been doing whenever she needed reassurance that everything was okay.

Once she felt that her daughter was calm, Natasha cupped the little girl's face in her hands to take a look at the angry red marks. There was dry blood covering some of the scratches.