Widow Sisters and Friends (Restoring Our Broken Hearts): Book 2

Safe and Sound: Part 1

Summary: In the aftermath of torturous disaster, Yelena is the only one that can pick up the pieces of what is left of Natasha's mind and bring her back to who she was before. Fortunately, Natasha is extremely receptive to her efforts and craves her baby sister's nearness and comfort.

Natasha could not see anything, she could not hear anything, she could not smell anything, she could not taste anything, and she could not physically feel anything.

She was completely isolated in every way, and she was beginning to forget where she was, what was happening, and even somewhat who she herself was.

She could remember floating bits and pieces, and she could not put everything together. What she believed at this point was that her name was Natashka—or was it actually Tasha? She was not completely sure at this point. The other two things that she knew was that she had been captured by less than stellar people and she was being tortured. Any further details were blurry and foggy in her mind's eye, and she could not remember much else.

The bad part was that it was all too much and severely not enough all at the same time. She could not even feel herself swallowing her own saliva as she attempted to feel anything at all that she possibly could. She could not move, and she felt like she was floating with no particular direction of what was above or below her. In fact, she had no idea if she was upside down or right-side up. It was all so confusing and it was like she was in space.

All she could think about when she pictured comfort and relief from this was a face that she associated with what she remembered of love and care, and she knew that if she could just see that face before her very eyes, everything would all fall into place. It would make so much more sense if she could just see.

However, as it was, it was like her eyes were closed. But she thought that they were open. She had tried to open them. She honestly was not sure if her efforts were successful because she could not feel if they were open and she could not see a single thing.

But Natasha was not afraid. She actually just did not really feel anything physically or emotionally despite what she managed to remember about herself and her situation.

Everything was fading out of existence. It was all out of focus, and it was all completely out of her control.

She was losing herself.

She was not sure if it had been days, weeks, months, years... It was all so uncertain, and she honestly felt that it had been an eternity that she had spent like this. She could not stand it, and it was starting to drive her crazy.

Or was it? She really had no clue if she was truly that bothered or not. It was a dual feeling of being trapped and freedom, and she was barely able to discern the difference between the two at this point.

But almost as abruptly and as painfully as if she had been shot, she finally heard something that grated within her ears with its abruptness. It likely seemed louder than it logically was because she was so unused to hearing any sound at all.

As she grew more aware, she realized it was the sound of something opening.

However, she was quickly unable to focus as she felt a sharp pain in her arms as something felt as if it were being ripped out of her. She wrinkled her nose, feeling the urge to yelp but unable to make it come out of her mouth. It was the first thing that she had felt since all of this, and it hurt like knives were stabbing into her because of how unused to any manner of touch that she was.

"Natashka, Natashka, hey... It's okay, I've got you," a voice started to come in, and she suddenly felt something touching her skin near her ear. She almost wanted to flinch at the unexpectedness of the action, and she thought that her eyes were open wide, but she was not entirely sure at this point.