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

A First Time for Everything: Part 2

Summary: It is finally time. Kate is having the mission to beat all missions-- the one that will determine whether she is ready to become an actual Avenger. However, when comms to the compound go out and enemies manage to get the drop on her, things go awry quickly. It is up to Natasha, Yelena, and Clint with the help of Darcy to find her as they take on the last person that anyone expected to have to face again.

   Natasha, Yelena, and Clint burst through the door, the group of them entering with Natasha first and the other two flanking her. Natasha looked slowly around the ballroom, realizing that there was no one around outside of the aftermath of whatever disaster had occurred. Natasha slowly lowered her gun, softly cursing, and Clint put the arrow he had withdrawn away, lowering his bow.

"They're gone," Clint breathed, and Natasha just gritted her teeth as she continued further in, Yelena close at her side. Yelena had been remarkably quiet since they had lost communications with Kate, and Natasha had honestly been shocked at the fact that she had nothing to say. Even in the worst of situations, Yelena generally had something to say.

Perhaps this is what Clint had meant when he had told her of how Yelena had reacted that time that Natasha had been taken when they had used sensory deprivation on her. This is the side of Yelena that Natasha was not too accustomed to, but it was one that she deeply understood.

Yelena truly did love Kate in her own way. She felt protectiveness over her, and it was an undeniable bond that she did her best to hide despite the fact that it could at times come in glaringly obviously.

At the moment, it was completely clear that Yelena was absolutely out of her mind with worry and fear for the kid that Yelena quite apparently viewed as some manner of younger sister figure.

Natasha looked around, taking in the sight of the overturned tables and collapsed chandelier, quietly coming to her own conclusions about what had happened.

"Supersonic disruptor?" Clint questioned simply, and Natasha nodded, letting out a soft breath as she stepped carefully around the glass with smaller pieces crunching underneath her feet. Yelena headed around, the three of them finally splitting up as they searched the room.

It had demolished everything around them, and Natasha knew that it must have been one. She had seen them and actually even used them herself during her time in the Red Room since it was a favorite of theirs. And admittedly, when paired with protective technology around the user, they could be extremely effective in disarming targets to keep them from calling for assistance or from using any sort of technology-enhanced weapons.

"Certainly looks that way," Natasha confessed, casting a glance in Yelena's direction as she checked on her subtly. Yelena was like a ticking time bomb and Natasha honestly was not sure how much it would take for her to violently explode.

Clint was handling this incredibly well, and she knew he was just as worried sick as she was. However, he always had a way of handling these things well. The blip was the first time she had ever seen him truly lose control and that was when a situation held seemingly no hope.

But she could read in the barest of shakiness of his hands and the way in which he was just a little too on-edge that he was undoubtedly very panicked about Kate and whatever had gone down.

Natasha herself felt like killing someone. She was ready to blow holes in skulls, slit throats, and beat people to bloody pulps. If there was one thing that no one was allowed to mess with, it was her family, and Kate was part of that family.

"Blood," Yelena spoke up for the first time since communications went out, her accent thick and her voice rough as she made her discovery known from the opposite side of the room. It sounded as if she had not spoken for years as opposed to the minutes that it had been.

Natasha turned in her direction. Yelena was currently knelt down next to a table, and Natasha glanced at Clint briefly before heading over to her baby sister at a quick stride.

"FRIDAY, scan the blood samples for matches in our database," Natasha instructed, her mouth going a bit dry as she fought to speak the words. The fear of what the answer might be was overcoming her, and she found that she was deeply dreading what the AI was about to say.

Clint just looked around them as FRIDAY complied, using the body cam on Natasha's suit to scan the blood and decipher whether it matched the sample that they had of Kate's in the database.

Yelena took in a soft breath as she stared at it, and Natasha offered her a onceover. Yelena never took her eyes off of it, and it was almost like if she stared hard enough, she might could see whose it was, the DNA writing the story of the person's identity.

"It matches the sample submitted for Katherine Elizabeth Bishop," FRIDAY announced after a moment, and Natasha let out a pained breath, her throat closing just a little. Clint mumbled something less than savory under his breath, fear coming through in a short moment despite the calmness he was exhibiting.

Yelena stood up carefully, every inch of her stiffened, and Natasha reached out to her softly, touching her back and softly rubbing it before letting her hand drop. Yelena did not acknowledge her, but her muscles loosened as Natasha touched her, contact from her big sister bringing her comfort as it always did.

"Wir werden sie finden,"1 Natasha switched to German so that Clint would not be able to pick up on what she said to reassure Yelena. Yelena nodded a little in response.

"There's a trail," Clint pointed out, and both of the sisters turned around, looking at him. He was pointing to the floor, and sure enough, blood was smeared along it. It looked as if they had dragged her along the floor after they had done whatever they had done to her, and they wasted no time in hurrying over and following it.

They rushed along, jogging through the hall as they tracked it. They turned around the bend, and as soon as they did, they had to come to an abrupt stop, the trail coming to an end at an exit door. Whoever had taken her must have loaded her up at this exit.

However, more importantly than that, there in front of the door was Clint's retractable bow that he had given her for the mission, the arrows she had tucked underneath one of the tables, and, strangest of all, a card.

Clint took his bow and the arrows, checking them over carefully, and Natasha reached down, grabbing the card as she held it up, examining it. Clint furrowed his brow, looking at her as he waited for her to announce what was on it.

Yelena looked at it oddly alongside her, she herself not recognizing the symbol. Natasha found it to be extremely familiar in some odd way, but she did not know where she saw it originally.

"What is it?" Clint finally asked when it became clear that they were not going to say what was on it aloud.

"A logo," Natasha finally answered, deep in thought as she tried to understand why it looked so familiar, and Clint stepped forward, moving his fingers as he gestured for her to turn it around. She complied, flipping it in her grasp as she allowed him to get a good look at the front.

As he looked at it, a solemn, terribly dreading look came upon his face. Natasha eyed him carefully with some confusion, not sure what he was about to say but knowing that it could not possibly be anything good. She could feel Yelena next to her as she gaped at him as well, anxiety written in her every movement.

He shifted his gaze just barely from the card to meet her eyes, and she swallowed, not daring to avert her gaze.

"That's Bishop Security," he told her. Natasha froze, a deathly silence falling over the three of them as their minds raced.

After a long moment, Natasha spoke up, wetting her lips as she did her best to speak as her voice felt like it was going to give out.

"Guess we know where we're going next."

(1) "We'll find her."