wandanat au - that first summer

chapter two - the detectives

tw: (some) swearing, explicit mention of drowning

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ THIRD POV

After spending most of her day with Wanda, Natasha cycles back home, where she finds everyone waiting out on the porch, watching her calmly cycle in. Everyone included her mom Melina and her mom's boyfriend Alexei, but also two detectives, new ones, not the ones from last night. Different ones, they were there for more, Natasha thought. But she made a promise to someone who means more to her.

She dismounted and dragged her bike through dust to park it against the side of her house. Her mother stood strong before Natasha, her body weight against the wooden post with her arms crossed. Her jaw clenched tight, her eyes remained intensely targeted on Natasha, eyebrows furrowed and face so flushed red you would think she was about to burst. Natasha prepared to hear the same words again, she let her mother speak.

"Do you want me to have a nervous breakdown Natalia, is that it?"

"It's Natasha..." she mumbled under her breath.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing mama, no mama."

If it wasn't obvious, Melina is pissed. It's not unusual to have police at their door, let alone the detectives. A very very small part of her worries about her daughter committing something treacherous, but of course her worry lies on how much it would take to fix her daughter's mess.

"Mind explaining why the fuck the detectives are here, at my house?"

"I don't know ma'am."

"Little girl, I am tired of all the trouble you cause me. Grey hairs. I have grey hairs Natalia. what have you dared to have done now?"

"I've not done a fucking thing!" cries out Natasha.

Alexei, noticing the tension rising between the mother daughter pair, aims to intervene and separate the two.

"Hey, watch your tone young lady, that is your mother you are speaking to." reprimands Alexei. Though this goes through one ear of Natasha's and out the other, as she roughly barges past Melina to walk inside, not waiting for anyone to follow behind. The detectives, wishing to cause no more commotion, reassures Melina all they want is to ask a couple more questions. They then walk inside to catch up to Natasha, leaving Alexei and Melina stressed outside.

Inside, Natasha guides the detectives into their average sized kitchen. She reclines against the cabinets as the detectives take their stance opposite her. The three of them look at each other before one of the detectives introduces himself.

"I'm Detective Nick Fury, this is my partner Detective Maria Hill." Fury glances at Maria, an unspoken message runs across both of them: she's not focused. "Listen, we just want to clarify what you saw at the reservoir last night, that's all. Is that alright?" Natasha nods in response.

"So you saw some thrashing in the water and then you said you saw a girl running away from the reservoir, and we are not sure who that is. Could you help us?" explains Maria.

Suddenly being brought back down to earth, Natasha realises what they're really here for. Remembering the promise she made to Wanda earlier in the day, she begins to conjure up half-truths in her head. But fidgeting uncomfortably, she distracts herself by making space on the counter behind her to jump up onto for a seat.

"See the deceased had no kids nor family. We think it may have been a visitor, or perhaps someone from out of town. Now is there anything at all that you can tell us about?" unsatisfied with Natasha's lack of attention, Fury presses on. Natasha on the other hand tries to make herself comfortable, spotting a lollipop discarded, she takes it and begins to unravel the packet.

"Look!" interjects Natasha, whilst holding the lollipop out in front of her.

"Listen kid, we really need you to focus and think right now." urges Maria.

"It's a scorpion in a lollipop, so strange... See!" says Natasha as she turns it towards Maria to see, then casually places it into her mouth.

"So what did she look like? Light hair? Dark?" asks Maria.

"Yeah right, I don't really think I saw a girl." reveals Natasha, though not entirely the truth.

"No girl." Maria tries to confirm.

"No it was dark, pitch black honestly. Besides, I was on my own, so I probably just freaked out and my mind thought of things that weren't actually there. I've got a really overactive imagination. Mom reminds me all the time." shares Natasha.

"Hold up, let me get this straight. There was no girl? At all? But you told us-" Fury exclaims, quite staggered by the new information.

"Yes. I know, I know. I'm saying I got carried away when I was speaking to the officer last night. There was no girl. But I definitely saw a woman, an older lady... she was walking into the water and then..the thrashing..." interrupts Natasha. Fury for a moment just stares at Natasha, who's not looking at either of them currently, and looks over at Maria to confirm they both heard the same thing.

"Okay, so you saw an older woman, walking into the water."

"Yeah, that author lady who lives by the reservoir. I recognised her from the back of one of her books."

"Natalya Maximoff." confirms Maria.

"Yeah, that's her... She just walked into the water without looking back, and didn't come out. It was so fucked." Despite the language, her childish innocence shows when she goes back to having her lollipop. The two detectives, on the other hand, make eye contact once again, consuming the change in story they received, sighing they accept what they've got.

"Okay, sounds about right." says Fury.

"Well yeah, I assure you I know what I'm saying is correct this time, I'm certain. I'm not lying if that's what you're thinking."

"No no we trust you." reassures Maria, though she's not so confident in that.

"Cool... so, I'm good? Like I'm not in trouble?" questions Natasha.

"No you're not in trouble, you're a good kid." Fury chuckles. "Like I said we just wanted to clarify a couple of things." Natasha simply nods. "You've been a big help, thank you Natalia." claims Fury, with a genuine smile.

"Natasha, Natasha will do..." she hesitantly corrects.

"Okay. Thank you, Natasha." And with that Fury makes his way out of the kitchen to the porch, where they left Melina and Alexei. Maria stays with Natasha for a moment, she sympathises with a kid like her, having seen the things she has during her time as a detective. She knows this isn't something that's easily processed.

"Hey kid, what you saw must have been really scary. You have anyone you could talk to if you need to?"

Natasha beams at Maria's concern and worry, "Yeah, I've got someone to speak to. Thank you."

With that, Maria leaves the kitchen as well, walking out to her partner. Natasha is left to her own devices, considering how to keep Wanda safe. She's not completely certain the detectives actually believe her, especially when she's suddenly changed her testimony.

Even then, she pledges to protect Wanda.

Whatever it takes.

❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

second chapter!! it was gonna be longer, but given the movie, I had to make the parts work out.

But detective nick fury and detective maria hill are introduced, and natasha has changed what she originally testified the night before. she's so suspicious rn.

anyways i don't have a schedule on when im posting these chapters btw, it's just based on when i can tbh

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thank you for choosing to read this!!!
have a beautiful day, you are all so loved<3
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