The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 61

Upstate New York, USA

Late Spring 2015

It had been just over a week, nearly two, but Nadine was hopeful that things were beginning to improve. For most of that time, Nina had barely spoken more than a few words to Nadine. And, hard as it had been, Nadine had let her be. At first, Nina seemed to be actively avoiding her altogether. But as each day passed? She wasn't tensing quite so much when she spoke and yesterday, she hadn't pulled away when Nadine reached out for her. Small changes as they were, it was still a marked improvement, one that relieved Nadine to no end. It appeared to indicate that Nina was making some headway in processing not only what had happened to her and why, but everything else that Nadine had told her when she'd finally been released from the Avenger's infirmary. And dare Nadine even hope, but she might possibly even be beginning to understand.

At least, so Nadine hoped. Natasha seemed to think so, judging by the satisfied, assessing looks the redheaded Avenger kept shooting mother and daughter, at least. Not to mention the confident comments Natasha always had ready when Nadine gave into confessing her worry that Nina must hate her.

"How could she not? Everything she went through? Everything I kept from her?"

"She just needs time, Nadine," Natasha had soothed on one such occasion. "She's bright and she's compassionate. She'll come around. She has a lot to process." Nadine had lifted her head from her hands then, shooting her sister a baleful look—another rarity that had come out in her moment of candour.

"And when she realizes she can't forgive me? I ripped her life apart, Natalia," she'd snapped back, the bite tempered by dejections. Natasha had merely raised a skeptical brow before settling next to Nadine, looping an arm around her.

"You? You're not the only one to blame, Nadya," she'd countered gently, though her own tone had developed a sharp edge that caught Nadine's attention. "And what you did? You did it to protect her. She will forgive you, Nadine." Mercifully, Natasha hadn't tried to deflect the blame nor diminish Nadine's role in what happened. They both knew it would be a hollow gesture. She was just as much responsible—to blame, really—as Ultron or Strucker for Nina's pain. More so, even, since Nina was her daughter and they were her secrets.

"You know Nina better than anyone," Natasha had said with an air of certainty, "can you honestly see her holding this against you?" She'd had a point that even Nadine in her moment of despondency couldn't entirely dispute. She might have inherited Nadine's stubbornness, but Nina had never been good at holding grudges. And the reminder had done wonders to dispel Nadine's melancholy.

At least, until the next time her insecurity had reared its head. And the next. And Natasha had stood firm in her own resolve, never failing to do her best to lift Nadine's spirits when they fell low.

Similarly, not unlike Natasha, Nadine kept catching the Maximoff girl wearing relieved looks of her own when she thought neither Nina nor Nadine were paying attention to her.

That the Twins had been worried about Nina was unmistakable. They'd rarely left her side since Nina's talk with Nadine. Or rather, she rarely left theirs. The brother hadn't yet been released from the infirmary, but he was sure to be cleared by the doctors at the facility any day now that Dr. Cho had declared his injuries were effectively healed. He was just waiting on a final few checks and he would be declared good as new. As it was, both he and Nina had been given a clean bill of health far quicker than any average person would've with comparative injuries.

As Nadine knew from years of witnessing scraped knees, abrasions and the odd other injury that inevitably came with growing up as well as participation in her different martial arts clubs, one of the few hints of Nadine's Enhancement that Nina had inherited was her ability to heal faster than was strictly normal. Not by much, mind—Nadine still healed far faster than Nina was capable—but enough that by the time Dr. Cho had arrived at the Compound, still a little worse for wear herself, there was little the doctor's Cradle technology was needed for where Nina was concerned. Pietro, on the other hand, had been subjected to multiple rounds with the technology to heal his more intensive injuries; though his particular Enhancement resulted in an accelerated healing factor as well, the damage the Quinjet's bullets had done had been extensive, slowing his healing factor down from sheer overload.