3 February | The Clinic | PG-13 A sisterly reunion under not-so-great circumstances
warnings mentions of injury
When the droves of portal monsters that had been coming through finally started to taper off, the Outlanders in the midst of battle found room to step back and breathe, if only for a minute, while they watched for their people to come back through the portal and escape whatever hell world they’d been stuck in for the past week and a half.
Kate watched the big glowing circle raptly, eyes peeled for only one person. She wanted everyone to come back safely, obviously, but her sister was her concern. Her dumb sister who had apparently decided, Hey, Kate’s gone, I’m gonna go play big damn hero. She was going to get an earful for that later, but right now, she just needed to be okay.
And it wasn’t like Yelena had never contributed in times of big battle, Kate knew that. She was smart, strong, and more than capable of handling herself. Volunteering herself to run off into some twisted portal world when they had no idea what was waiting, though? Even Kate would have second-guessed that a little, but then, she’d have had Natasha in her ear putting a stop to the very thought. Absolutely not, she’d say. You’re staying here. You don’t know what you’re getting into, what if you get hurt? You can’t afford another concussion if you value your memory, мой маленький воробей.
She tried not to think about that. She couldn’t think about it, not in that moment. She had been toughing it out this long, alone in Black Widow House, and falling apart wasn’t an option.
Especially because Yelena came through half-conscious, and her heart immediately dropped into her stomach.
How exactly they got to the clinic from there was a blur, but they did. It was all a big whirlwind of activity – Yelena was hardly the only one badly hurt – but they got her set up to tend to the worst of what she’d sustained and set her up for healing. It wasn’t instantaneous, but everything was slowly knitting itself back together. Kate even let them patch her up while she stood by Yelena’s bedside, gripping her hand probably too tightly.
“I’m so mad at you,” she told her sister with a frown, pulling one hand away just to slap at her wrist – then both of her hands engulfed Yelena’s one again. “You’re not supposed to get stupid just because I’m gone!”
Yelena groaned. It wasn’t as painful anymore. It wasn’t like Kate hugging her right now was going to jostle her broken ribs, sending shooting pain through her body. The ribs were still sore but considering the healers got those knit back together first (something about breathing being priority or whatever, she was no doctor), they didn’t hurt as bad anymore. Still, a little bit of the jostling made her aware that she did get hurt.
She didn’t push Kate away though. “You and Natasha. I am absolutely allowed to get as stupid as I want.”
God, but she was so relieved Kate was back. So relieved that she actually did regret going through this mission. Had she known, Yelena would have a hundred percent sat this out and stayed waiting in the silence of her home, watching over Chris while Leon went portal-hopping. She had her emotional moment in the other Vallo when she saw Kate’s post on the network, but she would have preferred to be able to run right at her and hug her as tight as she possibly could.
It pained Kate that she couldn’t hug Yelena right now. It was all she’d wanted to do when the portal opened and she waited, expecting to see Yelena stroll through nonchalantly, unscathed as she always seemed to be in these situations. But that groan just from pulling on her hand made it clear she needed to wait. And she would, impatiently. As soon as the healers and doctors gave the all-clear, though, she was going to cling to Yelena like a freaking koala bear, and she knew her sister wouldn’t protest.
“No, you’re not,” she scolded with a glare. It wasn’t as scary as she hoped; she’d come down from the adrenaline high, but she was still freaked and it showed. “What the hell were you thinking, сеструха?”
Yelena tugged at Kate’s hand, folding her arms over it like it was a small teddy bear she was given to cuddle. She didn’t care about the pain, it would dull eventually and it wasn’t the worst thing she had ever experienced. “Listen, I didn’t intend to get stuck in a gravitational… thingamajig.”
“I don’t care about the gravitational thingamajig,” Kate huffed. She didn’t know what the hell that meant, but she felt pretty safe in guessing it was whatever had put Yelena in such a grievous condition. “I care that you went into a seriously fucked situation without knowing anything! You wouldn’t have gotten into the gravitational thingamajig if you hadn’t gone through the portal in the first place.”
Yelena sighed. “If you want me to say sorry, I will not, because we saved people.” But, she gave a pause and gave Kate’s hand a squeeze. “But, yeah, I should have been home to greet you anyway.”
“You didn’t know,” Kate sighed in response. “I didn’t know. I can’t be mad at you for that.”
Losing two weeks of her life here and coming back to find Natasha – Natasha, of all people, the person who had been her strongest lifeline – and Emily, Tony, Pepper, and James were all gone? It hadn’t been in the plans. She hadn’t expected ever to leave Vallo, even if it was only briefly. Coming back having lived nearly a year in that time was dumb and disorienting, too, but she wasn’t going to get into that.
“I’m gonna stay mad about you putting yourself in danger for a little while longer, though,” she continued. “I’m supposed to be the one with heroic tendencies, not you. Now brace yourself, I’m coming up there to hug you. I can’t stand it anymore.”
“Look, if I ever said ‘nah, I’m not going to help out anyone in this world’, you would ask me what the fuck is wrong with me.” Yelena still held out her arms, outstretched at her sides to let her in, because she was going to take that hug.
“Key words there being this world,” Kate countered. “That was a whole other world. You’d know that because you had to access it through a portal.” She pressed her knee onto the hospital bed, squirming into the free space and carefully situating herself in her sister’s open arms. Normally, she’d flop right on top of her, but she was very conscientious of her still being pretty damn torn up.
One of Yelena’s hands went up to Kate’s hair, stroking at the strands. The contact almost made her start crying again. She had at least one of her sisters back, it was better than nothing at all, but if she could have not felt the pain she had, that would have been ideal. And because of that lump in her throat, Yelena opted to lay a kiss on Kate’s forehead instead of speaking up right away.
When she did, she decided she didn’t want to argue with Kate about this anymore. Or argue at all because her little sister was back. “What did you do in that time? Besides worry about me. Did you go to see Kamala?”
Kate closed her eyes and wrapped an arm around Yelena’s waist. She kept her grip loose, but she couldn’t resist holding onto her if she tried. She had been nervous when she’d ended up back here and caught up on what was going on, but that was nothing compared to how scared she’d been today, the second Yelena was half-carried through the portal home. Being able to be close to her was the first thing that started to settle those feelings.
“Yeah,” she confirmed quietly. “Well, she came to me. Syd, too. And Violet. We had ice cream and alcohol. Not Kamala, obviously. And I signed back up for Defense. It was pretty sorely needed with all you heroes abandoning us the past few days.”
“Good, you can bother Sam,” Yelena said, the smile evident in her voice. “Do I know a Violet?”
“She’s only been around since December, I think.” Kate opened her eyes and tilted her head up to look at her sister. “Magic type. We talked a couple times before, I’d call her a friend. I don’t think she’s done a lot of socializing since she got here, but she’s sweet.”
Given that there were many more heroes who had left Vallo entirely, a few weeks earlier than that, Yelena figured there were plenty of spaces to fill. But hopefully, it would keep her preoccupied. She was glad to have her back, but she knew that Kate had lost people too, not just their sister but her girlfriend too and many friends and family among them.
“Socializing with new people is a good idea,” she said, and then after a pause, she added, “Would be a good distraction. That and the Defense. I think we’re both going to need more safe and non-lethal ways of distraction in the next few days.”
“Good thing there’s always binge-watching,” Kate replied, nuzzling back into Yelena’s shoulder. She’d tumbled back into Vallo amidst all the chaos of the portals, so she hadn’t had to rely on a lot of mundane tasks to occupy herself. Now that the big event was over, she figured it would fall into the predictable pattern and go quiet for a little while and give her mind plenty of time to wander.
“I love you,” she sighed out. “I’m really sorry I disappeared. I didn’t mean to.”
Yelena brought her other arm around Kate to give her a tight hug. Or as tight as she could. She was still pretty weak so the more she attempted to squeeze her close, the more shaky she got from the effort until she just decided to wait until she felt better. “I love you too. I won’t hold it against you. Vallo is a different story.”
Kate felt the shakes and raised her hand to press it gently against Yelena’s shoulder. She wanted to squeeze Yelena tight more than anything, but it would take some time for her to recover. She could wait; at least now she got to lay beside her and just feel her breathe. It reassured her that she was okay and she was on her way to getting better.
“It’s gonna be weird without Nat here,” she went on, feeling her chest tighten. She didn’t like imagining a life without the eldest sister around. These past few days, it had been easy to pretend Natasha was simply busy, preoccupied, out of town – whatever. She knew it wasn’t true, but it was enough to console her while she shot at portal monsters for a few days.
“I know,” Yelena said, having to fight back the lump in her throat again. Now wasn’t the time to cry. There will be time, of course, and she was going to make it, because she deserved another good cry session, this time with her younger sister. “I guess that makes me the oldest now. You’ll have to also play older sister now that Leon and Chris will be around.”
“Leon needs an older sister,” Kate huffed with a smile. She liked Leon; he was a good enough guy. She’d seen Chris a few times since he’d arrived here, too, and he was a sweet little guy. It was why, even though she’d have liked to just take her room back, she wasn’t going to displace a nine-year-old. “I’ll be Cool Aunt Kate for Chris. There’s gonna be a void with Franky and Morgan gone anyway.”
She didn’t have to remind her, Yelena thought, closing her eyes briefly from another bout of emotional pain. “Yeah, I think he might like that.” There was no replacing all the kids they had lost to Vallo’s whims, but finding something to do was helpful.
Mostly helpful. Depending on what the distraction was. “By the way, if I decide to run off again to some adventure in the next two weeks, you are free to give me those crocodile tears again. Unless you run off, then I’m going after you.”
“They’re not crocodile tears,” Kate protested, lightly slapping at Yelena’s shoulder. She continued to be legitimately annoyed for her sister, but she would let her have this one if it made her smile. She knew none of what they were discussing were their usual fun topics. It was hard not to drown in the hurt, but she could do it for Yelena’s sake.
“I’m running after you, too, no matter where you go.” It was fierce and determined, and she hoped with all her heart it would really work out that way. She’d made the same exact promise to Natasha, and yet, here they were. Vallo had made her a promise-breaker, but for now, she was going to pretend it could be different. “Now, shut up and rest, jerk. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”