The Avengers Are My Family

Fresh Start

Drew wakes up and looks at the clock on her nightstand. It's 4:30 AM. It's still dark outside. She tries to fall back asleep, assuming that no one is up at this time. Thirty minutes later, she decides that she can't fall asleep and puts on the Ballet shoes that Nat and Wanda got her when they were shopping. Drew has Friday play some Ballet music, and she starts dancing. She begins by using her window sill to do some warm-up bar work. Then she initiates a routine that Red Room taught her. While she does this, she gets flashbacks, but she shrugs them off. She has Friday repeat the song over and over again. She does the same routine for an hour or so before switching the music and performance. Her body has long since gone numb, but Drew doesn't notice. This is normal in the Red Room. Her feet bleed a little, but Drew doesn't worry about that right now. She keeps dancing. Routine after routine, song after song.

After one of her routines, she hears clapping. She turns around and sees Nat standing there. "Good morning, Drew!" says Nat. "Good morning Nat!" replies Drew. "Great dancing!" adds Nat. "Thank you," says Drew, a little embarrassed. Then Drew limps a little as she walks to her bed and sits down. She winces a little as she delicately slips off her Ballet shoes. Her feet are bloody and bruised. "I'll be right back," says Nat. Then she leaves the room and returns with some medical stuff. Nat kneels on the floor in front of Drew and starts cleaning her feet before bandaging them. "Sorry," mumbles Drew. "Sweetie, there's no need for you to be sorry. I dance a lot too, and my feet always look like this. I'm used to doing this," says Nat. Drew nods and smiles.

Nat finishes, and Drew gets up and gingerly walks to her bathroom to shower. She turns the water on before grabbing a jumpsuit for the day. Nat sits on Drew's bed and waits for her. Drew washes her hair yet again. The Red Room always had the girls wash their hair every day. Hydra, on the other hand, did not. Nat puts Drew's hair in her new signature hairstyle, aka two French braids. Then the two girls walk downstairs, where everyone is already up.

"The Devil and the Angel have arrived!" says Tony referring to Nat as the Devil and Drew as the Angel. "Hilarious shell head," says Nat rolling her eyes. Drew laughs and runs painfully to Wanda. She tries her best not to show her pain. Wanda feeling Drew's pain because of her powers, notices and looks at Nat, questioning what happened. Nat mouths "Later." and Wanda nods in understanding. Wanda lifts Drew up and kisses her forehead. "How'd you sleep?" asks Wanda. "Good! You?" says Drew. "I slept well," says Wanda. Then she sets Drew down and Drew runs up to Bucky, who picks her up and spins around. "Good morning, Drew!" says Bucky. "Morning, Bucky!" says Drew. Then Bucky sets her down, and she runs up to Yelena and hugs her. Drew hugs all of the girls before dashing up to Peter and hugging him.

Then Clint serves everyone pancakes, and they all eat as one big family. Well, everyone except for Vision eats. "What did you do this morning, Drew?" asks Wanda. Nat facepalms herself before fixing her gaze on Drew, who says, "I did Ballet for a while. I didn't notice how bad my feet were hurting, and I didn't care about the bruises and blood on them until I saw Nat in my doorway. Then she patched me up, and here we are!" says Drew smiling. "Wait, you danced until your feet were bruised and bleeding?" asks Hope. "Yeah. That's how the Red Room does things, and I am used to how they do things, and I didn't notice how bad my feet were until I stopped. In the Red Room, you are not allowed to stop unless they say so. If you fall out of a move, you will get punished," says Drew looking at Nat. Everyone is speechless. Nat, Yelena, and Bucky are proud of Drew for talking about it since it's hard to talk about it for them. The three of them know exactly what Drew went through in the Red Room since Nat and Yelena were in the Red Room themselves, and in Bucky's case, he worked with the Red Room when he was in Winter Soldier mode.

After breakfast, everyone goes in different directions. Drew goes to her room to read Harry Potter and relax, Bruce goes to the lab to work on some stuff, Thor leaves to go to Asgard to take care of something, Vision goes to his room and to read or something, Peter goes to Ned's house to build Star Wars Legos, Steve, Sam, Bucky, Clint, Tony, and Rhodey go to the training room. The girls decide to chat and catch up. Nat stops Bucky as he starts to make his way to the training room. "Hey, Bucky?" says Nat. "Yeah, Nat?" asks Bucky. "Do you still have Drew's files? I know you both told us so much, but I want to look at her files to see what else she went through so I don't slip up and say something that might trigger things or something like that, and so Wanda and I can brief the other girls on Drew's past a little more," says Nat. "Yeah, sure! Give me a few minutes, and I'll be right back with them," says Bucky. Then he runs to the elevator and goes to his room to grab the files. He returns shortly and hands the files to Nat, saying, "Make sure Drew doesn't catch you reading the files. She obviously hasn't seen them, and I don't want her to freak out or anything." "Thank you! Roger that," says Nat. Bucky nods to her and runs off to the training room to join the boys.