Prosperous In Battle

15: Anatomy Class Paid Off

"Really you called him?" Natasha said unimpressed with me. I couldn't let them leave if Tilly took a turn for the worst and hurt someone they'd have her killed, that will be it and Natasha would get herself killed in the process and more than likely Yelena too and as much as they don't think I see them as family, I do and I don't want my family to get hurt. 

"I had no choice." "What's he doing here?" Tilly asked stepping back onto the stairs with her bag on her shoulder. "Tilly, you and I are going to go on a little road trip to a safe place." "Don't talk to me like I'm a child." She said firmly. "I have been here 8 months, helped, proved to you I am sane and I'm not what they made me. So why are you here?" "Your mother is trying to remove you from the facilities and we can't allow that." "Why not?" "Because you're dangerous." "If I'm so dangerous why do you continue to piss me off?" She asked putting her bag by her feet. "Because you don't scare me... I have the ability to control you." She nodded slowly, it was more of an 'I'm pissed off at you nod' than a nod saying 'yes' or 'I understand'. 

"Tilly," Nat warned her already seeing the growing anger, she was in no place to be pushed today, she was edging on sane and insane, one slip and we could quite easily be outdone by the 18-year-old. 

"You want to control, be my guest. But the last person that did that will be dead the next time I see him." She said so calmly that it was chilling. She has a way with words, the way she says them not what she says. It was haunting. "Go on... What's my first command, sir?" She asked innocently, she wasn't mocking she was being genuine and the concern on Mr Howards face for his own wellbeing was comical. He wasn't equipped to handle her. So switched between so many mental states so quickly it was hard to keep a handle on her, on how you should go about keeping her calm. "The car is waiting for you. Come on." He told her. 

She raised my eyebrow. Looked at her mum, her eyes glassed over suddenly, reality hitting her. "No," Nat warned her because she knew Tilly would go with him to keep her family safe and out of trouble. "Please may I say goodbye to Morgan and Peter?" She asked politely. "Hurry." She disappeared. 

"You're not taking her." "She needs structure, discipline." "She's been disciplined her entire life, she doesn't need that. she needs me! Her mother." "Natasha, I hate to tell you this but you're toxic to her. Poison. She gave herself up to protect you. What if you were out on the field... you got hurt, she would rip through people to save you. Sacrifice herself." Mr Howard spoke to Nat like she was a little girl in a patronising rhythm. "Toxic Natasha... Your trauma, your being she carries it... Almost like she is your mother." He looked down at her literally and metaphorically. "You've always been the cause of her pain... You brought her into the world, you allowed them to take her, you waited 6 years to get her out and then lost in another 6... You got her back or did she find her way out? You're the reason she's so broken! Why she'll be messed up in the head for the rest of her life... She's safer without you." "Don't talk to her like that." I stepped in. 

"I'm ready." "Tilly!" Morgan was in Peter's arms making grabby hands. "It's okay." She stroked Morgans hair out of her face before kissing her head. Peter had tears in his eyes. "Pete," Morgan asked him, asked him to do something with her limited words. For a three-year-old, she had a deep understanding of the world Goodbye. "Love you 3000," Tilly said to Morgan with a small smile. "TILLY!" She screamed when Tilly moved from her touch. "Tilly you don't have to do this. We can talk to him Like last time. Right, Mr Stark?" Peter asked me desperately from the top of the staircase as he tried to keep a hold of a wriggling Morgan.

Natasha held her tightly when she got to her. "Miss Romanoff, please let the convict go." Convict? Really? "Tilly do not walk out that door with him." I should have never called him. We could have kept her and he'd never know. We could have lied said they took her back. I shouldn't have called him now. I know deep down Nat wants what's best for Tilly she always has. "It's okay." She had accepted her fate, she was so used to pain this didn't faze her. She knew they'd hurt her for information, keep her isolated. Of course, she was used to it all by now. That's what her whole life had been.