emmylou | natasha romanoff

twenty-eight.

2016
Manhattan, New York

Kennedy stared at the computer screen before her. She hadn't slept in days, not since she'd gotten the messages on her phone. She tried to figure out who would send that message and only one person, one organization came to mind.

Dreykov.

The Red Room.

Why else would the footage of Yelena be deleted? They didn't want Kennedy to find her, because to the outside world, Yelena wasn't supposed to exist. No one was supposed to miss her. Kennedy knew how the Red Room operated. Natasha had told her. She was still haunted by the nightmares, years after escaping.

Kennedy didn't have the heart to tell Natasha what she'd learned. In Natasha's head, she killed a young girl. To learn that she'd done that, and it led to nothing would break her and Natasha was in a good place. She was happy. She would sleep at night and Kennedy wasn't going to disrupt that.

So, she took a deep breath and stared at the phone in her hand. She nodded her head and plugged it into the computer. She uploaded the picture to the computer, but this time she used aging software. Yelena would be around twenty-seven, so Kennedy aged it up that much before running it through the database.

Her worst fear was that nothing would pop up.

Fortunately, her worst fear didn't come true. Several videos of an older Yelena popped up from several European countries, none giving a clear view of Yelena's face which Kennedy had expected. She was just happy to see that Yelena was still alive. A trip to Europe and their family could be complete.

"What are you looking at?"

Kennedy jumped as she looked over her shoulder and saw Reagan standing there, leaning forward looking at the computer screen.

"Who's that?"

Kennedy looks back at the screen, "That's Natasha's younger sister. Yelena."

"Yelena," Reagan says, "I remember you talking about her. What happened to her?"

Kennedy doesn't get the chance to answer as the videos begin to delete like they had the first time.

"What's going on?" Reagan asks.

"The videos are deleting themselves," Kennedy says as she unplugs her phone from the computer. Reagan looks at Kennedy, eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Has this happened before? Why do you sound so calm?"

"Why wouldn't I be calm?" Kennedy asks. Reagan shrugs as she looks at the computer screen. Kennedy follows her sister's gaze.

I WARNED YOU

"Maybe because that's on the screen," Reagan states, "Who warned you? What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Nothing," Kennedy says as she logs out of the computer and restarts it, getting rid of the message, "Can I trust you to keep a secret?"

"Kennedy I'm not so sure about keeping this a secret," Reagan says, "Who warned you?"

"I'm not sure," Kennedy says, "But I live with an assassin and Wanda. If someone comes after me, I'm sure that I'll be fine. Not to mention that I work in one of the most high-tech buildings in the world."

"What about when you're at the hospital?" Reagan asks, "Who's watching out for you then?"

"I have SHIELD training you know," Kennedy says, "I took on the Winter Soldier."

"He shot at you, and you hid behind a car," Reagan states bluntly.

"I survived," Kennedy states, "Listen to me, I'm fine. If I wasn't, I'd be much more panicky. You know I'm not a good liar. Not to you."