No Tears | NR

Chapter 39

TW: Mention of Suicide

Oświęcim, Poland

A convoy of black SUVs drove up to the building where a group of people was waiting. They were members of the local law enforcement and had been called here by an anonymous caller. When they had arrived here, they had found about a dozen people knocked out and neatly tied up in front of a heavy metal door. As they had checked out the rest of the building, they had discovered more tied-up people and two dead bodies.

The convoy stopped in front of the building and armed people in uniforms got out. In their midst was an elderly man. Unlike the rest of his people, he wore a suit. He was the one who approached the police officers that had been standing outside of the building.

"Hello, I am Secretary Ross", he introduced himself to the group. He went on to explain that they had received an anonymous call less than an hour ago telling them to come here.

A man who looked like he was in charge, spoke up with a light accent and introduced himself too. Then he added that he had received a similar call. He wanted to know from the Secretary if the latter knew what this was about or what had happened here, but he didn't get much of an answer.

The Polish officer seemed to have thought of something because he suddenly turned toward one of his people and gave him an order to retrieve something. The young man nodded shortly and left them for a brief while. He returned not much later with a note in his hand which he passed on to his boss who handed it over to the Secretary.

"Any idea what this is? Or who it's from?"

Secretary Ross smirked when his eyes landed on the piece of paper. He instantly recognized the handwriting and knew who it was from without even needing to see the symbol at the bottom of the note.

"I'm beginning to think that we are the clean-up crew for Romanoff's messes", he muttered to himself.

At the same time, Yara and Natasha were back on the quinjet and on their way to another one of the Avenger's secret safehouses. Neither of them had talked much ever since Yara had arrived back here and they had left Poland. Natasha had asked the brunette if Griebel was dead and had received a short nod in response. Afterward, both of them had stayed quiet.

Yara was in a bad state. Her knuckles were bleeding which the brunette hadn't even noticed and she was shivering. Natasha couldn't tell if that was from the temperature or from something else. What really worried the Avenger, however, was the absent look in Yara's eyes. She had seen it before and during those times, the brunette tended to be unresponsive to anything Natasha said. She was too wrapped up in her own mind to acknowledge or even notice anything that was going on around her.

All the Avenger could do, for now, was to treat Yara's bloody knuckles and place her jacket around the other woman's shoulders. She was a little confused as to where Yara's sweater went but didn't ask. Instead, the Avenger had settled down in the cockpit while Yara was seated in the back of the plane.

Natasha wanted to know what had happened. She was worried about Yara who couldn't get her head to shut up and was at her mind's mercy.

Two weeks later, Yara still hadn't said much of anything. Natasha had managed to get a very short description of what had happened with Griebel out of the brunette. That was the most, Yara had said ever since they had left Poland.

The brunette looked tired. She wasn't eating properly and she stayed up for several days at a time out of fear that she was going to have another nightmare. They had gotten worse after Poland if that was even possible.