The Black Hawk | Yelena Belova & Kate Bishop Story

~Prison~

After spending the night in the hospital without any complications, Kate was discharged the next day and spent the next few days resting in her own bed.

At that time Yelena took care of the food and the rest of the household.
It wasn't what she was used to doing, but she thought it was nice for once do something that hadn't anything to do with fighting and spying on someone and could just be a normal human for a short time.

After three days of resting, Kate decided she was fit enough to get up and finally visit her mom who was in prison after she had reported her to the police right after the big fight on Christmas Eve.
She felt somewhat guilty of getting her own mother into prison but she knew it was right thing to do.

She got out her bag, put in some candy, which she knew her mother liked because she had read that you rarely got any in prison, and left the house.

Right before she went out of the front door, she left Yelena a short note on the living room table.
Yelena went out in the morning to do something, Kate didn't know what or where she went, because, unlike her, Yelena wasn't so kind to leave one for her.

But, Kate didn't want to worry, even though she hadn't any clue on how Yelena felt for her and if she even would be interested in where she was.

On the one hand, Yelena had shown a few days ago that she had to have a certain interest in her, at least she went out to check on her, which probably even saved her life that day.
On the other hand, she was always very reserved, didn't talk much about herself and Kate couldn't quite get the hold of whether she felt comfortable with her here or not.

With that thought in mind, she shrugged her shoulders and walked out the door.

-----

Today was again one of the days when Yelena felt down. She couldn't sleep well that night, thousands of thoughts running through her mind about what she possibly was doing wrong and why she couldn't do better in her life.
What the Red Room had imprinted on her for two whole decades was burned into her memory and as hard as she tried to forget it, more and more horrible memories surfaced, which she could hardly handle. it made her vulnerable and weak, both traits she hated deeply.

There was also the worry about the mission with Kate, she had a strange feeling about it in her stomach.
Since the beginning of the assignment she had the feeling of being less able to function day by day, the skills that she had been able to carry out perfectly the years before, seemed to be slipping through her fingers and all she could do was just to stand beside and watch.

And, of course, there was always this big black hole in her heart that her sister's death had torn.

Yelena could hide these feelings very well most of the time, but sometimes the sadness and tears got the better of her.
On days like this, she always tried to distract herself, especially when she had no opportunity to sit down in some corner and just have a good cry.

After a long rolling back and forth on the couch, trying to get at least some sleep, she had decided to put on her gym clothes and go jogging at 4 in the morning, hoping it would clear her mind and help her calm down again.

It turned out it wasn't that easy, so she spent almost 6 hours with jogging, alternating with walking from time to time, though the beautiful Central Park in New York.

When she returned, Kate was gone and she found the little yellow note Kate had written for her earlier.

'If you're going the old-fashioned way, you could at least try to write properly, Kate,' she said jokingly as she folded the note and put it in her pocket.

-----

'You have 20 minutes' said the man in police uniform as he held open the door to the visiting room for Kate.

'Thank you'

Kate was surprised it was just 20 minutes. On the internet, she had read that normally you could visit the inmates for an hour, but she decided they probably changed it and just haven't changed it on the internet yet.

When her mother walked through the door, she immediately saw the reason for the reduced visitor time.
Her mother had become very skinny, had a pale face and even had to be supported by a policewoman up to the table.

'Oh my god, Mom!' She grabbed the hand of the woman across the table.
'What happened?'

'Oh Kate...' Tears formed in the eyes of her mother.

'How are you? I really missed you,' she continued.

'I'm good mom, how are you?'

The woman kept quiet and just shrugged her shoulders while looking on the white surface of the table.

'Why did you have to do this, Kate?'

She looked into her mother's eyes in amazement, the initial warmth was gone, instead there was disappointment and even a hint of resentment in her eyes.

'Mom...'

'You are no hero, nobody would have asked you to make that decision. '

'Do you really think I did that just because I want to be a hero, that's how you think of me?'

'Okay - then why did you do it?'

Kate shook her head.

'What you did... it was wrong, murdering a person, attempted contract assassination, that's no such thing as stealing a chewing gum, don't you think so?'

'Kate, I just wanted to protect you.'

'You always told me to never go against the law, to obay. To do the right thing, treat people with kindness...'

Eleanor interrupted her.

'Don't you think there are exceptions?'

'Not like this, Mom, no.'

The womans lips formed a faint smile.

'I hope life gives you the chance to stay that way, sweetie.'

'You can have that chance as well, mom. We can start a completely new life together when you're coming back.'

'That would be nice.' The woman barely whispered while trying to hold her eyes open.

When Kate noticed this, she got up immediately and went to her side to support her.

'Mom? Mom, are you okay?'

In the next second the woman collapsed in her arms and she tried to hold her in her chair to not let her fall on the ground.

'Mom!
Hey; Hello! I need help in here!'

She called for the police officers on the other side if the door.
They came rushing in, helping Kate laying her carefully on the floor.

Kate felt like everything was spinning around her and was like in a fog. The shock of seeing her mother so ill and being unable to do anything, and probably even being the reason for it, was overwhelming for her.

'Miss, are you okay?'

One police officer asked her and she snapped out of her thoughts.

'Yes... yes I am. How's my mom?'

'The doctor will take care for her, but I need you to leave this room now.'

'Yeah, of course, thank you.'

Back in the hallway, she sat down in one of the chairs against the wall and let her face dropping into her hands.

Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder which caused her to raise her face from her hands to look up.
In front of her stood her roommate.