Black Widow: Dark House

56. "Mama, I'm Coming Home"- Ozzy Osborne

Bold Italics- Russian

Italics- any language besides English

**- thoughts/ memories

The plan was for Yelena, Natasha, and Alexi to take the avenger jet to Germany and then meet up with a SHEILD contact in Frankfurt. Half of that plan worked. The SHEID agent never showed. And in order to help them they undetected the didn't have communicators with them, cutting them off from the team entirely. With Tony, Steve, and Bruce at the UN dealing with political issues surrounding the Avengers, there wasn't much for them to fall back on.

Natasha and Yelena reasoned that they could just take the jet all the way. Alexi was pointed out that as soon as anything looking like the Avenger's came close to Melina, hordes of Dreykov's minions would be on them in minutes. They would never make it out alive.

Alexi had an old contact in the area, and they borrowed an old Russian helicopter from her, after dragging Alexi away as he tried to use more of his "charm" on her to get them a better deal.

As Yelena climbed into the pilot's seat and powered the craft on, she noticed the fuel level.

"I don't think we'll make it to Saint Petersburg" She said flatly.

Alexi looked over her shoulder at he fuel level, "ah" he said, waving his hand dismissively, "we'll be fine."

They were, in fact, not fine.

Yelena and Natasha were able to roughly crash land the helicopter approximately fifteen miles outside of their planned landing zone.

They emerged from the craft, frustrated and tired after listening to hours of Alexi drone on and on about his lonesome imprisonment, his glory days, how Captain America was no match for him, etc etc.

They walked away from the smoking craft together, angry scowls on their face as they both tried to compose themselves. They stood a ways off, taking in deep breaths as they tried to come up with a plan.

Alexi clumsily clambered out, looking down at the useless helicopter, and then at the backs of Natasha and Yelena, "We should have brought the Avengers Super jet" he pointed out as if it were their fault.

Yelena took in a deep breath, feeling her fists tighten as she and Natasha walked away, both fantasizing about wringing Alexi's neck with their bare hands.

"I swear, If I hear one more word from him, I will kick him in the face" Yelena growled.

"He's he worst" Natasha seethed in agreement.

They took off walking, Alexi behind them.

"Okay okay, it's not my fault the helicopter went kaput, this is just a, how you say, bump in the road. This could be a good trip, you guys, did I ever tell you-"

"If you say one more word I will let Yelena kick you in the face" Nat bit angrily at him.

"How can you be so touchy being back home? Look at this!" Alexi gestured to the wide open baren countryside around them, "smell the motherland girls! Don't you feel it in your blood?"

"I feel my blood pressure rising" Yelena muttered.

"Ah, you girls never did like going camping. Even in the back yard, after I set up the tent, and put out the stupid American mirshmellow treat" Alexi said.

"It's pronounced 'Marsh'-'MELLOW'" Natasha pointed out.

"Ah!" Alexi waved her off, "it is beautiful out here no?"

Silence followed Alexi's statement as they kept walking.

"So... are we there yet?" Yelena asked.

"Oh, you'll know when we're there" Alexi said, grinning before making life like pig snorts, as if it almost came naturally to him.

Melina looked over her pigs as they ran in the maze, taking notes and making adjustment son her tablet as she shouted orders at them. The maze wasn't complex, just a spiraling square of turns that were wide enough for the animals to move easily through.

"Slight right!" she called, and nodded when the animal did exactly that. Her eyes watched them, moving back and forth from them to her tablet as she entered the data, making adjustment as she needed to.

"Straight on" She shouted, watching as the pigs kicked up dust in the maze, racing towards the end.

"Right!" she called, watching their progress intently.

"Slight right" she ordered as they finally came to the finish of the maze, tried and breathing hard.

"Oh very good my darling" she said grinning, slinging the tablet on her shoulder with the strap contacted to it. She fished into her farmers jumpsuit for a treat for the pigs, rewarding them for their hard work. She squatted down, breaking the treat, a carrot, in half and feeding it to the hungry pig through the gaps in the gate before her.

"Very good, very good my darling" she praised, stroking the animals rough hide as it greedily ate the carrot from her hand.

Her head shot up as a proximity warning sounded. Standing pulled her tablet in front of her and tapped the screen, her eyes sharp and her features determined as she did so. The device showed her whole farm laid out on the screen, an area lighting up red that she tapped on to get more information. It was coming from the south end of the farm.

She turned and looked to see if she could figure out what was setting the alarm off, but nothing came into view. Quickly she opened the maze gate and ushered the pigs out.

"Go, go on. Back home where it's safe. Come on" she waved the pigs on, patting their behind to encourage them to move quickly. Walking to the shed she pulled out a long ranged sniper rifle from behind a shelf of farm tools, expertly handling it as she looked towards her southern border. Pulling the scope up to her eye level she scanned the countryside around her, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

She saw a flash fiery red hair amongst the emerald green trees, picking out three targets that walked on the incoming road to her farm. She recognized them instantly and felt her breath halt in her chest.

Lowering the rifle she looked on at the approaching figures, her face hard like stone as she felt her heart tug at her emotions, memories flooding her mind's eyes, thinking of all the times she had prayed this day would never come.

She watched their arrival, all the way until Alexi was face to face with her, grinning his stupid grin at her through her chain link fence that surrounded the farm. Natasha looked at her from behind him, and Yelena too, their gazes tired, fighting the softness they wanted to feel for her. Melina fought back memories in which their laughter rang out in the air like a song she had always longed to hear. She set her jaw, but her eyes betrayed her bewilderment.

Alexi spread his hand, "Honey, we're home" he said softly.

Wordlessly she opened the gate and walked passed them, still brandishing her weapon as she walked to a nearby house surrounded by greenery.

"Come on girls" Alexi said as he walked after Melina, Natasha and Yelena following, reluctant, but curious all the same as they watched the people who raised them for five years step into the same house for the first time in decades.