The Girl From The Woods ~ Natasha Romanoff × Adopted Daughter

11.

Nat's POV:

"Dave" that's all she says before she goes quiet again and starts playing with the laces of my sweater.

"детка, who's Dave?" She looks up with anxious eyes and answers:
"My dad." Oh God, okay. I don't even know what to think, how can a father do this to his own child?

"Okay baby, thanks for telling me, I'm so proud of you. I'm sure it wasn't easy to tell me and I'm so proud of you, thank you!" Tilly just blushes and tries to hide her face in my chest.

"Is that why you ran away from him yesterday?"
"Yes" she answers quietly without moving. I just wrap my arms around her body and hold her close to me.

After a few minutes, we both calmed down again and I was able to undress her without any further problems. Her wounds were all over her body and you could hardly find a place that wasn't covered in bruises.

The bath was very relaxing, Tilly was very tired, which is why she fell asleep during the bath. After she had finished, I wrapped her in a towel and left her on my bed while I looked for some fresh clothes for her to wear.

A few minutes later I came back with the smallest T-shirt I could find. I knew I had to buy some clothes for her as soon as possible, because my clothes were clearly too big for her and she didn't even have any underwear that fitted.

So I decided to leave her in just the T-shirt for the time being. After I had put the T-shirt on her, I covered her up with a blanket and quickly ran into the living room to get her teddy and blankie and put them next to her. I left the door ajar in case anything happened and went into the kitchen to make some lunch for us.

A few hours later, I heard the bedroom door open and out came a sleepy looking Tilda. She looked so cute in that big T-shirt. With her teddy tucked under her arm and her blankie in her hand, she came over to me and today she raised her arms to tell me that she would like to be picked up.

I was sitting on the couch watching a movie on my laptop. So I picked her up and put her down in my lap.
"Did you sleep well?" She just nodded in response and let her head fall back onto my chest.

"I cooked dinner while you slept, are you hungry?" I ask her, to which she nods at me again. So I take her into the kitchen and set her down on the worktop.
"What's that?" She asks me as I put the food on a plate.
"It's rice with chicken and vegetables, do you like that?"

I know that many children don't like vegetables, but I want to offer Tilly some vegetables, firstly because they are important and healthy and secondly because she really needs to get some nutrients.
"Mhm" she says, nodding.

To be honest, I was a little surprised that she had also said yes to the vegetables, but then I pushed it to one side and didn't think about it any more.

I also filled a plate and lifted Tilly off the worktop. I took both plates to the table and then went back to the kitchen to get cutlery and something to drink. Once everything was set, we finally ate.

Tilly ate an amazing amount from her plate, which made me very happy. After the meal, we cleared up together and decided to go to the nearest clothes store to buy Tilly something to wear.

I decided to leave Tilly in my T-shirt as her clothes were too dirty and I was just going to wear them anyway.
So we went to the nearest store and bought her some clothes. We started with tops and then moved on to different pants. I ended up buying her some underwear, socks, two pairs of shoes, a thick jacket as it's quite cold here in Norway and of course a hat and scarf as well as the different tops and pants.

Luckily we both had the same taste and she liked most of the items I showed her. But before we went to the checkout, I decided to let Tilly choose a small sweet treat, as she had remained so calm the whole time.

After she had taken a bag of potato chips, we paid and drove home again.

However, when we arrived back at the caravan, it turned out that we were not alone. There was another car parked in front of the caravan and the lights were on in the caravan. I was pretty sure that I had turned the lights off everywhere before we left.

Tilly seems to notice my anxiety about the car in front of us and gets restless herself. She starts fidgeting in her seat and whining.
"Everything's fine, you stay here in the car for now and I'll see who's in the caravan, okay?" I try to speak to her as calmly as possible, as I really don't want to deal with a panicked child right now.

"No, stay" she says and looks at me with big shimmering eyes.
"Hey, I know this is probably really scary, but I promise you that everything will be fine, alright? You don't have to cry, no one will ever hurt you again okay?" I take her head in both hands and wipe her tears away with my thumbs. Luckily she calms down quickly, allowing me to quietly sneak out of the car and make my way to the entrance.

I raise my gun and smile as I think back to the last time I went into the house with my gun raised and found Tilly.

I slowly open the door and feel a person behind me. I slowly turn around and see Tilly standing behind me.
"Tilly, I told you to stay in the car!" I say, perhaps a little too harshly.
"I'm sorry... I don't want to be alone" I just sigh and nod slowly.

"Okay but you stay behind me the whole time and don't leave my side alright?" She nods and I make my way further in. Waiting for us in the living room, sitting on the couch, is none other than my friend Clint Barton.