The Trial of Bruce Banner

Aftermath

Nick Fury reveals his face with the drop of his phone. He frowns, sitting behind his desk in an underground office.

"You flooded the building with a vibranium explosion that seeped into the city air,' he commentates, 'I can always count on you to leave a mess."

Clint sits on a cot across from Fury and coughs, having his eyes checked by an undercover nurse.

Alexei holds his helmet and laughs, "My Natasha. She is smart, eh? Was big explosion! The Red Guardian punch wall. We all escape-."

"If you're done rambling, Alexei,' Fury turns with sass, 'I'd like to talk to my spy without further interruptions?"

Natasha smirks; arms crossed as she stands at the wall closest to the small basement window, "Unless you have a way for me to help cover any damages done to the city's air, say something like let's send two renowned Gealic speaking scientists to evaluate it, reminding me of what I just witnessed is a waste of our time."

Fury extends a hand slightly in her direction. She studies it briefly before accepting the handshake that turns into a pull.

He tugs down the torn part on the shoulder of her uniform.

Natasha fits a groan over the gash on her arm.

Fury addresses the additional medic;

"Earn your paycheck and get this girl stitched up. And fetch an ice pack; her lip is cut for the love of-."

"Fury?" Natasha turns away from the nurse.

He looks up, having moved away from her.

Her eyes shift as she shakes her head, "Thank you."

He nods, "Don't thank me yet."

Laura's feet are heard as she darts inside the hideout, "Natasha? Thank goodness you're okay!"

Romanoff turns to hug her friend in a long embrace.

"Is that Laura? My vision is still blurry thanks to those two smoke bombs," Clint whines.

"You'll recover. What you should be worried about is who I got to watch the kids," Laura rolls her eyes at her husband's groaning and paranoia over her shoulder, holding Natasha's hand, "Fury says you can come home soon. Back to America."

Fury glares, "Laura, this is why I don't grant you access to the confidential documents."

"You don't have to, I know your passwords."

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Mommy?"

Melina lowers her book to address Rebecca, who runs into the kitchen. There is a pause in her frantic steps.

Rebecca holds her Hulk plush and visibly pants when she asks, "Where's mommy?"

Melina removes her glasses and analyzes Rebecca. She takes her time in answering, quickly shutting the television off. She sighs, assuming the damage has been done.

Rebecca glances back and forth between the television and Melina.

"Your mama work very hard," Melina states plainly.

Rebecca frowns, "No!"

"No?"

"No more work."

Melina remains calm in her chair at the dimly lit kitchen table.

Rebecca backs up from her grandmother slowly at first.

Melina tilts her head and hums to herself before adding soothing words to her song, "Polneva obkhvatila, Ari vecherney ten'."

"Not morning," Rebecca glares, refusing to hear another word of the song Melina used to sing to Natasha when she was younger.

"No? Okay. Perhaps American songs,' Melina swallows and continues to try, snapping her fingers to a beat she's grown familiar with hearing Natasha play over the last few days, 'how you say? - clover sea in sunshine?-. No! Clover me. Clover me in sunrise. Shower me-."

"No!" Rebecca shakes her head and covers her ears, "Not the song."

"No one needs to hear your sad version of the song,' Yelena argues loud enough as she steps into the kitchen and watches Rebecca run away, 'what you do to her?"

"I talk to her."

"And you fail."

"I fail once more, Yelena. Again and again, history repeats,' the chair scrapes against the floor as she stands, 'She only not know me. Natasha keep her away for so long-."

"Cry about life when Natasha comes home. Where are they?" Yelena grips the back of the chair closest to her.

"They still with Clinton Francis-."

"I know who Barton is."

Melina sinks into her hip. The defeat is evident on her face when she moves to clean the two bowls within in;

"Your plemyannitsa left sad. As her godmother, you should-."

"You are not a bad mom," Yelena says softly. She rests her elbows on the table, arms stacked.

Melina nods and reaches into her pocket. She tosses a metal circle onto the table;

"We must fix tracker. It stop thirty minutes after they leave."

Yelena laughs, tension in her voice, "You tell me now?"

"Only now."

Rebecca returns timidly, "Tetya?"

Yelena reaches to hoist the child onto her lap, "L.J. Tetya must tell you something."

"Not Mama!" She glares.

"No, not about Mama,' Yelena toys with Rebecca's hair and parts it to braid, 'about your grandma. Babushka love science, too. She was not lying this week."

Rebecca looks over her shoulder as if to question every word coming out of Yelena's mouth.

"And experiments and fancy microscope,' Yelena adds, crossing her heart, 'I tell truth to you, always, yes?"

Melina smirks and shuts the sink, drying her hands upon choosing to return to the table with the girls.

"She love bugs," Yelena shamelessly says.

"Yelena Belova!" Melina scolds.

"Okay, not all bugs," Yelena relents, content to hear Rebecca laugh and be open to looking Melina in the eye for more than a few minutes.

"When you leave here, you must call me," Melina lectures, "Two times every week."

"What?" Rebecca questions.

"Call on the phone. Like this," Melina gestures, pretending to lift a phone and answers in Russian, conversing with herself.

Rebecca giggles, distracted when Natasha and Alexei walk through the door.

The child leaps into Natasha's arms.

"My sweetheart," Romanoff hugs her daughter, "Did you listen? Were you good?"

Yelena stands, crossing her arms, "We gave her first smoke."

Melina frowns, stepping between Natasha and Alexei, "Come in, come on. You must eat food. Come sit."

"Next time,' Yelena complains in Natasha's ear, 'bring me."

"I didn't want to bring Dad,' Natasha argues, refusing to let go of Rebecca, 'stop being so jealous."

"I'm not jealous."

"She was jealous," Melina chimes in.