A Shot in the Dark - Yelena Belova

Восемь (Eight)

2009

The first time Sascha and Yelena met, Yelena had been sent to kill her, to completely eliminate her from the grid, and the Room's troubles. Not exactly the most romantic of meetings. And yet it would certainly turn out to be romantic.

Very romantic indeed. 

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Back then, she, Sascha, had been living off the grid in Tel Aviv as Ilana Shapira. Tatiana Vasilivna was gone, long gone. Long, long gone. She was off the grid in the sense that she had severed her connections to the Red Room with no intention of ever going or looking back. Not by choice, anyway.

This would all eventually change, thanks to Natalia and the others, but mostly Natalia.

But again, getting ahead of ourselves.

Family. 

Sascha. Sascha Shostakov.

That was her new name.  Yet another alias, yet another identity. But she was used to all that by  now. 

And from that day on, she was warmly welcomed into the family - Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, the late-cold-war version of herself, Melina Vostokoff, the memory of Natalia Romanova, and, of course, Yelena Belova, all Black Widows like herself.

Alexei was even kind enough to lend her his family name, and thus Sascha Shostakov was born. 

It was strange suddenly being with others, let along living with others, complete strangers at the time, after so long of being alone. Honestly, she had gotten used to it. She didn't mind it all that much - in fact, honestly, she rather liked it.

So it was an adjustment, a major adjustment, and not only from her side of things. She was suddenly living with four other people when there had only been her for years, and she was suddenly tossed into this close-knit family of four. 

However, they were welcoming, very much so, surprisingly so she would even say. They all welcomed her with open arms - especially Yelena. 

It was strange - she was older than all of them, and yet frozen in time as a young woman.  At first, she felt a little on the outside of their family unit, even, dare she say, a little intrusive. But they never made her feel that way, it was just her own insecurities talking.

It warmed her heart to see the affection between Melina and Alexei, the whole family, but especially with the way Yelena looked up to Natasha, her older sister, even though Natasha had abandoned them.  

"I understand the bond between siblings, between sisters," she remarked to the blonde one day. 

"You had sisters?"

"да, two, one older and one younger. Marya and Irina." She smiled, a chuckle bubbling up through her. "We used to play jokes and pranks on each other, trying to outwit each other. To be perfectly honest I thought that's what they were doing the day I returned to our village from the city. I thought they were all hiding on me. That was before I realized the whole village was empty." Because they had been ripped from their homes, taken away and murdered. But she didn't need to add this. 

Yelena gave her a sympathetic smile and reached over to give her hand a comforting squeeze.  "It is nice that you have such fond memories of them."

To this, Sascha nodded.  "да. That I do."  

They clearly respected her, not only as the original Black Widow, but as a person. They didn't push her, and welcomed her with open arms.  In turn, they received her utmost respect. 

"You know, for a woman out of time, out of her time, you blend it quite well," Yelena remarked one of those days early on.

"A lot of our training was to learn to blend in, change with the times - and so I did just that."

"Well you did a good job."

"Спасибо. I thought so as well. Tried to draw as little attention as possible to myself."

There was a pause before Yelena said, "You're an inspiration you know, breaking free from the Red Room."

"Not everyone would agree."

"But we do." Yelena's words were soft. 

She had been raised to be selfish, think selfish, not to rely on anyone else for anything in life. And she had completely and utterly failed at that, right from the beginning.

But they, her new family,   they believed quite the opposite despite being taught this their whole lives.

No, it was the trainers, back in Russia who served the Red Room who instilled their own selfish ways into her and hundreds of other young women over the decades. They thought that selfishness was the only way and the only means of survival.

But Sascha knew better now, was living proof that they had been wrong all along. Not only had she survived, she had thrived.

Or at least had. Somewhat.

Okay, perhaps thrived was a little generous, but Yelena had always believed it, as had Natalia. In fact, all four of them believed it. It was just she herself who needed a little more convincing... 

Ex-Red Room people were some of the least selfish people she knew, and perhaps strangely, the most trusting. The group had readily accepted her as one of them, one of their own, and welcomed her into their family. It was a well-known fact in the Red Room that you only looked out for yourself. You and no one else. This was how they would be successful in the world, or so the trainers said.

But it was not how they, the Shostakovs, did things. 

They reminded her so much of her own family, they all did - sometimes too much. 

She recalled Yelena's words from the first day, the first moment even, that they had met: "I came to set you free..."

And that's exactly what she had done.

Russian Translations

да - Yes

Спасибо - Thank you

(Thank you again for being so patient!  But our wait won't last much longer - the movie is so close!!! I wanted to get at least one more chapter up before the movie comes out, so there we are! 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :))