Widow Sisters and Friends (Restoring Our Broken Hearts)

Listen to Me: Part 1

Summary: It was supposed to be a routine catch and release for Natasha. However, when Vibranium cuffs, Natasha's old Red Room instructor, and, worst of all, Yelena are all mixed in the mission, it quickly becomes one of the worst missions Natasha has ever been on. However, even after the Avengers rescue her and Yelena, there are still somewhat longer-term consequences that the two have to face with Yelena taking the brunt of those said consequences. But Natasha will be there for her every step of the way.

   It was supposed to be a routine catch and release for Natasha. She had supposed to have been in and out with their guy bound and gagged when she got the information she needed from him. It was a simple human trafficking run, and from the scarce files they had on the target, she had made the assumption that this would be an easy mission.

But as soon as Natasha had gotten herself purposefully captured and she was knocked out by some manner of gas that she had not smelled since her days in the Red Room, she had known something was severely not right with the situation. But she had no choice but to commit to the mission once they had knocked her out, and when she woke up, she was bound in Vibranium cuffs.

For two days, she went without food and when she was offered a drink, it was very brief and always delivered to her by someone with a mask. But each time, she had turned it down.

However, on the third day, things changed abruptly, and she had met her target and realized how dire the circumstances were all through the course of one fateful encounter.

"Natalia... How far you have fallen," a familiar voice rang out, and Natasha looked up from where she was cuffed to the wall, her eyes widening just a little as she felt fear inevitably race through her heart. It was a habit and she honestly hated herself for having those feelings when she knew that she could effectively take this man down at this point in her life. She was not that scared little girl anymore that could be tormented into submission.

However, there was Vadim, her old instructor throughout the majority of her Red Room days in all of his glory, and some part of Natasha felt as if she were still shaking in her boots despite how ridiculous the sensation made her feel.

"Vadim?" she questioned, sounding just a little surprised in spite of herself. She was very much on-guard, but she needed to allow some amount of emotion to show to hopefully get him to start talking.

"Ah, so you haven't been completely brainwashed by Americans to forget heritage," he spoke, that threatening, growling baritone ringing out through the emptiness of the warehouse-esque environment. Natasha swallowed, eyeing him wordlessly as she took in the sight of him.

"Of course not. How could I forget your endless charm?" Natasha questioned, her voice silky but her words biting as she executed them well. His eyes narrowed a little, taking in the sight of her.

"Shrewd as ever, da?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow as he placed his hands behind his back and simply eyed her carefully. Natasha did not say anything, watching him as she waited for him to make the next move so that she could plan accordingly in how to react in this game of wills and words.

"What? Nothing to say?"

"I have plenty, but nothing you would like to hear," Natasha replied simply, attempting to rile him up to see if she could garner anything valuable from his words.

She knew she was in a very bad place at this moment, but she was nevertheless holding out hope for the Avengers to come save her. She knew that Yelena was likely tirelessly searching for her and that with the Avengers, she would doubtlessly find her. She just hoped that Yelena did not choose to do something stupid such as going it alone.