Above it all (I'll always love you)

2

"Are we taking a bath now?" Yelena asks as she looks up at Maria, one hand clinging to the woman's own as the other holds her puppy. Natasha was walking behind them, and Maria makes sure to glance back periodically to make sure she was okay.

"Do you want to take a bath?" Maria asks, and Yelena immediately nods her head prompting the woman to lead the children through to the bathroom.

"Okay. Would you like a bath too Natasha? Or would you rather a shower?" Maria wonders as she starts the water, making sure it was a decent temperature before plugging the drain.

Natasha shrugs her shoulders.

"She always takes showers." Yelena murmurs absentmindedly as she sits on the bathroom floor with her puppy in her lap.

"Thank you Yelena. I have a shower in the bathroom in my room if you'd like to use that?" Maria offers as she stands back up and dries off her hands, and she was glad to see Natasha nod her head.

"Let's go show your sister how to use the shower." Maria coaxes as she holds out her hand for Yelena, not wanting to leave the child in the bathroom alone.

Yelena eyes her bath with a worried expression.

"It'll be ready for you when we get back," Maria reassures, wiggling her fingers invitingly. "Come on sweetheart. The sooner we go the sooner we can get you in the tub."

Yelena sighs before taking Maria's hand, and the woman gives her hand an encouraging squeeze as she leads her out of the bathroom with Natasha in tow.

She makes quick work of showing the 12 year old how to work the shower. It was a little different to the showers you see in most homes, with a touch screen that controls the temperature of the water that could have anyone confused, let alone a child.

"The shampoo and conditioner are in there already, and there are towels underneath the sink. Once you're done, I'd like it if you could wait for us in your room, okay?" Maria tells Natasha as she heads towards the door, and the blue haired child nods as she eyes her sister nervously.

"Yelena will be okay," she promises, "I'll make sure she's safe."

Natasha seems doubtful, but she nods her head anyway allowing Maria to leave the room. Just like she'd said, the bath was ready.

"Strip off and climb in sweetheart. I'll be just outside if you need anything." Maria stops the water after double checking the temperature.

"I don't know how to wash my hair." Yelena admits as she sits down to tug off her socks.

Maria smiles, "That's okay. Your hair doesn't need washing tonight anyway. I'll help you with that tomorrow."

Yelena nods, "Okay." She mumbles, and after placing a towel onto the closed toilet seat, Maria leaves the room. She had no intentions of closing the door just in case she was needed, but does step out of Yelena's line of sight to give her privacy. She soon hears the familiar splashes signalling Yelena had gotten in safely, and it was only then does Maria take it upon herself to get the child's bed things ready.

She pulls the tags off of the pyjamas and grabs a diaper from the box in the closet, setting them on the end of the bed. She doesn't know if help would be needed for the protection, and she kind of wishes she'd grabbed pull-ups for Yelena too. But her file had said she was a heavy wetter at night due to the severity of her night terrors, and the pull-ups probably wouldn't hold all the accidents without leaking.

With a small sigh, Maria grabs hairbrush and sets it on top of Natasha's pyjamas, deciding against grabbing a pull-up for her as to not embarrass her. If she needed one, she could do it herself and Maria would be none the wiser.