Chapter Text
She could feel their eyes on her as she tends to the apple tree and lilies she planted like they are her children, Clint the only one who knows not to come near or bother her. She hears footsteps, knows that he made sure she had heard them coming and that he is deadlier than her so if he had wanted to sneak up on her he could have. Natasha leans back as he kneels down next to her, his metal arm shining in the sun and his newly trimmed hair makes him look less tortured but both of them are tortured, Hydra and the Red Room made sure of that.
"It's for him," he says softly already knowing.
"He's older than us now or at least he probably looks it anyway. I should be relieved he didn't spend his life being tortured or experimented on but I just want to hold him again," she tells him.
"He was so adorable he melted my heart and broke my brainwashing for a few moments. What was his name?" Bucky asks.
"Mikhail but I called him Mishka," Natasha reveals carefully.
"We should tell them, they could help us," Bucky finally says but she doesn't say anything else to him.
Nothing else is said between the would be assassins, they had a difficult relationship together and tragedy between them as well. A little boy with a soft smile and light brown eyes haunted them like a ghost, the way he clung to her as she whispered lullaby's to him. Maybe the father of her child is right, maybe she needs to trust her team but the childish thought that Clint hadn't been able to find anything played in her head and she was afraid. She didn't know outside forces would force her to trust her team and reunite her with the child she loved.
🦋
Robby gasped awake wishing that he had Jack here to wrap himself around, to sooth him after a nightmare, to reassure him he wasn't what those monsters tried to create. He remembers his mother like she's a ghost or something far away that he wants back, like a child taken from her when he should have been able to have her. He remembers her bright red hair, her light brown eyes, the way she held him after they trained him, told him he was her sweet boy but he can't remember her face. He's tried to remember it, he's taken drugs in hopes of seeing it once more and of having answers but he can't reach it.
"My sweet Mishka," she whispered kissing his forehead.
He knows he didn't have a nightmare but a memory, the way his mother called him Mishka and kissed his forehead, the way she fought against them when they wanted to take him, the way she screamed at the man who looked cold about saving him. Robby knows he cried for her, knows the cold metal of the arm dug into his little body as he was dragged away but he also knows the man for something else. He knows the man for knocking out the men with him, for taking him on a road trip and leaving him at a hospital, he knows the man with the metal arm as his father who kissed him on his forehead and whispered softly to him before leaving.
"It's the only way to keep you safe little one. We love you never doubt that," he says and then he disappears.
Robby also knows this man as the Winter Soldier. He had thought that nothing could beat aliens or a super powered team of heroes but Hydra and the Winter Solider did. Some of the monsters that had taken him away from his mother, that he knew without knowing had terrorized her had a name, the man that was his father had a name. He almost wished he could say something, especially when he heard about The Winter Soldier's arrest, his trial and him being exonerated due to mental incapacity and being a P.O.W. but he didn't think he would be believed. Jack believed him though, the man he's loved for ten years, through his years in the army and after he lost a leg believed him.
"I would say to tell him but I'm sure that isn't as simple as you think," Jack says softly running a hand through his hair.
Robby doesn't have any emotions about his father, he doesn't hate him but he doesn't have any memories of him except for taking him from his mother and then leaving him at a hospital in Ohio. His mother though, he couldn't remember her face and it ate at him because he remembered the way she held him, the way she loved him, the way she would run a hand through his hair and tell him lullabies in Russian and make up stories. When their wardens, because they were prisoners, pushed him too hard, she comforted him and she fought against them using him and training him.
"She loved you that's all that matters," Jack reassures kissing him.
"Your hair before it turned gray reminded me of hers," Robby whispers against his neck.
"Should I take that as a compliment?" Jack asks laughing.
"A good thing I promise," he reassures.
Robby knows he won't go back to sleep now so he gets up, putting on a pair of sweats and a hoodie that smells like Jack still when he used it a few days ago. He wishes the other man hadn't had to go on medical conference for a week, so he could be here but it had been planned for months and New York was only a few hours away. Robby planned on visiting him on three days off he had which would start after his shift today, he planned on driving up right after his shift. Jack was the only other person he felt loved with, with his mother it was different but with Jack it was all encompassing, felt like they were soul mates or something. He sees it when he's come down the stairs, his feet freezing because it's slipped under his door with Mikhail written on it. A sense of fear fills him, he's been afraid for a long time and he allowed himself to become comfortable reassured by Jack that if they hadn't found him after the files in Hydra dropped and the Winter Soldier trial then they wouldn't and he would protect him. His worst fears are confirmed when he opens it and reads the letter, the threat inside.
Son of the Widow and Winter Soldier,
It's time to come home where you belong little one or we end the one you love.
Hail Hydra
Robby feels his breath catch when behind the letter is a picture of Jack unconscious inside a cell and he freezes for a moment. A moment where he lets the fear take over, where he wants to rush to save Jack like he's a damsel but neither of them are damsels and he has to be smart. After he pushes the fear down, a memory comes back to him, something Jack had told him after one of his nightmares where it went from his mother dying in front of him to Jack dying in front of him.
"If they have come for you, if they take me or something equally sinister like the Nazi bastards they are then you can trust my team. You can trust Tag, Alex, Jay and Mouse," Jack says holding his face in his hands.
Robby had only been able to nod his head before curling up around him, Jack telling him stories about pranks him and his team would play during their down time. Before he thinks of it he moves toward his cell phone but then he pauses because this had been slipped under his door, he shouldn't say too much in a text or over the phone. It's lucky that they meet up with them weekly so that way if anyone is watching him it won't be suspicious or out of place. He instead tries to sneak in a way to let them know something is up, he sends it to all of them hoping one of them will figure it out.
Want to meet up before I head up to visit Jack? We can have Ocean Garden.
Ocean Garden was a Chinese buffet they had that made Robby sick on multiple occasions and the food tasted bland, he hopes that one or all of them will come here first. He then texts Adamson saying he misses Jack too much, he has PTO saved so it shouldn't be an issue and Monty confirms that he already put the time off in for him. Robby finally allows himself a moment, he brings the collar of his hoodie up to inhale the scent of his lover, closes his eyes as tears fill his eyes and fall silently but then something else takes over. He spent six years a prisoner with his mother, he felt her love but he also had been trained and beaten by their captors.
As a child going from foster home to foster home he decided to be small, thought it was safer that way. He knew he healed faster, he wasn't immortal but things that should take time to heal didn't take as long so he was always careful to not get hurt and he kept his training up. It became easier when he met Jack, even before they got their heads out of their asses, he found it fun to find a doctor, someone like him that looks so adorable and sweet, that he could work out with. Robby wasn't a superhero, he was the son of a Widow and he wishes he knew who his mother was, that he could remember her face because he knows that Natasha Romanov is a Widow but that would be too good to be true but whatever he was he was someone that Hydra shouldn't have messed with and they shouldn't have taken the one person he loved more than life itself. Hydra would regret coming for him and taking Jack, if his lover didn't break himself out then soon Robby would break him out and make Hydra pay. It would also reunite him with his parents, not that he realized that yet.