6139/The Greenland Debrief

The Greenland Debrief
Date of Scene:	05 May 2021
Location:	The Lab - Playground
Synopsis:	Bobbi delivers some reading material to Nat, but also sits down to discuss what to do with Yelena.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Bobbi Morse

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    For the last two days, Natasha Romanoff has been laid up in the medical ward, hooked up to an IV, covered in abrasions, bruises and contustions, suffering a few minor stab wounds, a sprained ankle, a broken right ring-ringer, and a modest concussion.

    Honestly, she came out of Russia in better shape than she expected. At least she was able to hobble out and get a sandwich, even if it did result in Clint telling her she's effectively still a fugitive. That's left Natasha a little more restless being stuck here than she would normally be, and she would normally be antsy as hell. She hates not being active.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi enters the medical section of the lab and pulls up a seat. She hands over a tablet filled with reports and news updates for the last while that Natasha has been away. "Some reading to keep you from going too stir crazy," she says and relaxes back in to the seat.

    "So.. evil clones huh," she casually starts the conversation off. The imagine of 'Natasha' taunting her in that fancy Red Room jet after Bobbi had tried to ground it by smashing a quinjet in to the thing comes to mind instantly. "I have to say, I didn't see that one coming. I thought may be brain washing some how."

    Bobbi raises a slightly amused eyebrow as she then looks over the vitals and Natasha's chart. The list of injuries is long and dramatic - which brings back the sound of the red room base klaxons as she fought guard after guard covering Steve and Carol. She's beginning to understand why her experiences in the Red Room have been unspoken for so long.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's gaze betrays a bit of waryness as Bobbi arrives. It's nothing personal, Natasha's usually at least half ready for someone she knows to suddenly try to kill her; but she's not usually this vulnerable when it occurs to her. That and Bobbi has certainly beenn given reason to mistrust Natasha, or at least consider her a liability. And Nat DID tell her to shoot her if Bobbi saw her on assignment. It's hard to make friends in the spy business.

    "... Me neither." Natasha admits softly, taking the papers with one hand. "Maybe I should have. The Red Room was always a monster factory. It makes sense they'd try to be more efficient." Natasha's Russian accent creeps into her voice, contrasting the neutral American accent she usually affects in polite company.

    She's been gone a long time.

    "... I'm glad it's gone." She adds distantly, in a relatively rare moment of unprofessional commentary, and possibly an unheard of expression of her personal feelings outside of the occasional dry quip.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi can tell when it's really Natasha talking - there's no smile. One thing she's learnt about Natasha over the time she's known her.. she doesn't have a lot to genuinely smile about. If there's one thing Bobbi wishes she could do for the Russian spy, its to give her reasons to find her own genuine smile again. May be Clint will be able to do better.

    "Thanks to you and Nadia, it seems SHIELD has inherited a gaggle of young science inclined girls who have been mistreated ... and one recently very active Black Widow named Yelena," she comments letting Nat know just what this talk is really about.

    "Turn to report 17 in the list," she says directing her to the one about Dottie Underwood, another Black Widow. In it, it describes a <classified> operation that resulted in her capture, as well as some attached videos interviewing her and her expressing a desire to Fury to start again. The report describes the use of the TAHITI protocol to give her a new life.

    "There are options for Yelena.. imprisonment for the rest of her life, offer her the TAHITI protocol like Fury did for Dottie, set up some sort of halfway house where she can learn to be a less murdery citizen, or keep her here close to us," Bobbi says, her voice rather matter of factly.

    Bobbi has been working her way in to settling in to the Commander role and it is still a fairly new thing for her. Ultimately, the Chief will make the final call but resources are being stretched thin since they've gone dark as an agency. This entire conversation is not going to help Natasha find a reason to smile.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha takes a deep slow breath, feeling relieved, at least, that the girls made it out okay; 'okay' being subjective, given their circumstances, but... in the short term, it's what Natasha was hoping for. Her shoulders slump subtly when Yelena's name hits her ears. "... You didn't shoot her, then." Natasha says softly, and looks off to the side, "... Nobody ever listens to me around here."

    Is she kidding? She may kidding.

    She also may not be kidding.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The best humour has a bit of truth and a bit of fiction. Bobbi smirks though. At least she has her humour back. She raises an eyebrow, "We don't do that any more. Not unless we absolutely have to." It'd been a while since SHIELD had sanctioned someone. The last was Whitehall and he'd been sitting on the sanction list for yeeeears.

    "I need you to tell me what your recommendation is Nat," she says bluntly. "There's no one I trust more when it comes to to the Red Room," she admits even though she does never shoot them. Didn't shoot Nat. Didn't shoot Nadia. Won't shoot Yelena. Red Room would have taught that that was a weakness. And yet here they are, on top, with Nat as not just the ally but their friend and Nadia positively exploding with life energy.

    "Because if I don't offer an alternative they're going to stick her in a cell and lose the key." Natasha was meant to be killed by Clint and when Clint brought Natasha back to SHIELD the debate about her was intense and that was _the_ option everyone was favouring. Clint spoke passionately and eloquently in Natasha's defence and Bobbi went to bat for Clint because if there's one thing Fury drilled in to them - it's the people, not the rules, that matter.

    "May be that's what she deserves, but those are the same words people said about you," she adds. One by one the Red Room agents were falling - not because of SHIELD, but because of the toxicity and hatred built up by the Red Room itself. It was unsustainable and inevitable.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha meets Bobbi's gaze as Bobbi speaks, but her eyes looks distant, like she's looking past Agent Morse. Her hands slowly curl into fists, though the injured one quickly springs back to relative straightness once she meets a certain threashold. When Bobbi's done, Natasha stares off to the side for a long silent moment.

    "... I don't like how many Widows you're gathering in one place. You don't... you don't *know* what they teach us to do. You can only win the lottery on us so many times." She says, and swallows hard.

    Yet she continues to speak, despite how definitive a conclusion she seemed to have communicated with that sentence. "... She'll be unstable. When I finally figured out what I was, what they'd done to us... the reality of what I was doing... I'd had..."

    Decades, she thinks.

    "... a long time to work it out. And I had years after that to process it. Yelena..." Natasha's expression drifts into one of sympathy, mostly around her eyes, in a minor lapse of control, "... Yelena's just a kid. And it hit her all at once."

    Truthfully, Yelena could be nearly as old as Natasha really is, but even if Natasha could clearly remember meeting the girl as a child, she'd know. Just from Yelena's eyes. She's SO young. Natasha seems to think for a long moment and takes a deep breath, looking like she's come partway out of some trance - some deep hole of memory - and says, "Lyudmilla... 'Mother'. She was like a God to us. Her will was absolute. Her word meant... everything. Yelena disobeyed a direct order to kill me." Natasha leans her head back against her pillow, "... and then she shot the horrible old bitch in the face. She'll be confused. Angry. Probably regretful. There's a potential she's a bomb waiting to go off..."

    "... But she also has potential to be something... outstanding. Better than me. Better than anyone. She doesn't have any loyalty to us, but... her whole world just went away. If you can give her something like stability... something like a purpose... if you can help her build ties to... *anything*, even if it's just us..."

    Natasha sighs softly and closes her eyes, reluctantly concluding, "... There's a chance she could be an asset.

    "... But you should probably just shoot her." She adds. Though she's already told you, in passing, while in Russia, that she had a chance to do exactly that, and couldn't.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Even though Natasha is gravely wounded.. Bobbi still thinks she could probably be killed by her. It's not that Natasha is a better fighter than her or is stronger or faster.. the stronger part is definitely not true.. the others.. debatable. But the _will_ to do harm, to kill, without hesitation or remorse. Bobbi doesn't have that and that's why she will always lose to a Black Widow intent on ending her.

    The last battle with a Black Widow was Dottie and her mission was to send a package of intelligence back in time for Leviathan to win the future. If she wasn't focused on that mission things would have gone a lot differently.

    "I have some idea, but you're right I don't know. It's probably best no one ever knows. If we could bury the red room for the rest of eternity so that no one else has to suffer like you and the others did.. that would be for the best. Unfortunately I doubt we will be done with them for some time. At least they won't be sending clones of you at us...."

    There's a small grimace as she listens to the strangled voice of optimism coming from Natasha. "You know there's only one person qualified to bring her back from where she is right now Nat. That's you," she says directly. It's almost as if she had expected this might be one of the directions this conversation might go.

    "If you tell me you're willing to care for her, to rehabilitate her, then I will set up a directive for you to do it under the purview of the Special Priority Operations Team," she offers. Much like when she went to bat for Clint she's not sure this is a good or right idea, but she will put her faith in her friends any instant of any moment. Because she also trusts Nat to tell her if things have gone wrong.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha is silent for a very long time. It took some serious arm twisting to get her to put up with the idea of working with other people besides Clint, even discounting the time it took for anyone with any intel on her to want to be in the same room as her. She was meant to monitor and liason with the Avengers more than she was supposed to join them, but... you just kinda get drawn in with personalities that big. It was a bit of a crash course in dealing with people you're not either taking orders from, or trying to manipulate, for her.

    Could she take care of a person that damaged?

    "... She looks up to me." She says finally. "They put me on a pedestal in her 'class'. I don't know if she'll listen to what I have to say, but... she'll *care.*" It's a clinical way of gauging your ability to manipulate someone. Despite leaving the Red Room, she never hated her ability to do that. She's tempted to now. "... I'll try. I'll give her a chance. She's owed that. We need people with her skill set anyway. ... But if I think she's going to go rogue..."

    Natasha's piercing blue eyes turn slowly to look into Bobbi's eyes with an intense gaze with a terrifying clarity of intention, "... then I'm going to kill her. And I'm not going to ask for permission."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's zero change this doesn't also help Natasha as well as Yelena. She doesn't condone the idea of simply executing her, but she does know the reality that sometimes there isn't any other choice. "If that's the best way to get through to her then I suppose that's a place to start."

    Using Yelena's idolisation against her is a strategy. Not one that'll last forever. She does sometimes wonder how Natasha copes being around people trained to manipulate others too but ones who don't use it as commonly as a person uses a fork at the dinner table. The honesty Bobbi employs with Natasha has always been her preferred strategy when dealing with the ex-Red Room agent.

    "You might change your evaluation of what going rogue means as time goes by, but this'll be a good start for Yelena. I'll need weekly reports and timely reports on exceptional circumstances," she says without hesitation. "I hope for her sake there is still wonder in her mind - that she can still find ways to enjoy the world." Bobbi is pretty sure this concept is still a work in progress for Natasha too.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha spent decades only trusting one person in the entire world, only to realize she was being used by her. A bond with Clint was only formed through a sense of debt, and what, to Natasha, seemed to be a choice from Clint so staggering in its risk and naivety that she could only conclude that that man *couldn't* manipulate anyone. Planting a seed with a sense of security that grew into an unbreakable bond.

    ... And then she spent three years around the Avengers. They have their share of sneaks and deviants, but there are people there so staggeringly, stupidly sincere that Natasha simply lost the ability to suspect them; and all of them sincere in their shared purpose.

    Yelena wouldn't be alive now if not for all of them.

    One gets the sense that Natasha is speaking from experience when she exhaustedly says, "... She doesn't need to enjoy the world. She just needs to find something in it she wouldn't trade for anything..."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi shrugs her shoulders and smiles. "Baby steps," she admits and puts Natasha's chart back on to the side of the bed. "If you want a chance of scenery I'll be heading to The Iliad in two days. Fresh air, blue skies, blue seas. You're welcome to join my team for the trip. Mission is transporting a classified 0-8-4 back to here."

    Bobbi nods to Natasha's body and says, "Of course if you need more rest time that's fine too. Fighting yourself, literally, is no joke. I've fought you and wouldn't want to do that a dozen times over." Surreal.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's fingers tremble for a split second, and her eyes grow distant and oddly small for a moment as she says, "Sixteen. It was sixteen times." in a very small voice.

    A short moment later, Natasha clears her throat and shakes her head slightly, looking closer to normal. "I'll, uh. I'll think about it."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's a nod. "As for SHIELD - it's business as usual for most of us. Many of us work in the shadows as a default. We can't drive and fly around with the logo on our gear and we can't rock up to a crime scene and take charge by flashing a badge. But that also means it's harder for people to pretend to be us too... it's a double edged sword."

    "Now that HYDRA has played that card they don't get to play it again. By the way. Sec Def is HYDRA. We've been building a mudmap of all the links. Turns out - HYDRA had their own espionage school that this generation of infiltrators all came form. We're getting eager to find it. If we can find that, we can find all of them at once," Bobbi says.

    "Use your position in the Avengers to enjoy a public life. I'm still Doctor Barbara Morse, PhD. I got questioned by the FBI as to my prior relationship with SHIELD and they seem to have bought it.. for now.. Mockingbird is still a secret identity too."

    "We're using this anonymity forced upon us to find the rest of HYDRA. Now that we have our hooks in to their hidden operation we're not going to let go until we have them all," she confides with a serious look upon her face. "So.. don't despair too much. Hell we're spies. It's a miracle something like this hadn't happened sooner."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha nods her head slowly, with a bit of a wry tug in the corner of her lips, "Honestly, we lasted longer than I thought we would."

    "... But yeah. Never thought I'd use celebrity as a cover-" she doesn't add 'again', but she could, "-but maybe it'll be nice not to dodge cameras anymore." Natasha leans her head back. "... Worst case scenario, I get offered modeling work and I can retire."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi smirks a touch at the wry humour from Natasha and she says, "You.. retire.. suuure." May be Natasha does have dreams outside of work after all. "I'm thinking of asking Clint to be my #2, Level 7 Senior Agent in SPOT. Any concerns?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha gives a mysterious, wistful sort of look, and replies, "You're only as old as you feel~" With a staggering amount of irony, and a hint of pain that sadly only two - maybe three - people alive could appreciate right now.

    Regarding Clint, Natasha shakes her head. "None. He knows the stakes. Won't need much more than a nudge now and then to stay focused."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's a nod from Bobbi and she says, "Well.. I'll leave you to your reading and viewing pleasure." There's a motion to the tablet and she rises up. "Rest up. I'm really glad you're back - safe. I was seriously worried someone had whammied your brain and we'd lose you for good...."

    There's a small smile of delight at how wrong she was. It goes to show anyone can be a victim of brain washing if the circumstances and technique is right. "Another upcoming mission. We've got intelligence about a computer that HYDRA has used to map out their plan of action. If we can gain access to it - we will know their plan. Consider if you can make it."

    Bobbi smiles once more and says, "I'll be around. Give me a call if you want to talk.. take care Nat."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    "I heal up pretty fast." Natasha replies in regards to being able to make it, in a fairly substantial understatement. "I will. I..." Perhaps in belated response to Bobbi's stated relief and worry, she somewhat stiffly, awkwardly replies, "... thanks. For... everything."

    People don't often do things for her. She asks them too even less frequently; and neither of those two rarities have ever involved as much risk as they did this time.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi pauses and peers back to Nat. There's a small shrug and she says, "What are friends for?" And with that, she leaves the medical wing of the lab so that Natasha can read the mission reports in peace.