30.  new identities

🕸

Its been two months since my fall. Frank took me in and took care of me in his small apartment. we were both wanted and we decided to stay low. I was in bed rest for the past two months and my whole body was all banged up. And during these months, nobody knew I was alive. Not River, not even Matt. The news had said that the Red Widow was dead, with what body, i dont know. Frank said that calling them will put them and us in harms way. I cant have that again.

"Thanks." Frank and I smiled as we got our food. Every Thursday we go out and eat at a diner that isn't too far from the apartment. He thought it was would be nice to not be stuck in the place all day.

"Oreo milkshake with a burger?" Frank scuffs. "What are you, 5?"

"Dont hate on the milkshake okay?" I slurped on the creamy dessert. "Black coffee with eggs, pfft. You know what we should today? We should watch all of Scooby Doo series, i missed a lot since then."

"You got to be kidding."

"Nope, oh come on! It'll be fun! You sit on the floor while I sit on the bed, what do you say?"

"You're a literal child." He laughs and shakes his head. "I do wonder what you were like as a child."

"Annoying, funny, very stubborn." I kept going on.

"I see that you didn't change." We shared a smile and went back to eat. "What time is the friend coming?" Frank said as we head back to the apartment, He tossed his shoes to the side and leans back on the chair.

"7pm, we got time." I grunted as I got out of the bed and shuffled my way to the fridge. I banged my head on the door to see nothing but milk and eggs. "We need food." He rolled his eyes and grabbed his book.

"We can go shopping tomorrow." We laid back until Kazi came, which he came on the dot. Frank checked to see if he was followed.

"Nobody was following me." He sighs and hands me the papers. "Here are your new Identities that you asked for. Pete and Scarlet Castiglione. Married since 2015, no children. Are high school sweethearts and lastly, dont screw this up." Frank takes the papers and sees the IDs, the marriage certificate, everything that we needed to stay low and make it believable. He looks at me, all bruised and cut up.

"Heard that the Red Widow is dead." I said nothing back. Kazi placed his hand on my cheek and I just closed my eyes. "Devon I-"

"You should go." I brushed his hand off and took a step back. "He's going to work tomorrow." I pointed at Frank. Kazi nods and looks at Frank. "Thanks."

"Yeah. See you soon Castiglione's. The rings are in there by the way, get comfortable. Goodbye Devon."

"Bye Kazi. Tell Maya I said hi." He leaves and we stood there. Frank pulls out the rings.

"You done this before huh?"

"Ive lived many names before I met you, nothing is new to me." He hands me my gold ring with a tiny diamond. I looked at the band and wished that one day if I get back to my life, maybe Matt and I will live happily.

"Come here." He makes me stand in front of him while he checked on my stab wound. He cleaned it up and stitch it.

"Well thank you my love." I played around. He scuffs and heads the room. I crashed in the couch and watched some cartoons. "Take the bed, im not sleepy." I told him from afar.

"You need it."

"Well, not sleepy, I want to watch this." He leans against the doorframe and watched a bit of Tv until he went to bed. My eyes started to shut and my head fell.

🕸

I gotten home late, papa picked me up from gymnastics and all I want was to sit and relax. Mama, Natasha and Yelena were already in bed by the time we came home. Papa warmed up the leftovers and watched me in the living room. I watched cartoons as he ate besides me, laughing as I laughed, smiled when i did.

"Come on, its time for bed." He grunts as he gets up from the sofa.

"Just 5 more minutes? Please!" I begged him.

"Its a school night." I batted my eyes and Papa gave in and sat back down. I rested my head on his chest and continued watching the loony tunes.

"Papa?" He hums. "When can I take a break? Why do I need to speak Russian, train with Natasha and take gymnastics? Why is my name Charlotte? Why cant I play with the other kids?"

"Because you need to be strong." He flexed his muscles, making me giggle. "You are my strong girl. One day you'll take that break, but now you have to be prepared."

"Like mama?"

"Like mama." I snuggled up with him and my eyes started to droop but i wanted to stay up with him. The sleep won and i snored onto his chest. Alexi looks down at the sleeping girl and shuts the tv off. He gently picks her up and sets her on her bed. Alexi kisses her forehead and walks out. Melina waited for him in the bedroom. "How soon is she ready?"

"Almost. We need more time." She bites her nails and paces back and forth. "He won't like her if shes this emotional."

"Wait till she meets him, she'll get put in her place."

🕸

After Franks shift, we head to town and went to get some groceries. I had sunglasses on and a hoodie to hide my bruises but my face had different plans, you can still see them. Its just in and out trip. Nobody will notice.

"Everyone is looking." Frank mumbles as he pushed the cart. All the women turned and whispered as they saw us.

"Well maybe because they see me with a beaten up face and think you hurt me." I shrugged as i tossed some fruit into the cart. "Wild guess."

"Stay here." He tells me as he leaves me in the aisle to get something.

"Aye aye Captain." I saluted and checked out the cereal. I felt a tap on my arm and I turned around to see a woman my age behind me. Here we go. "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" She turns to see if Frank made it back. "Is he beating you?"

"Wanna know the truth?" Here I go. Lets have some fun. "I was beating up ninjas and my boyfriends ex girlfriend stabbed me and kicked me off a building roof and now this man takes me away, now we are pretending we're husband and wife." The look on her face was priceless. She was so confused and she just left alone, thinking I was crazy. I took off my hoodie and watched Frank come back with stuff and throwing it in the cart.

"I got your kraft mac and cheese."

"Thanks." Before we moved on, i checked the cart. "Hey, asked for the ones that are shaped as those dogs not the regular ones." I showed him the box. He rolled his eyes back.

"You get what you get." He pushes the cart and now headed to the cashier. He mumbles something about me.

"Hey, you took me in with the little sliver of whats left of your heart." I stood next to him as we wait. "Once I get better and see about Dreykov, ill be out of your hair and into Matts arms." I watched a man on the phone cut us. "Hey asshole!" I slammed my arms to the side.

"What?" He shrugs.

"You just cut us."

"Okay?"

"We got less things than you." I started to make this a big deal. I didn't have the patience.

"Chill out lady." Chill out? He just made me angry.

"Let it go." Frank pulls me back. I had an idea. I quickly scanned the area and saw the freezer aisle.

"I forgot something." I step out of line and head to the frozen aisle. I grabbed a bag of frozen broccoli and slammed the door as I headed back to the line. Frank was confused on why I came back all pissed off. Instead of going back to him, i went behind the man, tapping his shoulder.

"What now-? Give it a rest bitch" he turns around and I swung, frozen bag to the face. He fell down and I kicked him, throwing the bag at him, stepping over him.

"We would like some bags please." I played it cool and the man on the cashier gulped as I smiled, telling Frank to come closer. Shortly after we got in the car and drove back to the place and put everything away. We picked some food on the way, we sat at the small table and eat quietly. I played around with my food, sighing as this made me sad.

🕸

"Matt!" I smiled as I came back from picking up Thai food from down the street. He smiles as he heard me come in, kissing me. We sat in front of the tv, listening to the movie, not paying any attention to it. "Here." I passed him some food and hidden inside was some wasabi. Matt ate the fork full of food and I waited. He started coughing and I started laughing.

"Did you put wasabi in it!" He tackles me to the floor and attacking me with kisses. I laughed and laughed, wrapping my legs around him. "How dare you."

"I wanted to see if you noticed." We sat back up and laughed as he drank some water.

"The other day with you mom, you tensed up when I mentioned of having kids,why?"

"Just caught me off guard, thats all." I took off his tinted glasses and placed them down. "If we do, one day, in the future, when we get married, our jobs are booming, we buy a house, preferably in Ohio, but New York is fine because I know my mother would want to see her grandkids-"

"More than one?"

"Im just hypothetically speaking."

"Well I think Jack Murdock and his little sibling would love spending time with his grandma while we work, maybe spend some time alone at the house." I touched his cheek. I wish I can give him kids, i really do. "Preferably have sex."

"Hmm." I hummed. "Is that what you want?"

"To have kids, yeah one day. But I have you, thats all I want."

🕸

I snapped out of my head and looked at Frank who was aggressively eating, as if someone was going to steal his place from him. I rested my head on my knee and debating whether if should ask Frank a question or not.

"What is it like?" I wrapped my arms around my leg.

"What?" He slowly turns to me.

"A family." I moved my plate. "Kids." He puts his plate down and looks at me before he looks away.

"You'll find out one day." He takes a big sip of his beer. "You and Red will have some, wait till marriage type of deal, maybe break that rule within a couple of months."

"I cant." He frowns and cracks a laugh. "When I was in the red room, where i was trained, when you pass, they did this ceremony where they sterilize you. Its a must." His smile fell as I continued as water filled up my eyes. "One less thing to worry about. The one thing that might matter more than a mission, makes things easy to do, even killing." My voice cracks as I told him. He sits up right.

"You cant have kids." He said in a whisper.

"I was 14." I looked at my hands. I never realized how much pain I would be in within the years. "You're not the only monster here."

"You can adopt." I let out a chuckle and wiped my tears away.

"I don't know if they let a trained assassin with more than 3000 kills of a mother and a vigilante of a father to adopt." I kept nodding my head. "It would be nice but, i just cant."

"Im sorry." I picked up my plate and threw it into the sink as I went to go take a shower. I sat in the tub as the water hit me. Frank was devastated by the news that he got, Surprised that she actually cared about herself.

When Devon got out, the lights were off, besides the living room lamp. Frank was already sound asleep. Devon drags herself to the couch, turned on the tv and watched. Light snores bounced off the small place with a mixture of cartoon laughter.

"No. Please no." Devon luck of being a light sleeper, woke her up. She heard Frank grunting and moving. She felt wrong to listen but it wasn't like that. "Maria." Devons bare feet hit the cold floor as she quietly walked to the room. Frank was sweating, breathing heavily. He was having a nightmare. "No." Devon grabs his arms, trying to wake him up.

"Frank. Frank wake up." She shakes him. Frank eyes pop open and puts his hands on her throat. Devon gasps as Frank flips her, choking her. The look in his eyes weren't normal, he was under. It wasn't him. Devon digs her nail into his face and he finally snaps out of it. He realized what he did, lets her go and looks at her.

"Devon-" he shakes his head. "Im sorry."

"Next time, try hair pulling, you got the hands for that." Devon gets off the bed and rubs her neck. "You okay?" He didn't say anything back. She leans against the doorframe, crossing her arms.

"Nightmare. They sucks dont they? Remembering the bad things but never the good ones."

"Mine aren't just nightmares, they're memories." She looks at the night sky, a full moon, with stars around. "Lets go for a walk. Lets walk it off." Frank and Devon put on some pants and a sweater before they took their night stroll. They walked around for a while but it was nice. He pushes her, she pushed him. Devon made him laugh and Frank liked how she was all good. She reminded him of Maria in a way. He liked his friend, he wanted Devon to stay. Funny how an girl like her would be friends with a guy like him. What a duo.