Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 47 ~ lily's choice

Clint's words echoed through my brain with every step I took. He was right. There was always a choice. And as I hard I tried to tell myself I was making the right one, deep down I knew this was an absolute disaster.

Selling files to Fisk made me no better than him. It was crossing a line I couldn't come back from. No amount of money could ever change that.

But I wasn't doing this for the money. Jack and I had been through everything together. There was no reason for me to believe that we couldn't survive the wake of this decision. And besides, he was confident that everything would be fine.

But try as I might, even the constant hustle and bustle of the New York Subway couldn't distract me from the uneasiness that was growing inside me. I couldn't go forward with this, could I?

His whole comment about Natasha wasn't helping either. That had rattled me more than anything. I knew she wouldn't approve of what I was doing. The last time I'd seen her, she had made it very clear what her thoughts were on my choice of profession. But Natasha was dead, and Jack wasn't.

"It'll all be over soon." I glanced over to the familiar smile of the blonde haired boy who'd been through everything with me. I owed him this one last score, didn't I? After all, it was my fault he'd been forced into this life.

An overwhelming sick feeling rose in the pit of my stomach as I forced myself to remain on mission. In an attempt to hide my growing anxiety, I fingered my purple caste as I surveyed all available exits. There had to be a way out of this that wouldn't involve me losing my closest friend.

"You ok?" His voice pulled through my anxious thoughts.

No. I'm the farthest thing from ok. Nothing could shake the irrepressible feeling I had that something was about to go horribly wrong. "I think I'm going the throw up." I turned to face him only to find that his normally overly confident demeanor had been replaced by that of staunch seriousness.

"What?" His gaze quickly flitted around the subway station before landing on me.

"I can't go through with this." I shook my head as panic welled up inside me. I should never have left the hospital. I should have just talked to Tony.

"Hey, Just breathe. It's fine. We're fine. This is all almost over." Jack grabbed my arm as he led me toward one of the subway cars. "I just need you to pull yourself together for a few more minutes."

"I need to call Tony." I stopped walking as panic welled up inside me.

"Send him a postcard after this is all over." Jack shook his head as he tugged me along after him.

"No." I shoved him away from me as I turned to glance at our surroundings. "Clint told me I needed to call him before." I ran my hand over the caste that covered my now throbbing wrist.

"Clint?" Jack froze. "Barton knows we're here?"

"He may have been there when I called you." I closed my eyes as the station began to swirl all around me. Why was I so dizzy?

"How much does he know?"

My eyes darted open as I felt Jack tightly grab my broken wrist.  "Let go of me. I need to call Tony." I shrugged him off as I began search for a pay phone.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Jack again grabbed me and tugged me towards an open sub car.

"What are you doing?" I hissed as I tripped into the car. "I need to call Tony."

"You're not calling anyone." I winced as I felt something press against my ribs. My gaze darted downward to see he was holding a small pistol to my abandon.