Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Flashback

Barnes wasn't dead. Natasha was thoroughly convinced of that, but no amount of convincing could make her small charge believe that. Within seconds of her revelation, Lily was completely inconsolable. Tears were streaming rapidly down her pale cheeks as she buried her head in the white, puffy hotel pillows.

"I need you to tell me what happened." Natasha slowly began as she sat down next the the trembling girl. She hadn't planned on getting into this until morning, but if she could make any progress on deciphering what had transpired between the day she had seen the child at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base and now, it couldn't hurt.

"I don't remember." Her muffled voice was barely audible. She lifted her head to stare up at Natasha. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying. "Everything is so fuzzy."

"Can you tell me about your uncle?" Natasha smiled as she tried to shift the topic to John Garrett. She highly doubted that rat was even related to the girl.  Not that he could be causing any problems now. Fury and Coulson has both seen to that.

Lily just shook her head as she again buried her head in the pillow. "They're all dead. Everyone is dead. It's all my fault."

Who were they? Natasha's brow furrowed as she considered the implications of the child's words.

"Hey, look at me." She waited until the girl rose her head. Lily finally complied but refused to make eye contact. Natasha sighed internally. Why was the kid so stubborn? "Sweetie, none of this was your fault."

"It's all my fault. I hurt my friends." She again wailed.

"None of this was your fault." Natasha took a deep breath as Lily finally made eye contact with her. "You are six years old. The people that made you do those things, this is all their fault. This is not your fault."

Lily remained quiet as tears continued to stream down her face. Her gaze shifted downward to the ground. "They told me that you're a bad person. That I should be afraid of you."

"And what do you think?"

"You were nice to me. You bought me new clothes and my favorite food, but Mr. Garrett was nice at first too. He said he wanted to be my friend. That he'd take me home. But he was just lying." Her words slurred as her breathing grew raspy. "Why did they make me do those things?"

Natasha paused. How could she explain that there would always be monsters who would prey on the weak and innocent? "There are some people in the world who are very evil. They don't care who they hurt as long as they accomplish their goals." Natasha sighed to herself when Lily didn't respond. "But there are also people in the world who will do anything to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

"Are you one of those people?"

"I try to be."

"Can I be one of those people?"

As Natasha nodded a small smile flickered on Lily's face and then immediately faded into indifference.

"The bad people are gone right? They aren't coming back."

"Garrett and Rumlow are both dead." She slowly began. "My friend's team is going after Ward."

"Grant is dead. I saw them kill him." A somber expression grew on the child's face. "He was my friend."