Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Flashback

Alexander Pierce slowly swirled his drink as he quietly observed his head scientist scroll through a tablet full of recently acquired files. "Find anything useful from the Doctor's work?" He finally asked.

"A few things." She began as she flicked her long red hair out of her face; she set the tablet down in front of him. "With this and my own research, I may have found a suitable stabilizing component for Project Cuckoo."

"Really." His face lit up at the possibility. "That could be useful as launch approaches."

"Agreed." She curtly nodded. "It would require me to have access to the child." She paused. "Her DNA has some unique properties that may prove advantageous to us."

"No." Pierce shook his head. "I have more important uses for her." He smiled as he considered his plan. It was absolutely perfect; Fury would never suspect her; just as he had never suspected him.

The woman scowled as she made no attempt to hide her displeasure at his decision. "How is her training progressing?"

"Rumlow is bringing her here later this week for a demonstration." He paused. "Garrett said she's becoming quite the convincing liar. She almost convinced him that Agent Ward was completely uninvolved in her recent disappearance."

"Almost?" The women's eyes rose in suspicion.

"He tapped his phone and found proof." He shook his head. "Poor thing was almost inconsolable when Garrett sent him back to his little team on the Bus."

"Will she be ready in time?"

"Rumlow and Garrett have assured me that she will be. One way or the other." He paused. "The Asset has begun the task of overseeing her training. Apparently, he has become quite protective of her. He killed one of his handlers when they made her cry."

"Does he know who she is?"

"Don't be absurd. He doesn't even know who he is."

"It is ironic that he would take to her so well considering the results from the DNA test." She slowly considered.

"And you're sure it's accurate?"

"With 99% accuracy." She paused. "Although I don't see how it's possible. The time table doesn't add up."

"I do agree that it is odd." He shook his head. "But Kathy, you do have to admit she does somewhat resemble them.

Dare nodded to herself. It was true. She had her mother's hair and her father's eyes.

***

Lily happily bounced into the airport's gift shop. She and Agent Rumlow had flown all the way from Europe to New York City. They had something called a layover here. Rumlow had been busy talking to someone on his cellphone; so she had decided to take it upon herself to go buy them snacks.

She glanced around the gift shop and instantly saw that no one was paying attention to her. Good, she quickly decided. She needed time to figure out what she wanted to buy. It only took her a few minutes to decide on Oreos. However, she wasn't sure which flavor to buy. There were so many, and what if Agent Rumlow didn't like the same kind that she did? She would have to buy extra to make sure he enjoyed them just as much as she did.

"You have a lot of snacks there." A friendly voice exclaimed.

Lily glanced up to a see a blonde haired man with bright blue eyes smiling down at her. "Airplane food stinks." She exclaimed as she went back to examining the Oreos. There were so many different flavors. How could she pick just one? It was a good thing she had Mr. Rumlow's wallet with her.

"Do you need a hand?"

Lily's eye rose to see the man was now kneeling next her. She bit her lip as she stared back at the Oreos. There were far too many for her to carry to the cashier all by herself.  "Ok." She nodded. She reached towards the Oreos and began to hand him a pile of assorted flavors. "What's your uniform for?"
She motioned to the navy blue uniform he was wearing.

"I'm a pilot." He smiled as she continued to hand him more cookies.

"Oh. Your name tag says that you're a Captain." She paused as she read the name tag. Captain Thompson.

"That's right." He nodded. "Don't you think you have enough cookies?" He stared down in awe at the pile of Oreos that he was now holding.

Lily shook her head. "I don't know what kind my Uncle likes."  He should be so proud of her right now; she even remembered to stay in character. She sighed as she considered her dilemma. Rumlow seemed like the type of person who would be really picky about this sort of thing. There was only one logical solution she finally decided- she would buy one of every flavor.

She grabbed the rest of the Oreos and proudly walked up to the cashier where she deposited her stash of cookies. Her pilot friend also lowered the Oreos he was holding down onto the counter.

"I haven't seen you before." The cashier began to make conversation with the Pilot.

"I'm new." He quickly responded while glancing down at the counter.

Strange. There was no reason for him to get so nervous with the girl's question.

"Your total is $39.78."

Lily pulled two twenties out of Rumlow's wallet with a triumphant smile. "You can keep the change she sweetly replied." She smiled as she grabbed her bag of Oreos off the counter and pranced out to go find Rumlow. He might be worried about her.

As Lily rounded the corner she saw Rumlow stalking towards her. His entire face was bright red. Uh oh. Lily abruptly stopped only for her new pilot friend to run right into her.

"Where's my wallet?" Rumlow shouted as he leered down at her.

"I was hungry." Lily began to rush. "I got us Oreos from the gift shop." She motioned over to the airport gift shop as she held up his brown leather wallet.

He quickly snatched it and began to fumble through it. "You spent $40 on Oreos." He shook his head as his face began to turn a different shade of red.

"They had a lot of different flavors, and I didn't know which kind you liked." She began to explain.

"Well there wouldn't be such mistakes if you kept a closer eye on her? Would there?" Lily glanced back to see the Pilot's eyes rising as he threateningly glared back at Rumlow.

Rumlow shifted uneasily as he slowly lowered his gaze. "Come on." He barked at Lily as he turned and motioned for her to follow him.

Lily shot a secret smile at the blonde haired man as she turned to scurry after Rumlow. He was nice. Why couldn't he be the one she was sent on missions with?

She glanced back to see the blonde haired was now embracing a girl with the prettiest colored hair she had ever seen. Blue and Purple.

"What are you looking at?" Rumlow angrily asked as he waited for the little girl to catch up with him.

"When I grow up, I'm going to dye my hair just like her." Lily turned to show him the girl only to realize that the Captain and his friend were both gone.

Rumlow shrugged as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to follow him to their next flight.

This was all so strange Lily considered as she continued to glance behind her. There was nowhere for the two of them to have disappeared to, and yet, they were gone without a trace.