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Nina had been operating in a weird mindest for the past two weeks and it had taken a few days for Simmons to notice. By the time she'd realised it, it was too late for the biochemist to do anything and she was forced to watch and hope that it'd end soon.

Ever since Nina missed that shot on the roof, she'd elected to keep her kills face to face. Her weapons varied from a small handgun to her knives and anything she could get her hands on. While it worked tremendously for getting the job done, it was having an adverse effect on Nina's mental state as she found herself held hostage by her mind more times than not.

Stumbling into the apartment and slamming into the wall with a groan was a consequence of such bondage that had resulted in Nina getting hurt on one of her assignments. The injuries weren't terrible, but she'd lost a lot of blood before she could patch them up resulting in her being a little dizzy.

"Nina?" a drowsy voice called out. It was laced with sleep, which was understandable as it was barely 2 am, "Nina!"

Simmons shouted as she rushed to Nina's side. She grabbed her arm and lifted her up, concerned by the red that stained her palm when they touched. The biochemist dragged Nina to a chair and ordered her to take off her shirt, which she did with restrained grunts.

It was hard for Simmon's not to verbalised her shock at the sight of Nina's torn skin. Her shoulder was covered in blood, with a bullet wound that went in and out of her flesh. She had two stab wounds, one above her hip and another just under the old bullet wound in her abdomen that Ward had put there (one that she didn't remember ever getting). Nina had gashes along her arm, they were thin and no longer bleeding but the dry blood on them made it clear they had been not too long ago.

"Jesus! What happened?" Simmons asked as she grabbed her med bag from under the coffee table and pulled out everything she needed.

"Cops," Nina said with a hiss when disinfectant was sprayed on her shoulder, "I forgot to case the surrounding buildings and a neighbour called the cops. The sirens... distracted me and my target decided to fight back."

"You forgot?" Simmons asked surprised, "you never forget."

"First time for everyth-" Nina gritted her teeth as she felt a needle pass through her skin as Simmons started stitching up her body, "everything."

"Nina, what aren't you telling me!?" Simmons said authoritatively as Nina rolled her eyes and reached for the disinfectant to start cleaning up her stab wounds while the scientist fixed her shoulder.

"Nothing, Jemma ju-"

"No!" Simmons interrupted Nina, causing her to hesitate slightly as she applied a waterproof adhesive bandage to each of her cuts, "I've been letting you lie to me for weeks, I'm not now! Tell me what is going on with you!"

"I'm fine," Nina said as she pulled away from Simmons with a freshly stitched shoulder. The movement hurt slightly and she struggled to keep the pain out of her face.

"You are not fine, Nina," Simmons spat back expressionless.

"I'm fine," Nina hissed, balling her hands into a fist and slamming them into her thighs to control the screams in her head. Her mind had been so loud for days but she'd grown used to tuning them out, much to her annoyance nothing she could do was quieting the noises in her head now.

"You are not fine!" Simmons shouted taking the specialist off guard, "you don't sleep, you don't eat, you have headaches that practically paralyse you. Nina, you leave this apartment every day to go masquerade as Coulson's personal hitman and you're not admitting that it's killing you!"

"Simmons. I. Am. Fine," Nina said through gritted teeth despite the watering of her eyes and tears that began slowing rolling down her cheeks because Nina Ramos was not fine.

[2] An Executioner's Requiem | Leo FitzWhere stories live. Discover now