𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒 | 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘢 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘧𝘧 [✓]

Ch. 29 View To A Death

Word count: 1.05k

Nat's POV:

It's been three weeks since Eliza's surgery and my talk with Yelena. Elle's back on her feet, but her arm in still partially immobile. Bruce is helping her through physio-type sessions all in attempt to regain motion. She's strong, but I fear this has blinded her happiness more than she lets on. My attempts to connect with her are futile, in fact, even Wanda can't seem to get through to her - it's frankly worrying.

Yelena gave me information I never thought I'd receive, intel that could give me the chance to tear Dreykov apart from the inside out. What we needed now was someone on the inside. I couldn't very well send Yelena back in, she'll be murdered on the spot, if someone hasn't yet been sent for her already. It was either I return and submit to the Red Room's deadly game, or we send in an operative that may die on the job, or in S.H.E.I.L.D's case, Maria Hill.

Knowing Nick, and I know Nick, he'll send in his best and most chanced agent, consequences and all, and Maria, knowing the worth of the information, would turn a blind eye to the fact that she may die during duty.

Like most S.H.E.I.L.D operatives, she would die a hero, and she would die as soon as her veneer fell. So, eventually I came to the conclusion that it was bound to be me. I was bound straight for the Red Room. Although, with a calculated plan of attack and a vague and rough idea of the system, I would be able to relay S.H.I.E.L.D's systems with enough information about Hydra to kill two birds with one stone. But there's only one hiccup in my plan, that being Eliza.

She isn't herself, that's clear as day, and if I added to that by disappearing for a week or two, without the regular check up to base, what would that do to her? All this assuming that she cares for me the way I do her. In desperate times, most things fall and break, as desperate measures are taken, was it no just a matter of time before I broke her - either by telling her of my leave of by my recklessness. Of course, I would have to get my plan through Nick first, all things considered; he's the second thing stopping me from dropping everything right now, grabbing my jacket and walking right through the doors.

I furrow my eyebrows as I pinch the bridge of my nose. More than just my mere desire to do good would get me that close to Dreykov again, given that he will think it's a trap if I waltz down the road to meet him. I stare at the paper in front of me. Viktor Reskov's name jumps at me from the page. A low growl forms in my throat. He nearly killed my girl, if anything, he deserves to die again.

I sigh as I relieve my shoulders from the tension, loosening up a little as I roll my head from side to side. Clearing my throat, I touch the paper down onto the table gentle, making my water shake a little in my glass. After taking a sip, I stand to stretch my legs, and I know I'm  going to have to talk to Eliza sooner or later.

A knock on the door stops me from taking my sweatshirt off. "Come in," I say softly.

Wanda comes through the door and I refrain from looking a tad disappointed.

"I know I'm not who you were wanting, but I need to talk to you." She says.

"Hit me."

"With everything that's going on, with your sister being here and the attack, I don't think it's the best time for you to be leaving Ellie."

"Sorry, what?" I stare at her with stolid eyes. How did she know?

"Look, Nat, you don't do well to hide things and I knew what you were thinking the moment you gave us that briefing yesterday evening. A lot has happened, too much has happened for you to pick up your bags and go." She looks at me almost pleadingly. "Don't go. I . . . I don't know what I'd do without you here."

I can't hear anything but the last few sentences.

"I need you to be here, not just for me, but for Ellie. It's hard being the only female on the team, especially now that our backup is, well, backed up." Explains Wanda, and suddenly I'm letting go of the breath I was unconsciously holding.

I still don't know what to say, so I don't say anything at all. If I'm needed that much, then I'm going to have to take the risk and let someone die, and hope that it isn't Maria's life that's being traded. It's a sisterhood, what we have, more than just family.

"There's no one else that can go, Wanda. It's me or no one. Either I kill Dreykov, or he kills us. It's that simple."

"And so is the way you look at Eliza, Nat - it's that simple. You love her. You do."

"I do," I say quietly, "that's why this must be me, so that I can finish the job and keep her safe."

A breath catches in her throat as she bites back tears, not ones directly for me, but for the endless different possibilities and outcomes that may occur. "But what- what if you die, Nat? What then? Because I know Eliza Parker, I know the shit she's been through - she's been through enough of it and losing you? That would break her. Really, really break her."

I scoff. "You don't think I know what I'm doing? Leaving her would hurt me too."

"But you'd be the one dying, and she'd be the one waiting for you to come back." Wanda runs an impatient hand through her hair, letting a tired sigh fall from her lips. A shaky yet desperate breath is inhaled before she attempts to hold a steady gaze with me. "I don't know what to do, Nat. She's never been like this before."

"I'll talk to her, about everything, we'll clear this mess up. I promise." My words sound vague and useless even to me, but I mean them.

Every last one.

...

A/N - Snap, damn, I'm so sorry. I didn't realise that it's been so long since a good update. This one's more of a filler, but I needed to write something. Next one will be better, that's a promise. Till then!