To All Those Brave and Lovely

As the Storm Rages On

There's a unique kind of torture in the waiting.

She doesn't like sitting there and just waiting, so she moves to the edge of the parking garage, her heels clicking on the pavement.  It scares her to think that she wasn't going to see the bad guys coming with her back turned to the entrance, but she wanted this last look more than the assurance of safety.

They're on the fifth floor.  Not quite the top, but no where near the button, so one push from behind or one misplaced step would send her toppling over the edge, the city swallowing up her screams and leaving no one to find her broken body below.  There would be no one looking, and nothing to look for, after Margot's men got her.

They are not the sort to leave fingerprints behind.

Or bodies.

Still, that doesn't stop her from climbing up on top of the cement barricade, edging forward so her toe are out in the open air with no solid ground beneath them.  Its the dead of night and she is in the bad part of town, so there are not as many lights as there would be in the very heart of the city.  Here, she can see the stars.

"I was here,"  She whispered, her breath steaming in the cold air around her, forming a sort of cloud around her face.  When she spoke, it felt like she was talking to everyone she had lost and all those she might be leaving behind tonight, as if they could be hiding up here beneath the stars.  "I showed up for the fight."  Nora wanted there to be some tangible mark that she had been here, like she could carve her name into one of the posts ringing the garage or chalk a picture onto the floor, but all she gets is this, these last words that no one will hear.  "I tried, and maybe I'll fail, but I gave it my best shot."

She hopes that counts for something.

When they come, she is sitting on top of the wall, legs dangling down over the edge.  She had seen them coming, scurrying over the ground like ants, and had heard their footsteps behind her.

Nora half thought they would come up behind her and end it right then.  Stand behind her and place their hands on either side of her head, twist until her neck snaps.  Pretend to be a friend and then shove her off the barrier and into the night air, not even bothering to watch her fall.  Maybe something worse, something bloodier, something that would hurt.  Anything to make it look like she was a good girl who got caught in the bad part of town, who stuck her nose into something she shouldn't.

But that doesn't happen.  It seems that Nora was right when she said that Margot had a thing for choices.  No one was going to make her come with them.

"We're not going to drag you off there."  A deep voice, one full of gravel, like this man had been smoking a pack a day since he was her age.  "You can come with us, or you can stay.  It's your choice."

Choice.  Such a funny word, both because it was true and it wasn't.  She wouldn't have to come with them, or stay quiet.  She could fight, she could scream, she could call Peter and ask for help, call Director Fury and turn this all over into the hands of the adults.  But she couldn't, not really, because that would mean leaving Tony to get beaten and broken just because she was afraid.

Nora gets to her feet, and then turns to face them.  She is on her tip toes, leaning against one of the poles for balance.  There are ten men in front of her, all of them with guns, sent to escort her back to Tony.

For a fleeting moment, she is tempted to topple backwards.  To end it before it could start.  To stop the fight.   But she isn't the type to give up.

"Hello boys."  Nora jumps down and sticks the landing, straightening up in the way she had seen Natasha do in some of her action shots.  Calm, collected, confident.  In control of herself and everyone around her, like she was the one calling the shots even when there was a gun pointed at her head.  Someone who couldn't fail.  "Shall we go?"