Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 3 ~ caught

I stared down at the boy who was now lying on my old worn out couch. It had been the find of the century while dumpster diving, the couch that is. It was a weird orange pumpkiny color. While it had lumps in weird places, it wasn't falling apart and there were no bed bugs. But forget the couch...it was no longer the most interesting thing in this apartment.

The boy groaned and shifted in his sleep. I jumped back and continued to watch him. Ok. This is not the time to get all googled -eyed over some boy. He's just hurt and you're helping him. Think of him as a puppy. He's just a cute puppy that was hurt and you saved him from the dog catcher. Then again every animal I've ever rescued I've fallen in love with and kept...so this was probably not the best analogy.

He groaned again and began to mumble in his sleep. "May." He jerked up awake and stared at me. "I need to go find May."

"No. You need to lie down." I grabbed his shoulders and shoved him back down.

"No." He argued. "I need to tell her I'm ok."

"If you don't take it easy you won't be ok." I began arguing back with him.

He grumpily crossed his arms and began to glare at me. "Who made you a doctor?"

"Someone with more common sense than you." I quickly retorted.

"You can't make me stay here." He snapped.

"Do you want to make a bet about that, Parker? Because I can guarantee that I can be way more stubborn than you can."

He slowly shook his head and began to glance around the room. "Where am I?" He quietly asked.

I glanced around the room, suddenly realizing how rundown it would appear to anyone other than myself. "This is the Pumpkin Patch."

"What?" He shook his head as he turned to stare at me in amazement.

"It's the name of this safe house."

"Of this safe house? You have more than one?" His voice rose in awe as he again glanced at his surroundings.

"Yeah. I mean it's kinda stupid to only have one safe house. It gets compromised and then oh no I'm stuck with no place to go."

"I don't have any safe houses."

I shrugged. "I guess that's why I had to save your neck back there."

His eyes quickly closed as he groaned and then fell back into the couch. "I didn't dream that happened?"

"Nope." I said as a smile grew across my face. "You're indebted to me for life."

He shook his head. "So I guess if you rescued me back there and brought me here you aren't planning on turning me in?" He opened his hazel eyes and stared right back in my blue ones.

I shivered under his gaze. "I mean it depends how much they're offering." I finally said.

"They'll definitely be able to outbid me." He groaned.

"You ok?"

"Yeah." He groaned again. "My back is really sore."

"Oh that." I let out a sign of relief.

He glanced quizzically at me. "And this is good how?"