Sacrifice

The piercing light penetrated the thin frame of her delicate eyelids, forcing Felicia to open her eyes, but causing her to blink feverishly and moisture to build within them until she became accustomed to the light.

Then came the choking.

The very instrument that snaked into her mouth to assist her whilst she was unconscious, now restricted her and her body's impulsive reaction was to reject the tube. Felicia thrashed trying desperately to lose the foreign object. Only one of her hands was able to reach her mouth to assist the action, the other was restricted. She was aware of the panicked sound of alarms alerting the doctors and nurses of a change in her condition. A wave of clinical blue uniforms filled her vision and she was instructed to be calm.

Finally, she could breathe.

Felicia became aware of her surroundings, her sharp senses taking in the movement on the monitors, the beeps becoming more regular -she was handcuffed to the metal railing of the stiff hospital bed. A hospital bed.

An ocean of recent memories swept over her in that instant. Though the finer details were still slightly hazy, Felicia knew she was in hospital after the Chitauri had attacked her - she didn't need to examine the plain hospital gown she wore to establish the fact. Yet she didn't know how she got here. Someone had managed to find her in time, not that she believed she deserved saving.

Did this mean that the Chitauri army had been defeated? Then what had become of Loki?

Felicia struggled to sit up, feeling the ache in her bones. Her confinement and the visible shoulder of a burly guard through the small window in the door told her that whoever had rescued her had known her identity as The Black Cat. Or perhaps it had been quickly discovered. Either way, steps had been taken to prevent her escape.

Escape wasn't on her agenda right now. Felicia only wanted to discover what had happened. She wanted to to know that the Chitauri were actually gone, that they hadn't attacked Loki as well and that Steve was in a much better condition than she was. These concerns outweighed her physical pain, her weak recuperating body and the urge to close her heavy lids and sleep for a millennium.

Felicia's sharp hearing caught the faint sound of voices in the corridor, the thick walls making it impossible to pick out the entirety of the conversation, only snatches. She closed her eyes, knowing who was about to walk through the door.

"It's good to see you awake at last."

"Is it?" The words came out in a dry rasp. Instinctively, Nick Fury called outside for a jug of water to be fetched. He pulled up a chair to the bed and sat down. Felicia avoided looking at him, and focused on insignificant objects in the room; the pale grey blinds drawn shut over the window, the crisp white sheets with not a loose thread in sight and finally landing on the vase of a dozen red roses on the bedside table.

"Do S.H.I.E.L.D. leave flowers for all their patients?" She asked lightly, her voice breaking mid-way.

Nick hesitated and sighed. "They're from Steve."

"Oh." It was barely audible.

A nurse entered the room with a jug of water and a glass. Her arrival brought a welcomed interruption on the subject. Felicia didn't want to talk to Nick about Steve. She didn't want to see his face as he looked at her with fatherly disappoint and disapproval. Only later would she dare to ask if Steve came to the hospital himself or sent the flowers with someone else. Nick would reluctantly tell her that Rogers had come, and that he had sat with her for hours.

For Steve the events had brought clarity. He now knew that Felicia Hardy wasn't meant to be the love of his life, no matter how much he cared for her. He had needed some kind of closure.

Nick Fury could only understand the half of what had gone on between Steve and Felicia, but he had witnessed the change come over them both.Though their relationship was destined to end on a cruel note and they weren't supposed to be together. The short time they had been in each others lives had proved crucial.

"Have you decided on my punishment?" She asked. If she were fortunate, she would be forced to take a low ranking position with the company, to be watched at all times and have to do whatever mission was asked of her until she proved she could be trusted. If things didn't go in her favour, she would be condemned to serve a prison sentence in payment for her crimes.

"Luckily for you, the bosses don't know the full extent of your deception, so until something can be decided upon, you'll remain in my custody." Nick's lips stretched into a thin line, the warning in his voice. Felicia needed no such warning of what would happen if she tried to flee from his watch. She could only guess how much persuasion it had taken on his part to bargain for control of her punishment, and like he pointed out, that was only because the company board didn't know about all the betrayal on her part.

"Consider yourself lucky, you escaped an Asgardian prison sentence."

Felicia's head snapped in his direction before she could compose herself. "Is Loki alive?"

"The last I heard," Nick grimaced. He had hoped her feelings were superficial, that now that the good guys had a handle on things she would have no connection to Loki.

Felicia leaned back onto the pillow. The nightmare should have been over for now, so why did her heart ache more than ever?