[2] An Executioner's Requiem | Leo Fitz

52

Guess who's back!?

It's been so long since I last updated due to my mental health and just life problems but I am back now. I'm not going to get into all the details but, I've been seeing a therapist twice a week for over a month now and I'm doing good.

Really good actually.

I've been in a much better headspace to write again so, today, we are officially restarting all the updates for An Executioner's Requiem. I've missed Nina, Fitz and Neo so much and I know you have to.

Sorry for such a long wait, I promise I'll never leave you guys again.

Now without further adieu, chapter 52.

*

Nina had been completely silent on the way to the hospital. Only answering the yes and no questions from a distraught Hunter as they drove along the wide roads. They'd been lucky, Angelica was still in the same state as the base having returned a few days ago to try and set up another dinner with her daughter and stepson, so arriving at the hospital had only taken half an hour.

The whole drive, Nina had been preparing for the reunion with her mother. She wondered if she'd be able to tame her anger, not for her mother's sake but for Hunter's, and if she'd feel anything at all.

Numbness and anger were the only things she ever really felt when that woman was involved.

All her wondering didn't provide any answers and she remained in the dark about how she felt, even when she pushed open the door of her hospital room and looked at the woman.

The more years that passed, the more she looked like her.

That was the immediate thought Nina had when she looked down at her sleeping mother. Their features were identical; their facial structure, their nose, their lips and even their eyebrows... Nina's face was simply a younger version of her mother's apart from their eyes.

Nina had always been thankful that her eyes came from her Dad, and that gratitude only seemed to grow as she stood next to the hospital bed containing her unconscious mother.

The last time she'd seen her was a few weeks before she joined SHIELD. Nina had gone to London to say a proper goodbye to her brother and caught a glimpse of her leaving their house for work. She remembered that day vividly as it was the first time she'd truly envied Hunter because Angelica could leave their house without him questioning whether she'd return.

That was a luxury Nina, once upon a time, thought she had to.

"The doctors are outside," Hunter said beside her, "I'm going to ask them how the surgery went, do you want to come?"

"No," she said softly, as she shook her head. The doctors would ask how they were related to their patient and Hunter would pass, saying that he was her stepson but Nina would not. Angelica had no legal attachment to Nina and therefore Nina had none to her, she'd made sure of that when she divorced her dad.

"Okay, I'll be right back," Hunter laid a comforting hand on Nina's shoulder, acknowledging that he knew how hard this must be for her, before exiting the room.

With Hunter gone, Nina continued to stare at the woman. She didn't look like someone who'd just been in a car accident, she was too... clean. There were no cuts or bruising on her ageing face nor any red specs of blood indicating that she'd been injured at all. Had Nina not known that doctors had cut into her a few hours ago, she would not have believed she'd been in an accident at all.

Nina hated that she was relieved by that. She despised the fact that she was grateful that there were no scars in places Angelica wouldn't be able to hide because Nina's scars were always on display and the weather was getting too hot for any attempt to hide them under long sleeves and turtlenecks. She hated the fact that she was happy that her mother wouldn't go through the daily battle she did whenever she had to decide what to wear.