Annie didn't know what to say, there were no words of comfort she could off to try and ease the guilt and regret swarming her sisters soul, no words of wisdom. She could only offer a comforting hug, "You had to do what you had to do to stay alive." she said, "No one can judge you for that." if you would've told Annie what Athena had done when they first met, she would have judged and said that heroes weren't meant to kill, but now she knew that life wasn't a fairytale, and not all heroes were good. Annie left after an hour to have a mission debrief with the others, but Athena wasn't left alone for long as Stan Edgar entered the hospital room, holding another bouquet of flowers that the nurses would have to put in a vase for her and a bag filled with what she assumed were clothes "Hello my dear. I got you something to wear other than that cheap hospital gown. I assume your size hasn't changed that much." he greeted, placing the items on the chair in the corner of the room, not bothering to take a seat himself. Being his only public 'child' Athena was used to him giving gifts rather than providing an actual emotional connection.
"Stan, what a surprise." she greeted with a half smile, "I feel it only right I come visit you after you put your life on the line to save your fellow heroes. I'd like to propose-" Athena knew exactly where he was going with that sentence, "I'm not joining The Seven. Ive told you before, I'm more suited for the sidelines." Stan shrugged, it was worth a try. "Ah well, the main reason I came here was because of, this." He pulled a small blue vile from his pocket and put it on the table next to her, "Stan what the fuck!" she whisper-shouted, looking around to make sure no one was seeing this, even though it was a private room. "Now I know taking this didn't exactly do A-train a lot of favours, but he was an addict. Taking one dose would help your healing process immensely." Then he left, leaving Athena and that tiny blue bottle staring at each other.
It was late into the night that Athena was discharged, her wounds healing enough to the point that the doctors were fine with her leaving and going home, she changed out of the hospital gown , being careful of the freshly changed bandages as she put on the clothes Stan had bought for her. She had no intention of going home though, that little piece of paper MM gave her had been kept well out of sight from the doctors at Vought, and her next stop was that address. She took the flowers from the vase and put them in the bag, not wanting them to go to waste, there was no need to take the costume, the doctors had already said that a new costume would be made and delivered, but she wanted to keep the cut up version, for sentimental reasons, so requested it to be sent to her apartment, once it had been cleaned of blood. Athena was carful to avoid the cameras as she got outside, thankfully it was around one AM and not many people were around as she prepared to take off, she typed the address into google maps, having no clue where it was, and followed it as she flew to the location. Naturally it didn't take long, and when she landed she found herself in front of a very tacky and suspicious looking pawn shop.
"Alright..." she muttered to herself, walking upto the door, the metal shutters were down, but they were definitely in there. She looked up and saw a small security camera hidden in the corner of the sign, there was a red light meaning it was on. Without a doubt Athena looks stupid waving her arms trying to activate the motion detector on it.
Underneath the shop the Boys were still recovering from the recent show down, only just managing to clean themselves of the blood and guts, they chatted indistinctly amongst themselves, when a beeping started to be heard. "Someone's outside." Marvin panicked, going over to the CCTV scanners to see what had activated the alarm. Imagine his surprise when he saw Quantum dressed in a set of baggy clothes waving her arms around to get their attention, "Is that..." he started, only for Frenchie to peek over his shoulder and but in "Madmoiselle Quantum! She is here?" his exclamation brought everyone else over, except Kimiko who
"Well are we gonna let her in?" Hughie looked at Butcher for an answer, his eyes were fixed on the screen, "I don't like this, why is she here?" he folded his arms, and it was like she had heard him through the camera, pulling out the flowers from the bag and waving them. "I think she comes in peace?" Hughie offered, Butcher only grunted, walking away from them as they opened the door, letting her into the building "Why's Butcher so jumpy? She's literally saved us twice, hell she even let us stab her." Hughie whispered to Marvin as they all waited anxiously for her to get down to the basement, trusting she was smart enough to find her way down there. "The man hates supes Hughie, I don't know what else to tell ya."
Athena made her way down the unstable stairs, and she was not impressed with the conditions they were all living in, it was damp, there were drugs and guns everywhere and overall it was just plain nasty. "Hello Boys" she greeted, her hands up in mock surrender. "Hello Frenchie." she specifically said hello to the small French man as he approached her. "Bonjour Mademoiselle Quantum." He took her hands and gave them a light kiss. "Please Frenchie, call me Athena, 'Quantum' is a bit of a mouthful." he nodded.
"Alright, stop tongue fucking each other and tell us why you're here." Butchers voice came from the corner of the room, where he leaned ominously against one of the pillars, a scowl on his face as he watched the interaction. Athena rolled her eyes, "I came for her." she gestured to Kimiko, who turned around at the mention, watching as the blonde woman came and crouched down in front of the sofa to meet her eye level. Athena pulled out the bouquet of flowers, seeing Kimikos eyes widen at the sight of them "I feel like you needed these more than me." she smiled, Kimiko took them, smiling back before getting up and going to show Frenchie the flowers. It made her feel good to know she made Kimiko smile, lord knows she needed something to cheer her up after the death of her brother. "Well aren't you a sweetheart." Butcher walked towards her, but she wasn't fazed, she stood still until he reached her, looking up at him in the eyes. She was sick to death of his bipolar attitude towards her, and now she finally had him in a place where he couldn't escape her, because she was going to get an answer whether he liked it or not.
"So this is where you went when you left?"
YOU ARE READING
QUANTUM~Billy Butcher
Fanfiction"Well, don't you look absolutely breathtaking, love." "I know you're not planning to take me out, so what are you doing stalking me down a dark alley, Mr Butcher?"
