Of course it had to be Nile. Of every one of them to get caught trying to take down these assholes, of course it’s her. So young in comparison to the rest of them, so naive and inexperienced and frightened that it hurts, her eyes wider than they have any right to be. Andy wishes she could tell her it’ll be okay.
“What do we do, Boss?”
Nicky has his sniper rifle aimed at the man’s head, but they all know what’ll happen. He will pull the trigger and blow Nile’s brains out across the polished floor of the museum, leaving her in bloody pieces to try and come back together again. The other hostages will be safe. But not her. Any of the others, and Andy might not hesitate, but Nile is just still such a child that it terrifies her to think of such a gruesome death as a point-blank shot through the skull.
“Through her chest. Make it quick.”
He looks up at her with the same terrified gaze. “Andromache-”
“It’ll be a lot better than his bullet through her skull, Nicky. Or what he’ll do if he gets her alone. You’d be saving her.”
Without answering, he turns back to his rifle. A moment later he fires. Andy watches through her own scope as the man collapses as well, the bullet having ripped straight through Nile’s soft stomach and into his own. Booker and Joe enter then, finishing the piece of shit off with a bullet to the skull, and then picking up Nile in their arms to get her to safety. While Nicky packs up his rifle, Andy finds her way back down to street level to meet up with them. This was her choice. She killed Nile, even if Nicky pulled the trigger, and it’s so much worse of a choice now than it was when they first met and Andy was just trying to get her to calm down and acknowledge what she was. This Nile that she has killed is someone whose favorite foods Andy knows, who sleeps with a small stuffed bear, who has nightmares of Quynh more nights than she doesn’t, who trusts her so deeply that Andy knows she’s going to devastate her by being too human.
Nile is awake but still blood-soaked when they meet up next to their getaway car, stumbling along while Booker and Joe support most of her wait and she holds a hand to her wound. “Remind me not to get sniped,” she says. She sounds breathless. “Fucking hurts, and it blows you up inside.”
“I found what I think was her kidney a couple feet away,” Booker supplies.
For the first time in centuries, Andy nearly vomits. But instead, she pulls Nile close and helps her get into their car. Nicky rejoins them a few minutes later, and won’t look at any of them. It’s Joe who murmurs comforts to him as Nile begins to fall asleep against Andy’s shoulder as if she didn’t get her killed.
A couple hours later, near the end of their drive, Nile wakes up and pries off her shirt where the blood has dried it to her skin. Andy gives her a jacket to stay covered for the remainder of the journey and opens her mouth to apologize, but nothing actually passes her lips.
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