Disclaimer: Own nothing

Warnings for child abandonment, homelessness, people planning murders and possible dubious consent and rape later on, since Clarke doesn't have much of a choice.

Clarke's choice

Clarke stared at the vampires. She stared at them, mouth agape. She almost didn't answer. And after several seconds, the vampires were worried they had shocked her permanently into silence, till Clarke said, "Hold up, you're fucking being honest with me?"

There were a few chuckles from the vampires.

"That's right, Clarke," Pepper said, smiling, "We can send you to college and get you a job. And you can interact with people outside of all of us. If that's what you'd like."

Clarke was hesitant. But she knew already what her choice would be. She said, "I'd be able to study anything I want?"

"Of course, sweetie," Laura said, "Anything you want to do, aside from leaving us permanently, is attainable."

Clarke tried not to glare at Laura. Of course, there was that catch. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere for long.

Still, that was probably all the more reason to do this, right?

Clarke then said, "Wait, how far away are these colleges, whatever college I'm going to? And aren't I gonna need a car or a bus to get there?"

"We can drive you," Laura said, "Or we can teach you how to drive, if you'd like."

Clarke froze, eyes narrowing. "You guys wouldn't mind me driving?" She asked, "And risking me possibly driving away from all of you."

Again, there were those chuckles.

"Oh, no," Pepper said, "You wouldn't be able to get away. We would come after you. Following your scent. If we'd have to, we'd pick the car up with you inside and carry you all the way back."

Clarke almost burst out laughing at the mental image that she was just given by the vampires. The mental image of her being in the car and suddenly being lifted up off of the road and being carried back in the car, all the way back here, almost made her laugh.

"That's a rather ridiculous mental image you're giving me," she said wryly, "But you're really trusting me to drive?"

"Yes," Pepper said, smiling, "We have a few cars you can practice with, if you'd like."

They wisely didn't say too much about how many nice cars they had. They had multiple cars. Including a couple of Cadillacs.

Their cars were stored away in the garage next to this house.

They also were going to not mention to Clarke that Tony had bought a Lamborghini. No reason to give Clarke more reason to think of Tony as a pompous billionaire playboy and nothing else with no depth, whatsoever.

She clearly already had a low opinion of him.

Best not to bring up that particular car.

"Do you want us to teach you how to drive?" Bruce asked, assuming that Clarke didn't know how to drive, since he doubted that Clarke would have been given lessons on how to drive, before being thrown out of her home, at the age of fourteen.

Clarke shrugged. She said, "Sure, yeah. Okay. I guess that's a good idea. Can we go back to the library?"

"Of course, we can, Clarke," Clint said, and he and the others walked back out of the room and Clarke followed them downstairs, to the living room, then followed them to the library. Clarke went to the dark brown, leatherbound sofa chair and sat down on it and stared up at the vampires.

She asked, "You really would teach me how to drive?"

Several of the vampires drove, others smiling. "That's right," Bruce said, "We would. If you want to."

"Sure," Clarke said, breathing out, then nodded, "Okay. I want to do it. To go to college and maybe get a job or something."

She saw several of the vampires smiling widely.

Clarke then said, leaning back, "Where exactly would I be going to college? Around here, I presume?"

"Not quite," Melina said, smirking, "We've been here for a long time now. We have to move soon, like all vampires do, so as to keep people from noticing that that we don't age. So, no, not here. We'll be moving soon. But there are several promising colleges in many areas. What subjects do you want to study?"

Clarke thought about that. She loved literature, without question. But the thing was, the most of the things she really liked reading, came from Italian literature.

"Italian history," Clarke said, without hesitation.

"Oh?" Brunnhilde asked, smirking, "We can arrange that. There are quite a few colleges where we can go to, so that you can study Italian history."

"Like?" Clarke asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well," Natasha said, smiling at Clarke, "It depends on what city you want to live in. How does Philadelphia sound?"

Clarke tilted her head. She had never been to Philadelphia before. Her mother lived in San Diego and had thrown her out six years ago. Clarke had traveled throughout California scavenging, for that amount of time. She had been to all types of places in California, hitchhiking and keeping knives and her pepper spray handy, in case any of the drivers that took her where she wanted to go, tried anything with her, had stowed away on trains.

She had gone off to places in Nevada and Arizona. Even in places in Oregon. However, she had never been anywhere outside of the very far west of the United States.

Clarke said quietly, stunned now that she now had the chance to explore the rest of the United States. Not just the rest of the United States. If these people were going to turn her into a vampire, then if she was right about them being able to live forever, then she'd have the chance to see the entirety of the world.

She had never wished to see all of the world. She had just hoped to see different places in Italy, Spain, Vietnam and France.

But she had always doubted that she would be able to go. To see it all.

But now…?

Clarke stared up at the vampires. Now she might just have that chance. To see it all.

"Okay," Clarke said quietly, surprising herself.

"Okay?" Laura asked, "You want to go to Philadelphia?"

"No, I mean," Clarke shook her head, chuckling, "I mean, yes, I want to go to Philadelphia. But I meant 'okay,' as in I'll think about being in a relationship with you."

The reaction that Clarke got, were a series of beaming reactions, many of them smiling, overjoyed.

Others looked more cautious.

"Clarke, are you sure?" Frank asked, eyeing Clarke, wanting to make sure that Clarke was certain.

Clarke sighed, knowing that she probably would regret this, "I need time. But yeah, I'll think about it."

Frank nodded, clearly happy to hear that, but still hesitant.

Tony, Pietro, Wanda, Yelena, Hela, Sylvie, Loki and Thor, on the other hand, looked elated.

"Excellent," Hela said, almost purring, "We'll take you to Philadelphia. And to the college there. If you'd like. You won't regret this."

Clarke almost said, 'you don't know that,' but she decided against saying it.

"There is still, however," Laura said, "The matter of the people that made you homeless in the first place. Tell us where they are."

Clarke glared at Laura then, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest. "Why do you guys keeping going back to that?" She asked, "You know that I'm not gonna tell you."

"Why not?" Tony asked, "They abandoned you."

"They threw you away," Natasha said, narrowing her emerald eyes.

"They treated you like garbage," Yelena growled.

"They did nothing for you," Frank said.

"They decided that you weren't worth any effort from them," Pepper said, "So, why are you protecting them?"

Clarke winced, feeling like everything they were saying, was clawing open memories she rather not revisit.

Her mother, Abby Griffin all smug and telling Clarke that now that her husband was dead, there was no one around who would treat Clarke as if she was "special." Acting like Clarke being treated like a human being, was somehow treating her like she was special, instead of just treating her like everyone else.

And when Clarke said she didn't understand, Abby had scoffed and said, "I'm not surprised that you don't understand. Anything that doesn't revolve around you, makes you confused, right?"

Clarke again, had been confused. Because when had she given the indication that she thought everything revolved around her? She just wanted her mother's affection.

But her mother had, still with that smug expression on her face, told Clarke that the girl would be living on her own from now on, and had called to the people outside of the house.

The people who came in, Abby's two boyfriends, who apparently, her mother had been dating before her father's death; Markus Kane and Bellamy Blake, moved in and the people following them, Bellamy's sister, Octavia, and their friends, Nathan Miller, Jasper Jordan, John Murphy and Raven Reyes, all grabbed her and threw her out and she heard Bellamy, Octavia and Murphy all laughing at her, telling her that she would know now, how being a street urchin would feel like.

She had learned from Abby, who had walked out of the house and spoken down to her, condescending her, that apparently, no, none of them had been homeless, however, they had been lower class, and Abby had decided that she always had wanted Clarke gone and she made an arrangement with her boyfriends, that Octavia and the rest could live in the house and Clarke would live on the streets.

Abby had smirked at Clarke as the fourteen-year-old had absorbed this, horrified and Abby had said, "I never loved you. You were my greatest regret. Now I can actually have a life."

With that, Abby had whirled around and had walked right back into the house and Clarke had watched Bellamy, Murphy, Jasper, Octavia and Raven all smirk at her, as the door slammed closed.

Clarke's hand subconsciously went to the arms of the sofa chair and gripped them. Hard.

She swallowed, pain shooting through her at the memory.

She hissed when she heard one of the vampires say her name in concern. She tensed up.

She said, shaking her head, "I'm fine, alright? I'm fine." Clarke glared at the floor, the words thrown at her on that day, six years ago, replaying in her mind over and over and over again.

She hated them. Oh, she hated them. So fucking much.

"Clarke," Clarke managed to process the words that she heard from Laura, "Tell us their names. And tell us where they live. We'll make them pay for how they treated her."

Clarke slowly lifted her head and stared painfully at all of the vampires who stared at her, almost imploringly.

These people were willing to give Clarke an education, a job, friends too and maybe allow her to see the rest of the world.

And now they were willing to get revenge for her.

Clarke knew she was weak. She knew she was. She had to be. Because she was bending far too easily for these people. Far too easily.

But she wanted the people that had hurt her, dead. She wanted Markus and Bellamy to suffer. She wanted Octavia, Jasper, Murphy, Raven and Miller to suffer. Not just suffer, she wanted all of them to die.

And what was more? She wanted her own mother, Abby Griffin, to die.

And now, Clarke knew that she was making her choice. Not just the choice to think about possibly starting a relationship with them willingly, and moving with them to Philadelphia, and going to college and getting a job, but making the choice about what to do to the people that threw her out in San Diego, six years ago.

And so, the names came flying out of her mouth, before she could stop herself.

She said the names, "Abby Griffin. My mother. Her boyfriends, probably one of them is her husband now. Markus Kane and Bellamy Blake. Bellamy's sister, Octavia Blake. And their friends, Raven Reyes, John Murphy, Jasper Jordan and Nathan Miller."

Clarke mentally cursed herself as the various vampires' eyes widened and some of them grinned, hearing this. And she gave the location. The specific streets in that neighborhood in San Diego.

Yelena smirked.

"Well, that'll be easy to get to," Laura said, snickering, "We'll just go over there and kill all of them."

Clarke's eyes widened as Natasha nodded and said, "It's not even night yet. Six of us will go to that house in San Diego, and we'll kill all of them. We'll make sure you enjoy it. We have several cameras and we'll link them up to some monitors, and you can watch them die."

Clarke gasped, almost shuffling back in her seat, stunned. She had never asked for that.

Seeing Clarke's repulsion, Natasha's right eyebrow went up. "No?" She asked, "You don't want to watch them die? Are you sure?" The right side of Natasha's mouth twitched up, as if she could sense that her offer was tempting to Clarke.

"I….," Clarke mumbled, not sure how to react.

"How about this?" Pepper said, smiling, "We can discuss this in more detail over dinner. And if you want to watch it happen? We'll do it later on tonight or tomorrow morning. Whichever you prefer. Then a few days after we get rid of them, we'll go off to Philadelphia."

Clarke asked, "But won't the police be able to track the video feed? If you're uploading the video feed to the monitor that I'm watching?"

Natasha, Pepper, Maria, Carol, Brunnhilde, Bruce, Wanda and Pietro looked over at Tony.

Tony, who looked rather smug right now.

He said, smirking, "Well, Clarke, you are in luck."

"Here we go," Natasha said, smirking and she, Clint, Laura, Maria and Steve all rolled their eyes.

Tony said, looking not that different from one of those loud, colorful birds in South America that squawked real loud and puffed their bright feathers out, trying to impress a mate, "I know exactly how to keep the video feed 'under the radar.' So, I'll work on it and you can watch the video feed, without worrying."

Clarke opened her mouth, then closed it.

She realized that there wouldn't be much point in her saying that she didn't want them to kill the people that hurt her. Both because she knew it was a lie and because she had already had given them all the information they needed.

She said quietly, shaking her head. "I don't want to watch it," she said, "You want to do it? Fine. But I don't want to watch it."

At least, Clarke didn't think she did.

Yes, she hated them. But not enough to want to watch them get murdered. Again, she didn't think that was the case.

"Alright, then," Pepper said.

Clarke eyed the expressions of the vampires. Most of the vampires were nodding and accepting.

Tony, however, looked disappointed. Whether it was because he was hoping to show off his technical prowess in general, or because he was hoping to show off specifically to her, so that she would be impressed, she had no idea. But he looked deeply disappointed.

"Well," Laura said, smirking at Tony, as did Pepper, Natasha, Steve, Clint, Rhodey and Maria, "Then we'll get dinner ready in a few hours. And plan when we attack them. Is there anything you want in the meantime?"

Clarke looked around at the many books. She asked, "Are we leaving all the books behind?" She couldn't help the sad tone in her voice when she asked that.

"Of course, not, honey," Pepper assured Clarke, "We'll leave and make sure no one sees us. And we'll pay people to move our things from San Francisco to Philadelphia. Including the books."

"Oh, okay," Clarke said, smiling, "Thank you for telling me."

"Of course, sweetie," Pepper said, smiling.

"Okay," Clarke said, nodding, "Um, can I watch something? You know, on TV?"

"Oh, sure," Pietro said, looking excited and for the first time, not in the "I want you to get into bed with me" type of way, "We've got a bunch of movies and we got access to loads of TV shows, if you want."

Clarke nodded and looked at the others.

Laura smiled and gestured to Pietro.

Clarke got up and started following Pietro to the room where the TV and the cable box were. To her surprise, it wasn't the game room. There was more than one room with a TV.

She half thought about grumbling about them showing off their wealth, but decided not to. She was getting along with them. Better she not make more waves.

As Pietro got to the TV, he said, "Promise I'll keep my hands to myself. Unless you don't want me to?"

"Don't push it," Clarke warned him.

Pietro chuckled, "Right, sorry. So…you haven't watched anything in a few years, right? Well, we'll help you catch up."

Wanda, Maria and Pepper came in, chuckling.

Tony was staying back, again, appearing clearly put out by Clarke's refusal. Steve pat his back, and then walked over to discuss with Clint, Natasha, Laura, Frank, Brunnhilde, Rhodey, Carol, Bruce, Hela, Thor, Loki and Sylvie, how best to track down and kill the people that hurt Clarke.