anastasia 'anna' novikov ~ avengers

red comes to therapy

22.09.19

The routine every Sunday was the same. Morning training, breakfast, Anna practices ballet, lunch and therapy. But todays therapy session would be slightly different. Nicole had suggested that having someone Anna trusted may get her to open up more. Anna thought that was bullshit.

They were sat, Natasha on the sofa and Anna on the wooden chair, Nicole opposite them. "So, how has the medication been going?" Natasha and Anna shared a knowing look. The medication was not going well.

Wednesday 4.30pm

"ANNA I SWEAR TO GOD" Anna had just sprinted to her room and locked the door at the mention of her medication. "I WILL BREAK DOWN THIS DOOR" Anna knew she was being serious, but couldn't care less. Three hefty bangs on the door later, Natasha was inside the room and Anna was trying to climb out her window. Unfortunately friday had been instructed by Natasha that Anna couldn't leave.

Natasha knew she couldn't use force; 1. Anna was stronger than her, maybe even Steve and 2. she didn't want to traumatise this girl even more. That isn't to say she wasn't tempted to pull open her jaw and stick the pill in.

"Get off the window sill Anna" Anna got off the window sill and backed into the corner of her. The rest of the compound was yet to know Anna had to take these medications, however some had noticed the two stubborn Russians daily arguments.

"How many times do I have to say these won't kill you for you to believe me?"
"I believe you, but there's just something in the back of my head saying 'DANGER DANGER', do you think Nicole will give us the ingredients list so I can do research?"
"If it will mean we no longer have to fight for 30 minutes for you to take these, I will threaten her for it, which will probably send me straight back to therapy" Anna laughed slightly, still terrified "But until then, I'm going to need you to trust me and take this" Anna took a deep breath and grabbed a small blue pill from the bottle.

Back to present

The silence filled the room as Nicole looked between the pair in front of her knowingly "So not good" the pair then shook their head, almost in sync. "So what seems to be the problem?"
"They remind me of pills I used to have so I didn't heal quicker from the torture" okay so maybe Natasha being there helped.
"Yeah, so we were wondering if you had a list of the shit in them?" Natasha asked bluntly.

Nicole used to be Natashas therapist. She used to hate the bluntness, but with Anna who either said nothing or sounded guilty for saying things, it was a breath of fresh air.

"I can get that for you straight after the session, so how has school been Anna?".

Friday 1.30pm

A boy, seemingly a senior bumped into Anna. Somehow, it was the first time this had happened. Anna felt her breath constrict as she had to fight her every instinct to kill the boy. Instead she looked for the nearest escape route. It was the start of lunch so everyone was rushing to get in the queue. Anna was able to slip into the girls bathroom. Luckily for her it was empty.

Ten minutes of Anna hyperventilating against the sink later, none other than Rebecca Murphy entered the bathroom. She paused as she saw a small girl dressed in all black pressed up against the sink. She took a breath and kneeled in front of her. "Anna, hey Anna I need you to look at me" this caught the dark haired girls attention as she met her glance.

Rebecca smiled slightly as she got Annas attention. "I need you to take some deep breaths with me, nod if you understand" Anna nodded slowly and kept her attention on Rebecca. "In...2...3...4...out...2...3...4 and again" this continued for 5 minutes until Anna was finally able to breath normally again. She took one final breath and wiped the tears that had rolled down her cheeks.