Asylum

Mistrust

"He's cute, isn't he? But he's a lost cause. His name is James Barnes."

Steve frowned. "What do you mean by 'a lost cause'?"

"Well, to begin with, he is locked in here like us. Secondly, he lives in a kind of crossfire: Rumlow hates him because he can't have him and Valentina hates him because she wants Rumlow just for her."

"I see."

"I'm not done yet... Besides, he doesn't talk to anyone and his family never visits him."

As they were still standing there, a scent of delicious sea breeze reached Steve's nose. It was soft and pleasant, something in his body told him to go to the source from which the smell was coming.

Steve couldn't help but feel sad for Barnes. He could imagine what it would feel like to be completely alone in a place like that hospital. But, apparently, the alpha had found an extremely important testimony to his story.

"I'm going to introduce myself," the blond said as he had already started walking towards Barnes's room.

"No Steve, wait..."

It was too late for Darcy to stop him, the blond was already inside. He barely set foot in the room, the scent turned soured.

Without getting too close to respect the other's personal space, he began to speak. "Hey, how's it going?" He immediately felt stupid for asking that of a person in a straitjacket, but he'd already done it.

The omega shot him a defiant look. "Get out of here."

Steve felt ashamed: what was he thinking of getting in there without permission? He tried to apologize. "I didn't m..."

"Please..." Said the omega. His tone of voice was no longer challenging but supplicant: he was afraid of Steve.

"Sorry," he said as he sped out of the room.

For some reason, Steve wanted to run very far from there. He felt ashamed, like a threat.

He began to tell Darcy what he (maybe) wanted to say to Barnes. "It wasn't my intention, I'm sorry. I didn't want to scare him, I..."

Darcy remained calm. "I know, it's ok. You didn't do anything wrong." She reached out her arm to touch the alpha's shoulder.

Seeing that the brunette was still watching them, Darcy started to walk away from the room for Steve to follow. "You didn't do anything wrong. I mean yeah, that was weird, but you didn't know he'd react like that."

"I should have known. God, he's in a straitjacket! Of course it was weird."

"Okay, nothing's wrong. I can talk to him sometime I guess."

"Have you talked to him before?"

"I came over to talk once... At least he spoke to you. He just stared at me in that threatening way, you know."

Darcy's words made him feel a little better, but the shame was still there.

"Uhm... and, do you know why they did that to him?"

"He's been tied up for three days, because the other night he tried to escape but they found him."

He should have asked before. Clearly the omega was not in a good time to make friends.

Of course, after that horrible first approach, Barnes would not allow Steve to speak to him to learn more about his history. The blond would be lucky if he didn't run away when saw him later.

Steve considered himself a good person and his mother had taught him that an omega didn't have to endure harassment by any alpha, they all deserved the same kind of respect. For that reason, no one had ever looked at him with fear, with distrust. He had never been embarrassed by his designation. Until now.

*****
*****

The days in the hospital were very calm and silent. Most of the time, the biggest source of noise came from the conversations between Steve and Darcy.

Although she was always in a good mood and being around her was a guarantee of laughter, Steve found that Darcy also had a slightly murky history. Her parents sent her to the hospital after finding her in a threesome with an alpha and a beta. Her family expected her to marry very young and become a perfect wife, not to "explore her sexuality" as she wanted. Sometimes Darcy felt that her parents were no longer interested in her "recovery" but in avoiding the shame of having a daughter in disgrace.

Before arriving at the hospital, the blond thought he would see much more obvious abuse, such as beatings, restraints and torture. But here the abuse was much more subtle: the omegas spent much of their time asleep, stripped of their emotions. Perhaps this type of abuse was much more cruel.

Darcy was pretty smart too. One day, as they were walking to the garden where omega used to hide all the pills she wasn't taking, she confronted Steve about his reasons for being in the hospital.

"As much as I think about it, I don't understand what you're doing locked up here. Why did they bring you to the hospital?"

"I already told you, Darce. I had a mental breakdown and my omega sent me here."

"Steve, I'm not stupid. Maybe you can fool Valentina or Rumlow, but not me. What are you doing here?"

The blond sighed. Darcy seemed reliable, what could happen? "I'm a journalist and... I came here to investigate the abuses against omegas in this hospital."

The girl gaped at him. "And you tell me until now?! I could have told you so much shit about Valentina and you didn't even tell me about your mission?"

Bringing a finger to his lips, Steve asked her to low her voice. "Sorry, no one was supposed to know... aren't you upset with me for... lying to you?"

"No, I guess not. But now that I know, I'm like your fellow journalist too, right?"

Steve nodded with a smile.

*****
*****

The same day that Darcy found out the truth about Steve, they spent most of the afternoon strolling through the gardens. It was already dusk when they walked in silence towards their respective floor.

It was time for dinner. The two friends headed to the dining room like the rest of the patients, until an image froze them. It was Brock Rumlow carrying a semi-conscious omega from the treatment areas and into the rooms.

The nurse was not carrying a stretcher and of course he wasn't being careful with the patient. He carried him on one of his shoulders, as if it were a sack. He was barely holding him with one hand. Rumlow seemed like he was in the middle of a petty job.

The omega was James Barnes. His eyes were half open, as if he was about to fall asleep, and his limbs were dangling without the slightest resistance. He made no (maybe couldn't) effort to hold onto the nurse's shoulder. His hands were covered in blood dripping from his wrists, as if he had been fighting restraints for hours.

The two friends were horrified, they didn't even have time to react. They stayed in place for over a minute, until they saw Rumlow walk back to the treatment areas. He was whistling calmly. "He's already in his room," Steve and Darcy heard while Rumlow was closing a door behind him, talking with somebody else.

"Come on, we have to do something," Steve said. Darcy nodded silently and followed him.

The omega's appearance was much more worrisome up close. He was shaking slightly and the wounds on his wrists were open. His hair was soaked. When his glassy eyes noticed Steve's presence, his breathing became more agitated.

The alpha's first impulse was to leave the room, but this was an emergency. He gently stroked the back of Barnes' hand. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. I just want to help you."

Darcy brushed Barnes' hair back from his face to get his attention. When he noticed the presence of the other omega, his breathing began to calm.

Steve touched his forehead. "He's burning... He needs help, Darce."

The girl looked at him worried. "What do we do?"

"Stay with him, I'm going to get him help."