Loki Laufeyson - The Experiment {1}

Chapter Twenty Five - Second Checkup

"So how have you been settling in?" Asked Tony as the lift began to move up. "I know yesterday was a little bit of a... disruption."

"It's much better than HYDRA." I replied with the first thing I could think of. Tony nodded and Bruce gave me a small smile as he drank his coffee. The lift pinged and opened up to the next level, which was a completely different set out to the Tower. There was a forst glass wall a couple of steps in front of us with a door directly in the middle. Bruce opened up that door to reveal a whole level that was completely a hospital-like setting rather than being shared with a Lab. Tony and Bruce walked out past me and I slowly followed them, eyes darting all over the room.

"If you just want to sit down on one of the beds." Bruce said to me, nodding towards the row of white beds set up in a row along the back wall. I slowly walked over to one and hopped up onto it, my legs swinging over the side as I watched Bruce and Tony. Tony was opening up several cupboards and drawers, pulling out different little machines that I had never seen before, but most of them he ended up putting back until he had the little white disk that had checked my injuries last time.

"Bring up the projections JARV." Tony said, pressing the button in the middle of the white disc, throwing the thing up in the air and just as I panicked that it would fall to the ground and break, it hovered in midair, beeping softly. Several of projections appears in midair, the back of them blurry so I couldn't see what they were saying. I looked over at Bruce and saw him putting on blue surgical gloves that I was way too familiar with, causing me to clench my hands tightly. He turned to one of the cupboards and pulled out a small, shallow plastic container with a needle and several vials sitting in it. Immediately, I stiffened and clenched the edge of the bed, my nails digging into the soft mattress. My throat tightened as memories of needles at HYDRA flooded my mind and I tried to focus on my breathing techniques to calm down.

"I'm just going to put this small thing on your arm." Tony spoke up, causing me to drag my eyes away from where Bruce was preparing the needle. Tony was holding a small, black, oval-shaped disc in his hand and he moved over to me, instantly causing me to move back a little. The needle had unnerved me slightly, and now I could feel myself slowly spiralling down into a pit of anxiety. Tony paused for a moment, watching me cautiously before he began to move forward again.

"I'll need you to roll up your sleeve." He said softly and I immediately shook my head, clutching the hem of each sleeve. "Emily, it's a monitor, we just need to make sure all of your vitals stay as they should while we check everything." I shook my head again, looking down at my scarred hands, they were only just a glimpse of what was under my shirt, under there was much worse.

"Emily." Tony kneeled down in front of me. "I know you might be self-conscious of yourself, but we all saw what you looked like when Reindeer Games teleported you back to the Tower. We won't judge or whatever you are worried about." I looked back up at him briefly, biting my lip nervously before I took in a deep breath and slowly began to roll up my sleeve. Tony's didn't as much make a sound or even more away as I rolled up my sleeve until it was up at my shoulder. He gently placed the black disc on my forearm, just below where my sleeve was rolled up. I couldn't watch, I didn't want to see all of the scars, the signs of my weakness.

"Connected." Bruce called out just as the disk on my arm beeped, and another projection appears in the air. Tony stepped back and flicked through the projections as Bruce walked over with the needle. I stiffened again and clenched my hands tightly, Bruce giving me a small smile.

"This will only feel like a prick." He said comfortingly, softly taking my wrist and rubbing a cotton ball with something on it over the vein on my arm, leaving it slightly damp. "Try not to tense up too much." He gently ran his finger over the vein before setting the needle down on the bed, turning around and walking back over to the drawers.