Project 43: Healing

Freeing

Shuri tried her best to make Elias comfortable. She hid all her tech and equipment and decided to opt for a casual sitting lounge instead of her usual laboratory. She played music that Elias might like even tho he himself didn't really know what that could be, She tried her best to not even mention the tests. Still, every morning when Elias walked in, she could see how much pain the man was in. Every morning he got pushed back to a time when all he knew was pain and every morning it took him the better half of an hour to sit down and let Shuri do her thing.

Trying to decipher decades worth of research and experiments from just brainwaves and bloodwork was not easy, especially since with every piece of new information Shuri was able to gather, her heart broke all over again. She was left with piles of intricate knowledge on how her friend had been brutally tortured for years on end, which she was then supposed to turn into a treatment for Bucky. Still, she knew that if she were able to do it, she could use the research to completely revolutionize the way their society worked.

"How are you, captain?" Shuri chirped as Elias finally stepped through the door and rushed over to sit on a red couch in the corner of the room.

"You seem cheerful," Elias commented with a hint of a smirk on his lips which made Shuri smile wholeheartedly. His smiles and snarky remarks had gotten increasingly scarce with each passing day he spent in that test room and each night he couldn't sleep for even a minute.

"That's because I am, old man. I have good news," Shuri said as she pulled up yet another holograph that Elias couldn't understand. He appreciated how she had slowed down her movements while doing the tests because if she still moved with her usual haste, he might have run out again.

"Come on then, spit it out. I'm ninety, princess, I don't have time to be waiting around," Elias chuckled with a raised eyebrow. Just after he spoke, Shuri's mouth fell open, and a huge gasp left her lungs prompting Elias to look around the room, trying to figure out what had startled her.

"What? What?!" Elias asked, his head turning from side to side like an owl as he tried to locate the danger.

"I missed your birthday!" Shuri exclaimed and grinned as she saw Elias' annoyed expression.

"That's all? I thought you saw an assassin or something," Elias groaned, clenching his fists and biting his lip, trying to calm his nerves.

"Sorry, sorry," Shuri laughed, clearly proud of herself for freaking her friend out.

"I'm sure you are," Elias mumbled under his breath, happy that Shuri couldn't hear him.

"We are going to celebrate later," Shuri said before turning back to the holograph next to her. "But I wanted to show you this."

Shuri pointed to a bunch of colored lines and numbers in the air, her face beaming as if Elias would ever understand what she was trying to show him.

"You do know that I'm not a robot, right? I don't know what that says," Elias pointed out, earning a huff from Shuri.

"Well if I have to spell it out for you, I think I figured it out," she said pulling up another graph before remembering that the man next to her would still have no idea what it meant and closing the whole holographic screen.

"Does that mean we're done here? No more tests?" Elias asked, scared to give himself too much hope just in case he would be let down again. For weeks on end, Elias spent every moment in a constant state of fear that wouldn't let him eat or sleep. He was reliving the worst moments of his very long life over and over again like a broken record that just wouldn't stop no matter how hard he tried to break it.