seven | avengers

chapter twelve - help

pockets of trauma and abuse are depicted in this chapter. if you feel uncomfortable with it, you can skip to the next chapter where there will be a short recap!

natalie woke up in a setting that was different from what she recalled. she tried to sit up, but felt her left arm burning in pain.

the gunshot.

she winced at the thought of it, but brushed it off quickly as she used her right arm to sit up. she looked around her. she wasn't sitting on the bed at the lab, nor were there so many tubes inserted into her skin. just one IV drip and a breathing tube. she was in a room, sitting on a queen-sized bed, a comfortable blanket over her, a soft toy dog and elephant, and a beautiful beautiful view of manhattan.

"i see you're awake," a voice said, "it's complicated, wong! i'll tell you more about it next week!"

natalie looked around to see a bright orange spark at the end of the room, getting bigger, revealing the one and only dr. stephen strange. she cracked an awkward smile, still slightly confused by this mystical looking wizard walking towards her, reading her stats off a hologram.

"how are you feeling?" stephen looked at her and asked, after swiping off the hologram. "um... okay? where am i?" she answered, looking around. "sleeping quarters of the tower. we moved you here a week ago after you passed out... of exhaustion," stephen carefully phrased his words before introducing himself as, "doctor stephen strange."

natalie nodded her head slowly, trying to understand everything as he continued, "i'll be taking care of you till you heal, bruce is doing some research about radiation and gammatheraphy. the soft toys... are from wanda and vision. you seem to be healing up pretty slowly though, given account that you were here almost two weeks ago."

"two weeks ago?! urm... doctor... stephen?" natalie said as he was examining her. she thought about what to call him. strange? or stephen? but strange sounded strange, so she decided on stephen. "yeah?" he replied as he checked her heartbeat.

"i think i'm okay. like healthy... okay. i can leave now, please?" she said, but it sounded like a beg.

"i could let you leave, but you might just collapse once you step out of the bed. let's not have that happen, shall we?" stephen gave her a small smile and said. he was still looking for the location of her heartbeat

"doctor strange, there is a message for you, from mister stark," the AI said out of nowhere, making natalie jump. "read it out please," stephen said to the AI as he continued examining natalie, "i need you to give me deep breaths here." he still wasn't able to get her heartbeat right, which was weird.

"hey strange, make sure you check on the kid, see if she's alright. peter's going to see her later, thought i'd let you know. oh yes, and if it's possible, try to get a few sample of... you know, from the kid. i need to ch-" "that's enough, thank you friday," stephen interrupted tony's message, glancing at natalie for a moment before placing his stethoscope over his neck.

"when can i go?" natalie asked, a little worried as to what kind of samples tony wanted stephen to get from her. "a few days, i hope," he gave her a small smile, "oh yes. i need to ask you about some things. it'll just be awhile, then i'll leave you to rest." natalie nodded her head and waited for stephen as he grabbed the chair by the desk and sat beside her.

"i'll just jump straight in alright? to make it quick," stephen thought of ways to phrase what he was going to say. he thought of going into the future, but thought i would be better if he just asked her straight. "do you know that... a part of your brain is urm... missing?" he asked. natalie nodded her head slowly.