Author notes: Hey everyone, thanks for taking a look at my story! I'm aiming for weekly updates on this one, I hope you enjoy. And as always, let me know what you think!
Hospital monitors beeped continuously in the sterile room, flowers and cards noticeably absent from the window sills and countertops. In the bed a young woman sat partially upright, watching the television listlessly. The show playing was a game show of sorts, but despite the exuberance in the contestants' countenance, the girl's face remained placid, her auburn hair lying limp behind her. Blinking slowly through the light filtering through the windows she rested her head back on the stiff pillow.
Just down the hall she could see a man, dressed sharply in a suit, approach the reception desk, flash a badge and utter a few statements to the nurse behind the desk. The woman acknowledged his badge hurriedly, as though she was expecting him and quickly grabbed a few files before leading the man towards the room where the young girl rested.
"I'm sorry we don't have any more information to give you." The woman said softly as the door to the room clicked open. "But hopefully you can make more sense of this than we can."
"Thank you." The man said politely, then indicated that he would rather be alone with the patient. The nurse nodded and exited the room, leaving the files on the table.
After the nurse left, the man stepped over to the girl's bedside and extended his hand for a handshake, which the girl then gingerly accepted with her own hand. "So I hear you've had a rough few days." He said, then added, "I'm Phil Coulson by the way."
"I'd introduce myself, but I wouldn't exactly know what name to give you." She replied motioning to the hospital bracelet around her wrist reading 'Jane Doe, DOB: unknown'. "And yes, I guess my week has been pretty crappy—at least that's what they tell me anyway."
Coulson smiled and nodded, then retrieved a chair from along the wall and took a seat. "They probably told you the food was good, too, didn't they?" He asked nodding toward the untouched tray of food next to her bed.
The girl laughed and replied, "Yeah, I decided not everything they said could be trusted. I mean, have you tasted that stuff? One of them actually told me the soup would be spicy. The worst part is I think he actually believed that."
"I've found the trick is to bribe someone into getting you something from the vending machines. It's still horrible, but at least it's edible." Coulson replied. He didn't typically care for small talk, but since his mission included her trusting him, he figured a few jokes was a small price to pay if it meant she was comfortable around him.
"You say that like you've had a lot of experience with second-class hospital cuisine." She commented.
Coulson shrugged before answering. "I guess I've had my fair share of dealing with the medical system. But mainly I just know the importance of quality snacks and how to get them."
"So tell me Coulson, why are you really here? You and I both know you didn't come to discuss the cafeteria's- thrilling as it is—insignificant dinner menu." The girl asked after a moment of silence.
Coulson took a deep breath, glad she was ready to get down to business. "I work with an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D., and your case has recently come to our attention. We think we may be able to help."
"Right, just as I thought, you're here to ask me more questions like everyone else." The woman in the bed said with a sigh. "They've asked me them all twenty times and I've told them everything I know. If it isn't in that file, I don't know it." She added, motioning towards the file the nurse had left.
"We're aware that your memory has been a bit compromised, but we have alternate resources for retrieving information and we have hopes one of them could be successful."
"Hah, a bit!" The girl chuckled. "Yeah I'd say a bit, more than a bit really." With a bandage on one forearm and various cuts on her exposed arms and face she strained as she tried to pull herself up a bit farther in bed, cringing at the discomfort. "I wake up in a hospital with no idea where I am, no idea what happened to me, the doctors tell me I have some freakish sci-fi robot thing screwed into my back, and heck I don't even remember my own name!" She said, almost laughing at the absurdity of the situation.
"We've been fully informed on your current condition." Coulson reiterated calmly. "We are aware of your lapse in memory as well as your physical… abnormalities." He said, trying to find the right word. "Our goal is not just to learn what and where the biological hardware you seem to have acquired came from, but we also want to help you, hopefully being able to make the transition into a normal civilian life easier."
The girl in the bed looked thoughtful for a bit, pondering Coulson's words and after a time, replied. "So you're wanting to remove it. Or study me, do tests and experiments on me, is that what this is?"
"The doctor's here attempted to remove the tech in your back but found it to be a far more complicated process than they were prepared to undertake at the time. We have a team of specialists who, after doing necessary tests, can attempt to remove them." Coulson tried to keep his tone warm and friendly so as not to scare the woman and risk causing her to turn down his offer of help. Not that that would've meant he wouldn't still be taking her with him to S.H.E.I.L.D. headquarters, but he really rather preferred her to come willingly than to have to forcefully remove her from the hospital.
"I-I don't really know…" The girl replied, trailing off. "I mean I find it flattering that you seem to have taken so much interest in me, but I don't know I haven't really had time to think out my options yet."
Coulson could tell she was apprehensive and hoped his bargaining could convince her to agree. "I'm sure you're dealing with a lot right now, amnesia can be a difficult thing to overcome. It's a new life to get used to, a new world, it's like building everything up from scratch."
"You act like you know what this is like." The girl retorted, mildly annoyed with his fake empathy.
"We just want to help you Miss." Coulson replied, doing his best to keep her calm. "Honestly, our goal isn't to exploit you and we aren't going to just lock you up in a lab somewhere. We just want to help you."
The girl smirked, "So if you're not going to lock me up, what exactly are you going to do with me?"
Coulson smiled back at her, knowing she was seeing just exactly how much she would be able to milk out of the deal. "You'll have a private room with 24/7 security since we don't know yet if you are being tracked by anyone dangerous. Free meals, access to entertainment, recreation, the works. If you need it we will provide it. All we ask in return is that you comply with testing that we will try to keep to a minimum."
The girl rubbed her fingers across the top of the blanket, pondering the man's words. She was skeptical to believe he truly meant everything he was saying, no one else she'd met since waking up had held true to their word, but even still there was something in his eyes that seemed sincere. "Look, I want to believe you." She finally said. "But how do I know this is what's best for me? How do I know you're even telling me the truth?"
Coulson nodded, acknowledging her cautiousness. "Two days ago two men came to see you much as the same way I came to see you now. Yesterday a woman came as well. All of them telling you they could help you, that if you just went with them they could fix everything for you. You didn't even bother to hear them out before sending them away. Yet you've allowed me to sit here and talk with you for ten whole minutes and haven't thrown me out. I'm not lying and you know it, otherwise I wouldn't still be here."
The girl could feel a flush creeping up her neck at Coulson's words. He was right, she had known from the instant those other people started talking that they were lying. For starters the woman was clearly just from some mental institution, she hadn't even bothered to hide her badge well. And the men who had come from the day before were engineers claiming they knew what the mechanism in her back was for and that they could make a huge scientific breakthrough if only she agreed to help them. Of course they also claimed they wouldn't do extensive testing on her, but even if she couldn't remember anything of her life before waking up in the hospital she could tell plain as day that they were going to do constant tests on her until they actually figured out what the mechanism did, so that they could keep their grant funding.
She sighed and reluctantly gave her answer. "You're right. And I'll go with you."
Coulson rose from his chair, elated that she had agreed. It had been easier than he thought to win her over, but he wasn't going to complain about it.
"On one condition." She interjected, before Coulson could say a word. "I want the right to leave at any time, and to not be pursued or tracked if I choose to do so."
Coulson sighed knowing there was no way a deal like that would be approved, but also knowing with her adeptness at spotting lies, giving her a false promise was not going to do any good. "I'm not sure that will be possible. As I said before we are a highly secretive organization and once you are in we can't have you and your knowledge running freely. This is an all or nothing offer, you're either in or you're out."
The girl pursed her lips. She admired that he at least had the decency to tell her the truth, but she also knew in the back of her mind that based on the fact that she already knew about the organization at all meant she was never really going to leave this room unless it was with Coulson or in a body bag.
"I barely even know anything about you or your mysterious super-secret organization." The girl said, trying to make it seem like she still needed some convincing to take the offer. "What makes you think I will sign my life away? You could be an international murderous gang for all I know. What if I don't like what I find, do you think I can just jump into this blindly? I mean I literally don't know anything about this organization except what you've told me."
"In all fairness miss," Coulson replied, "You don't really know anything about yourself either."