The examination room Ana found herself in did not remind her of any she had been in before. For one thing, it was far too big. Five beds could have fit into the space, but there was only the one she was sitting on. There was a bathroom, once again unnecessarily separated from the rest of the room by a door that bizarrely locked on the inside. The walls were an unstained, almost blinding white and mostly blank. She recognized most of the few items mounted to the wall though-an oxygen tank and mask, a biohazard waste bucket, and a defibrillator, along with closed containers and several feet of tubing. There were metallic nozzles she didn't know the use for, but none of them looked likely to cause harm unless she was thrown into one head first, but even that wouldn't hurt for long.

Yasha promised her that none of the doctors would do anything to hurt her. Still, the tools for pain had to be somewhere. Several cabinets and drawers lined one wall, and Ana assumed all of the missing equipment must be held there, though she was surprised it was kept so far from the bed. More than anything, she couldn't get used to the openness of the room. Even with all that space and privacy, someone had hung a curtain that wrapped around the bed. Were all non-HYDRA exam rooms prone to such excess?

It didn't matter. What did matter was getting better for Yasha. He had kept his promise to stay where she could see him. Ana looked through the exam room window and watched him talk to the timid man named Bruce, who was apparently a doctor, though Ana didn't think he had the temperament for such things.

While they were talking, Steve walked into sight of the window. The Captain had told Yasha she needed a doctor and Yasha agreed, so she must, but it was hard to see why when she had no injuries.

Ana watched Yasha raise his flesh fingers and fidget with his hair before turning his gaze to her. He always put his hands in hair, whether his or hers, when he was deciding something. Ana did not like the scrunch of uncertainty and concern on his face.

Bucky shook his head. "She's not going to take any pills."

Bruce sighed at Bucky's stubbornness. "Healing powers or not, there's no telling what she could have picked up. She needs to be on broad-spectrum antibiotics for a couple of weeks at least. Not to mention taking something for anxiety and to help her sleep. This is going to be a rough adjustment. She didn't go through what you went through, but-"

"You don't know what she went through," Bucky said. His voice was quiet and flat and made Bruce break eye contact. "She won't trust the pills."

"You did," Steve said, rounding the corner and letting himself into the conversation.

Bucky huffed, deciding to allow the intrusion. "No, actually, I didn't." Bruce and Steve both raised their eyebrows at that. "Not for the first six months."

Bruce shook his head, but Steve's expression staggered between sadness and anger.

"It wasn't that I didn't trust you," Bucky said, knowing what Steve would think of his admission. It was that you were the only one I trusted. I didn't know who made the pills. I didn't know who may have tampered with them along the way. I trusted you, but not enough to trust everyone else, not at first." Bucky wanted to call Steve a punk to show that everything was ok, but he knew Steve wouldn't want him to.

Steve's jaw hardened, but he said nothing.

"You're taking them now, aren't you?" Bruce asked. Bucky nodded. "And they're helping?" Bucky nodded again. "Then you need to convince her that they'll help her too. And therapy. We'll find her someone she likes, but two or three times a week minimum."

Bucky narrowed his eyes. "I'll encourage it but I'm not forcing it. If she's not ready to talk, she's not."

"Yeah. Ok." Bruce took off his glasses and pinched his nose, then he cleaned the lenses with the cloth of his shirt.

Bucky recognized a stalling tactic when he saw one. "What? What else?"

Bruce put his glasses back on. "We'll do all the routine lab work. That's nothing more than some blood draws and cotton swabs. We can hold off on the more invasive stuff for a while, except, she needs a pelvic exam. Given how she was kept…."

"He's right, Buck," Steve said when Bruce's words ran out, arms crossed against any resistance Bucky planned.

"She heals. There's no reason to put her through that."

"You don't know that," Bruce said. "You said yourself that she got a different serum than you did. She could still be susceptible to cancer. I know it's uncomfortable to think about but-"

"Can you please just stop talking for a minute," Bucky said, his hand threading through his hair as he turned his attention to Ana. He gave her a smile he hoped was encouraging. "You shouldn't be talking to me. It's her body. She's never been in control of it. You want her to take your medicine? You want her to trust you? Talk to her. Let her decide."

Steve made to follow them into the room, but huffed away when Yasha put up a hand and said something to him. Ana swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Doctors always hurt, but Yasha promised this time would be different, so it would be.

Yasha sat next to Ana on the too-big bed, just behind her so he could wrap his arms around her. Ana anchored her left arm to his metal limb and joined their right hands. What could hurt her now?

"Hi, Ana. Remember me?"

"You're Bruce," Ana said easily. "We met at breakfast, well, what was supposed to be breakfast." Yasha felt her shiver as she corrected herself. "I'm sorry, sir. Did you get to eat?"

"I did. Please, just call me Bruce. Listen, I…. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?"

"I would prefer not to, Bruce."

"Ok. Will you try after we talk?"

Ana tucked her head under Yasha's head and nodded.

Bruce met her eyes with soft reassurance. "Great. Thank you. That's really great. Uh, I want to talk to you about your medical care. Bucky- Yasha already told me how you heal even better than him, which is outstanding, but I'm not sure what parts of your body are affected by that and I want to make sure that we're not ignoring any injuries or illnesses that need to be treated."

Ana let the corners of her mouth lift into a tight smile, hoping his eyes would not harden when she spoke. "I appreciate your concern, but my body is in perfect health. I know when it's not."

Bruce turned his head like he was about to shake it but stopped short. "There may be things you don't feel."

Yasha heard Ana gulp and shifted so that he could bring her closer. "You can talk to him. Say what you're thinking. He won't hurt you. He wouldn't even if I wasn't here."

Ana tucked further into Yasha before replying. "Bruce, sir, there are many things I do not know, but I have lived in this body for almost a century. Most of those years came after the serum. I was ill many times before the injections, but never after. Sometimes I sustained injuries that required medical attention to heal correctly, but I have always healed, treated or not. I can be hurt, but I don't get sick and I don't age. You are a kind doctor, but I do not need a doctor."

Yasha laughed, it was a small thing, barely making a sound, but the vibration of his chest warmed Ana all the same.

Bruce looked at Ana with slack-jawed wonder. Her behavior at breakfast was what he expected of someone who had been kept as an experiment, as a slave. But the person sitting in Bucky's lap had just shown him more nerve and articulation than most ordinary patients dared to show their family doctor. The reactions didn't match. His brain immediately began hypothesizing possible diagnoses-dissociative identity disorder or bipolarity perhaps. He wasn't a psychiatrist, but he knew something here did not fit. "Ana, would you be willing to sit down and talk to someone about what's happened to you?"

"Of course I would."

"You would?" Bruce asked, not expecting it to be so easy.

"I always have. Why should I stop now?"

Bruce hummed his understanding. "You mean Yasha. I meant someone you don't know, someone who can help you work through what you've experienced."

"How can someone who didn't go through it help me?" Ana asked. Yasha's arms tightened around her, the plates of his metal arm whirring softly.

Bruce took his glasses off and wiped them on his shirt. Ana tilted her head at the action, knowing he had just cleaned the lenses a few minutes before.

With his glasses back on, Bruce answered. "It helps to talk, and people who haven't been through it with you can look at things a different way. Their perspective is helpful because they didn't experience it."

Ana's mouth quirked as she considered this. "Who would I talk to? You?"

"No. I'm not trained for that, but we can find you someone you're comfortable with to talk to. Buck- Yasha talks to someone."

Ana looked at Yasha, who nodded that it was true.

"I'll speak with one of your trained talkers. Is there anything else?"

Bruce nodded, crossing his arms. "I'd like to take some blood and saliva samples."

"Why?" Ana's voice hardened. "I already told you, I'm perfectly healthy."

"Right, but the samples would help me understand your healing factor better."

Ana raised an eyebrow. "Why do you need to do that?"

"So you can understand it better." After a beat he added, "Maybe we can make Yasha's better too."

Yasha stiffened behind her, about to protest, but Ana spoke before he could. "That's fine. Anything else?"

"I'd like you to have a CAT scan and some x-rays done. Even if nothing's broken, we can see if the serum affected you in other ways. And, given the conditions you were found in, I think you need a pelvic exam."

Ana tensed in Yasha's arms as soon as the word 'pelvic' came out of Bruce's mouth.

"I do not believe any of those procedures are necessary," she said, her voice nearly empty of emotion.

Bruce decided to leave that alone for the time being. "All right. However, I strongly suggest you begin taking medications for stress and to help you sleep."

Ana didn't move for a moment. Yasha ran his lips across the top of her head, ruffling her hair. Finally, she nodded. "I will take them as needed."

Bruce's eyes widened at the partial assent. "Great. As needed is fine for the sleeping pills, but the medication for stress needs time to build in your system. It's not an as needed type of thing."

Ana twisted in Yasha's grip, but he kept her close with gentle pressure and used his metal fingers to sweep a lock of hair behind her ear. "I take it. It helps. A lot of things are different here. The medicine helps."

Ana sighed and let her eyes fall shut at Yasha's breath against her ear. "You can prescribe them. I'll start taking them if I need to."

Bruce made an approving grunt. He was tempted to mention that trying to break a window so she could jump out of a skyscraper was a good indicator of needing it, but he decided to let the psychiatrist tackle that. "I'll set up an appointment for you with one of our...talkers. Is it ok if I draw some blood now?"

When Ana agreed, Bruce went to the wall of cabinetry to gather the necessary supplies. He opened several doors, but the only tools Ana saw saw capable of causing hurt were a few scalpels.