Janet woke up to pain. It had been so long since the last time she felt it, she almost rejoiced. And then she winced, because pain still hurt. She was strapped to the bed with tight covers. A moan left her lips as she tried to turn around. It was then that she saw a young woman standing in the room. A nurse, the first thing Janet noticed about here was a large shiny bruise along her collarbone. .

"Where?"

Janet wasn't even sure why her mind focused on it. It just did.

"You're awake, that's good," The girl seemed about ready to rabbit. "I'll go get a doctor."

"Where am I?" Her throat hurt, it felt like she'd just swallowed a chain of barbwire.

"You're at Bellevue Hospital. Your friend T'Channa brought you in."

Janet closed her eyes.

Falling down to the ground, human. Even now her body instinctively allowed her to shrink down and use her wings to fly down. She landed on the top of a garbage can. It nearly fell over when something landed besides her with a thump. Not one something, two of them. She was the first back up and went to check on them. T'Challa's son. It took her a second to realize that he couldn't be T'Channa. T'Channa died months ago; someone had shot him in the back while they'd been hunting for animals. (Not that there had been many left, with the hunger any meat had been good, even if human meat had been the preferred variety.)

And yes, she knew how silly that sounded, coming from a woman who'd been dead for forty years. It was the Colonel, or what as left of him in T'Channa's body. He seemed unconscious. The second one was Hank. Janet tried to help him get up.

Memories were hard to deal with; remembering the people she'd killed before Hank had bitten her head of, literally.

She needed to get out of the bed; she needed to warn people, the Avengers. Instead she just lay there, covered under warm sheets. The sensation of feeling that harsh fabric against her skin was almost overwhelming.

"I need to…"

It took all her power to sit up, and pull the sheets away. The infuse was in her way.

"It's alright; you just need to calm down." The nurse tried to stop her. "You had a heart attack."

"I have a heart." Janet could hear herself whisper. "I have toes and fingers. He took it away."

Hank had been furious that she'd looked at T'Channa first before coming to him. But he tried to pretend it hadn't mattered. Even now, Janet knew him better than that, the old memories still stuck as a raw wound that never quite healed. God she wished Reynolds was still around. She couldn't even imagine a world without him in it.

"Whatever happened, it gave us a second chance." Hank said. "We could make things better, do things better this time."

And all Janet could think of was to wonder why she didn't remember the city being this dirty. It had always looked so much shinier and lighter in her memories.

"He's still out there."

"Do you want me to call the police. They've been waiting for your statement."

"Police?" Yes, there had been police, not just the Panther guard, the old day had had cops and army and so much more than them.
"They can't stop him." She knew this, she'd tried to stop him and she hadn't been able to, so how could they stand a chance.

"I just have to change things." Hank said. "The next time we just need to make sure we control the hunger."

"Hank, there's no more hunger. It's gone." And it was, for the first time in what felt like forever, there wasn't even a remnant of the hunger in her non existent, now once again existent guts. "We're…" She stared at her hands, her real hands, not those of the robot body that Forge had built for her. "We're human again."

Hank shrugged it of.

"But we don't have to be. Reed was right, evolution like this is a dead end, the infection just allowed us to cross the limits of that."

"Are you even listening to yourself?" She was just disgusted at the idea of what he seemed to be suggesting. Didn't he remember what they'd done?

"We could protect humanity. Keep them safe."

She put her hand on his chest, just trying to make him see reason.

"Hank. We killed people."

"Well a few…"

"Hank, we killed everybody." She was almost crying. She hated crying, she wasn't this weak child. She was better than that.

"Because we got greedy. This time we could do better. Even Reed saw -"

"Reed was insane Hank. He just lost his children."

"They were weak. Reed understood that."

"Hank, what's wrong with you?" She backed away, the insanity in his eyes, it horrified her.

"Nothing's wrong Janet. You don't have to worry. I'm as right as I ever was. It's the logical solution."

Janet didn't want to keep listening to this, he didn't even hear her.

"Is a sheepherder wrong, when he cares for his flock? When he takes one of their number and eats it? Does that mean he loves them any less? Of course it doesn't."

"Hank, you're talking about people. I can't let you do this."

"Oh come on Janet. Not this again."

He seemed almost annoyed with her. She lifted her hands, ready to shoot him.

"Why do you make me do this?"
And then he'd …

"I have to go, find the Avengers." Janet said as she forced her legs of the bed. She barely managed to stand up.

"The Avengers?" The girl seemed stunned, as if ready to call an alarm.

"My ex-husband is planning to turn earth into a smorgasbord; I'd say that requires the Avengers. Don't you?"

Then she almost fell over. The girl was just in time to stop her from falling.

"I have to go. The fate of the world depends on it." And God, yes, she knew just how stupid that sounded. Like something out of some kid's cartoon. But that didn't stop it from being right.

The girl tried to push her back on the bed, Janet shrunk herself, flying a few feet before falling down. It was only the girl's quick action at catching her before she hit the ground that kept her from a pretty long drop. Even her wings were busted.

"Damn it Hank. Why did you have to be like this."

The girl finally went and placed her on the bed and Janet sank down as she grew back to regular size.

"You're the Wasp?!"

Janet didn't bother to look at the girl. She still stood there.

"You're an Avenger!"

"Yes. I need to call them." Janet hated how petulant her voice sounded.

"Look, just stay in bed, and I'll get you a phone. But you can't get up right now. It could kill you."

Janet started laughing. The girl looked scared by it, but it was the only logical response. Kill her, as if she hadn't been dead already, so many years of being a corpse, and not even a full one, that it seemed more familiar now than this state of being alive.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. You just don't know."

The girl seemed to hesitate then she almost ran out of the room and came back with a cordless phone. Janet tried to call the Avengers. To her surprise the number didn't work.

She nearly crushed it. Had she forgotten the number? Maybe she got a digit wrong. She'd only been using that one, and her bank number and her social security number as a crutch to get through hours of sitting there, doing nothing, while Reynolds worked on her body.

"Why aren't they picking up?"

She thought about calling the FF, but then she remembered Reed. She couldn't trust him and she didn't know Sue's number. It had been so long.

"I need to get to the mansion."

She tried to get up again. The girl tried to stand in her way, but Janet didn't let her.

"At least let me get you something to wear." It was only then that Janet noticed she was naked. She'd forgotten about that, regular clothes wouldn't shrink with her, not if they weren't treated. God it had been far too long since she'd been able to use her powers.

And Janet sat there until the girl came back, about ten minutes later. By then she was once again wearing the hospital gown that had fallen off when she shrank. She first tried to put the dress on by herself, but had to give up after the third time her bruises made her cringe. After that the girl helped her put it on.

It was an ugly dress, and if she'd had a choice about it, she wouldn't have touched it with a ten foot pole. But at least it wasn't a hospital gown that opened in the back.

The girl then helped her up, letting her lean on her as they left the room. Every step felt like walking on nails while caught in an iron maiden.

Damn it Hank. Damn you to hell.