So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.

You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.

Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too.

DAY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012

1752 HOURS

SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER

LOCATION UNKNOWN

NORA ELAINE

No one came to get me.

I had no clock to judge the passage of time by, but even without one I knew it felt like I had been in that room for hours. Long after I was clean, long after I had scrubbed my skin raw, long after my eyes ran out of tears, and long after I ran out of hot water I sat there.

And still no one came to take me back.

I think I almost wanted them to do that actually. I wanted in some strange and foolish way for him to be cruel to me again like he had been when I turned down those pills, and reaffirm that he was supposed to be my enemy.

I wanted him to do something to drive away this cloud of confusion trying to settle over me, but no one came to that damn door!

They were really just going to let me sit there unattended, and act on my own devices. They were going to trust me not to do anything stupid. That was so nice of them and it made me so angry!

I slammed the bar of soap into the wall again.

I've been sitting here in this cooling puddle of water is it dripped off my skin for a while. I continued clenching the slippery bar of soap in my hand and driving the end of it against the tile with rhythmic repetition to see how long I could pass the time.

The poor thing is less of a rounded rectangle now, and more of a waxy block of flat surfaces and dramatic edges. I'm beginning to think at this rate there won't be much left of it at all.

This time the force of impact and its slippery surface makes it shoot past my thumb and out of the back of my fist to skitter across the floor into the wall at the other end of the room, and this time I don't bother picking it up again.

What am I doing? There's no point to any of this. It's not going to get me anything I want, unless what I want is to catch a cold.

The sad thing about the situation is a large part of me doesn't care at this point if I do, and I know that in my normal mindset the idea of getting sick, for the first time ever, in a place like this, would be appalling to me.

This isn't doing anything for you Nora... I tell myself, trying to bolster my weak courage and resolve. You need to do something productive; you've never not done something.

My conscience or whatever the voice that's saying those words is really full of crap, but it's right at the same time. Even if I am terrified I should still try. I have a phobia, that is terror itself, but I have always tried to overcome that, so why should this time be any different? Why should I try to overcome this fear any less?

He is a Prince, so maybe being the object of his affections really won't be so bad.

I almost buckle at that thought and just want to go back to bashing a bar of soap into oblivion against the wall.

No, no I have to do something, get up Nora and do something... I resort to ordering myself into action now, making my feet lift me back to a standing position. He has my kitten.

That's what I keep reciting to myself as I make my hands go through the process of drying my hair and skin so I can dress myself without difficulty.

He has Jareth. He has my kitten. I need go back and take care of my kitten. It's not a very good excuse, or anything like a rational reason, but it's just enough motivation to make me move and that's all it needs to be.

Still somehow I spent so long running that brush through my hair with that thought that I let myself drift off into the repetition. It was the sensation of dull discomfort finally forming on my scalp that brought me back to myself.

I can't do that anymore either. I'm here, so I really need to be here. No more drifting off, no more trying to escape reality.

Still, the resolve I built up shrinks back as my hand reaches out to rap on the door. There is a frightened tremor in it, one that I drive away with a frustrated hiss and the cracking of my knuckles as I squeeze it into a fist. I might still be a coward on the inside, but I can be a really determined coward if I try.

"M-Mister Blackwood?" I call out after I knock against the barrier and a second later I am rewarded with the sound of someone shifting on the other side of the door. "I'm haur, ye need somethin'?"

"No. I'm ready to go back to...the room...please." That last word is so hard to get out, but I succeed when I remind myself that I am being determined now.

"Okay..." I hear that familiar thick accent, confirming for me that it's really my Scottish bodyguard out there, but then his voice continues to speak words now a bit muffled because they are no longer seem to be aimed at the door but at someone else. "...Conversations ower Doctur, ye need tae gie back tae wark."

I knew exactly who was out there with him the second he said the word Doctor, I didn't need to hear the other man's voice to confirm it, even though I can.

It's 'Erik' out there standing on the other side of the door. It's 'Erik' saying he that wants to see me first, to make sure I'm doing okay and that I'm happy. It's 'his Erik', sounding like my Erik, but it's not my Erik, and I don't want to see 'him' dressed in a lie.

I don't want to look at those eyes, or that body again anytime soon. It acts like it's the man I know, and the man it took away from me.

"No. No, no visitors please, no. Send him away." I speak those words to the door, my hands pressed to the barrier, as I let my forehead rest against it, and feel silent tears caress my cheeks as they leak out of my closed eyes. I say those words calmly, not letting the sound of the tears on my skin infect my tone. I say them just loud enough to know my guard can hear them, so he will send my 'friend' away.

"What? No, Nora, it's me Erik, don't you...?" He pleads genuinely surprised that I wouldn't want to see him as much as he seems to want to see me, and his tone almost makes it sound like he thought I was joking and any minute would say 'just kidding'.

But he doesn't get any more words out, at least none that are directed at me.

"Th' Lady said nae Doc, time tae gagh." Comes that heavy masculine voice of Duncan again before it's followed by a sharp whistle that he uses get someone's attention.

It only takes a moment before I can hear the approaching sounds of additional footsteps and muffled voices of what has to be some of the other soldiers mixing with Erik's annoyed protests that, voices that grow fainter and fainter as the distance between them and the door increases while they usher him back to whatever he is supposed to be working on.

"He's gain miss." Come the words I was waiting to hear at last. After that I am finally able to make myself take the handle of the door in between my hands and pull on it, the moment of tears and their evidence hastily wiped away from view.

I'm being determined now, just keep saying it and you'll get through this. You'll see. You'll be just as brave as everybody said you were.

After I started the process of opening the door I feel him finish it for me, the door moving much quicker as the hand he must have had on it applies light force on the other and not a second later the view outside the door expands to include the sight of him as he nods and moves to the side as he waits patiently for me to step out of the room.

There is a small pause at first that I feel the need to fill with a thank you. Its one that isn't just for him opening the door for me, and he seems to understand that too, given the soft tug pulling at the corner of his mouth as he smirks, and then the shrug that goes with it.

"If ye dornt want tae see yer friends that's yer business." He says those words in an obvious attempt to try to be understanding, or kind toward me given what he must have puzzled out about my situation and for that effort I am grateful but I am being determined now.

So I tell him the truth. "I have no friends." And I tell him this with dry eyes.

NOTES FOR THE READERS:

There wasn't any real opportunity for pictures this chapter since most of it was Nora's internal struggling. However there are still three on the Photobucket.

DUNCAN'S SCOTTISH ACCENT TRANSLATION:

"I'm haur, ye need somethin'?"/"I'm here, you need something?"

"...Conversations ower Doctur, ye need tae gie back tae wark."/"...Conversations over doctor, you need to get back to work."

"Th' Lady said nae Doc, time tae gagh."/"The Lady said no Doc, time to go."

"He's gain miss."/"He's gone miss."

"If ye dornt want tae see yer friends that's yer business."/"If you don't want to see your friends that your business."