So, I'm back! I had to do some research on teen psyc wards, since this has to be accurate. Please review! :)
"Let me go! What the fuck did you do to my family!? Steve!" she thrashed against the restraints in the wheelchair fruitlessly, ending up with her hair in her mouth.
They wheeled her down the hallway, stopping when they were in a room.
"Fucking...let...go!" she thrashed horribly against the restraints, tried to kick out, but her wrists and ankles were strapped down. She tried to kick out at the assistant who was crouched before her but failed, and the man manaed to slide off her sneakers, leaving her in only socks.
A woman nurse came in wearing slippers, and she curled her toes in disgust, but it was fruitless to resist as they were slid onto her feet.
"Is she wearing a belt?"
"No. She's good. Check her nails?"
"Trimmed. Alright, we're gonna let you loose-" the man in scrubs, he couldn't have been older than 22, nodded to her, eyes serious.
"But only if you've calmed down first, understood?"
She nodded, tears still trickling down her face. "I-I can do that. When do I get to see my Dad?"
He avoided her eyes as he bent down, fumbling to undo the restraints on her ankles. "We'll let you know."
Her wrists were freed a moment later, and she shakily stood up, diving onto the bed in the room. A moment later the door to the room closed, and she was alone.
She buried her face in the pillow and cried.
It was what must've been half an hour later when someone rolled her onto her back, and green eyes surveyed her critically.
"You need to change into these." She held up a pair of sky blue scrubs- there was another nurse behind her with a clipboard.
She hesitantly took the scrubs, before looking towards he door desperately. "I-you guys are going to leave, right?"
The nurse shook her head, holding up a clipboard. "No. We need to document any scars, open wounds- you change in front of us."
Tears dripped from her eyes quietly, and she felt her cheeks turn red from humiliation as she pulled off her jeans and changed into the thin scrub pants.
She pulled off her Iron Maiden T-shirt, feeling incredibly small and exposed as the cold air hit her scarred skin. She pulled on the scrub top over her bra, looking shocked when she say the nurse had picked up her clothes.
"Wait! My shirt...my Dad gave it to me..." she reached desperately for the piece of clothing, but her clothes were thrown into a trash bag.
"You'll get them back later." the nurse said simply.
"No... my shirt. Please..."
Her small voice fell on deaf ears as the nurse left the room, leaving her with the clipbrd nurse.
Her sleeves were rolled up, and she bit her lip in an attempt to stifle the sobs rising from the back of her throat. Her scars were counted like dollar bills by a critical eye, every healed wound marked on a diagram of her body in black oen, every open wound illustrated in red...
She flopped onto the bed, crying, and the nurse who'd taken her clothes entered the room.
"How're we doing?"
"I want my shirt..." she sniffled like a little kid, and felt anger flare up within her when the nurse ignored her, instead turning to her colleague to mull over her paperwork.
"I want my motherfucking shirt!"
"Did you get her blood drawn yet?" the green-eyed nurse asked, ignoring her.
"Hey! Bitch! I'm not just a piece of meat over here! I want my fucking shirt! My Dad fucking gave it to me, I want it back!"
"Do you want a sedative?" the nurse asked, not bothering to spare her a glance. "Because that's where you're headed. Keep this up and I'll call security..."
She actually laughed. It was a bone-chilling, emotionless laugh, and her eyes had turned to solid glass, she could tell, because the nurses both froze.
"You must think you're pretty fucking tough, huh? I've faced worse than you- you're nothing compared to terrorists, blood-thirsty zealots- I've faced torture. Nothing you can do will break me, so go ahead! Keep laying down your empty threats."
She threw her head back and laughed, her ribs aching from the force of it, but it was funny- this woman thought she could control her. Both women were frozen like frightened rabbits...
"Hey. We need security in here, new girl being admitted is implying violence..."
"Bullshit! I'm just telling you you're pussycats compared to what I've faced! You're nothing, you're worthless, and you won't break me!"
The next thing she knew she'd been dragged into the hallway and was evading security, shoving one of the burly guards away and sinking her teeth into the forearm of the other before sprinting down the hall. She came face-to-face with a group of teens dressed in scrubs, dead eyes looking at her, surprised-
Arms were wrapped around her, and she was thrashing and screaming and fighting and cussing, knocking a syringe from someone's hand.
"You will not fucking drug me!"
She was kicking and thrashing, and she nearly broke free, before she was passed to another guard and towed down the hallway, kicking and screaming, before she was tossed into a room and the door was slammed shut.
She stumbled to her feet, staring at the door and panting, back against the wall. There was nothing in the room- plain, white walls and a clean tile floor. This must've been the equivalent of the padded room, and she slid down the wall and waited, eyes on the door. Best to save her energy.
They couldn't give her drugs unless Tony consented, or unless a doctor signed for it, she figured, and even then, she could probably palm the pills. She'd have to fight them off if she wanted to stay clear of injections, though.
Tony would get her out of here. Or Steve- she felt a pang when she thought of Steve, the way he'd tried to help her when the bastard had stuck him with a syringe, the way they'd lied to Tony and taken her away, and how her Iron Maiden T-shirt, that'd belonged to Tony before she'd borrowed it, was gone.
Half an hour dripped by slowly before the door opened. This time it was a different nurse- one with strawberry blonde hair and pale skin, she was young, and she smiled, brushing a lock of hair away from her face so she could meet her desolate eyes.
"Hey." she offered, sounding friendly.
"Hi." she kept her eyes sharp, gaze deadly, waiting for the nurse to lunge and sedate her. She didn't, instead sitting down across from her, cross-legged. She caught of glimpse of the woman's ID badge- it said Beth.
"Can I take some of your blood?"
She looked up, making sure she was being sincere, slightly surprised. No one had asked her anything since she'd gotten here.
"Why?"
"We get blood tests from everyone- standard procedure. Nothing hidden in it- I'll even let you hold the tube." Beth smiled light-heartedly, holding out the vial temptingly.
She couldn't help but smile, taking the vial in one hand and proffering her other arm. There was a pinching pain, and she watched the red fill the vial before Beth took it from her, standing.
"Heard you were pretty rough with the other nurses." Beth mentioned as she labeled the vial.
"They were assholes." she muttered.
The corner of Beth's mouth twitched slightly as she tried to hide a smile. "Well, you're not wrong. But you'd get out of the quiet room a lot faster if you played the game."
She scoffed, fidgeting her fingers slightly as she glanced around her. So that was what this was called- the 'quiet room'.
Beth was gone as soon as she'd come in, and she resumed sitting quietly.
There was a man who smiled far too much who entered the room, clipboard telling her everything she needed to know. He was one of them.
He spat out lists of symptoms, generalized self-harm, suicide, withdrawn from social activities...
She just glared at him. If she gave him nothing, no information, then he couldn't force pills down her throat, because he wouldn't know what he was trying to fix. She wasn't even broken, anyways- she had been, but the green man had sewn her back together...
She could tell he was growing frustrated by the way his grip on the pen tightened, and she gave him a shit-eating grin before she was back to emotionless, watching him waste his time.
She heard him mutter something about her being 'uncooperative' before she was alone again.
They brought her shitty lunch on a faded plastic tray, and she picked at it, eating the few items she deemed palatable before they came back for her, after an hour or so.
"You want out?" the nurse- one of the assholes from earlier, the ones who'd treated her like she wasn't a person, glared at her. She wordlessly followed her down the sterile white hallways, waiting until the door to a room was opened and ducking inside.
The door didn't shut all the way behind her.
"They all do that." a girl with cherry red hair supplied. She turned, surprised to see someone else in the room with her.
The girl looked like she did- about her age, dressed in the same light blue scrubs, with cherry red hair that'd obviously been dyed. She wore the same grey slippers, but her face quirked into a smile, and her eyes were bright, defiant, almost.
"You're the one who got tossed in the quiet room earlier." she said with a grin. "Really pissed off Joann and Lacy, but they're assholes, anyways. I always like to see the new people here- especially the ones who don't take any shit. Way to stick it to the man, kid."
She nodded, giving the girl a measured look. She was around 5'5", she could take her, if need be...
"I'm Harper, by the way." the girl offered a hand, and she shook it, still uncertain.
"My bed's the one on the left." Harper supplied helpfully, before striding back to her side of the room. She had a few pictures taped on the wall beside her bed, and Amy nodded, perching on the edge of her bed carefully.
"I hope you'll be a decent roommate. My last one was a schitzo- kept me up all the time, screaming about the people in the blankets. You're quiet, you know that?"
She nodded, picking at the thread on the blankets. She didn't really want to talk right now, especially not with someone as opinionated at Harper...
"If you wanna get out of here, you have to be good." Harper said suddenly, eyes turning serious. "I don't mean submit to everything- if I took all the meds they've given me, I'd be a junkie by now."
She perked up slightly, interested. Harper knew things about this fucked up place, maybe she knew how to get out...
"Right. And how do you get out of here, exactly?"
Harper grinned. "You lie. You pretend to take your meds, you eat what they put in front of you, you attend your therapy and you color your feelings. It's bullshit, but it'll get you out. You've got a strike against you, though, since you got tossed in the quiet room earlier today. I can help you, if you want."
"I don't need help lying." was all she said in response, voice barely above a whisper.
Harper fell silent for a moment, too, and for a moment she thought the girl would stay that way, before Harper spoke up.
"What're you here for, anyways?"
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Oh. Alright." for once, Harper didn't push her. Like she knew this was an issue you didn't force.
"I'm here for arson, if you wanna know." she mentioned quietly, a moment later. "Set the school on fire. Damn bastards deserved it, too. You ever hit that wall, where you can't do it anymore? When you realize you aren't living, you're just working damage control? I did. I was fucking tired of them all making fun of me, it was me or them, and I realized I didn't wanna die, so I did the next best thing- I tried to get rid of them. Burned the place pretty, all the class pets died, and they had to close down for a few days to get things cleaned up. I wish it'd burned to the fucking ground, though, and I wish a few people were inside of it. Crazy, right?"
She laughed, and Harper whipped her head over to look at her, surprised.
"That's the most sane thing I've heard anyone say since I got here." she admitted, body shaking with laughter.
Harper laughed, as well, and for a moment it was just laughter, just two teenagers in a psych ward laughing their asses off.
"I downed a couple bottles of pills, some scotch. Nearly died- was in a coma for three days. My family got me to the hospital in time, though, they found the cuts, and here I am."
Harper nodded. Amy knew the girl had noticed the bandages on her arms, but had been too polite to say anything.
"You know what it's like, then. To want to not exist."
Amy nodded solemnly. "Yep. We just went different ways- I tried to off myself, you tried to off your enemies."
"Yep. Plus, I like to watch shit burn." Harper admitted, grinning.
She laughed again.
"It's not all bad here, either. I mean, yeah, the nurses are assholes- except for Beth, she's cool. And some of the people here are seriously messed up, and the food is shitty, and they try and pour meds your your throat, and the doors don't shut all the way, and they have to send a nurse after you every time you need to piss- but it's not all bad. We have some fun here, too." Harper informed her, eyes glittering.
"Like what?" she asked, getting interested.
"Fucking with Joann and Lacy." Harper said, eyes alight and grinning.
She laughed. This place might suck ass, but at least she could have something to do while she was here.
"What the fuck do you mean I can't remove her!?" Tony demanded, slamming his hands on the table of the meeting room. The legal analysts exchanged glances before the man in charge spoke.
"They had you sign for the voluntarily admittance as a ploy. They'd already begun involuntary admittance- legally, if they believe she's a danger to herself, they can hold her without your consent for 72 hours."
Tony took a deep breath. "Alright. How do we get her out?"
"Best case scenario, they let the 72 hours expire and she's released into your care again. Worst case..." the man hesitated as he saw how intently Tony was staring at him.
"Worst case, they deem her mentally unstable and start having CPS investigate your for child abuse while they hold her for an indefinite period of time."
"How the fuck do we keep that from happening?" Tony was leaning forward, almost in the man's face.
"Well, we can start by filing an appeal against her being held at all..."
"Do that. Do everything that's legal, and some illegal things, too, if they'll get her out faster."
And he was gone, walking briskly down the hallway. He had some strings to pull.
MAILBAG
Rosto'sGirl, Chapter 37
And cue my tears! Poor Amy. Anyway, I love how protective Steve is of Amy in this chapter. I feel like you really captured his character here. I haven't written anything on here but I've written some fan fiction on other sites, and I usually struggle to capture the essential personalities sometimes. However, you seem to do it perfectly, especially with Loki. I feel like you captured that soft side that is shown for maybe a split second in the movies perfectly. I cannot wait for more!
I'm really glad you enjoy my characterization of Steve and Loki in this. I feel like Loki's soft side, his protectiveness, would come out if he noticed Amy, since he's been so damaged nd he wants to protect her. He's a hero inside, I swear, but no one ever cared enough to teach him to be good...
As for Steve, I feel he'd do everything he could for Amy, because screw the government and the laws, they know what's best for Amy. Steve is like a golden retriever- he's got your back for life, man! :)
Guest, Chapter 37
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
No no no no no no NO! NO fluffykitty12! NO! WHY?! JUST WHY?! I don't want Amy to go! No! That'll just screw her up more! A LEAST HAVE LOKI TALK TO HER WHILE SHE'S IN THERE! Please! I beg of you! Please at least let Amy talk to Loki or have the Avengers blow the building up and save her please! I just don't want Amy to be in ANY more pain! PLEASE! I LOVE AMY LIKE SHE'S MY OWN SISTER! Please don't let her suffer any more! I love her!
Nice story :)
Woah there... deep breath. I'm really glad you can empathize with Amy so much, and you made me smile because you're so passionate about these words I type on my computer using my brain and imagination... Thanks. ;) *blushes*
Cocopops1995, Chapter 37
holy crap. LOKIIIIIII WHY U NO SHOW UP AND MAKE THEM KNEEL SO TONY CAN TAKE HER HOOOOOME?! Ahem, sorry but that is honestly what I was thinking throughout that whole scene. I think a whole lot of guards is a little excessive for a public hospital though...
Dude, a god can only do so much! I mean, Loki just saved her from the brink of death and healed a lifetime's worth of mental traumas! He can't do EVERYTHING, man, he needs a nap! What, you think magic like that just grows on trees? *falls down stairs and turns on blender*. Anyways, Loki can't really reveal himself on earth, since he kinda FUCKING DESTROYED NEW YORK the last time he was there *puts on socks aggressively* so therefore, I believe Loki's done all a little Loki can do in this situation.
*brushes teeth* Furthermore, you may infact be right about the excessive security. I just assumed they might have like, a dozen or so security people, and they called them all to converge because THE MOTHERFUCKING AVENGERS WERE VISITING TONY STARK'S ADOPTED DAUGHTER WHEN THEY DECIDED TO REMOVED HER FROM HIS CUSTODY and shit proceeded to get real. Not to mention they weren't really looking for a fight or ready for one. I mean, Thor had a boquet of flowers and Clint brought balloons. So, yeah, not really expecting to have to fight off security, and it might be a little unrealistic but *zips up eyebrows* I like it. O.O
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my response to your review! ;). I threw in all the cool *actions* in asterisks because you're one of my most faithful reviews and I love you, so I wanted my response to entertain you. Hope that's not weird or anything! ;)