-Unbetaed and not a native speaker so please kindly point out any mistakes
-Warning: inaccurate medical procedures, language
Both guests wore casual today with T-shirt and khakis. Rogers took out his sunglasses and baseball cap as he entered. Stephen wondered whether he thought that would be a great disguise. Again, not everyone could shapeshift like him.
His guests seemed to be taken back by his condition.
"Doc, are you OK? Perhaps we should come back another time." Captain America's look darted between Bucky and Stephen. His obvious concern was his best friend was but he wouldn't want to impose on the good doctor either.
"Cap, Sergeant Barnes, please sit down. It's not as bad as it looks," Stephen lied. He was determined to be a proper doctor today; losing blood was just details—it wasn't as if he were dying anyway. "How can I help you?"
Barnes and Rogers looked each at each other. Barnes shrugged. Rogers nodded. They then carried two chairs and sat next to Stephen's bed. He noticed that Rogers' movement was not as fluid as he usually saw on screen.
Cap asked, "I don't think it's my place to ask since you're the doctor but are you sure you're OK? I think you should go home and rest. Our concern isn't urgent. We are not dying. We can come back another time."
Stephen resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, I'm fine. As you emphasized, I'm a doctor so I know how to take care of myself." He could practically heard Wong snorted at the statement.
"Obviously." This time Barnes smirked. "He's as bad as you Steve. And I heard your name is Stephen so you're Stevie number two."
"Please don't call me Stevie and I'm not anyone's number two." Stephen thought he had become much humbler but somehow being called number two could potentially raise his hackles.
Barnes gave Steve a one-armed hug. "My buddy here said that he could do this all day. Even though he was already beaten up multiple times, he would get up and tried to fight again even. I guess you're not as idiotic as him so yeah, sorry, my bad."
Stephen shivered involuntarily as he remembered his encounter with Dormammu.
"End this! You will never win."
"No. But I can lose. Again. And again. And again. Forever. That makes you my prisoner. "
"Doc, Doc, are you OK? Please ignore Bucky. We're sorry. We didn't mean to be rude." Rogers positioned himself right in front of him but kept some distance, his arms placed flatly on his laps to show he meant no harm. It seemed Captain America was an expert in placating someone.
Stephen snapped back to the present moment. He had got at least one patient to see. They both looked healthy, unlike his patients coming in today but he, as a doctor and also a sorcerer, knew that look could be deceiving. "Yeah, right. How can I help you?" He was about to take out his transfusion needle but Rogers put a hand on his arm to stop it.
"We just need some consultation so you don't need to remove your transfusion. We feel bad that you seem to be in need of a doctor more than us."
"Yeah, as I said I'm fine. How can I help you?" It came out harsher than he meant to. Stephen didn't do small talk. He knew Cap meant well but he was an adult who knew what was good for him. He could hear Wong's snort again. Shut up, Wong.
"It's about Bucky. I'm worried about his mental state. He was brainwashed by HYDRA and some words might trigger him to kill. The medic in Wakanda had removed his trigger words. I don't doubt Wakanda's medicine as it seems to be more advanced than this country's medicine." Stephen was intrigued by this fact. "I'm just worried that there might be some trigger words that we are not aware of. Perhaps you can check it with more eh.. your specialty."
Stephen snorted internally. Here they wanted me to use magic to check for Barnes' mind. He wasn't sure whether it cancelled out his agreement with Wong. Technically he promised not to use magic to protect reality today. He never promised not to use magic to cure people (or a talking tree or a racoon – both the real deal and the talk and shoot variety. There might be more different species as the day was not over yet). It fell in the grey area. It was not as if he hadn't used magic at all today.
"Do you want my skill as a neurosurgeon? I'm afraid we don't have CT scan or other tools here. Perhaps we could go to Metro General?" Pretending to be dense was fun. It was a payback for them, well, Barnes, for calling him Stevie number two. He felt more guilty for teasing Cap but as usual his own brand of idiocy won.
Barnes interjected. "No hospital."
Rogers glanced down as his own hands that had intertwined now. He drew some deep breaths, raised his head, and looked Stephen in the eyes. "I want you to use your magic to scan for Bucky's mind. Medically, everything has been done to make sure his programming has been removed. I trust their skills completely. I just want to make 150% sure in case they use magic or some other non-conventional means to program him. I know it's asking a lot even in normal days; you don't owe us any favor; I feel even worse as you've lost a lot of blood. That's why I said it's not urgent. I'll accompany Bucky for a few days and I can take him out in case he got triggered."
"Gee, thanks Stevie." Barnes tried very hard to look sour but he burst out smiling after three failed attempts. He jerked his thumb at Rogers. "What he said."
Well, now he had a perfect excuse. Wong, how could I ignore the plea of Captain America and his best buddy?
"Fine, I can do it, Cap. Sergeant Barnes needs to lie down so I can do a magical scan. I can get up now." He was about to take out his needle again, this time Barnes quickly moved to his side and gently pin his arm down using his metal arm.
"Doc, you're really as bad as Stevie in self-care. I can lie down on the floor. Or we can carry a bed from another room."
Stephen decided that having another bed next to his might not be a bad idea. He could see his patients while he lay down. If Christine ever got wind of this, he'd never heard the end of it. He just needed to keep the lid on everything that happened today. Easier said than done as even Castle noticed all injuries he had sustained today. He might glamour them to trick Christine, but he could never trick Wong. He would worry about this later.
"Another bed here might be nice. But please don't take it from the examination room number three."
Barnes got up and cocked his gun. Stephen wasn't sure how he managed to hid it in his khakis. "Why? Is the person who stabbed you there? Are you being taken hostage or can't talk to us in case he or—er… she will kill you?" It seemed that he was not used to the idea that equal opportunity meant that women could be villains too. "Blink twice if that's a yes and it'll be taken care of."
Stephen was horrified to the idea of a shootout in the clinic between Barnes and Deadpool. A small part of his mind wondered who would win: Wade Wilson was a mercenary with regenerating power meanwhile Sergeant Barnes was a soldier and also a trained assassin with great techniques. He heard all about that when Natasha Romanoff leaked Project Insight to the public. Well, his assistants, well, ex assistants in the hospital would not stop teasing him that Captain America was his savior as he was one of the targets. He was equally horrified and proud— only very notable members of the public were being targeted. He was the 1%. His logical mind told him that he was in the wrong list but his ego didn't care. After saving the world and multiverse every other Tuesday, he realized how naïve and arrogant he was before. He indeed was only a small speck of dust in the multiverse.
He remembered he also considered whether Castle or Loki would win. Perhaps he really shouldn't keep imagining his patients in battles but it was really hard given most of them were super violent.
He quickly said, "Deadpool is in the room number three. Trust me that you don't want to be anywhere near him for your own sanity. No, it wasn't him who stabbed me. It was Loki. But I've taken care of it."
Rogers got up and nodded— Stephen noticed that his movement was still a bit stiff. "I've heard of Deadpool. It seemed Tony had the unlucky incident of encountering him. Tony said that Wade was tons more annoying that himself. I couldn't believe it myself but I won't chance it. Thanks for the warning. Are you sure about Loki? The Avengers have taken care of him before and we can do it again for you."
Stephen nearly snorted. It took six of them a few days to contain Loki. New York and some parts of the world had witnessed the aftermath. He took care of Loki within one second with his portals. He was still proud of his creativity to create the portal loop for Loki's free falling. It was only due to his emotion seeing an injured friend (He was surprised to realize that he considered Tony as a friend) that he let his guard down and got stabbed. "Thanks for the offer but I've got it. Loki won't attack me again." Well, at least for three months. But he didn't need to share that fact with them.
Rogers shrugged. They got up to go to another room to get the bed.
Stephen quickly used a spell to finish up his transfusion. Speeding the process a little more wouldn't hurt his recovery chance … much and his shift was nearly over. He already got kidnapped once and attacked twice (not including the kidnapping attack). Surely the day couldn't get any worse.
Five minutes later, Rogers and Barnes appeared with the bed. Rogers carried the head of the bed as it was heavier and walked backward. Stephen still noticed the rigid movements. They took another two minutes to put the bed next to Stephen's.
As soon as they put the bed down next to his, Stephen got up. Rogers was about to stop him but noticed that the blood in the bag was already gone. He raised his eyebrows but wisely chose not to comment. Stephen still felt woozy and he saw dark spots as he got up but— let the Vishanthi be his witness—he would get through this examination. If horde of demons wouldn't stop him, neither would a little blood loss.
He had invented a spell to simulate CT scan. He had never tested it before on other humans. No, he hadn't tested them on animals either. He would never sink so low. He had tried a few times on himself but it was hard to do a scan if he couldn't lie down. He tried using astral projection but it was not the same. At least he didn't combust in those instances when he did it on himself.
Hoping it would work equally well on Barnes, he started to move his hands around until purple transparent and interconnecting glyphs in the shape of a long cone started to appear. The cone passed through Barnes' still body and only stop when it had encapsulated the whole body. It stopped there for a few minutes. Stephen circled his hands and the glyphs started to rotate clockwise. He concentrated hard as each glyph movement was used to detect if there was any anomaly. He started to feel some cold swears dripping on his back. Perhaps losing blood could actually affect his performance. He gritted his teeth and persevered—only a few minutes more.
Nine minutes later he was done. He swayed in his spot. Rogers quickly caught him and guided him to his bed. He refused to lie down. It was too embarrassing. He sat down cross legged and closed his eyes to collect his breath. Ten seconds later he opened his eyes.
"Sergeant Barnes, you could get up now. Sorry for the delay. I've checked through your whole body. I didn't detect any magical interference. You needed to take calcium, magnesium, and zinc. Although you are cured from your brainwashing, I'd recommend you taking more antioxidants to prevent brain cell loss. Plum is in season; it has anthocyanin and quercetin as it has best phytochemicals for preventing brain loss. In fact, I've some in my bag right now." He carried some fruits for his own lunch but with the day he was having, he forgot about them. He was about to get up but Rogers beat him to it. He gave the bag to Stephen. The doctor tossed two plums into Barnes' direction and one into Rogers. He noticed his hands shook so badly so his aims were terrible but of course both super soldiers managed to catch them.
Barnes' eyes watered. "I complained to Stevie that I had my doubts about you. Given my time in HYDRA, I trust no doctor, and especially the one dressed in robes. No offense." Stephen just shrugged as he got used to the insult. "But my doubts have evaporated. You're super dedicated to your craft and you give people what they want. You're the best doctor ever." He rubbed his plums using his sleeve and started to chew on them.
Stephen started to feel to warm fuzzy feeling that he admitted to Christine he never had. Feeling wouldn't help to cure patients; skills would. He never admitted to himself that he got that feeling as well in the first two years of medical school before they were wiped out due to family tragedy. It seemed that feeling came back.
Rogers smiled. "Wow, Buck, did you just replace my position with plums?"
"I'm sorry Stevie, you're the best guy and everything but you're not as sweet as plums."
Rogers turned back to Stephen. He started to chew on his own plum. "Mhhm, Bucky is not lying. This's the best plum I've ever had." There was a cheer behind him. "Thanks for your help, Doc. I guess your magical CT scan is much more advanced than a normal scan as you detect mineral deficiencies as well."
Stephen felt his face heated. It was not every day he got complimented by Captain America. "Sure, Cap. You're welcome."
Barnes snorted. "Stop calling him Cap. His head was already big enough. Just call him Stevie so not confused it with yours. You can call me Bucky. The name is reserved for people I like so you're in." He grinned. "I can't wait to tell Wilson that the Magic Doc could call me Bucky but he never could. Thank you for help. It's a great relief for my mind that I'm free of any brainwashing. Extra bonus for the plums. If there is anybody you want to take care of, I'll be your guy."
"Bucky, we don't just off people." Steve sounded horrified.
Stephen quickly added. "Yeah, we don't. Please don't kill or harm anybody on my behalf. I'd prefer you to call me Stephen rather than Magic Doc."
Bucky shrugged. "Well, the offer still stands. You can have my number in case of anything." He promptly took a piece of paper from a nearby table and wrote his number.
Stephen quietly said to Rogers as Bucky concentrated on writing. He hoped the plum really helped his memory. "Cap, do you want me to do a scan for your as well? Your movement seems a bit stiff."
"Like Bucky said, please call me Steve. I don't want to impose on you. I already saw that doing the scan took a lot out of you since you're also injured. I can always come back next time."
"It's fine. Since I'm only looking at symptoms of arthritis, I don't need to do the whole-body scan. You don't even need to lie down. It might take only two minutes and I don't even need to get up."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, not everyday someone could brag that they did a checkup for Captain America." Of course, that was not the sole reason of doing that, he was always a doctor at heart, but Stephen would never admit that to anyone.
Notes:
-The bargain scene with Dormammu can be found here:
youtube dot com/watch?v=LrHTR22pIhw
-I've been watching the Pitch Meeting series on Youtube. They're funny. Here is the one for Doctor Strange: youtube dot com/watch?v=tzJYY8s8Jdo
Compared to other Marvel movies he pitched for, there was less plot holes in this movie. He mostly made fun of the name of the actors, the costume, the cinematography. I don't think "Doctor Strange Is Like Tony Stark But Without The Charm And Humor" but otherwise, it's a fun video.
-Since this is getting long and there will be more guests so I divide into two chapters. In the next chapter, we will also meet Clint Barton (again!) and Peter Parker.
-I've never written Bucky before so I hope this comes out OK.
