Chapter 17
My alarm sounded, reminding me of my first therapy session with Bobby. "Steve, darling. I have to meet Bobby for therapy," I whispered. My right arm was resting across his chest as my body practically wrapped around him. Steve's hand was moving up my body, pushing my shirt out of his way.
"You have a few minutes to spare," he whispered before I heard the sound of my panties tearing. We made love before I left our bed to take a shower.
Bobby raised an eyebrow when I walked into the gym for my session a few minutes late. Am I wearing a neon sign that says 'I just had amazing sex' or something? He laughed, "A neon sign isn't necessary. You literally glow."
I could feel my face flush when he confirmed I spoke my thoughts aloud. It's a very bad habit that I really need to break. How would they feel if they suddenly started speaking their thoughts? I bet none of them would find it amusing either. Even better… what if I can hear their thoughts? It would certainly make them question if I could read minds or they spoke aloud.
"You'll need to remove the splint," Bobby reminded me. He moved my wrist then had me use my weakened muscles to continue the motion. Nearly an hour later, I was completely exhausted and sweating profusely. "Practice those movements a few more times," he advised.
"Thanks Bobby. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"I'm working the morning shift at Rangeman. We could meet tomorrow afternoon or you can work on the exercises with Steve or Bruce," he replied.
The next month passed too fast. I was finally cleared for fieldwork at Rangeman. Steve was being overly protective, so I could only spar with Mary Lou, Shirley, Valerie, Darcy or Natasha. It took a long time to convince him to allow Natasha to spar with me. My arm fully healed, but I could feel slight pain in my arm whenever it rained.
I was working at Rangeman with Bucky when an Avengers assemble sounded. On our way back to the tower, our SUV flipped over. Someone shot out our tires as we took a sharp right. I felt pain in my head from hitting the side window. After moving my limbs, I realized my right arm was broken again. "Bucky," I weakly said before everything went black.
Several hours later, I was fading in and out of consciousness. Conversations were happening around me. I heard snippets about finding serum and studying its composition. If I could somehow get my hands on the serum, maybe I'll have the same healing power as Steve.
Bobby was talking to someone, asking about my head injury. Charlie replied, "Just a mild concussion. She should be fine in a few weeks." I couldn't catch the rest of their conversation.
Warm hands touched my face and head. I started opening my eyes, but the room was too bright. A few seconds later, the lights dimmed. "How are you feeling?" Charlie asked.
"Horrible. Where am I?" I asked.
"Medical suite in Avengers tower," he replied. "Can I get you anything?"
"Yes. Get that serum and inject it into me," I joked. Charlie apparently took me seriously. Bucky entered the room carrying some syringes.
"Are you sure about this, Doll?" he asked.
"Absolutely," I wanted to say something else, but the words escaped me. My head hurt too much to think. With shaky hands, I took a syringe and emptied it into my IV port. I could feel it burn throughout my veins. My hand was shaking too hard to inject the other syringes into the port. Before either man could stop me, I stuck the remaining three syringes into my leg and emptied them.
Neither man was able to stop what I truly wanted. They watched me for a reaction, but there wasn't one. "Is it working?" Charlie whispered.
"Other than a mild burning sensation, I don't feel anything," I replied.
"When HYDRA injected me with the serum, they needed an energy source to activate it," Bucky stated in an attempt to help us.
"Is she awake?" Bobby asked as he entered the room.
"I am," I answered. "What do you need?" I asked.
"The x-ray machine is ready. We need to check your arm. It appears it broke in the same spot," he explained. Bucky gently lifted me from the table and placed me in the wheelchair. He wheeled me into the x-ray room and covered my torso with the lead vest.
I knew something was wrong by the noise the machine made. The next thing I remember, a few people rushed into the room. There was red-like energy surrounding the x-ray machine. "Cool magic trick. I see you have everything under control," I said to the woman with the energy ball. Someone picked me up and ran with me across the room. "Slow down, Dude! Speed kills," I joked.
They both replied at the same time. It sounded like, "If let everything us seems work under so control, we you're can not get going this fast finished enough faster." Reading every other word on my left leg, you could see two distinct sets of words. The first is, 'if everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough' the second is, 'let us work so we can get finished faster'. I finally met my final platonic soulmates.
"I'm Stephanie," I introduced myself to the man carrying me. My body felt like it was on fire, but I still felt the need to be polite.
"Pietro and the woman is my sister Wanda," he reciprocated. He must have noticed my distress because he started running towards the medical suite. I was violently shaking when he placed me on the table.
"Sorry, Doll," Bucky said as he secured restraints around my body, pinning me to the table. "We don't want you to hurt yourself." I couldn't talk coherent enough to ask what happened. As I attempted to form the words, darkness once again took over.
"What did you do to Babe?" I heard as I was waking up.
"Nothing. Steph did it to herself," Charlie insisted.
"Report," Ranger barked. Bucky told him everything that happened, including the serum.
"Ranger," I whispered. Ranger and Bucky were still arguing. Bobby and Charlie were viewing an x-ray and CT scan. "Ranger," I managed to say a bit louder.
"Babe," he said as he moved closer to me. "What did you do?"
"Tired of getting hurt. Healing takes too long," I managed to answer. Ranger had a strange expression on his face, but I could clearly hear his thoughts. "It was my decision. Nobody talked me into it."
"You can hear my thoughts," he stated. He was not amused. My eyelids started feeling heavy, so I closed my eyes and listened to Ranger's thoughts. I heard him run through the list of items to complete by tomorrow morning to cover for me. It's no wonder why he's always so busy. For every task he finished, he adds another to the list.
Another voice interrupted my thoughts. It was a quieter, younger voice. I was willing my eyes to open, but they wouldn't cooperate. My body felt like it was on fire. Mary Alice was telling me about the math test she wrote today. She's confident she passed but was worried about one particular question. I could hear her thinking about the question and the steps to solve it. Mary Alice missed a line, but she got the correct answer. My body started shaking violently again. Bobby asked Mary Alice to leave. It wasn't safe for her to be in the room with me. Once again, everything went black.
Warm arms were wrapped around me when I finally woke up. "Steph chose this just like you did, Steve," Bucky said.
"Our reasons were different. I wanted to help our soldiers," he replied.
"I want to fight by your side and be less breakable," I whispered.
"Steph," Steve cried. I felt the tears on his face dampen my hair. He was thinking about the excruciating pain caused by the serum. Steve was wondering what it would enhance in me.
"We'll need to figure out what it enhanced. The pain was excruciating, but I blacked out when it reached my pain threshold," I answered his thoughts.
"Did you hear my thoughts?" he wondered.
"I can, but only because you're beside me," I replied. "I'm not sure if it works if you were in another room." I honestly had no idea how this works. He decided to test my theory and left the room. The second he was within a few feet, he thought how much we could let loose having sex, I heard him say in his head. "I bet we break the bed when we let loose," I whispered. His face turned a sexy shade of pink.
Bucky heard our conversation and started laughing. I concentrated on him but couldn't sense what he's thinking. How does this work? I wish someone could teach me how to use this ability.
A voice entered my mind, startling me. "It's Wanda, please don't be afraid. I can help you learn if you let me," she offered. It would be nice to have help. Sure, I'll accept her assistance. I couldn't think of a better way of getting to know my newest platonic. "Thank you, Stephanie. Pietro will help with running if you want. He wanted me to ask." I thought about his offer and thought about how much I hate running. "He'll make it fun… promise."
Bruce Banner entered the room, closely followed by Bobby and Dr. Foster. "What's the damage?" I joked.
"That's what we're trying to determine," Bobby replied.
"Your CT scan shows your concussion is gone. The x-ray doesn't show any remodelling from the break in your arm. It's as though you never broke your arm before," Charlie added.
"We need to know how the serum affected you," Bruce stated. "Based on what we learned from Steve, it enhances latent abilities and your true self."
"If you're a good person at heart, it would intensify those traits. Your spidey sense, kindness, generosity and ability to see the good in life would all improve," Steve explained. Just great, now my propensity to speak my thoughts aloud would intensify. Steve laughed, proving my theory to be true.
"When can I get out of here?" I asked.
Tony walked into the room and answered, "Once we see how the serum affected you." He looked over my body and added, "You have more muscle definition. Did you grow?"
Bobby and Bruce simultaneously requested my biometrics from JARVIS. He confirmed I grew a few inches. I was now 5'10" tall. My weight remained the same, but my brain activity improved. We moved our party to the gym to test my strength and endurance.
I stumbled a bit on the treadmill. Even though my legs were stronger, I still felt like a foal attempting to chase after its mother. Steve was running on the treadmill beside me. "It will get easier. You just need to practice," he said. "I was basically thrown into my first combat after becoming a super-soldier. We have plenty of time to train you."
Bobby and Steve put my strength to the test. I wasn't nearly as strong as Steve, but I was stronger than I was before. Bucky entered the ring to spar with me. It didn't take long for me to memorize his moves.
While I sparred with Steve, Clint decided to test my reflexes. He shot a few rubber arrows towards us. A blue shield appeared around Steve and me. Wanda's voice entered my head, "Excellent job Steph. We'll work on your shield too."
"Well, that was interesting," Tony announced. He went to the closest panel and started typing. I wondered what Tony was doing. Whatever it was, he was happy. His sudden laughter had me worried. Natasha and Pepper arrived and pushed Tony aside. I later discovered they were creating my Avenger uniform. All they had left to do was find an appropriate code name for me.