Someone found her.
God, someone finally found her.
She could hear alarm bells ringing and the sound of panicked footsteps as her breath quickened.
"Help!" she shouted, trying to find someone's attention.
"Help!" she tried even louder.
The white walls around her seemed to be getting smaller and somehow just the possibility of escape kicked her brain back into gear.
Someone found her.
She scrambled up to the door of her cell, pressing her face against the small window. "Help!" she screeched, panic building as she banged her hand against the door. What if they didn't find her? What if they forgot her? What if they left her here and burned the place down? What if they left her here to rot? What if it was all a trap? Audra became teary eyed, her movements slowing as she let out a quiet sob. She backed away until she hit the opposite wall and sunk to the ground.
"-yeah. Stark. I think I heard some stragglers back here I'm going to check that ou- No, no you just make sure Banner gets back to th-"
The door flew open
"Stark I'm going to have to get back to you in a minute"
Audra flinched and made herself smaller.
"Hey, hey. Its alright." A large blond man made his way slowly into the room, slowly raising his hands up in surrender.
Audra looks up at the man in red, white and blue while still avoiding eye contact.
"I'm… Steve. It's okay, we're here to help."
Audra nods
"What's your name?" he asks.
She blinks for a moment as if she had forgotten, "Audra."
"Audra. Do you know where you are?"
She shakes her head.
"Are you injured?"
She begins to shake her head no before Steve gives her a look.
"…yes, but I'll live."
Suddenly, Steve's comms emit static before a quiet voice sounds
"Hey Capscicle. Doing okay down there?"
"Stark they had someone down here."
"What do you mean 'they had someone'?"
"They were keeping a kid, listen I'll get back to you in a minute."
Audra used the mans distraction as a chance to look him over. She knew she recognized him but couldn't quite place it, then she saw the shield.
"You're with the Avengers!"
Steve stops and nods, kneeling down to her level.
"Yes, and we are here to help you. Can you come with us? We can get you fixed up and find your family."
"Okay."
Steve reached a hand out to help the girl up, although she ignored it. Pressing her hand against the wall to support herself. She stood to reveal a tall, strongly built young woman in a dirty white hospital gown. Her hair was short and black, her nails bitten and bloody.
The pair slowly trekked back to the quinjet. Steve pushing rubble aside as Audra shuffled along with her hands held against her chest. Steve ignored the bodies they passed on the way, some dead from the fight, most from cyanide pills. Audra continued walking but stopped at one. She looked down with distain and the dead man's face before giving him a swift kick in the teeth. Her lip curled as she walked away to catch up with Steve who chose not to say anything.
Steve briefly introduces Audra when they board the jet, showing her a place to sit down before going to have a quiet conversation with Tony Stark and another man in a purple shirt and wavy dark hair. Another man and woman in black are piloting the jet.
The man in purple walks over to Audra, who has been quietly observing her surroundings.
"Hey, I'm Bruce."
"Hello"
"My friend Steve here says you are injured. Could I take a look?"
She pauses and looks at him warily. "Don't touch me."
Bruce is at first put off by her rejection of him before shaking it off, reminding himself that her reaction is from something that went down in the Hydra base, not a reaction to him specifically.
"We are going back to the Avengers tower." He says softly. "We have some equipment there that would allow a non-invasive checkup and more privacy, can we compromise with that?"
She nods.
"Great. Can you tell me why you were there? What was happening at that base, if you're comfortable of course."
"It was a Hydra base. They thought I could be useful, thought I could be more powerful, but I wasn't what they wanted. By the time they realized that it was too late for them anyway."
Bruce considered these words and nodded his head before retreating back to the others to put a seatbelt on for landing.
Bruce told everyone he would take Audra to the infirmary while they debriefed. The looks exchanged between them all, especially the redheaded woman told her that her questioning had hardly begun.
Audra walked into the infirmary with Bruce. The cleanliness and lightness reminded her of her cell, which sent a shudder through her body. There were traces of humanity throughout the lab however, that brought her comfort. She could see blueberries in a bowl across the room, pencils with teeth marks on the desk, and papers with brightly inked chicken scratch rather than perfect typed lettering. She jumped up onto the covered table that Bruce gestured to.
"My head hurts"
Bruce looked up from some papers, shocked that she had spoken without prompting. Perhaps the shock of everything was wearing off.
"My head hurts, and I think my wrist is sprained."
"I can help you with that, can I give you some pain meds?"
"If you have some pills, please. Nothing too strong."
Bruce dug around in a drawer before pulling out some OTC pain pills.
"Here. Take these and if you don't mind I can look you over. No touching, then you can shower and we will get you a change of clothes if you'd like."
Before he could offer her water Audra tossed back the meds and shook her head yes.
"That would be nice."
He inspected the woman for injuries silently for a few minutes. Avoiding touching her and trying to be as respectful and give as much space as possible. He knew moving from what he assumed was one lab to the next couldn't be comfortable. He noticed on her arms she had what he would assume were track marks if he didn't know any better. Signs of repeated injection. Her head hurt because of a mild concussion, and she did indeed have a sprained wrist, as well as some superficial injuries presumably from fighting or trying to force her way out of her cell. The silence was deafening as he began to find the materials to treat her.
"You don't have to treat me like an abused dog you know?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm not.. a bomb waiting to go off or some battered little girl okay? The whole situation sucked but, I'm still a person."
"You're right, I'm sorry I guess…I didn't want to upset you. I have a bad habit of doing that to people and I couldn't really tell how you were feeling or if I was making you uncomfortable."
"Then ask. I have a voice that I've been itching to use ever since I got stuck in the lab."
"Okay, well, Audra. I need to treat your injuries but you have expressed that you would not like to be touched. May I wrap your wrist with this"
"No." He blinked, not expecting that response still. "I'd prefer if you could guide me to do it myself."
So that's what they did. She clumsily treated her own injuries and Bruce calmly guided her through.
"Its not you." She said. "You took it personally when I said you couldn't touch me. It wasn't about you just so you know."
Bruce was shocked. He thought he had hid his reaction well enough. He knew in his mind that it wasn't about him but after years of living with people fearing him and the hulk… he took rejection hard.
"I know."
"Do you though?"
"You seem to think you know a lot about me."
"I know a lot about a lot of things. You know, you should stop bottling your feelings up. It's not good for you."
Bruce felt a flicker of irritation.
"We should go down the meet the others."