Chapter 23
As Hawkeye ran off to follow the erstwhile Hulk, two men ran up with a stretcher and, together with Bucky, lifted Andy's still form onto it. Lifting it, the two men hurried towards the main building. Bucky then turned his attention to Ruby.
Squatting beside her, he assessed her condition, "can you stand?"
"I can try," she answered hesitantly.
Taking her by her uninjured arm, he rose, pulling her up with him. Once on her feet, though, she swayed and blanched. Before her legs could collapse, he bent and swept her up into his arms.
"Sorry," she muttered.
"Don't be," he told her, starting after the guys with the stretcher.
At the main building, they went deep into the first floor to the other side of the building. At what had to be the medical area, a tall woman in a white lab coat greeted them.
"Bring him in here," she opened the door to a room and stood back to let them inside. "Bucky put Ruby in the room with Frankie. I only have two rooms equipped right now."
The two men with the stretcher maneuvered it through the door of the room and the doctor shut the door. Bucky moved to carry Ruby into the room indicated by the doctor, but an agent blocked the way.
"You can't put her in here. This one's dangerous." He leaned closer to Bucky and said in an exaggerated whisper, "she's half off her rocker." He snickered.
Bucky just looked at him without expression, "get out of my way."
The agent looked like he was going to argue.
"Or I will make you," Bucky finished calmly.
"Whatever," the agent huffed and stepped aside. "But this is on you and the Doc. They're your responsibility now."
With that the agent let Bucky enter and shut the door firmly behind him.
In the room, the woman she had seen Sunday morning stood clad in a paper gown from the waist up.
"Asshole."
"Yeah," Bucky agreed.
"Here," the woman motioned to the exam bed, "she can have the bed."
Bucky crossed the small room and placed her gently on the bed. When he stepped away, she had to grip the edge of the bed with her good hand to stabilize herself.
"Easy," the woman put her hand on Ruby's back to support her. "Did the Hulk do this to her?"
"Not on purpose," Bucky replied.
"So, just more Avenger collateral damage?" she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Don't," he warned with a shake of his head.
"What?" She talked over Ruby's head to Bucky. "You don't think she knows how dangerous you people are? If she didn't, she just found out the hard way, just like I did."
"She…," Bucky started.
"She," Ruby interrupted them, tired of them talking about her and not to her, "is right here and is perfectly capable of answering on her own!"
Neither responded and the woman stepped over to the sink. The woman was clearly not happy about something, but Ruby didn't really care at the moment. She wasn't feeling too good at this point. It was all she could do to stay upright, and she was chilled to the bone. Being in a bikini didn't help, she was sure.
A paper cup was shoved under her nose and she took it, taking a tentative sip.
"Well?" the woman demanded. Ruby blinked up at her confused, but she was talking to Bucky.
"Can't you just let it go for now?"
"I'm sorry," Frankie sighed. "You're right. This isn't the right time."
As Ruby tried to take another sip, her hand shook so bad that water splashed out of the cup. Frankie took it from her.
"Here, let me help."
She held the cup steady for Ruby to drink.
"Hi, I'm Frankie, in case you haven't figured it out yet."
Ruby looked up at her, "I'm Ruby. You're Hydra."
"Yep, that's me. Big evil Hydra person," Frankie tried to make light of the accusation.
Ruby smiled politely, not caring if she offended the Hydra agent. She was feeling faint.
"It looks like you're about to fall over. Why don't you lay back on the bed?"
Ruby nodded; laying down sounded like a great idea.
Frankie waved Bucky over, "help her, please. I don't want to do anymore damage to my…," she made a gesture, but Ruby didn't see it. Strangely, her curiosity didn't even raise its head.
Together, they helped her lay back and then covered her with a blanket. It did nothing to the chill that seeped into her bones, though.
"We need something to put under her legs to elevate them. In case she's going into shock."
They were talking about her in the third person again. "Still here," she muttered.
"Sorry, Ruby. You're injured, cold, and shaky, so you might be going into shock. The only thing I can do until the Doc gets back is keep you warm and elevate your legs."
Yeah, she knew she was going into shock, but was glad Frankie noticed and was trying to do something about it.
"You know a lot about shock?" Bucky asked.
"Firsthand knowledge," Frankie replied. "Just be glad it's me and not a prison guard taking care of you."
Prison? What? Surely, she didn't hear that correctly. "What happened?" she whispered.
"I died."
Ruby barely heard Frankie's response as the darkness pulled her down. Her last coherent thought was 'thank God, it's warm.'"
Sometime later, Ruby woke up to sunshine shining in her eyes.
"Izzy, stop," she muttered. She hated it when her friend threw the curtains open before she was awake in the morning.
When her friend didn't respond to her complaint, she opened her eyes, blinking furiously in the bright light. She wasn't in her room. No, she was in the clinic still, laying on a hospital bed that was wedged between the exam table and the window. Though the blinds were down, the slits between the strips, combined with the angle of the sun and the proximity of her bed, allowed a solitary beam of sunlight to shine on her face.
Laying on her side on the exam table, a very haggard Izzy napped.
"Izzy," she said in a low voice. "Izzy."
Ruby tried to raise her arm to reach over and shake Izzy, but the cast thudded heavily against the rail on the side of the bed. That at least seemed to rouse her friend because she shifted, and her eyes flickered open.
"Hey."
"Hey," Izzy replied, sitting up and stretching. "You had me worried."
"Yeah," Ruby smile slightly, "I've turned into a real trouble magnet."
Izzy hopped off the exam table and went to the sink to get a cup of water. Bringing it over and handing it to Ruby, she returned the smile.
"So I've noticed. Maybe we need to get out of this mess and go home."
Ruby frowned, "do you really think so?"
Izzy shrugged, "I don't know. What you're doing is important, but you could do it just as easily back in Houston. And without all the drama."
"You have a point. But I feel like I'm part of something bigger here. Shield and the Avengers accept and encourage me. I don't get that kind of support at home."
Her friend sighed and smoothed her hair back, "I know. Don't pay any attention to me. I'm just worried about you."
Ruby reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze, "Thanks. I'm glad you're here with me."
"So am I."
High in the mountains, Bruce sat in an abandoned cabin with his back against its rough-hewn wall. He had changed back in the late afternoon yesterday, lower in the mountain range, but had pushed on, driving himself to keep climbing until it was too dark to see. He had spent a miserable night huddled in a depression to block the wind and continued his trek when the sun rose. He only stopped when he reached the cabin and sought shelter inside. Using the supplies left behind by the last person that used it, he started a fire in the wood stove and warmed himself up enough to sleep.
Remembering the last time he was naked in the wilderness, he smiled ruefully, imagining what Ruby would say about the situation. She would probably scold him for not being prepared, then pull a pair of sweatpants out of her bag and throw them at him.
Ruby.
He sighed. Yeah, he had it bad.
Bruce had no idea what had come over him when he saw her by the pool, kissing that trainee. He certainly couldn't blame her. He had been pushing her away all week. But he had seen red and the big guy had taken over. He had been on the edge all week, though, snapping at everyone. It had to be the stress and the headaches, that was the only explanation he could come up with.
Strange, he hadn't had a headache since he left the compound and he wasn't feeling on edge anymore. What the hell was going on?
Ruby knocked on the door to Fury's office. She felt like she had been summoned to the principal's office like an errant school kid.
"Enter."
Pushing the door open, she stood hesitantly in the doorway, "you wanted to see me?"
Fury didn't look up from his computer as he waved her in, "yeah. Come in and have a seat."
Shutting the door behind her, she crossed the spacious office and took one of the chairs lined up in front of the Director's desk. Sitting straight up, she twisted her hands in her lap while she chewed nervously on the inside of her cheek as she waited for Fury to turn his attention to her.
After a long moment, Fury looked up and met her eyes. And smiled.
"You've had a rough time of it lately, young lady."
She blinked. "You could say that," she said carefully. Was he about to send her home?
"I understand you are making real progress, though."
She nodded, "I'm close. If you could just give me a few more days…," she blurted out in a rush.
He held up a hand, stopping her. "Take all the time you need, Ms. Beaumont."
Ruby collapsed back into her chair, "you're not sending me home?"
Fury's eyebrow rose, "do you want to go home?"
"No, but there's been so much," she lifted her hand and made a vague gesture, "tension since I got here. I was afraid you decided I was more trouble than I'm worth."
"To be honest, Ms. Beaumont, I don't know what's going on here, but I don't think sending you away will solve any problems. I'm going to get to the bottom of it, though. I need you to tell me what's been going on between you and Dr. Banner."
Ruby flushed red but nodded. Over the few minutes, she told him an abbreviated version of the events that had happened since Bruce walked into her office at the institute. She didn't hold anything back. When she was through, she looked down at her hands that she was clenching in her lap and waited for Fury's response.
When he started laughing, she looked up, startled. Then she got angry and bolted up from her chair.
"This isn't funny!"
He wiped a tear from his eye. "Romance," he chuckled, "God help me."
Ruby sat back down and glared at him, "I'm glad you're amused."
"Oh, I'm not," he snorted. "Now I am tempted to send you home."
"But you just said…,"
"Calm down. You're not going anywhere."
He stood up and turned to look out the window behind his desk. The view looked out over the river and the green hills beyond it.
"You add value to my team, but do not mistake me, the safety of everyone here and out there," he indicated the view out the window, "is my responsibility. If your presence puts that safety in jeopardy, I will not hesitate to send you packing."
He turned from the view to face her, "but I don't think this train wreck of a romance is completely responsible for what happened yesterday. I think there's something else going on and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. As soon as we locate Dr. Banner. Speaking of which, do you have any idea where he might have gone?"
Ruby shook her head, "I wish I could help, but I have no clue."
"I figured as much. Oh, well, I'll let you get back to your recovery."
After he ushered her out of the office and shut the door behind her, Ruby sagged with relief against the wall. At least she wasn't being banished back to Texas. But where the heck was Bruce?
Back at the dormitory, Izzy frowned at the cryptic message on her phone.
Await new orders.
New orders? Great. She hated changing direction when she was in the middle of something. She had successfully planted over fifty micro-transmitters throughout the campus and just had to activate them to set everything in motion. Now, they expected her to just abandon those plans?
"Fat chance," she muttered, throwing the phone in her purse.
She heard the door open in Ruby's room. Good, she was back from her meeting with Fury. If she was lucky, they would be sent home and out of harm's way. That would be fine by her. She didn't like the danger they were both in while they were in the middle of SHIELD's headquarters. If they were sent back to Texas, Ruby's usefulness would diminish, and she could go back to minor corporate espionage for Hydra. Things could get back to normal and she could start enjoying life again instead of spending every waking moment worried about her cover being blown or her friend getting hurt.
"Hey," Ruby opened the door between their rooms.
"How'd the meeting go? Should I start packing?"
Sitting down on Izzy's couch, Ruby leaned her head back and closed her eyes, "nope. It seems that I'm still useful."
Damnit, Izzy thought as she sat by her friend.
"You don't seem very happy about it, though."
"I'm just worried about Bruce right now."
"Ruby! Listen to yourself," Izzy shook her leg to get her attention. "You have a broken arm from being thrown around like a doll and you're worried about him? Really? I think he can take care of himself. You need to start thinking about you and your safety."
"I can't help it," Ruby sighed. "All I can think about is that he was captured once by Hydra and they put that awful collar on him that wouldn't let him turn into the Hulk. What if they do it again?"
"They'd be doing the world a favor if they did."
"Izzy! I'm serious."
"So am I," she turned to face the blonde. "That man is unstable. Look at what happened yesterday. You weren't doing anything wrong and he just freaked out. Now you have a broken arm, Andy is in the hospital, and the pool is broken."
"Oh, my gosh!" Ruby wailed. "I completely forgot about Andy! I'm such a horrible person."
She jumped up and rushed out of the room. Izzy got up and followed her to the adjoining door and watched as she grabbed her purse and rushed out, slamming the door to her room behind her.
"Yeah, go on without me. I'll be here when you get back," she rolled her eyes.
From her purse, the cell phone vibrated as it received a message. Shutting the door between the rooms, Izzy picked it up and checked the screen.
Baskins Robbins. 1 Hour.
"Looks like we're getting some ice cream for desert tonight," she said with fake cheerfulness. Rubbing her temple against the beginnings of a headache, she grabbed her purse and left the room in search of a ride into town.
