Chapter 28

Two hours later, escorted by SHIELD agents, Frankie left Raynor's office feeling somewhat more grounded. Though she knew she still had a long way to go, she was optimistic she would be back to her normal self before too long. Hopefully Fury wouldn't throw her in prison too soon.

Her next stop was at the clinic to get her wounds checked by the medical doctor. Between the two doctors, she might end up in better shape after all this was over than when she started.

As she sat on the exam table clad in only a paper gown from the waist up as the doctor removed her bandages, her stomach rumbled loudly making both her and Dr. Bennet laugh.

"At least I'm getting my appetite back," Frankie patted her midsection with her free hand.

"Well, I'll hurry up here so you can go get some lunch in you."

From outside there came a crash followed by a roar and another crash.

"Crap!" the doctor released her hold on Frankie's bandage and began stripping off her gloves. "I know that roar."

"What…," Frankie started to ask but was cut off when the door to the exam room flew open.

"Doc," the agent that escorted her looked panicked, "you better get prepped."

"On it," she replied tightly and rushed past him, out of the room.

"What's going on?" Frankie asked as another roar rattled the windows. "What the hell is that?"

"None of your concern," the agent told her, stepping back out of the room. "Stay here and you'll be safe."

"Wait!" she called as he shut and locked the door behind him.

"Okay, I'll just sit here until whatever monster that is goes away or kills me. It's cool."

From outside there was another crash. Frankie got off the exam table and went over to the window, but it was too high on the wall for her to see out of. Grabbing a chair from the corner, she dragged it across the room and positioned it under the window. Standing on it, she could see out the window now, but it faced the wrong way. All she could see was the river flowing by.

"Well, that blows," she muttered and was about to step down when she caught a motion out of the corner of her right eye.

She held her breath as something big and green leaped from this side of the river to the other, a distance of at least one hundred yards if not more.

"Holy shit, it's the Hulk."

She had read accounts about the destruction that particular Avenger could deal out, against friend and enemy alike. She had always wondered why they tolerated his presence since he was so unpredictable and dangerous. Case in point. Maybe she didn't want to stay here longer if he was allowed to roam freely in the compound.

More movement drew her attention back to the bank. Seeming small and ordinary, Clint Barton walked to the water's edge and peered after his comrade. Frankie smiled, well that explained a lot. If anyone could piss off a person enough to turn green and destroy scenery, it would be him. Too bad the Hulk hadn't smashed him.

The door behind her opened again; she hadn't heard it unlock, so intent was she on watching Clint.

"What the? Get the hell down from there before you fall and hurt yourself!"

The agent was back.

"Good thing you locked that door. That would have kept the Hulk out of here for sure," she said with heavy dose of sarcasm.

"That was to keep you in, not him out."

"Gee, thanks."

Outside in the hall, there was a furor of activity as several people rushed down the hall at once. Two supported a stretcher between them containing an unconscious man. Following them was the Winter Soldier carrying a young blonde clad in just a bikini and cradling her arm against her body. Leading them was a tightlipped Dr. Bennet.

"Bring him in here," she opened the door across from the room Frankie was in. "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, blocking Frankie's view. When Bucky tried to carry Ruby into her room, the agent blocked the way.

"You can't put her in here. This one's dangerous." He leaned closer to Bucky and said in a loud whisper that she could clearly hear, "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.

"Asshole," Frankie snorted.

"Yeah," Bucky agreed.

"Here," Frankie motioned to the exam bed, "she can have the bed."

He lowered the blonde gently onto the table, trying not to jostle her too much in the process. Still she flinched and wobbled a bit.

"Easy," Frankie put a hand on her back to stabilize her. "Did the Hulk do this to her?"

"Not on purpose," he replied.

"So, just more Avenger collateral damage?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't," he warned with a shake of his head.

"What?" The girl was short enough even sitting on the exam bed that Frankie could look over her head and challenge Bucky. "You don't think she knows how dangerous you people are? If she didn't, she just found out the hard way, like I did."

"She…," Bucky started.

"She," the girl interrupted and shoved Frankie away from her with her good arm, "is right here and is perfectly capable of answering on her own!"

Frankie stepped away, turning to the sink on the wall, found a paper cup and filled it with tap water. Coming back to the girl's side, she offered the cup.

"Well?" she asked when an answer wasn't forthcoming.

Bucky ran a hand through his already messy hair, "Frankie, can't you just let it go for now?"

She eyed the diminutive blonde sipping the water with a shaking hand and felt a wave of remorse.

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "You're right. This isn't the right time."

When the girl's shaking hand sloshed some of the water out of the paper cup and onto her mostly bare torso, Frankie stepped up and wrapped her hand around it.

"Here, let me help."

She held the cup steady until the girl had gotten enough water.

"Hi," she smiled at the girl, "I'm Frankie, in case you haven't figured it out yet."

"I'm Ruby. You're the Hydra agent."

"Yep, that's me. Big evil Hydra person." She waved her hands in the air and made a spooky noise.

Ruby smiled weakly and wobbled again.

"Ruby, it looks like you're about to fall over. Why don't you lay back on the bed?"

At Ruby's nod, Frankie motioned to Bucky, "help her, please. I don't want to do anymore damage to my…," she gestured to her shoulder, still covered by just the paper gown, but she didn't care at this point.

As Bucky helped Ruby, Frankie pulled out the end of the bed to support her lower legs. Then she dug a blanket out of a cabinet and tossed it over the girl. Tucking it around her snuggly, Frankie looked around for another pillow.

"We need something to put under her legs to elevate them. In case she's going into shock."

"Still here," Ruby protested in a small voice.

"Sorry, Ruby." Frankie turned her attention to the girl. "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."

"You know a lot about shock?" Bucky asked from over her shoulder.

"Firsthand knowledge," she patted Ruby's hand and pushed him back. "Just be glad it's me and not a prison guard taking care of you."

"Why, what happened?" Ruby asked.

"I died."

Neither of them responded, which suited her just fine. Giving up on finding a pillow, she grabbed another blanket, rolled it up and had Bucky lift Ruby's legs for her to shove it under them.

"Well, that's the end of my expertise," she announced.

Ruby's eyes were shut, but her color looked a little better. Or at least Frankie thought it did. She cut her eyes over to where Bucky leaned against the wall.

"I guess you're going to stay here to make sure I don't do something to her?"

"I don't think you will."

"Then why are you here? Shouldn't you be out looking for the not-so-jolly green giant?"

"I'm trying to figure you out."

"Good luck with that," she laughed. "Let me know when you do cause I haven't figured me out yet."

They stood in uneasy silence for a few minutes before the quiet got to Frankie.

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?"

He didn't respond.

Before she could say anything else to bait him, the door swung open and Dr. Bennet breezed into the room.

"Okay, let's see about you," she announced, crossing over to Ruby and pausing.

"She looked like she was going into shock," Frankie volunteered. "I did all I could remember to do."

The doctor looked over her shoulder at Frankie, "you did? Thank you for looking after her until I could get in here."

She turned to Bucky and motioned towards Frankie, "you've bandaged her up before, right?"

At his nod, she continued, "while I tend to Ruby, will you replace the bandage on her wounds? I'm going to be a while here and there's no need for Frankie to just stand around. The room next door is a mess but it's empty."

"That's okay," Frankie grabbed her shirt. "You can just take me back to my room. I'm sure…,"

"No arguing with the Doc," Bucky told her, taking her by the upper arm. "Let's go."

Sighing with exasperation, she dutifully followed him from the room. As the door shut behind her, she shot one last look at Ruby. The blonde looked so small and fragile lying on the table. What the hell was she doing here?

In the other room, she let Bucky replace her bandages without complaint. As before on the Quinn jet, his touch was gentle. Even when he used his metal arm.

"What happened to your arm?" she asked him, curiosity getting the best of her.

"Explosion."

"Well, the replacement is cool as hell," she offered.

He didn't answer and she lapsed back into silence, giving up. After a few minutes, he finished up and turned his back for her to put her shirt back on.

"You've already seen me in just my bra, you know."

"I know."

Silence while she struggled into her shirt trying not to use her shoulders too much.

"Okay, I'm decent."

Without a word, he escorted her from the clinic. Their path back to her room took them near the cafeteria and the smell of food made her stomach growl again.

"Um, do you think we could stop and grab something to eat? I'm starving."

He paused and seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding his head, "okay."

Frankie suppressed the urge to grin like an idiot as he led her inside the cafeteria, and she saw her choices. Loading up on a monster salad from the salad bar and a generous helping of fruit salad, she took her haul to the table Bucky had chosen. Setting down her plates, she looked at him questioningly.

"You aren't eating?"

"I ate earlier," he told her as he leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest.

"So," she raised her eyebrows, "you're just going to sit there and watch me eat?"

Obviously, she thought crossly when he didn't reply.

"You know," she said as she speared a tomato wedge with her fork, "you've got the 'brooding superhero' vibe down pat."

She popped the tomato into her mouth and chewed.

"You would be less creepy though it you'd talk to me while I ate," she said after she swallowed.

"You said you died," he stated unexpectedly.

Frankie paused with a fork full of salad halfway to her mouth, "excuse me?"

Bucky sat up and leaned his arms on the table, "you told Ruby that you died."

Oh, shit, she thought. Of all the things he'd latch onto it had to be that one. She hadn't meant to say it, but it just slipped out. She'd have to be careful what she told him and make sure she didn't contradict anything she had told Fury or Clint.

"I guess I did." She shoved the bite of salad into her mouth to buy time.

"From shock?"

She shook her head and swallowed, "not exactly. I was going into shock from," she pointed to her shoulder with her fork, "blood loss and pain."

She took another bite before continuing.

"Leena and the guard that had me were afraid I was going to go down and make it difficult for them to get me out of the prison, so they shot me up with adrenaline. Problem was, neither of them had a clue how much adrenaline to give me, so they just guessed."

"They guessed wrong?"

She jabbed her fork at him, "exactly. So, I was up and moving but my heart was about to explode out of my chest. Not very pleasant."

That didn't ever solicit a grunt from her companion. What did she expect?

"I made it out with them before my heart gave out. That's how I got my cracked ribs. Someone was a little over enthusiastic with their CPR. They even had to shock me with a defibrillator. I'm glad I was unconscious for that part."

Story finished, she went back to eating her salad and fruit.

"That doesn't make sense," Bucky frowned at her.

"What doesn't?" she asked around a bite of apple.

"This Leena had you shanked and then shot but saves you not once, but twice." He shook his head. "That doesn't make sense."

Oh, shit. Plot hole.

"Made sense to them at the time." She quickly shoved another piece of fruit into her mouth and chewed, but now the juicy melon had lost its appeal even though she was still hungry.

Shoving her half-eaten plates away, she stood. "That hit the spot. Thanks for letting me stop and eat. I'm sure you've got better things to do than babysit me. Your green friend isn't going to find himself." She flashed him her most charming smile, hoping it reached her eyes.

"You're hiding something," he stated baldly, obstinately not standing.

He wasn't going to let this go, she thought glumly.

Sitting back down, she pulled her plates closer and picked up her fork again.

"Of course, I am," she sighed. "Like I'm sure you haven't told your friends here everything you did while under Hydra's control."

His eyebrows drew together, and his metallic hand clenched on the tabletop, "that was different. I had no choice."

"I'm not saying you didn't, but how do you know I did? I woke up in their secret underground lair surrounded by them, with Hawkeye looking for me and nowhere to go for help. Yeah, I had plenty of options. One, I could tell them to fuck off and get myself killed. Two, I could try to escape and get myself killed. I chose option three: survive and figure out how to get away. I was going to make a break for it after the pentagon thing, but, surprise, Hawkeye screwed that up too."

She heaved a frustrated breath and focused on finishing her salad, not looking up to gage his reaction to her statement.

"You could work with us to stop them."

She shook her head vigorously, "I just want to be left alone and get back to my life. That's all. I'm not a hero. I don't belong here."

"We all thought that at one time," he said quietly. "Except for Stark."

She didn't reply. She was through talking for now and he let her finish her meal before escorting her back to her room and turning her over to her guards.