All things considered, he doesn't look that bad. Maybe as if he was just in a bad car accident, certainly not like he nearly died only hours ago. There is still some scabbing, but already, the edges of all his wounds are starting to heal and scar. They have shaved his head and face. He looks strange, almost naked without it. Pepper sits on one side, a hand holding Mr. Starks wrist, finger resting on the pulse point. Rhodey is on the other, arms folded across his chest, and his face unreadable. I stand at the foot of the bed, awkward. I feel out of place. I was apparently gone for five years - five years for them to move on and change. I am still unsure if I'm really welcome here, or if I was just brought along to act as a support for Rhodey.
My time is up quickly, and I am led by a nurse to what appears to be an empty conference room. I sit at one of the chairs, awaiting my fate.
It only takes a minute or so for someone else to come in. "Hey there. My name is Christine. I think you might know a friend of mine? Dr. Strange. He tried to explain what happened to me, but I wouldn't let him finish. I need to hear it from you. Can you tell me what happened?" I guess he's here, helping out in the hospital somewhere.
I explain to her what happened, glancing over how me and Mr. Stark had worked together on the miracle drug that saved his life, then starting with the field trip. The story is full of rambling, and I explain the fight to her in detail. Her face almost breaks when I tell her about how everyone dissolved. When I start to tell her how painful it was, how I could feel every cell in my body trying to hold itself together, only to be ripped apart by the universe, I begin to panic. The world shuts out, and the all I can feel is pain. So much pain, and I can't breathe. It's as if it's happening again, I curl my legs up to my chest, falling to the floor. Trying to hold myself together. I grasp at my neck, my mouth is dry, but all I can taste is dust. Horrible, dry dust, clogging my throat, my ears, my nose. The world around me takes on a black tinge around the edges, and suddenly, everything goes dark.
The next thing I know, I have my back to the top corner of the room, my feet braced against and sticking to the wall, keeping me there. Someone else is there, right in front of me. I recognize his face, but I have never met him in person before. He scares me with how close he is, and I try to back impossibly further into the corner, cracking the plaster. He uses his left hand, his huge hand, that could probably crush me without a seconds thought, to ruffle my hair. Gently, as if not to scare me. Almost as if he is scared of hurting me.
I squeeze my eyes shut again, trying to block everything out, trying to wake myself up, because this can't be real. Why would the Hulk be in my face? I shake my head, before opening my eyes once more. He's still there, so I slam them shut again.
I can hear him talking, but it is a distant murmur. There is sound, but no words. I try to focus on my breathing, but I can't get enough oxygen to follow the breathing patterns that you're supposed to. I'm not stupid, I know this is a panic attack, but I can't control my breathing, so instead I move one of my hands to cover my mouth, sealing my nose off with the side of my pointer finger. (A/N at end of chapter) I deprive myself of breathing entirely, and I can see the Hulk's eyes widen dramatically before he tries to frantically remove my hand from my face.
Key word is tries. It seems that he is unable to take my hand away with only one of his, but by the time he has readjusted his grip, I am already moving away, trying to climb down the wall, and breathing freely once again. I look up. "Sorry about that. I uh.. I didn't expect that to happen. Sorry." I apologize again.
Christine is sitting at one of the chairs, off to the side and in the back. Directly next to her, talking quietly is Captain America, still wearing the clothes that Aunt May brought for him. I look at my feet. "Hey kid. You good?" I nod. "What happened? What was that all about, huh?" My breathing speeds up again, and I don't see the Hulk send a glare his way as soon as he asks.
"I was um. I was talking about what happened. About turning to dust. How it felt. It uh- it hurt. A lot. I thought dying was supposed to be peaceful." I laugh quietly, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work, and I see the three of them exchange looks. "Anyways, um, when I woke up, it felt like no time had passed, but Dr. Strange said it had been five years? And that you guys apparently needed our help? So we went to help. We fought hard, I broke a few ribs and I think my wrist and collarbone, and then Mr. Stark got the Infinity Stones from Thanos and snapped his fingers." The three listening to me start trying to talk, but I speak over them until they stop. I need to get the rest of this out, or I might just break down again. "Everyone from the past that was trying to harm us di- Wait what's that gonna do to the timelines? They won't be here to kill us five years ago anymore! Gosh that's so confusing. Anyways, he was dying, and um, gosh this is embarrassing, I made the drug specifically cause I didn't want to lose anymore parents. And I know Mr. Stark isn't my dad, I know, but he um, he helped a lot. And when I saw him dying, I could hear his heartbeat fading, and the grinding of his broken bones, and all I could think was that I could try to fix this, if only I had what I'd been working on before. So I sorta panicked, and got Dr. Strange to teleport me to my apartment, where I got the three vials from my room. "
I look around at the varying levels of disbelief on their faces. "Like I said, I isolated the gene that regulates my healing factor and using genetic engineering, basically rewrote the codes of a virus with the gene, to boost the healing of whoever it was given to. Before all of this went down, I was trying to figure out how to amplify the healing factor so broken bones and such on a normal human would only take a few days to heal completely, hours on a healthy adult. Maybe the higher dosage or the five years that it was left to settle or grow or whatever allowed it to amplify its own effects. I'm not really sure. But I knew that if there were any side effects, they couldn't possibly be worse than dying and leaving his family behind. He and Pepper got married, right? He's sacrificed so much, he doesn't deserve to have to give his life too." As an afterthought, I add. "And if the side effects are bad, it's his choice what he wants to do about it. Not ours."
Neither of the Avengers say anything, but Christine stands up, turning off a recording device that I hadn't noticed before, and gets up to leave. "Alright, that will be all. Thank you. Leave that last vial with us, we're still going to figure out what's in it, so we won't have to worry about it reacting with any pain medication or anything like that that we give Mr. Stark. Your relative, May Parker, is out in the lobby waiting for you to return to her. You are free to leave."
She is gone for only a few seconds before she reappears in the doorway. "You said you had how many broken bones?"
Line Break-
A/N: I know that's not a good way to deal with panic attacks. However, that's how I deal with mine. The shock of not being able to inhale brings me back to the present. It only takes a second or two. I know it isn't healthy, but when I'm panicking logic goes out the window, and for some reason that's just what happens. Thankfully, they aren't very common at all.
I put those two (Bruce and Steve) in there, cause I figured Christine would panic cause super strength teen is freaking out. She probably wanted someone both strong enough and gentle enough to get through to him, and restrain him if necessary.
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