Hi there everyone. Sorry this update took so long. I have literally no excuses. I am posting this at nearly 2 AM so if there are mistakes have pity. I will reread and edit tomorrow, I am just anxious to put this chapter up. Please let me know what you think!
"Wanda? Wanda Maximoff?" Jemma's English lilt felt awkward pronouncing the Eastern-European name.
"Ms. Maximoff?" she said again as the Scarlet Witch's eyes fluttered open. Jemma's shoulders slumped in relief as Wanda opened her eyes and looked around the medical room.
"Where am I?" Wanda asked, her voice hoarse from lack of use.
"We can't tell you exactly where you are but you are safe." Jemma tentatively seated herself at the foot of the hospital bed. Wanda looked around for a moment and then spoke.
"Is this S.H.I.E.L.D?" she asked, her suspicion growing slightly. Wanda's history with S.H.I.E.L.D occurred to Jemma and she spoke quickly.
"Yes, we are S.H.I.E.L.D, but we are good S.H.I.E.L.D…not Hydra. We are the good guys." Jemma fumbled through her words a little bit but gave a reassuring smile at the end of her sentence. Wanda looked slightly suspicious but then seemed to be at ease after a moment.
"I'm Doctor Jemma Simmons, and this is my associate and fiancé Doctor Leo Fitz." Jemma leaned forward so that Wanda would be able to see Fitz from where she was sitting. Fitz waved as he munched on the other half of his sandwich. At seeing this Wanda let out a little smile but quickly erased it.
"I'm Wanda Maximoff." She sat back, seeming a little upset as she spoke her own name. Suddenly a thought seemed to occur to her. She rustled with the blankets, somehow seeming hopeful. She pulled her left foot out from under the covers and then pulled off the thick hospital sock. Her face fell when she saw the upper inside of her heel.
"What is it?" Jemma was visibly worried and inched forward to try and see what it was that Wanda was dissatisfied with.
"Oh, It's nothing." Wanda pushed her foot forward so that Jemma could see what she was looking at. Jemma could now clearly see the small blue and white watercolor tattoo of a lightning bolt that sat just below Wanda's ankle bone on the soft part above her heel.
"I got that to remember my brother after he died." Wanda began to explain. "Sometimes if I wake up from something I wonder if I dreamt the whole thing. His death, becoming an avenger, and now the accords I guess. Sometimes it's a reminder for a good reason, sometimes for a bad reason."
Jemma nodded in understanding. Wanda looked over Jemma's shoulder and saw the sandwich sitting on the table next to the couch. Wanda's stomach rumbled loudly and she looked at the sandwich longingly. She then looked from the sandwich back to Jemma then back to the sandwich once more. She stuttered a little but then finally managed to get the words out.
"Can I have that sandwich?" Wanda asked sheepishly. Jemma smiled and nodded.
"Of course." Jemma walked over, picked up the plate, and then brought it over to Wanda. Without thought Wanda picked up the sandwich with her bandaged hands and took a giant bite. She nodded and expressed her enthusiasm with a slow "Mmmmmm."
Wanda finished the sandwich in a couple of minutes and then dusted the crumbs off of the gauze covering her hands.
"Did you make that?" Wanda asked Jemma, quite impressed. Jemma nodded her head with a little grin and then changed the subject.
"So now that you are awake I can ask you, is there anyone that we should contact about finding you?" Wanda's eyes widened and she shook her head rapidly.
"No! Please don't contact anyone." She looked frightened and Jemma was quite shocked by this reaction.
"Oh! Okay don't worry I won't!" Jemma exclaimed quickly trying to calm her patient and then furrowed her brows once again.
"Wanda?" Jemma got the girl's attention and then posed the question that had been gnawing at the back of her mind.
"Why were you walking alone in the most dangerous part of Hell's Kitchen?" Jemma asked, the concern in her voice thick.
"I ran away." Wanda's voice tightened when she spoke. Jemma immediately changed her facial expression to one of pure sympathy, but continued to probe.
"Why did you run away?" Jemma asked with her voice lowered slightly. Tears began to run down Wanda's stoic face. Jemma placed her hand on Wanda's shoulder, trying her best to comfort her. Jemma had never been very good at this part. The social sciences had always been a bit more of a mystery to her, thus she wasn't the most tactful of people. She silently wished that Daisy was here. She would know exactly what to do. About a minute later Wanda finally answered Jemma's question.
"I left because…" her voice trailed off and her face was now showing the pain that she truly felt. She let out a sloppy sob and then continued.
"I left because they betrayed me." As she spoke her hand slowly reached up to the dressed wound on the side of her neck. She looked down and tears dripped off of her dark eyelashes. Jemma's suspicions were close to being confirmed, she just did not want to admit it. She warily moved her hand from Wanda's shoulder to lift her narrow chin so that she could look her in the eyes.
"What did they do to you?" Jemma asked, the sting of tears now threatening behind her eyes as well. Her upset must have been detectable in her voice because merely seconds later she heard the thumping of Leo's heavy feet across the linoleum floor, and then the weight and heat of his calloused hand on her own shoulder.
"When we were in the raft…" Wanda paused again, trying to hold back the tears. She took a deep breath and then resumed.
"When they had us all locked up they treated me differently from everyone else." There was silence for a moment and then Wanda continued.
"They treated me like an animal. A monster. They tied me up, and put a shock collar on me." Jemma took in a sharp gasp at hearing this, but Wanda seemed determined now to finish her story.
"They would shock me for no reason. For fun. It was like they wanted to see me in pain. The others looked like they wanted to help, but they couldn't. Eventually Stark and the Vision came to break us out, and they did, but there was no sympathy. They were just acting as if nothing had happened…So I blew up."
Jemma was really confused now. "Blew up?" She asked, urging Wanda to elaborate.
Wanda breathed a heavy sigh and then began a slightly different story.
"You know the Spider-Man vigilante in New York?" She asked semi-rhetorically, Fitz and Simmons both nodded to indicate that she could go on.
"Well, Stark enlisted him to fight…This wouldn't be a problem… but during the fight I read his thoughts." Wanda had their full attention now. She looked to them to gauge whether she should keep going. Their faces were full of concern so she continued. "He is fifteen years old." She shook her head just thinking about it. "A child, and Stark used him as a soldier. Even worse, he was injured in the fight." After speaking these words, Wanda pouted heavily and gritted her teeth. Only shock could be read on the faces staring at her and listening intently.
"I never liked Stark but I didn't think that even he could sink that low." Her voice trembled and elevated as her anger became apparent.
"Before I ran away I screamed at him. For sticking his nose in affairs he has no business being a part of, for making it personal, for making it physical, for ruining the closest thing to family that I had left, and for blackmailing a child into doing his dirty-work." Wanda pouted again and shook her head.
"You want to know the worst part?" Wanda made eye-contact with the her now teary-eyed rescuer and then continued. "He just sat there and took it. I was ready for a fight and he just sat there nodding his head. So I was the one left with a feeling of crushing guilt. The same guilt that should cripple him every day!" She took a deep breath and crossed her arms. "I went to Hell's Kitchen looking for a law firm called Nelson and Murdock. I'd heard that they take nearly every case, and that's what I needed if I was going to succeed against Tony Stark and the US Government but when I arrived I found that their firm had been dissolved. Hell's Kitchen is full of scum, that's how I ended up where you found me. I was chased there by the guys who did this." She gestured to one of the stitched up gashes.
Wanda sat back now. Having been able to vent her story to a friendly face, she felt the smallest bubble of hope rise in her chest. Jemma placed a hand gently on Wanda's shoulder once more and then gave small reassuring pats.
"You should get some rest. We will be right here if you need anything" She said nodding toward the area with the table and the couch.
Wanda nodded and then rested her head against the crunchy hospital pillow. Merely moments later her eyes had fluttered closed and her breathing became even and calm rather than the short jagged breaths that had afflicted her post-rant.
After sitting back down on the couch, Jemma retreated to her own thoughts once more. Here she was thinking that Wanda was a misused child, where Wanda was thinking the exact same thing about someone else. Jemma realized that Wanda may still technically be a teenager, but she was very grown up. She spoke with wisdom far beyond her years, and had an exceedingly in-tune moral compass. Jemma looked at the girl now as more of an equal rather than a beaten puppy. She was not unlike Daisy in a way.
Suddenly Jemma felt like she had received a punch to the gut at the thought of Daisy. Alone out there. Still missing. Jemma looked over to Fitz and took his hand. With a little pull she signaled for him to join her on the couch rather than on the chair. He obliged happily, coming over and squeezing between Jemma and the couch arm. She snuggled up to his chest feeling as though she wanted to say something but couldn't. After looking up to his face to see that his mouth hung open in a sort of pre-speaking posture, she could tell that he was feeling the same way. She briefly got up to turn out the light, and then returned to her spot beside her best friend and the love of her life. She pulled the extra blanket up and they both drifted to sleep to the sound of Wanda's rhythmic, relived, breathing.