Chapter 3: Survival is a Necessary Evil
"Talk to me, Stark. What's going on in there?" Fury said as he entered the nearly deserted hospital waiting room with Natasha, Bruce and Steve behind him sometime near midnight. Tony thought he must look completely ridiculous sitting there on the floor reading a year old copy of Esquire in his Iron Man suit. The teenage girl giggling and taking pictures with her cellphone nearby sure thought so. He snapped the magazine closed and tossed it in her direction. The poor thing actually swooned and glanced around warily as she snatched it and shoved it in her purse before scurrying out the door, leaving Tony alone with the others.
"I've got good news and bad news." Tony said with a heavy sigh. "The good news: She's stable and it's just a bunch of hairline fractures with no major organ damage. The Kevlar must have absorbed some of the impact. The bad news... Major spinal trauma and full-body paralysis. Basically, she'll be a vegetable for as long as she's alive. Which will be like a week, tops because her body's full of shrapnel from the metal in the debris that hit her."
"They can't remove the shrapnel?" Steve asked, running his fingers through his blonde hair. Natasha frowned absently and looked at her feet. If Tony had to guess, she looked sad. And that was by no means an expression he was used to seeing on the Black Widow's face. Bruce remained expressionless, but seemed deep in thought.
"No. Not all of it anyway. And I don't know what difference it would make if the only part of her body she'll be able to move is her head. Maybe. She's kind of in a shock-induced coma at the moment, but her brain functions are normal." Tony explained.
"...Maybe we could fix that." Bruce interjected and leaned down to tap the chest plate of Tony's suit that covered the miniaturized arc reactor implanted in his chest with a wink.
"That would work for the shrapnel, yeah, but not the paralysis. ...Never mind that that we're talking millions as far as cost is concerned just for the materials to build the device." Tony replied. Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Well, the nervous system is run on miniscule electrical charges. Maybe it could work with the right wiring." Bruce thought aloud. Tony drummed his armored fingers on the carpeted floor. Now that was a pretty badass idea.
"Yeah maybe but you, or someone who actually knows medical crap, needs to figure out the 'wiring'." Tony suggested with a shrug. "I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to play God with actual living things. I think we all know how that will end." Fury just shook his head.
"Yeah, she'll die because you'll be too busy getting drunk and laid to remember to feed her. That's why we don't let you have pets, remember?" Natasha said with a snort and two very serious nods from Bruce and Steve. Tony just mumbled mutinously under his breath.
"Steel isn't worth that kind of money for an entirely experimental procedure." The director of SHIELD snapped. "I guess I'll have to find a new rat in the Mafia. I'm going back to the base. Romanov, get me a full report of what happened there based on what's left for visual evidence." Natasha nodded silently, but didn't follow Fury. The way she glared daggers at him as he turned back wasn't lost on Steve or Bruce.
"Natasha?" Steve asked, curiously. "What's bugging you?"
"I'll miss her, that's all Cap." The spy said in a flat voice without the faintest trace of emotion. "Hollie gave me one hell of a run for my money when I was sent to kill her, so decided to recruit her instead. We're a lot alike, sometimes it's like looking in a mirror. I suppose the least I can do is some digging, and try to avenge her family for her. That was the only thing she was living for in the end, really." Steve shifted uncomfortably on his feet and glanced out the window at the snow-covered parking lot that glistened in the light from the streetlamps. Fury's reaction didn't sit well with the super soldier and they all knew it. Tony bit his lip and looked up at Bruce.
Let it never be said that Tony Stark is a heartless asshole.
"Bruce, get a hold of Doctor Strange. He's the only one with the know-how we need who won't tell Fury the time of day. Hopefully he can keep the voodoo out of it. The two of you can work on a way to deal with the paralysis while I build another one of these puppies. She can have my spare one for now so she doesn't shove off before you figure out the hard part." Tony said with an awkward smile and laid his hand over the arc reactor.
"Nat, get her moved to the medical facilities at Stark Tower – the high security section. Consider it a Christmas present, Jamie Bond, because I totally don't know what the fuck to get a homicidal maniac, and you look like a sad lost kitten. Like seriously. I don't think I could handle you crying. It would be a sign of the apocalypse." He added to Natasha who scoffed and glared at him. She was not crying, or pouting in the slightest.
"...Jamie bond?" Steve asked. All three of the others rolled their eyes. They were really going to have to sit down and have Steve make a list of 21st century shit to catch up on.
Hollie tried to open her eyes, to move, to do well, anything. It was useless, though. Her body was entirely unresponsive and she couldn't seem to feel anything at all below her shoulders. Hollie could remember the explosion, but nothing past that. She figured she must be in a hospital, that obnoxious beeping could only be a heart monitor. Unless Dante finally got me and has me drugged, she thought painfully. Wherever she was, she had to find a way out. The Mafia hunted her at every turn, but for the most part SHIELD caught them sniffing and dealt with it. The ones SHIELD didn't catch, well, no one would ever find the bodies. Hollie was the best at what she did, except maybe for Natasha Romanov. Either way, the two of them were easily regarded as SHIELD's deadliest agents by far with Barton as a close second. ...None of that could help her now, though.
"Hmm. I don't remember that scar, it definitely wasn't there when I found her at the scene. Hey, it's kind of lightening bolt shaped. Harry Potter, much? I wonder if she's a fangirl." She heard someone say nearby and felt a soft touch on her marred left cheek. It was a male, but not someone she knew. Still, it sounded familiar somehow. Shit, no. Not the scar... I need to cover it, she thought desperately.
"She's always had that, but there are dirtbags in high places who want her dead that would recognize it in an instant, so she usually covers it with makeup. And no, I highly doubt Hollie is a Harry Potter fan." Hollie knew that voice and immediately relaxed. If Romanov was there, the Mafia didn't have her. Yet. Still, that could be worse. God only knew how bad her injuries must be. Unless...
"So, is she in the clear or what?" The same man asked again. Hollie could almost feel him fidgeting like a squirrel. Whoever he was, he was full of pent up energy and most likely utterly useless at sitting still.
"Well, she's not going to die anytime soon, whether or not she'll ever walk again is still up for debate. She's probably going to regain consciousness shortly, but just remember that she is paralyzed from the neck down. We're on it, but don't expect a miracle and don't lie to her." Another unfamiliar male voice, followed by the rhythmic sound of someone typing on a computer keyboard.
Paralyzed? That was what he had said. No! Why did they save her? Couldn't they see she was better off dead? In a desperate attempt to so much as wiggle her fingers, Hollie realized it was true and would have sobbed like a child if only she could. Instead, a mindless panic welled up inside of her because she couldn't keep running like this. They would find her. She was as good as dead. The heart monitor picked it up and she brought the panic back under control quickly to avoid and scrutiny.
"We know, Bruce. How's the little science project coming along anyway?" This was Natasha again, Hollie could sense a tiny bit of very uncharacteristic nervousness in her voice.
"Right now, we're just trying to map out her central nervous system, well, whatever's left of it. Once we have that, we can start trying to figure out how exactly to wire the arc reactor to artificially stimulate her ability to move. Honestly Natasha, she'll be lucky if she can walk. She's probably not going to be able to feel anything from the neck down, even she gets her motor skills back. ...And definitely not going to be fit for her usual line of work." The man working on the computer, Bruce, replied.
"So, I guess if she she can't feel anything - "
"Jesus Christ Stark, please tell me you didn't decide to drop half a billion dollars on this to get into her pants, because I'll warn you now – it won't happen." Natasha swore irritably. Stark, ah, that's why he sounded familiar. It was hard not to think so now. Hollie had often wondered if the idiot just liked listening to the sound of his own voice after seeing so much of him on the News. Not to mention all the times she'd called Stark Tower to rip into him about hacking past her firewalls that she'd programmed for SHIELD. His own massive ego would be the death of him one day.
"Nah. Don't get me wrong, she's pretty hot for a half-dead chick. I'm actually really digging the scar. But you should know by now that I have a policy about not sleeping with SHIELD agents, especially not if they can kill me in fifty different ways with their little finger." Stark replied with a chuckle.
"Right, sure." Natasha replied, thoroughly unconvinced and Hollie could swear she heard her smirking.
"Arrogant... Son of a bitch." Hollie muttered, thinking about her few (mindlessly irritating) telephone interactions with Stark. Her eyes flew open and she blinked in surprise when she realized she'd actually been able to say the words, albeit with a slight slur.
"Aww, really? That was mean. You're breaking my heart, Sweetie." Tony drawled. Natasha snickered and looked down at Hollie with a hint of a smile. Hollie just wanted to grab Stark by the collar of his most likely overpriced dress shirt and throw him across the room. But then, she knew he had that effect on most people. Especially the tech staff at SHIELD.
"Before you ask, because I know you will, you're in a private medical facility in Stark Tower." The widow explained to Hollie as she took in her surroundings - not that she could see much but the plain white ceiling and the three people standing over her. "No one knows you're here aside from the Avengers. That includes SHIELD and your old friends."
"Molto buona. (Very good)" Hollie muttered and closed her eyes before slipping back into unconsciousness.