Oh, my lanta, guys. I am so sorry for the hiatus. Just, you know, you're going along writing stuff, and then school is all "NO! No free time for you!" So yeah. That's my excuse. A poor one, I grant you, but please accept it anyway, with my apologies, and this next chapter.
At her own request, Asa picked up her first shift the next day. The whole wheels-then-wings routine was getting a little old, so she slept most of the way. Soon, she was tailing Johnson in her lab coat, glad to be on her feet again.
It didn't take her long to fall into an old familiar rhythm. It felt good, comforting- a piece of her old life that had nothing to do with Liretto. Not that her imprisonment was ever far from her mind, but at least here it was easier to push to the side. Asa caught herself smiling as she made her rounds. By the time she got back to Stark Tower late in the afternoon, all she wanted to do was take a nap.
She was about to hoist herself up the stairs to her bed when she remembered her other patients. She sighed. This whole "having-patients-who-lived-at-home" thing was going to be tricky. She made a mental note to let Natasha know that she was going to need some resources. She squared her shoulders and headed back out the door.
Asa made herself stop at Peter's room first. He wasn't there. She gritted her teeth, her previous good mood shot.
"JARVIS, where's our favorite delinquent arachnid?" she asked testily, then immediately regretted it. It wasn't JARVIS's fault that Peter wasn't in.
"Mr. Parker is currently on the roof."
"Huh. Is there an easy way for me to get up there?" She had a feeling that when JARVIS said roof, he didn't mean somewhere she could reach by elevator, and she was right.
"I'm afraid not, Miss Asa. Mr. Parker climbed out his window. I would suggest waiting here for him to return."
She pursed her lips. "Oh, believe me, I plan to."
Asa made herself at home. Peter's rooms weren't much bigger than Stephanie's upstairs. A bed and desk in one corner, a couch, chair and TV in another. A bar, of course, stretched along one wall. Everything was open, airy space and horizontal lines. A single door led to a bathroom. She wandered around aimlessly, then finally settled into the leather couch. When her hairclip began to press annoyingly into the back of her head, she took it out and clipped it to her lapel.
When her eyelids started to droop, she turned on the TV with a flick of her fingers and flipped through channels until she found some Buffy reruns. She watched them and until JARVIS informed her that Peter was on his way back, at which point, her relaxation vanished. She turned off the TV and positioned herself so that he wouldn't see her until his feet hit the floor.
He was impressively stealthy, and was almost all the way in the open window until Asa realized he was there. He landed lightly, and it took less than a second for him to notice her and drop into a defense crouch. It took another second for him to register who she was, by which time she was already standing with her hands on her hips and a dark scowl. He straightened sheepishly.
"So." She had more to say, but realized belatedly that she had no justification for being mad at him; it wasn't as if it was really her business that he was a superhero. They'd only known each other for a couple of days. So she switched tactics while he watched her warily. "Please repeat to me the instructions I gave you yesterday morning."
He blinked a few times and tried a grin. She kept her face smooth.
"Uh, no running, no jumping, no climbing?"
She nodded. "So your ears work, it's your brain that's got a problem."
He cocked his head and opened his mouth with some kind of argument, but she didn't give him time for it.
"No, shut up. I am a doctor. You wanna know why? Because I spent years and years in medical school, learning how the human body works, and how to fix it when it breaks. So when I tell you to take it easy, you'd better believe I know what I'm talking about."
"Well, strictly, technically speaking, I'm not exactly-"
"Normal? Yeah, I get it. Believe it or not, I guessed as much. Anyone else who came out of the fight you did would be bedridden in the hospital, so yeah, you're special. That doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. Next time, you will do as I tell you. Is that clear?" She realized, a little belatedly, that she was almost yelling, standing with her fists clenched, breathing heavily. She bit her lip, wishing she could take it back. She hadn't lashed out like that in… she couldn't even remember how long. It felt good, but she knew better. She was a better person than this. Or she had been, at one point.
They stood facing each other, and the air felt dark and thick on her skin. Peter had tensed, his center of gravity had lowered until he was ready for a fight. Asa forced herself to take a deep breath.
"Sit down. I need to take out the stitches."
For a second, she thought he was going to refuse, but then he turned around and stalked to the couch, where he flopped himself down. She took another deep breath, clenched and released her fists once, then followed.
A quick glance showed her that she had a problem. The skin had healed much faster than she had expected, and now the stitches were partly covered with new pinkness. She clenched her jaw.
"Well, it looks like your healing rate is nearly exponential. I'll need to do some tests later; get your vitals, plot some data, that kind of thing. In the meantime, this might hurt." She didn't want to admit that she'd misjudged, that she should've taken them out yesterday. It didn't look like they were infected, though, so she could still just snip them and take them out. It was just going to pinch more than it should have.
That's exactly what she did, and he grimaced the entire time. She pulled the last one out, and put a quick bandage over the cut.
"There you go. You should be fine. There might be some scarring, but nothing too serious. Now let me look at your leg."
That, too, proved to be healing well, despite his excursions. A little strained, maybe, but holding up.
"You are one lucky duck." Her tone was still brusque. "You haven't damaged anything, and you should be back up to full health by the day after tomorrow. You officially no longer require my services." She packed up her back, and he stood to see her out. It was a polite gesture, but there was nothing kind about it. She felt rather as if he wanted to make sure she didn't vandalize anything on the way out. She almost snarled at him. It wasn't her fault he was a lying idiot!
She paused in the doorway, then turned around.
"You know, you could've just told me you were Spiderman. Would've made everything a lot easier."
She slammed the door behind her.
Asa paced in the elevator.
What on earth had possessed her? What was with the nasty? She barely knew him. It was almost reassuring to tell herself that it was just because she liked him, was attracted to him, even. Because then she could avoid what really scared her, the thing that she worried was the real reason for her emotional instability.
The doors opened with a ding, and Asa was glad to step out. The elevator felt too cramped. She stopped outside of Stephanie's door and took a deep breath before knocking. There was no response from inside, but as she turned to leave, she heard Stephanie call out from below.
"Oh, hey! Sorry, I'm down here." Asa leaned over the balcony to look down at Steph, who'd poked her head out from the kitchen.
"Is this a good time for a check-up?" Asa asked.
"As good as any. Come on down."
Asa followed Steph into the kitchen, where she was making rice.
"I just wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Sure thing. Do you want some rice?"
Asa shook her head. "No thanks. How are you feeling today?"
Stephanie shrugged. "Pretty good. Less tired, I guess."
"Good. Any bruising, dizziness, nausea, tenderness?"
Stephanie paused to think about it. "A little sore, I guess. No more so than like a good workout, though."
Asa nodded. "Great. Well, then, you should be fine. If we were in a hospital, I would officially discharge you." She pushed out her stool. Stephanie turned around, wide-eyed.
"Oh, you don't have to leave. You can really stay and have some rice if you want."
Asa stared at the countertop. "Thanks, but I'm really tired. I'm going to go take a nap. Maybe I'll head back down later."
Stephanie shrugged. "Cool cool cool. I'll probably still be here."
Asa didn't reply, but waved a hand behind her in acknowledgement as she trudged back up the stairs.
When she woke up, it was dark. She tried to sit up, and got caught in the sheets, and screamed. She thrashed at the blankets and finally fell out of bed with a thud. It was then she realized where she was, and that she was awake, and it was just a nightmare. Slowly, she crawled to the corner where the bed met the wall and sat, curled up in on herself. She hoped nobody came to check on her. Her sobs were great messy things, shaking her entire body, noisy and wobbly and horrible. She could feel straps rubbing at her wrists, and she squeezed her eyes shut against bright, sterile light that wasn't there. She told herself that, over and over- it wasn't real, it wasn't there, it was over- but whenever she made any headway, she remembered how awful she'd been to Peter, and just hated herself, and cried harder.
She tried telling herself that this was stupid, that she was overreacting. Everyone had the right to be angry sometimes, and one outburst didn't make her a horrible person. She even realized, in a detached kind of a way, that she was probably still suffering from some version of post-traumatic stress disorder.
It didn't matter. When it was dark, and silent, logic became a fragile, useless thing, easily devoured by her fear. Fear devoured everything, and gave birth to anger, and loathing, and a bone-trembling exhaustion. She hugged her knees to herself and tried to breath, though it was unbelievably difficult, hot and cold in turns, and the air seemed to catch in her throat, then her sternum, before finally seeping into her lungs.
Just breathe.
Eventually, the breathing evened out a little. As soon as she realized this, she pulled herself up to her feet and stumbled down the stairs.
"Um, lights. JARVIS, lights." She was still incapable of forming coherent sentences, but thankfully, it wasn't the first time JARVIS had dealt with nightmares. The lights came on, just bright enough for her to pick her way downstairs to the kitchen. She flinched away from everything: the railing, the refrigerator, the pot. Eventually, in spite of having occasionally to stop and sit with her head between her knees, she managed to put on a pot of water, and make herself a mug of hot cocoa. She inhaled the steam, and the smell calmed her a little. She drank it slowly, sipping it tentatively. She tried to focus on the warm ceramic, the yellow quality of the light. JARVIS turned on some soothing music- something faintly jazzy, but mellow- and she started, but it helped.
Eventually, she felt well enough to clean herself up. She splashed water on her face and neck, pulled her hair up.
"JARVIS, what time is it?"
"The time is 1:08 P.M."
"Thanks."
One o' clock in the morning; odds were no one else was up. She changed into sweats, and was about to head out the door when JARVIS interrupted.
"Agent Romanoff would like to see you."
"Oh." Asa stopped mid-step. "Where is she?"
"Just outside the door."
"Oh! Well, let her in!"
The door slid open, to reveal Natasha standing with her arms across her chest. Asa smiled tentatively.
"You're supposed to start your training today."
Training! She'd completely forgotten! She bit her lip.
"Yeah, sorry, I fell asleep…"
"The day's not over yet." She eyed Asa up and down. "That'll do. Come on." She turned around and walked away, and Asa had to run to catch up.
Kind of a short one, but more coming, I promise! And brownie points to anyone who caught the extremely nerdy reference somewhere in the middle...
As always, if you liked it (or even if you didn't) leave me a review and let me know!