Wow, thank you all for the positive feedback! I'd like to thank Guardian of Heaven, Evangeline Pond, Marvel18, Savarra, and my two wonderful Guest reviewers for their comments! A special thanks to all of you who favorited and followed the story as well! Your actions have confirmed that I'll continue the story! :)
All right, enough of my blabbing. Here's the next chapter... hope you enjoy!
As Clint carried the boy he had saved toward the helicopter, Steve remained to carry Pietro to the vehicle. Esca followed him, murmuring words of encouragement to Pietro the whole way.
"Get him to the medical bay of this flying… thing," she commanded. "I will need some things there."
Steve nodded and brought the two of them to the medical bay, although it was difficult because it was so crowded. Esca managed to part the crowd somewhat by declaring, "Out of the way, please! Everyone move!"
It was twenty minutes after Pietro had been impaled by the dozen bullets when at last they reached the medical bay. Steve carefully put Pietro on one of the white hospital-like beds as Esca rummaged through the drawers, found a needle, set up a bag of blood, and carefully inserted the needle into her vein.
"What are you doing?" asked Steve, his eyebrows furrowed together.
"He's losing too much blood. He will need a blood transfusion. I luckily have type O blood, so he will be able to accept mine." Once the bag was full, Esca kneeled beside Pietro and, with a new needle, carefully inserted it into his arm. "Are you still awake?" she asked.
He blinked again.
"Good," she sighed. "Stay awake for me. I'll do my best to help you… I'm not letting you die on me, not when I owe you such a big favor."
A hint of a smile overcame his face. Esca smiled as well before saying, "This is going to sound weird. You might not believe what I'm going to tell you, but it's true. I have powers too. I never got to tell you. I have a special ability that helps me heal people. The only problem is, I have to remove the bullets from some of the wounds first. I promise it won't hurt much… but you need to stay awake, all right?"
Pietro blinked again, his eyes containing a little more focus. Throughout the transfusion, Esca continued talking to him in an attempt to keep him awake. "I guess you're probably wondering how I found you," she said. As she withdrew more of her own blood to give him, Esca carefully angled the knife to extract another bullet from his arm. "Well, I found a building, like you told me to. Clint found me there and told me there was a way to get off the city."
He groaned slightly as Esca accidentally grazed his skin with the knife. "Sorry," she said quietly, not faltering from her work. "Anyway… I met Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark. I briefly saw Dr. Banner before he destroyed the jet with a large machine in it. I haven't met the others yet… but I've been told you have a twin sister. I hope I can meet her."
Esca then glanced at Steve, who was watching her work with an impressed fascination. "Do you know where Dr. Banner is?" she asked him.
Steve somberly shook his head. "I'll get in contact with the others to see if he's here."
"Good… I might need him."
With these words, Steve stepped out of the room, and Esca had finished gathering the bullets out of Pietro's arms. She checked on his progress; she needed to take his blood pressure before long.
"Do you know what the weirdest thing about my healing is?" she whispered. "I only have to sing to heal you." And she began the song she used whenever someone was hurt:
Please keep your eyes open
Can you see the light?
Will you walk towards it
Or give to the night?
Please keep your eyes open
Can you hear my song?
I promise you now
You can sleep before long.
As she sang, the circular wounds began to close, right in front of Esca's eyes. Encouraged, she repeated the song, keeping her eyes on Pietro. His face started to regain color, and the glazed look over his eyes started to dissipate. He blinked again, and suddenly it was clear that he was looking straight at her.
Esca smiled at him, but when he tried to raise his head, she quietly shushed him and gently laid him back down. "You are tired and in great need of sleep," she murmured. "Do not strain yourself."
He opened his mouth to say something, but she chided him lightly, "That classifies as straining yourself, Pietro Maximoff. I'm officially prescribing you some rest, healer's orders. Now sleep." Though she was commanding, Esca made sure to keep her voice calm.
Pietro frowned, ready to refuse, but Esca insisted that he needed rest. Within the following hour, she finished removing whatever bullets had lodged themselves in his legs. Pietro had fallen asleep.
Once she was certain her work was done, Esca rose with a tired sigh. Healing always took a good amount of her energy, though she didn't want to sleep just in case Pietro would need her. When she stood up, she was face-to-face with Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Clint Barton, all of whom had apparently been watching her work.
Seeing that he had been caught red-handed, Steve flushed at her raised eyebrow. After a moment, he said, "That was something to watch, miss."
Esca smiled at his old-fashioned formality. "Thank you, Captain. But please, feel free to call me Esca."
"Only if you call me Steve," replied Steve, a smirk tugging at his lips.
She laughed. "That sounds fair."
Before anyone could say another word, a girl's voice screamed from outside the room. All four whirled around—a woman was staring through the glass walls and into the room.
The woman practically wrestled herself through the three men, scrambling towards Pietro, leaning over him and crying his name. Based on her concern for him, Esca guessed that this must've been his twin sister.
She was proven right when Clint walked over to her and said, "Wanda—it's all right." He emulated Esca's tactic of talking calmly as he continued, "He'll be fine. Blondie here—I mean, Esca—is healing him."
Wanda took a deep breath before facing Esca. Her face was lined with tears that made neat paths through the dirt and grime accumulated on her face. Her brown hair was matted down with blood or sweat or both, and her brown eyes were filled with an indescribable concern. She blinked before speaking. "Are you Esca?"
Esca nodded. Wanda swiftly rose and placed a hand on her arm. "Thank you… so much… for helping him. How—how did you do it?"
"It's a long story," replied Esca, her face darkening. It was a long story indeed, and not one she wanted to go into at that time. "For now, let's just say that I have powers too."
The other woman seemed to understand the reason behind Esca's reluctance. As it was, she only smiled and thanked her again before sitting next to her brother, her hand on his face as if daring to hope that he would wake up.
"He will be awake in twenty-four hours," said Esca. The others turned and looked at her funnily. She shrugged. "It's how long it takes whenever I heal someone. It's never been different before."
They seemed to accept this answer gladly—it was Clint who stepped forward and said, "You should sleep too, Esca. You look exhausted, and it's been a long day."
She chuckled somewhat before retorting, "My day has been quite short compared to the one you must be having. It is you four who should rest, not I."
"You heard the lady, I'm taking a nap," announced Tony. He had taken off his suit of iron armor and lay down on one of the beds… but not even a second afterward, he leapt back up again. "No use. Insomnia," he clarified to Esca, who had raised an eyebrow.
"Lie back down, Mr. Stark," commanded Esca. "I can help you fall asleep. In fact, I can do the same for the rest of you."
"Ugh, you're so dreadfully polite," groaned Tony. "Just call me Tony." He winked at her afterward, but lay back down as Esca had commanded. Seeing that even Tony was obeying her, Wanda, Steve, and Clint all found a place to rest.
Seeing that they were doing as she asked, Esca smiled and began to tell a story about a little girl who spent her whole life traveling the world, pretending she was an adventurer to escape her inner demons. She used her willpower behind her voice to make the others sleepy and smiled as Steve tried to cover up a yawn, as Clint's head lolled around his shoulders, as Wanda lay next to her brother and closed her eyes.
Once they were all asleep, Esca sat down and smiled to herself. She was glad she was able to help these people who'd saved her life… though it was only a little favor, she still liked being useful.
Esca looked back at Pietro again. He was sleeping peacefully, and she thought of their brief exchange earlier. With a start, she realized that she had never told him her name… Perhaps that would be something she could tell him later.
But then she thought: just because she met the Avengers didn't mean she would be welcome among them for long. With a small sigh, Esca realized that wherever this helicopter was going, she would need to establish a new life there, because her old home was gone.
She glanced at the sleeping Avengers at her feet and tried to resist grinning. They weren't so powerful or intimidating when they were asleep.
The future was a problem for tomorrow. For now, Esca wanted to make sure they would all be okay.