Imitations Carved Deep: Chapter 2
Hey all! Glad to hear you guys are interested so far. :) Hopefully I can pull you in farther;) I wanted to let you know that I will not update next week as I will be on vacation in a place with no wifi. I will also be going back to college in a couple of weeks, which will mean sporadic updates. Please be patient with me. Education comes first, and sometimes I am just too brain dead to get a chapter to you. Thank you.
Not a Tony/Loki story. Just friendship.
Be forewarned, I have named female Loki, 'Kira', and that is what she will be referred to for a good chunk of the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own them...so sad.
Warnings: Severe angst. Stupid/Bad Thor (temporarily). Torture (in the past). Implied rape (in past). Don't read if any of these trigger.
New House Guest
"Back up! She's just passed out from blood loss and probably pain. These wounds on her leg look very deep. Tony, I said back up, not get closer!" The inventor didn't look the least bit guilty though he did step back from Kira to let Bruce do his job.
Dr. Banner stared down at Kira's legs and seemed to be contemplating whether to take the time to pull the pants fully off or just cut them off where he needed to work. Tony waved his hand about.
"I'll replace whatever she needs. I was planning on giving Kira a new set of clothes anyway, though I'm sure she'd fight me on that too." Natasha raised a brow, finding herself the slightest bit surprised at Stark's charity for a stranger. Granted the girl was pretty, but this was different.
"She seemed pretty headstrong. Just because someone is in need, Tony, doesn't mean they want charity. Kira might be homeless, but she obviously still has her pride." Tony's face fell, and the assassin rolled her eyes. "I'm not saying don't help her. I'm just telling you that she might not be as accepting of your generosity as much as your willing to give it." Stark actually seemed to consider it before shrugging.
"Well, I guess we'll find out when she wakes up again. Banner, I leave her in your capable hands." Bruce picked up a pair of scissors and waved them all out. He wasn't going to expose Kira in front of the entire team.
Dr. Banner winced in sympathy when he finally cut off Kira's dirtied jeans. Bruce pulled off her boots and socks as well to get a completely unobstructed view of the injury. The wounds were jagged and deep. Bruce could picture the creature latching on. One swift jerk of its head and Kira would have come in with an entire calf missing. If he didn't know any better, he would have said Kira had been attacked by a shark.
Bruce reached out with a gloved hand and a moist towel, trying to clear the blood away. As he did so, he felt around, hoping that the only thing damaged was muscle. To be certain, he had Jarvis run a few scans.
"Dr. Banner, no bones are broken or chipped. However, the young woman's Achilles tendon does have a tear in it." Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose.
"It's not completely ruptured?" Jarvis brought up some images for the doctor to look at.
"No, Sir. The damage was done mainly to muscle, but a few teeth appear to have torn the tendon in a few places." Though Bruce had known the woman a total of three minutes, he could already picture her face when he told her that she would be in a cast for weeks. Dr. Banner sighed, but went about gathering some local anesthetic, sterile needles, thread, etc. As he sat down to get started, he gave Jarvis some final instructions.
"Let me know if she starts to wake up, and do not let Tony in here no matter how bored or tired of waiting he is. Tell him I'll Hulk out in his lab again if he does."
"Certainly, Dr. Banner." Bruce could have sworn he heard amusement in the AI's voice. He shook his head and went to work.
"So she was in the tunnels?" Tony poured himself a drink from the bar and nodded.
"Right in one go, Cap. Heard her scream, came around the corner, and there she was: crow bar raised, one rat down and two more surrounding her." Clint tilted his head as though considering.
"Sounds hot." Tony opened his mouth to comment (obviously leaning towards yes) when Jarvis interrupted.
"Sir, you should know, Miss Potts is about to exit the elevator." The inventor's mouth snapped shut so fast, they could hear his teeth click together.
"Nice save, Jarv." The elevator down the hall dinged open, and Pepper's shoes clicked on the floor. Tony's smile oozed extra charm, because he could tell just from the sound of her heels that she wasn't happy. As soon as he saw her face, that was confirmed.
"Tony, what is this I keep hearing about Iron Man whisking a beautiful, young woman away to his tower? Something you want to tell me?" Pepper crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, daring him to lie to her. Tony held his hands up in defense, and he got a sense of deja vu.
"Pep, I was just doing my job as a superhero-"
"Saving damsels in distress?" Tony felt like he was trying to defuse a bomb without the instruction manual.
"Tony actually was helping the woman, Pepper. She lives in the tunnels and was badly injured. She herself admitted that she refused to let Tony take her to a hospital or clinic. If Tony hadn't convinced her to let Bruce look at her, she probably would have died from infection or blood loss." Natasha for the win! If Tony didn't think the assassin would slice his throat, he would hug her. Well, not really. The only red-heads he hugs anymore are CEOs of his company.
Pepper's demeanor changed instantly, and she took a seat.
"Is she alright? Can Bruce help?" Tony plopped down next to her, not spilling a drop of his drink.
"Well, we only just left him to it, but I think he'll do just fine. If not, we'll hear the Hulk soon." When Steve looked worried, Tony rolled his eyes. "Not really, Capsicle. Bruce will just come out and tell us that we need to bring in an 'actual doctor'."
"That shouldn't be necessary, Sir. Dr. Banner appears to be taking care of Miss Kira swiftly and efficiently. I would estimate another twenty-three minutes." Tony smirked.
"There you go." Clint raised his hand suddenly, and everyone gave him a confused look. Everyone except Natasha who just rolled her eyes at the archer.
"Yes, Clint? What's your question?" Clint stuck his tongue out at the other assassin and put his arm down.
"What was she doing in the tunnels? I mean, all the homeless I know live on the streets or under bridges." Tony just shrugged.
"I don't know. She was pale as a sheet when I first saw her, like she hadn't seen the sun in months. So, she's probably been down there for a while." Natasha had a calculating look on her face.
"That would be the first place I'd be…if I was hiding from someone." Clint's eyebrows rose and then he was nodding vigorously.
"Yeah. That makes perfect sense. That's probably another reason she didn't want Tony to take her to a hospital." Steve looked skeptical.
"But who is she hiding from? Living in tunnels seems kind of extreme if you were just hiding from an abusive boyfriend or something. You don't think she's a spy, do you?" Before the archer could enthusiastically reply, Pepper held up a hand.
"Wait a minute. I think you guys are getting ahead of yourselves. Why don't you just wait to ask her when Bruce is done?" Before anyone else could say something, the television on the wall came to life. Fury's irritated face filled the screen.
"Stark, why am I getting reports that you kidnapped someone?" The inventor through his head back and sighed dramatically.
"For the last time, I didn't kidnap anyone, and I was whisking a beautiful woman to my tower to have my wicked way with her. I was doing my final sweep of the tunnels, found her injured and fighting off some rat cyborgs, and convinced her to get medical treatment here since she refused to let me take her to a hospital. I'm sure once Bruce is done patching her up, she'll run out of here." Fury scowled.
"Are you sure she isn't a spy?" Pepper rolled her eyes and threw up her hands.
"Are you all that paranoid?" Natasha only lifted a brow and tilted her head to the side. Fury ignored Miss Potts and looked to Clint and Romanoff.
"Report." Clint considered it and then shrugged. Natasha stared at the wall and then shook her head.
"She seemed pretty legit to me. No concealed weapons or anything," Clint reported.
"Kira was legitimately injured when Stark brought her in. She seemed nervous and suspicious of us, though she hid it well. We were just discussing that it was suspicious that she lived in the tunnels, but beyond that, I don't think there's anything we need to worry about. Besides, if she is a spy, we've got top of the line facilities to hold her in right here." Fury considered all of it, before nodding.
"Very well. Keep me informed of any changes." Then the line was cut, and the screen was black once more. Tony sunk down into his seat and sighed again.
"Great. Now we're gonna have SHEILD breathing down our necks about this. Jarvis, triple security and make sure they don't hack into any video feed."
"Certainly, Sir. And you might like to know that Dr. Banner is finished-" Stark was up and running, before Steve could tell him not to. The others rolled their eyes and left to follow the inventor in a much more subdued manner. Then they pictured Tony scaring Bruce into Hulking and picked up the pace.
They went around the corner just in time to see Tony disappear into the med room. Steve held the door open for the others when they reached the room. When he followed them in, his face matched the others' in its slight surprise.
"A cast?" Dr. Banner had his glasses in one hand and was pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. The man took a few deep breaths before he looked at them. Nobody was going to stop Bruce from taking a couple seconds to breathe, not even Tony.
"Yes. A cast. I had to give her over fifty stitches. The cast is because some of the rat's teeth tore her achilles tendon. She's lucky it wasn't completely snapped. This way, she won't need surgery, but she will have to stay in the cast for four to six weeks, followed by some serious physical therapy." Tony whistled. Suddenly, Pepper grabbed his arm.
"Tony, you can't send her out like that." Tony raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Pep, I know this. I wasn't planning on it, but the hard part is going to be convincing Kira to stay. If she wasn't losing consciousness from pain and blood loss before, I probably wouldn't have gotten her here to begin with." Stark looked over at Bruce. "I'm going to need back-up, like 'I'm a doctor, not following my advice will kill you' kind of back-up." Everyone tensed, when Kira started to move and wake up.
"Quick, Steve," Tony hissed. "Turn on the puppy eyes." Captain America rolled his eyes instead, but he was quickly distracted by a hiss of pain from the bed. Kira blinked her green eyes open and moved to sit up. She froze, when Bruce laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Careful there. You should probably stay down for a little bit, until your body has replaced the blood its lost. Unfortunately, we don't have blood here to speed up the process." Kira didn't seem to fully comprehend all that Dr. Banner had said, but she nodded anyway. She pressed back into the pillows when she finally noticed she was surrounded but narrowed her eyes when she saw her leg.
"What is this? Why did you do this?" She reached forward as though to try and tug the cast off, but was once again stopped by Bruce's hand on her shoulder.
"Kira, lay back. When the creatures bit you, they tore your achilles tendon. You're lucky it wasn't severed completely, but you are going to have to keep the cast on for a number of weeks." The young woman's eyes widened for a moment, before she turned to glare at Stark.
"You told him to do this, didn't you? I cannot survive out there like this!" Stark held his hands up in defense for what felt like the fiftieth time that day.
"Hey, Kira, this is all Dr. Banner. If it was just some stitches, I would have asked you to stay for just a day or two. You may have been influenced by the pain, but a deal's a deal. You agreed when I said if you needed more than a Band-Aid you would be staying here, until given the all-clear. I won't keep you here against your will, but like you said, you can't survive out there in a cast." Kira scowled at the truth in the inventor's words. She looked at the others observing her.
"And you are all fine with allowing a stranger into your haven?" Before Clint could open his big mouth and say something no doubt offensive, Pepper spoke.
"Well a few of them might think you're a spy, but you are more than welcome to spend your recovery here." Kira turned to the one face she had not seen since arriving. She saw the way the woman had a hand on Tony's arm and understanding lit her eyes.
"Ah. You must be the beautiful woman Stark told me about." Pepper raised a brow and smiled. She looked at Tony, and the inventor wasn't sure whether the smile was a good thing or a bad thing.
"You told Kira about me? Now how did you get on that subject?" Kira answered for Stark, as she felt it was her doing.
"I…misunderstood his offer of aid, and assumed he was propositioning me. When I threatened to cut his hands off, he assured me those were not his intentions, that he had a beautiful girlfriend already and would not do such a thing." Tony silently thanked Kira, because now he was safely out of the vicinity of any dog houses. Then he heard Clint snort.
"A couple years ago you would have been right in your assumptions." Tony glared at the archer, but he was already getting a stink eye from Steve. Then the Captain threw in his two cents.
"I know I would feel much better, knowing you were recovering here, rather than in the tunnels. But understand, that we are putting as much trust in you as you are in us. If you prove to be a threat to my team, I will not hesitate to do what is necessary." Tony was taken aback at Steve's threatening tone, but Kira actually seemed to gain respect for the captain. She inclined her head to him.
"I would expect no less. I can see that you are a fine leader that cares about those in your team. I will do what I can to not disrespect the generosity you have all bestowed upon me." They were all extremely curious now to find out where Kira had come from originally. Her manner of speech and extreme sense of awareness and propriety had to have been bred into her. They now had a very interesting house guest.
None of this was proper medical procedure! I haven't made it to medical school yet.
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