Chapter 17 – Addicted to love

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NOTE: much of this chapter is in French. To French speakers, I apologize for all the mistakes and typos, and especially for all the missed accents. To those who don't speak French, sorry, but that is the only way I could do this. I utterly loathe the convention of suggesting a language by a few random words in the dialogue, and Valentina's condition is too serious to have her talk like a clown.

Also, in my universe Nick Fury is Italo-American.

...

Nick Fury did not go fishing. At least, not straightaway. He went to a local mall, bought a burner phone, and made a private call to General Jacob Carter.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is that General Jacob Carter?"

"Yes."

"General, this is Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. I would like to speak with you about matters concerning the creation of the Hulk – and in confidence."

"How much confidence, Director?"

"You may take some of your collaborators in the inquiry. In fact, I would be happy to have witnesses to what I have to tell you. But it absolutely must not get to anyone else until you are ready to publish your final conclusions."

"That sounds interesting. Where and when shall we meet?"

"Do you like fishing, General?"

…...

Of course, no sooner had Nick Fury made his arrangements, that fate threw a spanner in the works. The first thing in Fury's mind, even as he was preparing to pass some frightening secrets to an official inquiry, was always the Countess; and almost as soon as he had thrown the burner phone he had used to call Carter into a waste bin, his normal cellphone rang.

"Colonel? This is Doctor Cajetanis. Patient Valentina de Fontaine has been speaking coherently, and seems to be calling for you."

A few hurried phrases later, Fury was sprinting for his Jensen.

…...

"Nicola? Nicola... Nikolay.." The beautiful eyes seemed unable to focus, as her head turned stiffly here and there, repeating the name in Italian, in Russian, in every language she knew – except, Fury realized later, for English and German.

"I am here, Countess." And then, as she did not seem to respond: "Sono qui, Contessa. Sono qui, amore mio."

That got her attention. Suddenly her eyes focused, and she seemed to see him for the first time. She half threw herself from the bed into his arms, and clung to him like a baby to her mother.

"Ne me quitte pas, Nicholas... Je t'en prie, demeure ici avec moi... J'ai bésoin de quelqu'un qui me tienne fort... quelqu'un qui puisse me defendre contre les tenebres."

"I will, Countess. I am here to defend you."

"Non, mon amour... pas en anglais ou en allemand. C'est comme ca qu'ils parlaient..."

"Ah, je comprends. Italiano va bene?"

"Va benissimo, amore mio. Tienimi ancora, tienimi forte..."

Doctor Ernst von Cajetanis, the SHIELD director of psychology and psychiatry, was on the other side of the room. (Two powerful orderlies had been placed behind the door just in case – this was a well-trained SHIELD agent being given psychiatric care, after all.) "Ah," he said, "the language makes a difference. Pardonnez-moi, madame la comtesse, je veux dire que j'ai compris, c'est que vous réagissez diversement selon la langue qu'on vous parle, oui?"

"Oui, docteur. Il y a une pesanteur, un, un, un... un sens physique... presque physique de pression, quand j'entends les languages de... de mes argousins. C'est comme... lourd... et sale."

"On vous a conditionnée à répondre en obéissant à des gens qui parlaient ces languages, c'est ça?"

"Oui. Je ne crois même que les langues elles-mêmes avaient aucune importance pour mes tourmenteurs... c'est moi qui parle beaucoup de langues, et j'entendais seulement ces deux-là, et je les entendais comme partie de ma torture. Je me suis abritée dans l'Italien, le Français, le Polonais, le Russe... tout ce qui venait de mon enfance et de ma jeunesse, et qui ces monstres ne pensaient pas à utiliser."

"Ce qui me frappe, madame la comtesse, c'est votre articulation et vitesse d'expression. Il y a vingt minuts, vous étiez incohérente. J'espère que ça ne vous offensait pas..."

"Et pourquoi? Ce n'est que vrai... J'étais à peine consciente. Mes pensées étaient comme... comme écharpés, comme écartelés ...pris dans une derive universelle, avec rien autour de quoi s'arranger. C'est Nick qui m'a donne' un point d'appui. C'est la présence de quelqu'un qui j'aimais..."

Nick Fury's French wasn't as good as the Italian he had inherited from his father. "Bisognerà investigare come ti hanno ridotta a questa condizione... Te e tutti gli altri. Chi può fare cose del genere a una mente umana è pericoloso." (We must investigate how they reduced you to such a condition... you and all the others. People who can do such things to a human mind are dangerous.)

"Dottore, lei parla Italiano?" (Do you speak Italian, Doctor?)

"Un pochino... meglio in Francese." (A little bit – French is better.)

"Eh, alors, ce que je voulais dire, c'est que sens d'être faite dépendente sur quelqu'un qui j'aime – ce n'est pas un fait de sentiment personnel. Il n'est même pas proprement l'amour dont nous parlons. iC'est la chose que Hydra a placée dans nos cerveaux./i Je t'aime, Nicholas, bien sûr... mais cette condition-ci, que je ne saurai pas penser clairement, que mon cerveau ne marcherait pas, sans ta présence, ça, c'est le travail d'Hydra. On m'a rendue dépendente sur la présence d'un d'eux, et ils ont même su comme me rendre amoureuse de cet homme. Mon amour pour lui était la chaîne qui resserrait mes pensées... mais aussi la chaîne qui me rendait esclave."

"Mon Dieu! Dum Dum Dugan et son amour pour "Chucky"! Vous savez, Directeur Fury, comme il hurlait le nom de 'Chucky', un homme d'Hydra, et il n'était cohérent que quand il clamait pour lui!"

"Et ce Chucky, il est mort avec tous ses collegues," said Fury grimly.

"C'est comme je disais... ils nous ont rendus esclaves à travers ces amours artificiels qu'ils creaient dans nos ésprits au même temps qu''ils les défrangeaient."

The doctor breathed out heavily. "C'est monstrueux. Je n'ai jamais entendu rien de plus diabolique."

Fury growled: "Eh bien, que voulez-vous, M. le docteur? C'est Hydra dont nous parlons."

"Et ce n'est qu'un heureux hazard que j'étais éprise de Nick auparavant d'être saisie et tourmentée.

"Mais il y a un villain problème, M. le docteur. J'ai besoin d'être avec Nick. Je ne peux pas être saine sans lui."

...now that was a problem.

"Madame la comtesse..."

"J'en ai besoin, vous comprenez? Je sais que si je le verrais s'en aller, si je ne peux plus le sentir proche de moi, je retomberais folle. Je ne peux absolument contempler cela... vous ne pouvriez jamais imaginer comme c'est affreux!" That was a shriek; and her French was getting more and more thickly accented. After a few breaths, she started again. "Mon cerveau, mon esprit, Hydra les a anéantis.. sauf dans la présence de quelqu'un qui j'aime. Croyez-vous, docteur, pouvoir les guérir? Dans quelques jours?"

"Il y aura du travail, sans doute..."

"Merci. Et pendant tout ce travail, je devrais retomber... redevenir... un abîme de cris?Un rien qui tourne sur soi-même et se déchire? Bien, messieurs, si vous le voulez... s'il est necessaire... ne le dites pas. Faites-le sans le dire, comme Hydra l'a fait. Je ne le veux pas savoir... je ne veux pas savoir que je vais y retomber.." The rest was lost in sobs.

Nick Fury was steeling himself. He could see that if there was to be any chance of a permanent cure, Valentina had to be left under the permanent observation of the medical personnel. But when he looked at his own specialist, the doctor who would have to lead the treatment, he saw something he did not expect. I can't do it, said Doctor Cajetanis' face. I can't look into my patient's eyes and tell her that she has to go insane again – with no clear term in sight.

And the doctor saw that Nick Fury had seen it. There was a silence.

"Can you do it, Colonel? It's a matter of being with her 24 hours a day..."

"That would not be an issue, actually. The point is that we need to be sure that there is a cure in sight. I can't be her talisman the rest of her life."

"I think that would be possible, Director. We still have the less fortunate prisoners to work with, anyway. The point is that I cannot guarantee anything. I still have no firm idea about this condition. She might relapse, even in your care. There might be surprises installed in her subconscious, that neither she nor we are aware of. Or there might be unwelcome developments – in a mind so abused, I would be surprised if nothing unpleasant happened."

"I'll take the chance. Maybe I'm braggin', but I'm more suited to dealin' with bad surprises than most guys."

"And that's a fact. Well, Director, you're the one who gives the orders."

Valentina had been looking at both anxiously, not quite hearing what they were saying. When she saw Nick Fury break off and come to her, her breath almost stopped.

"Alors, ma cherie, tu viens?"