Frost

Chapter 80

Not Sober

"Unbelievable," marveled Dr. Cho as she looked at Ivy's blood under a microscope. Ivy sat on her "favorite" bed in the makeshift hospital room of the new Avengers compound, rubbing her arm where the syringe had stung her just a few minutes ago. "Your cells are actually mutated, you're-" "A mutation? Thank you. I'd be taken apart and put back together piece by piece because of it" Ivy muttered, and Dr. Cho shook her head. "Your blood, your cells, it could be a new breakthrough in-"

"I'm not an experiment. I'll never be one again" said Ivy in a threatening  voice and was ready to get up from the bed and leave, but Tony stopped her and pushed back onto the bed. "Dr. Cho knows that and knows that's not why she's here, she's here to help" Tony gave the doctor a stern look and Ivy shook his hand off her shoulder. She was in no mood for physical contact. "Can you? Can you help her?"

"Well, yes," Dr. Cho looked up from the blood work and glanced at her records. "It's a difficult case because there's never been anything like this before. Neither the serum nor mutated cells like this." "Is that a yes or a no?" asked Ivy impatiently. She would rather Bruce be the one to help her, since he was one of the only doctors she trusted. But Bruce had to disappear from the globe exactly when he was was needed the most. Ivy wondered if it was a sign. Maybe she shouldn't survive.

"I'll try, but it won't be easy" Dr. Cho promised and Ivy nodded. She hadn't expected it to be easy. She knew her chances of survival were slim and had diminished when one of the smartest minds and expert in all of genetic stuff disappeared. "I'm going to go to the lab and run some tests and look at the entries Mr. Simmons sent me." Tony looked a little confused at the mention of a Mr. Simmons, while Ivy simply nodded bluntly. "I'll get back to you in a few days, and I'd recommend not overexerting yourself until then." Dr. Cho began gathering her things and Ivy stood up.

"Thanks for the help," Tony thanked her as he shook Dr. Cho's hand. "I'll try my best" she assured them both, smiling weakly at them. Ivy forced herself to smile back and flopped back on the bed as soon as the doctor left the room. "Who is Mr. Simmons?" asked Tony as he dropped down on the bed next to her. "Dave," Ivy replied, closing her eyes. "Dave's last name is Simmons? I thought he didn't have a last name at all" Tony admitted and Ivy laughed hoarsely. "It's not his real last name. No one knows what his real name is."

A silence spread through the room. Ivy had a week until she would have to meet with Nato. Rhodey and Natasha wanted to help her prepare, but Ivy didn't know what good it would do. She would not be someone else in front of these people. She wanted them to see what happened to people the government failed to save. It wasn't her fault that she became this way. It wasn't her fault that no one had helped her and everyone had stopped looking for her way too quickly. It wasn't her fault to have come into the world like this, and certainly not her fault to have fallen into the wrong hands.

"We'll find something" Tony promised and Ivy opened her eyes. "What if we don't? Bruce is gone, if Dr. Cho doesn't find anything, there's no one to save me" Ivy whispered and Tony reached for her hand to squeeze. We'll find something. Just how long would she be alive to witness it? "Thank you for letting Bucky stay here. It means a lot to me" Ivy whispered. She heard Tony sigh and looked over to see him rubbing his forehead.

"How do you deal with it? How do you look at him without thinking what he did to my parents, Howard? Because when I look at him, I feel like beating him up." Ivy looked up at the ceiling and bit her lower lip. She would be lying if she said she didn't think about it, and that those thoughts weren't buzzing through her head. She thought about it, she had nightmares about it, she hated it. She hated that Bucky was the one who had killed her brother, but she couldn't hate Bucky. She couldn't judge him or blame him. She hated what had happened, but she could never in her life hate him for it.