Girl At War

Recovery - 32

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It was late evening when Eloyse's eyes flickered open. She lay still, staring at the gray ceiling. She remembered bits and pieces, and as she lay there, her mind filled in the gaps.

Finally she glanced around, noting the monitor hooked up to her, as well as a needle attached to a bag sitting a few feet away. She felt a flash of fear at the sight of the needle, even though it wasn't anywhere near her. The area was good-sized, and practically empty. Her clothes lay folded and washed on the floor near her. Eloyse suddenly recognized the layout of the jet. She was in a bed that folded down from a wall. In the fold-down bed opposite was a woman, sprawled out in sleep. Her red hair fell over her face, but Eloyse recognized Natasha because of it. She shifted her weight a bit, wondering how long she'd been here. She gently removed the heart monitor, sticking it to the steel frame of her bed. Then she rolled over, feeling restless. The blank wall stared back, and she suddenly had an urge to whack it, something to keep it from looking so... so perfect.

"You know, that's an ingenious idea."

She flinched when the voice spoke. It seemed extraordinarily loud. Rolling back to her other side, she saw Natasha had awakened and was lying there looking at her. "What idea?" She asked, keeping her voice lower.

"Giving the next person who walks in a heart attack." Natasha pointed at the monitor screen, and the flat line where heartbeats should have been. "You better watch out, they'll try to resurrect you." Natasha smiled. "Again."

Eloyse swung her feet over the edge of the bed. She could feel stiffness in her side where the bullet had struck. "Again?"

"Yea." Nat turned slightly grim. "Steve was right. You'd lost a lot of blood, and your body rejected every medicine we tried to stabilize you." She studied the girl with curious, probing eyes. "We all figured you'd never wake up. Remember anything?"

Eloyse grinned slightly. "Somebody dropped a building on me and Steve." She didn't let on all she remembered after being rescued from that place of death.

Natasha smiled and shrugged. "Yep, that's pretty much it. Barton's been in here everyday. I made him go take a rest about three hours ago. If you want, you can go wake him up. Doesn't look like you're staying in bed anyway."

Eloyse was carefully tugging her clothes on under the oversized clothes they'd dug out from somewhere. "How long has it been?"

Nat hesitated, but at a look from Eloyse, told her. "Couple days."

Eloyse swung around, facing Natasha. She stared at her for a few seconds before quietly saying, "Like eight or nine?"

Natasha drooped. "Yea. More like that." She sat up with a grimace. "Forgot Empaths can feel lies."

Eloyse smiled. She stretched slightly, her stiff and sore muscles loudly protesting. Her side ached rather sharply, but there was nothing to be done but rest. And Eloyse felt tired of resting. She have Natasha a last happy grin before slipping out the jet door into the outside.

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"You wouldn't happen to know where Clint is, would you?" 

Tony automatically pointed the questioner in the right direction. 

"Thanks." Eloyse turned and vanished in that direction. Suddenly Tony looked up from his gadget, frowning deeply and with his head tipped to one side.