The Flames of Amarra - DR STRANGE x OC - COMPLETE

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

Free. 

Finally, Nora’s hand was free from any metal, wood or plastic holding her dead finger in place. She tried not to look at it for too long, as she was still actively trying to forget that she had a dead finger on her hand, but the surgeon insisted that she learned how to force her finger to move again. 

Everything relied on the strength of her middle finger. If she was bending her middle finger, the ring finger would bend with it. She’d have to learn how to hold things properly all over again, she’d have to learn how to type all over again. Her recovery was over, and now she was in the ‘after’. How to deal with a dead limb for the rest of her life. 

For whatever reason, she would still have to come for her monthly checkups. The surgeon didn’t tell her how long it would last, but he seemed confident that it would be until Nora’s death. She didn’t even ask why. People with dead limbs were probably all going through the same process, and asking questions was the best way to be unable to pretend that nothing happened.  

She tried a few jokes about not being able to flip off people when driving, but it seemed that the surgeon didn’t like them. Either he hated her for being friends with Stephen, or he just didn’t like people who tried to laugh instead of cry over a dead thing dangling from their hand. 

She left the room, staring at the new glove on her finger, only to find Stephen waiting by the door. She sighed and turned back to her surgeon. 

“Strange,” he said as he was following Nora outside. 

Stephen nodded at him and looked at Nora’s hand. “How does it feel ?”

“Good.”

“She’s in pain because we didn’t amputate,” the surgeon corrected. 

Nora sighed. “Okay, I’ll leave you two to fight over my finger, and I’ll just see myself out.”

She left, slowly walking in the hallway. She texted Tobias and asked him if he wanted to spend a day away from Kamar-Taj. She didn’t want to go back there. As hard as she was trying not to think about the discoveries from the previous day, it was still present in her mind. All this time wasted on something that was deliberately kept from her. 

“You never said you were in pain,” Stephen said when he reached her by the elevator. 

“I googled it,” she calmly said. “It’s in my head. People with missing limbs can sometimes feel them. And it hurts.”

“Except yours is not missing.”

“Look, I didn’t go to med school. But I’m smart enough to understand what ‘no nerve endings’ means. It’s impossible that I feel anything in my finger. Hence the ‘it’s in my head’.” 

He waited for the doors to close and turned to face her. “How are you doing ? You didn’t say anything about yesterday.”

“I’m great,” she said with a nervous laugh. “The most important work of my life, the only way to save the future generations of Kellers, all gone to waste because the Ancient One decided to shit on my life. What did I ever do to her ?”

“She never did anything without a reason,” he said. “You think about what has been destroyed. Focus on what’s still there.”

“Two versions of a book that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Forget the one you took from them. She showed you the first one. There’s a reason she kept it and none of the others.”

Nora shook her head and followed him, looking for an empty room to open a portal. “I think I need a break. I’ve been obsessed with this for years now. I’ll just work on other things. Hong Kong asked me to take a look at a few books for them.”