Free-Falling • Maximum Ride/Avengers Fanfic •

S e v e n

Chapter Seven:

The next morning, Bucky requested Bruce to take off her cast early — which Bruce did not want to do — but after a lot of persuasion from the soldier, he finally agreed.

Tony had been excited to take off the girl's cast as well. After what happened last time, Bucky refused to leave the two scientists in the lab with her alone. Tony disliked this idea, but after everyone of the other avengers agreed with him, he had no other choice.

Three sat quietly on the edge of the rather hard medical bed, clutching Lion to her chest. Her eyes fixed on the floor as she tried to keep her slowly increasing panic under control. "Okay, Three, we're going to start," Bruce announced, wearing his usual lab coat. Three nodded, not looking away from the floor. "I'm going to check your wings, do you think you can take your shirt off for me?" She slowly nodded, taking the plain yellow shirt Bucky had gave her several weeks ago, and lying it delicately on the bed beside her. "Can you turn around?" She nodded, twisting around so her wings faced the doctor.

Now, she was in a tank top, her wings that were usually underneath her shirt exposed. The white cast that was on her wings could be seen, along with her wings. The feathers bristled, her wing stiff. Bruce raised his hand to touch the area between her shoulder blades. She jumped, her wing shooting out instinctively, unexpectedly smacking Bruce in the face. His glasses dangled off his face, but Bruce caught them before they hit the floor.

Three jumped, cowering away from the man, her eyes widened, "Three—" she waved her hands in front of her, as if to say sorry. "It's–It's okay, Three, don't worry," Bruce said, laughing a bit to reassure her.

She looked at him warily for a few seconds, before finally moving back to where she was. "I'm going to try again, okay?" She stiffly nodded, and he touched her back. This time, her wing flinched, but she forced herself from moving it again. His cold fingers trailed up the side of her back, sending shivers down her spine. He gently touched the end of the cast, where her wings started. "Tell me if it hurts." He kept gently touching her wings, but she said nothing.

Finally, he finished, "You seem to be healing very finely, Three," Bruce praised. "I'm going to take a x-ray and see if we can get if off." She nodded, "Good, stay here, I'll have the others come in." Bruce walked off, opening the door for Bucky, Steve, and Tony to enter the room. Natasha and Clint had to go out on a mission and wouldn't be back for a few days.

"Hey kid," Bucky greeted, and Three gave him a weak smile. She moved her hand behind her back, which had been shaking slightly.

"You're doing great, Three," Steve praised, giving her arm a small rub. She tensed under his touch, trying not to flinch away. It wasn't that she was scared of them, she just didn't feel comfortable being in the room, especially since it smelled so much like the School. The sterile scent of chemicals send her on edge, but she fought every single instinct in her body that wanted her to run away. Three was terrified, but she couldn't show it, of course. So she tried to hide it to herself, but was doing miserably at it.

"You okay, kid?" She nodded immediately. "You sure? You look a bit tense."

"If you squeeze the bed anymore, you'll break it," Tony teased, and she looked down. The ends of the bed that she had been holding now had small hand-prints, exactly her size. She shot Tony a look, as if to apologize, but he shrugged it off.

Bruce finally returned to the room with a strange white camera and another device she didn't recognize. "Tony can x-ray your wing," Bruce said, handing the camera over.