Reconciliation - Marvel Studios [3]

thirty-nine.

The ENT specialist at on a swivel stool in front of me, taking my neck brace off gently and setting it on my bed next to me. I was sitting in the big chair in my room, finally being allowed to attempt to begin talking again, which I hadn't done in about a week now. She smiled gently as she looked at my neck and used her dry fingers to push on some of the skin, looking to make sure everything was fine.

"Okay, everything looks fine, no bumps of cartilage growing abnormally" she said as she moved around the chair, running her hands down my chin. Not having the brace on felt amazing, though having to hold up my chin for the first time in a while was quite tiring. "Perfect" the doctor said to me as she pulled her tray with instruments on it, grabbing his torch and wooden stick. "Could you try open you mouth for me?" she asked me as she scooted her chair closer to my legs, angling herself to she was in front of me.

I parted my lips slowly, opening my mouth as wide as I could, something I hadn't done in weeks now. She set the stick on my tongue, using the torch to shine down the back of my throat, moving her head around to see that everything at the opening was fine. My breathing was synced to the ticking of the clock on the wall, the doctor nodding her head as she out her stuff back down on the tray.

"Everything is perfect" she told me as she turned back to look at me, her eyes soft as I stared at her. "Now if you want to try and talk, just say something simple" she told me, to which I nodded my head to kind of, not wanting to move my head too fast. "Try 'Hello my name is Alyona'" she told me, raising her eyebrows as I nodded my head once more.

"Your voice won't sound the same, but don't try to whisper or shout, it may be a raspy right now, but that will go away" she told me as she waved her hand as if she was swatting away something. I opened my mouth slightly, inhaling deeply through my nose. "Hello" I stumbled through, my voice cracking as I tried to say the simple word.

"My name is Alyona" I continued, my throat already hurting a little as the raspy noise came out of my mouth, my voice cracking about a million times during that sentence. "Okay, that's enough for right now" She told me, patting my hand with hers as she reached over to the coffee table, picking up a cup of water with a straw lid, passing it to me. "You can drink water for now, we'll work on talking for a few
days before we get to eating" She told me as I put the straw in my mouth, sucking some water from the cup.

I held the water in my mouth for a minute before swallowing it, almost forgetting how to. "Thank you" I croaked out, the doctor nodding her head at me as she picked up her iPad, entering all this new information into my chart. "Just keep trying to talk, not too often and don't try to say long sentences but if you keep trying it will come back quicker" she told me as she stood up, pushing her chair back into the corner of the room which is where she just seemed to keep it since she started to come see how I was.

"Don't try to cough or clear your throat either, the feeling of phlegm is normal" she told me, rolling her little tray thing out of the room and out of the door, turning to Natasha who was right outside of the door and telling her she could come back in, which she did with a smile, walking over and sitting on the edge of my bed.

"How'd it go?" she asked me, knowing that I could now converse with her after not doing so for so long. "Good" I said very raspy and hoarsely, causing Natasha to look over at me with a wide smile plastered on her face. "Look at you, talking and everything" she said as she gently pretended to punch my arm. "Steve?" I asked her, my words taking a while to come out, the feeling of talking still pretty foreign.

"He's still not awake, you can go see him later if you want" she told me to which I nodded my head to, not wanting to talk as much as possible due to how painful it actually was. "I swung around your apartment last night, there was this letter for you" she said, as she pulled a folded up letter out of the inside of her jacket, holding it out to me. I took it from her, opening it roughly, the envelope ripping more times than I would have liked.

I pulled the letter out, the seal of the government sitting in the top corner, the other having my name and address. I skimmed through it quickly, my expression changing multiple times. My mouth fell open, shaking my head as I passed it over to Nat, to which she looked down at it. "Read it" I said to her, causing her to take it from my hands, her eyes darting down the page.

"They want you to go on trial?" she asked, turning the paper over to see if there was anything else on the other side which there wasn't. "That's bullshit" she said as she set the letter down next to her, putting her head in her hands as I stared at the wall for a moment.

I knew this was coming, I had committed a list of crimes that was longer than my leg, and the judicial system wasn't about to just forget about it. "You too?" I asked her, my sentence sounding like a baby who was just learning how to talk for the first time. "Probably, I haven't been home in a while, I slept at yours last night" She told me, taking the letter and sitting it on the rolling table that sat over the end of my bed. I scrunched up my fists, wanting desperately to punch something, or someone at this point. I inhaled deeply through my nose, my nostrils flaring as I held it when it was at its peak, exhaling softly.

I didn't know when this whole trial thing was supposed to be, but they were going to have to wait considering I literally could string together 5 words at this current moment in time.

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A/N: double update today woohoo
the last chapter was really short so I thought I would double update today and honestly I may just post every single chapter that's left of this book AND also upload the first few for Book 4
see you all soon hopefully