kate bishop 🏹 the best hawkeye (kateaccompli) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-07-26 17:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, ~2017 july, ~25 points, ~~bruce banner (notthatkindofdr), ~~~~~kate bishop (kateaccompli) |
Who: Kate Bishop and Bruce Banner
When: Wednesday, July 26; Late Morning
Where: In and around the clinic
What: Kate returns to Madison Valley looking, and feeling, less than stellar.
Warnings: Talk of violence, murder, death, drugs, spoilers for the Civil War II comic arc, spoilers for the Hawkeye 2016 comics, etc!
Status: Closed/Complete
The sound of cheers was muffled, going in and out like a static-filled radio station. There was a deep voice following by another one. Gruff, hoarse, and asking questions about her. About why she had been let into the building when she was looking Liam Donnelly. Crap. Who was he again? Right. The missing father she had been hired to find. Anna Donnelly.
Liam Donnelly. Anna Donnelly. Quinn. Mikka. Ramone. Johnny. Detective Rivera.
She rattled off the names in her head, working out their faces, features, and every detail she could recount. She could see them perfectly, smiling and laughing, or yelling at her to let them go with her. She should have let them go with her. Maybe things would have gone differently. Then again, they could have all ended up in trouble. Then what would she have done? What if she couldn’t have protected all of them. Even going into the fight club, the place Johnny told her not to go, Kate wasn’t feeling on top of her game. She knew why.
It was all her father’s fault. It always seemed to be lately.
The meeting she had had earlier in the evening had shaken her deep down to her core. The younger version of him spouting off about clones and the secrets of accessing super powers. The work that Madame Masque had been working years on with her father. Now he had apparently found the key that she had been missing. Something about DNA, and having the proper strand.
It made her head hurt on top of the throbbing that was already there. The idea that she could possess some hidden super power had made her feel sick. After seeing the way her father had used his, his persuasion powers, Kate didn’t want any part of it. She just wanted to get out and away.
It was why she had left New York after the battle between Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and the heroes they had gained to fight their respective fights. Too many secrets. Too many people wanting to control things they didn’t fully understand.
“Get up, Kate,” she groaned softly. Talking was taking a great amount of effort. Her fingers dug into...soft grass. One eye opened, and she wasn’t in the darkened warehouse filled with sweaty, bleeding, beat up Fight Club wannabes. She was outside. The smell wasn’t soured by blood. There was a comfortable breeze, and warmth.
The sun. Oh, that felt good. That felt so good.
Pushing herself to try and sit up, Kate instead rolled onto her back and winced. “Bad idea. Really bad idea.” Even her breath was labored, and she knew something was broken. Maybe more than something. Many things. Maybe they were just sprained or bruised.
She wiped a hand against her mouth, the faint taste of copper touching her tongue, and Kate felt something else entirely. Madison Valley, except it wasn’t. It was dark and corrupt and--Amberle.
Bucky.
Nat.
Her hand pressed against her side and there was no scar. It hurt, but Kate had a feeling it was a bruise. A nasty one. Maybe something else, but there was no stab wound. She sat up far too quickly, regretting it and nearly doubled over from the nauseous twist in her stomach.
Kate wasn’t sure how she managed to get to her feet, much less further into town. She needed to check on Lucky, Cassie, Xavin, Mitchell...oh, her list was growing by the second. The clinic would have been her best shot. There were the comas, things were still being worked out, and then things were a little hazy.
She hobbled along, a hand resting on the buildings she passed them. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other.
“...Nope. Nope. Bad idea, Kate,” she said, sinking down to the sidewalk. She needed a minute. Just a quick minute to collect herself and let the pain and everything else pass.
***
Bruce was on his way into the clinic for a shift when he spotted a figure stumbling along the sidewalk in obvious pain. It didn’t take him long to switch direction and make his way over to the person to offer his assistance. As he got closer, he realized that the girl was Kate Bishop, a friend of Clint and Bucky’s who had recently disappeared from town in the midst of the coma craziness.
“Kate?” he called. “It’s me, Bruce Banner.” He didn’t know her well, but he knew that she had a version of him back home, so even if she didn’t remember her previous time in Madison Valley, his name should be familiar.
As soon as he was close, he held out his hands to offer her support since it was clear she was struggling to stay upright.
***
When she heard her name, Kate looked up from her place on the sidewalk. “Dr. Banner?” she asked, placing her hand over her eyes. The last she had heard about Bruce was his murder. By the hands of Clint. While Clint had been acquitted, things were still tense. In fact, everything had spiraled out of control.
She took her hands and pulled herself to stand. Though it was mostly her balance failing her, Kate threw her arms around Bruce. She hugged him tight and for a brief moment, things were okay.
“I know this is weird, but I’m happy that you’re okay,” she muttered against his shoulder. Her head was still pounding, and Kate swayed a bit as she tried to stand straight and focus on him. She needed to stay awake. She needed to keep herself aware.
“Is everyone else okay?”
***
The hug was unexpected, but Bruce reacted quickly and put his arms around Kate, figuring that she could use the comfort as well as the physical support. “I’m fine,” he said. “And so is everyone else.” He wasn’t sure who everyone else was, but he was pretty sure that they were better than Kate was at this particular moment.
“You, on the other hand, are not okay,” he said. “And I think you better let me get you inside the clinic.”
Luckily, they were close and he easily scooped her up and carried her inside, bypassing the front desk and taking her back to an exam room where he set her carefully down on the table.
“What happened?”
***
She could have argued. Normally Kate would have and insisted she only needed a bag of frozen peas. Maybe some tylenol, too. With some bandaids. But she didn’t. Not even a little.
The hospital table should not have been as comfortable was it was. It wasn’t concrete or asphalt, and that was luxury right now. “Looking for some girl’s father. Donnelly. Liam Donnelly. Anna Donnelly.” Repeating things. It was something that would help keep her awake for as long as possible. Kate knew she needed to stay awake. “Some fight club, I think.” She moved to sit up, but stopped. As much as she wanted to sit up straight, or not lay down, it wasn’t happening.
Her head was throbbing much like the rest of her. Her right arm was bruising and swollen, her abdomen hurt, there was a faint taste of blood still from the cut on her lip, and Kate wiped a hand against her forehead. More blood, but nothing threatening.
She was drifting despite doing what she could do to stay awake. “The comas?” She asked. “Are there still comas?”
***
“No, everyone woke up a few days ago,” Bruce said. He listened to her explanation as he gathered his things to start an examination. She was definitely going to need some painkillers, possibly some IV fluids and stitches, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she had a broken rib or two.
Her vitals were surprisingly stable for her condition, so he took the time to wipe the blood away from her face, taking care to do so gently. “You haven’t even been gone a week, but you sure scared the hell out of us by disappearing while you were in a coma.”
***
There was relief on her face when he informed her that everyone had come out of the comas. She had to reach out to people as soon as she could. Kate would have gone straight to them if she could have. It just annoyed her more than anything that, even in this place, people like her father and Madame Masque could make her life miserable.
“I think I would have rather been in that crazy place than back home to be honest.” Kate could picture the other Madison Valley almost vividly. She’d never be able to forget the smell, either. No matter how many candles she burned, it was still there. That certainly wasn’t the worst of her time there, and she could only imagine what others had gone through. Not being here to help folks through it, to be there when everyone else awoke?
Kate balled one hand into a fist, or tried to, and frowned. “You know what’s not smart to do? Jump from the penthouse floor of a building. Even with your trusty zip line arrow? Asphalt still hurts like hell. You know what else isn’t smart? Investigating an underground fight club without backup.” Because that, apparently, was what Kate Bishop did back home these days.
***
Bruce hadn’t experienced the other Madison Valley himself, but he’d read and heard things about what it was like and he was rather glad that he hadn’t ended up visiting. And if Kate preferred that to being at home, then home must have been pretty bad.
“Those do not sound like good things,” he agreed, keeping his tone mild as he checked to make sure she didn’t have any broken bones. “I’m going to stitch this cut on your forehead and wrap your ribs,” he said. “And give you a prescription for some painkillers.”
He paused for a moment. “I’d like you to stay with someone else for a few days. You’re welcome to our guest room. But I don’t want you overdoing it.”
***
Stitches, rib-wrapping, medicine. Kate made a face. The worst suggestion? Not overdoing it. Kate didn’t have time for all of that. Well, maybe now she did, but still. She had people to see and check on. She had been fortunate to run into Bruce like she had. He had been one of the people she hoped to still see. At least that was one person off her list.
“Dr. Banner,” she started, almost whining at the orders, but she fell quiet. She didn’t have Bruce anymore back home, and that was a tragedy unto itself.
Kate gave him a grin and nodded. She would comply at least for a little bit. A thought did cross her mind, though. One that had Kate resting a hand on Bruce’s arm for a moment. “...Natasha’s there, right?” Did she tell him about the other Madison? How she had fought against both Nat’s and Bucky’s alternate forms?
“Is she okay?”