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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 18, 2018 18:51:02 GMT -7
Teresa was sure that she saw his eyes move to her bandaged hand and for a moment she wasn’t sure if she should hide them away or not. She didn’t feel ashamed of them especially when she was sure that there others who had worse injuries than she did. Had worse things than the pain in her hands and wrists but she didn’t move to cover them, didn’t move to hide them away in fact she didn’t even say anything about them.
She knew that Layla would be surprised at seeing her mostly because Teresa wondered how many people actually promised to come back and didn’t turn up? So she was here to get herself checked out to see just what damage the day before had done to her hands.
There had been a time the night before when she had wanted to cry because of what happened but she had refused to lay in Barton’s arms and let him see her cry. That was a heavy burden for him especially when they weren’t even dating. He didn’t need to see her tears so in the end she just pushed them away and got some sleep because everything would feel better after sleeping.
Although the pain had actually settled back in when she woke up.
Jesse spoke and she smiled and moved to the door to knock on it and winced when she did. Teresa waited to be called in and while she did she turned back to look at him and said “Thank you for yesterday, I’m not sure what would’ve happened if you hadn’t come in” she admitted and gave a nod. She didn’t hate Steve, not at all, but there was always that thought of what might’ve happened if Jesse hadn’t come in when he did or hadn’t managed to calm the situation.
For that Teresa would be grateful.
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Post by Ray on Jul 18, 2018 19:16:06 GMT -7
Teresa moves to the door, and Jesse steps around her, mind set on the elevator. If she decides to stay, to find help here, he's sure she'll find her way to Steve and his ideas -- good and bad. But volunteering right here and now on the doorstep of their only physician, with her hands wrapped tight in thick bandages, is probably not the best decision. She's more likely to get pissed, which is the opposite of a solution. But after knocking, Teresa speaks, and her voice halts him before he can even get more than two steps away.
He looks back to her, his shoulders lowering slightly at the thanks she gives him.
Maybe she wouldn't be as pissed as he imagined.
Jesse drops his chin to look at the scuffed toes of his shows, and wets his lips. Bouncing his head once, he replies, "He means well." His eyes return to her face. "Steve." He clarifies. "The last thing he wanted was for you to get hurt. But plain and simple, he's not like you and me. He's learning just as much as you are." He admits, shrugging a shoulder and shaking his head. The door opens to Layla's office and the doctor peers out, a smile finding its way back to her lips when she sees the two of them out there. Jesse clears his throat, "I'll let you..." He murmurs, motioning towards Layla.
"Teresa, I'm glad you're here." She says warmly. "Come in, please."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 18, 2018 19:31:46 GMT -7
Jesse speaks about Steve and she chews on her lip for a moment as she listened. If it was anyone else then they would probably be mad at Steve, want to yell at him and even hate him, but she couldn’t be. Especially when she looked at his face and saw the look he had there. The look of grief almost as if he had sent her out to die rather than what had happened. She nodded for a moment and licked her lip “I don’t hate him, other people might but I don’t because I know he didn’t want me to get hurt” she admitted.
Teresa knew it was different talking about it now after it had already happened but she couldn’t say a bad word about Steve. This was bloody Captain America after all but even so she didn’t hate him.
The door opened and she looked up to see Layla and Teresa gave her a soft smile when she said about her going in. She turned her eyes back to look at Jesse. “I guess we both have a way to go when it comes to these things” she said about Steve learning. That wasn’t a dig at all but he, like Teresa, had to learn how to approach all of this better. The last thing she wanted was for someone else to go through what she did even if she had volunteered to be in that room.
Teresa settled her brown eyes on Layla once more and then walked into her office. “Probably surprised to see that I actually turned up?” She said with a soft smile and took her bag off. If she was honest right up to the point where she had left her own apartment she wasn’t sure if she would come here. The constant worry about what she might’ve done had almost made her lock the door and get into her bed to hide under the duvet. But Teresa wasn’t someone who hid from these things.
She liked to stand up straight and push it all back and this was her doing that. If she left it any longer then she would probably damage them a lot worse to the point where she couldn’t use her hands, just using them now was giving her hell.
“I didn’t put any of the gel on this morning because I wasn’t sure what it would do with the x-rays” she admitted and gave Layla an apologetic smile.
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Post by Ray on Jul 18, 2018 20:06:11 GMT -7
"No," Layla replies, closing the door behind Teresa and shaking her head lightly. "Just glad." She admits.
The examination itself doesn't take too long, but Layla doesn't skip any corners either. After asking the usual, rudimentary questions, Layla gingerly feels along Teresa's hands, careful not to hurt her but careful to understand just where the pain is coming from. Barton shows up after a few minutes, apologizing for traffic, but Layla sends him to wait outside anyway. "Patient-doctor confidentiality, Clint." She says as she ushers him out, "Same as when I fix your bumps and bruises." And then she closes the door before he can protest. But after a little while, Layla takes Teresa to another room for the x-rays, Barton glancing up from the chair he waits on in a ab across the hall but getting brushed off yet again.
The room is empty, save for a healthy dose of equipment organized throughout. A long, steel table sits in the middle, clean and uncluttered. "Take a seat," she tells Teresa, motioning towards a couple stools along the side. She moves to a steel cabinet and swipes her badge across a scanner near the handle. "I don't know if you've ever had x-rays before," she says, pulling open the door when the light blinks blue, and looking through the equipment stored there, "But we do things...a little differently here." She finds what she's looking for -- a piece of square metal with a blank screen facing upwards. She picks it up and carries it back to the table where Teresa waits. "Stark Industries is all about innovation. Making things simpler. More accessible. Not just for doctors, but for people beyond hospitals in places more...well," she laughs a little softly, "Inhospitable." She presses and holds a button on the side of the device. "Place your hands flat on the table please." She tells Teresa, the screen on top of the device turning on and a blue glow suddenly emanating from beneath it.
Holding it out, she moves the device over Teresa's hands, and scans along them wrist to finger. The image of her bones beneath the surface of her skin appears upon the screen, precise and clear.
"A couple friends of mine designed this," She explains, clicking another button, and scanning Teresa's other hand. "Doctor Fitz and Doctor Simmons. Geniuses."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 18, 2018 20:24:11 GMT -7
Teresa likes Layla and feels like they could be friends but at the same time it also feels like she could spend most of her time here in this room especially if they couldn’t figure out how to actually control her abilities. She knows that Layla isn’t trying to hurt her but at the same time it does really hurt and when Barton arrives she feels like she is actually whole again for a moment until Layla kicks him out of the room. He was probably going to protest at that and it makes her want to smile especially when she had told him that she would like him there.
They move to another room and Layla speaks about an x-ray and whether or not she had had one of them before. She had a couple when she was younger. There had been a point when she started riding her bike and fell off it, she thought she had broken her arm but hadn’t which was a huge relief for her mother but a big disappointment for Teresa because she wanted a cast. She wanted people to write on it and everything but that hadn’t come out of it and the second time well that was something she would keep to herself.
Teresa sat down “This place is definitely more calmer than any hospital I have ever been too” she admitted and looked up at Layla when the woman came back. She wasn’t sure if it was Layla herself or the fact that there wasn’t anyone screaming down the hall or yelling from the next room. All of it was calm and peaceful and it made Teresa feel at ease to the point that she didn’t need Barton at the moment.
She watched the blue light and smiled to herself before looking back up at Layla when she mentioned two people. “They sound like quite a pair”. Other than Stark she wasn’t sure she had ever met geniuses and would quite like to meet them but she wasn’t sure she would ever get that far “who knows maybe they could make something for my wrists” she said In a soft tease before dropping her brown eyes once more to look at the blue light.
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Post by Ray on Jul 18, 2018 20:42:22 GMT -7
"Well the only patients we get anymore are the, um." She trails off for a moment as she scans over Teresa's other hand, momentarily wondering just how much she is allowed to say and how much this girl already knows. If Teresa is here, on this floor, with Clint Barton as her guide, she must know at least something beyond the usual. And everyone already knows what Tony Stark gets up to in her free time, thanks to her very public appearances as Iron Man and that now infamous press conference that has turned the lobby of this tower into a zoo. But even still, she knows that a great deal of all of this is still marked under confidential. And Layla doesn't want to be the leak in this Titanic of a ship. "We mostly do research here." She says instead, smiling kindly.
Layla laughs softly and turns away towards a screen displayed on the wall. "If I see them, I'll ask them for any ideas." She replies.
She switches on the massive touch screen upon the wall, and hooks a cord into the X-Ray device held in her hands. Immediately, the images she took spring to life across the monitor, the bones of Teresa's hands on display for both of them to see. Right away, Layla sees the problem. And right away a small frown tugs at the corners of her lips.
"Well it's not...as bad as I thought it might be, but..." She moves closer, pointing to small fissures all along her bones, extending even further than her wrists, "See these little squiggles? Those are tiny fractures. And there are...hundreds of them."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 18, 2018 20:56:23 GMT -7
Teresa waits to see if Layla will say anything before she smiles and then says “The special kind?” But of course Layla then says about research. She knows that she isn’t anyone like Barton or Cap or even Stark herself but from the room that she was in the day before and the fact that Jesse is here then it doesn’t take Teresa long to work out that the only people they get here is the special kind. The people with abilities or whatnot. But she understands that Layla doesn’t want to say anything when she’s not sure what Teresa actually knows.
She smiled at her when she spoke about the two that she had mentioned. Who knows maybe they will be able to help her but at the moment she want sure she wanted to get her hopes up just in case.
Teresa looked up at the screen after Layla plugs the x-ray into it and then chewed on her lip before getting a better look by moving over to the screen herself. She does see those squiggles and honestly when Layla says that there is definitely a lot it makes her heart sink in her chest because really she wasn’t sure what she was even expecting and know that she had those fractures made her feel sad.
“Is there anything I can do about them? Or do I have to wait for them to heal?” She asked and looked over at Layla before looking back at the screen. What Teresa was more worried about was whether or not she would make them all worse especially when she couldn’t control her abilities just yet. She couldn’t control the shakes and if she does do more then will it make them worse? Teresa knew it probably would and there was no way she could stop that from happening right now.
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Post by Ray on Jul 18, 2018 21:16:19 GMT -7
Layla looks back at Teresa, letting her hand fall away from the screen. "At this point, letting them heal is the only option. Which means letting your hands rest. Otherwise, those fractures will get worse and worse, and breaking your bones will be the least of your troubles." She knows she should break the news in a much nicer way, a much more sympathetic way, but with how bad these wounds already appear, the time for niceties has long passed. Continuing to put strain and stress on her hands will shatter them completely, leaving them useless. And then what will she do.
"We'll need to put your hands and wrists in bracers," Layla admits, turning off the screen and sending the images to her laptop to save for future use. In case this is something that persists. "It's the only way to minimize the amount of strain you put on them on a daily basis just doing simple tasks. And you'll get that prescription you wanted yesterday." Layla nods, already making a long mental list of things to take care of. And its a long list.
Maybe she will need to talk to Fitzsimmons. Much against Tony's wishes.
"Come on. Let's return to my office and get that all taken care of." She smiles, and heads for the door.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 18, 2018 21:34:21 GMT -7
Teresa sighed softly under her breath and wasn't sure if that was even going to be possible. The amount of times that she has gone to bed and the next day woken up with these bruises really isn't something she could count on one hand. But at the same time she didn't want to damage her hands and wrists to the point where she could no longer use them. She liked driving and archery and doing other things so if she fucked up her hands and wrists to beyond repair then she knew she wouldn't be able to do any of that. She knew that what Layla was saying was the right things but keeping herself from going through this every day was going to be harder than she even thought it would be.
How could she stop herself when she was asleep?
If she's honest she's not sure just how she felt about the bracers but if she wanted them to heal then she would try anything right now. Teresa would have to make sure that she figured out how to stop herself from going through this night after night because she was getting a little tired waking up in the mornings and having the bruises on herself. For once she would like to wake up and not see her wrists and hands blue from how much it had hurt the night before.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" she asked as they head out of the door and go back towards the office. Teresa hadn't seen anything like it and she hasn't even heard anything like it either but she guessed that she wasn't meant too because it would mean that the people who kept everyone safe would then be failing to do their job. "The constant bruises and the fractures of course" she asked.
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Post by Ray on Jul 18, 2018 23:34:26 GMT -7
Layla walks with Teresa back down the hallway, glancing towards the other woman when she asks her questions, and hesitating. Again she's faced with the dilemma of saying too much to somebody who might not know much of anything that happens in these halls. Who might not know anything truly about what happens above their heads. Layla knows how to keep a secret. She wouldn't be a very good doctor if she didn't. But there's a difference between patient-doctor confidentiality and some of the things she's encountered here in her research.
Sometimes she misses the simple days of working in an ER.
"No," she says finally, the best and only answer she can actually give Teresa, "I haven't. But that doesn't mean we can't find a solution." She smiles towards her. They return within her office, Barton perking up once more, and close the door quietly. After collecting what she needs, she wraps Teresa's wrists in black compression sleeves -- slimmer than the kind of bracers handed out in hospitals and removable, but still sturdy enough to keep her wrists from wriggling too much and causing any undue strain. "Take them off to shower. Use the ointment each morning to help with the bruising and the pain. And...." Layla writes out a quick prescription on a notepad, "This is a low dosage pain killer. Enough to take away the edge but not enough to affect your day-to-day functions," she explains, ripping off the sheet of paper and handing it towards Teresa. "Still," she smiles a little, "I wouldn't drive or try to perform brain surgery while using them."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 19, 2018 4:49:54 GMT -7
The walk back towards Layla's office didn't feel long but at the same time it felt like the longest moment of her life. She was trying to take in the scan that she had seen. It wasn't bad but it definitely wasn't good either. If she kept doing this then the fractures would get worse til they shattered her bones and she wouldn't be able to use her hands at all but how could she stop herself from doing this when she wasn't sure how it even started in the first place?
Other than when she go angry so maybe anger is the key?
Layla answered her and she nodded before smiling back. Teresa hoped that they could find a solution because she couldn't carry on like this all the time. She couldn't carry on knowing that one more vibration or one more shake could shatter her hands and then she wouldn't be good for anything. She saw Barton and gave him a soft smile before heading back into the office. She sat watched Layla moving about the office and she had to say that there was definitely something calming about her. Barton was right, Layla was definitely good.
Layla wrapped the sleeves on her wrists and explained just what to do with them and that meant sleeping with them on. If it helped her wrists then she was seriously down with trying anything and with the ointment that she had then it might make them feel better but sadly in the end she was going to have to deal with the bigger issue which was the whole shaking but after yesterday she might be able to set a course in motion that would help her to control everything for now but honestly in the end she just wanted them gone. Teresa wanted to go back to how she was before, to get angry without actually breaking anything.
She took the piece of paper gently from Layla and looked down at it before nodding. Teresa couldn't help but laugh softly about her comment and chewed on her lip for a moment. "I guess my neighbour will have to wait to have a new brain then" she said in a soft tease before putting the paper into her pocket.
"Thank you" Teresa said after a moment and looked back at Layla "Seriously thanks for doing this, I was in so much pain and hopefully all of this will help"
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Post by Ray on Jul 19, 2018 9:01:14 GMT -7
"Anytime," Layla replies with a genuine smile and a nod when Teresa expresses her thanks, "And I mean that. If there's anything else I can do for you, don't hesitate to ask or just drop on by. My door is always open."
As if picking the perfect time to punctuate that, a knock sounds at the door right before it cracks open wide enough for Barton to poke his head through, his impatience clearly having got the better of him in the fifteen minutes he's had to wait to hear any sort of news. Layla just sighs out a small breath and shakes her head a little at him, but she has to admit that she is a little amused by the whole thing. "Can I come in now?" He asks, trying to hide his irritation.
"Couple more minutes, Clint. Please." Layla replies. Barton huffs out a breath and rolls his eyes but pulls himself out of the crack in the door and closes it quietly behind him. Layla laughs softly, lowering her eyes away to settle back upon Teresa. And then she hesitates again, that question that's been burning at her for the last two days bubbling back to the surface, eager to be answered but aware of how sensitive it can be.
"Your injuries..." Layla comments, twisting a pen between her fingers, "They're caused by something...beyond the norm. Aren't they?" She asks, avoiding using the word superhuman, even if it's the right word.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 19, 2018 11:09:13 GMT -7
Teresa actually believes that Layla’s door would always be open and that made her feel calm to know that there was always someone who had her back if something went wrong with her arms or her hands but also knowing that there was someone she could talk too. She could talk to Clint but sometimes a female conversation was needed to sort things out and she knew that with Layla she would have that.
She turned her head when the door opened and smiled at Barton when it seemed like he was trying to get some information although to be fair she had asked him to go with her to this x-ray and then he ends up sitting outside and not getting any of that information but she would bring him up to speed when they did talk to each other.
Teresa laughed softly when he moved his head from the door and shut it up. Obviously he didn’t like waiting around but she could understand that. He was probably dying to find out or maybe not who knows. It wasn’t as if they were dating or anything but she does have to admit that waking up in Barton’s arms this morning felt good. But Teresa shouldn’t get used to that at all.
Layla’s question caught her off guard although she had been waiting for her to connect the dots especially with what she had witnessed from Jesse the day before. She chewed on the inside of her lip because she wasn’t sure if she should answer that or not because of the fact that she didn’t want to frighten her but at the same time this woman fixed up people like her clearly.
Teresa let her lip go and then nodded. “Yes” It was so quiet that she wasn’t sure if it came out but she knew deep down that Layla heard it. “I can make things shake and it’s taking its toll on my hands and wrists” she sighed softly and watched Layla. “I’m worried that one time it’s going to happen and it’s going to shatter every bone in my body and I can’t stop it”
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Post by Ray on Jul 19, 2018 21:26:34 GMT -7
Layla's smile turns soft and sympathetic at Teresa's honest answer. She had assumed as much, though she had refrained from asking up until this point. Tony doesn't have a habit of letting just anyone traipse through these halls, and other than cleaning up already-healing scrapes on Steve's stupidly thick arms and chastising Barton for being so reckless with himself, Layla hasn't seen another patient in months. Jesse was the first new face.
And now this girl.
Layla might spend her time looking at wounds and studying medicine, but she can see a pattern staring her right in the face.
"And that's why you're here?" Layla asks, making sure not to pry too much when Teresa already seems frightened by her own truth. "To find some way of lessening that toll?" These people certainly do have a soft spot for strays. Though Barton has always come across as a stray himself to her. Layla is quiet for a moment, letting those thoughts circle around her head, letting them fit into the missing slots of the puzzle she's been building since Teresa first stepped into her office. "I...don't know very much about that aspect of humanity beyond what little I have seen myself." She admits, a little apologetically. "And I can't give you any answers beyond my medical knowledge. But..." She bites on her lip momentarily, questioning her own judgement in thinking this.
But she exhales a breath, and makes her decision. One she'll stick to. Even if it does not work out as optimistically as she hopes. "I saw you speaking with Jesse in the hall. He's young, and I don't wish to break any confidences I already have with him by saying too much. But he is closely tied to a friend of mine who is an expert in these matters. If there is anyone in this tower I believe can give you some semblance of understanding...it would be him."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jul 20, 2018 6:05:49 GMT -7
Teresa chewed her lip gently and watched Layla "If I'm honest I don't know why I am here" she admitted and then cleared her throat. She had thought that maybe they would be able to get rid of these abilities but from what she was told that wasn't going to be possible so she was going to have to deal with it and maybe even learn to control what she can do. "Maybe to help me deal with everything that comes after, I mean my life is completely changed and I will have to deal with that but the pain is something that I don't want to have to learn to live with so I need the help" she said and nodded.
She needed the help to deal with all this new stuff too. When Barton had seen the bruises he had listened to her when she finally broke down and told him what had been happening. He had told her that he knew someone who could help her figure this all out and maybe they did help her to figure this out but she was still left with the pain and in the end she was going to have to do something about that too.
Layla started talking again and she listened and for a moment she couldn't quite understand what it was that she was trying to say but then when she finally spoke the rest she remembered the day before and she gave a slight smile and looked down. "Jesse helped me before," she admitted and looked back up at her "I overdone it yesterday and I pushed myself a little passed what I probably should've done and he sat with me and we talked, he seems like a good kid" she nodded and then bit down on her lip. "If I'm honest I'm just trying to get my head around all of this and it's a lot of struggle and trust me I have seen some things that I can accept but.." she trailed off and looked down at her hands "I'm struggling to accept what I can do"
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