Intertwine

81 - She Is Family After All

ALINA

I cleared my throat. "So, Roara?" 

We were all staring at her. She was looking out of the window, and didn't seem to be able to hear up. Thor tapped her with his hammer. She turned slowly to look at us, as though her movements had been slowed down a bit with the turn of a dial. She looked at Thor. "Is it time to leave?" She asked in a small voice.

Thor shook his head. "Bucky asked you whether you were actually in the building that got bombed." He turned to look at Bucky. "She was, I happened to be with her that evening and I was able to make sure she wasn't crushed. I took her back to her cottage in the countryside to recover and..." he looked at Roara, who had gone back to staring out of the window, "that was the last time I saw her until I collected her from that same cottage and brought her to New York."

The others began to talk about the possibilities of memories existing within a subconscious and being inaccessible to the conscious mind, and everything else that came along with trying to work out how Aditi had seen what she saw. Of course we couldn't know how accurate it was, but Cap had been able to verify the parts he remembered.

Looking at Roara, I wanted to cry. Even yesterday she had been better than this. I didn't know what was going on with her. I turned to Bruce who was beside me. "I want to scan her."

"Who Aditi?" Bruce whispered back.

"No." I glanced at Aditi, who had come to us with Tony and Peter as soon as she'd had the vision, realising it might mean something if Bucky had no knowledge of that memory. So obviously we'd had to call a meeting. "I want to scan Ro. I don't think this is just depression."

Bruce paused. "Until yesterday I would have disagreed. It's like she'd had a head injury. Do you think it was the venom that was still in her system?" 

"It might be." I slumped back in my chair, sliding down in my seat until my legs were bent underneath the table. I kicked Loki, who was across from me. 

"What?" He hissed.

I pulled myself back up and leant across the table. "Did she hit her head at all in Vanaheim?" 

He looked quickly from Roara to me. "She kept falling over because of her leg, and I think she might have hit her head when she landed, but she wasn't like this back there."

"What about the venom?" I asked.

Loki shook his head. "She'd have broken out in purple hives and frothed blood at the mouth. Unless I missed that happening, it's not the venom."

Shit. I looked over at Wanda who was next to Nat. It hadn't exactly been awkward with Nat and I, we just... hadn't spoken about the kiss. Just got on with our life. I sort of wished it hadn't happened now, as amazing as it had felt at the time, now I just felt awkward and I wasn't an awkward person. Mostly. 

"Bruce," I whispered, "can you get Wanda's attention, you're closer." 

Wanda leant back in her seat to look at me. "I can hear you, you know." I looked around the table. The other conversation had stopped. Now everyone was paying attention to the conversation I had thought had been at least somewhat private. Or well, everyone except Roara, who was still looking out of the window. 

I sighed. "Wanda, could you read Roara's mind."

Wanda groaned. "I did not have a good time doing that last time." She glared at Loki who gave an unsympathetic shrug. "Fine." She said eventually. 

She went up to Roara, taking Thor's seat beside her. "Hey, Ro." She said, so gently I couldn't help but feel even more miserable at my friend's state.