Oceans Away || Leo Fitz Book Three

Chapter TwentyFour

"What about that?" Jemma asked, pricking Asia's right toe with a sharp needle. She looked up to watch the Agent's reaction while and psychologist took notes on her metal clipboard.

Asia winced, her toes curling. "Yes, Jemma, I can feel it. And it hurts. They have all hurt." She tried to curl her foot away from the doctor's grasp, looking to Nat, Clint, and Leo for assistance. They all seemed to do nothing but shrug uncomfortably and urge her to continue through the procedure so she could be done with it.

Jemma sighed, patting her foot and standing back up straight to turn to her table. "I know, Asia. It isn't easy. We just are trying to make sure you're in tip top shape. Next, I need to draw blood, then we will need to scan you're body and make sure Ward hasn't placed any trackers into your system." Jemma explained the process carefully, picking up a needle filled with a light numbing liquid and flicking it a couple times.

"He didn't," Asia said with a shake of her head. "You don't need to check, because he didn't." She said so with such certainty that it made both Jemma and the Psychologist, Dr Cho, pause to look at her.

"How can you be so sure?" Jemma asked, setting the needle back down and turning to look at her teammate. Asia had been through so much recently, it was possible she was simply delusional or wanted the inspection to stop. "He could have done it while you were sleeping."

"He didn't," Asia said, shaking her head firmly. "And I know. Placing a tracker into my system would hurt, right?" She looked back and forth between the doctors in the room, Leo included.

"Well, yes," Jemma said with a nod after thinking for a moment. "I cannot speak firsthand, but I believe the placement of a tracker into one's body could be considered quite painful."

"That's how I know," Asia replied back with a shrug. "If it was causing pain, he wanted me awake for it..." A silence fell over the room, hanging heavy like dense smoke. Asia could practically feel it curling all around her, coating her body, invading her lungs. What she had said was true. Ward had woken her up many times just to make sure she felt the complete pain of her torture. He wouldn't miss an opportunity to hurt her like that. She felt absolutely certain.

"Alright, well," Jemma said in a matter-of-fact tone. "A simply x-ray should do then. Nothing invasive. You'll hardly even know it's happening. But first, I would like to draw some blood. We need to make sure you aren't poisoned and haven't been given any sort of lethal injections." She held up the syringe full of numbing liquid again, inspecting it under the light. "I will inject this light sedative just to numb the area while I draw blood and plasma to test as well as administer some routine shots." As Jemma explained the process, she wiped the woman's arm down with iodine. "You won't feel anything but a slight pinch."

As Jemma explained the process and moved closer to Asia, the agent's body went ridged. "No," she breathed out, pulling her legs tighter into herself and yanking her arm from Jemma's grasp. "Don't put that anywhere near me." The fear was irrational, she knew that, but it was reflexive. She saw the needle and instantly all the memories of her time kept captive flooded back.

Her voice wavered as she shook her head, looking to Natasha for help. Natasha would know that look in her eyes, recognize what she needed in that moment. She knew it, as well as she knew herself.

The second she and the redhead locked eyes, her gaze snapped upwards. "Everyone out, except for me and the good doctors here." She snapped her fingers, barking the orders at those around them. She turned to Clint and Leo. "You two, also," she said with a curt nod. There was no question in her voice - no one would be allowed to disregard this rule.

Clint look as if he were about to object, but a small, sharp shake of Natasha's head put any idea of that completely to rest. Leo knew better than to argue with a woman like Natasha - he didn't want to wind up with his arm twisted behind his back and quite potentially dislocated from his shoulder socket. That didn't sound particularly like his idea of a good time. Quietly and quickly, the others all shuffled out of the Lab, leaving Jemma, Dr. Cho, Natasha, and Asia behind.

"Alright, Dr. Simmons. Hand me the syringe, please," Natasha said calmly, holding out her open palm for Jemma to place the needle in. Her face was without expression, without emotion. But the tone of her voice advised she was not to be questioned on this. Hesitantly, Jemma placed the needle into Natasha's waiting hand.

"Alright, Asia," Natasha said, turning to her formal pupil and cocking her head slightly. "You going to give me a problem on this one?" She held the syringe up and looked at her bare arm. "Cause I'd really prefer you didn't."

Asia looked up at her mentor and wanted to refuse, but she couldn't. The woman in front of her had such a hardset gaze, one that could not be questioned. The years of training taught her to know better than that. So, bleakly, she nodded. "Understood," she said quietly, rolling to offer up her arm, and so that she would not see the needle go in.

"Agent Monroe," Dr. Cho spoke up as Natasha got to work, taking all the tasks away from Jemma as she did so. "I would like to discuss again the events of what happened during your time in captivity. What happened that made you so nervous of these needles?"

"I was tortured," Asia replied flatly, with just a hint of sarcasm. "He used many tools on me, needles included. I'll get over it, just have to get through it first." Her response was very logical, however Dr. Cho didn't seem to find it adequate enough to end the conversation.

"Alright, that is understandably very traumatic. It's quite big of you to know that you'll be able to get past this. After all, you are a trained Shield agent." The woman nodded, a strand of her black hair falling in front of her face as she did so. She carefully tucked the strand back behind her ear before jotting down some additional notes on her pad. "All in all, you were gone for twelve days. The torture lasted for the entirety of your time there?" She waited for Asia to nod 'yes' in response before she pushed on towards the next question. "Close your eyes and picture the space, please."

Asia shot Natasha a glance, before shutting her eyes and doing as the psychologist asked. "It's black, and I'm back in my cell. Eyes, they get used to the darkness after a while, you know?" She shrugged. "Ward is outside of the cell, sometimes inside. When he's inside, he bring tools with him, and my sister is outside of the cell, watching. Making sure I can't kill him, as much as I want to. He pulled my nails out, he bled me, he cut me, he held my eyes open to where I couldn't see anymore, and then when I couldn't see, he'd cut me more. He broke my arm. He burned me. Name a torture device, it's probably on the list."

"I see," The doctor took down notes, pausing for a moment as if to think. "How did it feel? Not the pain, but to have someone you considered a friend, someone you were incredibly close with, doing those things to you?"

The question caught Asia off guard. She jerked upwards, nearly ripping the needle from her arm which Natasha had only just finished inserting in to draw blood. "What do you mean how did it feel?" She spat the words out angrily at the doctor. She wondered if the woman was intentionally trying to push her buttons in all of the wrong ways.

"I meant exactly what I asked. How did it feel? That sense of betrayal?" The woman repeated her question, staring at her with an unnerving intensity.

"It felt like shit," Asia replied evenly, trying to slow her breaths down as much as possible. "But he's done it before, and there's nothing out there that will keep him from betraying us all again. Nothing except for death." As she said the words, their weight, the realization that they were true, clutched around her throat.