Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT XXXI: Therapy: Day Three

Set a day after previous one-shot

Amanda Parks' POV

Day three was well, delayed. I didn't get another session with Adelaide until a week after her episode in the Lone Key Diner in Washington D.C. Steve - no, Captain Rogers, continued to give me updates on how she was doing. I tried to make it my mission to find out where Adelaide was the most relaxed and meet her there. It was one day that I began to see for myself just how severe Adelaide's post-traumatic stress really was, and it was also then that I found out another condition she had, which promoted me to make more avenues to get to her.

-Time skip-

I walked up the steps of the apartment complex. Stopping in front of the door, I knocked tentatively, my arms full of case studies that I had done on my patient. I knocked again and was answered by Steve, who looked entirely dishevelled. His hair looked like a mess and he looked like he'd barely slept all night.

'Hey, Mandy. Look, last night was a really bad night for Adelaide. You can come in, but I've gotten no where near her.'

'Where is she?'

'Couch. Watching Netflix. She's constantly beating herself up over the episode in the diner last week. She feels so bad. I - just come in.' I stepped in and was hit by the nauseating smell of strong alcohol.

'She drinks?' He nodded, rubbing his face.

'I called in sick on purpose. Fury knew the real reason and dragged it out of me eventually. He's sending some other top agents on the mission I was supposed to go on. They all know why. Adelaide's the real reason I'm still here.' He beckoned me into the living room. A cheesy-looking romance comedy movie was playing, and she was sitting on the couch, the brightness turned down on the television, nursing a bottle of beer. From where I was standing, I could see how dishevelled she looked, worse than Steve. I came over.

'Hey, Adelaide.' She glanced up, then did a double take and looked at me. She peered at me slightly, tilting her head.

'Piss off,' she growled.

'Do you remember me?'

'Hell yeah. Telling me how to change my life, telling me this and that - and throwing all of this psycho jargon in my face... t-telling me to admit my sins. To let go.'

'Every word I said was true. Every word.'

'Again, piss off.' I knelt next to her and she was not looking at me, entirely fixed on the screen.

'I care about you. So does Steve.' She laughed and got up off the couch, moving towards the trash can. Dropping the bottle in, she walked back towards the couch and sat down, the movie still playing on the screen. She glanced at me.

'Are you still sure of that?'

'Yes. Every word I say I mean.'

'You should just stop caring. You don't know who I am or what I've done. I'm a monster. These hands have murdered, shot people, stabbed people... These hands are filthy with blood. Innocent blood.'

'I'll never stop caring and neither will Steve.'

'Just -' and at this she turned to me with a dangerous look in her eyes,' - stay away from me. Just stop.' She got up.

'I can't stop. I won't stop. Not once.' She got up, digging her hands through her hair and pacing.

'Please - just stop... Just stop. Please stop.' An agonising groan slipped from her lips as she fell against the wall, drawing her knees to her chest. 'Just stop - gah!' She cried out again and lowered her head, her angry, tough facade slipping fast. She cried out again, my heart hurting for her state of mind. I saw Steve drop to his knees and crawl towards her.

'Adelaide? Adelaide, talk to me.' Another pained groan slipped from her lips as her hands gripped her hair.

'Oh, God... The voices... Just stop,.. Just stop. My head dammit... It feels like it's splitting - gah!' She let out a full-blown scream this time, and the scene of the broken woman before me nearly brought me to tears.

'Adelaide, please talk to me,' Steve said. 'Please - just fight this. I know you can fight this. You're stronger. Come on!' She looked up and her eyes were darker now. Much darker. The soul of a killer. The monster was coming out.

'Who the hell is Adelaide?' Her eyes were angry. Soulless. She moved so she could get up and suddenly, launched into a punch at Steve. He grabbed her and with expert strength, threw her over him. She tried to launch a kick at him, but he grabbed her leg and pulled her to the ground. She fought him for over two minutes before he finally grabbed her and threw her against the side of a glass coffee table, rendering her unconscious. Instantly, he crawled over to her, feeling her pulse. I sat down on the couch while he brought her over to cover her up with a blanket. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt too bad, only a mild scratch on her temple from where she hit the glass table. Soon enough, she was sleeping peacefully.

'Is she okay?' I asked.

'Yes. She's unconscious - for now. Hopefully when she wakes up, she'll be more - ah, stable. What the hell was that? I mean, she's relapsed before, but this was more severe. Much more severe.' I stood up, having finished taking notes on her present condition.

'She doesn't just have post-traumatic stress, Steve. She's in much more pain than that. Adelaide has dissociative identity disorder. That deficit between her human personality, the calmer side of her, the Adelaide Lehnsherr side of her, which is an amalgamation of her other personalities, the Winter Phoenix and the Blood Phoenix. The Winter side of her, that's the side that we just saw. The cold killer side. The Blood Phoenix is much like the Winter Phoenix, only she is a hero and much more capable of compassion, love, all those good and honourable emotions and feelings.'

'So she's post-traumatic and she has dissociative identity disorder as well. That changes things.'

'It does. She has three personalities. What she was during her years in HYDRA, what she is now, and both what she was before and the person outside of the hero that she is now. There's a huge deficit of three personalities, all mixing, intertwining, even learning from each other, all of those personalities make up the woman that you know as Adelaide Lehnsherr.' I stood, packing everything away. Steve walked me to the door. He opened it and let me through first. I ducked my head, trying to not notice the ever-increasing blush of heat on my cheeks. We stepped through and he closed the door behind him. 'I really hope she recovers, Steve. Now that I know what's really going on... I'll figure out some ways to help her - ah, tame that side of herself. To put power under control. She's a unique person, and that uniqueness, if we utilise it, if we work gently with her, we can bring it out.'

'Thank you, Mandy.'

'You're welcome, Steve.' It was at that that I walked down the steps of the apartment, leaving Steve to stand at the door alone. He turned back to Adelaide. She was fast asleep, her right arm looping carelessly over her waist, her breathing soft. He closed the door of the apartment and walked over to her, brushing a piece of hair back from her face. That scratch on her temple was almost healed, thanks to her fast healing factor due to the super soldier serum inside of her. She looked so peaceful. The only time when she wasn't fighting her demons. But in sleep she still was fighting. Still begging for HYDRA to stop. To stop hurting her.

To stop brainwashing her. She was still fighting to have her will back.

To have her soul back.

To have some piece of her sanity, the girl that she once was back. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently. She'd be asleep for a while. He just had to be ready for what state she would be in when she woke up.