Can't See the Truth

“So she’s gone?” Steve asked, looking at the faces in the group before him. “That’s all there is to it?”

“I wish it was that easy,” the doctor said calmly. “After running several tests, we found out she was poisoned.”

“What I want to know,” Tony said quickly, pointing an accusing finger at the doctor. “Is why she was wearing scrubs and parading around this damn hospital when we thought she was on a SHIELD mission!”

“Tony, not so loud!” Bruce exclaimed. “Don’t scare Pamplemousse.”

The whole team looked at the small girl in Bruce’s arms. The ten-year-old looked to be half the size as she usually was. She sat on her father’s lap, tears rolling silently down her cheeks as she stared off into the distance.

As Bruce ran his fingers through his daughter’s long brown hair, the doctor continued to talk. “I don’t know much except that she was poisoned with a cyanide injection and she said someone by the name of CJ did it to her.”

Pamplemousse sat up and looked at the doctor. “CJ?”

“Yes,” he continued. “She said ‘tell Stark that CJ did this to me. She did it to me.’ I thought that would make more sense to you folks.”

“CJ?” Pamplemousse asked again. “Why would she kill Patty?”

“Would that mean Brooke’s at risk of being poisoned next?” Clint asked.

Pamplemousse’s eyes went wide. “Brooke’s gonna die too?”

The ten-year-old’s eyes welled up with tears, which poured over her lids almost instantly. Her small body jerked with sob after sob.

Bruce pulled her back into his lap where she cried into his shirt.

Clint stood and cleared his throat. “Maybe we should step outside.”

Steve, Tony, Clint, the doctor, Loki, and Thor all stepped out into the hall as Bruce quietly attempted to calm his young daughter.

“You’re a SHIELD doctor, right?” Tony said as soon as the door behind them was closed.

“Mr. Stark, I don’t see how that’s rele-”

“Just answer the question. Are you not a SHIELD doctor?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark, I am a SHIELD doctor.”

“And how long have you been working here?”

“Two years,” he replied coldly. “What the hell does this have to do with anything.”

“And how long was that girl working here? The one that died.”

The man shrugged his shoulders, looking around for an answer he didn’t have. “I don’t know. I only noticed her a week or two ago.”

“So right after Brooke was admitted?”

“Mr. Stark, how is this relevant?!”

Steve looked at his husband and saw the gears turning. “You think CJ hired Patty to do her dirty work?”

“It seems quite possible,” Thor mused. “She has been known to us as a threat.”

“But why Brooke?” Clint asked. “I thought the two of them were like sisters?”

“Maybe,” Tony said quietly, more to himself than to the rest of the team. “Or maybe...”

Steve looked down at the floor and sighed. “Or maybe that was just a front.” Steve looked up at his team with sadness in his eyes. “Maybe we’re all still in danger.”

****

Franz came into Toni’s room, smile on his face and pills in his hand. “It’s that time of day again,” he said half-jokingly.

Toni smiled a little and held out her hand. “Thank you,” she mumbled.

She looked down into the white paper cup and saw two white pills and a pink capsule. “I thought I was taking different pills,” she said suddenly, looking directly back to Franz.

He cleared his throat once and gestured to the cup in her hands. “Your new doc wants you to take these instead.”

“Why?” she asked, still locking eyes with Franz. “I was feeling fine with the other ones.”

He nodded as he handed her another paper cup filled with water. “I know,” he said. “But who am I to go against the doctor’s orders?”

Toni shrugged and took the pills, following it down with the water.

He took both cups from her and gave another smile before heading out of her room and into the hallway.

****

Toni was pacing around her room as the walls closed in around her. She was feeling incredibly claustrophobic. As she paced, she had to stop at her mirror to breathe. As she looked at her reflection, she hated what she saw staring back at her.

“You’re nothing,” her reflection spat at her, long hair covering most of her face. “You can’t even look at a mirror without finding somthing to criticize! You’re pathetic!”

“SHUT UP!!” Toni screamed as she punched the mirror, sending shards of glass into her hand, on the floor, and in the sink beneath the somewhat empty frame.

Toni looked at her now bloody hand in half horror, half surprise. She picked up one of the bigger pieces and looked at the remains of the mirror that still clung to the frame. As she lifted her cut and bloody hand holding the long, jagged piece of glass to her head, she could hear the orderlies panicking and scrambling for keys just outside her door.

When Franz finally got the door open, he saw Toni standing in front of what used to be her mirror with a blood-soaked hand holding a piece of glass that was just as blood-covered. Without turning to face them, she reached towards her hair with her uninjured hand to feel the fresh-cut ends of her now short hair.

“Finally,” she whispered to herself, closing her eyes and smiling as the orderlies grabbed her by the arms and injected her with a sedative.