House of Wolves: Not a Social Visit

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda and the others arrive in Cambridge and try to figure out what happened. One person stonewalls but the other offers them some disturbing news.



"Again, do it again. But concentrate this time." The voice was sharp and firm, used to being obeyed and the nineteen year old sprawled in front of her didn't bother arguing. Wanda had discovered that arguing with Professor Harkness was a lesson in futility - she'd realized that a week ago when the older woman had walked in on a powers accident.

She'd been hustled instantly into Agatha's office, forced to explain everything. And just like that, Wanda had found herself reluctantly under one of the toughest professor's wings.

Wanda sighed and tried to fall back into the patterns of meditation, anything to avoid get another reprimand. It didn't help that she was massively hungover, which was mucking about with her powers and concentration. And Agatha wasn't the least bit inclined to take it easy on her.

When she finally managed to do a full fifteen minutes of meditation, and actually lose herself in it, she came back to herself to find a hot mug of tea and aspirin at her elbow.

~~

It hadn’t taken Wanda long to pass out in the front of the rental car, though it was more half dozing and ignoring the fact that she could be awake than true sleep. Because it was a family emergency and she had some cash to throw around, the airline had been more than accommodating with the airline tickets. While Jake had booked a rental car, she’d also gotten in touch with everyone back home – Jake had been right, it could have had nothing to do with the museum itself and everything to do with Wanda.

She stirred when she felt the car slow and the GPS’ voice chirp “You have reached your destination” in whatever bizarre accent Mark had finally settled on and opened her eyes to find them at the hospital. “God, I hate these places,” she muttered as they pulled into a parking spot – it was barely noon and the hospital’s parking lot wasn’t full.

Mark shut off the car and stepped out onto the pavement. "It's kinda spooky," he agreed, and followed Wanda in. The car honked softly behind them as he remotely locked it.

Illyana liked hospitals; everything smelled clean, the floors were shiny, and everyone was so quiet. She didn't say this, because Wanda had hardly said a word for the entire time they were there, and it didn't seem like quite the right thing to say under the circumstances anyway. Instead, she followed Mark, thumbs in her jeans' pockets. "Yeah," she agreed finally, for lack of anything better to say.

Jake finished poking at his cell phone and put it away; he had spent the car trip trying to track down more information, of which there was frustratingly little. He glanced at Wanda, careful to keep the worry from his face; he'd hated the way everyone in Geneva had kept glancing at him when they thought he wasn't looking like they were afraid he was going to utterly lose his shit, and he wasn't going to do that to her. Hopefully.

It wasn't until they passed through the sliding doors that he remembered how uncomfortable hospitals made him. He took a couple of quick steps to catch up to Wanda, taking her arm gently. "Who are we going to see first?"

That had been something she'd had to mull over the entire trip - family or Agatha first? But Agatha was family, in all the ways that mattered. She'd been like an overbearing, frightening mother to Wanda when Magda had been too far away to do much good. "Agatha," she responded after a moment. "I want to talk with Hanzi but the museum belongs to Agatha and she should have the most information. If she's awake."

While she didn't lean further into Jake's touch, she didn't shake him off, either, and they walked down the corridor for a few minutes like that. They quickly found the main desk and were directed towards the correct part of the hospital. It didn't take them long to find the nurse's station near Agatha's room and Wanda wasted no time in asking if they could see the older woman.

The nurse gave them a look that was half exasperation and half amusement. "If she'll see you, you're more than welcome. We normally don't allow more than one or two in the room but, well, feel free to try. If she doesn't want you in there, you won't be for long."

Illyana narrowed her eyes at the nurse, as though trying to decide if she were going to be a problem; maybe she couldn't be all smushy and sentimental, but she could definitely stare down a lady in blue scrubs if she had to. Finally, she just sighed and looked at the others, waiting for a cue.

Wanda waved a hand at the nurse. "She'll see me," she said and headed towards the room the nurse pointed to. Agatha and her cousin had been in surgery around the time she'd gotten the phone call hours before but they were still being watched over in case something went wrong. When she pushed the door open, she suddenly froze, skin paling, as she took in her former mentor.

Agatha Harkness had worn her advancing years well. Never a tall or big woman, she still had a presence that had cowed most of the people who crossed paths with the professor. Now ... now she looked frail and broken under the blankets and dimmed lights. The bandages didn't hide the bruising or the way her chest struggled to rise; despite the pain and drugs, Agatha's eyes were open and watching them at the door with resignation.

"Agatha," Wanda breathed, struggling to regain her emotional balance. Agatha wasn't supposed to look old or so close to death. She just wasn't.

"Wanda," the older woman responded, voice weak and tired. "I recognize one of your friends - Mark, yes?"

"Hi." Mark forced himself to keep the shock of seeing this woman off his face, the same woman who had so disquieted Wanda that she'd jumped out a window to escape, now broken and battered on a hospital bed. He looked up at Wanda and then back to Agatha. "How're you feeling? All things considered."

"I spent several hours last night as a man became quite intimate with my internal organs - fair to middling, I would say." The usual bite was still there but it wasn't as strong or sharp, not with the exhaustion covering it.

Wanda moved to stand by the bed, a hand hovering over Agatha's before pulling back as the woman gave her a look. "I'm exhausted and in pain and I seem to be missing several hours but I am not dieing. What are you doing here?"

"What are we - Agatha, you were viciously attacked in your own museum. As was my cousin. I'm one of your emergency contacts. You know some of what we do, we're here to help."

Agatha slumped a little against the pillows and closed her eyes. "No. Thank you my dear, but no."

Jake had to fight back the urge to pull them all from the room; Agatha reminded him of his mother in all of the wrong ways, and the stunned look on Wanda's face was even more distressing considering how near she'd come to falling to pieces already. Instead he stepped forward, just behind Wanda, one hand coming up to lightly touch the small of her back. "Has it occurred to you that this might not be about you?" he asked, his voice low and tight. "It seems a little odd that you and Wanda's cousin were attacked while she happened to be in country."

"Coincidence, young man, nothing more," Agatha snapped, eying how close Jake was standing next to Wanda but, for once, not saying anything. "It has nothing to do with my former student and you should leave it at that." Her voice trailed off as her face paled from the strain and her breathing became labored.

"It does not matter if it is about me or not," Wanda responded, muscles quivering under Jake's hand from the shock and anger Agatha's response was producing. "Someone almost killed you and Hanzi and..."

Her own voice trailed off when Agatha resolutely turned her head away from the group. "All right," Wanda continued slowly. "I'll be back later, then."

She turned and the others by the door shuffled outside quickly as she stormed through with Jake right behind her. "She knows something," she muttered as they shut the door behind them, arms crossed protectively in front of her. "And she's shutting me out."

"Well," Illyana said, crossing her arms over her stomach, "What exactly do you want to do? I mean, it's not like we can drug someone's great-grandmother." Her estimation of Agatha's actual age might have been slightly off.

That got a laugh out of Wanda and some of the tension eased. "Please do not tempt me, though knowing Agatha she might just eat it for breakfast. My cousin is who we see next - unless he's drugged to the gills, he'll talk."

~~

The reaction from Wanda's cousin when they entered the room down the hall could not have been more different. Hanzi's wife, a tall reedy blond woman, had jumped up with a soft cry and thrown herself at Wanda as Hanzi, a man who shared her coloring and made it obvious now that the wild mop of hair was a shared family trait, had struggled to sit up in bed. He was sporting bandages around his head, an arm in a sling and more bandages could be seen poking through the top of his hospital gown.

Wanda sent Jane to go get some coffee while she talked with her cousin and now stood holding his hand in hers. "You've looked better," she noted dryly. "I am amazed you and Agatha are even awake now."

"I came out of surgery right as they called you, they said, so I have slept enough, thank you." His voice was tired and he looked half asleep but Hanzi was obviously struggling to talk to his cousin.

"Hanzi, what happened? Agatha refuses to talk."

"Wanda, it..." He broke off and stared at her friends for a moment before saying something rapidly in Rom. "They will think I am crazy as the police do."

Mark almost snapped his fingers all sassy-like. No entirely appropriate hospital behavior, though. "There is nothing that you can say that would shock us and make us think you're crazy."

"That is - " Illyana stopped herself, rethinking her snap reaction. "That is completely true. We have absolute faith in your sanity. Please, strange hair man, continue."

Wanda scrubbed her face for a moment as Hanzi gave Illyana a quizzical expression. "~Cousin, is my English...~"

"~There is nothing wrong with your English, Hanzi, trust me.~" She switched out of Rom and nodded at him. "Tell us, please."

"Our people have many tales," Hanzi started, "many legends and stories told by the fire. To many of us, they are more than stories, they are real. I was never one of them, too modern my father said. But I enjoyed them for what they were. The other guards at the museum enjoyed listening to the darker tales." He swallowed and Wanda handed him a glass of water and he continued once he'd had a few sips. "They enjoyed being frightened. I was telling a story when the attack happened and it..."

He clutched at Wanda's hand with a near death grip. "I never should have disbelieved. The old tales are right. A shadow from out of my story came out of nowhere and ..." Hanzi winced and glanced down at his body. "More than a shadow, a wolf. Teeth and claws and it was as real as you are. And the howl, oh god, the howling..." He came to a stop with his head bowed and with a jolt, Wanda realized he was softly crying.

Jake pushed himself off of the wall he'd been leaning against, taking a step closer to the bed. "Was Agatha with you, or was she somewhere else in the museum?" Best to take this wolf-shadow-thing in stride. Besides, it definitely fell on the Wanda side of the spooky-to-normal spectrum. He'd rather find out why Agatha was being so close-mouthed, if Hanzi could tell them.

"She was in her office," Hanzi replied as he stared down at the blanket on his legs, voice hoarse from tears and fright. "The alarm was going off, I do not know how far she m-made it." He looked up at them beseechingly. "I tried to get to her but I c-couldn't move. Blood loss and fear and oh god, I should have believed. I should have. I should never told gadje our old stories. I did this with my disbelief." Deep sobs started to rack his body and some of the machines around him started to go haywire.

Immediately Wanda circled her free arm around his shoulders and brought him closer to her, looking at the others. "Go," she mouthed, wishing to protect her cousin from this, wishing she'd been there to do so in the first place.

Mark nodded at her and waved the other two out of the room to allow Wanda to speak privately with her cousin. Not that they'd understand anything she was saying, anyway, in Rom. "God, this better not be the Warwolves again," he shuddered, all but falling back onto the closed door behind him. If it were, then Agatha had every right to keep silent.

**

Wanda met up with them again in the small cafeteria that the hospital 'boasted'. They were serving lunch but she ignored the food in favor of strong coffee and found the other three in various states of lounging in the back. She'd been gone longer than she'd expected as it had taken her a surprising amount of time to calm down Hanzi and when she'd come out of his room, a police officer had wanted to speak with her regarding the break in and attack.

A level headed man who she had seen cry once in his life had sobbed against her shoulder like a child. It had been unnerving and only cemented in her mind that something very wrong had gone down, despite the official response of robbery gone bad.

"I just spent the last half an hour convincing my cousin that he, probably, did not call down ancient horrors from Rom legend on his friends and employer," she said wearily, trying to not look at anyone's plate of food.

"Then what did attack them, do you think?" Jake asked from where he'd been fidgeting, hurling silent epithets at his food--hospital cafeteria food being only the barest step up from the sludge they served to patients. "Something that Agatha was dealing with?" It was difficult to keep the venom from his voice as he mentioned her name; she set off some deep-seated reactions left by a lifetime of dealing with his mother.

He turned to Mark, raising an eyebrow. "And what are Warwolves?"

Mark was poking at the rock in front of him that was supposed to be a scone. "Those are the demons that sent me to hell," he replied matter-of-factly, although any trace of his trademark good humor was gone from his face. "They like to kill people. Any chance this could be them?"

She shook her head. "That much I can be fairly certain of. From the description I was able to get out of him before they medicated him was that it sounded like a real wolf. Big, mean and potentially made of shadows but not Warwolf material."

With a grimace, she tossed back her cup of coffee. It was nasty but at least it was hot and caffeinated. "I'm calling in some favors to see if we can ignore Agatha's leave it alone statement because something is going on. And from the sounds of it, I doubt someone normal could deal with it. The police won't tell me much until we get official sanction to be there - right now, I'm "family" and they're not divulging a lot of information." There was a good amount of bitterness in her last sentence.

Wanda looked around at the others. "Come on, not much we can do right now, I suppose. We'll get checked into a hotel and then figure everything else out after that."