Amanda and Wanda

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

When Amanda attempts to do a little bit of healing to give Wanda a much needed boost, things don't go quite as according to plan.




Wanda grimaced as she tossed back another glass of water. "I know you are putting me on," she said, grumping slightly. "I have never had to drink this much water before you have used your healing magic on me. I think you were just looking for an excuse to up my water intake." She glared slightly at the younger woman. "You are far too good at this getting other people to do what you want them to do. I say you spent far too much time with Dr. MacTaggart in your formative years."

Despite her words, Wanda was fully prepared to do anything Amanda wanted in order to get a healing hand with her injuries. They had both wanted to wait a few days to let some of nature take it's course but she missed the use of her one hand and detested taking medicine. The only reason she took the pills like the doctor's had wanted her to was because she was vaguely terrified someone from Muir would randomly appear at her doorstep and because, simply, there was too much pain to deal with if she wanted to function normally.

"Seriously, you need it." Amanda's tone was playful, but there was a note of sternness underneath that would brook no argument. "Healing speeds up metabolic processes, right? So you'll need plenty of liquid in your system to make things run proper."

Wanda was a right mess, the witch was thinking as she looked at her 'Boss Lady'. Between the smashed cheekbone and the broken hand, she'd definitely taken a beating that she was lucky hadn't gone further. And while Amanda was usually reluctant to use the healing magic at all - given the cost - Wanda needed the boost.

And maybe with enough healing, Wanda could get some decent sleep. It wouldn't do much for the resurgence of nightmare fodder but sleeping without pain would help ease her back into a normal routine. She placed the glass down and turned to Amanda, spreading one hand, the good one, out slightly. "I take it our ... donors are resting comfortably?" she asked. This was why she disliked depending on Amanda for healing; it was hard enough asking for help and energy from one person but from multiple? In her mind, that was far harder to work around.

"Yeah. If I need to, I'll take what I can from the rest of the block, but don't worry, I'm not about to suck the place dry. Just enough to give you a head start." The reassurance wasn't really needed, not with Wanda, but Amanda needed to say it any way. She needed to know people knew she wasn't a monster. "You ready?"

"As ready as I ever am." Pausing long enough to find a place for her now empty glass, Wanda turned back to Amanda and nodded. "Soon I will be back to typing my own reports," she teased, bracing herself.

"And deprive me if the fun of reading your handwriting ?" Amanda teased back. "Where am I going to get my cryptography practice?"

The witch took up her position, sitting opposite Wanda with her pegs crossed Indian-style. Reaching over, she took the older woman's hands in her own. "This might feel a bit weird," she warned, before closing her eyes and letting the magic flow. Energy in, first; she drew from her volunteers as carefully as possible, trying to avoid any unnecessary discomfort. Then energy out, framed in the intricacies of a healing spell. Let the energy seep into the damaged tissue, boost the natural process...

Amanda couldn't say what happened. One minute she was sitting down. The next... She was flying backwards, to collide with an audible thump against the far wall.

Wanda went skittering backwards a ways as well, yelping as she jarred her hand and a wave of pain washed over her. Red dots colored her vision and she choked back another cry as something in her hand pulsed. Luckier than most, she couldn't remember the last time she'd needed Amanda's assistance with injuries but from what she remembered, what the young woman had told her, it shouldn't have felt like anything she was experiencing.

For a moment, one crystal clear moment, Wanda saw the fractures and breaks in her fingers and wrist as clear as day through her other sight. The perfect breaking points and the Baron had found them all. Her powers hadn't been activated at all, though, and she hadn't willed them on in that moment - but she had more things to worry about as something sluggishly moved through her arm and several of the bones in her fingers attempted to knit themselves back together.

For her part, Amanda was slightly distracted by trying to get her breath back, the impact with the wall having knocked it out of her. "...the fuck?" she squeaked when she was able. "You all right?"

From across the room, Wanda was semi able to wave her hand above her head as she muttered "Ow" and "fuck" in regular intervals.

"Shite." Amanda scrambled over on all fours to where Wanda had landed. "Do you need a doctor? Do you want me to call the clinic?" Her voice was rising towards panic at the thought she'd increased the damage.

It wasn't the words that cut through the haze but the panic that colored them. Blinking back tears, Wanda didn't bother to get up but she refocused her gaze on Amanda. "Don't think so," she said, taking care to not move her wrist too much. "There is pain but ..." She twitched, slightly, as she 'heard' something grind in her hand. "It is fading - my hand feels strange."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean..." Amanda took a deep breath and stopped babbling. Carefully supporting Wanda's injured arm, she looked over her hand carefully. "It must have been a powers clash," she suggested. "I haven't had anything like that happen since Jubilee in school, and that was 'cause there was demonic power involved. I haven't been chowing down on any demons lately, but we have had weird shite with our powers before. Remember when we punted 'Yana to Attilan?"

"I still find the hate notes from time to time." Wanda tried to regulate her breathing and forced herself to full uncurl from the ball she'd attempted to make of herself. Letting Amanda support her arm, she rolled over onto her back and examined the ceiling. "I could see the breaks," she murmured. "After we just blew ourselves up. They just appeared in my vision and then a few ... disappeared."

"Breathe," Amanda advised. "Nice and regular. It'll help with the pain." She considered Wanda's words. "Hell. Sounds like your powers, definitely. You use 'em to find the breaking points, right? So when I pushed a bunch of strange energy into you, your powers reacted and pushed back."

For a moment there was silence as Wanda concentrated on her breathing, following Amanda's instructions. Eventually she nodded at the words. "That - makes a gross amount of sense." As her voice got stronger, she gestured for a hand to help ease her to a sitting position. "I had a hard time controlling my powers when my wrist was broken but if I had thought for a moment they were still unconsciously reacting, we never would have tried this." There was an apology in there and frustration - Wanda detested losing her ability to control her powers.

"No harm done, Boss Lady. Didn't even crack the wall." Amanda did what they usually did: cracked a joke. "You sure I didn't make things worse? Maybe we should get another x-ray, just to be sure."

"God, no more doctors. There are too many scary redheads in that field." They had taken off the cast in preparation for the healing but there were plenty of bandages that still remained. Wanda carefully started to unwrap two of her fingers, the ones where she'd felt the weirdest sensation, to see what they looked like.

"Here, let me do that." Amanda shooed Wanda's good hand away and began to carefully unwrap the bandage. "I'll redo this once you're done poking at it," she continued. "But if anything feels wrong, you have to tell me, yeah? Gangrene sucks."

"I enjoy keeping all of my digits so, yes, you will be the first to hear if something decides to break again ..." Her voice trailed off as her fingers slowly came into view. When they had first been reset and bandaged, they'd been a horrible mess - compound fractures in fingers were incredibly horrible to see. The last two still looked as battered as they had been days before, swollen and purple, obviously still broken. But middle finger, point and thumb ... "Well, something happened," Wanda said slowly. They looked several weeks healed - not fixed, not completely, but certainly more healthy than their counterparts.

"Something all right." Amanda frowned, vaguely insulted by the mess that her healing spell had turned into. Normally things were a lot neater. Stupid chaos powers. "You've got some of them back to almost working order, at least, but the other two looks like they missed out. Which was so not what I was aiming for." She sounded miffed.

Wanda patted Amanda on the shoulder with her free hand. "Do not blame yourself - at least I did not send you to another country." They gave each other a look. Considering Amanda's powers these days, that could have been a possible side-effect. "Well," Wanda said, trying to sound amused but failing slightly. "I guess I shall endeavor to stay healthy in the future. I do not wish to do you, or myself, harm if you find you need to heal me."

"Like 'm gunna argue," replied the witch, making a face. "C'mon, let's get this bandaged up again and we'll go to the pub for an anesthetic."

"Now that sounds like a plan I can get behind." Wanda tilted her head slightly. "If regular medicine tasted like whiskey, you might actually get me to take some."