14Author's Notes: This story is based on the movie and the movie only. Please do not get on my case about something that happened in the comics, but didn't happen in the movie. Also, this will contain some major spoilers. If you work in the medical field and I get any terminology wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it. Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my original characters. I am not making any money off of this and hopefully Marvel/Disney lawyers have something better to do than come after me.
Doctor Stephen Strange floated several feet off of the ground, the Cloak of Levitation gently billowed around him. His breathing was slow and even and his legs crisscrossed as if he were sitting on the ground. Ever since he had become the Master of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, he had taken up meditating.
However, he didn't normally it do it in the middle of the night. He hadn't been able to sleep and had hoped that meditating would help quiet his mind enough to get some rest. Unfortunately, peace wasn't coming to him easily. He had a feeling something was about to happen, but he wasn't sure what.
If his eyes had been open, he could have looked out the upper most Sanctum window and looked over the darkened buildings of Greenwich Village. The room of relics behind him had been cleaned up and the cases restored with the help of the Eye of Agamotto. The relics had all been returned to their spots with the exception of the one case that used to hold his Cloak. That one now stood empty.
Stephen slipped deeper into his meditation. He could hear the walls as they adjusted to the cooler air of the night, finishing up releasing the heat they had absorbed during the day. Small creaks and groans that a normal man wouldn't notice. The scrabbling of a rat crawling around in the attic reached him.
Stephen sensed a portal being opened nearby and the distinct sound of a body hitting the floor shortly followed. Before he could react to the fact that someone had just entered his home without his permission and had gotten past the wards on the building, he found himself falling. He caught a brief glimpse of his Cloak speeding down the staircase as he hit the ground with a THUD.
"Ow," the sorcerer unhappily grunted as he tried to figure out what just happened.
It wasn't like the Cloak to suddenly take off like that. While he knew it would defend him from attacks, it had never headed into battle without him before. Stephen quickly got up and started to trot down the stairs. Whomever had just invaded his home would deal with its Master soon enough. Let the Cloak have its fun.
A woman's pain filled scream reached him a moment later and Stephen picked up the pace. He had barely made it to the stairwell when the Cloak came back to him. He didn't have time to react as the article of clothing wrapped itself around his shoulders and yanked him over the railing head first.
After a brief shout of surprise, Stephen flipped himself upright. His descent was way too fast for his liking. Fortunately, the Cloak did manage to slow him down enough to let him land without breaking or spraining anything. Once he was firmly on the ground, the Cloak left him again and hovered over his uninvited guest.
The sorcerer barely noticed the lingering sparks from a recently closed portal and with a wave of his hand, the lights in the foyer lit up so he could better see the woman laying face down on the ground. Her short dark brown hair hid her face, though he could see the back of her neck and tell she was fair skinned. She was wearing a T-shirt that was perhaps one washing away from being lint, jeans that had been worn a few too many times and tennis shoes that had almost no tread on them.
He would have thought she was dead if she wasn't gasping in pain. However, it was the rapidly growing pool of blood on the hardwood floor that had his undivided attention. The woman slightly moved, letting out a whimper as she did so. Stephen quickly knelt beside the lady and started to roll her over. She let out another shriek and the Cloak smacked him.
"What was that for?" Stephen demanded of his relic.
"Help me?" the prone lady weakly asked, looking up at him pain filled blue eyes, her face an ashen gray.
"I'm Doctor Stephen Strange," he told her. "I can help you, but I need to turn you over to see where you're hurt."
With a pained squeak, she rolled herself over. The front of her shirt and pants was soaked in blood and Micky Mouse never looked so gory. With a grimace of pain, she lifted up her shirt so he could see the damage done. A four to five inch long gash just above her left hip looked deep.
He instantly recognized the wound as one being made by a magical bladed weapon. He pulled apart the edges of the slash as gently as he could, but she still let out a hiss. The Cloak gave him another whack.
"Will you stop that!?" he snapped as he tried to push the hovering cloth out of the way. "You're in my light."
"Cloak?" the woman whispered just before she passed out.
Stephen found himself knocked away from his patient. He could only stare in amazement as the Cloak wrapped itself around the strange lady bleeding on his floor. A second later, the prone figure was floating a few feet above the ground.
"I need to put pressure on the wound," Stephen stated as he got to his feet and produced a pressure bandage.
The Cloak unwrapped itself enough for Stephen to get the thick piece of cloth in place. The magical red material immediately covered the bandage up and the sorcerer could see it wasn't going to move any time soon. A corner of the relic pointed at the man's Sling Ring on his hip.
"You're right," Stephen said as he slipped the ring over the index and middle fingers of his left hand. "She needs an operating room."
It took only a few seconds for him to open a portal into the now very familiar mop closet. The Cloak proceeded him through the magical entryway and waited for its chosen human to open the door. Stephen got the door slightly ajar before pulling the woman into his arms.
"It would be better if I carried her," he told the not so inanimate object when it tried to pull away.
When it became obvious that the Cloak wasn't going to go charging down the hallway, he toed the door open. While he appeared to be carrying this strange lady, he could feel that the Cloak was taking most of her weight. Luckily, it only took him a minute to find Christine Palmer as the staff were beginning to get used to him showing up at random times looking for her. The female doctor was just stepping out of one of the triage rooms when she spotted him.
"What have you got?" she asked by way of greeting.
"Laceration, lower left abdomen, just above the hip, at least four, maybe five inches long, though I wasn't able to tell how deep," he answered without hesitation, his training kicking in. "She's lost a lot of blood."
"Let's get her into an OR," she instructed as she headed down the hall. "Do you know her blood type?"
"No idea," he replied as they pushed past the swinging doors. "She literally just appeared in my foyer."
Christine turned to a passing nurse and ordered an operating team be sent to her stat. Stephen laid the strange woman on the operating table and tried to get the Cloak off. It refused to budge.
"We can't help her if you don't move," Stephen snapped at the garment.
"Stephen, who are you talking to?" She asked, quickly looking around for a transparent person.
"The Cloak of Levitation isn't cooperating," he answered.
"You're talking to your cape?" Christine hesitantly questioned, not sure if this visit was going to be the one to send her off the deep end.
"Actually, it's a cloak," he corrected as he tried to get the thing to move.
"We can discuss fashion after I see to your mystery woman," she grumbled as she grabbed the edge of the Cloak and flipped it out of the way.
"What the..." he muttered while the other doctor pulled back the bandage that was now soaked with blood.
She tossed the useless item to the floor and gently pulled the edges of the wound apart. She put her nose close to the opening and sniffed.
"I'm not smelling any feces, so there's a chance whatever did this missed the intestines, but it does look pretty deep," Christine said as she reached for scissors sitting on a nearby tray. "It doesn't look like any arteries were hit, but she's going to need blood and lots of it."
"I'm O pos," a woman's voice stated.
The doctors turned toward the voice and saw the top half the woman on the table's astral form. Christine jumped and let out a small scream.
"I'm not allergic to anything either," the lady continued.
"Wait!" Stephen shouted as the ghostly woman started to pull back into the astral plane.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," she said. "Please, keep me alive."
With that, she was gone. Stephen knew he could chase her down, but that would mean leaving his body. He wasn't in the mood to have the medical team fussing over him because it would appear that he had passed out. Besides, his pride just couldn't deal with people thinking he fainted at the sight of blood now.
"She's like you?" Christine inquired with a shaky voice as she went back to cutting away the blood soaked T-shirt.
"Apparently so," Stephen responded as he grabbed a second pair of scissors and worked on the stranger's jeans.
As soon as the clothing had been cut away, the doctors got a good look at the woman's body.
"This isn't the first time she's been hurt," Christine whispered as she stared at the multitude of old scars covering her patient's body.
Stephen lifted the woman up as Christine grabbed the cut away clothing and tossed it toward the used pressure bandage. Before he could grab it, the Cloak slipped back around Stephen's shoulders.
"Please tell me you did that," the female doctor murmured as the operating team came bursting into the room.
"I could, but I'd rather not lie to you," he quietly returned as he placed the patient back on the table.
Stephen stepped back as the other medical professionals surrounded the strange woman. The doctor in him wanted to follow Christine into the scrub room in order to get ready to operate, but he knew he would be no good to her. With trembling fists clenched, he decided to see if he could figure out who the mystery woman was.
He edged past the nurse who was inventorying the woman's belongings, three large rings, some money soaked with blood, a house key and a pair of blood spattered tennis shoes, and left the operating room. It took him only a minute to return to the mop closet and enter it. The portal was still open and he quickly crossed through to the foyer.
Once the portal was closed, he waved his hand and got rid of the blood on the floor. He stood in the middle of the entry way and looked around. Now that the blood was gone, there was no evidence that anything had happened earlier.
He thought back to the woman who had invaded his home. She was able to use the mystic arts, or at the very least, knew how to astrally project. However, that didn't explain how she had gotten in.
The wards around his home were set up to prevent unwanted portals from being opened up. Which also led to the question of who created the portal she came through. He canvased the area again, but there was no sign of a Sling Ring.
He knew he would get no answers here. He headed toward the door that would lead him to Kamar-Taj. He hoped that maybe someone could explain who this woman was and how she got past the wards.
"Wong!" the sorcerer called when he entered the Library, but there was no answer.
Stephen checked in the usual spots, trying to find the other man and came up empty. He ended up back in the Master's section and stared at Ancient One's personal collection. He longed to look through them. However, he also knew that if he did, he wouldn't get the answer to who the strange woman was.
"You know, Stephen, some of us do need to eat on occasion," Wong grumbled as he entered the room with a bowl of food in his hands.
"Right, sorry," Stephen said as he turned around and then a frown creased his forehead. "What time is it here?"
"Nearly noon," Wong answered as he put his lunch down. "Which makes it a little after one a.m. your time. Why are you here?"
"I had an unexpected guest earlier," the doctor started, completely ignoring the fact that he'd interrupted someone's meal. "A woman appeared in my foyer through a magic portal."
"Not a lot of men would complain about that," the Librarian teased.
"She was bleeding to death," Stephen snapped back.
"Well, that would put a dampener on things," Wong muttered.
"I want to know how she got past the wards," Stephen demanded as he turned back to the books. "Is there a spell to do that."
"Of course, but it would take a very powerful sorcerer or sorceress to do so," Wong replied. "I doubt even you would be able to get past those wards if you were bleeding to death. Tell me more about this woman."
"Well, she looked to be middle aged," the taller man started, "about ten to twenty pounds overweight, but in good condition. She probably sits a lot if her hips are anything to go by. She had what looked to be old battle scars over most of her body. She's O positive and has no known allergies."
"Anything else?" Wong asked.
"Her hair color came out of a box, clothing that was old and dirty, though with all of the blood it was hard to tell," Stephen continued. "Her jewelry was large and rather cheap looking."
"And in one breath, you went from doctor to fashion critic," Wong replied snarkily. "Give me a description I can work with, Strange. Hair and eye color? Ethnicity?"
"Hard to tell with the hair, but it appeared to be brown," Stephen answered, ignoring Wong's barb. "Blue eyes and Caucasian."
"Did you get a name?" the Librarian questioned as he headed toward another part of the Library.
"No, her astral form appeared long enough to give us her blood type and allergy risks," the doctor stated while he followed the shorter man. "She left in a hurry, so I didn't get a chance to ask."
"Probably went to warn someone," Wong said as he got to a pair of large doors.
The Librarian put his hands on the doors and a moment later, glowing magical symbols appeared. With only the slightest of efforts, he pushed the doors open. As soon as they stepped through, Stephen felt his jaw slightly drop.
The room was one of the smaller ones Stephen had seen and was filled with shelves just like the rest of the Library, but these weren't filled with old books. There were scrolls taking up a good quarter of the storage space. What appeared to be leather folders with loose pages inside of them covered another half. The final quarter had regular manila folders like he used to have in his office when he was still a surgeon.
"What is this room?" Stephen asked.
"Welcome to the Archives," Wong said as he started looking at the newer files. "In here are the records of every practitioner of the mystic arts since the first Ancient One."
"How many have there been?" the former doctor inquired as he walked around the room.
"Hundreds," the Librarian told him. "Possibly thousands. The Ancient One had wanted them all recorded onto a computer, but it's a daunting task and we've never found anyone who was up to the job."
"You think information on my mystery woman is in here?"
"She could be," Wong replied as he started pulling files off of the shelf. "Without a name, it'll be hard to find her. You might be better off just asking her. Where is she, by the way?"
"I left her with a doctor friend of mine," Stephen replied as he passed an older PC in the corner. "She needed blood and surgery. I'm good, but I doubt even the Ancient One would have been able to conjure up blood."
"What else can you tell me about her?"
"Not much."
The Cloak of Levitation suddenly slid off of Stephen's shoulders and floated around in front of him.
"Oh right," the disgruntled sorcerer muttered. "The Cloak has a crush on her."
"Come again?" Wong asked as the Cloak turned away from Stephen and floated to the other side of the room.
Stephen watched the relic with a confused frown on his face. He turned to see Wong also staring at the fickle thing.
"Can relics pout?" Stephen questioned.
"Here," Wong said as he handed over several files to Stephen. "Bring them back when you're done."
"There's only nine files," Stephen stated after he briefly looked at the stack given to him. "Aren't there more sorceresses?"
"Yes, but those are the ones that I'm sure are still alive, match your description, and are not here at Kamar-Taj," Wong told him. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to finish my lunch."
"Right, sorry," the doctor replied as he walked over to his relic only to have it float away from him. "Ok, fine. Stay here if you want, but I was going to head back to the hospital to check on your friend."
Stephen didn't get two steps out of the room before he felt the familiar weight of his Cloak. He smirked a little as he kept walking. He looked back over his shoulder when he heard Wong shut the Archive doors and then watched the Librarian reset the magic seal.
"Have a lot of people been messing up your filing?" Stephen teased.
"Shortly after the whole Dormammu mess, someone broke in here and stole some of the files," Wong replied, clearly irritated by it.
"I thought you said if someone stole something they'd be dead before they left the compound," Stephen stated as the two men walked through the Library.
"That was if they stole a book," Wong harrumphed. "I wasn't expecting someone to raid the Archives."
"So these files you gave me..."
"Your mystery woman may not be in them," Wong confirmed. "You're probably better off just waiting for her to recover from surgery."
"Her astral form needs to put in an appearance, too," the doctor sighed.
"It'll be back," the Librarian assured him as they got back to the Master's section of the Library. "Her body will draw it back if it's gone too long."
"Good to know," Stephen replied as he kept going while Wong picked up his now cold food. "Enjoy your lunch."
With that, Stephen walked through the magical membrane separating Kamar-Taj and the New York Sanctum. Without breaking stride, he proceeded to open another portal into the all too familiar mop closet in the hospital. It was a little tricky with the files in his hand, but he managed.
Once he was finally in the hospital hallway, he went looking for Christine. After a few minutes of fruitless searching he ended up at the nurse's station. The lady behind the counter wasn't familiar to him and she was giving him a rather suspicious look.
"Can I help you, sir?" the woman asked coldly.
"I'm looking for Dr. Palmer," he replied, trying his best to be charming. "Can you tell me where to find her?"
"Dr. Palmer has gone home for the day," the nurse replied. "May I ask what you need? Perhaps one of the other doctors could assist you."
"I brought in a Jane Doe earlier with a lower abdominal laceration," Stephen informed the lady who's badge was flipped around so he couldn't see her name. "I was wondering what her condition was."
"You're relation to the patient?" she questioned.
"I'm the one who found her and brought her in," he repeated and he had a sinking feeling this woman wasn't going to be any help.
"I'm sorry, sir, but unless you are related to the patient, I can't give you any information on her," she told him tersely.
Yup, no help. He could try to identify himself as a doctor, but even if he did, he had no authority at this particular hospital. Stephen knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with Nurse Ratchet and decided he was going to have to use other means to find his lady intruder.
"Of course. Thank you for your time," he replied and then turned to leave.
"Sir! You can't go that way!" the desk nurse exclaimed and Stephen belatedly realized he was about to go into the treatment area. "You have to go out the exit."
"Sorry," he said as he turned back around, the Cloak swirling around him. "Which way to the bathrooms?"
"They're around the corner," she stated, eying suspiciously while she pointed the direction he should be headed in.
"Thank you," he repeated as he quickly walked toward the restrooms.
Once he was out of sight of not just the nurse's station, but those in the waiting room, Stephen opened another portal back to his own home. He didn't get two steps before the Cloak stopped him. The sorcerer already knew there was no point in trying to fight the relic, so he closed the portal.
With a sigh of disgust, Stephen found the men's restroom and went in. He made sure the room was empty before locking the door behind him. He looked down at the floor dubiously.
"You had better not let me fall," he grumbled at the Cloak.
He felt his feet start to leave the floor. He was about to send his spirit out when he remembered he was still holding the folders. He quickly set them on the counter next to the sinks.
A moment later, he was floating above his body which was being gently cradled by his relic. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to get used to seeing himself like that. Knowing he didn't have much time before someone would need the bathroom, he set out to find his mystery woman.
Floor by floor he went, checking all of the beds for the strange lady. He finally found her on the fifth floor. He had seen that people normally had a slight glow to them, but she didn't. Her spirit was still off doing who knew what.
He looked out the open door and was thankful that this room wasn't across from the nurse's station. He checked on the nurse on duty and saw her working on her computer. A quick check saw that she had just completed her rounds, so he knew he had a little time.
He quickly returned to his body and the Cloak softly set him back on his feet. Without a word, he opened a portal to the room several floors above him. He grabbed the folders, unlocked the door and swiftly stepped through the opening.
He closed the magical gateway just as someone started to come into the bathroom. A brief look out the door and Stephen could see the nurse still typing away. He turned back around and he felt the Cloak lift off of his shoulders. He watched in amazement as the relic floated over to the bed and then spread out over the occupant.
"What are you doing?" Stephen softly asked.
The Cloak laid there as if it was an ordinary piece of clothing. The doctor looked down at the woman and saw that she looked a hell of a lot better than she had when she first arrived in his home. He checked her pulse, being mindful of the IV line in the back of her hand, and it was strong and steady.
Her face was a healthy pink instead of the ashen gray it had been she had first arrived. She was in a hospital gown now, so the scars on her body were less visible. She simply looked like she was sleeping, but he knew that until her soul returned, she wouldn't be waking up.
Stephen checked the doorway again. He made another portal, this one leading back to his home. He grabbed the collar of the Cloak and tried to lift it.
"Ok, we've seen her, but we can't stay," he quietly stated as he continued to tug on the cloth.
He might as well have tried to take down the Great Wall of China with his bare hands. The Cloak was not budging.
"We have to go," Stephen hissed.
The relic simply wrapped itself around the strange woman. Stephen stood there staring at the bright red Cloak. He knew arguing with the magical object was pointless. Mules were less stubborn.
"At least get under the covers," he muttered as he set down the folders.
He pulled the blankets down and then pulled them back over the woman with the Cloak underneath. He did his best to make the covers look nice and neat, but he had limited success. With luck, the nurses would just think that she had moved in her sleep.
"Stay out of sight of the nurses and doctors," he softly warned.
With one last glance at the patient in the bed to make sure he couldn't see any red, he stepped through the portal.