Chapter 3
“Emma.”
“Wong.” She closed her book, but did not look up at him. “He has aged.”
“It has been ten years since you left us.”
“Since I left him, you mean.”
“Have you ever known me to say anything but what I mean to say?”
Her lips quirked into something close to a grin, then replied. “Same old Wong.” She glanced up and finally meeting his unblinking gaze shook her head. “No. Both of you have been changed, so much. Understandable, of course. Does he regret -” Her unspoken words seemed louder in the silence of the library.
“If he does, he would not speak of it to me.”
“No, I suppose he wouldn’t.” Emma waited, knowing Wong had more to say.
“After your departure-” Wong paused for a moment, then blew out a breath and continued on, whether he wished to or not. She had always had the ability to draw him out, and they both were aware of her power at the moment. “It was weeks before he spoke to anyone, he shut himself up in his rooms. It is none of my business.”
“Say your piece. You are his friend, yes?”
“He is Sorcerer Supreme, I serve him as well as I can, and I care for his well-being, as he allows. If that makes me his friend -”
A genuine smile flashed across her unusual features for a brief moment before she replied, “You were strong enough to remain by his side, I do believe that makes you a true friend. Much better than I.” She opened her book again, and settled into the depths of her chair to read, in an attempt to disengage from the conversation.
“You are the reason he was able to become the sorcerer he is now. I did try to warn you, upon our return from Hong Kong, that he had faced the blackest of darkness, you were our strongest healer and you took on his pain and nightmares, I was not surprised when you left.”
“I left when I believed he no longer needed me.” Emma mumbled under her breath.
“Sometimes, it is not a question of need, but a question of want, and of trust and companionship, above anything else.”
She closed the book again, and rose from the chair. “Is our bond irrevocably broken, Wong?”
Wong studied her face, and saw what it had cost her to be away from the safety of Kamar-Taj. “No. I know he spent some time looking for you, but soon realized if you wished to be here, you would one day return. He knew this day would come, I think he hoped it would have been before now. You are welcome, Emma. Just remember, he may be one of the most powerful beings in all of the known and unknown universes, but in the end, he is just a human being, whether he acknowledges that himself or not. Perhaps you can remind him of that fact.” He nodded sharply and left her alone with her thoughts.
Emma tossed in her sleep, then brushed at her face, as if pushing her way through a dream when she understood she was needed. “Mina?” She sat up and drew on her cloak. She hurried after the flash of red, until Mina stopped at Stephen’s study, and lightly nudged Emma’s shoulder forward before vanishing down the dark corridor. She drew in a breath then knocked lightly.
“Come.” He looked up from his books as she entered and rolled his eyes. “Mina.”
“Of course, Mina.” She was still drawn to him as she had been since the first day he had staggered through the doors when he was so full of anger for what he had lost. He had been a healer, through sheer determination, study and practice, and he had felt useless when his hands were lost to him. As useless as she felt now. “Headache.”
“I think it is just a result of growing older, it may be time for reading glasses.” She narrowed her eyes at him, then closed the door and moved toward him. “I never could fool you.”
“No, you couldn’t.” But that was then, and she was no longer able to read his thoughts as she once had. She had to find her way through the darkness as she had before, so many years ago.
“Tea.”
She had placed a tray in his room and was about to leave when he turned at the sound of her voice.
“You have spent some time in New York.”
“Yes.”
He dropped onto the edge of his bed and picked up the tea with his bandaged hands, but the cup slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground. He bit his lip, but she could hear the flurry of words as if he had spoken them aloud. She moved to stand in front of him and offered him her hand. He shook his head and she spoke quietly as if she were trying to calm a spooked horse. “I’m a healer, like you -”
After his extraordinary meeting with the Ancient One, and the long vigil outside the doors of Kamar-Taj, he was too exhausted to enter into a battle of semantics, and her presence seemed to soothe him in ways he couldn’t begin to comprehend, so he laid his hand in hers and closed his eyes as she began to ease the soiled wrappings from his wrist and fingers. “How did you know I am - was a healer?”
“You are still a healer and always will be a healer, Dr. Strange, one does not need hands to heal.” She whispered some words over his hands and for the first time since he had opened his eyes after the accident, the pain was almost bearable.
“How?” He muttered before he could stop himself, then watched as she carefully applied a salve from a bottle, rewrapped his hands, and without another word she picked up the tea cup, and left the room.