#doctorstrangexoc

[mundieoriley]

An Open Doorway | Stephen Strange x Oc (Part Four)

Summary: Stephen Strange came to Kamar-Taj to repair his hands and return to his old life as a world renowned surgeon. Hayden Jones came to Kamar-Taj to escape her past and the abuse she faced for simply being as she was; a mutant. 

When these two radically different individuals meet, an unlikely friendship is formed.  But as feelings deepen and Kaecilius  threatens everything Kamar-Taj stands for, Hayden Jones and Stephen Strange must stand even more firmly together to defeat Kaecilius and save the world.

Masterlist is linked on my profile page.

Author's Note: Hey everyone! So, I know I said before this would only be a four or five part story, but it's turning out to be longer than I thought. Whoopsie doopsie.

Four: All Encompassing

In the beats of silence that follow, Hayden approaches Stephen. “So, I guess this makes us even, right?” When he doesn't respond, she reaches out and touches his shoulder. Even though he’s just an Astral Projection, Hayden can feel the tension beneath her fingers. “Stephen?”

He turns around, shaking her hand from his shoulder. “Even? After that stunt you pulled?” he says, voice harsh as he scowls down at her, tight lipped. “Do you have some sort of pathological need to put yourself at risk?”

Hayden takes a step back, gaping at Strange, hands clenched at her sides. “What is your problem-”

He takes a half step closer. “You’re dying-”

“So, what, Stephen?” Hayden straightens up, looking him straight in the eye. “That’s what people do.” She jabs a finger at the operating table, breathing heavily. “I’m sorry I’d rather be on that table instead of you, since me saving your ass is obviously a huge nuisance for you!”

Stephen face is beginning to turn red. “Oh, please. If anything, I’ve been nothing but a nuisance to you right? So, why would you do that?”

Hayden’s voice rises to a shout. “Because I can’t lose you too!”

She turns away from him, fighting down the sudden spike of emotion and the tears stinging the back of her eyes. The night she mutated rises with a vengeance in her mind and she clenches her fists hard enough to cause pain. That forces the memory away, along with the tears.

There’s another long moment of silence, then Stephen places a hesitant hand on her shoulder. “Hayden, I’m-”

“What, sorry?” She lets out a small bitter laugh.

His hand tightens on her shoulder and when he speaks, his voice is soft, all traces of his earlier anger, gone. “Did it ever occur to you that I actually care about you?”

Hayden feels his words like an electrical shock that leaves behind hope and warm feelings instead of pain and tingling.

But a long piercing sound from the heart monitor hooked to Hayden’s physical body cuts through the room and sends a jolt of a completely different kind through her Astral form. She had totally forgotten about Christine and the urgency of her physical  predicament

Stephen shoves her toward the table roughly. “Get back in your body, now!”

Hayden doesn’t need to be told twice. She darts over to the operating table and closes her eyes, blackness once again overtaking her.

-

Hayden jerks back into reality with a gasp. She looks around wildly, the bright lights blinding her for a moment.

A warm and familiar tremulous hand takes hers. “Hayden, everything’s alright. You’re back.”

The gesture and Stephen’s voice grounds her, calming her rapidly beating heart. She relaxes back on the table, blinking the glare out of her eyes. The first thing she sees is Stephen leaning over her, his brow creased and lips turned down in a frown. Next, she sees Dr. Palmer setting  a defibrillator aside.

Hayden looks back at Stephen, the memories of her Astral experience returning to her. “My heart stopped.” Stephen’s hand tightens around hers and she returns the pressure. She realizes how terrible it would have been if the last thing she ever said to Stephen was out of anger. “I’m sorry.”

He nods, a small smile on his lips. “Me too.”

That leaves a warm feeling in Hayden’s chest and she returns his smile.

Christine turns back to Hayden, holding a thread and needle in her gloved hands. “I’ve never seen a wound like this before, Hayden. What what you were stabbed with?”

Hayden remembers the front of her tuic is partially opened and she represses the urge to flush in embarrassment. “I don’t know.”

“Hayden, I’m a doctor,” Stephen says, noticing her embarrassment. “It’s not anything I’ve never seen before.”

She lets out a small, nervous laugh as Christine gets to work stitching her up; thankfully, there’s no pain, only a strange tugging sensation. “That’s not very comforting, you know.”

There’s several moments of awkward silence.

Dr. Palmer makes brief eye contact with Hayden. “Do either of you care to explain what the hell is happening? I mean, it’s been months since I last saw Stephen and he shows up out of the blue and passing out on the ground with barely any explanation.”

“That’s kind of a long story,” Hayden says, looking between Christine and Stephen, realizing there’s definitely history between them. Which is none of her business of course. “And I honestly think you don’t want to know.”

“It’s okay, Hayden,” Stephen says with a reassuring squeeze of her hand before he lets go. Hayden immediately misses the warmth.

He goes on to explain where he’s been all this time, telling Christine a little about Kamar-Taj.

“So, you joined a cult,” Christine says, finishing up a suture and moving on to the next. She looks to be about three quarters of the way done already.

Hayden gives a light laugh as Stephen back pedals a bit. “Well, no, not exactly. I mean, they did teach me to tap into powers I didn’t even know existed.”

“That sounds like a cult,” Dr. Palmer says with a small smile.

“It’s not a cult.”

“That’s what a cultist would say, Stephen,” Hayden says as she catches his eye.

Christine finishes up the last suture, strips off her gloves and helps Hayden close her blood stained tunic. “So, you’re part of this cult too, huh?”

“You heard Stephen, Dr. Palmer. It’s not a cult,” Hayden says, managing a weak joke as she begins to push herself into a sitting position with a groan.

Stephen helps her sit up and Christine looks alarmed. “Whoa, where do you think you’re going. I need to keep you under observation for at least twenty four hours.”

“It’s alright,” Hayden says as she flexes her stiff wings. Christine notices the movement and jumps a little when she realizes what they are. “I’m a mutant. I happen to heal faster than normal people.”

“Christine’s right,” Stephen says as he bends a disapproving look on her. “You should stay here.”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Strange.” Hayden eases her legs over the edge of the table. “We’re late for a cult meeting anyway.”

Hayden gingerly slides off the table, thankful Stephen is there to steady her. Her legs feel like a strange mixture between super stiff and jelly.

Stephen wraps an arm around her shoulders, letting Hayden lean on him. “I want you to know I think this is a really bad idea.”

Christine walks ahead of the duo and holds the door open  as they shuffle out of the operating room. “I second that…. Where are you guys even going?”

Stephen and Hayden exchange a look.

“Just tell me the truth,” Christine says as she walks on Hayden’s other side.

“Well, a powerful sorcerer, who gave himself over to an ancient entity and can bend the very laws of physics, tried very hard to kill us but we left him chained up in Greenwich Village-,” Stephen says as they arrive at the double doors they came through earlier.”-and the quickest way back is through a dimensional gateway I opened in the mop closet.”

“Okay, don’t tell me, fine,” Dr. Palmer says as she opens the doors and allows Stephen and Hayden to go through first. Her eyes widen as she lets the broom closet doors shut behind her. The sling ring portal is still there in all its sparky glory. “Whoa.”

Stephen steps up into it and helps Hayden through as well.

“Thanks for patching me up, Dr. Palmer,” Hayden says as she gives a little awkward wave at the gaping Christine.

“We really must be going,” Stephen says, before he lets the portal close.

“I kind of feel bad for her.” She turns to face Stephen, feeling much steadier on her feet. “It’s a lot to process.”

“She can handle it,” he says. “She’s a strong woman.”

There’s a hint of remembrance in his voice and that forms a bitter and unpleasant knot in Hayden’s stomach. She forces it away, telling herself she has no reason to be-

Jealous.

She bites her lip and looks away from Stephen. “She sure seemed like it.” That’s when Hayden notices the cloak waiting patiently a couple feet away, levitating serenely a couple inches from the ground. “You’re cape’s waiting for you.” Stephen goes over to it and Hayden follows. “It’s not a cape, it’s a cloak.”

He wraps his fingers around the collar and with one deft motion of his arm, it whirls around him in a soft red blur and settles on his shoulders.

Hayden raises her eyebrows in an unimpressed fashion at him, despite the warm feeling growing in her chest. “If you’re trying to be cool, then it’s (working) not working.” Stephen shakes his head at her and opens his mouth to retort, but she cuts him off. “Anyway, where has it been this whole time?”

Stephen’s face tightens a fraction. “It was keeping that zealot busy while you were….” He winces a little and Hayden touches a hand to her chest. “I was able to get my sling ring back because of it.”

Hayden takes a half step closer to him and hesitantly takes his hand. “About back at the hospital, you’re not actually a nuisance, Stephen,” she says, briefly making eye contact with him before looking away. “I’d be dead if you hadn’t been here and I don’t know how to thank you enough for that.” She draws her thumb over his knuckles. “Despite the fact we bicker a lot, you’re the greatest friend I’ve ever had-” Friend? Why does that feel so wrong to say? “- and you’ve always been there for me. I’m sorry I haven’t been as good to you as you’ve been to me.”

Stephen’s fingers squeeze hers. “Hayden, look at me.” She does as he asks and there’s a blatant softness in his eyes she can’t recall seeing before. It fills her up and warms her heart. “You have been more than I could have ever asked for, so don’t think for a second you haven’t been enough.”

His kind words cause tears to prick at the back of her eyes. She looks away from him for a moment, blinking them back and letting out a small self deprecating laugh. The world has been telling Hayden her entire life that she’s a freak, that she doesn’t belong and that she’ll never be enough. So to have Stephen, the man that she’s grown to-

Her thoughts grind to a screeching halt and the realization hits her like a ton of bricks. All these warm feelings and pangs she’s been getting around him, her jealousy of Christine, her willingness to throw her life away if it meant he got to live, it suddenly all makes sense and boils down to one all encompassing phrase.

The man she’s grown to love.

There’s a release somewhere in her, thanks to finally admitting it to herself, and that release brings forth a whole wave of emotions crashing over her, drowning her.

“Hayden.” Stephen’s voice silences and calms the wave back into peacefulness. “Are you alright?”

She blinks rapidly and looks back up at him, her heart giving a lurch when their eyes meet. “Oh, um, yeah. I’m fine.” Which is a complete and utter lie. Her eyes flick down to his mouth for a moment and she gulps. “I just- realized something.” Almost without her noticing, she begins to slowly lean up, thanks to a strange and new magnetism forming between them.

Stephen’s other hand comes up and brushes a strand of hair back into place, eyes following the movement, before lightly cupping her cheek. “And what would that be?” He begins to lean down too.

Hayden’s voice dies in her throat when they make eye contact again, her train of thought careening off its tracks. She gathers the courage to close the gap all at once and-

“Strange, Jones! You’re okay!”

Stephen and Hayden immediately pull away from each other and turn to face the direction the unwelcome voice came from. It’s Mordo, coming down the stairs with a distinctly relieved and oblivious look on his face. She wishes she could punch him for barging in at exactly the wrong moment.

Hayden suppress a sigh. “Well, generally speaking.”

Mordo stops at the bottom of the stairs and motions for them to follow him. “Come, the Ancient One is waiting.” He turns and begins to make his way back up the stairs.

Stephen glances at Hayden and offers her a small awkward half smile before following Mordo. She goes after them, attempting to calm the maelstorm brewing in her mind. She and Stephen were about to kiss, kiss. That means he’s at least attracted to her, right? People normally don’t go around almost- kissing people they’re not attracted to, right?

Right?

As the three of them emmerge into the artifact room, stepping around the piless of broken glass scattered about, she forces any thought of what transpired between her and Stephen away. She’ll have plenty of time to overanalyze it later. Momentarily tuning out the conversation between Stephen, Mordo, and the Ancient One, Hayden notices what appears to be the body of the zealot from the operating room laying on the ground near the top of the stairs. She goes over to him and crouches down, wincing when she notices the glassy look to his eyes. Hayden presses two fingers to his throat and doesn’t feel a pulse. Letting out a slow breath, she stands back up and moves away from the body.

Yes, Stephen obviously saved her life in that operating room, but he had to kill someone, albeit someone who was arguably evil and definitly trying to kill her. It’s a weight he’ll carry for the rest of his life and that’s the last thing Hayden, knowing from experience, wants on Stephen’s shoulders.

“No, it’s Doctor Strange. Not Master, not Mr. Doctor.”

Hayden stops at Stephen’s side and bites her lip, her hands twisting in front of her.

“When I became a doctor, I swore an oath to do no harm.” He gives a small angry gesture. “And I have just killed a man. I am not doing that again. I became a doctor to save lives, not take them.”

Hayden winces when he says this and she looks away from him as her shoulders droop a bit. If she had done something different in that operating room, then maybe Stephen wouldn’t have had to kill that zealot. Maybe she could have prevented that from happening somehow.

Thanks to her bad habit of getting lost in her own head, Hayden missed another chunk of conversation.

“Like how you feed off him?” Stephen takes a step closer to the Sorcerer Supreme, shoulders tight and voice sharp. “You talk to me about controlling death, but I’ve seen the rituals from the book of Cagliostro.”

“Measure your next words very carefully, doctor.” The tone of her voice is calm, but there’s a subtle hint of warning in it too.

“Stephen, what are you talking about?” Hayden says, stepping up beside him and touching his arm.

Mordo looks between the three of them, obviously feeling the rising tension in the room.

“I’m talking about her long life, the source of her immortality.” Stephen turns his head and makes eye contact with Hayden. “She draws power from the Dark Dimension to stay alive.”

Hayden opens her mouth, but Mordo is already speaking, stepping forward. “That’s not true!”

Stephen breaks the eye contact with Hayden and looks over at Mordo. “I’ve seen the rituals, worked them out.” His gaze cuts back over to the Ancient One. “I know how you do it.”

She’s standing there, just looking at him. “Once they regroup, the zealots will be back. You’ll need reinforcements.”

With that, she turns and exits the room.