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Bob makes his way down Bleeker Street with heavy feet. He’s unsure about this recommendation; not because he distrusts Bucky’s judgment, but because he distrusts his own ability to make a good impression. He’s never been good at first impressions. His last few… haven’t been Ideal, but considering how they ended up working out, he figures this couldn’t go worse.
He arrives at the door of the Sanctorum, hesitating for a moment. Could this Doctor Strange really help him? He paced at the entrance. He was already a handful before the study; now, he was essentially a nuke with mental illness. This had to be way beyond the sorcerer’s pay grade… did the sorcerer get paid? It was such a luxurious-looking building, he figures there’s some kind of income for its upkeep.
“Are you coming in?” came a disembodied voice.
Bob jumped, startled, “H-hello?” He looked around, no one to be seen, “God?”
The door opened, revealing an older man in red and black robes. “I prefer Wong,” the man chuckled out, “You had an appointment with Strange?”
Bob nodded, “How’d you do that?”
Wong pointed to the right, “I saw you through the Ring camera; you were pacing for a while.”
Bob’s face heated up. Great start already, “Ah, yeah, that, uh, makes sense. Thanks.” Wong motioned for Bob to follow him inside. “You have a lovely home.”
“There’s no need to be nervous, Mr…”
“Bob’s fine.”
“Bob,” Wong repeated, “... very humble. As I was saying, no need to be so nervous. You’re a guest; no one’s coming after you here. Just don’t touch anything, though.” Wong stopped in front of a door and knocked, “Stephen, your patient is here!” Wong turned back to Bob, “He might come off as intimidating, but he’s nothing to be scared of. And I’ll let you in on a secret,” He leans in to whisper. Bob leans in in turn, “You both have more in common than you might think.”
“Wong,“ Strange said as he opened the door, “you make me nervous with all the whispering. Are you already poisoning the man against me?”
“I have no idea what you could mean.” Wong deadpans, "If you're so worried, you get the door next time."
“Doctor Strange! It’s-It’s nice to meet you,” Bob reached out for a handshake.
Strange shook his hand, “Nice to meet you, too, Reynolds.”
“Just Bob’s fine.”
“Bob,” Strange repeats, amused almost, “come on in.”
Bob takes in the office, the walls adorned with weapons and artifacts he couldn’t even begin to try and identify. He begins to wonder again if he’s made the right choice coming here.
“Take a seat.” Strange motions with his hands for his cloak to leave his person and pull the chair opposite him out for Bob.
“Whoa! That’s amazing.” Bob gently strokes the cloak as he sits, “I mean, I’ve seen clips on TV and stuff of you and the cloak, but it’s so cool seeing it in person.” He absentmindedly begins to scratch the cloak, as one would a dog. The cloak nips at him, before flying back over to Strange, “Ah- sorry!”
“Don’t worry, you’re not the first person to do that.” Strange laughs, “The cloak brings that instinct out, but it’s got a mind of its own. Don’t take it personally.”
Bob still felt his face flush, “Alright,” he was blowing it! “Sorry, if this is kinda weird, I know you’re not really, like, a psychiatrist or therapist. Bucky said you were a surgeon before?”
Strange sat back with a thoughtful expression before beginning, “It’d probably be easier if I started from the beginning.” With that, he began recounting his origin story with Bob.
-
“What are they saying?” Ava whisper-yelled.
“Ah, I can’t really tell, the damn cape is in front of his mouth!” John whisper-shouted back.
“Ughhhh, maybe Bucky was right,” Yelena sighed. “Damn magic capes.”
The three were sitting in a cafe across the Sanctorum, clad in disguises that consisted of sunglasses, baseball caps, and hoodies. Bob told them he was fine going by himself and didn’t need anyone accompanying him for his meeting with Doctor Strange, but they couldn’t help but worry. None of them had even met Strange, so the thought of Bob going alone made them nervous in case the meeting went wrong.
In the end, they decided they weren’t going to follow Bob. If they happened to end up at a cafe right across from the Sanctorum, though, it was a total coincidence.
“You know, I heard this place has pretty good lattes,” John commented, receiving unamused looks from the girls. “What?”
“You already gave up?!”
“The cape is covering his mouth. What am I supposed to do?! Also, we didn’t even have breakfast, we-” Ava went to cut him off, but he continued, emphasizing his point by gesturing to all three of them, “Yes, WE… are getting hangry.”
Yelena face-palmed, “Oh my god…” Defeated, she grabs a menu, “Y’know what, John’s got a point, let’s just order something for now. If the cloak moves, it moves, but for now, we wait.”
Ava grabs a menu. “Fine.” She squints, “What the hell is a croffle?”
-
“So I was Sorcerer Supreme, for a while, but due to the blip, I lost that title to Wong.”
“Ah, that’s rough.”
“It’s not that bad, he’s one of the best. If you lose to anyone, Wong’s not the worst to lose to.”
“So you blipped too…” Bob pondered aloud.
“Something on your mind?”
“Yeah, just, it’s gonna sound really dumb.”
“Try me, I’ve heard many dumb things in my life. I can assure you it won’t be the dumbest thing, at least”
“Before I came in, Wong told me that we had a lot more in common than I thought,” Bob began nervously, “and as you told me about how you used to be a surgeon and rich and stuff, I was really doubtful. Then you mentioned the accident.”
“You’ve been in a similar accident?”
“Yeah… except I wasn’t driving. It was my uncle. I had to take these pills for the pain and from there…”
Strange nodded at Bob to continue, “I became addicted. I didn’t even finish high school; I just would work to get money for my next fix, but even holding a job was difficult. I couldn’t hold a job, relationships, a home.” He began to grip the end of his shirt, “I was a mess for a long time. I say that I joined the study for a chance to become a better person, to be able to do good and help people, be stronger, y’know. Honestly, at the time I think that would’ve been a bonus; studies to me just meant more drugs, even if it was experimental.” Bob began to tear up, “That search killed me, thinking about it now. The only reason I lived was because, by some miracle, the study worked. Basically indestructible now, but I can’t use my powers without the risk of-“
“The Void.” Strange supplied. “I had half a mind to seek you out after the incident,” Bob shrank into his seat.
“But,” Strange continued, “Wong warned that patience was never my strong suit. So I waited, mainly to prove him wrong,” Strange handed a box of tissues to Bob,” and a week later, I got a call from Mr. Barnes about meeting with you.” He continues, “I wasn’t aware that you’d been the mystery man that has been hanging around the Thunderbolts the tabloids have been speculating about.”
“Yeah, they’ve been asking a lot of questions. They’re pretty sure I’m dating one of them because, well, it’d make the most sense why I’m just hanging around.” Bob chuckled as he said that last part, but still carried a sad look as he continued, “I don’t want to be a burden on them, but it doesn’t seem like anything I do helps. I can’t be Sentry, but I don’t want to just be deadweight.”
“It’s probably overwhelming, isn’t it?” Strange elaborated, “Being thrust into this world. Your team members, that’s been their life, or they willingly went into this kind of life. It’s one thing to get into it after so long of living for yourself, essentially. Especially considering your hard draw in life, being put into the spotlight must be rough.”
“It sounded nice at first, you know. When Valentina told me I could help people, and that I was even stronger than all the Avengers combined. I felt like I was on top of the world, unstoppable, indestructible.” He frowned, “I almost killed her when I realized she had a kill switch.” Bob grabbed at his head, pulling his hair, “The memories are fuzzy, but I can see me holding her up by her neck, ‘You were gonna turn on me’ was what I said. I know she manipulated me, but does it make it right that I was ready to choke her out for it? I don’t really think so, but then she killed me? I can’t-“ He’s interrupted as the cloak wraps around him, gently removing his grip from his hair.
Strange starts softly, “Bob, breathe. Focus on your breathing.” The cloak loosened its grip as Bob steadied his breathing, allowing him to rub the fabric between his fingers to ground himself. “Take your time, feel the fabric.” Strange soothed.
The cloak was oddly cooperative, Bob thought, since he’d offended it earlier. He took deep breaths in and out, slowly. He felt the cloak wipe his rogue tears with the tissues. If he weren’t in the middle of a breakdown, he’d have probably found it funny.
As he calmed down, Bob began again, “This is part of the problem. I feel myself spiraling after the smallest things.”
“Getting murdered isn’t a small thing.”
“You literally let yourself get killed over and over.”
“Bob,” Strange interrupted, “It’s not a competition, who’s died more times, who’s gone through more. After my accident, I refused to listen to everyone, even people who were truly wanting the best for me. I was too stubborn and prideful to listen to anyone who wasn’t myself.” Strange asked, “Did you have people like that when you were recovering? At any point in your life before the study?”
Bob paused. He wanted to argue, to tell him he did, but…
“No…” Bob choked out, “I… I didn’t have anyone, really. Even my mom treated me like a burden, at best. At worst, both my parents would find a way to blame me for what happened.”
“You didn’t have a proper support system during such an important time.”
“But even when Yelena tried to be there and stop me, I wasn’t listening.” Bob argued, “I pushed her away. All of them away.”
“You did, but you eventually let them in, in the end.” Strange questioned, “What changed?”
“Well, after I died, the Void revived me. I was in the, uh, shame room, we called it,” Bob clarified. “It’s still fuzzy, honestly, but I remember Yelena. She’d found me. The others also showed up, and they helped me get out and stop the Void.”
“They had to enter the Void willingly, didn’t they? To get to you.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing what waited for them.”
“Yelena and John had already experienced it prior, but yeah, everyone else was pretty much going in blind. They had to, to stop the Void.”
“To stop the Void,” Strange repeated, “and to save you.”
“S… Saving me was necessary for stopping the Void-”
Strange chuckled, “Look, Bob, I get you don’t want to ‘make something what it’s not’, but…” he glanced out the window, briefly, then continued, “Here, look, you see that cafe across the street.” Bob nodded, “Look at the table closest to the window.”
Bob squinted, then he saw it, “Oh my God, I told them...” He face-palmed. Seated there were Ava, John, and Yelena, eating pastries. A part of him wanted to claim it was a coincidence, but the most damning evidence was sitting next to a latte: a set of binoculars. They’d tailed him to his appointment.
“I think they care a lot more than you care to admit.”
“I’m so sorry, I had no idea they were looking in, I swear.” Bob felt his face heating up from embarrassment.
“I know, I saw them from here earlier when you first got to the Sanctorum. They were following from a distance.” Strange continued, “I had a good view of them entering the cafe.”
“THE WHOLE TIME!?” He was gonna have to end it all.
“I’m not trying to embarrass you, I promise.” Strange clarified, unconvincingly, “Just saying, your new team doesn’t seem to just be in it to just ‘stop the Void’, at least, not the way you’re trying to convince yourself of.”
Bob felt his chest warm up at the thought, putting aside the embarrassment of the situation. He could see they were arguing, but not a serious one. Likely, it was just the girls poking fun at John as they normally would.
“I’d say this is a good spot to end for today, if you wanna come by next week around the same time, that should work fine,” Strange asked.
“Yeah, same time next week works great!” Bob kept his gaze on his team before turning back to Strange, “Can I ask you a favor?”
-
“I’ve had better donuts, but this isn’t too bad,” Yelena spoke, mouth still full of her cronut.
“Is everything here some mix of croissant?” Ava questioned.
“Not everything,” John argued, “but it’s a part of their sell, they specialize in croissants.”
“Where’d you hear about this place, Walker?” Yelena asked, muffled by another cronut bite.
“I saw it while scrolling Tiktok-” John was then interrupted by a portal opening to his side.
“On your left,” called out Bob.
“BOB!” yelled out the trio. They all scrambled to explain themselves. Bob calmly grabbed the binoculars, stopping them mid-sentences.
Yelena sighed, defeated, “Okay, you caught us… We came to stop John from stalking you-” that earned her a smack upside the head from John, “Hey! Ow! I was joking, he knows I was joking! Yes, we did follow you to your appointment. We’re sorry.”
Bob questioned, “Why’d you follow me? I said I’d be fine.”
“We know, we were just worried, uh…” Ava drifted off.
“Okay, I’ll say it,” John started. Bob braced himself, “We’d heard Doctor Strange was kind of a dick. We didn’t want to leave you alone, in case he started anything.”
That wasn’t what he was ready to hear. He was ready to hear that they were worried he’d Void out. That he was a liability they had to keep an eye on.
“Those weren’t Bucky’s exact words,” Ava explained, “but, yeah, we didn’t fully trust him. Seems we were wrong, though. Sorry, Doctor.”
“No offense taken, you were worried for your friend here. It’s good to see he has a good support system.”
“Of course! We are a very supportive system!” Yelena exclaimed, pulling a chair out for Bob, “He’s the whole reason we’re a team.”
“Yeah, you don’t just go through the shame rooms for just anyone,” John added, sliding a pastry towards Bob, “He’s stuck with us now.”
“Whether he likes it or not,” Ava laughed out. “It’s just gonna be more of this, Bob.”
If he hadn’t already cried earlier, these affirmations would have broken that dam. Instead, the brightest smile Bob’d had in a long time formed, laughing as he responded, “I’m looking forward to it.”