CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
REASONABLE EXPLANATION

"WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?" WANDA immediately entered the room in which they had just brought Beth back into after surgery. Rosalynn had been placing the bed cover over the girl as she rubbed her hands on her lab coat and then turned her head to look towards Wanda, walking a few steps closer towards her.

"I don't know." Rosalynn admitted, shaking her head. "She was fine when she went to sleep, right?" Wanda nodded. "Well, she started bleeding from her abdomen, and she lost a lot of blood."

"What could've possibly caused this?" Wanda frowned. Rosalynn glanced towards the girl and then looked back towards Wanda before placing a hand on her back and leading her from the room so as not to disturb Beth. She closed the door and the two walked down the hall with Beth's chart placed in Rosalynn's hand.

"According to her chart. . ." Rosalynn started, flipping through the pages with furrowed eyebrows. "She was shot?"

"Shot? We would've heard a gun shot." Wanda shook her head. "I was near her room most of the night because I was just worried." Rosalynn cocked an eyebrow at the girl and Wanda sighed. "She's been through a lot, alright?" The two walked over to a sofa, sitting down as Rosalynn continued to look at the several sheets of paper's, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"I don't understand." Rosalynn frowned, shaking her head. "There's something wrong here. The bullet was no where to be found when they did surgery on her, and there wasn't an exit wound. Something's not adding up."

"What about her blood?" Wanda tried. "Maybe. . . maybe it's something in her DNA?"

"That caused a gunshot wound? No, I don't think so." The woman shook her head. "I had people watch over her during the night just in case anything happened, and they said everything was fine, that the last person to see her was you and she was fine when you left. So, it quite literally appeared from nothing."

"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this."

"There is." The voice of Avery Barton filled their ears, making the two women turn to look at the teenager who was standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. "When I heard about what happened to Beth, I had to come down here immediately." Avery sat down on the chair that was in front of the couch. "Beth was in my dreams last night."

"What?" Wanda immediately sat up at this.

"She was there." Avery repeated. "And she got shot in the dream."

"My God, what were you dreaming about?" Rosalynn questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Avery, she almost bled out."

"It's not my fault that she popped up in my very destructive dream!" Avery exclaimed with a scoff. "I just came here to tell you that I'm ninety-nine percent sure that those two things correlate."

"Well, she can walk through people's dreams." Wanda noted, nodding her head. She then remembered something from when she and Beth had met for the first time in the dream world. She nodded her head. "Avery's right. When Beth first appeared in my dreams, she told me about her powers. She said she could walk through people's dreams, but there was a catch. If she got hurt in the dream, she got hurt in reality as well."

"And she got shot in my dream, so, that's why she was bleeding out."

"And that's why they couldn't find an exit wound, nor the bullet." Rosalynn nodded. "Listen, I'm going to go see if the results are back from the tests I ran. If anything at all happens to her, call me in there immediately." Wanda nodded and Rosalynn stood up, quickly making her way back to the lab. Wanda sat there with a small frown on her face.

"So, is she the girl of your dreams?" Avery asked, smirking at her joke. Wanda gave her a blank look, making the girl chuckle. "I thought it was funny."

"Yeah, no." Wanda shook her head. She paused before saying, "But yes, she is everything like she was in the dream. Though, I've only talked to her once since she got here because she's been in and out of consciousness. Avery, she was so scared."

"Hey, but we found her." Avery noted, standing up and moving to sit beside Wanda. "I was the same way when they found me. For the first few months I would flinch at the tiniest thing. She's going to be scared for awhile until she gains the trust she needs to feel comfortable." Avery placed a hand on Wanda's shoulder as she stood up. "Look, I told Peter I'd see him while I was in town, if anything happens, call me alright?"

"Thanks, Avery." Wanda gently smiled. "For everything. If it weren't for you, we would've never started the search for her."

Avery smiled. "You're welcome, Wanda." With that the girl walked away, leaving Wanda to sit there by herself. She couldn't help but wonder what it was like to have the powers that Beth had, and why HYDRA so desperately wanted her powers. Wanda wasn't sure how they could truly evolve the girl's powers, but she would be soon to find out how.

As Rosalynn stood there, pulling up the test results of Beth's blood, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. The girl's DNA was utterly messed up. And quite frankly, the pattern looked familiar. She frowned before taking a moment to look through all the other tests before going through the records and pulling up Wanda's DNA. She placed the two side by side and a small gasp fell from her lips.

"Oh my god."