First thing's first (I'm the realest)
Though I am a Chemist and a Biologist, the stuff that Erin is working on is entirely beyond the realms of possibility in real life, so please don't leave messages telling me that 'that would never work in real life' because, even though it would be super cool if it did, I know.
That said, I'll try my best to make most of the science in this fic (besides the magic mind-reading drugs, of course) as true and accurate as possible. Hope you enjoy. Also, as a warning, this chapter is full of science jargon, so you might get a tad bored through it. It's just so I can set a base for the story, it won't all be like that I promise haha x
Erin squinted her eyes, a wrinkle forming between her brows as she stared down the microscope intently. A single white blood cell squished its way across the glass slide, leaving a gooey imprint in its wake. Erin sighed and leant back, pushing the microscope away from herself, tucking the loose strands of dark blonde hair that had escaped from her messy bun behind one of her ears. She glanced at her watch wearily, her eyes blearing as they tried to focus on something that wasn't being seen through a light microscope at X1500 magnification.
The fuzzy hands came into focus, and she sighed to herself as she noticed that it was well past midnight. It was often that she worked late, but not usually this late. She removed her thick plastic lab goggles and rubbed her tired eyes with her left hand.
"Tired?"
The voice came from her left. She turned and smiled as she saw Bruce Banner, twirling his glasses in one hand, looking at her with a mixture of confusion and interest. There was a pad of paper on his desk in front of him, filled with a mass of writing that Erin couldn't even begin to decipher. Erin rolled her eyes. Yes. She was tired.
"Shattered, yes. Thanks for asking."
Bruce chuckled and stood up from his seat, coming to sit next to her. The lab was empty apart from them, the bright fluorescent lights juxtaposing the late hour. S.H.I.E.L.D. had a busy science department, but only those who were truly mad stayed in past seven O'clock, the lab's official closing time.
Erin counted herself and Bruce Banner amongst the mad ones.
"How's the truth-serum going?" Bruce asked, taking a look through her microscope, and rolling his eyes when he noticed that it contained only a few white blood cells. Nothing of great interest.
"It's not even past cellular trials yet, Bruce. It's going to be a long time until I can say that it's safe to test on humans." Erin admitted, tapping the slide, "If these macrophages recognise the serum as self and don't end up thinking it's a virus and engulfing it, we may be onto a winner."
Bruce nodded in understanding, before going back to looking through the microscope, a tiny part of his bottom lip bit between his teeth in concentration.
When Erin had graduated with a 1st in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge three years ago, she had never in her wildest dreams imagined working abroad, let alone designing synthetic compounds for one of America's top Homeland Security agencies. Science was her passion, her life, and she loved every second of her job. The 'truth-serum' that Bruce was talking about was the latest product that she had been working on. A synthetic chemoreceptor that blocked synapses in the prefrontal cortex, effectively making it impossible for anybody who consumed it, orally or intravenously, to tell a lie. It only worked in theory so far, but she was currently in the middle of tests to make sure that it was safe for human consumption.
The project that she was working on now, was to make sure that the serum wouldn't act as a virus, causing the body to create an immune response and destroy it before it even had a chance to do its job.
She took another look through the microscope at the white blood cell, and smiled to herself.
"Look at this," she said, leaning back and allowing Bruce to take her place at the table.
"Incredible..." he muttered almost to himself as he looked through the microscope, "The serum is directly touching the macrophage, and there's not any sign of phagocytosis."
Erin rolled her eyes. What Bruce meant by that statement was that a white blood cell was sat very happily next to a small globule of serum without showing any signs of recognising it as a virus and trying to absorb it. Bruce just liked his science jargon.
"None whatsoever." She replied, beaming, "This might bloody work, Banner."
He smiled and patted her on the shoulder, standing back up and walking to his desk. It was weird to Erin to think that a man who seemed so calm and collected could have an alter-ego like The Hulk. It was only six months since the whole incident with Loki, an incident that Erin, thankfully, had managed to stay out of, and it was still weighing heavily on everyone's minds. It was part of the reason why Erin had begun her project. If they had had the serum when Loki was locked up in S.H.I.E.L.D's base, perhaps they would have been able to stop him before he caused such large amounts of damage.
"What are you going to call it?"
She looked up at Bruce, confused.
"Call what?"
He smirked, and pointed to her microscope, "Your serum. It's gotta have a name, and as the inventor, you should probably pick it."
She smirked, rolling her eyes. Of course, she had forgotten that she would have to name her creation.
"Erinatonium." she mockingly suggested, and Bruce chuckled.
"Jeffersonerum." He suggested, referencing her second name, Jefferson.
"Nah I don't want to be one of those people who names their creation after themselves. Einsteinium, Seborgium, Samarium, it's so big-headed."
He smiled at that, nodding his head in apparent agreement.
"Tony suggested you call it Veritaserum."
Erin couldn't help but snort at that. 'Veritaserum' was the fiction truth-telling potion that Professor Snape used against Alistair Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Trust Tony to think up of something like that.
"He has seen one Harry Potter movie, and suddenly he thinks he's J.K. Rowling..." She struggled to contain her laughter, reaching up to untie her hair from its bun, letting it fall in messy waves around her face, framing her eyes.
Many people said that Erin's eyes were the most interesting thing about her face, but she didn't take that as a compliment. They were deep brown, so dark they almost hid her pupils. People said that they were the colour of dark chocolate. She disagreed. Her eyes were the colour of mud.
"Natasha suggested 'pravda sok', "Bruce continued, "It means 'truth juice' in Russian.
Very literal. Nice.
She slapped her hand on the desk loudly, causing Bruce to jump, and she instantly raised both palms in shock, her eyes widening. He sighed, rubbing his brow with his hand.
"I'm not gonna hulk out if you slam your hand on the desk, Erin. It takes a little more than that. You don't have to tiptoe around me."
She gave an apologetic smile, a bit embarrassed by her extreme reaction. After the situation with Loki, everyone was a little more careful around Bruce than they needed to be. He had gone full-hulk in the middle of a helicarrier, but in his defence, the circumstances probably called for it.
"What did you want to say?"
She smiled. "I have a name."
"Well go on then."
She took a deep breath, as if getting ready to say something of great gravity and importance.
"M.F.C.T.S."
Bruce's eyebrow quirked in confusion.
"What does that stand for? The chemical compounds contained in it? The neural pathways it inhibits?"
Erin stood up, grabbing her coat from the back of her chair and slipping it over her shoulders, walking over to where Bruce was sat and placing her hands on the table, a shit-eating grin on her face.
"Magic Fucking Crazy Truth Serum. Can also be known as Motherfucking crazy truth serum, since it's taking me so goddamn long to perfect."
He grinned, a flash of white teeth against tanned skin.
"Brilliant."
Erin zipped her coat up and walked to the door, opening it with her key-card and turning back to face Bruce.
"I'm off for the night. See you tomorrow?"
"Mmm, hmmm." He responded non-comitally, already looking back at his own work, grabbing his pen and continuing to scribble illegible squiggles on his pad of paper. Erin winced. Physics. Ew. Not her brand of science at all.
She closed the lab door behind her quietly, careful not to disturb Bruce, and walked out of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters into the chilly night air.
ALRIGHTY chapter one is done! What do you think of it? If you liked, please vote, and please please tell me wht you think of this idea, because I want to know if I should carry it on or not.