Hey y'all! Wow I really dropped the ball on this, but after a lot of thought, a lot of figuring out the timelines and a lot of talking with my writing partner, I give you, chapter 2 of Which Me Do You Like- Revamped! So I've said in the past I'm going to try and keep some things similar to the old story, but there are some things I'm going to change, including the addition of a new character you haven't seen before!
I'm figuring out ways to incorporate my story into the MCU timeline, and how to make the MCU timeline work with my story, so I hope you enjoy it, new characters and all!
Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, or anything that you recognize, all of that belongs to Disney and Marvel. They just control my life.
"Just three more Minnie," Minnie grunted as she lifted her leg, the ankle weight around her ankle making it a slow movement. The ache in her muscles making her leg feel like it was screaming with protest. "Good, two more." she squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her jaw as she lifted her leg again. "Don't forget to breathe," she let out a slow breath as she lowered her leg and then began to lift it again, slowly, the muscles shaking as she did. "And hold it." Minnie's eyes flew open as she looked at the physical trainer who stood above her, watching her as she held her leg in the air, trying to keep it there for as long as she could before- "And slowly lower it." she did as she was told and let out a sigh of relief. "You're all done."
"Great," she chuckled, sitting up as she started to rub her knee slightly. "God, you kicked my ass today." she commented and he grinned slightly.
"Ah, yeah, I know, but you kind of need a day of getting your ass kicked, I was going too easy on you for too long."
"It's not like my insurance is going to run out or anything." she commented as she started to undo the weight around her ankle, making Mike, the trainer, laugh.
"That's true, but you know we have to get you back up to fighting shape if you're going to be working for the Avengers."
"I don't work for the Avengers," Minnie said, looking at her trainer. "I work for Tony Stark."
"Yeah, I know," Mike said as he offered her his hand, when she took it he pulled her into a standing position, her knee protesting the weight she put on it, but she knew she needed to stretch it out. "Don't forget to take it easy today. And alternate hot and cold on it." he reminded her as she nodded.
"I know, I remember." she said, moving slowly to her purse, pulling out her checkbook and then tearing the check she'd already written out of it. "Here, this is for this week and next session." she said as she handed it to the trainer who took it and nodded. "Same time?"
"Same place." he grinned at her as she slung her purse over her shoulder. "Looks like your ride's here." he nodded to the window making her turn and look, indeed the black car was there, with a Stark Industries driver waiting for her.
"One of these days I'm going to remind Tony that I don't need a ride here or home, it's only five blocks."
"You could tell them now."
"I said one of these days. I didn't say today." she grinned making him laugh. "See you in two weeks Mike."
"See you then," he agreed as she walked to the car. The driver opened the door and she slipped in, settling back against the cool leather of the town car while the driver closed the door and walked around to the front. After getting himself settled he started the car, the heat from the vents blowing on him and her in the back seat after carefully aiming them to make sure she got some of it, he pulled away from the curb and into traffic. It was a brisk November morning and Minnie would be happy to be back in her apartment, getting warm after the chill in the New York air.
When she got home the doorman to her building walked over and opened the door, letting her step out onto the curb. "Forget your coat this morning Ms. Strong?" he asked as he walked with her to the door.
"No, I left it at home. I thought I'd get a little bit more of this New York weather before we head back to California." she explained and he nodded.
"When do you leave?"
"Our flight leaves tonight at Six. Now I just have to make sure we're there in time." she explained making him chuckle.
"Yes ma'am." he nodded as he held the door open. Stepping into the apartment building Minnie pulled her phone from her purse and inserted her earbuds, calling Tony to let him know she was out of physical therapy.
"Hey Red," he greeted her by way of answering. "How's the knee?"
"Sore," she admitted. "Mike kicked my ass this week because I'm going to be gone for the week for Thanksgiving."
"Does it make you feel any better to know that you're going to be on your feet for the week?" he asked as she pressed the call button for the elevator.
"It sounds good to me. I've got to call the Department of Damage Control and see how things are doing and then swing over to the tower and see how the re-build is going before we leave."
"What time are you getting to the airport?"
"Our flight's at Six, so I'm going to try and get out of here by four."
"You think you'll make it?"
"Well," Minnie paused and looked at her watch. "It's eleven thirty now, I think I've got time."
"You all packed?" he asked making her roll her eyes as she stepped onto the elevator.
"I mean, I am." she said as she pressed the button for the twenty second floor. "But we'll see."
"Alright, let me know when you're headed over to the tower, I'll let Bruce know you're on your way over."
"Okay, sounds good." Minnie said, leaning against her uninjured knee. "I'm going to take a quick shower and then get started. If Reagan hasn't used up all of the hot water." she scoffed making Tony chuckle. "I'll talk to you later Tony."
"Talk to you later Red." she hung up at his answer and the doors slid open, after walking down the hall to her apartment she unlocked the front door and stepped in, setting her purse down.
"Reagan!" she called. "Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you can sleep the day away." she moved down the hall towards the smaller bedroom in the two bedroom. Finding the door closed she opened it, looking in at the sleeping form of her daughter. "Reagan, time to get up," Minnie sang making the almost fifteen year old groan and cover her face with her blanket. "Time to get up Rae!" Minnie walked in and pulled the blanket off of the girl's face.
"Mooooom," she whined. "God, stop."
"Reagan, you know we have to leave in a few hours and you've still got some packing to do." Minnie looked over at the desk, covered in clothes and the luggage at the end of her bed. "Come on Sweetheart, get up. I'm going to take a shower and if you're not awake by the time I get out I'm turning off the heat and opening your window."
"Sadist." mumbled Reagan as she opened her bright blue eyes and looked at her mom with distaste.
"You know it pumpkin," she grinned as she walked out of the room and went to the bathroom, after she closed the door she turned on the water and pulled the lever to make the water switch from tub to shower. She stripped out of her clothes, setting her watch and earrings onto the side of the sink and waited a few moments before she stepped into the water, letting out a quiet groan of appreciation at the feeling of the hot water running over her body.
As she stood in the water, her knee throbbing Minnie ran her fingers through her red hair, letting it wet she sighed, thinking back over the past six months. The attack of New York had all but destroyed the city, and hearing about the plan to nuke New York was terrifying to her, though Tony said she would have been perfectly safe in the Arc Reactor room, had something like that happened, she wasn't convinced. She had stayed down in the Arc Reactor room for almost three hours before deciding it was worth it to go up and investigate. Her knee had been swollen and extremely hard to walk on, the size of a cantaloupe Tony had helpfully pointed out, but she'd sat in the elevator, letting it take her up from the basement to the first floor, and then from the lobby she'd taken Tony's private elevator to his penthouse. When she'd gone through the lobby she could hear emergency vehicles, helicopters, and people on the ground so she had assumed the fighting was over. After making it to Tony's elevator and pressing the floor for Tony's penthouse she leaned against the wall to support herself, hissing in discomfort as she tried to breathe evenly, in through the nose, out through the mouth, walking hurt, but staying still was not an option.
Stepping out onto the floor she found the top floor in chaos, Tony was talking to Pepper, there was people she'd never seen before, glass everywhere, and even the floors were smashed. She leaned in the doorway to the elevator for a moment, taking in the scene in front of her before a man who was sitting on the couch moved his hand from his eyes and seemed to notice her standing there. Taking in her appearance he noticed the wounded knee and stood quickly. "Here," he spoke, drawing the attention of a woman with short red hair who was wearing a sort of a catsuit and was talking to a man in a suit.
"Thank you," Minnie said, accepting the help as he wrapped her arm around his shoulders and brought her over to the couch he'd just vacated.
"Minnie," Tony said, relief in his voice as he and Pepper joined her by the couch. "What happened? You didn't go outside-"
"No, no," she waved her hand slightly, shaking her head. "No, I ended up down in the Arc Reactor room." she explained, making Tony, who had been bending over to look at her straighten up with a sort of thoughtful, if not impressed look on his face.
"You went to the Arc Reactor room?" he asked.
"Well I just tried to think of somewhere safe." she explained making him smile almost wryly. "Was that wrong?"
"I tried to not you in the direction of my bedroom, there's a panic room in there, but wow, good job Min, you went to the safest place in the whole tower."
"Really?" she asked, smiling gently, no matter the circumstances, be it getting someone elusive on the phone or finding the safest place to hide during an alien invasion, it always feels good to be praised by your employer.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Good job." She smiled before she felt someone put a hand on her leg, exhaustion was overwhelming her, but she was sure it was a lot worse for them, these people, whoever they were.
Looking at the owner of the hand on her leg she found herself really looking at the man who had noticed her and helped her from the elevator to the couch. He was an older man, maybe ten years older than her recent thirty two, dark slightly wavy hair that looked messy, like he'd run his hands through it a half a million times. He was wearing a pair of black slacks and a black and lighter grey striped shirt she recognized of Tony's. "Your name is Minnie?" he asked as she met his dark brown eyes.
"Yeah," she nodded, not wanting to go into how her real name wasn't actually Minnie, but everyone else seemed to use the nickname more than her real name, so why not just go with it. "Yeah, I'm Minnie."
"Oh, Min, sorry, this is Bruce Banner, Bruce, Minnie." Tony explained before looking at his assistant curiously. "So, if you didn't go outside, what happened to your knee? And your face?" he added as he looked at her a little harder.
"I fell down the stairs." Minnie explained as she nodded to the emergency stairwell. "Around sixty five or sixty six, I don't remember." she said, running her own hand through her now lose hair. She'd unpinned in while she sat in the arc reactor room.
"Jesus Minnie," Pepper said softly. "You went down all those stairs?"
"Well, I figured it's like they say, in case of emergency, use stairs, right?" she asked making them nod. "Well if an alien invasion isn't an emergency, what is?"
It was Bruce who chuckled first this time, looking from her knee to meet her eyes again. "I'm afraid to have to tell you this Minnie," he said as he looked at her. "But you're going to have to go to the hospital."
"The hospitals are going to be overrun," Tony commented with a shake of his head. "The least SHIELD can do is treat it," Tony said as he picked up his phone. "Don't worry Minnie, we'll get someone to come look at you tonight." he promised as he dialed a number and then pausing to look down at her knee added. "God it's as big as a cantaloupe."
"Tony, just call the number." Minnie groaned making Bruce chuckle again.
After washing her hair and scrubbing her body she rinsed off and stepped out of the shower, plugging in her hair dryer she wrapped a towel around her hair and the other around her body, stepping out of the bathroom she walked across the hall again, opening the door to Reagan's room. "Come on Rae, get up!" she was met with groans from the teenager who had gone back to sleep. Stepping out of Reagan's room she walked over to her own bedroom, finding a pair of pants and a blouse as well as underwear and her hairbrush.
When she went back to the bathroom she slipped on her underwear and bra before she started to dry out her hair, rubbing the towel on it and then blow drying it. She heard Reagan shout something over the noise of the blow dryer and then smirked as she saw her daughter walk out of her room and go towards the kitchen. After blow drying her hair she slipped on her pants and blouse before she put on her usual work makeup, put her earrings back on and her watch and then added a necklace from the jewelry box she kept in the bathroom. "Rae," she called as she walked from the bathroom to her bedroom to pick out her shoes. A pair of kitten heeled boots wouldn't be too much on her knee. "I'm going to call the clean up and-"
"And see how the clean ups going, I know." Reagan sighed as she appeared at the end of the hallway, a bowl of cereal in her hands.
"And then I have to go over to the tower and see how that's holding up."
"Mm," Reagan said, a mouthful of cereal, crunching it for a few moments before she swallowed and asked. "Is Bruce going to be there?"
"Yes," Minnie nodded. "He's been there since the tower was declared livable remember?"
"Yeah, I know, I just mean, are you going to see him?"
"I mean, I'm sure I'll stop in and see how he's doing." she nodded as she slipped her feet into her boots. "He is overseeing the reconstruction of the labs, and Tony wants to make sure they're done to Bruce's specification as well as Tony's style." she said making Reagan grin slightly.
"I can't wait to see Uncle Tony." she said, from the moment Tony and Reagan had met almost two years previously, Tony had doted on the girl, and she had taken to him spoiling her like a fish takes to water.
"I know you can't." Minnie said as she picked up a coat, ready to take her ride over to Stark Tower. "Why were you asking about Bruce?" she asked curiously.
"Hmm?" Reagan asked before the question seemed to sink in. "Oh, no reason, just, I dunno, he seems to like you." she grinned at her mom, pushing her cereal around with her spoon.
"He's a nice guy," Minnie nodded as she checked her lipstick in the hall mirror.
"Well and he likes you." Reagan pointed out making Minnie smile lightly.
"He likes anyone who's not trying to put him in a cage." she said making Reagan roll her eyes slightly.
"No Mom, he likes you." she said before taking another bite of her cereal.
"Reagan, while I'm gone I want you to finish packing and do me a favor and dump all of the perishable food down the trash chute." she said making Reagan roll her eyes.
"Alright," she agreed, knowing Minnie wouldn't entertain the thought of a man liking her. She could barely remember the last time her mom had gone on a date after all.
"And be ready to go to the airport."
"I know mom."
"Grandpa is picking us up."
"Mom, go, do your work, I'll be fine." Reagan sighed as Minnie seemed to stall leaving. "I'm fine, just go."
"Alright," Minnie sighed back at the teenager before walking over and giving Reagan a kiss on the top of the head. "I love you."
"I love you too." she said, exasperated at the long good-bye.
With one last smile at the teenager Minnie walked back into the living room, picking up her purse and walked to the door, walking out of it and down the hall, punching in the number for the clean up crew while she walked to the elevator.
After getting downstairs and hailing a cab Minnie slipped into the back seat, giving the driver the address to Stark Tower before she called the number for the Department of Damage Control. As she spoke to the person on the other line she watched as the tower got closer and closer before the cab driver let her off alongside the building. After hanging up and texting Tony to let him know what was said she walked up the the building, scanning her security badge as she walked in.
When she got to the elevator she went to the top floor first, checking on the progress they had made up there. "Armando," she smiled at the contractor. "Give me some good news!"
"The floors are in Ms. Strong," Armando smiled as she walked over. "We're going to lay them tomorrow and Tuesday and then after Thanksgiving we'll be back to finish the walls," he told her making her nod as she looked around. It was really remarkable how much had been done in the past six months.
"It looks fantastic in here Armando," she said before nodding to the bedroom. "Okay, talk to me about the bathroom." she said, walking towards it, with him in tow.
When Minnie was done getting updates on the penthouse area she walked over to the stairs and walked down to the lab Bruce and Tony were putting together for themselves. Walking in she tapped on one of the glass walls. "Dr. Banner," she smiled making Bruce turn around. "Hey."
"Minnie, hey," he smiled. "Hey, how's it going?"
"I could ask you the same question, you sure you're okay in here with all this work going on?" she asked as she nodded to the doorway.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah it's okay." he nodded. "I got a message from Tony saying some of our new equipment was here so I wanted to get it installed as quickly as possible." he explained, gesturing to the work he himself had been doing.
"I see that," Minnie smiled as she looked around. "You not going anywhere for Thanksgiving?" she asked as she looked away from one glistening screen to the man in front of her.
"Oh- Ah- No. No, I don't really have much family." he explained. "I'll just hold up here, and you know, probably just get some more work done in here." he shrugged. "What about you?"
"Reagan and I leave for California today." she nodded.
"She's out of school already?"
"Yeah, she's got this week off and then I pulled her out for next Monday because we'll be flying back to New York then." she explained.
"Ah, yeah, that makes sense." he seemed to pause, thinking for a moment. "Is Tony flying back with you?"
"No, he's doing some more work out in California, I think he's going to try and be here for the New Year though," she explained.
"So it'll be just you and Reagan?"
"Yeah, but it's fine, we love traveling." she nodded.
"Well, do you need a ride from the airport?"
"Excuse me?" the offer had been such a surprise she wasn't sure she heard him correctly.
"Well I-" he grinned slightly as he shrugged. "I mean, I'll be here, so I thought you may want a ride, from the airport." he offered. "I have the car Tony leased for me, and you guys don't want to spend money on a cab, or a car."
"That would actually be really helpful. Are you sure you don't mind?" she asked, relieved at the thought of not having to get a cab from JFK back to Midtown.
"No, of course not. It's the least I could do." he smiled at her making her smile back.
"Well, I would really appreciate that, thank you Bruce." she said, surprised and touched at the offer. Being Tony's assistant people so rarely thought of her needs, aside from what she needed to keep doing her job.
"Anytime," he smiled at her, his eyes flickering over her for a moment as she looked at her phone. She had spent an hour going over everything with Armando and she didn't want to leave Reagan alone for too long, lest she get onto the computer and forget to do her packing.
"Oh- Bruce, I have to go, but um, have you eaten today?"
"No, I mean, I had some oatmeal for breakfast." he told her, noting how distracted she seemed he stepped a little closer. "Everything okay?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah it's fine, I just have to make sure Reagan's all packed and ready to go, and the car service just texted me confirming the pick-up time." she explained before smiling at Bruce. "The fun never ends." she sighed making him chuckle and nod.
"No kidding."
"Okay, Bruce, I'm having some food send over for you, please make sure you remember to eat," she said as she began to type on her phone.
"Minnie, I can get my own food, I am an adult." he reminded her making her grin.
"Tony says that all the time, and yet the man can't make an omelette." she pointed out making him nod with a laugh.
"I'm not Tony Stark." he reminded her. "I can fend for myself. I promise."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "It's really no trouble, Gino's down the street with deliver."
"Or I can just walk to Gino's." he reminded her. "Honestly, before I lived here I was living in third world countries, trust me, I'll be fine, you don't need to worry about me."
"I'm a mom, it's what I do." she chuckled, his mouth spreading in a smile.
"You're right, you're a mom, now go be a mom to the people who need you to be one, your daughter, and your boss." she laughed at that before she nodded.
"Okay,"
"Go on," he waved her towards the door, turning with a shake of her head she started to the door, only pausing when he called "Oh, and Minnie?"
"Yeah?"
"Have a good time." he smiled at her warmly, making her smile back.
"Thank you Bruce."
"And text me your arrival times so I can come get you."
"Again, thank you." she said as she started to open the door to the lab.
"Anytime," he nodded as she stepped out of the lab and then turned back to what he was doing, a smile on his face when he realized he could smell the traces of her perfume over the scent of new lab equipment.
That's right Minnie's a mom in this version, I thought it would add a little more depth to Minnie, get to see a side of her y'all didn't get to see until Ever Present Past. Reagan will have a pretty interesting story line in the future, but for the meantime, I hope you like her, I hope you like this new version, and I hope you liked the little bit of Bruce and Minnie interacting ;)
Please don't hesitate to review, I love getting the reviews and it encourages me to write more and write faster.