Well 3rd Chapter. I'm trying not to rush this too much, (trying to lead it to the main story) but there needs to be various revelations brought into this bit by bit.
Hope you enjoy
Bruce stumbled out of the lift, glancing back for some invisible object he tripped over. He caught sight of Pepper sitting at the kitchen bench with a cup of coffee. He greeted her and helped himself to some coffee. He sat opposite her and eyed the stack of papers.
"Contracts for Anubis. What are you up to today?"
"Going over some schematics with Tony."
"Is he going to remember our lunch date?" They both turned to Anubis. She wore baggy jeans low on her hips with a chain belt with the edge of it lucked into her pocket. A v neck T shirt with the slogan 'it's not showing off'.
"It would probably be best to collect him for lunch." Bruce commented. He poured her a cup and handed it to her.
"Thank you Doctor Banner."
"Bruce, please."
"Only if you'll call me Anubis." Pepper sat watching the exchange with a secret smirk on her face.
There came heavy footsteps along the corridor, preceding the behemoth that was Thor.
"Wonderful news!" he boomed. "Lady Jane Foster is joining us tonight! She will be staying the rest of the week!" he strode over, scooped Bruce off his feet and into a bear hug.
"Good for you!" Bruce gasped. "She here for a visit?" he asked once steady on his feet again, scooping up his mug of coffee.
"She says she's here to view a possible contract to work here."
Pepper frowned, checking over her phone. "I've got nothing on here in my schedule."
"That's because I've asked her here." All eyes turned to the petite brunette. "I've a project that Tony and I have held very close to the chest. I figured she was best suited to take the main research on it."
"Glorious days!" Thor smacked her on the shoulder; a gesture that was clearly meant to be friendly, but nearly launched her across the room. Bruce caught her around the waist as she stumbled near him. Once she got her feet under her they both glanced at each other. Bruce swiftly removed his hand with a murmured apology and the set off for the lift.
Thor turned and cried something about telling his brother as he hurried back to their rooms.
Anubis settled on the stool next to Pepper and pulled the papers towards her. She pulled down a pair of orange lensed glasses off her head and slipped them over her eyes. Bruce dared a glance back and saw the two women huddled close. Anubis had a green see through plastic ruler in her hand. He lingered his gaze for longer than necessary then stepped into the lift. Just as he turned away she turned to glance back.
Bruce and Tony had sat for a few hours going over the specs for a new Iron Man suit that could be used in the upper atmosphere and beyond. He had brought Bruce in to look over shielding from radiation found in space.
They had worked in relative silence except for brief exchanges on ideas. Bruce finished the last calculation and set JARVIS to calibrate the odds and errors. He swivelled his chair around and faced Stark.
"So...how did your sister end up in England?"
Tony glanced up, pondered a moment and then set aside the object he had been tinkering with; turning his attention to the Doctor.
"Well..." he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I was nine year old when she was born, dad had seemed disappointed that she was born a girl. But mom was thrilled." He paused again, fiddling with his hands. "When she was four, it became apparent that she was struggling to read and write. But instead of getting her checked by someone, he decided he would send her away instead. Howard gave one of our Nanny's money and sent her back to her home country. A year later they both died...not long after that her public school nurse discovered she was Dyslexic." Bruce sat back, absorbing the information.
"They gave her coloured glasses and a different coloured ruler. She uses it to focus on the words as a sentence as opposed to jumping around the page. She writes with green ink to help her focus her writing too. Still she often writes entire sentences and words backwards." Bruce nodded.
"Very extreame case."
"Yeah, but with that extra help she quickly surpassed her peers. By the time she was thirteen Cambridge University had offered her a scholarship. Obediah refused to pay any money to her or the nanny, so they both got by with what they had. She went to College, passed in two years with a BSc in Biology, Physics and Chemistry. She then went on to do her PHD, skipping her Masters. When she was seventeen she met Doctor David Marcus, one whorl wind romance later and she was a Doctor, a senior work college for Marcus' father's company and they were engaged. She married at nineteen, gave birth to a beautiful girl and six month later she became a widow."
"What happened?" Bruce asked timidly.
"He was born with a genetic disease. It took over not long after Anubis and him met."
"And their daughter? Where is she?" Tony stared down at the table, sombre and serious. Bruce suddenly felt guilty. "It's ok. I don't need to know."
"No, it's just...a difficult topic." He took a deep breath and scrubbed his face. Bruce stared in shock as he realised Tony had tears in his eyes. "Not long after David's death, Anubis took over his role as manager of genetics and medical research. She slowly noticed her daughter showing the same symptoms, took her in for tests and they discovered she had the same disease, but much worse."
Bruce gasped. "She made it her mission to cure her daughter. She was given four years to live, by that time, Anubis and her team had her on a treatment to extend her life. By the time she was eight –" Tony stopped suddenly.
A long and sullen silence lingered in the room. Bruce reached out for his hand. "Tony?" he started out of his thoughts.
"She died when she was ten. The new treatment, her cure didn't stop it. That was four years ago. Anubis left the company not long after and started up A&D United. She does it in their memory. Lives each day for them." Bruce nodded dumbly, ignoring the tears in his eyes, ignoring the single tear that slid down Starks face. The man turned away, brushed the tear away and stared at his iron man suits.
"I'm sorry...is that why she spends so much time on genetical research?"
"Yeah, she couldn't cure them, but she still tries to cure the world." The two sat for a while, talking gently of David and Antoinette. Bruce discovered that their daughter was named after Tony, he was bother her uncle and her godfather. That every school holiday the pair would come and stay with Tony. The fact that he had a separate family was strange; a private life was even stranger.
By the time the two had calmed down they were back working on the schematics, testing ideas on simulations. Tony was clearly more subdued, less cutting with his remarks and just radiated melancholy.
Bruce, having better hearing thanks to big green, heard the slight scrap of the workroom door as it opened. He glanced back to see Anubis slid in and creep across the room. Catching Bruce's eye she signalled for silence. She stopped right behind Tony's chair and slowly brought her hands down, hovering over his shoulders.
"What you doing?" she asked, slamming her hands down. With a girly squeal Tony launched clean out of his seat and was nearly half way across the desk before he stopped and got a hold of himself.
Anubis and Bruce were doubled over laughing hard. "What...was that...scream?" Bruce asked, doubled over the bench clutching his stomach.
"Oh God!...You took off...like..." she trailed off as she fell back onto the sofa in the corner of the room. Crying with laughter she looked to the ceiling, "JARVIS? Send that to my personal files please."
"Already done Dr Marcus." JARVIS replied.
Tony climbed down off the desk with a huff, giving evil looks to the two scientists. All that succeeded in doing was making the two laugh even harder. Tony stomped over to Anubis and slapped her over the head. He dropped onto the seat next to her; a faint smiled slipping onto his lips.
"So are we doing lunch then?" she asked, wiping the tears away. Tony reached out and put her in a head lock, ruffling her hair.
"Sure thing midget." He let her go and pulled her up by an arm.
"Oh Bruce I was wondering if you were free for lunch tomorrow?" she turned to the Doctor.
"Em...I've got nothing planned."
"Great. I have a project you might be interested in. A consultants job so to speak." Bruce just nodded, his mouth refusing to work. "Great. I'll grab you once I'm done with Doctor Foster tomorrow."
Tony and her exited the room, leaving Bruce alone. He dropped onto the sofa, leaned back and covered his face. A frustrated groan escaped his lips. "What the hell Bruce!" he scolded himself. "Best friends sister, off limits."
The lift doors closed behind the two Starks and descended down. Lunch had been a simple affair and was spent mostly talking about how each other were and what they had done since they had last seen each other. "So you're bringing Bruce into one of your projects?" Tony questioned.
"He's the expert in radiation. He's perfect for that project."
"Oh I'm not doubting that. I'm just wondering if there's perhaps something more?" he nudged her with his elbow.
A faint blush crepted along her cheeks. "Haven't a clue what you mean."
The lift stopped and the doors slid open. Tony cast her a sceptical look and exited first. "I trust that Pepper told you there were three floors to you and your teams. This is you Chem labs." He waved a hand out with a flourish.
Anubis beamed and set off along the corridor, peering through the glass walls. Tony trailed after her, extracting a set of cards from his pocket and handed them to her. She picked one out and went to the door of the first lab, swiping the card reader and entering the door once it slid back.
"Three rooms in all. This one and the one next to it, and the larger one opposite." Tony clarified, watching his sister wander around the room, opening cupboard doors, examining machinery and gliding her hands across work benches. Tony could see the scientist in her becoming giddy with joy.
They continued through the other two rooms in silence. Once all had been seen they talked again. "The two I've picked will love this. They're doing the Polymer study, trying to advance the uses for material and chemical uses."
"Yeah, the team I've picked are really excited. When will your two get here?"
"Next week. Tuesday I think. With the rest of the."
They wandered back to the lift and Tony asked which floor she wanted to see next. "Physics floor. I want to see it first so I can give Dr. Foster the tour tomorrow. She's going to be one of the hardest to enlist, but we really need her on this one. Also some of the kit I want Dr. Banner to lead with should be down there."
Tony pressed the button and nodded in agreement. "Physics floor is in the basement." He explained as the lift descended once more.
They examined that floor in the same way, both of them getting excited at the prospects of the projects and the potential behind them. Once they both settled down again they stepped back into the lift and travelled to the final floor.
Anubis stepped off first and walked the corridor. One side held a large room filled with a huge electron microscope. Two benches were set beside the machine, one with a computer screen to view the samples and the other was bare. She turned to the other side which was split into two labs. One was a bare room with a small desk and nothing else; she swiped her card and stepped in. The lights came on at a dim level. She stopped in front of the desk, pulled a memory stick from her pocket and pressed it into a slot on the desk. Dozens of screens materialised in the air around her all covered in writing, equations and diagrams. Tony was leaning against the back glass wall watching her.
"These are the projects we have at the minute." She explained, still turned to the screens before her. "I figured I'd take your team through the work we've done so far. We have six of these potential cures in the final stages of testing. So long as there are no adverse reactions to the participants, then we'll be marketing these cures with in the year." She waved a hand and several of the screens vanished.
"Another three have just finished the cellular tests. And another two are near a cure. But we have at least another twenty on the cards, and there's just too much for us to manage. But I daren't slow down the progress, every cure is as important as the next."
Tony pushed off the wall and watched as three further screens disappeared without prompting, leaving just one screen. Tony stopped beside Anubis. "Is that the cure you were –"
"Yes." She cut him off. "If they hadn't lied to me, if I hadn't wasted all that time...I might have had this cure done for her." Tony wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"You never knew sis." He reminded her. "You had no reason to doubt them. I sure as hell don't blame you. Antoinette never blamed you. And I'm sure Dave never would have." She heaved sigh, slipping out from under his arm and trailed back to the door.
Tony followed her to the last room. She pressed a hand to the door and looked in. The door opened into a tiny box room with another door that led into a larger room. "Is all the PPE sorted?"
Tony pointed to the corner of the small box room where full body suits were hanging up against the main wall and stacks of goggles, boxes of gloves, shoes covers and face masks were. A small door covered shoot was in the wall with an incinerator label across the handle.
"I'm more than satisfied with the set up Mr Stark." She proclaimed, holding her hand out to her brother. He laughed, took her hand and pulled her into a hug. She responded in kind.
"Damn!" she cried, catching sight of her watch. "I've got dinner with Rhodey in an hour." She made a dash for the lift. Tony hurried after her.
"Dinner with Rhodey?" he asked.
"Yeah." She glanced at Tony scowling at his look. "It's a business dinner. Possible contract for the future, nothing else." She elaborated. He narrowed his eyes trying to read her. "Seriously Tony, pack it in." She smacked him on the shoulder.
Dinner that night was a rambunctious affair once more, with Jane Foster packed between Steve and Thor and Darcy between Tony and Steve. Pepper had once again joined them. Once all was devoured and the dishes swiftly cleaned everyone gathered around the large TV with 3D glasses on. After much debate it was decided to play Avatar for the benefit of the two gods and the super solider.
Half way through the movie JARVIS interrupted. "Col. Rhodes and Dr. Marcus have arrived." Tony jumped to his feet and hurried to the bar. Thor and Steve stepped up and pulled a twin seat sofa from the back wall and pushed it beside the larger sofa.
Anubis and Rhodey stepped off the lift and were greeted by a chorus of hellos. They both laughed and went over to Tony who was mixing drinks behind the bar. Anubis still had her arm linked through Rhodey's as they both took the offered drinks. She released her hold as the two men exchanged brief hugs. She turned back to the group and sashayed her way to the seats.
Steve, Loki and Bruce all gazed at her as she stepped into the light. She wore a knee length strap dress, coloured a deep blue. It had a cut down the middle to her belly button, but was oddly tasteful and still modest. As she dropped onto the spare sofa she kicked off her deep blue strap stilettos and sank back. Steve, who was closest, passed her a pair of 3D glasses.
Rhodey came over and dropped down beside her blocking Steve from sight. Tony did some quick introductions of Rhodey and a brief introduction between Dr. Foster and Anubis. The two reached forward, shook hands and exchanged a brief greeting. After that they all settled down to continue the movie.
Rhodey and Anubis sat with their heads close together, whispering back and forth and setting off into fits of giggles. Tony just shook his head and kept throwing pop corn at them both. Over all the rest of the night was very relaxed and laid back, something of an oddity for the Avengers Tower.
Well Like? hate? Any suggestions of things to add in? You guys direct the direction of these stories, any in-put is always valued.
R&R
